The Master's Chair (The Chronicles of Terah) (21 page)

Karl’s choice was heavier than anyone else’s and had a wider blade. The three-foot blade curved slightly towards the left at the tip, and the two-handed grip curved slightly towards the right. The head of a lion was engraved on the pommel.

Darrell’s sword was straight and narrow like Steve’s, but it was nearly as long as Karl’s. The handle was designed for a two-handed grip, but it was light enough that it could be used one-handed. A roaring cougar was engraved on its pommel.

Chris was beginning to get discouraged. He thought he had tried all of the swords when his eyes fell on one that had been left in the crate. The sword was still in its scabbard, but he could see the hilt. The handle had two hardwood grips separated by a metal spacer. Chris asked Palladin if he could try it, and when Palladin took the sword out of its scabbard and handed it to Chris, sparks jumped from the sword to Chris’s hand and the sword began to hum softly.

“Yes, I’d say that one’s yours,” Palladin said with a nod as he walked back towards Kalen.

Once they had all selected a sword, Palladin, Duane, and Kalen started collecting the extras.

“Wait a minute,” Chris said. “What about Kevin and Theresa? Don’t they need swords, too?”

“He may be right,” Duane said hesitantly. “Although neither of them has shown any interest in having one.”

“Theresa doesn’t need one,” Kalen said. “She’s a sister now, and they never carry a sword, but she’ll need a dagger. As for Kevin, sorcerers never bother to carry a sword, so if for no other reason than that, he’ll need one. What do you think, Palladin?”

“Well, since he probably has no intention of using it, I’m not sure any sword will really select him, but I’ve got one here that I’d love to see him carry. It’s one of my favorites.” Palladin turned to the crate, and dug down to the very bottom. The sword he pulled out of the crate had a twenty-inch blade but only the bottom fifteen inches had cutting edges. Although the sword was light enough to be used one-handed, the five-inch section of the blade closest to the cross guard had small rounded knobs on the edges, which could be grasped in the second hand to deliver a powerful two-handed thrust.

“Yes, I think that will do just fine for Kevin,” Kalen said as Duane nodded his approval.

Duane and Kalen continued collecting the extra swords, sheathing them, and stacking them beside the crate. Palladin pulled a large leather bag out of the bottom of the crate and then began packing the extra swords away.

After the humans had all fastened their scabbards to their belts, practiced drawing and sheathing the swords, and fought imaginary opponents for a while, Palladin said, “Now, for my next toys.” He picked up the leather bag and opened it. The bag was full of what appeared to be walking sticks and canes. “From what Kalen told me, you’re going to travel as a group of minstrels. You can’t really wear your swords on stage, but there’s no reason not to have a couple of these around while you’re performing.”

Palladin emptied the contents of the bag on the ground. There were three carved walking sticks and three walking canes with large curved handles.

Steve picked up one of the canes and took a few steps with it. “Does everyone on Terah use some kind of stick or cane?”

“No, of course not. Watch.” Palladin took hold of a cane, flipped it over, grabbed the end, and used the curved handle to grab Kalen by the neck. “If I had jerked on it, he would have ended up on the ground at the very least. They’re great for pulling someone off a buddy during a fight, and so easy to use.” Palladin grinned as Kalen struggled to regain his balance. “And if that’s not enough,” Palladin flipped the cane again, grasped the handle, gave it a twist, and pulled a thin, sharp blade out of the shaft of the cane, “you can always run him through!” Palladin made a playful lunge towards Kalen. “Now do you think you might like to carry my little toys along?”

Darrell picked one of the canes up and twisted the handle to pull the blade out. He frowned and said, “Are all of the canes on Terah this lethal? Or is this something new?”

“It’s new at the moment, just like those things you had me make for you to throw, but all you have to do is use them once and other people will start making them, too. If I were you, I’d stick to swords, daggers, and throwing knives if at all possible, and save the new weapons for emergencies,” Palladin answered.

“What about these? Is there anything special that we need to know about them?” Karl asked as he picked up one of the walking sticks.

