Suma’s POV
Jake and Lauric returned after some time, but before the sun had risen. They told us that the village had been attacked, that there were few survivors, and about the hostages being held in a makeshift prison.
“Alright then, squad,” Captain Gigoales said, “we leave immediately. Jake, you remain here for now. We cannot take our familiars on this one, but if a fight breaks out, be ready for Suma to summon you.”
“Yes, sir.” Jake said. With that, we all flew straight for the village as low to the ground as we could manage, and arrived just over a minute later.
“That went much faster without needing to ride on a familiar’s saddle.” Lauric said. I sighed internally, because I knew first hand how slow Jake’s travel speed was.
“Neame spotted, forward left. Is that the villager you spoke to, Lauric?” Datahu asked.
“Yes, Lieutenant, it is.” In front of us a short distance was a young Neame girl, barely more than a child. As we got close, I saw through the darkness that she still had some of her down feathers.
“A hatchling? That is who is sneaking us into a prison?” Nine asked.
“It is a familiars’ pen with farmers and shepherds as guards, hardly a prison, but yes.” Lauric answered. We landed, and it was the captain who spoke first.
“Take us.” He said simply.
“R-right, yes. Follow me.” She said, and led us around the village, then through a series of death-trees, larger buildings, which were half crumbled to the ground, and down a deserted street. “This is it.” She said. We hid behind the side of the building that faced away from the large open areas, and was relatively dark. “There are runes inside to prevent magic from being used. How will you carry them?”
“Some familiar have magic, so a pen for them would need to have measures to protect the other familiars, just in case.” Lauric said.
“We expected this.” The Captain said. “Are they tied up?” The child nodded, and Captain Gigoales turned to us. “We carry them. Three per hostage. Lauric, Datahu, and myself will take one. Nine, Fourteen, and Suma will take the other.”
“Wait here, I will distract the guards.” The child said, and flew away. I could not hear what they spoke about when the child landed, but a few moments later, she and the two guards flew away towards the center of the village.
“Go.” The Captain ordered. We all flew through the door, and saw two Neame tied up with vines, surrounded by over a dozen runes carved into scraps of wood and leather. The Captain looked them over. “Not the best rune design I have seen, but it works. Nine, grab as many in your mouth as you can.” He ordered, and picked up three of the leather strips in his own mouth.
“Alright everyone, lift and fly.” Lieutenant Datahu said. Nine grabbed a plank with a rune, and flew over to the hostages; who had been asleep until several Neame started grabbing them in their claws.
“Wait, what? What is happening?!” One shouted.
“Quiet down, we are moving you.” Datahu said.
“Where are you taking us?” He yelled again.
“Outside the village. No one is going to hurt you, so just quiet down.” The hostages were clearly uneasy, but stayed quiet.
It took a lot of flapping and struggling to stay a mere wingspan off the ground, but we somehow managed to move both hostages out of the village, unseen by anyone. By the time we were far enough away that I could summon Jake, all of us, even the Captain and Lieutenant, were essentially gasping for breaths.
“What was the point of all those high-dive drills if we are still this tired?” Nine asked.
“Aireal control.” The Captain said, through his wheezing rasps. “Private Suma, summon Jake.”
“Yes, sir.” I said.
“Jake, I am about to summon you, but we are not in a fight.” I told him through our connection.
“Okay, ready.” He replied. I performed the spell, and he appeared a moment later. “Why is everyone breathing so hard?” He asked, after looking around for a moment.
“Carry the hostages. We will fly away, and then resummon you at a safe location. Keep them safe until then.” The Captain ordered.
“More flying? There are faster methods of execution, Captain.” Nine joked. Fourteen chuckled.
“Yes, there are, Private. Such as complaining during a mission.” The Captain replied, and for the very first time, I heard a small laugh come from Lieutenant Datahu. But she quickly apologized, and the Captain ordered us to follow him. With that, we flew away, leaving Jake to watch the prisoners.
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Jake’s POV
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As everyone flew away, I was left alone with the two tied up Neame, who’d been bound with ropes and had leather strips with runes hanging from multiple parts of their bodies. It was quiet for a bit, until one of them spoke, probably not realizing I could understand them.
“I think their gone. Could you reach my bindings with your beak or talons if I managed to get closer?” One said.
“Maybe, but untying the knot might prove difficult. I could try to cut it?” The other replied.
“What about that familiar? Think it would realize what we are doing, and stop us?” The first one asked.
“I do not know. It doesn’t look too smart…” The second said.
“Frick you.” I said, indignant. That startled both of them, and they began looking around.
“Did one of them stay behind?” The second asked, panicked.
“Sarge, I think it was that familiar.” The first said. The second one, a sergeant apparently, stared at me in disbelief. It was dark, but from this close, I could see his glitter in the dark, and it got dimmer. Some of the feathers on his chest and neck puffed up.
“Indra’s eyes… it is a Viking.” The sergeant said, horror in his tone. The other, hearing this, puffed up as well.
“I’m not a… never mind.”
“Can… you… understand… us?” The first one asked, speaking slowly.
“Yeah, I can understand you. Do you understand that if you try to escape, I’m going to have to stop you?”
Despite being very tired from the long walk here, and being called a Viking again, I did my best to sound intimidating. The sergeant glanced at his subordinate, whose eyes were firmly fixed on me, then spoke again.
