Shroud of Eternity

CHAPTER 39

Bannon had nothing in common with Amos and his companions; he realized that now, and he doubted they would ever follow through on their assurances of helping Ian. He thought of the bright and heady times on Chiriya Island with his childhood friend … and yes, he truly meant friend. He and Ian had so much laughter together, so much fun. Until the day the Norukai had taken him captive in their secret cove.

Ian—even the scarred and embittered champion in the combat pits—still must have that spark of friendship deep within the young man’s heart, if Bannon could just find it. But for that, he needed help from important people in Ildakar. Neither Nicci nor Nathan could demand the freedom of a slave—particularly not a renowned champion. Bannon had to keep trying.

And that brought him back to Amos, Jed, and Brock. He felt as trapped as any of the prisoners in the training pits.

Looking at Bannon, Amos quirked his dark lips in an unpleasant smile. “If you need our help with the champion, come with us. We’re going to find Chief Handler Ivan. He’ll be delighted to hear your request.”

Bannon felt a thrill of unrealistic hope. “Truly?” He knew not to believe Amos’s motives, but for someone with no hope whatsoever, even a false hope was worth clinging to. He remembered his bright image of the world, his dream of a place where people helped one another, where bloodshed and darkness were washed away by kindness and good hearts.

A false and ridiculous picture, he knew. Nicci had made that very clear when she forced him to see that his nostalgia was merely a scab that covered festering memories. But now he had scars instead of wounds, and he had become a much stronger person.

He needed that strength now. For Ian. “Yes, I’ll go with you.” Ivan intimidated him, but he would make his case.

“You won’t be disappointed,” Jed said, and his two companions reflected the same sharp smile. Bannon was aware that as an ungifted swordsman he would always be the butt of their jokes. They had no respect for him, and he had little respect for them. But for the same reasons that Nathan was forced to spend time with Fleshmancer Andre, Bannon needed these three—at least until he found more worthy friends.

They descended to the lower levels of the city, ignoring the bustle of business in the streets, the slaves and merchants who brought goods up to where the gifted nobles lived. “Are we going back to the combat arena?” he asked. “I’ve seen the cages where the chief handler’s animals are held.”

“No, today he’ll be in the market,” Jed said. “Just follow us.”

Bannon pictured a colorful and vibrant bazaar in one of the numerous squares with fountains and performance stands, unlike the slave market that seemed stained with years of blood and pain. He imagined farmers who harvested their crops from the dense terrace gardens, using every scrap of fertile land in Ildakar. He pictured vintners offering bottles of wine, olive sellers with great clay urns mounded high with black and green olives, glistening with brine.

But that was not at all where they took him.

Instead, chatting among themselves and snickering about things that meant nothing to Bannon, they made their way toward open areas with warehouse-sized buildings and large corrals. He heard the miserable lowing and animal groans even before he smelled the stench. The air was thick with the clotted smells of manure, urine, buckets of shed blood, and bestial fear.

“Chief Handler Ivan always comes to the yaxen butcher yards at midweek,” Amos explained. “He gets a good price for the entrails and the waste scraps for his animals before the rest is rendered down and fed to the slaves.”

Bannon felt ill.

Drivers led plodding yaxen down the wide streets toward the corrals. The big, shaggy animals shuffled along in misery. He could hear the panicked cries of the beasts as they were led into the butcher houses. The yaxen looked at him with eerily humanlike faces, sagging mouths and stubby horns protruding from their foreheads. Their large dark eyes were wet with terror. He felt they were begging him to save them, but he could do nothing.

From inside a wooden building the size of a barn, he heard the sounds of slaughter, the wet hard thump of mallets, then the hacking of blades and saws. The wooden planks of the butcher house walls had numerous gaps and knotholes that allowed glimpses of the death inside.

A burly shirtless man wearing a blood-spattered apron over his large stomach strolled out of the doorway. The scarf across his mouth was covered with red speckles. In his left hand he held a heavy iron-tipped mallet. He strode into the corral, grabbed one of the yaxen, and tugged it by the horns. The beast struggled, but the butcher’s biceps bulged as he hauled the animal inside the dark doorway to its noisy and hopeless death.

Bannon saw Chief Handler Ivan standing at the outer corral fence, wearing his distinctive panther-skin jerkin. He dickered with a clerk who wore the business robes of an esteemed nobleman, though his clothes were likewise spattered with fresh blood. After Ivan handed coins to the man, slaves came forward, wrestling barrels full of glistening organs, entrails, and scraps of fatty hide.

Ivan directed the sullen slaves toward a cart, careful not to approach the mess. He chastised them as they jostled one of the overfull barrels. “Don’t soil my garment. I don’t want to kill another sand panther so I can have a replacement hide.” A rope of yaxen tripe flopped out against the slats.

Bannon winced as he heard a loud, wet crack from inside the butcher house, followed by a sound like something heavy being tumbled to the ground. Then more terrified sounds filled the silence.

Amos waved. “Chief Handler, we’ve come to see you on behalf of our friend.”

Ivan turned away from the clerk with a dismissive gesture. When he noticed Bannon, his expression showed little interest, only a frown. “I’ve seen him before. Why does he interest me?”

“I-I think maybe you can help me,” Bannon said.

“Help you?” The chief handler laughed with all the humor of a cruel man seeing an old woman trip and fall. “You have to convince me you’re not worthless before I’d consider even listening to you. Maybe you can play with my animals.” He smiled as the idea occurred to him. “Can you fight? You could work with my apprentice handlers.”

“I can fight,” Bannon said defiantly. He wished he had brought Sturdy with him. “But I’m here to talk to you about the combat arena. My friend Ian—the champion. We grew up together, but he was captured by—”

As he saw three hideous figures approaching, the words dried up in Bannon’s throat, like delicate blossoms in a drought. Captain Kor and two Norukai companions strolled to the slaughter area, wearing their gray-scaled vests.

