We walked over towards the squad of weary looking guards. A couple of them noticed our approach and their faces became soulless masks, staring at us with wary, hard eyes. As we got closer, their signs of strain became more evident – tired looking features, poorly repaired cuts and tears in their uniforms, bloodstains that had not been able to be soaked clean. Finding themselves locked in a siege mentality, this was clearly a poor time to be a guard in Shroud Hallow.
One of them, one of the smallest, thinnest orcs I had ever laid eyes on, stepped forward to meet us. I could almost hear him suppress his urge to sigh.
“What can we do for you, sir?” he asked.
“Don’t worry, there’s no problem,” I said, trying to smile disarmingly while I held my hands well clear of my weapons. “I am acquainted with your squad commander and just thought I would stop by and say hello.”
Turning slightly to the side, he called out to the female orc. “Sergeant, this man says he knows you.”
She had been conversing with one of her subordinates but spun around to face our direction. She initially eyed me with a puzzled look but I could see the gears turning in her head. Finally, something must have clicked and I could see dawning recognition in her eyes.
“Mr. Brown, was it?” she said, stepping forward. “I didn’t expect to see you back in town so soon. Did you rebuild your fortune?”
“Sadly, things took a turn for the worse,” I replied, slowly shaking my head. “Gambling will be the death of me, at least if I can’t repay my debts. I could bore you with the details, but let’s just say I had a long run of bad luck. Therefore, my companions and I have decided to join an expeditionary company to try to raise some funds.”
“I see my advice wasn’t worth much to you,” she said, smiling ruefully.
“Oh, you gave me great advice but I was too stupid to take it. The problem is that I never feel as alive as I do when money is on the line, my fate determined by how the cards fall or how the dice land. I can’t help myself. In the moment, I always think about how I am going to win but never consider what will happen if I lose. I feel invincible, but I am obviously not.”
“I hope you learn that you aren’t just gambling with your fortune, you are risking your life,” she replied.
“I hope I will as well. Before it is too late. Did you ever catch that man you were after? Let me tell you, there were some tense nights on the road after I met you. I kept thinking about that murderous bastard creeping up on me as I slept and slitting my throat.”
“Sadly, no,” she responded. “It’s like he just disappeared. If he’s alive, though, he’ll turn up again. They always do.”
“Well, that wasn’t the reason that I came over to talk to you. Of course, I wanted to stop in and say hello as you left me with a very favorable impression when we met out on the road. But what I wanted to ask was this. I need to raise a significant amount of funding and so the larger companies are out of the picture for us. I know they are safer and there is strength in numbers but to really strike it rich, we need to hook up with a smaller company that will let us negotiate terms. I would like to take my payment in slaves and then take them to Westfield myself to maximize my profit. I know someone in the auction business who won’t charge me a ton of commission. Do you know of any smaller companies with good reputations?”
“You really do like high risk, high reward plays, don’t you?” she said. “Honestly, a lot of the smaller companies have poor reputations. They treat the people they recruit as disposable and far too often, whole expeditions are lost. I don’t know of any that would fit your requirements personally, but let me ask some of my men.”
She turned and started conversing with the other guards. We stepped back out of earshot to give them a bit of privacy, not that we had to step back very far on the noisy street. After a few minutes of discussion, she turned back to me beckoning me forward.
“There might be one group we can recommend,” she said. “They don’t actively recruit out here,” she continued, gesturing towards the crowded street. “They are mostly ex-guard, either retirees or those who have left the service because, frankly, there are easier ways to make a living. Their leader is named Caider and he spends a lot of time at the Limping Dog, a tavern on the other side of town closer to the docks. I’m not certain he will take you on, but it never hurts to ask.”
“Thanks for the information,” I replied excitedly. “And I am sorry, sergeant, even though I look back on our earlier encounter quite fondly, I never got your name.”
“I am Tola,” she said.
