Pell shrugged with a sly grin, “We already remember a word for every word you know. Remembering symbols for them shouldn’t be that much harder. Besides, maybe you could leave important messages even if you didn’t have symbols for all the words.” He grinned at Gia, “Since Hargis already came up with symbols for rivers and falls, maybe he could help you come up with symbols for other important things. Then you could teach the symbols to the rest of us.”
Gia rolled her eyes…
It was late afternoon when they reached the top of a steep and somewhat barren slope. Zema’d been leading and he paused. After a moment, he said sorrowfully, “This hill brings back bad memories.” With a sigh, he continued, “You can see the village down there. It’s on our side of the river and a little way back from both the shore of the river and the shore of the sea.”
As Zema described it, Pell lifted his far-seer to his eye. He was able to see the regular shapes of some grass thatched huts at the location Zema’d designated.
“They get their water from the river,” Zema continued, “but do most of their fishing in the sea itself.”
“They wade out into the sea to spear fish?” Nolo asked, sounding surprised. “I thought there were supposed to be some kind of monsters in the sea. Ones big enough to eat people.”
Zema nodded. “There are huge fish out in the salt water that the sea people call sharks. But, the river also has its own monster, a creature like an enormous lizard that the sea people call a crocodile. The crocodiles live in fresh water or in the water at the mouth of the river that’s only a little bit salty.” He glanced at Nolo, “You probably have some small crocodiles all the way up at River Falls. They usually aren’t big enough to eat a person, so you don’t worry about them. Anyway, the sea people are afraid of sharks, but sharks don’t come into really shallow water. So the sea people will wade out knee deep to try to spear fish. However, many of the fish they get are ones they catch on long cords with a pieces of sharp bone tied to the ends of them. They bait the bone with a bit of meat and the fish eats it. Then they pull the fish out of the water on the end of the cord.”
“Don’t the fish bite through the cord?”
Zema nodded again, “It’s a problem.” He sighed, “But it’s not our problem.” He pointed to the right, “The northern part of the shore’s rocky. That’s where they have their slaves collect the salt they use for trade. The sea water splashes up into little pools. When the pools dry up, the salt stays behind.” He pointed just ahead of them, “This steep slope we’re about to go down is a big part of how they catch most of the slaves who try to escape. It’s a long hard climb and, because there isn’t much vegetation, the sea people can see you from a long way away.” He glanced around the group, “It’s also how they’re probably going to know we’re coming, long before we get there. They may try to set up a trap for us.”
With those foreboding words, Zema started down the steep slope. The rest of the group followed behind him, looking over the land in front of them and trying to commit it to memory. Pell said, “It sounds like you’re saying it may be dangerous to just follow the main trail into the village? If they might set up an ambush, I mean.”
Zema nodded.
“Maybe when we get to the bottom of the steep section, we could turn off to the right of the trail. If we looped around far enough, we could approach the village from the north where they won’t be expecting us.”
Zema turned towards Pell with lifted eyebrows, “That’s a good idea. We might loop around far enough that we come in over the rocky shore where they send slaves to collect salt.” He turned to look speculatively out over the landscape below them, “If we found a slave there, she’d be able to tell us how many slaves they have. And, how many hunters there are nowadays.”
Pell had pictured a long push through the brush toward the north. Instead, shortly after they reached the bottom of the big hill, they came to a path that was going about the right direction. They followed it for quite a while before it met other paths. However, once it did Zema said he knew where they were and was able to direct them in following paths that would take them to the northern end of the shore where salt was collected.
***
Valri was scraping salt crystals when Quen suddenly lifted her head, “Uh-oh. Strangers.”
Valri saw Quen was looking to the north and turned to look that way herself.
She saw a group of people coming toward them. She didn’t know how many because some were in front of others. Ominously, they were carrying spears and looked like they had travel packs on their backs. To Quen she said, “Do you think they’re just hunting? Or could they have come to raid?” Her heart beat faster at the thought that they might be here to free the slaves. Or, they could be even worse than the sea people; come to steal some of the sea people’s slaves. Maybe to take a few of the sea people as slaves themselves.
Tremulously, Quen said, “If there’s going to be a fight, this’d be a good time to try to escape.” She got up and, keeping low, scurried like a crab toward the scrub vegetation.
Saying, “But we’re not strong enough yet!” Valri nonetheless scuttled after her. Her ankles and stomach weren’t as swollen as they had been, but her strength definitely wasn’t back to normal either. “Besides, how’re we going to find Karteri?”
“This may be the best chance we ever get,” Quen said as she reached the path into the scrub and started to run, still bent over. “I love Karteri, but if she got a good chance to escape, I wouldn’t expect her to worry about me.”
“Can we at least take a path that goes along the edge of the woods?” Valri took a couple of breaths, “Maybe we’ll see her carrying some firewood and we could take her with us.”
“I can’t run much further, look for a place to hide,” Quen gasped.
“Hide?” Valri said, also short of breath but still wondering why. Shouldn’t we be trying to get as far as we can?
