by Guy Antibes
The women looked exhausted and dragged their feet through the stone pathway that led to the kitchen door. One of the guards opened the door as two others walked through to keep the women en route through to the dungeon stairway. Now Shiro would see firsthand what Chika had only heard about.
Shiuki’s head remained down, but she kicked Shiro’s toe and stumbled at his feet. Shiro helped her stand.
“Don’t,” she said softly.
“Keep your words to yourself, witch,” Shiro said loudly to alert Chika that Shiuki would be passing through. “I’ll come down to the dungeons and beat you myself if you can’t walk straight.” The other guards nodded and shoved her as she walked through the kitchen.
Chika lifted her eyes from washing cooking utensils and spotted Shiuki, and then Shiro. She put her head down and went back to work. Shiro followed the seven women through the dungeon door. The dungeon guards were ready to take the women down.
“I want to teach that one a lesson,” Shiro said out of the side of his mouth.
The dungeon guards shrugged. One said, “Suit yourself.”
Shiro plunged into the torchlit darkness. The enticing smells of the kitchen quickly transformed into the stench of human misery. Even the air changed from warm and fragrant to cold and malodorous. He stopped to take a deep breath and prepare himself for whatever he would find deeper in the Lord’s dungeons.
The party stopped at a well-lit guard station. Rows of wooden keys hung behind a desk filled with rolled up scroll-stick scrolls and the remains of food, some fresh and some fragrant with rot.
The guard at the desk looked up. “What’ve you got for me? More witches?” He grinned and the food hadn’t been the only thing that rotted. “Who’s the soldier?”
“Him? He wanted a little playtime with one of the prisoners.” One of the guards tossed seven identity sticks on the desk.
The desk guard twisted to look past at Shiro. “You can’t kill ‘em. All of these go down to the bottom. Level seven, cell four.” He turned around and pulled off a thick wooden key and gave it to Shiro. “When you are done, make sure this goes back where it belongs on your way back up or I’ll have the Lord split your guts.”
Shiro bowed with a grin he hoped looked devilish enough.
“Show him the way boys.” The desk guard sat back down to insert the sticks in a scroll. Shiro followed at the end of the grim procession.
As they took stairs down into the roots of the castle, the guards laughed and pushed the women down. Some fell on the steps. They commanded the rest of the women to carry the two injured women. Shiuki helped a woman who had twisted her ankle.
Each level held no more than ten cells. The number varied and Shiro thought it might be due to the size of each dungeon. They reached level seven and soon the guard called upon Shiro to open the door.
“A couple of us will be outside, in case you need any help. If you’re romantically inclined, banish it from your thoughts. The Lord won’t have witches spawn little witches upon pain of death of both partners.”
“That’s not even on my mind,” Shiro said without a hint of guile. “Feel free to look on.” He took Shiuki by the arm and shoved her into the cell.
With a hint of disappointment one of the guards said, “No windows, but we can hear.”
Shiro nodded his head and grabbed a torch to light the dark room. The women had sat down. Two of them administered to their injured sisters.
He took Shiuki aside. “I’ve come to rescue you.”
“Are you crazy? How did you get in?”
“Chika is here with me. She’s disguised as a young warrior learning kitchen duties.” Shiro paused. “I’ve always hated you witches!” Shiro said with a loud voice and encouraged Shiuki with his hand. She obliged by wailing and pretending to be hit.
“It’s easy to react since we all were just beaten. We arrived yesterday.”
Yesterday! “Three days ago for us.”
“Just as well, there were ten sorcerers and thirty soldiers by the time we reached Sekkoro.”
They made some additional sounds to keep the guards interested who likely had their ears stuck to the door.
“How do they avoid your magic?”
Shiuki laughed. “Do you think we can fight a guildhouse full of sorcerers? They had a spell that dampened our magic.” She shrugged. “There’s something you have to do before you attempt to free us.”
“Us? We’re here to free you.”
“My sisters come with me or I’ll stay.”
