Chapter 11.

  The usual people were assembled in the conference room
when Enigma and Ksid came in unescorted. There was a
large grin on Ksid’s face, along with a sour distaste on
Enigma’s.
  ‘Why so happy?’ Sly asked Ksid. ‘On the other hand, why
so glum?’ she then asked Enigma.
  Ksid cackled. ‘We had been arrested by some soldiers
out in the street, and Enigma thought it was actually for
real. He was about to whip out his dagger and axe to run
a few people through.’
  ‘You got arrested?’ Jalaf said in horror.
  ‘Not really. The person in charge told us about it when 
we got inside the building. You told him to bring us back 
here with out any of the enemy spies knowing that we were 
here. He had to think about it a lot, but instead, he 
came up with the idea of arresting us. That way, the 
spies would tell their leaders that we were arrested, and 
most likely sent to the dungeon. He also told me that 
minor offences only needed a couple of officers and that 
it was the opposite for major offences. With a platoon 
under his belt, it looked that we had committed a major 
offence, and if it were real, we could have been easily 
jailed. That’s what we want the enemy to think. They’ll 
think that we’re jailed and they won’t have any reason to 
worry about us. And with that, we have a reason to be 
within this building with out the spies and assassins 
roaming the halls.’
  Jalaf thought about it for a while. ‘I told him to get 
you too in the building without letting our enemies know
that you were here. But I suppose that way’s just as
good. At least that way, we can join you up on a chain
gang instead of trying to sneak around once you decide to
leave. I promoted that fellow once, now it looks that I’m
going to have to do it again.’
  Enigma pouted and sat down in his usually place beside
Sly, where she was aloud to mother him from his
embarrassment. She neatly concealed a grin. 
  ‘You know, you shouldn’t have snuck away like that with
out telling me.’ Jalaf condemned lightly. ‘You could have
been safer with a few spies watching your back.
  ‘You had a lot on your plate, and I didn’t want to
bother you.’ Ksid explained.
  ‘What was the purpose of your little journey anyway?’
  ‘Well, Enigma brought me back to my senses. I’m sure
that you all remember me not caring about all this crime
around us. It was actually a manipulation from a thing
called the Death Warrior. He’s be set upon us by it’s
master, and we’ve been having trouble with him for a
while.’
  ‘But that shouldn’t happen.’ Iikin contested. ‘I
thought you were a magician.’
  ‘Sorcerer.’ Ksid corrected. ‘There’s a difference. 
Either way, there was no possible way for me to tell that 
there was a change in my personality. My powers come from 
the heart. If that thing was manipulating my heart, then 
I’d be able to feel it. But when he’s doing it to my 
mind, there was just now way. The Death Warrior 
specialises on the mind. I don’t. I’m sure Ice knows all 
about that.’
  Ice smiled.
  ‘Just his name makes me nauseous.’ Jalaf shuddered. ‘Go
on.’
  ‘Any way, Enigma told me a little about what was
happening in the streets, so I wanted to go and have a
look for myself. We dressed up in rugged cloths. I was
aiming to get mugged. I could have easily fought them
off, but I wanted to get a good look at their faces.’ He
was idly playing with his uncomfortable rags. ‘And I
wanted to remain inconspicuous. It wasn’t really
necessary, because no one even came near us, and there
was enough crime to determine what I was looking for.’
  ‘What were you looking for.’ Jalaf repeated Ksid’s
words.
  ‘Enigma actually pointed it out to me. But we were
arrested before I got to tell him.’ Ksid chuckled again.
‘Sorry.’ he looked at Enigma. ‘We witnessed a few crimes.
There were three main ones; mugging’s, tavern brawls, and
urban guerrilla.’
  ‘Kidnapping’s?’
  Ksid nodded.
  ‘I didn’t know tavern brawling was an offence.’ Power
sounded shocked.
  ‘It’s been outlawed for years now. All the tavern and 
inn owners were complaining to the leaders of the cities 
of Vinmac to outlaw it because it was costing them to 
much. The rest of the world has held onto the tradition 
though.’
