by Randi Darren
“Daphne, Karya, Nereids would be cousins of yours, yes? Would they listen to you if they needed encouragement?” Vince asked.
He could use them. They could help maintain the river and keep it healthy.
“Yes. Much in the same way Thera and Eva are cousins. They breed with any other humanoid race, just as we do. Nixies can be male or female. I do believe they’d listen to us, though, yes,” Karya said.
“Let’s start the opening bid at one hundred standards,” declared the auctioneer.
Vince pressed the small button set into the recliner that indicated he would bid.
“I have one hundred, do I have one ten? Please keep in mind you’re responsible for transport. The tank is of course yours.
“I have one ten, do I—”
Vince pressed the button.
“I have one twenty, do I have one thirty?
“I have one thirty, do I—”
Using his thumb, Vince pushed the button again. Then two more times.
“I… I have one sixty.”
Vince pressed the button another time.
“Make that one seventy.”
As if to demonstrate the point, Vince then pushed the button three more times.
“I… I now have two hundred from the same person,” said the woman. She looked flustered at Vince’s heavy-handed tactics.
“Master, do you need them that badly?”
“Is the river in that bad of a condition, Lord?”
For a brief second, Vince wondered if they were doing that on purpose. Dismissing it, he realized it didn’t matter if they were or weren’t.
They got the job done rather well, and Vince would rather measure throughput.
“No, no, the river is fine. But I want it to remain fine. Those will do the work that hundreds couldn’t do on land. Between them, and the Dryads, we should have the entire ecosystem on track.
“I’d rather not stand out, but that should shut down whoever else it was.”
“Sold to private booth number forty-two for two hundred standards.”
Vince took his seat again and slunk down into it. He didn’t enjoy this, and the only thing that kept him positive about the whole thing was the end goal.
It wasn’t until the end of the auction that Vince found something to catch his interest.
Up to this point, it had required little more than a cursory inspection to determine if they were mentally prepared for what he wanted. If they met his requirements, he bought them. Most were merely laborers, or unskilled.
What took the stage was an old Centaur, gray of hair and with a weathered face. This ancient Centaur was well beyond its prime.
It was the mind behind those eyes that had brought Vince from his stupor. It was a mind filled with thoughts and an education. One who had taught generations for innumerable years.
“Our final item for sale is a household auction. Per an agreement with the previous owner, we’re selling them as a group.”
A group of fourteen or fifteen fair-haired Wasters surrounded the Centaur. Vince wasn’t interested in them, but he figured he’d have to purchase them all to get the Centaur.
“Not them, Master,” Eva said, stepping up to the window.
“Definitely not those, Lord,” Thera said, stepping up beside Eva.
“What? Why?” Vince asked as the auctioneer continued. Vince took a closer look at those surrounding the Centaur.
“High Elves,” Daphne said simply.
They were indeed High Elves. Where Eva was tanned, and Thera grayer skinned, these were all pale. Pale to the point of being like snow. The blue eyes that peered out from their ragged haircuts were a stark contrast.
They were also rather tall, from what he could tell from here. Otherwise, they shared all the same features as Thera and Eva. Beautiful, ethereal, sharp-eared, and graceful-looking.
Now after having seen three races of them, he could tell that the Dark Elves were more muscular, the Wood Elves shorter of stature and more graceful, and the High Elves were far taller.
“Do I have an opening bid of a hundred standards?”
“And? You two are traditionally enemies to the death, and yet I see your families working hand in hand daily.” Vince pressed the button to signal a bid on his part.
“Yes, Lord. We do, and are, but that’s…” Thera trailed off, looking to Eva.
“Master, High Elves are the reason Elfin-kind is here on your world. They’re no good. Thera’s family and my own are not foolish enough to ruin a good thing, so we combined our families.”
Vince listened to them, but didn’t really care. In a heartbeat, he’d combed through the High Elves’ minds and found all the same emotions Thera and Eva’s had experienced.
No, they were no different.
“—standards. Do I have three hundred?” called the auctioneer.
“And? Last I heard, Dark Elves ate human children, and Wood Elves would castrate men they found in the woods.
“Both of those actions only cemented the early relationship between humanity and the Wastes. Should I blame you for your ancestors’ actions? I doubt these High Elves here had any hand in the event.” Vince triggered another bid on his part.
Three hundred is cheap for the Centaur.
Karya and Daphne exchanged a look but said nothing. Vince wondered what that was about, but didn’t inquire.
Both Thera and Eva were silent at that. Mostly because he was right. Early encounters between Humans and Elves had not gone over very well.
“We will… strive to be as openminded as you are, Lord,” Thera said with a sigh.
“Master, we’ll not fail your confidence.”
“Good. Make sure you pick out the right person for me—” Vince paused and focused on the auction again. Someone had once again outbid him.
“I wonder what a High Elf, Wood Elf, Dark Elf family can accomplish,” Vince said under his breath.
Pressing the button twice rapidly, he raised his bid to six hundred standards.
Thera and Eva nodded their heads, saying nothing more.
