Author’s Note: All chapters will now be free-to-read with no paywall in place.
Before Akida and his brothers left their father to go with Tranter to Basoon, they had taken time to say farewell to the old man.
“This mission,” said Akida, standing before Barden as they prepared to ride out on their horses, “it could go very wrong.”
“Indeed,” said Barden. “Indeed, it could.” Barden walked up to Akida, and clapped him on the shoulder. “But it’s the best thing that could go wrong that I’ve ever seen you and your brothers do.” Barden grinned through his well-groomed white beard, and said to Akida, “I’m proud of you, son.” Barden went to Jabali, who was standing nearby, and firmly gripped his shoulder. “And of you,” he said, and then to Kido, “And you,” and to Sefu, “And you.”
Barden stepped back from the brothers, and gestured to their horses. “Now be gone with you!” he said cheerfully. “You have an adventure to go on!”
The sons of Barden mounted their horses, and rode off after Tranter, heading toward the city which they had intended to avoid when they had first left their fief. They had set out the morning after Tranter’s arrival at the hamlet the previous night. Now they were traveling in the middle of the morning, and they arrived at Basoon around noon.
There was almost no conversation among the five riders, given how grim the situation was. But as Akida rode with Tranter at the front of their group, he happened to overhear Sefu, who was riding on Tranter’s left side, ask a single question.
“Honorable High Priest,” said Sefu, “may I ask what this copy of the Servant’s Book looks like, in case we need to know?”
Tranter, sounding just a little weary, said, “It is battered and weather-beaten, and white in color, white as in snow. It has a circle of blue sapphires embedded in the cover, with elaborate calligraphy in Old Lashone inscribed around the inside of the circle of sapphires. It is an impressive design, and the thought that it has already been stripped bare by the Red Serpents weighs heavily on my mind. We can only hope that it is still intact.”
Akida made a note of what he had heard.
Eventually, they came within sight of Basoon. It was a magnificent city, with people going in and out of it on the fine, stone-paved roadways. Gleaming towers soared above the city walls, the box-shaped White Temple standing out among it all. The Ritchatower, a tall castle situated just across the city from the White Temple, was grand and imposing. As Akida saw the city, and looked up at the great spires of the Ritchatower, he couldn’t help but pity the fact that such a wondrous structure now housed such a vile set of rulers.
“Stop!” said Tranter, slowing down his horse and coming to a stop. The five riders had just come to three forks in the road, with a wayfaring sign mounted at the intersection.
One of the forks led straight ahead, up to the city’s south gate, another led east, heading toward the Tophet Valley, and a third leading west, snaking up around the city’s west wall.
Akida rode up next to Tranter, who was looking ahead at the city. “What’s the story, Mister Tranter?” said Akida to the high priest.
Tranter said, “Here is where we must part. I know for a fact that the king’s spies and soldiers are keeping an eye out for me. Even in this traveling cloak, plenty of them know my face. Now, it’s one thing for them to see me traveling alone on horseback at all hours of the night to any number of obscure locations. It’s another matter entirely to see me riding in the company of four Haimi youths who don’t have identity papers.”
“Identity papers?” said Sefu.
“Identity papers,” said Tranter patiently, “small bundles of parchment which contain basic information about the bearer. Elmar’s regime is in the process of making sure that every citizen in Shema has such papers. Nobody will be able to buy, sell,or travel from place-to-place without some. Even I have identity papers.” Tranter reached into his saddlebag, took out a small pouch, showed it to Akida, and tossed it to him.
When Akida caught the pouch, he heard its contents jingle about in his hand. “Money?” he said.
“To bribe the inspector at the gates,” said Tranter. “You don’t have papers, so your only hope is to appeal to the greed of whatever miserable clerk happens to be sitting at the west gate. That bag should be enough to buy a way in for all four of you.”
Tranter rode a little farther ahead, and looked behind him at the four brothers. “I will continue on ahead to the south gate,” he said, “and you four will go west, circling around to the city walls, and then enter via the west gate. We will meet at the Shull Fountain, in the city’s north quarter. Then we will proceed together to the residence of the ally who will help us execute our plan. Have you all got that?”
