Chapter 3

Irnoc

The world rocked around me, the air felt hot and humid, like breathing through a wet blanket. The scents of mold, mildew, unwashed bodies and stagnant water filled the air I was trying to draw in. Creaking filled the air, the sounds of men shouting orders in the near distance, and soft weeping close by. I was laying down on a hard, rough surface. Where was I? The back of my head throbbed dully; the back of my neck burned and throbbed as well. I reached up to feel my neck and felt a hard ring of metal with two small loops of metal on either side circling my throat. My fingers scrabbled all around looking for the seam; there was none, oh no, no, no, no, no. I knew what this was, a slave collar. They made me a slave. I shook my head, but stopped quickly, it made my head pound harder and my stomach churn with nausea.

I slowly opened my eyes and saw wood planking above me, and as I looked around slowly, so my head wouldn’t explode, I saw others in the room with me. Poor looking men, women and children, all with the same iron Ring circling their throats with the same two loops welded on opposite sides, probably for rope or chains. Most were filthy and wearing rags all held their eyes down, listless expressions on their faces and many with tear tracks staining their cheeks. They had given up all hope. I looked around further and saw a door made of iron bars and a large heavy lock. We were in a cell, and as the floor beneath me rose and fell and the sound lapping of water reached my ears I came to a realization, I was on a ship, a slavers ship I would guess by the appearance of my ‘roommates’ in this cell.

After absorbing my surroundings for a while, my head slowly stopped pounding and I eased myself up, propping myself against the wall. What happened, I thought, cat and I were breaking in to Justice Bashhar’s manor at night, he was supposed to be on the heights, socializing with our “betters”. The manor was supposed to be the next thing to deserted. We scaled the wall, crossed the garden without being seen, just entered the manor building itself when… what happened. I wracked my poor abused brain, trying to remember what happened after we entered the manor. After a bit of pondering the face of Justice Bashhar, swam into my mind’s eye, he had an evil vicious grin as I felt something hard strike the back of my head and heard Cat cry out before I slumped to the floor, blackness overcoming me.

Cat! What happened to Cat, by the gods, Cat must have been taken, I thought frantically as I looked about myself again, looking for her familiar face among these strangers. Not seeing her I lurched to my feet and stumbled to the cell door. “CAT, CAT ARE YOU HERE” I screamed, all my fear and worry for here coming out in a rasp from my overly parched throat.

One of the crewmen came up to the cell with a club in hand “Sit down and shut up before I shut you up” he growled.

“Where is Cat, what have you done with her” I pleaded. “Tell me”.

“I told you to sit down and be silent” he jabbed his club through the bars into my gut. I doubled over, gasping for breath and fell to the floor curled into a ball, sharp ragged pain lancing through my middle. The crewman laughed crudely as he watched me for a moment before strolling away.

I continued to lay there long after the sharp pains turned into a throbbing ache. Tears leaked from my eyes as I thought about where cat might be at that moment. I could guess what had happened; she was probably sold into slavery too. It wasn’t hard to figure out who would buy a beautiful 13 year old girl, just beginning to flower into womanhood. She would be snapped up quick by the brothels, sex slaves went for a lot of gold. She would probably be in a living hell, she swore she would never end up surviving by lying on her back; she would rather die than turn to whoring.

I calmed myself a bit, there was nothing I could do while was locked up in here. My thoughts turned to my own predicament. I was a slave now too, like the other pathetic wretches occupying this cell with me. I will never see my home city again, never wander the twisting alleys of the Warren, never break into the rich snobs’ homes on the hills, or look upon the heights with envy at the beautiful buildings owned by the nobles and the temples. Never retreat to my sanctuary. My father’s books, I’ll never feel their rough texture in my hands, the smoky scent of the burnt covers. The last few pieces I had of my father, will be lost forever, taken and thrown out or burned for warmth in the winter by the first beggar or thief to find my space with no regards to the history of the books, or how my father used to hold them in his hands. He would feel the weight and texture of the book, getting a sense for the book’s character and personality, before opening it and reading the stories it contained to me as I sat at his feet, my attention totally focused on his words and the thoughts they evoked.

