A Fall of Ashes: Chapter 11, Tavern Wench
Wenching in a tavern in Liport turns out to be worse than Ashes though when she agreed
Liport was roughly the same size as Black Water, though with twice as many gates and more daily visitors. With the sun still four fists up from setting, her pulse raced, and her breathing quickened as Jakol led her up to a gate guard by the leash, hands tied with a leather strap behind her, beneath the pack tied to her back. Ashes hated it being leather, but had she suggested the less comfortable rope, Jakol would know she could get out of that. She wasn’t ready to give him that information.
“Names, and professions?” asked the large, bearded man guarding the gate
“Jol and my boy, Nue. Mercenaries,” Jakol lied effortlessly.
“First time?” that guard continued.
Jakol gave a clipped, “Yes.”
“Business in Liport?” the board looking guard asked next.
“Rest, repair and reequipping. Should take no more than a few weeks,” Jakol said as if he did this every day, and not bothered to name his slave.
The gate guard marked something down on a tally sheet, then began reciting the rules. He had all three’s attention when he began the ones on slaves.
“Any slave, not registered with the city much be kept on a leash at all times. Furthermore, if they have idle hands in public, those hands must be tied to keep them out of trouble.” He shifted from eyeing Ashes to looking at Jakol. “If you wish, you can go to slaver’s hall, pay your registration fee, and have her branded. Registration fee is ten percent of value. But be warned. Telling them her value is saying how much someone has to offer before you will sell her. If someone offers you that, you have to sell her for it.”
Her heart sped up.
Jakol looked the man straight in the eye and said, “I don’t think registering her right now is a good idea.”
She regained control of her breathing.
“Up to you. But you must register her if you are selling her.”
“Nope, no plans to sell her. Taking her with me when I leave in a few weeks after taking care of my business,”
“Next,” the guard called to the man behind them.
With Jakol again leading her by that leash, and Cass behind her, they passed through the gate.
Ashes looked around wide eyed. She saw no dirt or ash anywhere, not the street, walls, or even window seals. Every street was spotless, and all walls looked freshly painted.
Jakol led her into the inn right next to the gate. The slaves waiting tables looked well cared for and clean, and the customers looked to have coin. It would be hard, but she could earn enough for bows here. He led her right back out without enquiring.
The next two were much the same, and he didn’t enquire inside those either.
Ice ran up her spine when she realized why in the next inn. All the slaves in the first three were branded and registered. Here they were not. Every girl in the place wore a chain from post to one ankle substituting for being leashed. She began shaking, seeing that only six of the ten posts set up that way with girls chained to them.
A man came out from behind the bar while Jakol was still looking the place over.
“Selling or looking for a place to make some coin?” he said with more eagerness than she liked.
“Earn coin, and a room for three, if we can come to terms.”
Ashes’ stomach sunk. Not one girl was as young or pretty as she. She would be harder used and for less coin than the other places
“I have a small room I’m willing to let you have cheap. We close halfway between midnight and dawn and open at noon. You are to be out here collecting coin that whole time. Anytime you are not there, anyone can have your slut for free. I get seven out of every ten bits she takes in. I catch you cheating me, I call the guards.”
Ashes tried to figure out a way to tell Jakol not to accept that deal.
“We’ll try that for a few days, but my son and I will take turns watching her.”
Ashes fumed. How could he rent her so cheap?
“Fine, let’s get her chained and your boy can watch her while I show you to your room.”
No! she wanted to scream but dared not. Instead, trembling, she followed him to a post.
“You can use this post. It will be easiest for you, since your room is right behind it,” the innkeeper said.
A large square-end iron key came out of his pouch. “I usually don’t hand out one of these, but as you are staying in that room, this key works the cuff here and the one for her in there.”
Ashes’ trembling got worse as the man squatted down and put that iron ring around her ankle. The snap of it locking in place jarred her to the bone. She was trapped and at their mercy in a way she never had been before. This time she was in no way aroused, but that made it even more terrifying. The thought flashed through her; maybe she got aroused to control her fear.
Patting her ass, but facing Jakol, the innkeeper said, “Now she can walk all the way around all four tables, and she can reach the bar to place her customer’s orders. That tab is separate, and I have someone keeping track and collecting.” He looked back at Ashes. “It is generally best to walk back to the post when given an order, then to the bar, and doing the same, going from bar to table with drink and food. Much less chance of tangling that chain around something that way.”
