‘A better chance than option two,’ retorted Jim.
‘Ah, I must admit I’m tempted. I do so like to sport with my prey before I kill it but alas I must decline. My wife tells me I mustn’t play with my food! Guards, take them away to the larder, I mean the dungeon.’
He looked at Cobb and Jim and said, ‘Lock them away until the morning, they’ve already disturbed enough of my sleep for one night,’ he told the guard commander. He held out the Seal to him, ‘Return this to the strong-room and, oh yes, put them in the cell next door to it.’
As the guards led them away Jim shouted back over his shoulder, ‘YOU’RE A COWARD LUGA! IF YOU HAD ANY GUTS YOU’D FACE ME WITH A SWORD! I’D CUT YOUR BLACK HEART OUT!’
As Jim struggled and shouted on his way out, Luga said contemptuously, ‘Pah … humans!’
***
Cobb and Jim Darby were marched into the dungeon cell. There was no furniture and just a stone floor scattered with straw. Manacles and chains hung on the wall, mercifully they were empty. Cobb had had visions of sharing the cell with the remains of previous occupants.
They had both been searched and their pockets emptied, all of Jim’s toys had been taken away from him. The guards went out, locking the door after them. Jim tried it anyway, just out of habit. Locked.
‘Do you mind telling me what that “girly fit” was all about?’ asked Cobb.
‘Just trying to goad him into facing me with a sword. I thought we’d have a better chance than being locked up in someone’s pantry,’ replied Jim, calmly.
‘Didn’t you hear what he said and what Thornton told you, come to that, he’s one of the best swordsmen in Europe. When have you ever handled a sword?’
‘For your information Cobb, I’ve been trained by some of the finest fencing instructors in Europe, possibly the same people who trained him. I could probably hold my own against him.’
‘Are you serious?’ asked Cobb.
‘You need to have a wide range of skills in my profession and I’ve had, shall we say, an interesting life.’
Cobb kicked some straw into a pile, stretched out on it and made himself comfortable. ‘Well D’Artagnan, you might as well get comfortable, it looks like we might be here for a while.’
‘How long do you think?’
‘Quite possibly the rest of our lives.’
‘Oh, not long then.’
Jim examined the lock. ‘Just getting a feel for the place,’ he explained. He finished with the lock and the bars and the window and just wandered around the room, kicking certain bricks and pushing on others. ‘Why’s there never a secret passage around when you need one?’
‘I’ll complain to the concierge when I see him,’ said Cobb. ‘What’s the plan?’
‘Why are you asking me?’
‘You’re the expert aren’t you?’
‘At getting into places.’
‘Yes, but in my experience,’ said Cobb, ‘I’ve always thought that for a robbery to be successful, there has to be an element of getting out of as well.’
‘All in good time Cobb, all in good time. We have to give the guards a while to settle down, then we’ll see,’ replied Jim. He too bundled some straw into a pile and lay down on it.
They both lay there quietly and after a while Cobb dozed off. He woke some time later and sat up to see Jim chewing on the lining of his coat.
‘Jim! We haven’t been here that long; you’re not starving already, are you?’
‘Um tryn to umpick du linin,’ replied Jim, with a mouthful of coat.
‘Why?’
‘To get at these,’ he said triumphantly, producing some lock picks. ‘I always keep some tools concealed in my clothing just for occasions like this.’
Cobb thought for a moment and then said, ‘Must be a bugger to iron.’
Jim went over to the door and within seconds had it undone. Cobb stood up and brushed the straw off his clothing. They swung the door open slowly so as not to make a noise and crept out into the corridor.
***
Fell rapped his beak urgently on Zelda’s window. She tried her hardest to ignore him but eventually she gave in to his frantic tapping.
She opened the window, knocking Fell off the window sill onto the ground. She looked at him muzzily, not quite awake, as he fluttered back onto the sill.
‘What?’ she said, angrily. ‘Do you know what time it is?’ She looked around her,’ It’s … it’s dark! That’s what time it is!’