Akida nodded. “I’m with you, mate,” he said. “Go over to the west gate, meet you at that fountain, and then we go to your mate’s house.” Akida looked over at his brothers, who were all next to him on their horses. “You all good with that, my brothers?”
“I’m good and getting better,” said Jabali. “Mister Tranter here has the right idea.”
“I’m ready,” said Kido.
“I’m with you, Akida,” said Sefu.
Akida looked back at Tranter, and said, “Right then. We’ll go west, and you’ll go on ahead to that south gate up there. We’ll see you at the Shull Fountain. Was that the spot? In the north quarter?”
“Yes,” said Tranter, “the Shull Fountain in the north quarter.” Tranter turned his horse toward the city, and began to ride forward. “I’ll see you boys then. May the Lord be with you!”
And with that,the old high priest rode off, heading northward towards the city, while the sons of Barden rode down the western fork.
It took them about ten minutes of brisk riding to reach Basoon’s west gate. They began to run into other travelers and caravans of travelers who were on their way in and out of the city.
There were also soldiers, bearing the sigil of the red serpent on their shields and hauberks, patrolling the roadways, stopping travelers at random and searching through their bags. Akida scowled when he saw one of these Red Serpents pulling an elderly woman off of her donkey, before throwing her to the ground. This Red Serpents wore at her vehemently, and two more held down the young man who was with her, while a fourth punched the young man in the gut with an armored hand.
“Cussing thugs,” said Jabali under his breath. He’d also been watching the incident with the old woman. “I’d feel a lot better if I had my sword.”
“Do you see anyone here with a sword?” said Kido, who was following behind. “Elmar is trying to impound all weapons. An armed population is a free population, and Elmar wants the population of Shema to be his slaves.”
“Shema,” muttered Jabali, “has plenty of slaves already. Why does Elmar need any more?”
Sefu then spoke up, saying, “Father says that Elmar wants to keep the Sheman people fat and happy. If you’re fat and happy, you have little reason to overthrow the king. And in order for a people to be fat and happy, someone else will have to do all the work so they can eat and drink and have fun all the time. Thus, the need for slave labor.”
Akida huffed. “All the same,” he said, “the entire matter is perfectly devilish. I really wish we could just give swords and bows to all these slaves, and then lead some kind of uprising or rebellion or something.”
“It’s been done,” said Sefu. The four continued to ride towards the city. “Slave rebellions tend to make the freemen scared, given that they result in freemen getting killed. That’s not a good thing, considering that any popular cause needs to be moderate enough to attract the large amount of people in the crowd who haven’t made up their minds yet.
“The fact is that most Shemans don’t own slaves, and don’t give much thought to the subject. All the last slave rebellion did, when it happened about nineteen years ago, was strengthen public sentiment against universal emancipation. The agitators for such a thing have been working against that public relations disaster for years. But now that Elmar was king, and his bread-and-circuses policy is about to become a reality, the demand for slaves which such an agenda demands is going to strike a foundational blow to that whole cause.”
Akida just shook his head, and looked ahead at the west gate, which they were fast approaching. “It’s still devilish,” he said.
“Cussing right,” said Jabali.
Near the gate, a handsome, well-groomed young man in fine clothes was standing on a platform, reading aloud from something written on a scroll, with two lance-toting soldiers next to him. It was one of the Prophets of Elmar.
“Now hear this! Now hear this!” said the prophet, as the brothers approached on horseback. “By order of His Royal Majesty King Elmar, God of Shema, Lord of Peace and Justice, Bringer of High Wages and Calm Streets, slavery in Shema is hereby abolished!”
Akida’s eyes bulged when he heard this proclamation. “What?” he said under his breath.
“What did he just say?” said Jabali, just a little louder.
