by Randi Darren
You can even see the frickin’ teeth marks. Way to go, Vince.
His stomach flipped over at the fact that Eva was wearing the hickey as if it were some badge of honor.
The Wood Elf’s gaze slid towards him, as if feeling his eyes on her.
She gave him a bright smile, a hand reaching up to run a finger over that very same bruise.
Warm eyes, a cheerful smile, the slight coloring of her cheeks.
In a heartbeat Eva transformed from a cold beauty to a warm and radiant lovely woman.
“What…?” she asked, her cheeks coloring a darker red. Looking down at herself she did a quick self-check of her person as if to see what was wrong.
“Nothing, I was just thinking about how lovely you look this morning,” Vince said, leaning towards her, his voice pitched low.
Eva’s face burst into a scarlet color as her teeth caught her lower lip. “Oh. Oh, I… I see. Alright.”
From his right, Thera snickered to herself. “So much for that strong front, sister. You crumble like a structure made of sand in a rain storm.”
Looking at her sister Eva wrinkled her nose. “Wait for your turn, then you’ll see.”
“I do not doubt it. You were the one who said—”
“Stop, enough, sister. Mercy,” Eva said quickly.
Thera snorted and started to reply, when her attention fastened onto something else.
Following her gaze, Vince found it was Caern who’d entered and stolen Thera’s eye.
And apparently her anger.
Vince couldn’t miss the hand that flexed around the hilt of her sword at her side.
He couldn’t blame her. Slavery was something that Elves cursed their human masters over on both coasts. Yet here in the Wastes, the Elves themselves enslaved one another.
It wasn’t every day you found out you were no better than the people you hated.
“I see no reason we can’t begin,” Caern said loudly.
Snapping out of his thoughts, Vince did a quick check and found most of the desks were filled.
“Today we greet Vince… wait, do you have a surname?”
“Never needed one.”
Caern blinked a few times and then leaned over his paper to scratch something out with a pencil.
“Vince, the King of Yosemite City. A city state to our west. He’s come to open trade negotiations. The proposed trade route would be along the western road, moving through the Sisrote pass.”
“Not possible,” claimed one of the Elves on the far left.
“We’ve already lost too many there,” said another.
Doing his best to watch the byplay, Vince felt like the developing situation was strange. Their words were heated, but there was no emotions behind them.
If it was also such a problem, more than one person should have—would have—objected.
No, this didn’t add up. To Vince it almost seemed…
Planned. This is a charade for our benefit.
“Let’s cut to the chase,” Vince said, standing up. “You want me to do something even before we begin talking about the original reason I came here. Rather than going through all the theatrics, how about you tell me what you want done, and I’ll tell you what price I want for that service.”
The assembly room went deathly quiet at that.
Standing straight and tall, Vince made eye contact with all who would meet his gaze.
“If you prefer I can sit back down and you can go through whatever lines you had prepared beyond this point and we can pretend I never saw through it,” Vince offered.
He was no ambassador. On top of that he really didn’t want to work with people who would enslave their own kind, let alone other sentient people.
He’d done enough of that in the past and would be choosing his allies carefully going forward.
Caern started to laugh. Picking up the paper in front of him he crumpled it up and set it aside.
“As you like. We have a problem on the trade route we’d want to use. Somewhere north of it is a group of… well, we don’t know what they are. Or it. We don’t know anything, really.
“The only thing we know is that whenever we send people in that direction, on that route, they don’t always come back.”
Nodding his head, Vince could think of several things that would lie in wait along a well traveled road for an easy meal.
“We need you to make that route safe to pass. Then we could work out a trade agreement. We could never send our people without their safety being assured.”
“And what would you have me do to show you proof the deed was done? For all we know, this could be something natural and there’s no way I can solve it,” Vince stated. He’d give them no room to wriggle out of this.
“Would you swear a life-oath that you solved the problem to whatever extent you were capable of?” Caern asked after thinking on it for a moment.
“Providing I agree to the exact life-oath and the wording, yes. I would.”
“Then it’s settled. We look forward to—”
“Though I have a condition of my own. And I’m afraid it’s non-negotiable. I’d also have your council swear a life-oath on honoring that condition should I be successful.”
Caern frowned, shaking his head. “I don’t think we could accept one. The trade agreement would be repaym—”
“No, it wouldn’t. I can trade with the humans just as easily as I could you. I’m here to simply make sure I’ve kept all my options open. I don’t need your trade, but I’d prefer to have it. You on the other hand… you could use me as an intermediary to the human lands directly.”
Caern’s face puckered up at that. Apparently he’d already thought all this through and had similar thoughts of his own. “Go on.”
“You’ll be turning all your slaves over to me. I’ll either offer them a home, or free them. Then you’ll never take another slave again.”
There was finality in Vince’s voice. There would be no equivocation or bickering. No bartering. No horse-trading.
That was his condition to them.
As one would expect, the entire room erupted in a chorus of shouted voices and exclamations of anger.