“Not much really. All I did to those was run a cast iron bar down the center of the shaft. Here, look at the bottom end and you can see where I filled the borehole. But after it’s used as a walking stick for a while, no one will be able to spot it. It’s a little heavier than other sticks, but it’ll pack a good wallop and it won’t break. It’ll even stop a sword if you can hang on to it. Now let’s put those back in this storage bag. Could someone take the bag into the house along with Kevin’s sword? We’ve still got another crate to go through.”

As soon as the yard was cleared up again, Palladin carried the crate with the extra swords up to the barn and stored it in one of Kalen’s spare wagons. Then he unloaded the second crate from the new wagon and carried it to the exercise yard.

When everyone had gathered around, Palladin pried the lid off. The crate was separated into three sections. One section contained daggers, one contained throwing knives, and the third contained several dozen throwing stars.

Palladin explained that a dagger was not like a sword; when it was used, it was left in the victim. He told everyone to choose two daggers, one to be worn on the belt in plain sight, and a smaller one to be worn somewhere else on the body, hidden by clothing.

The daggers were as unique as the swords. Some had wavy blades, some had triangular blades, and some had thin narrow blades. Most of the handles were slightly curved to fit the palm of the hand, although a few were almost “L” shaped and a few were straight. While the others chose daggers for themselves, Kalen chose daggers for Kevin and Theresa.

As soon as he had selected his daggers, Darrell started going through the throwing stars. Palladin had used Darrell’s sketches as a basis for constructing them, but after he had made a few, he had created some patterns of his own. Some of the stars had triangular blades, some had arrowhead-shaped blades, some had blades that swirled off in a circular motion, and a few had spikes.

Palladin watched as Darrell carefully examined the stars. Then he handed Darrell a small leather bag with sections inside, almost like an accordion file. It would hold eight stars and would fit in a tunic pocket. There were leather straps on both sides so that the bag could be secured to the tunic through small holes in the pocket or tied to a belt. Darrell placed eight of the stars in the bag and immediately dropped it in his pocket. He turned to Palladin to thank him, but Palladin had already moved on.

He was giving everyone two small leather sheaths with leather straps attached to all four corners. “Now, you need to choose some throwing knives. They are all pretty much alike, so this shouldn’t take but a few minutes. One of the sheaths that I just gave you should fit nicely on your forearm. Here, let me show you,” Palladin said as he took Joan’s from her hand and tied it around her forearm. “Notice that the wide part has slots for four knives. Now if you’ll remove your boot, I’ll show you how to attach the ankle sheath,” Palladin said to Joan.

After Joan had taken her boot off, Palladin tied the sheath so that the pouch would be on the inside of her leg. “This sheath will hold six if you really want to carry that many in your boot. But if you do, be sure you allow for that when you buy your next pair of boots. More than likely you’ll find that three or four knives are all that you can wear comfortably with the boots you have on now. By the way, notice people’s boots if you think you might have to fight them. Boots that are loose around the calf are a dead give-away that the person’s carrying knives.”

Soon everyone had the sheaths tied on and knives stored in the pouches. Palladin picked up the rest of the knives and put them in a wooden box. “I have just the spot for these. You know, once you throw a knife you probably won’t get it back, so you’ll need spares. If this supply starts running low, you’ll need to buy some more. Just be sure that they’re made by a dwarf. You want good quality. After all, if the balance isn’t right there’s no telling where the knife might end up when you throw it.”

Then Palladin put the box of knives back in the crate with the stars and extra daggers, picked up the crate and started back towards the wagon. When he reached the wagon he set the crate on the ground.

“Before I can show you the hidden compartments I built, I really need to get this harp out of the way.” Palladin lifted the harp out of the wagon and set it on the ground next to the crate. “And who did I lug this thing all the way up here for?” he asked with a smile as he looked directly at Joan.

“Yes, it’s for me,” Joan answered as she walked around the harp, fingering the exquisite design carved into the wooden frame. “Did you make this? It’s beautiful!”

“No, I can’t take credit for this one, but it is good work. I don’t know who made it, but I’d bet it was an elf. I traded a man a horse for that harp a while back. I was going to put a ‘for sale or trade’ sign on it and stick it out in front of the shop, but I never got around to it. Then I got the message from Kalen requesting a harp.”

 Joan strummed the harp a few times and said, “Karl, why don’t you and Darrell see if you can get the harp into the house. I want to set it up in the living room so I can practice with it. I’ll get the door.”