“So, the reports were true. There’s another Viking.”
“Yup.” I said.
“Did you really kill Harbinger?” The subordinate asked, almost whispering.
I sighed. “Yes.”
“And did she do that?” The sergeant motioned with his head to my missing hand. I nodded. “Ha! Well, at least that monster went down talons out!”
“She wasn’t a monster!” I snapped, suddenly very upset, but quieted down, realizing I could be heard. “She was a victim. Captured and mind controlled by your people. Turned into weapon by the Southern Union…”
“Yeah, well… she was weak.”
“What?” I hissed.
“That’s what happens when you are not strong enough. You get perched on by everyone. There’s never anything left for the Neame at the bottom. At least she died with a full stomach. What a waste.”
“Sarge… I think maybe we should not provoke the big angry Viking. You heard what he did to Harbinger, right?” The subordinate said.
“Oh yeah. I heard how he cast Death-Magic and killed her.” A white-hot flash of heat ripped though my heart; guilt. I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Real slow too.”
“That wasn’t… I didn’t… it wasn’t supposed to happen. I made a mistake.” I said, suddenly feeling short of breath, like there was a noose around my neck. “She was trying to kill me. I didn’t have a choice!”
“Sure, sure. Let me ask you something, Viking. You ever been hungry?”
“What?”
“Hungry. Like, ‘you have not eaten in weeks, and suddenly your dying friends are starting to look appetizing’ kind of hungry. You ever been that hungry?”
“No.” I shook my head.
“Well, I have. And so has this blithering skiddler here.” He motioned with his head to the other Neame. “And so has my whole unit. Until we came here.”
“What does this have to-”
“This place is nice. Plenty of food, clean water, it even has forests!” The Neame chuckled. “You know, I had never seen a forest until I landed on these islands. At least not one that wasn’t poison. Sure, I saw a few trees, but a whole safe forest? I had no idea there were so many trees in the whole world. And the water! It is clean! Just clean. Anyone can drink it, and not have to pull the bodies and feathers out first.” He stopped talking for a bit, and I didn’t know what to say. “I know I’ll die on this island. Probably soon. Guess what I think about that.” He said. I didn’t respond. “That’s fine by me. Because when I die, it will be with a full stomach, preened feathers, and the peace of mind knowing that no one will be looking at my corpse like they would have in the union.”
“What’s it like there?” I asked.
“I was a slave, so all in all… it could have been worse. At least there was one person who would have cared if I died, even if it was just because it cost them money. Most Neame do not have such a privilege. When they die, they are just moved into the nearest sandpit, and forgotten. You want to know what my home was like? We have five different words for dead. One for all the worst ways to die.”
“How… how did you get here, then?”
“I was sold to the army. Best day of my life. If any of my friends had still been alive, we would have sung together.”
“So, you’re still a slave?” I asked.
“Sixth slave front fleet. Or, as our master calls us, the shield squadron.”
“Why did you come here? The Southern Union? Why invade this island, or the Island of Sangu?”
“Do you have sand in your head? I just told you, because I was sold. But you’re asking why the union invaded. Probably one of the warlords got himself a notion of conquering the whole world; who knows.”
“You really don’t know why you’re fighting?” I asked.
“Oh, I know why I’m fighting. Because my master said he would give me a better understanding of two or three of those five words I mentioned if I didn’t, and he would give me a few seeds if I did. Same for the skiddler.” The other Neame nodded solemnly.
“Why not run away? You could. They already think you’re dead. Nothing can stop you anymore.” I suggested.
“What a fantastic idea! Just let me go, and I’ll fly away, you’ll never see me again. Really.” The sergeant said, sarcastically. “If it were that easy, there would be a lot more warlords, and a lot less slaves.” He looked over to the other Neame. “Turn him over. Look at his back.” I picked up the Neame carefully, he squawked a bit, surprised, but did not resist. On his back were burn marks that glowed a different color than his glitter. “Know what that is? I bet you have one just like it, somewhere under all those garments and all that muscle. A slave crest.”
“I don’t have a slave crest.” I said.
“Maybe not, but I bet you do have a familiar’s circle.” He said. Glancing at my arm, I could picture that magic tattoo I got years ago, hiding just under my sleeve. “Our slave marks are the same as those circles, with a few tweaks. If we disobey our masters, or try to escape, we are punished… severely.”
“You mentioned warlords. What did you mean? Is that like a noble? Or a rank in the military?” I asked, changing the topic abruptly with a shake of my head as I place the Neame back down.
“Do you really care? Or are you just trying to avoid-”
“JUST,” I took a breath, “tell me.”
“Fine. Warlords are the ones in charge. They control the food, the slaves, and the mages. You wanna be a warlord, you need those. A lot of those. If it is a warlord with enough supplies and slaves, they might try conquering another warlord’s territory. Maybe it will even be a nice territory without too many deserts, no poison forests, and a few towns.”
“Jake,” Suma said over our private connection, “we are almost there. Are you ready?”
“Yeah…” I answered her, and picked up the two Neame.
“Undo their anti-magic runes, and toss them aside. But hold them tight. I will summon all of you.” She said.
I picked up the Neame, which caused them both to panic, but they calmed down when I removed those leather straps.
“You are freeing us?” The sergeant asked.
“Nope. It’s time to go.” I said, and heard Suma’s voice as she summoned me.
“I summon you, Sentinel!”