“No there isn't soldier. Leave us." Gren saluted and walked out. Sherie heard the door lock when it closed.
Wizard Phena signed the document and placed it on her desk. She stood up with her staff in one hand, and walked around Sherie and stopped at her side. She was still trying to bring her tears under control, but she watched the woman as much as she could.
“Jirai, I must warn you. This will be… uncomfortable.” Phena told her as she placed her hand lightly on the back of her neck.
Sherie tried to say something, her hands went for her weapons on reflex, but then her whole body went completely limp. The only thing that still worked was her mouth; she knew this because the scream that issued from her was like none she had ever made or heard. She could feel liquid fire running from the back of her neck along every nerve in her whole body.
It felt like her soul was being ripped from her. She was in so much pain she could not comprehend it.The blackness that followed was the greatest blessing she could have asked for.
Wednesday June 27th 1612th year of the First Great City Awakening
Sherie woke up groggily. She had a hard time even persuading her eye to open. She was so drained she felt like she didn’t have the strength to open them.
When she did, she found herself lying on a cot in a well-lit room. One wall was stone, but the others were wood. She followed an armored leg up and saw a Legionnaire attached to it. The man stood at relaxed guard at the end of her cot.
“How the hell did I end up here?” She asked the man as she pushed herself up.
“I don’t know, ma’am. All I know is that when you awaken, I am supposed to give you this.” He jingled a small pouch with what sounded like coins in it. “You will have to sign for it though.”
“Fine,” she said. That’s when it all came back to her. She sold her Father’s spirit to the Wizard. Five gold marks and… “Brina. Where is she?”
The soldier nodded his head to the cot next to her. Brina laid there, curled up under a blanket. She looked completely comfortable and healthy. She still looked pale, but healthy.
Sherie sat up and asked, “The Wizard was able to help her?”
The soldier said; “I have a note for you, too from Wizard Phena. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like for you to sign this so I can show that I gave you everything.” He handed her a board with paperwork clipped to it.
It took Sherie a few minutes to read it. After she sounded out each of the new words, it said,
“I, Jirai Sonom do hereby confirm that I received five gold marks and a personal note from Soldier Watheri.”
“I want to see the goods before I sign, sir.” Sherie was feeling a little more composed now.
“Of course,” he nodded and dumped the pouch out with the five gold marks in it, and placed the note beside them on the cot.
“I’ll need a quill,” she said. The soldier nodded to the stand sitting by her cot. It had her water and whiskey skins hanging from it, as well as her weapons belt. On top of it sat a quill and ink.
She swung her legs off the cot, got up and grabbed them irritably.
When she sat down, she checked the quill to make sure it was good. The angle was acceptable, and it still looked fairly sharp. She uncapped the inkwell and put it on the stand. After she dipped the quill she quickly scribbled her alias onto the sheet. It was starting to feel more natural and less odd to use this assumed name than it did before.
She capped the inkwell and blew on the fresh ink before she handed the board back to him. Soldier Watheri stepped towards her and took the board as well as the quill and ink. He nodded to her respectfully before he departed.
Sherie looked about the room. She could see that it was filled with cots like this. She saw a pair of soldiers by each of the doors going in and out of the room. There were other people lying on other cots, but most of them seemed to be asleep. There were a few Legion medics walking about, checking on the people here. It took her a moment to realize it, without their armor. But they still wore the crest of their profession on their breasts.
“We must be in the infirmary,” she realized.
Sherie strapped on her weapons belts and made sure her coin was where she’d left it. It was all there. Honestly, she had more money now than she’d ever had in her life.
Then she grabbed her waterskin and drank deeply before she opened the note to read it.
Sherie went through it slowly, sounding out the words she didn't know. Line by line she deciphered it until she finished.
It read; “Miss Sonom, I am sorry that the pain was so terrible, but that is normal when a spirit is taken from a person. Please forgive me. There is no way to adequately prepare someone for it. It was a good decision on your part to have me help your friend. Her intestines were severed, and she was bleeding internally. Without my help, I am certain she would have died today, but I have repaired the damage. With food and rest she should be as good as she was in a few days.
This is the end of what I consider a successful and profitable association. I hope you feel the same way.
Sincerely,
Talgris Phena” Sherie nodded to herself and looked at Brina. Yes, she was still white, but her face didn't have a pained expression on it, and she seemed relaxed. Those two things together were the clearest indicators of health Sherie could see.
Now that every immediate concern and obligation had been dealt with, Sherie began making plans.
Friday July 6th 1612th year of the First Great City Revelations
Brina had turned out to be an excellent traveling companion. Sherie had been able to teach her how to use a bow, well enough that she could reliably kill a man within six yards. Sherie had insisted that she learn while they traveled. Two women alone on the road could not afford to be sleeping at the same time. And she had to be ready to kill someone if needed.
The odd thing was she was actually quite rich now. And this was after she had bought tack and harness for two horses, taken care of Brina’s Legion medical bill, bought her new clothes, camping gear, a bow, arrows, food, more saddlebags and whiskey.
