Return to Jorgaldur Volume I: the battle mage

Slaves

Her eyes shed tears, but not of sadness, but of relief. She had felt nervous every time he had entered the corrupted lands, because, there, she couldn't trace him, observe him. There was no living nature in that place, and, therefore, he was out of the dryad's reach.

But the worst had been when she had learned that he had fallen into an ambush set by the enemies of all living beings, an ambush that was threatening the safety of the entire group, and of his loved one among them.

Time had passed extremely slowly, without news, with nothing she could do. She had been cursing herself for not having stopped him from going there, even though she knew she couldn't avoid it. So much so, that the ground was full of small pieces of petals and roots, because the nails that were bitten weren't exactly like those of human beings.

She had feared the worst, and there were reasons for it. Every second that had passed without news was decreasing the odds that he was alive. Each instant had increased her fear of losing him, this time forever.

So, when she had found out that the group had been rescued, her heart had skipped a beat, and she had been anxiously waiting to be able to see him through the plants that grew across the river. And she couldn't help but drop to her knees and cry tears of nectar when they had detected his aura.

"He's alive," she murmured to herself, unable to calm down.

She wanted to meet and hug him. However, not only there was a great distance separating them right now, but she couldn't do it, she couldn't show herself to him. Not yet. Anyway, she felt enormously happy and fortunate that she hadn't lost him.

Meanwhile, in various places belonging to different kingdoms, many breathed a sigh of relief and exclaimed in surprise. For some unknown reason, days ago, some plants seemed to have lost vigor, as if they were sick, and they had feared that some calamity might be coming that could affect their livelihood, their way of life. However, not only did they seem to have fully recovered, but many had flourished, creating an unusual sight at that time of year.

"Daddy is fine," murmured Líodon, stroking with his fingers an orchid that days ago looked like it was going to wilt.

"Thanks Goodness. I don't know why mom was so worried, but surely something had happened," Lidia sighed.

Both knew perfectly well the effects that the extreme feelings of one of the guardians, of their adoptive mother, could impact on the vegetation. And few things could have caused such a result, most likely that his adoptive father was in serious danger.

It had made them extremely uneasy, but now they felt relaxed, even smiled.

At those moments, an ordinary cart of what seemed to be a merchant was approaching along the way, accompanied by an escort somewhat bigger than usual, but not excessive. Their weapons and armor hinted that they were mid-level adventurers, hired to protect the goods, but the twins knew it was just a facade.

It was the first cart of a supposed caravan of merchants, but they were actually transporting slaves to the black market, which was an officially banned practice. However, some nobles, and even royalty, were making great profits from that illicit business.

They had spent months investigating to reach this point, where some of those responsible were in that caravan, while others were going to be attacked where they worked or lived. Of course, some would escape, it was impossible to get their hands on all of them, but that would be a hard blow for them.

When the first cart passed in front of them, they attacked, dressed as bandits. The escort looked at them with disdain, because they didn't fear those bandits, since their strength was much greater than what they were showing.

So, confident, they directly confronted those who were attacking them throughout the caravan. What they couldn't expect was that they weren't the only ones to hide their power. When they realized their mistake, it was too late to react, or to take the slaves hostage.

"I have been longing for some action!" Threefingers exclaimed, smashing the skull of one of the disguised soldiers with a hammer.

"You've always been a battle maniac," sighed Shikca, a muscular warrior over two meters tall, who had just split one of them in half with her huge axe.

"Then, do you leave the rest to me?" he mocked.

"In your dreams!"

Most of the merchants surrendered without resistance. Initially, they intended to leave them alive after interrogating them, probably locking them up, but after seeing the state of the slaves and listening about their suffering and humiliations, they changed their minds.

Many of those alleged merchants were guilty of serious crimes against the freed slaves, or against those who they had killed to capture them. So, there was no mercy towards them. Some of those slaves even asked for executing them by their own hand.

In the end, it had been a bittersweet victory. On the one hand, they had released the slaves and dealt a severe blow to the organization. On the other hand, they had seen firsthand the cruelty with which they could act.

Right now, the most difficult part was deciding what to do with the slaves, how to give them back the life that had been taken from them, but, for this, they had a plan that made more than one smile.

"Damn it," Ricardo muttered when he received the report.

This not only meant a severe setback for their organization, but it would cost them quite a bit to be able to resume business. They needed to uncover the infiltrators and eliminate them in order to continue with that lucrative activity, without which they would have financing problems.

Worst of all, the release of the slaves would cause rumors to spread throughout the kingdom, forcing them to act, to appear to be taking action against those practices. It was a deep headache, and his anger was concentrated in one person.

"Damn Eldi Henfa. If you hadn't come back, the rebels would have remained hidden. But now... Because of you..." he cursed in a low voice.

When a second report came to him, in which slaves had arrived to the capital, he also cursed the rebels. This forced the kingdom to take care of them, to provide them with the means to rebuild their lives. Otherwise, no one would believe that they were truly determined to fight slavery.