We were on the road early the next morning after saying goodbye to those we would leave behind. There were many hugs and some tears. I honestly don’t think that half of my companions thought we would see each other again, at least in this life. I only about a hundred gold with me, leaving the rest of my money in the care of Mariam and Patrick just in case they were right. Before departing, I had also written a will and had it witnessed by the local magistrate. If I died, everything I owned would pass to Goulug. I knew he would do right by my people.
After all the training we had done and the hard work in the fields and around the property, all three of us were in pretty fine shape. I didn’t have any accurate way to measure it, but I thought I had been eating 6,000 to 8,000 calories a day and I still hadn’t gained any weight. Besides the comfort of my own home and bed, the thing I would miss most on this trip was the meals. I doubted we would have very many decent ones until we returned. We covered a lot of ground every day, the pace much more reminiscent of when I had been hiking on my own rather than following the stolid pace set by the plodding oxen.
Bowen and Aleyda were wearing gloves with Werner’s Fingeratron 3000 installed in them. The results were a lot more impressive and natural looking than the stuffing and wire I had cludged together before I got my ring. Sure, there was no independence between the pinky and the extra pinky, but that was the case for many people in this world who legitimately had six fingers. I wore a set of the gloves as well, just in case we ran into someone who could pierce my illusion. They weren’t exactly comfortable to wear but after awhile I got used to them.
On our second day of travel, I once again changed my appearance to look like Dakota M. Brown, award winning insurance agent. Even though, in my opinion, it made me look more disreputable, I was certain that Dakota would receive a better welcome than that evil murderer James Smith. While we walked, we rehearsed our story until we all had it down pat. We were three friends headed off to seek our fortunes. Aleyda and Bowen were immigrants from a small village far north of the inner sea. That’s why they didn’t speak the local language all that well. Bowen and Aleyda had found that the life of immigrants was hard. Lacking decent communication skills, the only jobs that they could get were the ones nobody else wanted. So, they had decided to head to the island to seek its fabled riches. I had a gambling problem with debts that needed repaid, and I either needed to raise some funds or face some rather unpleasant consequences. We had met on the road a couple of days out of Westfield and had decided to travel together. You can never have enough sets of eyes watching your back, you know. Soon, our relationship of convenience had turned to friendship and we decided to marry our fortunes to each other.
I told both Aleyda and Bowen that, if they were pressed, they should be as spare in providing additional details as possible. There was no way that we could rehearse for every eventuality and communicating on the ship was going to be a challenge. The more we talked about ourselves the greater the chance that our stories would diverge. If others compared notes, we would be found out.
Reaching Shroud Hallow only took us about three days. We met other people on the road from time to time going in both directions. We often passed other groups because of our rapid pace. Polite to everyone we met, I managed to weasel some information about our destination from those who had recently left from there.
Apparently, the powers that be in Clan Galwick had decided that too many people were getting fat and happy from the proceeds of their expeditions to the island and they wanted their cut. Honestly, they wanted more than their cut. They were preparing to send a sizable force to the island and there was a heavy recruitment effort around Shroud Hallow. Magical portals, it seems, were a thing in this world because they were planning on building one to connect the island with the military base that I had observed outside of Shroud Hallow. Once it was built, they intended to occupy and “govern” the island. Sensing that their halcyon days of ridiculous profit were drawing to a close, the companies that had been raiding the island for riches had stepped up their recruitment efforts as well in an attempt to get while the getting was still good. It seems like the fragile social order in Shroud Hallow had taken another couple of steps towards anarchy, and I was warned several times that press gangs were prowling the town. Where was that warning when I needed it months ago? Several people suggested that we sign on with a company or the army as soon as possible as there was protection in numbers.
To make matters more complicated, Clan Galwick wasn’t the only government with designs on the island. The Gremans Confederation, the major power to the north of Clan Galligon, also had decided to make a play to control the island. If you’ll remember, Clan Galligon was the feudal overlord to Clan Galwick. Most people thought that while there most likely wouldn’t be a full scale war between the two powers over the riches and resources the island contained, there would likely be some fighting on the island itself. Although I had already decided that army life was not the life for us, that information solidified my decision even more. I had no desire to march around the island, bleeding and shredding blood, so that a government I felt hatred towards could profit. We would have to sign on with one of the companies. There was no passenger service out to the island. All the transportation was in chartered ships. Of course, there were a whole lot of different companies and I lacked the experience necessary to separate the wheat from the chaff. We would have to play it by ear, negotiating to get the best deal.
We didn’t waste any of our precious funds staying in inns on the way to Shroud Hallow. We traveled rough, camping out a little off the roadway, always keeping watch at night. I had gotten a little too accustomed to the comforts of a soft bed and fine meals, and adapting to life on the road took more than a little getting used to. Thankfully, the weather was good. The nights were fairly temperate but this area had a ton of biting insects, mostly little black flies of some sort. So, every night I had to decide between covering as much of my body as possible while I slept and being uncomfortably warm or waking up with a new crop of welts. Thankfully, my enhanced healing soon took care of the burning and itching but my two companions weren’t quite as lucky, although they suffered with equanimity. I should see whether Werner could make an effective insect repellent. If so, we could bring it to market and make a killing.
