As we headed back to the inn, I pondered what Davit had said to me. Had I placed him and his sister at risk by standing up to the would be muggers? No matter how many times I turned things around in my mind, I reached an inescapable conclusion. I had. The question was, what to do about it? Part of me wanted to go back to that street, find those gang members, and just end the threat. Of course, being wanted for a dozen murders wouldn’t be a very good introduction to my new country. Sure, the city would be a better place without that group preying on the week and the vulnerable, but I knew what trouble being suspected of two murders had caused me not so long ago. That was clearly not the right answer. Giving them all our wealth was also not the correct one. We needed that money to make a go at a better life.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized there was only one acceptable outcome to this quandary. Davit and Keti would need to leave the city. If the gang couldn’t reach them, they would be safe. Our group would need to grow by two more people. I thought long and hard about what I could ask them to do for us. Certainly, they could work in whatever business we set up and make a living that way. It would be awhile before we got started with our commercial ventures, however, or at least until we made any real profit. In the meantime, how would I occupy their time? Then it dawned on me that they were somewhat educated, and being in a new country the rest of our people would need tutoring in the local language. That could actually work out. For the price of room and board, a safe place to live, we could ask them to provide language lessons. It would add expense to our living situation but I really couldn’t see much of an alternative. And it would be a good thing, getting the two off the streets into a safe environment.
I turned to Aleyda. “Davit and Keti are going to have to come with us to stay safe,” I whispered to her.
“I know,” she whispered back. “But getting them to leave might take some convincing. This place is all they have ever known.”
“Self preservation is a powerful force,” I replied.
“We’ll see,” she said.
Before long, we had made it back to the inn. After wandering around the city for the afternoon, most people were ready to go relax in their rooms while we waited for dinner time. I walked over to Patrick and then Mariam. I asked each of them to come up to my room. Then I walked over to Keti and Davit.
“We need to have a discussion about tomorrow,” I said. “Can you come up to my room to talk to me, Aleyda, Mariam and Patrick?” When I talked to them they still both looked on edge.
“I suppose so,” Keti said. “I am getting fairly hungry, though.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll have dinner afterwards,” I responded.
All of us headed up to the room. It was not generously sized, so the six of us filled it. There was only one chair in the room and the bed as far as furniture was concerned. I let Mariam have the chair and then gestured to Keti and Davit that they could sit on the bed. The rest of us sat on the floor.
“I wanted to ask you two things,” I said. “The first is what the plan is to book passage to Kollavik?”
“Well,” Davit replied, “it should be fairly easy to get passage back at the port. There are riverboats going back and forth to Kollavik every day. The hard part will be to find a crew that won’t rob you blind, either with the prices they charge or more literally once you are out on the river. Some of the river rats have bad reputations for not delivering their passengers.”
“Do you know who has good reputations and who doesn’t?” I asked.
“I have no idea,” he said. “But you all seem pretty strong. If I was a riverboat crew, I would think long and hard before I tried to rob you.”
“Alright,” I replied. “The second issue is this. Because we didn’t capitulate to the demands of that street gang, we caused you a lot of trouble. We may have even put your lives in jeopardy. Would you like to come with us? I would employ you as language tutors for my people, and then in the businesses we hope to found. It would be a far better life than living on the streets is. You would have a safe place to stay. You would be clothed and fed. You would earn a little spending money. And that gang could never reach you. You would be protected.”
Tears welled up in Keti’s eyes and she drew in a deep breath with a shuddering sob. “Why would you do something like that for us?” she asked. “We hardly know each other.”
