by Matt Heppe
“With a sword, only Nidon is my better. As is my brother with magic.”
“So… you’re an elementar as well?”
“Not really. Not like my brother. I’m better with one of these.” He raised the blade in a salute.
“I’ve seen Sir Nidon fight. He’s a great warrior.” Hadde shrugged off her aketon as Morin returned their blades to the rack. The air was cold after the heat of exercise.
“Nidon is big, but—”
Hadde glanced up and saw Morin staring at her. She looked down and saw that her fine linen shirt had completely soaked through with sweat and her breasts were clearly visible through the fabric.
He turned away. “Excuse me. I didn’t mean to look.”
“No, I’m sorry for embarrassing you.” She snatched her woolen tunic from where it lay on the floor. “We Landomeri are not self-conscious, and I forget myself sometimes.” She pulled her tunic over her head. “You can look now.”
“I apologize again. It wasn’t chivalrous of me to stare that way.”
“Please, Morin, there is no reason to apologize. I’m not offended.”
“Why are you grinning?”
“Mighty Prince Morin.” Her smile broadened. “Challenged only by his brother’s magic, Nidon’s sword, and Hadde’s breasts.” She couldn’t help laughing. “I think if I ever go into battle with a Saladoran I shall go naked.”
She grinned at his wide-eyed reaction. “The chivalrous ones won’t dare to look at me and the others will be too distracted to hit me. I would be perfectly safe.”
“I wouldn’t advise it.”
“Oh, I’ve done it—” She clamped her mouth shut, but the words had already escaped.
He stared at her with one eyebrow raised. “Oh, you’ve done what?”
***
Hadde caught herself whistling a happy tune as she made her way back to the Maiden Hall. She laughed at herself. What was Morin doing to her? An image of Belor passed through her mind. The two men were much alike. Both were confident men of action. Both thought they could make the world a better place. Or, at least, Belor had believed those things. The smile fell from her face at the thought.
As usual, a guard had arrived to summon Morin for some meeting or another. At least he had assured her there would be another archery lesson the following day. As Hadde started up a spiral stairway, a female servant carrying a lamp appeared around a bend and yelped, “You scared the life out of me."
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t paying attention,” Hadde said.
“You just popped up out of the dark. How could you see?”
“It isn’t that dark,” Hadde replied. “It’s never so dark you can’t see.”
The servant gave Hadde a wide berth as she slipped past her down the stairs. “In this hall it is."
Hadde shrugged. Some of the interior halls were dark, especially those in the lower levels of the keep. But it was never that dark. Maybe the Saladorans were dark-blind. She chuckled at the idea.
Hadde continued up the stairs. She was one level below the Maiden Hall when she saw lantern light approaching from ahead. An open door exited the stairwell to her left.
“Coming up!” Hadde warned.
Waltas slammed into her. His left hand gripped her right wrist and pressed it against the wall. His right forearm crushed her neck. With her free hand she pushed against his arm, trying to stop him from choking her. She tried to cry out, but only a gasp escaped her.
He held his face close to hers. “You’re coming with me.” He jerked his head toward the door behind him.
There was no Nidon to rescue her this time. Hadde jammed her thumb into Waltas’s eye. As he fell back she wrenched her arm free and leapt down the stairs. Her legs flew over the steps, but not fast enough on the tight spiral. The sound of Waltas’s pursuit echoed after her.
Suddenly, she found herself at the bottom of the stair. She had missed the door that led to the Weapons Gymnasium. A straight hallway stretched in front of her. She was lost.
“Halt!” Waltas yelled from above. “You can’t hide there in the dark.” She heard some movement and then all went quiet.
Breathing deeply, she looked up the stairs for any sign of the earl. She didn’t dare go up. The hall behind her was dank and narrow. A foul stench wafted through it. Ice crawled down her spine.
Dim light appeared from above. He was creeping down the stairs. Hadde scrambled down the hall, looking for some escape. She cursed herself a fool for not bringing her knife. And Morin had her bow. What an idiot I've become! She had been thinking too much of Morin and now she might pay for it with her life. Hadde passed several empty chambers, praying to Helna for a way out.
