Let’s get this out of the way right from the beginning. Captain Clemenzio was correct. There wasn’t another major storm on our voyage home. Certainly, there was some rougher weather – some rain, wind, thunder and lightning. Everything we encountered, though, was tame by comparison to our voyage out, and the ship held up just fine.
Our ship, which had seemed so lithe and agile when we set out from Shroud Hallow, was no longer quite as quick as we cut through the waves. Part of it, I am sure, had to do with the fact that the sails were tattered and torn in places, but that wasn’t all of it. The ship had taken a pounding. Speed increased the stress on the already battered timbers that comprised its hull. We couldn’t afford that stress. We plodded sedately along, adding a significant amount of time to our already long voyage.
Aleyda was seasick for the first three days after we left port, but then her stomach settled. For the first week after we left the island, I spent a lot of time out on the deck, standing on the aft part of the ship waiting for the pursuit that I was certain was about to overtake us. In my mind, we had made it off the island too easily. I was certain that something was going to go wrong. It was a conditioned response for me at this point. Since I found myself in this world, every time I gained a little breathing room, every time I let my guard down, something bad seemed to happen. But nothing bad did happen. After about a week of scanning the ocean behind us, I gave up. If we were really being pursued, we would have been overtaken already. After that, I was able to relax a little. There was plenty of food and water on board to last us for the rest of the voyage. The company had provisioned for seventeen people, not ten. That decision was wildly optimistic, but on the off chance that everyone had survived, running out of provisions at sea would have created a very tense situation.
One day during our second week of travel, the three of us were sitting around below decks in our makeshift quarters. Finally, I broached the subject that was on all of our minds.
“We are not going to be able to stay in Greynard,” I said.
“After all that work, you just want to leave our home?” Aleyda asked.
“I don’t want to, but I think we have to for a couple of reasons. First, as much as I would like to believe that the orcs won’t talk about what happened on the island, that is a feeble hope. They have to explain their newfound wealth somehow, at least to their closest confidants. You know what it feels like to hold someone else’s secret. There is a pressure that builds. Those confidants will talk to people they trust and the story will ripple out into the community. Fairly soon, it will reach the ear of someone who matters, someone who has the means of doing us harm. We don’t live far enough away from Shroud Hallow. Within a few months, the government will come looking for us, and when they find us everything we worked for will be destroyed. We have to stay ahead of the propagation of that story. The second issue has more to do with my own stupidity. I used my real name because I was afraid at some point one of you would slip up and call me by it. But I am a wanted murderer in Shroud Hallow. I absolutely acted in self defense but who is going to believe me? Even if our friends just use my name it will eventually reach the people who are hunting for me. Once again, we end up with the same result. Numbers we can’t hope to fight arriving at the farm, intent on bringing me to justice.”
“We can defend ourselves and our property,” Aleyda said.
“Sure we can,” I replied. “At least against the first wave. But what happens when they send more people the second time or the third time. Eventually, we could find ourselves facing down a whole army unit. That, we won’t survive.”
“Where will we go?” Bowen asked. “Do you mean to take Captain Barinov up on his offer? I am absolutely sure that he will throw us into danger time after time until we end up just as dead as we would be if we stayed at the farm.”
“We would definitely have to put some limits on our service,” I said. “But honestly, we could go anywhere slavery isn’t legal and buy some property. Do you have any idea how much wealth we are carrying among the three of us? I am not certain of the exact amount either, but I know it is a lot. It’s plenty to set up a comfortable life almost anywhere we want to settle. We may not be quite as rich as I was when I bought you all at auction, but to get us established somewhere, living comfortably for a long time? That we can easily accomplish. And we won’t have to worry about the threat of slavery anymore. I’m not saying things will be easy. They almost never are. But to be able to live by ourselves openly, not as a master and his slaves but as a family? I think that is worth what we would be giving up.”
“Great, I will have to learn a new language,” Aleyda said. “And I was barely starting to understand the first one.”
