“You must eat,” Claren said gently. “Do you want to die?”

  Claren held the spoon with the stew right under Mira’s nose. Mira had barely moved in the weeks since the beating, but even this did little more than make her nose twitch. Even the stew wouldn’t smell good here in this dungeon, though. The cell was rank with the smell of urine and rot. Claren held the goblet of water close to Mira’s lips, and even dribbled some water onto the side of her mouth, but Mira didn’t move. Only her raspy breath and a film of sweat showed she was alive. Her arm and leg were deformed and swollen, and had assumed a fierce, red color where the skin wasn’t yellow or even less healthy colors.

  Moving to the other side of Mira, Claren lifted her good leg. The smell of rotting meat assailed her. The skin under Mira’s ankle was blackened in a circle around an open gap, a place where there was no skin present. White tissue, bone, and the edges of muscle could be seen inside it. Claren gasped, having never seen sores this bad before. There was another one under Mira’s knee, and Claren could tell by the staining of the pallet that there was another sore under Mira’s hip. Mira barely even moved through the examination despite what must have been a great deal of pain. Claren put the back of her hand to Mira’s forehead and found that she was burning with fever.

  Claren stood, gathered up the food and water, then left. She made her way to the kitchen to drop off her burdens before going to see Mama in her sitting room. The guard outside opened the door for her without challenge. Four guards stood around the walls of the richly appointed sitting room. Mama lay on her favorite chaise, the red one with gilded legs, with a hookah exuding dreamweed smoke at her side. The place reeked of it. Claren approached to a safe distance, a little beyond the table with bottles of liquor, and waited for Mama to notice her. She stood that way for a couple of minutes, and finally had to cough a little bit to gain Mama’s attention. Mama then cracked open an eye.

  “What?” Mama asked hoarsely. She was too intoxicated to be offended.

  “I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do for the new one, Mama,” Claren said. “She stopped drinking water two days ago, and now she has a bad fever and terrible bed sores. She’s going to die soon.”

  “What a waste of gold. Damn that Bafu,” Mama said. “Did we kill him yet?” Mama asked the closest guard.

  “Yes, Mama,” he said. “He died publicly and slowly last week.”

  “Good. Find someone to dispose of it,” Mama said to Claren.

  “Yes, Mama,” Claren said.

  Claren turned and left. She went down to the main lounge of the Maidenhall and signaled to two of the bouncers there.

  “Mama sent me to dispose of something. I need your help,” Claren said.

  “What is it this time?” The fat one said.

  “I’m not cleanin’ up a pile o’ puke,” the skinny one said. “If that’s what this is, you can clean it up yourself.”

  “It’s not that,” Claren said. “It’s a dying slave.”

  “Why do we always gotta clean up the bodies?” the fat one said.

  “We’re just that lucky, I reckon,” the skinnier guard said as he got up.

  They followed Claren down the stairs to the basement cell, complaining the entire way, and looked at the pitiful wreck of the woman on the pallet.

  “We can’t even grab her by the arms and legs. One of them may fall off,” the skinnier guard said.

  “Looks like we should burn that pallet anyways,” the fat guard said. “Let’s just grab the whole thing.”

  “Reckon we should,” the skinnier guard said.

  The two men took handfuls of the pallet on each corner and hefted the whole pallet, carrying Mira’s almost deceased body up and out of the Maidenhall. Watching them leave, Claren shook her head sadly and went upstairs to her room to begin her duties of the evening. Having performed this chore before, the two bouncers took the pallet and Mira to the slave auction house and dropped the pallet to the ground outside the stout door. The fat guard pounded on the door with his fist.

  “Hey!” the fat guard shouted. “We got a seta chains for ya!”

  -----

  The last couple of weeks had been pretty busy even if no violent conflicts had erupted. The king had not sent men to question me or even to spy on Bran and Elle to my knowledge. I’d made another shield, this time for myself. It was pretty nice as far as shields went. I embossed a thin icosahedron in the center of it and gilded it with gold. I also gilded the edges of the shield for a little extra decoration.

