Chapter 17 - A new hope

Chapter 17 – A New Hope

Time passed slowly as a slave, and yet that sadly didn't stop the time, and soon, day after day, the second week concluded and Konrad couldn't be happier.

Day by day, more and more of the slaves that were on his ship started to join the others and soon, the beginning of a new religion was birthed. Yet, as always some were not so keen on seeing something like this become a bigger obstacle for their agendas. Amongst all fifty- seven slaves, three of them were of a more "important" standing, at least in Westeros. One of the slaves, a man in his early fifties, and the man who had the guts to try to kill a child no older than seven namedays old.

The septon, as he and his three followers called him, had enough of this blasphemous gathering of pagans and decided that enough was enough. The very next night, the septon and his followers slowly made their way across the cargo area until they reached the corner where Konrad was sleeping, and despite not having any weapon other than their fists and shackles, the four men didn't back down at all.

Once there, they walked between two crates, expecting to find Konrad lying on his rags, unaware of his fate. But to their surprise, they found the place empty. There was no sign of the pale demon anywhere and that was alarming. Unfortunately for them, before they could react, all four of them heard a growl behind them and when they turned around, the first and last thing the septon saw was Gendel's shackles coming for his head. As soon as the Septon fell to the wooden floor of the ship, his followers screamed and went into a mad frenzy trying to avenge their holy leader, but sadly for them, it was three against five and ten.

By the time the slavers realized that something happened down in the cargo bay, what was left of the four followers of the seven was only a bloody mess of dead bodies. For some bizarre reason, the scared man that Konrad learned was the leader or better said the captain of this ship didn't bother to look too much into this, instead, he just ordered his men to throw the bodies overboard, not caring at all that four of his slaves had been killed.

The next day, Konrad was on high alert fearing that the scared captain might attack him, but to his surprise, nothing happened. To anyone, which truth be told, wasn't something Konrad or Gendel had thought would happen.

Speaking about the chieftain, after hearing the young lord's story and how he became a fugitive, the mountain man and his six clansmen who were still alive pledged their allegiance to him on the condition that Baelish would pay for the crimes he had done against Gendel's tribe. Yet for that to happen, Konrad had to become a free boy once more.

As he and Gendel were standing in the cargo bay watching the other slaves tending to their own business, the boy's thoughts drifted to his uncle and his mentor, Andar, and Tyrek, who was most likely turning Essos upside down searching for him.

"What are you planning now, m'lord?"

It was still unsettling to hear Gendel referring to him like that, but despite the slight awkwardness that was between the mountain men and him, Konrad was glad to have a group of skilled fighters at his command.

Before he answered, Konrad quickly looked above them just in case one of the guards was eavesdropping on their conversation. Once he was sure that no one was up there, he turned towards the hairy chieftain.

"I don't know how long we have until we reach the slaver's bay, but I for one don't plan to live the rest of my life as a pleasure toy for rich Essosi men and women. From what I and the children managed to find out, there are no more than fifteen men in this crew, including the scared man with a whip. Yet, despite us having the numerical advantage and even with the light healing our daily praying sessions did to the people, it would be too costly to attack the crew heads on, not to mention that the other ships would jump to help their men."

For a few seconds, the chieftain didn't say anything, but by the look on his face, he was struggling to ask Konrad something that might not be something the boy would want to hear. In the end, after almost two minutes of silence, Gendel lets out a sigh.

"We can try to lower their numbers, but I don't know if you would like this method."

"What method?"

"You are young, but you are smarter than any man I've met. If you can talk to one of the girls, we could lure one or more slavers and take them out when they undress, but as I said, this would put the girl at risk."

Hearing Gendel's words made Konrad clenched his fists before sending the chieftain a glare. "Are you mad? How can you even think of such a thing? These girls and women are not objects to be used and discarded. They are human beings, just like us."

Gendel shrugged and looked away. "I'm sorry, m'lord, but I don't see any other way. We don't have weapons, we are shackled, and as you said before we don't have time. We have to act fast and smart, or we will never see freedom again. The slavers are greedy and lustful, they will not resist a chance to have some fun with a pretty girl. If we can catch them off guard, we can take their weapons and keys, and free the others. Then we can fight our way out of this hellhole."

 "No, there has to be another way. A better way. A way that does not involve sacrificing anyone's dignity or safety."

