“I have brought you your daughter. You owe me for the job,” said Canis.
“I spoke to Dagon. I don’t owe you anything. In fact, I think I’ll turn you in and collect the reward he put on your head.”
All the alarms went off in Canis’s mind and he felt Rrusharr go on the alert as well. “If you will not pay me, then I am under no obligation to return your daughter to you,” he said, his voice coming out in a low growl. He turned to leave and found his way blocked by three of Hale’s personal guards. Dora let out tiny whimper of fear. “You are making a mistake,” he growled at them, but they didn’t heed him. He hadn’t really expected them to.
He drew his sword and faced the guards. “Stay very close to me, Dora,” he whispered and he gripped the material at her shoulder to hold her well within his reach.
Two of the men opened their mouths to laugh at such a small boy standing up against them, but that was the only opening Canis needed. He knew he didn’t have the strength to stand toe to toe against them, not all three of them at once, so he used their distraction and overconfidence to dart between them, creating further confusion by sliding his blade along the thigh of one of the men as he ran past. Since the cut went to the bone, the man would likely be lame for life unless Hale had a very good healer. The confusion and screams of the wounded man bought him enough time to get Dora and himself back into the carriage.
The driver wasn’t happy about driving a getaway vehicle, but he had all he could do to maintain control of his team as Rrusharr ensured they moved out at a good clip.
A few blocks from Hale’s house, Canis had Rrusharr bring the horses to a stop, then he paid the driver for his time and risk, and sent him on his way.
When the carriage was out of sight, Canis headed off through the alleys. The circuitous route he chose took them all day, and allowed Canis to keep a close eye on their back trail, he eventually brought them back to the house of Dora’s mother well after dark.
At the door, Dora was engulfed in the arms of her mother. His job totally botched but finished, Canis left to return to the school and possibly another conflict.
“Wait,” called Loren. She ran after him. “You forgot your payment.”
“No,” said Canis without stopping his stride. “I did not forget. Keep your money.”
“But you really should take something.”
“No. I did very little except place your daughter in danger. I will not take payment for that.”
“We all knew it could be risky, but you protected her and you brought her home. You did what you agreed to do. You should get paid for that. Besides, if you never take pay, how will you ever be able to pay off your debts?”
Canis stopped and faced her. “I may not be able to do that now.”
“Yes you will. You have the blessing of the Mother. You will accomplish great deeds.” She pressed a pouch into his hand. “You are welcome in our house any time and for any reason.” She gave him a brief hug then went back into the house.
Canis wasn’t prepared for the hug and wasn’t given the opportunity to return it. All he could do was look after her retreating back until she was back inside of the house.
He spent the rest of the night roaming the ruins trying to decide how to approach Dagon.
It was afternoon when Canis returned to the school. First, he went into the cafeteria to see if there were any leftovers from lunch, then after putting away two large sandwiches, he went in search of Master Dagon and found him in his classroom. He slipped into the class without attracting much attention; at least not until Dagon reached his position in the line.
“You will remain after class,” said Dagon, the only thing he said to him, then he continued the class as if there had been no interruption.
After class, Kendall and Leonard hung around. “Hey kid, where have you been?” said Kendall.
“Save it for later,” said Dagon and waved them out of the room.
With a look that said, ‘You’re in trouble now,’ they left.
As soon as the door was closed, Dagon started in on Canis. “How dare you disappear like that? Where were you?”
“I took a job. I was doing what I was hired to do.”
“And what was that? You’re not old enough to take a job.”
“You already know what I was doing, but I will tell you why. I am trying to make enough money to pay Patro back.”
“Pay him back, for what?” said Dagon as he paced back and forth in front of Canis.
“Pay him back for these classes. When do you think I will be ready for the arena? Perhaps I could pay him back with winnings from there.”
“You’re good, boy, but not good enough for the arena. The…the fighters in there would chew you up and spit you out in the first fight.”
So, he really did know what he had been doing. What he had seen was true, not a dream. “Why did you hesitate in calling them fighters? Why did you not go ahead and call them slaves. If only slaves are allowed to fight in the arena, how is it I am being trained for that?”
Dagon looked at him hard. “Where did you learn that?”
“It does not matter. So, it is true. Patro still considers me a slave, and you do too. A slave can have no money and therefore could not possibly owe a debt or get paid for a job. Tell Patro for me that I am not a slave and that I will repay him his two hundred gold pieces, but I will no longer remain here. You will never see me again, because if you do, then I must believe you are hunting me; it would be a mistake to hunt me.” He turned to leave the room. When he reached the door, he turned back. “Thank you for what you have taught me.”
He went to his room and assembled his belongings. Watching the door, Rrusharr informed him of the approach of Leonard and Kendall.
“Are you going somewhere?” said Kendall.
“I must leave,” said Canis.
“Why? You’re paid up until next spring, aren’t you?” said Leonard.
Canis turned to face them. “What did you pay for your lessons here?”
Kendall and Leonard looked at each other. “Ten gold pieces,” said Kendall, and Leonard nodded.
