Triple Strength

245. Slave: Wiremu

“You’re not Baligh.” The Slave Taskmaster said when she saw me. She was quite a young human. Quite pretty as well. She had stopped just inside the door when she caught sight of me. Two guards had entered before her, and two more were behind her, waiting to enter.

“No, my name is Dianne.”

“Where is Baligh? I only deal with Baligh.” She looked like she was about to bolt. The guards drew their swords at her scared tone.

“Baligh is a bit tied up at the moment,” what a cliche line that was. That was embarrassing. Never saying that again.

I don’t know how Tabitha gets the information before I do. I am supposed to be the Spy. This lady here was the only Slave Taskmaster left in Almaeadin. Her boss was Journeyman Level and was killed several months ago, and I had already paid the bounty. This lady was Barbra, and she was the only mid-apprentice from the information we could find. She was going to run back to Janub, but the city Lord offered her personal protection, and she could stay in the Palace. She also got a big pay rise.

“Nope, I am not staying… what the fuck? Where’s the door?” The guards glanced back, and I struck. It was only a thin layer of Granite over the door, so a decent effort would bust through. Granite Wall was slowly levelling.

The first guard took a knife to the throat, but the second swung his sword at me. I deflected it with a small Granite Shield I created on my forearm. I put a Granite Spike through his foot to distract him and punched him in the side of the head with a small Granite Shield the size of my fist. His steel helmet was dented, and he definitely had a concussion. I didn’t stop there, as he probably had a self-heal Skill. Any decent warrior did or should. My knife went up under his helmet and into his brain.

I checked the first guard was down, but he wasn’t, which I found out when he crashed into me. I needed to stop Barbra from running as she had just stopped pounding on the door, or granite, as the case may be. She was an office lady, so she would not have the strength to break it down. I spiked her foot to pin her to the spot.

The Guard that crashed into me had blood running down his neck and chest, but he had got rid of the knife and plugged the hole. When he crashed into me, it was just that, as he was not too steady on his feet, but he was doing his job to the best of his ability. His armoured fist connected with my ribs as we went down in a tangle. I brought my knife around, but he grabbed my hand with his hand, and he was quite strong. I was probably stronger, but I was not going to get into a contest of strength. I kneed him in the groin. His groin guard would have blunted the blow, but the knee had sprouted a Granite Spike that pierced up deep into his body. I elbowed his throat and restarted the bleeding. While he was distracted with all that, I ripped my knife hand from his and plunged the knife between the armour joints and chainmail into his heart.

I rolled the body off me and stood up. I was covered in his blood. That ended up messier than I thought it would. Barbra was kneeling, trying to get her foot out and screaming. She looked at me and screamed louder. I hit her in the head and knocked her out. I hope. Her Attributes would have gone into the mental and spiritual, not the physical. I am not used to keeping delicate people alive. I bound her wrists and feet in stone but used a cloth to gag her.

I removed the Granite Wall, and Tabitha came in, dragging the body of one of the two guards left outside. She looked at my bloody appearance and raised an eyebrow at me. She was spotless. Rodion followed her with the other body. Ruku was also outside, keeping up appearances that the compound is normal.

To arrange this, I needed to forge several documents and push my Forger class to 3 and my copier skill to just needing the push to get to apprentice.

“She has four active slave bonds,” I tell them, “Two are new and weak, while the other two are more established, probably her slaves. The weak bonds are probably recently enslaved.”

“Do you want to break the bonds?” Tabitha asked.

“That won’t remove the class. I would prefer to bring them with us.”

“She worked yesterday for “At your Service,” so the new ones are probably there. The others are probably at her residence or the palace.”

“We won’t be able to extract them from the palace, so we will try the others and see.I will recognise the bond if I get close enough.”

“I will take Barbra out to catch with the wagons on dusk. You only have until this is discovered to get the slaves.”

I nodded in agreement as I washed the bulk of the blood off in the wash area. Tabitha loaded Barbra across the back of Dusk like a sack and secured her with ropes. I stopped her for a minute and searched Barbra’s pockets for anything useful. Tabitha then mounted up, and suddenly, Barbra looked like a large saddle bag and bedroll. A very handy skill.

The wagons had left Almaeadin two days ago and were travelling west. They won’t be hard to catch. Tabitha would ride after them while the three of us would try to get the slaves first. The new slaves were the best to try to release first if we could. They would be the least traumatised.

I sat down for a bit and altered some documents. I changed my jacket and borrowed Ruku’s horse. Mosey would never pass as a courier's horse. I raced to Barbra’s official residence. It was well guarded despite her not staying there.