“Well, Sergeant Tola, it is a pleasure to be formally introduced.” Reaching in to my pocket I palmed a couple of gold pieces. Reaching out, I handed them to her. “Allow me to show my appreciation for your work by buying some drinks for your squad. After you get off duty, of course.”
She looked down at the gold in her hand, a torn expression on her face. “Are you certain you can afford this,” she asked.
“Of course I can,” I replied. “I am going to be rich!” Then, nodding to her, we turned and walked away, headed back into the relative safety of the countryside.
“Who was that murderous man you were talking about?” Aleyda asked.
“It’s a long story, but that was me,” I responded.
“Oh, I have to hear this one,” Bowen said.
We made a cold camp that night a couple of miles out of town a good distance off the roadway. Before sleep, I told them the story of my last ill-fated trip to Shroud Hallow. By the time I was done, they were laughing at me. Not with me, at me. Their laughter was infectious. By the end of the story, I was laughing at me, too.
The night passed uneventfully, although we did hear raised voices carried by the wind a couple of times. The next morning, it was back into town. Shroud Hallow wasn’t really that big and we were able to find the Limping Dog after a little bit of exploring. Unfortunately, we had arrived too early. It wasn’t open yet. We wandered out of town until we had a nice, unobstructed view of the glittering ocean. We could see the docks, packed with ships loading and unloading. One wharf was clearly dedicated to military vessels, aggressively styled ships with well-disciplined crews that were dripping with weaponry. They looked quite menacing.
My companions seemed both mesmerized and intimidated by the watery expanse. I know I was. There is nothing like the ocean to drive home how small we are, how we can easily be overwhelmed by the power of nature.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Around midday, we made our way back to the tavern and found that it was open. Striding inside, we were greeted by a ramshackle common room full of mismatched furniture with dirty, roughly finished flooring. There were a couple of other customers there that had preceded us, quaffing ale like it was the very stuff of life. I guess alcoholism is another one of those universals. With my own history of addiction, I could sympathize.
I walked up to the bar, catching the eye of the barkeep.
“What can I get you?” the old orc asked. He looked as if he had formerly been well-muscled, but it had largely gone to fat.
“Is Caider around?” I asked.
“No, he usually doesn’t get here until the middle of the afternoon.”
“Do you serve food?”
“No, no food,” he replied. “Just drink.”
I ordered three ales, wincing at both the price and later at the taste. Then, we sat at a rickety table and settled in to wait. Hours passed and more people arrived. Since we were occupying a table, I ordered a second round and we snacked on jerky from our supplies. The second round was no better than the first. Honestly, I had started to doze off, but I jerked back awake when I heard someone sit down at our table. Looking up with bleary eyes, I saw a fit looking middle aged orc seated in the chair next to me.
“The barkeep said you were asking for me,” the orc announced.
“Are you Caider?” I replied.
“I am.”
“My friends and I were looking to join an expedition, and Sergeant Tola recommended we contact you.”
“Tola, that stuck up bitch? I am surprised she even remembered my name.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell him that she hadn’t, that the recommendation had really come from her men.
“What do you have to offer me,” he asked.
“My companions, who don’t speak the local language very well because they are immigrants from the far north, and I are all accomplished fighters. But what’s important is that we are motivated. We are motivated to enrich ourselves, to improve our lot in life. And when we make money, you make money. The sticking point, though, is we want to take our payment in slaves. I have a friend back in Westfield who has an in with the slave auction, and we can make more money transporting them and selling them ourselves. None of the larger companies would pay us that way. We are pretty self sufficient and wouldn’t need a whole lot of support. We just need a chance. Will you give us one?”
“Well, we could use a few more hands,” he responded. “But how do I know you are trustworthy?”
“You don’t,” I responded. “Just like we don’t know for certain, recommendations and all, that we can trust you. But you control our ride back home. Living on the island permanently is not in my plans and I can’t walk on water. What have you got to lose? If we succeed, you get money. If we fail, you have more room on your ship for cargo and we end up dead on the island. It sounds like a win-win proposition for you to me.”
He sat there for a couple of moments pondering my response. Finally, he spoke.
