The life of the slave, I can't recommend it.

  I quickly learned that there was a hierarchy, or pecking order, to everyone in this army camp. I happened to be at the very, very, very, very bottom.

  That meant anyone could give me an order, including other slaves. I was expected to obey without hesitation or question. Problems arose quickly, however, whenever I had an order from someone lower on the totem pole which was then superseded by somebody higher up, or even at the same level. No matter what I did in those situations, I was guaranteed to get in trouble. I think they just assumed I was slow or lazy. Or maybe they knew and didn’t care. Trouble usually came in the form of physical abuse, usually shoving me or hitting me with whatever they had on hand. There was plenty of verbal abuse along with this, though I couldn’t understand most of that.

  It was a good thing I was a quick healer.

  Or maybe it wasn’t. If they had crippled me I would have an even better excuse. But I’m not sure even that would be enough.

  It didn’t help that I had an excuse. No one could understand me, anyway.

  Well, almost no one. There were a few soldiers, including the aide to the commander, and even one of the slave women, who understood some Landrian, my native language. Being a slave herself, she couldn’t speak to me openly, but she had quietly offered some advice to help me not make more horrible mistakes like I had on my first day.

  There were a few benefits to being a slave, however. I learned some things very fast. I learned new skills, like cleaning quickly without soap. I started learning a few words in their language, like xuzai for slave, iaoip for faster, onulu for hurry and ekulu for lazy. For some reason everyone liked yelling those words at me a great deal.

  I was also getting stronger. They had me hauling all kinds of boxes, crates and buckets full of various things all over the camp. I had to haul water from the river many times per day which was used for cooking and cleaning. Hauling was never easy since they still kept me in shackles. They constantly chafed at my ankles, which were covered in scabs. I learned to take small steps no matter what I was doing.

  One evening when I was hauling several buckets of water from the river, I heard an unusual noise. At first I ignored it. But then I remembered the dragonette attack so I stopped and looked around. That’s when I saw a small arm waving at me from some bushes.

  “Jer.”

  It was Fin, calling my name and waving at me from tall grass. I looked around to be sure I was alone. Seeing no one, I hurried over to him.

  “What are you doing here? You need to take Lil and get far away from here. Now. If they see you, you'll be captured or killed.”

  “Jer. We couldn’t leave you.” He looked sad and depressed. “Come with us. Why haven’t you run away?”

  “I can’t run.” I pointed at my shackles. “If I tried, they would just come after me and probably kill me.”

  He looked scared now. “What should we do?”

  “You need to get away, tonight. I don’t want you to become a slave like me.”

  “Why?”

  “Why???” I almost yelled back at him, but remembered I needed to be quiet. I also needed to get back soon or I would get another beating.

  “Yeah. Wouldn’t it be better than starving? At least we would be together.”

  I took a better look at him. He didn’t look good. I’m sure he could hunt but he and Lil needed more than that to survive. His clothes were filthy and in tatters. I’m sure Lil wasn’t in any better shape.

  “Well,” I said, now reconsidering. We needed to be together, and I couldn’t escape. “I guess being slaves might be better. But we need a plan. If the wrong soldiers find you they’ll just kill you.”

  “Please, I need your help.”

  I was talking to one of the camp guards. He knew some of my language, because he had said a few words to me in passing. I didn’t really know his personality, but at least he hadn’t been rude. The other guards nearby, however, were sneering at me. I could tell they were ready to beat me to a pulp.

  He looked at me, considering, then turned to the others and said a few words I didn’t understand. They smiled at him and started walking away.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I have a brother and sister. They will also be slaves, but they are hiding. Can you help us?”

  He thought about that.

  “I will, but you must bring me a keg of beer.”

  “What? Steal beer for you?”

  “Find, steal, I do not care.”

  “Alright. What will you do?”

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  “I will tell my sergeant. But I can’t promise what will happen. They must give up and not fight.”

  “They won’t.”

  “Where are they?”

  “They are hiding in the woods. I can give the signal and they will come out. Tomorrow morning. Will that work?”

  “Yes, that should work. I’ll tell him in the morning. We’ll come find you.”

  “Thank you.”

  The next morning, as I was finishing up the breakfast dishes, several guards came over, including my helper, who nodded at me. One was in a nicer uniform, so I assumed he was the sergeant.

  “Finish,” the guard said.

  They waited until I finished and had delivered the clean dishes. Then we walked to the river where I had met Fin the night before. I waved twice, which was the signal we had agreed upon.

  Slowly Fin and Lil stood up in the tall grass. I could tell they were scared to death. So was I. But I went to them and gave them both a huge hug.

  The sergeant said something and two other guards stepped forward, each grabbing one of them. As they took them away, I was going to follow. But the guard who had helped me, held up his hand to stop me. I saw that we were alone.

  “Go back to work. They will be questioned. If they live or die, you will know.” He turned away, but then turned back to me.