She glanced over her shoulder as she arrived at an intersection. The bright glow of a lantern neared the base of the stairs. She ducked into a side hallway as Waltas appeared. He held a lantern in one hand and a dagger in the other.
Hadde didn’t wait. She padded down the corridor. It was dank and dark and reeked. No one had been there in ages. Like the last hall, there were empty rooms to either side. It came to a dead end.
She slipped into a room before Waltas reached the intersection. The room stank of excrement. Hadde glanced around for some way out, but saw nothing but rubbish and a low stone bench. A rat scurried across it and through a hole. A privy.
Hadde glanced out the door. Waltas stood in the intersection. For a moment she thought he might choose another hall. Her hopes fell as he headed in her direction. She scanned the room for anything she might use as a club or a staff. Nothing.
Hadde crept to the privy. A rotten wooden lid covered it. She looked through the hole and saw a short drop to a pile of rubble. It hadn’t been used in years. A tunnel led off to one side.
Quiet footsteps approached. With one last glance over her shoulder, Hadde pulled the wooden cover from the privy. Not waiting to see if Waltas heard, she lowered herself over the side and dropped into the hole.
Pebbles clattered beside her as she landed on the fallen masonry. A narrow gap in the wall led to a stone walkway running next to a ditch filled with a sluggish stream. She gagged at the awful odor and looked above her. She had no choice.
Breathing through her mouth, Hadde slid through the opening and onto the path. Turning right, she crept carefully along the narrow sewer walkway. A darting movement in the darkness ahead caused her to leap back and give a startled shout. She crouched, ready to flee, as a large rat jumped into the stream and swam to the other side.
Hadde sighed and looked behind her for any sign of Waltas. None yet, but he must have heard her. She continued along the path, rats scurrying everywhere. After a few dozen strides, the ditch beside her emptied into an even larger stream. The stream flowed to the right and Hadde crept in that direction.
The tight confines of the tunnel pressed in around her. Ahead, the path ahead had collapsed, partially filling the stream and creating a small dam. The path continued on the far side of the gap. A long jump, and not one to miss.
Rocks clattered behind her. She turned, and to her dismay, she saw the glow of lamplight reflecting off the walls.
Hadde glanced at the stream of muck she had to leap. If she missed, Waltas would surely be on her before she could climb out. She heard the sound of his rapid approach. She didn’t dare risk it.
Grabbing a piece of rubble in either fist, she turned to face her pursuer. Hadde’s hurled rock caught Waltas flush in the face as he turned the corner. He reeled against the wall, lost his balance, and fell into the ditch. Darkness engulfed the sewer as his lantern followed him.
Retching, he emerged from the filth only to be struck by the second of Hadde’s rocks. Crying out in pain and anger, he heaved himself onto the path where he knelt, coughing and gagging.
If only she had her knife she might take him on. Hadde picked up two more rocks. She heaved one at Waltas, striking him in the shoulder.
Choking out a gasp of pain, he blindly scrambled on all fours toward the corner. Following, Hadde kep
t up a furious barrage of stones. She clenched her jaws as she threw each missile, wishing that she could do more harm, cause him more pain. He scrambled away from her, finally climbing through the privy hole.
She halted just below him. She heard him, still choking and coughing, on the other side of the narrow gap. She couldn’t follow him through. Wait here until he leaves or continue through the sewers? She crouched and listened. He was waiting. But how long?
“You’re dead, you bitch!” Waltas roared into the tunnel. “I’m going to tear your head off!”
She stepped back as his shout echoed off the tunnel walls. “Why don’t you come back down? This is where your kind lives," she shouted in reply. His curses followed her as she crept back down the sewer path. The rat still sat on the dam, cleaning itself.
Striding a few paces back, she took a deep breath and sprinted forward. Planting her foot, she leapt the stream, her head narrowly missing the low ceiling. Her feet hit the path, but her momentum carried her into the wall. Rebounding, she flailed her arms for balance. Her heels slipped over the edge and loose gravel gave way under her feet. Madly contorting her body, she regained her balance.