  Power looked at Jalaf with a hurt look. Ice then
reached over, comforting him.
  ‘As I was saying,’ Ksid went on, ‘I found out what I
was looking for. All the people who were committing these
offences had identical scars on both sides of their face.
That’s a customary facial detail among a group of people
called Sharks. They’re a group of assassin like warriors
that deal in crime and fear in Neekkent. They’re usually
hired by royalty.’
  A soldier walked in with a file of papers in his hand. 
  ‘Speaking of Sharks...’ Jalaf said, skimming over the
papers. ‘I’d like you to take a look at this, Ksid.’
  Ksid took the papers. ‘Interesting.’
  ‘What is it?’ Enigma asked.
  ‘It’s background information on the one name “Uilin”.’
Ksid proclaimed. ‘Where did you get this, Jalaf?’
  ‘Criminal Records. If you’ve broken, offended, harmed 
the law, or even blown your nose in the wrong way, the 
university have a record of it. I looked him up because I 
thought it might help.’
  ‘Well read what it say’s.’ Power ordered.
  He cleared his throat. ‘Eucros, alias: Uilin, Zabar,
Parm, Dayjar.’
  ‘Creative.’ Sly murmured.
  ‘Was once a famous local butcher in the town of Aria in 
southern Histaus. Now leader of the Sharks in Neekkent. 
After bad meat ruined his reputation, he then went on to 
the town of Demha, in Eht. He met a man named Orfa, a 
world renowned blacksmith, and went into a partnership
with him as a smithy, in hopes to rebuild his career. As
Orfa slowly began to fade away, the responsibility soon
fell more and more heavily into Eucros’s hands. Not being
able to take on the full burden, he enlisted two helpers;
Wen, a former bounty hunter for King Raat of Duzian,
ruler of Arlenel, Neekkent, and Rorrim, a doctor in
natural medicine.
  ‘These two men introduced Eucros to a new form of
dealership, as the business began to plummet with the
death of it’s original owner. They began providing
weapons for thieves and murderers who wanted them,
charging at a greater price. After a few years, the three
disappeared.’
  ‘So what do we do now?’ Terrol asked.
  ‘I’m not so sure.’ Ksid replied. ‘What new laws did you
enforce against the general public in dealings with
slaves and poor people?’ he then asked Jalaf.
  ‘There are many minor laws, but I’ll tell you the major
ones first.’ the mayor offered. ‘The first new law that
we made was that a slave would work for a maximum of ten
hours a day with fifty percent of the owners income to be
even distributed among the workers. Bedding arrangements 
must be properly sheltered. Before the owner can commence
business, their property has to pass the Government Work,
Health and Safety regulations.
  ‘The second one is equal rights. The slaves are allowed 
to roam free in the streets without any hassles and enter 
public places like taverns and inns and are allowed to 
buy from stalls and shops. The public have to treat the 
slaves and poor people like human beings. They should be 
allowed to date amongst themselves and have free time as
soon as they finish work. Also, they are entitled to at
least one day off from work a week in which they can do
as they please. If the owners workers get away, that’s
their problem to deal with and complaints shall be dealt
with justly. The workers are entitled to at least five
hours to them selves after work.’
  ‘Wait a minute.’ Sly interrupted. ‘Just getting back to 
the first law, you said that the owner has to distribute 
fifty percent of their income and distribute the rest 
evenly among the workers. What if the workers are lazy 
and do a quarter of the amount of work they would do when 
they were under the whip. They wouldn’t deserve to be 
paid that much if they only work a three hour job.’
  ‘I see your point. I’ll change that rule so that the 
income is evenly distributed depending on how much they
work. I’ll make up a percentage to show the workers how
much “hard work” should be regarded as. Any way, those
two are the most major of the new laws. There are minor
major laws. Would you care to here them?’
  ‘I don’t think that there’s any need.’ Ksid said.
‘Thanks all the same, but I think I’ve heard enough.’
  ‘You see a link?’ Terrol said hopefully.
