Jalia and the Slavers (Jalia - World of Jalon) (9 page)

12.
Modan

Talla grimaced as they rode towards a large stone farmhouse. In the farmyard was a large pond with ducks and geese milling around and honking. Talla’s husband Jord had been born here and she was going to have to tell Jord’s mother and sisters that he was dead.

Riding just behind Talla were Jalia and Daniel. Jet had a rope tied to his saddle, which trailed back some distance to the halter of Daniel’s lead donkey Ferd and from there to the other donkeys. They were all covered in dust. It had taken them four weeks to reach this farm on the outskirts of the village of Modan when it should have taken two. They had trekked across country avoiding roads and it had not been a pleasant ride.

Daniel formulated a plan when they found themselves standing beside the six bodies on the road from Brinan. One of the bodies was about his size and Daniel swapped clothes with his corpse. Jalia stabbed the corpse’s body in the back exactly where Daniel had been stabbed and Talla sewed the wound back up.

They placed the corpse outside the wagon; setting fire to the pillows and placing the body face down on them so the fire would destroy his face . They artistically arranged the remains so it looked as though Daniel was dead and his killers made a failed attempt to set fire to the wagon. They collected the other bodies, putting them on the donkeys and horses and headed off the road into the hills. A couple of miles later they dumped the bodies in a ravine.

It was certain that word would get back to the Mine Owners Association that their team had killed Daniel and ridden off with Jalia and Talla. Daniel hoped the Association would assume the men had double crossed them and planned to take the gold for themselves. If they could get the Association fighting among itself it would make Jalia and Daniel’s life much easier.

To make the plan work, it was essential that the three weren’t seen on any of the roads. They engaged on a course through the hills and forests, avoiding roads and populated places.

Jalia and Daniel brought their horses to a halt short of the house so Talla could talk to her relatives in private. Talla dismounted and walked the last few yards to the house. She didn’t knock on the door, but simply lifted the latch and walked in. It was quiet for a few minutes before a wailing began startling the geese and driving the ducks into the pond. The wailing became louder as more female voices joined in.

“What do you think of the weather we have been having?” Jalia asked, deliberately ignoring the sounds of grief.

“It’s coming up to summer and these northern climes are pleasanter than Delbon. Perhaps we should trade south in winter and come here in summer. What do you think?”

The wailing reached new heights of despair.

Men of all ages appeared from the barns and headed towards the two adventurers with raised pitchforks and scythes.

“Do you think we should be worried?” Jalia asked as she loosened the sword in her scabbard.

“We can’t be in serious trouble yet, as you still have all your clothes on.”

Daniel turned in his saddle to face Jalia. Teasing Jalia was a hazardous game and it helped to be able to see her when he did it, just in case he had to duck a blade aimed at his head.

Jalia’s face reddened, but she didn’t rise to the bait. Their last three fights took place with Jalia naked and Daniel enjoyed teasing her over it. The men had organized themselves into a line blocking their path to the farm. There were no words exchanged and neither Daniel nor Jalia felt it was their place to say anything. They sat on their horses and waited to see what the men would do next.

A man walked out of the farm house and walked towards them. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry. While they waited for him, Daniel cast his mind back over what Talla had told them about Telmar.

A long time ago, so long ago that it was only a vague legend, there was a great earthquake and the land had sunk. The river Jalon rushed into the valley that created. It had filled the valley to create a massive lake hundreds of miles in extent. When the river Jalon finished filling the lake, it resumed its previous path around the Delbar Heights.

At the western end of the lake there was a patch of higher ground. This was transformed into
 
seven islands each over a mile long. Each of these islands was separated from its nearest companion by only a few hundred yards at their closest points.

The islands were first colonized by monks and as the centuries went by a monastery was built on each island. Religious schisms and power plays resulted in these monasteries building high stone walls around them for defense.

By the time of the Magician Kings, the feuds and the faith that led to them had disappeared and ordinary people lived on the islands. Stone bridges were built to connect the islands which lay in an almost circular cluster. The monasteries became places of great learning and the important people of the world sent their children there.

