by Nelson, J P
Stagus had become quiet during the description, but his eyebrow gave a rise at the mention of my momma’s name. “You mean the elf minstrel you keep on the plantation?” He tilted his head in a slightly perplexed manner, “Didn’t she just give birth within the past week”
Herrol’s reply was short and to the point, as if he didn’t want to discuss the issue, “That is correct, now …”
“Elves don’t breed that quickly.” With Herrol momentary off track Stagus seized the moment, glanced at me quickly and added with a curious and crooked smile, “This boy can’t be more than twenty-two or three, twenty-four at most …” He lingered the phrase just long enough for Herrol to begin a comeback, “I expected him to be out of the other elvin bitch you have …”
He was pacing and lingering again just long enough for Herrol to begin opening his mouth, then answered his own question as if he had been suddenly enlightened, “… Kalisha, I believe her name to be?” Stagus poised his head inquiringly.
Stalled and irritated, but as yet unflustered, Herrol paused a moment and replied, “Kalisha was infertile, and has been deceased for the better part of a year.”
“I see,” replied Stagus, as he momentarily returned his attention to me.
With an almost casually conversational tone Stagus commented, “I have a wizard acquaintance who says one of your people approached him, oh, four or five years ago. Something about enhancing breeding cycles of some species or another.” Stagus again gave Herrol a crooked smile, “You wouldn’t be trying some of that ancient science of your ancestors, improving your family’s unusual constitution and longevity with old elvin blood, would you? You didn’t kill Kalisha by … trying to magically induce her into pregnancy?”
They were talking around me as if I wasn’t even there, as if I was an animal. To them, I must have been, but for me it was humiliating. Furthermore, I was hearing about family I never knew I had in the most derogatory way. And now I was learning my sister may have died because of some kind of experimentation.
When Herrol didn’t answer, Stagus added with a direct tone of challenge, “Did your man tell my wizard you wanted to create a master race?”
Herrol’s tone was level and he let no facial expression show, “Would you like to continue doing business within our Province, let alone Gevard, Stagus?”
Failing to shake the Lord’s countenance, Stagus seemingly thought it over while casually picking up a stick and chewing his lip. Then he answered with a wrinkle of his brow, raise of an eyelid and a sly grin, “Of course.”
As if nothing else had been said, Stagus looked at me again with a carefully appraising eye and continued walking around me. With the stick he probed my stomach, leg and arm muscles … I guess to see how firm they were.
“He had a twin didn’t he? A second born that got sold. I heard tell of it.”
My prospective buyer was looking right at me when he asked the question. I will still in shock at having just learned the fact myself, and it must have shown on my face.
“Well, I’ll be damned!” Stagus chuckled. He looked up at Herrol, “He didn’t know did he?”
“Apparently not.” Herrol glanced only for a moment at me, and then returned his full attention to Stagus.
“I’ll give you an even seven Kales, Dahruban pressed Kales, for him as is,” Stagus offered.
Herrol did not seem tempted and turned, indicating Stagus to follow him, “We will discuss price, terms and potential future business in the house over tea.”
With a hint of humor and hands clasped behind his back, Stagus stepped around me and made to follow.
As they were walking away Herrol stopped and instructed Lexin, “Clothe him. I won’t have anyone leaving the estate in a vulgar state of adornment.” He turned to Stagus, “What you do once you leave sight of our premises is up to you.” Almost with an afterthought he said to the guardsmen, “And be careful, he bites.” With a wry look on his face he passed a glance at Lexin and added, “He bites hard.”
It was then I noticed Lexin had a bandage around his neck and his right arm in a sling.
They were several paces away when Stagus offhandedly asked, “There was another child, wasn’t there, a long time ago?”
Herrol came to a stop, turned and faced Stagus who seemed to be smiling.
Also stopping and looking up into the eyes of Herrol, Stagus continued, “A girl child, a girl child who was stolen away by one of your own slaves and escaped.” Stagus paused long enough to see if Herrol would comment, and then added, “Her name was U’Lahna, I believe.”