As if to answer Jabali’s question, the prophet continued crying out his message. “The Great God Elmar, in his benign, all-loving plan, has declared that everyone must be free in order to serve him as well as possible! People of Shema! Serve Elmar Only!”
That left the four brothers silent as they continued riding towards the city gates. Finally, Sefu said, “Well… that changes things a bit.”
“Change for the better, I’d hope,” said Akida. “Let’s keep moving, fellas.”
Akida looked ahead to the gate, where the clerical booth which Tranter had mentioned was positioned. Guards stood around it, as people lined up to have their papers checked. Akida wagered that all of the soldiers and clerks were working together to split any bribe money which came their way.
“Do you have that money ready, Aki?” Jabali whispered to his brother.
“Yes, Jab,” said Akida. “I’ll do the talking.”
“Sure thing,” said Jabali. “Let’s do this.”
The four brothers joined the line of people, horses,and caravans which were lining up to enter the city. Akida looked ahead, and hoped that Tranter’s idea would work. They would find out soon enough.
When the four reached the west gate, Akida dismounted from his horse and walked up to the booth at the front of the gate, where the clerk in his booth was sealed off from the public by wooden crossbars, and where armed soldiers stood at the ready outside of it.
“Hello,” said the clerk, a young man in his late twenties. “Welcome to Basoon. Before you continue into our fine city, may I please ask you a few questions?”
Akida produced the money pouch and discreetly plopped it on the clerk’s desk, where a gap in the wooden bars allowed items to be transferred in and out. “My good man,” said Akida, putting on his best manners, “I don’t suppose this would be enough to make you forget to ask those questions?”
The clerk took the pouch in his hands, and jangled it slightly. He then put it under his desk. “Welcome to Basoon, Mister York and friends,” he said with a thin smile. “We at the Court of the Red Serpent hope you enjoy your stay very much.”
Akida nodded, got back on his horse, and continued onward, his brothers following along on their own horses. But as he glanced back to see if his brothers were following along safely, he spotted one of the soldiers talking into the bars of the clerk’s booth, and he didn’t look happy.
“We’d best get a move on, gents,” said Akida. “Let’s find that fountain.”
The ride through the city was initially uneventful, though Akida was quite bewildered by some of the things which were going on in Basoon. Statues of Elmar were being erected everywhere, probably arriving by cart from the northern part of the kingdom where Elmar had already established his authority prior to seizing power in the capitol just a matter of days ago. The statues showed Elmar standing stoically and upright, a great sword held down flat in front of him. Akida imagined that the statues had been manufactured and prepared for transport to the capitol possibly months in advance.
“You think that bloke really knows how to fight?”said Jabali.
“He’s a warrior king,” said Kido. “Of course, he knows how to fight.”
“Huh,” said Jabali. “I’d like to see how good he really is with a sword.”
“This mission of ours is meant to be epitomized by stealth,” said Sefu. “With luck, we won’t need swords at all.”
Jabali only shook his head. “If anything can go wrong, it will,” he said. “That’s what father always says.”
Akida and the brothers kept riding, and they spotted a column of dark-skinned Haimi bound in chains being herded in the direction of the White Temple. “Make way!” shouted another prophet who stood in front of the chain gang. “Make way for these holy men who are about to be made free! Make way for the Great God Elmar, who will soon make them new men!”
“What madness is this?” said Jabali, loud enough for his brothers to hear. The four were still riding steadily through the city’s packed streets.
“I would imagine,” said Sefu, “that it’s some kind of propaganda tactic. Perhaps Elmar is going to make a big display at the White Temple and free them in front of the whole city. That wouldn’t be a bad bit of theater.”
Just then, a squad of ten serpent knights on horseback came around the corner, rode past the chain gang of Haimi, and headed straight for the brothers.
“You four!” said one of the knights. “Show us your papers!”
Akida stopped on his mount, and bit down. It wouldn’t do much good to lie, and they weren’t in a position to fight.
