Chương 12: Ryan is Looking For a Way

Ryan was feeling utterly thoroughly disappointed in himself. He had been the one to find the map for that "merchant route" while shopping for books. He had even felt immensely proud of himself when he handed it to Maddie, assuring her that taking this bypass would help them avoid unwanted prying eyes. It hadn't occurred to his brain that a dedicated freight shipping lane was essentially a hotbed for predatory cutthroats. Actual merchant caravans required a heavy escort of hired mercenaries just to survive the pass.

What made him feel even more useless was the fact that he hadn't even noticed when a bunch of bandits quietly popped the rear hatch of the carriage. And when they gagged him and snatched him away, he couldn't do a single thing except squirm and panic like a trapped rodent. With his wrists bound tightly and a rag stuffed into his mouth, he was hoisted onto a bandit's shoulder as they navigated a dense forest of evergreen needle trees.

Upon reaching a jagged rock face, the bandit secured Ryan to his back like a rucksack and began scaling the cliffside. The bandit hideout turned out to be a massive cavern perched roughly fifty meters above the valley floor. The cave entrance was recessed into the rock wall and concealed behind a thick canopy of old-growth trees, making it completely invisible from the ground below. Two sentries stood guard at the mouth of the cave.

Seeing only three men return with a small boy, one of them barked, "Where's the rest of the crew?" The bandit hauling Ryan dumped him onto the dirt, spitting a glob of phlegm onto the rocks right beside the boy's head.

"We ran into a brick wall. The Boss got captured. No idea if anyone else managed to slip away."

"What?! The Boss is a wind mage! How the hell did he get taken down? I told you guys not to pick fights with large caravans!"

"There were only three of them, counting this brat! But one of them was a damn Dragonborn, and another guy was throwing wind magic around too!" A few more men emerged from the depths of the cave. Upon hearing the report, their faces darkened instantly.

"Are you brain-dead?!" one of them snarled.

"If they're that dangerous, why the hell did you snatch their kid? Are you trying to lead them straight to our doorstep?!"

"I... I just wanted to recoup our losses! Do you have any idea what young boys fetch on the market these days?" Another bandit scratched his greasy head.

"What do we do now? Do we cut him loose?"

"Idiot! He knows where our camp is now, we can't just let him walk! Throw him in with the Seki captives for now!" Deep in the back of the cavern sat a makeshift prison—a large wooden cage holding more than a dozen women and two young children. They wore heavy coats trimmed with fur at the collars and cuffs, a distinct hallmark of Seki attire. Heavy iron shackles bound their ankles. Ryan was shoved violently inside, tumbling onto the hard dirt floor.

Once the bandits drifted away, a few of the women mustered the courage to approach and help him up, carefully unwrapping the ropes and rag from his wrists and mouth.

"Little boy... are you from Seki too? Did they capture you?" Ryan shook his head. He wasn't Seki. But he wasn't about to claim he was from Berula or Ember either, considering both nations were currently locked in bitter friction with Seki.

"Are you all from Seki? How did you end up getting captured all the way out here?" A young woman spoke up, her voice trembling.

"Those bandits used to work as hired guards for Berula merchants trading across the Seki border. They passed through our border town regularly, so we let our guard down. When the war broke out and they lost their jobs, they turned to looting and human trafficking. They kidnapped us and dragged us across the border..." If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Hearing this, Ryan deduced that these bandits hadn't simply switched careers on a whim.

Protecting merchant caravans had likely just been a convenient cover story. Maintaining a fortified mountain hideout like this meant human trafficking was far from a new line of work for them. A young girl sitting nearby couldn't hold back her soft, broken sobs. Another woman, noticeably firmer, began cursing under her breath.

"I hear the laws over here allow a man to take multiple wives. They're definitely planning to sell us off as concubines to those Berulan degenerates. Absolutely revolting. Lord Zenos will strike them down for this!"

