"Well, I'm awake now!" he snarled. Suddenly oblivious to the elements, he charged out into the storm, heading for the spot where he had glimpsed the gray man.
Lightning crackled across the sky, but nothing illuminated the figure. Kaz moved swiftly, fearing not only that he might lose his quarry in the dark, but also that he might have imagined everything in the first place. His axe remained behind, but the minotaur did not worry; Honor's Face would be in his grip when he needed it.
Thunder rolled. The rain worsened, slowing Kaz. He peered through the storm. Kaz wondered if the gray man, despite not wearing either the red, black, or white robes of the calling, was indeed a mage; he certainly had the look of one. Something about him was familiar, too, and not just from the dream. It had to do with Huma of the Lance, of that he felt certain, though in all honesty he could not have said why.
Another brilliant bolt lit up the area, revealing to Kaz a form huddled near where he had last seen the gray man. Despite being drenched, the minotaur allowed himself a toothy grin. He had the elusive figure at last.
"Get up!" he roared as he neared the dark, huddled mass. "Get up! You've got some things to answer to!"
Lightning flashed again and, for the first time, Kaz saw that the figure before him was not the man in gray.
It was Delbin… and he was bleeding.
Chapter 5
The Minotaur Kingdoms
Water splashed in Hecar's face. He flinched and coughed but could do nothing; his hands were manacled. After a few moments, though, he was able to blink his eyes clear enough to see… not that there was anything he needed to see. It was the same grimy cell and the same, squat, scarred minotaur, many years Hecar's elder, who grinned down at the prisoner with a mouth only half filled with teeth.
Molus, so old he was completely gray-furred, was an enthusiastic jailer, ever delighting in ways to further strip his charges of their dignity. "Time to fight again, criminal. Got a good match for you today."
Behind Molus waited four well-armed members of the State Guard. Scurn was not among them. Hecar had not seen Scurn since his arrest, though he was fairly certain the disfigured minotaur had graced the stands at least once.
Every muscle in his body ached, reminding him that at least he was still alive. By rights, he should be dead. Combats involving criminals of the state were usually balanced so that the outcome went against the convicted.
Hecar had fought two combats so far, one against two skilled warriors and the other involving a very hungry bear obviously taunted into savagery by its trainers. He had won both combats, in great part due to tricks he had learned from Kaz, but for some reason his captors were holding back the worst. He knew that many prisoners faced even greater odds. His combats were winnable, as he had proven. Hecar was no champion of the level that Kaz had once been; he was good, even better than average for his kind, but not great.
It seemed as if they were giving him a chance to live longer, and that worried him. It meant they wanted something they thought he could give them.
"Unlock those manacles," Molus commanded. As one of the guards obeyed, he added to Hecar, "Today you fight an ogre… then, if you survive. Captain Scurn wants a word with you."
Another fixed combat, this one more winnable than the others. What did they want?
I should have listened to you, Kaz. I should have listened to you-
Kaz? As the soldiers dragged him to his feet, Hecar wondered if he had stumbled on the answer. Was he somehow being given the chance to survive because of his relationship with Kaz?
Scurn might hold the answer to that, providing Hecar survived this latest combat. Perhaps today was when everything would begin to make sense. Hecar snorted, knowing that he had to triumph if only to assuage his own growing curiosity.
He almost pitied the ogre.
Kaz allowed Delbin to continue to slumber while he readied things for the journey. It was clear that he was stuck with Delbin. The wound, which had turned out to be little more than a scratch on the kender's right leg, was the result of an encounter with a far-ranging minotaur scout who had chased the kender for several miles. Of course, Delbin admitted that he had been trailing Kaz, hoping to rejoin him at some later point. Kaz surrendered himself to the fact that he would have to allow Delbin to travel with him or forever look over his shoulder for the irrepressible kender.
The storm had cleared just before sunrise, but the sky was still greatly obscured by clouds. Kaz had the horse saddled and ready by the time Delbin managed to wake. The kender rubbed his eyes, looked around in temporary confusion, then smiled at Kaz. "It's stopped raining."
