Zack rolled his eyes. The woman did have a flair for the dramatic. She wiped the blood from her face and blinked some of it that had dried near her eyes.
"Ew," She complained. "I didn't think you'd bleed that much when I cut your wrist."
"No one told you to cut my wrist," Zack countered. "I was just supposed to get my hand around your neck and you were supposed to just pretend I snapped it."
Astrid shrugged. "Details. That's what happens when you tell us your not so hidden secret that you heal as fast as a trollbear before the fight."
Fabiola was still on her back, her eyes staring at the ceiling. Renton gave her a once over and said, "You look like you're in a bad mood. If anything, I should be the one running around pissed off. I lost two good fighters who brought me consistent revenue."
The desert woman frowned. She sounded disappointed in herself. "My skills were not for your employ. I used my spear in mock battle. If my father saw me now..."
Zack put a hand on her arm. She didn't twist away. He said, "What you did was save all of our lives. If the Adjutant's men didn't see you two die, they wouldn't have believed I won my freedom under his rules."
Fabiola said, "We are lucky that it was his men who witnessed the battle. It seems the Adjutant himself knows well the skills of a desert warrior if he forced Renton to have you fight me. Had he seen the pitiful performance I put up himself, none of this would have worked."
Zack turned to Renton. "The money from my winnings. They're freedom is bought with it?"
Renton nodded. "And you should have plenty to buy a simple slave girl's title at the slave market house. Luckily for you, the crime these two committed didn't warrant them to have a high fight-bond, so their buying prices were even lower than a petty thief."
Zack smirked. "What crime did they commit?"
Astrid raised a finger. "It technically wasn't a crime. I bought that chicken fair and square! It's Fabiola's fault the guard had his knickers down in public. She just pissed him off."
"There was a chicken involved?" Zack asked, incredulous.
Fabiola stood up, wiping Zack's blood from her warrior garments. "It's less complicated than she makes it seem. And the guard just misunderstood my intentions."
Astrid barked out a laugh. "I wonder how in the world he misunderstood you wanting to 'see his spear'. Well, you embarrassed him enough to get the other guards to surround us. We could have gotten out of that with a quick skirmish."
Fabiola's voice rose a little in anger. "I didn't know we hadn't broken any laws! They were very convincing when they told us we had! It's not my fault your land has corrupt law enforcers."
"But I told you we didn't break any!" Astrid complained.
Fabiola crossed her arms. "How many times have you told me that before?"
Renton rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Enough. I don't want to hear anymore. You're all free to go now."
Zack looked at Renton, worried. "What about you? With Astrid and Fabiola walking side by side with me, it'll be a clear statement to the Adjutant that you didn't follow his edict."
"Bah, to the Barrow King's grave with the Adjutant's edict!" Renton spat. "These are my Rings. No one tells me how to run my Rings. You won one hundred consecutive battles fair and square, and more importantly, you've made me more money than any other fighter. For that, this matter is a trifling thing. You'll be a walking message to the public that the Adjutant holds no power in my camps."
"Huh," Astrid hummed thoughtfully. "I always thought you were just a bitter old man with a pillow for a tummy, but you're not so bad. You're just a greedy pig."
Renton flashed her a smile. "You better believe it."
Fabiola looked to Zack and asked, "Where to now?"
Zack smiled. He was free, and not only that, he had freed both of his new friends. Soon, he'd be able to free Yemiri as well. "To the slave market. It's time to buy Yemiri's title."
10
The heavy iron gates of the Rings thudded into the dirt behind Zack, Astrid, and Fabiola, leaving them to stand in the cold, busy market street of Bergen. It was only Zack’s second time ever in the town, and it took his breath away just as easily as it had the first time he had entered in the middle of the night, banging on the iron gates of the Rings for entrance.
This time, he was no longer an escaped slaved, desperate for a chance to win his freedom. Instead, he was a free man both in spirit and in law. A heavy bag of iron marks weighed his coin purse hitched to his belt, which Astrid eyed a little too obviously. Most important of all, he was among friends, two women he knew he could count on in the most dire of situations.
According to Fabiola, Bergen was as far from a rich Astorian town as you could get. Zack didn’t believe it. No one lived in makeshift igloos, huddling over their dim fires for heavily portion-controlled meat. They had houses made of wood and stone and even metal. These people were rich and they didn’t know it. To them, it was a normal, every day life.
Nearly everyone who passed by had a healthy flush about their cheeks. The Astorians of Bergen moved with purpose, ignoring the odd trio Zack, Astrid, and Fabiola made.
