Chapter 2

Out of sight of the crowd. He said. “I still own you, I’ll untie you, but if you run, you’ll regret it. Come on.” The woman thought of running but would not desert her daughters. The eldest daughter thought of running but was fairly sure he was telling the truth. The youngest was too tired to think.

They walked through the town to a stables. He collected his horse. “You two walk. You come here.” He was pointing at the young girl who was slow to respond, not from fear but exhaustion. He swung her up on to his horse, sitting sideways. Then he climbed up himself and put his arms either side of her to the reins. “Come on, it’s about three miles.” He set off at a slow walk on the horse, but the two walkers had still to make an effort to keep up. The older woman wanted to stay in touch with the daughter on the horse, the older daughter didn’t want to be left alone. They all walked or rode in silence.

Finn was wondering why he got involved. He hated the hunters, especially ones that preyed on weaker people like women or children. There were a couple he knew who kidnapped children to sell. What they were bought for was not their concern. Some violated children – boys as well as girls – were sometimes found on the dung heaps of the settlements. Their internal organs damaged by the rough treatment that had been subjected to; they died in pain and were dumped like they were rubbish, which to the owners, they were. It was not a good place or time to exist. But he hadn’t stepped in to save these three, he had stepped in to fight that bastard. Yes, that was it, Kregg had failed to say hello when he’d been greeted by Finn, it was rude. Finn took offence to things like that. People took offence at the oddest things.

They walked on, branched off the road, made their way through some woods and finally approached a stockade. This kind of grouping together was like the first aggregation after the big bang. The towns were the second – the slow formation of suns perhaps. The initial chaos had been replaced by groups of people forming semi-permanent and then permanent structures for mutual survival. This particular stockade was formed of farmers, a few merchants, and traders like Finn, who paid the residents for some protection for his possessions. The alternative was to own little and carry it with you at all times. Now he owned three slaves. Like in other places there were few rules and people let each pod (family, individual, whatever) do what they liked as long as it did not upset the whole and the residents all helped protect the whole.

Two years ago, a group of hunters had targetted this stockade when Finn was there (perhaps that helped fuel his dislike of hunters). The farmers were not good fighters, the merchants were even worse. Whilst the hunters sat around outside thinking how to break in, Finn and a hunter/slaver (my enemy’s enemy is my friend, anyway he was part of the group) took the fight to them and killed three before they had even made threats. The farmers wanted to scare them away, Finn and Marko took the other approach, not one of the attackers left alive. The merchants and a couple of religious nuts wanted to forgive the injured. Finn and Marko explained that that just left them able to return with more. There is a patch beyond the Southern wall that is rough and overgrown and full of headless bodies.

The man who seemed to have found himself designated ‘headman’ (for the purposes of administration), greeted Finn. “Since you’re here, I’d better pay you before I spend it all.” Finn smiled. The woman noted that, he did smile then, and make vague jokes. He had carried her youngest daughter too, perhaps he wasn’t as bad as some. Finn handed over some cash. The money went into paying for a communal food store for if they were attacked, paying for some spare weapons, paying for medicines even.

He rode on to a hut. Bigger than some, smaller than others. “There’s a trough in the back which takes water from a stream. Wash yourselves, you need to. Then put on some water to boil. There’s dried meat and beans in the back store. Put on some stew.”

“Thank you.” The woman said.

“For what?”

“For letting Maddy ride, she was exhausted.” Finn shrugged. “I’m Abrigail, Maddy’s mother, this is Somyae, my other daughter. That ... monster. He killed my man, their father, well, Maddy’s anyway; but he treated Somyae well. Then he tied us. I fought -”

“I can see. That was brave, he was a mountain.”

“Yes, made no difference. Is there a privy?”

“Back of the yard, hole in the ground. Wash your arse throughly. I may want it later.” So that was clear. They were owned by someone new, but still owned.

The youngest girl tried to help. She cut up some dried meat and put it in the pot with beans. Then she was sent down to a merchant to get some potatoes. “Don’t talk to people, some of them can be nosey fuckers.”