NaNoWriMo, part 19
Nov. 28th, 2006 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bookish_dragonI gots a title! Stubborn Is The New Black..
“I am here. Do not worry.” When he saw she was awake, he uncovered her mouth and put his arms around her. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, I am. I just had a nightmare.” She leaned in closer to him. “It was only a dream.” She closed her eyes and quickly opened them again. Over his shoulder she could see Marnak standing close to the door. The elf had his hand close to his sword. “Did I scream that loudly?” she whispered.
“Not that much. We are being careful. Olgyu and Emmar are not here either. That does put us at a disadvantage when it comes to a fight.” He winked at her. “Come on, get up. Let’s see if Marnak has heard anything.”
Marnak turned around at that point. “There are people running down the hall. Get ready, we do not know yet who they are,” he said in a low voice.
They nodded and got up from the floor, getting their weapons from where they had been placed against the wall. As Marnak was standing next to the door, Ameena took up position behind him. Bjernu stood near the far wall with his bow, out of sight of the door, but ready to shoot whoever came through it. The footsteps got closer. The door got rattled. Weapons got gripped tightly and brought into position inside the room. Olgyu opened the door and found herself faced with Marnak looking determined and holding his sword at her throat. “It is only us,” she said. “Put that away, please.” She and Emmar entered the room. Emmar closed the door behind them and then seemed to hide behind Olgyu. “We had a run-in with the chief constable. Emmar kicked him in the groin.”
The men winced. “Why did you do that?” Marnak asked the healer.
“He kissed me and did not want to let go when I told him to,” she said.
“It was a good one too. I trained her well.” Olgyu was beaming. She bent down and kissed Emmar. It was a very long and passionate kiss, and the others looked away to give them their privacy. Marnak finally coughed. They broke off the kiss.
“Yes, well, all very nice, but he was the chief constable. That will not go unnoticed. Do you think they will come looking for who did it?”
“I do not know,” Olgyu said. “Maybe. We did not stay around to ask him after he had gone down.”
“We should leave,” Bjernu said.
“We can not leave now. It is still day out,” Marnak said. “We would not get far. And it is highly probable the chief constable knows what Olgyu and Emmar look like. After all, he did kiss Emmar. We will have to wait until nightfall.”
“Here? This place will be crawling with agents soon, if he is one to want to take revenge,” Bjernu said. “We need to leave and find another place to stay.”
“Not now. If he has called in reinforcements they will be coming here. We will run right into them,” Marnak said. “What does the rest think?” He turned to the women.
“As long as they keep their hands off me,” Emmar immediately said. Olgyu nodded in agreement. Marnak raised an eyebrow. “I do not know beyond that,” Emmar said. “Both are dangerous. It might be better to leave, when the furore, if there is any, has died down.”
“I do not know,” Ameena said. “Both options are not ideal, like Emmar said. I also think we should leave, regardless. It would be better than staying here. That would make it a certainty we will get caught. Outside we might manage to stay out of trouble.” She stopped, she had heard something. She looked to the door, and put her fingers to her lips. “Shhh.” The others listened as well. There were cautious footsteps coming their way. They fanned about the room, taking up positions. Someone rattled the doorknob, and opened the door, slowly.
A head got poked around it. “’Ere, there are people in here!” the head called out. “They are in here, you lot.” He charged in, sword drawn. Marnak hit him in the back with the flat of his sword. The agent went down “Ugh!” he exclaimed as the air got knocked out of his lungs. More agents ran into the room, making it very crowded. There was not much room to fight. “Halt! You are under arrest for murder,” the apparent leader said. He was tall and dark, wearing the uniform with grace.
“What?” Marnak said. “What are you talking about?”
The agent looked at Emmar. “You there, the redhead. Come with us, you are under arrest.”
Olgyu stepped in front of the monk. “What are you talking about? She did not kill anyone.”
“We have proof that she did. Come here, you.”
Emmar gripped her crossbow tighter. “No, I am innocent. I will not go with you.”
“Chief constable Schaffer has personally signed the warrant. The deceased was a good friend of his,” the agent said. He was looking undisturbed.
“He is pissed because I turned him down. I did not kill anyone apart from his ego,” Emmar said. Some of the agents nearby snickered. The chief constable was not that popular.
“We have our orders,” the agent said, glaring at the ones sniggering. They stopped. “Please come with us. The rest of you can stay here, you are not needed.”
“I am not going. This is bogus. I am not coming with you,” Emmar said.
“Then we have no choice but to come and get you. You are outnumbered. Do you think you can think all of us?” The agent was still looking calmly at them.
“Do you think you will stand a chance?” Olgyu asked. She was brandishing her axe and grinning. Some of the agents standing near her blanched at the grin and tried to move away. The woman was obviously crazy.
“Do not be silly, woman, and put that axe down before you hurt yourself.” The agents who had backed away raised their eyebrows at their leader’s words. Clearly he had not seen how she was waving that axe about. “Hand over the redhead and we will not hurt you. Unless you like that sort of thing.” There was sniggering amongst the agents. The speaking agent went down just as an arrow thudded in the wall next to his head. Ameena was standing next to him, her staff held horizontally. Emmar was busy reloading her crossbow.
“Do not talk to her like that,” they said simultaneously. Ameena glared at the other agents. Marnak sighed. This would not go well. Then the first agents attacked. It was a very cramped battle. There was not much room for anybody to move in. Agents hit their colleagues more than they hit any of the group. They had more experience with fighting in close quarters. Ameena and Emmar did the best they could. No fatalities were made, it was too cramped for any deathblows. An agent had kept his head down after getting knocked to the ground. He crawled along the floor and snuck up on Emmar, who was standing free and uncovered. He got up, grabbed her from behind and held a knife to her throat before she could scream. She did not struggle because of it. The blade was biting deeply into her skin.
“Stop fighting!” he screamed. “I have the prisoner, and I will not hesitate to kills here if you do not stop fighting.” The battle slowly stopped. Olgyu looked furious and had to be restrained by the others not to storm the agent.
“Let me go! He has got Emmar!” She struggled against their holds, but they were tenacious and did not let up.
“We know, but he has also got a knife out at her,” Marnak said. “We can not let him hurt her.” Olgyu stopped, still looking at Emmar. She wanted to go over there and knock the man out for his presumptuousness, but that would only leave Emmar dead.
The agent holding the monk grinned. “Good girl. Now step back and let us leave with our prisoner. She will not get hurt in that case.” He pressed the knife closer to Emmar’s throat, drawing a bead of blood. She was not moving and breathing very shallowly. Fear was in her eyes. She was so scared. Agents got up from the ground, the leader last of all. There had been a lot of people standing on him during the battle. He had to be supported by two agents. He wheezed. “You are lucky we do not have orders to arrest you as well. Our orders were solely for the redhead. Do not show your faces in this city again.” An agent was busy manacling Emmar. They left the room, the manacled Emmar being dragged along and some of the agents who could not walk properly getting supported.
