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IMPORTANT:

THIS CHAPTER DEALS WITH SOME PRETTY HARSH STUFF!  I'M GIVING IT A RATING OF PG-13 BORDERING IT ON R-RATED FOR THE SEXUAL REFERENSES.

            SOME OF THE HORRORS OF SLAVERY IS THE SAD TRUTH OF SEXUAL ABUSE.  PLEASE, BE AWARE THAT THIS MAY NOT BE SUITIBLE FOR YOUNGER READERS!

The Secret Magic: 2: Uncontrollable

Chapter:  Cage of Rope

By: Karigan Marie

*****

He cursed himself again for not seeing this coming.  It made all the sense in the world.  The enemy had diverted his attention away from their intended target.  As soon as he'd turned his head and looked away, they had swooped in and massacred an entire city.  Captain Lenex berated himself endlessly as the large ranking of Legionnaires held a steady canter down the dry road.  He'd thought that, having arrested the majority of the rebel group that had attacked the village of Algar, they'd have no chance of moving quickly enough to form any large attacks, something that couldn't be held off by village warriors.  Being so far the West, Algar only had two major roads leading out of it; anyone traveling outside the roads would have to travel through large amounts of dry dessert before reaching any kind of water supply.

So it was now safe to assume that an even larger group of rebels was currently traveling the central roads, which answered the question of why they seemed to be attacking major villages with such quickness.  No attacks had been synchronized; all had been one after another, never the same time.  And he had stupidly assumed that meant there was one major group out there, with a few stragglers to pick off.  While the entire time, they'd managed to time their attacks to better conceal themselves.

He clenched his back teeth again as another slur of rather offensive language came to mind.  He'd been trained better than this! Now his mistake had cost countless lives and the enslavement of countless children.  He gave his white stallion a swift kick to speed up, hoping to gain just another minute on the band of rebels.

One of his commanding officers, Lieutenant Dalig, rode up next to him.  "Captain, we'll need to stop soon.  The horses need rest and water.  And the men are ready to drop."

Jayson grit his teeth and sighed.  Holding up his left hand, he signaled a halt.  "Set up camp!  Turn out your mounts; get some food and go to sleep!  We leave at first light!"  His command lead to quick movement; it was already late into the evening, which left little time after duties for sleep.

He dismounted and handed his mount to one of is men.  He strode over to a grouping of desert bushes and rocks, clenching his fists repeatedly.  In a sudden fit of anger, he slammed his foot into the hard rock with a roar.

"We'll catch them, Captain."

He hadn't heard Dalig come up behind him.  He turned quickly to look at him.  Trying to get his temper under control, he clenched his teeth and breathed through his nose.  He wasn't successful.  He swore vividly and kicked the rock a few more times for good measure.  "Children, Dalig! Children!"  He ran his hands roughly through his hair; it'd grown slightly shaggy over the last few months while on the road, he'd have to get it cut soon.  "I new they were capable of slaughtering innocent people, I new they were capable of slaughtering CHILDREN!  I didn't thing they'd go as far as to ENSLAVE the children! Death would be more merciful that enslavement by these animals!"

Dalig sighed deeply.  He'd been in the Legionnaires with Lenex for close to three years, in the same rank for the last two; the Captain was notorious for his temper.  There were few who would be willing to stand around long enough to weather the storm.  He'd learned the best way to handle the man was to stay patient.  "We'll catch them.  They were only four days ahead of us.  With children, they won't be able to travel quickly.  At the pace we've been going for the last week, I wouldn't be surprised if we caught up to them within two days."

Jayson ran his hands through his hair again, this time gripping it tightly and clenching his eyes and teeth.  "I should have seen this coming!" he admitted.

"None of us saw it coming, Jayson," he told his friend soothingly.  "They blind-sided us."

"I was trained to watch out for tricks like these, trained to be able to predict that kind of action.  I was so proud of the fact that we'd captured the group responsible for Algar, that I let it cloud my judgment, told myself I'd swept up the larger groups."  Jayson sat on the abused rock in defeat, his head falling to his hands.  'How many children are paying for my pride?"

Dalig was silent only for a moment.  "It's done and over with, Jayson.  Now is the time for action.  Now that we know what's been going on, we can fight it." He stooped down to get his friend's attention.  "Now is the time to find the children of Kilbao and bring them back to what is left of their families.  You cannot let quilt for something you could not have prevented interfere in what we must do now."

Jayson clenched his eyes and breathed deeply.  Finally, after a few last fortifying breaths, he stood.  He grinned lopsidedly at his friend.  "Thank you, Colin."

