Her memory filled in the other details. The other four people were the rest of Lana’s group of bounty hunters.

If they were here, then Ferene was on the wrong side of something.

“Wait here.” She said, turning around, ignoring the shocked people behind her. Going back to the stream, Ferene found the two women getting dressed, looking up at her in concern.

“What’s going on?” The older of the two asked, looking at her sharply. Ferene ignored her, pulling on her shirt and jacket. “What was that yelling about?”

Ferene responded to the further questioning by pointing her sword at the woman, the tip hovering not far from her face. “Don’t talk. Start walking.”

Ferene trusted Lana. She did not trust the wagon crews. Krista quickly followed the orders, while the other glared up at her for a second before following suit.

“Slavers.”

The words made Ferene’s body tense up.

Seven people - the six people of the wagon crews and the one surviving guard, sat with their hands and feet tied. Lana frowned as she looked over the group. “This group buys goods in the capital, then heads east. Just past the border, they meet up with another group moving north and switch wagons. Those wagons are full of slaves. Three wagons, four slaves in each, chained and caged. They continue moving east, and the original group keeps going north. Follow the north road and you find no evidence of the slaves you were looking for, it’s that group of merchants with three wagons full of common goods. They always had those goods, and the papers they signed back south proving the purchase, too.”

“What’s your plan?” Ferene asked, taking a deep breath to keep herself under control. They were right in front of her, killing them would be so easy.

Lana smiled, raising her voice, loud enough for the captives to hear. “The plan is to kill this group and take their place.” She said loudly. The result of her was instant. Five of them all tried to stand, tumbling over as they cried, begged, and desperately reasoned with her.

“Don’t kill me, I’ll help!”

“They are looking for us, you need at least one of us alive or else they won’t meet with you! Spare me!”

“I’ll do whatever you want, as long as you let me live!”

Smiling, Lana looked at Ferene as Rauld yanked on the ropes, causing the slavers to fall face-down in the dirt, struggling to push themselves back to their knees. “What do you think, Ferene?”

She pointed at Krista, who now lay on her side, pulled over by the movement of the others she was roped to. “That one is a slave.”

“What?” Lana blinked.

Ferene nodded. “She’s marked. I’ve seen that kind of mark before. Different from what I remember, but…she’s marked as a worker. Someone cut up her body so she wouldn’t be sold as a whore.”

She watched as Lana’s expression turned sour. “A slave working the slave wagon?”

“Ask her. She’ll talk.”

Lana made a hand sign and pointed at Krista. Yelt stepped into the line of prisoners and cut her loose, hauling the girl up by her arm and leading her over to Lana. Ferene could see how skinny she was now. She didn’t pay attention to it before.

“Ferene says you’re a slave.” Lana asked. Krista looked from her to Ferene, then nodded. “How’d that happen?”

“Momma sold me. Needed’tha’money. For my older brother. Couldn’t feed two.”

Ferene stared down at her. “These people are slavers themselves, aren’t they?”

Krista nodded again. “They said I hav’a’good face. Ride in’tha’front.”

“Will you help us?” Krista nodded once more in response to Lana’s question. “Kill the rest.” She said, raising her voice. Yelt and Rauld drew their knives. The five slavers and the guard started panicking, crawling on the ground, trying to get away. Ferene watched as the two men killed them, one by one, with no ceremony.

“I hate that part.” Rauld said at the end, the large man’s arms covered in blood.

Krista stared at the pile of bodies, her eyes wide. Ferene put a hand on her shoulder.

“Did they hurt you?”

“Yes.”

Memories flooded Ferene, and her lips drew into a line. Her words failed her. She didn’t know how to communicate her thoughts. Instead, she just held on to the younger woman’s shoulder as the two watched the dead bodies stain the dirt red.

On the sixth day, Ferene once sat next to Krista on the front seat of the first wagon. Rauld and Yelt sat on the middle one, with Tessa and Bolen riding the last one. Lana herself was sitting in the back of Ferene’s wagon, out of sight.

“Who cut your chest?” Ferene asked.

Krista glanced at her sharply, then away. “Momma. Didn’wan’me bein’ a whore.”

Frowning, Ferene nodded. She’d seen another girl with that kind of scar, once, as a child. “How’s that work out?” Lana’s voice came from behind them.

“Family, or owner, cuts up a girl’s body. Leaves scars. Supposed to keep them out of certain types of work. Doesn’t always.” Ferene remembered the other girl at the camp, passed around from man to man before they sold her off. “Some people don’t care about that.”