She didn’t get a chance to ask though. Quen suddenly slowed, turned and pushed her way into the bushes on the right. Valri followed. When she closed up behind Quen, she realized the other woman was so weak the short run had left her gasping for breath. They pushed through far enough they could no longer see the path, then Quen collapsed to the ground and lay panting, mouth open wide as if she were trying to do it quietly. Valri did the same. When she got her breath back, she whispered, “You think they’re here to steal slaves, don’t you? That’s why we have to avoid them.”
Quen nodded slowly. “And new masters are the worst,” she said with some vehemence.
Valri wasn’t sure how Quen would know that, but perhaps she’d had such an experience before the sea people had captured Valri. “Now that we have our breath back, shouldn’t we try to keep moving?”
Quen put a finger on her lips, then touched her ear.
Frozen, Valri listened carefully. She could hear voices. They seemed to be getting nearer. She wanted to ask Quen if she thought the newcomers were following them, but when she turned to do so Quen shook her head, finger still on her lips.
Valri resumed listening. The voices were intermittent, but as Valri continued listening, she thought they were getting closer and closer. Go on by, she thought at them, invoking the river’s spirit.
Then she heard a rustling. They’re pushing through the bushes on our trail, she thought despairingly. She turned her eyes back over her shoulder wondering how they’d known where she and Quen had gone.
After what seemed like forever, and yet no time at all, an older man pushed through the brush and gave them a tentative smile. Valri had been expecting a cruel smile like she’d have gotten from one of the men of the sea people, but this man’s smile seemed genuine. Speaking softly, the man said, “Are you some of the sea people’s slaves?”
Valri nodded and assumed Quen was doing the same.
The man smiled again, gently this time, “We’ve come to try to set you free.”
Valri’s heart leapt.
Despite some trepidation
that the stranger might be lying to them to gain their cooperation, Valri and Quen followed the man back out to the path. Just as they reached the path, Valri said, “How did you know where we were?”
A tall, handsome young man with long ropy muscles stood in the path. He said, “Yadin’s an amazing tracker. He can follow you by the occasional broken twigs and torn leaves you leave behind when you’re pushing through the brush.”
Then, with a shout of, “Valri!” a woman who’d been standing on the path tackled Valri.
The woman clung so tightly to Valri, she had to pull her head back to see who it was. “Gia!” She exclaimed in astonishment. Valri looked around, expecting to see the rest of the people from Aganstribe, but only saw two, “Manute! Hargis!” Her eyes searched the others then came back to Gia. “Is everyone else okay?” she asked hopefully.
Gia’s face crumpled, “No…” She hesitated as if not wanting to say, or needing time to think. She cleared her throat and continued, “Well, we don’t know for sure. But so far we only know of eight people from Aganstribe that survived, besides you.”
With desperate hope, Valri said, “My mother? My brother?”
Gia’s eyes welled with tears as she shook her head.
Valri’s world imploded.
She distantly felt herself sinking to the ground; her ears ringing.
Valri wakened to a rhythmic surging motion and gradually realized someone was carrying her. When she turned her head and opened her eyes she found herself looking up into the face of the tall, handsome young man she’d first seen on the path. His eyes were sharply alert, searching ahead, presumably for danger. At her movement, he looked down at her questioningly. “I’m so sorry about your family. Are you feeling better?”
Valri nodded, “You can put me down. I can walk.”
With a nod, he gently lowered her to the ground. When he did so, she faced backwards for a moment and saw Quen and Gia right behind her. With big eyes, Quen said, “Sorry about your mother and brother.”
For a moment the world crashed in and threatened to overwhelm her again, but then Valri gathered her resolve and stood up straight. Everyone had stopped while the young man set her back on her feet, so, trying to focus on something besides the loss of her family, she said, “I’ll have to mourn later. Where are we going?”
Quen replied, “I told them Karteri was looking for deadfall. We’re going to try to find her.”
Gia said, “Quen says the three of you are all the slaves the sea people have at present?”
Valri nodded, “We can keep walking.” Before she turned forward to continue on she counted the men behind her, and once she’d turned to the front she counted how many were there as well. Eight. That doesn’t seem like enough to fight the sea people. Then, admiring the muscular back of the tall young man who’d been carrying her, she thought, Though, if they were all like this one, maybe it would be.
Gia said, “Quen says she doesn’t know the counting words, so she isn’t sure how many hunters the sea people have. Have you counted them?”
“Nine mature men,” Valri said, “and five young ones. So, fourteen. Are these eight all you’ve got?”
Gia nodded, “It’d be good if we didn’t even encounter the sea people. Do you know how we could avoid them?”
Valri shook her head, feeling more despair adding itself to the loss of her family. Come on! she thought angrily to herself. We’ve been saying we’d rather die than stay here. Surely our chances of escape are better with these people helping than they would’ve been trying to run away by ourselves. She was struck by a sudden thought, “What if… What if we can’t find Karteri right away?”
“We’ll just have to keep looking.”
If you keep looking, Valri thought, despite her relief on hearing they intended to find Karteri at any cost, you’re bound to run into the sea people’s hunters at some point.
