by Robert Adams
Hissing, close to his ear, “This is for Komees Pehtros, you barbarian ape!” she withdrew the stiletto and stabbed again, and once more, nearly deafened all the while by her victim’s shrill, falsetto shrieks of agony.
Then a big, powerful hand clamped onto her wrist. Letting go of the bloody, imbedded weapon, Neeka got her slender body beneath the arm and exerted the leverage Djordj had taught her so long ago. The new bravo, Alik, whooped in surprise as his feet left the ground, screamed briefly in his flight. Then his breath left him as his body slammed down upon the greasy cobbles of the alley, the ringing clash of his scaleshirt drowning out the snapping of his neck.
Stoo Shif did not make the same error of judgment. He wrapped both brawny arms about Neeka, effectively securing her own arms, hugging her body close against his own and lifting her feet clear of the pavement. Snorting with laughter, the man proceeded rapidly down the alleyway, ignoring both the still-screaming Froh where he stood slumped against a wall and the unmoving corpse of Alik.
Chapter XV
Drawn by the screams, Djoy Skriffen, trailed by Iktis, had come out of her front door and descended the steps to street level just in time to watch Stoo Shif trot out of the alley with the kicking, struggling Neeka hugged tight to his chest.
Grinning like an opossum, he spoke when still several paces distant. “Lady Djoy, she ain’t changed one damn bit, I tell you. I searched her and me and Alik watched her ever step of the way, and somehow or t’other she still had her a knife or got one. Give it to that humpbackted asshole three, four times, right under the loose ribs in the bastid’s back.”
“He the one what’s a-screamin’?” demanded the madam.
Almost choking on his laughter, the bravo just nodded, then gasped, “And the bugtit’ll be howling like a fucking wolf till he finely does die. It’s damn near as long and hard a death as a frigging stab below the belt. Atop of that, I think she kilt ole Alik, too. I warned him to stay clear of her, I did.”
“What happened to him?” Djoy Skriffen asked, conversationally. “Did Neeka attack him?”
The bravo shook his head. “Naw, Lady Djoy, we ’uz two, three steps back of her and the gimpy humpback, and like I say she’d put paid to him ’fore we hardly knowed whatall’d happund. Well, ole Alik just run up and grabbed her knife arm and then I cain’t really say just whatall she did, it all was so fast. Next thing I knowed, Alik was flying down the fucking alley and a-yowling and all and then he hit so hard I ache to think about it, I do. I think his neck is broke, Lady Djoy, mebbe his frigging back, too. But I warned him she ’uz a killer.”
Djoy Skriffen smiled. “Don’t fret about it, Stoo. You know and I know that Alik must’ve been out for a piss when they passed out brains. I told you all Neeka was valuable to this business, well worth the price that ugly little cripple demanded. For all Iktis and Neel thought it was a mistake to bring her back here, I knowed I was right. Soon’s she cools down a mite, she’ll likely see things that way, too.”
Iktis had spoken not a word, aloud, nor had Neeka. Their communications had been silent. To her appeal for help, he had answered, “Even with poor Pehtros dead and Judge Gahbros still away, you’ll be free soon enough. There are more ways in and out of this house than Lady Sow ever imagined. Now stop struggling. Stoo Shifs sex drives are warped, perverted — a resisting woman arouses his lusts.”
But it was too late. Iktis could see that it was even if Neeka could not. A pulse had commenced to throb visibly in Stoo’s temple, his eyelids were twitching and he repeatedly extended his tongue to wet his lips. Iktis knew the signs, and knew all too well what they portended.
When Stoo again spoke, his voice was thick with desire. “Lady Djoy … ? Please, ma’am, give her to me, to us, for a little while. Me and Iktis and Neel will cool her down quick enough, and I promise you we won’t mark her up none, or not bad, enyhow.”
“Well …” Djoy scratched her head “Well, Stoo, maybe a little gentling will put her in a better mood to talk to me. Maybe she’ll see, then, jest how much I’m offering her.”