Shiro knew a firm position when he heard it from his days negotiating in the marketplace back in Koriaki. But then he already figured out that he couldn’t bear to leave any of these women behind. “What do I have to do before I free all of you?”
“Ashiyo is at the guildhouse.”
“You want me to sneak in there and kill him for exposing you? I’ll do it gladly. I have my own score to settle with him,” Shiro said.
“No, I want you to save him. I won’t leave Sekkoro without him.”
~~~
CHAPTER NINETEEN
~
SHIRO PANICKED.
“SETTLE DOWN, KINORU. I know the spell they used on us to reduce our powers. You can use it on them.” Shiuki whispered the spell to Shiro who repeated it back to her. “They are so stupid to think we don’t know how to learn their magic.”
“I have to leave now. I hope to see you again, soon.” He yelled in anger at Shiuki, partly to please the guards and partly because he really was mad. “Why would you possibly want that dishonorable man saved?”
“He’s my husband.”
Well that complicated matters. Shiro tried to think quickly. “Can the rest of these women assume disguises? Can Ashiyo disguise himself?” Shiro rubbed his knuckles on the rough rock surface of the dungeon to make them bloody. Shiuki nodded in the torchlight. “I’ll get him out.”
“Ashiyo is his disguise,” she said.
Now he’d have to break into a guildhall, rescue his betrayer, and then fight through how many more sorcerers to get him over to the castle! The rescue mission became less and less possible. “Learn what the guards look like. Perhaps you can assume their guise and you can march out of here. Now scream and stop as if you fainted.”
She performed wonderfully as Shiro pounded on the door. “I’ve had enough,” he said. The guards unlocked the door and let him out. They looked a bit disappointed.
“I thought they would have put a spell on you,” one of the guards said as he locked the door and put a few coins in the other guard’s hand.
“They tried and look what happened,” Shiro sneered, showing them his bloodied fist. They backed away from him. “Don’t worry. She’s being treated by her sisters.” He passed them by and stalked up the stairs memorizing the way.
He tossed the key to the desk guard and began to climb the last flight of stairs up to the kitchen, but then he turned back. “Is there another exit from the dungeons? I’m afraid I’ll be sick smelling food after being down there.”
The guard rubbed is dirty bald head and laughed. “There is, through there.” He pointed at a dark corridor that ran underneath the stairs to the kitchen. “I wouldn’t take it. That’s where the dead ones go and where the slops are thrown out… it links to a sewer that empties into the sea.”
Shiro coughed. “I’ll chance the kitchen then…” He returned up the stairs, smiling to himself.
“We all do,” the guard said to his back. Shiro just shrugged, not turning around.
The kitchen activity had slowed by the time Shiro entered. Chika walked with him out into the practice yard.
“How is Shiuki?”
Shiro kicked at the gravel. “Well enough after getting beaten by the sorcerers. They all were. I don’t know why they were moved to the castle.”
She looked at his knuckles and her eyebrows went up in alarm. “You beat her, too?”
“An altercation with a wall. I needed to show some evidence of hitting her.” He shrugge
d and looked across the yard, his mind focusing on the Guildhouse blocks away. “We have to rescue Ashiyo from the Guildhouse.”
“He betrayed Shiuki. Why would we?”
“It seems that Ashiyo and Shiuki are a couple.” Shiro clamped his lips tight. “He comes with us or Shiuki stays.”
Chika put her hand to her forehead. “How are we going to do that? But you were just at the Guildhouse. Did your visit give you any ideas?”
“Yes, don’t try to rescue anyone. We don’t know what wards they have. There’s so much magic bound into a guild house that I don’t know. Apprentices are taught the basics, but…” He shook his head. He looked across the practice yard. The men were beginning to pair up with wooden weapons. Shiro could easily walk out of the castle and out of Sekkoro. No one would be able to find him if he kept shifting his appearance and shielding his magic. He could marry again and acquire a farm. Life could return to normal.