But Sefu rode forward and answered for the group. “We don’t have any papers, my good fellow,” he said, “being strangers to these parts. We are refugees from the south, having been severely oppressed by the excesses of the current regime in the Duchy of Maloo. We stole these horses from our master, a local earl, and rode here all night. We hoped that the Great God Elmar would hear our case and set us free. We mean to be friends of His Royal Majesty.”
Akida couldn’t see what look the knights had on their faces, as they were all wearing face-concealing great helms. But he noted nine of them all staring in the direction of the one on their center-left. They were looking to that man for leadership.
This knight came forward slightly. “You want to be free? Officially?” he said. “You want to be a true friend of the Great God Elmar?”
“Beyond a shadow of a doubt, sir,” said Sefu. Akida had allowed Sefu to take over as spokesman, and he trusted Sefu to come up with away to get them out of this sudden pickle. That fact made him just a little less nervous.
“Then come with us,” said the head knight, turning to ride off towards the White Temple. “You want to be free? You want to further the outlawing of slavery in this kingdom? Do you want to assist the Great God Elmar in eradicating this filthy trade in human flesh which has polluted our once great land for almost three centuries?”
“By the Sun, Moon, and Stars!” said Jabali, sounding a bit more peppy than usual. “That’s exactly what we want, sir knight!” Jabali, who was riding next to Akida, sent out a quick wink at his brother, and Akida saw Jabali’s wink.
“Then ride on after us,” said the head knight. The knights rode on, some leading the brothers from the front, but the rest surrounded them and goaded them forward. Akida didn’t blame these Knights of the Red Serpent for being a little suspicious. He imagined that he would have felt the same way if he had switched places with the head knight.
The brothers and their new escorts rode towards the White Temple, into the North Quarter of the city, as a matter of fact. Akida saw a large fountain in a large, cleared, white- paved square space, some people bowed in prayer around it, and soaking in the fountain’s water as it sent out small droplets in the space immediately next to it. In the fleeting glimpse of this, what he was sure was the Shull Fountain, he peered through the side streets and main intersections leading to it, hoping against hope that Tranter might be there, waiting for them.
But they passed the Shull Fountain, and continued heading toward the White Temple. Akida knew that at this point, they were clearly in the belly of the beast.
Akida and his brothers were not led by the knights up towards the massive front steps of the temple, where ten-foot-high statues of Elmar were being erected in orderly, deliberate positions. Instead, the squad of serpent knights herded them to an obscure, empty street adjoining the Temple grounds’ south wall. The serpent knight stopped at the gate at the edge of the alley, which Akida saw led to the large, back courtyard of an equally large, dilapidated house. Akida observed the house’s faded colored trim along the gate and the cracked limestone which the back wall of the house was made. He guessed that this house had once belonged to a prominent family, possibly a prominent priestly family, who were entitled to live near the Temple.
The head knight dismounted, and walked over to the door, rapping on it loudly. A slit in the door opened, a password was given, and then the door itself was opened. The head serpent knight and three of his fellows dismounted, and the head knight told Akida and his brothers to dismount and follow them on foot. “You’ll get your horses back, fair and square,” said the head knight. The head knight then led them into the courtyard.
What Akida saw in the courtyard were dozens of chained-up Haimi, all pushed together behind a wooden stockade erected within the house’s courtyard, dividing the courtyard in half, with the knights positioning themselves on the side opposite the Haimi. Akida could see over the short palisade (there weren’t even wooden spikes on it) that the slaves didn’t look particularly sad or happy. If anything, they looked bored and fidgety. A few talked animatedly, laughing and joking around. Why are these slaves acting like this? he thought. What is this madness?
“Alright, mates,” said the head knight, taking off his helmet. He was a mustachioed, thickset man with a scraggly mop of brown hair and a mottled complexion. He looked about thirty-five. “Now, here’s how it’s going to work,” he said to the brothers. “You put on the chains, and we march you all into the Temple courts. Then the Lord will give a speech, and take a hammer, and smash all your chains in front of the assembled audience. Then you will all cry out in one voice, ‘Elmar, Elmar, God and King!’ You’ll all shout that as loud as you can. Then, when all sixty-or-so of you have done that for as long as we need you to, then you’ll all get personally blessed by the Great God Elmar, we’ll lead you back here, and give you some money, after which you’ll be allowed to do as you please. And yes, you’ll get your horses back, don’t you worry, fellas.”
