Chapter 20

Elsa Mueller joined me for breakfast the next morning. I was sitting with my mates and my friends and with Lord Barnabas. Barnabas was up and out of bed again, although still under the supervision of his former concubines. They were watching over him like hawks, which I had no complaints about. I wanted him up and functioning but only when he was truly able. I didn't want to rush things too quickly for the old man. Elsa's arrival gave me an opportunity to discuss the issue openly with both Barnabas and Elsa present.

"Tell me Lord Barnabas," I stated turning my attention towards where the man was seated, "how do you feel about having a woman for a Seneschal?"

That question caused the old man to raise an eyebrow and to glance from me to Elsa. Elsa looked startled by my bluntness. She'd just taken her seat and had been reaching for food when I had spoken up.

"I'm not looking for a new job," Elsa declared before Lord Barnabas could reply. "I've got my own people to think about."

"Yes," I acknowledged with a smile, "but if your people accept Oak Hall's offer of amnesty and citizenship, and they come here as I've suggested then they will no longer be your people. They will be Lord Barnabas' people and if you truly want to help them, then you would help him as his first minister and right hand advisor."

I had her on that and she couldn't say anything to that. Still she tried.

"There'd be animosity from the current advisors," Elsa pointed out, "and from the citizenry already here. They'll see me as an outsider trying to push them around and that will only cause trouble."

"True," I agreed, picking up my wine cup and taking a sip before going on, "but so what. I'm an outsider and I've been running things for a week now. I know that some people don't like me and personally I don't care. I've made it known that you can object to my face and I'll listen to your view point, but if you go behind my back and try to screw me over, then I'll kill you. I've already removed one person who thought they'd make a better lord of Oak Hall than Lord Barnabas and I would do it again if it was necessary. I'm certain that you could manage the job without any problems and probably do a better job than me. From what I've seen of you so far, I think you're a little more diplomatic than I am when it comes to people management."

"But I'm a woman!" Elsa exclaimed looking towards Lord Barnabas as she said it. "It's one thing for me to lead outworlders. We're used to women holding positions of authority. The people of Oak Hall are mostly locals as you call them and they'd be offended taking orders from me."

"That is probably true, Miss Mueller," Barnabas interjected in a low voice, "but they would get used to it eventually. Besides the orders you would be giving would be mine and any who disobeyed them would pay the penalty of disobeying me. Also, Charles has told me that from his observations during his brief visit at your encampment that he was impressed by the state of things. That speaks well of you and your abilities, so to answer Charles question, yes I would take a woman as my chief advisor and seneschal."

That settled that. I knew that Barnabas would prefer that I would stay and run things for him, but I couldn't and he understood that as well. Elsa Mueller had impressed me, both in the fact that she ran a tight ship back at her enclave and that she stood on the battle line yesterday and fought with us. She hadn't been in the forefront but she had taken charge of the archers and had directed their fire so that the Crusaders weren't able to regroup and counter-attack. That alone probably won us the battle.

The meal went by quickly. My mates chattered with Lord Barnabas' concubines while Zahra chatted with Elsa about life in her enclave. Rory, Tagus, and I swapped tales with Barnabas. When the meal was finished and the dishes cleared away, Elsa requested a private chat with Nimue and me. I took her to Lord Barnabas' office and invited her to have a seat.

"Thank you for the job recommendation," Elsa said to me, half smiling as she made herself comfortable. Her tone had a hint of sarcasm attached to it. "I'll try and live up to your enthusiastic referral."

"You'll do fine," I responded, waving away her words, "and you know it. So why do you need to speak to Nimue and me?"

"It's about Nimue's sister," Elsa replied, raising a hand as Nimue's eyes widened and she started to speak, "and no I don't have any news of her specifically, but I do have something to tell you that might help in your search for her."

I had told Elsa about our search for Nimue's sister, when we'd first met and chatted. She'd wondered if I would be staying on in Oak Hall and I'd told her no and why. Now Elsa had something to tell me and I was just as anxious as Nimue to hear it.

"Go on," I said to her.

"There's a woman in my band," Elsa told both Nimue and I. "Her name is Clarisse Willard and she was a botanist back on her Earth. In our camp she worked mostly in maintaining our gardens and the planters that you saw. Regrettably the soil on the island isn't suitable for large scale farming, but Clarisse has done wonders with the planters. In any case, Clarisse came to me after seeing Nimue and after hearing a couple of my men talking about your quest to find her. Clarisse has been on Game World for five years now and for three of those years she was a slave. We freed her two years ago. When Clarisse arrived on Game World, the bastards as you call them had dumped her on one of the big Greek islands. My people call it Crete but here they call it Minos."

