Chapter 28: Chapter Twenty-Seven: They Will Never (Again) Take Our Freedom!

            Leo led the procession of Cavendil’s Coterie, and a tiny number of captured orcs, into town, Lily and Hugh by his side. The few orcs who had stayed to guard the prisoners were mostly corpses in various states of obvious death on the side of the road.

Hugh sniffed at one corpse as they entered, and Leo barked out, “Please don’t, Hugh.”

            Hugh rolled his eyes, but he headed in without eating the orc. Thank god. Gods. Whatever it is here.

            Meryl, from her position about twenty men down, loudly called out, “All right, men, find the keys and get these people out of their cages! You know what to do once they’re free!”

            Lily walked next to Leo. “You should probably be prepared to give a speech to the slaves.”

            “Ex-slaves,” Leo said.

The destruction of the town had left little standing accept the temple, so Leo moved to the front of the building, where marble steps led up to the entrance, forming a slight dais. At the top, he smelled incense and blood—the smell he was coming to associate with demonic magic—emanating from the grounds. He examined the door behind him. Small, dark-green vines with red thorns were wrapped around the base of the door, and growing a few feet past the doors on the walls and floor of the steps in a radial manner, like someone had thrown liquid against the door—hard—and then evil plants had grown where the splatter pattern had been.

            “What’s this?” Leo asked.

            Lily examined it briefly, then shrugged. “I don’t know, Leo. Corrupt magic of some sort, I assume still leakage from the Blood Abyss. But that’s a guess, to be clear. I’ll check into it more and get back to you with a better answer.”

            Lily immediately knelt and inspected the vines more thoroughly. Leo trusted her to do the first pass, since she was the expert. She’d give him a more detailed answer later.

            He turned back to the elves, who were exiting from their cages now, occasionally giving awkward cheers or thanks but mostly just waiting. The slumped postures and sullen expressions on most told Leo that they expected him to be their new master, and that he was only receiving any cheers at all because he wasn’t an orc.

            The outright hateful expressions on the squinted, half-blind faces of the deep elves further convinced Leo of his theory.

            Ignoring the interesting magical puzzle behind him, Leo faced the assembled crowd. I’ve never given a public speech before, except at conferences for engineers… Just tell it like it is and hopefully it’ll be all right.

            Leo raised his hand straight above his head, palm out and fingers spread, like he was waving. “Okay, um, fellow elves”—off to a great start—“you’ve all been, um, rescued, and you’re all free now.”

            There were mutters from the milling crowd, and one deep elf woman in a ratty, gray dress yelled, “We’re free? You’re setting us free?” She held the hand of a young deep elf girl in a gray shift next to her.

            Leo lowered his hand, feeling awkward. “Yes. We’ll be preparing manumission papers for everyone who wants them specifically, but everyone is free.”

            Before anyone else could respond, someone shouted, “Mom!” from the edge of the crowd.

            The woman gasped. “Zir?”

            Zir pushed through the elves, shoving and cursing when they didn’t move fast enough. He reached his mom and they clasped both hands together, then bowed, touching foreheads.

            The gesture repeated between Zir and the little girl, whom Leo presumed was Zir’s sister. Closer inspection showed her to be about ten or eleven.

            I thought we would save them, but I’m still extra glad that we actually did.

            An emaciated elf with a massive bruise on one side of his face in the front of the crowd stepped forward. “You’re setting us free? In the wilderness? Are we to starve or be eaten, then?”

            Angry and fearful muttering went through the crowd.

“If you’ll let me finish,” Leo said loudly, holding both hands up.

The crowd quieted.

“I’m actually offering everyone here a position at the new settlement I’m building, on Elgin Isle, next to the Calasti. I intend to rebuild the Averian Kingdom. We have thousands of gold of materials coming to establish farms, shops, and homes for any who join. We also have ships to take you there, and a great deal of food arriving—salted, smoked, or dried—to carry us through the time we need to get our footing and build the basics.”

The muttering turned interested.

“For those who don’t want to join, we’ll provide a paid trip back to Steelport, a few days’ rations, and manumission papers.”

“Is this offer just for the uppy elves?” one of the deep elves, toward the back of the crowd where the busted fence and the cages were, cried out.