Dalig patted him on the back.  "Come now, it won't do for your men to see you so out of sorts.  What would they do with themselves if their fearless Captain lost his edge?"

Jayson snorted and walked back to camp.

*****

Five days earlier:

She was curled up into a tight ball; and when she came crashing back into consciousness, her body gave an all-over body tick that made her muscles scream in pain.  Jade felt her body being jostled to and fro, the uncomfortable ground digging into her sore muscles.  She cracked open her eyes, which objected greatly and clenched them again immediately.  The light had screamed in and felt as if it burned straight through to her retinas, and she suddenly felt a sharp throbbing at the bottom of her skull.

"Hold still."

Jade jerked at the voice.  "Wha…?"

"Hold still.  You don't want them to see you've woken up yet."  The voice was soft; whispered so that Jade, herself, could hardly hear it over what seemed a constant roaring sound.  She cracked her eyes again, giving herself time to adjust to the brilliant light of day.

The first thing she noticed…was a leg laying right next to her face.  She blinked a few times.  She swallowed against her dry throat and tried to crane her head to see what was going on, because if her head wouldn't stop pounding soon, the constant roaring she heard was going to make it worse.  The leg belonged to a girl much younger than she, lying down in a similar position as she, and for all appearances, looked asleep.  And was that….was she lying on moving wood? What was that constant roaring going on all around her?

A voice behind her startled her again.  "Try not to move too much; you don't want to attract attention to yourself."

She used her hands to push herself up slightly with her hands, only enough to get a look behind her.  She met up with a pair of grey eyes, set in a sunken face.  This girl appeared to be a few years older, maybe twelve or thirteen.  It was hard to tell.  Her overall brown skin was marked with patches of what looked like white skin, as if the pigment itself had disappeared.  The contrast between the two colors was vivid and eye-jarring.  Her bottom lip was full and looked as if it were infected with some kind bacteria…sores oozed puss slowly.  One eye was significantly larger than the other, and her eyebrows were uneven.  Her hair was greasy and dirty, its black thick Carthaki locks knotted in so many places.  Jade blanched noticeably.  The girl was positively hideous.

"I'm sorry," Jade crocked.  "What's…where am I?"

The girl's eyes shifted to look around.  "In the Dark Lord's pit of fire."  Jade's eyes grew wide at the statement.  "Look around, girly."

Jade's eyes flashed around herself for the first time.  She was in some kind of cage…wooden, mostly.  The planks beneath were harsh and offered no padding.  Around them….on the edges of the wood planks were rope bars, closely set together to prevent anyone from getting in and out.  She had been resting against the side of the contraption.  Inside, with her, where at least twenty other girls; all jammed in to barely have room to stretch their bodies.  When she looked outside of it, she was surprised again.  They were moving.  She saw various landmarks move along.  And when the entire picture came into focus, she could see that they were moving along on a very large cart, pulled along by at least 10 horses.  In front of them was another cart just the same; and behind, no different.  Men in black and silver garments walked alongside the carts with swords and bows.

Jade felt a rather sudden nervousness set in.  "I don't understand."

The girl sighed.  In a soft voice, she said, "Those are the men that attacked Kilbao, remember? They've taken all us children to sell us on the southern slave market.  We've already stopped twice for sales."

Jade felt fear creep into her heart.  "Slaves? But, there aren't any slaves in Carthak.  It's illegal."

The girl rolled her eyes.  "I don't think they have much care for what's legal or not, girly."

Jade felt her head throb anew.  She gently lifted her hand to the back of her head and hissed when she felt it sting.  She brought her hand forward again and noticed dried blood crusted over her fingers.  "When…"  She wasn't sure what to even think right now.

"You've been out for almost two days."

Jade blinked.  She tried to process that; but felt her whole body tremor from the shock.  "Where are they taking us?"

"I think to one of the southern cities.  Truslow or Boscolo or Orleon or Chasen.  That's the only thing south of here.  I'm inclined to think either Truslow or Orleon; the other two are a bit too far away."  The girl finally looked at her again.  She blinked a few times and seemed to give a look of pity.  "You're rather pretty."

Jade didn't know why she'd said that.  "Umm…thank you?"

The girl turned her head away with a sigh of exasperation.  "That's not a good thing."

"Oh."

The girl swallowed.  The pretty ones have to go into the rebel's tents at night."

Jade's entire body froze over in fear.  "Oh."

"You have pretty eyes." The girl said sadly.  "They'll notice you right away."

Jade had never liked her rather piercing eyes; she had never hated them so much as she did at this moment.  She felt her bottom lip tremble.

The girl looked at Jade from the corner of her eyes.  "If you want, I could make you look different, look…ugly."

