Chapter 80

I turned the barracks over to Namur and the men with him, telling him to deal with them quickly and quietly. There were five of them in total and each of them slept twenty men. At that moment not all of them were full. I also gave a shout to Ben. There was a stable off to one side down here in the south that had a corral filled with horses. I wanted those horses and I wanted the people living over the stable dead. I even told Ben that he could torch the building once all the horses were out of the city and on their way to our meeting place.

Of course some of Ben's troops weren't happy about being relegated to the job of putting a halter and a lead rope on two dozen horses and taking them away. They wanted to kill slavers and I wasn't letting them do it. We passed each other when my team slipped across the crossing and we headed into the northern part of the village. Their glares of anger told me I was going to hear about it later. At that moment I just ignored it.

I had Luther and his men spread out before me moving towards the home of the village chief, moving in a wedge formation. Luther was on point and I was right behind him. We moved quickly but cautiously expecting to run into trouble at any second.

There was a reason that we thought that. The local chief was shouting out his upper windows at his guards about Anastasia disappearing on him. His voice carried over the stillness of the night and it had alerted the sentries in this area that something was up. It had also woken several of his neighbours. These people were all deeply involved in the slave trade and waking to the cry of their chief in the middle of the night filled them with concern. Their reaction was to arm themselves and their retainers before doing anything else.

We made it to within fifty feet of the chief's home when our luck ran out. The houses in this area had walled enclosures to protect them and some of them were guarded by household slaves. The first one to see us raised the alarm.

It really didn't matter much. My men were ready while the locals were not. The first bunch to step out from behind their walls were cut down with a hail of arrows and anyone who thought to put their noses above the wall of a home was killed as well. Still it slowed us down and that little delay allowed the village chief to sort his own guard out and prepare for us.

Once the situation had changed I took the lead and Luther and his men covered me. The first thing they did was to clear the walls of the chief's house of anyone stupid enough to try and look over. The second thing they did was to pick off anyone who tried to come at us from any of the side alleys and lanes that led to the chief's home. While they did that I played battering ram.

The gate to the home was flimsy as hell. The truth was that there wasn't that much timber in the region and the gate had been made of tree limbs that had been woven together and then suspended across the entrance to the courtyard that stood in front of the chief's home. The gate was more a privacy barrier than a deterrent. Knowing this I decided to knock it down.

With Luther and the boys covering me I ran at the gate with my shield up and I threw my full weight into the assault. Surprisingly the gate held, although it did crack audibly under the impact of my attack. Knowing that my time and opportunity was limited, I quickly stepped back and threw myself at it a second time. This time I smashed through it.

I stumbled through the opening as the gate gave way and ended up facing a man armed with a spear. The man thrust his spear at me, aiming for my torso. Only my enhanced agility and reflexes kept the spear from reaching me. I turned at the last second, bringing my shield between the spear thrust and my body and I blocked the attack. As the man stepped back to try again, I brought my longsword up and I went at him. Faced with my blade darting out at him and the fact that he couldn't get past my shield, the man started to back peddle. Sensing an advantage, I went after him.

I never got to kill the guy. As the man retreated back into the courtyard, drawing me with him as he went, other men leapt forward to attack me from the flanks. These men were armed with long curved swords that looked like scimitars. Seeing these men coming at me, I ended up pivoting away from the man with the spear and striking out at the man coming at me from the right. My longsword slipped into his guts even before he could bring down his blade to strike at me. As he gasped with surprise, I pulled my sword out of him and pivoted away again. That put my shield between me and the spearman. His spear snaked in but once more it failed to reach past my shield and while it was knocked to the side, an arrow took down the man. Freed from worrying about the spearman I rushed the other man who had come at me from the right. By then the man had realized that he was out matched and he was looking about for an exit strategy instead of focusing on the threat that I represented. My sword knocked his blade to the side before he even knew I was on him and then it slashed under his guard and into his belly. As I pulled it from him, I turned and glanced about to see who else was there to deal with. To my disappointment the courtyard had been cleared.

