I was led and half carried along the dim torch lit corridor through a small entrance concealed behind a massive drape, then down a steep stair well. I surreptitiously tested my bonds and found them secure. Tonak was a most thorough Master of Arms and had trained me to fight even when bound.
We rounded a corner and I knew I must now act or lose any hope of escape. Without warning, I lurched to my left pushing the first Seker from the stairs and plunging him screaming head first down the stairwell. As quickly as he fell, I lunged to my right ramming the second Seker viciously against the stone wall, driving the protruding rod binding me deeply into his abdomen. He grunted satisfyingly and crumbled onto the steps.
The Leader immediately to my rear had sheathed his sword in false confidence when we entered the nearly black stairwell. He was caught unaware and was unprepared as I leaped across the abyss of the shaft to the stairs descending downward hugging the opposite wall. I lost my balance when I plunged onto the uncertain steps and skidded down the coarse, harsh stone steps coming to rest at a small landing. I sprang to my feet and fought against the bonds which held me fast. Realizing that they would not yield, I determined to do the unexpected and so bound up the stairs two and three at a time.
Startled by my actions, the Leader swung wildly at me with his sword but I easily avoided the blade and kicked him between the legs. The blow carried him up into the air slightly and over the side screaming down into the abyss. The lone survivor who had followed close on the heels of his now dead Leader was genuinely frightened even though I was still bound. But gulping once or twice the swordsman advanced gingerly, step by step, nevertheless.
Once again I elected to do the unexpected and turned as if to flee. In a moment, I heard his pursuit. I slowed my pace enough to allow him to overtake me then using the sound of his heavy tramping to judge my actions I threw myself blindly backwards at his feet. He went sprawling over me, striking head first on the stone floor at the lower landing.
I leaped after him and kicked him brutally in the temple, ensuring his death. I then fell on him and using his dagger was soon free. Taking the weapons for which he no longer had use, I bounded up the stairs, renewing my pursuit of the Lady Shelba. En route I passed the Seker I had pinned to the wall with the rod who was only now coming to his senses and without breaking stride, reached down and slashed his throat.
I turned right as I broke into the main corridor, a course which carried me more deeply into the House of Khonos. This should be the direction in which I would find the Lady Shelba.
I passed several doorways and I saw one close abruptly. I kicked it open only to find a female slave, hardly more than a child, sprawled on the carpet where the force of my blow had sent her.
Pinning her to the carpet with my sandal- boot upon her heaving bosom, I placed my sword to her throat and demanded the location of Zagos’s chamber. The quivering slave froze in fear, unable to speak.
“Answer me slave or I will slit your throat,” I commanded hoarsely.
Silence.
I removed my blade from her soft throat and I asked more gently, “What do you owe Zagos? You are but a slave. Tell me truthfully and I will release you unharmed. But you must tell me now.”
Fear left her eyes, replaced by comprehension then rage. “What indeed do I owe Zagos? He has been an animal to me and the other wretched slaves like myself. Follow this corridor, then turn to your right. His are the chambers with the guards.”
“Do you swear to remain in this room and tell no one that you have seen or spoken to me?” She nodded her head and I was content. I would not slay her and so risk that she spoke truthfully.
I followed her directions and shortly arrived before a doorway guarded by a single armed youth standing to attention. I approached him leisurely, as though I belonged to the House of Khonos, believing he might be confused since others in the Rahdon tunic had been about only moments before. When he smiled hesitatingly in greeting, I drove my sword through him, then slowly lowered his body to the floor. I glanced quickly up and down the hallway before entering the chamber.
The Lady Shelba had been thrown upon a bed rack, unclothed, her hands and feet bound to the four ornate wooden posts. I found Zagos also naked, prepared to mount his prize. Screaming a war cry, I flew at him. Startled, he pulled his sword from its scabbard and faced me, glittering steel in hand. He had a binding upon his thigh I noticed with satisfaction.