“Sold, once again to forty-two. That concludes our auction for the day. I hope to see you all return tomorrow for our back-to-back special two-day sale.”
“Good. Thera, Eva, go round them up like last time. I’ll take care of the bill and meet you in the back with the wagons,” Vince said.
The Elves bowed in unison to him and left.
“We’re alone,” Daphne stated the obvious. Karya nodded her head sharply at that.
“And we’re leaving.” Vince opened the door and left the booth before the two Dryads could work their magic.
Vince sent a clerk scurrying to find the manager with the simple message that he’d be back tomorrow. Hopefully the manager would have everything taken care of without Vince’s name being written down on a single piece of paper. Another clerk directed him to a back office where his purchases were being given back their clothes and the paperwork was being taken care of. It was a small office overlooking a warehouse floor.
But it was in plain view of anyone who might look up here, which suited Vince perfectly right now. He hoped it would keep Daphne and Karya on their best behavior.
“Hiding is pointless,” Daphne said, annoyance discernible on her face.
“As is running,” Karya added.
“Too bad. I already have a Dryad who hits me with her sex magic. Don’t need all three of you hitting me with mystic mojo,” Vince complained, sitting on the desk.
Daphne glared at him from under her brows while Karya smiled impishly at him.
A young man popped his head in quickly, handed Vince a letter, and bolted out the door.
“Wait! For fuck’s sake. It’d be nice if they waited for a minute,” Vince complained. Flipping over the paper, he broke the seal and pulled out the letter inside.
He read it over once and then read it again more slowly.
“You’re afraid,” Karya said slowly. “And angry.”
Vince glanced
up at the Dryad and nodded his head. “A problem is coming back to haunt me, apparently. A friend of mine is in town. A blacksmith and his wife. They were chased out of the village they live in. In addition to that, it seems the village itself is becoming a mob. They want to head east and burn my house down.”
“Why?” Daphne asked, a confused look on their face.
“If I had to guess, it’s because I bought slaves, then killed a number of bandits who attacked me. Seems the bandits were more friendly with the town than I thought. And that they told someone they were going to rob me.”
Vince crumpled the letter in his hand.
Thera and Eva entered the office at that moment, escorting a young High Elf woman. Her pale blonde hair was shorn in the slave fashion, of course. Bright blue eyes stared straight into him. Unwavering.
Her face was as beautiful as Thera’s and Eva’s, all three of them sharing that strange alien beauty of the Elves.
His two concubine bodyguards had managed to get the High Elf into a long-sleeved, silky-looking pale blue dress. It hugged her from her shoulders to her hips in an intoxicating way without showing an inch of skin.
“Master, this is Elysia.” Eva gestured to the High Elf.
“We believe her suitable, Lord.” Thera had the look of someone who’d been forced to do something, but wasn’t upset with the outcome.
“Elysia. I assume you’re the one selected for your family?” Vince asked her.
“That remains to be seen, my liege.” Her voice was clinical. “I lack critical experience for the role. I do believe my unique skills will make up for that, however.”
“Oh?” Vince asked curiously. Hopefully. “Can you show me one of those skills?”
Elysia pointed at the paper in his hand. “Do you need that?”
Vince shook his head and held it out to her. “Was in the middle throwing it away, actually.”
The High Elf narrowed her eyes at the paper. A second later and it burst into a sky-blue flame.
Vince held on to the paper until it licked his fingers. Interestingly to him, there was only the barest twinge of heat on his fingers.
Vince found himself smiling as the flame guttered around his thumb and forefinger and then went out.
“I’m well versed at magic, my liege. As High Elves usually are, I’m the most proficient at combat magic. There was some thought to training me as a gladiator.”
Containing his excitement was tough, considering the circumstances. He remembered distinctly what Seville’s Elf had done, and she had been a Wood Elf, if he remembered it right.
“Impressive. Consider yourself chosen. You can show me everything else later.”
“Of course, my liege. I live to serve as your concubine. I have no experience in the affairs of the bedroom, but hope you will treat me kindly,” Elysia said, a small smile curling her lips before she dropped down and prostrated herself to him.
Chapter 23
The second day of the auction never occurred. The military brass swooped in and purchased everyone. They’d be joining an army that had been brought up from the old Mexican border that no longer existed.
Of course, the manager apologized profusely while saying “business is business.” Vince had no doubt the manager had been paid grossly for his part.
That meant time was up. There would be no further sales until the military decided to stop buying everyone.
In the north, Washington had broken through the lines even further, an entire mounted division slashing their way through the lines and disappearing.
Here at home, the letter he’d received from Deskil was already out of date. It wasn’t Knight’s Ferry who was turning into a mob, but Knight’s Ferry and all of the surrounding towns and villages.
Stories flooded the streets of the evil man who lived in the woods with his slaves, carving up poor human travelers for their body parts.
It was the fact that he cavorted with Wasters that truly sparked the masses, though. He dared to treat them as humans. Feed them and clothe them equally.
Mainly an Orc and a Dryad, or so the stories went.