Olgyu turned on the others. “We can not just let them take here! We have to go after them.” She made to storm off after the agents, but Marnak stopped her by putting his hand on her arm.
“Not now. We can not attack them here, in a church. It means attracting too much attention, and we can not afford that right now. We had enough good luck that no one else noticed the fight we only now had. We can not afford to get locked up ourselves.”
Olgyu slumped. “I will not leave her. Who knows what they are going to do to her?” She looked dejected. “I want her back.”
“You will get her back. We are not going to leave her,” Marnak said. “We will get her out of there, I promise you.”
“Break her out?” Ameena said. She was looking unhappy. She wanted Emmar back too, but she was not too sure about the direction this conversation seemed to be taking. “That would be breaking the law.”
“Screw the law,” Olgyu said. “They arrested her in full force and on a false charge. How is that lawful? And you helped her resist arrest. How is that lawful?”
“It is not, I agree,” Ameena said. “The law is the law. You can not go around and break it just because you do not agree with it. We would be living in anarchy then.”
“She is your friend too. Are you going to leave her because some law told you to?” Olgyu was steaming. “That is what it sounds like to me.”
“Of course not,” Ameena protested. “I am just saying there has to be a better way, but it seems there is not. How are you planning to get inside anyway?”
“You can not,” a voice said. They turned around to see one of the agents lying forgotten under a couple of upturned crates. “Where she has been taken is too well guarded. Scum like you will never be able to get in and to take her out.”
Olgyu marched over to him and picked him up. “Since you know the place, you can tell us all about it.”
“What if I refuse?” He tried to look defiant, but being this close to an angry warrior unnerved him.
“Remember I have no qualms about the law and am at the moment a very angry woman with a big axe and a nasty sense of humour. So talk.” The agent gulped. There was no shutting him up for the next half hour as he told them everything he knew.
Chapter 12
He still did not know why he had been brought here. It was not like he had been in any danger of breaking out of the prison in the elven quarter. Kilak sat down on the floor, his head in his hands. Against all expectations he had not been beaten further. The room they had shoved him into had not been another dungeon. Instead it had held a desk, some filing cabinets and a very old elf with a stern look in her face. “So, you have been stealing from high priest Vender?” she had said.
“Yes, ma’am,” Kilak had mumbled. It would be of no use to point out that he had not stolen anything. He had confessed to the crime already, any protest now would not be listened to. He waited for her to continue.
“That is very serious. You will be transferred to the human part of the city, since high priest Vender is one of theirs and they will want to take care of you themselves.”’
He had looked up at that. “Transferred, ma’am? Why?”
“Can you not hear properly? You robbed a human, therefore they can punish you. I will not waste any more of my agents’ time on you.” She shot him a stern look, then looked at the door. “Marlund! Take him away.” The agent entered the room, saluted to the woman, and grabbed Kilak by the arm. He dragged the halfling out of the room with him. Without any words, he manacled the boy before they left the guard-station and made their way to the prison in the human part of town. That was how he had ended up here. The surroundings had not changed much. Prisons never differed much from each other.
The door opened. Kilak looked up and saw a woman getting shoved inside the cell. “Here is a free cell. Mind the rat.” The guard sniggered as he closed the door behind him. The woman was small and she had red hair. Her clothes were black and non-descript. She kicked at the guard’s retreating back and hit the door. It was steel-enforced. She hopped around on one foot, clutching the other.
“I will give him rat. Right in the groin,” she muttered. She stopped hopping and put her foot down before looking around. It was a small cell, with high walls and a small window set in the wall facing the door. It was dry and rather clean.
“He meant me,” Kilak said. The woman looked around to see where the voice had come from. “Here I am,” he said. He got up and stepped forward, carefully. It was hard to say what she was like, but they could not hide from each other in here.
“Hello,” the woman said. She took two steps over to him, and dropped to her knees. “You do not look so good. Can I be of any help? I am a healer, I will not hurt you.” She looked at him. The halfling in front of her was looking undernourished, poorly dressed and in general bad state. “Please? I do not have most of my things, but I do have some.” She started patting down her clothes. Kilak backed away. “I will not hurt you,” she said again.
He shook his head. “I am fine. Stay away from me.”
“If you say so. I am Emmar, and I will be here when you need me. You do not need to look for me.”
“Why are you here?” he asked. He was looking at her suspiciously.
She shrugged. “They say it is murder I committed.”
“Is it?” he asked.
“No! I am innocent. I have never killed anyone.”
“Everybody in these places is innocent, lady.” He shrugged.
“I only kneed the chief constable in the groin.” She looked dejected. “That is all. I did not kill anyone.”
He had to laugh at that. “That is wonderful. At least it is something worth getting jailed for.”
Emmar was not as amused. “It did land me here, away from my friends. Why are you here?”
“Pick pocketing someone who turned out to be a high priest of Pelor.”
“It does not seem they like you much,” Emmar said, having studied him for a bit. He was moving too awkwardly.
“No one does,” he said. He shrugged, wincing at the pain in his shoulder it caused. Emmar came over to him again.
“Please, let me help you. At the very least I can numb the pain.”
He backed away again. “There is no use.”
“It will help you feel better,” she said.
“They will beat that out of me again,” he said. He turned away from her pitying look.
“You are only a child! Are you not? I am sorry, I do not know much about halflings.
He nodded, once. “Child does not mean much to people these days.”
“Are you from around here?” Emmar asked.
“No. You still have not asked my name. Why?” He raised an eyebrow.
“You can tell me if you want to. I do not want to pry.” She was curious what he would say and if he would tell her.
He was confused. She treated him normally, not like all the others he had run into. She did not yell or scream or threaten him. It was unnerving. “Why are you so nice?” he blurted out.
“Why not?” she asked. “I can be, when not manhandled by guards or chief constables.” She smiled.
“Because no one ever is to me.”
“I am sorry to hear that.” She was. Such a young child… No one should have to live like that.
He shrugged. “Do not be. That is the way it is.”
“You are too young to be this cynical. We will get you out of here,” Emmar said.
“We, lady? There is only you and me.” He looked sceptical.
“My friends and I.” She looked assured and certain.
“You are here alone lady. I do not believe you.” He looked it too.
“They will come for me. I know they will.” ‘I hope soon,’ she thought.
“In here? They must be crazy, lady.” He smirked.
She smiled. “That does sound like them.”
Kilak raised both eyebrows. “You are crazy too, lady.” He took a step back towards her. “I like you.” He surprised himself with that.
