A Rock and a Heart Place (gxg)

Chapter 12

The town of Southington is a bit of an anomaly. It had been founded over 500 years ago by a band of escaped slaves looking to make a home for themselves on a strip of land tucked up between mountains and the sea to the south of Dallinia. It had been raided and burned several times by slavers trying to reclaim their escaped property, but because they had so many ships, the residents just left the town and sat out in the sea until the enemy gave up and left.

Necessity made the large town an odd mix of buildings. There was timber imported from Winterhaven, stone from quarries in the surrounding hills and mountains, and even the hulls of some ships that had been washed ashore during storms that were just shored up and made into unique buildings. Surrounding it all was a pair of stout palisades, also containing a mix of construction methods, but providing enough protection such that no slavers had dared to try an attack in well over 300 years. The original palisade surrounded the older part of the town, while the newer palisade protected the newer part, necessitated by an influx of population by both more escaped slaves and the offspring of existing citizens.

Leadership of the town consisted of a council of respected traders and ship captains, including Liana, who helped settle disputes and decide on important matters. Having summoned the other leaders to discuss the attack on Tefra, the current conversation was lively. Medya had just explained the reasoning on why an attack would work, shocking the members of the council, and a lot of disbelieving stares were sent her way.

"Give me your stone Liana!" said an old woman next to the captain.

Liana smiled, passing her truthstone over to the woman.

"Wait a minute! Let me use it! You always get to, and you'll ask all kinds of useless questions!" complained an older man on the other side of Liana, who simply rolled her eyes at the pair.

"Medya, can we?" she asked the Kittani.

She grumbled, though Inez put her hand on her lower back to support her, and Medya passed her truthstone over so each of the elder council members could have one. They both smiled happily at that and started to pepper her with many questions. Thankfully, Inez's true identity never came up, since none of the other council members were as perceptive as Liana, for which the trio were all grateful.

"Fine, so let's assume you're telling the truth here, and we could take over Tefra. Why would we want to risk ourselves to do that, even if we were guaranteed of success?" the old man asked.

"Do you need a reward to do what is right?" Inez asked them with a growl. "To free more slaves?"

The two older council members looked between themselves before the older woman answered. "We have survived this long because we don't risk ourselves like that. All of us would like to see those slavers removed from Dallinia, but if we fail then we lose everything we've built here."

"Every slave in that city would prefer to be here with you if they could," Medya told them. "I would have been here myself if I hadn't thought I could do more good staying there and helping where I could. But few of those slaves have a realistic chance to escape, and you know that. If we march on the city and take it over, then we can end the slavers reign for all time. There would be no need for you to huddle in fear here."

"That still isn't a reason for us to be the ones to do it," the older man argued.

Inez sighed in exasperation. "Fine, if you need a reward, then I will provide it. March on Tefra with us. If you hold the city, and are good allies, then you will have the friendship and trading rights with Appalya and Winterhaven."