‘Witch Adele’s friends have been captured, up at the castle.’
‘What! How do you know?’
‘I was keeping an eye on their hotel and I saw them leave, so I followed them. They went down to the riverbed and then they disappeared into the rocks, don’t ask me how, it’s a mystery to me. So I thought about it and on a hunch I flew up to the castle for a look round. After all that’s where they were going eventually, wasn’t it?
‘Anyway, when I got there, there seemed to be a lot of unusual activity for this time of night so I hung around to see what was going on. Eventually Adele’s friends turned up and they were captured. Luga’s men had been waiting for them, someone must have tipped them off.’
‘What’s happened to them?’ asked Zelda.
‘They’ve put them in the dungeons for the night but I don’t give much for their chances come the morning.’
Zelda, who was wide awake by now, thought for a moment. ‘Go and wake Charro, bring him here,’ she ordered Fell. ‘I’ll go and wake our guests, we may need them.’
Charro met Zelda as she was returning to her own caravan.
‘What’s going on? Fell told me it was urgent,’ he asked her.
‘I want you to get a cart ready, we are going into town to see the mayor.’
‘It’s the middle of the night … what are we doing?’
‘Seizing an opportunity, that’s what we are doing. You know that witch that has been coming to visit me? Well, her friends have been captured. They’re being held, up at the castle.’
‘And this concerns us how?’ he asked.
‘The reason they are in the castle is to steal the Great Seal so that Luga can be deposed. They are risking their lives to try and save this country. That’s how this concerns us.’
‘All right, I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘Of course, how can I help?’
‘I want you and a few of your men to take us into the town. I also want you to send a couple of men to collect the witch and bring her to the mayor’s house.’
‘The men and the cart will be ready in ten minutes,’ agreed Charro. Zelda went back to her own coach and dressed. As she put her clothes on, she made Fell go through everything he had seen that evening.
***
Half an hour later, Cobb and Jim were back in their cell. They’d had the misfortune to run into some guards as they left the dungeon. They had made a run for it but there were too many of them, the guards came at them from both directions leaving no way to escape.
The guards had removed Cobb and Jim’s clothing, leaving them in just their underwear and socks and then chained them to the wall with the manacles. This time they had stationed a guard outside their cell as well.
‘I wish Harry Houdunit was here,’ said Cobb, referring to the famous escapologist.
‘So do I,’ said Jim, ‘he owes me ten pounds.’
‘You know Harry Houdunit?’
‘Sure. We meet up occasionally for dinner and he usually asks me to test out his latest trick. He always bets me I can’t get out.’
‘And do you?’ asked Cobb.
‘I told you, he owes me ten pounds.’
‘Well,’ said Cobb, ‘it looks like we’re gonna be here for a while. What shall we do to pass the time?’
‘I Spy?’
Cobb looked around the dungeon. ‘If it starts with a D, don’t bother. No, I was thinking that unless you have one of those fancy tools of yours stuffed up your nose, we’re not going anywhere for some time.’
‘If you want to pass some time,’
said Jim, ‘I could tell you how I stole the Seal from King James’ Palace, if you’d like?’
Cobb looked at him and said, ‘No, better yet, I’ll tell you how you stole it. I think I’ve got it figured out. It came to me when you were telling me about your days in the Army.’
‘Go on then,’ said Jim. ‘I can’t wait to hear this.’
‘You were one of the soldiers guarding King James’ Palace that night, weren’t you. Colonel Trap-Handler said that his was a transit battalion, men coming and going all the time. I reckon you were around the barracks enough to show your face and get it recognised. Not enough to get it known, just so that someone seeing you would know he had seen you before and therefore not be suspicious of you.’
‘Go on,’ Jim encouraged him.
‘I’ll bet you even did some stints on guard duty at King James’ Palace to find out the lay of the land. So on the night of the robbery, you were there on guard; somehow you slipped past the guard on the door and stole the seal. Am I right?’
‘Almost spot on. Damn, you really are a good detective, aren’t you?’
