- Callum's Point of View -

"Where did you find it?" Sam asked quietly, fingering the silver necklace.

"Out in the back. I think she tore it off," I told her.

"Yeah the clasp is broken...Well obviously she came this way, but where are they now."

"I don't mean to be a wet blanket or anything but have you tried looking in the slave market?" Joe asked practically.

At first I didn't want to answer. The thought of Em in a slave market was almost unthinkable. Still, it was a very very large possibility. 

"No, no I didn't," I answered quietly.

"Well we probably should. I don't like it anymore than you do Callum but that's probably where she was last."

I nodded agreement and grabbed the necklace back from Sam, placing it in my pocket and starting off down the street. Joe and Sam hurried to catch up and together we went to where we knew the slave market would be. Smack-dab in the center of town where everyone could get to it easily. When we got there the square was empty except for one lone man sweeping the cobblestones. 

"Sir!" Sam called immediately, running up to the old man.

"Were you here during the slave market?"

The old man nodded his head slowly and stopped sweeping for Sam to continue.

"Did you happen to see a tall girl with brown hair around? She'd be wearing riding clothes and pants."

The man thought for several minutes before his eyes lit up with recognition.

"Ah yes! I remember. Feisty thing who looked foreign?"

"That would be her," Sam smiled.

My whole being just wanted to leap for joy. Finally we were getting somewhere.

"She got sold along with that little red head girl."

"WHAT?" I exploded, marching over to the old man.

"Who did she get sold to?"

"Now I can't be sure, but it was probably Sir Clemons. He buys a new slave almost every market day. One of the richest men around."

"And where could we find Sir Clemons?" I asked through gritted teeth.

The old man scratched his head thoughtfully and looked up as if in thought.

"Could be he's back home in his winter villa. He travels a lot you see and isn't often home. Has others do the bidding for him."

"Well where is his winter villa?"

"Up the road a ways and through the farming grounds. You won't get far on foot though."

"Why not?" Sam asked urgently. 

This was not something we had signed up for.

"If you don't have horses you'll probably get mugged. Being rich foreigners and all."

Sam nearly burst into laughter and I was pretty surprised myself.

"Rich foreigners? We are about as far from rich as you can get!" Sam chuckled.

"Well most people wouldn't know that. You're dressed well, you're clean, its a wonder you haven't been mugged yet."

"Where would we find horses?" I asked, wanting to change the subject.

I was very eager to get out of that town and find Em so we could just go home.

"Any of the livery stables sell em' at a pretty good price. I'd go to the one right over there," the man told us, gesturing towards a large barn.

"They have the best breeds."

"Alright. Thank you Sir," Sam smiled charmingly.

......................................................................................

We managed to get three horses at a decent price and quickly made our way in the direction of the fields as the old man had instructed. Sir Clemons obviously had a taste for wheat...or the money it brought. It was all you could see for miles and I could see many people working hard to get the harvesting done.

"Those poor people," Sam muttered to herself.

Neither Joe nor myself answered. There was no need. We all knew that those working in the fields were slaves. You could tell just by looking at them.

"I can't believe this is even legal," Joe said quietly as our horses made their way down the dusty road.

"Me neither. I wish I could something about it."

"Well you can't so there's no use worrying about it," I answered bitterly.

All this talk about slavery was putting me in a very bad mood and I did not feel like going farther with the conversation.

"Its alright Callum. Obviously this Clemons fellow bought Em so she can't have gone far. All we have to do is go in, grab her, and then get out. Not a problem," Sam said casually.

"You make it sound so easy. All I know is that it won't be. It won't be easy and something will go wrong. I'm sure of it."

"Why do you always have to be such a wet blanket?" Joe asked, turning in his saddle to look at me.

"Because its the truth. No use in trying to lie to ourselves...We have to be ready for anything."

Sam frowned and ran a hand through her shoulder length hair thinking over things.

"When we do get to Sir Clemons' villa, what then? What will we do? This guy doesn't seem much like the bargaining type."

I sighed and looked around at the slaves, nodding to the few who looked up at us curiously. Most of them didn't though. They just kept on going with their work. They'd probably seen so many people go by without a care that they no longer cared. What was the point after all? They were still slaves and that was that. There was nothing they could do about it. A curse too many people were forced to live with. I shuddered at the thought that Em was one of them. She was probably breaking her back over some plow. Knowing Em she would probably work herself to death helping others.

"Maybe we could somehow sneak in," Joe suggested, snapping me out of my imagination.

I shook my head.

"Its bound to be guarded by several men. The villa will not be an easy place to get into. We'll have to come up with some story. Some alias that will get us in there."

"Like what?"

I thought for a minute, looking around casually.

"How do you fancy being millionaires?"

-Hey everyone! Merry (Late) Christmas! I hope you all had a good time and sorry I have updated in a while. Busy preparing for Christmas and all. Anyway I hope you liked the chapter and if you did votes and comments are always appreciated. Thanks :D - Anna