"That it has. How do you feel?"
"Better."
Most kender, of course, possessed strong constitutions. Delbin seemed almost completely recovered. Kaz, who still felt some of his own aches and pains, marveled at Delbin's recuperative powers.
"Do you remember now how you found me?"
"I just knew." The kender's face was all innocence.
Kaz dropped the question. "You were supposed to go to Helati and the other minotaurs. Paladine's shield! You're likely walking into danger if you stay with me!"
Crossing his arms, Delbin, trying to look firm, replied, "I'm not going back. I want to go with you."
"Oh, you're going to come with me, all right. I don't really have a choice now. Any time wasted means Hecar might die… if he isn't dead already. You should've kept going south, but now that you're with me, understand this. Don't stray. Obey every command I give you, even if it seems demeaning or confusing. You're going to act as my slave as long as we're in the kingdoms. I'll have to treat you like one. It's your only chance of coming out of this in one living piece. You understand that, Delbin?"
The kender was undaunted. "I understand… and I'm not afraid. Not with you by me, Kaz."
Kaz released an audible sigh. "You've got too much faith in me… or did your man in gray tell you something else?"
"No, he didn't say anything else in the dream."
"Did you dream about him while you were riding south? Is that why you came back after me?"
"I only dreamt about him once." Delbin seemed sincerely perplexed.
"You didn't see him during the storm?"
"No, Kaz."
The minotaur gave up. "All right. Mount up. I'll lead the horse a little while until the trail gets better, then we'll ride together for a time. Remember what I said. We may start running across my people, especially an outland patrol or something."
"I'll do good, Kaz. You'll see."
"You'll have to."
The sky never completely cleared, but no additional rain fell. The good weather stayed with them the entire day and the next two as well, by which time they had reached the empire's southernmost border. They were fortunate, at least as far as Kaz was concerned, not to meet anyone else, but that changed as soon as the pair, both mounted, entered the first border pass. A party approached in the opposite direction. Kaz quickly made Delbin dismount. He then looped a noose he had made earlier over the kender's head, tightening it just enough for appearances.
"Looks like a patrol, Delbin. You know what we discussed. Stay quiet and act frightened and obedient. Pretend you've been walking for a while."
"Okay, Kaz." Neither the kender's giggle nor his smile bolstered Kaz's confidence.
They were spotted moments later. The other party immediately turned toward them, cutting them off. The newcomers were indeed members of a patrol, one that had been out in the wilds for some time. The leader, an elder female with two fingers missing from her right hand, called for the two to halt.
"Who're you and what are you doing coming up through this passage?"
"My name's Edder of the clan Mascun." Mascun was an obscure clan that Kaz knew about only because one of his close comrades, during the years he had fought as a slave-soldier, belonged to it. Edder had been a competent warrior whose lack of originality had finally gotten him run through by a Solamnic lancer. No one, not even a minotaur, oug
ht to stand fast when a trained knight on a war-horse came barreling toward him with a long, sturdy lance aimed for his chest. In his excitement, Edder had forgotten that critical bit of common sense.
The female seemed satisfied with his answer, but frowned at Kaz's companion. With her mutilated hand she pointed at Delbin. "And what in the name of Sargas is that thing doing with you?"
"I caught him trying to steal food from my camp. He seemed fit enough, so I made him a deal. He serves me or he dies. He's found out it's safer to serve me. It is only proper. After all, we are destined to be the masters of all soon enough, aren't we?" Kaz looked meaningfully at the others. All of them had served as slave-soldiers. Becoming masters of slaves would certainly be to their liking if they were typical of the minotaurs he recalled from his own experience.
The other minotaurs nodded or muttered agreement. The female smiled. "Before long, maybe we'll all have one of those."
"A kender? Why bother?" snorted another. "Let's just wipe 'em all out. Let's wipe out all the lesser races! All of Krynn will belong to us then! We should start with this one here. The only good kender is a dead one, eh?"
