by Noah Layton
The satyrs moved to gather around the fire, reluctantly at first, but eventually settling and relaxing a little.
I turned to the bard.
‘What’s your name?’
‘Juliet,’ she replied. ‘The greatest bard in all the land. I have played for-’
‘Kings, I know,’ I cut in. ‘You hungry?’
‘Like a two-coin whore who’s gone days without sucking a co-’
‘I get the idea.’ I provided her with a meal, and he hurried over to the fire with the satyrs.
Ariadne and Lara joined them, alongside Aden and Oden, leaving only Alorion and I beyond the light of the fire.
Flickering embers cast light onto our faces every few seconds as we stood side by side, but they failed to reach the final figure outside the circle.
The lone warrior was slumped against one of the wagon wheels, seated on the dried ground, his wrists still bound.
‘You don’t look so happy,’ I said flatly. ‘Not that I’m expecting you to be, that is…’
‘What have I to be happy about?’
‘You’re free. That’s one, if anything.’
‘My people are my happiness. Right now they are being marched north thanks to the bastard that sold them. Gods know what will be done with them. Beaten and forced to fight for a people that they do not know...’
‘You’re like a military force, aren’t you?’
‘Militaristic is not the nature of my kind. It is what we have become over time after spending years being attacked by things beyond our land. But we were no match for the larger tribe that attacked. They attacked us at night. We occupied a quiet place in the hills, but not quiet enough, evidently. It was my duty to protect my tribe, but evidently it was not enough. They sold us to Garrison for a small price just to get rid of us. It was our land they wanted.’
He lowered his head in shameful defeat. He was a man who had been forced into a way of life, not at somebody’s hand but by the world he lived in.
Alorion and I shared a look of realisation.
‘Your people aren’t being marched north,’ I said.
It took a moment for the words to sink in, but eventually he looked up at me with dark, disbelieving eyes.
‘What?’
‘The Mountaineers aren’t marching your people north. Garrison’s men are moving them in two days from a holding spot in the forest not far from here.’
The lone warrior took a long pause, sizing me up.
‘So what are you saying to me, tribe master?’ He finally asked.
‘What do you think I’m saying? We set up an ambush, kill the bastards that have taken your kin and set them free.’
‘And then?’
‘Then…’ I sighed, slumping and sitting across from him. ‘You go your own way, or you join my tribe and get yourself set up on a new piece of land I’ve got under my control, with a mine, build some barracks, space to build homes…’
‘It sounds too good to be true. I have been deceived enough times in my life.’
‘Or you’ve just never met a tribe master like me. Not that I’m blowing smoke up my own ass or anything.’
The lone warrior looked as if he was about to manage a smile, but there was a stoicism in his eyes that held it back. It was one I had seen before.
‘You’re the tribe master, aren’t you?’ I said.
His eyes said yes as they flicked up to look at me.
‘I was in a military force, too, you know? I still had to answer to somebody. Thing is, even if a lot of us don’t want discipline or somebody telling us what to do, it’s often the only way to get things done – especially when you’re dealing with warriors, like you. You’re like my old drill sergeants. You can joke around occasionally, but at the end of the day you’re still in charge of trained killers, and you have to keep them in line. That’s how I can tell.’
‘Order must be kept in any structure,’ the lone warrior said. ‘It is the only way we stop ourselves from descending into chaos. It also inevitably causes chaos eventually. But this way we can hold it off for a longer duration of time.’
This time he managed a smile in response to my own.
‘You’d keep your independence,’ I reassured him.
‘But only to some extent.’
‘You can put it that way, but this is the situation you’re in. I’d like to think that I’m one of the good guys, and I’m building something that can withstand attack. Having you and your people onboard sure would help with that… And, you know, I’d also like to stick it to that smug bastard that sold you.’
I held out a hand to shake, making the offer.
The lone warrior looked between my hand and my eyes. His hesitation had nothing to do with hatred, and everything to do with losing the way of life that he had known for a long time.
