Free Siege of Pailtar by Robyn Wideman Page A

group challenge wouldn’t be so bad after all.
     

 
    8
    Morthon
    “I THOUGHT YOU SAID WE were going to Balta?” asked Severa.
    Everet turned sideways in his saddle so he could look at her. “Yes, we are going to Balta. But first, we need to go to Pailtar. We need safe passage to Balta and we need to arrange it so that we aren’t hanged the moment we arrive.”
    Severa looked ahead, she could see they were fast approaching the end of the grasslands. She sighed wistfully,“I do hate crossing the desert.”
    “Bad memories?” Everet knew the Severa, much like himself, had a dark past. The past was something they did not often discuss. Both preferred to enjoy each other in the moment and try to forget the darkness behind them.
    “I was a slave girl the last time I crossed the desert,” she said in a soft voice. Her mind was elsewhere, visions of her previous voyage filled her mind. “I was just a young girl when I was captured. Slave traders attacked our village. The men were sold to mines and landowners. Women were sold to them as well, to the usual assortment of whorehouses and the like. Children were kept and trained by the traders, I was being trained to be a concubine for a rich merchant, but I had a stubborn streak and was always trying to escape. Finally, they gave up and sold me to pirates. We sailed for weeks until we arrived in Pailtar. From Pailtar we were taken to Meron. We travelled in these hideous carts, slowest mules known to man. I swear it took two weeks to cross that god forsaken desert. I’m pretty sure I still have splinters from the carts. It was not a pleasant journey.”
    Everet was not surprised by Severa’s story. When he had first met her she was working as a barmaid and had been part of a plot to blackmail Bryant Bingham. When he first laid eyes on Severa, or Shelley as she had known as back then, he had recognized a kindred spirit. Someone who would do whatever it took to survive. You don’t get that look without going through Hell once or twice. “How did you end up working as a barmaid?”
    “Martel Briggs. He purchased me from the slavers. Martel was rich, old and single. He would purchase young slave girls and they would work for him. For the slave girls it was a pretty good deal. Martel didn’t abuse us, he allowed girls to choose how they worked for him. All the girls would work in the brothels for a year or two. The ones who wanted could stay after that. Others were given the choice of working in one of his pubs. Some girls would rather work on their backs instead of scrubbing floors and washing piss pots. I was cute and sassy enough to be given a serving wench job.”
    “What happened to Martel?”
    “Martel caught the eye of Connard Bingham. Connard saw Martel’s operation and thought it should be his. His thugs murdered Martel and took over operations. Connard would come and oversee things occasionally, test the merchandise so to speak. When Connard’s men started running things, blackmail became one of their favorite past times. Bryant Bingham was not the first man that I helped Connard blackmail.”
    “Such a bad girl!” said Everet. “I thought you were such a sweet and innocent girl. I shall never look at you the same.” He was teasing her of course, Everet cared not what was in her past. Nothing she had done would compare to the horrors of his past.
    Severa laughed. Everet’s bad girl comment was ironic. “You wouldn’t have looked twice at me if I was a sweet and innocent girl. You like bad girls. Now that you know some of my deep dark secrets are you going to tell me anything about yourself? It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to.”
    Everet looked carefully at Severa. He had never told anyone about his past, but he had never had anyone one he trusted. “Are you sure you want to know? I’ve done things that make men like Connard and his thugs look like angels.”
    “Nothing you say will make me change the way I feel, Everet. You don’t have to