“Why would someone pay Dagon a hundred gold pieces for those same lessons?” asked Canis.
Both of them gasped then their mouths settled into a silent ‘O’ before they looked away.
“That is why I must leave.”
“But…if…it’s true…you can’t leave,” said Leonard, and Kendall looked at him, frowning.
“Put it into words. If what is true?” said Canis.
“Everyone knows that Dagon sometimes trains slaves to fight with a sword,” said Leonard. “I suppose it’s to improve their chances in the arena. The extra money would probably be for security reasons. If you’re a slave, then you have to stay for as long as your master wants.”
“I do not have a master because I am not a slave. Slave Master Patro picked me up off the streets when I was…I do not know how old I was…little. He had me in chains until I nearly went crazy. He removed them and I eventually recovered…mostly.” The memory brought back the feeling he’d had no outlet for at the time and he shuddered. “He will never put me in chains again.”
He finished tying his clothes into a bundle with his money pouch securely in the middle. “He was robbed once. They got away with thousands of gold pieces. I recovered it, then he brought me here. At first, I thought he wanted me to become good enough to be one of his guards on the caravan. Then he mentioned the arena so I figured I would fight when we were here in order to bring glory to his name. I would have done all of that, gladly. He was good to me, mostly. He was fair. But if he considers me his slave, then I will do none of it for him. I will find work and I will repay his losses, but I will not be his slave. I will not be anyone’s slave.” He slung his bundle across his shoulder and headed for the door. A twinge between his eyebrows caused him to look up at Leonard quickly and he saw the expression on his face. “Do not try to stop me, Leonard. We are friends. I do not want to mar that.”
Canis scarcely let him finish his sentence. With only a bit of a leap, he gripped Leonard’s throat and carried him to the floor where he stayed quite still, then he faced Kendall.
Kendall shook his head. “We were hired to guard you, to keep track of you, but I wasn’t sure why, until now. I thought you must be some rich man’s son or something, maybe even some relation to the king, the way Dagon acted. I’ve never believed in slavery and no one in my family owns one. I’m not going to turn a friend of mine into one. Be careful. Perhaps you should leave the city for a while. You might be able to find work on a farm.”
Canis nodded and went on past him leaving him to see to Leonard.
He turned to go down the stairs, but he knew that Dagon wouldn’t allow him to just stroll out the front door.
“Follow me,” said Rrusharr and she showed him the way to the back alley that didn’t involve complicated doors.
Several blocks away, Canis stopped. “What do I do now? Where do I go?” He felt so lost and adrift.
“You should go to the mountains. You belong with the clan,” said Rrusharr.
I do not know the way. I have never been there. I know that my mother was north of here when I last saw her, but Orion, said he had found her dead. I belong nowhere.”
“Let me take you to the clan. You belong there.”
“How can you say that? I have never been there.”
“The clan is in your blood. I know this is true. I could not have found you otherwise. We need a place to hide for a while. We need time to grow up. We need time for slavers to forget about you. Only then can we do what you need to do. Only then can we work for the yellow metal and pay back man-Patro.”
Canis saw the sense in Rrusharr’s words, but he zeroed in on one thing. “We need to grow up? I thought you were already grown up. How old are you?”
“I was born on the same day as you were. I too am only a half grown pup.”
“Really, well I guess that shows you what I know about wolves,” said Canis, but as soon as the word was uttered he felt the insult and hurt it caused.
“I am no common wolf. I am Wulfen. You have much to learn.”
“I am sorry; I guess I do. Lead the way.”
Rrusharr did just that. She soon found a place where they could hide until dark. Moving only at night, it took them two days to clear the city without being seen by anyone, not an easy task, since people wandered the streets at all hours and those who wandered the streets at night were the more unsavory kind.
Running Away
Canis knew that the high roads were the most heavily traveled, so once they had cleared the city, they stuck to the back roads and game trails. They ate better with more room to hunt, but Canis needed more than game meat so they searched out small farms along their route where, for a few hours work, he could earn a meal and a night under a roof. Most of the time it was the barn roof, but there was usually plenty of hay and Rrusharr was there to keep him warm.
Canis knew nothing about farm life. Of course he didn’t; his life had either been in hiding, with the slave caravan or in the school. With the slave caravan, he had gathered wood for their fire, but on these farms, he learned how to split much larger sections of trees with an ax.
After his first stint at the splitting block, he figured Dagon should incorporate the task into his training session. If his students could lift their arms after an hour swinging an ax, then they were ready to swing a sword.
He also learned how to harvest. He dug potatoes and picked beans or peas. He learned how to swing a scythe and bind stocks of grain to stand and dry. He also learned how to pick corn and berries of all sorts. He worked hard and counted himself lucky to learn it all.
And just as Loren had said, almost every house had some kind of small shrine to the Mother. They were all different; some were little more than a tiny niche in the wall or a marked off corner in the house, others were in a room all to themselves. Some houses were too small and didn’t have room inside for a shrine. Those farmers built a small stall outside the door. The one thing that was the same in all of them was the small statue. It might vary in size or pose, even the sculptor’s skills varied, but it was obvious that it was the same ‘person’.