I greeted the gate guard and said, “Mistress Barbra wants her slaves at this address as fast as possible,” and handed over the paper I forged.

“They go nowhere without a guard,” he growled back.

“Whatever. I just delivered the message. Sign here to say I did my job.” The guard reluctantly signed, and I turned around and raced away. I spotted a couple of Rodion’s dogs loitering around so they would have plenty of warning. I then did the same thing at the palace. If the slaves turned up, they did. If not, they would have to be left. Ruku and Rodion should be able to handle any guards.

The trickier part was the two new slaves at the traders, “At Your Service.” Somebody there would have been given the authority to direct them. They couldn’t be transferred without the Master releasing them, and Barbra was all tied up at the moment. Who said that?

If I broke the bond, they could be picked up by anybody. I could break the bond, but then I would have to step in to become their master. That is called theft under the laws of the city. First, I need to find them, and I had to be close to sense the bonds.

At Your Service must have a holding area for people in between owners. I had learned that Barbra had a schedule she used to move between the traders, and it was very difficult to insert something into the schedule. It had taken us days and levelled my Forger class and Skills.

I am not sure why she still held the slave bonds for these two. Why didn’t she just transfer them to one of the staff at At Your Service? Are they even at this place? They may not be here. It was just where she was scheduled. I circled the compound. They were not near the edges where I could sense the bonds. Were these two ones she was going to keep?

I sat down at a nearby eatery to think. I had her schedule for the week that I got from her pouch. She only worked two hours in the morning and then three in the afternoon. She did a full day on auction day, technically working for the auction house, not the traders.

She wouldn’t keep slaves in her name unless they were for her or somebody who was not here yet. Could they be rebellious slaves needing a strong Taskmaster in charge to settle them down? Thinking about the slave bond, that could be possible. Tricked into it and was rebellious for a while. Somebody like Modrica would hold a grudge forever, regardless of reduced mental attributes, if she had been tricked into it. How would you be tricked into it? Drugs that make your brain foggy. Hallucinogens. This is all conjecture, but possible. It would take a specialised alchemist.

The simple solution is the most likely. The slaves are for her or someone she knows. A gift maybe, after all, she would be able to negotiate a discount. So where would they be? The palace or her residence would be the most likely, in which case they may have got delivered to Ruku and Rodion.

I headed back to the palace. As I did, I thought about my attributes. If I became a slave, my mental attributes would only be ten percent of what they are now. They would range between 4-5. A young 18-year-old would have 1-2. That would put them back to the mental ability of a 5-year-old. I would be around 8-10 years old. Someone who specialises in mental abilities would be older. Teenagers can be hard to handle. Making slaves of older people means they have more skills, but they would also be harder to handle. They have a past life they remember, and they have more mental strength. This may be one of the other main jobs of the Slave Taskmaster, managing difficult slaves. They have the organisational base class and the mental attributes for the job. Do older slaves need more time with the taskmaster before they can be passed on? It makes sense. Maybe the two newer bonds are older slaves.

The Slave bond is such that the master will always mentally dominate the slave, but the master is not always standing over the slave. The slave is given a task and left to it. This is where the strength and experience of the master carry weight, as well as the level of the Slave Class. The only counter is the mental attributes of the slave, and there is a big difference between the will of a five-year-old and a thirteen-year-old.

The palace was busy. Getting behind the public areas would be difficult. Fortunately, Tāoke is small enough to scout. He is not interested in learning something like Analyse Bonds, but he knows the Taskmaster’s smell and can trace that. I sit in a tea shop across the road. He located the suite of rooms Barbra uses, but no one was there. One of Rodion’s dogs arrived with a message. They have three slaves captured. They think all three belong to Barbra, but they may have a random. Unfortunately, they have had to vacate the premises and are leaving town rapidly. Searches will be starting.

Is the last slave worth it? All the city exits are going to be watched carefully, and patrols will be enhanced and trackers put on the trail. They will not want to lose their last Slave Taskmaster. Tāoke was following a promising scent, but it was leading down to a guarded dungeon. At least with our ability to move through stone, he doesn’t have to wait for locked doors to be opened. Extracting this person or people is going to be difficult. If I were the slave and an unwilling one at that, I would want someone to save my ass.

A troop of horses with armed soldiers galloped up to the palace gate. It looks like the city Lord is about to be informed. This slave is going to be watched and protected. If the slave becomes unattached, they will assume the Taskmaster has been killed. Usually, only the owner or a Slave Taskmaster can release a slave; in this case, both are the same person. If I don’t break the bond, they will intensify the search as the Taskmaster must still live. I have to get close, and if I can’t save them, I have to break the bond.