Jalia At Bay (Book 4) (8 page)

10.
       
Slaves

Jalia tried to let the anger ebb out of her as she rode between the buildings, looking for one that might contain a dungeon. The large circular building drew her attention and she stopped Swift outside its doors and dismounted. The dirty glass panels in its roof let through only a limited amount of light. Jalia walked slowly into the massive hall, letting her eyes acclimatize to the gloom.

There was grandeur about this building. The absolute silence inside it was eerie. It was as if ghosts or Fairie were about to appear out of thin air. The fire in the center of the room was nearly out. White ash covered what remained of the logs that fed it. Jalia approached the raised dais covered in animal furs and saw the young slave girl’s body where it lay on the floor. A large pool of blood covered the floor beyond the dead girl’s neck.

Jalia moved around the fireplace seeking the girl’s head. She found it where it had rolled to one side of the dais. Clouded brown eyes stared up at Jalia. The girl’s mouth was open as if in shock or surprise. She could not have been more than fifteen years old. Jalia picked up the girl’s head reverently, being careful not to pull her hair and placed the head where the body lay.

“Shall we go and free the living?” Daniel asked from behind. Jalia didn’t jump. She had heard him enter the building, though most people would not have heard him.

“I hate slavery,” Jalia said quietly. “Perhaps it would be kindest for the world if we ended the Taldon Clan forever, here and now.”

“People can change, and children change easiest of all.”

Jalia straightened the head and body of the girl so that they once again looked attached.

“Let us go and rescue the living then. But if I come back here in ten years’ time and find the Taldon Clan at it again, I shall hold you personally responsible for it, Daniel al’Degar.”

“You already hold me responsible for the weather,” Daniel muttered under his breath as he followed Jalia out of the room.

“And I can hear your whispers most clearly, thank you, Daniel,” Jalia said, sounding like an annoyed schoolteacher. She was smiling as she spoke, though Daniel could not see it.

There were nearly forty servants alive when they finally found the dungeons and broke through the doors to get them out. They had been held in two groups differentiated by sex. The men varied in age from early teens to some in their fifties and they were the slightly more numerous of the two groups. The women were all girls, not one of them older than twenty. Judging from their lack of clothes, they had not been kept for cleaning or cooking duties.

“What are you going to do to us?” one of the oldest men in the group asked Daniel fearfully.

“You are free. Free to go anywhere and do anything you please.”

The men muttered among themselves, as freedom without possessions or a place to call your home can be a frightening thing. The young women looked even more worried than the men.

“I can’t go back home,” a girl aged fifteen or so said desperately. “My village will disown me for the things I have done with these men. They would drive me out if I dared to return.”

Several of the other girls nodded their heads in agreement.

Jalia looked at the group in exasperation. They had their freedom, what more did they want? The world was a big place; they should go out and live in it.

“I have an offer, if you will listen to it,” Dell stated. Everybody turned to look at him. Dell froze at their stares and Malda had to give him a poke to get him talking again.

“Stay here as free men and women. Become the new Taldon Clan. There are animals here to tend and crops to grow. There was never any need to steal and kidnap, as the land can provide all we need. The soil we stand on is fertile and the wells provide clear water. People have lived here for thousands of years, so why not stay?”

“I’m pregnant,” one of the women said suddenly. “That was a death sentence for us both under the rule of your grandfather.”

“Stay and have your child here. The community could do with a few babies,” Dell replied.

“And live under your rule and at your whim?” the man who had first spoken asked.

“I have inherited this land and the things on them. I will not see it return to what it was,” Dell nodded towards Jalia and Daniel. “I received a lesson in why that is wrong and I have discovered that mercy still exists in Jallon. I intend to repay that debt. No man or woman will pay tithe to me while they live and work here. The choice of whether you stay or go is yours.”

“We will have to share what we have,” another man said. “Join together as a community and help each other. I’m willing to give it a try if the others are.”