She moved on. Twice the sewer branch she followed connected with larger streams. And twice again she was forced to leap a gap or retrace her steps to find an alternate route. It wouldn’t have been as bad if she had grown accustomed to the cloying stench. But instead, her stomach roiled and her eyes burned with the fumes.
Rubbing her hands across her goose-pimpled forearms, she stared at the stone ceiling above her. She imagined the weight of the tons of stone crushing down on her. What if she couldn’t get out?
She continued down the path a short distance when a light appeared in front of her. Lamplight. Her heart thumped in her chest. Could Waltas somehow have gotten in front of her?
Hadde hid in a small side tunnel and watched the light approach. It wasn’t Waltas, but a gray-haired man pushing a wheelbarrow filled with tools. He was strides away when Hadde called out, “Hello! Can you help me?”
“What? What’s that?” the man cried out, nearly dropping his load into the ditch. The lantern, attached to the front of the cart, swayed wildly.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m lost.”
“Who’s there?” He pulled a shovel out of his wheelbarrow and held it defensively. He spoke with the heavy accent of a commoner. “Who’s out there?”
Hadde stepped into the lamplight. “I’m lost. I need help finding my way out of here.”
He stepped a few paces backwards as she approached the outer edges of the light. “Where did you come from?”
“I was chased here by a man who wanted to harm me.”
“How—how did you find your way? It’s pitch dark in here and you’ve no light.” He looked closely at her.
Hadde didn’t understand what he was getting to. Did all Saladorans have bad vision? Was that why they were so poor at archery?
“It’s darker than Dromost’s soul in here. How come you didn’t fall in?”
“What do you mean?” Hadde asked.
“What are you? Some kind of spiri…” He took another look at her. Hadde held her hands wide to show that she was no threat. “I’m no spiridus. Just a visitor from Landomere. I’m lost and I need a way out.”
He eyed her suspiciously. “You were being chased?”
“There is a man in the keep who wants to hurt me. I’m afraid he could be waiting for me.”
“Where did you find your way into the sewers?”
As best she could, Hadde described the route she had followed. He nodded in understanding. “I could take you out of the sewers and you could make your way back through the city. Or I know of another way into the keep from the sewers.”
“I would rather not go through the town,” Hadde replied, thinking of the Returnists.
“I’ll show you out, but we’ve got to go to my hut first. I got to get more candles.” Hadde glanced into the wheelbarrow as he removed the lamp pole. He cackled. "Give you the grand tour, I will."
“What is it you do down here?” Hadde asked.
“I’m the shit farmer.”
Her brows arced. “A what?”
“In the old days the keep’s shitters used to drain themselves. Used to run down the sewers all the way to the river and nobody had to do a thing. Some of ‘em still work but many is clogged. I come in and shovel out the shit traps.”
“That’s an awful job. Why do you do it?”
He cackled. “You wouldn’t believe what I find.” He reached into a wooden pail hanging from one of the cart handles. “Just found this today.” He held up a metallic object.
“What is it?”
“Come and take a look.”
Hadde shook her head.
“Well, I’ll tell you then. It’s a silver brooch. There I was, shoveling away, and plop, this here brooch lands right next to me.” He cackled again. “A good day to be a shit farmer. You know, the shit farmer before me, he found a whole sack of silver. He was cleaning….”
Hadde turned at a sound behind her. The tunnel was clear, but she was certain that she had heard something. A rat? “I’m sorry,” she whispered, interrupting the shit farmer’s tale. “The man I spoke of, he could still be here.”
“Don’t you worry. I’ll get you out.”
***
Hadde warily made her way back to the Maiden Hall. She didn’t think it likely Waltas would be roaming the corridors of the Great Keep, but she wasn’t about to let herself be caught again. Despite her filthy, disheveled appearance, she kept to the more populated areas of the keep. She ignored the stares of those she passed by, alert only to any sign of Waltas. She only felt some security when she spotted the two squires on duty at the entrance to the Maiden Hall.