She also gave her Jona’s ax to use. An ax was much better than a sword for someone who wasn’t a skilled combatant. It was simple enough to just whack someone with the thing. She showed Brina a simple blockslash routine that should serve her well if she needed it.
She’d emphasized her learning how to shoot. “If you feather them before they can close with you, that’s the best thing,” she told Brina constantly. “Don’t wait for them to come to you, and even if they have no weapon it’s better to kill them. If they weren’t trying to hurt you, they should have stayed away when you told them to.” Sherie told her.
She bought a second bow and more arrows for Brina at the first small hold they encountered. It was another wide place in the road, similar to the small holds north of the mountain pass. This one and the next one each seemed to have between five and ten thousand residents at most. They stank like manure, had large pens of animals, and large fields of food.
The Holds were so small, every person knew they didn't live there, though the main topic of the people's discussion was Vox. When people realized they had come from the north, they asked instantly if they had heard about what happened there, and if they had any news. In fact, when they walked to the so-called "gates" of the first hold (which was little more than a ten-foot wall with a pair of stout wooden doors on it), they were ordered at arrow point to lower the hoods of their cloaks. The local House Guards told them they would kill them if they didn't.
This had surprised them both, but Sherie less than Brina. Sherie realized that these men and women were making certain that Kryss weren’t hiding under cloaks, the way they had at Vox. That made her feel better.
Sherie heard some interesting rumors in these holds. She heard that the King had sent thousands of Legionnaires to help the northernmost Holds. People said Kryss that escaped Vox were menacing them as well. They said that they had seen the Legion’s massive steamships heading th
at way, filled with soldiers. Sherie didn’t believe it at first, but there were enough people that said they’d seen them while fishing to change her mind. She figured she must have either been sleeping, or they had passed while she was in the Legion Tower. She had been there with Brina for nearly four days, after all.
There had only been one incident of note; a single tough man on the road thought that he was going to take them home and have his way with them. Sherie had taken him down easily. After they relieved him of his coin and knife, both of which she gave to Brina, they dragged him to the river and let him float away. Brina had been a bit squeamish about this at first. She had even lost her stomach until Sherie had asked her, “What, should I have let him cut you and bend you over?” That was when she saw the real understanding in Brina’s eyes. Her eyes hardened and she thanked her profusely through a veil of tears.
It was that night, by the fire, that Brina told her the story of her enslavement. After she asked Sherie first if she liked women.
“I don’t hate women in that way, but most women are just too… cuddly?” Sherie told her. “I like the way a man takes me, no offense.”
“Well, I like women, and I’m not tough like you are, and I didn’t have the money to go to an Academy,” Brina told her. “I was so scared of it all I thought the only thing I could do was to get married to some man so I wouldn’t have to go.”
“Well, that was silly. There are a lot of things you could have done in the Legion, even if you aren’t tough,” Sherie replied.
Slowly, over the next few hours, Brina told her how she had managed to do her duty as a wife for the husband her parents had arranged for her. But she had found a kindred spirit in his sister and had fallen in love with her. When her husband caught the two of them together, he went to Lord Narin and had the marriage annulled on account of her adultery.
“Adultery; the crime no man is ever charged with,” Brina said scornfully. Sherie nodded at the truth of this.
And then because the marriage had been annulled, and she was considered as never being married legally, she was in violation of Crown law. She didn’t have the money to go to the Academy, and she hadn’t joined the Legion. Lord Narin refused to allow her to join the Legion then because she was already nineteen years old. Brina suspected her husband had bribed Lord Narin somehow since he was the son of a wealthy clothing merchant.
Then she had been enslaved and sold into House Fenel's service.
There she did scullery but often found herself being taken by male Holders since she was an attractive woman. Of course, when one was a slave, such a thing wasn't considered rape. It was simple service.
Except during the one week Ground Breaking celebration each year, when slaves were free for the week of the celebration and paid for their labors.
During the most recent celebration, Brina had the satisfaction of being able to bring charges against the most brutal of her rapists.
She told Sherie, “I was so scared, they brought me before Lord Fenel himself to speak. When I was done, the Wizard that was there told him I spoke truly. The Next day, I was brought by carriage to witness the execution.”
Sherie was astounded by this,“They actually executed a man for rape?” She had never heard of that happening before.
Brina simply nodded and said, “Lord Fenel said this, I’ll never forget it for the rest of my life. “I am responsible for every person in this Hold. Even if they are not my children, they are the children of my Holders, or in your case, my own property which I will not see violated.”
Sherie nodded introspectively. “I can understand why everyone would mourn a man like that now.”
“I’ve never seen so much blood. I lost my stomach then, too.” Brina admitted sheepishly.
“How was he killed?” Sherie asked, morbidly curious now.
“They took him to the block, and Lord Fenel took his head from his body with his own hands,” she said distantly, obviously remembering the moment.
“Wait, wouldn't you have been pregnant then?” Sherie asked, after thinking about it.