  “You will bring me beer, either way. I’ll show you my tent tonight.”

  I was extremely relieved to see both of them later as I was hauling some boxes out of the supply tent for lunch. They were being taken somewhere, but we all waved at each other, happy to be alive. I wondered why they didn’t have shackles on, like me. But I was happy they didn’t have to deal with that pain.

  We were finally reunited by the evening meal. I showed them where we needed to wait, since all of the soldiers got to eat first. Once they were finished, the slaves were given the leftovers. In this case it was stew. There seemed to be some kind of meat in it, though I wasn’t sure what. We got to talk quietly while we ate, but it wasn’t long before they put us to work cleaning up.

  Fin was assigned to help me haul water from the river. It was obvious that he was faster and stronger, even though he was smaller. That got me another tongue lashing for being slower. I was just happy to have my family together.

  After I finished cleaning and was preparing for bed, the guard who had helped me took me aside. “Come with me.”

  I followed him to where his tent was. I asked him to give me a few days. It would let me find the best opportunity to get the keg of beer for him, and hopefully not get caught.

  When I actually did, it was surprisingly easier than I had expected. I had been ordered to deliver a keg earlier in the day to the camp commander’s tent. So no one was surprised to see me carrying around another keg later that afternoon. I just happened to deliver it to a different tent. The trick was quickly slipping into a regular soldier’s tent without being noticed. He had a pile of clothing things in the corner, so I placed it next to them, then covered it up.

  As I slipped out of the tent, however, a couple of soldiers saw me. I tried to ignore them at first, but they stopped me with a bunch of words I didn’t understand.

  “Aueiai,” I said, meaning sorry.

  One of them grabbed me from behind, while another slammed his fist into my gut. They laughed at me groaning on the ground. With a final kick to my side they walked away, laughing loudly.

  At least they hadn’t seen what I had done, as I had first feared. They just wanted to have more “fun” with the Landrian slave. I seemed to be a popular target.

  It took me a while before I could get up. I was feeling only slightly better by the time I got back to my tent. Fin and Lil were already there. There were other slaves in the tent so we couldn’t really talk, but at least we were allowed to be together at night.

  “Are you alright?” Lil asked. “What happened?”

  “I’ll tell you later. Let’s just go to sleep. It’s going to be an early morning.”

  In spite of the warning, I had to wake them up the next morning. I was used to the early morning chores but they weren’t. For the next few days I tried hard to help them get used to the schedule and the way things worked as a slave. I did my best to buffer them from the abuse I got. I downplayed it when they asked. I knew I couldn’t always protect them, but I didn’t want them to suffer the same way I did. One thing they had on their side was that they were still young.

  When we were alone I tried to warn them to be careful to not reveal that they had manifested any magic. Fin needed to be careful to not appear to be too strong or fast, especially for how young he was. And Lil should never show what she could do. I didn’t know what would happen, but I was sure we were all at risk if we were discovered.

  After a few days they settled into their duties better. Fin took over some of my hauling duties since he was better at that than I was. They had tried to get Lil to help with mending clothing, but she caused more problems than she solved. So she changed to washing dishes and sometimes clothing. The soldiers were responsible for washing and repairing their own clothes, but leaders' clothes were washed by the slaves.

  I discovered a knack for mending clothing, so I started helping out there sometimes. But I had a personal reason also. We desperately needed repairs to our own clothing, as well as a few new things to wear. It was great practice to work on our own things when I had the time. I patched holes with new cloth and added and reinforced the hems where the edges of our clothes had gotten shredded. The camps often provided old clothing for slaves, mostly things the soldiers no longer wanted. But everything was too large, so I learned to take these and adapt them fit. Yes, I made a lot of mistakes at first, but it helped me learn quickly.

  I also helped more with meal preparation and cleanup. Even though the chief cook and I had started off poorly, she gradually became nicer to me as I learned to be more helpful around meal times.

  One afternoon a cheer went up around the camp. In fact, I could hear loud celebrations coming from the neighboring camps also. I just ignored the ruckus for a while, being busy helping with supper preparations. Even some of the cooks seemed happier, but I couldn’t figure out why. Eventually, someone tapped my shoulder and pointed to the north, where a cloud of dust was rising in the distance.

  Later that day I could see some riders from another army coming toward us. The dust was from them as well as the large numbers of wagons and people behind them. They were carrying banners of red and black, meaning it was reinforcements.

  No wonder everyone was so happy.

  I decided that the other army was several times larger than what was already here. It actually took a few days for the other army to find a good location and set up their camps. It was longstride away since there would be too many soldiers causing chaos if they were much closer. But we had multiple riders coming through our camp off and on for several days.

  We learned that there was going to be a large war council of army leaders. Luckily our camp was not going to be the host for that large of a gathering.

  I was content just to keep doing my part, as long as I could have my family with me and we were being fed. Maybe being a slave isn’t going to be too awful.