“If we don’t join up with Captain Barinov, where would we go?” Bowen asked.
“Hell, maybe we take Captain Clemenzio up on his offer and move to where he lives,” I said. “At least he could introduce us to some people.”
“Once the money started running out, how would we support ourselves?” Aleyda asked.
“We could buy another farm,” I said. “I am more intrigued by some other ideas, though. Our little family has a member who is a socially inept genius. If we invested in Werner’s ideas, I am certain we could bring something to market that would net us a lot of money. Maybe he could design multiple things. He has hundreds of years of technological innovation to draw upon. The hard part will be to keep him focused on one thing long enough for it to be perfected.”
“That’s a good idea,” Bowen said. “It will also paint a target on our backs. The people making money from whatever industries we innovate in will not take very kindly to losing their profits. If we hurt too many people’s businesses, we are in for a shit time. We better make enough money to hire a whole bunch of soldiers or we won’t be in business very long.”
“That’s an excellent point,” I said. “Frankly, it’s one I didn’t think of but that’s why we keep you around. You are a devious fellow, but you’re our devious fellow. Making that kind of splash would be pretty high profile. I wouldn’t be surprised if people try to shake us down for protection money either.”
“Oh, I’m not worried about that,” Bowen said. “If the criminal element comes after us, I will end up owning them before everything is done with.”
“Have you given up on saving more of our people?” Aleyda asked.
“Hell, no,” I responded. “But if we had a steady stream of income, imagine how many slaves we could buy and free? Even in the countries where slavery isn’t legal, five fingers are not held in high regard. If we didn’t want to buy more slaves, we could invest our money in improving the lot of our people wherever we end up. I don’t know which path leads to the greater good. We would have to figure that out. But there is no way I am giving up on our people. Not now, and not as long as I draw breath.”
“Maybe we would be better off joining with Captain Barinov,” Bowen said. “There, at least, our people would have some degree of governmental protection. As long as we stay useful that is.”
“That’s certainly a point to consider,” I said. “We will have to poll the others once we get back home. When we get back to Shroud Hallow, I think we should stop just long enough to buy some hot food from one of the street stands and then move as quickly as we can back towards home. We have a lot to do and very little time to get it done.”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
“That’s a good plan,” Aleyda said. “I wouldn’t want to make it all the way back and then end up losing everything because we stayed in that pit for too long.”
Bowen stood and stretched. Then, his gaze swept across us, locking eyes with both Aleyda and me for a brief moment. “I am going up on deck to do some thinking,” he said. “I will be out there for the rest of the afternoon, so that’s where you’ll find me if you need me.” Then, he turned and marched out of the hold. I could hear him yelling at the orcs to join him above.
Aleyda giggled a little bit after he had left. “Could he be any more obvious?” she asked.
“He’s a good friend,” I said, reaching for her.
We were finally in a safe place and we had wanted one another for so long. At one point in my life, I thought I knew what love felt like. But the more I had reflected on it, the more I realized that what Sara and I had was not love. It was more mercenary than that. What we had was a mutual obsession, especially once we were both hooked on meth. The obsession was no longer mutual once I found a different way to live. For her, meth was more important that I was.
Things were very different with Aleyda. We had fought for one another, risking our lives for each other over and over again. In a world where almost everything was stacked against us, we persevered. She had, through the force of her personality and the strength of her body, pulled me out of a very dark time in my life when I was overcome with recrimination and self-doubt. She was so strong, and so beautiful. Little by little, she had wormed her way into my heart. I loved her and couldn’t imagine being without her. I realized, though, that I had never told her any of that. It was time to remedy that.
As we kissed and explored each other’s bodies, I broke off for a second. She seemed confused and more than a little hurt when I did.
“I have to tell you something before we continue,” I said.
“What is it?” she asked in alarm.
“I love you,” I said. “I don’t know when it happened or how it happened, but there’s no way for me to deny it.”
“I love you as well, you idiot,” she replied. “How many times do I have to tell you that you think too much.”