“Ashes, give me that pack,” Jakol said. “Cass, you hand me yours, too. I can take all three that far.” From the satisfied look in his eyes, he liked having her chained up. Cass’s look left no doubt in her mind that he did.
“I’ll carry the lighter one for you,” said the innkeeper, reaching to help Cass remove his pack. “Then I need to get back behind the counter.”
Before that pack was off, a customer stood before them, holding out a silver bit to Cass.
Looking out the door, she saw it wasn’t quite dusk. A shudder ran through her; she had a long night ahead of her before they were in private, and she could tell them to find somewhere else. She turned back to the man. Unaroused or not, she had to give him a good time to keep her cover as a slave.
Three men sat at her tables when that man finished. Those, however, only wanted food and drink. More men joined them before she got everyone’s orders delivered. None of them wanted extra services, just food and drink. Then she understood; this inn was far different from the Stallion. Sex was the extra, food and drink were what brought people in. Nor was serious drinking going on here. After a meal and one or two for the road, men left, with only an occasional man wanting an extra from her before leaving. Ashes found herself working far harder and for far less money than she did in any road-side inn.
Ashes became so focused on doing her job serving food, Jakol sitting there taking a silver bit for her services instead of Cass surprised her. She looked around the inn. Not only were her tables half empty, so was the whole end, with one girl at the other end having an empty set of tables all together and asleep on next to her post.
By the time she finished pleasing that man, the rest had left. He was the last. The innkeeper locked the door the moment he was through it.
A sigh escaped her. She was far more exhausted than any of the inn she had whored in.
Without a word, Jakol put her leash back on her, bent over, unlocked the chain, and led her to the room. He dropped the leash the moment they were inside.
“You need to find a better place,” she told him once he faced her.
“I’ll look, but I doubt I’ll find one that is set up for unbranded slaves.”
Damn, he might just have a point. “Set,” she said in a very tired voice.
“I’ll leave this key for Cass if I am not back by open, but I need to go out and see about work.”
Rather than climbing into bed with Cass, she unrolled her bedroll and lay on the floor as soon as Jakol walked out the door.
***
A hand shook her awake. Opening her eyes, she saw Jakol. “They just opened and need you outside.”
He hit his son on the leg. “Get up and eat, lazy pig. You have the morning watching Ashes.”
“You find work?” Cass said in a groggy voice as he sat up.
“Day labor, shoveling shit in pre-dawn, nothing yet after sunrise. You can look for some after I get my rest.”
He grabbed her leash and led her out.
It was as he attached the shackle back around her ankle that she realized from the hostile stares that all the other girls had been left chained up out here but her.
Two girls chopped vegetables, and the Innkeeper came out with more and took what they had done as Jakol made his way to the room. Only three customers were inside, none had food, only ale.
Ashes shivered. Only two girls had men there to take bit when those customers demanded extras.
On his way to the kitchen with the chopped vegetables, the innkeeper addressed Cass. “You can have your slut do Tintin, the girl next post over if you like.” He pointed and both she and Cass looked over. “That may entice some bits from the early customers.”
Ashes’ heart raced. She had seen men force girls to have sex with each other, but had avoided it happening to her.
“Not a bad idea,” Cass replied with a huge grin plastered on his face.
Her stomach felt full of sand. Cass was exactly the type that loved forcing women to do each other.
Tintin, a woman in her late thirties, approached with a non-fake grin on her face.
Damn. No wonder the innkeeper suggested her. The slut liked girls. Tintin climbed on the table, lay back and spread her legs, grin getting larger. The bitch didn’t care that Ashes didn’t want to do this either. That even appeared to make this all the better to her from the look she gave Ashes.
Damn, damn, damn. Unless she was willing to use her magic and leave here, she had no choice but to not only eat her out, but do a good job of it or Cass would need to punish her for it to keep her cover. She stood there, tempted to light up her hand and demand that the chain be taken off.
“Up on the table, Ashes,” Cass made it an order.
Damn, she didn’t dare blow her cover; she would have no chance of getting out of this town. She climbed onto the table between the grinning girl’s legs.
Within a few minutes, a man was handing Cass a silver bit for her services. “You just keep at what you are doing. Just keep that ass up high for men to use,” Cass told her when she pulled back to do the man.
Fuming, she did as told.
Tintin grinned harder.
The man got behind her.
