Fractured Loyalties

by Greg Alldredge

  Hope wasn’t sure if Meyers was going to be a suitable mate or not. He spoke big brave words, but when push came to shove, she wasn’t sure he had the stomach to follow through with the hard responsibilities. Anyone can plot the death of another, but it takes a special breed to carry the task to its fruition. She tired of waiting for his reply. There came a loud knock at the door.

  “I suspect that is Tanner. You have two days to deliver my virgin and my non-virgin females. Please keep track of which one is which. I will learn what I can from this woman and dispose of her. Now you need to go clean up so we can present Ollie’s letter to the Council and accept my Regency.

  She opened the door, and there, dressed in a leather apron and little else, stood a mountain of a man, Tanner. He’d worked by her side for years and never let her down. She hoped that one day Meyers would become as efficient as Tanner, but she was beginning to have serious doubts about her half-brother’s efficacy. Closing the door behind Tanner, she motioned for the giant to follow her deeper into her study. “Now, Tanner, I have a special project for you. It is larger than anything you’ve done before, but I think you’re just the man for the task.”

  Hope stood in front of the woman’s dead body and motioned with both of her hands. “I want this woman’s skin preserved. I want to be able to decipher her tattoos for all eternity.”

  Meyers lost his stomach into the basket again.

  “Dear, if you can’t stop doing that, I’m going to ask you to leave. I don’t want you upsetting Mister Tanner here. He’s an artist after all.” Hope placed her hand on Tanner’s bicep, which had to be as big as her head.

  She wasn’t sure what was wrong with him. Maybe he ate something for lunch that didn’t agree with his stomach. Whatever the reason, Meyers took the basket with him and walked, hunched over, to the door.

  Hope met Meyers at the door, opening it for him. “She’s larger than me. Do you think I will be able to wear it as my own? I don’t think I could stand having all those markings blemish my milky white skin.” Returning to Tanner, she traced her fingertips over the giant’s arm. “I want to keep the blood and her internals intact as much as possible.”

  Hope heard Meyers vomit into the basket again as he closed the door behind him.

  She smiled when she realized Tanner was nodding yes, grinning while he sized up the dead woman’s naked flesh. His hand ran over his bald head, his way of saying he was deep in thought. In a strange way, Hope loved the way Tanner worked: silent and efficient.

  Chapter 16, Della Villa:

  Life had not gone as Della expected. She would swiftly learn it rarely did for anyone that called the shards and cracks home.

  Once Brett’s treachery was discovered, she assumed the snakes had been cleared from her little patch of paradise and her family remained safe. She would be wrong. The explosion shortly after the poison attempt proved there was more happening than she understood.

  She never wanted to kill another human let alone her brother. Della blamed the mayor, her mother, for the way she turned out.

  She needed out of the gilded cage the mayor locked the entire family up in—or at least the girls. It always chapped her that the boys ventured out into the world once they reached ten seasons old, while the girls of the family remained virtual prisoners of the pinnacle.

  It was shortly after her tenth birthday when she discovered she would not be allowed to venture afield like her brothers. Then she found the first tunnel. They offered her a chance to escape, the possibility of finding a way out of the prison she called home.

  Della wanted to explore. Since the mayor kept her locked away from everything interesting, she found her own world inside the secret tunnels laced throughout the house. She discovered the hidden backstory of everyone surrounding her within the walls of her home. Her need to learn secrets grew with every new passageway she discovered. Eventually, her search for an escape off the rock gave way to her need to learn secrets. It would surprise everyone who entered the house to learn Della held information ready to extort anyone, as needed or required. All locked away neatly in her mind. She rarely forgot anything once she learned it. She found it a blessing and a curse. She knew she would never forget the look on Brett’s face when she killed him. Her first murder, but one life she felt compelled to take to protect those she loved. Even with the visions of the scene repeating in her sleep, she knew she would do it again. If she could save Cameron’s life, she would kill hundreds.

  She’d not always felt this way, but skulking about the walls of the manor gave her an understanding of things about people, things she didn’t really want to know but could never forget. Her first shock came when she caught Brett raping a servant girl he lured into his room. The woman screamed, and not a soul came to help her. Della wanted to help but found herself paralyzed at the horror of what her older brother was capable of doing to an innocent young woman not much older than herself. She watched to the end. The woman’s sobs would forever be etched into her memory.

  Della eventually dragged herself away from that hiding place and back to her room. The experience left her feeling as if Brett somehow had violated her. She never looked at another human the same way after that.

  They found the servant’s body the next day. The story given to the staff and family was that she hung herself out in the garden by one of the old oak trees. That night, Della witnessed the anger in Brett’s eyes. She concluded he had murdered the woman and staged the scene to make it look like a suicide.

  Della would never be the same. The mayor wanted her to take a bodyguard like Zorra, and her other brothers and sisters, but she refused. Her tutor, who had been with her for years, became her best and only confidant. The man was definitely too old to be considered a protector, but Della learned that lesson before. She would rely on no one to watch her back. Most people can’t be trusted.

