Kingdom Born

Chapter 8: An Old Friend

We continued on up the main street that wound its way from the harbour front deeper into the city and up the hill. Soon we reached a clearing that let us pause and look back over the distance we travelled. Not far in the distance, you could see the land gently roll into the sea to create a narrow passageway into the natural harbour. The buildings crowded closely together, side by side, in narrow and ill planned streets that some would find charming. I just looked around and saw hundred of places to hide, to escape from patrols.

I turned around and looked back across the city. The harbour was littered with small fishing boats that flittered between the hulk graceful hulls of the seafaring schooners. The cast of the sun washed the buildings below us with a bright colour that hide most of it's decay. A gentle wind picked up and swirled the smells of the unwashed bodies and rot of so many people jammed in together in so small a space out over the sea.

"It's beautiful." Karl breathed staring out across the vista like a pilgrim who had finally reached her destination and was awe struck by the sight she had travelled through so many hardships for. But was well worth the journey. Karl turned back to me, his face lit with a joy I had not seen in months.

I slid my arm around his shoulders, hugged him gently and watched the eddies and current down in the waters below. I prefer that sight of nature to the woman built squaller that vied for my attention. As the sun dropped lower in the sky, the wind took on a bitter chill. I urged Karl forward toward our lodgings for the night.

At the Inn of the Cockerel, a middle aged man greeted us at the counter. When I asked about the old owners he told me the old woman had died in her sleep and the husband didn't want anything to do with the business. The last time Moko and I were here both husband and wife had looked well beyond retirement age. I took a brief look around the tavern room and noted the new changes - new tables and chairs and a newly painted stairwell. The new owners looked like they were ready to take up where the old ones had left off.

I reached for the sign in ledger, "We'll book a room for a week."

"That will be two gold."

"That's kind of expensive," Karl frowned

The man shrugged his shoulders, "Taxes have increased. Every time the city grows, the Council has to raise our taxes to pay for the clean up."

I nodded remembering that Coveport had a permanent force that did nothing but shovel waste onto carts to be shipped out of the city boundaries. They could not pay me enough to do that. I reached into my purse.

Karl caught my wrist, "We can find some place else cheaper."

"We'll find a house to rent by the end of the week. Besides we have enough to cover it." I laid the gold out on the counter, then finished filling out the register. Since Karl had not commented I figured I was now looking about as well as I felt. The long walk and the boost I had gotten from the wharf front confrontation had drained away and I felt like something you'd avoid in the streets.

The man read my scrawl, wrote down our room number next to it, then handed over our key. "We serve the main meal at six bells."

"Can you arrange for someone to bring it up?" Karl grabbed a pack out of my hand and fixed a stern eye on me.

"Yes sir."

The man left the counter and showed us to our room. It was at the back of the corridor well away from the stairs and the noises that could filter up from the tavern. Karl locked the door behind us.

I staggered over to the bed and collapsed onto it fully clothed. I felt so tired. Karl said something muffled. I grunted something like go ahead, but I was already on my way into a deep sleep without the worries of suddenly getting rolled out of bed onto the floor.
"At least take your sword off." Karl pulled at my belt. I rolled over and mumbled thank you into a soft down pillow and drifted off.

There was someone in the room. I creaked by eyes open to a mere slit. The room was dark. I couldn't see anything. A footstep sounded behind me. I couldn't make out who was with me and they couldn't make out what I was doing. Slowly I reached up for the headrest trying to find the hilt of my sword. Nothing. What had Karl done with it? Where was Karl? I couldn't feel his familiar weight on the other side of the bed. I tensed up my leg and found my dagger still firmly in my boot.

Light flared suddenly. There was three of them . . . I grabbed for my dagger and dived off the bed at the same time. I landed hard on my side but my dagger dropped into my awaiting hand. Light glinted off the blade of the first attacker. Reversing my hold, I brought my arm back up in a sweeping motion. The point sunk into the woman's neck. The dead woman grabbed at her neck and fell backwards taking my blade with her. I was weaponless. The second attacker rushed in kicking her boots at my head. I managed to get my forearm up to block the kick. My arm went numb. The fingers of my other hand caught the woman's anchor leg and I jerked on it with everything I had. She flopped on her back like a fish. My hand grabbed for a small knife laying near the dead woman's hand.

Just then the door opened again. I rolled over the fallen woman and slammed the butt end of the knife into the side of her head.

"Phara!" Karl's voice squeaked in alarm. I turned toward his voice.

"Red!" Kayla held the point of a dagger against Karl's chest. He stood in the doorway holding an armful of brightly wrapped packages. "Drop the blade or I'll gut your boy."
I flipped the dagger over in to a throwing position.

Kayla stepped behind Karl, making herself a smaller target. "You don't know the weight of that dagger. One hand span the wrong way will kill the stud."

I could do it. The knife was hilt heavy, poorly made but I could compensate for that. Kayla's knife hand came up and she dragged the dagger point to his neck. He sucked in breath as a trick of red began to run down his neck. Damn...damn... I dropped the knife to the floor. "Phara..."

Kayla slapped Karl with the flat side of the blade to his temple. It took every ounce of discipline not to rush at her. She quickly brought the point back to his throat. It would be cut before I could get off my knees.

The attacker I had knocked in the head slowly sat up.

"Get the cuffs on her." Kayla swung Karl around edging closer to me.

"You have quarrels with me. Let him go." I stated intensely at her.

Kayla rasped the blade gently on Karl's neck from the jaw line to the hallows at his shoulders. A trail of red blush followed her path. "You should have stayed in your little backwater village if you don't understand the Laws of Combat - To the victor go the spoils."

