by John Booth
As she remembered, there were two guards lounging by the stables doors to the alley. There must be something valuable to the Mine Owners Association in this place if they had sited guards covering both entrances. Furthermore, eight of the twelve lockup rooms were in use. She and Daniel had rented the ninth. Jalia had an instinct about such things and the smell of massive wealth was in her nostrils when she walked by those rooms.
Jalia went to the stalls and petted Swift and Jet. The night shift stable boy came up to her as soon as she touched the horses and assured her that they and the donkeys were being well looked after. Jalia had known the boy would approach her because men always did wherever she went. She casually asked him who was renting the lockup rooms.
The boy tapped his nose and grinned at her. “The Mine Owners themselves. This is the safest place in Jalon to store their wealth. The strongest rooms with the best locks in a hotel nobody has ever managed to rob, in a city where the Mine Owners control everything, including the city gates. Brinan is one big strongbox for them.”
The two continued to talk about nothing in particular for another hour. Jalia gave the boy a big tip and told him she would be back each night to check on the horses. She then went from the stables towards the lockup rooms.
Once there, she went to the room nearest the cavern entrance. “Magic Ring, please open this door for me.”
Jalia felt as if she was cheating using the ring to open the lock. It was something she could have done without magic, but she didn’t want to waste the time. By the light of the lamps in the corridor she saw a large stack of gold bars at the far end of the room, exactly what she had hoped for.
Jalia worked late into the night. It took four hours to move the gold bars, two at a time, which was all she could lift, from the first two rooms to the tunnel wall going down into the caverns. As she built up a wall of gold bricks alongside the existing tunnel wall, she ordered the magic ring to coat them with brick and mortar dust so they looked exactly like the wall they covered. She was halfway through moving the bricks in the third room when the magic ring.
“Out of magical power,” Jalia said and sighed impatiently. “Still, we have two more nights to finish the job, don’t we, Ring? And you should be charged again by tomorrow night.”
Jalia went to the lockup that was still open and relocked it using the tool kit she carried in her boot. It took her half an hour to get the levers to move into place, because she was very tired and because it was a sophisticated lock.
She smiled and nodded at the guards at the passage to the lobby, before slipping out of the back entrance of the hotel without being seen and making her way to Karn’s house.
Daniel was waiting for her at the backdoor. He had the key and she had expected to have to pick the lock to get in.
“Did it go well?” Daniel asked. He was not sure what she had been doing, but needed to know if she was binging further trouble upon them.
“Better than I expected, and you’ll be glad to hear I didn’t run into anybody. How is the boy?”
“He seems to be recovering. His father took him back to their quarters.”
Daniel opened the door for her and she walked tiredly into the house, “Daniel, the magic ring will be exhausted when we leave, so don’t plan on being able to use it.”
“Are you going to tell me what you’re up to?”
“Before we go, I swear I will. But I want to finish the job first.”
6. The Equinox Ball
“Ow that hurt!” Kalla, Karn’s eldest daughter protested as Jalia smacked her hard on her naked backside.
Jalia and Karn’s three daughters were practicing unarmed combat in the lounge of the town house. The girls were trying very hard to do the things that Jalia wanted, but they were finding her moves difficult to copy. Kalla was twenty, Jema sixteen and Ralta barely thirteen. Jalia roused them out of bed the moment the sun rose and began to teach them various unarmed combat moves. They shifted the furniture out of the way and were over an hour into the first lesson.
Jalia’s rather unorthodox technique was to teach them to fight in the nude, so they didn’t have the advantage of clothes to hold onto. She had decided on a penalty scheme to motivate them, which was whoever toppled the other was allowed to smack them hard on the rump. So far there were three red backsides on show and one untouched one. Despite the punishments, the girls were enjoying the lesson as they had learnt a number of ways to disable an attacker.
“How did you do that move when you caught the guard’s sword without cutting yourself?” Ralta asked while they got their breath back.
