It was difficult, but I refocused my attention on the present situation. My head was filled with the image of a woman in chains—Enra, the woman I’d rescued from a vrak slaver named Cobble. The image swirling through my mind only fanned my battle-lust.
“If you didn’t like slavery, why didn’t you find something else to do?” I asked.
“Not can do else.”
Graggle pointed to his feet. They were hidden inside soft-looking gray slippers. I stared at them for a moment and wondered if he was trying to tell me he was too soft and pampered to do anything other than sit on his ass. He quickly pulled one of his slippers off, and I understood.
Where his feet should have been, were pink, bulbous scars. Either his feet had been cut off, or, more likely given the shape of the scars, they’d been chewed off by some kind of creature.
He was right. There wasn’t a lot he could do other than talk and use his mind. Not without someone to build him some artificial feet, and I hadn’t met many altruistic folks on this planet.
But it was clear as day what I had to do. I needed to get to the Ish-Nul. I needed to see if Enra was okay.
Guilt and worry warred for dominance inside my heart. But I still had to handle Graggle. He said he was king, and he seemed to have the other vrak under his sway. If he was truly capable of leading a large group of vrak soldiers, maybe he could also lead the others who lived in Brazud.
Except I didn’t want to feed his ambitions. Making him a king would only serve to fertilize the germinating seed of corruption within him.
“You were right,” I said to Graggle, “I am the new king of Brazud.”
I looked at Yaltu, expecting her to protest, but she was smiling. Her father had been the leader of Brazud before Demetrios, and her lineage meant she was the rightful ruler. The look on her face confirmed my suspicion that she had no interest in ruling.
I returned my attention to the cowering vrak. “Go back to my city and tell the others that King Jacob has assigned you as his sheriff. Do you know what a sheriff is?”
Graggle nodded.
“These vrak will be your deputies.” I gestured at the aliens in various states of unconsciousness on the ground. “You will bring peace to the city by enacting and enforcing my laws. The most important law is that there are to be no more slaves. All slaves are to be set free. And there will be no more executions until I return and appoint judges. Hire workers to rebuild the wall and the buildings. Pay them a fair wage out of the king’s treasury.” I paused. “I have a treasury, don’t I?”
Graggle nodded.
“And make statue to Jacob!” Skrew shook a finger in Graggle’s face. “And bowl of fruit—purple, not red—for to eat. Red is not for eat. Purple is for eat. Red is bad. And cheese. And shiny, new hammer for to make birdhouse! And—”
I cut Skrew off with a hard glance. He pressed his lips together tightly.
I noticed a few of the guards beginning to stir. They looked around in confusion, then fear, then confusion again. They were probably wondering why they were still alive.
Graggle nodded. “If the people not listen?”
I sighed. I hoped it wouldn't come to that, but if it did…
“Then, you make them listen.”
I understood that sometimes force was necessary to rule. I didn’t have to be entirely comfortable with it, but I took pride in my grasp of the reality of politics.
“No kill Graggle?” he asked.
“No kill Graggle,” I confirmed. “You are my sheriff now. Do you understand?”
He nodded and slowly uncurled from the fetal position as I took a step back and turned away from him.
“Oh, just one thing,” I said as I turned back around. “If you betray me—if you treat the people like Demetrios treated them, or if you don’t free every single slave in the city—I’ll cut your head off and use your skull as a soup bowl. My personal soup bowl. Do you understand?”
I didn’t know vrak could blanche until Graggle did.
He nodded vigorously. “Graggle will do. Graggle will free. Graggle honored.”
He bowed his head, and the guards behind him whispered among themselves. Most of them were standing. They looked at their opponents—warriors who had spared their lives—to their king, and back again, unsure of what they should do next.
“Hail!” Graggle bellowed. “King Jacob! King of Brazud!”
The guards stared at me for several seconds before one of them kneeled. A second later, the rest followed suit.
“Do not kneel,” I told them. “You’re not slaves anymore. You are free.” I stopped when I realized I’d just made myself the ruler of a monarchy, and kneeling was the kind of thing subjects did to a king. But I wasn’t really King, nor did I want to rule Brazud, so I decided to let it slide.
The guards stood and gave each other haunted looks. Deep down they probably thought they weren’t really free. And they didn’t seem sure what to do with their freedom.
“Fill them in,” I said to Graggle. “I have somewhere to be. And the city had better be in good shape when I get back.”
“Graggle will obey.” He offered me another bow.
Then, he began counting items on his fingers: “Graggle will fix town. Make pretty. Free slaves. Find fruit. Make statue. Many cheese.”
I opened my mouth to protest the last few items he ticked off… but I did love some good cheese.
Chapter Two
The woods began to thin as we traveled further north toward the Ish-Nul village. Enra and her people had been through a lot. With all the trouble I’d caused recently, I wanted to ensure they weren’t the beneficiaries of the revenge I expected.
The culture of slavery had become integral to the entire population of
