Ulric narrowed his eyes, picturing each of the four escaped slaves.  He'd been involved in collecting many of them in the first place.  He was fairly certain the face print wasn't of the albino girl, so it must be the other.  "This one was rather unremarkable," he commented as he examined the ground a few moments longer, noting by the tracks in the soft earth how the others had turned and come back to aid this girl. 

"A man, perhaps her uncle, sold her to the captain in Port Harwick."  Had it not been for the fact that they didn't normally collect slaves from the area in and around Port Harwick, Ulric might not even have remembered the girl.  The local lord there employed a strong home guard that served as a deterrent for the snatch and grab tactics.  "A drunkard paying off a gambling debt, if I remember rightly," he shook his head with disdain for such an individual.

"You captured one of the others we hunt, didn't you?" he asked Dinah as they continued down the trail that lead to the swampy lowland.   


[hr]


Anxious to not anger the village elder further, Brinley hurried after Willow, not even waiting to hear the answer about which direction to the river.  The albino girl seemed to be certain of the direction to head and even if it wasn't right, they could always correct it once they were out of range of the natives and the threat of being handed back to Ulric in ropes.