The carriage made its way down a small aisle cutting through the center of the camp before coming to a halt. The carriage driver hopped down and came around to the back of it, unlocking the door with his key and then motioning for Kai and Selene to hop out, which they did.
Kai’s muscles groaned slightly from the hours they’d spent without use. He looked around the slave camp, unsure of how to stand or act. He’d only had one master in all the time he’d been a slave, and Amidious had been relatively lenient when it came to his conduct.
The door flap of the largest hut brushed open, and a large, stocky man stepped out of it. His face was set into an expression of annoyance, though even if he’d been smiling, his features still would have been unenviable. He was bald and had a decent gut on him, though the scars on his face and fists suggested that he was comfortable with fighting.
The beast following him also suggested it, a large forest wolf that must have been the weight of at least two or three full grown men. Kai had seen pacters often enough in the past to understand the relationship they shared. In fact, Amidious had been one, his bound beast a small, harmless tree squirrel that he used to collect the ripest fruit from the upper branches of his orchards.
The large man slowly panned bored eyes over Kai and Selene, furrowing his brow as though already disappointed by just the sight of them. He waved the carriage driver over and held a quick, whispered conversation with the man before turning back to them.
“Well,” he said. “I would have expected Amidious to pull something like this. He always had a sense of humor, even in death.”
Kai suppressed a frown, unsure of how to react. Selene, on the other hand, immediately dropped into a humbled bow, the kind used by noblewomen, atypical for a slave.
The large man lurched forward and slapped her hard across the face in a single, sweeping movement. His forest wolf bared its teeth and let out a low growl. Kai did essentially the same thing, balling his hands into fists as anger flared in his chest.
“Don’t!” said Selene, in a worried voice. “Kai, please!”
She looked up at him, her cheek already beginning to puff up from where the man’s hand had struck her. It took all of Kai’s willpower, but he managed to hold himself back from attacking, instead helping Selene back to her feet and putting his shoulder in front of her defensively.
“My name is Terrion,” said the man. “I’m your new master. I don’t know how things were on Amidious’s estate, but I think you’ll find that they work differently here, in my slave camp.”
From the same tent Terrion had emerged from a few moments before came a woman of slender build, her straight black hair and striking eyebrows suggestive of Kronian ancestry, Faldion’s capital province. She took up a position next to Terrion, inspecting the two of them just as he had.
“The male looks to be fit to work,” said the woman. “If a bit scrawny.”
Terrion nodded.
“Yes…” said Terrion. “And the girl…”
“I’m sure that I can make use of her,” said the woman. “And I don’t mind if you have your fun.”
Terrion’s mouth turned up into a sinister smile that made Kai’s blood boil. He took a step to put himself more directly in front of Selene, but before he could do anything, make any kind of stand, two more slavers had seized her by the shoulders from behind and pulled her away from him.
“Hey!” shouted Kai. “You ripping bastards!”
Selene shot him an urgent look, one that he’d seen on her face many times before. She was telling him to keep his head down, to reel his emotions in and do whatever needed doing to get by, for both their sakes. Kai felt a sharp pain inside his chest, born not from anything physical, but from something deeper, the feeling of having emotional scar tissue poked and prodded with a knife.
“Speak out of turn again, boy,” said Terrion, “and I’ll give the girl to my men to enjoy for tonight. They could use a reward for the past few weeks of loyal service.”
Kai said nothing, and let his gaze drop down to the ground in front of the man’s feet. His face burned with unrealized anger and shame born from his helplessness over their circumstances. Surprisingly, the woman standing next to Terrion stepped forward, placing her hand gently on his shoulder.
“My name is Mariella,” she said, her lips forming a thin smile. “And you are?”
“…Malakai,” he muttered. “Kai for short. Milady.”
The woman nodded.
“Kai…” she said, her voice almost a whisper. “Can you swim?”
The question took him off guard, and he hesitated a moment before answering.
“Uh… yes,” he said. “I mean, yes, mistress, I can swim.”
Mariella looked over her shoulder and smiled at Terrion.
“Husband, I do believe you’ve found a new riverguard,” she said. “See? Asking questions, and being open to what they have to say does occasionally pays off.”
Terrion took two slow steps forward, placing himself directly in front of Kai. He made a show of cracking his knuckles, and then slammed his fist into Kai’s stomach. The wind left Kai’s lungs in a single burst, and pain spread through his gut in tight, aching pulses.
“They still need to learn the way of things, my sweet wife,” said Terrion. “Though I suppose there is something to be said for your approach.”
Terrion seized Kai by the hair and pulled his head up to face him. Kai met the man’s eyes, trying to keep the fury from his expression, trying to look meek and malleable and whatever else it would take to keep from turning him and Selene into targets of abuse.
“You’re my slave now, boy,” said Terrion. “You’ll follow my orders, and the orders of my men, without question. Understood?”
Kai nodded as much as he could with hair still gripped in the man’s fist. Terrion threw him down to the ground, and another slaver appeared next to him, removing the shackles from his legs and wrists.
“You want this one working on the dam, Master Terrion?” asked the man.
Terrion shook his head.
