Portals of Infinity: Book Four: The Sea of Grass Read online

  "The last one?"

  "No, the one in the middle of them."

  I nodded and looked her mother over. If all she had to do was carry a spoiled rich man around, her life may not be all that bad. But somehow I doubted it.

  I watched as they approached the front door, then all kneeled, lowering the chair so their passenger could get off. He went inside, followed by the bearers who brought the sedan chair inside with them. The six guards that had been traveling with the procession went inside as well.

  I turned and looked down at Goth, "Come on, I need to find a place to sit and think a bit."

  "Are...are you going to g...get her?"

  I looked at Goth, "Of course."

  I waited until it was late, very late, probably two or three in the morning, when most people were all asleep and in bed. I had gotten us a room at an inn in a nicer part of town. I had told them I was a trader and my wife asked me to bring back an apprentice for her weaving business.

  With Goth safely asleep in bed I crawled out of the second story window rather carefully, carrying only a rope that I'd bought earlier, and made my way to the rooftops. I had decided to use what the fantasy books I had read as a kid always called “the thieves highway.”

  Maybe in the poorer parts of town it was a good highway, but here in the nicer part of town the main roads were wide enough to make it rather tough going. As a champion, I had the strength to make those leaps, but landings were rather tough as I was not a light guy and I wouldn't be surprised to find out that I woke a person or two when I landed on a roof particularly hard.

  When I reached the house that Goth's mother was in, I stopped and scouted it out first. There was a guard post for the local watch on the corner there, and it was staffed and active. There was also a guard at the front of the house, and he looked rather alert. Flicking my tail in annoyance I back tracked a few houses and circled around to come back from the other side.

  That side was a lot darker, which let me see that there was a light lit in the house on the first floor. Probably another guard. The house was big enough to suggest that the owner was wealthy enough to hire guards who actually did their jobs.

  Backing up on the roof I was on, I got a good running start and leaped over the space separating the house from its neighbor. I rolled when I hit, and swore quietly as I got stabbed by something as I did. Getting up quickly I checked my side, and then healed the wound. There was a bar sticking up out of the roof, and I'd gotten stabbed by it. Fortunately it was only a few inches long, but I did wonder who put such a thing there. At least it would give me a place to tie the rope when I left. There was no way I'd be able to make the jump carrying someone.

  It took about ten minutes of careful searching to find the hatch that led down from the roof into the top floor. It creaked when I opened it, which made me swear under my breath, I hadn't thought to bring any oil for hinges! I'd make a lousy thief I guess. I opened it slowly, and while it didn't stop creaking, it didn't creak very loudly and no one came to investigate, thankfully.

  There was a ladder built into the wall and I quickly climbed down, I was in a small closet, there were a few tools hanging on the walls, and a closed door. Getting down on my hands and knees I peered under the door. I didn't see or smell anything, so carefully opening it I stepped out into the hallway.

  The hallway wasn't very fancy. There was a rather plain carpet runner on the floor and the walls were clean, but undecorated. I guess the top story was the servant's quarters. So taking my time I followed the hallway around. It circled the entire top floor, with two stairways on opposite sides of the floor. As one was a lot narrower than the other, I assumed that probably was the servants' path to the kitchens and other work areas.

  There were doors on the outside wall of the hallway, but only two on the inside, and those were opposite the staircases. When I put my ear to those two doors, I could hear breathing, so I carefully opened one of the doors and looked inside. It was a dorm room, of sorts, and there were thirty or so women sleeping on beds evenly arranged.

  Slipping in, I slowly sneaked through the room looking at each of the sleepers. I found Goth's mother fairly quickly, but I still took the time to check all of other sleepers just to be sure. Looking around I found a cloth and kneeling next to the bed I put it over her muzzle so she couldn't cry out. She woke almost immediately, eyes going wide and giving a start.

  "Quiet," I whispered in her ear. "I'm here to rescue you."

  Surprisingly, or maybe not? She started to struggle. I whacked her lightly on the head and that stunned her for a moment.

  "Are you trying to get somebody killed?" I growled quietly. "I'll explain everything, but first we need to get out of this room."

  I picked her up with one arm, the other keeping her muzzle clamped tightly closed under the cloth in my hand. When I got to the door, it took me a moment to get it open quietly as she wasn't cooperating; thankfully no one woke up. I took her to the small closet that led to the roof and then pinned her against the wall.

  "I saved your daughter Goth from a rather nasty man. I'm leaving the city and taking her someplace where she won't be a slave. She asked me to get you as well. So, here I am. Now are you going to cooperate?"

  Her eyes were still wide, and she gave a small nod, so I released her muzzle.

  "My daughter is still alive?" she asked.

  I nodded, "Yes, now do you have anything you want to get before we go?"

  She shook her head.

  "Good," I said, "We need to get out of here before the sun comes up."

  "No."

  I stopped and looked at her. "What?"

  "No, I'm not going."

  My eyes got wide and I stared down at her. "You're what?"

  "I'm not going. I'm staying here."

  "I'm offering you your freedom!"

  "I don't know that," She replied.

