by T J Trapp
It seemed like a long walk before they reached the walls of the city, but the sun had not yet begun its descent behind the far mountain ridge. The ornate gates of New Haven were as Alec remembered them, but instead of entering, they walked alongside the walls of the city until they reached a smaller gate far from the main entrance. A guard post of clutchmen stood nearby, and a mother sat checking everyone who entered. The mother yawned as she gave a cursory look at the caravan of filthy, naked farm drones harnessed to their containers, and their herders, and motioned for them to proceed into the city. The gates opened and they were in a part of the city Alec did not recognize. The walk was harder in the city than on the dirt path; the rough cobblestones of the city streets made balancing the container difficult. They finally arrived at their destination: an industrial mill in a part of the city that he had never seen.
Alec and the other drones maneuvered the container alongside a large row of other similar containers. The field drones were unharnessed and sent to a staging area where they waited until all of the containers were properly organized. The drones were lined up in a row. A clutchman and a transport drone walked into the area; the transport drone unrolled a long leather strap. “Line up and strap in,” he yelled.
The sixteen porter drones arrayed in pairs alongside the strap; then each drone took hold of the strap and looped it around their arm. No whipping, no coercion; the drones freely choose to be strapped together, Alec noted. The strapline was an effective way to keep drones organized and move them from place to place. Alec was in the middle of the formation. With a clutchman watching them line up, he didn’t think it was smart to attempt to move to the back.
The clutchman nodded at the transport drone and started walking and, at the transport drone’s command, the strapline followed. As the strapline began to move, Alec felt the pull of the strap wrapped around the arm of the person behind him and the person in front of him; it tightened around his forearm as surely as any harness. Alec knew that besides the gate they had come through with their large load, smaller gates cut through the city wall from place to place. He suspected they would be marched to one of these and returned to the fields.
This is my chance. I’m inside the city. This is my chance to find Erin.
The front clutchman led them slowly away from the mill. For the first several paces the strapped drones did not have the rhythm of walking together – they stepped on each other and kicked ankles – but they quickly picked up the rhythm and began smoothly moving forward as a unit. Another line of farm drones joined them, and the first drone of Alec’s strapline attached himself to the back of the new line. Then they were joined by a few more: a string of about fifty straplined drones now snaked down the street. Alec furtively looked from side to side, searching for any familiar landmark – anything that he could remember.
I need to get my bearings. I’ve got to figure out where these gates are. We may need to use one to get out of here. But it had been so long since he was here in this city, and the part he was being led through was not at all familiar. This industrial area did not seem to be anywhere near the mothers’ grandiose residences near the central area – instead they seemed to be threading along the outskirts of the city. Well, I guess I wouldn’t want a string of filthy farm drones tromping in front of my house, either, Alec thought. They must use this route to minimize interactions with the upper echelons.
After they had dutifully trekked the better part of half-an-el, and as dusk began to settle in, Alec saw his chance to escape. The long line of drones was threading through a lesser residential area, with narrow streets and many sharp turns. The lead clutchman turned a corner, and then took another street that angled away to the left. Now out of sight of the clutchmen, Alec seized the opportunity. Focus. He felt the medallion embedded in his side throb slightly, and then the leather leading strap severed just in front of his wrist. Alec grabbed the loose end so it would look like he was still tethered, and as the drones in front of him turned left, Alec dropped the broken end and went straight; then quickly turned up an alleyway to his right, maintaining the same pace as before. The drones behind him continued to follow along, still holding onto the strap, each looking straight ahead. Hope no one around here is looking at us, Alec thought. Within a few dozen paces Alec saw what he was looking for – the high walls of storehouses and outbuildings bounding the alley gave way to a shoulder-high terrace wall. Alec quickly untwisted the strap from his arm, sidestepped away from the drone line, grabbed the top of the wall, and vaulted over it.
The drone following right behind him looked at the wall in astonishment. Nowhere in his training was vaulting walls included! Without breaking stride, the drone looked around at the place where Alec had disappeared, then continued his slow walk in the direction he had been heading. Alec peeked back over the wall. He could see the line of drones shuffling on. Someplace at the head of the line was a confused drone who knew only one thing – to move forward – and somewhere was a clutchman who did not yet realize that his line of drones had been split and some had taken a detour. Alec pitied the leading drone because he would be punished for losing contact with the front part of the strapline, even though it wasn’t his fault.
Yes! It worked. I’m free in the city, but now I need a cover. I won’t last long like this.
Alec scrambled over the low wall on the other side of his refuge spot and moved discretely down a different street, looking for any inspiration. A few drones were on the street, scurrying to get to their assigned quarters before darkness fell; one or two of them looked at him questioningly, but none approached him. Alec knew that a filthy naked field drone would be questioned, and probably punished severely, if he encountered a mother. He was starting to get desperate when he saw a tailor shop that made drone clothes. Might as well give it a try.