“That is good, since we seem to be sharing a room for now. May I help you?”
“You never let up, do you?” He put his arms behind his back.
”I am a healer. It is what I do,” she said.
“You should have picked another job.” He looked at the ceiling.
“Not really. Do you always steal?” she asked.
“Only to stay alive.” He sat down on the ground, his back against the wall.
“No family?” She scooted over to him, her hands in her lap. “Do not be afraid, I will not touch you.”
“They are out there somewhere. I lost them.” He did not want to talk about how they had left him ‘because he attracted bad luck’. “It does not matter. I survive.” He shrugged again.
“Do you want to find them again?” Emmar asked.
“Not really,” he lied. “It happened a long time ago.”
She nodded. “I can understand that. I have two brothers who I would not recognise if I saw them on the street tomorrow.”
“Huh, that is odd,” Kilak said.
“No, not really. I have my friends. Family is what you make of it.”
“You are weird, lady.” He smiled, tentatively, seeing what she would do.
Emmar smiled. “That is me.”
The door opened again. “You, woman! Get out here. They want to talk to you.”
She got up. “I will see you later.”
“Probably.” He hesitated. “Good luck. You are going to need it. And your potions.”
“Thanks.” She walked to the door where a very impatient guard was standing. Kilak wondered how long it would be before she returned, and what she would look like at that time. He did not expect much good. Emmar waved at him before the door got closed behind here. The last thing he saw was the guard dragging her off by the arm.
“We can not leave here there,” Olgyu repeated.
“I did not mean that,” Ameena said. “But we can not just walk in and free her either.”
“What do you propose then?” the warrior asked. “Do it all lawful and wait for her trial? We can not do that. That would take ages and it would not be good for our health. We need to get her out.”
“We could do our own investigations…” Ameena tried.
“Normally that would be a good idea, but not here,” Marnak said. “None of us are familiar here, and people would not talk to us. Strangers enquiring after a recent murder like that? We would get arrested in an instant. We are lucky enough that we did not get arrested when they came for Emmar. They must not have known about you two.”
This was not the way to go. They could not break the law like this. Laws were there for a reason. People could not just go and break them. Ameena looked unhappy. It was not how she was raised.
“Are you going to help us or not? She is your friend too,” Olgyu insisted.
“I have never denied that!” Ameena snapped. Olgyu looked angry and made to speak again. Ameena interrupted her by making a sweeping motion with her arm. “But this… is not how I was raised. I got taught to obey the rules. I do not know what to do. I will help you, but it is hard for me.” She looked at the ground. There was silence.
“Fine. You can stay here, if this is so hard for you,” Olgyu said.
“No, we are not leaving anyone behind,” Marnak said.
“Which is all good and well, but what are we going to do about Emmar?” Bjernu asked. He had been leaning against the wall, arms folded over his chest. They had been going over this for the past hour. Nothing new had been said after the first twenty minutes.
“That is what we are talking about. Do you have any ideas?” Marnak asked. He rubbed his eyes.
“We go in and get her,” Bjernu said. Olgyu looked triumphant. They all turned to Ameena.
She sighed. “Lest it be said I abandon my friends… I will come along. I would never have backed out. I do not like this, but I will come along. What is the plan?”
“We go in and get her out,” Olgyu said.
“Think, Olgyu. We can not go in like that,” Marnak said. “We need a plan to get her out and us out safely.”
“We know what it looks like inside,” Bjernu said. “Thanks to our new friend over there.” The guard was sitting bound and gagged against the far wall. His ears had also been covered, so he could not hear their talking and possible plan, “We still need a plan to get in undetected.”
“Washerwomen?” Olgyu suggested and burst out into a high and nervous laughter. “I am sorry, this is no laughing matter.” She looked at the sketched map they had made.
“Please not, I look bad in a dress,” Bjernu said.
“You have the legs for it,” Olgyu said. She giggled again, high and nervous. She just wanted Emmar back.
Ameena walked over to her and rubbed her back. “We will get her. Do not worry. Breathe, Olgyu.”
Olgyu closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. “Thank you, Ameena. I am sorry for snapping at you earlier.” She opened her eyes.
Ameena smiled. “It was understandable. Do not worry.”
Olgyu looked back at the map. “If our friend was right, then there is an entrance here, round the back.” She placed her finger on it, and traced a possible route. “With a few turns it should lead to the cells.”
“Does it pass anything that could threaten us? A break-room, a training-room, anything like that?” Marnak asked.
“Not that I can see. This appears to be an armoury of sorts. I can not make out your handwriting.”
Marnak smirked. “Next time you can do it.”
She pretended to look insulted. “You know I can not draw.”
“That is why you can do it. Now then, any ideas? When are we going in? How are we going? Where are we going afterwards? We can not come back here,” Marnak said.
“If we give Bjernu something like a hood with which he can cover his face, he can go and scout. If you want to,” Ameena said, turning to the scout.
Bjernu shrugged. “It is what I do. It suits me better than looking at maps. Does anyone have something I can use?”
A priest kicked open the door, carrying in a large crate of vegetables. He looked up to see the group looking at him. “Oh… hello,” he stammered.
“There we have something we can use,” Olgyu said. She grinned. “Please come here, we will not hurt you.” She walked over to him. The priest, confronted with a big very strong-looking woman coming towards him in what he thought to be a not very friendly way, carefully put down the crate, and then turned to run out of the door. Olgyu put her hand on his arm and her other arm around his neck just as he had turned around. “We are not going to hurt, we just want to borrow your robes,” she said.
“You can not be serious,” Bjernu said.
“I am very serious. Do I look like I am joking?” Olgyu answered. “Take your robes off,” she said to the priest. “It is not that cold, and we have blankets you can borrow.”
“I am not going out there, dressed as a priest,” Bjernu protested. “What if people ask me about Pelor? I know very little about Him.”
“Make something up. You can look at Marnak to see how to behave,” Olgyu said.
“I do not make things up!” Marnak exclaimed. Olgyu refused to look apologetic.
“Brother!” the priest squeaked. “Help me!”
“Listen to the woman holding you and everything will be all right,” Marnak said.
The priest looked scared and hopeless as he struggled ineffectually against Olgyu’s grip. “Please, I can not do what you want being held like this.”
“You are right,” Olgyu said. “Ameena, could you close the door, please?” Ameena walked over to the door and closed it, taking up position in front of it. Olgyu let go off the priest. “There, now you can go on with it.” She bit the inside of her cheek. Her leg was hurting again. It was a low and steady pain, thanks to Emmar’s herbal mixture. It was still a nuisance. She did not let the annoyance and pain show in her face. “Go on. You do not have anything I have not seen before.”