  Beyond that, I helped set up Bran and Elle in their new house in Mithram. They were going forward with the design and groundwork of the new temple, and it turned out that it was a full-time job. Bran worked at the site of the old Temple of the Overgod hiring and overseeing the workers. He eventually got smart and created work parties of various sizes, depending on the work at hand, and appointed an overseer for each one. Elle worked with the engineers in the design and measurements of the finished temple. I mostly worked at the family smithy in Stonekeep, and ferried people back and forth between the two cities as needed. It turns out that the ability to teleport was a rare thing and was much in demand. Who knew? Sarcasm aside, I had to stay out of sight when moving people back and forth. I imagined I had made some powerful enemies in Mithram among those who were in league with the false priests and didn’t want to give anyone cause to suspect me considering I hadn’t made myself known to the king as a sorcerer yet. Despite his words, I didn’t think revealing myself was a good idea for fear of future reprisals against my family. The king might be doing the right thing, but that didn’t mean everyone else would.

  When I worked at the family smithy, production skyrocketed. I was able to complete finished products in a quarter of the time that it took Dortham, Elric or Darek. They didn’t take it personally, though I caught an envious glance now and then from someone who was sweating profusely over their forge. I think they minded less when I was shaping something but still managed to increase the heat of their forges without them having to pump the bellows. I just had to be careful that no one was looking when the forge fires suddenly flared.

  Though things were going well, I started to feel more and more like an outsider, even among my own family. Each of my brothers had a wife and all had children except Bran and Elle. They spent their free time with their little ones, and they were happier for it. Bran and Elle were in Mithram, busy with the building project, and I didn’t have anyone to pal around with. I began going to the library in Stonekeep at night for some reading and I often saw Whizzbang there. We had some good conversations to be sure, but he was often busy at his artificer’s shop working on some little tool or gadget or something. The times I did see him were pleasant, but they reminded me of Mira, too. Whizzbang had taken Mira under his wing and taught her many things about magic when she was younger. Though he was an ancient little Seeker, he and Mira were kindred spirits, and seeing one made me think of the other.

  The day was Sevenday, no one was working, and I’d just seen Whizzbang in the library. I was feeling kinda lonely, and despite my better judgement, I decided that I was going to reach out to Mira and see how she was doing. I’d accepted that she and I weren’t going to be a real married couple, and I decided I’d be the one to make a gesture of peace. It was the middle of the day, so I thought maybe she and her new boyfriend would like to get a meal at a tavern somewhere with me. It was worth a shot. I set my book back on the library’s central desk and sent it back to the shelves with a little pop of displaced air, then went to the throne room.

  Sitting in the Amber Throne, I felt a little apprehension about finding Mira, so I found Bran first. He and Elle were in Mithram standing beside some new stone steps that were set recently at their worksite. Elle had the book of God in her hands and was reading it to a crowd of people while Bran watched over her.

  What was I afraid of? I was only looking in on Mira with the intention of being friendly. I wasn’t peeping when she was likely to be kissing her boyfriend, after all. There was nothing wrong with trying to arrange a meal, I told myself. I focused my thoughts on finding Mira and the view I saw didn’t make sense. Before my eyes was a poor, naked, wretched woman with broken limbs who was laying on a soiled pallet and looked to be near death. There were two ruffians standing next to her banging on a stout door in the wall of a house that had no windows on the first floor. I widened my view, and it looked like the house had a courtyard built inside ten-foot-high stone walls. I had never known the Throne to give a false view before, but I thought maybe Mira had learned a trick to redirect my spying gaze to someone else.

  I cleared the view from my mind and tried to find Mira again. The Throne centered the view on the nearly dead woman again. Could it be? I moved the view closer, trying to get a better view of the woman’s face. Her nose was crooked, and her lips were cracked and split from lack of water, but beyond the bruising and a new scar on her cheek, I could finally tell that it was Mira that I was looking at. I gasped in shock. I brought the view back a little bit and looked at the way she was laying. Her ribs had been shattered along with her right arm and right leg. She was completely misshapen and barely breathing in shallow little gasps. She’d been fitted with an iron collar and a series of chains that bound her shackled wrists to her neck.