Sobs tore through my throat as my slight body shook with my loss. First my parents, now the tokens of my home and Cat, poor Cat, all gone now. I despair filled me as I cried. Then I felt a pair of arms surround and hold me as I sobbed. It felt like when my mother held me after a night mare scared me awake. I cried all the harder for her loss as the woman who held me rocked back and forth, I could hear her soft sobs and felt her tears fall on me.

I don’t know how long I lay there, in this stranger's arms. Time seemed to slow to a crawl in our shared misery. Eventually my racking sobs slowed, the tears gradually dried on my cheeks. I sat up slowly and looked at the stranger who held me. She looked old before her time, her face looked haggard and worn, her greying hair hung limply. She didn’t meet my gaze and just shuffled back to her spot against the wall and hung her head once more.

I looked about myself, quietly and carefully looking into each face of the dozen or so slaves in my cell with me. I’ll have to find a way out of here, I need to escape this crew and find Cat before... I couldn’t finish the thought.

“How long have we been in here” I asked the woman who held me, she didn’t respond and I looked at the other slaves. My voice was cracked and hoarse, my throat felt as dry and raspy as sandpaper. One man just looked at me, eyes bleak and face haggard like the rest. Then he let his head hang again. No getting any help from these useless dregs.

I stood up again, ignoring the throbbing ache in my gut that renewed as I moved and went to examine the cell door, the lock looked big and bulky, but shouldn’t be too hard to pick, and I reached into my sash, and found nothing. I sighed; of course they stripped me of anything I could use to escape. I sat back down and rested my head against the walls; I would have to wait for an opportunity to arise. I closed my eyes and tried to rest.

* * *

Several hours after I woke, the slavers watered and fed us. They threw in a dozen hard rolls and dropped a single water skin through the bars. I watched the crewman carefully, I snatched the roll he threw to me out of the air, and the others fumbled and scrambled for their bread, then ate it as quickly as possible. The crewman watched the other slaves with a smirk on his face; I could see what he thought of us, animals in a pen, just waiting to be turned into profit. I felt my blood boil; I will not be treated like cattle. My hands started shaking; sweat broke out on my brow. I felt a flush of energy surging through me and the ship lurched.

I heard an authoritative voice call out from on the deck “did you fools run us up on a sand bank again; I swear by Loratha’s sagging left tit, if you have I’m going to flay every inch of flesh from your back.”

The ship’s hull shuddered again as an unearthly roar reverberated through every plank of the ship. Men began screaming on deck, the slaves in the cell huddled together with stark terror showing on their faces. “To arms men, drive this thing from our ship before it sinks us. Arm the ballista; stop this egg sucking, lizard loving, over grown snake from putting a hole in my bloody ship.” The voice, probably the captains, rang out again.

The crewman that was at the door to our cell ran off, to join his fellows or to hide was anybody’s guess, but he left us here, door firmly shut and locked. I darted to the door and shook it, I know it was futile, but I didn’t want to be penned in while whatever beast that attacked the ship put a hole in it and sank it with me still trapped.

Men continued to scream and shout. Feet could be heard pounding on the deck overhead. “It’s gone below, check the sides. Don’t let it hit my ship, and don’t let it eat my cargo.”

The ship lurched one more time, this time with the cracking of splintering wood, with my hands still on the door I turned my head just in time to see the section of wall the slaves were huddled in, buckle. Great long ivory colored fangs punctured the wall, ripping through the wood like parchment. The jaws those huge fangs were attached must have snapped shut as it pulled away, shattering and ripping the entire section of the hull away and the people huddled against it with it.

Red tinted water gushed in, slamming me against the iron bars, my head slammed against them and my sight dimed for a moment. The ship canted sideways, all I could hear was the roaring water, or was that the beast? The surging water wrenched me from the door, spinning and tossing me about. I couldn’t tell which direction was up let alone where the beast in the water was. My lungs burned with the need for air, I struggled against the water, thrashing around, trying to make some headway out of the ship and to the surface.

I managed to grab the splintered side of the ship and pulled myself out, the churning water was even worse outside the ship’s hull, I felt my self being pulled to and fro. I thrashed my arms and my legs, my collar felt like it was pulling me down. A long, extremely thick body, covered in what seemed to be armored scales slid past me, pulling me in its wake. My scrawny body and feeble efforts didn’t stand a chance as I tumbled along after it, I felt something strike me in the head and only had time to think not again as my head spun as my vision grew dark once more.