More than one member of the patrol seemed to find this an agreeable thought. Kaz decided to cut off the notion before it could gain further support. "And do you feel like cleaning the streets or dumping the refuse? Scrubbing the docks clean? Why should we do that when there are lessers to do it for us! We're meant for battle and adventure, not demeaning tasks like that! If we are to be the masters of Krynn, then we must have menials to command."
"I like the thought of a few slaves of my own," agreed the patrol leader. "I spent all my life obeying humans and ogres who I could've squeezed to death with just this hand!" She held up the three-fingered hand for him to see, grinning. "I like that thought a lot."
"And it'll be soon, won't it, Telia?" called one of her comrades.
She nodded, her attention still fixed on Kaz. "But not soon enough for me, y'know?"
Kaz grinned back. "I'd sell you this one, but I think I've got him trained real nice. Maybe on my way back out… if I'm tired of him by then." Kaz urged the horse along. "May your ancestors guide you."
To his hidden relief, Telia replied, "And yours." She shook her head. "Watch that kender, though. Give me a human slave over one of those. I wouldn't trust a mischievous kender."
"He learned what happens when he disobeys." Kaz showed them the wound on the leg. "Come along!" he snarled at Delbin. "We've got a long way to go yet." The kender, mouth clamped, hurried to keep up.
"Mind you watch yourself, Edder," the patrol leader called. "The clerics have been touchy the past few weeks. They've had the guard clamp more than a few in irons for not cooperating. Do what they say and do it fast, and maybe you'll be all right."
"My thanks." He waved, then turned so that none of them could see his face. Whispering, Kaz said to Delbin, "You'll have to hold out until we're far enough so that they won't see us. Then I'll let you ride for a while. A couple more days, though, and we'll both have to walk most of the time. The trail winds."
The kender said nothing, but nodded ever so slightly. Kaz was impressed. Delbin was clever enough to know to keep his mouth shut, and trotted alongside the horse as if he could have done so all day.
They were troubled no more that day, though at one point they did see a trio of riders heading south. Kaz studied them from hiding. While he had nurtured the wild hope that one of them might be Hecar, none of them was. The riders stayed to another trail and soon were lost from sight. Kaz let Delbin ride a little, knowing he would soon have to make the kender walk almost all the time.
On the third day in the mountains, during their midday meal, Delbin looked around at the high peaks and said, with typical kender awe, "I've never seen mountains so high, Kaz!"
"They're among the highest."
"Were there ever dragons here?"
Kaz snorted. "Oh, there were dragons here, all right! Mostly blacks, reds, and blues. This was a favored ground of theirs during the war. More to the north, though. That's where the warlord Crynus kept the bulk of his army. Now there was a true monster, worse than any dragon. Remember what I told you about him?"
As Delbin nodded, Kaz recalled the story he had related to the kender. Until his death, Crynus, a human, had been the Dark Queen's favorite commander. Under his command, her forces had brought desolation to much of the northern and eastern parts of Ansalon. If not for Huma, Gwyneth the silver dragon, and Kaz himself, Crynus likely would have crushed the knighthood and brought Ansalon under his lady's sway. Huma, though, had cleaved the warlord's head from his body in an epic combat… then had been forced to find another way to kill him when that had not proven sufficient detriment.
Kaz shuddered at the memory. It had taken a dragon's fire to finally rid Ansalon of the undying Crynus.
"Do the mountains surround the kingdoms?" asked his companion, breaking the spell of Kaz's memories.
"No, they mostly run across the western side and through much of the southern. There are breaks north of here, and to the east there are flatlands, but the journey takes much too long if we circle around to the east." He recalled something from his childhood. "They say that it was Sargas who raised the mountains right after he took the worthy ogres and turned them into minotaurs. The mountains were to protect his children while they recouped their strength and worked to assume their proper place as lords of all Krynn." Kaz thought of his years as a slave-soldier and how often in the past minotaurs had been the slaves, not the masters, of others. The mountains had not done their job very well. "Didn't protect us very well, considering he is a god, did he?"
