Richard Tuttle - Web of Deceit

“Well that can be a good thing,” replied Wicado. “I still remember the first time I made this trip many years ago. I was a young man then, about your age. It seems so long ago now.”

“Were you a slave at the time?” questioned Rejji.

“Oh heavens no,” Wicado answered. “My father was a Cortain in the Pikata army. I was an apprentice to the Bursar at the time.”

“You mean like me?” asked Rejji.

A sadness fell over Wicado’s face as he answered, “No, Rejji, not like you. You are a slave and will always be a slave. You can not be my apprentice even if I wanted you to be.”

“Then why did you purchase me?” queried Rejji. “I thought you saw promise in me to be your assistant.”

“I do see promise in you, lad,” Wicado stated. “You have more sense than most of those who reside in the mansion, but that does not mean you can become one of them. Why did I purchase you? I am not sure. I have had two apprentices in the years I have been Bursar, neither worked out. The last was Rymaka who was forced on me. It took over a year before I could convince our lord that he could not handle the job. I think I liked your spirit and cleverness. I guessed you were being helpful so that you would be selected, but your suggestion on Bakhai was a good one. It showed that you are a thinker and I guess I just wanted someone around who could think.”

“You mean you purchased me to be company for you?” Rejji pushed.

“Yes I guess that is why I purchased you,” chuckled the old man. “A terrible waste of estate funds if I do say so. And me the Bursar no less. Still your suggestion of Bakhai and your handling of Rymaka have proved to be profitable to the estate, so I can hardly complain.”

They ate in silence for a while and finally Wicado put his food down and looked at Rejji. “Were you just trying to get out of the cage, or is that girl that was selected someone special to you?”

“She is my friend,” admitted Rejji. “I did not want to be separated from her.”

Wicado nodded as Rejji’s thoughts turned to Mistake. He did not have the time to tell her he was leaving and now his thoughts grew dark about what she might do without him there to temper her rage.

“And Bakhai, is he your friend too?” the Bursar asked.

“I have only known him a short time,” responded Rejji, “but yes he is. He was already in the cage when Mistake and I were captured. I have not had friends my age before. My village was mostly older folk.”

“This must be a traumatic event for the three of you,” suggested the Bursar. “How is it that you are handling it so well?”

“I do not want to be a slave,” admitted Rejji. “None of us do. If I were not a slave I would be having the greatest adventure of my life with you. You have taught me much and I am eager to learn. You treat me well enough that at times I guess I forget that I am a slave. It saddens me when I hear someone say that I will always be a slave though. That is not right. I have done nothing wrong to be punished this way.”

“There is truth to what you say,” sighed Wicado. “I could say that I am sorry for purchasing you, but that would be a lie and I do not lie. Besides, you would have been purchased at the next estate anyway. The best I can offer is to try to make your life as carefree as possible. I will not be able to justify keeping you though if our lord comes up with another apprentice for me.”

“Is that going to happen?” Rejji asked.

“Eventually it must,” conceded the Bursar. “I am getting quite old and our lord has already mentioned the need for me to pass on my duties to someone younger. Only the lack of available talent has allowed to me to be without an apprentice for so long.”

“What will happen to me then?” queried Rejji.

“I don’t know,” admitted Wicado. “You will become Seneschal Trang’s problem. He will probably put you into the fields to harvest. Let us not dwell on such things and spoil this fine outing. Return to the bow and watch this great nation of Khadora pass before your eyes. Before nightfall we will pass Sintula, the city where the Lituk River meets the Khadora River.”

Rejji nodded and rose. He returned to the bow and hopped up onto a crate. He tried pushing the dark thoughts out of his mind, but it took quite a while before he was interested in the river again. The river had widened somewhat and Rejji saw a barge going upstream. It was being towed by a boat with many oarsmen. He had wondered how the barges were returned to their homes and now he knew. In the distance, Rejji began to see the tops of buildings appearing over the trees and his excitement grew. The river traffic increased dramatically and the river widened further.

Suddenly, the trees gave way and Rejji could see the city approaching. It was a huge city and there was a large bridge over the river. Rejji stared up at the bridge as they passed under it and he could hear the horses clomping over it. He saw where the Lituk River joined the Khadora River and the boat traffic was immense. He could feel the movement of the barge as its handlers tried to avoid smashing into other boats.

Rejji tried to peer at the city on both sides of the river, but the barge was moving too fast for him to dwell too long on any one sight. He was amazed at the huge number of people moving every which way. Both sides of the river were lined with long wharves and all sorts of commodities were loaded on the barges tied up there. The people of the city were all gaily dressed in a multitude of colors. He had never seen such a wealth of color in one spot before.

All too soon, the city swept by and Rejji was presented with banks of forest again. The sun dipped below the horizon and Rejji made his way back to the kitchen. He grabbed some bread and dried meat and ate it before climbing the ladder and finding an empty bunk to bed down in for the night.

Sometime during the night, Rejji was awakened by the sound of horns and he scampered down the ladder and out onto the deck. He saw three huge barges loaded with some type of ore and it looked as if the Pikata barge was going to ram them. The three barges were tied together and the Pikata barge turned almost sideways as the handlers fought to fight the currents. The river made a right turn as its direction was changed by the large mountains ahead and Rejji saw another city at the base of the mountains.

“Deep Bend,” said a bargeman standing behind Rejji. “Half the city is built into the mountain. They mine iron there. I guess they did not see us when they launched the triple barges.”

“Will we hit them?” Rejji asked.

“Not likely,” the man declared. “The skipper knows this barge well. It’s not the first time he has run into this sort of thing. The ore barges are pretty hard to handle. They usually like to know the river is clear before they launch, but I guess the darkness hid us well.”

Rejji stared at the city in the mountain and saw the lights all over the mountainside twinkling in the darkness of the night. He could hear voices drifting across the water, but he could not make out any of the words. There was a strong odor of sulfur hanging in the air and as soon as the barge straightened out and the danger was over, Rejji went back inside and crawled into his bunk.

When he awoke, Rejji met Wicado in the sitting room and they had their morning meal together. Wicado returned upstairs to his private room and Rejji ventured out on deck. There were mountains on both sides of the river and a bargeman told him that the river ran between the Bear Mountains and the Three Sisters. The banks here were almost all forest and there was little to see. With nothing to entertain him, Rejji’s mind returned to the Pikata estate and his friends.

He knew Mistake would not last very long under slavery, but he could not find a way out of their predicament. Both Lam and Wicado had made it sound like there was no way out, but Rejji refused to accept that. He knew if he worked on the problem, he would find a way. He just hoped that Mistake could hold out long enough.