Bound

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Allabva awoke from an unplanned nap in the afternoon, having been lulled to sleep by the warmth of the sun on her cloak and face. The morning’s conversation had accomplished nothing in her favor, and had ended in her losing Delgan’s flute. She sucked in the saliva drooling from the corner of her mouth and opened her eyes. Her joints complained again of her position, and she felt the desire to sit up despite her bonds, but at least she felt truly rested now. She breathed and looked around.

“We need to water the horses,” Nolder said. “Everybody, take fifteen minutes.”

Each man started getting down from the wagon and looking for a secluded spot to do his business.

“Wait a minute,” Nillan said.

“The little girl needs to take a break, too, unless we want the wagon soiled. Go ahead and take your breaks, then come back here quickly. We’ll all need to be on guard while we let her take her break.”

Allabva was glad that at least her basic physical needs were remembered in the moment, though it sounded like Nillan wasn’t going to give her a chance to do anything more than that.

Nolder had stopped the wagon at the edge of a stream, with the front wheels in the water. The horses were afforded the opportunity to drink the water passing by at their hooves. The men had to climb off the back of the wagon in order to keep their feet dry, and they quickly disappeared into the trees around the trail behind the wagon.

Nillan stayed put in the wagon with Allabva. “Don’t worry, little girl, you’re not going anywhere. We’ll still get a full accounting out of you.”

After a few minutes, a couple of the men had returned and Nillan appointed one of them to keep watch over Allabva, then he excused himself for a few moments’ privacy. When all five men had returned, they untied Allabva’s bonds and stood by while she climbed down from the wagon. Feeling rather self-conscious, she looked for a secluded spot and found a small dip between a group of trees. The men stayed outside the trees until she emerged again, then escorted her back to the wagon without delay.

Allabva inspected her surroundings during the whole ordeal. The landscape was markedly hillier now and she could see tall mountains in the distance to the east. It was also dotted with frequent trees of different types that were new to her eyes, unfamiliar to the Cleft. Most notably, to her dismay, there did not appear to be any significant feature of the area that the prospective Disaffected men had missed which might have given her the opportunity to make a run for it.

Through all the proceedings, from the moment they gave Allabva the use of her hands and legs until they returned her captive again to the wagon, Nillan kept a close eye on her actions. Halmon seemed rather observant as well. If she was going to attempt any kind of escape, she would need to find a way to get past their observation. She noticed that some of the others didn’t seem as keen on making sure she was always prevented any opportunity for mischief.

Qurast, who looked closer to her own age, appeared in particular to need to be told specifically everything he needed to do to hold his part of the team’s security over her. Nillan had to tell him where to stand, what direction he had to look, and specifically what to do if he saw her do anything outside of what she was supposed to be doing. Tunbloth appeared somewhat inattentive as well, but Qurast seemed less interested in treating her the same way as Nillan and Halmon thought she should be treated.

When Allabva was back in the wagon, Nillan had Tunbloth tie her feet again, watching to make sure it was done tight. They were about to tie her hands again when she protested and attempted to appeal to their sense of logic.

“I need to eat,” she said. “I haven’t eaten since before you gentlemen abducted me last night. I haven’t had any water since this morning, either. Please let me eat and drink. I’ll need my hands free for that unless you want to give me every bite, one by one.”

Tunbloth nodded. “That makes sense. I saw some food in your bag, didn’t I?” He seemed to be about to reach for the bag when Nillan interrupted.

“Wait a minute. You think we’re going to give you your hands back, just like that? There’s no telling what you’ll do. And what do you have in your bag, anyway? Tunbloth, don’t give her the bag.”

“But I do need to eat,” she pressed. I’m hungry. I haven’t given you trouble this far, have I? Just let me have my food so I can eat and my waterskin so I can drink water.”

“No, I don’t think we will.” Nillan seemed to consider that for a moment. “I’ll tell you what. We’ll give you food, but not the whole travel bag. You tell Tunbloth here what it is you need from the bag and he’ll hand it to you, one item at a time. If you want something else, you give back the first thing. You’re not getting the bag so you can pull something out of a hidden compartment. We’ll let you use your hands while you eat, but as soon as you’re done, they’ll be tied up again. Or we can just tie them back up again right now. What’ll it be?”

Allabva sighed. “Let me have some water first, please. I’m parched.”

Tunbloth passed her the waterskin, which she uncapped and drank from before recapping and returning it to him. “Now, can I get one of those hard rolls?”

Allabva did her best to enjoy the bread, then some cheese, and then some water again, each one at a time, as Nillan had mandated. This could get very tedious very quickly. When she had finished eating, true to Nillan’s word, they rebound her hands behind her back as the wagon rumbled along eastward.

Allabva rode along, trying to be as comfortable as she could with her hands tied behind her back and sitting on the floor of the wagon. At least she could sit up and wasn’t forced to lie down the entire time. This provided a view of the passing hills. After a time, even the hills began to appear monotonous as the sun crept downwards behind the wagon’s rear.

