Slave Girl 2: Chapter 131 (Patreon)

Into the clearing comes a haggard looking Gyasi along with Quique, a trio of the local constabulary, and a bespectacled man in a yellow and orange robe. I take some measure of relief from the fact that Amphion had been found and looked to be in charge of this group.

“Master Quintilianus.” The stubbly faced and world weary investigator says as he approaches the crime scene. “I was hope not to see you again.”

“The feeling was mutual, sir.” I say as Rosa, Colly and I all get to our feet.

“Collywaddle?” The robed man raises a curious brow. “What are you doing here?”

“Hello Mathter Bellicuth.” She says then looks the sheet under which Aristocles lay. “I wath thold to thith man.” Her voice trembles as she struggles to hold her emotions in check. She then looks to me and says. “Thith is Mathter Bellicuth. He wath an apprentithe to Mithtreth Lydia until rethently.”

I give a slow nod, receiving her message loud and clear. It wasn’t simply an introduction, but a subtle warming. This man was close to the one person in Grumentum that posed Rosa her greatest threat. With a tale of magic and murder I shouldn’t have been surprised that they sent a mage. His presence worried me more than anything else.

“Gods bless.” I say to him with a respectful bow of my head. “I wish our meeting could have been under better circumstances.”

“Mmm.” He hums, showing little interest in the three of us as his attention is drawn toward the fallen minotaur.

As Gyasi and Quique step up to join us I shake their hands and ask them how they were doing. Like the rest of us they were battered, shaken, exhausted but getting through.

As the sky slowly brightens with the rising sun we endure what is a surprisingly indifferent yet gruelingly tedious and repetitive few hours of questions, statements, and lots of waiting around. Quietly I thank the gods that the Amphion seemed to accept our story just as we laid it out and I thank Lucas as well once an officer returned to confirm that all of the various accounts aligned with each other. Gyasi and Quique had gone with the official and remained at Horatius’ to get some much needed rest and recuperation.

My fight with the northman didn’t phase him a bit, if anything he almost seemed to expect that there would be trouble at some point between the old slave and I. He was simply thankful that it wasn’t me laying there dead as I would have meant more paperwork for him. With the story established Amphion was incurious about digging further. I believe that our grief over our fallen friends, Colly’s in particular, was enough to convince him that we’d been a victim of circumstance. It also helped that the grotesque wounds suffered by the deceased, corresponding with blood patterns on the statue, would have been difficult to replicate by our hand.

Ninety percent of those those hours of interrogation and investigation were spent on Aristocles. They were barely interested in the death of Toke beyond the loss of property, which either Horatius or I would now have to compensate his owner for. I was offended on his behalf, though not surprised. My proud mentor being treated as nothing more than a belonging only reinforced my desire to leave this Empire before my daughter could be born and registered.

The wizard Bellicus on the other hand was extremely curious, though his focus was entirely on the magic that had been involved in our tragic night. Who died and why was of no importance to him, he was simply here to look into the mystical forces that had been uncovered. With incantations of detection he studies the statue, the platform, the central depression where the copper plate was once housed, as well as the sword that had been formed from my father’s dagger. He was very disappointed not to be able to discover even a fading trace of magic in the area beyond a weak resonance around Rosa’s bracelet. Despite my warnings he even goes so far as to dip the sword into some of drying blood pooled on the platform. My warnings were not necessary though as the only effect was to muck the strange blade with stale gore. He declares the weapon magical in origin but magic no longer. Whatever happened during the transformation had spent every ounce of energy the item might have once had. He does ask me if he might purchase the object, but I refuse saying that it still had sentimental value to me.

The mage would have done more but with Amphion and his men growing ever more keen to wrap this scene up and head home he finally gives his clearance as the sun reaches its zenith directly over the break in the canopy. We’d been in this damnable place for twelve hours! It felt like a lifetime.

Aristocles’ body is loaded onto a cart that had been summoned from town. Word had been sent that Toke’s owner wanted nothing to do with him beyond compensation and so his remains were left where it lay as just so much trash for me to dispose of being on my property as it was.

When the group is finally about to take their leave Amphion turns to us and says. “Come along, slave.”

