Chains Carried on Wings

THREE-1

THREE

THE TRADERS TOOK THE rest of the day to eat and rest. The next morning, they and their assigned guards stepped out to wander the city—giving the head family a prime opportunity to convene, without worrying about what to say in front of their guests. The house had been filling up with family for the past hour, as each of them completed their morning work. Saig hauled the last bit of firewood behind the building, before stepping into her already crowded home.

The prince stood in plain sight, the center of attention, his eyes sparkling from the light of the fire. Hoping she wouldn’t be noticed, Saig ducked towards the back of the throng. She couldn’t remember the last time so much of the family was called into a gathering. Everyone was here—excepting Trei, who was assigned to escorting their guests. Though Saig personally thought her cousin was more likely to stab them.

Mikail raised his hands to quiet the family’s chatter, then gestured to Auris. She rose to stand before him. His eyes scanned the room, searching for someone else. Maybe for their bard, or her aunt, or—Saig realized with a sense of alarm that Mikail’s eyes had landed on her.

Oh, no. He wouldn’t, would he?

She watched with dread as he raised his hand to call her forward. There wasn’t any choice except to obey. Then all of those dozens of eyes in the room turned to her. Her heart pounded in her ears as every instinct told her to hide, to break their line of sight. She joined Auris in front the prince, hoping he wouldn’t prolong this.

“Well, cublings?” he asked. “What do we know? What do we suspect?”

Mikail’s eldest son had recently married and gone to live in another city. Since then, he’d turned his attention to training Auris, who would never lead Running Water, but would become an integral part of the support network for the future prince. For some reason, he decided to include Saig in these lessons as well. And she honestly had no idea why.

Auris said, “We know we have bandits. We know they’re strong enough to attack a trade vessel, even if it was manned by inexperienced men. Three children are missing, no bodies found.” She hesitated. “I hate to say so, but that points to the slave trade.”

Saig came to attention. Slavery was generally frowned upon by most nations these days, at least officially. That was partly her own ancestors’ fault—the ancient Clydians had raided and pillaged their neighbors before settling the land around Running Water and becoming more peaceful. But the surrounding nations had remembered. Saig knew that slavery would always exist in some form, but the idea of her people, of children of Running Water, being taken away like that? It felt wrong in a way she couldn’t describe.

“As for the adult farmer,” Auris continued, “I don’t know. A simple robbery? It’s odd that a force capable of taking a trade ship would go after a single man, who didn’t even have anything. They could’ve easily raided a farmhouse, before we’d started patrolling the area.”

“Saig?” the prince asked. Auris turned to her as well, disapproval evident in her eyes. Saig wished her uncle would leave her alone, and focus on his daughter. Auris didn’t like it when the attention turned to her.

“Uncle...” she protested.

“Oh, come now. You went with your mother to look for the boys. You found the farmer’s body. What are your impressions?”

She didn’t want to do this, didn’t want to say anything with the entire family listening, judging her. Don’t think about them. Hesitantly, she tried to imagine the one glimpse of the body she’d had before she looked away.

“It didn’t look like a robbery,” she said. “There was a ferociousness to it.”

Auris frowned. “The trade ship and the abduction of the children can all be explained by bandits. Maybe the man was a coincidence. He could have been attacked by an animal.”

But that didn’t add up either.

“Then why was the body so far in the woods?” Saig asked. “He didn’t have a reason to go there. He was supposed to be working. And if he’d been attacked closer to the farms, why would anyone, beast or man, drag the body away?”

“He may have been looking for the missing children,” Auris added.

The children went missing over a course of several days beforehand. Neither several search parties nor Wata had been able to find them. Why would he imagine that he’d be different? “That’s just foolish,” Saig said.

Auris shrugged. “Sometimes, people are foolish.” When they needed to work for their livelihood? When they had families and children of their own?

But Saig didn’t respond. Her cousin understood others better than she did. Maybe Auris was right.

Glancing at her uncle, Saig caught a sly smile on his face that vanished as soon as he noticed her watching. Giving her a subtle nod, he turned back to his daughter. “And what do you imagine needs to happen?”