Ashes fought not to hate any of them. If she hated, she moved further into the black and she could not afford that.
But that grew more difficult as the afternoon when on. When not doing anything else, Cass made her do Tintin until someone wanted her to get them food or a drink.
The dinner crowd hit, Jakol came out and Cass left to look for work, handing Jakol more silver bits than she had gotten last night.
From that point on, the day was a repeat of the day before.
Ashes hated it, but she made the most money with Cass. That night, for the first time in years, she cried once she was sure they were asleep, not quite sure why this brought tears when other worse things had not.
The next day repeated the first. Day, followed day, followed day, and never did either man show concern for how she was handling everything. They worked her to the point of being mind-numb each day, so not once in that time did she open her book. The spells she had memorized started to fade.
In two weeks, she was helpless, with only her weakest spells and a few cantrips left. To keep her as their slave, they only need to keep her too tired to recover her magic, and she suspected both men knew that.
***
Two days short of three weeks, Jakol tied her hands behind her when he woke her instead of sending her out front with Cass.
“What is going on?” Ashes asked, her heart speeding up.
“Bows are done, and I have the final payment,” he said in a clipped voice. “I’ve arranged for Cass, I, and you to work in a caravan heading to Lowford. We’ll camp with them outside the town tonight and leave tomorrow.”
Despair turned to elation. She was getting out of this miserable place that they’d trapped her in.
He leaned down and whispered, “Mistress Gru arrived in town last night.”
Her blood turned to ice, and elation turned to utter terror.
Wordlessly and grim faced, Cass got out the armor neither man had worn since getting here, then started packing. He didn’t need to be reminded to make her pack the largest.
“So, you three are out of here?” the innkeeper said as they stepped out of the room and handed him his key back.
“Yep, just needed to stop and replace a few pieces, my idiot son lost gambling. Earned that last payment overnight,” Jakol said. Ashes had to admire how easily he lied. It also made her wonder what lies he told her.
Out the door, the noon sunlight pushed her terror back to the point that it no longer threatened to overwhelm her. She took a deep breath. Nor was she the only one.
With her leash in hand over his shoulder, Jakol headed further into the city, his other hand on his sword. A glance behind her showed Cass also had his hand on his sword as he followed, his eyes intently watching the crowd.
The three of them marched all the way to the other side of the town that way.
Arrows, arrow shafts, bolts, arrowheads, and feathers of every type filled the market stall he led her to.
“Got that last payment for you,” Jakol called to the man manning the stall and held up four silver sovereigns.
“Excellent.” The man grinned, then turned and picked up two fine bows out of a case and presented them to Jakol. Jakol passed one to Cass.
“If you ever need new ones, just let me know.” He held out his gnarled hand and Jakol put the coins in it.
Both men, Ashes noticed, seem to know more about bows than farmers usually did.
This time Cass took up her leash as they headed back; his eyes continued to dart about, looking for threats. They didn’t have far to go from there to reach the gate. Stepping out of the city gate, she felt a huge weight being lifted. Even Cass smiled, looking back at her. “Let’s untie you and get that leash off,” he told her
That brought out a smile. “Thank you, master.”
Cass raised an eyebrow. “That is the first time you have called me that.”
“I am sorry I wasn’t better behaved.”
It was strange, but now that they were outside the city, she meant it. They were getting her out of there. It would have been far easier to leave her there, accepting the innkeeper’s daily offer to buy her. They would be safer from this Mistress Gru without her. The uses of her body, and the coin they got for her favors, didn’t compensate them enough for that additional danger, and she knew it.
Jakol’s voice was much colder. “It can only be for today if we are to join the caravan. Tonight, if we join the caravan, you are to be chained with the other girls. For the entire trip, you will see very little of either of us. When traveling, we will be out front, and at each stop they will be setting up a market and we will be guarding that. By the time it closes, all any of us will want is our bed. Do we do it? The search has not let up.”
Looking further down the road, she saw guardsmen on horseback patrolling. She tried to keep her good cheer and resolve. But if the sorceress herself was here, she needed to be as beneath notice as she could. “Yes, master. I’ll do what it takes to get to Lowford and away from the hunters, even be a whore chained to a bit wagon.”
He smiled at her. “You should be safe there; Mistress Gru has no influence in Lowford. There’s even a price on her head there, as well as ones for many of those known to work for her.”
That was information Ashes had not had, and gave her hope.
A guardsman passed, sending a chill through her.