The city of Telmar was formed out of the islands. This was the only place in the world where democracy flourished during the reign of the Magician Kings. Telmar was run by a council of seven, one leader for each island. The council was elected by the people of each of the islands.

When the world fell into chaos after the war between the Magicians and the Fairie the fish from the lake meant that nobody starved.

A system evolved over the next thousand years where the surplus girls and boys from the farms joined the schools to take part in a life of contemplation, learning, and alcohol. The only thing the women were forbidden to do was to become pregnant. Given the availability of gintel, this was easy to achieve.

Telmar stayed in balance with its environment for hundreds of years and flourished as farms beyond the islands supplied food while Telmar provided manufactured goods in return.

When gold was discovered by the northern shores of the lake the local population was delighted, believing life could only get better. Then the Mine Owners Association formed and slowly took over the city. The Association used the men and women from the schools as slaves and occupied the islands. Each Mine Owner ran an island from the safety of the local school, still essentially fortresses. The eighth Mine Owner was given Brinan.

Daniel wondered what the Association was doing now they were down to six. Perhaps one of them was running two islands or maybe they had appointed another member. It was an important matter, as Daniel and Jalia planned to kill all the leaders of the Association, as they didn’t want to spend the rest of their lives running from them.

The man walked past the men with pitchforks.

“I bid you welcome. My name is Gorn Caulder and I thank you for returning Talla to us. I am Jord’s father and I understand you risked your lives in a vain attempt to save my son.”

There were gasps from the other men at Gorn’s words as they realized they meant that Jord was dead.

“I am sorry we weren’t in time to save him,” Daniel said.

Gorn looked at the men who still had their pitchforks raised. “Put those things down. These people are our guests. Sami, can you show them to the stables where they can unload their animals and then bring them up to the house?”

Gorn gave them an exasperated look when nobody moved. “It’s bad enough that mother is wailing and has set off all the other women. Now get on with it.”

13.
Yandin Selda

The dungeon dripped with water. Everything below ground was a little bit wet on Fum, the most central of the islands of Telmar. Alin Bredan cursed as his foot slipped on a wet step.

Bredan was a short man with grey hair slicked back with grease. Even though he kept himself fastidiously clean, he gave people the impression of a weasel or a rat that had slid its way out of a sewer. He had a hunched back and usually held his arms close to his chest.

He was returning from a trip to one of the smaller cells in the dungeon and a very informative talk with the Association’s chief torturer, a man built on the lines of a bull. The torturer was good at his job and took professional pride in it. They had been discussing the information, or rather the lack of information coming from the woman on the table.

The woman was missing several fingers and rather the worse for wear in many other ways, such as the large number of burns visible across her naked body. She had probably been pretty once, before the torturer had started his work, but nobody would ever call her pretty again.

Bredan walked up many flights of stairs and then walked along a narrow stone corridor to his master’s office. He knocked quietly on a thick oak-paneled door and listened for the muffled voice of his master indicating he could enter. He pushed the door open and walked into a small but comfortable office. This had once been the Abbot of Fum’s study before the arrival of the Association. Bredan’s master, Yandin Selda stood behind his desk looking out of the window.

The window looked out over the cliffs of the most northerly edge of the island. Three leagues away the island of Du could be seen, much closer to left and right were the islands of Ona and Trey. The waters of the lake were quiet and its flat surface reflected the grey of the sky. A number of boats moved serenely on the water. Selda clasped his hands behind his back and Bredan sensed his tension in the way he stood.

“Well?”

“She knows nothing, this woman of Malk’s,” Bredan answered unctuously. “It is out of character for Malk to disobey orders, sir.”

Yandin Selda turned and faced Bredan. His dark brown eyes boring into him and Bredan hunched his body a little tighter. “A fortune in gold, strictly speaking eight fortunes in gold, can do that to a man, Alin.”

“Perhaps sir, but he never showed any ability for original thought before and he left his woman and three children to our mercies. On the other hand, the girl, Jalia al’Dare, has shown herself quite capable of deception.”