"Okay," I muttered in hopes of urging Elsa to get to her point.

"The long and the short of it," Elsa continued, "is that Clarisse had seen Elves on Minos. It was two years ago. Clarisse had just been sold to a trader out of Blue Harbour and she was being led to his ship when her and her escort ran into another group of slaves that had just been landed at the quay. As Clarisse remembers it, there had been at least a dozen men, women, and children in the group. They weren't in very good condition."

The news caused me to pause and think and for Nimue to do the same. She sat beside me and glanced between Elsa and me, looking very anxious. I smiled at her and reached out and squeezed her tiny hand to reassure her and then I turned to Elsa and asked her a question.

"Can you tell me more about this Minos," I asked her in a firm voice, "and what we might encounter if we go there?"

According to Elsa, the Kingdom of Minos consisted of five port cities and an inland capital. The capital was also called Minos and it was there that the King of Minos lived. Of course Clarisse knew more about the island and its people but she wasn't in Oak Hall. I could travel to the island and speak to her, but anything she knew was three years old. Elsa suggested that I stop at Izmir when I finally sailed west and out of the inland sea. Izmir was a port city on the Anatolian coast just beyond the Dardanelles. As Elsa explained, it was a major trading port and it had a slave market and some one there might have more current information. I agreed to her suggestion, but I also insisted on talking to Clarisse. I suggested that Felicity take Elsa back to her camp on the grav bike and then ferry Clarisse back to us. That made Nimue happy.

We met with Clarisse the next day and she told us what she could about Minos. She'd worked in a merchant's home as a gardener for her three years on the island, before her master had sold her to another visiting trader who was bound for Blue Harbour. The village she'd lived in was on the north shore of the island and it was called Helios. As she remembered it, it was at least as big as Oak Hall and maybe even bigger. Besides that there wasn't much to say as she was confined to the trader's villa for most of her time there. The real plus was that she could speak the local dialect. That got me thinking and I asked her if she wanted to come with us and act as our translator. Regrettably she said no. Clarisse had escaped slavery and she had no intentions of ever putting herself in any position that endangered that fact. As she pointed out, while the Minoans were open to other traders, including outworld traders, they also like their slaves and outworlders made good slaves. She told us to be careful.

Five days later we sailed. By then three months had come and passed for me on Game World and it was time to move along. Barnabas was up and attending to duties, although in a diminished capacity. Thankfully he was getting help from Elsa Mueller, who'd moved into the keep and Sir Humphrey. The man was turning out to be the most loyal of Barnabas' advisors. We feasted the last night there and then sailed on the morning tide. I was relieved when the Windrunner finally slipped her ropes and I could wash my hands of Oak Hall and all the tasks that had been left to me, following the raids and the battle.

We sailed on the morning tide with a full crew, plenty of provisions, and another chest of gold to add to the other two that we currently had. It contained spoils taken from the raids on the three pirate enclaves and what I'd taken from the Baron's tent. It would help pay our way to Crete if that was where we eventually headed. If not, the gold and gems would still come in handy. We still needed to pay the crew.

It was a bright warm day and Lord Barnabas and Elsa Mueller saw us off. By now the new crew of the Windrunner had been broken in. While I'd been managing Oak Hall, Tagus had been sailing back and forth along the coast making certain that our mostly outworlder crew knew their jobs. While some had served as oarsmen, only a few knew the basics of working a sailing vessel. Between Tagus and his quartermaster they ended up learning the hard way, through hours of repetition and listening to Tagus hiss reproach at them whenever they screwed up. Thankfully the Windrunner was an easy craft to manage and the men got the hang of it.

To our surprise Tobias had joined the crew as well. The man had decided that he'd rather serve with me than return to serving upon the Swordfish as a guard, especially now that it was being manned by all the ex-pirates that had immigrated to Oak Hall. I welcomed him and assigned him the job of training any off watch crewmen in the use of weapons. I knew that eventually the Windrunner would run into trouble and we needed to be prepared. Our outworlder crew had spent years on Game World, but most of that time was as slaves and few actually knew how to use a sword or a bow. I figured I'd start them with Tobias and when they'd improved enough, I'd let Nimue take over.

