All Fall Down (2 page)

Nose wrinkling, I helped Elissa out of the wagon as best I could and then stood some ways apart from the rest of the group. Used to conditions not much better than this, the villagers eased themselves down onto the straw and seemed prepared to continue with their sleep as best they could. Even Elissa found a spot up against the far wall of the overhang and curled herself into a ball far smaller than I would have thought possible.

For myself, I stood at the edge of the enclosed area and watched as the slavers slowly brought the wagon around to a staging area under a tree and then unhitched the horses. Evidently they were in high spirits—I heard them laughing and trading what sounded like good-natured barbs with one another.
 

“No sleep?” came a voice from the foggy grayness off to my right, and I turned to see the slaver who had pulled me from Frin’s kitchen.

“I slept in the wagon,” I lied.
 

He gave me a knowing nod, as if he were all too aware that I had been as wakeful during the long ride here as I was now. “Too good for our accommodations?”

Eyes narrowing, I looked back at him. He had the sort of face one could pass a hundred times in a crowd and not truly notice, neither ugly nor handsome. For some reason, he seemed more amused by me than anything else. “It’s filthy,” I said, at that point not much caring whether he took offense or not.

He did not. Instead, he threw back his head and laughed, showing off teeth far better than they should have been. “I could tell you were a fine lady. What in all the hells were you doing in a rat hole like Aunde?”

“I’m not a fine lady,” I protested. “I’m a
doctor
. Dirt spreads disease. And I was in Aunde to treat an outbreak of tertian fever.”

“A doctor, eh?” He studied me for a moment. “One of those healers of Inyanna?”

“Certainly not,” I replied, my tone sharp. “They pray to their goddess for healing. Members of my Order use science to heal the sick, not superstition.”

“Science,” he repeated. Then he shook his head and spat on the ground. “There won’t be much use for that where you’re going.”

And with those dark words he strode off, leaving me to watch as he disappeared into the billowing fog, which seemed to grow thicker as daylight approached. Frowning, I pulled my cloak more closely about me and brooded over his parting shot.
 

Where exactly were we going? Of course no one had bothered to tell us of our destination, but I guessed that from here we would be taken to the great slave markets of Myalme. The city was located about two days’ ride from the border that separated Seldd from Farendon. On all the continent, only Seldd still practiced the barbarism of slavery, and it was a land that held itself close, aloof from most of the trade and politics that connected the lands from North Eredor to the west to Purth toward the east. Ringed on three sides by the impassable ranges of the Opal Mountains and the heavily forested slopes of the Razorback Hills, Seldd was a land unto itself.
 

Although members of my Order traveled as far as Sirlende to the west and the hot reaches of Keshiaar to the extreme southeast, they avoided Seldd. The slavers held little respect for status or learning—as I had already found—and there was too much danger of capture. Traders who did venture within the borders of Seldd traveled in large groups accompanied by well-paid mercenaries so as to avoid presenting too tempting a target.
 

This was why Seldd still spoke its own language when most of the folk on the continent shared a common tongue, albeit one that had its own dialects and accents. Obviously some of its inhabitants spoke my language, but I foresaw difficulties ahead if I ended up in some backwater far from a city or trade route. Still, there was no use worrying now about what might or might not happen in the future.

Suddenly I could feel the weariness in my limbs, the dull ache in my head from fatigue. Filthy or no, the straw began to look quite inviting. Besides, my cloak would shield me from the worst of the dirt. Finding an empty spot next to Elissa, I sank down onto the ground and arranged the excess fabric from my cloak to cover her as well. Then I leaned my head against the stone wall and drifted off into an uneasy slumber.

Some hours must have passed by the time I awakened, for a hazy sun stood well past its zenith. Apparently the sounds of the slavers approaching to hand out a meager meal were what had roused me. I opened my sleep-gummed eyes and saw the men passing around a few loaves of coarse bread and what looked like half a wheel of cheese. To their credit, the villagers took the food silently and parceled it out so that everyone could have their fair share.
 