‘What I don’t understand though is how come when the guards from that night were held in barracks, you weren’t amongst them?’ asked Cobb.
‘I wasn’t actually on duty, you see,’ explained Jim. ‘You’re right; I did show my face around the barracks and got registered on phoney papers. Even did a spell on guard duty at the Palace like you said. But the night of the robbery I wasn’t scheduled for guard duty. I just marched in there with the rest of them and no one was any the wiser. I hid away until later and then popped up and volunteered to take tea to the soldier outside the strong-room. I slipped something into it to make him nod off for ten minutes or so. There is no way that any soldier would ever own up to falling asleep on guard, that’s a serious offence, with a severe punishment.
‘That gave me long enough to do the job and then I slipped away into the night. Of course next day they discovered the theft and held all the guards in custody. But here’s the thing, there were twelve guards on the roster and you held twelve men. No one ever knew that actually thirteen of us marched in that night.’
‘That was quite clever I have to admit.’
‘But I didn’t get away with it, thanks to you.’
‘Well, let’s just see if we can get away with this one, shall we?’
***
Adele woke up, startled. She had been woken by a noise from the corridor. As she got out of bed and put on her dressing gown, she heard further noises outside her bedroom door. It sounded like a scuffle, followed by a strangled, ‘Erk’.
She threw the door open to see two gypsies and Won Lungh in the corridor. Won Lungh was holding one of the gypsies against the wall with one hand around his neck, while he was holding a knife to the throat of the other. Behind them on the stairs was the hotel proprietor, her hand raised to her mouth in astonishment.
‘Won Lungh, put them down,’ Adele said carefully.
He relaxed his hold on the man’s neck slightly and lowered the knife so it was only pointing at the other man’s chest.
‘Right, what’s happening?’ asked Adele, politely but firmly.
The gypsy being held by Won Lungh gasped, ‘Witch Zelda asked us to collect you and take you to the mayor’s house. Please Miss, we don’t mean any harm, tell him to let us go.’
‘It’s okay Won Lungh. They have come to collect me to take me to see my friend Zelda,’ explained Adele. ‘Please be good enough to let them go and then get dressed, we’re going out.’ She also called to the proprietor, ‘It’s all right Frau Leibnitz, just a misunderstanding, nobody’s hurt. I’m sorry you were disturbed but I have to go out now. Please go back to bed.’
Won Lungh did as he was told but all the time he was getting dressed he never took his eyes off the gypsies for longer than a moment.
Finally, Adele stepped out of her bedroom and said to Won Lungh, ‘Right, if you’re ready then let’s go.’ She waved to the gypsies, ‘Please take me to Zelda.’
***
The mayor’s household was roused by the sudden arrival of a group of gypsies banging on the door.
After a few minutes the mayor’s house keeper opened the door. ‘What do you mean disturbing the peace at this hour, who are you?’ she demanded.
‘We must speak to Mayor Hunster… at once,’ said Zelda. ‘Tell him the witch, Zelda needs to speak to him urgently.’
‘Who is it Frau Grubel? What’s going on?’ said the mayor coming down the stairs, fastening his dressing gown.
She opened the door wide so he could see. ‘It is Witch Zelda, Herr Mayor. She says that she needs to speak to you.’
Mayor Jakob Hunster stood there looking at the party standing on his doorstep. ‘Do you know what time it is?’
‘No,’ replied Zelda, truthfully.
Mayor Hunster looked around him and couldn’t see a clock, ‘Well, neither do I but that’s beside the point, what do you want with me at this hour, whatever this hour is?’
‘I must speak to you,’ said Zelda. She looked up and down the street, ‘In private.’
‘Come in then. Frau Grubel may we have some coffee please, we’ll be in the study.’ She bustled off to make the coffee as he waved the party into the hall and closed the door. He looked at the party over. There was Zelda, two gypsies and two women who kept the hoods of their cloaks up so their faces could not be seen.
He waved them into the study and just as he was about to follow them there was a knocking at the door again.
