by B. T. Narro
She brushed back her hair to look at me from the corner of her eye. “Any good?” She had a confident smile as if she already knew the answer.
I heard some sort of thumping sound. At first I thought it was my heart, but then my wits returned and I realized it was the noise of a galloping horse in the distance. Lisanda and I both spun to our side to find three men on horses speeding toward us.
“What’s this?” Lisanda whispered urgently.
“Bad,” was all I could answer.
My first reaction was to grab Lisanda by the hand and run, but I took a moment to first look at their clothing. They had no markings. They weren’t guards.
One of them whistled as he got closer. I heard more horse hooves beating against the ground behind me. Then I noticed more coming from a third direction, completely surrounding us. It happened so quickly, I was still without a plan.
There looked to be around ten of them in total. Lisanda seemed to be just as nervous as me.
“Shit on a grave! It really is Lisanda Takary,” one of them said with a slap to his thigh.
That expression—he was from Waywen up north. I figured they all were.
A familiar voice spoke next. “I told you.” I looked at him and recognized him as the one who’d discovered us when Sannil was still with our group.
It all came together. He’d recognized Lisanda and told these men. Then they’d set out searching for us. But what were they doing in the forest in the first place? Whatever it was, I had a terrible feeling. They had a hungry look in their eyes like they’d found treasure.
I quickly investigated their belts. Two had wands, three had swords, and five had quivers with a bow slung over their shoulder…five archers. I had no chance of running with Lisanda from two mages and five archers on horseback. Whatever they wanted with us was bound to happen, but what would men from Waywen want with a princess of Goldram?
One of them jumped off his horse and came toward us. “But you said there were four of them.”
“Aye, an older gentleman and a young lady are missing,” the first man to find us answered.
“Were any of them nobility?” the man on foot asked.
“None that I knew from my time in the Takary Palace.”
The man on foot stood right in front of me, a curious glare in his eyes. He seemed to be the one in charge of this group. “Then they don’t matter,” he said. Quick as a blink he drew his sword and pointed it at my face. “What about him?” he asked.
“Never heard anything about a blue-eyed, brown-haired young man with Lisanda Takary,” the first man answered.
“Then he doesn’t matter, either,” the one in charge uttered.
I was just about to reach for my wand when a scream from Lisanda stopped me.
“Wait! We’re to be married.” She grabbed my hand.
Each of them turned to the man on the horse who clearly had the most knowledge of Goldram nobility.
He scratched his head. “She’s supposed to be marrying Varth Farro, last I heard.”
“So she’s lying,” the man in charge stated simply.
“I’m not!” Lisanda’s tone was desperate. “Tell them, Jek!”
“It’s true. She ran from the wedding before marrying Varth Farro so that we could be together.” The lies flowed out of me so naturally I was shocked.
The men each exchanged confused glances.
The one in charge still had a sword pointed at me. “Why you? Is your family rich? What’s your last name?”
One of the archers who hadn’t spoken yet pointed at me with an arrow. “Look at his clothes,” he said contemptuously. “They’re lying to us.”
“Look at her clothes, you swine,” the man in charge replied. “She’s dressed just like him. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“We’re trying not to draw attention to ourselves,” Lisanda answered.
The archer grumbled. “I still don’t believe them.”
The man in charge brushed his hand through the air. “We’ll let the commander decide.” He put away his sword and motioned for us to follow with one finger. “Come with us.”
“Who are you?” I asked, not moving a step.
“Allow me to rephrase. Come with us or die.”
Chapter 21: Underground
They roped our wrists and ankles, and plopped us on the back of their saddles. Each was overweight, but they stuck us with two archers who were less heavy than the rest. I’d never seen ten fat men all in a group before. I couldn’t figure out what to make of it.
The place they took us to was surprisingly close, about a twenty-minute ride at an uncomfortable trot.
At first glance it just looked like the side of a small mountain, roughly a third of the height of the one where we’d made camp. This mountain contained nothing but bare stone and patches of dirt.
When the horses stopped and the men started dismounting, I noticed a crevice between two boulders ahead of us that had been hidden until we were right beside it.
They pushed us toward the gap with unnecessary shoves. Passing through, I could see the crevice was man-made. A thin path curved through the boulders, opening to a square grass field where the horses were tied. The portly men led us through the field to a doorway made in the mountain itself.
There was a wide wooden door resting crooked on one hinge. The door itself wasn’t dilapidated, but with one of its edges resting on the ground along with a slanted gap between the top of the door and the mountain above, it was a shoddy sight. To make matters worse, it looked like one man couldn’t move the door on his own. Two of them grabbed the end of it, braced themselves with a few big breaths, and lifted it off the ground, pulling it open with a series of grunts. I noticed then how thick the door was, equal to the width of the rotund men lifting it.
I looked behind me at Lisanda. One of the men had his arm around her. She looked squeamish, her shoulders crunched against his man-breasts. The man clutching her like a valuable prize had a scraggly, graying beard that hung like an animal’s claw, twisting into points.
The man beside me pushed me forward. I turned back ahead to find that those in front of me had disappeared into the mountain.