One of the older of the women pointed straight at Hala. “I cannot stay unless I can settle my score with that one. She had me whipped for daring to speak to her.”

“That is a problem easily solved,” Dell said. “In fact, it will solve another problem I have.”

Hala’s face paled as the implication of Dell’s words became clear. She turned to run away and was caught by Pald, who held her tightly so she could not escape.

“Sorry Hala, but Dell is our Lord now, and his word is law,” the boy said, sounding only slightly apologetic as he held the frantically struggling girl. Pald had also suffered at the Hala’s hands and was enjoying the thought of her being punished.

Donal, Daniel and Jalia rode back towards Sweetwater as the light began to fade. They left a new community trying to get to grips with all the changes being wrought.

“The boy seems to have turned out all right,” Jalia mused to Daniel. “I’m glad I didn’t kill him.”

“Only time will tell,” Daniel said carefully. Answering Jalia’s musings could be a tricky business.

“His father was a good man and the legends say that the Taldons were once a noble family,” Donal said. “And Malda is a good woman and a great healer. What are we going to do in Sweetwater when we need a healer, now she has gone?”

“It’s only a two hour journey,” Jalia pointed out, as if traveling for two hours was of no consequence.

“You could arrange a signal fire for when you needed her,” Daniel suggested. “Or perhaps arrange a loud summoning sound like a drum makes.”

“Of course, Daniel,” Jalia replied dismissively. “As if something like that would ever work.”

11.
       
Death Comes Stalking

Attala, sixteen years old and pretty as a picture helped her mother prepare provisions for their departing guests. Attala was feeling safe for the first time in months and for reasons she could not fully define, a little disappointed. For all the time she had been tense with worry, Attala had been certain that Adon was going to force her to have relations with him. Knowing how dangerous the man and his clan were, she had been playing him along to protect her family. By not giving him what he wanted, but not denying him completely.

Now Adon was dead, along with his family, and she was safe. More importantly, her father was safe, not lying dead with a knife in his back for having the temerity to try to protect her honor. So why did she feel that there was suddenly a big hole in her life? Walking in the woods or across the village, no longer had the feeling of danger or the excitement it once had.

“Take these to Jalia,” her mother commanded and Attala picked up the bag that held preserved meats and hard bread that would stay edible for days.

Jalia was alone in the barn when Attala walked in.

“We have prepared food for your journey,” she said. Jalia grunted and carried on grooming her horse. Attala put the bag down on top of the horse’s saddle and turned to leave. Before she reached the door, Attala found herself spinning around and going to stand a few feet from Jalia.

“Can I ask you something, Lady Jalia?”

“It seems to me that you already are,” Jalia pointed out, her voice a little harsh. Attala flushed and turned to walk away again.

“I’m sorry,” Jalia said more warmly and smiled at the embarrassed girl. “I didn’t mean anything by that. It’s just my way of speaking. Tell me, what do you want to know?”

“Does it feel good, to travel the world as you do and…” Attala paused as she didn’t want to sound as if she was insulting the woman.

“…kill people?” Jalia finished. Attala nodded, though those were not quite the words she had in mind.

“Adon told me he was going to… ravish me. I was scared he would kill my father if I told him,” Attala blurted out.

“And you were wondering if being like me is better than being scared?”

“I didn’t want him to… and I certainly didn’t want his… not ever… but at the same time as being scared, it was… exciting.”

Jalia walked Attala to a bench where they could sit together.

“Woman who go out in the world and act as I do usually end up dead,” Jalia told the girl gently. “Every woman should learn to defend themselves, but better to be raped and living, than dead and unsullied any day. At least, that’s my view.”

“Have you ever been…?”

“Yes,” Jalia said bleakly. For a few seconds she was back in a cave facing certain death. “He was a man not unlike Adon in shape and size, but he was evil in a way that Adon could never imagine. He had a knife and he was going to skin me with it. I thought…, no I
knew
, that I was going to die. It was the first time in my life that I was ever certain of it.”