Weather slowed them by about a day's journey, but two days later they left the mountains and entered the lands of the minotaur kingdoms. At first glance, the landscape seemed no different from where Kaz and Helati made their home. The only change was a definite hint of the sea in the air and a steady wind that seemed to blow from the east. The temperature was also slightly lower, and while this did not bother the fur-covered minotaur much, Delbin required more covering at night.
A day later, they sighted a vast city far to the east.
"What is that place?" asked the kender. He had taken to staring wide-eyed at everything, even though Kaz himself could see nothing remarkable about the area. Of course, a kender tended to find almost anything he saw new and noteworthy, even if he had seen it only a couple dozen times before.
"That's Morthosak, the seat of power in the kingdom of Kothas. Other than Nethosak, it's the greatest place in the twin kingdoms. It spreads all the way to the sea. The port is actually larger than Nethosak, but because the imperial government rules from Mithas, there's more activity up there."
"Are we going there?"
Kaz shook his head. "No, and be glad. Nethosak has its dangers, but Morthosak has a few unique to itself. We'll have enough to worry about in the capital."
Delbin could not completely hide his disappointment at not seeing the port city, but Kaz would not be swayed. He still held hope, fading, to be sure, that Hecar was alive and in one piece in Nethosak. It was still a few days there, and the journey would be further slowed by his having to pretend that his companion was a slave.
Soon the areas they traveled through grew more populated. Larger villages and towns sat nearly side by side as the pair proceeded north. Despite the numbers lost in the war, the minotaur population was by no means depleted. A race used to the rigors of constant battle generally worked to see that its losses were made up for as quickly as possible. Within two generations, the population would be almost at what it was midway through the war, when Crynus had begun recklessly pouring slave-soldiers into the forefront, not caring how he wasted them if it preserved his loyal personal cadre.
Yet, if what Kaz had heard was true, the emperor was not going to wait until his people had fully recovered.
Not all minotaurs lived to fight. It was necessary that there be food to feed the race, so Kaz was prepared for the farms that they
began to cross. Minotaur farms were not like those of other races, however, for the state controlled their use. They were lined up next to one another in uniform fashion. A director oversaw the management of each segment of the farm community. Each farm competed with another to raise the best crop, be it vegetable, fruit, or livestock. Honors and promotions were given out to those who achieved the greatest results. There were many rules of order governing how farms were to be run and what allotment of resources each was to receive. All very organized and efficient.
All very much a part of the minotaur way of life.
Delbin stared bright-eyed at everything, but few workers paid attention to him or Kaz, intent as they were on seeing to it that their farm ranked tops in their district. Corn already grew higher and larger than most Kaz had seen during his years of travel. Sheep in one sector were so large that one might have mistaken them for cattle from a distance, save for their woolen coats.
"Everything's so big, Kaz! Did you see that cow over there?"
"Quiet, Delbin!" Kaz nodded, proud despite his feelings toward those who ruled the empire. "The race is constantly in need of fuel. A healthy child becomes a mighty warrior."
The kender watched the minotaurs working in the fields. "I thought all minotaurs were fighters."
"They are. Even these, who some consider the weakest despite the fact that they keep our stomachs full while we do battle on the field. A minotaur fighter is more than equal to any human or elven fighter." If his people ever did conquer the other races, Kaz suspected that the fittest of the new slaves would be brought to the farms to work, freeing up many minotaurs. There would have to be overseers, of course, but few minotaurs would choose a life of farming over expansion of the empire.
Most of the farms were busy with fieldwork, but now and then they passed areas where the land was barren and had been abandoned. Kaz grunted when he noticed the first of these small wastelands. "The price of too much competition. They've ruined the soil." He noted other farms, lush and active. "The others had better learn from that if they hope to survive. Can't conquer a world if you can't feed your armies."
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