The head knight then went over to where another Prophet of Elmar was sitting behind an old wooden table which he was using as a desk. “Prophet Stokely here will lead the way when it’s time. I promise you all, this won’t take very long. Now, we’ll put these chains on you and you’ll all go to the Temple, and you’ll be back here within the next two hours, where you’ll get your money. Savvy?”
Akida looked over at his brothers, and nodded at them. “Aye, sir,” said Akida. “We’re on board.”
The brothers were ushered into the stockade, and crammed in with the other prisoners, who now numbered about sixty, as the head knight had stated. There were men, women, and children crowded together inside the stockade, and they were all wearing chains. As Akida and his brothers were ushered in, the Prophet of Elmar called Stokely perfunctorily presented Akida and his brothers with the chains and manacles.
“I… I ain’t doing this,” said Jabali. “It ain’t right.”
“Jabali,” said Akida,as breezily as he could, “you could buy a lot of grog with the money this job will give us.”
Jabali jerked his head in Akida’s direction, and was about to let out a sharp retort, but stopped. Instead, he nodded slowly, and let out a smile, and Akida knew he was forcing it.
“Aye, Aki,” said Jabali. “Let’s get that grog, eh?”
Jabali hated grog. And his three brothers knew it.
They all let the knights put chains on them.
The brothers stood in the stockade, leaning against the walls as they waited for the procedure they’d be going through.
“Hey, Jabali,” said Akida. “Just don’t get too tipsy to know where you’re going. You want to see right in front of you at all times. All things in moderation, except, of course, in having enough sense to know what’s going on around you.”
“Aki, you’re preaching to the choir,” said Jabali with a wink. “Not one single objection, mate,” said Sefu.
“I’ll get a hard ale,” said Kido, letting out just the slightest sliver of a smile.
Akida nodded, and leaned back against the wall of the stockade. His message had gotten through well-enough that even icy Kido was getting in on the joke.
But then, Akida noticed a certain sound. The sound of a weeping child. He glanced around the crowd, and soon found the child in question. A small family of Haimi, a man, his wife, and their young daughter, with the young daughter curled up in a fetal position, crying softly. The man and his wife were both cradling their daughter, as the child continued to moan in pain. Their words were muffled, but Akida’s keen ears were still able to pick up their conversation.
“—it will all be okay, love,” said the father, a lean, skinny man in his thirties, to his daughter, a bushy-haired girl of perhaps twelve. “We’ll do this little job, get the money, and then we’ll go to a doctor. I know just the person.”
“Omari,” said the wife, “we’ve done all we can. Why do we have to make her relive the worst days of our lives on her accursed deathbed? We can leave any time we want. Can’t we just get her home and rest, before—”
“We’re not giving up,” said the father. He had a hard, weathered face, and Akida hoped that whoever his real father was, that he was someone like this father here. “We may have come here as slaves, but we are freemen now. Binti is a free woman! Those who are free fight to the end!”
The wife shook her head. “Then can she be free to die, Omari?” she said. “Free to die without this indignity? And what if it’s some kind of trick? What if that man, Elmar, what if he makes us slaves again?”
“It would be an indignity not to do everything possible to save her life!” growled Omari, and Akida suspected that the man was sounding harsher than he really felt. “This is a risk, and we will take it! And it is a risk worth taking! So, keep those chains on and play the waiting game! We will get her to a doctor!”
Akida bowed his head, and brooded. He knew the importance of minding one’s own business. But was the situation in Shema really that bad? That Haimi freemen had to force themselves to suffer this humiliation to get enough money to pay for a doctor?
Then it hit him. He looked around at the other Haimi, and realized that even though they all wore chains, most of them didn’t look as sad as Omari and his family, or even sad at all.