"Damned Berulans! Rumor has it they've already seized our Holy Land! Those greedy bastards are going to defile our sacred soil!" Having lived in Seki for a time, Ryan knew the animosity between Berula and Seki wasn't a recent development. Seki history textbooks claimed that two-thirds of modern Berulan territory had originally belonged to Seki. Over time, the "greedy Berulans" had invaded and pushed their ancestors back into the frozen, barren north.

In the eyes of the Seki people, Berulans were relentless invaders, and Seki had launched the war merely to reclaim what was rightfully theirs. The suffocating negativity hanging in the air was giving Ryan a headache. The boy pulled back into an isolated corner of the cell, trying to brainstorm a way out. The bars of the cage were carved from thick timber, secured by a iron padlock. He could potentially use his water blades to saw through the wooden bars—it would take time, but it was doable.

The real problem was that the cell was located at the very back of the cavern; to reach the outside, he would still have to walk right past the entire bandit crew. Right now, Ryan could only manifest water blades and launch ice projectiles about the size of a fist. He knew that wouldn't be nearly enough to take down over a dozen armed ruthless bandits. For the eleventh time today, he felt utterly useless.

Seeing how visibly tense he looked, a teenage girl who looked no older than fifteen or sixteen crouched down near him.

"Where are you from, little guy? Why did they grab you?" Ryan sighed gloomily.

"Long story. My carriage got ambushed."

"Your parents must be worried sick..." she murmured, her eyes welling with fresh tears.

"I can't imagine how heartbroken my mother is right now. I'm all she has."

"At least you have someone waiting for you to come home," Ryan muttered under his breath.

"Both my parents are dead. Not sure which of us is worse off." He refused to admit it, but the instant the girl mentioned parents being worried, his brain had unbiddenly flashed images of Maddie and that disabled, scarred former mage. But he quickly shut the thought down—neither of them had any real reason to risk their necks to save him. The original reason Hale Wallace had dragged him along was because the guy claimed he needed an apprentice. And Maddie only catered to him because she was following Hale's orders.

But now that Hale had lost his memory and couldn't even cast proper magic anymore, dragging an eleven-year-old kid along was nothing more than extra dead weight. Then again... after losing his memory, that bastard mage had acted completely different from before. He had even suddenly insisted on doing "good deeds." Maybe... No, Ryan chided himself inwardly, don't get your hopes up. He was going to break out of this dump using his own wits!

However, before he could formulate a viable plan, two bandits marched into the holding area, shouting loudly:"Everyone up! We're moving out right now!" Panicked gasps echoed through the cage. Being moved meant one thing: they were officially being shipped off to be sold. Several women broke into fresh hysterics. The bandits possessed zero patience. They unlocked the wooden door and barged in, swinging heavy wooden batons.

"Get up, hurry it up! What are you crying for?! You want a beating?!" Ryan's wrists were bound in heavy iron chains, and he was shoved into the middle of the procession. He realized he had to act now, or it would be too late.

"Wait! I have something to say! You'll regret it if you don't listen!" The bandit wielding the baton rounded on him, glaring down.

"Huh? What are you barking about, brat?" Ryan stood his ground, raising his chin defiantly.

"Call your leader over! I have a proposition to trade!" The two bandits exchanged bewildered glances before erupting into laughter.

"What the hell could a scrub like you possibly trade?" Ryan projected his voice loudly: "My name is Ryan Cyprus Lebanor! I am of the bloodline of the renowned House of Lebanor in Ember! My family will pay a massive ransom to get me back safely—far more than what you'd scrape together selling me off in secret!"

"Lebanor? Ember?" The two bandits looked at each other again. Having escorted merchant caravans across borders for years, the name sounded vaguely familiar.

"You think spitting out a fancy name is enough to make us buy it? Got any proof?"

"All my belongings were left in the carriage! But if you send someone down to the nearest town to ask around, you'll find out that the young master of House Lebanor is missing! Just drop my full name, and whoever is searching for me will confirm it's real!" The two bandits visibly wavered. One of them pointed a finger threateningly at Ryan's face.

"If we find out you're lying, kid, I'm going to carve that tongue right out of your mouth. Nobody minds a tight-lipped slave."