Following them, the first thing I noticed when I passed through the doorway was the faint but unmistakable stench of excrement. The next was dim, dancing light from lit torches along the walls. It sent a chill down my neck.
We emerged onto a wide, winding staircase that seemed to wrap around itself. As we went down the stairs, I noticed it encircled an enormous caged area that was the center of this cavern within the mountain.
“What is this place?” I asked with nervous wonder.
The man beside me gave me another shove. “Just keep going.”
We passed an open door along the stairs leading away from the center. I took a quick glance. It seemed to be some sort of storage room. There were shelves stocked with cheeses, bags of oats, and far too many other foods to see in my short time passing by.
The stench grew worse as we went farther down the slowly twisting stairs. But something else came into my senses—Sartious Energy, more of it than I’d felt in any other place. As thick as it was, though, I couldn’t see it in the air. That is, until we came to the next torch along the wall and I stared closely at the air around it. There were faint trails of emerald green, floating like dust.
There was another opened door cut into the stone wall on the outer rim of the stairs. Another storage room, I saw when we passed.
Continuing down, I tried to get to the other side of the stairs where the metal fence came up from the center of this cavern. I figured whatever was down there was the source of this SE and the stench, both getting stronger still. But the man beside me grabbed my arm, not letting me through to the other side of the stairs.
“What’s down there?” I asked.
“You don’t want to know,” he answered, leaning toward me to show he meant it.
We reached a third room, and the men in front of us started filing i
nto it. By then the odor was so pungent I could feel it on my tongue when I breathed through my mouth. Lisanda started coughing behind me.
“What a surprise. The Princess doesn’t like the smell of shit.” It was the man with the scraggly beard, still holding her close—too close. He was scrunching her shoulders into him. I didn’t like it, and she didn’t seem to, either. A few others had glanced at them, but no one had said anything. He pointed at me.
“Keep your eyes ahead, boy. Don’t worry about your lady. I’ll keep her safe.” He forced one grunt of laughter.
I was pushed into the room. The rest of them came trudging in after me, creating a half circle around the desk in the center. Behind that desk was another heavyset man, but this one wore a cloth over his nose and mouth to reduce the unpleasantness of the smell. His eyes squinted with contempt as they darted between me, Lisanda, and the other men. With two quick fingers he snatched down the cloth to speak.
“What’s this?” He scowled at all of us at once. It was a skill, really—to make one expression that everyone knew was for them. This guy was clearly the leader.
The scraggly bearded man holding Lisanda like a prize pushed her forward, pinching her behind as he let her go.
Lisanda gave a squeak that was half scream and half gasp while she turned and glared as if to slap him. But he simply smiled back, and her anger melted into fear.
“This little pretty is Lisanda Takary,” said Scraggle Beard—the name I’d chosen for him. He pointed at me next. “But we still don’t know about him.”
The one beside me spoke up. “The Princess says he’s valuable. They were to be married.”
I didn’t like his use of “were” instead of “are.”
The commander behind the desk formed an open-mouthed smile. “Finally, some luck. Perhaps now we can get out of this hole of shit.” He waved me toward him.
“Come forward, young man. Stand there next to your bride.” He pointed. “Tell me your name. More importantly, who’s your father?”
Fear caught my breath in my throat as I joined Lisanda in the center of the half circle. I could feel the eyes of the ten men behind us burning into our backs. More importantly, I could feel their hands wavering near their weapons.
“He’s Jek Stamuth from Chanren.” Lisanda spoke for me, and good thing as well. If knowledge of nobility could fill buckets, she’d fill a thousand for every one that I’d fill. But there was still the matter of whether she was telling them something that would get me killed or not. I’d never heard of the Stamuth family. And Chanren was about as far from Goldram as possible, meaning I had even less knowledge about the area than the family I was supposed to be from.
The commander held his gaze on Lisanda, tilting his head, waiting for more information.
“Son of King Manch Stamuth of Castle Stamuth,” Lisanda added.
The commander lifted his eyes over my shoulder. I followed it by turning my head to the first man who’d found us, the one with the most knowledge of nobility.
The man shrugged. “Manch Stamuth has more wives than he can count and enough children to fill a shotmarl stadium.”
The commander rubbed a finger across his burgeoning mustache. “Chanren is too far,” he thought aloud. His eyes snapped back to Lisanda. “Does your father find this husband of yours to be valuable to the Takary family?”
Lisanda nodded eagerly. “We’re each very valuable to my father.”
Even with the thick stench in this room beginning to make my head ache, I found some amusement in the irony of the situation. Yes, Lisanda’s father found me valuable, she was telling the truth, but my value to him was for the exact opposite reason these men must’ve believed. The King would never bargain for my life like he would for Lisanda’s. Though, he might bargain for my delivery just the same.
“Then they’ll stay with us until tonight,” the commander said, lifting the cloth back over his face.
“What will happen then?” I asked.
“You’ll find out.” The commander’s words were muffled.
“Where should we keep them?” one of them asked. “We don’t have a place for prisoners.”