The afternoon passed and it was blissful. At times, it seemed like it lasted forever but when it was over it wasn’t nearly long enough. We tried to be respectful of our neighbors. We tried to be as quiet as we could be. We weren’t always completely successful. Yes, Bowen was a very, very good friend. I would have to find a way to pay him back somehow.
“That was amazing,” I told Aleyda when we were done, lying together cuddling on the deck and sweating our asses off.
“No, amazing happens when we make it back home,” she replied with a wink. “But it was pretty damn great.”
We got cleaned up and headed out on deck, only to find Bowen and the orcs sitting together and talking. When they looked at us, they couldn’t hide the grins that kept pulling up the corners of their mouths. Yeah, we had fooled nobody.
“After we let things air out a little,” Yam said, “let’s go back downstairs and break out the dice. You two shouldn’t be the only ones having any fun on this voyage.”
I blushed, my face turning beet red. “Be careful,” I said. “Much more disrespect and I will have my girlfriend kick your ass.” That caused a whole new round of raucous laughter.
A while later, we made our way down into the hold and diced and had a good time. I noticed that nobody was betting against each other anymore. They were just playing for the joy of the game. I guess that made sense since each of the orcs had enough wealth to last them for a long, long time. As the game was winding down, a thought popped into my head.
“Who is going to get Gento’s gold to his widow and deliver the news?” I asked.
“Dregu and I will take care of it,” Pregu responded. “It’s not the first time either one of us have had to tell someone their loved one is dead.”
I felt comfortable with that plan. The two orc brothers were about as solid as people could be.
A couple of days later, I was up on deck and I noticed Captain Clemenzio was standing alone looking pensive. I wandered over.
“Captain,” I said. “We are going to need to charter your ship.”
“Where to?” he asked.
“I am not certain yet,” I replied. “It will be on your way, one way or another. We may have you drop us off somewhere or we might take you up on your offer and settle in your hometown. How much do you want to get paid.”
“Ordinarily, I’d carry you for free. You worked hard to keep us afloat and you pledged to stand with the crew. But, unfortunately, I need money to repair the ship.”
“I understand,” I said. “And nothing I did was purely for your benefit. I needed to keep myself alive as well. How much do you want?”
“Shall we say twenty five gold per person if we drop you off along the way and fifty gold per person if you book passage with us the entire way?” he asked.
“That seems more than fair,” I answered. I described where our farm was located. “Do you know of a smaller port we could rejoin the ship at? I really don’t want to visit Shroud Hallow again if I can help it. And could I pay you a deposit now?”
“You get your deposit and I’ll grab my charts,” he said. We hurried off on our respective errands. I grabbed a medium sized pouch and filled it full of some of our refined gold. Then, I hurried to rejoin him on the deck and handed him the pouch.
Not expecting the weight of the gold, he nearly dropped the pouch. Then, he opened up and his eyes went wide before he quickly cinched it shut.
“That’s a lot of gold,” he whispered.
“You’re worth it,” I said.
“I don’t see you owing much more than this,” he said. “How many people will we be carrying on this trip?”
“It could be as few as ten of us or as many as twenty five,” I replied. “I intend to ask some of my friends to come along. I’m not certain whether they will take me up on my offer.”
“If there are only ten of you, I may need to give some of this back,” he said.
“No, that’s all yours,” I replied. “One way or another.”
Then, we sat and studied the charts. Finally, his finger stabbed down on a spot a little closer to Westfield than Shroud Hallow.
“There is a small village here named Bralgren,” he said. “I’m not certain whether the water is deep enough to allow us to dock there, but we can tender your people out to the ship on one of our boats. Will that do?”
“That will do nicely,” I said. “How long until we reach port?”
“Another couple of weeks at this pace,” he said. “How long will it take you to get packed up and ready to depart?”
“It could be as few as three or four days or as much as a week. It will take us at least three days to get back home and several more to travel to Bralgren. Shall we say ten days to two weeks?”
“We’ll be waiting for you,” he said.