Tal nodded. “Let’s go.”
They moved along the banks of the stream and discovered that the river was farther off than it looked. It was midday before they reached the banks just to the west of where the stream emptied into the river. Tal looked around. “Look at the color.”
“What about it?” asked Masterson.
“The stream must be dumping silt here. It’s shallow. I’m going to try to cross.”
Tal waded into the water and found the river was running fast, but that it wasn’t too deep. He moved out until he was nearly a third of the way across, and the water was only up to midthigh. He stopped and looked, watching the currents, the swirls and eddies, then he waved for the others to follow.
The water deepened and suddenly fell off to a channel on the side opposite where the stream flowed in. He started to swim. The men were underfed and weak with exhaustion and lack of food, but he reckoned that if a one-armed man carrying a sword and spear could get across, so could they.
A few minutes after he had reached the far shore, Masterson came across, followed by the others.
Quint looked around. “My friends, welcome to Bardac’s Holdfast.”
“I’m glad that’s behind us,” Visniya muttered.
“Don’t be so happy,” Quint said. “It’s now that things get difficult.”
“What do we do?” asked Stolinko.
Tal looked at Quint and said, “I think we go north, find the road, then turn east for Karesh’kaar.”
“That would work if it wasn’t for the fact that every bandit in the region uses that road. I think we find out where it is, then try to work our way west just in sight of it, but hopefully out of sight of anyone else. Any man not wearing the colors of a local noble is fair game for murder, robbery, slavers. There’s law up here, but it’s rough law, and it is usually a case of who has the most weapons.”
“Sounds like my kind of place,” declared Masterson, hefting his ax.
Dryly Stolinko said, “At least one of us is happy.”
“Well, the day’s not getting any longer,” said Tal, and he started hiking up the riverbank, heading north.
“Man, I’m going to go mad smelling that,” said Masterson. The smell of cooking carried toward them on the breeze.
“Keep your voice down,” whispered Tal.
They lay on their stomachs along a ridge as the sun set, overlooking the road leading to Karesh’kaar. Camped below was what appeared to be a slave caravan. About thirty young men and women were chained in a coffle and strung out along the side of the road, their chains secured at either end to a wagon. Six guards were posted, three at each wagon, along with a driver who tended the horses.
“What do you think’s in those wagons?” asked Visniya.
Tal whispered, “Supplies, I’m guessing.” He turned to Quint. “Where are the slaves from?”
“Who knows? If they’re coming down from the mountains, they may be from a border raid into Aranor. Or they could be some poor bastards taken in a raid from one ‘noble’s’ property by another ‘noble.’ The way things work up here, if you’re more than a day’s ride from your ruler’s castle, you’re fair game.” He pointed to the wagon in the front. “See that banner? Holmalee, a count of sorts, with a pretty big army. He’s local to this area. That’s why there’s only six guards, instead of sixty. This close to Holmalee’s castle, no one is going to muck about with his caravan.”
“What are we going to do?” asked Stolinko.
Tal looked at his four companions. They were on the verge of collapse. Quint judged them to be a day or two more from the city of Karesh’kaar, but Tal doubted they could make it through another half day without something to eat. It was three days since they had last eaten, and that had been nothing more than berries. It was five days since they had finished the last of the food they had carried with them.
Tal said, “We wait until dark. Then we slip down and kill the guards.”
Masterson said, “Wonderful.”
Visniya said, “I don’t know if I can fight.”
Tal said, “Don’t worry. I’ll take out one sentry, and if they have a second, Quint will take him out. If we don’t alarm the slaves, we should be able to finish them off before they are awake.”
He started moving down the incline, motioning for the others to follow. At the bottom of the rise, he led them into a stand of trees. “We hide here just in case one of the guards is the fastidious type and comes over the rise to take a piss.”
They settled in and waited for night to fall.