She stopped in front of one of the squires. “I’ve been attacked by Earl Waltas. I wish to speak to Sir Nidon.”
His eyes widened as he glanced her up and down. “Yes, Ambassador, would you like an escort to take you to him?”
“No,” she snapped. “I want him to come to me. I’m covered in filth.” She stormed past the squires. “They promised me!”
But it was her fault, she thought. She had become too comfortable in this strange world. She had let her guard down. It wasn’t Landomere, where she knew the sounds of the forest and when something was wrong. This was Salador, where knives waited around corners in cold stone corridors.
She passed two maidens talking by an open door. One of them said something to her, but Hadde paid them no heed. Passing her own room, she yanked open the door to the bathing room. Gran gasped at Hadde’s sudden appearance.
“Hadde,” the servant said, “a maiden is using—”
“She’ll have to wait.” Hadde pulled her tunic off as she strode past the privacy screen. A maiden screeched with surprise and pulled her unbuttoned dress back together. Hadde barely slowed as she stripped off her leggings and moccasins and stomped up the stairs and splashed into the hot tub. She didn’t spare a glance as the maiden fled the room. The world went silent as she submerged under the water.
Hadde stayed under as long as she could, cocooned in heat and isolation. She rose, sputtering to find Gran glaring at her, wagging her finger in Hadde’s direction. “You shouldn’t have done that,” Gran scolded. “Sent the poor girl off crying.”
“I’ve been attacked,” Hadde shot back.
Gran paused for just a moment. “Was it that little one who attacked you?”
“No, it was—”
“Then you’ve no right to treat her that way.”
Hadde stared into the old woman’s eyes for a moment before sinking back. “They think they can do anything. They think everything belongs to them.”
“It's the men you're talking about, aye? Well, some of ’em do. I spent years dodging the worst of them. Suppose I’m lucky now, too old for that sport.”
“I won’t let him catch me again,” Hadde said, quieter. The hot water had sapped some
of her anger. “I’ll kill him.”
Gran put her hands on her hips. “You can’t do that. You can’t go killing nobles. I heard that Sir Nidon’s to have at him. That earl’s as good as dead unless he gets real lucky. But you kill a noble and your life is forfeit. They’ll hang you.”
“They said they’d keep him away from me.”
“You tell Sir Nidon what happened. He’s one of the good ones. At least as good as they come. Now, get washed up and apologize to poor Maiden Tira. I’ll fetch some clothes for you.”
“Thank you Gran. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry to me. An angry nekkid girl is no worry to me.”
Gran brought Hadde a towel and her red dress rather than let the naked, wet Landomeri walk down the hall to her room. Gran also brought word that both Nidon and Morin had arrived at the Maiden Hall.
Hadde quickly dressed and then dried and brushed her hair. Maret entered the bathing room just as Hadde finished. “I just heard,” Maret said. “Are you hurt?”
“No, just angry.”
“Prince Morin and Sir Nidon are here. Sir Astor as well. You mustn’t keep them waiting.”
“I know,” Hadde said, letting some of her impatience show.
“Would you mind if I escorted you to them?”
Hadde shrugged. “I think they are just at the end of the hall. But let’s go.” She ignored the many maidens who loitered in the hall or by their doors. However, she heard the words Prince Morin uttered more than once. Lady Celena passed Hadde and Maret in the opposite direction scolding the girls back into their rooms.
The two squire guards stood at rigid attention in front of Morin and Nidon. Morin, arms crossed, paced back and forth. Nidon stood rigid, hands clasped behind him. Astor rested with his back against the wall. Morin looked Hadde up and down as she approached.
Morin’s brow furrowed. “Are you hurt?”
“No. I escaped. But just barely.”
“I’ve failed you again,” Nidon said. “I didn’t see… I can’t imagine what he was thinking.”
“Tell us what happened, Hadde—wait,” Morin started. “Maiden Maret, thank you for bringing Ambassador Hadde to us. You may retire.”
