Chapter 42

Dawn came too early for me and Kola but we rose anyway. My poor mate was sore but content and she thanked me with a kiss for my enthusiastic performance last night and the tenderness and patience that I had displayed. I showed her my appreciation by returning her kiss with one of my own, making it deep and passionate, knowing that Mai Woo and the networks were watching it. Then we went off to breakfast and the work that awaited me.

I ate breakfast at the central hearth, joined by Tagar and the three other leaders from amongst the former prisoners. We spoke while we ate, with me doing most of the talking.

"You people have three choices the way I see it," I told them all while I sat and sipped some herbal tea that Kola had given me. "Your first choice is to return to your own lands and to try and rebuild your communities. I know that it will be hard to do, but it is not impossible. What foodstuff that these raiders took from you has yet to be touched and you can reclaim it along with the furs and skins that they stole as well. You can then leave here and never look back. Your second choice is to stay here and try and make a life with the villagers who I have not killed. Most of them are young women and their children and they will need the help of strong hunters to make it through the coming winter months. This too requires a great effort on your part for you will need to put aside the sorrow that fills your hearts because of the evil done to you and yours and you will need to welcome them to your hearth as clansman and even as mates. The final option may be the hardest of all three yet it too is possible. I live in a land far to the south and the west. It is so far away that it would take a man six moons to reach it, but for you if you wish the spirits can take you there in the blink of an eye and there you can start again in lands you may call your own without fear of raiders taking what is yours and killing those you hold dear. I will let you think about it while I go and talk to the people of this village and tell them what I have told you. They too will have to make some choices and those may alter yours."

I left Tagar and the other three to discuss my view of things knowing that they might disagree entirely and chose another path. I knew from the briefing note that Mai Woo had provided me that the raiders had killed all the old in the bands that they had attacked and all the very young and that many who had survived the attack hated the villagers and wanted them dead. Combined the four bands easily outnumbered the surviving villagers, totalling almost four hundred strong of which seventy percent were men or teenage boys. In total the villagers had twelve men to protect them and only two were adult by my definition of the word and none of them were armed with any sort of weapon. I hoped that Tagar would help them see reason.

Before leaving I had Mai Woo call in Sarah Williams to have a look at Tagar's back and any other injuries that needed looking at. Silently I cursed myself for not thinking about it the night before when Felicity was here. Unfortunately my mind had been on other things.

I ended up speaking with a mixed delegation from amongst the remaining members of the village that we'd sacked the night before. The two older men came forward to speak to me as did an old woman and a younger woman. The younger woman was one of the mates of the former headman who I'd slain the night before. All of them approached me with trepidation. For my part I didn't give them a chance to speak. Instead I laid it on the line for them, telling them what their options were considering the situation as it stood. I also reminded them that they had brought this on themselves. It was petty in a way, but I wanted them to face some cold, hard facts and the biggest fact they needed to accept is that their old way had been wrong and they needed to change if they wanted to survive. I then left them to think about what I had told them, telling them that they had only an hour to decide.

It took less time than expected for Tagar and the others to make up their minds about what they wanted to do. Tagar and another leader, a man called Uttar decided that they would stay and run the village. Together they comprised about eighty men and women and as Tagar told me they were willing to make peace with the people of the village out of respect for me and for the spirits that had brought me to their aid. The remaining men and women who'd been taken as prisoners decided that they would rather go home to their own land and try to make it through the coming winter on their own. I told Tagar to give them anything that they needed without reservation and that I would ensure that the spirits provided for his new band until the next spring. That put a smile on Tagar's face and he thanked me for my generosity.

The villagers decided that they were better off making peace with Tagar and accepting him and Uttar as leaders than to resist. It did still leave more women in the village than men since most of Tagar's and Uttar's hunters had their mates and none of them wished to take another, especially one from the village. Here the old woman decided to take a role in what was happening and she convinced many of the extra women that their fate would be better off with me in the land that I had spoken of. Zeya as she was called convinced a hundred and twenty women to follow her. Some were very old like her and some were very young, and some were pregnant and most were not, and several had small children. Still they were welcomed. I gave them an hour to pack up their possessions and to say their good-byes. When they were finally ready, I went and said my good-byes to Tagar. I found him sitting with Kola deep in conversation.

"Well Charles," Tagar said as he rose up to greet me, "I am learning that you are a greater man than my men and I had suspected when we sat in my old village trading for those skins that you had brought us. Kola tells me that you have taken four more mates to keep your furs warm and to tend your fire and that men flock to you for your wisdom. I am sorry we will not have time to talk for I am certain that your tales will be more amazing than I could imagine."

"Another time Tagar," I told the man clasping his forearm one last time. "I have promised you that the spirits will provide for you this coming winter and if all goes well, you will see me again. Unfortunately, there are others in this land that has need of me and the spirits are already calling me to act. Until we see each other again, I wish you well my friend."