“Just crazy, then.”

“Just evil. All of them.” Ferene corrected her. She looked over at Krista again, the girl hunched over, staring intently ahead. “Did you hate them?”

“Ya.” Ferene could barely hear the whispered response.

“Could you have killed them? In their sleep?”

The young woman hunched over more. “Maybe.”

“Did you think about it?”

“Ya.” Another weak whisper.

“Why not do it?” Ferene felt a tightness in her chest. Sitting still, she could feel her heart beating faster, the muscles in her arms tensing. Krista didn’t answer, so she asked again. “Why not kill them? The people who hurt you? The slavers?”

“I’was’scared!” The shout was sudden. “I’dun’no’what’to’do’on’my’own!” She looked like she was on the verge of tears. Ferene let out a deep breath. Slowly, she reached out, placing a hand on Krista’s shoulder.

“Lana, can you help her? After this?”

“Why’s it got to be me? Can’t you do it?” The voice came from the covered wagon bed.

“I don’t know how, and I’m in the middle of something. Was only with this group for a ride.”

“We’ll figure something out.”

Breathing out, Ferene relaxed. For a moment, she could almost hear Linara’s laughter. Was Krista evil? Did going along with those people make her evil? Did working with Lana excuse that? Should Ferene kill her now, or when all of this was over? Difficult questions. Ferene didn’t like thinking about them. She watched the road ahead.

Despite the change in ownership, Ferene’s day to day life on the road changed little. Lana’s crew broke for dinner and made use of the supplies in the wagons to cook the same soup as the original crew. The seven of them sat in a circle and ate together, Krista remaining silent as the bounty hunters talked among each other.

They questioned Ferene, briefly, about what happened to her. She mentioned going north and finding the Hatharen, but little beyond that. No tales of the monsters beyond the mountain wall, no stories of life in the stronghold. When it became clear she would not speak of the secrets of her father’s people, the questions shifted to how she got back. She told them about meeting the General, the information gained, and her current goal.

“What are you going to do when you find him?” Lana asked. “Give him a hug or break his face?”

Ferene could only shrug. That was another difficult question. “How far until the border?” She asked, changing the topic.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“We’ll pass it tomorrow, and the next day we have to meet the other team. Three wagons, filled with an unknown number of slaves. We kill the guards, hook the wagons together in a train, and run it back down to Elgrid. You can go on your own way then.” Ferene nodded in response, belatedly realizing that Lana couldn’t see her. The other woman talked on regardless. “If we are lucky, people looking for the missing individuals won’t be too far behind and we can pass the whole thing off and be done with this job. We started this not long after that mine, finding out what was happening and the schedule took a lot of time.”

Ferene opened her mouth, closed it, then made a small sound of recognition. She never thought that she would be helping people ambush wagons on the road again. She almost said that to Lana, but couldn’t bring herself to do it. These people likely had similar pasts, to end up in this profession, but something held her back.

“How did you find out?” She asked instead.

A laugh came from behind her. “Elgrid’s been having kidnappings for years. Big city, so people go missing. By the time anyone knows what happened, there’s not much of a trail to follow. If anyone connects the missing people to the caravan, they have documents showing them leaving, and by the time they catch up with them, the slaves are gone and the proper goods are in place. Wagons even arrive at their listed destination with the wares. No trail in the records, no trail if you go and chase after them.

“Independent investigators, such as my group, go further. We found that around the same times that groups of people all vanished, there would be another caravan, of similar size, departing from Ettsgras. Happens to have the same cargo, and is heading to the Independent lands, with no specified destination to check on. So we started looking for the right size of caravan heading east from Ettsgras.”

“You just got lucky enough to find the one operated by the slavers?”

Another laugh. “You weren’t there when we walked into the rest area. The guards attacked us without even asking. That’s not something regular people do.”

Casting a glance at Krista, Ferene nodded. “It isn’t.”

Two days later, Ferene tried her best to look natural. She didn’t have to do anything different than what she had been doing since she left the city, but somehow, knowing there was a deception in play made her second guess herself. Krista sat beside her, the girl’s ankles tied together, out of sight, as she guided the horses forward, pulling the wagon towards the other caravan. Three guards hopped off the wagons on the road ahead, stepping forward as they waved casually at Ferene. She wanted to jump down herself and race towards them, swinging her sword. But she waited as they rolled closer.