“That’s all right. I’ll get it,” Palladin offered.

“No, Palladin, please let them. If we’re going to carry this harp with us and use it in our performances, we need to be sure that we can move it ourselves, unless you plan to travel with us, of course,” Joan said.

“No thank you. I wouldn’t mind seeing how all of this works out, but I have a shop to run. I think I’ll have to pass on that one.”

Darrell and Karl picked up the harp and carried it carefully into the house. It wasn’t really heavy, but it would be awkward for one person to carry. They set it up in a corner of the living room.

After they came back outside, Palladin showed everyone the regular storage compartments and then the hidden compartments that he had built inside the wagon. They stored the extra daggers and knives in one of the hidden compartments near the back door. Then he showed them the compartment he had built under the driver’s seat. No one would guess that part of the seat was hollow and contained a small metal lock box that could be opened by twisting a key that looked like a nail that hadn’t been hammered quite flush with the wood. The driver could open the box and reach in without dropping the reins, getting off the bench, or even bending over more than he would to rest his elbows on his knees.

By the time they finished exploring the wagon, it was time for dinner. Xantha and Kevin returned just as everyone was heading into the house. Kalen waited for him so that he could introduce Palladin, and then he took Kevin inside to show him the sword and daggers that they had selected for him.

Kevin was surprised to find that he actually liked the little sword and that it felt right in his hand. He tied the scabbard onto his belt and went outside to practice drawing it while everyone else was getting ready for dinner.

Duane stood by the backdoor for a few minutes watching him. Then he turned towards Palladin and said, “I think you made a good choice. That’s the first time he’s shown any interest at all in weapons. He seems to like that little sword, so maybe he’ll make a real effort to learn how to use it.”

Palladin just smiled in return.

Chapter 16

Reality Sinks In

Kevin was relieved that Palladin kept the dinner conversation lively that evening because no one thought to ask him what he and Xantha had talked about during the day. Xantha had told him that slavery existed virtually everywhere on Terah, and that capturing, transporting, and selling slaves was considered a business venture. He knew that the idea would be as repulsive to the rest of the Tellurians as it was to him, and he was wondering how to go about telling them when he noticed a lapse in the conversation. The others had finished eating and were sitting back enjoying their scog.

After a few minutes, Joan said quietly, “You know, so far this has been like preparing an act for the Pioneer Village. I hadn’t really thought of it as real, but today I had weapons strapped to my waist, my arm, and my ankle. In five days we’ll be leaving here, and I’m wondering just what we’re heading into. Are we going to have to fight our way to Glendymere’s? If we are, I don’t know that I can handle it.” She kept her gaze on the table because she could feel the tears burning in her eyes.

“I know what you mean,” Chris said slowly. “I’ve been thinking about that, too.”

“Well, don’t dwell on it,” Kalen said. “More than likely nothing will happen. You’ll probably travel from town to town quite peacefully, and get to Glendymere’s without having to draw a weapon once, but we couldn’t gamble on it. We had to do everything we could to make sure that if you suddenly found yourselves surrounded by a group of bandits you would have a good chance of surviving the encounter.”

“Or assassins,” Darrell said.

“I don’t think anyone is going to figure out who Kevin really is. You won’t be in any one place long enough. So, I’m not too worried about that threat,” Kalen answered.

“Well, I think I’ll just keep on worrying about it until this is over,” Darrell said.

“Not a bad idea,” Palladin agreed.

“We’ll also have to be on the lookout for the slave traders,” Kevin said before he realized it.

“The
what
?” Karl gasped. His frown was so deep that he appeared to have one long eyebrow stretched across his forehead. He looked first at Kevin and then at Kalen, who was suddenly busy clearing dishes, a sure sign that what Kevin said was true.

“Oh, no,” groaned Joan.

“Just out of curiosity, when were you planning to tell us about this? Or were you going to just let us discover it on our own?” Karl’s voice had a knife-edge to it.

“I was afraid of this,” Steve said quietly.

Darrell’s eyes became cold and hard, and Chris’s face turned red with anger.