“I wasn’t going to let those idiots walk away with money and gold that I risked my life over and over for,” I answered. “That would ruin all of our plans and that wasn’t going to happen. But, by resisting them, I created the dangerous situation that you are in now. I can’t just walk away from that. I am trying so hard to be a good person but unintended consequences keep rearing their ugly heads. I will let you both know right now, I have not always been a good person. If you come with us, though, I will do what I can to make certain that you are safe and that you prosper. And I wasn’t lying about the need for language lessons. You both are pretty well spoken. My people do need to learn the local language. And the business ventures are real. We intend to introduce some products that will make us a lot of money. Werner is an engineer, and where he came from technology is much more advanced than it is here. There will be risk to joining us. Some of us will be leaving from time to time because we are going to be beholden to an agency in the government. The people who lose money while we gain it will not take that lying down. But being in that situation sounds a whole lot better than being beaten or raped or murdered on the streets as soon as we leave. I want to give you the opportunity to change to course of your lives. If things don’t work out with us, you will have some money and some skills to make a life of your own. What do you think?”
“Where did Werner come from?” Davit asked.
“Another world,” I replied, “as did most of the rest of us, myself included.”
“Another world?” he replied incredulously. “Are you some sort of monsters?”
“No, we are people just like you are,” I said. “Most of us just fell asleep one night and ended up on an island far out in the ocean in this place. My story was a little different, and I will let you know all the details if you join us.”
“Can we go back to our room and talk about this?” Keti asked. “Or do we have to decide now?”
“You can go back and talk things out,” I said. “Even if you decide to stay here, I will leave you with a little money. Maybe you can use it to find some degree of safety. I am sorry to cause you both trouble.”
The two left the room to go have a discussion in their own. After they were well out of earshot, Mariam spoke.
“James, are you sure this is a good idea?” she asked.
“Not at all,” I said. “I hardly know those two. For all I know they could be going back to their room to make plans to rob us blind. But you understand why I feel responsible, don’t you?”
“Yes, I understand that,” she replied. “But you can’t save everyone. You know that, right?”
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“Of course I know that,” I said. “I can’t save everyone, but I may be able to give those two a better life. Saving some is better than saving none.”
“How much money will you give them if they choose not to come along?” Patrick asked.
“I was thinking maybe ten gold or so,” I answered. “It’s not life changing money but it might be enough to get them off the streets or apprenticed to a craft or something.”
“For what it’s worth, I think making that offer was a good thing. We did create their problem so we need to take a hand in solving it. “
“Oh, I agree that making the offer was the right thing to do,” Mariam said. “There’s just so much that could go wrong.”
“Now you sound like me,” I told her.
“How long do you think it will take them to decide?” Aleyda asked.
“Who knows,” I said. “Leaving the only place you have ever known is difficult. Just ask any of our people.”
We continued to chatter away for quite some time. Aleyda was of the opinion that we should remove the gang as a threat for the good of the local community. I let her know that being wanted for murder hadn’t worked out for us too well in the past even though we would indeed be doing a service to those who lived in the neighborhood. I also let her know that if we eliminated that gang, another would either move into the territory or rise to take its place, and the new people might be even worse than the old ones.
Time passed and it we were almost ready to round everyone to go eat. Just as we were about to go do that, there was a soft, almost timid, knock at the door.
I opened it to find Davit and Keti standing outside. I ushered them in.
“Did you make a decision?” I asked.
“We have some more questions,” she said.
“Go ahead,” I replied.
“Do you swear you won’t abuse us or use us as sex slaves or something like that?”
That was an unexpected question. As a matter of fact, it was so unexpected that Aleyda started laughing. Keti and Davit appeared to be angered by her laughter.
“She’s laughing because we are a couple,” I explained. “She is much tougher than I am. If I looked at anyone but her, she would likely kill me.”
“More than likely,” Aleyda said.
“I will swear to you that we mean you no harm, unless you mean us harm. You will be treated like every other member of our little community. We all work hard. You would be expected to do the same. Our lives are not unrelenting work, however. There will still be plenty of time to enjoy life. We laugh and play around and have other hobbies just like everyone else does. You will not be signing on for a life of bondage. All of this is true as long as you stay dedicated to each and every person with us. We do not stand betrayal. If you are honest with us, we will be honest with you. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t disagreements and hard feelings from time to time. Those are inevitable in a group of this size. But it does mean you won’t be cast out unless you betray us.”