Bored, annoyed, some actually looked cheerful. And then there was the talk of money, and the conciliatory, personable manner of the serpent knights…
These Haimi are all already free, he thought. He was suddenly filled with a cold rage. Elmar, or his pawns, thought Akida, are paying them to engage in this farce without really freeing any actual slaves. The proclamation of the outlawing of slavery is a paper-thin hoax. A cheap publicity stunt meant to momentarily inflame the passions of his followers.
For once in his life, Akida felt his blood boiling as hot as Jabali’s seemed to be all the time.
Eventually, the waiting game ended. The knights came and herded them out of the stockade, carefully marching them down the streets alongside the south wall of the White Temple. They were in chains, and marched in a column, two abreast. They continued on, led by Prophet Stokely, and with the squad of serpent knights and other soldiers acting as an armed escort.
They arrived at a side entrance of the Temple, where soldiers from another military unit stood by. These men did not wear the colors of Elmar’s Court of the Red Serpent, but rather were garbed in white and blue, with the image of a golden crown emblazoned on their uniforms. Local constables thought Akida. I wonder how whoever’s in charge of them is getting along with Shema’s new “god.”
“Easy now, easy,” said one of the constables, a thin, willowy man with a nasally voice and with a wood-and-steel club in one hand. “Is this the party for Elmar’s little stunt?”
“You are to refer to his majesty,” said Stokely, “as ‘the Great God Elmar.’ And this is an act of divine grace, here to be shown to all the people of Basoon, so that they will know that the Great God Elmar is the Lord.”
“Right ho, right ho,” said the constable, stepping aside and taking a horn off of his belt. “If you say it’s all that, then let it be all that. Psh, Court of the Red Serpent indeed. Praetorian guard cuss-heads.”
Stokely glowered. “Will you kindly let us in?” he, audibly annoyed.
“No worries, I got you,” said the thin constable, who took the horn off of his belt and blew through it loudly. The south doors then opened, slowly, revealing the roofed, covered section of the White Temple complex which lined up along the inner edges of the temple courtyard. Ordinarily, this was where the teachers taught, where debates related to Iovislog were held, music and singing were on display, and where families gathered together to pray to the Great God Iovis whom their forefathers had taught them to worship for millennia.
There were no such things here today. But there was a crowd of perhaps five-hundred people, assembled across the courtyard from the front steps of the White Temple, with the chained Haimi being led towards an iron blacksmith anvil set up halfway between the crowd and the Temple’s front entrance.
Off to the side, directly to the right of the gate through which the ersatz-slaves were marching, out of the view of the crowd, were piles of religious paraphernalia. There were incense jars, candle holders, paintings and statues of the saints, clerical robes, sacred cups and bowls, and dozens of books. The whole pile would no doubt be parsed through for valuables later, and the sacred books burnt.
Prophet Stokely led the column of chained Haimi to a space in front of the steps leading up to the Temple’s front entrance. Much clamor was in the air, as the crowd of Elmar’s supporters came to watch the latest spectacle which their leaders had initiated.
Then, Elmar himself appeared on the steps of the White Temple.
“People of Basoon!”he shouted. He was dressed in his royal robes, and wore the golden crown, ringed with sapphires, on his head. “We are here today to inaugurate a new birth of freedom!”
The crowd cheered in response, and Elmar continued his speech. But Akida wasn’t listening to the speech. Instead, he was looking around at the whole Temple grounds, searching for something, anything useful. The entire point of the in-joke about the “grog” had been to communicate to his brothers that getting an inside look at the Temple’s interior might yield some useful information. But so far, none was coming. And judging by the reactions on his brothers’ faces, they weren’t seeing anything useful either.
And then, Akida saw something. There, lying on one of the piles of Temple paraphernalia, was a large, ancient book. And not just any ancient book, but a book with the distinct markings which Tranter had used to describe the Servant’s Book, the copy they had been dispatched to find. It was painted a faded, yellowed white, with blue sapphires embedded into the cover in the shape of a circle, with dark, stylized calligraphy arranged around the borders of the circle. It was the only book in the entire pile which had such a distinct design, and the Red Serpents had tossed it on the heap without a single bit of care.
