From Londoner To Lord

Immediately, there was a loud cheer from everyone. Some of the stonecutters even began to whoop and clap, being enthusiastic about reaching the place for which they had been travelling for so long now.

The guard captain ordered the wagons to start moving faster, saying that he wanted to reach before nightfall if possible, although the sun must already have set by now - but it was difficult to tell in the constant snowfall. Then he rode ahead with another rider to report about their arrival to the baron, leaving the other guards to lead them to the village.

The sky was still overcast, just like the past few days, and it seemed like it had been snowing for a while here, since there was a thin layer of snow already gathered on the ground. By this time, all of the slaves had turned to face the front, hoping to catch a glimpse of their new home, and they didn't have to wait too long.

As they turned around a small bend in the road, she found that they had finally arrived at Tiranat. The first thing she noticed under the falling snow was a towering palisade wall in front of them, although it seemed like there was a gap in the wall in front of the road. Maybe it wasn't completed yet? It certainly wasn't a stone wall like some of the bigger towns had, but it was far better than the quarry which just had a makeshift barricade to stop any wild beasts from coming inside. But she still hadn't expected such a remote village to have any kind of wall at all.

Before long, their small caravan of two wagons and the two remaining riders passed the gap between the wall, and Hyola saw that there was still around a hundred yards of empty space in front of the wall before the first houses of the village. But why? Wouldn't it have been better to make the walls closer?

As they reached closer, she saw a few villagers coming out of their houses or peeking from their windows at the new arrivals. However, as their wagons entered the village proper, she realized that the majority of the houses in the village were just huts - just like the ones they were living in at the quarry!

They would barely protect anyone from the freezing winds or the constantly falling snow. How was this going to be any better for the slaves than how they were living at the quarry? Even the rare wooden houses she saw in the village had more than a few holes in them and looked patched over many times. It seemed like the village was just as poor as the quarry! Would they even have enough extra grain to feed all the new arrivals?

Now she was starting to doubt herself again. Had she really made the right decision to come here? But Calubo, who had been riding a horse on the side of the wagon, noticed her expression and told her not to worry and to trust the baron. She just gave a nod to him, hoping he hadn't lied to them.

They kept travelling through the narrow alleys and she felt that many of the huts were completely empty at this time. But why would their occupants be outside their homes in the night, especially in this freezing weather? Or maybe the huts were just standing there, and nobody lived there anyway? That was weird. Where did all those villagers go then? Suddenly she felt a pang of dread in her heart. They weren't executed by the baron for some stupid reason, were they? Or did they just leave the village, because they didn't have enough food here? Hyola wasn't sure what to think, but she couldn't get rid of the doubts in her mind now.

Soon, they reached a big empty area, ahead of which she noticed another palisade wall, this one only around half the height of the earlier one. Was this where the mighty baron lived? Hah! Even his own grand abode wasn't immune to the falling snow, seeing how a thin layer of snow was gathered even inside the manor.

As their wagons stopped for a moment in front of the gates, she looked inside the busy manor grounds with envy, as a few guards including Calubo left the caravan and entered the gates with their horse and the two nodors. Now there was only a single guard driving each wagon, apart from a fat new guard who had come out from the manor.

So the guards in the manor did get to eat a lot, even if the rest of the village lived in huts? Was the baron of this village really a benevolent person like the guards had claimed? Hyola wasn't too sure about it now. Then the fat guard pointed forward to the left of the manor and told the wagon drivers to start moving the horses again after he climbed on the seat of her own wagon.

For a moment Hyola thought this was a very modest welcome for the slaves, after all the pompous talk of the guards about the baron being so benevolent and caring and so on... but then she scoffed. What was she expecting here? To be welcomed like a noble? Hah! She would be glad if they just got a roof over their head and something to eat. Although she wasn't sure if that was even possible after seeing the poor condition of the huts in the village. She just prayed to the goddess that today wouldn't turn out to be the worst decision she had made in her life.

As their small caravan of two wagons and twenty-six slaves, accompanied by the three guards lurched forward again, they traveled on that alley parallel to the walls of the manor. She guessed they were going towards the north - although it was hard to tell, since it had gotten fully dark by now.

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All of the slaves had started whispering and murmuring about what kind of treatment they would get here. Would they really become free like the guard captain had outrageously claimed, or was it just a ruse to get more slaves for free to the new baron? It wouldn't be long before they found out the truth anyway.

