by John Booth
“And where exactly are We going?”
“If you are determined to come then you had better saddle up Swift,” Daniel replied, deliberately ignoring Jalia’s question. “There are others coming with us and we need to start soon, because they can’t travel all that fast.”
Jalia made a ‘harrumphing’ sound, not dissimilar to that of a horse. She grabbed hold of the edge of the water trough and plunged her head deep into its cold water. She came up for air and swung her hair from side to side to shake the water from it, soaking Daniel in the process.
“There’s food waiting for you in the house. Kayla has prepared cooked meat and bread,” Daniel told her, ignoring his unplanned shower. Kayla was Donal’s wife. She and her daughter, Attala, had been up since Daniel woke Donal that morning.
“Don’t you dare try and leave without me,” Jalia warned as she left the barn to break her fast.
“Do I look as if I want to be castrated?” Daniel shouted after her.
“I thought that you didn’t want Jalia coming with us?” Donal enquired. He didn’t understand Daniel and Jalia’s relationship at all.
“There was never any possibility of Jalia staying behind,” Daniel explained as he tightened the cinch on Jet and moved over to begin saddling Jalia’s horse. “But by doing it this way, she won’t grumble too much when she discovers Dell will be coming with us.”
When Jalia walked out of the Donal’s cottage, she found a small wagon waiting. It was pulled by one of the Taldon horses they had captured. Jalia frowned when she saw it was being driven by Malda and that her son Dell sat alongside her with his left leg in tied up in splints.
“Thank you for sparing my life, Lady Jalia,” Dell said humbly before Jalia could utter a word. “I will not let you down again.”
“You’d better not,” Jalia grumbled, speaking more to herself than to the boy. She ignored the two of them and walked into the barn, planning to have an important word with Daniel, perhaps even four important words.
“What is going on?” Jalia demanded. He turned to her and found her standing, legs apart, blocking his path.
“We have to go to Taldon’s Fort and free the slaves there. Not to mention deciding what to do about the Taldon children.”
“And why are Dell and his mother coming, if I might ask?”
“I will ignore that question and assume you are still half-asleep,” Daniel told her with a grin. He sidestepped her and unhitched their horses, leading them out into the morning sun.
Donal, who looked very embarrassed, led Mallon’s horse out after Daniel. When Jalia stared hard at him, he dropped his eyes to look at the ground. Jalia stomped out of the barn ready to kill anyone who dared to say a word out of turn.
Jalia kept her horse well to the rear of the procession as they made their way out of the village. Kayla and her two children watched them go anxiously, worried for Donal’s safety. The rest of the village seemed to have heard they were leaving as many of them came out to watch silently as the horses and the cart went past. Jalia glanced over her shoulder at the Lord’s House, which still smoldered. The wall still standing fell inwards, sending sparks leaping into the air.
It was only when the village was out of sight that Jalia stopped Swift and banged her forehead hard with her hand.
“I’m such an idiot.”
She sent Swift into a canter to draw level with Daniel and Donal who were leading the procession.
“Dell is Mallon’s heir, isn’t he?” she asked Daniel.
“He was from the moment you killed Adon.”
“You are going to use Dell to get into the fort,” Jalia stated with evident satisfaction.
“We think they only left behind their children, but there might still be the odd adult around. However, the Fort is pretty well impregnable, so we need to get whoever is there to let us in.”
“That’s pretty cunning,” Jalia said. “Hanging around me is beginning to have some effect on you at last.”
Jet chose that moment to lift his head and snort as if in derision. Daniel tried hard to keep a straight face and chose to say nothing at all.
Jalia and Daniel were impressed as they rode along the raised road towards the fort. Donal had explained the layout of the fort, but it is one thing to be told something and quite another to experience it for yourself.
“It would require a large army to take this place,” Jalia said as they approached the gate.
“Only if you have enough defenders,” Daniel said. “If they didn’t, then an attack from several sides would allow the enemy to get a force over the wall.”
“The trouble with that plan is that all your other men get killed providing the diversion.”
“I never said it would be easy.”
“Go away!” a child’s voice shouted from the top of the wall. It wasn’t clear if the child was too short to be seen or was ducking down. Either way, Daniel and Jalia could see no one from where they were.
Dell rose to his feet and swore as pain shot up his leg.
“I am Dell Taldon, and I know you Hala Taldon. My uncle Adon introduced us. Mallon Taldon is dead, as are all those who came last night to attack Sweetwater. I am your clan leader now.”
There was no response for several seconds. Then a large lump of cow dung flew over the wall missing Dell by only a few inches.
Jalia leaned over towards Daniel and whispered softly to him, “This plan of yours is going well so far.”
“Hala, your parents are dead. Who are you going to turn to if not your clan chief.”
“Don’t believe you,” another child’s voice shouted over the wall.
“That’s Pald, isn’t it?” Dell said, showing an aptitude for recognizing voices that was beginning to impress Daniel and Jalia. “If you stick your head over the wall you will see that Donal is riding Mallon’s horse. If that doesn’t convince you, look at the horse pulling the cart.”