The town was exciting, and if this was what a poor, backwater town of Astoria looked like, he couldn’t imagine what wonders the Farland would bring. Unfortunately, even Fabiola, who had come from across the Frozen Sea herself, had never heard of the Farland, or even dark skinned people with curly hair. All of her people were dark skinned, but straight hair was the norm there. Even to her, Zack stood out.
She and Zack followed Astrid down the street. The young Astorian blonde seemed to know the layout of the town well enough to navigate them. She moved comfortably in the crowds rushing past her, slipping and brushing busy passerby as smoothly as a cat through a curtain.
Zack quickly noticed how the pouches on her belt had suddenly become full after casually bumping into people. He tried to hide his smirk from Fabiola. Her rigid posture at her friend's blatant thievery showed she was not a fan of Astrid’s habits, but still tolerated it.
Soon, they were at a giant building, four stories tall. It was made entirely of stone with a wooden roof and shingles made of a sort of material which Zack guessed was clay. An old woman sat behind a counter that held off a line of ten men and women exchanging slips and coin-marks with the old woman.
Astrid pointed to the exchanges, biting into an apple that probably came from the fruit cart they had passed earlier. It was the first time Zack and seen a fruit. He promised himself to buy one for Yemiri after they freed her. Astrid said, “Those slips are bill orders for slaves, indicating their preferred height, weight, strength, and anything else they might be looking for. Saves a bunch of time.”
Fabiola’s nose wrinkled. “What a disgusting practice.”
Zack still had a hard time understanding the desert woman’s response. Apparently, the people of the Twisting Sands did not have slaves or any kind of indentured servitude. There, everyone contributed equally to their tribes in some way. Or, that’s how he understood what she said to him. It was all very confusing.
To him, slavery was a normal part of his life. He hated it and had spent every day of his life dreaming of a future free of his status as a slave, but he didn’t know anything else. Even at the Demon’s Prospect, he hadn’t even known about the ability to gain his freedom in the Rings.
If he had and never gained a Tesseract, he probably wouldn’t have tried to gain his freedom. He only had the confidence to tackle the arduous task because of the ridiculous healing and strength the trollbear’s flesh power had offered him.
He’d have to ask her more about it after they freed his friend. Yemiri would simplify Fabiola’s words for him. They would love Yemiri. Everyone did.
When it was their turn in line, he let Astrid do the talking. She knew way more about what was happening than him.
The old woman and Astrid began on friendly terms, with the young Astorian blonde leaning on the table. Zack was amused by her body language. Wait. Was Astrid flirting with
the old lady?
A roll of the eyes from Fabiola indicated that yes, Astrid was indeed trying to flirt with the old lady. Zack didn't know much about flirting, but he was sure Astrid wasn't doing so hot. Whatever his friend was trying to accomplish clearly did not put them on good terms because the old woman screamed at her, face red and veins bulging from her forehead. “You filthy mouthed rat!”
The old woman’s response just made Astrid’s smile widen even more, like a cat watching her cornered mouse struggle.
“All I was trying to say,” Astrid explained, “Was why can’t you cut us a good deal for the slave girl from the Demon’s Prospect? It’s not like we don’t have the marks for it.”
The old woman slammed her hand on a piece of paper and wrote down a number. “That, is how much a slave from the Demon’s Prospect would fetch, within a ten percent margin of that range.”
Then she crossed that number off and wrote a completely different number. Zack had finally taken the time to learn some numbers from Fabiola to impress Yemiri, and he did not like what he saw. The old woman underlined the new price and said, “That, that right there, is how much the leading harem candidate for the Adjutant Lagrand costs to break her of her slave title.”
Astrid opened her mouth and Fabiola pulled her back before the young woman could do more damage than help. Zack looked to Fabiola who studied the numbers. The desert woman asked the slave market dealer, “Are you sure about these numbers?”
The old woman looked offended. “Ask me that again and I’ll shove your teeth so far down your throat you’ll be chewing out of your asshole. Kids these days. No respect.”
Zack was confused. Astrid seemed to notice and she explained. “If Yemiri was just a normal slave from the Demon’s Prospect, you would have had enough iron marks to free her and then just enough to board us all on a ship across the Frozen Sea.”
Zack pointed to the number on the old woman’s slip. “It’s only triple the amount! We can still free her and find a different way to get across the Frozen Sea!”
Astrid shook her head. “No, it isn’t. The number you’re looking at isn’t in iron marks. It’s in gold. Your girlfriend is now literally worth an entire two story building of this town.”
The news rocked Zack back hard. He wanted to sit down, but found himself immobilized by what he heard. This didn’t make any sense. He was so close.