“No,” he said. “He’ll be the new riverguard. And bring the new girl to my tent immediately. I need to see all of what she has to offer.”
Kai lunged forward at Terrion, throwing a punch at the slaver’s face before he could stop himself. The forest wolf moved faster than he could have imagined, slamming into his chest and pinning him back down to the ground, snarling in his face with bared fangs, drops of frothy spittle dripping from its lips. Terrion let out a hearty laugh.
“So much spirit,” he said. “I’ll enjoy watching it break. You’ll be a good fit for the job I gave you, boy.”
CHAPTER 3
On closer inspection, the river camp was more complicated in operation than it had initially appeared to Kai. A small dam, more of a thin, floating wooden barrier than anything, ran across the width of the river a few hundred feet upstream from the tents. Hundreds of large trees that had likely been transported in from the fertile lands to the north were stacked into a massive wood pile nearby, and a dozen or so slaves worked at chopping them into usable pieces.
Beyond that, Kai could see several long trenches dug into the ground, leading off toward a rice and bamboo plantation a mile or so in the distance. The operation was clearly designed to siphon water off from the river for the growing of crops. He’d seen similar setups around Amidious’s estate, but never one quite like this.
For starters, the idea of using slaves to build a dam was archaic, borderline sadistic, and almost unbelievable to Kai. In most instances, the work fell to pacters with bound beasts appropriate for the job, waterhogs or river otters. It was less productive and far more dangerous to use slaves, comparable to taking a group of toddlers and training them to run an iron forge.
The grass river bank was green and healthy within a few feet of its edge. Further out from the water, the ground and foliage on it took on a dull yellowish brown color, recent droughts having sapped the vitality out of the land.
; Between that and what Kai had heard of the Pacter’s Guild running into friction with one of the newly formed Chosen alliances, the pieces fit. Terrion was using slaves to build the dam, probably because it was his only option, and possibly because he wasn’t concerned by how many lives he needed to throw at a job to get it done.
The river, even partially dammed as it was, flowed rapidly, with sections of white water and rocks punctuating the danger already posed by the common river sharks and swimmer snakes native to the freshwaters of Faldion. Kai could also see a faint misting above the water a quarter mile or so downstream from them. He stared at it for a moment, only slowly realizing what it was and what it meant.
“That’s a waterfall,” he said, looking over at the slaver guard Terrion had assigned to escort him to his work station. The man nodded and flashed a smile, revealing a couple of gaps in his teeth.
“Indeed it is,” he said. “That’s why you’ll be wearing a harness.”
He led Kai to a spot by the river where two other slaves stood on either side of the river. Both of them were sitting down, and both of them had sturdy branches in hand, each at least three manspan in length. The slaver nodded to the on their side of the river and pointed to a nearby boulder.
“Here’s your new riverguard,” said the slaver, pointing at Kai. “Make sure he understands what the job is, and the consequences of him ripping it up.”
“Aye, sir,” said the slave. The slaver lingered for a moment, as though trying to sense any deception or conspiracy in the air, and then turned and started walking back toward the camp. The slave with the long stick looked Kai up and down, spat in his hand, and then extended it out toward him.
“Name’s Yancy,” said the man.
Kai frowned at the man’s hand, and Yancy gave it an encouraging shake.
“You’ve never done a slave’s grasp before?” he asked. “What, you some kind of indoorsman?”
Kai shrugged, and imitated the gesture, spitting into his hand and matching the other man’s grip.
“Kai,” he said. “Sorry. Things were… a bit different under my old master.”
“Well, you’d better get used to how they are here, fast,” said Yancy. “You’ll end up dead if you don’t. Terrion is not against making an example, especially when it comes to fresh meat.”
Kai didn’t say anything to that. Yancy returned to his spot on the riverbank, watching the dam construction operation further upriver. Slaves took turns wading into the deep water, depositing a branch or log into the framework of the dam, all the while linking arms with several men in a chain that led back to shore.
“Shouldn’t they be wearing harnesses?” asked Kai. “It would make things simpler, wouldn’t it?”
Yancy smiled at him.
“You’re a smart one,” he said. “Hopefully not too smart for your own good.”
He gestured with his finger to a large boulder near where the two of them sat. The base of it clearly went deep underground, and around the middle a thick rope had been anchored. The rest of the length of the rope was coiled nearby, ending in a man sized, x-shaped knotted harness.
“The workers don’t get harnesses because Terrion thinks it would slow the building down,” said Yancy. “Instead, the riverguard gets a harness, and jumps in to grab anybody that gets caught by the current.”
Kai blinked, a frown spreading across his face.
“So… that’s my job?” He asked the question in a dry voice, already knowing what the answer would be. Yancy grinned at him.
“Yup. You better get that harness on. A dozen or so people slip downriver each day. You’ll be good and busy.”
Kai spent a few minutes adjusting the ropes to his shoulders. He was lankier and taller than its last occupant had apparently been, and took his time making it fit. Part of him looked forward to the chance to dip himself into the water. It would mean escaping the hot sun, at least for a few moments at a time.