Tempered steel rang clear and true in the chamber as we moved dance-like in the flickering, amber torchlight before the bound Lady Shelba who fearfully awaited the outcome. Zagos, bootless and wounded, soon realized that I might be victorious. He dropped back to a wall, then darted behind the drape and out a concealed exit. I pursued him briefly but my first duty lay with the Lady Shelba and so I returned and slashed the ropes that held her. She was screaming for me to release her even as I did, to which I replied, “Shut up or I’ll leave you.”
“My clothes” she demanded rising to her feet, her body golden and magnificent in the torchlight.
“No time. Now shut up or I’ll use my blade on you. Move! Move!”
She stopped and started to turn her head. “You wouldn’t dare...” she began.
I let her speak no further. I had warned her and we had no time for such games.
Zagos would return momentarily with overwhelming forces. I slapped her hard on those lovely buttocks with the flat of my sword, a livid scarlet welt rose immediately. She lurched screaming through the doorway and then ran, naked and lovely, down the hall towards the exit as though pursued by a demon. Perhaps she was.
Once or twice she slowed a little and I tapped her buttocks again. We made our way, at a full run towards the same doorway that I had originally entered. I hoped any Sekers seeing a naked slave running before a Seker would not take the situation seriously. At this hour we should appear to be playing at some love game that had gone a bit too far.
On the last leg of our escape I heard a struggle ahead of us. Rounding the final corner before the exit, I almost cheered and would have if I had possessed any more wind. Just ahead of us was Lonnan with a detail of Rahdon Sekers clearing the doorway of guards posted since my capture.
Lonnan, eyes agape, stared disbelieving at the golden Lady Shelba then drew his crimson cape from his back and wrapped her in it.
“I see you are still living,” he remarked casually, directing his eyes and attention to me.
“As you said, we would see each other again,” I replied. “I suggest we leave now. Zagos will have sounded the alarm and we will not be alone long.”
“No doubt,” Lonnan commented dryly.
Just as we cleared the doorway, the Lady Shelba shouted, pointing an accusing finger at me, “Arrest that man, arrest him. He struck me and refused to let me clothe myself. Arrest him.”
“Lady Shelba,” Lonnan responded, “I suggest we wait until you are safe within the walls of your father’s House. Please, we must leave at once.”
“Very well but I will see that man in chains,” she said with venom looking directly
at me.
11. I MEET AGAIN WITH URAK RAHDON
The caravan crept snail-like along the dirt road, the brightly colored Doridian wagons pulled by the great oxen rolling along at the same methodical pace, day after day, regardless of terrain. It was a pace they could maintain for months if need be.
This was the second day since our departure from Taslea. Events were tranquil now compared to the night in Taslea when I had rescued the Lady Shelba from the House of Khonos. I wondered how the Lady Shelba felt riding inside the caravan wagon. I decided it was just as well that she wasn’t speaking to me, especially since she was not with me of her own free will.
This caravan was on a routine trek to Lathanah, a wealthy and prosperous city- state which along with Runah and Taslea, comprised the Golden Triangle of trade. These heavily guarded caravans were a necessity created by the outlaws. Rich caravan wagons laden with goods were convenient prey for these d
esperate men and so the convoy style journeys had evolved. These attacks by outlaw bands consisted primarily of hit and run raids such as the one I had witnessed.
Each wagon or perhaps a group of wagons were backed by a single sponsor. Members of the High Caste provided secret financial backing for the caravans though the merchants ostensibly ran affairs. Members of the High Caste were not permitted to openly invest their money because of the complex Caste rules. The merchants preferred to hedge against possible loss by accepting their money and in this way also obtained security for the wagons. The sponsoring House furnished the merchants with Sekers to safeguard the wagons containing their investments and for this apparent reason I commanded ten Sekers guarding the Merchant Renakor’s wagon.
We had camped the night before near the last of the cultivated fields of the fertile Taslean plain. From that juncture we encountered only isolated stockade- type farm settlements. These disappeared by evening since no city patrol ventured this far. Without the patrols, the outlaws were bold.