Bannon’s lips curled, and he muttered, “Sweet Sea Mother, why would those inhuman creatures come here?” He snorted. “No doubt drawn by the smell of blood.”

Ivan inhaled a deep breath and threw back his shoulders. “Yes, exhilarating, isn’t it?”

Kor strode over, scratching the scar on his left cheek, accompanied by Yorik and Lars. By comparison, Chief Handler Ivan looked almost handsome. “So this is the source of that delicious meat,” said the Norukai captain. “I’m here to purchase fresh slabs to bring with us when we sail away. We’ll depart soon.”

Bannon knew they would come back before long with more slaves. He felt heat throbbing in his face as he flushed with anger.

The blood-spattered clerk bustled forward, intercepting the Norukai. “I can facilitate that, Captain. As you see, the meat is very fresh, and we have gifted butchers who can work preservation spells, so the meat will be fresh and juicy when you cook it back in your Norukai islands.”

Lars and Yorik nodded, and their expressions seemed eager, though their true feelings were difficult to read, due to the scars on their faces. “If we pay extra, could we slaughter them ourselves?”

“Why, of course,” said the clerk. “We have an assortment of slaughtering tools.”

“We have our own weapons,” Kor said.

“And we need more kegs of bloodwine,” Yorik interjected. “I don’t know what happened to Dar. He was supposed to arrange for the shipment.”

Kor turned his needle gaze back to Ivan. “Our companion Dar has not been seen in the past day. He vanished in your city, and we have to find him before we sail off.”

As he watched these men, Bannon felt the hatred inside him coming to a boil like a thick and poisonous stew. If they hadn’t stolen Ian as a boy, then Bannon wouldn’t be here begging to get him released. All those years his friend had suffered … He clenched his hands, ignored Amos and his companions. Bannon loathed the Norukai for what they had done, not just to his friend, but to all the other slaves dragged into the Ildakar market, as well as the even fresher wound of seeing how Kor had abused Melody at the silk yaxen dacha.

As emotions boiled up within him, before he could stop himself, Bannon blurted with a provocative sneer, “Your friend can’t be hard to find. The Norukai are so ugly.”

The three slavers turned toward him, surprised at the insult.

Bannon’s rage sharpened his words like a whetstone. “Or maybe someone killed him and threw him off the cliffs into the river. We could test the waters for poison and see if his body is down there contaminating the swamps.”

Yorik and Lars bunched their arms, reaching for their weapons. Kor snorted and looked at Amos. “Why do you tolerate this insulting weakling? Is this the hospitality we receive from Ildakar after we brought you a valuable cargo?”

Amos said quickly, “He doesn’t speak for the wizards’ duma. He is also a guest here.”

“He’s an unworthy guest,” Lars said.

“I am more worthy than your whole nation combined,” Bannon said, feeling the red anger controlling him, just like when he went into his maddened fighting state. “I have more honor than any Norukai could imagine. You are leeches.” His right hand twitched, longing for his sword, which wasn’t there.

Yorik spat a long stream of saliva coupled with a glob of phlegm that struck Bannon full in the face.

Like a crossbow bolt being released, Bannon threw himself forward, unleashing his pent-up anger. He was on Yorik, pummeling the man’s ugly face, but the Norukai drew back his well-muscled arm and punched Bannon hard on the side of the head. He reeled back, and Yorik slugged him on the chin.

Bannon lost himself in the fight, attacking the slaver again.

Captain Kor and Lars both got into the brawl, all three of them piling on Bannon, beating him so hard that his ears rang. Though he fought and clawed, the Norukai overpowered him, threw him to the ground. His outcries were louder even than the miserable yaxen being led to slaughter.

With heavy boots they kicked him in the side, and he felt his ribs crack. The wind whooshed out of him, but he kept fighting. From the ground, he lashed out at their legs.

In the back of his mind, he thought of how a group of thugs had robbed him in the alleys of Tanimura. They’d knocked him senseless before Nicci rescued him. But the beautiful sorceress wasn’t going to rescue him this time. Bannon kept thrashing, and the Norukai pounded him, bruised him, made blood spray out of his nose and mouth.

Eventually, his supposed friends, Amos, Jed, and Brock, pulled the Norukai away. Chief Handler Ivan glared down at Bannon, who could only see through swollen eyes in a fog of blood and anger.

“This man has insulted the proud Norukai,” said Kor. “He must be punished.”

“He looks punished enough,” Brock said. “Or would you like to have a few more minutes with him?”

Amos said, “On behalf of the wizard commander and the sovrena, I promise we’ll take care of this matter. Bannon Farmer is a guest, but the Norukai are far more important. We’ll think of something to do with him.”

Ivan grunted. “He said he was a fighter. Let me take him to the combat pits. Adessa will want him—to give her warriors practice, if nothing else. If that fails, we can feed him to my animals.”

Ivan yelled for slaves, and Bannon was dimly aware of several bodies clustering around him, reaching down to grab his arms and legs, lashing them together so that he couldn’t struggle. The broken-glass pain was so great he could barely move.

“No…” he groaned as they lifted him off the ground. He blinked, twisted his head, and his gaze met a smug-looking Amos. “Help me.…” The other young man remained unmoved. Bannon cried out again, his voice no louder than a croak. “Tell Nicci and Nathan. Let them know! They’ll help.”

Amos crossed his arms over his chest. “Of course we will, my friend. Don’t worry about it. We’ll resolve the problem.”

Bannon fought with the last shreds of his consciousness, and he lost the battle. As he drifted into blackness, he saw Amos and his companions turn away, flashing a smirk and a nod toward the chief handler.