  It took me a moment to get over my shock. When I did, all I could feel was anger. It was the most powerful rage I’d ever felt, and somehow it manifested itself in making me cry. I was confused by how this could happen, but I let that go and went into action. I activated a portal to the dirt street a few feet from where she lay, then jumped up out of the throne, activating the mithril bracelet to change me into my armor as I sped towards the open portal. I arrived in the street as the two ruffians turned to look at the portal. I closed the portal at once, then scanned behind me to make sure there was no one sneaking up on me. There were only a few drunks staggering around. I was in some backwater town on the ocean if my nose was correct. The smell of brine and tar from piers was strong here. I turned back to the two ruffians.

  “What’s the meaning of this?!” I demanded.

  “Who the flamin’ hell are you?” the fat ruffian asked, reaching for a club.

  “Yeah! Who do you think you are to question us? We work for Mama,” the skinnier ruffian said. Clearly that meant something to him, though I couldn’t care less.

  “Was it Mama that put her in chains?” I asked, taking a step forward.

  The fat one spat on my sabaton to show his contempt. Clearly, they weren’t intelligent enough to see the threat of a fully armored warrior, and they didn’t even recognize the armor was made of adamantium. This fact alone would have given pause to anyone with any brains.

  “Piss off!” the fat one shouted.

  I summoned a powerful blast of concussive force and fire and hurled it straight into the fat ruffian’s belly. The strength of the blast hurled him against the wall and incinerated a third of his body. The skinnier ruffian, to his credit, tried to hit me with his wooden club. The blow rang off of my helm and didn’t even disturb the flight of the gems encircling it. I gave him the same treatment as I had the fat one. He barely even had time to suck in a breath before he was blown in three different directions across the street.

  Deathly concerned for Mira, I dropped to my knees to see if she still breathed. Our eyes met and she started trembling. As gently as I could, I took my cape off and covered her with it.

  “I’ve got you now, Mira,” I said. “We’re going to see Elle.”

  I activated a telekinetic spell and gently lifted her off the pallet. Mira started shaking harder. I touched her hair, the only part of her that wasn’t hurting, probably, and teleported the two of us to Mithram close to where Elle was still reading.

  “…the Spirit of peace,” Elle said before suddenly stopping. “What?” was all she could get out when she saw me levitating Mira’s body.

  The people gathered here had never seen someone appear suddenly like I just did and stepped back with various exclamations.

  “It’s Mira,” I said softly. “Please help her.”

  “Oh, Mira!” Elle said with tears already filling her eyes. She laid a hand on Mira’s head and prayed loudly. “Oh, Heavenly Father! Please heal the injuries of my friend! Please, God!”

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  From Elle sprang a golden light all around her with her hand glowing the most brightly of all. That light spread quickly over Mira, and where it glowed, healing power flowed. Under the cape Mira’s skin mended and changed back into a healthy color and her bones moved under her skin. Even the bones that had fused in random ways straightened. Mira stopped shaking and took deeper breaths as she levitated there. She moved slowly at first, stretching a little, then opened her eyes.

  “Elle?”

  “Yes,” Elle answered. “Are you all right now? What happened?”

  Mira tried to reach toward Elle, but her shackles rattled. I stepped forward and examined them. The collar and shackles were held in place with rivets, and I carefully channeled a small amount of fire to melt the rivets, then bent the shackles back and off one at a time. The chains fell off and hit the cobblestones with a rattle. Mira gathered my silken cape to herself, more firmly covering herself with the fabric like it was a towel. I gently set her down on the cobblestone street. Elle knelt, and she and Mira embraced, both crying freely.

  The crowd had all seen the healing take place with their own eyes, and they talked softly amongst themselves as the two friends held each other. Many wondered what it meant, and they asked what manner of person Elle was. For my part, I stood by and waited. I desperately wanted to know how this could have happened, but I knew Mira wouldn’t tell me if I asked. With my fury growing inside me as I thought about it, I waited as patiently as I could, trying not to draw any attention to myself. The two eventually parted, and I could see that although the divine magic had healed every injury, Mira was rail thin and had sunken eyes as if she had been starving for weeks.

  “Oh, Mira,” Elle said. “What happened?”

  Mira collapsed back to the ground, crying bitterly. When she was finally able to speak, she said, “He drugged me… He sold me to a horrible man…” whereupon Mira was reduced to her tears again.