With that I departed. With me I took the hundred and twenty women with their children and all their possessions. I also took the animals that had been in the caravan and every weapon that was made of metal that was still in the camp and the drink that the headman had traded for and any wealth that had been found hidden amongst the headman's effects, and I did it in a blink of an eye and a flash of light that I was certain left Tagar more shocked about me than the stories that Kola had told him or the knowledge that I had come to his rescue from a place too far away for him to comprehend.

That wasn't the end of it for me. As I had told Tagar there were others on Game World that needed my assistance and that is what I attended to for the next few days with the help of Mai Woo. The word back from the consortium was that people were watching everything that I did and more. Mai Woo had explained to me how their viewing technology worked in general terms and the fact was that viewers could be selective in what they watched. Thus I learned that viewers were tuning into anything that was connected to me in any way or fashion. Some were watching Elsa Mueller build the new settlement on the promontory and some watched Glenn Dupree sail out of Oak Hall to put an end to the pirating problems. Others followed life on the Windrunner and in Blue Harbour and Izmir and they even watched as Rory and Zahra put together their expedition and headed out to check out our first vehicle that we intended to salvage. It was overwhelming to think about and it was certainly putting smiles on the faces of every network executive involved in the consortium, but like I had pointed out before, they wanted more and I gave it to them.

After returning to Oak Hall for a bite to eat and a change of clothing and a word or two with my mates I was off again for the remainder of the day. That day was reasonably easy for me. I jumped about Game World rescuing new arrivals before something horrible happened to them. I was stunned by the shear number of people that were being dropped into Game World. In an eight hour period I had rescued sixty-four men, women, and children. The majority were just cannon fodder as far as I could make out looking at the various briefing notes that Mai Woo passed to me before teleporting me off to do my thing. A couple were soldiers who'd arrived fully equipped except for their weapons and they had been dropped into some very sticky situations with only a combat knife to keep them alive. Thankfully I arrived in the nick of time in each case to pull their bacon out of the fire.

The next day was much the same. I spent the morning rescuing newly stranded men, women and children and ended up bagging another fifty-four people before lunch. Then I got a chance to really shine for the viewers. A city on the Spanish Mediterranean coast had a passion for gladiatorial games and a fetish for tossing outworlders to wild animals and as it turned out, today was game day in that city. I had Mai Woo drop me into the mix just as the fun was starting.

The place was massive compared to every other place that I'd seen on Game World so far. The arena looked to be seating at least ten thousand men and women. It even had a viewing platform for the local king to sit and watch the festivities from. When I arrived in the arena the forty-odd men, women, and children being offered up as mid day entertainment for the viewing public had just been marched in by the local guard to await their fate. They were dressed in nice white tunics and their hands were tied in front of them. The tunics were so that the backbenchers in the audience could see the blood when it started flowing.

I came alone to this party but I also came prepared. The briefing note given me by Mai Woo listed all the intended victims and one of the names popped out at me as I read through it. The name was Suzy Park and on my world she was famous and I wondered if she was the same person. As it turned out, she was and I was happy about it because I could make use of her if she was up to it when I got there.

You can imagine the look on everyone's face when I popped in to the centre of the arena and you can imagine the surprise of the viewing audience when I brought up my bow and I started dropping the big cats that the locals had just let loose on the entertainment for the day. Cries of anger and annoyance rang out as one after another, the big cats died. Of course, while I was doing this most of the entertainment for the day had started running in the other direction away from me and the lions thinking that they would be safer in that direction. They weren't. The guards that had marched them into the arena were there with spears and they weren't letting them get too far away from the main action.

While I was killing the big cats, I was also glancing about in search for Suzy Park. When I spotted a tall Asian woman crouching off to the side with a young boy I called out to her.

"Suzy Park?" I shouted in a questioning manner. Amazingly I only had to call the name once. The woman looked at me with wide-eyed surprise and then nodded her head. Quickly I ran over to her and as I did, I pulled my dirk out of the top of my boot.

"Hi Suzy," I said to the astonished woman in Korean, handing her my bow as I got to her so I could free her hands, "I'm a bit of a fan and I thought you might want to help me get you and the rest of these people out of here. I've got a bow with me that you should be able to use and a couple of extra quivers of arrows. Are you in?"

"Who are you?" Suzy Park gasped as my blade cut through her bonds.

"Just call me Charles," I told her, flashing Suzy a broad smile as I did, "and as far as you're concerned, I'm the cavalry. So here you go and welcome to Game World. Kill any animal that tries to get to us and any soldier that tries to interfere with you and me and good luck."

As I told her that I handed her an unstrung bow and a couple of quivers of arrows. Thankfully things were a bit chaotic at that point and we had sufficient time to hand off to each other before things got crazy again. I even cut the bonds of the boy who'd been clinging to Suzy and then gave him the knife so he could protect himself. Then I grabbed my bow from a slightly dazed Suzy and got back into the swing of things. By then the local king was screaming for my head and more animals were being let loose into the arena. Fortunately for me, I now had back up and I knew it was going to garner me big points with the network people.