Allabva kept wondering where Hronomon was during this time. He had promised her mother that he would protect her, but she hadn’t seen him since before she was abducted in the middle of the night. He was supposed to be scouting the road ahead, but he had missed the pair of Disaffected hiding on either side of the road. Apparently the Nomord, although they had some magic and were immortal, didn’t possess supernatural sight or hearing. Or smell. If he had somehow determined to abandon her and find a new Companion for the Shrongelin, she had no way of knowing it, but it would mean that she was on her own with these bandits. Realizing that there was no way to know if she was on her own, she knew that she had to find her own means of escape. She started planning.

They didn’t take any more pit stops in the evening before deciding to bed down for the night. Allabva guessed that they had made a stop or two while she was asleep. When Nillan did call a stop for the night, they left the road and parked the horses and wagon away, where they wouldn’t be seen by any travelers coming in either direction.

They followed the same procedures as they had that afternoon for everyone to relieve themselves and still keep Allabva under close guard. Same as before, she was able to find a small amount of privacy for a few minutes before they re-tied her bonds.

“Where is she supposed to sleep?” Qurast asked afterwards. “I’m not giving her my bedroll; my sleep is too important to me.”

“You don’t need quality sleep at your age,” Halmon rebuffed. “You could sleep on a pile of rocks and you might feel a little tired afterwards, but you’d still come away with way too much energy in the morning.”

Tunbloth laughed. “Don’t you know it, Halmon? At your age, you could sleep in a king’s bed and have the best sleep in years, and still come out of bed grumpy. Nolder, too.”

“She’s not taking anybody’s bedroll,” Nillan directed. “She’s got her cloak. She can wad the hood up for a pillow if she wants. We’ll just leave her tied up in the wagon.”

And, so it was. This time, as Halmon, Tunbloth, and Nolder bedded down, it was Qurast who was assigned to tie her up. He was more gentle about it than Tunbloth had been. It was clear that Tunbloth didn’t care about her well-being. It didn’t appear that he cared about much at all. Qurast perhaps identified a little with her because they were close together in age.

“Not too tight, is it?” He had lengths of rope which he tied around her wrists at one end and one of the wheels of the wagon at the other end, and he did the same with her ankles.

“If you’re honestly asking my opinion, I don’t want the bonds at all,” Allabva said.

“Good point.” Qurast was tightening the knot connecting the rope that bound her hands behind her back to the wagon wheel. “But the boss says you have to be tied up, so here we are.”

“Who says he’s the boss?”

“He does. He found us, brought us together.”

“How did he find you? And what for?”

“He came through my town talking about how the Nomord aren’t really what they seem, how they don’t actually want to help humanity or make the world a better place. Made sense to me, so I talked to him some more.”

“But why is he the boss?” Allabva repeated.

Qurast moved to tie her ankles to the wagon as well. “He’s organized, and he has plans. I didn’t just follow him because what he said about the unicorns made sense. I followed him because he promised that he can make my life better than it was.”

“Has he done that?” Allabva questioned.

Qurast frowned. “Not exactly. Not yet. But I know he will. When we get to the Disaffected encampment, we’ll be able to contribute to making a difference in the world and get people to stop expecting that these unicorns will do nice things.”

“Why did you leave home?” Allabva pressed.

“Well,” Qurast answered slowly, “in order to make it to the encampment, we kind of needed some supplies.”

“And?”

“And, well, let’s say that some of them may have been illegitimately obtained.”

“So you stole, just like Halmon and Tunbloth wanted to rob me last night?” As unsavory as Qurast’s account was, it was consistent with what she had observed from the crew so far. “What did you steal?”

“No, I didn’t steal anything. I mean, I did pick the lock on the gate so these other guys could take the horses and wagon.” He didn’t look like he was proud of it. “It just seemed like it was necessary so we could hit the road and get to where we can contribute.”

“So now you’d be on the lam even if your friends hadn’t kidnapped me. That doesn’t sound like an improvement on your life,” Allabva assessed.

“Not yet, I guess. But I think we’ll get there. Now, uhh…” Qurast looked uncomfortable. “I have to gag you now.”

Allabva consigned herself to more time being bound. She didn’t love sleeping with a gag in her mouth, but it still seemed wisest to cooperate with her captors. She didn’t struggle while he finished his task and left her helpless on the floor of the wagon.

Nillan had been posting the horses at a tree and providing them feed. He came over now, somewhat haggard after the extended day. After wordlessly inspecting the knots the younger man had tied to restrain Allabva, he spoke. “Qurast, now that we have our guest all situated for the night,” he gestured toward Allabva, “we should split up our watch. I’ll stay here and watch camp. You go to the road and raise the alarm if we need to jump and scramble. Don’t fall asleep. I’ll come get you when it’s time for us to change over with Halmon and Tunbloth.”