  The anger I felt had my eyes running with tears again, and I couldn’t help it. I wasn’t sobbing, but I couldn’t stop my eyes from flooding over for some reason. Nor could I get a finger or gauntlet into my visor to wipe the tears away. Somehow that anger had turned to tears. Looking down, I realized that I had lightning running up and down my armor, and I didn’t even voluntarily summon it. My hands were closed in fists, and people were withdrawing to what they felt was a safe distance as they noticed my demeanor.

  Then I had just one thought.

  This was an injustice that I could do something about.

  Now.

  The memory of that dirty, ramshackle street was etched into my mind now, and I teleported back there, appearing right beside a group of men armored mostly with chainmail shirts and holding various weapons. The biggest of them held a drunk up by his collar, who was yelling at the lot of them.

  “…told ye! The guy just blew them apart with fire! He was…” The drunk stopped abruptly, having caught sight of me behind the group of soldiers. “He’s right there!” The drunk man exclaimed, pointing at me and frantically trying to escape.

  The center of the group had a few people who stood out. One was a larger than normal soldier who had a steel breastplate over his gambeson. Most of the people were facing him, so he must be the leader, I thought. Near him was an old woman wearing thick necklaces and bracelets, who had four men that were obviously her bodyguards. They stood a little apart from the bigger man and his soldiers. There was another man there with two guards who caught my attention. He had a slight aura of magic about him, he was well dressed, and he was holding a wooden doll of some kind. When he saw me, his eyes widened in fear immediately. Everyone turned to look at me as I stood about ten feet away. Some were obviously wondering how I’d gotten there without them noticing.

  “All right, you bastards,” I said as I drew my mace. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

  The fury in me was overwhelming. I channeled as much magical power into myself as I could hold and sent some power in the form of concussive force into my mace, which made it appear like it was surrounded with a spherical, pulsing heat wave. I brought up my new shield, dropped into a fighting stance, and charged straight into the group. The first man I batted aside with my shield as I swung at the next man in front of me with my mace. He held up his arming sword in defense, but I swung hard enough that I swatted his sword aside and crushed his skull in the same blow. After that, it was a wild melee with men trying their best to bring me down, but none of their blows would even scratch my armor. With the magical power I held and the raw, physical strength I wielded, I struck down one man after another. It was pure unbridled violence, and that was the way I wanted it. I was beyond reason. I fought with everything I had.

  There were eight men down on the ground at my feet when I suddenly stopped moving in mid swing. There was some sort of force holding my body in place. Then I knew. It was the weakling wizard with the doll. As the remaining men each hit me with their best shots, I realized I should have dealt with the spellcaster first. I couldn’t move my limbs, but I didn’t need to do so in order to summon my magic. I focused my will into a circular concussive blast all around me and let loose. My assailants flew in all directions as the magic blasted them away from me. What windows these buildings had were blasted inward from the force of the spell. Cries of pain went up all around me.

  I suddenly had control of my limbs again, and I turned until I saw the well-dressed wizard. His eyes changed from pain to fear when our gazes locked. He began to bring up the doll, pointing it at me where he was kneeling. I channeled fire and force, and loosed it on him, sending it right through the doll and into his panicked face. The force and fire blew him apart and smashed a hole in the stone wall of his house behind him.

  “Get him!” the leader yelled as he charged me.

  The leader, a very strong man, ran right into me, trying to overbear me. He bounced off of me like he hit a wall, then fell to the ground. His men, who were beginning to charge as well, stopped in their tracks. I could see they were about to break and run, and I didn’t want that. I wanted to kill every last one of them for what they did to Mira. I targeted the ones furthest away first, sending spears of fire through them, one after another. A few were able to turn and take a few steps away before I got to them and sent them to the hells. The leader picked himself up and, to his credit, actually yelled a battle cry and tried to hit me with an arming sword. I quickly blocked with my shield, which snapped his sword in half. He was still staring at the remains of his sword in disbelief when I brought down a heavy blow to his helm, knocking him down into the dirt. The blow itself had reshaped his head and neck, but I then summoned a blast of force that crumpled his breastplate and smashed his torso a handspan into the ground.

