Dawn of Chaos pt 11
#11 of For the love of Chaos
Shiva was a pure white fox and even though her clothes and fur were stained, she was unmistakably in better shape than most of the furs I had seen, most of them being malnourished. I strode across the floor of the carriage and began undoing the shackles binding her wrists.
"Well then, what brings you to this neck of the woods?" I attempted a disarming smile.
"I am...at least I was, part of a rebel group who were waylaying carts in these woods, whenever we saw Church soldiers we would just slip away into the woods and avoid them." Her eyes grew pained remembering, I waited patiently for her to continue as I undid the last shackle. "Then a short while ago a near unguarded slaver came through, normally we would have been instantly suspicious but those bastards had children." Her eyes began to tear up as she became caught up in her memories and she absently rubbed at the raw area where her shackles had rubbed her. "As we swept down the few slavers took off and abandoned the slave carts, then when we opened the cages the slaves turned on us, we were caught completely by surprise, that's when the slavers came back, we didn't stand a chance. As far as I know I'm the only on who survived from my band." She began to cry as it hit home to her just how alone she was. I awkwardly patted her on the back until her tears began to stop, and I idly wondered just how old she was.
"I don't understand why the slaves would help their captors," Kazath's voice sounded incredulous. "It doesn't make sense."
"I think I might have an idea, thanks to our dead drunk friend."
I could feel Kazath wince inside my head at the awful pun. "Dead drunk? Must you?"
"It's a matter of style, if you don't make a joke about something like that, things get awkward."
By this time Shiva had stopped crying and was wiping her eyes on the sleeve of her shirt.
"Are those the same slaves out there as the ones who turned on you?" I asked.
"I...think so." She sniffed.
I left Shiva in the carriage and walked over to the slave cart, peering within. They seemed like perfectly normal furs, mostly felines with an equine and a canine, they were so dirty it was difficult to determine sexes; I noted with a bit of disgust that some of them were splattered with dried blood. I looked closely at their necks and found exactly what I was looking for; each of the furs in the cage had collars wrapped around their necks, set with stones.
"What do you make of those Kazath?"
"I'm not entirely sure, they've come about since my time and we're to far away from any power for me to get a reading on them, I share your suspicions though, these are controlling them somehow."
"Do you think we can get them off?"
"I don't know." Kazath said seriously. "Maybe if we could get them inside the city and back to the church but at the moment we shouldn't do anything, who knows what could happen if we try to tamper with those wretched things."
I walked back to the carriage where Shiva was still sitting and squatted down in front of her.
"I think I've found the reason why those slaves turned on you." I spoke bleakly.
"What? How?"
"Each of the furs out there are wearing collars studded with some sort of stones."
"So? Lots of slavers have collars for slaves."
"It's the stones that make these ones unique though, do you remember when that drunk was rambling at you, ‘You'll get the collar and then you'll have to do whatever your master wants', that sort of thing.
She shuddered momentarily. "I remember."
"Well he wasn't just talking about a normal collar, he seemed to think this was some sort of special punishment, my best guess is that collar would have completely stripped you of your free will and you have had no choice about obeying. That is what those slavers were taking you to."
Shiva gazed up at me with horrified eyes.
"If you don't believe me take a look for yourself, just don't get too close, if I'm right they probably have some trigger that sets them off and I don't know what that is."
Shiva dashed past me and ran outside. I followed behind her as she walked carefully up to the cage and looked within, the creatures within made no move to do anything. Quickly, before I could protest she pushed her arm between the bars of the cage.
As soon as her arm passed into the cage the creatures inside went berserk and rushed forwards, Shiva quickly withdrew her arm and the creatures froze for a second before returning to their original positions. Shiva gazed in horror at the now quiet furs then she leaned over and threw up. I gently wrapped an arm around her shoulders and led her back to the carriage where she hunched down shivering. I placed a hand under her chin and drew her eyes up to meet mine.
"I'm going to do what I can for them, but what you need to think about right now is what you are going to do. Is there anything left for you here?" She shook her head. "Do you trust me?" She hesitated for a moment before cautiously nodding. "I have a place in the city but I'm going to have to act like one of the slavers to get through the gates, and you'll have to go in as a slave." I held up a hand to forestall anything she might have said at that point. "I don't need an answer right now, I just want you to think."
I walked out to where the tents were set up and gathered up one of the bedrolls that wasn't soaked in blood and carried it back to where Shiva was still sitting.
"You should get some sleep." I said gently, handing her the bedroll. She seemed like she might refuse for a moment before she gave in and unrolled the bed roll and lay down on it. Once she was settled in I gathered up the dead bodies and searched them, as I was going through their pockets I came up with some coins, their passports and odds and ends which I supposed could be useful and pocketed them. Once I had searched them I buried them all scattered in the woods and swept the fresh dirt with leaves and branches. I looked in each of the tents and found more useful things, lamps, rope, and a chest containing weapons and gold. I was just about to leave the tent with the chest when I noticed a piece of paper tucked lying in one corner. I picked it up and scanned through it, what I found nearly made me burst out laughing, inside was detailed instructions on the use of the collars. I frowned as I read that the collars had to be removed by a Church official.
"Do you think that's just regulations or actual necessity?"
"Could be both, I think we should be able to get them off if we get them back to the source of our power, I doubt that huge amounts of power are invested in these things."
"Yeah that makes sense." I agreed. I folded up the rest of the tents and lay them on top of the closed in carriage, then I lay back on the tents and closed my eyes.
I woke just as the sun began shining through the leaves above me, and rose stretching out. I lightly flipped off the top of the carriage and looked inside. Shiva was awake too and going through a stretch routine I leaned against the doorframe and watched her lithe body going through the stretches.
"Have you made your decision yet then?"
She looked back over her shoulder. "I'd like to go with you, there's nothing left for me here anyways." I gave her a pleased nod and beckoned my hand to the shackles on the wall.
"Wrap your wrists with these strips of cloth so that the shackles don't rub you raw again. It's time we got moving, before anyone else comes by."
She nodded at me and placed her wrists into the shackles, I reached down and snapped the shackles closed then stepped out. I rummaged around and found a store of food, so I whipped up a quick breakfast for the wretches in the cage and Shiva then with the help of Kazath I hitched the weird lizard-ostrich creatures to the carts and started off down the road. I sat up on the front of the cart and looked out as the landscape passed by.
"All right Kazath when we get to the gate just let me do the talking."
Kazath rolled his eyes.