by Randi Darren
Without a sound, the door glided inward and Vince stepped in. A soft thumping from the backroom told him where Deskil was. And Minnie.
“Oh,” murmured the Dryad.
“Yeah. They’re like teenagers. Bored and little else to do.” Vince walked up to the counter. Sitting there was a corroded service bell. Setting his hand down next to it, he put his finger on it and pressed it down twice. Two dings rang out clearly, despite the metal looking rather uncared for.
He didn’t like interrupting them, but he liked leaving Fes alone out front even less.
A bed creaked audibly, followed by the flop of bare feet. The back door jerked open that Minnie had appeared out of last time. This time, Deskil appeared, fastening his pants.
“Oi! Vinny. Didn’t you hear me working back there?” Deskil complained, catching sight of Vince at the counter. His eyes flicked from him to the Dryad and then back. “Heard you’d bought yourself another one.”
“I did hear you back there, but I have Fes out front with things to sell you and the locals seem… different. And… yeah, Fes and I bought Meliae.”
Deskil ran his hands down the sides of his pants as he thumped his way over to Vince.
“Hmph. As to the locals… some… thugs went missing. Happy to see them go, but people are claiming they were jumped by a raiding party.”
“Huh. Was it a pretty woman with a bunch of men? Dark leather armor?” Vince asked, a pit forming in his stomach.
Deskil reached Vince and looked up at him. “I take it you met them, then?”
“Yeah, tried to rob me. Killed them all. Stripped them and dumped their bodies into the bushes.”
“You’re not trying to sell me their equipment, are you?” Deskil asked warily.
“No, no. We kept it for now. We didn’t want to raise suspicion if we didn’t have to. Come, we’ll—” Vince paused, staring at Deskil again.
“What is it, Vinny? Never seen a Dwarf wanting to go finish off his woman?”
“You know I’m a friend, right, Deskil?” Vince asked, wanting to prep the Dwarf first.
“I don’t approve of your recent purchases, but you’re a friend, sure.”
Vince gave the Dwarf a tight smile and then tapped his own throat.
Deskil blanched, his skin turning a pale paper white. One hand came up to touch his bare neck. A neck that should have been wearing a collar.
Vince and Deskil stared at one another. Vince wasn’t quite sure what to say or do. A slave without a collar was to be immediately “put down” without question.
“Uhm, Meliae?” Vince asked, turning his head to the Dryad a few steps behind him. She had been looking at something and hadn’t really been paying attention to the men’s exchange.
“Yes?”
“Could you… could you pull off your collar real quick?”
Meliae’s head came around and she eyed him questioningly. She knew what a collarless non-humanoid meant. Then she noticed Deskil, and his hand pressed to his neck.
“Oh.” Meliae lifted a hand and unfastened the collar with a click. “Is that suitable, husband?”
“Mm. Thank you, Meliae.” Vince didn’t feel like fighting her on the term she used right now. She’d used it the entire way here whenever she wanted to prod at him.
She’d already gotten too much of a response out of him on the trip here to want to give it up easily. She seemed to enjoy taunting and teasing him.
The Dryad replaced the collar with a smile and turned back to the wooden staff she’d been looking at.
Deskil let out a breath and then gave Vince a lopsided smile.
“I should have known. No Orc woman would willingly allow herself to be called Fes.”
As Deskil finished talking, Minnie opened the door and took three fast steps out of the room before realizing Vince was there. In her left hand, half hidden behind her hip, was Deskil’s collar.
“Hey, Minnie. You should probably give that to him before someone else walks in. Then again, Fes is on the front porch. She might be scaring away business,” Vince said, offering Minnie a smile and a wave.
Frozen halfway between the back room and Deskil, she seemed at a loss.
Sighing, Meliae cleared her throat and then pulled off her collar when Minnie looked to her. Putting it back in place, the Dryad picked up the staff and started moving it around.