“I didn’t know how to bring it up, but no, I wasn’t going to let you leave without warning you. I really don’t think you’ll run into any slave traders though. They tend to raid near large bodies of water. Look, let Kevin tell you about it. I’m sure he can explain it better than I can.” Kalen continued stacking the dishes. “Besides, I need to start washing up.” He picked up a stack of dishes and disappeared into the kitchen.

“Coward,” mumbled Kevin. Then he turned to the rest of the group. “From what I gathered, humans only enslave other humans. They don’t bother the dwarves or the elves for some reason.” Kevin paused and looked at Palladin and Duane as if waiting for them to explain.

 “I can tell you why they don’t bother the dwarves,” Palladin said. “In general, dwarves are pretty easy going as long as you let them go about their business in their own way, but we go berserk when we’re threatened.”

“Berserk?” Joan asked. “What does that mean?”

Palladin fingered the edge of his ax. “I’d rip my battle-ax off, right through the straps and start swinging. Before I came out of the frenzy, I’d have destroyed everything around me and killed everyone in the area. Most humans are pretty careful around dwarves.”

“I bet,” Darrell mumbled. Then he turned towards Duane and asked, “Do elves go berserk, too? Is that why slavers don’t go after them?”

“No. We’re just too hard to catch,” Duane said as he stood up. “Here, Palladin, grab my arm.”

As Palladin reached out to grab Duane’s arm, Duane vanished.

“See what I mean? No one can capture an elf,” Duane said from the other side of the room. “We can translocate. Most of us can’t go much farther than half a mile, but that’s usually enough. We train for battle, especially when we’re young, and we’re armed when we travel, but that’s more due to custom than necessity.” Duane walked back towards his seat and sat down. “Although some elves who do enjoy a good fight. They usually hire themselves out, mostly to human armies, but there are a few who have joined gangs of bandits or signed on with slave traders.”

“So who do the slavers go after? What criteria do they use? Skin color, hair color, eyes, what?” Darrell asked.

“I don’t think any of that matters to the slave traders. They prefer families, but from what I could tell, that’s about it,” Kevin said. “Xantha said that slavery began as a way to meet the quota in local army units. All of the male peasants and townspeople who are eighteen to twenty-five years old are required to serve in the local unit, but it’s on a part-time basis. They meet one day a week for drill and training, and other than that, they are only called out in case of attack or natural disaster. Apparently the provincial army is a lot like our National Guard. Anyway, if there aren’t enough able-bodied men to fill out the unit, the town director petitions the district minister for enough slaves to fill the empty slots.”

“You mentioned attack. Who attacks the towns? Invading armies from other provinces?” Karl asked.

“No, at least I don’t think so,” Kevin said. “From what I gathered, the only people who attack are slavers.”

Chris frowned. “It’s a vicious circle. They need slaves to build up the armies to protect the citizens from slavers.”

“What’s to keep the slaves from just walking away?” Darrell asked.

 “I asked Xantha the same question,” Kevin said. “A man by himself probably would. That’s why the slavers go after families. If a man is sent to a village to serve in that village’s army unit, his family is also sent to the director, sort of like hostages. Children might be sent to work at one of the local farms, or to help out at the stables. Women might be used to help out on a farm, in one of the local shops, or even in someone’s home. When the man’s not training with the army unit, he might be sent out to one of the farms or village shops to work. You really can’t blame the locals for using slave labor; after all, they’re paying the tab.”

“Do you mean the slaves are owned by the town?” Joan asked.

 “Not exactly. The village doesn’t usually buy them. They lease them from the minister. The ministers either buy slaves from the slave traders, from each other, or they can lease them from the governor. The governor buys slaves to work in the sorcerer’s castle and in the governor’s house, and he usually has some extras that he can lease out or sell to his ministers.”

“Then individual people don’t actually own slaves? Only the government does?” Karl asked.

“For the most part,” Kevin said. “Sometimes a wealthy family doesn’t want their son to have to serve in the army, so they buy a slave to take his place, or they might buy a couple of young girls to work at the house, but it doesn’t happen often.”

“Who are the slavers?” Chris asked. “Are they just a bunch of renegades?”