“None of you are ready for that,” Jalia said soberly, “It requires split second timing and a poor swordsman at the other end. If he has ever seen the move before he will twist the sword and the fight will be over as you stop to pick your fingers up off the floor.”
“Then why did you risk it? You must have known that Daniel would be coming to help you,” Jema asked. She was the prettiest of the girls and also the most talented fighter. Jalia smiled.
“I had one other thing going for me. He was messing about with my sword and I was very angry.” Jalia grinned at the girls as they tried to work out whether she was being serious or not. “Come on girls, I have another fighting trick or two to teach you yet.”
Daniel walked into the room a few minutes later to find Jalia bent over and on the receiving end of an impressively smack from Jema, to the obvious satisfaction of the other two girls.
“Have I interrupted something private?” Daniel asked as the three sisters struggled to cover every part of their bodies using hands and arms. Jalia spun around to face him, completely unperturbed at him seeing her cavorting in the nude.
“Good morning, Daniel. I’ve been teaching the girls some unarmed combat.”
“The move I saw looked very unorthodox. Well, for the purpose of fighting an enemy anyway.”
“It was my penalty system…,” Jalia began, her face reddening a little, as she realized how she had looked, but Daniel stopped her by raising a hand.
“Please don’t explain it to me. Trying to work it out will keep me warm on many a cold night.”
This statement was far too much for the sisters, whose faces were now every bit as red as their rears. They rushed past Daniel to get back to their rooms and into the safety of clothing.
“You certainly know how to mess up a training session,” Jalia complained as she side-stepped past him to get to her own room. She was helped on her way by a not unexpected slap from Daniel. Jalia couldn’t help but grin as she walked back to her room.
They returned to the hotel before noon using the back alleys. These were easy to travel in daylight, but the problem was they were in continuous use and many people saw them.
Patrus called to them as they entered the lobby and they went over to his desk.
“It is the Spring Equinox Ball tonight and you must attend,” Patrus said loudly before leaning forward and whispering, “I have been ordered to tell you this by Marcus al’Tren, the senior Mine Owner in the city. He has paid for the ball and he wants a large attendance.”
“I’ve never been to a ball,” Daniel confessed. “I’m just a humble trader and I am sure Marcus al’Tren will understand when I don’t turn up.”
Patrus waved them into his office; first looking around the lobby to be sure no one watched them. “You have to attend. They will take you prisoner if you don’t. You’ll need special clothes as it’s a formal ball and I’ve arranged for you to see Mangus the tailor. Tren is worried about something. Things have not gone well for the Association in Taybee and Buran and he is suspicious of strangers. Two of his guards have disappeared, though everyone who knows them thinks they’re just drunk in an alley somewhere and will turn up soon.”
Patrus was obviously a little panicked and Daniel tried to calm him. “All right, we will go to this ball. How is your son?”
“He cannot keep solid food down and he complains of dizziness when he stands, but I think he
will be all right given time. He will always have a crooked nose though.”
Daniel shrugged. “I did the best I could under the circumstances.”
“The Association have noticed that you are avoiding them. Burn and Kale, the two I warned you about, were sent looking for you last night and couldn’t find you. Burn is the bald one and Kale is the taller of the two. I think they entered your room in the early hours and discovered you weren’t there.”
“Will Burn and Kale be at the Ball?” Jalia asked in far too sweet and innocent sounding voice.
“Everybody in the town except the guards on the gate and in the hotel will be there. Why do you ask?”
“I hate rapists.”
“When and where is this ball?” Daniel asked as he gave Jalia a warning frown. She stuck her tongue out at him. Getting through three whole days without a full scale war was beginning to look unlikely to Daniel.
“It’s in the Grand Hall, which is the building on the left of the square as you leave here. It’s the biggest building in Brinan. The Ball starts at nine this evening and will carry on until dawn, though no one is obliged to stay after midnight. It is a masked ball and everyone must be in formal evening clothes.”