  ‘I’m not sure. I think I do, but I’m not sure what it 
is. What if we categorise the information first? What we 
saw outside today related to some of the laws that the 
rulers of the cities have set out. We saw two people 
dating, and that relates to the law about slaves dating. 
We also saw, a slave getting beaten up in a tavern brawl 
outside a place known as the Drunken Dragon. That kind of
relates to the second law - the one about the people in
question having equal rights and being able to walk
around in the streets with out any hassles. The mugging
we saw suggests that the slaves and poor people are being
paid as the laws demands.’
  ‘I have an idea.’ Enigma interrupted.
  ‘What’s that?’
  ‘I think that the cult are trying to use the new rules
against us. If you think about it, it’d be the most
logical thing to do.’
  ‘I think I see what your getting at.’ Jalaf
triumphantly announced. ‘It’d explain a lot of things.’
  ‘I think I see it too.’ Ksid agreed. ‘I noticed as we
moved along, that some people were dressed up like
nobles, pretending to be giving orders. Two of them are
money related, and the other one is rights related. The
slaves and poor people were given money, and these
cultist, with the help of the Sharks, are taking it away
from them.’
  ‘And with the kidnapping, the people who took the girl 
left a note,’ Enigma finished. ‘probably with the ransom 
amount written on it.’ 
  ‘Then the tavern brawl is violating their rites.’ Ksid 
added. ‘Now, with people dressed up as nobles, these 
victims are going to believe that it’s the nobles that 
are the ones doing this. The cult is doing this by taking 
their money and violating their freedom - each against
the new laws. That brings us back to the Revolution’s old
plans. Now the slaves and poor people have the reason to
rebel. The cult has just successfully countered our
counter plan.’ 
  ‘That really complicates things now.’ Jalaf complained.
‘What can we do?’
  ‘There’s only one other thing that we haven’t tried.’ 
Enigma declared. ‘Going back to Velyaha’s meeting, I 
remember them saying that they were going to strike on 
the day of the Buysell festival. As it is a custom, the 
festival is celebrated on the same day all over the
continent. Everybody’s taken that for granted, the same
way they believe that the sun’s going to come up the next
morning, because it’s always happened. I bet that no one
would expect it if the festival were to be held several
weeks earlier.’
  ‘So your saying that we hold the festival earlier than
usual?’ Jalaf tried to comprehend.
  ‘That’s right. I remembered Velyaha saying that they
weren’t going to tell the slaves of the due time to rebel
until two days before the festival. So if the festival’s
earlier, the cult won’t have a chance to get their people
ready.’
  ‘But isn’t the Buysell festival a violation of slave
rights?’ Terrol asked. 
  ‘Well, we’ll just have to advertise this years festival 
as a more friendlier festival. All it really is is the 
buying and selling of workers. That’s what were going to
have to emphasise.
  ‘But were going to have to tell the nobles. They have
to know so they know when to bring their slaves around to
be auctioned. There’s bound to be spies in the noble
groups, so we can’t tell them that the festival’s going
to be earlier. On the other hand, we need them. So what
can we do about this?’
  ‘Jalaf, do your spies ever sleep?’ Enigma asked.
  ‘Most nights, when their not on special missions I
mean.’ Jalaf answered.
  ‘Good. The cult spies don’t really have a special
mission at the time, so most of them should be asleep at
night. How long does it take to set up the festival
areas?’
  ‘A full night at least. But that’s with stalls and
things like that. What do you have in mind?’
  ‘I think I’ve found a way around the nobles. If we just
set up the stage one night, it shouldn’t take too long.
There won’t be too many spies around, and they’ll think
nothing of it. It could be a stage for anything, but they
won’t ever think that we’re setting up the stage for
Buysell. So they won’t think of reporting it. When
morning comes, we can get the ball rolling with fake
slaves and nobles. Word will get around the town and the
rest writes it self.’
