I wandered around Greynard for the rest of the afternoon because I didn’t have much else to do. Goulug was already almost home and Sathebeena and Anxo were busy trying to tie up their affairs in the short time that I had given them. Finally, I made my way into the Tranquil Meadows, my favorite inn in the village. Since I didn’t bring any money with me, which I will admit was extremely shortsighted, I spent my time talking to some of the old codgers who had already found their way into the place in the middle of the afternoon. Finally, one of them took pity on me and bought me an ale. After that, I didn’t feel as out of place. We had a few laughs as I retold some of our exploits from our trip to the island, but only those that were safe for strangers. Apparently, I wasn’t the only person who didn’t know that birds could have teeth.
Time passed like it always does. I didn’t tell any of the people I was talking to that we would be leaving the next day never to return. For one thing, I wasn’t great with goodbyes. More importantly, however, was the fact that I didn’t want anyone to know where we were going. Sooner or later someone would come poking around looking for me and I didn’t want that someone to have any idea where we fled to.
Everything happened sooner rather than later. As I was winding up my day with the older fellows and more people were starting to filter into the inn, a younger orc approached me and asked to have a word with me privately. It was Olfin, one of the survivors of the fight against the bandits. He was the orc whose child I bought medicine for. He led me behind the inn.
“Hey, Olfin, it’s good to see you,” I said. “How are things?”
“For me, they’re great,” he said. “For you, maybe things are a little less great. A Shroud Hallow guardsman is in town asking about you. Everyone has stonewalled him so far, but it is only a matter of time until he talks to one of the families that doesn’t like you and you know what happens then.”
Wow, that was fast, I thought. One of the orcs must have been a bigger blabbermouth than I had expected. If I were a betting man, I would bet it was Rogan. He was the only one I had not developed a real friendship with.
“Where’s he at now?” I asked.
“Last I saw, he was headed towards the south side of the village.”
“Thanks for the warning,” I said. “Just so you know, I didn’t do anything wrong. The first time I was in Shroud Hallow, a couple of orcs tried to befriend me and then press gang me. We fought and I killed them both. Of course, because they were local and I wasn’t, I was automatically branded a murderer.”
“That sounds about right,” he said.
“Can you do me a favor?” I asked.
“Sure, what do you need?”
“Sathebeena and Anxo were coming to visit tonight for a few days. We were going to walk together. Can you tell them both that I will meet them back at my property? I’d pay you, but I wandered into town without any coins on me.”
“You don’t have to pay me for that,” he said. “We look after our own. At least some of us do.” Then, he took off to do my bidding.
I scanned the area behind the inn. I couldn’t see anyone watching me, so I used the ring to change my appearance. This time, I picked that of my middle brother. Even though we were siblings, we didn’t look that much alike and it’s not like he had a reputation to protect in this world. Then, I sauntered out onto the street and headed for home. As a stranger passing through town, I got some strange looks but because I was walking with a purpose and mostly kept my head down, people left me alone. Soon, I was out on the road south of the village. On the way out of town, I did spy the Shroud Hallow guardsman. He seemed to be headed towards the town hall. If he was smart enough to check property records, I would be in trouble.
Or maybe I wouldn’t be in that much trouble. There was only one of him. I was wanted as because I was supposedly a vicious, cold-blooded killer. I didn’t know for certain, but I doubted he would be inclined to be a hero and try to take me on all by himself. That would be especially true if someone told him I lived with other people. Even if he did come after me, bad things can happen to a single guard who is intent on making what amounted to a false arrest. What he would likely do is summon reinforcements. I had no idea how far away those reinforcements would be. I doubt he would expect me to run, though. I was a man with property here, at least until today. On second thought, if he checked the land records and noticed I had deeded my property to Goulug, he might expect me to run. This all came down to response time. From the directions that Goulug had given me, I knew we could make it to Bralgren with our horses and wagons in maybe a day and a half. Unladen and moving fast, a troop of guards could likely travel the same distance in less than a day. Did we have the strength to fight a troop of guards? It depended entirely on how big of a force they were able to levy.
