Lora of Two Worlds

The convoy reached the Aurun ferry. The far bank, the Lohenheim district. But they still had to follow the riverbank to Fuping Ford at Heyford County, and cross the Heyford Bridge.

Days of traveling together. Faye, open-natured, had found her rhythm with Roland. Chester Horn, no longer silent, bantered with the Odenheim brothers. Harmony all around.

Leon felt aggrieved. Watching the two ride side by side, laughing and chatting, he pulled the carriage curtain down and took Lora's hand:

"Back in Lohenheim, I become the Leon in the wheelchair again. Sometimes I can't speak freely. You might not understand, but I'll explain afterward, honestly. Can you promise not to flare up like a cat whose tail got stepped on?"

"Good! I'll ask clearly first, then decide whether to be angry."

Lora smiled, pressing her forehead to his shoulder.

She finally believed, coquettishness was a girl's nature. If she hadn't done it before, it was only because she hadn't found the person who made it safe.

Leon stepped out. He didn't ride beside Lora's carriage anymore, he marched with the guards, behind Alvin. Lohenheim was different. Crowded. Many had been to Augustburg. The freedom of the road, here, it could be a fatal mistake.

"Yanyan, look! What a long bridge!"

Faye had never seen a great river. Let alone a bridge across one.

Heyford was Lohenheim's outer defense. Three cities: South City, North City, on either bank. Middle City, on a river island. All linked by the Heyford Pontoon Bridge.

Since the attempted Crown Granary raid by disguised marcher troops months ago, the Count had replaced the entire garrison and tightened inspections.

"I wonder if Gareth is on the far bank... Will Father and Mother be angry at Alvin and Roland..."

Lora muttered, but her eyes drank in the grandeur that no chronicle could capture.

Even the two rows of Lohenheim guards at the bridgehead, spears upright, armor gleaming in the sunset, filled her with pride. The pride of a general's daughter.

"Yanyan, why are you crying?"

"Nothing. I just feel bad for my brothers getting scolded..."

"You said your mother would help? And your grandmother. And didn't you say you'd prepared a 'super-sweet gift psychological offensive'? That won't save Roland?"

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Lora snorted. She'd made up that name on the spot, and they all remembered it.

They were chatting when the carriage stopped.

At the front, Alvin had met the duty general, Denton Quinn, coming out to greet them. Guards joked and cheered. The bridgehead came alive.

Lora peeked out. She'd wanted to spot Gareth in the crowd. Instead, she saw, by the riverbank, several servants forcing a woman in white underclothes into an iron cage. The woman screamed in a language Lora couldn't understand, both hands gripping the cage door, resisting with everything she had.

"Let's go see." Lora threw back the curtain and jumped down.

Faye, Shawn, and Keane followed without a word.

"Handula, na-hikasi-isi-mao!" the woman screamed.

Faye grabbed Lora's sleeve: "She's speaking Dawnfolk. She's begging them not to kill her."

"She's Dawnfolk?"

A male voice behind them: "She's a runaway Dawnfolk bondmaid."

Lora turned. Alvin, Roland, Leon, and General Denton Quinn had all come over. The speaker, Denton Quinn:

"This bondmaid belongs to the Yu household. Young Yu Cheng won her in a cockfight at the South Market.

Day before yesterday, a royal-gift crystal vase went missing from the Yu house. They blamed her. Beat her. In the night, she knocked out her guard, climbed the wall, ran. They chased her all the way to the river."

"Brother, help her. We can't watch her die."

"We can't interfere. If she were a commoner, we could demand justice. A Dawnfolk bondmaid is private property. Even the authorities can't intervene."

The woman kept pleading, in a language no one understood.

"She didn't steal the vase." Faye said, urgent: "My Lord Yu tried to force himself on her. In the struggle, the vase was knocked off and shattered. He made her bury the pieces under the crabapple tree in the back courtyard."

If Faye hadn't spoken Dawnfolk, the woman would have carried that secret to the bottom of the Aurun.

"She doesn't speak the common tongue, so she's not a levy maid. She was trafficked." Leon said. "No contract. Whoever has her, owns her."

Roland understood. He stepped forward:

"Insolent! Murder in broad daylight!"

Dawnfolk bondmaids, prized for beauty and docility. The Dawn Kingdom court sent them as levy. The King redistributed them as rewards.

Tribute maids, being royal gifts, couldn't be freely sold. But the market was full of Dawnfolk women, trafficked by slavers, sold to fashion-chasing noblemen.

These women, no common language, far from home, no family to come looking. Often, no contract at all.

The Yu steward recognized the Odenheim brothers. Seeing Roland block the way, he bowed, oily:

"Lord Roland, you exaggerate. She's not a levy maid. My my lord won her in a cockfight. She stole from the house, injured servants, ran away. My my lord ordered, summary execution of a runaway slave."

"Stole and injured? Then hand her to the authorities. Not private execution on the riverbank."

"Lord Roland, she's a house bondmaid. A master may punish his own slave. Why involve the authorities?"

As he spoke, the steward brightened: "Ah! Our my lord is here!"

Yu Cheng rode up, pushing through the crowd: "Yu Fulke! Yu Fulke! Where's she?"

"Young master, here!" The steward hurried to him, whispering: "The Odenheim lords are here. They say we're using private justice, want us to report to the authorities..."

"Report? No." Yu Cheng walked straight to the Odenheim brothers, bowing with a smile:

"My lords, returned from duty? Meeting at Heyford Bridge, my good fortune to welcome you."

Yu Cheng's grandfather had been a chancellor. His father, a minor official. But his uncle, Yu Jiyou, was married to Leon's father's eldest sister. Five sons, all officials of rank. Favored by the King.

The Odenheims were military. All in one camp. In peacetime, their influence didn't compare to the Yu family's court connections.

Yu Cheng was confident.

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