King of Foxes (34 page)

Quint nodded. “If what I remember from the maps of the area is right, we should be hitting the river in a day or two.”

“How are we getting across?” asked Visniya.

“There are fords,” said Quint. “Quite a few, not well-known, but reports list them. When we get to the riverbank we turn downstream. We should find one in a couple of days.”

“If a patrol doesn’t find us first,” said Stolinko. He was a dour man who didn’t talk much. Tal wasn’t quite sure what Stolinko had done to offend Kaspar, but he had turned out to be a tough, reliable type who did his share of work without complaint.

Quint said, “Our patrols don’t come this far inland.

No need.” He waved his hand around. “See any reason to guard this?”

They were out of food, and there was nothing obvi-

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ously edible in sight, so they staggered on, hoping to leave the bog soon. Around midafternoon, Tal said, “I think we’re heading into deeper water.”

The others noticed that the water was up around their knees.

“The trees are thinning out,” said Masterson.

Tal said to Quint. “You’ve never been up here before?”

“Not here. I’ve inspected the garrison at City of the Guardian and ridden a patrol inland, but nothing this far out.”

“Wait here a minute,” Tal said.

He circled around them for the better part of twenty minutes, then returned, and said, “The water is moving that way.” He pointed to the east.

“What does that mean?” asked Visniya.

“It means the river is
that
way,” said Tal. He headed off in the indicated direction.

They began hitting drier ground in an hour, and as sundown neared, they found the land rising ahead of them and to the right, and the bog draining off to the left, feeding what was clearly a wide but moving body of water.

“Let’s camp up there for the night,” said Tal, pointing to an elevation that should prove dry. “Then tomorrow we’ll follow this water and see where it leads us.”

They made a cold camp, without even any food, so it was a tired and unhappy band that awoke the next morning and set off. As Tal had predicted, the water became a stream, which ran quickly downhill. Two hours after they had started, they came over a rise and saw the river.

Tal studied the landscape. “I see no signs of anyone else being around here.”

“We’re too far east for patrols,” said Quint. “This is no-man’s country. The army doesn’t patrol because even the smugglers avoid it.”

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“Why?” asked Stolinko.

Quint said, “No one knows. Rumors. Bands of in-human monsters, or wild primitives who eat human flesh.” He saw the expressions on his companions’ faces and laughed. “Those are stories. There are some people living around here—the gods only know why they do—but mostly no one comes here because this land is worthless.” He pointed to the river. “Across the river is Bardac’s. There’s a pretty little coastline over there, and a thousand square miles of land even a pig farmer couldn’t use. Bogs worse than the one we just left, salt flats, pine barrens, marshes, who knows what else?

Everything in Bardac’s worth taking is within fifty miles of the coast. The only exception is the city of Qulak, which guards the pass leading into Aranor. You’ve got a road from Karesh’kaar to there and also from Bishop’s Point up north on the coast. One road from Karesh’kaar to Traitor’s Cove to Bishop’s Point. So there you have it, four cities, three roads, and about a hundred jumped-up bandit chieftains calling themselves Baron this and Count that.

“Whenever someone tried to build anything this side of the river, bandits from across the river came down and took it. That’s why everything worth talking about in Olasko is down south,” said Quint.

“So you think we’ll have no trouble getting across the river?” asked Tal.

“Oh, getting across may be the least of our problems,”

said Quint. He looked at his companions. “A band of seventeen men might have been enough to prevent us from getting jumped, but the first band of rogues or the first

‘noble’ we blunder into”—he shrugged—“they’ll cut our throats first, then discover we have nothing worth stealing. The bastards won’t even apologize afterward.”

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“Well, let’s stop talking about it and get down there,”

said Masterson.

Tal nodded. “Let’s go.”

They moved along the banks of the stream and discovered that the river was farther off than it looked. It was midday before they reached the banks just to the west of where the stream emptied into the river. Tal looked around. “Look at the color.”

“What about it?” asked Masterson.

