Treasures of Fantasy - Margaret Weis [88]
“This is where the game is played and where we will train,” said Keeper.
Skylan cast a bored glance at the field. He had only one interest. “When do we fight?”
Keeper chuckled. “You must first learn the rules. You are the only Vindrasi I have ever trained to play the Para Dix. I have fought your people, but I do not know much about you. In my land, we play a game on a wooden board marked off in squares, using stones that hop from square to square. Do your people have something similar?”
“Nothing as stupid-sounding as that,” said Skylan. The thought of his homeland made his heart ache. The fire in his belly burned. He intended to keep it that way.
He saw, out of the corner of his eye, Acronis coming onto the field to watch.
Skylan folded his arms across his chest and said loudly, “We play a game called ‘Screw the Ogre.’ ”
Keeper quirked an eyebrow. Skylan decided that this ogre must be the stupidest ogre in the world since he obviously did not know when he had been insulted.
Keeper made a sweeping gesture. “Think of that as the game board. Think of yourself and your men as the game pieces.”
He poked Skylan in the chest with a thick finger, then called to the Legate, “He is ready, lord.”
“Tell him move to boulder number ten,” said Acronis. “He can’t read, so you’re going to have to teach him how to recognize which that is.”
“The boulder with the X is number ten,” said Keeper. “The Legate has moved you to that area on the board. Go stand beside it and wait for further instructions.”
“Tell the Legate he can go piss on the boulder with the X on it,” said Skylan. “And if you touch me again with your filthy finger, I’ll break it off.”
“The Vindrasi slave says he finds the rules difficult to understand, lord,” Keeper yelled.
“Then make them simple for him,” said Acronis, smiling.
Keeper kicked Skylan in the gut. While he was groaning, the ogre lifted Skylan with one arm, slung him over his broad shoulder, and carried him to the boulder. With a heave, Keeper threw Skylan to the ground.
“And that is how you play the game,” said the ogre.
CHAPTER
10
* * *
BOOK TWO
While Skylan was learning the intricacies of Para Dix, the other Torgun warriors and Aylaen were picking up rocks in a field.
The field was covered with stones of various shapes and sizes, some buried deep in the ground. The soldiers ordered the Torgun to dig out the stones that were about the size of a man’s fist and pile them in heaps to one side of the field. The work was laborious and pointless, as far as Aylaen could see. She had worked in the farm fields since she was old enough to know a weed from a bean sprout, and she recognized that the ground was too rocky to be good for planting. Only when the Torgun were ordered to load the stones into wagons did she realize that the stones were the crop they were harvesting. According to one of the guards, the stones would be hauled away, crushed and used in the making of concrete.
Aylaen was accustomed to hard labor in the fields. She enjoyed farming, watching crops grow, tending to the seedlings, gathering in the harvest. This was different. She came to hate this work. The constant stooping and bending and carrying the rocks to the cart made her back ache. Her fingers were torn and bleeding from scrabbling to pull the rocks out of the ground.
The sun was hot, the air damp from the rain. The men stripped off their tunics. The soldiers taunted Aylaen, told her to do the same.
The soldiers who had treated her with respect while under the stern eye of Zahakis now felt free to insult her. They leered at her and made crude remarks. She pretended not to hear. Her stepfather heard, however, and he and the other Torgun were growing increasingly angry.
At some particularly unsavory remark, Sigurd threw the rock he had been carrying at the soldiers. The rock missed. The soldiers put their hands on