Lament of the Slave

Chapter 49: Defiance

According to the guardswoman, Rutledge officially asked the Castiana City Guards for assistance in my arrest. She even threatened the terran man with the Captain and prison if he interfered in official matters. It was a lie. A fairy tale that would fall apart the moment Captain Rayden showed up.

That, I was sure.

What I wasn't so sure about was whether she would show up in time. There were doubts in my mind. I even started thinking about how many times this could have happened, how many poor people ended up like me. [Slaves] who managed to get out of Arda or whatever hell they were in, only to be given a collar around their necks again under false pretenses here in Sahal.

A terrible thought.

Workhand Tate tugged at the chains to hurry me up. The agony caused by the movement of heavy shackles I had on my broken wrist and crushed arm woke me out of my thoughts. In horror, I realized I had waned in my resistance to the collar and gave in to fatigue and poison that weighed on my body.

A mistake I couldn't afford right now.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck ... this wasn't supposed to happen," the guardswoman cursed as the door closed behind us, basically imprisoning me in the room with them. Tate dragged me to the center of this back office, a room just big enough to fit a large desk, a few cabinets, and a dozen standing people.

"And whose fault is that!" snapped the slave trader, sitting comfortably in his leather chair. "It was your job to knock her out, and you fucked it up."

The guardswoman didn't back down. "And I told you to let Vik do it. I'm a mage, for fuck's sake! Not some fighter or bruiser like him."

"We needed her stunned, not with a broken neck," he said, glancing at the bruiser as he massaged his temples. The big man just shrugged and nodded, agreeing with his boss.

It was bizarre to watch these two listening to someone with a much lower level than them. I would assume that at least in criminal organizations like this group, the strongest would be the leader. But, when I thought about it, bruiser was good as a bouncer but obviously couldn't run an organization. The woman was panicking after the failed action. And Tate, that guy, was shaking visibly. Neither of them seemed like a leader type to me, more like hired muscles.

I may be wrong, and Rutledge wasn't the boss either. After all, before we entered the store, I still had that weird feeling on the back of my neck, and it wasn't the collar. Though, my guess was it was their spotter. Someone who alerted them when I had left the labyrinth.

Based on the growing tension in the room, not everything went according to plan after that.

Whose fault was that? I wondered with a smile.

"You saw how fast the bitch was," the guardswoman barked at the trader, pointing her finger at me.

Rutledge nodded, staying calm, despite her outburst. "We don't have time for this. We have to stick to the plan ..."

"What about Stone, sir?" Tate butted in.

"Forget about him," he growled, taking a breath to continue. "Like I said ..."

"But she killed him, boss," Tate objected, cutting in again. "She even gained a level."

"If you don't stop whining about it, I'll kill you myself. There's one less of us, meaning more money for the rest. Maybe now that she leveled-up, we'll get even more for her. Think about it," Rutledge said, and thinking of coins, he grinned.

The guardswoman sneered. "I'd be surprised if we get what they promised for her. Look at her."

"They didn't say they wanted her unharmed," said the trader.