Raiders of the Middle Sea

a World of Kedra Story

Meanwhile Kayden and his new friends have their own interesting night…

Raiders of the Middle Sea Part 7

Kayden is saved from a night of being a slave to a cold Jhakarti master. Instead he hears that he would be going with the giant Rulaf, the dark skinned Shadi and the beastial Jhakarti slave to go drinking.

Still a slave however, Kayden as no choice but to follow along…

Part 8

It took them more than an hour to arrive at Shi’Caperrnel’s estate. They were loaded onto a flatbed wagon and stood in a rain of confetti and cheers. Like they were some damn heroes.

Shadi had stood silently and watched the crowd, much like Kayden was. The nameless Jhakarti had lain down and was ignoring everything around him. Rulaf on the other hand stood in the front of the wagon with one foot on the railing. He raised his hands into the air and yelled, soaking in the adulation of the crowd lining the street.

They passed the crowds that had gathered about the gates and began to see what the city looked like. It was large and Kayden could not see past the yellow-brown buildings to see any sort of terrain or countryside. This was not a shock to Kayden. Railor City was the same, a metropolis that took days to ride out of.

What was different here was the large quantities of men and women that wore chains on their bodies. The slaves of this city were not all chained the same way. Some were meant to carry and their shackles were placed on their arms or necks. Others were chained in place at some building or another, doing a task that did not require movement.

Most of the slaves were muted and downcast, their eyes on the floor. Kayden saw again that there were a large quantity of Jhakarti slaves. There was something else that was chained up at the entrance to a building in the distance. The furred creature was handing robes to free people entering the building with long forearms. Then it was out of sight.

Just as Kayden thought that some of the slaves looked happy there was a commotion where a slave woman with a chain around her neck was shoved to the ground. There was a crack of a whip and a Jhakarti stepped forward to yank the woman to her feet. Her face was covered in blood from where the whip had cut her skin.

What chilled Kayden was not the violence committed against the woman. Instead it was the lack of reaction from passers-by. Kayden could see that Shadi looked at the same scene with a look of disgust.

“Shadi.” Kayden nudged the dark skinned man. “Do you know where we are? After I was taken, they put me in a closed wagon and rode me into the city. It took a couple of days… though I was unconscious for some of the way. I don’t know where we are.”

“You… you are from far away?” Shadi asked. The way he spoke was accented to his ear, but Kayden supposed that his own way of speaking was also strange to the southerner’s ears.

“Yes. From Railor.” He replied.

“Ah. I have heard of Railor. The large Kingdom in the north with massive armies, destroying whole nations on their path of war.” Shadi looked him up and down now. “So how did you come to be here?”

“Hmmm… It’s true that Railor has had plenty wars in the past and expanded its borders a lot, but there hasn’t been expansion in a long time I think.” Kayden shrugged. “I’m just a sailor. Used to sail for the navy, but I was on a trading ship of a real ambitious Captain. Then we were attacked by two other vessels. They lit us up with fire arrows and then came aboard. Knocked me out as I was helping my mates and then I woke up on the wagon. Soon enough I was thrown into that cage on the side of the arena.”

“Shi’Uzdu purchased you at random then.” Shadi told him. “Each cage had a number, containing a healthy man with weapons. That’s what Shi’Uzdu bought and that’s why he said that he was lucky.”

“I see… What about you then? How did you get here?” Kayden saw the start of a change in the layout of the city. The tall apartment blocks and sandstone stores became fewer, exchanged for villas and mansions. Each new building they passed seemed to get ever larger.

“I was also captured… Slavers roam the roads in the south…” Shadi looked at his feet and his face was bitter. He seemed unable to carry on.

“Don’t look sad friend!” The giant shouted and clapped Shadi on the shoulder hard enough to make him stagger. The dark man seemed about to react in anger when the big man put his arm across Shadi’s shoulder, nearly driving him to his knees. Rulaf grinned his crooked smile at Shadi. “We are alive friend! Tonight we drink! Shi’Cappa looks good after Rulaf. I have great room for great man! I kill many men in games. I get wine, beer, ale, meat, fruit…” Rulaf winked, the most cunning expression that Kayden had yet seen on his brutish face. “… and all the women that Rulaf might desire!”

“I see… you are fortunate to have such a good Shi.” Shadi replied.

Kayden said nothing. It cannot be fortunate to have any kind of slave master. “There is no slavery where I come from.” He said to nobody in particular.

“What? No slaves?” Rulaf seemed appalled. “Who fights the games? Who does the… the… dishes?”

Kayden shrugged. “People do the work. They get paid for it, they work for the Lords.”