  ‘Brilliant!’ Jalaf blurted, applauding. ‘The word shall 
drift around the town, and the other nobles will 
instinctively bring their slaves around. They hate to 
miss the chance to make a bit of profit. Eventually, the 
word will get around to the stalls that there’s a
festival, and they’ll see a business opportunity right
before their eyes. Then, the whole town will come and
we’ll slowly leak the word around that the Buysell has
come early. Everybody will think that it’s festival
time.’
  ‘That’s when you make your appearance.’ Enigma 
appended. ‘On your arrival, you might even want to 
welcome them to this years Buysell.’
  ‘Hang on a minute.’ Iikin intruded. ‘How are we going
to tell the other towns and cities all around the world.
If the cult see this, they’ll start making preparations
earlier in case it happens again.’
  ‘Oh, I’ll fix that.’ Ksid offered. ‘It should only take
me a couple of day’s to get around to every ruler on this
continent. The real date of the festival is not until
about a months time. How about we make it two weeks from
now?’ 
  Jalaf agreed with a grin. 
  Ksid ironed out all the precise details of what they
were going to do, and before the day was over, he quickly
walked out of the city. 
  The next two weeks were quiet and cold. The continual
crime reports Jalaf received from his spies and police
piled high in a separate room adjoining his office. He
would read them quickly but would do nothing about it. 
  The rest of Enigma’s small group went their separate 
ways within the boundaries of the mansions walls. This 
was Enigma’s strict order, as he was placed in charge - 
no matter how much he tried to refuse - while Ksid was
away. Ksid believed that he had to learn leadership, even
though Enigma saw no real reason it. 
  Preparations were constantly being made regarding the
festival that they were going to throw all of a sudden.
The lid on the plans were held as tight as possible and
the people involved were kept to the absolute minimum.
Jalaf relied heavily on the soldiers closest to him by
heart, as well as the veterans that he thought were most
loyal to him. He was most child like. In his eye’s, this
top secret operation was a big game. He even went as far
to give the operation a name - operation “counter plan”.
It was laughable, but most people kept their humour to
themselves. 
  Ksid returned a day before dew time. 
  ‘I thought you said it would only take you a couple of
day’s.’ Sly greeted in her special little way as Ksid
entered the building. 
  ‘Nice to see you too, Sly.’ Ksid smiled. ‘Round up the
others and meet me in the conference room.’ 
  It only took another few minutes for Sly to round up
the herd. They took their seats in their usual places.
Power came in soaked in sweat. He had just been with the
local blacksmith that worked for Jalaf’s personal guards.
His casual leather jacket seemed to bulge.
  ‘The blacksmith sculptured some chain mail to fit 
inside my jacket.’ Power explained. ‘He just tore the 
jacket in two, then sewed it back up together again 
around the metal.’
  ‘But why are you sweating?’ Ice asked. ‘I can’t see 
there to be any reason why leather being sewn over the 
top of metal would cause the smithy to work with the hot 
stuff.’
  ‘It’s not that,’ Power chuckled. ‘I’m just finding out
how heavy this thing is. Have you ever tried to run up 
five flights of stairs with a rock on your back. That’s
what this thing feels like. The heat in this room isn’t
helping either.’ 
  ‘How did it go?’ Jalaf eagerly interrupted.
  ‘Quite well - apart from the blizzard I had to work
through in the Eht Mountains. I would have been here
yesterday hadn’t it been for that storm.’
  ‘Did everybody co - operate?’
  ‘Yes. They were all to happy after they saw what I did
to their guards.’
  At about that time, there was a quick rap on the door.
A wild - eyed young lad scurried in. He handed Mayor
Jalaf a note, inclined his head to the rest of the
company, then left. 
  ‘They always seem to do that when were in a meeting.’
Terrol noted. 
  Jalaf moaned in disappear. ‘We have another problem.’
  ‘What’s the matter?’ Ksid pressed.
  ‘King Yalerkûm’s daughter’s been kidnapped.’
  ‘Yalerkûm of Sable?’ Sly asked. 
  ‘That’s the one.’ Ksid nodded. ‘His was one of the 
first places I went to.’
  ‘Why would you go there first?’ Jalaf questioned. ‘Your 
so far north. Wouldn’t the most logical way to do it be
by starting from the north of the continent, then working
your way south?’
