Chương 429: 424. Departure - I

~ Levalas ~ Dammit! Doing something by following the law was not easy at all... This was his first real mission where he couldn't really do anything underhanded, or not too much at least, and he didn't realize that he had it easy in Cinran when he could take a few thugs with him and threaten a merchant's family to force him to pay up. But now, working for Lord Kivamus, and for doing a good deed, he couldn't just go and threaten people like in the past.

That's why it had taken so long to sell the house lease of Juhibi—Joric's wife—here in Kirnos. He had visited the smoked fish merchant a few days ago and repaid him for what Tiranat owed him in the past, and had made arrangements to buy more smoked fish to fill his two wagons.

Of course, Feroy had already mentioned in the past that buying it here within Kirnos would mean he would have to pay a high customs or exit tax for leaving the village walls, but he also needed the wagons here to smuggle Juhibi and her daughter, so they would just have to take that loss this time. So he had kept both of the wagons here, instead of sending them out of the village to buy smoked fish cheaply from that merchant's smokehouse up in the north.

He had bought enough barrels of smoked fish to fill both wagons, along with a few empty barrels. But that was four days ago, and he hadn't been able to leave because selling a house's lease at a reasonable price hadn't been easy at all, especially since there were multiple factors at play. He just hoped they weren't too late to meet up with the other guards returning from the counter raid at Torhan's clay mine.

It wouldn't change too much, but he had heard rumors about Torhan being seen near the baron's manor a couple days ago, which meant he might hear about the selling of the house as well. So he wanted to meet up with the other Tiranati guards if at all possible. He and the three other guards could hold their own, but they would be taking a young woman and her daughter with them, so having more protection would make the journey safer, especially if Torhan sniffed out the reason for his visit here.

Obviously, it also meant that unless Torhan had returned to the mine before those guards reached there, he would stay alive. But that was out of his hands anyway. He just hoped the raid went well. During his time in Kirnos, he had also heard many rumors about the disappearance of slaves from the village and the nearby farmhouses.

Of course, he knew the real reason for that, and Tiranat was steadily growing in population because of it, but out here, because of the consistent disappearance of slaves, there were rumors about all kinds of reasons. The most common rumor was that there were slave-trading ships anchoring at the coast somewhere away from the village, and the slaves were escaping there to find a better life elsewhere.

Some rumors also said that it was some kind of witchcraft, and there was a witch or occultist living somewhere in the nearby forest who was using human sacrifices for some purpose. He had laughed at that, but such superstitions were quite common in small villages. There were even some rumors about Torhan or another bandit group recruiting slaves aggressively, while some people said that they were escaping to the east to Tiranat.

That meant people had thought of that possibility, but the most common opinion was that it couldn't be true because there was no good reason to go east, since life would be worse there. It helped that there was no regular trading between the two villages, so any news didn't really travel between them. The locals here didn't even know about the new village walls of Tiranat yet, so there was no way for them to know about the progress of the village.

That meant it would be fine for now, but he would have to report about it to the captain or to Lord Kivamus. They needed to know that people were starting to notice the disappearance of slaves and had started to connect it to Tiranat. There was still half an hour before sunrise, so it was pretty dark at the moment—except for the light of a small candle he held in his hand. The rain had stopped for the past few days, but the skies were still cloudy.

The early summer weather was mild at this time, although it started to get humid when the sun rose up. Right now, he and the three other guards were standing near the wagons in a desolate alley, with no windows overlooking it—not that anyone could see much even if they looked in this dark. One of the guards, Torig, was standing up on the wagon bed, while the other two men were keeping a lookout on each end of the alley.

"Mama... I'm scared," Polly whined again, looking fearfully at the barrels. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Juhibi sighed and squatted to look at her daughter.

"It's just for a short time, dear. It won't take long. Just start counting once you get inside, and I'll take you out before you know it." Polly looked at the barrel with a frown again.

"But it's dark..." Juhibi pointed at a couple of holes on the side.

