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Edge of Madness
CHAPTER 106

CHAPTER 106

The cart of coal could have passed through the Palace's central archway, cross the center piece garden and head more south than west to where the bulk of the Palace's kitchen was located. The cart could then have been placed adjacent to the coal room that bordered the orchard where Orgeeg and his companion could go about the business of transferring the coal from cart to room. All this wasn't to be as the Palace servants proclaimed the cart of coal to be too hideous an atrocity to be allowed within the confines of the Palace. Ganthal, the coal tender holder, had been furious at such a proclamation concerning a key element of his livelihood. Nonetheless, he obliged the Palace servants in their immaculate grey silk and sought to go around the Palace West wing for the coal room.

Alas it wasn't to be for her majesty the Queen was present at the Palace Orchard and the holder of the coal tender together with his two workers were deemed an 'unpleasant sight that would ruin the Queen's mood' hence they were required to wait until Lamical departed the orchard for them to go about their business to the southwest of the Palace where the coal room was. Thus said the servant accompanying them at all times, a tall wiry old man with teeth as large as a beaver's.

"This is the bloody fucking gratitude I get for delivering consistently for the last two years!" Ganthal said, his eyes bulging in their sockets in the direction of the Palace servant.

"Did they ever let you cross the Central archway before?" Orgeeg's companion upon the coal mound asked.

"Of course not! Though I always tried to take that route, I hear there's a fountain there of a beauty even poets can't capture.. Wait.. Why the fuck am I answering to you? You dirty swine! Don't look at me Jistag! You're the reason we'll be done with this job by midnight! Urgh.. My second wife is going to kill me." Ganthal's mood always shifted the more he spoke, alternating between two distant points. Jistag scrambled down the coal mound in order to obscure Ganthal's view of him, he very well knew how the man could be once his mood reached extremes.

Orgeeg's eyes took in all that happened around him. The dusk brought with it the first night shift of the Royal Black Guard. His first objective would be to rid himself of the two who'd already served their purpose. He stared at Ganthal, the man cursed in harsh whispers as time etched on and night fell. The luminous glow of the full moon brought with it the emergence of shadows that Orgeeg very much needed for the next phase of his plan. The distant orchard's trees cast conjoined networks of dark shadows and Orgeeg remembered the time he'd stood among the Black Guard's circling the place.

"She isn't fucking leaving the orchard!" Ganthal said while pacing about.

"You should be careful of the manner with which you speak of her majesty the Queen. You wouldn't want to find yourself in the dungeons, would you?" The servant asked, earning him a ferocious glare from Ganthal.

"Excuse me." Orgeeg caught the servant's attention. "Where does the back window of the coal room face?"

"The south of course but bordering the Westwing by less than two steps." The servant answered. Something Orgeeg already knew.

"We can approach it from the east, place the cart to the south so as to ensure it isn't seen by the Queen and empty its contents through the window carrying one bucket load at a time." Orgeeg said. The servant regarded him silently and Ganthal stopped his pacing, his head turning between Orgeeg and the servant. "Please sir, we are short of time. Night is upon us and the Outer-ring is not a place to be in the dead of night." Orgeeg pleaded from his position atop the mound of coal.

The servant nodded once and gestured in the direction they were to follow. Ganthal laughed and blew a kiss in Orgeeg's direction and Orgeeg answered with a forced giggle. The ox led cart went around the Eastwing of the Palace at a pace synonymous with the lead servant. The servant led them past the entrance hall leading to the Royal Black Guard training grounds and brought them to a halt at the back of the Southwing. Orgeeg took note of the fact that the lights were off in Leba's chambers yet on in Dahli's. Surprising enough there weren't any Royal Black Guards at the Southwing grounds meaning Leba was absent and neither were any Guards at the balconies which could mean a variety of things Orgeeg needed to find out.

"I'm going around to open the coal room door and then the window. One of you is to climb into the window and receive the coal from the one outside. Make no noise so as to not to disturb the Princess." The Servant said and headed to the West, disappearing behind a corner.

Jistag slid down the mound of coal and hopped off the cart. He unstrapped a metal bucket and a spade that had been strapped to the sides of the cart. Setting them down he looked up at Orgeeg's position atop the mound of coal. "I'll be the one in the coal room-" Jistag was immediately silenced by a hard slap to the back of his head that sent him plunging head first into the mound of coal.

"Shut up you dumb fuck!" Ganthal whispered. "You want the Jewel of Binoria to hear your toad like voice? The lass won't be able to sleep for years with thoughts of that disgusting croak that emerges from your mouth." Ganthal gripped the bucket and thumped it beside Jistag's disoriented head. "Orgeeg will be in the room and you'll be delivering the coal to him for him to empty, you will switch roles after every two hours so don't think of me as an unfair boss." Ganthal concluded.

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Orgeeg slid down the mound of coal, uncaring of the scrapes he got upon his grime stained skin. The window to the coal room that was far west opened and Orgeeg counted the time it took him to arrive beneath it. One minute, twenty seven seconds. The servant's silhouette framed by the narrow window of the dark room addressed him. "Do you need help climbing?" The servant reached down with his boney hand. Orgeeg clasped it, lifted himself with a grunt from the servant and hooked his arm upon the windowsill. With a grunt of his own he climbed into the window and dropped to the room's floor.

The room was too dark to survey under the moonlight but Orgeeg managed to get a decent layout of it. At the distant corner was a small mound of coal and the floor was speckled with coal grains. The air was thick with coal dust and an opened door fifteen feet away that wasn't in his direct line of vision served as the only other exit from the room.

