Chương 385: 380. Krukzil

Tesyb pursed his lips.

"They're slaves, milord. Escaped slaves. They ran away from the farms last winter. Their original group was over 50 people, since they'd been planning the escape for months, and they'd joined up with slaves from other nearby farms when they fled. A few children and some elderly didn't survive the harsh escape journey, which took weeks until they found a good clearing and made a camp. Some more of them were lost in winter...

I can't even imagine how even the rest of them survived the freezing winter with those windy cones made of branches which they called homes. During the chase, they'd also lost most of the provisions they'd stolen from their owners, and they barely got anything to eat in the forest." Kivamus clenched his fists at the adversity they had faced.

"That's why they got so desperate," Tesyb continued, "that their men raided us a few weeks ago. They'd heard rumors before they escaped that Tiranat was an easy place to loot. Some men from their group had also stayed behind when they escaped, to distract the slave owners' guards who chased them, hoping to join the rest of 'em later. Just one made it back. The rest…" He grimaced.

"They were probably killed. Or worse. The penalty for caught slaves is often a lot of whipping and then amputation to set an example for others."

"Damn these bastards," Hudan growled.

"Cutting the hands of commoners after tying them up. Let them take on someone like me in single combat if they dare!"

"It gets worse," Tesyb added, his voice turning flat.

"I learned from them that the life of a disabled slave is very short and miserable where they came from. Knowing that they are not going to be useful for manual labor anymore, their owners often take them to Krukzil and pit the disabled or amputated slaves in a fight to the death against each other. The owners claim the one who dies got what he deserved for escaping, and the one who survives earns the right to live a little longer. Until the next fight anyway."

"Curse those bastards!" Duvas spat. Kivamus glanced at him, surprised. He had seen Duvas irritated before, but this was the first time he'd heard him swearing out loud. He tried to hold back his anger as they continued walking south towards the manor. The villagers didn't need to see him lashing out in the public.

"Anything else of note?" Tesyb nodded.

"More than a dozen of their men had attacked our village that time, and we had killed some and captured the rest. That meant there were only a few young men left at the camp to protect everyone from bandits or beasts. No bandit group found them, thankfully, but they were attacked by a boar a few days ago. A teen boy barely survived. Feroy had to use a lot of the losuvil powder he brought just to keep him alive."

"Feroy?" Kivamus repeated with surprise.

"How was he there?" Tesyb's expression eased slightly.

"Oh, luckily he and Hyola met us at the second resting point on the way to Cinran, the day before I was going to the camp. So he came along with us and used the powdered medicine to help anyone who was injured or sick. He still had to save most of it because he had to continue your... mission."

"We should've given him more powder," Duvas said with a distraught face.

"You told me to, but I was only thinking about the cost!"

"Don't worry," Kivamus said.

"He'll be back in a week with more information about what we need to do to bring more slaves here. We can give him more medicine next time. That reminds me, Duvas, send someone back to the new arrivals with more medicine once we reach the manor. That injured boy and some others might need more of it." After the majordomo nodded, he looked at Hudan.

"I think it was a mistake that we killed the men who attacked us. They were just desperate slaves who only wanted to feed their families..." Hudan let out a breath.

"What other option did we have at the time? That night, everyone thought it was Torhan's group attacking us. We did capture the rest alive—those who had surrendered, but there was no safe way to protect any people who attacked our gates. Crossbow bolts rarely leave a person alive, unless he's a giant like Nokozal was."

"I know," Kivamus said quietly. He couldn't exactly conjure tasers into this world to make that easier.

"Still, I think we should try harder to take people alive when we can, even if they're attacking us—unless it's clear that it's a bandit group. Otherwise, it could be slaves like these people, pushed into it by hunger. Killing them is not the best solution for anyone." Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"Well, I agree, but such a thing is not likely to happen again," Hudan said.