Instinctively Colly clutches to my leg. Laying my hand on her head I ask him. “What do you wish of her?”

“I wish for her to come along.” Amphion snaps, even his patience fraying at this point. “She will be held in his estate until the will can be sorted.”

“Of course.” I say, knowing this was not a time to push my luck. Kneeling down I give my goblin friend a kiss on her head. “You okay with this, Colly?”

She signs and nods, her eyes drifting the cart that carried the covered corpse of her master. “Yeah. I’d…I’d like to walk him home again.”

“Aw Colly.” I give her a good, hard hug. “Be strong. We’ll come see you as soon as we can, okay?”

“Okay.” She nods as tears well in her eyes once again.

Rosa, looking more drawn out and tired than I’d ever seen her, then hugs her as well and whispers some soft words of support into her pointed ears. Gathering herself as best she could Colly walks to stand beside the cart and lay a hand on its side.

“You may be a fine citizen, Quintus.” Amphion says, her hard eyes narrowing. “But I hope to never see you again.”

“You are a fine and fair officer, Amphion.” I say. “And the feeling is mutual.

“One moment.” Straightening his glasses Bellicus looks up at me and says. “I will be running this incident by my teacher. She may have follow up questions for you or may wish to investigate the scene. Is there a time that she might come calling on you if this is the case?”

“Hah.” I let out a humorless laugh. Even after everything we’d done this wretched ordeal might not yet be over. “Thanks to this I am unemployed. I’ve got all the time in the world.” I say. “But we need time to grieve. Tell Lydia that we will visit her soon to discuss this. No more than three days. Tell her…” I pause. “Tell her that our faith in her is unwavering and that we would happily put our trust in her judgment concerning this affair.”

“You know her?” He says, impressed.

“We do.”

“Excellent! I will tell her.” He smiles, blind to the heavy emotions weighing on Rosa and I. “This is perhaps not an ideal time, but if you could spare an inch or two off of your demon’s horns I would be very…”

“You’re right.” I cut him off. “This is not an ideal time.”

“Of course.” He steps back. “But if you’re ever interested I pay by the uncia.”

I grit my teeth and swallow the words I wanted to say, instead settling on. “Noted.”

“Excellent. Excellent.” He turns to join the rest. “I look forward to our future business, Quintus.”

Then, at long last, they leave the clearing to head off back toward town leaving just me and my Lady alone again. As their noises recede through the trees I hear Rosa sigh and feel her slump heavily into my side. Without needing to keep up appearances for outsiders she gives into the exhaustion she’d been so bravely holding at bay.

“Rosa?” I stroke my hand down her arm.

She looks up at me, her skin pale and her eyes tired and devoid of that lively sparkle I normally saw in them. “I’m okay.” She fibs as she pats my stomach with a trembling hand. “Let’s get my boy to bed, hm?”

I was not usually one to disobey, but…today was different. There was somebody who needed looking after even more than me. “No, my Lady.”

Picking her up under the arms I lift her onto my body. She offers no resistance, instead she naturally wraps her arms around my neck and grips to my hips with her knees. I could feel the wariness in her weak and shaking limbs. I was beaten and tired, dog tired, but the energy that Rosa had harnessed to decide our big battle had drained her in not only body but spirit as well. Her exhaustion reached right down to her soul.

Laying her weary head on my shoulder she whispers. “Oh Quin.”

“I’ve got you, my Lady.” I wrap my arms around her, one beneath her bottom and one around her back, and hold her tight. “Rest now.”

“Yes…Masterrr…” As her voice trails off I feel her small, lithe body go limp in my arms.

Tenderly I kiss her shoulder. “Good girl.”

Before I leave I look to Toke’s still form looking alone yet peaceful in the dappled forest glade. I say to him quietly. “You are not forgotten, my friend. You will never be forgotten. Be at peace.”

This evening I would build him a pyre and let the flames take his essence into the heavens as I prayed that a North wind finds the rising embers to carry him home. But for now I had to find some rest myself lest I pass out on my feet. With my unconscious Lady in my arms I leave this place of death to carry us home.

Chapter 132