appears in the street ahead of them, he holds up several keys indicating he’s procured rooms for them. Having him lead the way, James follows with the boy.
Jiron has the others take the horses around back to the stable as he and Brother Willim accompanies James and Miko inside. The inn is rather nice, probably costs way too much, but he fails to notice. All his thoughts are now on the boy.
Reilin takes them through the front door and skirts around the common room. The proprietor sees them carrying the boy in but doesn’t say anything when he sees the slave cloth around his loins. Up the stairs and down the hall, he takes them to the third door on the right and opens it for James.
Moving into the room, James takes the boy to one of the two beds and lays him down. Beside him, the glow from the Star appears as Miko begins healing the boy. James backs away and gives him some room when Jiron comes, grabs his shoulder and turns him around. He can see Jiron is not very happy about this.
“What do you think we’re going to do with that boy?” he asks. “You know where we’re going.” He gazes into James’s eyes for a second then says, “Unless you are planning on letting him go and become a slave again.”
Shaking his head, James states, “No, he’ll not be a slave again.”
“So are we taking him with us?” Jiron asks. “He can’t be more than eight or nine at the most, maybe younger. He’ll slow us down.”
“Jiron,” Aleya says as she enters the room behind him, “he’s coming with us whether you like it or not.”
Tuning on her, he says, “We are going into battle. There’s no way that child belongs there.”
“I know,” Aleya states. “But what choice do we have. I will not turn my back on him now that he’s our responsibility.”
Jiron gazes to her and then back to James. “This is madness!”
“Could be,” agrees James.
Just then the light from the Star winks out and Miko gets up from where he was kneeling next to the boy. He looks to them then says, “He’s fine now, just needs some sleep.”
“Good,” James says. Then to Aleya he says, “It might be best if you were to be the one to stay in here with him. He might not react badly with a woman.”
She grins at him. “Of course,” he replies. Leaving her brother there, she crosses over to the other bed and throws her pack onto it. Then she sits on the bed next to the boy. “We’ll be fine. You might want to get him some regular clothes though. These slave rags have to go.”
“We’ll get some for him,” James says then turns his attention to Jiron. “When you’re out, pick up some clothes for the lad.”
“Fine!” he says. Not entirely happy about the whole thing, he grabs Reilin and tells him that they have shopping to do. With Reilin in tow he stalks out of the room and they can hear his feet upon the floorboards of the hallway all the way to the stairs.
A second later Scar and the others join them from stabling the horses. “What’s wrong with Jiron?” he asks.
“Yeah,” adds Potbelly. “He almost walked right into us on the stairs.”
Once out onto the streets, Jiron begins calming down.
“What’s wrong?” asks Reilin.
“He is always doing something like that,” he replies. Bringing his voice down to a whisper he adds, “Knowing we are about to infiltrate the temple, here he is saddling us with some kid.”
“I can see your point,” agrees Reilin.
“It’s not that I don’t feel for the boy, it’s just that so much is riding on what we’re about to do.” Jiron then walks along in silence until they come across a clothier. He waits outside while Reilin goes within and purchases clothing the boy is going to require.
When Reilin leaves the clothier’s shop, he has several packages in his arms.
“How much do you think he’s going to need?” Jiron asks, surprised that he bought so much. “You must have enough there for several kids.”
Shrugging, Reilin gives him a grin. “I didn’t know the kid’s size so bought several sets just in case,” he explains. “It’s James’ money anyway.”
“Great.” Taking a couple of the packages from him, Jiron then turns and heads back to the inn.
A block down from the inn, they see a large group of people gathering in the middle of the road. Several guards are there in the center of the group trying to get the crowd to move back.
“I better see what’s going on,” Jiron tells him. Handing the packages back to Reilin he says, “Take these to James and let him know I’ll be along shortly.”
“Okay,” he says with arms now full of packages.
Jiron moves forward while Reilin angles to the side to avoid the crowd ahead of them. At the crowd’s edge, Jiron is unable to see what it is everyone is staring at. From the mood of the crowd, it isn’t good. He begins working his way through to the center by gently nudging and elbowing people aside.
When he at last reaches the middle, he sees a dead man lying on the ground. One of the guards is examining the body and when he gets up, Jiron realizes he recognizes the man. He was the one who had been strapping the boy. Blood soaks the front of the man’s clothes from where his throat had been slit from ear to ear. Having seen enough, he starts working his way back out of the crowd. Once free of the crowd, he hurries back to the inn.
At the room he finds the boy awake and eating some of their food. His eyes are wide as he gazes from face to face. Snuggled in next to Aleya who is softly stroking his hair, the boy shoves what’s left of a piece of cheese into his mouth. The packages Reilin brought are sitting on Aleya’s bed as yet unopened.
“How is he?” he asks as he enters the room.
“Fine for the most part,” Aleya says softly. “His name’s Aku.”
“So what was going on outside?” James asks. “Reilin said there was a crowd in the street?”
“There was,” he replies. “You know that man who was beating Aku?” When Jiron indicates he does, he adds, “He’s been murdered. Looks like someone slit his throat.”
“Good,” states James. “He deserved it.”
“More than you would know,” Reilin tells him. “From what little I’ve managed to get out of him, he has been abused for quite some time. Any little infraction and he would get a beating. He even said there was another boy when he first arrived at his master’s house that had died by his master’s hand.”
“And no one did anything,” James says in disgust.
“Slaves are property, like a chair,” Reilin explains. “No one thinks twice about what a person does to their slave. Except maybe if it was a public nuisance or indecent, then they would. But it wouldn’t be because of what they did to the slave, rather how the situation affected those nearby.”
“I hate this place,” states James with great feeling. “I usually don’t like saying hate, but in this case I feel it’s justified.”
“Just calm down,” Jiron says. “We still have to get in that temple and we need you focused.”
James nods. “I know,” he says then sighs. “Can’t let it get to me.” He glances over to the boy and sees him take a proffered piece of dried meat and begin chewing on it. At least he was able to help one small child.
“Supper is just beginning down below,” Scar says. “Maybe we should adjourn down there and leave Aleya alone with the boy?”
“Might be a good idea,” agrees James. Then to Reilin he says, “Tell Aku to stay here in the room with Aleya. That we’ll take him with us when we leave.”
Once Reilin informs the boy, he grins, nods and replies. “He’ll stay,” Reilin translates for them. “In fact he’s rather happy about the whole situation.”
“I would be too if I were in his place,” comments Shorty.
“Come on,” Potbelly urges. “I’m hungry.”
“You’re always hungry,” Scar says as the pair leaves the room “Remember the time when you…”
James grins to Jiron as Scar’s voice moves down the hallway. He motions to the rest of them and they follow Scar and Potbelly down to the common room.
Jiron is the last to leave. “You going to be okay in here?” he asks.
“We’ll be fine,” she says. “Go have fun.”
“I will,” he tells her. Then he closes the door and hurries to catch the others.
They only spend an hour down below before Jiron announces that he’s heading back up to check in on Aleya.