“The stream must be dumping silt here. It’s shallow.

I’m going to try to cross.”

Tal waded into the water and found the river was running fast, but that it wasn’t too deep. He moved out until he was nearly a third of the way across, and the water was only up to midthigh. He stopped and looked, watching the currents, the swirls and eddies, then he waved for the others to follow.

The water deepened and suddenly fell off to a channel on the side opposite where the stream flowed in. He started to swim. The men were underfed and weak with exhaustion and lack of food, but he reckoned that if a one-armed man carrying a sword and spear could get across, so could they.

A few minutes after he had reached the far shore, Masterson came across, followed by the others.

Quint looked around. “My friends, welcome to Bardac’s Holdfast.”

“I’m glad that’s behind us,” Visniya muttered.

“Don’t be so happy,” Quint said. “It’s now that things get difficult.”

“What do we do?” asked Stolinko.

Tal looked at Quint and said, “I think we go north, find the road, then turn east for Karesh’kaar.”

“That would work if it wasn’t for the fact that every _______________

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bandit in the region uses that road. I think we find out where it is, then try to work our way west just in sight of it, but hopefully out of sight of anyone else. Any man not wearing the colors of a local noble is fair game for murder, robbery, slavers. There’s law up here, but it’s rough law, and it is usually a case of who has the most weapons.”

“Sounds like my kind of place,” declared Masterson, hefting his ax.

Dryly Stolinko said, “At least one of us is happy.”

“Well, the day’s not getting any longer,” said Tal, and he started hiking up the riverbank, heading north.

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“Man, I’m going to go mad smelling that,” said Masterson. The smell of cooking carried toward them on the breeze.

“Keep your voice down,” whispered Tal.

They lay on their stomachs along a ridge as the sun set, overlooking the road leading to Karesh’kaar. Camped below was what appeared to be a slave caravan. About thirty young men and women were chained in a coffle and strung out along the side of the road, their chains secured at either end to a wagon. Six guards were posted, three at each wagon, along with a driver who tended the horses.

“What do you think’s in those wagons?” asked Visniya.

Tal whispered, “Supplies, I’m guessing.” He turned to Quint. “Where are the slaves from?”

“Who knows? If they’re coming down from the mountains, they may be from a border raid into Aranor.

Or they could be some poor bastards taken in a raid from one ‘noble’s’ property by another ‘noble.’ The way things work up here, if you’re more than a day’s ride from your _______________

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ruler’s castle, you’re fair game.” He pointed to the wagon in the front. “See that banner? Holmalee, a count of sorts, with a pretty big army. He’s local to this area.

That’s why there’s only six guards, instead of sixty. This close to Holmalee’s castle, no one is going to muck about with his caravan.”

“What are we going to do?” asked Stolinko.

Tal looked at his four companions. They were on the verge of collapse. Quint judged them to be a day or two more from the city of Karesh’kaar, but Tal doubted they could make it through another half day without something to eat. It was three days since they had last eaten, and that had been nothing more than berries. It was five days since they had finished the last of the food they had carried with them.

Tal said, “We wait until dark. Then we slip down and kill the guards.”

Masterson said, “Wonderful.”

Visniya said, “I don’t know if I can fight.”

Tal said, “Don’t worry. I’ll take out one sentry, and if they have a second, Quint will take him out. If we don’t alarm the slaves, we should be able to finish them off before they are awake.”

He started moving down the incline, motioning for the others to follow. At the bottom of the rise, he led them into a stand of trees. “We hide here just in case one of the guards is the fastidious type and comes over the rise to take a piss.”

They settled in and waited for night to fall.

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Tal crept down the hillside. The sentry was sitting with his back against a wagon wheel, his head nodding as his _______________

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chin touched his chest. The two other guards were sleeping near the fire. The slaves were all asleep on the ground, and at the other end of the coffle another guard sat by the other wagon. His two companions appeared to be fast asleep.

Quint was moving parallel to Tal, his task being to kill the sentry farthest from where they had come over the rise. The other three men would come out of the trees at the first hint of trouble.