            “No. My kingdom will accept all who contribute and live by the laws, although we are aiming to recover the enslaved citizens of the first Averian kingdom initially. But we will not turn away those who want to work and make new lives for themselves.”

            The muttering on that one was mixed.

            “Who are you?” one of the elves—he didn’t see which—shouted.

            It was hard for Leo to resist, but he managed to avoid his normal disclaimer, and he gave something closer to the speech Lily had asked him to give for this part. “I’m Leo Evans il Stardew, appointed by the old king’s magic legacy at his vault, acknowledged by Lilanae ap Willowynd and Olanalinae ap Belmoria, as well as Hugh of the Storm Vale, a child of old Chao. I am the heir of the Stardew line, the lord of the new settlement, and I someday hope to be worthy of reclaiming the title of King of Averia.”

            It was harder to parse the whispers this time, but they appeared at least to not be hostile.

            Then a high elf moved to the front of the crowd. “It’s as fair a deal as we’ve been offered in a long time, Lord Evans. Thank you! I don’t rightly know what my fellow slaves—well, ex-slaves—will do, but I aim to join you. Do we pledge now?”

            “Not now, my good man,” Leo said. “I’m not requiring personal pledges from anyone unless they take up service in the government. I’d ask, once we have everyone who wishes to stay, and we’ve met the other settlers, who should be on their way soon, that we all pledge ourselves to each other and our new kingdom.”

            Leo was met by silence from the crowd, and more than a few blinking eyes.

            He hadn’t told Lily about that part, and he’d bet her eyes were glaring daggers at his back, but the modified version of the pledge felt right to him—and he suspected pledging to an ideal, an ideal that by now probably represented lost safety, health, and happiness to most of these people, would motivate them far more than declaring fealty to a stranger.

            He didn’t have a psychology degree, of course, but he was pretty sure it’d work that way.

            After a moment, when no one else spoke, Leo raised his hands up again. “All right. I’ve appointed eight people to be coordinators for you. They should be taking position around you now, and they’ll raise their hands up. Each of them knows the plan, will be responsible for getting you on the ship in a couple of hours, and a couple of hours after that, getting you off the ship and into tents. They’ll also be responsible for distributing food. I need you all to break into groups of fifty, one group for each leader. Understand?”

            There were a few muttered, “Yes,” and a smaller number of “Yes, Lord Evans!” and the large group starting breaking, blob-like, into eight smaller groups.

            Leo left them to talk to Commander Meryl—she should have the final casualty and captive report by now.

            He walked between the oddly creepy church and a half-shattered house, heading to the pier. As he went by, he couldn’t help but notice the silhouette of a giant venus flytrap behind the blood-stained, and somehow intact, window of the church.

            Commander Meryl waited for him on one of the two piers of the town.

“What were the losses, Commander Meryl?” Leo asked as he walked up and joined her in staring out over the eight Steelport galleys now docked on the pier, or pulled up on the beach nearby. The pier they were standing on was a single-cut marble pier, as if the original inhabitants of this town had decided to be as ostentatious as possible.

            Although, perhaps they’d had a local Earth user, and it had been cheap and easy to fuse it all together. Leo wasn’t sure yet how magic affected all things.

Meryl sighed. “Even with healing magic from five people, fifteen of my men have been lost. Two in the warg fight, seven retreating to the strong point, five at the gate with you when Bone-butt broke through, and one unlucky scout, Maria, who had somehow stopped a thrown axe with her neck during the pincer attack that finished the orcs off.”

Leo winced. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

Meryl stared into his eyes, her one brown eye and one glowing blue eye her most distinctive feature. But the rest of her was almost as noteworthy—the blood splattered across her chain armor, her military cut hair. Something about her demeanor and carriage just spoke ‘general’ to Leo.

            “It’s what you paid us for,” Meryl said, sighing heavily.

She turned her eyes out over the water of the Blue River, and the ships preparing to load there. “I’ll not deny that seeing every fifth cot empty is taxing. Most of these men, however, made about four years’ salary.”

“What?” Leo asked, surprised both by the amount and the topic change.

“Well, what with their cut of what you paid us and shares of loot from the orc’s base—although that was meager—they’re each netting about two gold. And I’d be flat-out rich, except I intend to reinvest the coin in my men’s gear.”