Unnoticed by either Djoy or the preoccupied Stoo, Iktis sauntered a few steps forward. He mindspoke to Neeka. “Child, the bitch has just consigned you to several hours of torture and rape and humiliation. I’ll not allow it to happen, but you must do just what I say. When you see my left hand come to rest on the hilt of my hanger, duck your head as far down and forward as you can. I’m going to slit Stoo’s throat. The moment his arms relax, throw yourself to the ground; the old bitch has a throwing knife up each sleeve, and she’s deadly with them at short range, so this will be a chancy thing.”
Horrified by the pulse of the hard maleness she could feel against her leg through Stoo’s clothing and her own, Neeka, beamed her assent. Even so, she instinctively flinched when Iktis, leering, reached out to fondle her breasts. Chuckling evilly, Iktis stepped back and, with a natural, casual appearance, his left hand came to rest on the hilt of the weapon slung from the left side of his body.
Neeka ducked her head, felt her hair ruffled by the wind of the blade’s passage, then her head and neck and shoulders were suddenly drenched in a shower of hot liquid. Behind her, her captor was making horrible gurgling noises. Then he loosed his bold upon her and she threw herself forward and down onto the pavement Lady Djoy shouted something, but her shout was cut off in the middle of a word by a meaty thunnk and her next sound was a gurgling gasp.
Up at the head of the alley, there were yells and the thump-thump-clankety-rattle of men, armored men, running. Pawl Froh’s ceaseless screams of agony finally had brought a patrol of guardsmen. Similar sounds caromed off the windowless walls of the street, as well, indicating that a patrol was proceeding from a second direction.
Iktis grasped Neeka’s arm and pulled her to her feet. She gasped and almost retched at what she saw. Stoo Shif had sunk to his knees, his arms hung limply by his sides; bright blood and bubbly pink froth gushed regularly from the deep wound just beneath his stubbled chin. His eyes followed Iktis with a pleading, questioning look and his lips shaped words, but his severed windpipe could provide no air to give those words life.
Djoy Skriffen sat on the pavement, leaning against the house wall, the thick plaster of cosmetics and the thin trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth standing out in garish contrast to the grayish pallor of her skin. The skirt of her red silk gown had ridden up to bare her fat, splayed legs almost to the crotch. Her big, square, beringed hands lay palm up beside her massive hips; near the right one lay a flat, hiltless iron knife, its point smeared thickly with a viscous venom. Her little piggy eyes, though glazing, were fixed upon the hat of the hanger standing up from a thick roll of fat, just below her well-padded ribs and centered between the mountainous breasts.
Iktis pulled Neeka by main force along with him. “Snap out of it, girl! It will be far better for us both not to be on the street when those armored barbarians get here. True, we could flee toward the docks, but we’d be seen by these, certainly, and possibly run into another patrol down there, as well. But just let me get into the cellars and they’ll never find us.”
Leaving Neeka on the stairs for a moment, he turned back to Djoy. Planting a foot to steady her, he drew the hanger out, drawcutting downward, his face twisted with the disgust and rage which had so long seethed within him.
Inside the foyer, Iktis slammed the heavy, iron-banded oak door and dropped the three hinged bars in place, after shooting home the thick iron bolts. “Lucky for us,” he mindspoke, “that these ancient buildings are constructed like little fortresses. It’ll take those guards a considerable time to knock down this door, and there’re no windows on the front or the sides, so neither Neel nor Hohp Leebos will have any idea what happened out there. Come on, the quicker we get downstairs, the better.”
But it was not to be so easily accomplished. Neeka had but barely gotten out of sight under the front stairs when Hohp appeared at the head of them, her hair disheveled and her eyes heavy and swollen with sleep. But
those eyes popped open wide when she saw Iktis, who had caught the fringes of the initial spray of Stoo’s blood, had had more rub off on him as he manhandled Neeka into the house and was gripping the gory hanger just pulled out of his former employer.
“Neel!” The tall redhead screamed in alarm. Then, “What happened, Iktis? Whatall’s going on out there?”
“Go to the head of the cellar stairs, child,” Iktis quickly mindspoke. “Shut the door behind you and stay there until I join you.”
Neel had come up behind Hohp, stark naked, but with a lead-filled leather cosh in one hand and a wide-bladed dirk in the other. “What’n shit’s goin’ awn, Iktis? Soun’s like they skinnin’ some bastid out there.” He referred to Pawl Froh’s screams, hoarser now, but still audible even through the stone walls and thick door.