For the first time, Daniel and Jalia saw the children’s heads poke over the top of the wall.
“We saw the smoke from burning fires. Mallon burnt your village down,” the girl, Hala, told Dell. She looked to be about twelve years old.
“No, that was our Lord’s House. Mallon and the clan were in it when it caught fire,” Dell explained gently. “Open the gate, Hala, you can’t run the fort on your own.”
“Haf, Lina, open the gate,” Hala said in a choking voice. Nothing happened for long moments.
“We’ll have to go and help them, Hala,” Pald said a few seconds later. “Lina and Haf aren’t strong enough to lift the bar.”
It was several minutes later that the left gate opened a crack. Daniel got down from Jet and helped the children pull one of the heavy wooden gates open.
The gate opened to reveal two pre-teen children, and a girl and boy even younger. Jalia and Donal rode into the compound while Daniel followed on foot.
“Is this all the clan children?” Jalia asked in surprise. “Are there no babies or toddlers?”
“This is all of us,” Hala Taldon said haughtily. “The Taldon’s do not breed like rabbits”
“The population is shrinking everywhere in Jalon,” Daniel remarked to no one in particular. “Couples barely replace themselves these days.”
“It sounds like the people of Jalon are getting more intelligent to me,” Jalia said tartly. “All right you miniature Taldons. Where do you keep the slaves?”
Malda drove the small cart through the gates with Dell sitting in his seat next to her. He looked white, as all the blood had drained from his face and he was about to faint. Standing up had taken the strength out of him. The four children said nothing and looked towards Dell for instructions.
“Where did the adults lock up the servants, Hala?” Dell asked.
“They are in the dungeons, of course.” Hala sniffed disdainfully. “Where else would Mallon lock up his stinking whores?”
Jalia leapt off Swift and slapped Hala so hard across the face that she flew to the ground and started crying.<
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“They are not whores, because they had no choice,” Jalia told the child, angry words dripping out like venom. “We could sell you into slavery or give you to the men of Sweetwater to use. What would that make you?”
“She knows no better,” Daniel said softly.
“Then she had better start learning fast, if she wants to carry on living.”
“Peasant bitch!”
Daniel stepped between the child and Jalia before Jalia could kill the girl.
“Dell, take care of your clan while you still have some left.” Daniel stepped sideways with Jalia, making it clear that she would have to go through him to get at the girl.
“Hala, you will be whipped for your words,” Dell shouted, trying to defuse the situation. “Apologize to Lady Jalia at once, or you will get far worse than a mere whipping.”
Hala stared defiantly at Dell who stared back at her equally strongly. It was Hala who looked away first.
“I apologize, Lady Jalia,” Hala said without a hint of contrition in her voice.
Jalia clenched her fists and looked into Daniel’s eyes.
“Let it go, Jalia. The slaves have probably been locked up for almost a day without food or water. They should be our concern.”
Jalia turned away and remounted her horse in one smooth motion. She kicked Swift into action and rode towards the buildings at the top of the hill.
“Punish the girl so she never forgets how close she came to death just now,” Daniel instructed Dell before swinging into Jet’s saddle and riding after Jalia.
10. Slaves
Jalia tried to let the anger ebb out of her as she rode between the buildings, looking for one that might contain a dungeon. The large circular building drew her attention and she stopped Swift outside its doors and dismounted. The dirty glass panels in its roof let through only a limited amount of light. Jalia walked slowly into the massive hall, letting her eyes acclimatize to the gloom.
There was grandeur about this building. The absolute silence inside it was eerie. It was as if ghosts or Fairie were about to appear out of thin air. The fire in the center of the room was nearly out. White ash covered what remained of the logs that fed it. Jalia approached the raised dais covered in animal furs and saw the young slave girl’s body where it lay on the floor. A large pool of blood covered the floor beyond the dead girl’s neck.
Jalia moved around the fireplace seeking the girl’s head. She found it where it had rolled to one side of the dais. Clouded brown eyes stared up at Jalia. The girl’s mouth was open as if in shock or surprise. She could not have been more than fifteen years old. Jalia picked up the girl’s head reverently, being careful not to pull her hair and placed the head where the body lay.
“Shall we go and free the living?” Daniel asked from behind. Jalia didn’t jump. She had heard him enter the building, though most people would not have heard him.
“I hate slavery,” Jalia said quietly. “Perhaps it would be kindest for the world if we ended the Taldon Clan forever, here and now.”
“People can change, and children change easiest of all.”
Jalia straightened the head and body of the girl so that they once again looked attached.
“Let us go and rescue the living then. But if I come back here in ten years’ time and find the Taldon Clan at it again, I shall hold you personally responsible for it, Daniel al’Degar.”
“You already hold me responsible for the weather,” Daniel muttered under his breath as he followed Jalia out of the room.
“And I can hear your whispers most clearly, thank you, Daniel,” Jalia said, sounding like an annoyed schoolteacher. She was smiling as she spoke, though Daniel could not see it.