Deciding he’d wait it out till they were silent again, Vince sat down, folded his hands behind his head, and leaned back in the chair.
Chapter 6
The racket went on loudly and ferociously.
To Vince it felt as if it were unending.
They shouted him down for telling them how to rule their city. They railed at the fact that he knew that, yet he’d never been inside their city before. They blustered and threatened. Lamented and wailed.
All in all, Vince was unimpressed.
They were all powerless to actually act against him.
His guest rights were granted until a day after leaving the city. Which meant unless they wanted to end this conference here and now, they would be forced to deal with him
Vince was growing tired and bored with the situation. It wasn’t as if they were actually accomplishing anything by going on the way they were.
A middle-aged Elf stood up and started to lift a hand towards Vince.
Thera vanished from his side and reappeared before the Elf. Her sword was unsheathed and pressed to the man’s throat. Bone chilling cold radiated from her, the room dropping in temperature immediately
Eva had also disappeared, only to reappear in a back corner, her bow nocked and leveled. What little air made it through via the windows stilled and died, the room going utterly silent and dead.
No one moved, no one spoke. No one dared.
Caern slowly lifted a hand above his head, as if requesting permission to speak.
“What can I do for you, Caern?” Vince asked, looking to the Elf.
“I think perhaps we were all a touch heated. Could we re-seat ourselves and begin again?” Caern asked neutrally.
“No. I don’t think we can. I think this is pretty straightforward. You want me to perform a service for you that
your entire military cannot accomplish. Otherwise you would have done it already.”
Vince stood up from his chair, holding his hands out in front of them. “With that in mind, I require a price to be paid for that service, as nothing comes cheap or for free, does it? Now, admittedly maybe my price is a touch steep. So I’ll make it easier for you.”
Reaching into a pocket Vince pulled out a gold standard.
Laying it down on the table with a thunk he gave it a tap.
“You all of course know that this is a gold standard. I doubt you care for the markings, since it’s currency for humans, but I’m sure you’ll agree the gold weight is valuable. Every gold standard is within minute fractions of each other in gold weight. I’ll pay you for each and every slave you have, that you release.
“Price per is negotiable, but I’d want to hear the total number I’m purchasing before I decided on a price. Then I’d need a full accounting of each slave.” Vince shrugged with a grin. “No offense, it’s just business.”
He continued, “So, you have a simple choice in front of you. If you want to trade with Yosemite, you’ll need me to get that route cleared. If you want the route cleared, you’ll be divesting yourself of your slaves. And in getting rid of those slaves, I’ll pay you a reasonable price. I have a good bit of experience of what the going rate is in the western kingdom of man.
“If you like, I can leave you to deliberate on your choice, but there won’t be much room for negotiation from here.”
After several seconds without a response, Vince sighed. He flicked the coin to the other side of the table and left it there.
“Put your sword away, Thera. Eva, put the arrow back. It seems we’ll be waiting outside for them to make a choice.”
“Hold, Vince. How would you have us do this? If we agreed to it, that is.” The speaker was Caern of course. He seemed to be far more prominent in Elven politics than anyone had explained to him yet thus far.
Looking up to Caern, Vince grinned. “Life-oath, of course.”
Vince, Thera, and Eva walked out of Verix that day. There had been nothing left to say after the assembly room fiasco and the deal being struck.
No sooner were they in the open areas to the west of Verix than Gert tracked them down.
The Wolfman loped up easily beside Vince and ducked his head.
“Please, follow me, Packmaster,” Gert said without preamble, smoothly turning off the path into the brush.
Turning his heading without questioning or arguing, Vince followed his scout. He was long since past the paranoia that would have plagued him with anyone else.
For his people, he trusted them implicitly. Especially the Beastmen. They were exceptionally loyal. Fanatically so.
As suddenly as they’d entered the brush, they’d just about cleared it.
Karya stood on the other side, speaking quietly to both Ris and Set.
Arrayed out behind her was a group of women. There had to at least be seven of them, all standing there, watching Karya.
It took Vince only a hard look at one of them to realize they were all Dryads. Every single one of them.
Green eyes, strange skin tones, and varied hair colors.
Amazing figures.
They were also young, some looking like they could have been a few days past eighteen; the oldest looking only twenty-one. These would be exactly what Meliae had been looking for to join the grove.
“Ah! Good timing. I have our first batch of Dryads ready. They’ve all already heard the expectations, situation, and all about the grove. These are all those who agreed and met the requirements.”
Feeling the unease building in his gut, Vince let his empathic gift free. Unshackling it, he let it drift over the Dryads and envelope them.
A touch of fear, a hint of disbelief, a quiet hope, and a mountain-sized amount of yearning.
They wanted to be here. Desperately so.
Karya practically danced over to him with a light skip and a bounce. She smeared herself to him and plastered her lips to his.
“If you could be a doll, and open yourself up, we can get them squared away quickly. Though we’ll have to save the second half of the seeding for when we return. This isn’t the time or place for something that intense,” Karya said.
Frowning with a small sigh, Vince looked at Karya for a second or two longer.