Auris took a moment to think. “Like as not, someone is out there. But our patrols haven’t found any sign of them this entire week. Maybe we aren’t looking far enough. We’ve been concentrated around the farmlands because of the boys. I suggest sending a few boats to search for the traders’ stolen vessel, in case the bandits didn’t abandon it. Even if they did, we might find some sign of them.”

“We already have patrols on the water,” the prince said, watching his daughter closely. “How likely are these new boats to find something our regular patrols missed?” Saig shifted her eyes to Auris’ contemplative expression, then back to the prince. What answer was he fishing for?

Auris never showed uncertainty. Even as he questioned her, she met her father’s eyes with ease. I will never understand how she does that, Saig admitted to herself. How she avoids doubt, how she says what she’s thinking without hedging, unafraid of judgment.

Auris simply believed in the merit of her ideas. In her own worth. How? Every time the prince turned those eyes to Saig, she felt her inexperience keenly. He knew so much. How could she contribute anything valuable in the face of that?

Life would be so much easier for Saig if she was more like Auris. Or if Auris was less so.

“We followed all the protocols,” Auris mused. “We did it as soon as the boys went missing. Bandits, bears, vengeful spirits of the dead, whatever could’ve caused this. We should have found some sign, even without this new information from the traders. We haven’t. So now it’s time to gamble a bit.” She paused. “You may be right about the boats. It should be sufficient to inform the patrols what to look for. The idea is too safe. So, a riskier move, then. We could send out a party of hunters in the general direction of our missing. Some of them would watch for signs of these bandits. The rest will act as camouflage, tasked with actual hunting. Even if they don’t find anything, it’ll make the area seem better patrolled and may encourage the bandits to find easier pickings.”

“Interesting idea,” Mikail said, noncommittally.

Auris spared her father a look of annoyance.

He grinned back at her. “No, really. Until the time of your marriage, I consider the leadership of the younger generation yours. It’s a worthwhile idea. Even in the worst case, the younger hunters and trackers will gain more experience. Make it happen.”

He made a shooing gesture, prompting a dramatic sigh from Auris, as she turned to obey. Saig hesitated a moment, while her cousin headed out the door. “Bandits, then?” she asked her uncle.

“Maybe,” he said. “Maybe not. You are right. There are inconsistencies. But we need more information, and that’s what this plan is aimed at providing. Go work with your age-mates.” He nodded to the door. “We’ll tackle another avenue.”

And he turned to the rest of the family, prepared to give orders to the more experienced members of society, about how they would approach the problem.

Saig reluctantly went after Auris, her uncle’s voice echoing behind her. “Now,” he said. “There’s only one place we know the enemy will come for sure...” Then she closed the door behind herself, and his words became indistinguishable.

Outside, Auris was already gone. With a shake of her head, Saig set about searching, asking people if they noticed the younger generation gathering anywhere. By the time she’d chased down her cousin, Auris had already amassed a large portion of their age-mates. How, Saig had no idea. It was probably best not to question her cousin’s ability to rearrange the community to her satisfaction.

“...what you can find,” Auris was saying. Few people noticed as Saig joined the crowd. The stout Damien was one, flashing her a brief smile of welcome. Her friend Gwen was another—she didn’t smile, but she did nod, her blond curls falling off her shoulder. Then there was Badri, dark and reserved, the type of person who let few others get to know him. He grinned once he saw her, in a rare show of affection that she was glad to have earned.

“Additionally,” Auris’ voice continued addressing the crowd, “we have three guests who have lost all of their possessions. We’ll need to divide up the women’s work to include the making of extra garments and shoes, cooking of more food. We may need to slaughter more animals than we’d planned on, which means calculations and possibly more work to make up the difference. It shouldn’t be that much additional work when aliquoted out. Spread the word that each family should come to my great-aunt and receive an assignment.”

Of course. The women’s tasks wouldn’t be separated by age like the men’s tasks. They rarely were, everyone working together to make up the excess need.

Having laid down the law—which Saig had mostly missed—Auris turned in the direction of home, a few young women trailing after her. The young men stayed in the area. Auris had transferred authority of the hunt over to them. They needed a leader, and they needed instruction.

Saig hesitated.

Should she follow her cousin, join the women in distributing the extra work? Contribute her meager, subpar skills to something she was terrible at?