“Oh oh, they paid. So what? Rulaf paid! I have big home.” The giant gestured at the mansions that they passed as though the brute could possibly be staying in any of them. “I have food, I have drink!”

“Yeah… but you can’t leave here and do what you want.” Kayden replied.

Rulaf blinked down at him. “Leave? This is best place! Where I go? To desert?” The giant laughed so hard spittle flew everywhere. “Leave home and all the drink I can drink to go walking in the sand and die in the sun… of thirst… little man funny!”

So the city is surrounded by desert. That’s a good fact to know.

“Oratiga.” Shadi said looking up, his eyes wide. “We are in Oratiga!”

The giant grinned. “Aye! Oratiga. Best and biggest city there is! We here!” The wagon stopped and Rulaf vaulted down to the ground. The giant man strode past the carriage where the diminutive slave master rode.

The estate wall had tall marble arches that ran high over the massive iron gate. Rulaf placed his hands against the metal gate and strained for a moment. The heavy doors swung open as the slave master’s carriage neared the wall.

With the sun an hour or more from setting, they rode through the estate garden, as if they had ridden out of the city and into a well-tended countryside. Either side of the roadway were well tended hedges broken by footpaths that led to grass covered clearings, rose gardens and ponds for fish and birdlife.

If Kayden tried hard enough, he could make out walls beyond the treeline that framed the manicured grass lawns. It was just an illusion that they were in wide open spaces, the gardeners artfully hiding walls and buildings with trees and hedges. Still, it was a massive estate.

The wagon rocked as Rulaf launched himself into the flatbed wagon, causing the Jhakarti to hiss and sit up. It stared at its surroundings and did not move as the carriage and the wagon arrived at the mansion in the center of the estate grounds. It had similar architecture to the arched gateway they had passed earlier.

Again, Rulaf vaulted from the wagon to land on his feet. Kayden and Shadi went down and were surprised to see that there were no guards or gaolers who came to chain and hustle them along.

Of course, the heavily armoured guards that escorted Shi’Caperrnel were there. Twelve identical soldiers, helmeted in the hot sun but upright and rigid with discipline. They seemed to follow the little man everywhere. Four of them followed the man now as he disembarked his carriage and glided towards the house. They looked like adults escorting a child.

The old slave master glanced towards them and waved a hand. “Have a grand time Rulaf my boy! Show your friends around! There will be a feast for you as always, the cooks will make sure there is enough. Don’t forget about the other one in the wagon!” The slaver dismissed them just like that and disappeared into the building along with the clanking of steel armour.

Kayden looked around, seeking evidence of the worst to come. “I don’t get it… I expected… chains? Cages? Guards?”

“I too am confused.” Shadi admitted.

Rulaf strode back to the wagon and lifted the Jhakarti from where he lay. The creature hissed and tried to strike out at the giant who dropped him from above Kayden’s head height. The giant laughed as the other smacked his head on the ground and ate some loamy garden soil. It spluttered and tried to stand, casting a clumsy fist at the giant.

Rulaf cuffed the creature with an open hand and it sprawled on its back. Rulaf picked up one ankle and began striding over the lawn towards the mansion, dragging the unconscious Jhakarti behind him. Instead of the main door, he angled across the garden to the right.

“Cages? What’s this Rulaf hears from little man and brown man? No cages for champion Rulaf!” The giant laughed. “Hero Rulaf! I used to be kept in cages. Rulaf break cages! Then Shi’Cappa bought Rulaf and all was better. He give me nice place. Why Rulaf leave eh?”

Kayden was at a loss for words. It seemed that Rulaf was a simpleton who had everything he wanted, why then would he want to escape. No aspirations to leave, no wants. No family or duties. Kayden had the suspicion that not all slaves lived so freely.

“Slaves are not usually this lucky, friend Kayden.” Shadi said to him in a low voice. “I can see you find all this strange, but believe me – this is the first time I have heard of the like. Usually we would be given food yes, but we would be locked up. Sometimes abused.”

“What’s with this place then?”

“I don’t know… it’s as if he’s…” Shadi stopped. “Never mind. Let’s enjoy this while we have it.”

“Why?” Kayden asked.

Shadi looked at him over his shoulder and smiled, his eyes tired. “Because tomorrow we may be dead.”

To Be Continued

Next time on Raiders…

Sometimes wisdom can be gleaned from those who are the most simple minded. This is likely because as intelligent creatures, we tend to over complicate the way we look at situations where we have invested too much of ourselves.

Next on Raiders we have discussion of this sort together will all the factors that will result in a mighty fine hangover!