Jade scrunched her nose in confusion.  "Huh…?"

The girl gestured to her Jade's face.  "I have the gift…not much, but, I'm fairly good at illusion spells.  I could make you look like me.  They haven't gone near me yet."

Jade swallowed.  "You're not…you're not ugly."

The girl's lips twitched in amusement.  "I don't really look like this."

That made Jade blink.  "You don't?"

She shook her head in response.  "Didn't think my talent would ever come in handy.  Works like a charm against nasty men."  She looked at Jade.  "They see you and you'll be in one of their tents for sure tonight."

Jade was nearly sick with the idea.  "You can make me look like…like you?"

A nod.

"Um, ok…ok, would you…please?"

The girl shifted slightly.  She brought up her right hand and slowly ran it over Jade's face.  It felt warm and tingly.  Within a handful of seconds, it was over.  Jade didn't have a way to look at herself, but she didn't feel any different.  "What did you do?"

"I gave you some burn scars on you face, and your hair looks like it's falling out in patches.  I made your eyes dull blue.  You know, nothing makes you look terribly different except your eyes…you don't look like the same person without the green."

Jade looked down.  "Thank you."

"No problem.  Don't make any harsh movements or get to emotional…the spell will fall away if you do.  Try and sleep, girly.  None of us sleep at night around here."

It wasn't too hard to do just that.  The pain in her head and her overall weariness made it surprisingly easy to drift off into an uncomfortable slumber.

*****

She was jarred awake when the cart suddenly stopped.  Around her, all the girls shifted and sat up, low whispers of fear could be heard.  Jade blinked into the night sky, warm and musky.  They all say at attention when a man walked by and threw in various loafs of bread.  In an instant, the girls threw themselves upon the bread.  Jade jumped back in fear as half the loaf that had come flying into her lap was ripped away from her by one other girl.  She quickly held it protectively.  Those who were fortunate enough to have gotten pieces of the bread engulfed there's within seconds.  Jade, following the group, quickly shoved down the bread that was left.  She wasn't very hungry; she was actually quite queasy.  But something told her she wouldn't be getting to much food anytime soon, so she swallowed all she could.

Within minutes, the group was silent again; there was an overall held breath as they all waited for what came next.  Jade sat silently, fear creeping into her.  She was shivering slightly, but her body seemed to be still in shock.  The men moved around and set up camp quickly and efficiently.  Within half an hour, the entire camp was set up and fires lit.

And then a grouping of men walked towards the cage, stepping up and entering the group.  All the girls crowded together, praying to be unseen, clutching hands and a few even began to cry.  There were five men, and they searched the group for the ones they wanted.  One man reached down and hauled a very pretty teenager to her feet.  Her thick rough hair, though dirty and tangled, flowed down her back.  Her black eyes widened in terror and she tried to kick away.  She cried out to what looked like a friend, who sat back in fear.  The man roughly pushed her out the cart into another man's arms and continued to look around.  He picked an extremely dark girl next, not much older than Jade.  The girl shrieked and kicked but was also taken away.  He continued his picks along with the four others until only 8 of them remained in the cart.  Jade had been passed by, each time her heart had threatened to burst in fear, but she remained frozen in place.  The men left the cart and pushed the screaming and crying girls into the tent area, and, from other carts, other girls were pushed by, she even noticed a few boys disappearing behind various white canopies.  Jade could only stare on.  The girl who had changed her looks earlier shivered.

"That was horrid," whispered Jade.

"It gets worse," the girl said evenly.

Within ten minutes, she was proven right.  Shrieks and cries could be heard all around, none actually, from the carts.  Jade felt bile begin to rise in her throat.  She clenched her eyes.  "Oh, Goddess."

"Ignore it." Was the sad reply.  "Just ignore it."

Jade shook her head.  "I can't…" she whimpered.  Images flew into her head.  Images of something she didn't know about; images she had never seen but had heard of.  They grew steadily worse as the screams continued.  When images of Atune filling the place of those girls slammed into her mind, she felt herself heave.  She turned back and vomited off the edge of the cart, repeatedly emptying her stomach, screams filling her mind.  When she opened her eyes, she noticed that the shrubbery that had been around the side of the road was now ash.  She turned back around and placed her hands over her ears.  The cries of pain didn't come from the outside anymore, but from the inside.  She had them in her head now, new what was happening to them; it didn't help to cover her ears.  She felt a gentle arm wrap around her shoulders.  She leaned into the girl and curled into a ball, trying to ignore what was so close.