“I haven’t been to a masked ball in years,” Jalia said in delight. “And it’s going to be so much fun to see Daniel in evening clothes.”
“Won’t you have to wear a dress, Jalia?” Daniel asked and Jalia frowned.
“I don’t have anything to wear.”
“I’m sure we will find you something.”
When they got away from Patrus, Daniel suggested Jalia go back to Karn’s house as he was sure that Karn’s daughters would have something she could wear at the ball. While Jalia was doing that he would visit the tailor’s shop, which was a city block away.
It was nine o’clock and Daniel felt a complete idiot. He wore the frilliest most absurd set of clothes he could imagine existed. From neck to toe he was encompassed in layers of white and pink lace. Not only did the jacket have ruffles, so did the trousers. To make it worse he carried a mask on a stick, which had white feathered plumage sticking a good two feet in the air. The only good thing about the costume was that he could wear his sword and dagger, though his sword hung from his waist instead of on his back and it kept banging against his leg when he walked.
It didn’t help that a steady stream of equally idiotically dressed males had been entering the hall for some time, with their women wearing dresses that looked more like sequined teapots than anything practical a woman might wear. Daniel was well aware that royalty in Delbon wore similarly ridiculous things on state occasions, but he was a trader and wearing such clothes made him want to spit.
He rubbed his collar, which was making his neck itch. The tailor assured him that the clothes had been cleaned, but Daniel had a deep suspicion that the one he wore harbored fleas. Large fleas that had not fed on human blood for a long, long time.
He had arranged to meet Jalia and the others at the entrance to the hall, which is where he stood. She would be arriving with Talla and Karn’s family. With luck, their connection to Karn wouldn’t be noticed as everyone was masked. In any case, there was no way she could creep down alleys if she wore anything like the wedding cake on legs that had just walked past him.
A coach pulled up, the driver was in formal dress, but he hadn’t got a mask on and Daniel saw it was Sam. Sitting next to him was a man who could only be Karn, though he was unrecognizable in a costume that resembled a bumble bee.
When Sam stepped down from the driver’s seat he picked up a small discrete mask which he held to his face before letting the ladies out of the coach. As there were five of them inside, it had been a squeeze. Each girl’s dress expanded like a balloon as they stepped out of the coach. The girl’s masks were more sensible than the men’s, only covering the areas around their eyes in sequined shapes and held in place with ribbons around their heads.
A first, Daniel had trouble spotting Jalia. The women looked so similar in the costumes. Then they walked up the steps towards him and Jalia became obvious, despite her clothes she moved like a cat on the prowl. Daniel held the hand not holding his mask out towards her.
“Good evening, Daniel,” Jalia said, not quite able to keep her face straight as she said it.
“How did you know it was me?” Daniel asked impressed that she recognized him so easily.
“Sword and dagger, Daniel. The first thing I ever look for on a man is the size of his sword.” Jalia replied and then burst out laughing. “If Yousef could only see you now, he would die happy.”
Jalia took Daniel’s right arm as Talla grabbed onto his left and the three set off into the hall following Karn and his daughters.
The Great Hall was magnificent and consisted of the biggest single room Daniel had ever seen. It was a least three hundred yards to a side. At its center was a dance floor, a hundred and fifty yards square, tiled with black and white marble slabs like a vast chessboard. Beyond the dance floor tables were covered in plates of food and barrels of drinks. People stood around helping themselves. At the far end of the hall stood a platform where an orchestra was tuning up. Daniel often encountered bands of four of five players at markets and fairs, but there were thirty or more players on the platform and he wondered how they would all be able to play together.
The most striking features of the Hall were the five massive chandeliers providing the light above the dance floor. The ceiling was in the shape of a dome rising to over a hundred and fifty feet above them and the chandeliers hung fifteen feet above their heads on ropes. Each of the chandeliers were ten feet in diameter and taller than that in height and each had a least a two hundred candles burning on them.