“Hey runt!” One of the men called out, looking at Krista. The other two laughed. “You finally find someone as ugly as you? What’s your name, girl?” He turned his attention to Ferene. She ignored him. Krista brought the horses to a stop, and the men came within a few paces of Ferene. “No, really, what’s your name? If you don’t tell me we’ll just ‘ave to give you one. Something to describe how ugly you are.” The other two guards laughed as they walked passed, moving towards the second wagon. Ferene looked ahead. The driver at the front of the other caravan stood up, and stepped down. She felt herself tense up. The second one stood up and did the same. Ferene also stood up, one hand loosely gripping the hilt of her sword.

When the third driver stepped off the wagon, eager to make the switch and get moving, Ferene immediately took action. The guard that hadn’t moved past her, the one who had been asking her for her name, was stretching out a hand to help her down when she cut off his head. Krista screamed as blood sprayed over the two of them.

That scream snapped everyone else into motion. Jumping, Ferene hit the ground and ran forward, past the panicking horses. According to the plan, her job was to stop the wagons from getting away. Ferene specialized in running, and closed the gap as the other drivers were still frozen in shock. Slashing the man from the front wagon across the chest, she spun towards the next one in line. He pulled a short sword out from his belt, but she cut off the hand holding it before he could even get into a fighting stance. Once more, she was overtaken by a rush of emotions. These people were nothing compared to her. She fought Hatharen, she fought trained soldiers. Common thugs stood no chance. The third driver started to scramble into the seat of the wagon, one hand grabbing the leads to the horses. Ferene stabbed him in the back, then pushed the brake lever back into place. The horses scrambled against the wheels, dragging the wagon a few paces even with the wheels locked in place, before stopping. Silence fell over the crossroads, only broken by the sobbing of the man holding his severed wrist.

“Someone shut that one up!” Lana yelled. Ferene turned to look back, and saw her, axes blooded, as she advanced, Rauld and Bolen walking next to her. They had taken out the other two guards without any losses, just as before.

“No.” Ferene said. “I want him alive, for now.”

“Then make him shut up.” Lana said, grabbing the canvas covering on the second wagon in the line and pulling it back.

The bed of the wagon was not a wooden box, but a metal cage, wide, flat bars arching upwards. Four men sat, naked except for the bindings on their hands and the gags in their mouths, looking outward in fear. Rauld pulled back the covering of the first wagon, revealing another four men, and Bolen did the last, showing three women, all of them in similar states. “Get these people out, and find them something to wear.” Lana ordered.

The sight of the people, bent over and bruised in their cages, fueled Ferene’s rage as she turned away from it. With one hand, she grabbed the collar of the only man still living, dragging him back towards the other wagons.

Towards Krista.

The young woman sat, splattered in blood, her arms wrapped around herself as she shook slightly. Ferene dropped the whimpering man on the ground, then pulled her short sword from her belt. Stepping up, she cut the ties on Krista’s ankles. With the fighting over, there was no worry about her making a run for it.

“Get down.” Ferene said, her voice harsh. Still shaking, Krista complied, stepping onto the ground to have Ferene immediately shove the sword into her hands. “Kill him.” She said, pointing towards the man holding his bleeding wrist, his eyes squeezed shut.

“Uh…I-“

“He’s a slaver. He hurts people. He is evil. You worked with him. Are you evil, too? Or will you kill an evil man?”

Holding Ferene’s weapon with shaking hands, Krista looked down at the man, then up at Ferene. “I’dun’wan’ta-“

“Do you hate him? Do you hate evil people?” She pointed at the other wagons, where Lana’s group were releasing the slaves. “You were helping make this happen. Do you regret that?”

“I’was’scared!” Krista fell to her knees, sobbing.

“Do you want him to live? Do you want more people to get hurt?”

“Please’dun’hurt’me’please’dun’hurt’me’please’dun’hurt’me!” Krista rocked back and forth, repeating the same words over and over between her sobs.

Ferene breathed out, feeling some - just some - of the tension leave her body. She knelt down next to Krista, taking the sword out of her hands. “Good.” Ferene whispered, before turning towards the man. He finally opened his eyes, meeting hers. She slit his throat before he could start to beg.

“Why’d you do that, with the girl?” Lana asked.

Ferene let out a deep breath. The former slaves were dressed in some of the spare clothes they found in the first set of wagons, huddled around Bolen and the cooking pot.

“I needed to know what kind of person she was,” Ferene responded. “I didn’t threaten her, but if she was evil, she would have killed him without a second thought, just to live longer. She…isn’t like me. Isn’t like us.” Ferene met Lana’s eyes. “Can you find a safe place for her?”