  Now she found herself alone. Her Black Knight was a passenger of the platform that was destroyed in the market blast. He’d become her eyes and ears, able to move through the streets of Zar and learn things Della only dreamed about. It took many months of research for her to find the right operative and contact him. She truly hoped she would not need to find a new man. He would be near impossible to replace.

  Her tutor, scribe, and confidant she called Pad, she always called him Pad. A decent tutor but not the best spy. He walked around most days a little too book smart and street stupid. The day after the blast in the market, Della sent Pad out to locate her Black Knight, dead or alive. That was before the explosion that killed her father and most everyone in the brewer’s workshop.

  She was sure she would miss her father— someday. He had always been more like a theoretical father. Like the wind: always there but hard to prove his existence. Della found he spent more time with his assistants in the brewery than with her or her siblings.

  Not that it bothered her much, but when she was younger, it would have been nice to have more active parental engagement from the mayor and her husband. Now she viewed them more like the rumored monsters that roamed the highlands. About which she’d only received scattered sighting reports of their movements. She found them worse than useless most days, a down right impedance the others.

  Out of morbid curiosity concerning the brewery attack, Della snuck in the night after and inspected the scene. Best she could tell, the copper vessel ruptured. She found no indication of tampering. The next day, the mayor announced her plan to attack the slavers and pirates for the deaths caused throughout the city. Della believed the mayor used the explosions as a way to clean up problems.

  Since she didn’t know who attacked the peace in Zar, the mayor would create an enemy and use the power of the city to eliminate that threat. She could always say she made the decision on the best intelligence she had at the time if it ever came out she started a war with the unaligned captains for no good reason other than political advantage. It gave a common foe for the city to rally behind. It boosted the citizenry’s sense of belonging to an emba
ttled people, even if the attacks were focused on the ruling family and the trappings of their power.

  Della wasn’t sure how the mayor planned to win this conflict since she attacked individual ships at sea and the small towns that supported them. This fight had the possibility of never ending while creating a boatload of animosity in the process. The mayor left her family alone to be attacked and went off into the cracks chasing ghosts of her own creation.

  To make matters worse, Pad never returned from his task to find information on her Black Knight. This distressed her greatly. Not so much that Pad might be dead, tutors were easy to find, but that she had lost her limited support system. Pad’s disappearance left her without a link to the real world. Add that to the fact that many rumors were spreading that her older brother Jo did questionable things with his new-gained power. She grew desperate to make any contact with the outside world.

  That is what led her into the basements, specifically to the laundry room. She needed to find a way off the rock or a way to learn new information from anyone about what happened in the world. She once heard they took the dirtier clothes down into the city and brought them back up the service stairs at the rear of the spire. It was rumored to be a long, dangerous trip down the cliff, but the servants were used to taking it most days for supplies. Della never gave it much thought to how the house was able to operate so high in the air. She grew up in a world where most unpleasant things were done for her, like how her favorite green leather pants and white shirt would be laid out for her every day before she rose from bed.

  “I heard this was the place I needed to go if I needed something,” Della tried to whisper. She picked out the first person she came to, a white-haired woman that worked on a large pile of sheets.

  The old woman shouted back without looking up, “What?” Della didn’t consider the din of the staff beating the wet laundry with wooden clubs.

  “I need information, can you help?” Della shouted this time to be heard.

  The white-haired woman looked up from her work long enough to give Della a quick inspection, before she pointed off through a door in the back.

  Rather than shout an answer, Della nodded her head in thanks and took off in the direction pointed. Here she found the space much quieter. Vats suspended over small fires cooked laundry in near-boiling water. Men with arms the size of trunks stirred the sheet soup with paddles fit for moving a ship through the water.

  At the foot of the first stirring platform, she asked without shouting, “I heard I could get information here.” She left it at that.

  The man on the platform wasn’t much older than Jo, maybe twenty-three or less. Della was sure he had worked his whole life, aging him prematurely. He let the momentum of the moving water carry his oar while he inspected her from above. He called over his shoulder to a man who stood observing the whole operation, “Duncan! Someone here to see you.”

  Della watched as a man she assumed was Duncan turned his attention her way. She wasn’t impressed in the least. He stood much smaller than the rest, and he wore thin glasses perched on the end of his nose. His body glistened with sweat from the humidity of the steaming water, his thin white shirt doing little to hide his pigeon chest. If Della were interested in boys, Duncan would not be her type at all. She preferred men like her Black Knight. She felt he had a rakish sense to him where Duncan had the look of a librarian.

  He approached, and she needed to quickly clear her thoughts.

  He asked in a soft voice, “What can the laundry do for the daughter of the mayor?”

  Della should have realized everyone in the house would know her on sight. This might be harder than she first assumed. “I need a favor. Is there somewhere we can talk in private?” Della didn’t need everyone on the staff knowing what she looked for. It was bad enough she brought herself to the basement looking for this man. She was sure she would be providing the workers hours of gossiping entertainment, even if it was never her intention.

  Duncan looked around for a suitable location they could talk quietly. “Sure thing, lady. Follow me.”

