Alto narrowed his eyes but said nothing. Their first order of business was to escape the water. He turned in the water, causing Mordrim's grip to tighten and the dwarf to curse under his breath. Alto bit back his own curse as the dwarf nearly pushed him under, and then spied some netting hanging low near the water along the docks. He pointed to it and struck out for it, dragging a confused dwarf along with him.
Alto reached the net and turned so Mordrim could grab it and get off his back. The dwarf pulled himself up and, after looking back and forth, he hauled himself over the edge and disappeared. Alto followed after and looked around at the edge of the dock. He saw Mordrim hiding behind some boxes nearby and gesturing for him. Alto risked a quick look and saw that Kar's spell had worked to great effect. He pulled himself onto the deck and rushed over to join the dwarf.
The others followed one at a time until they were all gathered among the boxes. They drained scabbards and, in Carson's case, his quiver. Kar smirked while he stood with dry clothes among them. Alto glared at him and opened his mouth but Kar silenced him by raising his hands and wiggling his fingers. The wizard earned a scowl from the warrior.
"Before they lose interest, let's go," Alto growled to the companions. "We're a ways from the tunnels, but if we get away from the docks, we can finally find clothes at least."
Everyone secured their weapons and looked to him to lead. Alto glanced at Namitus and Mordrim; the latter was still trying to squeeze the water out of his beard. He turned to leave and stopped when he saw a young woman with her arms crossed under her breasts that her low cut peasant dress displayed prominently.
"Well now, what have we here?" she asked with a crooked smile.
Chapter 4
"Uh, hello," Alto stammered. "Excuse us, we were—"
"Hoping to escape without any of the guards noticing you'd snuck into the city?" she finished for him.
"No! We, uh—"
"Don't lie to me," she snapped. "I've heard enough to last me a dozen lifetimes."
Kar snorted behind Alto. He knew why. The girl was just that—a girl. She had a hard set to her face and a look in her eyes that said she'd seen more than she should have, but she was still young. Young enough to be his sister, he realized.
"You're right," Alto said. "Now stand out of our way and be silent, or else."
"Or else what? You think you can do something to me that will terrify me? I hear you’re a savage barbarian lord from the north. Rumors fly that you and your lot of demons are here to kill the holy leaders of Shazamir one by one."
"I'm not a savage barbarian," Alto said.
"I am!" Garrick leaned around Alto and said. "Hi, my name's Garrick. I like to hurt people."
Alto rolled his eyes in spite of himself and Patrina's breath hissed through her lips. Mordrim groaned. The girl stared at Garrick and stiffened, and then her eyes went back to Alto. "One scream and they'll be on you. Don't come any closer."
"I don't have time for this," Alto growled. "Name your price. I'm here to save my sister, then leave this infernal city behind forever."
"My price?" the woman asked. She tilted her head as she considered it. She glanced around and then focused on Alto again. "Follow me, quickly, before someone else happens this way."
"Is this a trap?"
"Do I need a trap?" she asked. "Look at all the guards. Do you really think there's a better place to capture or kill you than here?"
Alto hesitated as he looked at the docks and the many armed men. He nodded to her, which signaled her to turn and walk away from them in a brisk stride. Alto glanced at the others and received shrugs and blank stares. He followed her.
The young woman led them through a small street and then around behind a building that looked like burning it to the ground would improve its condition. She left it behind and took them into an area where their lack of shirts was common, though the fine weapons they held were not. She moved quickly through the area and out of it, ducking into an alley shielded by tall buildings to either side and old rugs and blankets hanging limp on lines without any breeze to ruffle them.
She stopped and motioned for them to follow her into a hole that had been dug into the side of a building where it met the ground. Alto hesitated again, eyeing the narrow opening, and then squeezed his broad shoulders through and emerged into a small room that he had to crouch in order to stand up in. The girl stood near the back with only a bundle of blankets on the floor behind her.
"Who are you?" Alto demanded as his companions emerged from the tiny opening one after another. "A beggar or a thief? We've dealt with your assassins before and we're still alive. They are not."
She nodded and, in the dim light of her tiny lair, she didn't look as sure of herself. "That's why I brought you here," she said. "And yes, I've been a beggar, a thief, and a whore. I've survived where others didn't. My name is Jethallin."
Namitus nodded to her and shifted his arm while curling his fingers in a peculiar pattern. She nodded back to him. "No, I'm not part of any gang or guild. I'm just doing my best to get by."
"My apologies," Namitus said.
She laughed. "None needed. I don't have any feelings about any of them. I did hear about what happened to you, how they trapped you and sold you."
"What?" Alto asked, his voice rising above the hushed tones they'd been using.
The girl turned her glare on him. A moment later, a tiny hiccup was followed by a baby crying. Alto turned to look at his friends as the girl turned behind her and pulled out a baby swaddled in blankets from the bundle of rags on the ground.
"Saints!" Patrina hissed. "You've got a baby down here?"
The girl ignored her and soothed the child. She glanced at the others, eyes narrowed, and then lifted the infant to her chest while she pulled on the revealing neckline of her shirt. The crying was replaced with the wet sucking sounds a moment later of a baby feeding. She glared at them, challenging them with her eyes.
