A Warrior's Legacy (8 page)

She was the only slave mounted on a horse of
all of the captives. Her hands and legs were bound to the horse she
rode, but despite that she sat as tall as she could in the saddle.
Her chin held high and proud, the same as the rest of the slaves,
who were mostly men.

She couldn’t have been more than 14 or 15 at
best. She had been stripped of her clothing from the waist up and
her developing female form was bare for all to see.

She may have been young and yet not fully
developed, but she was clearly very pretty and desirable enough to
have caught the eye of any man, but not here. To a man the
prospective buyers had eyes only for the men.

She would be used only as a passing
diversion or a carrier of a child to prolong the sick culture that
she was being sold into.

When did men forsake the female form that
had been specially crafted for all their passionate needs and
instead turned to members of their own sex for pleasure
instead?

I shook my head in disgust and prayed that
whatever sickness that had seized hold of these men and born this
perverted fruit would never occur in the homelands of my birth.

The absence of the Creator and His morality
of justice in a culture causes all kinds of darkness, which this
was only one of.

I stepped out determinedly toward the slave
auction, but Gavin halted my progress by grabbing my arm.

“You can’t be serious Zevin she’s only
fourteen or fifteen at best! It would be like buying our younger
sister!”

Annoyed at him for thinking I had plans to
molest a young girl I shook off his hold on me, and continued on
towards the auction.

He tried once more to dissuade me, “Think of
what mother would think Zevin!”

Now that I could respond to.

I turned around and said, “I seem to
remember that father bought mother at a slave auction. That didn’t
turn out too badly did it?”

Before he could respond I added, “Besides I
have mother’s permission to do this.”

Gavin’s mouth literally fell open, “How can
you say that Zevin?”

“She made a deal with me when I was younger.
She told me that if a girl hadn’t taken an interest in me by the
time I was twenty two that I had her permission to go buy a slave
girl.”

I had to turn away quickly to keep from
laughing out loud at Gavin’s incredulous face. My humor died
quickly as I entered the slave auction house. I received a lot of
attention by the buyers, but I ignored them.

Slave auctions tend to sell the least
desirable candidates first, while there were plenty of buyers
around hoping to get more money for them, which is why I didn’t
have to wait long, as the girl was brought out first.

I immediately lifted my hand at the
auctioneers start off of the bids. My action was greeted by
laughter by the rest of the buyers over my bidding for something
next to worthless in their eyes.

There was no further bidding on her and she
soon was delivered roughly by a guard in front of me. I closed my
hand firmly, but gently over her forearm and led her from the
auction house. Despite her brave face I could feel her shaking in
my grasp on her arm.

Back in the street I led her toward the
others who to their credit tried valiantly to keep their gazes
directed elsewhere from the obvious destination that their eyes
wanted to direct them to.

“Holon go buy a cloak and a horse.”

He jumped to the task and was gone in the
next moment. We went down an uncrowded thoroughfare away from
prying eyes.

The girl was still scared I could tell, but
I also saw that she was curious as to what was happening.

“What’s your name?” I asked keeping firm eye
contact with her.

She hesitated and then said “Ziya.”

“That’s a very pretty name. Ziya I’m letting
you go free.”

Her eyes brightened immediately.

“Ziya we came from a land far across the
great sea and we’ve come to help people. We hope to get out of this
wicked place soon. Tell me Ziya would we be welcome to visit your
people in the Northern Kingdom?”

“Oh yes we would welcome you most gladly!
Are you really letting me go?” She asked her eyes full of
amazement.

I gestured to the city around and indicated
myself and the men with me, “We are better men then the men of this
place are. We respect you as a woman and we do not keep slaves!
Tell me are the men of your people like that?”

“They are and also of the Eastern Kingdom,
however they do keep slaves.”

I looked at Gavin and he back at me
knowingly.

“We were told that every one in the Eastern
Kingdom was either dead or crazy.”

