The Forestwalker

by Sarah Wheeler

Table of Contents

Chapter 9

What he was seeing was impossible. Gareth stared in wonder at the clearing full of the delicate little plants with white flowers. He could have sworn that dreamlace only grew in the northern forests; it was a shade plant that only grew under very specific conditions. He bent down and picked one of the tiny plants, studying the beautiful web of veins that made up the flower's leaves and petals. Looking up and around, he realized that the trees here were much taller and older than in the parts of this forest he'd been in before. They shaded the entire clearing, bathing it in dappled green light. Gareth slumped wearily to the ground amid the beautiful patches of flowers, feeling like he'd just found his way home.

Leaning back against the trunk of one of the trees, he closed his eyes and breathed deeply, letting the familiar smells and sounds of the forest wash over him and clear his head. When he opened his eyes ten minutes later, one memory of the previous night's events had floated to the surface of his thoughts. In three days – well, two, now – the bandits would be camping in a very specific spot in the woods where a cache of supplies was waiting for them. And at this moment, he was sitting in a field full of the most potent sleeping drug his people had ever found. When dreamlace was dried and ground up, it became a completely tasteless and odorless powder, a few grains of which would knock a full-grown man out for half a day. Gareth got to his feet and began to carefully pick the dreamlace, making sure not to take too much so that the plant could continue to flourish here in this secluded sanctuary. He laid the delicate plants on a bed of leaves in the top of his nearly-empty reed basket, closed it tightly, and headed purposefully back in the direction of the bandits' trail. He had found their weakness, and his miracle. All hope was not yet lost.

He found the bandits again easily, then cut a wide berth around them and came out onto their trail approximately half a mile ahead of them. As he broke into a fast walk, he went over all the elements of his brilliant plan in his head. He would get to their special campsite before them – hopefully almost a day before – dry and powder the dreamlace he had gathered, then drug their barrel of spirits. It was the only thing the bandits ate or drank that Kastor and Shanna didn't – Kastor and Shanna weren't even allowed to touch it – and it was guaranteed that all the bandits would consume a substantial quantity of it. He thought of nothing else as he headed through the forest along the trail without stopping. He ate and drank while on the move, he didn't stop to rest but only slowed his pace when he got tired, and he continued to travel even after the sun went down, trusting to his instincts and his experience traveling through forests to keep him on the right path.

By the time he found the right clearing in the early hours of the next day, he was ready to collapse, but he kept his wits about him long enough to lay the dreamlace out in a patch of sunlight in the woods on the edge of the clearing to finish drying before curling up in a pile of dead leaves under a tree and falling fast asleep. He woke up around noon to find that the dreamlace was dry, and he powdered it between two smooth stones. Then, he searched the clearing until he found the bandits' supply cache, which was cleverly hidden in a hollow under the roots of one of the trees on the edge of the clearing. He made sure to disturb nothing else as he pulled out the bung in the top of the large barrel of spirits and poured all of the dreamlace powder into the barrel. The amount he had gathered was enough to knock out a dozen grown men for a week; it was overkill, but it was Gareth's hope that it would take the bandits a while to determine what had been drugged, which would slow them down if they tried to follow their escaped captives. Not to mention, he wanted to make absolutely certain that all the bandits fell asleep tonight and stayed that way long enough for him to rescue Kastor and Shanna.

Once he had drugged the spirits, resealed the barrel, and closed up the supply cache, leaving everything exactly as he had found it, he erased all evidence of his presence in the clearing, then headed directly north through the forest in the direction of the road they had been traveling down before the bandit attack. He found the road, then traced his steps back towards the bandits' clearing until he found a second clearing not far from the road. There, he set down his bundles, rolled out two blankets for beds, then opened up the wooden box and pulled out his chains, their key, and Shanna's doll, which he wrapped up in a third blanket so he wouldn't forget his plans for them. He made sure he had enough food and water for Kastor and Shanna's breakfast the next morning, then he headed back to the bandits' camp, carrying nothing but a canteen full of water and Kastor's pocketknife.