“What happened?” Attala asked in a whisper, shocked at the bleakness in Jalia’s voice.

“My knight in trader-boy’s shoes came along and threw a knife that struck him in the back,” Jalia said, laughing at the memory. “If you think I can throw a knife, you should know that Daniel is better than me when he is motivated.”

“Is it wrong… that I miss the excitement of being chased by Adon?”

“Of course not, but it would be wrong to seek that sort of thing.” Jalia took hold of Attala by her shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Your future is here, with your family. There is excitement enough in building a home and having a child or two with a good man. Don’t be seduced into thinking my kind of life is better.”

“Then why don’t you…?”

“Because I am who I am. I get bored easily and I would rather die young doing something exciting. You aren’t like me. Be who you are.”

Attala smiled and hugged Jalia. This was disconcerting for Jalia, who largely associated all signs of affection as a preliminary for sex. It was a long and awkward moment for her. Attala stood and looked again in Jalia’s eyes.

“Thank you for being honest with me. I feel much better now.” Attala pranced out of the barn, bouncing into Daniel who was in the process of entering. She giggled and ran back to the cottage.

“What was that about?” Daniel asked.

“Nothing,” Jalia replied and went back to preparing Swift for the journey.

The village of Sweetwater had gathered to watch them leave. Donal gave Daniel a firm handshake and then clasped him firmly on the back, as did Pender and Walt. They would have done the same to Jalia except the look in her eye stopped Donal, and the other men wisely took their cue from him.

Before Jalia could mount, Pender stepped forward and drew a knife. Several people gasped in shock, but neither Jalia nor Daniel batted an eyelid.

“A gift for you, Lady Jalia,” Pender said as he offered her its hilt. “To replace the one you lost in the hall. It’s the only throwing knife I could find in the village.”

“Thank you, Pender,” Jalia said with a genuine smile of gratitude and took the knife from his hand.

Daniel and Jalia rode from the village towards the east. This was the Slarn road and, according to Donal, it was not going to be an easy one. Jalia, ever the cynic, wondered if the majority of the villagers watching them go were there to confirm that they were leaving. Heroes can be useful, but nobody wants them around when there is nobody left to kill.

“It was a good thing Donal warned us about Pender’s gift,” Jalia remarked once they were safely out of earshot. “Even as it was, I had to suppress an urge to draw my sword.”

“Pender would not last long in a city, pulling a knife without the slightest warning,” Daniel agreed. “Country folk, you have to admire their innocence.”

Daniel and Jalia didn’t see the rider who followed them. That person knew well enough the risk of being seen and circled the village after watching them leave. Their stalker rode far enough behind to be neither heard nor seen.

It was easy to know the way they traveled, as there were no side trails to take. However, if burning rage and the desire for revenge had been an audible sound, Daniel and Jalia would have known about their stalker before they left the village.

Provided a trail is not over rock, a rider on horseback can easily outpace someone walking at a donkey’s pace. Jalia and Daniel were approximately two days behind those they sought and they set a pace that would close the gap by the end of the first day.

They planned to spend the night within an hour of the campsite of those they pursued and catch up with them on the morning of the second day. That way, they would be fresh and their horses would be rested. This would give them an edge in the trouble to come. Since Daniel and Jalia planned to retrieve items bought in all innocence by the people they followed, they could guarantee there would be trouble.

Early in the afternoon, the forest gave way to a large expanse of marshland. A valley with no route for water to leave was filled with it. Between ponds and larger expanses of still water were clusters of stunted trees and bushes. It was difficult to see where the water ended and solid ground began. As the adventurers started to descend the valley’s rim, Jalia spotted their quarry in the far distance. They were on the other side of the valley and were beginning to ascend its slopes.

“Donal advised us to go around the edge of this valley, not across it,” Daniel pointed out as Jalia nudged Swift forward towards the valley’s floor.

