Enslaved

Chapter 12: Tosa

The rules Thane gave to Nera were simple and concise. Mainly, she was to follow his orders no matter what. If she ever challenges him and doesn’t follow what he commands, he’d take her straight back to her father.

Nera nodded in understanding. “I’ve always been a good follower.” 

“You certainly aren’t.” He muttered. 

Without waiting for the sun to raise, Thane and Nera were back on their horse and headed for Tosa. They couldn’t tell the time well in these parts. It’s almost always unexplainably dark. The land is far stretched, wide and dead. Not a single plant grew except mold and dirt. What seems to have been lakes before we’re now dry craters without a single drop of drinkable water. 

No wonder those thugs were desperate to steal from them. 

The smell of death and decay was present in the air. Apart from the thugs that they encountered, there were no other living things in the area. There were, to Nera’s disgust and horror, a few skeletons of various animals and even people along the roads. 

It felt like hours before they saw a shadowy and dreary town in the distance. Tosa. It was a sad sight. Located in a rough terrain that was difficult to traverse, the earth here is brown, scorched, infertile and sick. As they neared, the smell of dread and despair became stronger. A bitter inescapable poverty lingered in the town. 

Raided far too many times, the eerie place looked beyond repair with mold growing between the cracks of the wooden houses. It’s as if the town was burned to the ground and was never rebuilt completely. The structures creaked and swayed with its broken windows, chipped walls and broken down roofs. It was all in a dark rotting color. 

Winds blew harshly in sudden, fierce gusts, carrying the stink of barrenness and death. No one was in sight but Thane could tell there were a few people watching them from the boarded up windows within the houses. 

Nera pointed to the main square of the town where an old deteriorated building stood. It was more cobwebs than building at this point. “Alice told us to find a man living by that abandoned cathedral.” 

Thane didn’t speak, the area having made him quiet. A mass graveyard as far as the eyes could see caught his gaze, hundreds maybe almost thousands of tombstones along with newly dug burial pits.

Before the slavers and thugs terrorized this town, it was one of the biggest and richest in the land. Tosa was a tourist destination for many travelers. Years and years of hardship with the lack of support from Caelum ruined it. 

Thane kept close to Nera in case of any attack but it seems the people here are holding on to their last shreds of life and had no strength to approach them. He saw evidence of a recent scuffle along with horse and caravan wheel tracks around the area. Dried blood painted the ground. 

He dismounted upon making it to the entrance of the cathedral. The tower and bell were hanging off the edge of the roof, threatening to fall anytime soon.  

Nera joined him, looking around nervously. The town spooked her. “Did you hear that?” 

Thane lifted an eyebrow. “Your knees knocking together?” 

“Shut it.” She half heartedly punched him, pressing close. Suddenly, Nera jumped, having stepped on something, latching onto Thane’s thick muscular bicep. “Oh! I just stood on something!”

He lightly pushed her off him. “That was my foot.”

Nera let out a laugh that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Silly me.” 

“You saw the graveyard?” Thane asked knowingly. 

She nodded. “It was hard not to see.”

“Let’s get what we need from the man and go.” He comfortingly informs her, pushing a lock of her red hair back.

Nera looked around the devastating town. “How can the King just leave them like this? It’s not livable.” 

“Says the girl who’s marrying into the royal family.” Thane hated how bitter he sounded.

“Who knows? Maybe the next King will be better.” She whispered hopefully. 

He scoffed. “You don’t believe that.” 

Nera sighed, forcing her gaze away from the sad town. “I don’t.” 

With nothing else to say to that, Thane knocked on the thick wooden double doors. A protesting sound came from its hinges before opening by itself. A putrid smell emits from inside and they cringe at the sight before them.

Bodies, dozens of bleeding bodies were laid on the floor of the chapel. The numerous wooden benches and altar were pushed to the sides to give way. Some of the bodies were long dead, emitting the foul stench. A lone old man in ruined priest robes shuffled through the barely breathing bodies, carrying wet towels and dried lifeless herbs.

Nera moved first, dropping to her knees beside a small body. She pulled at her belt, retrieving potions and bandages. 

The priest turned at the commotion. “Who are you?” 

Thane narrowed his eyes at him. If he didn’t know any better, this man was familiar. 

Nera didn’t look up as she fumbled with her supplies. “A traveler lending a hand.” 

Seeing that Nera was helping, the priest went back to the man he was nursing but Thane couldn’t bring himself to tear his eyes away. He knew this man. From where though? 

Thane shuffled through his memory, looking through priests he must have met in the past. The man before him is tall, slender and draped with heavy robes. He’s old, probably twice Thane’s age. 

Nera’s hand shook as she pressed on the large slice on the young boy she was tending to. “Thane, come help please. He’s losing so much blood.”

At the sound of her voice, Thane managed to pull away and kneel beside Nera. He took the bandages that were on her hand while keeping pressure on the wound. 

“What are you doing in Tosa?” The priest asked, having moved to the bleeding body beside them.

Nera answers for Thane. “We heard of the attack.” 

“How surprising.” The priest sarcastically said with a scoff. “The King doesn’t believe us but you two do?”

Now that he’s much closer and Thane got a better look, he was definitely sure he knew this man. 

“We’ve encountered slavers before.” Nera continued, hands busily wrapping bandages on the gaping wound. Blood already smeared her arms.

A mournful sound came from the priest's throat, he stepped away, having lost the person he was trying to heal and draped a white cloth over the body. “Then you know that Brutus is back.” 

Nera finally looked up, her eyes widened with familiarity of the man but she couldn’t place where she'd seen him before as well. “You know Brutus?”

“In these lands, far beyond the reach of Caelum, everyone knows Brutus.” He muttered hatefully. “I’ve lost my family to the slavers many years ago.”

“What’s your name priest?” Thane finally asked.

“Michael.” 

Thane and Nera drew a breath.