Luther and two of his men were with me. Luther had his bow at the ready with an arrow nocked and his two buddies had short swords drawn and in their hands. Their blades were bloody. I nodded to the man and then told him to get everyone into the courtyard and to block up the gate. I certainly didn't have to tell him twice.

The slaver and the village chief were not amongst the dead in the courtyard. They were in the upper storey of the home and they were watching anxiously from an open upper window. Seeing them I smiled and saluted them with my bloody sword. Their reaction was as anyone would expect. They scowled at me and looked away.

It didn't take long for Luther and his men to throw a wagon across the breach that I had made in the gate and a few other items in an effort to stop anyone from trying to get through it. It also didn't take long for his men to mount the wall and to start sniping at anyone stupid enough to try and interfere with us. I smiled contently at that and then I contacted Ben, asking for a situation report.

"Namur has dealt with the barracks," Ben told me in response to my query, "although he lost a couple of men in the process. His troops got a little too enthusiastic in their job and they woke up a few of the slavers before they were able to slit their throats. The slavers gutted two men before they were taken down. Besides that everything is fine down here. I've rounded up the horses and sent them on their way. I was just getting ready to torch this place and the two taverns and the whorehouse. I figured that would give these bastards something to think about once we were gone."

"Good idea," I told the man in response, "but give that job to Namur and a few of his people because I've got another task for you. I want you to lead a group up towards my location. I'm barricaded in the courtyard of the village chief's home and we've got the remainder of the local guard and a few of the chief's buddies outside the wall of the house contemplating busting in and getting us. I want you to come up behind them and to give them the surprise of their life."

"Got you," Ben replied with an enthusiastic chuckle, "we'll be there in five minutes."

Ben proved good to his word. The man led a dozen of his men up the central road that ran through the village and he and they fell upon the locals from behind while Luther and his men provided support from behind the wall of the village chief. Ben's men opened up with a hail of arrows just to whittle down their opposition first and then they tossed aside their bows and drew their swords. With blood curdling screams they rushed the throng and they started to hack at anyone who got in their way. In minutes the locals were routed and those that were able to get away ran for their lives.

The result was that dozens of the men of the village were hacked down and the rest were driven away and I could turn my mind towards dragging the two bastards that had beaten Anastasia out of the building that they were standing in. It didn't take us very long. Ben used his assault shotgun to blast through the door of the house and then he sent six of his men in with orders to bring out the men and anyone that they found hiding within. They were told not to kill the men. Of course injuring them was okay.

Besides the slaver and the village chief we pulled a dozen other people out of the building. Two were the wives of the chief. The women were young and pretty and both were heavy with child. I just put them under guard and then ignored them. The rest turned out to be slaves. There were two who were household guards who tried to resist being taken. They were both wounded for their efforts and one of them needed medical attention. He wasn't going to get it from us. I put those two over with the chief's wives and I told the women to take care of them. The rest, mostly women of varying age I set free. None of them were outworlders so I didn't even bother offering them a trip to Oak Hall. I just told them to take whatever they wanted from the home once I was gone and to flee before sunrise. After that I sent my men in to sweep the house and plunder it. They actually found some gold and jewels in a strongbox. Naturally we took it with us when we left.

After that I grabbed the two men and handed them over to Ben to watch. With that done we started our retreat back the way we came. As we went, I had my men from Oak Hall set fire to every building that we passed by. It didn't take much to do it and by the time we reached the crossing, the north side was ablaze just like the south side was and the population of Tabor Crossing was running about in a panic. It allowed us to slip away without any further interference and that was exactly what we did.

We all met up with the released slaves and our other men in the hills south of the village. Once we were all together I had Hope grab us and teleport us to where we'd made our encampment. That little trick caused a bit of a stir.

"What the fuck," the guy who'd identified himself as Jake blurted out once we'd shifted location. "How the hell did you do that? Were you responsible for us being here?"

"No I wasn't responsible for you being on Game World," I told the man bluntly, "but if you shut up and pay attention, once everyone is settled I'll tell you what is going on."