By now it was snowing heavily, and it was getting difficult to see more than a few feet ahead of them. Before long, Hyola watched as they reached the last houses of the village, with only the falling snow visible further in the north. Of course, it made sense. The new baron would want to keep them at the edge of the village, so they would stay away from his own villagers. But it meant that they would at least be getting some huts to live. Could have been worse, she supposed.

But the wagons kept moving even after they crossed the last houses. Wait... Shouldn't the wagons have stopped here to disembark the slaves? She frowned as both of the wagons kept moving further north under the guidance of the guards who were huddling in their fur coats, and slowly the last houses of the village disappeared behind them in the heavy snowfall.

She was trying to think furiously about where they could be taking the slaves. And why were they going out of the village? What was happening now? At the same time she also noticed the slaves getting more and more worried just like her, with some of the younger slaves even standing on the wagon beds in panic to look around them.

"Where are you taking us?" an older slave asked the guards with worry.

"I'm not sure," the wagon driver replied. "I am only following orders."

"You tell us then!" the slave demanded the other guard who had joined them from the manor.

The fat guard just waved his hand to the front, and spoke lazily, "Don't worry man, it's just a little further ahead."

This worried Hyola even more, her concern mirrored in the face of others around her. She squinted and tried to look further, but it was fully dark now, and it was no use trying to see more than a few feet ahead in the heavy snowfall.

Her heart was beating fast now, and she wished Calubo was driving the wagon to reassure them. But he was nowhere to be found, and these guards were only giving vague answers... What was happening? They weren't being taken outside of the village to be executed, were they?

She didn't know their destination, and panic was already threatening to overwhelm her mind. Was all this really just an elaborate lie by the guards to get the wagons, the nodors as well as all the tools from the quarry to the baron for free? Were they planning to kill all of the slaves so they wouldn't have to feed them? She had heard stories of nobles executing commoners for much less than that...

Her eyes became wet as she remembered motivating the other stonecutters to join the guards and leave the quarry along with her. What had she done? And where in the world was Calubo? Had he left her alone now that his task of bringing the wagons to the baron was completed? Or was it just because he couldn't bear to see them all killed in front of him?

Anger made her see red, as Hyola thought about what she would do to that bastard if she ever saw him again. It was good that he had run away! At least he had the shame to not kill them by his own hands!

Hyola tried to look all around the wagons but she couldn't see much. Time passed slowly as the wagons kept moving.

How long had they been travelling in the village? It felt like hours to her, but it probably had been much less. Where were they going? What would happen to them? Were they really going to die tonight?

Tears started flowing freely from her eyes and she began praying to the Goddess to save them, with many other slaves also looking upwards for salvation. Prayers were their only hope now that even Calubo seemed to have betrayed them...

*******

~ Kivamus ~

A short while ago, he had just finished with today's work of drawing blueprints, when a guard had arrived in the manor hall to report that Hudan had sent a rider to the village, and that the stonecutters were only around half an hour away from the village now. That hadn't given them enough time to prepare a proper welcome for the refugees, but he still wanted them to greet them in person at the longhouse block. They had to be quite hungry and cold by now, especially since the trip had lasted longer than they had expected. He just hoped they hadn't encountered too many difficulties on the way.

Then Feroy had suggested they ride on horses to the block even though it wasn't far away, so that Kivamus wouldn't have to trudge through the snow on the ground. For a moment, Kivamus had become nervous about how to explain that he never got to learn how to ride horses in London, but then he remembered from the memories of the original Kivamus that he did know how to ride horses! Unlike his older brothers who regularly went to hunt in the forests near the Ulriga palace and were excellent riders, the original Kivamus had spent most of his time inside the palace, but he had still been taught how to ride a horse as a son of the Duke.

When the guards brought one of the best horses they had in the stable to him, he didn't know how to even mount the horse, but on urging from Duvas to hurry up, he let his muscle memories take over, and found that it was surprisingly easy to do it, no matter how huge those beasts seemed to him just a few moments ago. Others had climbed on separate horses and they had started their short journey to the north through the following snow.

Once he had arrived at the longhouse block along with Duvas, Helga and a few guards, they had kept their horses outside the gates with a guard to watch over them, and entered inside. Only then he found out that the residents of the block had already eaten by now, which meant it wouldn't be possible to share their meal with the stonecutters.