by Lawson, Alan
“Stop!” she screamed, “Don’t come any closer!”
Her eyes were wild, wide and afraid.
“Why? Emily what’s wrong?”
He took another step closer, and suddenly he felt the ground start to weaken under his feet. Emily looked up at him, frustration mixed with fear, and the ground collapsed beneath them. The shock of the fall caused Emily to release her staff into the air, and it clattered woodenly along the path ahead of them. They fell quickly and untidily into a deep, freshly-dug hole. Branches, leaves and copious amounts of soil fell down on top of them, and for a moment Jason feared it would bury them alive.
When it stopped, and he had worked out which way was up, and aligned himself with that, he almost wished it had buried them. Emily was furious.
“Does ‘don’t come any closer’ mean something different where you’re from? How are we going to get out of here, may I ask?”
“I don’t know,” Jason replied. “Where is ‘here’, anyway?”
Emily looked at him. Then she looked at the pit, in a very obvious manner, and looked at him again. When she began, her tone was even, if exasperated, and Jason realised she was trying her best not to shout.
“We have fallen into a trap, Jason. Weak ground and a hole underneath? This is the typical trap used by the slave traders that we’ve been hearing about. If we don’t get out soon, we’ll get to meet them for ourselves.”
Jason gulped at the thought of being made a slave, or worse yet, being sold to the Dark Lady. Their adventure could be over very soon if they didn’t find a way to escape… and quickly.
“Why not ask Sherbit to help us?” Jason said in what he hoped was a reassuring and calming tone. “After all, he is up there, and we’re down here. He could throw your staff down and you could cast a spell, couldn’t you?’
“Yes of course I could. That’s exactly what I had in mind.” Emily pulled herself up, and started calling Sherbit, who quickly ran over and peered over the edge of the hole.
“Yes, Miss Emily?” They could see that Sherbit was finding this situation very funny, as hard as he was trying to hide his giggles, a number of large grins made it through.
“Sherbit, this is not funny! Now go get my staff and throw it down to me.”
Sherbit turned and went to fetch Emily’s staff, allowing himself a little giggle as he went. Those humans! The looks on their faces were priceless. As he bent to lift it, he felt a funny, yet familiar feeling. The air rippled behind him, and a cloaked figure emerged. Sherbit gasped in shocked recognition as a heavy bag came towards him. He didn’t even have time to squeak before he was scooped into it. The bag was hefted and securely tied. Sherbit moaned helplessly as he struggled uselessly, trying to escape. He felt the air ripple again and an unseen voice joined the figure.
“Ah, that has to be the fifth time we’ve caught that little fella! I wonder what the Mistress’ll say this time. Maybe we shouldn’t be too rough on him, you know.”
Meanwhile still in the pit, Emily and Jason had stopped brushing soil from their hair and clothes as they felt the disturbance in the air. They waited, not daring to speak, trying hard not to breathe, knowing only too well who had arrived.
Footsteps neared the trap, and then a face looked over.
“We’ve two more in here! They are pretty young too. They should make good subjects for the Mistress’ experiments.” He looked over to his companion. “She’ll have some fun with them, no doubt of that.”
His gaze returned to the captives. “Wouldn’t like to get in her way on a bad day.”
“That’s for sure,” the other voice replied.
Jason gulped as Emily grabbed his arm. The other man’s face appeared. Jason and Emily watched as he held up a small bag. The slaver put his hand in and brought out some shimmering dust, which he sprinkled over Jason and Emily. They blinked once, and dropped unconscious to the ground.
Whatever the dust had been, it was effective. Regaining consciousness felt like swimming upward through cotton wool. With a gasp, Jason opened his eyes and peered into darkness. He rubbed them, and decided that it was dark because it was night rather than blindness. Gingerly he sat up. His stomach heaved. He closed his eyes again to fight the nausea. When his body felt like it belonged to him once more, he stood up and looked around. He was in some form of camp surrounded by a dense copious covering of trees. He could hear laughing and talking - there was a campfire not far from him with a few people sitting around it. Then he realized where he was, or rather, what he was in. It was an enclosure large enough not to be confining, allowing him to stretch out on the ground, but regardless of the freedom it permitted it remained a sturdy wooden cage. He shook on the bars, and then tried to push and pull them, but he couldn’t move them at all. He looked down at Emily, still lying on the ground. She was very still. He couldn’t see Sherbit anywhere. Emily stirred and groaned as she came to.
“Oh, so you are still with us,” Jason said, trying to mask his relief.
“That’s rather cheeky,” Emily replied, “any ideas about where we are?”
“It looks like a slave traders’ camp, although I can’t see any other slaves. It just looks like us here.”
Emily joined him at the front of the cage and put her hands around the bars to regain he balance, making her own attempt to move them. It was no use. She noticed one of the slave traders walking towards them.
“Jason, look, one of them is coming over.”
They both noticed at the same time that he was carrying something, a small brown bag that seemed to move as if it were alive. The slave trader stopped in front of their cage, and grunted a laugh.
