Freelands

VIII. VENGEANCE ON A COLD BODY

1. Shattered Ice

Back in Hierydor night has fallen and the city is quiet. Garisson takes its place on the walls and the workers, who worked all day for the preparations for Lance Hail's corronation, get back to their homes.

Harper has been reading in shock all the letters that have arrived in this palace throughout the years, from dawn till the night, he now sits in the chair with a horrible headache trying to put himself together again and face the reality of the truth he has found.

"I can't believe what he was hiding from us. How could we put our trust in this man?" He thinks. Now he knows his father's shady bussiness more questions appears rather than answers regarding his murder.

Suddenly his thoughts are interrupted by the entering of Scarter in the room, Harper's eyes then fill with a look of suspicion and anger when he gets inside.

"Lord Harper, the preparations are on a very good way! The palace is fully decorated and now only the streets are left decorating. Tommorow we will finish tthe his and also fully prepare the guest houses, the beautiful estates nearby Everflow river with their beautiful gardens. Have you... made any progress with the letters?" Scarter asks.

"Take a seat, Scarter." Harper tells him and Scarter's joy suddenly washes off from his face. He sits down prepared to hear the worst, fearing he probably found out the truth about his origin. Thing confirmed by the first question Harper asks him.

"Where are you from Scarter?"

Scarter deep down is filled with fear, but on the outside he keeps cool and tries to protect his identity.

"Hardrow, Hominum Miter, Clara Civitas." Scarter answers.

"And why your name isn't... like, Marcus, Antonius, Serus, etc...?" He asks and Scarter now appears to have lost all of his hopes, he tries to justify, but Harpers stops him from doing so.

"The one who sold you to my father was the Boar, wasn't he?" He asks in an interrogational intent.

"No, your father was my master this whole time, we passed the thieves sea and we got introduced by all of them, the Boar isn't by far alone, he has patners... Everywhere!" He says nervously.

"Scarter, I need you to tell me everything you know about the Boar. Don't skip a thing." Harper orders him in a quite strict tone and low voice.

"The Boar is a slave trader who has been in bussiness for many years, his steps were small and extremely careful. He made friendships and pathnerships with pirates and criminals at first, but soon, generals and even kings joined his shady bussiness. I never learnt anything about his plans, he was living in a big estate in Hardrow, until some new ruler, raided all the slave markets and traders. He freed the slaves and jailed the traders, the Boar ,though, had someone from inside who helped him escape from the city. Your father offered him a rusty cabin next to Everflow river. He's been living there since..."

"How do you know all of these?!" Harper yells him.

"I was the one who was translating the letters coming to him. The Boar wrote them in the Ancient for security reasons. By the time the Boar came here, he called me in by private l, without your father knowing and he threatened me to give him information about your family or else my sister will be harmed."

"And you did it?" Harper aks him with his eyes looking at Scarter at a much more hostile way.

"I had to! He offered me some information regarding where she is, what she is doing... She is... working in a brothel at Cliffside. That's all I ever got to learn. I have to protect my sister, Harper, I have no idea what her master may do to her, or if she's even alive! I couldn't risk it..."