"How old are you?" Alto asked.
"Fifteen," she declared.
He nodded. Old enough, he supposed, but he wouldn't have wanted such a thing for his sister even though she was older than this girl. "The father?"
She shook her head. "A drunken sailor or a guard. Does it matter?"
"It might to her," Patrina stepped forward and said. She glanced at the feeding infant with a soft face but said no more.
"You risked much to bring us here," Alto told her. "Everything, I'd say."
"Don't think I can't take care of myself."
"You don't even have a knife on you," Alto scoffed.
"I'm sure your lady friend will agree that there are places a woman can hide things that a man will never find."
Alto glanced at Patrina and saw her brows furrowed. She looked confused, but she might have been upset or bothered by the comment. Alto decided to let it go. "We still outnumber you and there is no place to run. Especially if you have a child."
"I risked no less than you," Jethallin responded. "The others will have figured out who you are. It's only a matter of time until you're found. The reward is enough to live well for a year. Less, for most of those fools would waste it on ale and women."
"Why didn't you turn us in then?" he challenged.
"I want more," she said. She glanced down at her baby and then back up at him. "I want more than a year. I want to live a safe life for both of us."
Alto nodded. "Our wealth is on our ship, which is moored to the south. We mean to rescue my sister and return to the north. I will send back a king's ransom for you if you can get me into the palace, to Lord Badawi's rooms."
She shook her head. "You're a fool. Why would you go back to the rooms of a dead man?"
"What?"
She nodded. "Killed by you, they said, then you fled the city. They feared you'd come back."
Garrick swore but Alto ignored the barbarian. "What of my sister?"
"Badawi's wife?" she asked. "I heard she's being held in the dungeon in the off chance you care for her at all
, beyond using her as a ploy to get close to the nobles."
"I didn't kill him," Alto said. "I did kill his assistant, but that was after he lied to us and took my sister from me. We were trying to find her when Namitus was betrayed. We had to leave the city to rescue him and Caitlyn, but she'd already been brought back here before we could reach them both."
She shrugged. "Then she's in the dungeons, but there's no way to get in through the palace. No way that won't get you killed."
"I'll find a way," Alto vowed.
Jethallin grimaced and shifted the baby to her other breast. "She's hungry," she explained as she adjusted her shirt to provide what modesty she could.
"You just left her here?" Patrina asked.
Jethallin looked at her and blinked. "I didn't have an army of servants at my beck and call, sorry."
Patrina's eyes widened and she looked at Alto for support. He shook his head just enough to make her bite her lip and look away. "Sorry, I didn't—"
Alto spared his beloved by interrupting her. "Can you get us in there? Is there another way?"
She looked at Namitus and then back to Alto. She nodded. "There is. Tunnels under the city."
"We've been in those before," Alto said. He turned to look at his friend. "They lead to the dungeon?"
Namitus held his hands up. She answered instead. "They do. For a bribe, a thief can escape the dungeons if he's caught. Most thieves don't have the money or friends they can trust to pay it, so it's seldom used."
"You do?"
Jethallin laughed, drawing a muffled cry from her daughter. She soothed the baby and then said, "Hardly."
"But you know where it is?"
She nodded. "I searched it out a while back. I considered trying to sneak into the palace through the dungeon to steal things."
"Dungeons are a poor place to look for wealth," Karthor offered.
Jethallin swiveled one hand that held her baby to her bosom and turned her head to glance at the tiny room they were crammed in. "Look around. Do I need wealth? No, I need food. Gold brings thugs. I have enough of those I have to fend off as it is because of these." She looked down at her swollen breasts. "They’re swollen because of the milk and that makes men think I'm dying to let them see what's beneath my skirts."
"Wait, you said you wanted gold enough to live safely for the rest of your life?" Alto asked.
She shook her head. "I never said I wanted gold."
"Then what do you want?" Patrina asked her.
"I want to go with you."
Chapter 5
"That's impossible!" Carson sputtered from where he was crammed into the back of the small room. He forced his way between Mordrim and Karthor to get a better look at her and her baby and shook his head.
"Carson!" Alto warned.
"No, I won't be silent," Carson said. He turned to Jethallin and met her fiery gaze with his own. "I've only just met these people when they landed on my island. I've heard about what they've gone through before meeting me and I've seen what we've done since then. It's no place for a girl and definitely no place for a baby."
"We can take care of ourselves!" she protested.
Alto put his hand up to give Carson pause. "That much is obvious. You've survived against the odds in a city that feeds on people like you. But Carson is right, you cannot come with us. Your babe will give us away when we need to be stealthy and protecting you will distract us when we need our attention elsewhere."
"I can keep Jennaca quiet," she insisted. "And what you need now is a disguise to keep the rats of this city away. Traveling with a girl and a child will do that. Everyone knows to be on the lookout for you as you are."
Alto opened and closed his mouth. Carson growled deep in his throat and shook his head. "I'll give you what gold we have to spare for food and decent clothing," Alto told her. "And once we're done here, I'll send a ship for you."
"No," she said. "I want to go with you."
"I'll come back myself," Alto promised.
