19th of Autumn 5859

  A cave that isn’t Libertycave, Karabush

  Karabush, the province right next to the rebels over at Casamonu, seemed as calm as ever under the cover of night. It was total silence, with the cicadas having retreated after summer, only the soft whistling of wind making its way through the trees and hills.

  Tubman was up on a hill, watching the city of Karabush. The city itself was only lit up by lanterns hung from watchtowers. From such a distance she could only see faint dots of light reaching her eyes. “Seems calm today as well.”

  “Emphasis on seems.” replied Kyauta, who had been sitting right next to Tubman.

  “I am pretty certain they aren’t staying calm behind those walls. Those people can’t be staying idle while a slave revolt is brewing right next to them.” Tubman turned around from the city to the entrance of their hideout: a cave. It had taken Tubman and co. a few days of travel and scouting to find this excellent hideout. “Let’s not stay idle either. We have places to burn.”

  Kyauta and Tubman went through the entrance of the cave which was darker than dark. They navigated further inside by sticking close to the walls, touching the stone with their hands to make sure they were going the right way. Soon enough, they were in a small space lit by a lantern borrowed from Casamonu. Sitting around the lantern were a few familiar figures to Tubman, veterans from the League of Gileadites whom she had picked specially for their stealth, along with a few strangers that they had rescued from the slavers of Karabush. Most of them were quiet, mostly as they hadn’t gotten over the shock of their newfound liberty, while the ones who spoke were wondering when they’d be let out the cave. Tubman’s voice rang out throughout the walls of the cave “Good night, folks. I hope that you are doing well.” She began reciting the speech that she had recited many a time before “We’ll be getting you across the border tomorrow, may the Lord help us across this journey, to Casamonu. It’s a free city ran by our people, and I advise that you stay there, but we’ll help you if you wish to make your way to Zon’guldac.”

  One shaky fugitive raised his hand “Uhm, madame, this sounds quite dangerous. Can we return back to-”

  Tubman tapped at the axe hung by her waist. “If you wish to return to your master, I’ll return you to your Maker.”

  “U-understood, madame.”

  “Good, I’m glad that you got it so quickly.” Tubman unsheathed her axe anyways, which looked quite scary when she was under such dim light. “Now, are we ready to save a few more souls?”

  19th of Autumn 5859

  A plantation, Karabush

  Karabush, the province right next to the rebels over at Casamonu, seemed as calm as ever under the cover of night. It was total silence, except for Tubman speaking in a hushed tone “I’ll go forward first.”

  Under the dim moonlight Tubman rushed forward, avoiding stepping on branches and mud to be as quiet as possible, and slowly a big black square revealed itself in front of her. Tubman wished in times like these that she was a catgirl. Then she could have easily seen in the dark. Still, through years of experience, she didn’t need to be a catgirl to do her job. That big black square was the main building, the residence of the master and the overseers, there was a fence around it that looked like a series of thin, small black rectangles. The slave quarters were somewhere behind those fences, usually pretty close to the main building as to not let slaves be too far from supervision. Tubman raised her hand after seeing no overseers, and her small group followed her in jumping through the fence. There was no light coming out of the windows of the main building, nor anywhere in the compound, so it seemed that everyone was asleep.

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  Tubman and co. dispersed, looking everywhere for where slaves may be. They weren’t in that one building, or that other one, and by the end everyone had looked everywhere to not see a single soul. “General, did you accidentally lead us into an abandoned place?” asked Kyauta.

  “No, there were people here. I checked it yesterday.” Tubman looked around her uneasily. The darkness was a neutral side in this conflict. It hid them as well as anyone who might be planning on setting up an “Ambush?”

  A loud crash was heard from the main building. Then footsteps.

  “Disperse! We’re being ambushed!” With Tubman’s command, everyone took positions wherever they could find cover. The footsteps got closer and closer.

  Out came… just one man? “H-Hello?” He was armed with a kitchen knife that shone under the moonlight. His legs were shaking and his voice was quivering.

  “Hello?” Tubman popped up from behind the bush she was hiding in. “Who are you? Where is everyone?”

  “Huh? A fellow darkskin? I thought I was about to be gotten by the Imperials…” The man dropped his knife and fell to his knees out of relief.

  Tubman too lowered her axe “Why would the Imperials get you? You aren’t a fugitive, no?”

  “No, I’m not, but some guys – with black armor, odd spears… I believe they were Imperials, they at least said that they were working on order of the Emperor, they rounded the slaves up and told the master that we were Imperial property now. I hid in a bale of hay in the stable, and they never found me.”

  “That’s…” Tubman thought of what might have happened. Perhaps the owner of this plantation had wronged the Imperials somehow? Even then, taking away the “property” of an aristocrat seemed quite aggressive. “Do you know where the Imperials took the others away?”

  “I have no clue. I was busy hiding by that time if they told anything about that.”

  20th of Autumn 5859

  The cave that isn’t Libertycave, Karabush

  The sun was slowly rising over Gemeinplatz. By the time the first rays of sunlight began hitting the surface, Tubman had hiked her way back up to their hideout. She made her way back inside, where she found a dissatisfied Kyauta twiddling her thumbs, and nobody else. “Good morning, Kyauta.”

  Kyauta slowly stood up, taking a while before she opened her mouth to speak. “Morning, General. As you can see, we didn’t manage to rescue anybody yesterday. Hopefully you’ve brought some better news?”

  “Unfortunately, no. It seems that the Lord has other plans. We heard from one slave, the only one left behind, that his entire plantation had been evacuated by Imperial soldiers. He’s the only one we’ve managed to send to Casamonu.”

  Kyauta was shocked. “We went around a few plantations, all of them were completely abandoned. Did the Imperials do that as well?”

  Tubman nodded “We can’t be sure, but I think that’s probably it.” She took the lantern in the room “Let’s think outside with some fresh air.”

  “Let’s.” Kyauta joined Tubman in taking a walk outside. “We should go back to Casamonu. There isn’t much for us to do here.”

  “We still have to scout this area, to make sure…” Tubman’s eyes had caught something downhill. More specifically, a large gathering of men down below, near the city walls. “Duck!”

  “What are they doing?” asked Kyauta.

  Tubman went silent and spend a minute observing the gathering below. It was very large, somewhere around five thousand men she estimated. “They don’t have any siege weapons around the city, so they aren’t here to siege it down. They don’t seem to have built any tents or fortifications around them, so I don’t think they intend on staying here either. We didn’t see them yesterday, so they must have just marched in this morning. Let’s wait until they move.”

  An hour passed, and then another, until the mass of men began moving in unison on the highway.

  “And they are…” Kyauta watched the group. It was impressive to see such a large mass from afar.

  “That highway is the one we followed. They’re marching to Casamonu.” Tubman carefully slithered back, so did Kyauta, until they were comfortable standing back up again. “Now is the time to return to Casamonu. We’ve seen what we needed to see.”