“That will take us hours, Daniel,” Jalia pleaded. “The traders won’t camp on the edge of the valley. They’ll camp somewhere beyond. If we go around the edge, we’ll have to camp halfway around and we may not catch up with them until the middle of tomorrow. If we go through the marsh we can camp within a mile of them tonight.”

“We will have to walk the horses,” Daniel told her. “According to Donal, there are bogs and quicksand in the marsh.”

“According to Donal,” Jalia sneered. “He told you himself he has never been here. It’s only rumor and tall tales. I’d never even heard of quicksand until he told us about it. It all sounds like a tale to keep children out of the marsh, if you were to ask me.”

“We will walk the horses, Jalia. I am not risking having to watch Jet sink into mud and drown.”

It became obvious by the time they had traveled a few hundred yards into the marsh that the marsh was worse than Donal had described.

“We should turn back and go around the outside,” Daniel said on the third occasion that he had to drag a sodden boot out from what appeared to be solid ground.

“I still think it will be quicker going straight through.” Jalia knew that she was wrong, but her pride wouldn’t let her admit it. Not that far away, up on the valley rim, their stalker looked on in bewilderment.

“How could people so stupid, kill Mallon and all the others?” their stalker asked the sky and any gods that might be passing through. There was no reply.

“Look, Jalia,” Daniel said as he turned to face her. “We have to turn…”

The ground gave way beneath Daniel’s feet sliding him a couple of yards into the bog where he sank up to his waist. Jalia giggled until Daniel tried to move and sank another six inches.

“Don’t move, Daniel.” Jalia looked around for anything to use to reach him. They hadn’t brought rope with them as it was among the many items Adon sold to the traders. A hundred yards back the way they had come, she saw a stand of stunted trees. “I’ll go and cut a branch to pull you out with. Just stay still.”

“I’ll do my best,” Daniel told Jalia dryly. It was a mistake to speak, as he promptly sank another two inches.

“And shut up,” Jalia screamed at him.

Up on the ridge, their stalker saw what had happened and decided an opportunity had arisen. The stalker started down the slope. Once in the valley the stalker wouldn’t be able to see what was happening, but then the prey would only be fifteen minutes away.

Jalia ran for the trees splashing through pools of water. Luckily, none of them were deep. She pulled her sword from her back and slashed at the most appropriate branch she could find. It took several minutes to cut it free and Jalia was in a state of panic by the time she finished.

It took even longer to drag the branch through the pools to Daniel. When she got there, the pool he had been standing in stood cool, murky and empty of life.

“Daniel!”

Birds scattered across the marsh at the panic in her voice, but there was no other response.

Jalia dragged the branch so that one end was over the spot where Daniel had been standing. It took her another thirty seconds to strip naked. She dived into the pond.

Nothing was visible beneath the water. Thick mud tried to drag her down but Jalia stirred it up with her hands, digging deeper into it, searching desperately for Daniel. When her lungs were close to bursting, she surfaced to breathe. Her thin naked form didn’t stick to the mud the way clothes and boots did and she found she was able to move around, provided she moved slowly.

Jalia ducked deep underwater again and stuck her hands down into the pool for the second time. She found roots and grasses wherever her hands probed. Once she thought she had found Daniel’s hair, but it turned out to be weed. Time passed without her being aware of it. Daniel was gone.

When her lungs burned and her hands could no longer grasp at the mud without pains shooting through her, Jalia dragged herself from the pond using the branch. It shouldn’t have worked without someone holding the other end, but somehow it did. She tried to see what the branch was jammed against. Jalia’s face was covered in mud and slime and she couldn’t see more than glimpses when she wiped her face.

When she finally got to the edge of the pond, her hands were so slippery with mud that she couldn’t pull herself out. She was totally exhausted and all she could think about was that Daniel was dead. She rolled over onto her back and wept.

It was the sword point against her throat that brought her back to the world.

“I wanted to kill both of you with my own hands. I suppose I will have to settle for you.”