My curtness didn't make any friends but it did shut up any further questions. It was now the middle of the night and if anyone was going to get any sleep, we needed to get people settled. With an understanding arrived at, that was exactly what we set out to do. Thankfully Hope came to our rescue by providing us with bedrolls for everyone and food and water. She even shipped in some wood so that fires could be built so that the new arrivals could warm up. Giving Ben the job of seeing that everyone got settled in, I went to talk to Suzy.

"How is she?" I asked Suzy when I found her.

"Angry ... hysterical ... crying," Suzy muttered in reply. "Carol gave her a sedative and we've tucked her into her bedroll for now. I've got Adia watching over her."

"All right," I said in reply, "we'll deal with her in the morning. For now, thanks for the help tonight and tell your women they did well."

"I will," Suzy acknowledged before heading off into the darkness of the night. "I'll see you in the morning."

I didn't get to bed right away. While most of the freed slaves were quite content to settle down in actual bedding for the night and to get some sleep, a handful wanted to talk to me. They were waiting with Luther by my campfire. Their leader was Jake and all of them were outworlders.

"So what can I do for you right now?" I asked as I stepped into the light of the campfire.

"You can tell us what's going on," Jake stated forcefully.

The man was middle aged and about six-foot-one. He stood tall and straight and his eyes fixed on me when he spoke. He had black hair and a beard that looked to be only a few months old. He also looked like he'd lost a few pounds since his arrival on Game World. What was left of his original clothing hung loosely on him.

"I was going to tell everyone tomorrow," I said to him pointedly, "but if you can't wait, so be it."

My words stung but they didn't put him off or his partners or the other outworlders who were with him. Seeing their determination to hear my spiel now and not later I gave it to them. In the course of a half hour I told them almost everything. It left several of them stunned. Jake was the only one who could even respond.

"You're bullshitting us, aren't you?" Jake demanded to know.

"I wish I was, but I'm not," I told him bluntly. "The fact is you're no longer on your own Earth. You were kidnapped by a people on another Earth that thought they could do whatever they wanted with impunity. You and your friends and all of the people I call outworlders are the victims of a callous, indifferent society that didn't care whether you lived or died so long as you entertained them. Those people are dead now and their operation has been shut down. Regrettably that happened too late for you people. You're stuck here like the rest of us."

"But what will happen to us now?" Don asked when Jake failed to speak up.

"Well," I told him, "I've been sending all outworlders to a place called Oak Hall. Geographically it is situated near the site of Istanbul in my world. That might be Byzantium or Constantinople on your Earth or it might be called something else. It really doesn't matter. What does is the fact that I've been collecting most of the outworlders in one place and I've been giving them homes and jobs and a purpose. If we're lucky and to be honest with you, I'm very lucky then we'll be building a new society here on Game World. Given the resources we have, both in trained people and raw material, I figure in ten years we'll be dominating both the Black Sea and the Mediterranean."

"To what end," Jake wanted to know, his voice sharp and stern as he asked the question.

"To the end that we're safe from others who'd want to enslave us," I told the man.

The man couldn't argue with that point considering the fact that he'd just been liberated from a slave pen. Still he wasn't content with my story.

"What about the other people here?" he asked, turning his head to stare out into the darkness where the locals were bedded down. "What do you plan to do with them?"

"They're free," I replied in a matter a fact manner. "They will be given the choice of joining the slave army that I'm building or the choice to leave and fend for themselves. I'll even offer them a choice to live here or to be shifted to Oak Hall although I'm pretty sure that most of them will decline the offer. So far the majority of the slaves that we've liberated have chosen to head off in search of their old homes and families."

Jake scratched his head for a moment or two and then looked over at his partners. They just shrugged their shoulders and sighed. The few other outworlders with them suggested it was time to hit the hay. Silently I agreed with them.

"Okay," Jake muttered after a second, "we'll head off for now and get some sleep, but tomorrow we're going to have more questions."