The priest blushed. “I have never undressed in front of a woman before. I always thought that it would happen under different circumstances.”
“Sorry, I am taken,” Olgyu said. The priest blushed deeper and started to take off his robes, hesitantly, as it appeared that neither woman was going to look away. Finally the robes lay in a heap at his feet. He was standing clad only in boxers and an undershirt. He had turned a very deep red and he was breathing shallowly.
Bjernu picked up the robes and shook them out, looking them over. “They should fit, no problems there. Are you sure this will work?” he asked Olgyu. He looked at the robes again.
Marnak led the priest over to the far wall, and made him sit down net to the agent. “But, brother,” the priest said, as Marnak tied him up. “You can not do this.”
“I am not your brother, I serve a different god,” Marnak replied. “Now then, please say ‘Aahh’.” He gagged the priest when he opened his mouth to protest further. “There, all done.”
In the meantime Bjernu had put on the robes. “I feel funny. How do I look?”
“You are looking well,” Ameena said. “Just something to cover your ears, and the holy symbol, of course.” She hesitated. “That is rather personal, though.”
“Not really,” Marnak said. “They are just a tool. Nothing personal about them.” He took off the priest’s symbol, and handed it over to Bjernu. “You will get it back later,” he said to the priest.
“If you say so,” Ameena said.
Bjernu put on the symbol, and looked down at himself. “Do I look all right?”
“Just the cap,” Ameena said.
The corridors were dark and sparsely lit. Emmar followed the guard in sullen silence, rubbing her arm where he ad grabbed her earlier. She disliked having bruises. Things would get worse though, if what she had seen on the Halfling was any indication. He had looked bad, even without a full check-up. The way he had moved had told her a lot. She swallowed. She hoped the group would come soon for her. “Here we are, woman. Get yourself in there, and they will deal with you further.” They had arrived at a big iron door. There was a small spy hole set high up, complete with bars. The guard opened the door. “Here she is. Treat her well.” He guffawed as he motioned with his halberd for her to go inside. She strode past him with her head held high. He sniggered again and closed the door behind her. The room was big and lit well. Well enough to see the men sitting behind the table, and the instruments on its surface. She swallowed again.
“Come here,” the first man said. He had red hair closely cropped to his skull and a thin mouth. His fingers were long and thin, almost delicate-looking. “What is your name?”
Emmar walked forward. “You do not know? Why am I here?”
“We are asking the questions, not you. What is your name?” he asked again.
“You tell me, along with why I am here,” Emmar said. She felt strangely calm, despite the fear that sat in her lower torso.
“Silence, you insolent woman!” the second man roared. He was big and beefy with a red face and blond hair. “Answer now.”
Emmar put her hands behind her back and rocked on her feet. She was scared, but she did not want to let the group down. She had to be strong.
“Be calm, Suus,” the first man said. He looked back at Emmar. “Very well. You are accused of the murder on Julia Risiat, committed this morning.”
She turned white. “Who? I was not even in the city this morning,” she said.
“We have witnesses stating that she was stabbed to death with a sword by a woman with red hair who was dressed in black,” the first man continued dryly.
“That is rubbish. I do not even own a sword, let alone that I would know how to use one.” She went on rocking.
“You do not have it because we possess it now,” Suus said, smugly.
“I was not even in the city this morning,” she protested.
“The guards who were manning the gate yesterday have sworn under oath that you came in yesterday,” the first man said. “Why did you kill her?”
“They are lying. I have never killed anyone,” Emmar said. “Who was she? I do not know her. I have never heard of her. How could I have killed someone I do not even know?”
“I believe the term is ‘taking care of’ in the business of assassination. She was the personal secretary of chief constable Schaffer. He is very shocked by this.”
“What?! I am not an assassin, I am a healer. Why would I have killed her?”
“Because she was standing between you and your real target, the chief constable,” Suus said. “He has enemies who would like to see him dead.”
“I did not do it,” Emmar said. She had stopped rocking and clenched her hands together behind her back. “I am innocent.”
“We will see about that. Suus, get her ready.” The big man got up and grabbed Emmar by both arms, picking her up and depositing her at the other side of the room. “Since you do not seem willing to talk, we will have to make you.” The first man walked over to them, after Suus was done tying her to the wall. Emmar tried to block out what happened after that. She eventually fell unconscious.
Watching two people fight was intruding on something intimate, more so than watching them make love. The tone of voice, the looks, the arguments used made them more naked than they ever could be in the deepest of the night, bodies moving and sweating together.
The current argument made her uneasy. Not because of its topic, but because she was there with them, trapped. There was no way out. They didn't involve her, never asked her to take sides, for which she was grateful. She did not want to serve as the decisive factor in their breaking relationship. Being there was bad enough. The argument drifted and swayed, voices rising and lowering as they forgot and remembered she was there. She crouched lower in her seat, trying to become unseen.
Points were scored according to a byzantine set of rules, no clear victor emerging out of all the insults, insinuations, which were whispered, shouted and conveyed with eyes and gestures. Shadows played on the walls, displaying the truth inside her parents, distorted images vying for dominance. This marriage was long over, but they clung to its remains, neither of them wanting to be the first to admit it. She did not fully realise that until she was older. Wedged into the armchair right now she was glad they had forgotten her, hoping this would soon be over, that quiet would return and she could go to her room. It was safe there.
Chapter 13
Mira was stacking wood on the fire as Otta walked into the room. He frowned at the sight. “What are you doing, Mira?”
She looked up. “Husband! I was refuelling the fire. It is very cold here.”
“Mira, we are alone. You can call me by my name.”
“Yes husband… Otta.” She smiled, and turned back to the fire.
He walked over to his desk. “Please, leave the fire be. It is not that cold here.”
She looked at him. “Really, you do not feel the cold?”
“I do not. I do not see why people keep complaining about it.” He rifled through his papers. “Have you gone for more clothes yet?”
“No, Otta. I wanted to make myself more familiar with our new house first. I will go later.”
Otta looked up. “You do know that our marriage is not a certainty?”
Mira stared calmly at him. “Corellon Larethian has united us. Stop resisting the choices of your god.”
‘He is not my god anymore,’ Otta thought. “I am not. I just want to be sure it is really Him telling us to be together.”
“Husband, what are you implying?” Mira asked. “That my father is lying? That he is crazy?”
“He did try to attack us with a big knife. I am doubting his sanity, yes,” Otta replied.
“Husband! Father has his quirks, but he means well. He is not crazy.” Colour had come to her cheeks. She clenched her jaw.
“Knife, Mira. Not only on us, but with your sisters too. He is insane.” Otta got up and walked over to her. She stood rigid, looking past him at a wall hanging. “You warned me yourself about him,” he said. “Do not be like this, please, Mira.” She stepped away from his outstretched hand. “Mira!”