As two warriors challenging each other, armed with wit rather than weapons of steel, these two met the eyes of each other unwaveringly. Herrol then said in a smoothly controlled voice, “Make your point.”
Taking a moment, Stagus seemed to pick at something in his teeth, then in a somewhat arrogant voice he continued, “Far to the north, next to the Kohnarahs Bay in ice country, there is a rather prominent elvin cleric, or Druid, or whatever,” he waved his hand callously, “whose name is U’Lahna. She is about the right age, one hundred years or so, give or take a decade.” He still had that evil, challenging smile on his face as he flicked whatever he had picked from his teeth off of his finger.
Herrol asked, “Do you enjoy your vocation?”
Partially taken aback, then mildly scowling Stagus answered, “Yes …” lingering his answer he continued, “I do.”
“Are you good at it?” Herrol asked without raising his tone.
“I like to think so, yes. Why?”
“Because, Stagus, I also like my profession, and I know I am good at it. Very good, in fact, at the profession of war.” For the first time I saw a hint of a smile on Herrol’s face in his communication with Stagus.
Continuing his locked eye contact with Stagus, Herrol added, “You have a standard compliment of one hundred and fifty-eight guards and hunters scattered among three camps, and between seventy-five to eighty slaves divided among those camps at any given time. Although partially funded by business parties in Dahruban, Charlamae and Malone, most of your operation is funded through your own resources. And you have zero military support from anyone; you are in effect, self-reliant and at a minimum three days hard ride from any vestige of reinforcements. Is my summation about accurate?”
Stagus was speechless for a moment, and then seemed to smile in genuine good humor.
Herrol returned the smile with a cold demeanor and casually added, “I have also heard of the incident in Ersyde … you fought ten ruffians and killed three using your fists … and why, because one of them mistook you for someone else, and even apologized?” With that Herrol casually turned to go to the main house as he lifted and waved his left hand. A half-dozen men walked from behind buildings, trees and shrubs, all carrying readied crossbows. With a quiet and now cautious demeanor, Stagus glanced around and quietly followed Herrol inside.
Numb and in a state of emotional shock I was still rolling the thoughts in my mind, “I have a sister. I have a sister and a twin brother, and I had never been told? And there was another sister who was already dead.” For the first time I could remember, I felt a twinge of anger at my momma. Why would she have not shared that with me? The thought that I may have family bit deep into the core of my being.
Did my momma choose me over my twin? I could not fathom my momma choosing one child over another. What happened to my twin? I wondered what he looked like. Well, like me, of course. We were twins. But was his hair long? How did he dress? Did he like wild cherry tarts, or had he ever had one?
And U’Lahna, what was her life like? Did she look like momma? Where was she? Was the U’Lahna from up north the sister who had been kidnapped? And why had she been kidnapped in the first place?
I began to burn with even more emotional fuel. These people would pay. Somehow, I would find a way. It would become my purpose in life. How I did not know, but I would make it happen. And when I did ……
With those thoughts in my mind and no an
swers to bear, I was sold like a common farm animal. Sold and taken from the only home I had ever known.
Chapter 10
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WHAT DEAL STAGUS and Herrol agreed upon I never knew. Nor did it matter. I was loaded into a caged wagon dressed only in threadbare, cotton pants and tunic. But it was a lot better than what I had been wearing previously. On my wrists were a newly forged set of manacles with a chain connecting to the tailgate door. A neatly paired team of bay horses pulled the wagon, as I remember. In time it would become apparent that Stagus was very particular about everything he did. He liked things neat, in order and everything about him had to be just so-so.
Right before leaving, Stagus came around to the side of the wagon and gave me another inspection. “They called you Komain, aye? That’s a slink name. You might be a slink, but now you belong to me.” There was a smug dominance in his tone, and the term slink was a degrading reference to what humans referred to as a mongrel half-breed elf-humans. “From now on you’ll go by Sedrick, had me a good mutt dog by that name once.” He rattled the cage once real hard as he turned to walk away chuckling.
