The rest of the journey back to our camp was uneventful. Even Yahg was in a good mood. Apparently, he had been looking for someone to vent his frustrations on and our encounter had provided him with a convenient target. For Yahg, a good mood meant grandiosity. He spent most of the trip down the mountain recounting the beating that he had administered, at times describing what he had done and what he was feeling with graphic detail. I appreciated his willingness to jump in and help us, but his soliloquy didn’t make me like him any more. It was quite the opposite, really. The orc was a seething cauldron of rage constantly looking for an outlet. I wondered what had happened to him to make him like that. Everybody else in the company had done the same job in Shroud Hallow, yet I had seen no evidence that any of the others were wired that way. Was he abused as a child?
When we walked into camp, Caider and Tikter were doing their normal. By that, I mean they were sitting around and ordering everyone else about with abandon. Supervision is an important skill, but I didn’t have much respect for supervisors who were afraid to pitch in and get their hands dirty. When Caider saw us walk into camp, his eyes widened. He bolted to his feet and walked over to us.
“You have been gone so long I thought all three of you were dead,” he said. “Seeing you make it back is a pleasant surprise. Not everyone has been so lucky.”
My stomach sunk when I heard his words. I wondered which members of the company had already fallen. I had tried not to get too attached to the rest of the company, but when you spend weeks on a ship socializing and fighting against the sea for your lives, that familiarity creates a certain sense of attachment.
“People keep saying that they thought we were dead,” I said, and then began lying through my teeth. “We ranged fairly far up the mountain and got into a few scraps with the local wildlife. Sometimes, we had to hide from stuff that was too nasty for us to handle. Unfortunately, the only potential slaves we encountered were already dead. Well, I assume they were slaves. After they had been feasted on for awhile, it can be tough to tell. But we did bring down quite a bit of loot.”
“I can see that,” he said. “That’s good. Really good. It smells like some of the skins are starting to go bad, though. We need to get them down into town and get them tanned. I can have Tikter run them down and get the best deal that he can find. What else did you manage to acquire?”
I showed him the bags of iridescent feathers, the uncut gemstones, and the small chunks of gold. He made suitable sounds of appreciation whenever I brought out something new, but I started to become a little distrustful when I noticed the greedy look in his eyes. There was no way that Tikter was going to town to sell this stuff by himself. If we let him do that, I was sure we were about to be screwed.
“So, how did everyone else fair?” I asked him.
“They did alright but not as well as you all did,” he replied. “We ended up with quite a few wounded and lost a couple of people.”
I didn’t like the blithe way he delivered the news. When you sit on your ass all day exhorting others and never risk your own safety, you should at least feel some remorse when your plans lead to others being injured or killed. I saw none of that in his response. Instead, the way he talked was almost like he was describing the current weather or what he had for dinner the night before. I am certain he had lost people under his command in the guard, but the nonchalant way he listed the losses rubbed me wrong. Had I inadvertently signed us up with a company led by a sociopath?
“Who did we lose?” I asked.
“Tog and Borug,” he replied. “Unfortunately, our losses have put us behind schedule, so I will give you a day to rest up before you head back out.”
Damn it, I liked Tog. Among the orcs we had gamed with, he seemed the most happy go lucky. I never heard him get in an argument with anyone and although he didn’t talk very much, when he did it revealed a wicked sense of humor. I had no idea who the hell Borug was, though. I guess I would need to identify him by process of elimination.
“We did capture a slave, though,” he said. “Go take a look.”
We wandered over to our slave pen, which had clearly been constructed to overly optimistic dimensions. Dumbuk was on guard duty and I greeted him warmly when I saw him.
“I thought you were dead,” he said.
“I keep hearing that,” I replied.
“When you go out again, can you leave one of your sets of dice?” he asked. “It gets boring with nothing to do at night.”
I couldn’t help it. That made me laugh. “You are such an asshole,” I said.
He smiled back at me with a tusky grin.
“Yes, I will leave you some dice,” I said, smiling in return. “It is good to see that you are well.”
“I did get wounded,” he said, rolling up his left sleeve to reveal the large chunk that had been torn out of his forearm by something with nasty looking teeth. I need to heal up some more before I go back out.”
I turned to Caider. “You were right about the other companies,” I said. “Besides the one that tried to shake us down on the way here, we had to fight and kill another group that got a little too covetous of our possessions.”
“There is no law here,” he said, spitting into the dirt at his feet. I was certain that he was reflecting back on his service to the fine people of Shroud Hallow, but when we left there was little law there either.
Finally, I turned my attention to the pen. Inside was the single slave that someone had managed to capture. He was a male in his early teenage years with pasty white skin and an almost skeletal physique. I assume his natural habitat was in front of a television playing his world’s version of video games, but because I didn’t want to give away my gift of tongues, I couldn’t inquire. In fairness, if the others compared notes, I had probably already revealed my gift but there was no sense in tempting fate.
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“What do slaves sell for on the island, anyway?” I asked Caider.
“Not too much, a couple of hundred gold. Some don’t survive the passage back to the mainland and transporting them is expensive. The value once they make it back to Shroud Hallow doubles or triples. Like any other product, there is a markup every step of the way. Some succumb to illness or accident before they make it to the auction block. That’s where the real money is.”
The boy in the pen had perked up when he heard me speak. Yeah, I had just fucked up. He could understand every word that I was saying just like everyone else could.
“You speak my language!” he cried out gleefully.
To cover for my mistake, I turned and started walking away from the pen.