My musings had carried me about half an hour down the trail. I stepped off into the woods, reverted my appearance, and waited for my two new travel companions. It took them about an hour to show up. During that time, I kept my eyes peeled on the roadway, half expecting to see the guardsman riding out to my place. He never appeared, though, and because it was so late in the day nobody else did either. Finally, I spied my new companions and I stepped out into the road to meet them. I made certain to do it when I was still quite a distance away from them. I didn’t want Anxo to get jumpy and feather me up with several arrows.
His hand still darted towards the quiver on his back but he must have recognized me because he relaxed.
“James,” he said. “Why is a guard from Shroud Hallow asking about you around the village?”
So, I explained my first ill-fated trip to Shroud Hallow. By the time I was done, the two weren’t angry with me, they were angry for me. It was nice to have loyal friends.
“So, what’s the plan?” Sathebeena asked.
“We leave at first light tomorrow,” I said. “We avoid going through town. Hell, we avoid anyone at all seeing us if that is possible. We get to the ship and get away before he can summon any more of his troop.”
“I think you’ve got it all wrong,” Anxo said. “We will make better time if we go through town. We tell anyone who will listen that we are headed to Westfield. Maybe that will throw off the pursuit.”
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“I tried something like that before and it didn’t work very well,” I said. “But, since moving fast is of the utmost importance, I’m willing to try it again. Have either of you ever been to Bralgren?”
“I have several times,” Anxo said. “I know the way. And if that guard shows up by himself, it would be a tragic mistake for him.”
“I would like to avoid killing any guards if we can help it,” I said. “They’re just doing their jobs.”
“I would, too,” Anxo replied. “But we will not let them take you.”
“Did you get your properties sold?” I asked them.
“I didn’t,” Anxo replied. “I just gave my house to my worthless nephew. I didn’t even tell them where I was headed. Mostly, it’s because I don’t know where we are headed. Where are we going anyway?”
“We have a couple of options,” I said. “I’ll explain them when we get the group back together. Both of them have some advantages but they also each come with some significant disadvantages. What about you Sathebeena? Did you sell your forge?”
“I did,” she said. “Got about half of its value, but some money is better than no money.”
I noticed that both Anxo and Sathebeena were carrying fairly large packs. “It looks like you both came well prepared,” I said.
“I couldn’t leave my favorite tools behind,” Sathebeena said. “Plus, I need to have enough clothing to keep myself dressed and decent.”
She had a point there. Although Sathebeena was my friend, I had absolutely no desire to see her naked.
“I may have gone a little overboard,” Anxo admitted. “There were just too many things that I couldn’t see myself parting with. Although, if this pack doesn’t start getting lighter soon, I may have to part with some of them on the side of the road.”
“I don’t want you to give up things that have meaning to you,” I said. “I’ll take turns carrying your packs since I’m not carrying my own.”
On the way back to the home that we had built, I traded off carrying their packs with both of them. Anxo’s wasn’t so bad. It was quite bulky but it couldn’t have weighed more than forty or fifty pounds, and being the hunter he was he had balanced it nicely. Sathebeena’s pack, on the other hand, was heavy. Since it contained her tools it had to weight at least twice that amount and when she packed she must have done so haphazardly. It was not balanced at all. The first time I hefted it, I let out a loud grunt to the amusement of both of them.
“You’re stronger than you look,” I told Sathebeena.
“I’m certainly stronger than you are,” she replied with a laugh.
Although we chatted on our journey, there were also long stretches of time when we walked silently, intent on overhearing any sounds of immediate pursuit. We never detected any. Before it had gotten too dark, we made it back to the house.
“Home at last,” I said, dropping Sathebeena’s pack to the ground. “At least for one more night.”