The groggy woman grabbed my hands and locked them in heavy metal cuffs behind my back, closing them tight enough to bite into my skin. The coldness of the metal didn't even come close to rivalling the cold fist of fear in my stomach. Not for me, for Karl. Kayla's taunt was accompanied with a stray hand that worked its way toward Karl's waistband on his kilt.

Cold rage built inside me, ripping through every muscle. Some how I made it to my feet and was halfway across the room before the second woman jumped me from behind and rode me down to the floor. She pressed down on my shoulders pinning me there. A rag of something foul was pressed into my face. My head grew fuzzy. I jerked trying to knock the woman off me but she was too heavy and my body wasn't answering my will. Far off in the distance, which felt like a day's horse ride away, I could hear Karl's struggle and feminine demonic laughter that swirled down into the darkness that approached me.

Everything ached. The front of my skull throbbed with every breath I took. It made everything hard to see. I tried to cradle my head just to make sure that it was still attached to the rest of my body. Cold chains bit into my wrists. The same kind were on my ankles. I was trussed on the floor like a pig ready for carving - or worse. Straining my eyes as far as they could go, I only saw the floors covered with tightly woven rugs and bright tapestries reaching completely to the floor. Even squinting I couldn't make out what was on them - a slight hope to try and figure out where in the Goddess's world I was.

"Well, so we meet again, Longsword, in circumstances that are more favourable to me than you." The woman's voice moved from behind to stop in front of me. Silk slippers and a glowing red robe were the best details I could make out. Who could this be? The last time I was in Coveport nothing out of the ordinary happened - I had simply checked on an outstanding order for shields and new helms. That had been three years ago. My senses came back to me. Karl!

"Where's my husband?"

A gilded chair was brought close to my face and the woman sat down. "So that's his name. He wouldn't tell me himself, even on the threat of violence. Stubborn man. But then again I should have expected it if you chose him."

"Who are you?" I tried to roll on my back to look up at the face of my tormentor. I froze as the familiar feel of naked steel touched my exposed neck.

"Good...just relax, Phara. You'll have enough time to fight once the Captain gets here. In fact I think he'll expect it." The voice was mixed with the lilting speech of Coveport but it had a familiar ring to it. Who was this?

"He'll enjoy taming her." Kayla's voice ripped through my mind but didn't clear up my head. Everything was still musty. I had to think. "Who are you?"

The woman made a clicking chiding sound in the back of her throat. "Tsk tsk, Phara, I think you would have had a better memory than that, especially when dealing with a blood sister...or do you now have so many of them that you tend to lose count of old friend?"

My stomach twisted into a tighter knot. "Misha.." My words barely whispered out of my mouth.

"Excellent. For a moment I thought that Kayla had hit you harder than she should have."

"And what would you have done if she did?" I twitched my head and the blade pricked my neck.

"Oh, she would have received a smaller commission from your sale."

"Slaver...."

"Such a nasty word - I prefer business woman."

"It doesn't sit as well."

"Murderer doesn't sit well with you either, does it?"

"I have never murdered anyone."

"From your point of view maybe, but, from mine, you killed...murdered at least three quarters of my acquisition team."

"Raiders." I spat out roughly.

"Business partners."

"I should have killed you when I had the chance..."

"You couldn't have."

"The hell you say."

Misha Righthander climbed out of the chair and sat herself down on the carpet beside me. Now that she was in my range of vision I could recognize her fleshy features. She had grown fat from the last time I saw her. It wasn't hard to recall how she looked that last day. Her arms, legs and face were bloody from all of the warning cuts I had given her. I had wanted her to drop her sword and run but she didn't. Instead I had to press her and press her until I had to disarm her. She had never been a good student of the blade. The crowd behind us had fallen to silence, expecting the killing blow that was the usual prescribed fate of a rapist. She had stood defenceless before me and I had let her go.

Misha spoke. Her features were altered but that voice had not changed - was haughty and low. "I knew you, Phara. You would have sooner cut off your own fingers as to strike down an unarmed opponent. When the old women nattered away about the Code of Ethics and Sword Master Moko drilled us about honour and loyalty to the Goddess, you lapped it up like a starving puppy. I watched you take all that drivel in. . . the only thing you surprised me was that you, with your holier than thou ways, joined the Garrison rather than the Order of the Goddess."

Misha reached down and slapped me hard across the face. My head bounced back off the floor. The room spun and the world darkened around me. "You have no idea how long I waited for you to leave your pious little garrison town and come here. When Sal and Kayla came and reported that a First Daughter of the Blade, a redhead warrior, had come to the docks I almost ordered their execution for lying to me. Then they told me what the red headed warrior did and I knew that it had to be you. You still are acting the hero."
"Where's Karl? Hazy grey images floated before my eyes.

"Don't worry, I've got him assigned to wonderful rooms at my estate." Her cheerful lilt grated on my nerves.

"You want me. He had nothing to do with us."

"I think he does. It's not every often you find a Kingdom bred brothelman."

She was baiting me. I knew she was trying to get a reaction but I couldn't control my rage. I struggled in the cuffs regardless of how much they bit. Kayla booted me hard in the back. I twisted on my back and saw the blond haired giant pull back her foot and lash out again. My head snapped sideways. Points of light exploded behind my eyes.

"What are you doing? If Sanderson checks her for bruises we'll lose fifty gold coins." The pain washed over me dragging back into its' depths to sleep.

Snake/Kingdom/6