“What do you mean ‘slaves’?”
“Just that, you’ll probably be bought by the Andalian Mining Company along with the rest of the sailors we captured earlier, and she’ll probably be bought by some noble or other.”
“How can you sell us into slavery?” Alexander asked. “We haven’t done anything to deserve this.”
“Deserve’s got nothing to do with anything,” Udane said. “First, the king has decreed that all castaways who wash up on Andalian soil are to be taken as slaves. Second, this province is under a liquidation order.”
“What does that mean?” Alexander asked, horror tickling at the back of his mind.
“By order of the king, no subject of the Andalian Empire is permitted to live in mountainous or forested regions because of the difficulty such terrain poses to the daily operations of the Lancers. In short, we can’t adequately provide for the safety and well-being of people living in these regions, so they’ve been ordered to relocate to more suitable areas.”
“What if they don’t want to leave their homes?”
Udane shrugged, “That’s what the sequestration is for.”
“What does that mean?”
“This province has been cut off from the rest of Andalia. No trade is permitted and all who chose to remain here after the initial relocation period are to be captured as slaves or killed for treason.”
“You’re starving out this whole province?” Alexander asked, swallowing back the urge to vomit. In that moment, his resolve hardened and his mission shifted. Until the horrible truth of Andalian rule had been made plain to him, his only concern was escaping this place and returning home, but the depravity of the Andalian government’s tyranny was beyond evil, their violation of the Old Law so complete, that Alexander silently added another enemy to the long list of those that he intended to destroy.
Udane chuckled. “I didn’t think it’d work at first, but the strategy has proven to be remarkably effective. The number of insurrectionist attacks coming from this province has been cut nearly in half just this winter.
“But that’s enough talk for now.” He held up a metal collar, hinged on one side with a clasp on the other, runes etched into the metal, colors of potent magic radiating from it. “Put this on.”
Alexander reassessed his situation: there was still virtually no chance of escape.
Choking down bile, he took the collar and snapped it around his neck.
“That wasn’t so difficult, now was it?” Udane said. “I suppose I should tell you how these collars work so you don’t get yourself killed out of ignorance. If you wander too far from this ring I’m wearing or if I command it, the collar will choke you. Simple, right?”
Alexander nodded curtly, still struggling to master the rage boiling in his belly.
“I’m glad we understand each other.” Then, turning to his men, Udane said, “Let’s get mounted up.”
“But, sir, she killed Johansson. We should hang her for that.”
Udane snorted derisively. “If Johansson was stupid enough to let a little girl kill him, then he wasn’t fit to serve under my command.”
He stopped, frowning to himself and then raised his voice. “Hear me well, these prisoners belong to me. If any harm comes to them while under your care, I’ll kill you myself, and I’ll take my time doing it. Understood?”
There was a nervous murmuring of assent.
“I said, do you understand?” Udane shouted.
“Yes sir!” his men responded in chorus.
“Good. Now mount up.”
***
Alexander and Anja each rode behind a soldier on one of the big rhone steeds that Andalia was famous for. The soldiers were experienced riders, comfortable in the saddle and skilled at guiding their mounts through the difficult terrain of the forest, but it was clear within minutes that they couldn’t be effective in any real engagement in such terrain, certainly not with the devastating effectiveness they could bring to a battle on the open plains.
“How’s Jack doing, Little One?”
“He’s struggling to keep up, but your trail is easy to follow.”
“Good. Tell him we have a new objective.”
“Yes, My Love.”
“We’re going to Mithel Dour to destroy the Andalian government. Tell him to stay with us as best he can and tell him to stay out of sight. Oh, and tell him he’ll need papers to travel safely through Andalia. I’m not sure what that means, but I suspect he’s resourceful enough to figure it out.”
“I will relay your messages, My Love. Are you all right?”
“I’m pretty beat-up at the moment, but I’ll heal.”
An hour after they set out, they reached a big meadow where several mountain streams fed into a lake that flowed into a small river. There they joined up with another platoon that had captured some of Kalderson’s crew. Only seven remained, including the captain. Alexander hoped the others had escaped into the forest, but he suspected that most were dead.
Udane called a rest break near the river.
Alexander stretched after dismounting. The soldiers didn’t seem too concerned that he might run off, maybe even hoped that he would test the collar around his neck.
“Commander, may I go get cleaned up?” Alexander asked, motioning to the vomit still staining his tunic.
“Please let him get cleaned up, Commander,” the soldier he’d been riding with said. “If I have to keep smelling him, I’m going to retch myself.”
“Go ahead. Just remember,” Udane said holding up his ring, “more than a hundred feet and I might not find you before you choke to death.”
“I understand,” Alexander said. He would execute Udane without a second thought, but he decided that being polite and civil might buy him the leeway he would need to escape when the time was right.
He pushed through the tall grass and found a little pool of still water next to a large tree at the edge of the meadow. After a moment of searching for any soldiers watching him, he was satisfied that they’d left him unsupervised. He stripped off his tunic. Then he took off his armor shirt, rolling up one of his most prized possessions and hiding it under the roots of the tree before thoroughly washing his tunic and wringing it as dry as possible.
“Mark this place, Little One, and guide Jack here. Tell him to wear my armor until he can give it back to me. It’ll serve him well.”
“But won’t you need it, My Love?”
“If they found it on me, it would raise too many questions that I don’t care to answer. I’m safer without it for now. Just make sure Jack retrieves it, because I do want it back.”
Alexander returned to the Lancers a few minutes later.
“You learn quickly,” Udane said. “I expected you to run off.”
“Then why did you let me wander away without an escort?”
“The first attempt at escape usually proves to be a very educational experience. We wouldn’t want to deprive you of the opportunity to learn your place, now would we?”
Alexander didn’t respond to the taunt, but instead dutifully mounted up.
Sometime later in the afternoon, he noticed the colors of several men on a bluff overlooking the trail they were following. A moment later, the sensation of danger flooded into his mind, the coming moments revealing themselves to him all in a rush. He slipped backward off the rump of the rhone and tumbled behind a tree, attempting to make it look like it was a clumsy accident. A moment later, a volley of arrows rained into the side of the soldier and rhone, killing them both. Rocks broke free from the bluff and started crashing into the flank of the Lancers’ single-file column, killing two more rhone along with their riders, followed by a second volley of arrows that killed another three Lancers before the attackers vanished into the forest.
It was over before any resistance could be organized. The position of the attackers, coupled with the steep terrain, made it impossible for the Lancers to give chase. Udane rode along the line of his soldiers, inspecting the damage and cursing under his breath.