“I… we… well, shit,” Minnie finished lamely.
“Anyways. So, I have a cart full of crap I want to sell you. I figure a few might be good for a resale and the rest for the materials,” Vince explained, walking to the front door. “Got it in a cart out front. I’ll meet you out there. If you see something you like, Meliae, grab it. You could do with some armor anyways. Leather would suit you.”
Vince opened the front door and exited, closing it behind himself.
Fes looked up from the cart and gave him a broad smile. “Vince.”
“Fes Berenga. Deskil will be right out. I figure after this, we hit the Ranger board. See if there’s any work worth doing. Being a courier is easy and I do it at a run. Would need to drop Meliae off at home, though, on our way. I doubt she’d be able to keep up the entire way.” Vince leaned up against the wall next to Fes.
Fes moved in close to him and took the patch of wall directly beside him. Her right hand slid up behind his thigh to grab his ass.
She’d gotten more forward after watching him with Meliae at night. The dynamics were changing.
“Don’t want to stay here tonight. They look at me angrily. Camp in the field?” she accentuated her request with a firm squeeze.
“I, ah… yeah. That’s a good idea. We’ll take care of this, hit the board, and then get outta here. Sound like a plan?”
“Yes.”
Vince felt a smirk slip over his features. Fes’s hand didn’t leave his ass, and she didn’t offer up any more information, either.
Vince sighed and pulled down the only tag that was worth his time. A monster hunt. Up north in the Kingdom of Portland. It’d take them a while to get up there, but the price was significant. Two hundred standards.
He honestly didn’t need the money, but what else was he supposed to do with his life? His father had been a Ranger. His mother as close to a Ranger as you could be without taking the tests.
What purpose do I have otherwise? Something has to stand between humanity and the Wastes. Humans are ugly, hideous things, and yet beautiful and caring at the same time.
With another sigh, he shook his head. Philosophy wasn’t for him. He was a blade. Plain and simple.
“Monster hunt. Pretty far up north. Something’s killing livestock one at a time spread out over a lot of farms. Little of the carcass is left afterwards. All the earmarks of a Wastelander who isn’t confident enough to hunt humans and not skilled enough to hunt wild animals,” Vince said, looking up at the two women in front of him.
Fes grinned, her left hand closing on the hilt of her sword. She’d never turn down a fight.
Meliae held up a finger on her left hand, her right hand casually holding her new iron shod staff. “Is the pay worth our time?”
“Two hundred standards. Pretty significant. Probably one of the largest I’ve ever seen. Which means someone is losing a lot of livestock up there.”
“Did they happen to list anything else?” Meliae asked.
“No, it’s… pretty bare on details. Then again, for it to show up all the way down here means every Ranger north of here has already turned it down. It’s why the price is so high.”
Vince let out a slow breath. “Let’s do this one. We’ll buy several horses with what we made selling to Deskil. A pack horse as well. I don’t really want to head north on foot.”
“Don’t like horses,” Fes complained, her smile dimming but not vanishing.
“Sorry. But it’ll cut the travel time to a third, practically. Maybe even more. Let’s do this job and that’ll be it for a while.
“Do it, get our money, then we’ll lay low till summer. We
make a small stop here to do some banking. I’d feel better if we pulled out the majority of what I keep in the bank. Knight’s Ferry is getting… uncomfortable, and I’m not sure when we’ll be back. The bank here in Knight’s Ferry is backed up by the Modesto bank, which is backed up by the Fresno bank, so we can go elsewhere, but… this would be our last stop before we headed home.”
Fes said nothing further. Vince assumed she was still brooding about the horse but equally excited about doing a job.
Such a straightforward woman.
Meliae frowned, tapping the tip of her staff to her bottom lip. “At that point, is there somewhere else we can go to pick up your Ranger jobs and bank? Or shop? Why bother coming back here at all?”
Vince looked down in thought, his free hand coming up to rest behind his head.