  ‘It’s a bit more complicated than that.’ Ksid tried to
explain. ‘Trust me, you don’t want to know.’
  ‘I’ll take your word for it.’ 
  ‘Shouldn’t we wait until after the festival to see what
happens before we go travelling the world on a goose
chase?’ Enigma asked.
  Ksid thought it over for a while. ‘There’s no real
need. All these people have to do is follow our
instructions, and if they do that to best of their
ability, everything should be fine.’
  ‘We don’t even know where to start.’ Iikin spoke.
  ‘It say’s here in the letter.’ Jalaf explained to him. 
‘In a scuffle, the kidnapper’s dropped a piece of paper 
with the town “Hadui” written on it.’
  ‘If I’m not mistaken, Hadui is somewhere in the 
northern Neekkentian continent.’ Ksid said.
  ‘Which means that the cult are most likely, once again,
involved.’ Terrol added. 
  Enigma felt a slight tingle on the inside of his
jacket. His surprise reflected in his eyes, catching
Ksid’s attention.
  ‘Why don’t we all have a half hour lunch break or
something. That’ll give us all time to think.’
  ‘In other words your famished?’ Ice smiled.
  ‘Correct.’ Ksid amended with a straight face. 
  Enigma slowly stalked to the kitchen. Ksid motioned him 
back before he could get away.
  ‘You have a knew message?’ the aged man asked, closing
the door to his room.
  ‘I believe so.’ Enigma confirmed, pulling out his book
from his jacket. He slowly flicked through until he found
the right page. ‘He we are.’ He stopped in thought, then
flicked his wrist in the air.
  ‘What was that?’ Ksid queried.
  ‘What was what?’
  ‘What was with the flick of the wrist?’
  ‘I was just making sure that the people we didn’t want
listening in, couldn’t. It just saved me the trouble of
asking you to do it.’
  ‘And you can do that sort of stuff.’
  ‘I guess so. I didn’t really want to do it. It just did
it by itself.’
  ‘So your saying that your wrist just took control of
itself, and it and yourself cast a spell.’
  ‘I think so, yes.’
  ‘Absolutely no sense at all.’ Ksid sighed. ‘Moving on,
what does the message say?’
  Enigma cleared his throat, ‘“Your quest for
investigation has flaws without the inaugural divination
of the axe. It is within the axe’s preaching shall you be
able to find the fate of the captured and ultimately, the
travel stone.”’ 
  ‘The travel stone?’ Ksid bewilderedly said. 
  ‘It’s something that was stated in the previous 
message.’ Enigma flicked the message before, and handed 
it over to the confused Ksid. 
  ‘I may have to think about this message.’ Ksid said as
he finished reading the old message he had just been
handed. ‘But I think I’ve got the gist of what this new
passage is trying to say.’
  ‘What’s it trying to say? Enigma eagerly asked.
  ‘I’ll show you.’ Ksid simply said.
*  *  *  
  Ksid was definitely an actor. No chance to act would go 
astray. He pretended as if in deep thought, when the 
question of what to do was brought up again. The other’s, 
during the lunch recess had actually forgotten about the 
problems entirely. Instead, they focused mainly on what 
was going on in their stomachs. Ksid and Enigma also got
a quick bite in before they came back to the current
problem. 
  ‘So none of you were able to think of any solutions for
our problems?’ Ksid asked them. 
  They all looked around in shame.
  Ksid pondered fraudulently towards the roof. ‘There’s
only one thing left we can do.’ Ksid said with a mock
sigh. ‘We’re going to have to fall back on divination for
guidance.’
  Enigma’s eye’s lit up as he realised then, what the 
message was trying to say. 
  ‘Of coarse.’ Jalaf clicked his fingers. ‘Seek the 
guidance from the one thing that this town is truly known 
for. Axiomancy.’
  The rest of the group look at Ksid with suggestive
eyes. They didn’t really believe in any of this, and they
hoped that Ksid didn’t either. 