In the middle of the afternoon on the third day, we reached the turnoff to Shroud Hallow. The road from the main highway to the town was bustling. Army units were marching together, drilling. We passed rough looking males and females of several different species leaving the town. They had obviously returned from their own expeditions and most were boisterous and happy. I said most but not all. Several people we passed bore significant wounds of one sort or another. The island was not a peaceful place.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
Headed in to town were many people off to seek their fortunes before the seemingly endless well of profit dried up. Farm kids, city slickers, the down and destitute with nowhere else to turn, they all meandered towards the outskirts of the settlement. As we got closer, I could see that the number of recruiting booths had grown. Some companies had even hired criers who walked up and down the road screaming out the virtues of their respective employers. Several of the criers had obviously been in altercations as evidenced by their solid collections of bumps, bruises and blackened eyes. I glanced over at Bowen and Aleyda, who both were looking at me like they wanted to ask what the fuck I had gotten them into.
Soon enough, we were engulfed by the throng around the recruitment booths.
“Stay together,” I told my companions in a voice loud enough to penetrate the din. “We can’t afford to be separated. We might never find each other again. If we are forced to split up, though, let’s meet up at the bottom of the hill headed back out of town.”
“We are not getting split up,” Aleyda replied angrily. “And if one more person gropes my ass, there will be bloodshed.”
I hadn’t thought about people using the press and anonymity of the crowd to cop a feel but sadly it didn’t surprise me. People do all sorts of things that they shouldn’t if they think nobody is watching and that there will be no consequences.
“Bowen, can you walk closely behind Aleyda so her back is protected?” I asked, receiving a nod of agreement in response.
Then, we started to make our way from booth to booth, trying to get a sense of what we were dealing with. What we received were promises. Promises of riches beyond imagination. Promises of comfortable ships, of safe and pleasant company compounds on the island. The island was made to sound like the land of milk and honey instead of an unsettled, sparsely populated hellhole fully occupied by monstrous local wildlife that would be content to rip your face off. The promises made sense, though. Once your butt was on a ship a couple of days offshore, it wasn’t like you would be going anywhere. Then the risks, the dire reality of the situation, would set in and there would be nothing you could do about it. I had no doubt there was profit to be made for the lucky few who made it back.
There were companies of all sizes, from larger established ones that had launched dozens of expeditions to freshly minted startups with little to offer. After talking to several recruiters about the terms they offered, it became clear to me that there was little room for negotiation with the large and medium sized companies. They offered set contracts, and their terms were good but not great. When I asked those companies whether we could take our payment in slaves, the answer was resoundingly no. They had set pay and bonus schedules, and if we worked hard and were very lucky, we might end up with enough money to each purchase one slave at auction. That was not the answer I was looking for. We could make more than that plundering the redoubt with less risk to boot. That meant we would have to sign on with one of the smaller companies, one that had little to offer and would negotiate compensation.
The day was drawing to a close, and we hadn’t exactly been bombarded with a bunch of tenable offers. I knew that we would need to spend the next day working our way through the smaller companies as I had mostly concentrated on the larger, better equipped and more grandiose organizations today.
“Let’s head into town for a drink and a hot meal,” I told my companions. “We need to be back out in the countryside before dark, though. I really don’t like this place after dark.”
“Yes, we know,” Bowen replied, rolling his eyes at me. “You have told us that about a dozen times.”
“Once more won’t hurt, then,” I replied, trying to keep the irritation out of my voice.
We wandered into town, the crowds thinning as we cleared the recruitment area. Still, there were many more people on the streets than the last time I had visited. When the well dried up and the wealth from the island cut off, I wouldn’t want to be a business owner here. Half of their customers would disappear overnight and a lot of the businesses wouldn’t survive.
Even though it was too early in the day for most people to eat dinner, the taverns and inns around the area were all doing a bustling business. In some ways, the area had morphed into something resembling the French Quarter in New Orleans. It was early in the day but there were already a whole lot of drunk people wandering the streets. Several food stands dotted the area, doling out overpriced food and drink. Rather than wander into a business without a clue about the expense involved, I decided we should eat from one of the stands. Remembering my first day in Westfield grazing at food stands and the resultant stomach issues, I was more careful this time. I studied the area until I noticed the concession stand with the longest line. Then, I pulled my companions off to join the line.
“Why are we waiting in this line when there are others with no line at all?” Aleyda asked.
“Long lines usually mean a good reputation and repeat customers,” I said. “And a good reputation and repeat customers usually mean that we will be less likely to spend the rest of our evening puking and crapping in a ditch.”
“That makes sense,” Bowen interjected.
“Trust me, I speak with the voice of experience.”
The line was long and it moved slowly. Within a half an hour or so, though, we had made our way to the front. I was damn hungry by the time we made it up to order. We had eaten a big breakfast but that was a long time ago and we had skipped lunch. The stand served some sort of sandwich-like creations wrapped in flatbread. I ordered three of them for each of them, and a mug of ale each to wash it all down. It cost three pieces of gold. I winced as I paid, but soon forgot about the economics of the situation because while the ale was mediocre, the food itself was delicious. After we had all eaten our fill and returned the wooden mugs the ale had been served in back to the stand, we started heading out of town.
Off to one side, I could see a group of guards standing silently, eyeing the crowd. They were clearly gathering strength for the night that was to come. If they had been run ragged before, I could only imagine what their nights were like now. With a start, I realized I recognized one of them. Their leader was the impeccably dressed female orc whom I had met when she was looking for, well, me.
I turned and headed over that direction. Why? I’m not really certain. Maybe I wanted to feel clever for a moment, tweaking the nose of authority. Or maybe I thought she was charming and I just liked talking to her.