It was a misty, chilly morning of early winter in Pelargir. Two dockworkers called Cairben and Tirdir were hauling crates and cursing the damp as they labored in the eastern harbor. The tide was shifting. Cairben suddenly noticed something unnatural bobbing between the pylons of the quay.
”What is that?” he asked.
Tirdir merely glanced at the floating shape and waved his hand dismissively. ”Driftwood”, he said. ”Anduin’s full of it this time of year. Come on, help me lash the last crate. Those spice barrels won’t tie themselves.”
Tirdir gestured towards a stack of sealed casks that were marked with the merchant sigil of a famous spice house of Pelargir. The barrels were slick with mist and needed to be secured with ropes before the tide would rise and the barge depart.
But Cairben kept staring at the floating object.
”I don’t think it’s driftwood at all”, he said. ”It looks like a human – a dead body in the water!”
Tirdir stepped beside Cairben and squinted his eyes, staring at the shape.
”Go get the hookpole”, he said.
Cairben went to fetch a long-handled boat hook that was leaning on a nearby wall. He stretched the hookpole out towards the floating shape and pulled it closer. Now both men could clearly see that it was indeed a human body – a woman dressed in a typical household servant’s outfit. The corpse must have been in the water for days, for it was horribly bloated and nearly unrecognizable as human. The body had first sunk in the water, but over days the gasses had made the body bloat and float up to the surface. The only thing they could see for certain was that her skin color was considerably darker in tone than any native Gondorian would have.
”I think it’s one of those freed Harad slaves the ships sometimes bring to harbor”, Cairben speculated. ”Noble households sometimes hire them as servants.”
Tirdir scratched his head and frowned. ”Go get the City Guard”, was all he said in reply.