I wondered why any farmer would settle in so wild and primitive a land but all ages have individualists and nonconformists. Also, the rich valley land must have been occupied long ago and more was available only at risk on the frontier of the Taslean city- state. Theirs was a hard life, one I did not envy.
The well-maintained cobblestone highway had degenerated into a dirt road with small stone bridges spanning the streams but by the morning of the third day it would become a primitive route that would easily strand a caravan if the fickle weather turned for the worse. We were well provisioned against just such an eventuality.
The weather in this part of Doridia was temperate, with warm summer days and cool nights, followed by moderate winters which presented no serious hardship. Such was not the case in other parts of the continent, I was told. Jungle dominated the north, snow and ice the south. The rugged Khashan Mountains which formed the backbone of the land mass separated the eastern half from a vast desert, it was rumored. None had ever journeyed there and returned to tell the tale.
Trade between the city- states was so prosperous that a Lesser House could back even a single massive Doridian wagon and still be assured of a handsome return if nature and the preying outlaws permitted. So it was not unusual for one merchant to escort a single wagon such as ours.
In addition to the usual goods, we carried three female slaves to sale. Two I knew well; Lena from the villa and Zelia who cleaned the Seker’s billets at the main residence in Taslea. The third slave had taken sick before our departure from the city gates and rode within the wagon tended by the other two. None with the caravan noted that she was an arrogant, striking blond, unaccustomed to the collar.
We kept apart from the others. When questions were raised it was explained that this was my first command as Leader of Ten and I intended to assure my wagon success. Few questioned the response, though many were amused that I took my duties so seriously.
I was called Tabuk by my men.
###
Days earlier Lonnan had led our stalwart band swiftly through the meandering back streets of Taslea to the Great House of Rahdon shortly after I had fled the House of Khonos, the Lady Shelba running naked before me. A detail of Rahdon Sekers had been placed in ambush outside the exit we had taken in our hasty retreat. They were to delay any party of Khonos Sekers dispatched to recover the Lady.
As we ran, Lonnan told me how the Lady Shelba had been kidnaped. Incredible as it seemed, a small band of men had gained entry to the Great House of Rahdon, probably the ones we had seen, and seized her sleeping in her chambers. It was amazing that entry had been gained by our enemies. Even without tunics the Khonos Sekers should never have managed it. Two Rahdon Sekers had been slain at the entrance and two more were found dead beside the doorway to the Lady’s chambers.
Fastidian, the Commander of One Hundred in charge of the guards, had been placed in the Rahdon dungeon as a traitor. The manner in which the Sekers had been slain and the ease with which the abduction had occurred, all pointed to inside involvement probably by someone of rank. Lonnan knew the imprisoned Commander of One Hundred well.
“I cannot believe it of him, Hunter,” he said as we ran. “He is loyal and would lay down his life rather than betray our Urak. We were promoted nearly at the same time and have been close friends for many years. If there is a traitor, and I fear there must be, than it was someone of rank all right but not Fastidian. Not him.”
I told Lonnan what Zagos had said before ordering my imprisonment with the lover of men, deep in the bowels of the House of Khonos. He had clearly implied that he had sources of information within our House.
“That only makes me more certain a traitor exists,” Lonnan remarked. “The guards were slain with their weapons sheathed. They would only have left their steel unexposed for a friend or for one of superior rank.”
No sooner had we arrived at the Great House of Rahdon than once again the Lady Shelba demanded my imprisonment. Her contorted and reddened face was in sharp contrast to her usual composed, placid appearance.
“But Lady Shelba,” Lonnan explained patiently, “this man saved your life at great risk to his own.”