Alec walked up, opened the door, and stepped inside, feigning what he hoped would pass for drone obedience. The shop drone was getting ready to close up for the evening and was putting away his materials. When he noticed Alec, he looked at him with clear displeasure; the drone did not want a smelly field drone, still grimy from the road, messing up his shop. The drone let Alec stand for a long time. Alec waited quietly and submissively, head bowed, not making any eye contact. He knew that a lower ranking drone should not speak to a higher-ranking drone without permission.
Finally, the drone said, “Speak.”
“Master,” Alec intoned, hoping he had the right Dronish accent, “I have finished my time in the fields. My mother told me to come to you and be cleaned and dressed so that I can return to her house.”
“Do you have an order?”
“No, the mother told me to do it and did not give me anything else,” said Alec.
“Who is your mother?”
“Erin,” Alec answered, without thinking.
The drone peered at him in the evening half-light with a look of revulsion. “I am not familiar with that name,” he said. “You need to bring an order. Go to the mother’s head drone and get an order. I cannot make clothes without an order for clothes for you. If he does not give you an order, go to the reassignment center to get an order. If they want you to have clothes, they will issue you an order.”
“Yes, Master,” Alec said, and showing no emotion, turned and walked out of the shop. That didn’t work. He couldn’t go to a reassignment center – whatever that was – they would figure him out. He needed to find a place to roost while he was looking for Erin. Alec turned the corner away from the tailor shop – Mustn’t let the tailor drone see that I have no idea which direction the reassignment center would be – and started to discretely move down the street. The last light of the sun cast long shadows and at the next street corner he could see that a mother and her clutch seemed to be setting up a check point. Can’t go that way. She will know that a filthy farm drone should not be here.
Alec saw a night soil crew making its way up the other side of the street. Okay. Not a good idea, but the best idea I can come up with right n
ow. The crew was emptying the sewage sump at the rear of a mother’s house. Two drones were standing in the sump using buckets to slop sewage into a large wooden tank attached to a cart pulled by a dispirited drunglet. Skirting the shadows, Alec joined the two in the sump; they took no notice of him. Typical drones. They never notice who is working next to them – that would not make them better drones. By the time they finished clearing out the sump Alec was as filthy and stunk as much as the others. Alec took hold of the drunglet’s harness and helped move the large tank to the next residential sump. He found the work somewhat disgusting, but easy. The biggest problem was the risk of parasites or infection from the inevitable small nicks and cuts that he accumulated while slopping the sewage.
The crew apparently worked all night; sometime during the night, they came to a mother’s checkpoint. A clutchman stepped forward and halted them. The mother looked at the crew with disgust.
“Stop and present yourself. Who is the leader?”
“Mother, I am,” the crew’s lead drone said. The mother held a scented handkerchief to her nose and motioned to one of her clutchmen. “Wipe the animal’s face enough so that I can touch it.” Holding his breath, the clutchman produced a small cloth and swabbed an area on the drone’s forehead about the size of a drunglet’s eye. The mother stepped gingerly up to the filthy drone and looked at his dirty, naked body, then touched the cleaned spot on his forehead. Although as a result of his training the drone would have done anything the mother asked, now that she touched him he was compelled to answer truthfully and do as instructed.
“Are you the lead drone of this crew?”
“Yes, Mother, I am.”
“Tell me how long you have been the lead drone.”
Yes, Mother, I have been doing this for almost six full turns of the seasons.”
“Is this your usual crew?”
“Mother, I have a different crew every night.”
“Let me see your crew,” the mother said.
The lead drone motioned, and the worker drones stood in front of the mother. Alec cleared his mind and repeated over and over the same mantra. Please the mother. Please the mother. Please the mother.
The mother looked at the filthy drones and saw they were all banded. Since they were naked, they could not conceal anything on their bodies.
“Go,” she said, and looked away from them, holding her handkerchief to her face and rolling her eyes. The clutchman motioned for them to go back to work, and the mother turned back to her chore of finding errant drones.
Please the mother. Please the mother.
The lead drone motioned, and the crew moved on.
Just before dawn they headed back to a central receiving area and dumped the contents of their cart into the city’s main sewage cistern. Then they were allowed to clean the worst of the filth off of themselves before they went to a drone feeding area, had a bowl of some sort of gruel – No meaty chunks this time – and crammed into a small alcove to sleep. Alec was so tired that he immediately dropped into a deep sleep. He still stunk, but at least there was not some diseased woman crawling on top of him.
In the late afternoon, the lead drone woke him along with the rest of the crew. They were fed the same gruel as in the morning. A little before dusk they went back to work, methodically processing every sump in a different neighborhood. Somewhere they came across a dead drone lying in the gutter alongside the cobblestones. The leader did not show any concern, but motioned for two of his drones to pick up the naked body.
“Should we remove its neckpiece?” one of the drones asked the lead drone.
“No need – they will do that at the processing center,” the lead drone replied.
Alec had noticed a beam with a hook mounted on the sewage cart; now he discovered what it was for. The dead drone was impaled on the hook; the lead drone slashed its belly open, removed the offal, and dumped it in the sewage tank. The body, still wearing its neckband, was left on the hook for further use.