As Stagus climbed onto the driver’s bench he whistled over his shoulder, the way someone would whistle for a puppy. “Here Sedrick, here boy,” he called out to me in a taunting manner. He was still chuckling as the driver snapped the lines and the wagon lurched forward.
As we left the plantation I felt numb. In my life I had never been far from the keep’s outer walls. It was eerie to watch it slowly fade away into the background. I could hear Stagus and his driver speaking humorous dialogue in another language. Nothing more was said to me.
It was the year I had turned twenty-four years old, but I was about the size of most twelve year old humans. I was still just a child.
From the plantation we rode to the nearby town of Heins. It wasn’t a large town, not much more than a hamlet. Two main streets crossed each other in the center and there were a couple of side streets. The town was shaped somewhat like a rectangle in a large open place. It didn’t register in my mind at the time, but the town had no wall. I had grown up inside the protection of perimeter walls about eighteen feet tall. There was so much I didn’t know about my world and a fear of the unknown was sweeping through me.
We didn’t enter Heins from the main street, but rode around to one of the back buildings. I saw a barn and a couple of corrals full of cattle, mules and horses. Around the barn were several wagons and there were men busy working around them.
Purchasing me must have been a last minute deal for Stagus, because he was preparing a good sized caravan to go somewhere of which I had no idea. As far as I knew, he could be taking me somewhere to sell me again.
They parked the wagon and two brawny men came over and opened the tailgate and cage door. One pulled hard on the wrist chains while the other slipped a choke collar on me before I could regain my balance. When I fought, they pulled and I choked. It was as simple as that.
Stagus spoke to them in the new tongue I didn’t understand, but by their expressions I could tell he had given them some kind of instructions. Before walking away he gave me a long appraising look. The guards then led me to a fence post and hooked my chains. Wonderful! I was sure I was about to be whipped again.
This time, however, I was thankfully wrong.
Instead they pulled up my tunic and with expert hands inspected my wounds. Then they bathed and salved them. I’ll admit I was surprised. Had I been more experienced in the ways of the world, I wouldn’t have been. Stagus was a builder, a builder of roads, to be more exact. And although he used slave labor this wasn’t considered wrong among most Aeshean peoples. In fact, he was considered a bold and brave pioneer. He would go out and build roads in the most dangerous of country.
At the time, the only real trade route from south to north was a road running parallel with the Melphashic River, and it was dangerous at best. There were those who traveled occasionally up and down the western coast of the Phabeon, but that also was a nip and tuck journey. You would find settlements here and there, and those attempting settlements. Often the country was infested with brigands, creatures of all kinds and then there were the goblinoids.
Most of Aeshea’s human civilization was in the north, some in the Phabeon Islands and the east coast was supposed to be fairly well populated. Stagus was part of a movement to open up the Sahrjiun Mountains and surrounding territories due to reports of iron and copper ore deposits, among other things. So, Stagus was in some regards considered a brave and heroic man. He was making history, or at least trying to.
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Like many other slave owners he thought of his slaves in the same context as animals. To his credit, though, he believed in taking care of his animals. It had nothing to do with affection, but of efficiency and equipment maintenance. He understood that like any other tool or beast of burden, the better you take care of it the better your performance will be.
After I was salved I was led into the barn. Inside I saw several stalls fitted with bars to be used as slave pens. Mostly there were boys anywhere from twelve to fifteen years of age. A few young men were in the mix, but there were no girls. All were human.
There was no hesitation among the guards. Instead of a cell I was taken to a side wall with a hitch ring and secured there. Then one of them brought me food and water. Again, this was taking me by surprise. I noticed that the plate was clean and the water clear. The food was a stew rich in meat, vegetables, onions and potatoes. I hadn’t eaten this good since being separated from my momma. Nor was the guard insolent. He was treating me like a good groom would treat a horse in a stable.