  Della followed the slender man through the maze of vats until they came to a huge double door, large enough for a wagon, with a smaller door inset for people to come and go. Inside, she found a darkened ramp that led to another set of double doors. She knew these opened to the outside. She spotted the sun filtering through the cracks, giving a dim light to her surroundings. A wagon did, in fact, fit inside the ramp. She found one parked there, with no team harnessed up.

  Once they were inside and the inner door closed, Della felt the heat of the laundry rush from her body into the cooler air that surrounded her.

  “What can I do for you, lady?” asked Duncan.

  Della wasn’t sure, but she felt a slight snarkiness to his voice. That’s probably why he was forced to work in the laundry instead of inside the house proper, too much attitude. “I was once told if I needed something, I should seek out a man in the laundry. I am hoping you are that man.”

  Duncan looked to his feet. Della sensed he picked his words wisely. “I guess that depends on what you are looking for. It could be dangerous for a man just to be seen speaking with a daughter of the mayor.”

  Della chose her words carefully this time. She wasn’t sure what the man feared. Her mother wasn’t even on the shard to worry about. “I need information, or if you can’t give it, I need a way off this rock so I can find the information myself.” So much for being subtle. She decided right there to work on that part of her approach.

  She sensed Duncan running the risk and return figures in his head. She hoped the payout would be worth the risk. Della wasn’t sure what might happen to the man if he were caught helping her, but if the mayor caught wind of it, she was sure it would be painful.

  “You’re asking a lot, miss. I might lose my place here, or worse my life. If you want my help, it will cost you.” His look of thoughtfulness changed to one of worry.

  Della expected greed to fit in the equation somewhere. “It depends on what you offer, information or freedom?” Della decided if she made her way out, it would be easy for her to return. All she needed to do was stroll up to the nearest guard, and she would have an escort back to the safety of the house.

  “I can get you off the rock, miss, but not right now. Too many saw you walk into my laundry. Too many know we’ve had this conversation. As soon as you go missing, I will be a suspect. It will not be a pleasant experience for me then. I need an alibi. You will meet some friends of mine tonight at the old amphitheater. I assume you know it.”

  “Yes, of course.” Della’s heart raced. She might finally escape the cage she had been kept in her entire life.

  “Tonight, after Minor reaches a full hand above the horizon, meet them there. They will get you off tomorrow morning with the early morning loads. It will cost you two hundred pieces of gold. Pay it to the men tonight.” Duncan stroked his clean-shaven chin.

  Della struggled to hide her excitement. She was ready to pay twice as much to escape her prison. Two hundred became a pittance for what she asked. “I will be there…” She was sure there should be more for her to say, but Della’s mind raced with so many things she needed to do to prepare.

  “Make sure no one sees you leave the house, and don’t be late. They will not wait if you miss the time.” Duncan held out his hand for her to shake.

  Della fought to control her hand from shaking, not out of fear but from the excitement of finally being free of the house and the limited area she had spent her whole life haunting. She would find it hard waiting until the arranged time. She shook Duncan’s hand firmly, her palms sweaty, his strangely dry.

  <=OO=>

  Della spent the day preparing. She even arrived early. Not knowing how long she would be gone, she packed a small bag and grabbed her ever-present court sword. She rightly understood it offered little defense against a real warrior, but it gave her a sense of protection.

  It never crossed her mind that what she did
most would consider dangerous. Her ability to hide in plain sight gave Della a sense of invulnerability. The perfect murder of Brett increased her hubris to new heights. In her mind, she became invincible, ruler of her destiny.

  Arriving early, she found the silhouette of a man standing with the twin moons behind him. He looked out over the deserted theater.

  A chill ran down her back at the loneliness of the scene that stretched out before her. Determined to leave the safety of her home, she padded up behind the man. Her whisper caught in her throat when she spoke. “Are you Duncan’s man?”

  He turned. The limited light from the moons behind him obscured his face in shadows. Something felt off, but Della stayed determined to leave the rock in search of adventure, Pad, and her Black Knight.

  The man raised something to his mouth, she could not tell what. But with a blow on a tube, her face was engulfed in a cloud of dust. Her assailant took a step back before Della reacted.

  Blinded by the powder, she drew her sword and flailed about, searching to land a hit on any target. She tried in vain to call out but found her throat closed. Breathing became difficult.

  Her sword never tasted blood that night. She lost consciousness on the stage, with an audience of one.

  Chapter 17, Zorra Villa:

  The time Zorra spent with Ollie eased her mind. She found him to be extremely kind and an understanding husband. Her obligations to both her city and her partner were clear, but she hadn’t been able to force herself to do the deed.

  They took to sharing a room together. Sonja reluctantly stayed in Ollie’s room. Since he had sent Joti back to Perdition, Sonja reluctantly agreed to protect him as well, if only for Zorra’s sake.

  Four mornings after the sleeping arrangements shuffled, Zorra was hit with the news that her younger sister Della had not been seen for several days. Due to her peculiar habits of hiding in the walls, no one noticed when she went missing.