“You’re really going to leave right away?” When Ferene nodded, Lana sighed. “I’ll take her somewhere better than Elgrid, better than Ettsgras. Seems like it means a lot to you.”

“Thank you.” Ferene turned to look south. The main road would lead to Elgrid. “Do you know how far we are from Riverhill?”

“Never heard of that. Might ask the locals, one of them might know.” Lana nodded towards the freed slaves.

Eleven people, sitting in a circle, dressed in clothes borrowed from dead men. Ferene wasn’t any better, still wearing the slightly too small jacket of the soldier from Olentor. Stepping towards them, she looked over the group. None of them were facing her, all of them focused on Bolen as he cooked.

“Do any of you know where a village called Riverhill is?” Ferene raised her voice to ask them all at once. She didn’t like speaking like this. All of their eyes instantly focused on her, fear filling the air with silence. To them, she was the one that killed an unarmed man, not the one that unlocked their cages and gave them food.

When no answers came, Bolen tapped his wooden ladle against the side of the cook pot. “Ferene here was just traveling the road and decided to help us free you. She’s never been this far south before.” The remark was answered by some muttering and whispering. Even after being free, the men had split into two groups, and the three women sat on their own to a third side. They clung to the people they knew.

“I know Riverhill.” A man raised his hand. Ferene looked over at him, his bald head shining in the afternoon light despite his youthful face. “Closer than Elgrid, just further east. If you go’in that direction you’ll find the river, follow it south and you’ll find the hill. Town’s on the side’o’the hill. Shouldn’t be more’n two days on foot.”

“Thanks.” Ferene nodded to him, and turned away. Before she could leave the clearing, however, she heard light footsteps behind her. Turning around, she found Krista standing there, still shaking slightly, staying several strides away. “What?”

“I-I thought you were’gonna’kill’me.” She stuttered at first, then the words tumbled out of her. The girl looked to be on the edge of tears again.

“I thought I might have to,” Ferene responded.

Krista nodded. “They…they didn’t treat’me’that’bad. Not worse’than’the slaves. A lot better. Not good, but, they’never’urt’me. Never cut me.”

“They treated you better than your family did.” Ferene said for her. She nodded. Ferene swallowed, feeling tension start to rise. Anger. “I only knew my mother. She didn’t treat me well, but she did what she could. She sold both of us away.” Ferene sat down on the grass by the side of the road. “I was raised by bad people. Evil people. They didn’t hurt me, not that much. Not the way they hurt and killed others. Treated me better than their victims. Same as you.” The girl nodded again. She looked a lot younger now, barely an adult. Ferene would have guessed she was seventeen or more before, but now she looked barely fourteen.

“My mother died, but I was still with them. I thought they were my family. I hated them, but I thought I was supposed to. Someone convinced me to kill them and run away.” Ferene tried a smile. She wasn’t sure how good it was, but Krista didn’t smile back. “I later met a real family. Not anyone related to me, but people I could trust. People that treated me well. People who looked out for me, who cared about me. I couldn’t even talk to half of them, but they were more of a family than anyone else. You’ll find that. Forget about those people. You don’t need to feel bad for them. They wouldn’t feel bad for you if you died, would they?”

That got a strong, almost violent head shake out of her. Ferene kept going. “The town I’m going to, my father is supposed to be there. I never met him, but I know he isn’t my family. My family are the ones that care about me.”

“Why go there?”

“Because I might have to kill him.” Ferene said. “Maybe he did something to my mother, and made her sell herself and me. Maybe he didn’t. I want to know. I have to go there. Lana will find a place where you will be safe, so stay with her.”

Krista nodded. “Good bye.” She said, turning and running back to the others.

Letting out a deep breath, Ferene pushed herself to her feet and turned east once more.

Two days of walking would have been a generous estimate, even for a human. Ferene found the river after a few hours of running, and turned to follow it south as the sun was setting. Trotting steadily along the side of the waterway, she eventually came upon the hill. The river snaked around it, but Ferene just walked up the gradual slope, her boots digging into the soft grass.

As the sun rose, lighting up the area, she found it calm and peaceful, almost idyllic. Frowning, Ferene remembered the farm to the west. At the top of the hill, she looked down and saw the village of Riverhill, a collection of wooden structures built into the even more gently sloped side of the hide, leading down to the river. One building stood apart, much further down, at the flat at the bottom of the hill, right next to the river, surrounded by all sorts of bushes. It was too far to make out the details, but something about it seemed to call out to her. A Hatharen living alone in a human village would be there, separate from the rest of them. Her entire body locked up as she stared downward, suddenly unable to move.