            The wealth didn’t seem like it was worth men’s lives to Leo. But he didn’t say anything. He might need the services of Cavendil’s Coterie again. Plus, freeing four hundred from slavery at the price of fifteen dead did balance the scales in Leo’s mind.

            “You needn’t feel guilty about it, Leo,” Meryl said, putting her hand on Leo’s shoulder. “It was something that needed doing enough to pay the price. So we did it. And the side of good gained greatly today. The men know it, in their hearts. I’m a bit worried a few might choose to serve you after their time with me is up, and I can’t blame them.”

You are reading story Elf Empire at novel35.com

            Leo raised an eyebrow, feeling a bit awkward with Meryl’s hand still on his shoulder.

            Meryl’s one blue eye was blazing as she looked out from the pier.

            “Two hundred orc warriors, or near enough, were put into the ground over two days,” Meryl said with a fierce smile.

Then she rubbed her hands together. “More importantly than dead orcs, or even the giant payday, is that roughly fifty of my people are Level Two now. Which, incidentally, is most of my remaining men. Six made it to Level Three in that fight. I can already tell you’re soft and squeamish, but trust me, the fifteen dead were worth it. Fifteen Level Two people are worth more than thirty Level One, and we’ve got a way better ratio than that.”

            That’s a really darkly pragmatic way to look at things, Leo thought.

Meryl removed her hand and turned around to stare at the broken town, away from the pier and the boats. “We aren’t exactly Chosen of Kellen, but still, we’re a lot stronger now, and we’ll almost certainly fight the orcs again. And four hundred slaves were rescued from the orcs, and you plan to set them free. In the grand scheme of empires and cataclysms, it might not mean much, but we did good today, and if we paid a price, that’s what my men signed up to do.”

            “Who’s Kellen?” Leo asked.

            Meryl’s eyes went wide, making her glowing, blue one even more pronounced. “The God of Justice, the being most closely associated with ‘good,’ at least on Toth. How can you not know of him?”

            “Sorry. I did terribly in theology.”

            Meryl gave a forced chuckle. “We also captured nine orcs. The vast majority fought to the death or escaped.”

            “Learn anything useful?”

            “Not really. It’s pretty much what we already know. Scale-butt was here to establish his own tribe, and he was trying, in his completely incompetent way, to make this tiny orchard town into his headquarters or yurt or whatever the hell the Blood Tribes do. Primary sacrifice altar, probably. He had the boats so he could pirate the trade that he thought would be returning to the Blue River, according to his men.” Meryl smacked her right fist into the palm of her left hand.

“Now, thanks to us, he won’t be doing any of that shit.”      

            “We’ll set the captured orcs free,” Leo said, “after we leave. On the far side of the river, of course.”

“What!?”

“But I won’t give the piratical slave-holding bastards anything else. They can retreat, starve, or feed the monsters around here for all I care.”

            Meryl’s eyes went wide. “Are you serious? Why not execute them? Or at least enslave them?”

            “If you execute everyone you capture, the next people won’t surrender as easily. It actually costs far more to kill prisoners in the long run, trust me. My people learned the truth of it over thousands of years of conflict. Additionally, I want my society to be free, think free, and to never believe any person can be property. If someone needs to die, so be it, but I want no slaves, ever, in my realm. Not even after I’m gone and dead, and a new king has risen. I need it to be an absolute rule.”

            “Foolish as hell,” Meryl proclaimed. “I mean, nine orc slaves will only fetch five to six gold in total, most places, so I suppose it’s not the biggest deal. But it’s better if you either sell them or you work them—seize any tool that comes to hand, and any advantage, my dad used to say.”

            “I understand the argument, but trust me, a society will function far better if it only thinks of people as having free will. It’ll produce more and be more successful.”

            “Hey, you’re the one paying me, so we’ll do it your way,” Meryl said, rolling her eyes.

            Leo chuckled in his own head. That was employee code for ‘You have no idea what you’re talking about,’ in any world, it seemed.

            “I suppose you have some equally brilliant reason for paying for the ex-slaves you freed to return to Steelport? Money that would be better spent getting a few more troops, I might add.”