It didn't take us long to cross the inland sea and by midday we were passing into the strait that fed into the Aegean just beyond the Dardanelles. We ran into no problem and life looked good for once. I stood by the helm with Tagus and watched as the crew responded to his orders and those of his quartermaster. I smiled with contentment now that Oak Hall was behind me and adventure beckoned once more. As I stood there I watched as my party slowly regained their sea legs. We'd been ashore too long and Kola was looking a little green. Thankfully, Felicity was there with her handy medical kit. I'd miss that thing when she eventually ran out of supplies. Hopefully we'd be able to find alternatives to at least some of her medications.

By the end of the day we were out of the strait and heading to the port of Izmir to tie up for the night. As planned we'd stay a day while Tagus negotiated for a small cargo, using that opportunity to seek out any intelligence we could obtain on the Kingdom of Minos and what we could expect in the way of a reception. I certainly wanted to be prepared, if we did end up there.

The port was three times the size of Blue Harbour and Oak Hall combined. It had a stone breakwater across the inner harbour that offered a safe port for ships offloading goods and taking them on. The quay actually had small to medium size cranes mounted beside the various berths that could be employed loading and unloading ships. We were met by an assistant to the Harbour Master as we approached the opening in the breakwater and brought him aboard when he hailed us. The man was a pilot who would guide us into a berth if we desired it or show us where to anchor in the outer harbour. Both services cost a fee. Naturally a berth in the inner harbour cost more. Being lazy we accepted a berth and paid him his fee and allowed him to take us in.

Of course the hairs on the back of my neck started bristling the moment I put a foot on the quay. I sighed when that happened and then warned Tagus to expect trouble. My mates and my friends just looked at me and then glanced about. They noticed nothing out of the ordinary about us, but they nodded their understanding. They'd come to accept that I had a sixth-sense about these things. Forewarned, we headed out in search of accommodations.

The Inn of the Blue Dolphin came highly recommended by the pilot who'd guided us into the harbour. Of course it could have been a flea trap but we decided to check it out first. To our surprise, it was a splendid looking stone and brick, three story manse that was situated in one of the better parts of town. The building had a gated courtyard before it, which was guarded by a slave. His job was to ensure that guests were spared the nuisance of peddlers and tramps. When we asked about lodgings for the night, he just took one look at me and my party and smiled. Then he let us in. We didn't get far and I quickly learned why the man was smiling.

"Good evening Mr. Sextus," a voice called out from across the courtyard.

The courtyard was spacious. To one side was a stable for horses and other animals. To the other there was a trellis covered veranda where people could sit and enjoy the evening breeze and eat their meals under the stars. In between these two features there was an arched doorway that clearly led into the large building. The voice that had spoken to me had come from the veranda. Instinctively, I palmed a throwing knife as I turned to face the speaker. My companions essentially did the same. Hands went to the hilts of swords and bows were suddenly nocked with arrows.

"Please Mr. Sextus;" the voice said firmly, "there is no need for weapons here. I'm unarmed and I wish you no harm. I just wish to speak to you."

The speaker was a woman. She was sitting at a table deep under the vines that covered the trellis. She was tall from what I could make out in the fading light of the day and the shade of the courtyard and its surroundings, and she looked attractive. She was sipping a drink while she waited for my response.

My eyes flickered quickly over the area. I spotted at least two men who were obviously her bodyguards. They were dressed in black suits and they had black sunglasses on. They looked like wannabe Secret Service men. Beyond them there was no one else in sight. I pointed them out to my companions and left them to guard my back.

"What can I do for you?" I asked the woman as I walked towards where she was sitting.

"Well," the woman answered giving me a suggestive smile, as she did, "you could surrender the pistols that Dr. Jones and you are carrying."

"And why would I do that?" I asked her bluntly.

"Because firearms are illegal on Game World," the woman said without hesitating.

"That's not quite true," I shot right back at her. "I believe the rule is that no firearms can be deliberately introduced onto Game World. Of course if they accidently get here, then that's life and if you find one, it's yours to do with as you please."

"True Mr. Sextus," the woman acknowledged, "but the weapons were introduced deliberately onto Game World and I'm here to remove them."

"They were, were they?" I asked raising a doubtful eyebrow as I spoke. "So the men who were carrying them intended for me to kill them and take their weapons from them? Is that what you're telling me? I don't think so, which means that the weapons weren't deliberately introduced onto Game World."