Central region. Sard

Starting to lose patience, Emma grabbed the puny seller by the scruff of her neck.

“Who do you take me for, muzzle of an ass?” The angry woman asked the shopkeeper who made her an indecent offer.

- Easy, baby. Here you are not the West. You will attack honest people and spend the next night in a hole! - the merchant warned Emma, ​​nodding to the woman behind her back.

Turning her head back, Emma saw an army patrol strolling through the Sard market. Reluctantly letting go of the greedy trafficker, the woman tried to control herself. The merchant whom the woman managed to christen as a “ferret” was absolutely right. The military in the city did not like to stand on ceremony with troublemakers. As a rule, teasers, drunkards and petty thieves without special ceremonies were taken to the local semblance of a prison, and put in an earthen pit, allowing them to cool down. Those whose sins were more serious could have been forever expelled from the city, sent to the main army outpost for a trial, or even shot. The latter measure was applied mainly to murderers and rapists, so Emma did not threaten death at the hands of the military. Communication with the greedy merchant took away a lot of strength and nerves from a woman. Not only did the puny ferret with piggy eyes try to fool a lame mare at the price of a young healthy horse, he also offered to reduce the price by fifty if Emma made him a blowjob. Although the merchant’s offer was humiliating and offensive, the woman understood that she herself did not behave quite correctly. "Khorok" was the only seller of horses in all Sardis, which allowed him to raise the prices of his goods several times a day.

Emma at the very beginning of the auction made it clear how much he needed a horse, so the merchant decided that God himself told him to cash in on the woman in need. In order to speed up the search for her daughter, Emma was ready to step over her principles, and give the shopkeeper what she wanted. Yes, only the words of the greedy "Ferret" Emma did not believe a penny. What prevented him from getting what he wanted, and then saying that she sucked him off of her own free will? Absolutely nothing. Of course, Emma had the right amount in her hands, but the woman did not plan to squander too many chips in Sard.

“Since we are at an impasse, I suggest we resolve our dispute differently,” suggested Emma.

The merchant's eyes glittered greedily.

- "All or nothing"? - just in case he specified.

Emma nodded, and pulled a pair of dice from her pocket. The rules of the popular game "All or Nothing" were painfully simple. Players or, more correctly, disputants, made bets and threw cubes three times. The one who scored two wins out of three, and won. In order to avoid fraud, the game was conducted exclusively in the presence of disinterested spectators, so that the loser would not think of going backwards.

- If I win, you give me the fastest horse, as well as supplies for a day's journey. Free, - voiced her bet Emma.

- It goes. If I win, then you give me all your chips, and you stay in Sard for weeks ... a month, and without objections you do everything I say, ”the merchant said with a nasty smile.

- Are you completely crazy? No way! - complained anxious woman.

Smile "Fitch" has become wider.

“Nobody pulled you by the tongue, dear,” he said, and with a gesture he called one of the patrolmen to himself.

In fact, Emma did not risk anything, and her anxiety was contrived. Knowing that it might come in handy when dealing with merchants, Emma practiced for a long time and learned how to throw out exactly the combination she wanted.She could easily have thrown 2 6s 3 times in a row, but chose to give in in the first round, throwing a unit and a deuce. The merchant anticipating victory immediately cheered up, thinking that the victory was in his pocket, but in the second and third rounds, Emma won the victory with a minimum margin (again, so as not to arouse suspicion). Seeing the victory slipped out of his hands, the “Khorek” changed in his face, and began to resent, calling Emma a fraud. However, the soldier watching the game confirmed that the woman had won honestly and demanded that the merchant fulfill the conditions of the bet. The gloomy shopkeeper obeyed, but he nevertheless tried to deceive the winner by trying to fool the first mare into her, and instead of normal supplies - stale bread and dirty water. However, Emma, ​​who has lived for over 20 years among the merchants, easily saw through all his clumsy tricks.

Carefully and meticulously after looking at the product, the woman made her choice, and after a few minutes she left Sard on a young and fast stallion with a bag of fresh supplies. Having traveled three kilometers from the city, the woman noticed the smoke rising from the burning fire. Turning in that direction, Emma stumbled upon three dead men. Just in case, having got a crossbow from behind, the woman dismounted, and went up to the first deceased, clutching a golden flask in her right hand. The absence of wounds and traces of struggle led Emma to the idea that the trio had been poisoned, moreover they had done it only recently. Taking a flask from the hands of the deceased, the woman sniffed the contents of the flask and found that it was plain water. The dead man suddenly opened his eyes, and convulsed. Noticing this, Emma dropped her flask in surprise, and clutched the crossbow with both hands. When the twitching man began to turn pale rapidly, Emma felt her skin become goosebumps. The substance that killed the dead man, and subsequently revived the deceased, was troglodyte venom. Before the transformation was over, the two other dead men also began to return to life. Fighting these monsters, having only a crossbow and a knife from a weapon, was tantamount to suicide. Trying to gain time to escape, Emma threw all three men on the arrow in the head, and ran to the horse.

It took a couple of minutes for the troglodytes to heal after being hit in the head. This was enough to leave the monsters far behind, and to drive off so far that the troglodytes did not think to go after her in pursuit. As soon as Emma got on her horse, the alarmed stallion reared up, almost dropping the rider from her back, but the woman who had firmly grasped the reins failed to fly out of the saddle. Leaving a potentially dangerous area, Emma thought about dropping back to Sard and warning the locals about the danger, but did not do this, having reasoned correctly that the city was full of military personnel and they would somehow cope with the three troglodytes. Now it was much more important to get to Faril as soon as possible, and make an offer to Billy Doyle that the mayor cannot refuse.

Scorpion Camp

Waking up early in the morning, Claire discovered that Jim's bed was empty, and Pride himself was not in the tent. Finding next to the mattress on which she had spent the night, a glass of water and a bowl of meat soup, Claire mentally thanked the sullen big guy for sensitivity. After breakfast, the girl left the tent, and went in search of Jim. Coming to the corral with the captives, Claire regretted that she did not follow in another direction. All as one captives were in a very deplorable state, as the gangsters who celebrated the successful raid raped the girls almost without stopping throughout the night. Faced with one of the girls, Claire saw in him first amazement and then anger. The same Claire saw in the views and the remaining girls. The reason for the indignation of the captives was clear, although Claire considered their mute reproach unfair. Against the background of battered battered girls who survived the violence, Claire looked quite well-groomed, cheerful and rested.It is understandable, because she did not have to appease dozens of drunken men. At some point, feeling guilty, Claire wanted to explain to the captives that this was not at all what they had decided, but looking at their hostile faces, she realized that no one would listen to her, and left without saying anything. But as soon as the girl just walked away from the pen, both fell out of the nearest tent ...