“I hope you like your new home. Don’t get too comfortable mind, you’re off to the north tomorrow.” He laughed again, an evil sound carried on foul breath, but he looked incredibly dim-witted, like the caricatures of criminals Jason used to see in comic strips. He lifted the bag he was carrying and hung it from one of the poles protruding from the top of the cage. He cast a beady eye down at Jason and Emily.
“Keep an eye on the little bag won’t you? Oh, and try not to make too much noise. We hate having to punish our slaves - we end up getting less when we sell ya.”
He laughed again before heading back to the fire.
“What an idiot.” Emily said.
“Idiot or not, I don’t like the sound of what he was saying,” Jason replied.
“Oh don’t worry it won’t come to that. We’re going to escape.” Emily grinned and looked at Jason, who looked back at her with disbelief.
“And how exactly do you plan to get us out of here? You’ve tried yourself, these bars aren’t going to move easily, and you haven’t got your staff.”
Emily nodded, and gave a half-shrug.
“I’ll think of something. Just wait and see.”
Emily sat down next to one of the cage walls and began to think, or at least, tried to look the part.
Jason watched her for a moment, and then looked up at the bag as it continued to move about. He wondered what could possibly be in it. He hoped it wasn’t a grimbat. It started to make little moaning noises that Jason found vaguely familiar, and picked up a rhythm to its movement that started to rock it closer and closer to the edge of the pole. Jason watched it’s unusual but effective progress until it reached the end. Then it stopped moving, hung still for a while, and then with a large kick from inside the bag, it fell to the ground with a thud loud enough to distract Emily from her deep thoughts of escape. She got up and walked over to Jason.
“What was that?” she asked, before looking down at the ground and noticing the bag. It was still moving about.
“I wonder what’s in it.”
She didn’t have to wait long for an answer, as they watched the string that had sealed the bag start to become looser, then looser, until finally it was undone. Once more, the movement stopped.
Jason and Emily looked on with excitement tempered with caution. The bag began to move again, with a lump at the bottom star
ting to slowly make its way up the bag. Jason could feel Emily squeezing into his arm. The lump stopped, quivered, and then started again. It was getting very close to the mouth of the bag. The top lifted slightly and a small head emerged. Jason sighed with relief while Emily nearly screamed with excitement as they recognized the forlorn shape of Sherbit the imp, who was now pulling the rest of his body out of the bag. Safely out, he stood up and cleaned himself off. Just as he was about to run off into the trees to make his escape, he stopped, as if hearing a noise behind him. Eyes wide, he turned around and jumped with shock to see Emily and Jason staring down at him.
“Master! Miss Emily! There you are! We must get out of here!” Sherbit ran up to the front of the cage.
Jason hunkered down to Sherbit’s eye level.
“Yes Sherbit we must. But at the moment we can’t. We need your help to get us out.”
“You could get my staff!” Emily jumped in, pointing over to a tent with a weapon rack sitting next to it. Amongst the weapons Emily’s wooden staff proudly sat. Sherbit nodded as he ran over to the tent. He soon reached it, and looked back at Jason and Emily before he stretched out to grab the staff. Just as his hands brushed against the wood, he froze. Someone was walking towards the cage! Trying hurriedly to blend himself in among the weapons, Sherbit watched the Trader walk up to the cage.
“Ehh, what’s going on ‘ere then?” The Slave Trader blurted out, breathing ale laden fumes at the two young captives. The bottle in his right hand that was the cause of both his breath and his balance sloshed expressively as he used it to gesture to the bag on the ground
“What’s ‘is ‘ere bag doin’ on da ground? Bad place f’r a bag, if ye asks me.”
He made a few drunken swipes at the bag before catching it, and promptly turned, belched, and staggered off back towards the camp fire.
Jason and Emily passed a sigh of relief. With the slave trader gone Sherbit hurried back to the cage with Emily’s staff. Emily quickly took it off him and began casting a spell that would ultimately either open the door or blast the cage to pieces. Of course Jason was hoping for the first. Within seconds the cage door flung open, Jason and Emily hurried out. The noise of the door opening may have attracted one of the slave traders, though they weren’t sure. Most of them would probably be too drunk to have heard anything. Still, they thought it was best not to take any chances. Together, they hurried away from the camp and into the trees once more.
They continued to run until the noise of the slave traders laughing, singing and other drunken activities passed into the distance. Emily stopped to catch her breath, as did Jason. Sherbit stopped a bit in front, looking nervous. As Jason watched him, he felt sorry for him. Sherbit had been through this before, he knew what it was like to be caught and sold, and worse - sent to the Dark Lady.
He couldn’t imagine how many cruel things the poor creature had had to witness: torturous experiments; the summoning of strange and terrifying creatures; she could have ripped a human limb from limb. Jason thought Sherbit was lucky to still be alive, and even more so that he was still in the right frame of mind, despite his occasional eccentricities.
“We should probably carry on tonight and rest in the morning, when we get closer to Haspar.” Emily said, “We don’t want to be caught by the Slave traders again, besides once they know we have escaped they may come after us, and I certainly don’t want to go back.”
Jason nodded at Emily in agreement.
They rested briefly so that they could catch their breath before they continued their journey. They all felt tired but they knew they couldn’t sleep tonight, not here, being so close to the slave traders’ camp.