She looked surprised, “No there is still one
city that survives and is free as we are in the north.”

Holon came up then with a horse and a cloak.
I took the cloak and wrapped it around her and she looked
gratefully up at me and whispered, “Thank you.”

I took a long dagger from my belt and handed
it to her, which she took gladly. Pulling the horse around I held
it for her to mount. She did so with an ease that spoke of long
experience in the saddle.

“We will come to your land when we can. You
shouldn’t have trouble getting out of the city, as there are few
sentries. Until we meet again may the Creator look after you.”

“We have no gods as they forsook us long
ago!” She said bitterly.

I laid my hand on hers on the saddle and
said looking into her eyes deeply, “Our God has never failed us and
He is what we have come to share with you.”

I stepped back and let her go. She was
quickly gone down the street headed for the open country. I caught
of something out of the corner of my eye and I looked to the spot
and saw an old woman looking at me from a window.

She came out of the house to come towards me
and I was surprised as I felt her fragile arms close around me. She
held me for a moment and then let go.

She indicated that she wanted to tell me
something and so I leaned down to hear her aged whisper, “Blessed
am I to see the truth come to these shores at long last. Destroy
this place and any you find like it and bring the people the truth
of the Creator’s word.”

How did this old woman know so much?

She wasn’t done though.

“Follow the siren’s call and fear not to
tread were others dare not for happiness is to be found in the
hidden abyss so by finding it a fire will be lit that shall scorch
the sorcerer’s heart!”

I leaned back up from her, “How do you know
all this? What do your words mean?”

It was only then that I saw that she was
blind.

She smiled, “I have done all that I was
shown to do, the rest is up to you Zevin Ta’lont may you be as
strong and virtuous as your forefather Tadias was.”

And then she left me fading back into the
house.

“What did she say Zevin?” Gavin asked.

I didn’t answer him.

“Let’s get back to the ship.”

Thankfully our provisions had finally
arrived. I was looking forward to fresh food and drink and so I was
disappointed to hear that Captain Sargas had insisted that all
fresh provisions of food and water were to be saved until the old
stores were completely depleted.

Oh well it was the right call that needed to
be made. There was no telling when the next opportunity to
replenish provisions would occur. I was going to lay down until
dark, which is when we planned to weigh anchor and leave headed for
the Northern Kingdom.

All I could think of as I lay in my bed was
the old woman’s mysterious words. How had she known my name?

I was startled awake by hand on my shoulder
and a man’s urgent words.

It was Captain Sargas, “Sir there is
something I think you should see!”

I got out of bed immediately already dressed
from earlier in the day and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes I
asked, “Are we under attack?”

Captain Sargas responded uncertainly, “I’m
not sure Sir.”

I followed him up onto the deck. He pointed
at the Lantia.

“I’ve seen no activity on her Sir. The
lanterns haven’t even been lit. This is entirely different behavior
than I would expect from Captain Ornak Sir!”

I nodded somberly, “Lower a boat over the
side and try to keep from being seen doing it.

The boat brushed up against Lantia and I and
the eleven men with me cautiously climbed up over her sides. Men
lay everywhere soldiers and sailors alike. There did not appear to
be any signs of conflict however.

I reached down and felt one man’s skin. It
was cold. They had been dead for hours even while the sun had been
up. Below deck was the same no signs of a struggle. It appeared as
if everyone had simply laid down and gone to sleep. There was only
one solution to what I saw.

They had all been poisoned.

An icy feeling seized my heart as I thought
of how close I had come to such a death. If it hadn’t been for
Captain Sargas’s insistence that we use the old stores up first we
would all be dead now.

The Lantia had no old stores, as they were
lost in the storm and they had been forced to use their new
provisions. This explained why there had been such a delay in
receiving the supplies.

They had been probably waiting for a
suggestion from the sorcerer as to what to do with the newcomers.
This was the sorcerer’s answer to the problem apparently. I entered
the Captain’s cabin and saw Captain Ornak slumped over his desk.
His face was twisted into one of panic in death.