He reached the clearing again not long before sunset, but the bandits weren't there yet, so he had plenty of time to choose the perfect vantage point in one of the trees on its border before they arrived. His heart was pounding as he sat in the tree, watching the sun set and straining his ears to catch the sounds of people approaching, the seconds ticking by like hours.

But once the slavers arrived, time crawled by even more slowly. Gareth hadn't seen Kastor and Shanna in two days, and he regretted leaving them for that long, even though they didn't know that he was nearby watching them. He felt even worse about having almost forgotten what had been done to them, because he almost didn't recognize them as they were led into the clearing. Shanna's short, ragged hair fell over her face, but it couldn't obscure a livid purple bruise across her left cheek that hadn't been there two days ago, her burlap sack dress was streaked with dirt and mud, she was limping, and her now-bare feet and legs were covered with cuts and scratches. And Kastor was in even worse shape. He was gagged again, his face was a bruised and battered mess, his burlap clothes were already bloody and torn, and his back was covered with welts. The bandit leading him was holding his leash close to his neck, and he was holding a switch in his other hand.

As Kastor stumbled into the clearing, his guard shoved him to the ground and kicked him in the direction of the firepit. Kastor struggled upright and limped towards the pile of already-collected firewood sitting near the pit while the woman holding Shanna's leash led her over to where the pack mules had been tied. Shanna unloaded the mules and removed the new supplies from the hidden cache – all except the barrel of spirits, which the bandit woman removed herself – while Kastor built the fire, then she was taken to sit with the women while Kastor made dinner and did the rest of the evening chores. Her face was a picture of misery as she watched her brother struggle to do all the work himself, but she was forbidden from helping. Every time Kastor made a mistake or balked at an order, he was beaten by the man with the switch, which caused Shanna to flinch and close her eyes. By the time he was done with the chores, he could barely stand. He was grabbed bodily and shoved into his cage without food or water as the bandits gathered around the fire. Shanna sat with them, being fed and doted on by the female bandits, but every once in a while she would turn to look at her brother, who was huddled in his cage with his back to the fire. There were tears in her eyes, and she looked more broken and hopeless than before. Gareth hoped desperately that he wasn't too late. The bandits had obviously been working overtime to break both the children and turn them into docile slaves before they reached the city, and they had stopped being patient. After catching Shanna looking at her brother for the third time, one of the women slapped her and told her to stop being sentimental, then they sent her to clean up the dinner dishes without giving her any more to eat. Once back in her cage after doing so, she curled up on the floor like her brother, her shoulders shaking as she tried to hold back her tears. It broke Gareth's heart to see her succeed; she fell asleep without shedding a single tear.

His heart now in his throat, Gareth turned his attention to the bandits, who had finally broken out their familiar bottle and were filling it from the full barrel of spirits. They passed it around while laughing and talking as usual, and when it was empty they filled it and passed it around again. Gareth couldn't believe his luck. After about two hours of carousing, the bandits all began to fall asleep, one by one. One or two of them mentioned something about going on watch as they watched their fellows slump into their blankets around the fire, but no one made a move to actually get up. Within fifteen minutes, they were all sound asleep, and Gareth knew they wouldn't be waking up any time soon. Just to make sure it was safe, though, he waited another hour before coming down from the tree.