Yet, no matter how much he racked his brain for an alternative solution, Konrad could not think of anything that would work. He knew that Gendel was right about their situation. They were outnumbered and outmatched by the slavers, who had swords, whips, and crossbows. They left Volantis two weeks ago and in a moon or so they will reach the Slaver's Bay. Just thinking about that made the young lord feel a cold sweat on his forehead and a knot in his stomach. He hated to admit it, but he was running out of options. Taking another look at Gendel, the only thing he saw was the grim determination in the man's eyes.

"I apologize, Gendel. Mayhaps I am too young for such things, but alas I am the one leading us. I'll go and ask the women and girls if any of them are willing to risk their lives for a chance of getting everyone free. You go and prepare your men."

The chieftain only nodded before making its way towards his clansmen, leaving Konrad to deal with the hard part of their plan. Amongst the fifty- three slaves that were on their ship, almost thirty of them were women and girls. While he had quite a few women that he could ask, truth be told, it wasn't easy for the young lord to do such a horrible thing, especially since over the last week, he had got to know most of the slaves, as many of them had started to refer to him as a saint, something that he had adamantly refused to be called.

To his surprise, when he asked the women if any of them were willing to risk their lives, more than half of them, mostly the ones that were younger than thirty namedays had agreed to do it. After quite a few minutes of discussion between themselves, the one that was selected to act as bait was a young Pentoshi girl of seventeen namedays. By all means, she was a beautiful girl, one that thankfully the slavers hadn't touched fearing that it would damage her price.

Almost in the middle of the night, Konrad, Gendel, ten of the men, and the Pentoshi girl started their plan. Using the excuse of feeling lonely, the girl managed to grab the attention of the three slavers who were supposed to guard the entrance to the cargo bay. At first neither one of them was keen on abandoning their post, but after a few rather seductive signals from the girl, the three men decided that it was worth the risk, especially when the girl told them that if they wanted, they could have her for the whole night.

And so, the Pentoshi girl smiled sweetly as she approached the three slavers who were guarding the door to the cargo bay. She had wrapped a thin rag around her slender body, leaving little to the imagination, something that one of the older women had suggested she do.

"Hello, handsome. I'm so bored and lonely in there. Would any of you keep me company for a while?"

When they heard her, the slavers looked at each other in surprise, after all this had never happened before, not willingly at least. They knew that they were not supposed to let any of the slaves out of their containment, but at the same time, this was a rare opportunity to enjoy themselves with a beautiful girl. All three of them glanced at the door, which was locked with a heavy iron chain and padlock, and in all honesty, no one would notice if they slipped away for a few minutes, not that anyone would even come here until morning.

"Sure, why not? We could use some fun, right boys?"

The other two slavers nodded eagerly and their friend, opened the door to the cargo bay, letting the girl out, before leading the girl away from the door. Thanks to how she flirted with them and how suggestive she was, neither one of the slavers bothered to lock the door behind them, thinking that it was secure enough and that one was dumb enough to try and escape.

Just like they planned, the girl pretended to be shy and nervous as she walked with the slavers. She looked around and saw that there was no one else around, most likely the rest of the crew was either asleep or busy with their tasks which worked greatly in their favor.

As soon as they started to touch her, the girl couldn't help but fear for her life, and while she tried to act as if she was enjoying it, she could not hide the terror in her eyes, something that seemed to make the men more lustful than they were before.

Suddenly, one of the slavers gasped and fell to the ground, a sword protruding from his chest. The girl looked up and saw Gendel's face behind him. Before the other two slavers could react, two more swords found their way into their neck and chest respectively. With the three slaves death at the hands of Gendel and the other slaves, the girl took a deep breath that she didn't know she needed.

While Gendel and the other men were taking the bodies away from there to strip them of their armor, Konrad approached the girl, who was still on the ground shaking slightly. Seeing the pale boy walking towards her, she tried to force a smile on her face, but she couldn't. What she had gone thought prior was too scary for her to calm down so easily.

Seeing her state, Konrad just sigh before sitting beside her. "I'm truly sorry… If… I knew that this would happen, I wouldn't had agreed with this plan."

The girl looked at Konrad, who was sitting beside her with a guilty expression. She could see that he was sincere and that he was blaming himself for her state. Yet she was the one who volunteered. But she had not expected it to be so terrifying.

 "It's alright, m'lord. It's not your fault. I don't blame you at all. I agreed to this plan, remember? I knew the risks. And it worked, didn't it?"

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