Brina nodded and spoke quietly, "I was. The doctor thinks my baby died because of the way he beat me when he took me." She had a difficult time saying this. Brina just squeezed the words out through the tears that erupted from her.
Sherie embraced Brina and held her. She knew there was nothing she could say that could help her, so she offered her whiskey instead.
Sunday July 8th 1612th year of the First Great City The Great City Grax
Sherie wasn’t happy for a number of reasons. She could have complained about many things; but the one that irritated her, the most was that she knew she wasn’t going to be able to sell the horse she had bought for Brina for what it was worth. It made her consider eating the thing until she recalled how little she liked horse. Even if she gave the horse away, she would probably still have enough money to buy a house and not have to work for a year.
They had been on the road to Grax for more than a week. One of the other things Sherie wasn’t happy about was the fact that she seemed to be the only person actually getting one of the freed slaves to their destination. While that would seem to be something of an achievement, it didn’t really matter since she didn’t know who to talk to so she could actually get paid for it.
She planned on staying in Grax for a while, maybe even a few years.
She would keep an eye out for Baxin and the others. If she saw him, she was going to hit him up for what was owed to her.
This was assuming he still lived of course.
While they rode down the hill from where they had stopped last night they were able to see the Great City of Grax in the distance.
Sherie had to admit, even though she had grown up in the Great City of Vox, this was more impressive to her than she thought it would be. She could see from here that there were four massive structures, one in each quarter of the city. They looked like they were ten times the height of the walls around the city itself!
The City was split in two by the Sina River just as Vox had been. There were four tall towers at the center of the city instead of the massive citadel that was in the center of Vox. Three of the towers were on the south-western bank of the river, and the fourth one was on the northeastern bank of the river. The shorter of these towers were twice the height of the four massive structures she saw, and the central tower was about half of the smaller towers height taller than they were.
Sherie thought it might be as tall as a mountain until she thought of the massive rocky crags looming off to the north and realized it wasn’t.
There were ferries and barges dotting the river. Sherie didn’t see any bridges. But if the Sina River was even half as wide here as it was in Vox, she could see why there wouldn’t be. Building a bridge over such a wide river would be incredibly difficult in her estimation.
When the hills flattened out, they rode down through crop fields that were being tended by Holders and slaves. Brina frowned at that sight, and Sherie reminded her to keep her opinions of such things to herself. They didn’t want to stand out.
They took a break and had a meal in the small hold that tended the massive fields northwest of Grax. They sat outside the cafe under the awning that extended from the building. Sherie sheltered the horses in a nearby stable and paid for them to be watered and groomed. This was the first taste of civilization they had encountered since they left the Legion Tower so Sherie intended to enjoy it.
They didn't linger long and reached the gates of Grax by early evening.
Sherie was astounded by this city now that she was close enough to truly appreciate it. The walls were half again as tall as the ones at Vox had been. These walls seemed more solid, too. Sherie slid out of her saddle with her pipe in her mouth while they waited their turn at the gates. She exhaled a big cloud of smoke and looked about.
She saw a pauper walking down the waiting line and asking for alms.
He seemed to be a young man, she was surprised that he wasn’t in the L
egion or enslaved, then she noticed his walking staff, and the way he felt around with it with his eyes closed.
He was blind. A blind boy wouldn’t be any use to the Legion or as a slave. Sherie walked around her horse and yelled, “Hey, boy!”
The young man looked up at her. “He might be blind, but he’s astute,” she thought.
“Yes, Milady?” He asked as he walked toward her carefully testing the path with his slender staff.
It felt odd for her to be called 'milady,' but she wasn’t going to draw attention to herself by correcting him. Technically since she didn’t have a home, she was also a pauper, just as he was.
When he reached her she said, “Give me your hand.”
He did as he was bid, but he was obviously wary. He looked ready to snatch his hand right back if needed. He seemed to be surprised when she placed a coin in his hand.
“That's a silver coin, don't let some greedy merchant tell you otherwise," Sherie told him to make sure he wouldn't be robbed.
“Thank you, Milady! I could tell it was one I hadn’t held before, thank you for telling me what it is,” he said with a genuine smile that made him look gawky.
Brina spoke up, “My wife is the kindest, most gentle woman you could ever meet.” She had started calling Sherie her wife as a joke, but she couldn’t let it pass in front of strangers.
“Don’t make me throw you off my horse, woman!” Sherie growled around her pipe. Brina just giggled and shrank away comically when Sherie shook her fist.
The young man smiled and bowed while keeping his staff in his hand. "My name is Jona. I know the City well if you need to find something."
“We need to find a cheap inn and a stable for the night,” Sherie replied, trying not to wince at his name. She didn’t know Jona Sonom well, but she still acutely felt the loss of the old man that had found her in the woods.
“Well, I know where there is one,” he said with a certainty that surprised her. “We’ll have to walk though. I can’t find my way on horseback. I need to keep my feet on the ground.”
Fugitive: A Prequel to Spirit of Magik Page 11