Exodus

[Chak Ku'rill]

Upon reaching the slave cells, Chak found the iron mine workers already being packed in by their drivers.

?Ahoy thar, mate ? looks like ye got yer paws full!? a stoat, coiling a whip around his forearm, greeted the sea otter.

Chak didn?t recognize him, but most of the slave drivers knew about the woodlander slave master at this point. He slowed to a stop as the ground leveled out and set the handles of the wagon down with a grunt, shaking out his aching arms.

?Aye,? he nodded at the stoat.

The other slave driver, a brindle cat, closed the door to the iron slaves? cells with a loud clank. ?Be ye leadin? this group by yerself? That?s a lot ta handle??

?Nay, I got ?elp. Meet Hylan.? Chak gestured and the slaves behind the wagon charged forward, led by the branded pine marten swinging a hatchet. The cat and stoat were quickly overwhelmed, going down under a hail of swinging blades, clubs, and rocks. 

Hylan laughed as he tugged a ring of keys from the cat?s fallen, twitching form. ?The looks on their faces!? He wiped a bloody paw across his damp brow, then unlocked the door to the iron slaves? cells with a flourish. ?Welcome to the revolution, friends.?

The slaves poured out of their prison with a roar, shaking paws with the sulfur miners, shouting, and even dancing in some cases. Energy built like lightning across a roiling storm cloud, and several slaves started pummeling the bodies of the dead slave drivers. More and more crowded in, spitting, clawing, and violently ripping fur from their former tormentors until they were hardly recognizable. Chak couldn?t help but cringe, thinking of how close he had come to a similar fate aboard the Silver Maiden. Would they have vandalized his body as well?

Suddenly, a mangy-looking hare pointed at Chak. ?He?s a slave driver too!? he screeched, ?disguising himself as one of us!? The mob abruptly turned on the sea otter with one mind, thirsty for blood that was still warm.

Chak raised his paws and backed up with alarm. His shouts of denial were completely lost in a sea of madness. A bedraggled river otter came at him swinging and Chak side-stepped, punching him in the nose. A small shrew ran towards him next and Chak hesitated, then felt a sharp pain in his leg where the little menace jabbed him with a broken spoon. He drew his cudgel then to begin defending himself, but a squirrel leapt forward and seized the weapon, sinking his sharp incisors into the otter?s paw. Chak yelled and released his grip, swinging his other fist reflexively to clock the rodent in the jaw.

Hylan was shouting for them all to stop, repeating again and again that Chak was an ally, but none of the iron mine slaves seemed to acknowledge his voice.

Chak threw up his arms to block a blow from his own cudgel now, grunting at the bruise against bone.  More shouts carried through the air and Chak braced himself for another blow from the cudgel-swinging river otter when a mouse tackled him from behind, collapsing his knees so that he fell hard onto his back. The slave otter loomed over him, lifting the heavy club high over Chak?s head when suddenly a rat moved to stand between the two otters, gripping a sharpened pole. Chak recognized the scarf tied around his neck. Then a haremaid hobbled up beside the rat, brandishing a dagger, and another slave from the wagon jumped in beside her, raising a piece of sulfur threateningly at any who tried to take advantage of Chak?s vulnerable position. Chak rose to his feet as more slaves appeared, forcing their way in, forming a wall between the panting slave driver and the violent mob of iron workers. Slave stood against slave, until finally the noise died off enough for Hylan to be heard.

?The sea otter is not our enemy! He?s on our side and has been working together with us from the start! Stand down!? The message finally seemed to sink in and the burning wrath of the iron miners began to cool, though Chak noticed that the otter had decided to keep his cudgel.

Chak tried to will his shaking paws steady. ?Vulpuz? shadow? that were close,? he muttered as Hylan made his way over, holding a torch.

?Are you alright??

Chak took a deep breath and nodded, letting the air out slowly. His paw bled, his leg had a hole in it, and his arm felt tenderized, but compared to what might have happened, it was nothing.

?Let?s ?urry up an? give ?em summat else ta focus on,? he muttered darkly, pulling his own set of keys from his belt to unlock the door to the sulfur slaves? cells. As he approached the iron bars, a familiar rust-colored beast stared out at him. Chak nodded at the squirrel.

??Ello, Reedox.? He turned the key in the mechanism and Hylan swung the door open.

?I thought they were going to kill you,? the squirrel stated flatly.

?Don? sound so disappointed.? Chak half joked. He met Reedox?s piercing gaze only briefly before averting his eyes and reattaching the keys habitually to his belt. He turned to speak to Hylan when Reedox interrupted.