“I am here. Do not worry.” When he saw she was awake, he uncovered her mouth and put his arms around her. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, I am. I just had a nightmare.” She leaned in closer to him. “It was only a dream.” She closed her eyes and quickly opened them again. Over his shoulder she could see Marnak standing close to the door. The elf had his hand close to his sword. “Did I scream that loudly?” she whispered.
“Not that much. We are being careful. Olgyu and Emmar are not here either. That does put us at a disadvantage when it comes to a fight.” He winked at her. “Come on, get up. Let’s see if Marnak has heard anything.”
Marnak turned around at that point. “There are people running down the hall. Get ready, we do not know yet who they are,” he said in a low voice.
They nodded and got up from the floor, getting their weapons from where they had been placed against the wall. As Marnak was standing next to the door, Ameena took up position behind him. Bjernu stood near the far wall with his bow, out of sight of the door, but ready to shoot whoever came through it. The footsteps got closer. The door got rattled. Weapons got gripped tightly and brought into position inside the room. Olgyu opened the door and found herself faced with Marnak looking determined and holding his sword at her throat. “It is only us,” she said. “Put that away, please.” She and Emmar entered the room. Emmar closed the door behind them and then seemed to hide behind Olgyu. “We had a run-in with the chief constable. Emmar kicked him in the groin.”
The men winced. “Why did you do that?” Marnak asked the healer.
“He kissed me and did not want to let go when I told him to,” she said.
“It was a good one too. I trained her well.” Olgyu was beaming. She bent down and kissed Emmar. It was a very long and passionate kiss, and the others looked away to give them their privacy. Marnak finally coughed. They broke off the kiss.
“Yes, well, all very nice, but he was the chief constable. That will not go unnoticed. Do you think they will come looking for who did it?”
“I do not know,” Olgyu said. “Maybe. We did not stay around to ask him after he had gone down.”
“We should leave,” Bjernu said.
“We can not leave now. It is still day out,” Marnak said. “We would not get far. And it is highly probable the chief constable knows what Olgyu and Emmar look like. After all, he did kiss Emmar. We will have to wait until nightfall.”
“Here? This place will be crawling with agents soon, if he is one to want to take revenge,” Bjernu said. “We need to leave and find another place to stay.”
“Not now. If he has called in reinforcements they will be coming here. We will run right into them,” Marnak said. “What does the rest think?” He turned to the women.
“As long as they keep their hands off me,” Emmar immediately said. Olgyu nodded in agreement. Marnak raised an eyebrow. “I do not know beyond that,” Emmar said. “Both are dangerous. It might be better to leave, when the furore, if there is any, has died down.”
“I do not know,” Ameena said. “Both options are not ideal, like Emmar said. I also think we should leave, regardless. It would be better than staying here. That would make it a certainty we will get caught. Outside we might manage to stay out of trouble.” She stopped, she had heard something. She looked to the door, and put her fingers to her lips. “Shhh.” The others listened as well. There were cautious footsteps coming their way. They fanned about the room, taking up positions. Someone rattled the doorknob, and opened the door, slowly.
A head got poked around it. “’Ere, there are people in here!” the head called out. “They are in here, you lot.” He charged in, sword drawn. Marnak hit him in the back with the flat of his sword. The agent went down “Ugh!” he exclaimed as the air got knocked out of his lungs. More agents ran into the room, making it very crowded. There was not much room to fight. “Halt! You are under arrest for murder,” the apparent leader said. He was tall and dark, wearing the uniform with grace.
“What?” Marnak said. “What are you talking about?”
The agent looked at Emmar. “You there, the redhead. Come with us, you are under arrest.”
Olgyu stepped in front of the monk. “What are you talking about? She did not kill anyone.”
“We have proof that she did. Come here, you.”
Emmar gripped her crossbow tighter. “No, I am innocent. I will not go with you.”
“Chief constable Schaffer has personally signed the warrant. The deceased was a good friend of his,” the agent said. He was looking undisturbed.
“He is pissed because I turned him down. I did not kill anyone apart from his ego,” Emmar said. Some of the agents nearby snickered. The chief constable was not that popular.
“We have our orders,” the agent said, glaring at the ones sniggering. They stopped. “Please come with us. The rest of you can stay here, you are not needed.”
“I am not going. This is bogus. I am not coming with you,” Emmar said.
“Then we have no choice but to come and get you. You are outnumbered. Do you think you can think all of us?” The agent was still looking calmly at them.
“Do you think you will stand a chance?” Olgyu asked. She was brandishing her axe and grinning. Some of the agents standing near her blanched at the grin and tried to move away. The woman was obviously crazy.
“Do not be silly, woman, and put that axe down before you hurt yourself.” The agents who had backed away raised their eyebrows at their leader’s words. Clearly he had not seen how she was waving that axe about. “Hand over the redhead and we will not hurt you. Unless you like that sort of thing.” There was sniggering amongst the agents. The speaking agent went down just as an arrow thudded in the wall next to his head. Ameena was standing next to him, her staff held horizontally. Emmar was busy reloading her crossbow.
“Do not talk to her like that,” they said simultaneously. Ameena glared at the other agents. Marnak sighed. This would not go well. Then the first agents attacked. It was a very cramped battle. There was not much room for anybody to move in. Agents hit their colleagues more than they hit any of the group. They had more experience with fighting in close quarters. Ameena and Emmar did the best they could. No fatalities were made, it was too cramped for any deathblows. An agent had kept his head down after getting knocked to the ground. He crawled along the floor and snuck up on Emmar, who was standing free and uncovered. He got up, grabbed her from behind and held a knife to her throat before she could scream. She did not struggle because of it. The blade was biting deeply into her skin.
“Stop fighting!” he screamed. “I have the prisoner, and I will not hesitate to kills here if you do not stop fighting.” The battle slowly stopped. Olgyu looked furious and had to be restrained by the others not to storm the agent.
“Let me go! He has got Emmar!” She struggled against their holds, but they were tenacious and did not let up.
“We know, but he has also got a knife out at her,” Marnak said. “We can not let him hurt her.” Olgyu stopped, still looking at Emmar. She wanted to go over there and knock the man out for his presumptuousness, but that would only leave Emmar dead.
The agent holding the monk grinned. “Good girl. Now step back and let us leave with our prisoner. She will not get hurt in that case.” He pressed the knife closer to Emmar’s throat, drawing a bead of blood. She was not moving and breathing very shallowly. Fear was in her eyes. She was so scared. Agents got up from the ground, the leader last of all. There had been a lot of people standing on him during the battle. He had to be supported by two agents. He wheezed. “You are lucky we do not have orders to arrest you as well. Our orders were solely for the redhead. Do not show your faces in this city again.” An agent was busy manacling Emmar. They left the room, the manacled Emmar being dragged along and some of the agents who could not walk properly getting supported.