I didn’t blame him. I would so the same.
And just like him, I would shake hands if it meant getting my people back.
Accept Tobias into the tribe?
I pressed accept.
‘Pleasure to meet you, Tobias.’
‘And you, Master Jack.’
‘Jack’s fine. You hungry?’
Chapter Ten
We packed up our campsite the moment sunrise hit and headed back to the land. Our 13-strong group hit the trading post a little before midday without a hitch, until Ash, the leader of the fox-people came into view on the northern lookout post.
He hopped down from the lookout tower and opened the gates for us, allowing us inside. Tobias and the satyrs observed everything the moment we got inside, scanning for any sign of a threat, but there wariness quickly dissipated at the sight of Tormus and Eri approaching us with joyous smiles.
‘New members, Jack?’ Tormus asked.
‘New farmers,’ I replied. ‘All of those seeds that you’ve got on hold, Tormus? It’s time to put them to work. We’re filling the land all the way from the north to Cass’s front doorstep. The satyrs will get it done quickly.’
‘Do I get any say in this?’ Cass asked.
‘You get a fresh breakfast a few yards from your door when you wake up every morning.’
‘Deal.’
‘And as long as you do me a favour and take the horses over to the pasture.’
‘Mmm…’ Cass frowned, tapping her chin. ‘Fine, Jack Hawthorne. You cut a tough deal.’
‘Tell me about it.’
She winked at me and set off to return the horses and park the carriage.
‘Tormus,’ I said, returning to him. ‘These satyrs will be helping out with the extra farming. They’re good people.’
‘They’re taking all this work off my hands? What’s the catch?’
‘You have to help them build their houses over there in the north-eastern section.’
He looked over at Eri, his gentle but formidable wife. She was looking more pregnant than ever.
‘Go,’ she smiled. ‘It will give me a chance to lie down and rest.’
I transferred the wood over to him and gave him and the satyrs building permissions on the house, leaving me with Lara, Ariadne, Tobias, the lute player and Alorion.
If that wasn’t enough, I suddenly heard hard footsteps sprinting towards me from behind.
I turned around just in time to see Talia jump at me and wrap her arms around me.
‘Where were you? Why were you gone for so long?’
‘Woah, woah,’ I said, not knowing whether to hug her back or shove her off me, and somehow doing neither. ‘What do you even care? I thought you were just here because you had to be.’
Talia jumped from me immediately and stepped back, gathering herself.
‘Oh…’ She said quickly, trying to hide her embarrassment. ‘I… I am. I just…’
‘Tall-Man!’
I turned to see Elera running up to me. She hugged me tightly, managing not to jump me as hard as Talia.
She looked stunning, her blue skin accentuating her tight body against the browns and greens of the grass an
d tree nearby. I had been away from two of my wives, but right now my nymph was wearing nothing but her underwear as my other tribe members looked on with collectively raised eyebrows.
She kissed me hard, then stopped and looked around.
‘There are new people here…’ She said curiously.
‘Mmm.’
‘Should I be wearing clothes?’
‘If it were up to me, no,’ I whispered in her ear as I hugged her, ‘but maybe go grab something to throw on.’
‘Right,’ she grinned, pulling away and rushing back up the steps to the treehouse.
Santana appeared around the side of the tree, cleaning her hands from her work in the pasture. She approached much more modestly, kissing me lightly and smiling up at me warmly. Her beautiful face looked a little more sun-kissed than usual, glowing between her red hair.
‘It looks to have been a successful trip,’ she said, running her hand up my arm as she looked over the new members.
‘It was,’ I replied. ‘Let’s do introductions once we’re in the Map Room… And once Elera has put some clothes on.’
I sent Santana to fetch Cass from her house, and a few minutes later our group met up around the glowing blue grid that laid out a virtual map of Agraria’s land that we had trekked across so far.