"Get up, you're not being paid to lie about." The servant ordered.

Orgeeg stood up and made a show of dusting himself, he could feel rather than see the servant's eyes roll at the futility of his actions. "Tell me, can that robe of yours fit me?" Orgeeg inquired.

"What?" The servant asked in a confused tone.

A punch to the sternum. The servant leaned forward, his mouth open as he gasped for air. Orgeeg delivered an open palm hit to the servant's throat, light enough not to break cartilage but hard enough to ensure minimal difference in discomfort. The servant chocked, unable to make a sound other than pained rasps. Before the servant's hands clutched at his injured throat Orgeeg drove a palm into his chin and pushed the servant towards the wall before switching his grip to the servant's entire face and slamming the back of his head to the wall. There was no crunch from the impact meaning nothing had been fractured, still, the old man slid down to lay motionless on the floor.

Orgeeg measured by sight the length of the servant's silk robe and cursed at their excessive length. He made his way to the open door and shut it before walking back to the window to wait for two hundred heartbeats, he found it calming to focus on his body's clock during a mission. Measuring the heart's beat between each breath of his ensured his mind stayed busy and incapable of overthinking the task at hand. It was a technique he'd forever be grateful to his Binorian Remu tutor for.

After a while shuffling of feet under the weight of a bucket of coal could be heard from beneath the window.

"You stupid fuck, reach down and take this shit." Jistag spoke in low tones. The man took the brunt force of Ganthal's rage, harbored it, then in Ganthal's absence he poured it all onto Orgeeg. It had happened several times before and Orgeeg maintained his quiet air that infuriated Jistag even more. He could see the man under the moonlight, his scrawny outline facing up at the window. "You dumb fuck reach down and take this!" He repeated.

Orgeeg waited, sure of his invisibility under the embrace of shadow. "Blue eyed rat?" Jistag grew furious, using Orgeeg's nickname that he'd branded him himself since no one knew Orgeeg's name. "Blue ey-" His voice was growing louder. Orgeeg immediately stomped on the same spot he stood, mimicking approaching footsteps. He leaned out the window and became visible, with one hand he repeatedly motioned for Jistag to come closer.

"Come see this!" Orgeeg said.

"What?" Jistag asked.

"Vigons Jistag! Gold vigons!" Orgeeg said. A smarter man would have wondered why Orgeeg hadn't taken the said vigons for himself. Luckily for him Jistag did not count among smart men. The fool dropped the bucket of coal and scrambled up the window, not even needing Orgeeg's assistance to scale it.

With his body half in and half out of the window, he peered into the dark room. "Where-" Jistag's eyes spotted the dim unconscious form of the servant. Orgeeg stood to the side of the window, his arm raised and elbow angled towards the back of Jistag's head. Jistag turned to him right as Orgeeg's elbow connected with the back of his head where the spine met the skull. Jistag's body went limp and dangled from the window. Orgeeg dragged him into the room and placed him at the furthest corner from the window next to the small mound of coal. He approached the servant too, tested his pulse to find it satisfactory shallow then dragged him to where Jistag lay before resuming his waiting game.

Orgeeg tapped his fingers on the windowsill in tandem with his heartbeat while looking up at the full moon. It was unlikely that he would survive the mission but either way he was too far gone to pull out now. The only way he could stop Masutap was to kill her, no amount of proof could be given that would open the eyes of every Rank of the Royal Black Guard. He would have to sacrifice himself so as to ensure the Royals were safe from Masutap. He'd pledged allegiance to the Royal Black Guard, vowed to protect the Royals at all cost. This, what he was doing, is what all cost entailed. Orgeeg hoped Tabrimas bore witness to his valiance.

"Where the fuck is that stupid cunt Jistag?" Ganthal asked from beneath the window. His pudgy head swirled about in search of his employee. He'd grown impatient, waiting for Jistag's return.

Orgeeg straightened his stance and spoke in the most panicked voice he could master. "Oh shit! Oh fuck! Sir? Mr. Ganthal sir? Oh damn!"

"What is it? What is it blue eyes?" Ganthal asked, his voice shaking.

"It's Jistag sir, he has screwed up bad sir, come see.. Oh fuck!" Orgeeg answered. A smile played upon his face as Ganthal scrambled to climb up the window. Orgeeg' leaned outward to help pull him through.

"What is-" Ganthal started once he was half way into the coal room but did not finish as Orgeeg drove a knee into his face. Ganthal's hands tried to find a hold so as to push himself out of the coal room but another knee to the face had his hands dangling limp. Orgeeg hit once more with his knee, hearing the crunch of Ganthal's nose cartilage. He leaned further back and kicked at the side of his face, right at the temple before dragging the man's body fully into the coal room.

Orgeeg stripped himself and the servant. He then put on the grey silk robes that had been stained with coal dust. He knew it would take him a while before he found a more suitable servant he could accost for their clothing but for now his objective was to find out more of the Black Guard's layout specifically where Masutap was. Orgeeg judged that by midmorning the bodies would be found and the alarm raised but by then his objective would be complete or the alarm would serve to aid his purpose. After finding the key to the coal room's door lock in the servant's robes, Orgeeg shut the open windows before exiting the room and locking its door behind him. He enjoyed the camouflage offered by his grime smeared face but he needed to lessen the dirt so as not to draw unwarranted attention. With his head bowed he made his way to where he knew a fountain of water lay.