Web of Deceit by Richard S. Tuttle Page B

take what is yours, tribesmen or not.”
    “There are a lot of good people too,” countered Rejji. “Those villagers this morning didn’t have to give us anything, but they did, and they don’t even know us.”
    “True,” admitted Mistake, “but that has not been my experience in the past.”
    “Of course not,” chuckled Rejji as he started walking again. “You never bothered to ask.”
    “All right, Rejji,” she smiled, “I am willing to try it your way, but I am still hungry.”
    As they rounded the next bend in the trail, four men stood blocking their path. Rejji and Mistake halted and gazed at the men who were brandishing swords. They wore no markings of any tribe, but they did not look friendly.
    “You are trespassing,” declared a tall lean man. “Do you have gold to pay the fee?”
    Mistake’s hand hovered near the dagger on her belt as she asked, “Do you have any food to spare, good sirs?”
    The men laughed and Mistake heard laughter coming from behind her as well. She stole a glance behind her and saw two more men on the path they had just walked down.
    “We have no gold,” Rejji stated. “We didn’t know we were trespassing and we offer our apologies. If you will point out the shortest path off your land, we will be gone swiftly.”
    “Your hand goes any nearer to that dagger girl and you will have one less arm,” sneered the tall lean man. “Why don’t you remove it and drop it on the trail before one of boys thinks you plan on using it.”
    Mistake looked at Rejji and when he nodded she dropped her dagger to the ground.
    “That’s a good girl,” grinned the tall lean man, which Mistake now assumed to be the leader. “It’s a long ways off our land and would take you days on foot, so we will give you a ride so you aren’t tempted to stray further into it.”
    Mistake sensed the men behind her coming closer and started to turn when she felt the blow to her head.
    When Mistake came to, she was in a wagon made into a cage and Rejji was holding her. There were other people in the cage as well and Mistake could see three more such wagons behind them. There were at least twenty riders accompanying the wagons from what she could see.
    “What happened?” Mistake asked.
    “They don’t like us talking,” Rejji whispered. “I assume the men behind us hit us over the head. I woke up just a few minutes ago. I guess they found a lot of trespassers.”
    “They are slavers,” whispered an old woman next to them. “You give them any trouble and they’ll cut you just as soon as look at you. They been working these trails for over a year, but I never expected they would come into the village.”
    “How do you know they are slavers?” Rejji asked.
    “My husband was killed by them,” the woman cried. “They said nobody would buy him cause he lost a leg a while back and they didn’t want no cripples.”
    “Quiet in there,” shouted one of the riders. “Keep your traps shut or I’ll shut them for you.”
    Rejji looked at the people in the cage with him. Most of them were old and over half of them were women. There was one small boy around ten years old and another that Rejji figured was a year or two younger than himself. The older boy had a wild, ragged look about him and he stared constantly out the back of the wagon. The boy intrigued Rejji because his clothes appeared to be all animal skins like Mistake’s. Everyone else was dressed like normal villagers with mostly clova wool garments.  Many of the people appeared to be sleeping and nobody spoke.
    Mistake caught Rejji’s attention and showed him that she still had the daggers in her arm and leg sheaths. Rejji looked around the wagon again to see if there was anyone else who might still possess a weapon, but he didn’t see anyone who was likely to.
    The trail they followed was well used and they headed mostly westward. Several stops were made to add more people, but none of them were put in Rejji’s wagon. The caravan rode