When we walked into the house, the others were obviously finishing up their evening meal. My stomach grumbled immediately. It smelled wonderful. I ushered the other two to the table and Jahhaf served us each a plate of some sort of fragrant, rich looking stew. The others were obviously on the edges of their seats waiting for my news, but I didn’t care. I was hungry and I wanted to eat first.
Finally, after sopping the last bit of juice from my bowl with a crusty piece of bread, I spoke.
“Sathebeena and Anxo will be joining us for this little adventure. Goulug and his family will be staying, but will come to visit us sometime. Goulug had really good reasons to stay and is now the proud owner of this property and everything that we left behind. He and his family will be here at first light to see us off. They are good friends and we will all miss them. We will be racing to get to the ship as soon as possible. A guardsman from Shroud Hallow was poking around town asking about me. One of the other members of the company obviously couldn’t keep his mouth shut for any length of time. They can move faster than we can move so we need to make every minute count. Just to be safe, there will be a watch schedule tonight. We don’t want them to come upon us unaware. Did you all get packed up?”
“We did,” Patrick said. “We are leaving a lot of valuable things behind. I hope Goulug and his family enjoy them.”
“We’ll all be up an hour before dawn,” I said. “I want us to be on the road as soon as there is enough light to see. Anxo convinced me we should head through town because it is quicker and tell anyone who asks that we are going on a holiday to Westfield. Even if the guards don’t believe our cover story they won’t be certain it is a lie. They might split their forces. If it comes to a fight, that would be a great thing for us.”
“Where are we headed, anyway?” Marriam asked.
“That’s a good question,” I said. “We have a couple of ready options but the honest answer is that we can go anywhere we want to that doesn’t practice slavery. One option is to take the ship to its home port and try to get a new start there. We wouldn’t know anyone and wouldn’t have any real protection but we would have plenty of money. The other option involves a shorter trip. While we were on the island, an officer from the Gremmans Confederation offered us a place to settle. There, we would have some governmental protection. In exchange for that protection, I would have to do some potentially dangerous missions for the government from time to time. I’m not certain which of the two choices is the better one.”
The room erupted in conversation. There were a half dozen separate debates about the benefits and detriments of each of the options. Since Aleyda, Bowen and I had talked this all to death on the ship, we just listened to the others. Over time, the individual debates resolved into a unified discussion. By the time the night was over, there was still no clear consensus. I supposed that someone would eventually have to make the decision and inevitably that someone would be me. No matter what I decided, some people would think that I made the wrong one. Such is the burden of leadership.
“Well, we obviously aren’t going to get this decided tonight,” I said. “Let’s all get some rest. Patrick, will you oversee the watches?”
“I will,” he said. “James, Aleyda, Bowen and our two new guests each get to sleep all night. I’ll get the rest sorted out.”
I packed up my things before I went to sleep. There weren’t that many. That night, I was exhausted. If I dreamed, I don’t remember what what I dreamed about. I slept well and deeply. Maybe it was because I knew the shape of the threat that we faced. Had my brain become rewired to only be able to rest well when I was under existential duress?
Before long, there was a knock at my bedroom door. I bounded out of bed and got to work.
In no time, we had the horses hitched and the wagons loaded. Just as the sun was rising, Goulug and his family showed up. Although I could fully describe our parting, I won’t. Just know that there were many tears and pledges of friendship. I wondered how long it would be before Goulug was living in this house. I didn’t think it would be very long.
With tears in my eyes, I hopped up to drive the wagon. We were traveling fairly lightly and there was enough room for everyone to ride, if just barely. Not trusting my voice, I waved at Goulug and his family one more time and then with a flick of the reins set the horse into motion. I thought that inevitably we would have to take turns walking to keep the horses fresh. Thankfully, while we were gone, Marriam had acquired a couple more or our progress would have been extremely slow. Abandoning the home that we had built, that we had fought for and bled for, that was one of the mOST painful things that I had ever done. But it had to be done if we were going to survive.