The Freeport Butchers have been in the Ovyo Road Work Camp for about a month now. Ndege Greenlimb's spent a lot of time in the camp's sick tent from some sort of internal injuries. On this day, which began before the sun got too hot, Calebain was called up to join a 15 man crew. Also on the crew was Yowahkim.
Phoenix had been introduced to Calebain before (by a fellow labourer named Grayson) as someone who knew how to deal with unfortunate fellow prisoners and not fall afoul of the camp's rules. Calebain had spent some time in The Box early in his stay for beating the hell out of a man who called him Chickenwing, so on the morning march he and Yowahkim chatted quietly about that man named Kweza. Yowahkim had it on good authority that Kweza was looking to get rid of Calebain and did he want any assistance with that? Calebain said he'd welcome it and all Yowahkim asked for in return was the Butchers' assistance in escaping the work camp. That was an easy bargain to make.
Their crew marched right past the Ovyo road that morning which was kind of odd. Also odd was the man wrapped in clothing who was travelling with the guards. Calebain quickly guessed he was an Ob-Lob. Eventually they all came to a depression in the desert where three massive stones stood. Jombia, the man in charge of the guards that day instructed the labourers to head to the north side of the southernmost rock and start digging.
So they dig. In the hottest part of the day, Jombia gives the crew a break and WrappedUpMan yells at him for a while about the "lazy shiftless workers! This isn't what I'm paying you for!" Then he stalks off to the northern pillar. Calebain's been examining the pillar as they've dug, looking for some sort of mystical significance. After the break is over they dig for a few more hours. By the end of the day they've got a big hole, but no scaffolding or anything, meaning there's a lot of inefficiency going on. All in all, a waste of time.
As the prisoners toss down their tools for the day however, a guard sprawls forward, shot in the back with a huge arrow. Arrows start raining down on the guards, who pull their bows. Yowahkim and Calebain drop to the sand. Two thirds of the guards are dropped before everyone can take cover in the hole the prisoners have spent the day digging. Jombia and four guards are up at the top of the hole, arrows keeping their heads down. After a few minutes Jombia calls down to see if "the City man" is down there. He isn't. The arrows have died down and Jombia calls for a volunteer. Ford Biltfen asks what for and is told he just volunteered to go find the city man.
Ford leaves the whole and isn't shot. His pattern of running and dropping to the sand and zigzagging would make him a difficult target. Eventually he gets to the far pillar and starts running back. He's about thirty yards away when the arrows hit him. He drops to the ground screaming in pain for help. There's some debate about going to rescue him as he keeps getting shot. Yowahkim is very itnerested in watching him die, but Calebain eventually mans up and runs to grab him, while the remaining guards give him cover fire. The raiders retreat and are killed before they can get up the ridge of the depression the pillars are in.
Once things calmed down Jombia organizes the men to leave. He sends Calebain and Yowahkim up to check on the dead raiders and to see what they can see. The raiders are definitely desert people. On the raider bodies they find knives. The two prisoners hide those away before sneaking up the ridge. Over the top they see a Dune Ship sailing away at top speed. Those things usually only hold four people.
When they get back to the they're given a rude reception and don't tell Jombia about the Dune Ship.
Back at the camp that night they hide their knives and Calebain tells TC Uki about their day. He was out on the regular work crew, and word has it a Sunwise Healer is coming through the camp tomorrow. Also, Ford is the guy who's been teaching TC his sneaky tricks so he's pretty glad Calebain saved his life.
At the mess tent, Yowahkim fulfills his promise and gets some poison into Kweza's stew while Calebain distracts him. Later Kweza goes off to the latrines and is found dead. When he's dragged to the Sick Tent, Yowahkim makes an excuse to go there too. He sees that Kweza's eyes are bloody and Healer Dha says something about "the fool strained too hard." Yowahkim sees Ndege lying in the sick tent and goes to talk to him a bit, but Ndege gets creeped out. Dha kicks Yowahkim out of the sick tent and people went off to sleep under the nearly full moon.