He looked across the courtyard, harried by a feeling that he didn’t belong anywhere in Roppon. His entry into the guard had been under false pretenses. Shiro didn’t feel inadequate, but the situation unsettled his mind all of a sudden. The revelation that Ashiyo wasn’t whom he thought. The man had betrayed Shiro and Boreko. Why should he save a stranger? Why should he save a woman who he only met weeks before? He had risked his life for these people.
Chika nudged him. “What’s next?”
Shiro knew Chika better than anyone since he met Boreko. He liked her spirit and she had driven him to Sekkoro, so did he do this for her? He really didn’t know. “I’ll come up with something tonight. An opportunity will present itself. Where are you quartered?”
“Above the kitchen. There are stairs to the right of the fireplaces. Barracks are up there. I have to be careful.” She smiled and blushed just a bit. “I’m seeing more of my fellow kitchen workers than I care to.”
“I can see your education expanding.”
“More times than I’d like to see,” she said, lips curling into a smile. A cook walked out of the kitchen door and glared at her. “I’ve got to go.” She ran back to her duties and Shiro walked across the courtyard and grabbed a staff.
~
Shiro buried himself in practice, not wanting to think about his dilemma. If he left what would happen to Chika? What would happen to the ladies of the White Rose who languished in the dungeons below? His exertions didn’t provide him with an answer. He still had no idea of what to do.
After washing up, he joined his fellow soldiers in the mess hall. Anata called out to the men.
“Lord Sekkoro has agreed to ferret out all of the women of the White Rose on the South Isle. In order to do so, he will be working with cooperative lords in the other prefectures. If you don’t have the stomach for killing women, you can remain as guards. For those lords who are less than cooperative, we may be fighting their retainers.”
That brought cheers from the soldiers. Shiro had finally found his purpose. He wouldn’t allow women to be killed out of hand. Would the women fight with magic to save their sisters? Shiro wondered about that. He knew Chika would fight, but what about the others? Shiro thought he could reverse the dampening spell that Shiuki told him. Perhaps he’d need to rescue Ashiyo in order to have an outside opinion.
He thought of the reaction that Chika’s father had. He banished her when she developed Affinity. Shiro pressed his lips together, feeling grim. He had found the short-term answer to his dilemma. He would take on the cause of the White Rose and save the lives of fellow magic users, even if they were women… perhaps especially because they were women.
Horiuki nudged Shiro in the ribs. “You got to have some fun, I hear!” He laughed.
“I did indeed. Those women were filthy—” He gave Horiuki a knowing wink.
“I don’t care if they’re filthy or not as long as they do what I ask!” Horiuki said. Shiro laughed along with him but wanted nothing more than to leave the mess and work on a plan to take Ashiyo out of the hands of the sorcerers.
Another nudge disturbed Shiro as he ate and contemplated his next moves. “We head out in two or three days,” Anata said. “Until then we are all on leave. Horiuki knows of a great place, wine and women.”
Shiro had to refuse. “I think I’ll take my traveling companion out if we’re about to leave on a campaign. He’s young and innocent. I want to know what he thinks about the campaign.”
“Suit yourself,” Horiuki said, looking at Shiro sideways. “Like boys? I know another place…”
The comment made Shiro laugh and shook his head. “Nothing like that. I lost my wife and children to sickness not too long ago, so I’m still not ready to carouse. Enjoy yourself.” He spotted Chika serving the soldiers across the room and rose from his cushion. “See you later.”
Chika looked at him too seriously not to have heard Anata’s announcement. “We have leave for two days starting tonight,” she said.
“I know. Once you’re through here, let’s go out this evening. I’d like to explain to you what this campaign means.”
“I’d like that. I’m not too keen on killing women who might remind me of my mother,” she said. A few soldiers overheard her remarks. One laughed and others looked pensively into their wine cups.
“I think I can get you through that. I’ll meet you at the courtyard gate in an hour.” Shiro left the mess and ran across Anata in the barracks.
“Are you excited?” Anata said. “I heard about your episode in the dungeons.”