Suzy Park is a gold medal Olympian on my world and as far as I was concerned, I was going to make use of that talent. The animals charging us this time was a pack of dire wolves. These guys were as big as a medium size bull. I dropped the lead male and the lead female in quick succession and was lining up a shot on the next animal when Suzy got into the swing of it and she let loose with an arrow. After that it was just a matter of seconds before the pack was decimated. At that point, things started to get a little more serious. The locals were not happy at seeing their favourite animals getting slaughtered and they were booing our performance. The king didn't like to hear his people booing and he ordered in the guards to get us. I decided that it was time to shut up the local king. I dropped him with an arrow from three hundred yards and then I dropped his military commander who was sitting right beside him. After that I turned my attention to the guards who were now marching towards us in a single skirmish line. I passed my bow to the kid who was still holding my knife and shucked my shield off of my shoulder and onto my arm. I put on my helmet and drew my longsword and with a cry that rang out in the arena I charged the guards.

The guards and the crowd was shocked by my action as were the men, women, and children that I'd come there to rescue. The guards were dressed in chainmail and leather jerkins and studded metal helmets, and they were armed with a short sword, a knife, and a short thrusting spear. They also had a Roman style shield and they were putting their shields to good use. Their shields were interlocked to form a wall against any opposition and their spears were jutting over top of them to skewer anyone who got in their way. They looked very professional and they might have been by the standards around this place but they still weren't a match for me.

I kicked up my enhanced speed as I ran towards them moving quicker than anyone would have expected and at the last moment I leapt in the air, just in front of their centre. As I did, I extended my shield in front of me so that it would take the brunt of any spears that were jabbed towards me. As I came down on the centre man in the skirmish line, I slashed downward towards the man on the left of him. It was like hitting the line with a cannonball. I barrelled over the centre man and knocked him off his feet and I cleaved through the man on his left killing him. Most of the spears broke against my shield and any that got past it, glanced off my armour. A moment later I was behind the skirmish line and pivoting about so that I could strike out at the guards with impunity.

I was able to strike down two more guards before they realized what had happened. The ones closest to me wheeled about in an attempt to defend themselves only to end up dying with arrows in their backs. That took care of two more and left the whole line in a bit of confusion, a situation that I took full advantage of. Using my massive shield to protect my left, I turned my attention to the men on my right, hacking into them in a savage manner that dropped two more men in a matter of seconds and sent the remainder running. To my surprise, the whole skirmish line retreated. There were twenty-two men left and they all withdrew to the far end of the arena where some officer type was yelling at them to form up. This left me standing amongst a number of bodies with the prime opportunity to add a few more reinforcements to my efforts. I turned to where the entertainment of the day had gathered and started yelling at them.

"I want six men over here right now," I screamed at the top of my lungs in English. When I didn't get an immediate response I yelled at them again, telling them to move their asses if they wanted to live.

Six men did come forward and as they did, I quickly cut their ropes and then told them to grab a sword and shield. When they'd done that I told them to get back to where the remainder of the entertainment was cowering and to protect the remainder of the people as well as themselves while I dealt with the soldiers A couple of men were hesitant about going near the dead bodies, paling at the sight of the carnage that I had wrought but they finally did as I told them with only a little cajoling.

By then the officer had not only formed up the remaining guards into two ranks but he'd found a few reinforcements of his own. From some corner of the arena he'd recruited a dozen gladiators and he'd split them in two groups, positioning them on either flanks of his main group. These guys were lightly armoured and they carried a mix of weapons including one guy with a trident. Personally, I considered them more of a threat than the local guards because they were more accustomed to fighting one-on-one unlike the rest of the formation. I'd have to whittle them down quickly if I was going to survive this little party.

Watching them for a moment, I took the opportunity to pause for a drink of water from my water skin. It was hot at the bottom of the arena and while I was certainly in better shape than anyone else down here, I was still exerting myself and I needed to recoup some liquid. After a long drink of water, I stooped and picked up a couple of spears off the ground that weren't broken and brought them into play. I quickly hefted one and threw it with all my strength towards the gladiators. The first spear took everyone by surprise because of the distance separating us and the fact that the spear wasn't meant to be thrown like a javelin. It struck a man dead centre of his chest and dropped him where he stood. The second one did the same to another man, however at the other end of the formation. The two spears caused quite a stir and it gave a pause to what the locals were doing and another breather for me to take advantage of. Quickly I fell back to where Suzy Park was standing and the six men with the swords and shields and the others that I'd come to rescue.

"Do you have a plan to get us out of here?" Suzy shouted to me as I ran up with my longsword still in my hand.

"Yeah," I told her with a grin on my face that suggested that I was either very confident of what I was up to or just plain crazy. As I said this I shoved my sword in my scabbard and then I shifted my shield back on to my back and strapped it in place. When I was done I grabbed my bow from the boy and drew an arrow from my quiver. Spinning about I drew the arrow back and took aim and then let it loose. The arrow flew across the arena and dropped the officer who'd been shouting orders at the guards and the gladiators. The arrow went straight through his throat and he just crumpled to the ground in mid sentence. Again it put a halt to what the guards were planning to do.