The chandelier were made of wrought ironwork and each was decorated with thousands of hanging crystals which refracted the light from the candles to create moving mottled light patterns across the dance floor.
It struck Daniel that the room looked like a holding pen for a thousand fancy colored birds and the noise was not dissimilar to a chicken coop. He took Jalia and Talla to the side of the room and hoped nobody was going to be silly enough to suggest he danced with them.
When they stood together, drinks in hand, Daniel took a close look at Jalia’s dress for the first time. Though it looked normal from the waist down, it was a little lumpy above the waist. Jalia saw him looking at her and smiled.
“I’ve got my normal clothes on under this thing. I have things to do after midnight and I don’t want to go back to the house to change. I’ll dump these things in the coach and grab my boots and weapons.”
“Isn’t all that clothing a little hot?”
“Compared with what you’re wearing I expect I’m cooler than you are.”
“Certainly less itchy,” Daniel said with a sigh, “I’m sure this thing is infested with all the fleas of Brinan.”
“Good evening, sir.” A smartly dressed man in a sensible black silk suit and carrying a small black mask addressed them. “Am I right in assuming you are Daniel al’Degar, the trader who entered my city yesterday?”
“I am that person, though how you can tell who I am in these clothes defeats me, but you have me at a disadvantage, sir.”
“I am Marcus al’Tren, deputy president of the Mine Owners Association and currently in charge of the city.” Marcus was a big man, wearing a practical looking sword at his belt and a knife sheathed in his boot. He was about thirty years old and carried himself as someone who was used to being in charge. Behind him stood two guards, barely dressed up at all and carrying crossbows. There were at least twenty such men in the hall. It appeared that Marcus wasn’t going to let anybody cause any trouble at his ball.
“Two of my men are missing. I don’t suppose you have seen them?” Marcus asked in a casual manner, though his eyes had the look of an eagle hunting prey.
“As you said, I’m a stranger to your glorious city and I’m afraid I don’t even know what a Gathering Pool is, let alone know the men who
guard it. I’ve noticed a lot of your men at the Hotel, if that is of any help.” Daniel spoke in such innocent tones that Jalia was impressed. She made a mental note to remember he could lie like that, it could explain a few things that had been bothering her.
“For a trader you’ve made no attempt to sell your goods in the city,” Marcus carried on relentlessly, “I find that unusual.”
“Yesterday, I was too tired from the journey to do any trading. Today, I was given instruction to attend this ball. Obtaining and putting on this silly frock…” Daniel waved at his finery, “has taken me all of the day. Perhaps I could interest you in some fine southern spices, since you bring the matter up?”
“I’m not interested in your goods,” Marcus said and walked away, his guards followed him closely, looking around suspiciously.
“I think he suspects us of being troublemakers,” Jalia said quietly into Daniel’s ear.
“Yes, he struck me as a man of dangerously accurate discernment too.”
At that moment the orchestra sprang into life and people started to drift towards the dance floor. Karn started dancing with his eldest daughter and Sam with Jema, leaving Ralta looking annoyed at the edge of the floor. Daniel found he was being dragged towards the dance floor by Jalia.
“If I have to wear this dress, I’m damned if I’m not dancing,” she told Daniel as he tried to resist. Knowing that there are times a man has no choice but to accept defeat gracefully, Daniel gave up his resistance and held Jalia’s hand as they walked to the floor and began to dance.
Daniel knew how to dance. There were occasions at fairs when he had danced before so he had a pretty clear idea of what was expected of him. Jalia, on the other hand, was a superb dancer and was good enough to adjust to Daniel’s movement to make him look excellent. Within a minute or two the other dancers stood aside to watch them. Daniel was too busy to notice as he watched his feet and listened to the beat of the music, but Jalia noticed and put on a show for the assembled crowd.