Elissa handed me a thick piece of bread and a slab of blue-veined cheese. She ventured a quick, half-hearted smile. “At least they’re not starving us.”

“Of course not,” I replied. “We’re valuable merchandise. We’re of no use if we’re half-dead of starvation.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, I regretted them. Elissa’s full mouth quivered a bit, and I could see the tears start in her long-lashed dark eyes.

More than once during my training I had been taken to task for my bluntness. It was not seemly in one whose purpose was to soothe the ill, but I had always found it difficult to keep my tongue fully in check. I had hoped that I’d improved somewhat over the years, but obviously I still had some ways to go.

“But don’t worry,” I went on briskly. “I’m sure you’ll find a very good situation. A pretty girl like you would most certainly make a fine lady’s maid.”

At that she did perk up a bit. I supposed for a girl from a forsaken little hamlet such as Aunde, even slavery might not be so bad if she found a place in a great house. Certainly I wouldn’t mention my fears that instead she could end up being worked to death in the endless flax fields that formed the basis of Seldd’s economy, or, only slightly better, toiling in one of the weaving houses where the flax was spun into linen until she went blind from the unending close work. To tell the truth, I wasn’t sure whether those fears were for her alone or for myself as well. I had skill and would be an asset to any large household…if I could convince my new owners that it was in their best interests to keep me as a house slave and not as another back to be broken in the flax fields.

But perhaps it wouldn’t come to that. I could only hope that Frin would have the presence of mind to report my capture to my superiors. I was certain they would do whatever was necessary to secure my freedom. After all, they had more than ten years invested in my training. At twenty-five, I still looked forward to decades of plying my healing art throughout the various kingdoms of the continent, and since all of my earnings save what I required for certain personal necessities were given over to the Order, I could not imagine that I would be left to rot in Seldd.
 

Of course I had been warned by my superiors not to venture too close to the border. As much as the people who lived in those regions needed our help, we physicians simply could not risk capture by slavers. And I had thought I was being careful. Another village, even closer to the border than Aunde, had requested my help, but I had had to decline, even though it pained me to refuse aid to those in need.
 

Why this particular group of slavers had become emboldened enough to venture farther into Farendon than any others, I couldn’t say for certain. Perhaps the inhabitants of the other villages were becoming too wary. Perhaps they had abandoned their homesteads and farms altogether. One would have thought that at some point the slavers’ depredations would become too great to bear, and that our leaders would be forced to act. But our king was the lazy, pleasure-loving son of yet another indolent monarch, and I supposed war over the rights of a few peasants was something to be avoided at all costs.

Elissa had continued to watch me closely as I sat silent, brooding over my own thoughts. At length she ventured, “What does a lady’s maid do?”

Glad I could take her mind away from the squalor and uncertainty of our present situation, I explained her possible duties as best I could. Of course I had no maid while taking my training in the house of the Order, but my sisters and I had had a personal servant who attended to us before I left home at fifteen, and who continued to do so for my siblings after I was gone. So I was able enough to describe how she would take care of a lady’s wardrobe, and help with her hair, and run errands for her.

“No kitchen work, and no work in the fields,” I said, and I could see Elissa’s slender shoulders relax a bit.

“That sounds better than what I was doing in Aunde,” she replied, looking down at her reddened and chafed hands. “I’m quick with a needle, though, and I suppose I could learn to dress hair.” She touched the long dark braid that fell over her shoulder and was quiet for a moment. I watched her thin fingers smooth their way over her hair, as if for the first time really contemplating the intricacy of the weave of her braid.

“You’re filling her head with nonsense,” said another of the captives, a narrow-faced man of about my own age. “It’s to the fields with all of us.”

“You don’t know that for sure,” I said calmly enough, although what I really wished to do was snap at him to not frighten the others any more than they already were. “We all have our own skills, our own talents. Seldd requires slaves for much more than simply working in the fields.”

