Chapter Five: Slaver's Tongue[edit | edit source]

Rinold, captured by the topaz-eyed Wiirê people after escaping a monstrous serpent, endures harsh captivity in a rickety wooden cage hoisted into the forest canopy each night. Stripped to trousers and boots, he sweats in the humid jungle, battling incessant bugs and the indignity of his confinement alongside Edlmir and seven other Silone. After ten days of canoe travel, they reach a Wiirê village of lean-tos and tents, where they dangle in cages for three days, fed cloudy water and unable to stretch or relieve themselves privately. Rinold struggles to decipher the Wiirê’s rapid, garbled language, his lack of scholarly skill frustrating his attempts. On the fourteenth day, a barge arrives carrying a wealthy, gold-adorned leader dubbed “Bossman” by Rinold, whose carved teeth and heavy jewelry mark his status. Bossman inspects the captives, haggling with their captors, and singles out Edlmir for a test, arming him with his mail, sword, and shield. Edlmir swiftly kills a Wiirê warrior in a staged combat, impressing Bossman, who values his strength as a “Telmetîn” (warrior). Rinold, identifying himself as a hunter rather than a warrior, negotiates a tentative rapport with Bossman, learning the Wiirê are distinct from the Histê but trade with them. Despite Edlmir’s brief chance to fight for freedom, the overwhelming number of Wiirê archers forces restraint, and the Silone are re-caged, their value as potential warrior-slaves confirmed. As Bossman callously discards the dead warrior’s body into the river—where a massive creature devours it—Rinold grapples with the grim reality of their enslavement in a strange, brutal world, far from the familiar perils of Kaludor.

WoG Chapter 04 — North South North
WoG Chapter 06 — Charted Waters
Whispers of Ghosts — Main Chapter Listing