“Guardthmen and tholdierth!” lisped Iktis, excitedly. “They theemed to think we all had thomething to do with the murder of Komeeth Pehtroth. They’ve already cut down Thtoo and Alik and that hunchback. Before Lady Djoy fell, the thaid to bar the front door and get everybody out through the thtable tunnel. If the can talk or buy her way out of it, the’ll join uth at her warehouth. Hohp, you get the girlth up and drethed and out Neel, you get the thtrongbokth out of Lady Djoy’th bedroom. I’m going down and thlit that new-bought girl’th gullet, then I’ll meet you there.”
There might have been questions, save that fists and sword pommels bad already begun to hammer at the barred and bolted door, and, rising above the tumult, an authoritative voice could be heard shouting for a timber suitable for use as a battering ram. Hohp whirled about and began to open doors and scream orders to the sleepy whores.
After hurriedly wiping his blood-dripping blade on the rich samite draping the entrance to the front parlor, Iktis sheathed it and raced down the hall to the cellar door. He and Neeka descended the broad steps, their way lit by another of those large, chain-hung brass lamps that Neeka remembered had lit the cellar room to which she had been confined during her brief stay here, years back. All the rank of doors facing them at the foot of the steps were identical-thick, iron-studded and ironbound, and each wide enough to allow, when opened, the passage of a rolling wine tun or a barrel of pickled turnips or cabbage.
Without hesitation, Iktis strode to the third door from the right and inserted an iron key into the big padlock, then waved Neeka through the opened door. Immediately, Neeka became aware that they were not alone down here, for she could hear the whimpering sobs of a woman somewhere ahead. The passage, for all its darkness, seemed vaguely familiar, and, when they emerged into the stone-paved room full of huge, age-darkened wine casks, kegs and shelves of jugs and bottles, she knew where she was. Iktis had lingered to secure the door behind them; now he strode past her to the high, open-topped cell built into the corner, jerked back the bar and flung wide the door.
At the first sound of the bolt, the occupant of the cell began to scream. Iktis stood for a moment, then turned and beckoned to Neeka. “I’d thought to take her out of here with us, but she’s hysterical, and with cause. Stoo and Neel and Alik were at her early this morning so I haven’t the heart to hit her.” He mindspoke. “She’s an Ahrmehnee girl, but she speaks both Ehleeneekos and Mehrikan, as well. See if you can calm her down while I open the passage.”
The naked girl who had flattened herself against the stone wall in the farthest corner of the cell was as tall as Neeka, though she seemed barely pubescent. Both her long-lashed eyes were blackened and her face was swollen and discolored, while her olive-skinned body was one mass of welts, bruises, abrasions and scratches from neck to knees. Neeka felt ill; this poor child could have been her, but for brave Iktis.
She tried in vain to establish mindspeak communication with the girl. If the Ahrmehnee was a mindspeaker, she was too upset to use the talent; nonetheless, Neeka continued to beam a meaningless but soothing reassurance which did have its effect. By the time Iktis beamed that the passage was clear, the girl, trembling like a foundering horse, sat beside
Neeka on the narrow bed, enfolded in her arms and sobbing on her breast
There was nothing whatsoever in the cell, save its furnishings and a pair of felt boots, so Neeka wrapped her own blood-sticky cloak around the girl’s abused body, gently laid her back on the bed, then tried the boots on her. They fitted perfectly. Supporting the stumbling girl, she led her out of the cell to where Iktis had removed the center of what had looked to be a solid brick hearth to disclose a trapdoor of rust-pitted iron.
The Ahrmehnee had come that far quietly enough, but when her eyes lit upon Iktis, she began to whimper again and weakly resist Neeka’s efforts to lead her forward. The closer Neeka’s efforts brought her to the impatiently waiting bravo, the louder became her wordless cries and the more violent her struggles. Finally, Iktis shook his head.
Silently, he beamed, “There’s no hope for it, child. Turn her around, I don’t want to hit her face.”
Neeka obeyed him, watching over her shoulder, but saw only a blur of movement of his hand and arm. She felt the shock of the blow through the girl’s body, heard Detis’s low grunt, then was forced to release her hold lest the cloaked body pull her down too.