“Blanchard, I guess. It’s actually closer, but there’s a lot more… a lot more slave trade going through there. It’s on a bit of an intersection of rivers. Though they’d be less tolerant to someone damaging their merchandise, so maybe that’s best. Good thought, Meliae.”
Vince had another reason for not really wanting to go there. An ex who had never forgiven him for calling it off. It had been his only real foray into a relationship outside of sex.
In the end, he hadn’t much cared for her personality.
“Let’s get moving. I’d rather not be in Knight’s Ferry when night falls.”
“So eager to take a young Dryad out into the wild, husband? Beastly,” Meliae said, her lips turning into a bright smile.
Vince closed his eyes and pressed a hand to his face.
Chapter 8
Fes dismounted and flipped the reins to a young boy. Vince hopped down easily from his saddle while Meliae gingerly got out of hers.
She wasn’t the best rider, but definitely had improved after being forced into it every day.
“Two standards for all four for a day,” quoted the boy.
“I’ll give you two for the stabling, one more for you if you brush ‘em,” Vince countered. Leaning back, he stretched his muscles and felt a solid pop as things slid back into place.
“Done, sir! Uhm—”
“Here, up front.” Vince pulled out several coins from the inside of a vest pocket and dropped them into the boy’s cupped hands. “We’ll be staying in the inn,” Vince said, gesturing to the building attached to the stable.
“Great! I’ll have everything ready for you in the morning, Mister…?”
“Vince.”
Not saying another word, Vince pulled his saddlebag off the horse and flung it over his shoulder. Walking over to Meliae’s horse, he grabbed hers as well.
“Thank you,” murmured the Dryad, her hands pressing into the sides of her hips.
“Mm,” Vince replied. Turning around, he made his way over to the inn. He heard Meliae’s soft footfalls trail behind him, immediately followed by the loud clumps of Fes’s boots.
Pushing open the door with his free hand, Vince stepped inside. It was a simple place, laid out cleanly and carefully. To his eye, it had the appearance of a place that catered to merchants rather than travelers.
That was fine with him. He didn’t get saddle sore often, but having made such a long trek, he was willing to take a rest, even at a merchant cost.
A month and some odd on horseback to get here. When we get back, it’ll only be a month or so before the summer market.
Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Vince stepped up to the counter and rang the service bell that was set out.
“Coming!” called a deep, gravelly voice from the back.
A handful of seconds later and an older Orc stepped out from a doorway and nodded his head at them.
“You and your… two companions, then?” asked the Orc, a finger surreptitiously touching the band around his neck.
The collars up here were simple things. Small. Barely more than a necklace.
Non-humanoid treatment differed the further north you went.
Vince nodded his head. He’d only been up this way once before and had admired the people and their customs. It wasn’t home, though.
Even if home was a slave-fueled nightmare for many.
“Two rooms will be—”
“One room,” Vince interrupted.
The Orc gave no reaction to that and continued on, “One room with one bed will—”
“Two beds, please,” Vince interrupted once more.
The barest flicker of surprise registered on the Orc’s face before he nodded his head.
“The room will be three standards; the extra cost is because it has a tub with heated plumbing. Will you be dining with us tonight?”
Vince nodded his head, his hand going into his vest to start pulling out coins.
“The rate for one normal meal is half a standard and for non-human meals is one fourth.”
Vince dropped six standards into the Orc’s outstretched hand. He’d rather pay more than the requested amount and earn it back in extras.
He knew without asking that Fes was tired of dry meat and Meliae was as fed up with dried fruit.
“Could you include fresh meat for one and fresh fruits or berries for the other? Between the three of us our diet is… spread out,” Vince said with a grin.
Fes and Meliae both hummed their agreement and appreciation.
The Orc bowed his head once in acknowledgment, his face hidden in the movement. A snap of his fingers and a short whistle later and a young boy came out. “Jack here will lead you to your rooms. My name is Jerod. Please ask if you need anything.”