“Now,” shouted Elmar, “let the chains of these loyal Shemans be broken! Where Marden broke the chains of a few, Elmar will break the chains of all! Let all Shemans be free to follow me, the Great God Elmar!”
Akida’s attention was brought back to the king as he approached the not-slaves.
Accompanied by the royal bodyguards, Elmar approached the column of slaves, a large hammer in hand. The crowds continued to cheer wildly, and Akida wondered just how many of them were really taken in by this fraudster, and how many were just along for the ride.
Guided by Stokely, the ersatz-slaves lined up in front of the blacksmith’s anvil which had been set on the flat, stone-paved ground of the White Temple’s courtyards. The first not-slave in line was instructed to place his manacled hands on the anvil, where Elmar stood on the opposite side, gripping the hammer.
And, with great ceremony, Elmar lifted up his hammer, and brought it down with a resounding smash which echoed throughout the courtyard. The slave stepped back, and at the prodding of Stokely, he raised up his wrists to indicate that his chains were broken.
The crowd let out an excited whoop, and Akida fumed. Jabali was right. This was wrong.
What else could a lie be?
And so, the sixty-odd not-slaves continued to walk up to Elmar and his anvil, where he consistently smashed the chains of the slaves, always breaking them with a single blow, after which the sham-slave celebrated his liberation by holding his smashed chains in the air and smiling broadly, while the crowd continued to cheer.
When it was time for Akida and his brothers to come face-to-face with Elmar to get their chains smashed, Akida found himself getting his chains smashed first.
“Do you want to be free?” said Elmar, reciting the same line he had uttered to every not- slave whom he had spoken to during the entire event.
“Who doesn’t?” said Akida.
Elmar snickered. “You’d be surprised,” said the king, and the small, grinning laugh which he let out made Akida’s blood run cold.
But the king didn’t waste any more time getting to his current business. Akida compliantly put his chains on the anvil, and Elmar raised up the hammer, before bringing it down with a mighty bang, neatly shattering the weighty bonds into pieces.
“Gotta say, your majesty,” said Akida, feigning deference, “you’re pretty strong.”
But Elmar didn’t say anything. He merely leveled an icy glare at Akida, and Akida was prompted to hold up his now unchained wrists in the air, eliciting yet another cry of delight from the crowd. Akida was then shepherded away by a waiting Red Serpent, who led him over to where the column of “freed” slaves were congregating in one of the roofed areas on the edge of the Temple.
But as Akida was led through the courtyard, he came within sight of the pile where he’d seen the book again. The Servant’s Book. He looked over at the pile of sacred flotsam and jetsam, and took a long hard look at the object of their quest, just sitting there, less than a stone’s throw away. He felt the clanking of his now mangled chains jangling against his wrists.
He knew what he had to do.
“Would you like to earn some money?” whispered Akida to the Red Serpent who was escorting him.
The Red Serpent, whose hard, pockmarked face was visible through a chain-mail cowl, turned to look at him. “Speak,” he said.
Akida nodded in the direction of the pile he had in mind, and said to the serpent man, “I’ll give you the money which my three brothers and I are about to earn to you if you get me that white book off of that refuse pile over there, no questions asked.”
The Red Serpent didn’t hesitate. “Deal,”he said. “You lose your head if you don’t pony up the cash.”
Akida smiled broadly. “Deal,” he said.
The serpent man left Akida by the entrance to the temple courtyard through which the not-slaves had entered, and hustled over to the pile which Akida indicated. He scooped the Servant’s Book off the pile, and ran back over to Akida, handing it to him as they left the courtyard. None of the other serpent men present so much as blinked.
“Take it,” said the weathered serpent man as he handed Akida the book. “You’ll all be paid back at the holding area where we first chained you up. I want that money as soon as you and your brothers get it.”