“Wait, come back!” he called after me, but I hardened my heart and walked away. I would try to be assigned to a guard shift at some point when nobody else was around, then we could have a conversation. The time for that was not now.
“I want to go down into town with Tikter when he sells our loot,” I told Caider.
“Surely, you need rest more. You look wrung out. Don’t you trust us?”
“As you have pointed out to me on more than one occasion, we hardly know each other,” I said. “Trust is something that is built stone by stone. A common saying in my culture is trust, but verify.”
Now, we were at the moment of truth. If he continued to insist that Tikter sell the things on his own, I knew we were about to be cheated. I honestly didn’t know how I would react if he did insist. It is not like we could walk home from here. Maybe I had generated enough goodwill with Captain Clemenzio that he would allow us onboard even if we were expelled from the company but the trip back would be perilous indeed.
“That’s a good saying,” he said. “You can go, but first I will need to have Tikter search each of you to make certain that you are not holding back something valuable. Verification works both ways.”
“We already agreed to that, so it sounds fair to me,” I said. “But it needs to be someplace private and there won’t be any strip searches of Aleyda. We’ll work something out to give you the verification you desire but she is not going to be touched by anyone here. That’s not negotiable.”
“I don’t care if I am searched,” Aleyda said. “I have gone through far worse in training.”
“Actually, she said she doesn’t care if she is searched. So, let’s get this over with and get these things sold before most of them go to rot. Are we better off keeping the things and selling them on the continent or selling them here?”
“I honestly don’t know,” he replied. “Both come with potential problems. If we keep the items and transport them back, we could have them taken from us and bundles of fur and bags of feathers are more difficult to conceal than a pouch full of gold or gems. I am sure that they would sell for far more back home but sometimes certainty beats risk. Tikter has been monitoring the local markets. Maybe he would have a better answer.”
We headed over to see Tikter.
“I need you to search all three of them and make certain that they are not concealing anything valuable,” Caider said. “Then you and James will be headed down to town to get the best deal that you can for the things that they brought into camp. He asked a good question, though. Are we better off just getting the hides tanned and transporting things back to the mainland for sale, or is it more advantageous to sell them here?”
“That’s tough to answer,” Tikter replied. “We would make much more back in Shroud Hallow, but if things are damaged in transit or someone raids our compound we might end up with far less as well. We will have to see what we get offered and decide then. I know there are a lot of skins of all types traded here and they probably aren’t worth as much as we hope they are. This feathers, on the other hand, I’ve not seen anything very similar. At least not in that quantity. Those might be worth something. As far as the gems and gold are concerned, those are easy enough to transport. They might be worth getting appraised but I don’t see any real need to sell them here.”
Well, crap. Now I was in a dilemma. I needed to purchase some supplies for Segerick’s people but to do that I needed some currency. Sure, I had some but with the prices here I wasn’t certain how far that money would stretch. I took their valuables to try to sell them and obtain those supplies but now it sounded like many of their things wouldn’t be sold here on the island. I was beginning to think that I had screwed up. Hopefully, the things that we did sell would cover the cost of supplies.
Tikter led us way from the main part of the compound and then we stripped and he began searching us. It was clear that this was not the first time that he had performed a strip search. I wondered if he had spent time as a guard in the Shroud Hallow jail. His technique was well polished, down to the order to bend over and cough. Before he began, though, I made certain that we were on the same page about the number of coins that I had brought to the island. He pulled out his receipt and compared it with mine. Like a dolt, I had forgotten to account for the small amount of coinage that we had pulled off the other orcs that we had slain. I mentioned that we had fought another company and looted them, so we then spent a few minutes pawing through our looted coins and letting him claim the company’s share. In total, it probably amounted to around twenty gold. Being the magnanimous person that I am, I let him keep seven for the company. Then, we updated our receipts accordingly and headed back to see Caider.
“They weren’t holding out on us,” Tikter told Caider. “James had a little extra coinage that he had looted from the other company they fought but he had clearly forgotten about it and there wasn’t very much. We would have found it at the end of the trip anyway.”
“How much coinage?” Caider asked.
“Our share was seven gold.”
“You are right, that’s not a whole lot. Next time, though, you need to remember the coins as well so there won’t be any misunderstandings later.”
“I agree,” I said. “I had honestly forgotten that we had found money on the orcs. There just wasn’t a whole lot given how many of them there were. I assume they had left most of their valuables back at camp before they headed out.”
“That’s a good policy,” Caider said. “We should encourage our people to do the same. As a matter of fact, before you head back out make certain that you deposit your profit with Tikter. He will keep it safe.”
“Thanks for the offer, but there is absolutely no chance that is going to happen,” I responded. “We are still in the trust building stage. You trust us so little that you had Tikter strip search us, like we were hiding gems up our rear ends or something. When you feel that we have earned enough trust that we don’t have to go through that indignity again, then you will probably have earned enough trust with us that your suggestion will be a good one.”
“Fair enough,” he said. “We’ll just have to see how things progress.”
We headed back into the main part of camp and started gathering all of our valuables. I had once heard that when you are out hiking, your pack is never so heavy as it is when you pick it back up after a rest break. Once we were again laden with everything, I found that the sentiment behind that saying held true, even in this world. I was astonished that we had managed to drag this load of crap up and then back down the mountain.
Once our packs were sufficiently balanced, we headed down the well-traveled path to the town. I hoped that our loot was worth something. Otherwise, I would feel like an idiot after carrying it all this way.