  The street was empty of the living. The drunks had run away, and I’d lost track of the old woman and her guards in the brawl. The wizard with the doll had been trying to get into the stone building before abandoning that tactic in favor of using the doll before he died, so I decided I would check that place first. It turned out to be a jail of sorts. They had a smithy where they made chains and iron collars and they had cells on the first level where they kept their victims. It looked like the yard outside had chairs all around and a bar on the side where they served drinks. Mira must have been sold to the wizard with the doll, and he must have resold her here. The smith and a few others were cowering on the second floor of the building, and I showed them no mercy. Anyone who enslaved others, even if they were just servants of the slavers, were still part of the evil done to their fellows. I had special contempt for the smith for obvious reasons. He’d been given a great gift of knowledge, and he used it for vile purposes. I found a strongbox in the building as I was clearing place out. Not caring if it actually made the journey, I cast a teleport spell on the box, sending it to my old room at the Smith house. I’d find out later if the box survived.

  I exited the building through the hole I’d put in the wall, and an arrow made a pinging sound as it hit my cuirass. I cast a spell of protection from missile weapons, the first trick I ever learned, in case one of them got lucky with a shot into my eye slits. The archers were in the largest structure in the town, a stone keep in the middle of town, and they fired from both the arrow slits on the third floor and from the crenellations on the roof above. Well protected from their arrows, I focused my will on a flying spell and flew straight up above the slave auction house, then loosed the strongest blast of fire and force I could summon straight down into the structure. A deafening explosion rocked the town and pieces of the building flew in all directions. The archers suddenly had second thoughts about attacking me and disappeared inside their keep.

  It wouldn’t save them.

  I flew closer to the keep so I had an easier shot into an arrow slit, then I hurled a ball of fire inside. The turret exploded, hurling debris all over the street below. The walls must have been pretty thin. I methodically flew around the building and blasted it to flaming pieces one section at a time. When I was done, nothing moved within. I could hear sounds from the harbor, though. Thinking that maybe the jeweled old woman had a part in this, and that she may be trying to escape by sea, I decided to fly over to the docks and see for myself.

  There was a panic below when they saw me coming. Men scurried this way and that, all trying to lower their sails and depart. I had been to every port city in the world, and I knew the differences between trading vessels and warships. Every one of the twelve ships below were sleek and fast, and as I got closer, I could see that they all flew the black flag of pirate ships. Pirates. Of course. This was the safe and secure home base of pirates. It was a place they could come and indulge themselves after stealing, slaving and killing. My anger burned hot again, and I vented it on the blackhearts below. I hurled fiery destruction at every one of their ships and made sure every single one of the men died. From my high vantage point I could see when they dove overboard, and I hurled a ball of lightning into the water after them whenever they did. Lightning was particularly effective in water, although only in a small radius, but it paralyzed the men and made them drown. It was a fitting punishment for them.

  It took several minutes to destroy the ships and set the docks on fire. By that time, I could see people running through town towards the gates in the palisade walls. I flew over for a closer look and saw that many of the people running wore slave collars like Mira had been forced to wear. I let them go, even the ones who didn’t have the collars. The guilt or innocence of each person would have to be sorted out later.

  Then a familiar flash of color caught my eye. It was the old woman with the jewelry and her bodyguards along with several others, both men and women. Two of the men carried a strongbox between them and jogged close to the old woman. I would have bet anything that this woman was instrumental in the slave trade. She was definitely rich, and therefore a powerful person in the pirate town, and that told me she was a big part of the problem for the better people who lived here. If there were decent people living here, that is. The group with the jeweled woman had just gotten to the town gates and were passing through to get to the fields surrounding the town. I wasn’t about to let them get away. I flew over to the gate at a pace a dragon would be proud of and hurled a ball of fire right into the midst of them. The ball exploded in a brilliant flash, consuming the people at once. The strongbox rolled up the slope of the crater a little way, then slid down to the bottom. I left it smoldering where it lay.

  From my vantage point above, I couldn’t see anyone that was holding a weapon. Believe me, I looked hard, too. I circled above the town for a while, then I walked the streets for a bit. There was no one else about. The only ones left alive were the people who lived close to the edge of town who had the good sense to run for the hills when they saw trouble and the slaves with collars that I had let run free. I decided to check the larger businesses to see if any slaves had been left chained there while the owners fled.