Olgyu turned on the others. “We can not just let them take here! We have to go after them.” She made to storm off after the agents, but Marnak stopped her by putting his hand on her arm.
“Not now. We can not attack them here, in a church. It means attracting too much attention, and we can not afford that right now. We had enough good luck that no one else noticed the fight we only now had. We can not afford to get locked up ourselves.”
Olgyu slumped. “I will not leave her. Who knows what they are going to do to her?” She looked dejected. “I want her back.”
“You will get her back. We are not going to leave her,” Marnak said. “We will get her out of there, I promise you.”
“Break her out?” Ameena said. She was looking unhappy. She wanted Emmar back too, but she was not too sure about the direction this conversation seemed to be taking. “That would be breaking the law.”
“Screw the law,” Olgyu said. “They arrested her in full force and on a false charge. How is that lawful? And you helped her resist arrest. How is that lawful?”
“It is not, I agree,” Ameena said. “The law is the law. You can not go around and break it just because you do not agree with it. We would be living in anarchy then.”
“She is your friend too. Are you going to leave her because some law told you to?” Olgyu was steaming. “That is what it sounds like to me.”
“Of course not,” Ameena protested. “I am just saying there has to be a better way, but it seems there is not. How are you planning to get inside anyway?”
“You can not,” a voice said. They turned around to see one of the agents lying forgotten under a couple of upturned crates. “Where she has been taken is too well guarded. Scum like you will never be able to get in and to take her out.”
Olgyu marched over to him and picked him up. “Since you know the place, you can tell us all about it.”
“What if I refuse?” He tried to look defiant, but being this close to an angry warrior unnerved him.
“Remember I have no qualms about the law and am at the moment a very angry woman with a big axe and a nasty sense of humour. So talk.” The agent gulped. There was no shutting him up for the next half hour as he told them everything he knew.
Chapter 12
He still did not know why he had been brought here. It was not like he had been in any danger of breaking out of the prison in the elven quarter. Kilak sat down on the floor, his head in his hands. Against all expectations he had not been beaten further. The room they had shoved him into had not been another dungeon. Instead it had held a desk, some filing cabinets and a very old elf with a stern look in her face. “So, you have been stealing from high priest Vender?” she had said.
“Yes, ma’am,” Kilak had mumbled. It would be of no use to point out that he had not stolen anything. He had confessed to the crime already, any protest now would not be listened to. He waited for her to continue.
“That is very serious. You will be transferred to the human part of the city, since high priest Vender is one of theirs and they will want to take care of you themselves.”’
He had looked up at that. “Transferred, ma’am? Why?”
“Can you not hear properly? You robbed a human, therefore they can punish you. I will not waste any more of my agents’ time on you.” She shot him a stern look, then looked at the door. “Marlund! Take him away.” The agent entered the room, saluted to the woman, and grabbed Kilak by the arm. He dragged the halfling out of the room with him. Without any words, he manacled the boy before they left the guard-station and made their way to the prison in the human part of town. That was how he had ended up here. The surroundings had not changed much. Prisons never differed much from each other.
The door opened. Kilak looked up and saw a woman getting shoved inside the cell. “Here is a free cell. Mind the rat.” The guard sniggered as he closed the door behind him. The woman was small and she had red hair. Her clothes were black and non-descript. She kicked at the guard’s retreating back and hit the door. It was steel-enforced. She hopped around on one foot, clutching the other.
“I will give him rat. Right in the groin,” she muttered. She stopped hopping and put her foot down before looking around. It was a small cell, with high walls and a small window set in the wall facing the door. It was dry and rather clean.
“He meant me,” Kilak said. The woman looked around to see where the voice had come from. “Here I am,” he said. He got up and stepped forward, carefully. It was hard to say what she was like, but they could not hide from each other in here.
“Hello,” the woman said. She took two steps over to him, and dropped to her knees. “You do not look so good. Can I be of any help? I am a healer, I will not hurt you.” She looked at him. The halfling in front of her was looking undernourished, poorly dressed and in general bad state. “Please? I do not have most of my things, but I do have some.” She started patting down her clothes. Kilak backed away. “I will not hurt you,” she said again.
He shook his head. “I am fine. Stay away from me.”
“If you say so. I am Emmar, and I will be here when you need me. You do not need to look for me.”
“Why are you here?” he asked. He was looking at her suspiciously.
She shrugged. “They say it is murder I committed.”
“Is it?” he asked.
“No! I am innocent. I have never killed anyone.”
“Everybody in these places is innocent, lady.” He shrugged.
“I only kneed the chief constable in the groin.” She looked dejected. “That is all. I did not kill anyone.”
He had to laugh at that. “That is wonderful. At least it is something worth getting jailed for.”
Emmar was not as amused. “It did land me here, away from my friends. Why are you here?”
“Pick pocketing someone who turned out to be a high priest of Pelor.”
“It does not seem they like you much,” Emmar said, having studied him for a bit. He was moving too awkwardly.
“No one does,” he said. He shrugged, wincing at the pain in his shoulder it caused. Emmar came over to him again.
“Please, let me help you. At the very least I can numb the pain.”
He backed away again. “There is no use.”
“It will help you feel better,” she said.
“They will beat that out of me again,” he said. He turned away from her pitying look.
“You are only a child! Are you not? I am sorry, I do not know much about halflings.
He nodded, once. “Child does not mean much to people these days.”
“Are you from around here?” Emmar asked.
“No. You still have not asked my name. Why?” He raised an eyebrow.
“You can tell me if you want to. I do not want to pry.” She was curious what he would say and if he would tell her.
He was confused. She treated him normally, not like all the others he had run into. She did not yell or scream or threaten him. It was unnerving. “Why are you so nice?” he blurted out.
“Why not?” she asked. “I can be, when not manhandled by guards or chief constables.” She smiled.
“Because no one ever is to me.”
“I am sorry to hear that.” She was. Such a young child… No one should have to live like that.
He shrugged. “Do not be. That is the way it is.”
“You are too young to be this cynical. We will get you out of here,” Emmar said.
“We, lady? There is only you and me.” He looked sceptical.
“My friends and I.” She looked assured and certain.
“You are here alone lady. I do not believe you.” He looked it too.
“They will come for me. I know they will.” ‘I hope soon,’ she thought.
“In here? They must be crazy, lady.” He smirked.
She smiled. “That does sound like them.”
Kilak raised both eyebrows. “You are crazy too, lady.” He took a step back towards her. “I like you.” He surprised himself with that.
“That is good, since we seem to be sharing a room for now. May I help you?”