✽✽✽
Alec could tell when they entered the area of New Haven with the fine residences used by the mothers of high status. In other circumstances he would have found the residences to be attractive, almost gracious, with whitewashed walls, unusual windows, spacious courtyards, and garden areas – much more opulent than Queen Therin’s residence, he realized. But now, seeing them with the eyes of a drone, he just thought they looked like large spaces that needed to be kept clean. His crew worked along the back alleyways of the fine residences, nearer to the warehouses and drunglet stables.
His attachment to the sewage crew had worked out well, he thought. Although he was filthy and stunk, the work had given him the chance to leave the industrial area by the mill and meander through much of this side of the city. But so far he had seen no indication of where Erin might be. Where would they hold captives? The drone training center perhaps? It must have been around here somewhere. Or maybe they recognized her status as the Princess of Theland and had taken her to a diplomatic area.
Then, about half-way through the night, Alec suddenly became aware of a faint sense in the back of his mind, a small whisper of a wordless voice: Mother needs help. Now! But where did it come from? Not from Erin – he had her ring safely tucked inside his neckband, and without her ring, she would not be able to communicate with him. Nonetheless, Alec could not deny the rightfulness of the message, or its urgency.
As the crew moved on Alec hung back, then slipped into the dark shadows of a large courtyard. He had no idea where he was going, but he felt a familiar rightness in his head and trusted the feeling. He crossed the courtyard, slunk along the garden edge of the boulevard, went across another courtyard, and down a service path leading to a storehouse, until he stopped before a nondescript doorway of an outbuilding behind a residence. The feeling of urgency and rightness continued to increase.
This is stupid. I don’t know what I’m sensing. What if there is an elf mother inside? He hesitated, but the sense of urgency increased again. A trap. Maybe it’s another trap. Alec cautiously tried the door and was surprised to discover it was locked. Focus. His medallion throbbed and the latch dissolved. He pushed open the door and stepped inside.
He was inside a large dark room, lit by the light of two moons shining through a high slit of a window. Nothing was in the room – no furniture, no supplies, no lanterns. On the far side of the room he saw another door, and with a strong sense of rightness, Alec tiptoed across the room and tried the door. It was not locked. A smaller room was before him, much darker than the first, but with the same high slit windows. However, in this room the moonlight barely penetrated the deep gloom. He paused, uncertain as to whether to move forward or go back. Then he heard a very slight sound. Something moved in the room.
He paused, his eyes adjusting to the darkness. And then, he could see a woman chained to the floor. She was naked and had collapsed into her own filth.
12 –In the Dungeon
The figure on the floor appeared almost lifeless, but Alec could hear the faint sound of a tortured breath. Hesitantly, Alec approached her. Friend or foe? Her face was buried in her arms; he could see only the back of her shorn head. However, he could see that she had been injured.
The body shuddered, then muttered something. She’s delirious. Then the woman’s head turned slightly on her arm and the thin sliver of muffled moonlight caught her features.
“Erin!” he gasped. “Erin! My Erin!” He ran to her, threw his arms around her, and raised her head from her pool of excrement.
Erin looked up at him, her eyes rolling in their sockets. “My Consort. I have died and I am joining you, my beloved.”
“Erin – Erin – you are not dead …”
“Although I am sorry to see that you reached here before me. I was hoping that you would live to raise our children.”
Alec focused and pushed a thread of dark energy into Erin; his medallion throbbed and burned within his belly. Slowly her eyes stopped wandering and fixed on his face as she
became more cognizant of her surroundings.
“My Consort? You are here? I am alive, and you are here?” She took a deep breath. “But how?”
“I came to rescue you.”
“Oh, my Great Wizard!” She let his hand stroke her dirty face. “I had given up hope.” Tears trickled down her cheek, glistening in the faint light. “I did not think I would ever see you again. Or the children. My little Ariana. My baby. Or our son.” She closed her eyes as silent sobs wracked her hunched shoulders.
“Shhhh. I am here with you now. We will get you out of this place.”
“I had given up hope. My only goal was to see the first glimmer of morning light through that slit high above me.”
“What have they done to you? How badly are you hurt – how bad is your pain?”
“I …” she stopped to catch her breath. “Yes, I am hurt. But not in pain, not anymore.” She paused for a moment. “At first, the pain from the neckband was intolerable, and I almost gave up, but I was not going to let the mother win. I did what you taught me. I found something that was not within the rules of the mother’s instructions. I concentrated on that little red pebble that Leon gave me as we started on our quest. I used its image to think about you and the children. After many hours, the only thing in my mind was a vision of that red stone. The band no longer caused me any pain. I no longer feel pain from the band, but I feared that if I gave in to sleep, I would never wake.”
“Let’s get you out of here,” Alec said, assessing her bonds. “You are chained to the floor. And you are wearing a slave neckband. I need to be very careful when I free the chains. I don’t want to hurt you in the process.” He took hold of her shoulders and held her at arm’s length.
“The neck band first.” Focus. The metal band slipped from her neck and dropped to the floor with a dull thud. Then he focused again, and the ends of the chains detached from the heavy metal rings in the floor.