  ‘Lets get going, right away.’ Jalaf quickly jumped to
his feet, and opened the door to the meeting room for the
rest of them. ‘Do any of you perchance, have an axe on
you?’ Jalaf asked, seeing a flaw if they didn’t. 
  ‘I’ve got one.’ Enigma said, pulling his golden weapon
from his belt. ‘Do tomahawk’s count?’ 
  ‘They certainly do. If it’s classed as an axe, it
doesn’t matter what name it has. And the one you’ve got
looks real valuable. The more valuable, the more guidance
we can receive.’ 
  The group reluctantly, except for Enigma and Ksid,
filed through the door. Briskly, Jalaf led them down
several flights of stairs and corridors, talking to them
about the history of Axiomancy and how it worked along
the way. 
  ‘I think it’s different from the way other people may
do it.’ Jalaf explained. ‘Actually, I’m not really sure
how other people do it. It’s unique, that’s for sure.’
  They stopped outside of a room with bulky brass doors.
‘Laycall’s my best psychic.’ Jalaf whispered. ‘Actually,
I think she’s the best there is.’ He lightly knocked on
the door, opened it, then gestured the others to follow. 
  The room smelled heavily of incense. It had a low roof, 
and looked to be only a small room, due to the heavy 
package of rugs and multi - coloured silks that lined the 
walls. A bed with a wooden frame and canopy sat against 
the far wall in between two curtained windows. There 
wasn’t much of a heat source, but the room was rather
warm nonetheless. Candles burned lively on a circular
table, also giving out an essence along with green
coloured flames. 
  Jalaf removed his shoes in the door way, and urged
everyone else to follow suit. He then led them over to
the furthermost corner of the room to a lady of small
stature and an olive complexion.
  Laycall was as multi - coloured as her room was. She
wore an unaccustomed rainbow coloured robe that reached
down to her ankles. Her feet were covered with wooden
sandals, and she wore an equally coloured head band.
Different coloured flowers were woven into her platted
hair. She knelt in the corner surrounded by candles with
her eye’s closed, and her palms on her knees. 
  ‘Humble Laycall.’ Jalaf greeted. ‘I bring guests that
request guidance.’
  ‘Do your guests bear the Tree Killers?’ Laycall asked
in a way, drugged out more than humble. 
  ‘That they do.’ Jalaf motioned for Enigma to hand over 
his golden tomahawk. Diffidently, he handed it over.
  Laycall still didn’t open her eye’s. ‘You have a fine
piece.’ she noted. ‘Gold alway’s reveals much, but only a
tomahawk. The divination will only fall slightly on the
golden asset. 
  ‘So be it.’ Jalaf replied.
  Laycall rubbed her hands up and down the tomahawk’s 
handle and head, her eye’s still shut. ‘You seek a false 
princess.’ she said. ‘Your information leads you in the 
wrong but right direction. Go not to Hadui, for you do 
not seek her, she seeks you. Go instead to the town of 
Guranai, and wait there until the Biplatenium. After the
first night, travel the road towards Ono. Your prize
shall be collected somewhere in between, but not without
it’s troubles. After this, go directly to The Great Tower
of Krestia. Your ultimate search continues with this
ruler.’ She then laid the tomahawk in front of her. ‘This
is revealing information. I cannot extract any further.’
Then she just sat there, not a muscle moved, not a sound
out of place. 
  Jalaf picked up the miniature axe and quietly left with
the others following behind. 
*  *  *
By night fall, their bags were packed and kept to a
minimum. Sly and Ice found it hard to stick to only one
bag of luggage, but somehow, they were able to barely
manage. 
  They were destined to leave in the middle of the night
upon a master’s boat. A bearded slave driver with one
eye, bought them. 
  ‘Why do you want to sell them?’ was the merchant’s
first question. 
  ‘Nerual,’ Jalaf was saying, ‘there’s one thing that you 
have to learn about me - I’m not one to hold on to 
sentimental things. Sure, these people are my friends, 
but when you need the change, you’ve got to make the 
change.’
