Chapter 10 – Wind Castle
Year 1, Spring, Third Month, First Week.
“You just have to hold it steadily… If you want to push them towards one side, you have to pull that rope’s side tighter, but slightly with you don’t want them to make an abrupt turn…”
Lana felt satisfied when she looked at Hazel’s light-brown eyes shining with excitement to be learn something new. Since they started the trip towards Wind Castle, she had been teaching the girl how to control the wind beasts. To lighten the weight for the beasts, she decided that only herself and Hazel would travel on the cart, which earned unending complaints from Arthur.
Although the mount-trained beasts seemed to handle the weight well, they looked a little sad because they were used to run, as wind beasts they enjoy it more than anything. Fortunately, Lana realized their predicament and would allow them to enjoy a little freedom every day a little before dusk when they stopped, and in the mornings before they start traveling. She just had to pay attention to thieves, because the mounts were trained and wouldn’t flee their masters.
Lana passed the reins to Hazel, dismissing the girl’s panicked pleads and moved back to check on Tauron. He had been with them for more than two weeks now, after recovering for two weeks he could match their pace easily. Thankfully, the Beastman's superior genetics made him recover in one week what would take a Human more than a month. However, he refused to communicate with them, except when Lana compelled him to, which was every time she came to check on him. Fortunately, after being compelled to eat through three meals for a couple of days, the rebellious Beastman started to eat at his own desire.
He was, in fact, very surprised by the treatment he had been receiving since he left the Slave Tower. The unpleas…(a lot of cursings)… chatty girl let him rest on a comfortable bed and provided three, surprisingly proper, meals per day. When they left the city, he was ready for the abuses to start, but it never came. She even commanded the two men to do all the work and let him be. Even without the compelling, it was difficult to hate the girl. Lana had brought up the subject of freeing him a couple of times, but he didn’t believe her.
Of course, he still hoped to be free again, but after hearing the glutton man, who apparently was a Mage, say that it would be very difficult to break his slave bond, the hope was pushed to a hidden place in his heart. Actually, Tauron didn’t want to live like this, he would prefer death to obey someone’s every word. It made matters worse when the person in question pitied and treated him like useless weight.
“Tauron, are you OK?”
“No.”
Usually, that would be the end of it, but Lana decided to push him.
“Explain to me what isn’t OK.”
He tried to resist, but the urge to speak was stronger.
“I don’t want to be a slave! I don’t want to be forced to obey you! I’m not useless…”
“Why…”
Lana finally realized what she has been doing since they marked him. Initially, she thought the slave mark was making him more obedient, but the truth was that he has to do everything she says. She was so used to ordering everyone around that she never considered how the slave mark would react to it. That’s why he only talked with her, not because he was opening up to her, but because he was forced to.
“I’m sorry, Tauron…Is your choice to answer, would you answer me if didn't force you to do it?”
His silence was a pretty clear answer.
“I see… However, that won’t do, I’m responsible for everyone here, so we need to communicate… What if we agreed on something? I would try to not force you to do anything and you would try to answer me when I ask you something…”
Instead of asking, she just looked at him. Tauron didn’t want to talk, but this could be a chance to stop obeying her every word. Even though he didn’t believe her, he could only try.
“Hmm… OK… But don’t ask too much…”
“Deal!”
“If you want, can you tell me why you said you're not useless?”
“Hmm… They do everything, I just eat and walk. I’m wounded, but I’m not useless…”
“Oh… I don’t think you’re useless, I just didn’t want to use you as a slave… I order Arthur because we have a deal, I take care of him and help him with a difficult thing, and he works for me in exchange. Merek owns me, so he has to work too, plus I feed him too… I could use your help, but I would have to give you something in exchange…”
“Hmm… You also give me food… How much did you pay? For me…”
“That’s… I don’t want to talk about it…”
Tauron couldn’t understand her, but he didn’t need to know the exact value.