She stared at him for a long moment and then shook her head. "Good luck out there. Do me one favor, since I saved you at the docks. Don't tell anyone I was involved with you."
"You're not going to help us?" Patrina asked.
Jethallin met her gaze without flinching. "Not if you're not going to help me."
"I will!" Alto insisted. "I told you I'd—"
"No, you told me the same filth I hear a dozen times a night from men who want me to give them what they want! If you want my help, then you give me what I want. This may be the only chance I ever get. I'm not going to waste it."
"Even if it gets you killed?" Patrina asked her. "And your daughter?"
"What about us?" Carson demanded.
Patrina ignored him and stared at Jethallin.
Jethallin met her gaze and nodded. "We have to try."
Patrina sighed and turned to look at Alto. He met her gaze and saw her decision in them. He closed his eyes for a moment and forced the worries that he shared with Carson silent. He turned back to Jethallin and nodded. "All right, we'll take you with us."
Carson swore and turned away. He slipped back through the entrance of her tiny room. Garrick answered Alto's challenging gaze with a smirk. The others looked back blankly at him.
When Alto looked at Jethallin again, she had herself covered again and Jennaca was resting against her shoulder as she rubbed and patted the baby's back. "Tell us what to do."
* * * *
"I hope the others are okay," Patrina whispered in the darkness of the small cubby they hid in.
Alto couldn't see her but she leaned against him, reassuring him of her presence. Garrick, Carson, and Karthor were there as well. He was equally reassured to not have them brushing against him while they waited for Jethallin to return from her scouting trip through the tunnels beneath Shazamir. "They know better what to be on the lookout for," he reassured her even though he shared her fears.
"Namitus knew the first time and he still got nabbed," she reminded him.
"Jethallin gave him names and a place she trusts."
"And you're sure she can be trusted?"
Alto stared into the darkness where he expected her face to be. "It's rather late to be bringing that up to consider."
Patrina was silent a moment before she added, "Mordrim will be fine, I think. The guards have no reason to suspect him. The same with Kar, but even if they did, he could probably just make them think he was a crippled old woman and they'd leave him be. That or he'd threaten to turn them into beetles and squash them under his boots."
"But you still worry more about Namitus. There was a time when you wanted him dead."
"No," Patrina hissed without thinking. "Never dead. I was angry with him for lying to me for all those years. But I still loved him as a brother, even then. There's no way I could turn my back on all the good times we shared or the things we taught each other."
Alto frowned. "Should I be hearing this?"
Patrina's hand rested on his arm lightly and gave it a squeeze. "We shared stories and childhood adventures, Alto. That's all. You and I have already shared more meaningful things."
Alto grunted.
"I once thought Namitus was cute, in a boyish way," she admitted. "But I outgrew that. He never once took me up on any of my silly girlish advances. I don't think he's ever thought of me, uh, that way."
"You're a beautiful woman. What man would not?" Alto said in spite of being uncomfortable discussing the woman he loved and one of his closest friends.
"I look at you that way," Garrick offered from the darkness a few feet away. "In case you were wondering."
Alto's scowl was unseen in the dark but he heard a snort from someone else. Carson or Karthor. He suspected the woodsman. Carson had shown a little extra interest and attention to Patrina from the moment they'd met him. When Alto had been captured by Bucky, the massive ape on the Island of Britanly, Carson and Patrina had spent time together trying to find them and survive the jungle. Now that Carson had j
oined them, he'd become one of their friends and any friction had gone away.
"I admire what you're doing," Patrina whispered a few moments later.
"Hiding in the dark isn't as hard as you'd think," Alto replied.
Patrina poked him in the side. "I meant with the girl."
"I'm not doing anything with her," Alto said. "I'm using her to find Caitlyn and then we're leaving."
Patrina's breath hissed through her nose. She leaned over to look past Alto and down the tunnel that Jethallin and her baby had walked down. They'd taken a lantern with her and left them with nothing. "You're not taking her with us?"
She saw him shrug in the darkness. "If she makes it."
"There was a time when you would have gone out of your way to help her. Like you did with me and Namitus when you found us in those mines."
"You didn't blackmail me," Alto said. He fell quiet for a moment while considering Jethallin. He sighed and whispered to Patrina, "I don't blame her. I mean, in her situation I can see what she's doing being justified. Maybe even admirable."
Patrina grunted, offering a non-committal response.
"Another time I might care more," Alto admitted in the darkness. "I might want to help her. Maybe I should. I don't know. I can't get past what they did to Namitus and what they've done to Caitlyn."
"Namitus said she was fine when he saw her. Subdued and acting odd, but in good health," she reminded him.
"She wasn't in the dungeon then," Alto reasoned. "And Sulim was still alive. It bothers me that he's dead and I wasn't the one who throttled him."
"I once knew a boy who would never dream of killing someone with his hands," Patrina said.
Alto sighed. He had a million reasons why that boy, a farmer, had become the hardened warrior he was today, but would she accept any of them? Did she expect him to remain a kindhearted and compassionate boy his entire life? How could he rule a city if he was that soft? For that matter, how could he succeed her father when he died and command all of the northern half of the kelgryn nation if he were softhearted?
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