Enslaved by the Crown: The Weakest Slave Has the Strongest Ability

He was sitting against the far wall, one hand pressed against his side.

Blood had soaked through his shirt and spread across the floor beneath him.

The man looked up sharply.

His hand moved toward the knife beside him.

"Stay back."

Eldrin stopped.

"I’m not here to hurt you."

The courier laughed weakly.

"That’s what they said."

He tried to straighten himself and immediately winced.

Eldrin noticed the other wounds.

A cut across his upper arm.

A deep puncture near his ribs.

The blood loss alone was severe.

"You need a healer."

The courier gave him a tired look.

"There’s no point."

"You don’t know that."

"I do."

His voice had already begun to weaken.

Eldrin crouched several steps away.

"The merchant company sent me."

The courier’s expression changed.

"They really sent someone?"

"I’m with the retrieval bureau."

A faint, bitter smile appeared.

"And they sent a child."

"I’m not exactly a child." Eldrin said.

"You look like one."

Eldrin ignored that.

"Where’s the ledger?" Eldrin asked.

The courier’s expression hardened.

"So that’s why you’re here."

"That’s the job." Eldrin said.

The man’s eyes moved over him.

"You came alone?"

"Yes."

"Why?" Courier asked.

Eldrin frowned.

"Because I’m the one assigned to it."

The courier stared at him for a few seconds.

Then slowly relaxed against the wall.

"Figures."

"What?" Eldrin asked.

"They’ve all been looking for the book."

Eldrin waited.

The courier looked toward the door.

"I knew someone in the company had changed my route."

"Daven Rusk?" Eldrin asked.

The man’s eyes widened.

"How do you know that name?" Courier asked.

"I found the dispatch."

A long silence followed.

"Then you’ve already seen enough."

The courier gave a weak laugh.

He coughed.

A little blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Eldrin leaned forward.

"What happened?"

"I was supposed to take the ledger to Briarhook."

He swallowed.

"Then an instruction came through the office. Changed the meeting point."

"Westmere."

The courier nodded.

"I knew something was wrong."

"Why?" Eldrin asked.

"Because the order wasn’t signed by the person who normally handled my route."

Eldrin’s eyes narrowed.

"So you went anyway?"

"I had to." Courier said.

"You could have refused."

"No."

The courier looked down at the blood on his hand.

Eldrin remained quiet.

"So you went to Westmere."

"I went there."

"And the note?"

The courier looked at him.

"What note?"

"The one you left."

A faint smile crossed the man’s face.

"Ah."

Eldrin understood.

"You wrote it to mislead them." Eldrin asked.

"Not exactly."

The courier shifted painfully.

"I wanted them to think I had left the ledger somewhere around Westmere."

"So they’d search there." Courier said.

"Yes."

"And you escaped."

His eyes closed briefly.

"When I realized they were still following me, I took the horse and left north."

Eldrin glanced toward the doorway.

"Where is it?" Eldrin asked.

"Let it go."

He gave a tired shrug.

"I wasn’t taking it through the forest."

A moment passed.

Eldrin looked at him.

"Where is the ledger?"

The courier didn’t answer immediately.

Then he reached weakly inside his coat.

Eldrin tensed.

The man pulled out nothing.

His hand simply fell back against his side.

"I couldn’t keep carrying it."

"What did you do with it?"

"I hid it."

"Where?"

The courier looked directly at him.

"There’s an old weighing station beside the northern trade road."

Eldrin waited.

"The Blackwater Weighing House."

The courier took a slow breath.

"There’s an old stone scale outside the building."

His voice grew quieter.

"Third stone beneath the eastern side."

Eldrin memorized it.

Eldrin looked at the blood spreading beneath him.

"We need to get you help."

The courier shook his head.

"No."

The man opened his eyes.

His shoulders relaxed.

For a few seconds, he simply sat there.

Then his eyes closed.

Eldrin waited.

"Sir?"

No response.

He moved closer and checked for a pulse.

There was no pulse.

Eldrin stood.

...

The Blackwater Weighing House was little more than a stone building with a collapsed roof and a set of rusted scales standing outside.

Eldrin found the eastern side easily enough.

One stone.

Two.

Then the third.

He crouched and pushed his fingers into the narrow gap beneath it.

Something solid resisted.

His pulse quickened.

He worked the stone loose.

A small oilskin-wrapped bundle had been wedged beneath it.

Eldrin pulled it free.

The ledger.

He sat back on his heels.

For several seconds, he simply looked at it.

He had spent days chasing this thing.

Nearly getting caught.

Following bad leads.

Breaking into places he had no business entering.

Getting chased through a warehouse.

And now it was sitting in his hands.

He checked the merchant seal.

Intact.

Good.

Eldrin slipped the ledger beneath his coat.

He should have left immediately.

Instead, he hesitated.

One part of him wanted to know why so many people had been willing to search half of Briarhook for a merchant’s book.

He opened it.

At first, nothing seemed unusual.

Shipments.

Prices.

Names of merchants.

Storage fees.

Routes.

Ordinary trade.

Page after page.

Eldrin was beginning to wonder whether the entire job had been more trouble than the ledger was worth.

Then he reached one section marked with a series of coded entries.

He slowed.

J7 — Korrandis Estate

He read the line again.

Below it were several shipments.

Cold-retention crystal — quantity recorded

Insulated containment material

Preservation medium

Special handling required

Eldrin’s fingers stopped turning the page.

His eyes moved lower.

He stared at the words.

Cold-retention crystal.

Preservation.

Korrandis.

His mind made the connection almost immediately.

He refused it.

No.

He continued reading.

The next page contained a reference to J7 again.

A larger order.

More crystal.

More preservation materials.

The destination remained the same.

House Korrandis.

Eldrin’s grip tightened around the ledger.

His father’s face flashed through his mind.

The ice.

The display.

The cheers.

He closed the book.

His breathing had changed.

No.

It could mean anything.

A noble house had countless reasons to purchase preservation materials.

Important artifacts.

Magical specimens.

Food storage.

Medical purposes.

There were hundreds of explanations.

His mind offered them rapidly.

Anything.

Everything.

Except the one he didn’t want to accept.

Eldrin opened the ledger again.

He checked the dates.

Then the quantities.

Then the J7 designation.

He memorized what he could.

He couldn’t take the ledger.

It wasn’t his.

He had accepted the request to retrieve it, and returning it was how he would get paid.

So he closed it.

For several seconds, he remained completely still.

Then he wrapped it again.

He had gone looking for ten silver.

He had found something far more dangerous.

The following day, Eldrin returned to the bureau.

The woman behind the counter looked surprised when she saw him.

"You’re back."

Eldrin placed the ledger on the desk.

"Here."

She checked the seal.

Then opened it and compared several pages with the request records.

Everything appeared intact.

"Where did you find it?"

"West of Briarhook."

She studied him.

"You finished surprisingly quickly."

Eldrin didn’t answer.

She counted out ten silver coins and placed them in front of him.

"Your payment."

Eldrin looked at the coins.

Ten.

He gathered them carefully and slipped them into his pouch.

The woman tapped his registration ring.

"Your first completed request."

The crystal lit.

Completed Requests: 1

Rating: Pending

Eldrin glanced at it.

One request.

Ten silver.

It wasn’t enough.

But it was a start.

He turned toward the door.

His hand closed around the pouch in his pocket.

Damnn you!!!!

Korrandis...

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