Chapter Fifteen — Part 2

“Don’t worry, mother, he’s no match for me. Let’s listen before we act.”

The conversation between the two had just begun. “So what do you need, Roan? I don’t have any women on this trip, only a few boys.”

“I prefer women.” Roan said.

“Ah yes, a lady’s man. You do have a taste for the young ones.” The Lenitian trader said.

Roan, a man in his late fifties, took the trader by the skin of his chest and hefted him off the ground. No easy task, the trader was a portly man weighted down with armor, weapons, and tools. His yellow skin looked sickly to me, though perhaps only because the specimen in question seemed so sallow.

“I need a tester on sight to show my clients that the product they’re buying is pure. A girl makes a perfect product test.” Roan looked at the sorry group of slaves, tossing the trader to the dirt.

He took the youngest boy from the crowd, and set him aside. Guards were posted on both sides of the boy. By some strange coincidence, the boy was the one Barrot had asked us to reclaim.

“A drug tester.” Tiffany whispered. “He didn’t have one of those when I worked for him.”

I hissed, unable to contain myself. “We need to strike now, while the trader is on the ground and vulnerable, and while Roan has his hands full.”

I moved into the clearing, looking at both men with calm regard. I was ready to kill them; I could feel the evil Jodiah had unintentionally created so many years ago. I could feel something else, a whisper of Tester in my soul, calling for justice without mercy. Tiffany had risen with me, hands at her weapons. She spoke before I could, ruining my usual opening phrase.

“You’ve gotten old and wrinkled.”

He recognized Tiffany almost instantly. “It’s you, isn’t it?”

Tiffany smiled that innocent smile she had been trained so well to use with men like Roan. “It’s been a long time.”

“A long time, indeed.” Roan said.

“The woman with Tiffany is Captain Bit, a pirate who despises slave trade.” The Trader said.

“What brings you here now, and with such poor company?” Roan asked, his entire personality shifting.

“It’d be wise if you spoke of my daughter with more respect. I must ask a favor of you. Fulfill your promise to me.”

“Promise?” Roan scowled, then smiled. “I can’t believe you’re serious.”

“What promise?” I asked, curious.

Roan, all poise and no grace, looked at me with his cunning, lustful eyes. “Years ago — after I had thoroughly pleased myself at your mother’s expense, I lay there, talking nonsense. I promised her that someday, when I had enough money, I would leave the business.”

“The money you got for me could’ve bought you a small country.” Tiffany said. “I didn’t know that then, but I do now. So why don’t you keep you’re promise?” I wondered how she could talk to him so calmly.

Roan spoke to the trader first. “My guards will finish heckling with you over the price of the boy. My old friend and I have to catch up on some old business.” He approached Tiffany, and I knew his intentions. I wanted to claw his eyes out right there.

“So,” he asked her, “Did you raise your daughter to be a whore like you?”

Tiffany’s teeth flashed a bright smile. “Of course not. It would be futile to raise a pirate to be a whore.”

Tiffany backed into the bushes, Keeping just out of reach of Roan. I tried to follow her and protect her, only to be blocked by two guards. Before I knew what was happening, the guards had me pinned to the ground, and both of them were trying to get my armor loose.

“Wisdom.” I said under my breath.

My armor broke away, leaving me vulnerable to their touch . . .

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