  The first place I checked, according to the sign, was the Golden Showers Gaming Hall. After a cursory search of the building, I found there was no one here. The gaming tables were located on the first and second floors, and there were many places people could go to drink or indulge in other pursuits. There were herbs and powders in little packets everywhere, in many cases scattered across the floor next to overturned tables and wine goblets. The upper floor was devoted to living areas that were deserted. I left the building and channeled fire into the first floor until the entire place was certain to burn to the ground.

  I went to a place called Mama’s Kitchen next. I found that there were several women and even little boys and girls who were chained to beds by their collars in the upper floor of the place. One by one, I popped the rivets holding their collars on and set them free. Some of them ran from the buildings, but some wandered to the kitchens. To my eye, each of them looked traumatized in some way, and it broke my heart.

  The next place I checked was Mama’s Maidenhall. I found more of the same here, so I set them all free. I’d bet anything that the “Mama” who owned this place was the jeweled woman I killed at the gate, and I decided to confirm it before I did anything else. I held an older woman with my gaze as I freed her.

  “Who owns this place?” I asked her.

  “Mama does,” she answered timidly.

  “Describe her,” I said a little too harshly.

  “Old hag. Lots of gold chains and gaudy clothes. She and her guards left already,” the woman said.

  “I see. You’re free to go,” I said a little more gently.

  This “Mama” was not a good person at all, and I knew without doubt I did the world a favor by removing her from it. The people I freed soon stood outside in the street, rubbing their necks and looking to me as I walked out of the building.

  “Does anyone have any family either here or in a neighboring town?” I called out.

  The children hung their heads, and the women looked away. Only one young woman spoke up.

  “This is the only town on the island, sir,” she said. “I’m from Hagar’s Hold. I have family there, but I can’t get there now that the ships are all burned.”

  “I have a way that I can get you there,” I said. “I won’t leave you here.”

  “I lived in Arrowhead,” a little boy said. “Can you take me there?”

  “Yes, I can,” I said. “I’ll bring each of you to the city of your origin. In fact, give me a moment.”

  I teleported to the crater at the gate and picked up the charred strongbox. I teleported back to the street where I was a moment ago and set the chest down. I broke open the chest and saw that it was full nearly to the brim with silver and gold coins. The children looked hopeful. A couple even smiled. With what they had surely been through, I was surprised that they still had the ability to smile. I drew a circle on the ground around five feet in diameter with the head of my mace, then put it back on my belt.

  “I’m going to disappear with each of you, and I’ll take you to the city you name. I plan to reappear inside this circle after each trip, so please don’t step into it or I’m likely to hurt you when I reappear. I’m also going to give each of you ten gold coins before we go. It doesn’t make up for what’s been done to you, but it’s a start. While I’m gone, no one touches that chest or its contents, or I’ll know. I think you know what I’ll do to thieves.”

  The children shuffled their feet uncertainly.

  I looked to the girl from Hagar’s Hold and reached out a hand. “Come. Is there anyone else from Hagar’s Hold?”

  Several children and two young women came forward. “Each of you can get your ten gold coins now. Good. Now hang onto me,” I said.

  Because of my travels when tempting the Xerith, I knew my way around most towns in Aldon well enough to teleport there without using the keep’s portals. Just to make sure it was safe, I used the far-seeing magic I’d learned to scout ahead before teleporting. When they were all touching parts of my armor, I teleported to the docks at Hagar’s Hold. They looked around in amazement, then just ran off. I teleported back to Kraken’s Rock and took the next group to Arrowhead.

  After several trips to various cities all along the southern and eastern coast of Aldon, I finally took the last group. When I reappeared in Kraken’s Rock, I saw that the chest was nearly empty. I sent it via a teleport spell to Bran and Elle’s bedroom in a corner where no one was likely to be standing.

  Then I took another look around the town and burned all of the gaming halls, brothels, and taverns. I thought about those who ran off into the woods, but there was nothing I could do to help them right now if they were slaves, nor could I determine their guilt if they were slave owners. I decided to check on them tomorrow, and to free them and return them someplace where they had family if they were slaves.

  For right now, though, there was something else I had a mind to do.