“You never let up, do you?” He put his arms behind his back.
”I am a healer. It is what I do,” she said.
“You should have picked another job.” He looked at the ceiling.
“Not really. Do you always steal?” she asked.
“Only to stay alive.” He sat down on the ground, his back against the wall.
“No family?” She scooted over to him, her hands in her lap. “Do not be afraid, I will not touch you.”
“They are out there somewhere. I lost them.” He did not want to talk about how they had left him ‘because he attracted bad luck’. “It does not matter. I survive.” He shrugged again.
“Do you want to find them again?” Emmar asked.
“Not really,” he lied. “It happened a long time ago.”
She nodded. “I can understand that. I have two brothers who I would not recognise if I saw them on the street tomorrow.”
“Huh, that is odd,” Kilak said.
“No, not really. I have my friends. Family is what you make of it.”
“You are weird, lady.” He smiled, tentatively, seeing what she would do.
Emmar smiled. “That is me.”
The door opened again. “You, woman! Get out here. They want to talk to you.”
She got up. “I will see you later.”
“Probably.” He hesitated. “Good luck. You are going to need it. And your potions.”
“Thanks.” She walked to the door where a very impatient guard was standing. Kilak wondered how long it would be before she returned, and what she would look like at that time. He did not expect much good. Emmar waved at him before the door got closed behind here. The last thing he saw was the guard dragging her off by the arm.
“We can not leave here there,” Olgyu repeated.
“I did not mean that,” Ameena said. “But we can not just walk in and free her either.”
“What do you propose then?” the warrior asked. “Do it all lawful and wait for her trial? We can not do that. That would take ages and it would not be good for our health. We need to get her out.”
“We could do our own investigations…” Ameena tried.
“Normally that would be a good idea, but not here,” Marnak said. “None of us are familiar here, and people would not talk to us. Strangers enquiring after a recent murder like that? We would get arrested in an instant. We are lucky enough that we did not get arrested when they came for Emmar. They must not have known about you two.”
This was not the way to go. They could not break the law like this. Laws were there for a reason. People could not just go and break them. Ameena looked unhappy. It was not how she was raised.
“Are you going to help us or not? She is your friend too,” Olgyu insisted.
“I have never denied that!” Ameena snapped. Olgyu looked angry and made to speak again. Ameena interrupted her by making a sweeping motion with her arm. “But this… is not how I was raised. I got taught to obey the rules. I do not know what to do. I will help you, but it is hard for me.” She looked at the ground. There was silence.
“Fine. You can stay here, if this is so hard for you,” Olgyu said.
“No, we are not leaving anyone behind,” Marnak said.
“Which is all good and well, but what are we going to do about Emmar?” Bjernu asked. He had been leaning against the wall, arms folded over his chest. They had been going over this for the past hour. Nothing new had been said after the first twenty minutes.
“That is what we are talking about. Do you have any ideas?” Marnak asked. He rubbed his eyes.
“We go in and get her,” Bjernu said. Olgyu looked triumphant. They all turned to Ameena.
She sighed. “Lest it be said I abandon my friends… I will come along. I would never have backed out. I do not like this, but I will come along. What is the plan?”
“We go in and get her out,” Olgyu said.
“Think, Olgyu. We can not go in like that,” Marnak said. “We need a plan to get her out and us out safely.”
“We know what it looks like inside,” Bjernu said. “Thanks to our new friend over there.” The guard was sitting bound and gagged against the far wall. His ears had also been covered, so he could not hear their talking and possible plan, “We still need a plan to get in undetected.”
“Washerwomen?” Olgyu suggested and burst out into a high and nervous laughter. “I am sorry, this is no laughing matter.” She looked at the sketched map they had made.
“Please not, I look bad in a dress,” Bjernu said.
“You have the legs for it,” Olgyu said. She giggled again, high and nervous. She just wanted Emmar back.
Ameena walked over to her and rubbed her back. “We will get her. Do not worry. Breathe, Olgyu.”
Olgyu closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths. “Thank you, Ameena. I am sorry for snapping at you earlier.” She opened her eyes.
Ameena smiled. “It was understandable. Do not worry.”
Olgyu looked back at the map. “If our friend was right, then there is an entrance here, round the back.” She placed her finger on it, and traced a possible route. “With a few turns it should lead to the cells.”
“Does it pass anything that could threaten us? A break-room, a training-room, anything like that?” Marnak asked.
“Not that I can see. This appears to be an armoury of sorts. I can not make out your handwriting.”
Marnak smirked. “Next time you can do it.”
She pretended to look insulted. “You know I can not draw.”
“That is why you can do it. Now then, any ideas? When are we going in? How are we going? Where are we going afterwards? We can not come back here,” Marnak said.
“If we give Bjernu something like a hood with which he can cover his face, he can go and scout. If you want to,” Ameena said, turning to the scout.
Bjernu shrugged. “It is what I do. It suits me better than looking at maps. Does anyone have something I can use?”
A priest kicked open the door, carrying in a large crate of vegetables. He looked up to see the group looking at him. “Oh… hello,” he stammered.
“There we have something we can use,” Olgyu said. She grinned. “Please come here, we will not hurt you.” She walked over to him. The priest, confronted with a big very strong-looking woman coming towards him in what he thought to be a not very friendly way, carefully put down the crate, and then turned to run out of the door. Olgyu put her hand on his arm and her other arm around his neck just as he had turned around. “We are not going to hurt, we just want to borrow your robes,” she said.
“You can not be serious,” Bjernu said.
“I am very serious. Do I look like I am joking?” Olgyu answered. “Take your robes off,” she said to the priest. “It is not that cold, and we have blankets you can borrow.”
“I am not going out there, dressed as a priest,” Bjernu protested. “What if people ask me about Pelor? I know very little about Him.”
“Make something up. You can look at Marnak to see how to behave,” Olgyu said.
“I do not make things up!” Marnak exclaimed. Olgyu refused to look apologetic.
“Brother!” the priest squeaked. “Help me!”
“Listen to the woman holding you and everything will be all right,” Marnak said.
The priest looked scared and hopeless as he struggled ineffectually against Olgyu’s grip. “Please, I can not do what you want being held like this.”
“You are right,” Olgyu said. “Ameena, could you close the door, please?” Ameena walked over to the door and closed it, taking up position in front of it. Olgyu let go off the priest. “There, now you can go on with it.” She bit the inside of her cheek. Her leg was hurting again. It was a low and steady pain, thanks to Emmar’s herbal mixture. It was still a nuisance. She did not let the annoyance and pain show in her face. “Go on. You do not have anything I have not seen before.”
The priest blushed. “I have never undressed in front of a woman before. I always thought that it would happen under different circumstances.”