“Secure them in a storage room. I don’t care how. Just make sure they can’t escape.” The commander lowered his cloth again and pointed at Scraggle Beard. “Barad, do not touch the Princess. I don’t want to hear of you even being in the same room as her. Understand?”
Barad was running his fingers through his greasy beard. Suddenly, he slapped his whole hand on Lisanda’s left butt cheek, giving it a firm shake.
“You mean like this?” Barad uttered through clenched teeth and open lips.
Lisanda gave out a partial scream, holding in most of it. She jumped forward, but Barad’s other hand came around her stomach, pulling her toward him.
“Stop!” I demanded.
He didn’t move. Lisanda squirmed, trying to force her way out of his grip.
The commander spoke just after me. “Barad, you won’t ruin this for us—”
I didn’t hear the rest of what he said. I was too busy driving my elbow into Barad’s side. I’d never touched a man so fat. It was like driving my elbow into a pillow, utterly useless.
He pushed Lisanda away and struck me in the temple with his fist. I was on the ground without remembering falling.
When I looked up, I saw a few of them had their swords pointed at Barad, including the commander. Barad held his hands up.
With an angry frown like he’d been betrayed, he said, “I just want to have a little fun. Isn’t it time?” His voice was deep and loud, exasperated. “We’ve been stuck here for five years.” Barad shook his stomach. “Look at us…look at us!” He kept one hand up but used the other to gesture around the room. “Getting fat, living in shit, dealing with desmarls…”
Desmarls? It took getting back on my feet to realize I’d heard him correctly. He said dealing with desmarls, but that couldn’t be. Though, it would explain the SE I felt…I couldn’t listen to him and think about it, so I waited until he finished.
Both of Barad’s hands were being used to gesture now. “James killed himself last week, and for what?”
They each began lowering their swords. The commander seemed to have a look of pity and sadness.
Barad continued. “For our King, who none of us have even met? For the King of Presoren, who’s smart enough not to send his own men for this? For the alliance?” Barad’s voice was dripping with disrespect.
I didn’t like the faces I saw around me. They were composed of listening ears, nodding heads, widening eyes. No one spoke up during the silence, so Barad continued yet again.
“Five years…and now I’m never going to forget the sight of James’ leg getting ripped off by a desmarl tentacle. And every time I shit for the rest of my life it’ll serve to remind me of this horrid place. Don’t we deserve something for the trouble?”
Finally, the commander answered. “We will be rewarded.” He had a frustration to his tone as if he’d repeated the same line many times, but also a hesitance as if he’d didn’t quite believe it himself. Nonetheless, his confidence came through stronger as he went on. “When Goldram falls, we’ll be known as the main reason. We’ll be rewarded kingly, and that’s only if we don’t screw up. I’m not going to discuss this with you. Put them in one of the storage rooms.”
Chapter 22: Storage Room
Four of the blubbery men led us back up to the second storage room we’d passed earlier. Thankfully, the smell was much more tolerable here than in the commander’s office.
Barad went the opposite way, down the winding stairs. I made a mental note to keep a close watch on him. He was followed by the rest of them besides the four who came up the stairs with us. I hadn’t seen anyone else, giving me the impression there were only eleven in total, including the commander.
The four men who took Lisanda and me to the storage room quickly realized it wasn’t going to be easy to find a way to secure us. They only had rope, no chains, and ea
ch of the shelves stocked with food were tall but thin, easily knocked over, so they couldn’t tie us to them.
One of our captors finally had the idea to search me for weapons while the others thought of where to put us. When he found a wand, he was more curious than anything else.
“Aren’t you a bit young for magic?”
I shrugged, playing the amateur mage as best I could. “I can cast a few spells already, Bastial light and Bastial wind, though both are quite faint.” They were beginner spells.
The man pulled his wand from his belt, wiggling it to show he was a mage as well. He surprised me with a gentle smile, void of disrespect. He had soft eyes and two chins. His skin was dark as coal but smooth as a baby’s, almost glowing as it was stretched around his jolly face.
“You have a long road ahead of you if you stick with magic,” he said.
I nodded, reciprocating his smile. “I’ve heard.”
He slid my wand into his pocket and turned to check on the three men with Lisanda. They’d stood her in the opposite corner as me while they paced around the room, searching, waiting for ideas to come. As the mage with me turned to leave, I tried to stop him with a question.
“What’s your name, if you don’t mind?”
“Kory,” he replied in a low voice. “I shouldn’t be talking to you. Just makes things more complicated.” He started to turn again.
“Can you just tell me one thing?” I tried.
It worked. He turned back with a raised eyebrow.
“Do you really have desmarls in here?” I whispered.
“Aye,” he said with a grave nod. “That’s their shit you smell. We can’t get into the cages to clean it, too dangerous.” He looked away, shaking his head back and forth with a slow breath.
I looked around the storage room but didn’t see what I thought I would find. “There’s no meat in here. What do you feed them?”
“We have to catch animals from the forest.” Kory gave a quick glance over his shoulder to check on the other three. “We’re not all like Barad, you should know.” He kept his voice near a whisper. “We wouldn’t have killed you if you were no one important. Probably just would’ve let you go so long as you didn’t try to follow.”