“A deal’s a deal,” said Akida, trying to force down the fire in his stomach as he held the object of their quest in his hands. Had it really been that easy? “Yes, yes,” said Akida, “you’ll get your shiny coin.”
Akida held the book close to him, and tried to keep it hidden under his traveling cloak. It was very conspicuous object to carry, and a heavy one too. But he bided his time. Soon, he was back at the stockade, where he was handed his money and the manacles on his hands were unlocked, separating him from the now broken chains. When his brothers arrived behind him, he told them to give the bribed serpent man their money.
“You can take it,” said Jabali, shoving his bag of coins into the serpent man’s hands. “It’s blood money, you hear me? Blood money!”
“Let’s keep it down a bit, Jab,” said Akida. “I just bought us something very nice.”
Jabali gave Akida a funny look, but Akida wordlessly gestured to the bundle he was keeping under his cloak. Jabali nodded, still scowling.
The four brothers, having given the bribed serpent man his just reward, reclaimed their horses and rode off, though they moved at a relatively slow pace due to the crowds of people who populated the large metropolis, Basoon.
Jabali was the first to speak once they got far enough away from the Temple. “I’m telling you, all the same,” he said. “What we did, it… it wasn’t right. It was… wrong. Just… wrong.”
“What’s eating you, Jab?” said Sefu.
Jabali huffed out, and said,“It’s the slavery thing. That… that man, Elmar, he’s playing games with people’s lives, and we helped him play one of those games. It’s… it’s sick! It’s… disgusting!”
“I know,” said Akida, head bowed. “I think we all agree that what Elmar is doing is… evil. Yes, evil. For that matter, I don’t think there are many who wouldn’t say that slavery is evil.”
“Oh, really?”said Jabali, shooting a glare at Akida. “You think Elmar sees it that way?”
“Perhaps he does,” said Akida.
“What, you’re defending that cuss-head now?”
“No. I’m saying that perhaps, as warped as his mind is, he would agree on at least an abstract level that slavery is wrong. The last several kings of Shema, most of whom weren’t as plainly demented as I imagine Elmar is, could be described the same way.”
“What are you saying?”said Jabali.
“I’m saying,” said Akida, as the brothers continued riding along, “that Elmar won’t be the last king to grapple with the slavery question, and he’s not the first king who’s had to deal with whether slavery is right or wrong. Elmar’s at least exploring, insofar as we can tell, a much harder question.”
“I don’t catch your drift, Aki,” said Jabali. He still sounded angry.
“What I’m saying, Jab,” said Akida, “is that everyone knows that slavery is evil. Yes, pure evil. Absolutely, unquestionably vile and wrong. But the real question is, ‘How do you get rid of it?’ Slavery is wrong, but can it be ended? Shema’s not the first kingdom to have it, nor will it be the last.”
Jabali raised his voice to speak, but then stopped. He then said,a bit more calmly, “So… you think that… that Elmar, he couldn’t abolish slavery even if he wanted to? And not King Marden either?”
“Not if he wanted to avoid another civil war,” said Akida. “Many powerful, influential figures in Shema have economic and political interests in slavery and the slave trade. If a top-down initiative to abolish it were attempted, an option which I think King Marden explored, then there would be one more thing to fight a civil war over. And a good king would ideally want to keep such wars from breaking out, for the good of the whole people, slave and free alike. Both groups would be in danger from fire and sword, and both have been, during Elmar’s war.”
Jabali sighed out, and only shook his head. “It still ain’t right,” he said.“What we did… it just wasn’t right.”
Jabali became very quiet after that.
Akida and reined in his horse when they came to a secluded alleyway behind a tannery. Few people would want to spend much time near such an establishment, due to the perpetual foul smell which tanneries were known for.
“I didn’t want to say anything out loud back there,” said Akida as he took the book from under his cloak, “but now I will.” Akida showed the book around to his three gaping brothers. “We just did a very disturbing thing,” he said. “But look now on the Lord’s blessing!”