  "I'm a god's champion," I hissed, "I give you my word that I'm here to set you free."

  She started a little as I invoked the power of my word. A minor cantrip, but as far as I knew only champions had it.

  "Okay, I believe you," she said looking scared. "But no, I want to stay here."

  "You want to stay here?" I growled softly.

  She nodded.

  "As a slave?"

  She nodded again.

  I was sure I looked as exasperated as I felt, "Why?" I asked rather plaintively.

  "Rutgar is a good master, he treats us well, cares for us, keeps us safe and well fed."

  "He makes you carry him around on a chair!" I growled.

  "Which is a lot less work than on a farm, or any of the thousand other things I had to do when I was free!" she said back rather forcibly. "We were barely making it, my husband, me, and our daughter. We'd already lost two children to sickness, and I wasn't sure we'd live to see another year ourselves!

  "It was hard and it was terrible. Rutgar takes care of his slaves, he doesn't work us too hard, we only have to share his bed if we want to, and he never loans us out to anyone. Why would I want to leave? I'm safe here! I'm well fed! All my needs are taken care of!"

  I shook my head and sighed. "What do I tell your daughter?"

  "Tell her whatever you want. You took the time to save her, she's your obligation now, I'm sure you'll do better by her than I ever could."

  I was surprised; she didn't even look embarrassed by it.

  "Fine, be well, slave," I said and quickly climbed up to the roof and closing the hatch, I left.

  At least she didn't raise the alarm on me.

  But I just couldn't fathom it, she had the chance to be free, and she didn't want to? She was happy to give up her freedom, her rights, and be somebody's slave, all because they fed her and gave her a bed to sleep in?

  I shook my head. It just didn't make any sense.

  "Where's my mom?" Goth asked, sitting up in bed as I climbed in the window.

  I shook my head, "She isn't coming."

  She just stared at me.

&nbs
p; "She said she could never treat you as well as I will."

  "I... I want my mom!" Goth said, her eyes starting to tear up.

  I looked at her, I had a pretty good idea what was coming and right now I wished I could be someplace else, anyplace else. This was going to suck more than dying.

  Taking a deep breath I sat down on the bed next to her and pulled her against me.

  "I want my mommy!" She wailed and I just held her, with her head against my chest and tried to shush her, and keep her from getting too loud, telling her over and over that it would all be okay while she cried herself out.

  I felt really bad for her, this poor kid had been through hell and she just got dumped by her own mother, who obviously didn't care about her anymore. I couldn't tell her that of course, she wouldn't believe me, and if she did I could just imagine what it would do to her. It was better that she believed that her mother just gave her to me, because she though she'd be treated better. That she made a sacrifice, and not that she just dumped her remaining child on a complete stranger.

  It took a couple of hours for her to cry herself out. Several times when I thought she was done, I started to let her go and she just started up again. It was late morning when she finally settled down, and stopped crying. She wouldn't talk, or look up at me. She just looked down at the floor.

  The innkeeper gave me a knowing look; "It's always rough when they first apprentice out," he told me when I settled up the bill.

  "I had no idea," I growled softly and he laughed.

  "I thought you said you were married?"

  "I let the wife deal with them when they cry like that," I grumbled. I hadn't slept at all last night, and I was sure I looked it.

  "Oh, well it usually doesn't last long," he smiled. "Have a good trip."

  I nodded and gathered up Goth who was still sulking and left.

  I took her hand and kept up a good pace as we walked through the streets towards the gate. I knew that the priests did everything they could to check everyone coming in. They always found an excuse to touch you, so they could tell if you were another priest or a champion. I was hoping that they didn't bother checking anyone on the way out, as it seemed pointless to do so.

  But as we approached the gate, I could see that I wasn't going to be so lucky, there were four priests there and they were checking everyone. Oh they weren't obvious about it, but they were making sure to touch everyone. There were about a dozen guards at the gate, and probably more on the wall. The killing field around the city wall was at least a hundred yards, maybe more.

  I thought about turning around and trying something else, but that could lead to more problems that I didn't want to deal with.

  I looked at the people around me, there were several large merchant groups, and a lot of them had guards that were well armed. I picked a group from a nearby kingdom that we weren't on good terms with and sidled up behind them. I watched how the priests were dealing with the groups, there were three dealing with the incoming folks, and most of the guards were watching them.

  When the priest turned to me, I just ran him through with one of my swords, spun him around so he was facing the man he had just talked to and I yelled "He killed the priest!" and I pointed while drawing my other sword.

  There was a lot of confusion, a lot of yelling, and a lot of shouting. The people behind me all saw what I did, but the guards all turned to look, saw the priest with a sword sticking out of him, and a man with empty hands before him, and they attacked.

  I grabbed Goth around the waist as everything slowed down for me and picking her up I started yelling "Run! Everybody run!"

  The merchant group the one man was with drew their swords as they were set upon by the guards, a nice fight quickly erupting. One of the guards however was looking at me and yelling as well. So I ran at him and batting his sword aside with my own, I shoulder slammed him on my way towards the gate, knocking him back and causing him to lose his balance and fall.