"You see this? The sun will be up soon, and after that you'll be able to see outside. But don't worry, once it gets bright, it won't be long before you come out." After some more contemplation, Polly gave a nod.

"Fine. But you promise that I will come outside after it is bright, okay?" Juhibi smiled.

"Of course, but you have to stay quiet until then." She glanced at Levalas, then looked back at her daughter.

"If we are lucky, you'll get to meet your father soon after that." Polly finally gave a grin and raised her arms towards Torig, who was already standing on the wagon bed. At Levalas' nod, he picked up the girl and gently placed her inside one of the empty barrels with holes for breathing. The girl was small, so it wasn't that cramped for her as it would be for her mother, but there was no other way to go about it.

The young master Lanidas had been seen lurking around Juhibi's house many times, and Levalas' guess was that it was the young master who had made it so difficult to find a good price for selling the lease. He might also have guessed that Juhibi was planning to run away, which is why there were always a couple of thugs skulking near the house.

Levalas had made sure to enter the house through a window unseen by them every time he had to meet Juhibi, so no one would connect his appearance here with the woman's disappearance. Finally, this morning, he had neutralized both of the thugs before leaving. They were still alive, and would wake up in a few hours and report to Lanidas about being taken out by surprise by someone, but if everything went well, Joric's family would be far away from Kirnos by then, and no one would be the wiser about where they went.

Once Torig had fitted the lid and asked that Polly was comfortable—as much as it was possible there—Juhibi climbed up the wagon bed as well and whispered something to her daughter through the breathing holes. Then she looked at Levalas and smiled.

"I don't know how the goddess managed everything, but it was surely her who sent you to help us." She looked around at the village where she had lived all her life.

"It feels weird to think that I am leaving this place behind, probably forever, but I'm not sad about it. By now I believe everything you have said about Tiranat, and I have no doubt that our lives are only going to get better once we reach there. Thank you for everything." Levalas shrugged with a small smile.

"You're welcome, but thank the Baron of Tiranat for that. He's the reason everything is changing so much in that place. I'm just a guard following orders." Juhibi laughed.

"So you keep saying." Then she looked at the other empty barrel.

"Uh... here we go then." Torig helped her to climb into the barrel, and closed the lid. The barrels had already been secured to the wagon bed so they wouldn't roll around and injure their occupants. Three other barrels held whatever else Juhibi wanted to take with her, mainly her tools for sewing, while the remaining barrels held fish. At least the barrels didn't stink that fishy, since the fish was smoked, and hopefully any guards who wanted to check them wouldn't really want to get that close to the barrels.

He looked at Torig.

"Come on then, let's go. We need to exit the gates the moment they are opened. The guards will be half asleep right now, so this is the best time for it." Levalas and Torig climbed on the wagon seat, and he made a short whistle to call up the other guards, who took their seats on the other wagon. Then they started moving the wagons towards the eastern gate of the village, hoping everything would go well.

Soon, the wagons made a turn, and he saw the still-closed gates in front of them. The sun hadn't risen yet, but it was bright enough to see clearly without the help of a candle now. He looked at Torig.

"Let me do all the talking." They continued moving, and soon they reached the gates. There were two fat guards—one tall and the other short—sitting on a bench next to the gate, yawning. They looked tired and sleepy, probably having been on watch shift for the whole night. As the wagons reached closer, he heard the guards talking to each other about when eight bells would ring from the local temple so they could end their shift and go home.

Once the first wagon reached next to them, Levalas stopped it and looked at the gate guards with a smile.

"Hey there! I thought the gates would be open by now." The shorter guard shook his head.

"Nah, you are just early." Levalas shrugged.

"You may be right... It took longer than I thought to sell the coal I had brought and buy smoked fish. I'm already late, and I need to return as soon as possible without wasting more time." The guard gave a lazy shrug.

"That's fine, but we have orders not to open the gates before six bells. Why don't you take your wagons to the side and wait there until then?" Levalas thought quickly. The more time they waited here, the more chance that the guards would want to check all the barrels one by one. He couldn't afford that.