When the first of the slaves began to arrive at the farmhouse, Kana sought out Bueralan. ‘You cannot purchase men and women in my name,’ he said, clearly agitated. ‘I will not own another person. I cannot.’
‘You don’t own them.’ Bueralan was seated on an old cloth chair at the side of the house, near the empty kennels. In the shadows, his white tattoos appeared bright and unreal. ‘You paid for them,’ he continued, ‘but you don’t own them. In fact, you set them free before they came here. Or rather, one of mine, Kae, did so in your name. You can see him talking to them out there. You gave them their freedom and you offered them a job. They’re your soldiers now.’
‘You cannot believe that these men and women will fight as trained mercenaries for us. They have been slaves. They have not been trained to fight. They have been trained only to accept the cruelty of their lives. That is the most insidious part of slavery.’
‘These are not people born to slavery. These are people traded into it. Soldiers who have lost wars, whose ransom hasn’t been paid, who have had debts that they cannot repay.’
Kana turned to the men and women in the dirty fields. In the middle of them stood Kae, a lean, greying soldier, who was pointing to two rundown barns. He was issuing the ex-slaves with orders and would train them, when the rest of Dark returned. ‘I don’t understand,’ the former Mayor of Zajce said. ‘Do you plan to use these people to fight against the mercenaries in my town? There are no more than thirty of them.’
‘There will be more,’ Bueralan said. ‘But no, I don’t plan to have them fight. They’re just going to take the credit for what happens next.’
‘I fear I am at even more of a loss now, Captain.’
‘You can’t just take Zajce back. You have to take the idea of the town back as well. You said it yourself: you offer sanctuary to slaves, you who are touched by Enaka’s divinity. It doesn’t matter if all that his power has given you is the ability to break a lock and move a chain. It’s the symbolism that matters. And when people hear that you took Zajce back, and that you did it with an army of ex-slaves, you’ll be taking back not just the town, but also the idea of the town. You’ll give any who try to take it again pause.’
‘But that means you will receive no credit.’
‘The role of a saboteur is not to be seen, Mayor. It is to be obscured and lost. It is to be as if you never existed.’