The pock-faced little man shook his head once more. I’d like to leave her here, but those damned lustful guardsmen would likely take her for a whore and gang-rape her. Besides, she’s seen that trapdoor, and the fewer folk know of these ways, the better.”
Above their heads, the hanging lamps swayed and the flames danced to the regular, heavy thumps of a timber being hard-swung against the street door of the bordello. There were no other sounds; apparently the occupants had all made good their escape.
Each carrying a smoky torch, Iktis burdened as well with the unconscious girl, he and Neeka shivered in the chill of the dank, slippery passage. “Aye, it’s cold and damp enough at any season. Still I’d rather be here in fall or winter, for there’re no snakes now.”
“What is this tunnel?” queried Neeka silently to save breath. “A smugglers’ way?”
“Yes, smugglers and such often make use of some of them, child,” he answered, “but they didn’t build them. Parts of these ways, the round, dirt-floored parts, are so ancient that no one knows just who did build them. They were here when the first Ehleenee came and raised the city that stood before Esmithpolisport and were discovered by the men excavating foundations for the city walls and for houses. In those days, many tons of iron, brass, copper and lead were brought up from them, but there’s little of it left now. Only a few of those curious round iron trapdoors remain unscavenged.”
They splashed through puddles, waded through sucking mud, traversed firm, water-soaked sand and slipped on stones slick with the ooze of centuries. When Neeka remarked upon the dearth of rats or mice in such a natural habitat, Iktis mindspoke, “When my grandfather was a lad, these ways swarmed with vermin, but then the fencats were brought up from the swamps around the Great Inland Sea far southwest of here in the Associated Duchies; these days, it’s hard to find a rat in Esmithpolisport, under or over the ground, save for the trickle that come off ships.”
They had walked for miles, it seemed to Neeka, though with the numerous turns it would have been difficult for her to estimate just how much real distance they had put between them and their point of entry into the maze. Both torches were now guttering, and, at a word from Iktis, Neeka used hers to light another pair from the half-dozen spares he had had her bring along.
“Iktis,” asked Neeka, “for all her size, that girl is barely out of childhood, so why were Stoo and those others allowed to so abuse her? Wasn’t ravishment enough?”
“She’s not been ravished, Neeka — tortured, degraded, humiliated, terrified, yes, but not ravished. The old bitch paid a whopping price for her because she is a virgin, and avaricious as Djoy Skriffen was, you may be damned certain that she’d not have allowed the girl to be deflowered by a mere bodyguard. She was bought for an aging degenerate whose lusts can only be stirred by immature
females. But neither he nor Djoy had figured on the strength of the girl, who not only successfully resisted his attempted rape of her but kneed him in the balls to boot. She was back down in that cell to be played with until her spirit was broken.”
Twice they had to backtrack from runnels blocked by cave-ins. At the second such, Iktis cursed sulfurously, damning all smugglers, the late madam, the Heritage and persons of whom Neeka had never heard for failing to keep the runnels in repair or at least apprising him of the locations and extents of disrepair. Then he sighed. “I’d hoped to lead you into the secret subcellar wherein the Heritage meets, but these were the last two tunnels to it; the others are long years flooded.
“The ancient, round tunnel we crossed back there passed beneath the palace of the city governor, but with poor Pehtros dead, that’s not the place I’d wish to come up, thank you. All the ways that lead to the fortress have been deliberately flooded or otherwise blocked over the years. Since I slew both Djoy Skriffen and Stoo Shif — that screaming hunchback saw it all and you can bet he told of it to the guards — the patrols are certainly out for me, and you too, likely. Djoy was no great loss to Esmithpolisport, mind you, but she was the uncrowned queen of the city’s criminal element, and, if we are unlucky enough to be arrested, you may be sure that well never live long enough to come to trial.”
“Then what can we do, Iktis? Where can we go?” asked Neeka.
“If only Lord Gahbros were in the city …” mused Iktis. “There is a way that comes under his mansion, but his wife, worse luck, is a barbarian, a Daiviz of Morguhn; she’s not a member of ee Klirohnohmeea, and there’s no telling which way she’d jump if a couple of fugitive murderers and a kidnapped girl suddenly came trooping out of her cellars.