Tal reached a point near his man, who suddenly started awake, perhaps sensing someone’s approach. Tal slashed the man’s throat before he could cry out, and his hands went up, a fountain of blood spurting through his fingers as he struggled in vain to hold back the blood.

Then his eyes went glassy, and he fell over.

Tal quickly killed the two sleeping men.

Quint’s guard died silently, but one of the sleeping men awoke, crying out in alarm. Suddenly the slaves were awake, yelling, crying, and screaming, imagining that whatever new horror was about in the night would mean more suffering for them.

Masterson and the others came running out of the copse and quickly overpowered the guards and suddenly only Tal’s men and the slaves were alive. No one hesitated.

There was still food by the fire, and all five men fell to ravenously.

Tal stood with a half-eaten chicken in his hand and saw several of the slaves were pulling on their chain, as if to rip it from the metal eyelet that fastened it to the wagon. “Stop it!” shouted Tal in the Opardum dialect of Roldemish. “If you want to live, stop it.”

The slaves stopped. Tal chewed and swallowed, convinced he had never tasted chicken this good in his life.

He went over to inspect the slaves. There were close to _______________

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twenty young women, none older than perhaps twenty years of age. All were very pretty. The men were all young as well, healthy and broad-shouldered; for slaves they appeared to be surprisingly well fed and fit.

Quint came over, chewing some bread dripping with butter and honey. “Who are you?” he asked a young man standing next to Tal.

“My name is Jessie.”

“Aranor?”

“Yes. The village of Talabria.”

“You all from Aranor?”

“No,” said one young woman. “I am from a village near Qulak. My father sold me to pay taxes.”

Quint looked at several more slaves, then laughed.

“All heading for brothels, girls and boys alike.”

“How do you know?” asked Tal.

“Look at them. Clean them up, dress them, oil their hair, and rich merchants from Kesh will pay their weight in gold.” He paused, then said to the nearest girl, “Did any of these men have their way with you?”

She lowered her eyes, and Tal was struck by how lovely she was. “No, sir. The guards left us all alone.”

Quint said, “That settles it. I’ll bet most of these girls are virgins, and any guard touching them would get his head taken from his shoulders by their master.” He shouted, “Do you know who owns you?”

One of the young men cried, “No man owns me!”

Quint’s grin spread. He walked over to the boy, who was no more than seventeen or eighteen, and slapped him on the shoulder. “Bravely said, lad.” Then he ran his hand down the boy’s face and across his shoulders. “And some rich Keshian wine trader will pay dearly to see that skin left unblemished. Otherwise, they’d have beaten any hint of defiance out of you.”

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A girl said, “These men worked for Count Holmalee.

He is selling us to a slaver in the city named Janoski. I heard the guards talking.”

Tal ate enough to kill most of the hunger pangs in his stomach and then said, “Let’s see what’s in the wagons.”

As he had suspected, there were supplies for the slaves, including a cage full of live chickens.

Quint inspected the other wagons. “We got lucky,” he declared.

“How?”

“Count Holmalee and trader Janoski wanted this lot pretty for the auction block in Karesh’kaar. There’s enough food here for three times the slaves. Each of these will bring four, five times as much on the block as the av-erage house servant or field hand.” He rubbed his chin.

“So, what do you propose to do with them?”

Tal grinned. “Free them. I told you, I’m starting an army.” To the others he yelled, “Find the key on those guards, and turn this bunch loose.”

The slaves started talking excitedly among themselves. One girl shrieked, and Tal saw that Masterson was trying to paw her. “Masterson!” Tal shouted. “Keep your hands to yourself. If she doesn’t turn you into a eunuch, I will.”

“She’s a slave! And a damn pleasure slave, for that matter.”

“No she’s not,” said Tal. “She’s free.”

At that, the slaves all started talking at the same time.

Tal shouted, “All of you shut up!”

The talk quietened, and Tal said, “I’m Tal Hawkins.