?Where?s Torin??

Chak met the squirrel?s eyes steadily then. ?Dead under a pile o? sulfur whar ?e belongs.?

Hylan nodded beside him, eyes glimmering in the light of his torch.  ?Brained and broken. I don?t think a bone was left whole in all his bloody body.?

Reedox studied the pine marten?s branded face, clenching and unclenching his jaw. ?Wish I coulda seen that.?

?It?s a memory I?ll cherish forever,? Hylan stated contemptuously.

?So whar ?zactly be this tunnel?? Chak tried to redirect them. ?Be ye knowin???

The pine marten jerked a claw towards the back of the cells where a stone wall divided a corner section from the rest of the slave quarters. ?Yeah. It?s in the ceiling of the latrines.?

The three beasts made their way to the narrow, dank room. Chak put an arm to his nose, filtering the air through fur. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, even with Hylan?s torch. Small holes bored through the wall appeared to be the only source of ventilation and light. Hylan hopped up onto a stone ledge along a sewage drain and pointed up. The tunnel was nigh invisible.

?Won?t be easy ta get everyone up thar.? Chak took in the distance from floor to ceiling. ?Think ye can climb in if I give ye a paw up?? he asked the squirrel.

Reedox gaped at the opening. ?How did you find out about this??

"Robert. Well Plink, really. Turns out she be all o'er these tunnels, explorin' on 'er own..." He locked his fingers together and motioned for Reedox to step up. The squirrel obliged and Chak hoisted his light frame up to the tunnel entrance with ease. Reedox scrambled over the lip and paused.

?Whaddaya see?? Chak squinted up at Reedox?s cauterized stub of a tail.

?I?m not sure. Give me the torch.? Hylan handed the torch carefully to the squirrel?s extended paw and the tunnel lit up like a giant ceiling lantern. ?It?s a mushroom. And a drawing. I think it?s some sort of instructions? Hold on.? The orange glow grew dimmer and Chak was swallowed by the putrid, dripping darkness around him.

They waited. Then they waited some more. Chak started to wonder whether sending Reedox had been a stupid move. Then a faint light returned to the black hole and grew steadily brighter.

?I see the path we?re meant to take.? The squirrel?s voice echoed down. ?She?s put a bunch of mushrooms around it.?

?Grand ? let?s get everybeast organized. Reedox, cain ye ?elp guide the others the right direction once we get ?em up thar??

?Yeah.?

Chak couldn?t help but smile in that moment, pleased at the civil exchange.

It didn?t take long for the slaves to cobble together a makeshift ladder once they knew the plan. The strongest and most well-armed slaves went first. Then, one by one, the rest followed.

Chak held the ladder steady as the line of chattering slaves moved along excitedly. He was watching an elderly mouse being lifted up into the tunnel when he felt a beast throw her arms around him squeezing him unnaturally. He jerked back in surprise and the vole released him, smiling with tears in her eyes.

?Martin bless you!? She grabbed his free paw in both of hers and pursed her lips, shaking her head. ?Bless you.? Then she started up the ladder.

Chak wasn?t sure what to make of the ordeal. Hylan was a marten, but Chak hardly felt ?blessed? by him. He glanced over at the branded slave who appeared to be laughing.

?It?s called a hug, mate!?

?Aye.? Chak cracked his neck and shrugged his shoulders, gripping the ladder once again. Then another slave tackled him, shaking his entire arm with enthusiasm.

?Thank you, friend. Thank you! You?ve brought hope to many who considered themselves already dead.?

Chak nodded dumbly at the dormouse, then clamped his hanging mouth shut, swallowing thickly. Gratitude. They were grateful.  Unlike the slaves on the Silver Maiden, they didn?t blame him for their long years of suffering.  He was their liberator.

Chak thought of the cold stare of Reedox, the one slavebeast who knew his past as well as his present. He was a harsher judge than Nimbleton might have been, but he had always been the more honest of the two.

Slave after slave continued to embrace and commend him, until all the sulfur slaves had gone and only the wary iron slaves remained.

Gradually the line diminished until Chak and Hylan had helped the last of the slaves scale the ladder up to the tunnel.

?Let?s do one last check ta make sure no one?s been left be?ind,? Chak suggested. ?Then we oughta destroy the ladder so no curious pirate discovers whar the tunnel be.? Hylan agreed and they walked back out to where the partially dismantled wagon slumped, robbed of brackets and lengths of wood. Hylan checked it over while Chak scanned the iron miners? quarters for beasts that might have fallen unconscious or ill.

