Chapter 10

"At least we're warm."

"Yes," Daniel nodded his head. "But we don't have anything left to trade. So I don't know how we will get from here to where we are going without starving or freezing."

"Let me look at the Page," Paul said.

Two weeks.

"I wonder what that means," Paul said.

"If you had read 'twenty' before that woman offered you ten you wouldn't have known what that meant either."

"You think we're supposed to work for the foresters?"

"How else are we going to get to where we are going?"

"How else indeed?" the man said as he walked into the tent. "I can pay you one coin a day and you will be fed and kept warm while you work. You work for me until we reach Rym."

"Two weeks," Paul said.

"If we get delayed it might be longer than two weeks to get to the city. It doesn't take long to get cold and hungry.

"Two weeks," Paul said again.

"Very well then," the man said. "Give me your Book and let's get on with it."

Paul handed him the page reluctantly. The man looked at Daniel.

"That's the Book for both of us," Daniel said.

"Right then," the man held the Page up to them, "What does it say?"

OBEY

"Obey," they said together.

"Good, good." The man folded the Page and put it in his pocket. "You'll get this back in two weeks. Now that you work for me, you should know that my name is Liam, but you can call me Boss."

"Yes, Boss," Paul said.

"Yes, Boss," Daniel said.

"Well, enough lazing around. Let's get to work."

Paul found himself on his feet and following the Boss out of the tent. He didn't think about it. He couldn't have stopped himself if he'd tried.