The name was never right, and they simply called him the Woodsman in the east.
Vince felt a growing anxiety gnawing at his mind. He hadn’t gotten what he wanted. He’d never found his accountant, or his farmers. He was also woefully undermanned for actual combatants.
Maybe less than one hundred and fifty would be useful in a fight.
The rest would only be good for dying, unless he got them trained up. Time wasn’t on his side for that option, though.
Train, or build. Not both.
“Train or build…” Vince mused aloud. Drumming his fingers along his father’s desk, he looked down at the paperwork he’d put together.
He hadn’t expected to have to choose. Maybe naively he’d believed he’d have time to build up and then train.
In the end, he still had damn near half a million standards. There simply hadn’t been enough time or people. It had cost more to buy the supplies to get them through until they could be self-sufficient than it had to get the people.
At least he’d managed to secure everything they’d need. Tools, food, daily life things.
Closing the ledger, he leaned back and stretched his arms above his head.
They’d gotten in late last night. A peck on the cheek and a hug was about all he’d been good for when he had collapsed into the bed with Fes.
Looking out the window, he saw the early-morning gloom clearing up, and sunlight breaking through.
Time to start to the day and get everyone moving. First were the collars.
Picking up the metal stamp and the battery, he meandered out of his office.
Thera materialized out of the shadows as he closed the door behind him.
Nodding his head to the Dark Elf, he moved to the front door and popped it open. Elysia and Eva stood up from the deck chairs on the porch.
The High Elf had found a staff at some point during the night. To his eyes, it even had a subtle shimmer to it.
“Going to be popping collars today, and giving out orders. Might be best to get whoever is best with infrastructure work out here,” Vince said, walking over to a deck chair and its accompanying table.
Elysia, the ever-clinical robot of the three, gave him a blazing smile and was off at a jog.
“Such an eager beaver today,” Vince murmured, setting down the stamp on the table.
“Master, our family is still adjusting to our new brothers and sisters. She is… excited to be in so large a family clan.”
“Yes, Lord. Though we resented it at first, we’ve found we are much more able already.”
“I imagine. That’s kinda the thing with evolution, isn’t it? You each develop traits best suited for your environment. Put it all back together and you’ve got a better product, the sum of the whole being greater than its individual parts.”
Vince held up the battery with a shit-eating grin. “Who wants to go first? You’re about to watch three Dryads get hit by a lightning bolt.”
Thera and Eva eyed him speculatively. Thera stepped forward and put herself in front of him. “As the oldest, I’ll submit first. Give me your commands.”
She held herself ramrod straight and burned him with her eyes, her hands proffering her collar to him.
“Okay? Hold tight to your collar, and when you feel tired, winded, and like everything is on fire, pull as hard and fast as you can. It’ll be obvious.”
Before she could question the command, Vince tapped the battery to the collar and activated it.
Thera’s hands moved and the collar came undone, hanging loosely in her hands.
“There we are,” Vince said with a smile. Taking the collar from her nerveless fingers, he set it down on the table. “Time to make your choice, Thera. Remain here and build with me, or leave here, and live your own life.”
Thera blinked twice, her dark eyes moving from him to the collar.
“You think on that. L
et’s wake up the Dryads.” Sticking the battery to his forearm, he discharged it.
From inside the house, he heard a yelp and what sounded as if someone had fallen out of bed and hit the floor.
“Ha. That’s what you get. Tease me the entire trip, eh?” Vince said viciously. “Alright, come over here, Eva. Let’s get you taken care of while Thera thinks.”
“Master, I—”
“Stop, come here, grab your collar, and hold it up. Same instructions,” Vince said commandingly. Eva went silent, obeying his orders as she had to. She held up the collar.
Touching the battery to it, he activated it.
Eva lost her grip on the collar as soon as it came free. It clattered to the ground as the Wood Elf stood there panting.
“You alright, Eva?” Vince asked her, turning the battery on his forearm and discharging it again.
He vaguely felt the tree in his chest shifting, but only a touch. The real difference was what felt like two other trees. Both in his abdomen, but one reaching into his arms, and the other his legs.
This time there were no shrieks, but he definitely heard another thud.
“Ha,” Vince gloated. Elysia came back at a swift pace. He noticed she’d taken the time to modify her dress for mobility rather than looks. It no longer reached her feet, but stopped an inch above her ankles.
“Perfect timing. Come here, Elysia.” Vince pointed at the place to his side. Thera and Eva were still on his other side. “Yep, stand right there. Now grab your collar tight and hold it up. Good. You’re going to suddenly feel tired and like you’re on fire. I need you pull at your collar as hard as you can when it happens.”
“Wait—” Thera said breathlessly.
Vince pressed the battery to the collar and hit the switch. Elysia looked startled as the collar came off with a crack. Her face was flushed and she was taking slow, deep breaths.
Turning the battery on himself, Vince chuckled evilly, then activated it again.
Something slammed into the door, followed by a yelp, then a curse.
“Vince, stop. We need a break between,” Meliae called through the door.