“How much money would you give us if we decide to stay,” Keti asked.
“I was thinking ten gold,” I said. “With that amount you might be able to buy apprenticeships in a crafting profession or something.”
She looked at her brother and received a little nod from him. “We will join you,” she said. “I hope we won’t regret it.”
“I hope so as well,” I replied.
We left the room and rounded everyone up and headed down to the common room for dinner. Once everyone had eaten, I asked everyone for a moment of quiet. Then, I announced that Keti and Davit would be joining our community.
“Oh, thank you,” Helvia said and the tables erupted in several conversations. “I was afraid that you were just going to leave them here in danger.”
Eventually, the conversations slowed and one by one the rest of our people walked over and greeted our newest members with handshakes or hugs.
“They will be giving the rest of you language lessons,” I then announced.
That elicited a round of grumbling and groaning.
That night passed uneventfully. The next day, Patrick, Bowen, Aleyda and I headed back down to the dock. When we reached the guards at the entrance to the area, one of them stepped forward.
“What business do you have at the docks?” he asked.
“I need to book passage for several people to Kollavik,” I said. That seemed to satisfy him because he let us enter after we paid the access fee. Like all governments, this one apparently needed to make some money.
We wandered down the pier towards the river. As we got closer, I noticed a whole line of riverboats moored at various small piers on its side. Once we reached the river, I glanced upstream. The thing was wide and fast flowing. I imagine that the boats made much better time downstream than they did moving upstream. I also assumed downstream passage was much more inexpensive. The riverboats looked like they were propelled by banks of oars. That had to be grueling work.
I wondered whether we were expected to go from boat to boat asking about passage or if there was a better system. My eyes swept the docks, finally alighting on an oversized and busy tavern that dominated the pier in this area. If anything, the traffic in this area was heavier than what we experienced when we first exited our ship. We slowly made our way over to the tavern, which had both inside and outside seating.
Forcing our way inside of the place, which was called The Rat’s Nest, we found ourselves in an almost full, large drinking hall. We moved inside a little bit so as not to block the doorway and end up in a fight. Across the room, I could see a long bar that ran the length of a wall. Lacking any better destination, we started navigating the crowd in that direction.
Finally, after being bumped into countless times, we made it to the bar. I reached into my pouch and grabbed a couple of gold pieces. Then, I waited until one of the staff had time to attend us.
The woman who finally made her way over to us was older, with medium length gray hair swept back behind her neck and tied with a leather thong. Her hands bore evidence of hard work and I didn’t think her scars and calluses had all come from tending bar.
“What can I get you?” she asked.
“Information,” I said, sliding her the gold pieces. “We need to book passage up to Kollavik and have no idea where to start. It needs to be with someone reputable. I have no desire to get in a fight out on the water.”
Her eyes lit up when she saw the gold. She quickly pocketed it after glancing around to make sure nobody else from the staff was watching her too closely. “Wait here,” she said, “but don’t block access to the bar.” Then, she walked around the bar’s exit and out into the room.
We stood there, being bounced and jostled around, for quite awhile. Finally, I saw the woman returning with an equally old man in tow. When they finally reached us, the man spoke.
“I am Captain Benedek,” he said. “I understand that you are seeking passage to Kollavik? When were you wanting to leave and how many of you are there?”
“There are fourteen of us, and we would like to leave either today or tomorrow,” I replied.
“Do you have money to pay for all those people?” he asked.
“I do, depending on the cost,” I said.
“It is two gold per person,” he replied. “And we leave in the middle of the morning tomorrow.”
“You’ll have to show us where your boat is located at,” I said, pulling fourteen gold out of my pouch and handing it to him. He counted it twice to make certain I wasn’t trying to short him.
“Come with me,” he said, leading us back through the throng and out onto the dock.
“How long is the trip anyway?” I asked him.
“Three days,” he said, leading us down a row of tied up river boats.