He went to Shanna first, and it took every ounce of self-control he had to move slowly and silently as he entered the bandits' camp. She was sound asleep, so Gareth reached carefully through the cage bars and touched her gently on the arm to wake her with a minimum of surprise. She stirred and opened her eyes reluctantly, the expression on her face one of depressed resignation, and it took her a few seconds of staring at Gareth in the half-darkness before she recognized him. She sat up slowly, her expression shifting to one of disbelief, then one of unadulterated joyous amazement. She opened her mouth to speak, but before she got the chance, he put a finger to her lips and gently shook his head. Understanding, she nodded as she closed her mouth, then she sat very still near the back of her cage, looking curiously at the sleeping bandits by the fire as Gareth cut the ties holding the front panel of the cage to its sides. He quietly set the panel aside, then coaxed Shanna out. He cut the ropes from her neck, wrists, and ankles, then helped her to her feet. She threw herself at him and grabbed him in a fierce hug, which he returned, then he handed her the canteen and gestured for her to sit down and stay silent as he replaced the front panel on the cage. He retied it so that no one could tell how it had been opened, then he gathered up all the cut ropes and tucked them inside his shirt to be disposed of later. He wanted to leave as few traces of the method of their escape as possible, in hopes of further confusing the bandits. Once this was done, he turned to the other cage to find that Kastor was awake and staring at him in surprise that was quickly turning to fury.

Gareth looked down at his young master, sitting in a cage, a slave, while he stood out here, a free man, and he froze. In that moment, everything he had endured during the last five years as Kastor's slave came rushing back to him: the beatings, the canings, the whippings, the cuffs and kicks, being leashed and chained up like an animal – most of it done simply so he could see Gareth suffer pain and humiliation. Not to mention the fact that he had almost killed Gareth, and had ordered him sold to the mines, and never let him speak, and didn't know his name, and treated him like he wasn't even human... He could leave Kastor here, leave him to a future as a slave, give him a taste of what he had forced his own slave to endure for so long...

His contempt and indecision must have showed on his face, because Kastor's look of shock and anger suddenly turned to one of panicked pleading. He never said a word, but his every muscle was begging Gareth to set him free. It was a feeling Gareth knew all too well, and suddenly he was seeing everything in a different light. Kastor had been given a taste of what Gareth's life was like. Over the past week, he had been tied up, kept in a cage, beaten and whipped for disobedience, slapped around, and been made to dress and look and act like a slave. To leave him here, alone, to be broken completely and sent to the slave market, to be sold and collared and shackled, to spend the rest of his life as someone else's property, never to see his home or his family again... Gareth was living that life, and he would never wish that future on another human being – not even Kastor.

His moment of weakness passed, and he went to his knees beside Kastor's cage and began to remove the front panel. Kastor sagged with relief as he watched Gareth cut the cage ties, and he was very subdued as he crawled out of the cage and let Gareth cut his bonds and remove his gag. He allowed Gareth to help him to his feet, then stood and stared in surprise at the bandits sleeping around the fire. Shanna had gotten to her feet; she ran to her brother and hugged him, then handed him the canteen of water as Gareth fixed his cage and removed all traces of his method of escape as well. When he got to his feet and turned back to the others, Kastor was drinking from the canteen, and Shanna had one of his arms around her shoulders and was holding him up. He looked at Gareth as he handed him the canteen, but Gareth shook his head and indicated that Kastor should keep it. He silently made sure that they both understood that they needed to be completely silent and that Kastor needed to follow him without leaving any tracks, then he knelt down and indicated that Shanna should climb on to his back, which she did eagerly. As silent as shadows, they slipped out of the slavers' camp, leaving no trace of where they had gone, or that they had even been there.

They made their way north through the woods, moving slowly so they would not leave a trace. Gareth carried Shanna, who fell asleep within a few minutes of their departure from the clearing, and supported Kastor, who could barely walk. It took them several hours to reach the clearing where Gareth had left their supplies. Kastor's eyes widened, and he sagged with relief when he saw the blankets lying on the ground, but he was considerate enough to help get a sleeping Shanna off of Gareth's back and tuck her into her own blankets before collapsing onto his blankets and falling fast asleep.

Gareth sat down on the ground between them, weak and shaking with relief and the aftereffects of adrenaline. He stared down at the sleeping faces of his young master and mistress, both of them looking so peaceful and contented, and he felt an unbelievable sense of pride. He had saved them from the worst future he could imagine – his future – and even though he didn't know what would happen to the three of them now, even though he had given up his own freedom in order to give them theirs, he had never been happier.