  I ran out the gate, and there were a lot of other people running in the same direction. I could hear more yelling, and I started to run as hard as I could as I shifted Goth around to in front of me, holding her with both hands now. I made it about halfway across the ground when an arrow flew by and I started swerving my course back and forth to try and throw off the archer's aim.

  Risking a glance over my shoulder I could see that there were several dead at the gate, and a number of the guards appeared to be yelling and one of them was pointing in my direction.

  Turning my attention forward I dodged along a broken course, as best I could. I was getting far enough away that as long as I didn't move in a constant arc, I had a good chance of the archers not hitting me. Of course some of the other people running around didn't look so lucky, and as I had outpaced them, a lot of archers went for the easier targets.

  When I finally made it into cover, I slowed down and stopped, ducking behind a tree to take a good look. There were ten or so people lying on the ground with arrows sticking out of them. None of them looked dead however.

  Six or seven of the guards were double timing it after me, but I wasn't worried about them.

  "You okay?" I asked Goth.

  She looked up at me and I could see she was scared. "W... wh.... what..."

  I checked her over while she was stuttering. Then picking her up and tossing her over my shoulder in a fireman's carry I took off at a jog. I knew were I was going, and if possible I'd rather not deal with the guards behind me. From my point of view it would be a lot better if they went back saying they couldn't find me, than if they never went back at all.

  Two

  Outside of Barassa

  The trip back to Hiland from here was about ten days. I had two soldiers with me, whose main purpose had been to watch the camp while I was in Barassa and to help with anything I might need help with. It took me a couple of hours to make it back to the camp I had left them at.

  I got a quizzical look from each of them when I jogged into camp carrying Goth. I set her down and made introductions.

  "Goth, this is Corporal Peers, and Corporal Joe. Corporals, this is Goth. I rescued her from a bad situation."

  They looked at her and looked at me.

  "William Sir," Peers said, "Shouldn't she be..."

  "Peers," I interrupted and he stopped.

  "Yessir?"

  "This is neither the time, nor the place. Now, we need to move, so let us be on our way."

  "Yessir!" They both said and cleaned up any signs of who we might have been quickly, and then we mounted up our wolats and left. I put Goth on Tom in front of me, she was small enough I figured that was easier.

  Goth was quiet for the entire trip, I don't know if it was Tom, the corporals, riding through the forests, or all of the things that had happened in the last couple of days, but all she did was lean back against me as we rode.

  We stopped as the sun started to set and made camp. After we had dinner Goth finally started to open up.

  "Where are we going?" She asked me.

  "We're heading back home, to Hiland."

  "And then what?" She asked looking a little worried.

  "I'll see about finding you a place to live, I know several people who have children your age, you'd be happy there."

  "Why can't I just stay with you?" she asked.

  "Because I have to travel a lot."

  "I could go with you," Goth said looking hopeful.

  I shook my head, "I get sent to a lot of places alone Goth. Many of the places I go to, and things I have to do, are very dangerous. I won't even bring other adults or even soldiers with me most of the time."

  She pouted a bit.

  I sighed, "Goth, you've had a rough life these last few years. You deserve the chance to just have a normal life and grow up without fears or worries."

  "But I won't have any fears if I'm with you," she said looking up at me hopefully.

  "No, but I will," I sighed. "Go to sleep, we have to get up early in the morning and we hav
e many days of riding yet."

  She looked around at the bedrolls we had laid out. There were four of them of course.

  "Which one is yours?" She asked looking at them.

  "The one I set my pack by." I pointed to the one next to it. "That one is yours Goth."

  "I don't want to sleep alone," she said looking around the camp into the darkness.

  "You won't be, I'll be sleeping right next to you."

  "Okay," she said and yawned, then went and got in her bedroll, but not before moving it right up against mine.

  When she was finally asleep I looked up at Corporal Peers. "Okay, ask."

  "Where's her mother, dead?"

  I sighed and shook my head looking at Goth. "Her mother is a pampered slave of a rich man who has a stable full of lovely women who she claims he treats very well, both in and out of bed."

  "You couldn't save her?"

  "Oh, I could have. Problem was, she said she preferred the life of a slave and didn't want to be rescued."

  "What about her daughter?" He said looking shocked.

  I lowered my voice, "She said her daughter was my obligation now and that I'd probably do better by her then she had."

  "Wow, that's pretty cold." Joe said looking at her.

  "Yeah, I know."

  "What did you save her from?" Peers asked.

  "A nasty tavern where they were whoring her out when they weren't working her to the bone."

  Peers sat back and blinked. "I can't... they did that? To a child?"

  I nodded.

  "I have a daughter a few years younger than her. I can not understand how any male could do such a thing."

  "That's because Hilanders are a decent people," I said. "Barassans are not," I spat in the fire. "I'm going to sleep, if any of you have any ideas on what I should do with Goth, let me know. This whole situation is new to me."

  "It's new to all of us," Peers said and Joe agreed.

  I sighed and nodded and crawled into my bedroll. I woke up sometime later at night when Goth woke up and crawled into mine with me, and snuggled up against my back. I curled my tail around her and she fell back asleep rather quickly.