Rexi and Talon

By Onyx Tao

Jack: Rexi and Talon by Onyx Tao is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://onyx-tao.sofurry.com.

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Rexi 1

Two generations of service. Nearly three hundred years. And now, just because the Equelles were moving from Corentyn to Esgorian, their entire family had been - not even sold with the mansion, just trundled out to the slave markets, money exchanged with a few strokes of a pen, and the masters he and his family had served for nearly three hundred years were no longer his masters. His family would almost certainly be broken up, sold piecemeal into service to other families in Corentyn, maybe - if they were lucky - see each other in passing, once or twice a year. Maybe.

If they were lucky.

If they weren't lucky, some of them would be sold on. Further into Cheliax. Taken by ship to the fabled markets of Katapesh, or Osirion.

Although that would involve leaving Cheliax. That might not be so bad. Leaving the family though ... Rexi sighed. That was the one consolation he had. No, that they had. They were together as a family. That they'd always been together as a family.

And soon they wouldn't be.

And there was nothing he could do about it. Nothing. Slips in Cheliax were property. Nothing more.

Nothing.

He came out of his dejection as they were moved deeper into the warehouse. Temporary storage, the bastards called it, and the first part of separation. The cages held four halflings, and we filled up six empty cages. Six empty cages in different parts of the room. The start of the separation, and Rexi winced as he made his way into the cage.

Still, it could be worse. All Rexi had to do was look at the poor half-elf in the next cage. He'd been stripped, and his back was covered with crusted welts while the rest of him was covered in deep blue-purple bruises ringed with black-green. He'd been worked over. And even now, the half-elf was kneeling, his arms pulled up and to the sides by chains, with a heavy blindfold. He had a drinking tube, but the canister looked empty - it was empty, Rexi realized as the slaver poking him into the cage took it down and refilled it from a larger water barrel.

The half-elf had seemed motionless, but as water started dripping from the tube, he pulled himself a little forward and began drinking.

Yeah. Rexi could have it worse.

"Wait," the slaver said. "Equelle said you were the house-manager, right?"

"Yes, Sir," Rexi said, trying to sound helpful.

"Good," the slaver said. "Come with me."

"Yes, Sir," Rexi said again.

"You can write?"

"Yes, Sir," Rexi said.

"Good," the slaver said, passing him a worn, much-erased sheet of parchment and a graphite stick. "Make a list of all the slips who came in with you, their skills, whether they can read."

Rexi didn't intend to tighten at the words, and he thought he hadn't, but the slaver chuckled, and added, "They're skilled domestics. The more we can sell 'em for, the more valued they'll be. It's for their own good."

"Skilled domestics?" the voice was deep, smooth, and captivating. "Then I have come to the proper place."

Rexi wanted to turn and look, but the slaver's reaction, a sudden tensing, warned him that whoever had spoken was more than a little threatening. He kept writing.

"Yes," the slaver said cautiously. "Welcome to Xom's Meat Clearinghouse, I'm Desideraxus Xom."

"I spoke with your father, I think, Etvetixus Xom, yesterday," the deep voice rolled through the room like a river, "at the docks. I am Zackton Silvercane. Please call me Zack."

"Of course. It's an honor, Merchant Zack. How can I help you?"

"Skilled domestics. I will be staying for ... some unknown period of time in Corentyn, so I purchased a small house, and I am in need of servants. I was satisfied with the arrangements Et and I made - very satisfied - and so it was Xom I thought I'd visit first."

Rexi decided he had to sneek a look at this human, and turned, ever so casually, a few inches from where he was scribbling down names.

Oh.

Not a human, although he sounded like it.

Orc.

Possibly the most bestial beast Rexi had ever seen, at that, wearing ... surprisingly tasteful clothing, Rexi realized, and then he saw hints of non-orcish heritage. Half-orc, but ... you'd have to stare hard to realize it.

The clothing helped. He wore a soft gray-green tunic with mother-of-pearl buttons over a darker gray-green shirt that echoed the tones of his skin. Massive tusks reached out of his mouth, and Rexi wondered how the orc - half-orc - could talk at all, much less so smoothly that he sounded more like a preacher than a slobbering half-orc. His hair was cut short, and he was either smooth-skinned or closely shaved. A dark, almost-black leather belt held up dark gray pants and a green velvet pouch with a good-sized silver buckle set with more mother-of-pearl, and the pants themselves were tucked into short black boots, broken in but in excellent condition, polished to a subtle shine.

He held a long, heavy-looking silver cane, inlaid with yet more mother-of-pearl, set with a rounded knob of crystal. Clothes make the man, Rexi thought. However orcish this half-orc looked, he was clearly conversant with the more sophisticated culture. Not Chelian, of course - the cut of the garments was elegant but wrong. Taldan, maybe. Still of high enough quality that they would never be completely unfashionable, however much they were not in a current style.

"Domestics?" the voice said again, and it prompted both of them, slaver and slip, out of the half-trance his voice had induced.

"Of course, Zack," the slaver said. "I'm Dez, by the way. You are in luck. Just yesterday we got a number of well-trained slips in, trained for a noble's household, no less. The Equelles came into money, and are moving to Esgorian. All of them, leaving a factor here."

"And they left their household domestics?"

"Sold 'em."

"How convenient. But they are halfling?"

"Yeah. Best domestics. Trained, skilled ..." Dez pulled the list out of Rexi's hand, scanned it, and handed it to Zack. "Here. Take a look. That's ... uh, partial."

"Quite a number of them," murmured the half-orc in that same, soothing basso profundo.

"You needn't take all of 'em," Dez said.

"On the contrary, I may well be back in a week or so needing more," Zack said. "Ten may be insufficient to staff the house."

"I said that's a partial list," Dez said with a laugh. "There are twenty-four of them."

"Really. All in good health?"

"I expect so; they were sold because the Equelle were moving. We don't deal with damaged goods. But I haven't had a chance to inspect them personally."

"I appreciate the difference," Zack said. "Thirteen thousand gold for all of them, if, once I inspect them, they seem to be healthy and in good condition."

"Thirteen ..." Dez paused, and shook his head. "Twenty."

"We could sit here haggling like old biddies, or we could just say sixteen and a half."

"Done."

"If they're in the condition you describe," Zack said.

"Of course. Come take a look? Should I have them sent?"

"No, I'll take them with me," Zack said.

"Ah, there is the matter of settling the bill first," said Dez.

Zack nodded. "I have the sum in Abadarian bonds. You'll accept those?"

"Yes."

"Then let us commence the inspection. You, you're Rexi?"

"Yes, Sir," Rexi said. He wasn't sure how he felt about being owned by a half-orc. On the other hand, if this Zack kept his family together ... Rexi wasn't sure how he felt, at all. Zack seemed civilized, but Rexi had dealt with half-orcs before. Even the best of them were dangerously angry, and that rage could explose out of them without any warning at all. Half-orcs were best avoided. Slip out of their way, that was the easiest thing to do - particularly since they made such a thunder coming. But ... Rexi wasn't sure how he felt as he accompanied Dex and Zack back into the warehouse.

The half-orc's inspection was quick, and to the point. Rexi had been worried he might do something like strip them down, but he didn't seem to want that.

"They're healthy enough," Zack said, and paused by the cage that Rexi hadn't quite gone into. The half-orc paused at the cage with the half-elf. "This one, though ..."

"Not part of the deal," Dex said.

"Add him," Zack said. "I'm not interested in dickering. He's in poor condition, and bruises at a touch."

"He's not trained," Dex said.