He was being forced into this and he didn’t like it. If anything, it made it worse for him that he wasn’t really being given a chance to discuss it in any way, shape or form.
But the last time you were given a choice, you dragged it out to a point that was almost a problem.
“Fine. Fine, but let’s get moving after this. I’ll fill you in as we do this,” Vince agreed. Reaching up he started to unbuckle and work at his leather armor fastenings.
Eva was there in a flash, her deft fingers moving his own out of the way and removing his armor.
“Thanks, Eva,” Vince said, giving her a smile. “Now, Karya. Verix has agreed to free all their slaves over to me at a price. That price will be determined after we return and an accounting of the slave population has been done. They’ve sworn to this agreement, and that they’d operate in good faith, so long as we return and swear that the route they want to use is safe.”
Unsheathing his hunting knife as Eva peeled his breastplate down he then pressed the tip to the same spot he’d cut open before.
“It won’t hurt, I promise. I’ll take it all away,” Karya said with glowing eyes. “Just a trickle of blood.”
Sharing her personal grove with others still seemed to set her pilot light, so to speak.
Nodding his head, as he’d heard the same from Meliae before, Vince cut himself open just as he had before.
Not making eye contact with the Dryads, he kept his face turned to Karya. “The route is being hunted by something they can’t catch, kill, or track. So they’re sending us instead.”
A Dryad stepped up to him and pushed something into the gaping wound with trembling fingers. She stepped aside and was replaced by another, then another, and another.
Karya made no response to his statement. She was engrossed in watching her grove being used. Her eyes greened over and glowing brightly.
“I figure it’s a man eater type. Something that’s using the route as a buffet.”
Another Dryad pushed some sort of seed into his chest. “Are you listening, Karya?” Vince asked irritably.
“Sorry, darling. I’m being shamed wonderfully right now.”
Vince sighed and waited for what he hoped was the last Dryad to finish.
Once she pushed in her seed, there was no one left.
“Grand, welcome to the grove.” Vince looked to the Dryads. They all seemed woozy, listing from one side to the other. Almost drunkenly.
Then again, Daphne and Karya passed out the first time.
“Great. They’re drunk on it. Let’s seal this wound up and get them seated for a spell, and then we’ll get moving as soon as they recover,” Vince wiped up the blood with one hand and smeared it onto his leather breastplate.
Karya made a happy moaning sound, her eyes slowly rolling down his figure. Her eyes were completely greened over and hungry.
“Maybe you can pay me some attention tonight?” she asked, her voice a purr.
“Sorry, Karya, if Eva will have me I plan on keeping her entertained.”
At the mention of her name, all eyes turned to the Wood Elf.
Eva turned a pale red, meeting Vince’s eyes for a moment, then turned away with a nod of her head to him.
“There you have it. Sorry. I don’t want her to think it was a one night stand or anything.” Vince shrugged his shoulders.
He’d taken Eva, and he planned on taking care of her as well.
Moving swiftly, they’d simply crossed into the low mountains and hills to the southwest. From there they headed across to the west. Vince had no desire to take the straight path there.
There was no reason to act lik
e prey, after all. And prey followed that route straight into whatever end had met them.
It’d only taken them two days to find a reasonable spot to set up camp. There was no way he was taking the entire group of Dryads with him, they’d only be in the way
Assigning Ris as their lookout, Vince left Karya and the Dryads there. Gert, Set, Thera, Eva, and himself all headed across the path of the route and towards the northern side of it.
He wasn’t sure how the people of Verix knew that the trouble was on the north side, but he had no reason to disbelieve them on this one.
They were nothing if not desperate for him to get rid of the problem.
“It means they underestimated the danger, but gave appropriate details for the location. I’ve seen it before on Ranger requests for eliminations. ‘There’s a band of Orcs here that I need moved, only five or so of them.’ But then it turns out to be a family clan of twenty and there isn’t much you can do but challenge the leader, hopefully win, and tell them to move on,” Vince explained, eyeing the metal post at the edge of the roadbed.
“I see. Master, that seems very…” Eva trailed off, unsure how to say what she wanted to.
“Self-centered. Mildly evil. Short sighted,” Vince supplied.
Thera nodded her head in agreement, reaching up to touch the rusted sign at the top of the pole.
“What does this mean, lord?” asked the Dark Elf.
“Route six. I’d imagine they captured a human who called it route six, and they ended up changing the name over time. It’s from before the Wastes—this highway, that is. Before Elves came here.” Turning from the depressing reminder of the world ending, Vince headed up the embankment. Slipping between two young trees, Vince felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle.
Definitely a predator. Not some simple misunderstanding or accident.
“Packmaster, this place smells of territory,” Gert said, whuffing at the end. His tail went low as his head swiveled one way, then back the other.
Set, riding in the harness made for his kind, peeked up over Gert’s shoulder and nodded. “Bad smell. Hunter. Should hide.”
Vince smiled at that, moving swiftly and silently through the vegetation. “That means we’re in the right spot, that’s all.”