She wondered if she could use her magic to help anyone, but the fear of hurting more than she helped quickly squashed that thought.  In any case, she didn't even know how to call on her magic, so the idea was dead in the water to begin with.  She curled tighter into the slightly larger body that had offered itself to her.  She curled as tightly into herself as possible.  In a moment of despair she felt herself sob out her fear – "Someone take me away from this!"  She felt a spasm tear through her body, her magic.  Quickly she rained it in, got control over herself, but her body still shook from shock.

"What's your name?" came the soft question.

"Jade…." Came the weak reply.  She shivered against the draft.

"Mine's Liana.  Tell me about your parents, Jade."

"Wha…?"  She clenched her eyes at a particularly loud scream.

"Tell me about your parents.  What are they like?"

Jade looked up in disbelief.  But she was stopped short by the silent tears that streamed down the older girls face.  She looked down and tucked herself closer.  "My father's fighting in the war right now, he's a mage…" she began.  It continued through the night, her storytelling.  Rehashing every last detail of information about her life.  There was no joy in telling them, only remembrance.  Only something that filled the mind with anything that wasn't the screams that never ended.

*****

Unaware to anyone, not even the small green-eyed girl herself, the chain of events that were set in motion that night would for ever change the lives of everyone in the mortal realms.  Rarely does any one action have such cataclysmic results.  Oh, everything has its cause and effect, one thing always leads to another.  But this night, something of the most peculiar nature happened, something that not even the eerie magic of the mighty firebirds could have predicted; a butterfly effect if you will.  After all, it was only a matter of chance that the rebel band had decided to call upon Kilbao instead of Lebina, a small city to the east of the former.  What would have been different, if the other had been chosen? That answer can never be foreseen.

But on the night that Jade sat within the confines of her cage, awake, for the first time, her fear, her magic reached just far enough to catch the notice of someone or something that we haven't heard from in quite a long time.

The silent plea that vibrated through the earth through the weakest of roots in the dry dessert continued on, beyond most people's reach of imagination.  Being so far South, after all, means that the magic will reach new places.  And so the plea, laced with ancient magic, ran along the vines and roots of the great southern dry lands of Carthak, creating woe through the entire flora for their daughter; it passed into the underground moss and mold that grew in the caverns and crevices of the great frozen mountains that spanned nearly one thousand miles.  Beyond that, it ripped by the great green plains until at last it reached the great southern forest.  Here, the flora has such power, such understanding, that it could not refuse its daughter's plea.  But the flora cannot upset the balance.  It cannot personally act out, not so drastically; there were rules, after all.  And so here, among the forest with so much magical life inside it, the case was brought before the only creatures other than the Gods themselves that could understand its majestic voice.

And here, an old debt was remembered. And a bargain was made, a deal between the two lives.  And it was decided.

*****

When the girls were thrown back into the cart in the early morning, everyone was silent.  Jade couldn't take her eyes of them.  One of the girls walked back to her spot, arms crossed in front of her, holding closed her ripped and tattered blouse.  Her face was locked onto her own two feet and she walked funny, as if movement from her legs caused her discomfort.  She sported a rather large bruise on her upper left temple and several cuts along her arms.  She curled into her spot, trying to disappear into a corner.  Another girl, the one who had reached so desperately for her friend, fell into those arms now, and wept openly.  The others moved in the same way, either highly emotional or frighteningly silent.  The girl that had been on the opposite side of Liana curled into her spot with an emotionless stare.  Jade shuddered to think that one morning she would be coming back from the tents looking so empty.

Within an hour, the cart was pulled into motion and they began their southern trek again.  And this set the pace for the next seven days and seven nights.  At the end of each day, bread and water was thrown into the rope cage and Jade would have to fight to get even a small piece of it or a ladle of water.  There were buckets in the cage, for them to use as a privy.  But there was no way to wash or clean themselves, and each day wore on slower and slower in the heat of the blazing sun.  In the evening, a group of men would come to them and yank out several of them.  Every night, Jade prayed she wouldn't be chosen, each night she was passed by, thanks to the magic of Liana, who also was passed by every time.  But then the screams would come and Jade would feel such a force of quilt she'd never known before.  If all the girls were privileged to Liana's magic, they wouldn't have been chosen either.  A handful of girls were picked nearly every single night; and they stopped struggling after the first few times.

They stopped twice for sales.  And their group of twenty or so dwindled to twelve on the second night of sales.  This caused more than a little panic within the group of girls who never spoke to each other.  With less of them in the cage, it was now almost certain they would be picked the following night for the men's fun.  Jade hoped that her appearance would deter any from her.  Over the last few days, the back of her head had begun to throb consistently and was very sensitive to the touch.  Liana had looked at it one night while they sat listening to the frightened cries of the night and told her it looked infected and what on earth had she been hit with?  Along with the lack of food and little water, her body was weakening dramatically, her skin turning ashen with weariness.  She had very little energy to even stand up and walk around the small cage in the middle of the night when other girls dared to move around.  And a few times she caught herself wondering if it would be so bad to go to sleep and never wake up again.