As they walked, Gia introduced her and Quen to the men. Then the tall brush they’d been walking through abruptly fell away and everyone paused. Valri looked out over the low scrub ahead of them and saw the verge of the forest where Karteri’d been going to look for deadfall. She saw the older man, Yadin—the one who’d been called a tracker—was pointing. She followed his finger and, with a burst of relief, she saw Karteri carrying an arm full of deadfall.
Yadin turned to Valri and quietly said, “Can you lead the way to her so she won’t run away like you and Quen did?”
Valri felt a surge of panic come over her. Despite her worry about the discrepancy in the number of hunters, she’d been feeling safer in the company of these people than she had been since she’d been captured. She stifled her panic with the realization that if Karteri ran away and hid it would drag things out and make it much more dangerous for all of them. “Sure,” she said, stepping bravely out into the low scrub and heading toward her friend.
Valri’d crossed about half the distance to where Karteri was walking when Karteri looked over and saw her. Karteri’s eyes widened and she said with alarm, “There’re strangers behind you!”
Valri smiled as she kept walking, “I know. They’ve come to rescue us.” She turned and waved them onward.
Suddenly there was a shout from south of them. “Slaves! Come!”
Valri and Karteri looked. It was the chief’s son Urdan, impatiently beckoning them toward him. He probably wants sex again, Valri thought. She turned to see how their rescuers were reacting. With relief, she saw the tall Pell trotting out toward her. The rest of the men weren’t far behind. Valri looked back at Urdan. He’d obviously seen the newcomers as she saw him disappearing down the path toward the village. She turned to her rescuers and called out, “He’s gone to warn the hunters. We should go as fast as we can.”
Karteri said quietly, “Are you sure we should trust these people?”
Valri turned to give Karteri a smile, “Gia and Manute are with them.” Karteri’s eyes widened, but then Pell reached them. He said, “Okay, let’s go. Do you know the shortest path to get us back up the river?”
Valri said, “I think so, but the sea people never let us go far that direction. I can’t be sure.”
Pell gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder and said, “Just do the best you can.”
Valri turned and started trotting south toward the path Urdan’d been on, though she angled toward the eastern end of it where it turned southeast toward the river.
They hadn’t gone far before Valri’s strength waned and she found herself struggling to run. She’d slowed to a shuffle when Yadin appeared beside her without his pack and spears, “Here,” he said, “climb on my back. We’ll make better time.”
Valri wanted to protest, but realized that, if he thought she was slowing them down enough he was willing to throw away his gear, she shouldn’t reject his sacrifice. Once she’d gotten onto his back and her gasping breathing had slowed, she looked back over her shoulder and saw Karteri on Pell’s back and Quen on Manute’s back. With some relief, she realized that three of the other men were carrying two packs. They haven’t given up their gear after all.
After she’d ridden some distance on Yadin’s back, she said, “I feel stronger again. Let me down and I’ll run as far as I can.”
They continued in this fashion, with the former slaves running until they were exhausted, then riding on the men’s backs. The man alternated who was carrying a freed slave during the changeovers. Valri didn’t think they were making good time, but it was better time than they would’ve been if she, Quen, and Karteri were on their own feet.
Then the path they were following came out on to the main path along the river. As they turned to start up the steep slope, they heard shouts behind them.
Valri looked back and knew despair. A quick count told her there were sixteen of the sea people men back there, though two of them were obviously boys barely verging into adolescence. Still, with sixteen against eight, it seemed helpless. Yadin set her on her feet without saying anything. Valri saw Karteri and Quen being settl
ed to their feet as well.
Pell turned to Yadin and said, “What should we do?”
Yadin glanced up the mountain, then back at the sea people’s hunters. “I think we should keep climbing up the slope until they get closer. Our spears will reach farther thrown downhill.”
Pell said, “Okay.” He turned to the three erstwhile slaves and said, “Climb the mountain as fast as you can. We’ll be right behind you.”
Wondering whether the older wiser looking Yadin was the chief or whether it was the younger stronger looking Pell, Valri turned and started up the mountain. The man they called Woday moved up front with them and took turns helping each of them walk faster by pulling one of their hands onto his shoulder so he could tug them up the slope.
Valri looked back and saw the sea people’s hunters jogging to catch up. They’d already gotten significantly closer. There were so many of them she began to get a despairing feeling that her decision to die rather than remain a slave had turned out to simply be a decision to die.
She glanced around at her rescuers and saw with surprise that they didn’t look particularly panicked. Even more unexpected, they’d all slung the heavy spears that’d been doubling as walking sticks. Instead, they’d each pulled out a couple of the long slender spears that’d been on their backs. Distantly, she noticed that the little spears were actually decorated with feathers. What are they doing? she wondered, deciding it was even more hopeless than she’d thought. Even barely coming into womanhood, she knew heavy hunting spears were what men used to fight. They might have ornamental spears they used for ceremonies, but no man decorated spears they actually used to hunt or fight.
Then Pell slung off his backpack and said, “Okay, stop.” The rest of the men dropped their backpacks as well. Pell turned to Valri and Karteri, “Which are the worst of them?”
Valri blinked, Worst in what way? she wondered.
Quen was the one who answered. “Radan!” She hissed in disgust. Then after a beat, “And his son, Urdan. They’re both horrible people.”
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