“How far away from Haspar are we now?” Jason asked.
“I’m not sure,’ Emily said, ‘I’m not too sure where we are exactly”
“We are about one night’s walk away from Haspar.” Sherbit answered, he was obviously familiar with that camp and the Trader’s normal routes. For a little creature that had seen the worst side of the worst things imaginable, he could still be pretty clever at times. Most occasions though, the thought of food, and when and where he would be able to fill his stomach again was his main priority. Any intelligent or knowledgeable thoughts would be pushed back and hidden from anyone wanting to know what he could share.
“Well, if we set off tonight, we could reach Haspar’s farming land by early morning.” Emily said, standing up straight and stretching her arms behind her head, to open her airways a bit more.
“Well I think we had better get moving. The sooner we get to Haspar the better.” Jason said.
Sherbit nodded solemnly in agreement. They enjoyed their rest for a few more seconds, gathered themselves and started off again.
It seemed like they had only just left the forest behind them, when they came to the edge of a small wood, much brighter, and with different foliage than the scenery of their night time travels. Through the trees, they could see Haspar clearly in the south, and realized how close to it they had come. Jason smiled. He was excited about going to this great city, but he felt nervous inside too. He had no idea as to what he should expect when he got there, but he hoped that when they did, he would learn the answers to more than just a few questions.
Chapter Five: To Haspar
Emily led the way as they continued to walk along the rough path through the surrounding farmland of the great city of Haspar. The fields were golden with the various harvest time crops, ready to be reaped and carted off to the markets. Jason thought how the time of year here in this land must be completely different of that back home. Every now and then a farmer would walk past them. Puffing as they pushed wheelbarrows filled with strange looking vegetables of varying shapes and sizes. In Jason’s opinion they did slightly resemble Fruits and vegetables that you could find in any local convenience store back home - these were just slightly bigger and much healthier looking. Jason and Emily were happy to receive an occasional smile or welcoming hello. Everyone they saw seemed cheerful and at ease.
“Everyone looks so happy” Jason said as they walked along the path towards the city gates.
“They have no reason not to be,” Emily said, “especially as they live so close to Haspar. With a great King like Halown, they feel safe. If anything should go wrong they always know he will come to their aid. Besides, I feel that the New Order has twisted people’s minds into believing that they are safe and that the evil coming from the north is something that we should all expect to exist. That it is something that will be dealt with in time.”
“King Halown? The New Order?” Jason asked sounding quite intrigued.
Having lived in the United Kingdom he knew what it was like to have a royal family as the head of state, but he had never had a chance to meet any of them. And what was this New Order? Had it some connection with the Order of Elderine? The politics of this world seemed to be as confusing as the politics which Jason had a vague knowledge of back home. In fact, his knowledge was next to none. He knew that in some countries people voted for their leader and in others they had no choice as to who should lead them. Jason was happy with his basic knowledge of political entities, and he wasn’t really interested at all in understanding the inner workings of their structures, except to find out ways he might have to use to reach the Dark Lady and defeat her. His thoughts came to an end with Emily’s answer.
“King Halown is the ruler of these lands. He is a very powerful and noble man. Under his control his army defeated the pirates in the east several years ago, making those lands prime and safe for settling. Apart from that, many have said that the king, the Queen and their son, are the only descendants left of the Order of Elderine, and because of this the people feel that they can’t be harmed whilst King Halown is on the throne” Emily spoke, with a tone that resembled one who had a great control of knowledge of historical facts. “It was believed that the members of the Order of the Elderine were bestowed with great magical powers. It’s no wonder that the royal family are the public figur
e head of The New Order. Which is more or less the religion of the world, everyone follows it, or they are supposed to. Though, as always, there are a few who go against the ways of the King”
“Oh” Jason said, and chanced a half serious remark “I guess it would be too difficult or impossible for us to get an audience with the king or Queen?”
“You’re right there” Emily replied quickly.
Jason was trying to fit the pieces of the puzzle together, he knew that the something had brought him here and from what he had heard he was the only one who could defeat the Dark Lady. Now it seemed he was just about to enter a city that housed three people that (rumour said) belonged to the Order of the Elderine. Surely they would have answers? And wouldn’t they want to meet him? After all, he was proof that the Order was still powerful – powerful enough to drag a teenage human boy into their world.
Shaking his head, Jason tuned back in to the conversation. Emily was still talking; she didn’t even appear to have noticed that he had stopped listening to her.
“It isn’t even that simple. We can’t just walk up to the royal family and tell them something’s wrong. For one, they are unlikely to believe us, and two, I’m very sure there are powers working against us that will try and stop us reaching our goal. Going out into the open by approaching the King or Queen would just make it easier for those watching us. Right now that’s far from what we need.”
“Watching us?” Jason asked sounding a little nervous, “What do you mean watching us?”
“The Dark Lady knows all, Master” Sherbit said in a hushed voice, looking around him in trepidation. “She knows you are here, she will have sent out her servants to find you. Maybe she has even got people close by you. You should be careful Master, never know who to trust.”
Jason gulped as he scanned the crowd for any suspicious looking people.