Selda looked at Bredan thoughtfully as he sat at his desk and motioned to Bredan that he should sit in one of the leather covered chairs. “It is your opinion that the al’Dare woman single-handedly killed or captured six men after they ambushed her and made it look as though she was the one who was captured? Is that likely?”

Bredan leaned forward and dropped his voice as if the walls might have ears. “Remember, these people, al’Dare and al’Degar, destroyed the slave market at Buran, staged a revolution in Taybee overthrowing our ally Baron Tynes, and stole all the Association’s gold before taking Brinan from us. If two people could do all that, I can see no reason why one of them could not kill six of our men on the road, ambush or no ambush.”

“You’ll be telling me next that al’Degar is still alive and we have been tricked in that as well?” Selda laughed cynically, “I think your paranoia is overwhelming your common sense, Alin. If you hadn’t been so accurate in your assessments in the past I would throw you out of here for suggesting this. Is it not more likely Malk accidentally killed the al’Dare woman, and is at this very moment hiding from my wrath?”

“I have considered that possibility, sir. But I would point out that Malk and his men are city born and bred and have no experience in living off the land. We have spies everywhere and I’ve asked them to report stolen or missing farm animals as well as any sightings of travelers and they have reported nothing.”

“I thought the al’Dare woman was born into the upper classes in Bagdor? Wouldn’t she be even less suited to travel cross country?” Despite the question, Bredan saw from his master’s body language that he was becoming convinced by Bredan’s argument.

“The report I have received suggests she stalked and killed a giant before forcing the King of Bagdor to pay her what he owed. The two of them vanished for months between Buran and Taybee, which suggests they are more than capable of living off the land. Finally, they had donkeys with them and probably had rations stored in the donkeys saddlebags. Not enough for seven to survive on, but one or two certainly could.” Bredan leaned back in his chair and let Selda muse.

“If Jalia al’Dare is dead, then the Association’s gold is certainly lost. My spies in Brinan tell me that everybody in the city has been looking for it to no avail. Those damned caves of theirs have apparently taken the lives of at least a dozen people who went to look.” Selda steepled his fingers together and thought.

“I would rather she is still alive and Malk and his men are dead than any of the other alternatives. Tell me, Alin, what do you think she will do if she is still alive?”

“She will come to kill you and the other members of the Association, sir.” Bredan said softly.

“Is Malk’s woman still alive?”

“Barely, sir. Do you wish me to dispose of her and her children?” Bredan consulted a small notebook. “There are three children aged four, three and two. We are holding them in the dungeon.”

“Put her with the children and make sure some of them stay alive. If we are wrong about Malk and he has the al’Dare woman, they will make useful bargaining chips. However, I suspect you are right, Alin. Jalia al’Dare is coming for us. However, without her man she will be much less formidable than they were as a team.”

“Assuming the man we found really was al’Degar, sir”

“Of that I am sure, old friend. I’m willing to believe many things, but the idea that a severely injured man could suddenly recover from a life threatening stab wound to survive travelling across hard country is not one of them.”

Bredan nodded, but only in acknowledgement of his master’s reasoning, not his conclusion. With the gold gone and the mines in the northern hills played out, staying in Telmar was looking far less attractive.

He had served Yandin Selda for nearly twenty years. Bredan had been the one that suggested they come to Telmar and take a gold mine. Selda had done a spectacular job in that area, not only killing the legitimate owners of several mines, but also in founding the Association to end any possibility of anyone stealing the mines from them.

Now the gold they worked so hard to obtain had vanished, stolen by a thief who was so good that she made Selda look like an amateur. She was coming for them, and Bredan suspected Daniel al’Degar would be at her side when she did. All his instincts told Bredan that they should cut their losses and get out of Telmar while the going was still good. Selda thought he was invincible. Bredan knew guards and high walls were any protection against a sharp knife cutting through your throat as you slept.

It wasn’t time to panic and leave just yet, but the time was approaching and Bredan would leave Telmar when that time came. If Selda chose to remain, well that would be his funeral.