Complying, Qurast disappeared in the twilight, walking back to the road. Allabva stayed awake, not feeling drowsy after the long day of travel because she had taken multiple naps in the time since they had nabbed her the night before. She tried to explore whether there could be any chance of escaping from her bonds. She twisted and pulled as much as she could, but Qurast’s knots held firm despite being more comfortable against her skin than those tied by Tunbloth.

Allabva wondered if she might be able to gain any favor with the young bandit in order to take advantage of a moment when he might be distracted, or if it may even be possible to turn him around and convince him to help her on purpose.

But if she managed to break herself out, then what? If Hronomon had abandoned her, then she should simply go home. But no, she had already considered this halfway, hadn’t she? She had no way of knowing if she had been abandoned. Perhaps, then, if she managed to break free, she should find her way to Palf Glen, since that was ostensibly her destination, more or less. Hronomon, if he had lost her, might look for her there.

Eventually her mind started to drift back to home. Mother would have told Delgan already that Allabva wouldn’t be there tomorrow night, but that didn’t stop Allabva from feeling like she was going to let him down anyway. The way she had disappeared in the night with no explanation to the young man probably left him miffed. Maybe he would feel disaffected as well, but towards her rather than towards the Nomord. That would make her quite sad, she thought. At least if she could break away with all her belongings and made it home, she could… No. She had lost Delgan’s flute and couldn’t give it back to him unless she caught a moment of inattention from Nillan.

And Brelin. What was she thinking about Allabva right now? Was she even thinking about Allabva right now, or was she too busy with Alvern to even notice she was gone? No, that thought didn’t give Brelin enough credit. She was a good friend and must surely have been very concerned. What would Mother have told her? What explanation would she give?

Allabva fell asleep with tears in her eyes.

In the morning, Allabva was awakened by the jolt of the wagon as it began moving. Alarmed, she opened her eyes wide, and with a kick propelled herself across the bed of the wagon. She landed in Nolder’s gut, who replied with a grunt and a shove back towards where Allabva had launched herself from. Same as yesterday morning, Halmon and Tunbloth sat on the driver’s bench, and Nolder, Nillan, and Qurast rode in the bed.

“Why don’t you watch it?” Nolder said.

“Mm-ffrhm,” Allabva apologized. This was her first interaction with him, and she wasn’t sure how he was going to behave.

“Oh, come here,” he said patiently. “I’ll take that gag off.”

Once he had, Allabva was able to speak again. “I’m so sorry, sir. When I felt the wagon move, I thought I was still tied to the wheel, and I would get yanked off the wagon and thrown to the ground by the rope. I was trying to break free of that even if I broke my hands doing it. At least I can live with broken hands, but if that wheel had yanked me off the wagon, I’m not sure I would live.”

“We’re not so daft, little girl.” Nillan spoke up. “We untied the other end of the rope before set off.”

“Thank you for that,” she said, put off by Nillan’s usual manner. She tried not to show it.

“Don’t mind him,” Nolder reassured her. “We’re all tired after sleeping outside night after night. He’s just a bit cranky.”

“Cranky, maybe,” Nillan rebuffed. “Maybe I’m just tired of having to be so patient with everybody while they try to catch up.”

Nolder raised an eyebrow at him. “Catch up to where?”

“Maybe I just need a brisk morning walk,” Nillan said. With that, he raised himself from the bed of the wagon and rolled sideways off the back, hitting the ground at a steady stride to keep pace with the wagon.

“Maybe you need a brisk dip in a cold lake,” Nolder said with a smirk.

Allabva’s stomach growled. She also felt another bodily need.

“Master, umm—” She wasn’t sure how to address Nolder.

“Lawgrin. Nolder Lawgrin,” he stated. “Oh, and don’t talk back to Nillan. Only I get the privilege of talking to him like that. He may run the show, but age hath its privileges.”

“Master Lawgrin. Do you think you can help me? I’m rather hungry.” She half twisted around to show him her bound hands. “I could use a hand to eat—my own hand—if I had the freedom to do so.” She smiled sheepishly.

Nolder glanced at Nillan before glancing to Qurast. “Qurast, can you help her out of those? Miss Allabva, here’s your bag. I’ll follow the same pattern as before. You tell me what you need and you’ll get it, one thing at a time.”

“Before we get into breakfast, I think I need to, umm, find a private spot,” Allabva admitted.

Nolder gave her a half smile. “I don’t think we can do that quite yet. We just set off to start the day and everybody else already relieved themselves. Nillan, and everybody else, wants to make headway to get to the encampment sooner rather than later. Stopping again so soon wouldn’t go over very well. But meanwhile, eat. What can I get you?” He opened the bag and started rummaging.

Qurast scooted over next to Allabva to untie her hands. This would be an uncomfortable breakfast and time thereafter until she could get the party of Disaffected to stop for a break. She ate anyway, making the best she could of her circumstances. The men had refilled her waterskin from a stream before leaving their campsite, so she had water to drink as well. At least they were keeping her alive.