“Slave traders are businessmen. They don’t have much contact with the people they sell,” Kalen answered. “The actual raiding parties are usually made up of free-lance soldiers. Most professional soldiers work as officers in the armies, but some become bandits, and some sign on with the slave traders. The raiding parties consider any travelers that they happen to come across as fair game, but mainly they raid outlying villages and farms. Makes it easier to get away. Once they capture the people, they split them up by family units and ship them off to be sold in distant provinces.”

“No wonder Palladin brought us so many weapons,” Darrell said.

“I didn’t really bring the weapons because of the slavers,” Palladin said, trying to reassure them. “Slavers are something you need to be aware of, but you aren’t going to be near any large rivers or oceans, at least not on the way to Glendymere’s, and those are the danger zones. It’s not like there are raiding parties stalking all the roads. There just aren’t that many slavers out there.”

“The way I see it, I think the slavers pose a bigger threat than the assassins,” Steve said. “As long as we manage to keep Kevin’s identity under wraps we can probably avoid the assassins, but the slavers are random. We could run into them anywhere.”

“I wonder how many more nasty little surprises this world has in store for us,” Joan said quietly. “Well, you guys can sit here and talk about this as long as you want to. I’m going to the living room and practice with the harp.”

~ ~ ~ ~

The next three days were spent in a flurry of activity. Everyone, even Kevin, spent a couple of hours each morning sparring with the new swords. Kevin spent his afternoons with Xantha while the others practiced combat skills. After dinner each evening, the group continued practicing for the minstrel shows.

The night before they were to leave, they held a dress rehearsal and asked Kalen, Duane, and Palladin to act as their audience. Even though all three of them had heard the Tellurians practice from a distance every night, seeing the show from beginning to end was different. When the show was over, the audience cheered, and even Kalen admitted that he was impressed.

After the rehearsal, they loaded the instruments in the wagon that Palladin had brought. When they were done, Kalen handed each of them a bag of coins, some copper, some silver, some a funny grayish color, and some gold. He went over the relative values of each and told them about how much they should expect to pay for food, lodging for themselves, stable fees for the horses, new shoes for the horses, and so on. He also reminded them that they should be able to exchange a performance for most of their needs, but that if they had to use the coins, not to accept the first or even the second price.

Then Kalen and the Tellurians gathered around the dining room table to review the maps and go over the routes that they needed to take. When Kalen was satisfied that they knew where they were going, he folded the maps and handed them to Karl, who took them out to the wagon and packed them into one of Palladin’s little hidden compartments.

Later that night, after the Tellurians were asleep, Kalen, Duane, and Palladin sat in the living room, drinking scog. “I think they’re about as ready to go as we can make them,” Kalen said with relief.

“I don’t know what else we could have done to prepare them in the short amount of time we’ve had,” Duane said. “It scared me a bit the other night when Kevin broke the news about slavery. For a minute, I thought that they were going to bolt.”

“I don’t understand why they reacted like they did. Don’t they have slavery on Earth?” Palladin asked.

“Yes, but from what Pallor says, most Americans either don’t know that it exists, or don’t want to know. They prefer to think that it was abolished a hundred years ago. I was afraid we’d lost them there, too. I wasn’t planning to say much about it, but I guess Xantha felt like they needed to be aware of it before they left here,” Kalen answered with a shrug.

“You know, there’s something else that we haven’t found a way to mention, and I wonder if maybe we should tell them tomorrow morning before they leave,” Duane said.

“What?” Palladin asked.

“We haven’t told them about Glendymere,” Duane answered.

“I know,” Kalen said. “I don’t know how to bring it up. I’m sort of surprised that Xantha hasn’t told Kevin.”

Palladin frowned. “I’m sure I’ve heard his name mentioned while I’ve been here. Don’t they know that Glendymere is going to train Kevin?”

“Oh, they know that. And they know that Glendymere lives in a cave in the canyons of Nandelia. What they do not know is that Glendymere is a dragon,” Kalen replied.

“Whoops,” Palladin said softly. “With the way a lot of humans react to dragons, that’s a rather significant detail. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to keep my mouth shut,” Kalen said. “I’m afraid that finding out that they’re going to travel over a thousand miles to meet a dragon and live with him for eight months might be more than they can handle right now.”

“So what happens when they meet him?” Duane asked.

“I really don’t know. I’ll send Glendymere a note after they leave and let him worry about it,” Kalen said with a sigh.