‘What in the name of the Gods is going on? Has the whole town decided to visit me tonight?’ he exclaimed as he went to open the door. There were two more gypsies, a woman and a small, round, Cantonese man.
This can’t be real, he thought, I must be still in bed and I’m dreaming all this.
One of the gypsies spoke. ‘Witch Zelda told us to bring these two here.’
The mayor shrugged in exasperation, ‘Bring them in, bring them all in. Apparently we’re having an open house tonight.’
Zelda stepped out of the study. ‘They’re with me.’ The mayor just shook his head and waved them in.
He walked into the study followed by Adele and Won Lungh. Someone had lit the lamp. The mayor shouldered his way through the crowd and sat down behind his desk. ‘Zelda Temola, will you tell me what is going on and who all these people are?’
‘I’m sorry Jakob, I know it’s late at night-’
‘Early morning,’ he muttered.
‘But something important has come up. There are two men here from Albion-’
‘Good, we like tourists.’
‘Unfortunately so does the duke. They went into the castle tonight and they were captured.’
‘Oh Gods,’ muttered the mayor. ‘What were they doing in the castle?’
‘They were there to help us. They have come to steal the Great Seal so that Duke Luga can be thrown out and replaced by the rightful owner of the throne.’
The mayor just sat there with his mouth open as Frau Grubel bustled in with a tray of coffee. He sat there stunned as she poured cups for everyone and handed them round and then retreated from the study, closing the door behind her.
‘They’re here to do what??’ he finally managed to gasp.
‘They’re here to try and save the country and they are in trouble, they need our help,’ Zelda told him.
‘What help? What are you talking about? If Luga has them in the castle then they’re already dead.’
‘No, they’re not!’ insisted Adele.
‘Who are you?’ asked the mayor.
‘I’m with the two men that are risking their lives to save your country,’ she replied.
‘Well, what do you expect me to do,’ he appealed to Adele and Zelda.
‘Help us to rescue them,’ said Zelda.
‘How?? They’re in the castle not somebody’s bloody henhouse!’
‘I know a way in … a secret passage,’ said Zelda.
‘H
ow … how do you know about that? It’s meant to be a secret,’ said the mayor.
‘Never you mind, I just know,’ replied Zelda.
(Although people were taking to these new fangled things such as “medicine” and “doctoring”, when it came to things like getting rid of warts or how to get rid of “inconvenient indiscretions” before they became fully paid up members of the family, you went to a witch. That’s how a witch knows things, where the bodies are buried ((sometimes literally)), that is how come they know things, like the secret ways into places.)
‘I know a secret way in, we can use it to go in there and get them back,’ she repeated.
‘So go in there and get them back then, why do you need my help?’
‘Because with just my people we don’t have enough. We need your townsfolk to back us up.’
‘Count us out, you’re talking suicide, we wouldn’t stand a chance against Luga’s guards, they’re thugs and killers. And the ones that didn’t die in the fighting? The retribution would be horrific. Luga and Rath would hunt us down and kill us all.’
‘Jakob, I’ve known you since you were a young man, you were never a coward. I understand that you are just trying to protect your townsfolk but this is a chance to free ourselves from Luga and his kind. We should take this chance that the Albion’s have given us.’
Mayor Hunster slumped in his chair and sipped his coffee. ‘Let me hear your plan,’ he said finally.
‘Plan?’ said Zelda, ‘Well, I don’t actually have a plan.’
While this interchange had been going on, Adele had been looking at Won Lungh who, oblivious to the conversation as he didn’t speak the language, just sat there sipping his coffee. Something was ringing bells in the back of her mind. What was it about Won Lungh? She couldn’t put her finger on it. How could he help? He was a fighter but he certainly wasn’t a general, he wouldn’t know about planning battles, he was just an ordinary Cantonese … Cantonese … general … Cantonese … general. That was it! Cantonese general … Sun-Dae!! Of course!
‘I have an idea,’ Adele told them. ‘If you are going to help us Mr. Mayor, I think I might know the best way to do this.’
The Londum Omnibus Volume One (The Londum Series Book 4) Page 42