He alone had realized what was happening,
but it had been too late for him to alert us. I stood in front of
him gripped by anger even as I felt a sharp grief over the loss of
so many good men. Their murders would not go un-avenged I swore
it.

Talin came in behind me, “Zevin there all
dead.” He said quietly.

I nodded, “We need to get back to the ship
gather the men.

Gavin and Captain Sargas were waiting for me
when I cleared the side of the ship. I told them what must of
happened and they received the news in complete silence. Their
grief and anger at the news was as sharp as mine had been.

“Captain Sargas I want you to send a small
party of our men over to the Lantia weigh anchor and start it
forward toward the dock and then set it on fire.

Have your men string rope along after them
in their lifeboats. We’ll real them in as we weigh anchor and leave
the harbor, while the enemy is absorbed with the approaching fire
ship. We will jettison the new supplies as we leave the
harbor.”

Twenty minutes later with the Lantia well
ablaze and headed for the dock we set sail for the open sea. We
watched the flaming ship that was all that was left of our friends,
as it smashed its way into the dock setting it ablaze also.

“Shall we head up the northern shore Sir?”
Captain Sargas asked.

“No head along the southern shore and to the
east. We need to find friends, if we hope to avenge our men and the
Northern Kingdom is in no condition to do that by all
accounts.”

Morning’s light showed an unbroken line of
forest all along the coast that we shadowed.

“Tomorrow morning before it gets to light
we’ll send a small party ashore to fill some water barrels. I don’t
think the Western Kingdom is following our movements. The part of
their story about these eastern lands being forbidden to them I
believe in part. That forest looks entirely forbidding from here,
but we need the water.”

“What about the disease? If we contact it we
can never go home for fear of spreading it to our own people.”
Captain Sargas said softly.

“We have to risk it we need the water. I
have my doubts about the sickness part of the story though. If the
sorcerer gave the Western Kingdom a serum of some kind that saved
them from the disease, why then is this land still forbidden to
them?”

Captain Sargas shrugged his shoulder, “That
I don’t know, but I do know that I’m grateful to be the captain of
this ship, which means I get to stay on board in the morning and
not go tramping around that forbidden forest.”

I couldn’t argue with him there, I envied
his position in the moment to.

He left and Gavin stepped up to the railing
with me, “I want to go along tomorrow.”

I thought about immediately saying no, but I
decided against it.

“Did you bring your sword along?” I asked
still staring out at the forest passing by.

“Both of them!” He said emphatically.

I smiled, “Well just bring one of them
tomorrow morning, hopefully that’ll be enough.”

The outlying area of the forest was little
better than a glorified swamp where it met the sea. We coasted the
two boats through the early morning gloom of fog as quietly we
could.

Finally after a circuitous route through a
series of boggy channels of stagnant seawater mixed with fresh
water we reached what appeared to be solid ground.

It was a very damp forest that we stepped
into. There wasn’t that much undergrowth because the overhead
canopy cast off too much shade for much to grow. Besides the
occasional herbaceous wetland plants that carpeted the forest floor
here and there everything else was carpeted in green moss.

The trees, the rocks, perhaps even the enemy
was covered in moss. Turning to the men who had come with me and
Gavin I said, “Talin, you and Holon keep your men here until we’ve
scouted the area out some and have found a potable source of
water.”

They looked hesitant to obey my orders, but
they did as I said. They had been with me for years and I knew both
of them would rather accompany me than sit by the forest edge
waiting.

Gavin and I made our way deeper into the
dark wet forest. There were no sounds of nature to herald us not
even a songbird’s twill, which only increased the eerie like
quality this place had to it. We were virtually silent except for
the slight rustling of plant leaves against our pants. The moss
deadened the sound of our passage and there was only a drippy
silence to be heard throughout the forest.