The other slaves watched me and one tried to speak to me in yet another tongue I didn’t know. Through song and poem my momma had taught me perhaps a dozen or more languages, yet I could understand nothing being said around me. What was the use of all that stuff I had learned?
I sat back and got comfortable and tried to rest. At one point I awakened to see a rat looking at me through the hay. The rat must have weighed fifteen or twenty pounds, but it wasn’t being aggressive in any way. It was just staring at me and twitching his nose and only I seemed to notice. I couldn’t help wondering if I was in his spot.
Some guards came in and started feeding the slaves and I got another good meal. As soon as the food cart came in the rat ducked out. Through all that had happened I couldn’t help but be amused at how funny the rat looked as it darted back into the hay. For a hint of a moment I almost smiled. Instantly I felt guilty and ashamed. My momma had been killed. I had been beaten and sold. I had learned of family I didn’t know I had. Now I was on my way to who knows where. I swore I would never smile or laugh again. A huge part of me wanted to buckle under and weep like a small child. I kept it bottled up, though. From now on I would let myself feel nothing, nothing at all, never again.
Wait. I would let myself feel one thing. I would let myself hate. I could and would hate humans. I would hate the elves who allowed all of this to happen, who let my momma be taken and defiled as a slave to humans and give birth to me. Life was not fair, I decided. Life was worthless and I wanted out, but what to do?
The next morning we were fed and my back cleaned and salved once more. Then we were taken outside and loaded into six of the wagons. There were six slaves in each of the wagons, except for mine which held seven. My addition would take up a little more space, making me unpopular to begin with. That brought the total number of slaves to thirty-seven.
Most of the other wagons were filled with supplies, and there were thirteen of them. Stagus’s personal wagon and two more made a wagon train of twenty-two wagons in all. Most of these were pulled by oxen; a couple were pulled by mules.
Stagus’s wagon was pulled by a team of six of the most beautiful bay horses I had ever seen, not to mention the biggest. And all six horses had these bushy hairs all around their feet. I would learn these were called feathers, although they didn’t look muc
h like feathers to me. When the horses moved the feathers would move so that it seemed the horses were almost dancing. They were called Clydesdales and one of the oldest breeds in the world.
Several mounted guardsmen were part of the team, armed with crossbows, swords and leather armor. Once everything and everyone was loaded we set off to travel to … well, I had no idea. The whole town, such as it was, turned out to see us go. It wasn’t on my mind at the time, but I am sure it made quite a spectacle for these folks to see.
The reins snapped and the wagon wheels started rolling, thus beginning a long journey that was to last for quite a while.
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Heins was located in the southern county of the Fel’Caden Providence, which was in the north-east part of Gevard, in turn placing us just west of the highest peaks of the Sahrjiun Mountains. In short, we were in the middle of nowhere with the closest real settlement being the Stonebridge Citadel. The Citadel was south and east by several days of good riding.
We headed out to the south, skirted Gevard, then turned south and west to hit the Saudjumae Trail. This trail was not in the best of condition due to much rain, but we held true until finally reaching the Norder-Sau Trade Route … Norder-Sau … this is what humans call a name. The origin came from true lack of imagination and was a hybrid combination of Northern and Southern, eventually condensed to Norder-Sau. This was the famous-infamous thousand mile and more long road from Shudoquar, in the north, to Port N’Ville, in the south. That is, if you made it that far.
You would think such an important road would be guarded, or at least maintained. Not hardly. Often it barely resembled a road at all. Twice, from the merger of the Saudjumae into the Norder-Sau, until we reached the cutoff to head south by east around the Jutte Range, we were attacked by brigands. I got to see Stagus’s men in action, though, and they were handy. We lost three slaves and two guards were wounded between both skirmishes. Considering the times, that was actually pretty good. I had heard of entire caravans getting wiped out on that road, and here and there you could see the remains of wagons.