“But of course he did!” she snapped now thoroughly enraged. “Am I not after all the last unmarried daughter of Urak Rahdon? It was this man’s duty to save me. He deserves no special consideration. He is paid to do what he did as one pays for wine to obtain the use of a slave girl.” Rather a coarse comment for a Lady, I thought. “He touched me,” she screamed, her lovely face livid in a spasm of hot anger. The accusation that I had touched her was not, strictly speaking, true. It had been my blade which touched her but I could think of no advantage in correcting her.
“He saw me without clothing and he refused to allow me to dress,” she continued. “He hit me, more than once.” She turned and glared at me savagely with her little fists in tight balls planted on her shapely hips. “I demand his imprisonment!”
“I am not yours to command in this matter, Lady Shelba. Only my officer, the First Officer or the Urak Rahdon can order me to imprison a Seker. You cannot.”
“But you can imprison him on your own for the acts I have described!” she shouted.
“Yes, that is true, I could, but I will not,” Lonnan declared firmly. The Lady Shelba stalked off, a detail of men scurrying to catch up with her.
Shortly thereafter I was informed that Urak Rahdon would see me. I stripped my
soiled cloths from me, splashed myself in cold water and toweled dry. I was putting on a fresh tunic and sandal- boots when a detail of Sekers arrived to escort me to the private chambers of Urak Rahdon.
###
The old man was tired and distracted as I entered. I thought he had aged since our first meeting. This night he looked frail as well as old. Gazing upon him I recalled Lonnan’s words and feared for the Great House of Rahdon. Beset by enemies without and traitors within, the triumph of Zagos could be but a question of time.
“Once again it seems, I am in your debt, Seker Hunter,” he began, his voice as weak as he looked. “It was a fortunate day for my family when I freed you. Tell me how you came to rescue my daughter.” He looked up from his desk as though he were carrying a weight with his eyes.
I told my story, omitting no detail. At first his interest was keen but in a short while he drifted off into his own thoughts. When I finished, he remained silent and I believed he had not heard most of my story.
“Interesting, most interesting,” he said at last. “Goods cannot properly express my gratitude but please accept what you find in your new quarters as a small demonstration of my appreciation. You are now promoted to Commander of One Hundred, although of course actual command must wait until we see if you can lead as well as you fight. Let me see, there is something else. Oh yes.” He pulled the cord beside him.
Shortly the Lady Shelba now properly clothed entered, her face bright with anger and her usually blue eyes, a deep green.
“Father, why have y
ou not ...,” she began rather loudly.
“Silence!” the Urak Rahdon I had glimpsed of once before had returned for the
moment at least. “I have already heard your complaints against this man who has twice saved your life. Your inability to place yourself in his debt only reinforces what I have seen in you for some time now. You are a selfish, arrogant little girl and if you were smaller I would take you over my knee. I believe I shall select your future husband by his willingness to discipline your excesses in just that manner.”
The Lady Shelba started at his words but said nothing.
“I will not punish him, daughter. I have in fact rewarded him by gifts and promotion. Further, I now charge him with your personal safety. Henceforth, he shall protect you.”
“I refuse! I will not be...”
“Silence! Speak again and I will have this man bind and gag you.” Shelba shuttered involuntarily and took a step from me. Apparently my actions thus far had left an impression with her. I thought my Urak smiled a bit.
“I have a plan to assure your safety until matters here in Taslea are resolved,” the Urak continued, looking very haggard.
Carefully, Urak Rahdon explained that his daughter, disguised as a slave, protected by me and ten Sekers of the House of Rorkan would join a caravan the following morning bound for Lathanah. A letter arranging her stay for the winter with trusted allies accompanied us. The wagon was sponsored by the House of Rorkan whose head was a friend and willing to be of service. I would appear to be in his employ or more specifically in the employ of the merchant on the journey known to be sponsored by the House of Rorkan. Sekers from the Great House of Rahdon would call attention to us.
The Lady Shelba made no attempt to express her disapproval further. She was content to glare at me and hold her tongue. Most wisely, I thought.
Hunter: Warrior of Doridia (The Saga of Jon Hunter Book 1) Page 10