Sired Intentions

Chapter 5: Wavering Wills

Sired Intentions Chapter 5:

Soon after the ringing of the bell the sound of horses followed. The villagers were called to line up outside their premises. Soldiers went into each house searching for something.

An attendant finally addressed the people after one drunk man was run through for speaking out of turn.

"We are searching for a map, a map that was stolen in transit on its way to the royal family. It was coming off an expedition that briefly stopped in this town so as long as you don't have the map you'll be fine and left alone."

Map. Map. Damn it. We had the map, Elise where did you steal that damn map from? I didn't think anyone would notice a missing map especially from a slave trading ship.

Maybe I should sneak inside and burn it? But that would never help if they caught me I would be condemned to death not to say that wasn't going to happen either way.

Honestly at this point I'm not even sure where to find the map. We hadn't sold it but I also didn't remember where we put it. I felt a bead of sweat droop down my forehead and I reached for Cayah's hand. Elise came stumbling out of our building along with Hilda to stand in line. I tried to make eye contact to inform her about the map.

"I found that one packing, sir. When I asked where her husband was, she said she didn't have one. Now what's a girl her age doing out here with no family or husband. No good that's for sure, she can barely speak for herself, and she must be stealing. I took the liberty of searching through her stuff. No map there though." A fat soldier saluted to a man on a horse.

The man on the horse narrowed his eyes in Elise's direction but said nothing then moved his horse back towards our side of the line. Hilda was sweating bullets at that point and I was surprised she hadn't thrown us under the boat while the fat man squealed on Elise.

"Brock, did you at least attempt to search the girl herself?" the horse man finally spoke.

Brock, visible swallowed and I could see his blush set in. I prayed that Elsie didn't have the map on her, to my surprise she didn't. They searched through the entire town and never found the map. It beat me where the map had gone; it was like it had just disappeared. I ran over to Elise when the soldiers started to pack up. I had so many questions.

"Where's the map?"  Cayah beat me to the words.

"It's under a loose floor board in our room, I hid it there when I saw the soldiers and I scratched out the wording on the barrel we took from the boat. No evidence, right ladies. Now let's get out  of here, I don't feel safe in this town anymore. According to Hilda these checkups are going to become more frequent and they are going to start looking for runaway slaves and smugglers in coastal villages. We need to go further inland maybe to a nice farm town."

The image of us three trying to farm in a small farm town planted a giggle into my belly that turned into a guffaw of laughter.

"Us farming? You can't farm, neither can I. That would be a sight I'd pay to see."

Before long all three of us were laughing. Apparently too loudly, we attracted the attention of the stern man on the horse. His nose was straight like a bird's beak and his movements on the horse were so sharp. He gave us a sharp glare, and made his horse trot towards us.

"Where do you girls hail from and who is accountable for you?"

Our lame story about Felix may have worked on Hilda who was poorly educated about the outside world but this man was different he had an air of authority surrounding him. He thought he was the boss but from his pinched features I could tell that there were much more powerful figures controlling him.