  ‘I don’t know about these men,’ Nerual said, eyeing the 
men of the group up and down, ‘but I’ll pay just about
anything for these to fine young ladies.’
  Jalaf thought carefully. ‘Twenty solid gold coins each
for these two ladies?’
  ‘I said “just about anything”.’ he countered. ‘How
about twelve?’
  ‘Sixteen.’
  ‘Thirteen.’
  ‘Fifteen.’
  ‘Fourteen.’
  ‘Fifteen.’ Jalaf had decided his price for Ice and Sly.
  Nerual looked hard at the mayor. ‘Fifteen it is. I may
be desperate, but you don’t need to take advantage of
it.’
  The men sold out for seven and a half gold pieces each. 
It was quite a neat victory for Jalaf. This was the first 
time he had ever haggled.
  Before the clique left with their new owners, Jalaf
slipped the income he had just received to Ksid, for the
journey ahead. 
  Jalaf’s idea of leaving the city on a chain gang didn’t
quite work out because of the new laws. Chain gangs were
practically against the law because of the way they were
run. 
  Joining Nerual’s crew was a last minute decision. The 
one eyed man had walked in earlier looking for some 
slaves that’d best fit what he was looking for. 
Foolishly, his price was endless.
  Nerual was a goods transporter. He shipped goods 
between Neekkent and Korutiania. Business was harsh,
because there were only a few cities left that were
actually civilised towards each other. The rivalry
between Neekkent and Korutiania still existed amongst the
majority of each continent. 
  His ship was anchored in the water front just outside
the walls of Etib. 
  Enigma and the rest of his group left amongst the
sailors that had been rounded up. They were tightly wound
up in rags to fight away the persistent chill. 
  The pirate like man was proud of his boat. It was
called a trireme - a top of the market boat that had been
recently designed by boating enthusiasts. It had an
additional “man power” feature, consisting of three banks
of oars on each side.  
  Everyone was loaded on the boat, then assembled on
deck. ‘This here is a sailing ship.’ Nerual said, stating
the obvious. ‘Your job here is to man the oars apart from
a few who will be working in the kitchen and on the
sails. So don’t go giving me this “rights” nonsense
because a job like this is supposed to be tough.’
  Sly and Ice along with a few other women were assigned 
as kitchen hands. Their supervisor was a bulky woman that 
looked to have had a few to many taste tests in her time.
She had only a few teeth left and her voice was real
nasal. 
  Hundreds of men were sent below deck whilst the several 
that were left, toiled above. The heaviest men were at 
the very back, and the lighter men were at the front. 
Enigma was seated next to Ksid on the lowest bank. 
  ‘We have to be in the town of Guranai with this cargo 
in two day’s time.’ the captain announced. ‘You people
won’t be getting much sleep, but I’ll increase your pay a
little, so don’t go squealing or nothin’. We have a few
men left over, so sleep will be taken in shifts.’  
  Not long after midnight, they set sail. The men stroked
to the tolling of big bass drum. Enigma expected there to
be a man with a whip, as he had experienced in previous
times, but the new laws were hard to get used to. 
  Enigma hadn’t had a work out like this in a while. His 
arms found it hard going. He promised himself that after 
his little trip, he would exercise more often.
  ‘I just remembered something.’ Enigma declare in a
barely audible whisper to his working partner. ‘What
about the horses?’
  ‘Everything’s been arranged.’ Ksid assured. ‘Jalaf’s
going to send the horses on a separate ship after the
festival tonight. We’re going to meet the ship a little
north along the eastern coast from Guranai the night that
we get there. The rest of our stuff will be there too.’ 
  ‘Then why didn’t we just wait and travel with the
horses?’
  Ksid paused. ‘Personally, I have no idea. But I get the
feeling this trip has something to do with you.’
  Enigma grunted. ‘How are we going to get away from our
new owner?’
  ‘I expect this ship to reach land sometime a couple of 
nights ahead. The captain won’t do anything about the 
cargo until morning. The people of Neekkent are very 
unorganised people, so it’ll take them about three day’s 
to unload and reload the ship.’
*  *  *