About midway through his search a strangled cry pierced the darkness. Chak jerked into action, yanking his whip from his belt and dashing back toward the wagon. He expected to find pirates there slaughtering Hylan, but was relieved to see the marten alone, albeit collapsed in a sobbing heap on the ground. He approached warily still, imagining arrows and daggers flying from the shadows. Hylan had obviously been wounded somehow.

?Oy,? he whispered. ?Psst!? His eyes darted from wall to wall and he gripped his whip with a sweating paw, quietly cursing the river otter who stole his club. Hylan made a whimpering sound, looking up at last as Chak drew cautiously near. ?What ?appened? ?Ave ye been attacked??

The pine marten shook his head and held up something green. After a moment Chak recognized it as the apron Torin had been wearing earlier.

?It?s hers. It?s Vera?s! Something awful?s happened to her. Look, there?s blood! Her blood!? His voice cracked and a keening escaped him in a heave. ?I knew I should have gone after her! I might have been able to do something!?

Chak snatched the apron with some annoyance and studied the smear of red, sniffing deeply. ?It?s pretty fresh, still, mate. She might be alive yet.? Hylan looked up, clutching at the sea otter?s words with a drowning beasts? desperation.

?We?ll go to Blade!? he announced, leaping to his feet. ?He has her!?

?No.? Chak put a paw to the pine marten?s shoulder, holding him in place. ?Torin were wearin? that apron.?

Hylan stared at Chak, horror draining the color from his scars.

?I think we should search ?is quarters first.? Chak glanced toward the latrines where the ladder still stood, hesitating.  The slave master?s abode was not far. They could come right back.

As they hastened toward their destination, Chak gave Hylan a wary, side-long glance. What if Vera really was dead? He didn?t think he could stop the pine marten from doing something stupid then. Hylan walked quickly beside him, gripping the hatchet he?d been given by the mongooses. Chak eyed the weapon, opening and closing his empty paw. Upon reaching Torin?s quarters he paused outside the door.

?Yer gonna want ta brace yerself. Whuther Vera be thar er not, it ain?t a pretty site. ?E were more obsessed than ye be knowin?.?

Hylan wavered, then pulled the cord to open the door.  The stench blasted them both in the faces and they stepped through, ready for anything.

Firelight flickered gently in several oil lamps, illuminating the familiar room with the plush chairs and polished tables. The curtain was pulled back so that all of the wildcat?s twisted collection was on display, though Chak noted the pine marten?s tail was missing. Hylan gaped, frozen where he stood.

?I don? see any fox tails what weren?t thar afore? at least.? Chak moved to scout out the rest of the place which included a pantry, a closet with a big box of lumpy sand that smelled strongly of ammonia, and a large bedroom with a fancy draped canopy bed and a fireplace cut into the rock face. Upon the bed sat the missing tail, harnessed to a belt-like contraption. Chak stared, then backed into the living room again where Hylan stood. ?Nothin?.? He shook his head. ?Not a trace.? He turned to face the marten. ? I?m sorry.?

Hylan?s eyes widened and his breath came faster and faster as Chak?s words sunk in. A feral growl started to rise in his throat and his paw tightened on the hatchet. Chak took a step back as the frustrated pine marten roared, slamming the blade of his hatchet into one of the end tables with a loud crack.

Chak sighed, then cocked his head to one side, listening. ??Old on? d?ye ?ear that?? A muffled, eerie moan emanated from somewhere near.

?It?s coming from the bedroom!? Hylan shoved past the otter, pausing upon sight of the familiar tail on the bed.  ?What the devil?? He gaped once again, disbelieving, but his attention snapped quickly back to task when the low howl filtered through the floor and walls again. ?There?s another door over here!?

Chak followed as the pine marten tore open the narrow doorway, revealing a staircase that descended into darkness. The pine marten ran ahead while Chak jumped to grab a lantern from the wall. He was rushing down the stone steps after Hylan when the light of the lantern glinted off something propped against the wall. It was an axe. Chak seized the weapon with a rush of pleasure, hefting it into his bare paw, then descended into darkness, ready now to take on whatever waited for him in the blackness below.

As the light from the lantern spread out across the room, two figures came into view. Hylan was kneeling before a limp form, tied to a chair, shaking it desperately. A long, bushy fox tail protruded through the slats. Chak frowned.

It was Vera.