Elissa’s face had again grown tight with worry at the young man’s words, but she seemed to relax slightly as she listened to my reply. “What Mistress Merys says is true,” she added. “We have no way of knowing exactly what our new masters will want with us.”

He scowled, then gave Elissa an appraising look.
 

I could tell he was probably about to make some misguided comment as to exactly what a slave owner might want with a girl as pretty as Elissa, so I said hastily, “And we won’t know until we’re there, so there’s no need to borrow trouble. Besides,” I added, “we don’t want them to see us quarreling, do we?”

The young man lifted an eyebrow, but then he obviously saw, as I had, that a group of the slavers had approached our makeshift holding area. Mouth thinning, he brushed at the dirt on his breeches and stood, even as Elissa and I followed suit.

Five men came toward us, led by the man with whom I had spoken earlier. He gave us a casual glance, and then said, “We’re moving out. Come along.”

There being nothing else we could do, we followed him out from underneath the overhang and then climbed back up into the wagon. He took a seat up front, next to another man who waited there as he held the reins of a team of horses that waited patiently, anticipating our departure. The remaining three men mounted their own horses and fell in around us as we began the next step of our journey.

Where that would take us, or to whom, I had no way of knowing. All I could do was huddle into my cloak, Elissa close by my side, and pray to whatever gods might be listening that I would have the strength to face whatever came next.
 

Chapter Two

In the end, our journey took the greater part of three days. For the first day—while still within the borders of Farendon—we traveled from dusk until the sun began to show on the eastern horizon, when we made camp in some well-hidden glade or ravine. Then, once the sun had set, we took to the wagon again, to spend the evening hours slowly rattling our way farther from home. But on the second day I knew we must have crossed over into Seldd, for the slavers allowed us only a few hours of rest before we set out in the mid-morning to continue our journey.

At first I could see no real difference between this country and my own. Here, as in Farendon, the trees were just beginning to turn, their leaves showing bright hues of ochre and crimson. The weather held at least; although the fogs returned the second night, after that the days were mild, the evenings clear and cool but not yet cold. Then, on the third day, I saw the first of the great flax fields stretching out to either side of the road, as well as the hunched dark figures of the slaves who worked them.
 

I could tell when Elissa first noticed them as well. She had been staring off into the distance, a dreamy look on her face, when suddenly she stiffened, a frown creasing the skin between her delicate brows.

“The fields....” she whispered, and pulled my cloak more closely about her, even though the day was fine and clear.

By then I was weary enough that no ready words of encouragement found their way to my lips. I merely patted her on the shoulder and gave her a small smile, hoping that would be reassurance enough. I had no more idea than anyone else of our true destination, and platitudes that had been simple enough to utter a few days ago now appeared to me completely useless. All we could do was wait and see what happened.
 

Toward the evening of the third day, we approached a low-lying city that clustered around the edges of a dark, brooding lake. Although of course I had never been there before, I knew it must be Myalme, a regional center of commerce—and the nexus of the Selddish slave trade.
 

If I remembered my geography correctly, the body of water on which Myalme was situated was called Lake Nureine. Several large rivers flowed into the lake. Seldd was not a densely inhabited country; uncounted miles were taken up by the unending fields of flax and barley and wheat. So Myalme, although one of the three greatest cities of the realm, looked small and provincial when compared to the stone towers and wide cobbled streets of Lystare, the capital of my own land.
 

The slave markets were situated on the outskirts of town, at the eastern end of Lake Nureine. Somehow, the air did smell different here—damper and faintly tinged with the scent of fish and human waste. It was to be expected, I supposed. The slave markets were filled with the miserable wares of the trade, and so many people packed together in such primitive conditions couldn’t help but stink. Still, I found myself trying to breathe through my mouth, all the while praying that we wouldn’t be here long.