I just shrugged and waited for them to leave. Once they were gone, I sat down and had a drink with Luther and Ben. Ben had joined us while I was talking to the outworlders. We didn't talk for a few minutes. Instead the three of us enjoyed the quiet of the evening and the taste of the wine that Hope had provided for us. It wasn't a wine manufactured on Game World so it had a deeper richer taste and a lot more alcohol in its content. It was very enjoyable. Regrettably that enjoyment didn't last.

"Some of the men are grumbling," Ben eventually informed me. "They're not happy that you didn't employ them as much as they thought you should. They're particularly not happy that you used the women to back you up and not them."

"I'm getting tired of that," I said in a low voice, echoing both my fatigue and my resentment. "I'm beginning to think that I made a mistake coming here."

"You didn't," Ben responded in turn, his own voice tired, "and there are a few of us that are happy that you did, however most of these guys don't come from our background and they see things differently than we do. They just don't see what you're trying to achieve here and deep down they don't trust you or me. After all, we're outworlders and as you told me when you pulled us out of that caravan to the north, the locals don't like us. I think that's part of the problem."

"It's a pity," I said with a sigh, "I wanted to give these guys a chance to reclaim their lives. From the sound of it they want to throw it away."

"Are they a threat," Luther asked when Ben and I fell silent.

"I don't think so," Ben replied with a shrug of their shoulders, "but they might become one given enough time to fume over what they consider a slight to their manhood. For now they're just complaining amongst themselves."

"A couple are probably trying to politic right now," I suggested with a hint of distaste in my voice when I said it. "They're going to talk about what they would have done if they'd been in charge instead of us and how glorious the raid would have been if they had led it. Once they're sure of their standing in the group, then they'll do something about it."

"Do you want me to keep watch on them," Luther asked sounding concerned.

"You can for tonight," I said, looking over to the man, "and I'll deal with the problem tomorrow after I've dealt with the people that we liberated tonight."

"That sounds like you're going to confront them," Ben suggested, looking at me with concern on his face. "Do you think that's wise?"

"It's what it is," I replied with a shrug of my shoulder. "I had hoped to use the locals as a nucleus for an army of freed slaves but from what you're telling me it isn't going to happen. I figure that once I'm done with the slaves we liberated tonight and I've confirmed who wants to stay and fight slavers and who doesn't, I'll have a chat with our recruits. Then when I'm done I'll have Hope teleport us out of here, leaving the recruits to fend for themselves. I think it will be for the best."

While Ben was hesitant in agreeing with me Luther had no problems that he thought that I was right. As he put it, the tensions of the last few weeks had been too much and he and his men were getting tired of it. In fact he wanted to go back to Oak Hall. At least there he could go hunting and have a drink without someone glaring at him with a look of resentment.

I didn't promise Luther anything but I didn't tell him no. Even I was thinking that our expedition to liberate slaves had failed miserably. Oh we had rescued several hundred people over the last month but most of them had chosen to leave rather than fight and those who had chosen to fight were pissed because I was insisting that they got trained first. I just suggested we all get some sleep and then I went off and crawled into my bedroll. Considering the fact that dawn was only a few hours away, I knew that I wouldn't get much rest.

The next morning started quietly and then it spiralled out of control. By the time it was over I was beginning to think that Luther was right and we should pack it in and head back to Oak Hall. It all started with Namur ending up at my fire just after I had eaten my morning breakfast and I had drunk my tea.

"What is it Namur?" I asked as the man settled himself down across from me. He had a worried look upon his face and I kind of suspected from his bearing and anxiousness what he had to say to me.

"I have heard talk amongst the other men," Namur told me in a lowered voice, his eyes looking from side to side as he spoke, "that they are not happy serving you. Badu is the most vocal of the men. He does not like your leadership and he feels that you treat us like children and not men. He has many who listen to what he says."

"So I've been told," I openly acknowledged to Namur, earning a look of surprise from him when I said it. "I was going to deal with the problem today once I had dealt with the people we'd liberated last night; however it appears I'm going to have to deal with it first. My question to you is what do you want to do? Do you want to follow Badu or do you want to stay with me or do you have another view altogether different from the first two choices?"