There were nearly forty servants alive when they finally found the dungeons and broke through the doors to get them out. They had been held in two groups differentiated by sex. The men varied in age from early teens to some in their fifties and they were the slightly more numerous of the two groups. The women were all girls, not one of them older than twenty. Judging from their lack of clothes, they had not been kept for cleaning or cooking duties.
“What are you going to do to us?” one of the oldest men in the group asked Daniel fearfully.
“You are free. Free to go anywhere and do anything you please.”
The men muttered among themselves, as freedom without possessions or a place to call your home can be a frightening thing. The young women looked even more worried than the men.
“I can’t go back home,” a girl aged fifteen or so said desperately. “My village will disown me for the things I have done with these men. They would drive me out if I dared to return.”
Several of the other girls nodded their heads in agreement.
Jalia looked at the group in exasperation. They had their freedom, what more did they want? The world was a big place; they should go out and live in it.
“I have an offer, if you will listen to it,” Dell stated. Everybody turned to look at him. Dell froze at their stares and Malda had to give him a poke to get him talking again.
“Stay here as free men and women. Become the new Taldon Clan. There are animals here to tend and crops to grow. There was never any need to steal and kidnap, as the land can provide all we need. The soil we stand on is fertile and the wells provide clear water. People have lived here for thousands of years, so why not stay?”
“I’m pregnant,” one of the women said suddenly. “That was a death sentence for us both under the rule of your grandfather.”
“Stay and have your child here. The community could do with a few babies,” Dell replied.
“And live under your rule and at your whim?” the man who had first spoken asked.
“I have inherited this land and the things on them. I will not see it return to what it was,” Dell nodded towards Jalia and Daniel. “I received a lesson in why that is wrong and I have discovered that mercy still exists in Jallon. I intend to repay that debt. No man or woman will pay tithe to me while they live and work here. The choice of whether you stay or go is yours.”
“We will have to share what we have,” another man said. “Join together as a community and help each other. I’m willing to give it a try if the others are.”
One of the older of the women pointed straight at Hala. “I cannot stay unless I can settle my score with that one. She had me whipped for daring to speak to her.”
“That is a problem easily solved,” Dell said. “In fact, it will solve another problem I have.”
Hala’s face paled as the implication of Dell’s words became clear. She turned to run away and was caught by Pald, who held her tightly so she could not escape.
“Sorry Hala, but Dell is our Lord now, and his word is law,” the boy said, sounding only slightly apologetic as he held the frantically struggling girl. Pald had also suffered at the Hala’s hands and was enjoying the thought of her being punished.
Donal, Daniel and Jalia rode back towards Sweetwater as the light began to fade. They left a new community trying to get to grips with all the changes being wrought.
“The boy seems to have turned out all right,” Jalia mused to Daniel. “I’m glad I didn’t kill him.”
“Only time will tell,” Daniel said carefully. Answering Jalia’s musings could be a tricky business.
“His father was a good man and the legends say that the Taldons were once a noble family,” Donal said. “And Malda is a good woman and a great healer. What are we going to do in Sweetwater when we need a healer, now she has gone?”
“It’s only a two hour journey,” Jalia pointed out, as if traveling for two hours was of no consequence.
“You could arrange a signal fire for when you needed her,” Daniel suggested. “Or perhaps arrange a loud summoning sound like a drum makes.”
“Of course, Daniel,” Jalia replied dismissively. “As if something like that would ever work.”
11. Death Comes Stalking
Attala, sixteen years old and pretty as a picture helped
her mother prepare provisions for their departing guests. Attala was feeling safe for the first time in months and for reasons she could not fully define, a little disappointed. For all the time she had been tense with worry, Attala had been certain that Adon was going to force her to have relations with him. Knowing how dangerous the man and his clan were, she had been playing him along to protect her family. By not giving him what he wanted, but not denying him completely.
Now Adon was dead, along with his family, and she was safe. More importantly, her father was safe, not lying dead with a knife in his back for having the temerity to try to protect her honor. So why did she feel that there was suddenly a big hole in her life? Walking in the woods or across the village, no longer had the feeling of danger or the excitement it once had.
“Take these to Jalia,” her mother commanded and Attala picked up the bag that held preserved meats and hard bread that would stay edible for days.
Jalia was alone in the barn when Attala walked in.
“We have prepared food for your journey,” she said. Jalia grunted and carried on grooming her horse. Attala put the bag down on top of the horse’s saddle and turned to leave. Before she reached the door, Attala found herself spinning around and going to stand a few feet from Jalia.
“Can I ask you something, Lady Jalia?”
“It seems to me that you already are,” Jalia pointed out, her voice a little harsh. Attala flushed and turned to walk away again.
“I’m sorry,” Jalia said more warmly and smiled at the embarrassed girl. “I didn’t mean anything by that. It’s just my way of speaking. Tell me, what do you want to know?”
“Does it feel good, to travel the world as you do and…” Attala paused as she didn’t want to sound as if she was insulting the woman.
“…kill people?” Jalia finished. Attala nodded, though those were not quite the words she had in mind.
“Adon told me he was going to… ravish me. I was scared he would kill my father if I told him,” Attala blurted out.