He actively scanned the area around the camp for any sign of Selene. He was just far enough away to make it hard to discern the features of the slaves, but there weren’t many women in the camp, and Selene should have stood out easily. Kai felt his frustration and concern build as he looked and failed to find her, and found himself wishing that she’d have listened to him when he’d proposed the idea of escaping after Amidious’s death.
Ten minutes passed by in relatively uneventful calm and he made small talk with Yancy. A shout pulled both of their attention to the dam, where the slave who’d been placing his log had slipped on an algae covered rock and been taken by the current.
“Get ready, boy!” snapped Yancy. “Me and Dogger will try to get him with the branches, but if we can’t, you need to jump in and swim after him.”
“Got it,” said Kai.
The water hurled the man down the river faster than Kai had been expecting. It was clear from the way the slave was flailing that he had little to no experience in deep water, his head bobbing under the surface dangerously, and most of his shouts being cut off into choked gargles.
Yancy and the slave on the other side of the river stuck out their long branches, trying to give the slave something to grab onto. He got a hand on one of them, but the river shifted around a rock and knocked his grip loose. Kai moved to the edge of the riverbank and leaped into the water as the slave came within a few manspan of him, treading and keeping his head up as soon as he hit.
The slave was panicked, and his fingernails raked into Kai’s shoulder as he wrapped his arms around him. Kai shouted, trying to get him to relax, but he continued, struggling in a way that only served to make trouble for them both.
Yancy moved to the rope, grabbing it and pulling backward before it’d reached its full length. Kai kicked with his legs, moving them through the water and onto the surface of the riverbank. He let out a sigh of relief as soon as the two of them were safe.
“Ripping hell, boy,” laughed Yancy. “You’re a natural. Probably a good thing if you want to stay alive here.”
Kai nodded. The man he’d saved was vomiting up water. Several slaver guards were approaching from upriver, and he took up a position next to Yancy, following the man’s example and keeping his gaze directed at the ground.
“Back to work!” snapped the lead slaver. “You’re fine. Get back in the line.”
The slave, half drowned and still coughing, slowly struggled to his feet as the slavers seized him by the elbows and began dragging him back toward the dam. Yancy waited until they all had their backs turned to him and then grimaced at Kai.
“It could be worse,” he said. “I hear some of the slaves down south serve on the frontlines, against the barbarians and horse lords.”
Kai shrugged.
“It could be better, too,” he said.
CHAPTER 4
The next few hours passed by at a slow, arduous crawl. Kai saved several more men, sustaining small scrapes and bruises from the rocks in the river in the process. There was no midday break, no lunchtime meal, as there would have been under Amidious’s patronage.
It was midafternoon when the break in the dam occurred. A young slave, nervous to the point that he must have had a phobia regarding water, attempted to slide his branch into a section of the structure that was weaker than it should have been. Several pieces of the dam broke loose immediately, and the slave boy, along with the man with his arm linked through his next to him, fell into the river, surrounded by loose pieces of timber.
“Fix it!” screamed Terrion, his voice traveling down to Kai from upriver. “And pull those slaves out from the water!”
Kai moved into the ready position and watched as Yancy did the same, extending his long branch out toward the men as they hurtled down river. Both of them were on the near side of the river, and both of them grabbed at Yancy’s branch. Kai relaxed, thinking that the situation was handled. It wasn’t until the last second that he realized just how wrong he was.
Yancy hung on for his life, but he wasn’t strong enough to haul t
he combined weight of two slaves back onto land. He staggered forward, off balance. Kai lunged for him and found only thin air as the slave tumbled forward into the river.
Immediately, Kai jumped after him, swimming down river in a desperate attempt to make up for his initial hesitation. The younger slave was screaming up a storm, the furthest downriver and clearly the one most terrified of what was coming. Yancy lagged a little behind the other two slaves, and Kai managed to reach him after a couple of seconds of hard swimming.
“Yancy!” He shouted, trying to draw the man’s attention in his direction. Yancy turned and reached out his hand, trying to keep his head above water and fight against the river’s current at the same time. Kai shot his arm out just as the rope pulled taut.
He was close enough to the edge of the waterfall to see the first two slaves disappear, dropping off into the haze of white water mist with desperate screams that faded after a half second. Kai’s hand clasped Yancy’s tight, and for a moment, he had him in his grip.
Yancy’s hand was wet, the skin underneath slick with the oily griminess that comes with going days without a proper bath. Kai felt it sliding underneath his fingers. He looked down toward Yancy, meeting the other man’s eye and seeing the fear transition into outright terror.
Yancy was saying something, but it wasn’t loud enough, and Kai couldn’t hear him. And then his hand slipped loose, his fingers still outreached toward Kai in a desperate bid to survive against the might of the river’s current. Kai watched him go over the waterfall, sliding between two large rocks jutting out above the surface of the water just before it.
“Noooo!” he screamed.
Another slave was already reeling him back in on the rope. Kai stared at the edge of the river in disbelief. Three men had just died in front him, three men that it had been his duty to save. And there was nothing he could do about it now. If he’d acted faster, understood what he was supposed to do a little better, all of them might still be alive.
Sirens of Faldion: The Final Bond Page 2