I updated the map, placing my hand on the slab, and looked around at the members of my tribe present at this latest meeting.
A pilot from another world, an imp sidekick, my wives; a foxgirl, a busty purple-haired hunter, a devilishly brave red-headed farm girl, and a blue-skinned nymph with a tenacity for refusing to wear clothes. Additionally there was a nimble-footed ex-miner with a pixie-cut, a stern lone warrior who I had just met, a cat-eared barmaid-princess, and…
‘Just a quick question,’ Juliet the bard asked, waving her hand and frowning. ‘This looks serious. Do I need to be here?’
‘In this meeting or in the tribe?’ I asked.
‘The first one. Who else would take me right now, really?’
‘No, you don’t. Go… Do whatever it is you usually do.’
‘What I usually do is confined to three categories; drinking, sleeping, and writing songs that would bring a tear to the eye of even the most vicious of warriors.’ Juliet turned to Tobias and wagged a finger at him. ‘How about you, warrior-man?’
I held my breath, expecting a fight to break out between the two.
Well, fight was a broad term. Execution on Tobias’s behalf.
But Tobias just stared the bard down with eyes illuminated by the blue glow of the map.
‘I think I shall take my leave,’ she remarked quickly, slipping out of the door and disappearing out of sight.
‘Now, down to business,’ I said, gathering the select members of my tribe to attention. ‘Here’s the situation.’
I informed everybody of who Tobias was, and what had happened at The Market, as well as the plot to reclaim his enslaved tribal members from the mercenaries.
‘We know they’re being moved at sunrise from a holding spot a day’s ride from here. Garrison, the guy who sold them, is pretty much the biggest asshole you’ll ever meet, but he’s not stupid. To him this is just another shipment, but it’s a valuable one. A little over 16,000GP in value to him.’
Cass whistled with impression.
‘That’s a big number.’
‘Not when we speak of it as the price on the heads of my people,’ Tobias growled. ‘There is no price that can be put on them.’
‘You’re right,’ she replied, nodding in agreement as she held her hand sup. ‘I just mean that, if that really is what this so-called shipment is worth to him, it’ll be heavily guarded.’
‘Exactly,’ I answered. ‘Which is why, if we’re really going to do this, we need to come up with a strategy that won’t get any of us killed in the process.’
‘An ambush is the most appropriate approach,’ Lara said. ‘These mercenaries will be trained fighters, likely in various modes of combat. If we give them a chance to fight then there is a serious chance that they could get the upper hand.’
‘Which is why we need to take out as many as possible as fast as possible. We can’t give them the chance to respond.’
I placed my hands on the table and dragged them across the surface, zooming in on the channel of color that moved north. It was the 20-mile route that we had walked over the past few days.
‘The forest is dense either side of the trail,’ I said, nodding down to it. ‘If we wait in the shrubs we can get the drop on them, presuming we stay hidden long enough to take them out.’
‘Archers first,’ Ariadne said. ‘Both ours and theirs. We can use our longer-range attackers to take out theirs, then move onto the melee fighters. If swords and axes are their only weapons they will need to catch us before they can do any damage, presuming they are not fast, that is.’
‘Do you remember the ones we killed at the cove?’ Elera said, wrapping the bedsheet around her. ‘They were not what you would call, how do you say… Nimble.’
‘That’s true,’ I replied. ‘If they’re anything like the ones we cut down-’
‘Wait,’ Tobias cut in, ‘you have already slaughtered members of this group that took my people?’
‘Well, not Garrison’s tribe so to speak, but the mercenaries that he hires.’
‘How? Why?’
‘They came on board my ship,’ I said simply, glancing over at Talia. ‘And… Well, I didn’t want them on board my ship.’
‘So you have a ship, too?’
‘Only as of a few days ago. That would be a gift from the sun-elves.’
Tobias’s flat mouth stretched into a surprised, genuine grin.