The cart began to move and they were off for the day again.  Jade laid herself down on the planks, resting her head on Liana's lap, the girl never seemed to want to lie down, and she was always on alert.  But Jade noticed that the countless days of little sleep had gotten the better of the older girl, and she lay back against the ropes now, completely asleep.  Jade closed her eyes and ordered herself to dream of better things.

*****

Sir Alanna of Trebond knocked softly on the great wooden door.  At the quiet 'enter' she pushed though.  She stood in silence as she observed her king and friend.  He sat in a chair pulled up to his desk, papers stun out all around him.  In front of him was a new one, one she hadn't known was there.  It carried the Royal Carthaki seal.  She looked at Jonathan.  He looked worn and tired and seemed to carry a new wave of depression.  His beautiful ice blue eyes seemed dulled somewhat and his coal black hair had a healthy grey streak in it.  She swallowed the last few months had been hard on everyone, war always was.  She knew she didn't look any better.  Her muscles were sore all too often now and she'd been having her own crisis over the grouping of grey hairs she had found in her on fiery locks.  The last two years had been difficult for her and her family.  Having lost her oldest son, George and her had been desperately trying to keep the family together.  The war, as unwelcome as it was, brought them closer.  Both Eleni and Miles were determined to fight against those who had killed their elder brother.  George was no different.  She, herself, had noticed that they had united under this same cause.  She prayed to the Goddess she would not loose any of three that were left of her family.

She stood here now looking upon a man who had been her king for the better half of her life, and her friend for the majority of it.  She new he needed a friend now.  Whatever news he had just received, it had caused him to despair greatly.  And with Thayet on the Eastern front directing the battle there, Alanna wanted to help him.  "Jon, what is it?"

He looked up.  "I just received a letter from the Emperor."  Alanna held her breath.  "We close the borders in two days."  She blinked, this had been coming.  Rebels had come into Tortall and had started raiding villages just as they had in Carthak, not to mention the attacks Scanran raiders had been plaguing the northern front with.  With the northern and eastern fronts in Tortall and the Northern and internal fronts in Carthak, the only way to keep some semblance of order was to shut down the borders.  All of them.  In Carthak and in Tortall.  Nothing would get through except those carrying royal permission on their bodies.  It would hurt trade, a lot.  But it was necessary.  It also meant the war would last much longer than had been originally estimated.

"We new this was coming, Jon."

He nodded.  "I know."

"Than what's wrong?"  He seemed to grow sadder.

"The Emperor has written to me about something else."  And this was it.  This was not going to be good.  She braced herself.  "It's about Numair."  She almost blacked out at the thought.  Had he become a casualty?

"What about him?"

Jon sighed.  "He's gone to Kilbao."  Alanna shoulders relaxed at the thought he was still alive.  But why go to Kilbao?  "Kilbao has been burnt to the ground, Alanna.  Rebels attacked not a week ago."

She froze.  "Jon…" she felt her heart drop.

"Jade had gone missing.  And the Emperor tells me the Legionnaires have reported an underground child slave route in the southern provinces."

Alanna felt tears form in her eyes.  "A slave?"  She imagined the utter fear that Numair must be going through right now.  She had lost her Thom, but at least she knew his fate, that he was at least safe with the Dark Lord.  But to be taken into slavery…and they had been raiding in Tortall!  She jumped.  "And the raids here, you don't think…"

"I don't know…but I want an answer to it as soon as humanly possible."
            She nodded.  "I'll get on top of that."  Her thoughts went back to the small girl and she felt tears role down her face.  "Oh, Jon…"

"With the borders closing, I cannot send any more men into Carthak to find the rebels."  And she realized this had been what had made him so depressed.  He could not help.

She nodded.  "I'll go speak with Raoul right now."

He nodded.  She turned and walked out.  She had imagined her later years in life would be spent in some kind of peace.  She wondered if she would ever see peace again.

*****

A/N: This chapter is pretty harsh, as you can tell.  I know it's really sad and depressing but I'm trying to be brutally honest with my work.  The next chapter: 'He who does Evil' will be the last installment of this story.  It isn't very happy, as I've said before.  However, I think everyone will be pleasantly surprised when I start the next story, 'Whisperings'.  Also be aware, that I will be leaving a lot of questions unanswered in this story, and many questions from the last story continue to be unanswered; have a little faith.  By the end of the series, I will have answered them all.

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