Role

Chapter 1

Rodaidh watched as the slave trader rode off with those who had met them, as
Zanzar had arranged. Zanzar was good at these things, he had learned that
well over time. The trader would head south for two days, then turn west,
avoiding the mountains, and after two more days, on camels by that point,
start back north, to enter Hamsah Mutazz through the desertward gates. The
slave trader was arrogant, young, too aware of how handsome he was, but he
had come to them specifically for this undertaking, and he was greedy and
ambitious which was good for their purposes. He was to be paid only when
they were done. He was not going to run off. It was possible he would
attempt betray them, but unlikely. Neither Rodaidh nor Tileza knew the
trader, but the Zanzar had ordered them to meet him and also hired him for
this, and if you trusted no one you could not do very much in the world, and
they were doing something significant now, or hoping to. Well, yes. Murders
of this sort did tend to be significant, he thought, amusing himself. He did
not laugh, he did not laugh much, but he nearly smiled in the coming dark as
he and the Shadow Lord turned to walk through the olive groves back to the
Palace.

Rodaidh was glad to be ashore. He had spent a great deal of time at sea since
killing his captor and escaping the Aquavia Montage, but he was happier on
land. It was a simple truth. He had been born inland, well away from the
coast. That ought to have offered protection against what had happened to
him. You did not necessarily live your life in the ways that made you
happiest, of course. He had not been happy killing his enslaver, but it had
occurred to him that he had been a slave for longer than he had been free,
and that had come to seem... unacceptable. A kind man who had bought you at a
slave market and had taught you skill with ropes and knives, then had you
trained with weapons to guard him, was still a man who owned you and made you
do things he wanted done, whenever he wanted them done. Fixing the riggings
of the circus ship, balancing high on the yard arm in gale winds on rough
seas was fine for someone else to do, but Rodaidh was meant for a better
life. Things were better since he had come aground and said the words of the
Blood Oath. Listening to the teachings of the monks of his Lord Destuvius
and applying them to his daily choices had proven out so far. There was so
much to gain now and so little to lose in doing so.