Canis took advantage of these shrines; he liked the feeling he had after sitting for a few minutes at Her feet. There was never another event remotely like at Loren’s house, but it didn’t matter.
He traveled for eight days in this manner before he encountered his first major obstacle. He knew there were rivers out here, but he hadn’t thought on how he might cross them. It was Rrusharr who found the harbor town where he could buy passage across. When he was on the other side, he stood to watch the bargeman make his way back across. “How did you get across before? I cannot see you giving that man any money for a ride,” he asked Rrusharr.
“I swam,” said Rrusharr matter-of-factly. “There are other rivers to cross.”
At that news, Canis figured he’d have to stick closer to the high roads.
Three days later, he approached a farm that looked strangely quiet, though it was obvious that the place had been lived in. The fields were recently harvested and groomed in preparation for the next planting and the kitchen garden was carefully tended, there were even late flowers blooming in a small patch by the front door. Rrusharr allowed a soft growl to mark her position while she voiced her worries in a more familiar way. “Something is very wrong here.”
Canis felt it too. “Look around. We may have to leave, but I would like to understand this, if possible.”
“I remind you, we are pups.”
“I remember,” said Canis. “I will be careful.” He looked into the barn first where he found two empty stalls, though it was obvious they had been used recently. In the house, he found things in scattered disorder quite out of character from the rest of the place. Rrusharr also reported finding no one in or around the outbuildings, though scents were only a day or so old.
In the corner of the small house was another shrine so Canis knelt down. “What happened here?” he asked, wondering if he would find an answer in this manner.
A vision rocked him back on his heels. Four men came to the house. The man was beaten senseless and dragged out into the yard. The woman was raped here on the hearth, and then she was taken out to lie beside her husband where she was raped again and yet again by each of the men until she stopped screaming. The children weren’t exempt from their attention, but Canis couldn’t stand any more. He pulled himself away from the shrine, and its vision of horror, to go back outside.
“We have to find them…if only to bury them,” said Canis as he sucked at the crisp fall air.
“I thought you might say something like that,” said Rrusharr. “Follow me; I found a trail.”
Canis stashed his belongings under the roots of a tree not far from the house, and then with his sword in his hand, followed Rrusharr down a trail anyone could have followed. They had made no attempt to hide their passage. Obviously, they didn’t expect anyone to come looking for them.
It was near dawn before he found their camp. A careful circle around the edge confirmed that this was the party he had been following. The camp was a dump. The oxen were still hitched to the wagon and it didn’t look like they had even been watered let alone fed. Gear was unloaded only enough to make camp and things in the way were dumped aside haphazardly.
Canis ghosted into the camp taking advantage of every shadow with Rrusharr only a darker shadow among shadows. He circled each of the three things that passed for tents. The scent of unwashed bodies was strongest in the first one he passed and he would have to save the one in the middle for last. Inside the third tent, he found the two children. Both of them were so traumatized that they didn’t even move when he untied them.
The boy looked to be about the same age as he had been when Patro captured him. The girl looked to be about a little older, but she was small. She was such a littl
e girl; her age didn’t matter. He took the children out of the tent and led them off into the brush.
“There is movement,” said Rrusharr.
“Come,” whispered Canis.
When Rrusharr showed up, Canis had her watch the children while he went back for their parents. He hoped he would be getting both of them.
He watched the camp from the shadows as it woke up. The fact that the children were missing wouldn’t be discovered for a while yet. The four men set about starting their day.
While the men were out front, Canis slipped in through the back of first tent. Inside he found the much-abused woman, but she was still alive. When he untied her, he asked, “Where is your husband?”
“I don’t know,” she whimpered. She was too abused to grieve yet. She opened her mouth to say more, but could only gasp for air as tears flooded.
“Can you walk?”
“I…I’ll try.” She shook so bad she could scarcely stand.
Canis hurriedly pulled her out of the tent and hastened her away from the camp as fast as she could move. When they were comfortably out of earshot from the camp, Canis stopped and sat the woman down at the root of a tree. “Remain here. Do not stray from this place no matter what. I will return for you.”
The woman snagged Canis’s arm. “My children,” her eyes echoed her dread.
“They are safe. Stay here. Do you understand?”
“The cubs wander,” said Rrusharr.
“Can you bring them here?” said Canis.
The woman looked at him oddly. “Bring what here?”
Canis held up his hand for her silence while he listened for Rrusharr’s reply. “Rrrr, perhaps.” There was a distinct growl in her voice.
“If you cannot get them to come here then keep them together, I will find you.”
The woman stood up and brushed Canis’s hair back from his forehead. “I thought so. She watches over you.”
Canis shook his hair out of her grip. “Stay here. Rrusharr may be able to guide your children here. She will not be able to find you if you move.” That wasn’t true, but he didn’t want her to wander back into the camp.
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