"Those old rumors—about Tiranat being an easy target that Torhan could hit without trouble—would already be dying. Soon the latest rumor will be that you don't touch Tiranat if you value your life and want to keep breathing. And even if some desperate slaves come again to loot us, they'll likely stop when they see our watchtowers and walls. It's nothing like Cinran's stone walls, but it's surely enough to make most of them reconsider."

"Let's hope so..." Kivamus said. He looked back at Tesyb.

"Do you know which farm these people escaped from?"

"No single place," Tesyb said, "but most of them worked on different farms near Krukzil. They slowly found other like-minded slaves and planned the escape together."

"Krukzil…" Kivamus repeated, thinking where he had heard it. The name felt familiar in a way that irritated him.

"Did the slaves tell much about it?"

"Not really," Tesyb said, "but they often referred to it as the slave-village, since nearly all the people living in Krukzil are slaves of someone." Kivamus frowned, trying hard to remember where he had seen it.

"Where have I heard that name?"

"I think you must have seen it on the map Pydaso brought," Duvas said.

"It's located northwest of Cinran. It's the barony ruled by Zoricus."

"Of course, it's Zoricus' village!" Kivamus spat.

"How is it that anything horrible or inhuman happening in this region of Reslinor is linked to that bastard Zoricus in one way or another?"

"He's just too powerful..." Duvas spoke in a low voice.

"He's easily richer than the Count, and has business interests everywhere in this region. That means an ongoing trade in slaves is only to be expected from him."

"It's not like he's just trading in slaves..." Kivamus said with anger.

"He's amputating perfectly fine men and women just because they wanted to be free from his tyranny. The farm owners in his lands are having pit fights between humans! These people have lost any humanity left in them, if they ever even had any..."

"It's not that uncommon, milord," Duvas said.

"Having pit fights between humans is not something which would ever be officially allowed, but such things happen a lot in the underground, away from the eyes of the authorities. But if the authorities are the ones organizing it..."

"What wrong did these people do, huh?" Kivamus stopped walking as they reached near the gates of the manor.

"Just because they were born in the lands of a noble whose greed is worse than a demon, they are cursed to have a life not worth living. How do these people even find the motivation to get up every morning, just to look forward to another day of such a horrible existence... I can't even imagine..."

"They don't..." Tesyb mumbled.

"Not always. I found that some of the family members of these refugees had killed themselves in shame or after losing all hope, which was when the others made up their mind that they couldn't continue to live there. They decided it was better to die while escaping, instead of living that grim existence." For a moment, Kivamus thought this would be the perfect time to gather all his guards and burn that village to the ground. It was a stain on humanity.

But he just didn't have the power to try such a thing against the most powerful baron in this region. Not yet, anyway. But there would come a day for his reckoning... He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths to calm himself. Once he was sure he wasn't going to start cursing everyone around him, he looked at Duvas and the others.

"This can't continue. I won't allow it to. Until now, we've only been passively enticing already escaped slaves to Tiranat just to get more workers for the village. But every time I hear more about their lives, I find out just how horrible their situation is. We can't allow this to continue... I think it's time to take a more active role in this from now on." Hudan frowned.

"What do you even mean by that? We barely have the strength to resist a raid from a large bandit group. We can't free slaves from a whole village even if we wanted to." Kivamus looked around, noticing many people coming and going through the manor gates and walking nearby.

"This isn't the place for such a discussion. Let's move to the manor hall. Tesyb, there is a separate but related plan which I, Hudan, and Feroy have been working on for a few weeks. That's an immediate plan"—he lowered his voice, adding—"and it relates to Torhan and his slaves. We need to get it done before Trevalo's trip to Ulriga is over, since we'll have a lot more guards available until then. After that we'll have to continue providing caravan escorts to him so it wouldn't be feasible.

But we will talk more about it tomorrow when you have rested. Right now, you look dead on your feet after walking for days. So, go and get something to eat and get some rest. The same goes for the other guards who came with you. You all did good to give up your wagon seats to the older slaves." Tesyb smiled and gave a nod, before he took a loud yawn. Kivamus chuckled.

"The rest of you, follow me."