“When you put it that way, I can see your point. But, like you said, I am providing the transportation and I do have to feed you. One out of three slaves you capture goes to me for my trouble, and if you find anything else of value, I get a third of its value.”
I didn’t think we would do better negotiating with anyone else. At least the deal he offered was simple and easy to administer.
“How many other people are in your company?” I asked.
“Fifteen without you, eighteen including you,” he replied.
“When do we leave?” I said, reaching out to shake his hand.
After returning the handshake, which was actually a clasping of wrists in this culture, he replied. “High tide in two days. The ship is named Merfolk’s Tears. We’ll load up early that morning.”
“What do we need to bring with us?”
“Everything you need to survive. We don’t have any cushy compound like the bigger companies. I will provide food and some tents, but anything else is on you.”
“Fair enough,” I said.
“Do you have someplace to stay in the meantime?” he inquired.
“No, we’ve just been camping out in the countryside. I don’t find this town to be very hospitable at night.”
“That it’s not,” he said. “If you need a place to stay, I can let you bed down in the warehouse we are storing our supplies in. Me and the others have been taking turns guarding it at night so that nothing disappears. You could take over for us, and that would give you a nice enclosed space to sleep at night. It’s a fairly nice warehouse. There aren’t that many rats because the owner keeps quite a few cats in there.”
Lacking any better option and wanting to ingratiate myself with our new boss, I quickly agreed. He led us out on the street and down towards the docks to a long complex of ramshackle warehouses that ran a few streets back along the waterfront. Stopping at one of the smaller ones, he produced a key and opened the door. The inside was packed with supplies. Crates and barrels, some covered by tarps, dominated the small space. The only windows were high on the walls, and even though the weather was fairly nice the warehouse itself made me a little claustrophobic. It smelled fairly strongly of the ammonia-like stench of cat urine. He wasn’t lying about the cats. I saw three or four the moment we stepped inside. I imagined there were many, many more due to the strength of the odor. Wandering to the back of the warehouse, we found ourselves in a relatively clear area with a crude table, an oil lantern, and a couple of benches.
“You can bed down here,” he said.
I didn’t want to go back on my word, but the clean air of the countryside was certainly appealing more and more to me by the moment.
“Do you mind if we open some of those windows?” I asked, gesturing up towards the walls.
“Go ahead, but close them if you have to leave for some reason. And I need you all here at night. Warehouse burglary has become more and more common as prices have gone up.” Then, he turned and made his way back out into the light of day.
That night, after opening a few of the windows, we ate from our own supplies and stayed in. After Caider left, I explained my deal with the others. They both agreed that it was straightforward and reasonably fair. Nobody tried to rob the place that night, but my sleep was interrupted several times by the yowling and hissing of cats. Apparently, even though they lived in the same place they all didn’t get along. I didn’t see any rats that night, though, and that was a plus. I really didn’t like rats, with their beady little eyes and hairless tails, and I imagine they grew them pretty big around the docks.
The next day, we took turns going out to get a little air, always in pairs. Bowen and I went back to the food stand that we had patronized the first night and got some more of those tasty sandwich things. When we returned, I noticed that Caider had arrived, this time with another thickly built older orc. Caider introduced the other person as Tikter, the expedition’s quartermaster and second in command. Tikter didn’t talk much, wandering through the warehouse, inventorying supplies and trying to make certain he hadn’t forgotten anything important. Caider reminded me that he would be by with the rest of his crew at dawn tomorrow to get the ship loaded. Then, he and Tikter left again.
I was nervous, and I wasn’t the only one. Sitting around the table back at the house making plans was one thing. Boarding a ship on the morrow to face the unknown was another. We had to rely on each other, though, to see things through. I trusted my companions and I hope they trusted me in return.
That night when I was on watch, I heard someone fussing with the door to the warehouse. I walked over to the door.
“What do you want?” I called out.
The rattling stopped and I heard a couple of people beating feet back down the street. Guarding our supplies was a good idea, it turned out.