“Sorry, I am taken,” Olgyu said. The priest blushed deeper and started to take off his robes, hesitantly, as it appeared that neither woman was going to look away. Finally the robes lay in a heap at his feet. He was standing clad only in boxers and an undershirt. He had turned a very deep red and he was breathing shallowly.
Bjernu picked up the robes and shook them out, looking them over. “They should fit, no problems there. Are you sure this will work?” he asked Olgyu. He looked at the robes again.
Marnak led the priest over to the far wall, and made him sit down net to the agent. “But, brother,” the priest said, as Marnak tied him up. “You can not do this.”
“I am not your brother, I serve a different god,” Marnak replied. “Now then, please say ‘Aahh’.” He gagged the priest when he opened his mouth to protest further. “There, all done.”
In the meantime Bjernu had put on the robes. “I feel funny. How do I look?”
“You are looking well,” Ameena said. “Just something to cover your ears, and the holy symbol, of course.” She hesitated. “That is rather personal, though.”
“Not really,” Marnak said. “They are just a tool. Nothing personal about them.” He took off the priest’s symbol, and handed it over to Bjernu. “You will get it back later,” he said to the priest.
“If you say so,” Ameena said.
Bjernu put on the symbol, and looked down at himself. “Do I look all right?”
“Just the cap,” Ameena said.
The corridors were dark and sparsely lit. Emmar followed the guard in sullen silence, rubbing her arm where he ad grabbed her earlier. She disliked having bruises. Things would get worse though, if what she had seen on the Halfling was any indication. He had looked bad, even without a full check-up. The way he had moved had told her a lot. She swallowed. She hoped the group would come soon for her. “Here we are, woman. Get yourself in there, and they will deal with you further.” They had arrived at a big iron door. There was a small spy hole set high up, complete with bars. The guard opened the door. “Here she is. Treat her well.” He guffawed as he motioned with his halberd for her to go inside. She strode past him with her head held high. He sniggered again and closed the door behind her. The room was big and lit well. Well enough to see the men sitting behind the table, and the instruments on its surface. She swallowed again.
“Come here,” the first man said. He had red hair closely cropped to his skull and a thin mouth. His fingers were long and thin, almost delicate-looking. “What is your name?”
Emmar walked forward. “You do not know? Why am I here?”
“We are asking the questions, not you. What is your name?” he asked again.
“You tell me, along with why I am here,” Emmar said. She felt strangely calm, despite the fear that sat in her lower torso.
“Silence, you insolent woman!” the second man roared. He was big and beefy with a red face and blond hair. “Answer now.”
Emmar put her hands behind her back and rocked on her feet. She was scared, but she did not want to let the group down. She had to be strong.
“Be calm, Suus,” the first man said. He looked back at Emmar. “Very well. You are accused of the murder on Julia Risiat, committed this morning.”
She turned white. “Who? I was not even in the city this morning,” she said.
“We have witnesses stating that she was stabbed to death with a sword by a woman with red hair who was dressed in black,” the first man continued dryly.
“That is rubbish. I do not even own a sword, let alone that I would know how to use one.” She went on rocking.
“You do not have it because we possess it now,” Suus said, smugly.
“I was not even in the city this morning,” she protested.
“The guards who were manning the gate yesterday have sworn under oath that you came in yesterday,” the first man said. “Why did you kill her?”
“They are lying. I have never killed anyone,” Emmar said. “Who was she? I do not know her. I have never heard of her. How could I have killed someone I do not even know?”
“I believe the term is ‘taking care of’ in the business of assassination. She was the personal secretary of chief constable Schaffer. He is very shocked by this.”
“What?! I am not an assassin, I am a healer. Why would I have killed her?”
“Because she was standing between you and your real target, the chief constable,” Suus said. “He has enemies who would like to see him dead.”
“I did not do it,” Emmar said. She had stopped rocking and clenched her hands together behind her back. “I am innocent.”
“We will see about that. Suus, get her ready.” The big man got up and grabbed Emmar by both arms, picking her up and depositing her at the other side of the room. “Since you do not seem willing to talk, we will have to make you.” The first man walked over to them, after Suus was done tying her to the wall. Emmar tried to block out what happened after that. She eventually fell unconscious.
Watching two people fight was intruding on something intimate, more so than watching them make love. The tone of voice, the looks, the arguments used made them more naked than they ever could be in the deepest of the night, bodies moving and sweating together.
The current argument made her uneasy. Not because of its topic, but because she was there with them, trapped. There was no way out. They didn't involve her, never asked her to take sides, for which she was grateful. She did not want to serve as the decisive factor in their breaking relationship. Being there was bad enough. The argument drifted and swayed, voices rising and lowering as they forgot and remembered she was there. She crouched lower in her seat, trying to become unseen.
Points were scored according to a byzantine set of rules, no clear victor emerging out of all the insults, insinuations, which were whispered, shouted and conveyed with eyes and gestures. Shadows played on the walls, displaying the truth inside her parents, distorted images vying for dominance. This marriage was long over, but they clung to its remains, neither of them wanting to be the first to admit it. She did not fully realise that until she was older. Wedged into the armchair right now she was glad they had forgotten her, hoping this would soon be over, that quiet would return and she could go to her room. It was safe there.
Chapter 13
Mira was stacking wood on the fire as Otta walked into the room. He frowned at the sight. “What are you doing, Mira?”
She looked up. “Husband! I was refuelling the fire. It is very cold here.”
“Mira, we are alone. You can call me by my name.”
“Yes husband… Otta.” She smiled, and turned back to the fire.
He walked over to his desk. “Please, leave the fire be. It is not that cold here.”
She looked at him. “Really, you do not feel the cold?”
“I do not. I do not see why people keep complaining about it.” He rifled through his papers. “Have you gone for more clothes yet?”
“No, Otta. I wanted to make myself more familiar with our new house first. I will go later.”
Otta looked up. “You do know that our marriage is not a certainty?”
Mira stared calmly at him. “Corellon Larethian has united us. Stop resisting the choices of your god.”
‘He is not my god anymore,’ Otta thought. “I am not. I just want to be sure it is really Him telling us to be together.”
“Husband, what are you implying?” Mira asked. “That my father is lying? That he is crazy?”
“He did try to attack us with a big knife. I am doubting his sanity, yes,” Otta replied.
“Husband! Father has his quirks, but he means well. He is not crazy.” Colour had come to her cheeks. She clenched her jaw.
“Knife, Mira. Not only on us, but with your sisters too. He is insane.” Otta got up and walked over to her. She stood rigid, looking past him at a wall hanging. “You warned me yourself about him,” he said. “Do not be like this, please, Mira.” She stepped away from his outstretched hand. “Mira!”