‘Anyway,’ I continued, returning to the matter at hand, ‘This seems like the best approach. We wait in the forest, take out the long-range attackers, then cut down the melee fighters. Once they’re all dead, we steal the carriages and get Tobias’s people back to the land.’
‘This is a dangerous move we are making,’ Ariadne said. ‘Garrison is a powerful man, and if he finds that one of his shipments has been compromised, he may retaliate.’
‘I don’t think it’s a case of may, it’s a case of will. But he would need to know that it was us, and there’s no way that he can find that out, just as long as we kill every one of the guards.’
We all looked around at each other, nodding.
‘This seems like a strong plan,’ Tobias agreed. ‘No mercy.’
‘The caravan moves at sunrise in two days. We move out tomorrow afternoon, set up camp, then prep our ambush along the route before the sun comes up.’
The members of my tribe dispersed from the Map Room and scattered to their daily routines and duties.
Looking around at the wide variety of people who now occupied my small kingdom, the place started to feel a lot more alive with activity. Including the satyrs, I now had almost 30 members in my tribe, and that number would almost double if the rescue mission tomorrow went to plan.
‘Jack,’ Tobias caught me just outside the Map Room. ‘Know that I am with you on this. I was wary at first, but seeing the harmony in which the variety of your people operate, and the way in which you have built your tribe… I am comforted by this.’
‘That’s good to know. We’ll move to the new land once we’ve freed your people, but in the meantime you need somewhere to sleep tonight. The satyrs are building houses right now, but if you need somewhere to sleep there’s plenty of wood available.’
‘A blanket is all I require. I have spent days cooped up in that wheeled cage with my people. Tonight I would like to see the stars before I sleep.’
I fetched him a blanket and bid him goodbye. Then, instead of heading to a remote spot along the perimeter fence and kicking back, he deposited the blanket into his inventory and crossed to Tormus and the satyrs, ready to help in the construction of their homes.
Even if tomorrow was a dangerous move, Tobias and his people were better folks than most. I could re
ly on him to have my back.
I headed up to the treehouse where my four beautiful wives resided. Elera had dropped the bedsheet the moment she had gotten back inside, and was now drinking back one of her Essence of the River potions as she laid upon the rug by the bed.
Santana was sat up in bed, lying in her underwear as she read from one of the huge tomes from her collection of books.
A long line of clothes trailed across to the other side of my home, where Lara was climbing into the bathtub, having dropped a final bucket of warm water from the well into it, while Ariadne was seated on the edge, her furred feet dangling in the water.
‘And you call me the messy one,’ I said, looking over to my hunter and my foxgirl.
‘We have been travelling for days,’ Ariadne groaned, stretching her arms out over her head and sinking deeper into the water. ‘And we’re heading out again tomorrow. We need to rest.’
‘Ain’t that the truth,’ I muttered, pulling off my scabbard from my waist and ripping off my clothes until I was completely naked.
I crossed to the bed and fell onto the mattress, resting my head on Santana’s waist. She ran her gentle fingers down my face and into my growing facial hair.
‘Who is that other woman you brought with you?’ Elera asked from the floor.
‘A bard,’ I replied. ‘We said we needed one. Looks like we’ve got one.’
‘She seems like something of an ass to me,’ Santana said without looking up from her book.
‘I saved a life and she was 40 gold pieces. Besides, we could do with a little entertainment around here.’
‘What did you do for entertainment back in your world, husband?’ Ariadne said from the bath. ‘You have only told us a few things.’
‘Most of the society I lived in was based around entertainment. There was so much of it, but most came from movies and TV shows.’
‘What are those?’
My wives all looked at me inquisitively, as if I was about to reveal to them the secrets of the universe. Even Lara, who had seen and done a lot of things, resumed a repetitive motion with her feet, sweeping them back and forth in the water in a trance-like state as she waited for me to speak.
‘They were like… Moving images,’ I started. ‘You used a machine to record an image of the real world, and then you could watch it on a flat surface. People used them to tell stories.’