“Hmm… I could work for food and to earn my freedom… I don’t want to be released, I want to earn it myself.”
“OK, let’s do it like this!”
.........
“Can’t you do something Arthur? That spring was barely enough to get drinking water… Shouldn’t you be training your magic? I didn’t see you casting a charm for ages…”
“Humph… Now you remember how useful I’m, yet go around spending tons of money with employees that barely work…”
The Spellcaster spared an annoyed glance at Tauron, who couldn’t care less about it. Because of his size, the Beastman was eating twice as much food in the meals, which made Arthur envious. However, he was far from being right, since Tauron talked to Lana, he had been doing a lot of work. He was surprisingly good at setting camp and starting the fire, also he took the job to pull the cart many times to free the mounts to rest and run. If it wasn’t for Lana stopping him, he would have gone into the wild to hunt beasts for them to eat.
Lana thought it was too much, he hadn’t completely recovered so he shouldn’t be doing heavy work. However, Tauron had insisted on doing, he explained that his Tribe hated laziness, so he would always find something to do.
“You can’t do it, can you? I knew it was too difficult to cast this kind of spell..”
“I already told you, it’s not a spell. A spell needs a magic Key… It’s a charm and I can cast it…”
Arthur complained a little more before stopping to concentrate. With his hands stretched, he started to guide the magic energy towards Lana, circling around her body.
“Mundus.”
The energy shined and gently sweep her skin, brushing off the dirt and leaving behind a sense of freshness. Her clothes weren’t spared either, the energy traveled through the fabric cleaning stains, sweat and dirt. Lana smiled while touching her skin all around. When she discovered that the spell could even peel away the dead skin, she felt bliss and almost hugged Arthur. Of course, she wasn’t stingy in her compliments and words of praise.
With his ego inflated, Arthur only accepted to clean the others after Lana promised to let him travel on the cart the next day. But she thought it was worth, a small price to pay for feeling clean and preserving her nose, she would surely use the service again in the future…
.........
“Wind Castle… Finally!”
After passing for two Elemental Capitals, Lana wasn’t expecting much from Wind Castle, and she was right about it. The only remarkable thing about the city was the stone castle built on top of a small hill. The stone wall circling the city was pretty standard, to don’t say poor. Less than three meters of height and one meter of width wouldn’t offer much protection against an invasion, but Lana guessed it was fair since they weren’t expecting any attacks, besides from beasts.
Fortunately, the corrupted Guards watching over the gates were happy enough to let them pass without trouble once a couple of silvers entered their pockets. Even so, Tauron received a lot of hostile stares, apparently, the citizens would become more intolerant the further south they went.
Soon enough, Lana had guided the group to the Inn suggested in her uncle’s letters. She asked them to wait outside, while she negotiated their lodging. How she would get Tauron a decent room was still a mystery. In the Wind Capital, she accepted Rupert’s influence to press the innkeeper, to get her a room in the back, but here she was on her own.
“Welcome, how can I help you, Miss?”
“Lana is fine, I’ll be staying in the city for a couple of weeks to do some business… I need lodging for a few employees and a place to put my cart. I also need to lodge my two tamed mount beasts…”
The shiny in the man’s eyes didn’t escape Lana.
“Miss Lana, I charge one silver for room, either single or shared. Breakfast and dinner are 50 coppers both or 30 for each. I have a space for carts in the back, with a small stable, if you’re OK with your mounts sharing a single stable… It’s big enough for a pulling beast, so it’s possible to fit them in. One silver for the cart and another one for the mounts, we’ll feed them of course… Also, the cart space has a lock, so you don’t need to fear being robbed…”
“That’s reasonable… I just have a small request, do you have a back or spare room? Even a storage room would do it… I have a Beastman slave with me… If you could fit into the room a stronger bed or arrange for something similar, I would be grateful… I need my slave in the best condition for our next trip…”
“Miss, that…”