“I’m sure I’ll have questions later. I’m a Ranger on contract to a farm west of here in…” Vince paused, thinking about the name.
“Bellevue Farm,” Meliae supplied from his side.
“Ah, yeah. Thanks,” Vince said, smiling at the Dryad.
Jerod looked from the Dryad back to Vince and then nodded his head. “I heard the contract was moving south when none of the local Rangers could fulfill it.”
“We’ll fill it,” Fes said firmly, a hand drifting to hilt at her waist.
Jerod only gave her a small smile in response to that.
“That we will, Fes. Lead on, Jack. We’ve been on the trail for… ever, it feels like.”
With a small gesture, Vince indicated for Jack to continue.
Meliae made a chirping noise and skipped ahead a step. “A hot bath. I can get the dust out of my hair.”
“Says the woman who regularly weaves twigs, leaves, and flowers into braids,” Fes murmured, walking beside the Dryad.
“They smell nice,” Meliae argued.
“The bees agreed,” Fes said with a chuckle.
“Ugh. The bees were a problem.”
Vince shook his head and fell in behind the two chatting women, adjusting the bags on his shoulder.
Jack led them quickly towards a room on the first floor near the back of the building. Opening the door, he handed Meliae a key and vanished before anyone could even think to tip him.
“Strange,” muttered Vince. He watched the boy dart away even as his two companions entered the room.
Walking inside, Vince closed the door behind him and dropped the packs to one side.
A day of rest, a nice bed. Then off to work.
Fes and Meliae were all about the tub in the bathroom. Realizing he wouldn’t be getting a shot at it any time soon, he opened the door again.
“Going to go see what I can find out about the farm. I’ll be back. Take a bath, both of you. We’ll head down to dinner together later,” he called into the room.
Neither woman acknowledged him. Instead, they had discovered how to turn on the tub and were already determining who would go first.
Snickering, he slid the lock into position on the handle so the door would lock itself after he left.
Moving into the hallway, he closed the door behind him and headed back to talk to Jerod.
Catching the Orc as a new customer was whisked off by Jack, Vince gave the man a
smile.
“Mind if I get that info from you now rather than later? I’m afraid I have no chance at that bath till they tell me so,” Vince explained.
Jerod lifted one side of his mouth in a smirk.
“Uh-huh. What do you want to know? You said you were on the Bellevue Farm job?”
“Yep. Hired out of Modesto.”
Jerod whistled at that. “South and then some.”
Vince shrugged, leaning over the countertop. Pulling out a standard, he slid it across the wood towards Jerod. “Pay is pay. What can you tell me?”
“Same as most around here. Something killing the livestock. They send a few Rangers after it. Things die down. Go away. Nothing is ever actually found. Then it starts up all over again a few days later. Rangers had to refund the coin and no one was happy. Created some problems with the guild and their reputation.”
Jerod slid the coin off the counter and dropped it into a pocket.
“I can imagine,” Vince said with a shake of his head. The Rangers took their reputation very seriously. “Could you tell me more about the missing livestock and the attacks?”
Jerod mulled that over before nodding his head.
Standards don’t go as far as they used to, lamented Vince.
“Every night, livestock would simply vanish. No trace of who took them, not a boot print, nothing. A little blood, sometimes a bone, nothing else. Not small livestock, either. Often enough it’d be a cow or a bull.”
Something wrong there. No Waster would kill and eat an entire animal on the property without leaving a print. Leaving a bone and blood seems… strange as well.
“Any chance they kept those bones?” Vince asked, not believing for even a second they had hung on to it.
“No. Didn’t keep the corpses when they started showing up, either.”
“Corpses?” Vince prompted.
“About two weeks ago, they started taking two a night. Different locations. One would be eaten whole, tail to nose. The second always had leftovers. Not enough meat with one and too much with two, I guess.”