Shiro looked at his scabbing knuckles. “I don’t like women to knock me over.” He tried to look angry. “But teaching them manners and killing them outright are two different things. I’ve got some thinking to do.”
“You do that. I want to see you out in the field. Horiuki’s a good man, but so are you.”
“I’ve only just joined your men.” Shiro felt uncomfortable with Anata’s compliments.
“Doesn’t matter. I know how to take a measure of a man. Other than your dungeon excursion, I take you for a person who knows how to stay focused.”
Shiro nodded. “I try to do my best, sir.”
Anata clapped him on the shoulder. “You do that. Always do your best and you will rise in the ranks.” He laughed. He turned as he walked out of the barracks. “If you need to talk, find me. You men can have a good time, but I have a lot to do before we head out.” Shiro noticed a dark look on his face. Shiro wondered if Anata entertained some second thoughts.
~~~
CHAPTER TWENTY
~
SHIRO STOOD IN THE GATHERING DARKNESS of the barracks. He liked Anata, but not for what the man would be doing in the near future. Following orders. He’s just following orders, but Shiro knew that he couldn’t kill innocent people, even if it was to maintain his disguise. Sometimes in wars, that happened, but he didn’t see how women sorcerers constituted enough of a threat to exterminate them… or even confine them to prison.
He took enough of his belongings so that if he wouldn’t be able to return, for whatever reason, he could escape. He’d wear his uniform, but he could disguise that if he needed to.
Chika waited for him at the gate. Soldiers were already filing out for the evening’s festivities. Both of them exited the castle along with nine other soldiers. The soldiers went to the right and Chika and Shiro walked straight ahead to an alleyway that would take them to a road passing the Guildhouse.
They sat on a bench in front of a tavern across from the entrance. Where would they have Ashiyo? Shiro thought of the Guild’s headquarters in Boriako and it’s stone walls and two basements. But would a common guildhouse have a lower level? He didn’t see any suitable stone foundations in evidence as he looked at their ultimate destination and didn’t remember any when he picked up Shiuki earlier in the day.
“Guards at the entrance. When they stop anyone, they test their powers or read a pass. We have the magic, but we don’t have a pass,” Chika said.
“I don’t trust my new powers of disguise to come
up with a convincing sorcerer’s robe,” Shiro said as a serving girl came with a hot bottle of wine and two cups along with a bowl of pickled vegetables. If they were captured or killed, at least Chika would have a last taste of her favorite food.
Chika laughed when the serving girl went back inside. “Perhaps we should just kill a couple of sorcerers and take their robes.”
Shiro knew she didn’t mean it, but what if they captured a pair and interrogated them? “Do you know any spells that will make a person to tell the truth?”
She brightened up. “I know two that we can use. I’m not powerful enough, but there is a spell that will cut off Affinity and I can perform a truth spell, but it’s not totally reliable.”
“We can’t afford to work off of bad information.”
“Isn’t it better than a total lack of knowledge?”
“I see your point,” Shiro said.
“I’ve seen too many…” Chika said, waiting for Shiro’s laughter.
Shiro ignored the comment as he noticed three sorcerers leaving and took a deep breath. He never judged himself to be an action-oriented kind of person, but perhaps the more passive part of his life had ceased to exist, at least for the present. “Time to see how our magic works. Walk on the this side of the street until I signal.”
Chika nodded and took the last bit of pickled vegetables and finished up her cup of wine. Shiro threw some coins on the table and got up. As Chika walked away, Shiro stretched and sauntered across the street. Once he was out of sight of the gate, he picked up his pace until he nearly caught up to the sorcerers. Chika walked slightly ahead of the sorcerers, but she went unnoticed as the sorcerers began to bicker among each other.
They turned a corner. The road was little more than an alley and the coming night had already smothered it in darkness. A merchant and a servant passed the sorcerers. Chika moved up to Shiro’s side as soon as the two men had passed.
“I’ll throw a spell on them,” Shiro said as he triggered the magic-dampening spell that Shiuki had taught him, not sure that it would work.