Leo ignored her sarcasm and skepticism as he continued. “Ultimately, if the elves decide to stay, I want it to be a real decision. A real desire to be a part of this. I don’t want people who don’t believe in what I’m doing. Dedicated citizenry, free to pursue their own goals but still believing in the whole, are a true advantage for any nation.”

Meryl grunted but added nothing else.

Leo continued. “A nation has two destinies—geography, and demography. With one, you take what you get. With the other, you can improve it—teach your people, instill in them values that help the whole.”

“And level them,” Meryl said. “A shame you don’t have a dungeon core amongst your treasures.”

That’s the second time someone has mentioned something like that—I need to remember to ask Lily about it.

Leo spotted Val walking toward him with a red-haired elf beside her—likely, and hopefully, her brother. They were walking up toward him between some of the broken buildings, heading toward the marble pier they were on and the galleys next to them.

“We’ll pick this up later,” Leo said, walking toward the siblings.

Val didn’t wait for him—she ran up, threw her arms around him, and squealed. “We rescued him, Leo! We rescued my brother, just like you said we would! He’s alive! I didn’t believe he really would be!”

Then, embarrassed, she let go and took a knee, although the smile kept playing at the edges of her mouth. “Sorry, my liege. I just meant to thank you for your—”

Leo grabbed her arm and pulled her gently back to her feet. “You’re welcome, Val. I’m truly glad to have helped. Truly. Now, how about you introduce me?”

“Of course, my liege.” Val practically yanked him the ten feet back to her brother.

“Leo, this is my brother, Tywyndyll ap Belmoria. Ty, this is my new liege, King Leo Evans il Stardew.”

Ty bowed deeply. When he raised his head, he swayed a bit. He was a near mirror of his sister, with long, red hair—his tied in a ponytail—green eyes, and a lithe frame. But he was sweating, his eyes were glassy, and he had a huge wound, diseased around the edges, across the side of his jaw.

Leo reached out, touched Ty, and shaped the essence within him into Body magic in the form of Regeneration, Rank I.

The wound closed up, but a tiny scar remained… and a pile of puss and goop, which Ty brushed off onto the ground. Because it was diseased? Leo wondered. And is the scar because it had already partially healed?

Ty remained hot to the touch. It can’t be the magical healing, Leo thought. If the heat from all that as a biological process went out all at once, I’m sure it’d fry him, although I’m not a biologist. Still. And the magical healing never produced heat before… He must be feverish still. I wonder if he’s still infected?

“Thank you,” Ty said, deep relief evident in his voice.

“You’re okay now?” Leo asked. “You still appear sick.”

“I’ll be fine,” Ty said. “I apologize if this is presumptuous to explain to you, but when you heal someone with an infection, it usually works out fine. The bacteria once feeding on the wound aren’t slain. Some are still inside me, but they usually die on their own later.”

“You know about bacteria?” Leo asked. They must, as Middle Averian has a word for it.

“Of course,” Ty said, obviously confused.

Probably wondering why I didn’t know about the vagaries of regeneration if I knew about bacteria.

“Well, enough of that. I’m glad you’re safe, and I’m sorry to hear that things didn’t work out for you while leveling.”

“Well, I did make Level Two,” Ty said, smiling. “And you’ve saved me from the consequences of my own actions. So all’s well that ends well.”

But even as Ty declared it, Leo saw the haunted look in his eyes—a look that said he had suffered, or seen, things that were with him yet, and would be for some time.

“I took both a minor lightning ability, and a growth ability,” Ty said.

He and his sister stared at Leo expectantly. Leo had no idea what they wanted, or what was going on.

“Interesting,” Leo said. “Well, I’m going to get back to work. We have a lot to do. It was a pleasure meeting you, Ty.”

Ty’s face fell slightly, and he glanced at his sister. But they both bowed and then retreated back down the street hastily.

Lily’s voice floated to them from farther inside the town. “Leo! Leo, I have great news! Come with me!”

Leo chuckled to himself. It’s just a never-ending parade out here by the pier.

You can find story with these keywords: Elf Empire, Read Elf Empire, Elf Empire novel, Elf Empire book, Elf Empire story, Elf Empire full, Elf Empire Latest Chapter