The Long Road Back: A Jarthen-centric Interquel (pt. 2)

Those two elf fellas never did warm up to me, but they did get me to Opleneer a lot faster than I was expecting. They didn’t have a wagon, but they had a pair of horses and traded off who had to share a saddle with me, which meant I spent a couple of solid weeks on the road stuck behind someone who more or less frowned at me every chance they got. Felt like a long two weeks. They went straight down to the coast, they didn’t even stop to play in the towns. When we got there, I thought they’d show me where the rest of the sympathizers were and let me be, or at the very least let me catch a decent night of rest. Hell, I figured they’d be itching fer a decent night of rest themselves. But they didn’t. They rode straight through the center of town and didn’t stop until we hit the docks.

I should take a second here and say that I wasn’t really paying as close attention as I ought to have right about then. Remember when I said Helletiern was the biggest, most impressive city I’d been to? Well, Opleneer puts it right to shame. I’d never seen so many buildings all right on top of each other like that. Hell, I’d never seen so many people right on top of each other like that. So, I was all wide-eyed and distracted, especially when we got to the docks. ‘Cause, you know, I’d only ever seen a couple of rivers and it’s right there on the coast with the great endless sea stretching out in front of it. Gah, seeing all that water all at once, it was something else. Made me feel tiny, and made me curious about what was in it, and what was on the other side of it, too.
Anyway, the point is that I was a bit overwhelmed by it all and just let them drag me where they wanted. And where they wanted to take me was a tiny, dingy little office tucked deep in the dockworker’s district. Looked unassuming enough from the outside, but inside was a tinker. Now, we don’t get many of his kind in Elothnin, and I really only knew what he was ‘cause of Moshel and as far as I can tell, Moshel’s really the only one of them running with the Rebels and he weren’t exactly doing it official-like, you know? So as soon as they dragged me in there I knew something was off and made fer the door again. But then, the tall one drew a knife on me and told me to stay put.

“Look, fella, I don’t want no trouble,” I said, slow and careful.

“The hell you don’t. I promised I’d get you on a ship and that’s what I’m going to do,” said he.

“I hope you’re not planning to get him on one of my ships,” the tinker said, glancing up from his ledgers and books and such.

“C’mon, look at him,” the smaller one said. “There’s got to be something you can do with a strapping, strong lad like him.”

The tinker looked me over for a moment or two, like I was a sheep at market. “Just looks human to me. Nothing special.”

You see what I mean about folks not thinking I’m important? And how, really, when it gets down to it, it’s not all that bad a thing? “I’m not, sir. Just a human, just like you said.”

The elf poked me with his knife and I yelped a bit. “Ravel, c’mon, there’s got to be something you can use him for. And I’m pretty sure he’s a deserter, so the Imperials are just going to toss him in jail or worse when they catch him, ‘twould be a right waste for everyone concerned, wouldn’t it?”

The tinker blinked at the two reds and then blinked at me. Try as I might, I couldn’t get a bead on him, the man had a poker face to die for. “Is that true, boy?”

“Technically, I didn’t desert. Technically, the Imperials left me fer dead,” said I.

The elf jabbed me again. “Well, technically, he’s lying through his damn teeth.”

“Ravel, three stacks for him,” the other elf said.

The tinker shook his head and went back to the ledgers. “Cargo like him is easy to find. Besides, you both owe me for the last time. I’ll take him, and I’ll drop your debt down to half, but that’s it.”

“Throw in at least one stack!” the one with the knife said.

“Take me where?” I asked. But all three of them ignored me.

“How about if we move him for you and throw in a fat sack of herb, will you give us a stack then?” the short one asked.

“Look, there’s been a misunderstanding -- ” I got jabbed again and the tall one hissed at me to keep my damn mouth shut. I didn’t though. Didn’t see much point in it. “I’m trying to get to the archipelago, fer the cause, right?”

The tinker looked up at me and raised his eyebrows. “Oh. I didn’t realize this was a favor to you and yours, Lannah.”

The small one glared at me. “Damn it! It’s – I mean, maybe it is. Look, you taking him or not?”
“Taking me where? Who the hell’s the tinker?” I was getting a bit antsy at this point.

“You move him and throw in some herb and I’ll wipe the slate clean, but I’m not giving you any poppy cakes.”

It may seem strange to say it, but in the moment when I realized what was afoot and that I was being sold down the river (both literally and figuratively) for drugs out of some misplaced sense of loyalty, I was more offended by the fact that I apparently weren’t worth the drugs at all. The misplaced loyalty made a bit of sense. I started to protest again, trying to explain that no one had any right to sell me to anyone fer anything, and if they did that the price would be a fair bit steeper than that, and that I’d not breathe a word to anyone about any of these highly illegal shenanigans the three of them had gotten themselves knee-deep in if they’d just point me in the direction of some friendlier, more trusting elves, but I didn’t get the chance to get it out. The small one grumbled a bitter acceptance of the tinker’s deal and nodded to the other one, who bashed me as hard as he could over the head with something. Maybe a chair, I can’t rightly say. In any case, it hurt like hell and then I blacked out.