All he had worked for in the past six months, the cuts and bruises and stabs and broken bones he had endured, they were all for nothing. A question came to mind. “The woman said leading candidate for his harem. What did that mean?”
Fabiola bit her lower lip. “In a normal harem, all the woman are equals, lower in status than the wife. But in this case, if she is a leading candidate, it means that when she is of legal age to marry, she will become this Adjutant’s wife.”
It didn’t make sense to Zack. He had never heard of these laws until today. Well, it wasn’t like he knew about any laws even six months earlier. How could words on a document hurt him more than any blade?
His disappointment and despair confused him, but they quickly turned into anger, and anger he could understand, could tame. He fed that to the hunger.
Fabiola put on a hand on his shoulder and said, “Calm, Zack.”
Even though she said the words, the air in his chest still felt hot, and he didn’t see them cooling any time soon. He said, “Yemiri isn’t my woman. She’s my friend. We’ll marry someday, but I promised her I would free us both and take us to the Farland one day.”
Astrid chuckled. “Ohhhh, she’s definitely your girl, first in your eyes. I never minded being second place.”
Zack gave her a confused look. What did she mean by that? He shook his head to clear it. He needed to do something, to think of a way to save her.
A trickle of doubt leaked into his heart. What if Yemiri was happy? He had always envisioned her being a lady in a castle. She was so proper and could even read well enough to teach him.
But then he remembered the fact that the Adjutant had actively sabatoged Zack’s final battles in the Rings. That meant that Zack was a threat. His name had reached Yemiri’s ears, and her response did not please Adjutant Lagrand.
Zack couldn’t believe it all came down to money, something he didn’t even have a concept of half a year earlier. He needed to free her before she turned eighteen. That was only five months away. But what could he do?
He looked to his friends. “Thank you for your help so far. You’re free to book the next passage out of here if you’d like.”
Fabiola laughed. “With what money? You helped free us, Zack. We’re with you all the way, whatever happens.”
“Money is everywhere,” muttered Astrid. Her eyes immediately darted to the loose pouches hanging on a nearby woman’s belt. Fabiola smacked her on the head.
That gave Zack an idea. He just needed money. It wasn’t like he knew how to build houses or had any skills besides fighting. As the plan formed in his mind, he began to understand exactly how he could raise significant amount of money, even enough to make Astrid cry with happiness.
He said, “Who here has the most money, Astrid?”
“Adjutant Lagrand,” she said without hesitation. “But Renton said even I shouldn’t try to steal from the guy. The Adjutant is apparently an Elementalist, one of the highest caliber.”
That was news to Zack, and he didn’t like what it portended. But he never once had any notions of storming into the Adjutant’s ice castle to save his friend like in the stories. He didn’t want to flee on a ship with Yemiri only to have the authorities hounding their heels. Only fools did that.
Zack nodded. “Not him, then. But who after that?”
Astrid’s eyes widened in excitement. “We’re going to steal from Renton?”
Zack shook his head. “No. Sorry to disappoint you. But I have a better plan.”
He explained it to them, twice. They didn’t quite understand at first what he was going for since he barely knew it himself. But the day ended with them spending half of their remaining marks on a business license, shaking hands with Renton and a few local businessmen, and clashing mugs of stuff the locals called ale at a nearby tavern.
The ale poured down Zack’s throat, heating him in a way he had never felt. It was ten times better than any snow he had ever melted. Where was this stuff all of his life?
He and his friends cheered in their private table at their newfound freedom. Astrid leaned over the table and asked, “So, what do we call our new hunting band?”
Fabiola’s face was bright red, and she hiccuped. “How about Delivererersssss…Delvers? Deliverers! That’s it. The Deliverers.”
Astrid’s nose wrinkled as if she had smelled something rancid. “Deliverers? That’s so lame.”
Fabiola tried poking at Astrid, but missed completely, falling off her chair and laughing in a deep alto. “It makes perfect sense! We hunt terrifying beasts of the wilds and we bring them into town for various porpoises. Porpois. Purposes. We deliver.”
Zack laughed with her. He didn’t know what to call their new hunting party. When they had gone to the business office and requested a license to hunt wild and dangerous animals, the office clerk had thought they were nuts.
In a way, they were. But it was the fastest way Zack thought he could make enough money to break Yemiri of her title. Astrid had gone over the numbers and was confident in their ability to do so.
Sitting their with his new friends and business partners, he realized the only thing that could have made him happier was Yemiri being there. Soon she would join them, and they would sail off to the Farland.
The Flesh Elementalist Page 8
