Through the sewers they ran and back to the place that they had called home for nearly two weeks. There they ditched the firemen’s outfits and changed into a fresh disguise. The other four men dressed again as slaves but took their bags containing a change of clothes and their weapons. Nedric dressed himself as an overseer or advisor and they quickly had Elsebeth change into the outfit of one of the richer ladies of the city, maybe a daughter of a high priest.
They didn’t have time for lots of explanations and so Elsebeth was left to change quickly whilst the others waited outside in the cellar. As soon as she appeared they took a different route that brought them out besides a derelict building. This was a one-time exit as there was no hiding the passage of people’s footprints on the muddy path that led from the sewer hatch. They hadn’t wanted to draw attention to the building as hidden within it was a four-slave sedan.
Elsebeth went inside the contraption along with their bags and the two rangers took the front handles, with Bethan and Rialto at the back. The sizes of the slaves were a little incongruous but hopefully nobody would notice. The best thing about the set up was that Elsebeth was completely enclosed by curtains.
The initial plan was to make for their wagon; they’d left it at a nearby inn. It had a hiding space for Elsebeth and also held some of their extra funds. They knew it might be harder to get away from the city in it but once away it should make things easier.
Nedric planned on fetching the wagon and horses and taking them to a quiet spot in the city where Elsebeth could be transferred. They had already decided the spot and so they parted with the intention of meeting an hour later.
He knew that something was wrong when he reached the inn. The wagon wasn’t in sight and neither was the owner of the inn. He asked one of the barmaids and was informed that the man had disappeared the week before. Nedric assumed that he had broken into the wagon and somehow managed to find the money. Perhaps they shouldn’t have left it but it weighed a lot.
Instead of driving a wagon, he walked disconsolately towards the point where he would meet his friends and debated with himself as to the best next step.
The others were where he expected and greeted him in a somewhat puzzled way.
“Where’s the wagon?” Rialto asked.
Nedric explained and then set about changing their plans.
“We’ve got two alternative plans, the farmers or the guards. Has anyone got a preference?”
Nobody spoke up. Nedric hadn’t really expected them to. He was the leader of their little group, probably because it was him that had brought them all together. It would be up to him to make the decisions.
“Bethan, how many guards were at the north gate last time we passed it?” Nedric enquired.
“No more than four. We could just take them out but I don’t know what the citizens would do.”
“How about joining the plans together. Elsebeth and I can be farmers and you four can be guards. We have four good horses if you are prepared to try it.” Nedric was improvising a little but the two plans were fairly well considered and each had its merits.
“Why not have me go with Elsebeth?” Bethan suggested. “Brother and sister would be more believable anyway.”
Nedric agreed and so they put the plan into action.
The first stage was to find a farming couple on their way back from market and waylay them. The men changed into guard uniforms and stopped a likely looking couple. They directed them to park their wagon away from the main thoroughfare so as not to block traffic. The farmers, obviously nervous at attracting the attention of the guards, complied with the commands.
Once out of sight of passers-by, the rangers used coshes to make the couple unconscious and then dragged the bodies into the middle of some bushes that grew nearby. They left a substantial amount of gold with the couple in the hope that that would deter them from reporting the robbery of their wagon for a while after they regained consciousness.
There was a metal plate attached to the wagon that stated the wagon held two people. This was equivalent to a pass and should let them past the guards if they could look the part. They needed different clothing and the unconscious bodies of the farmers provided these. They also provided the siblings with an unmistakeable odour of unwashed body that fit the part. When they had smeared mud over their hands and faces they looked more like farmers than anything else and Nedric hoped that they would pass.
They got the wagon moving back onto the main road and left them to it. They also left the sedan chair. From now on the other four were guards and they had a very short time schedule in which to carry out the other tasks required before they had a hope of leaving the city.
* * *
The wagon moved slowly along, following several others and in turn being followed by farmers leaving the city after they had sold their goods. Elsebeth sat clutching the arm of her brother hardly believing that she was out of the clutches of the shadow guild. For nearly half a year she had been imprisoned and she had given up hope of rescue. When Bethan and the others had burst into the room where she had been forced to teach impressing she had been so amazed she had been unable to speak and since then there had been no time in which to ask any questions.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
They were approaching the gates and she could see that each wagon was being stopped and the backs were being searched. Cloth bags being prodded with spears and one guard looking underneath the wagon to make sure that no one was trying to sneak out that way.
“Just remember that you’re a Nothering woman and keep your head down and say nothing.” Bethan told her.
Elsebeth nodded once and did as she was told.
Even though she had spent so much time in Nothering she couldn’t understand the attitude of the men to the women. Having been in the extraordinary position of tutoring men, she had been allowed certain liberties but had still been forced to cover her head at all times and been made to pay for any occasion where she had argued with one of the men. Of course any of the students foolish enough to cause an argument had been immediately replaced but that had not prevented her being whipped.
The wagons eased closer to the guards. She made sure that her face was obscured and tried not to think about what would happen if the guards spotted her and she was dragged back to aid the shadow guild. Already some of her students were very close to being able to impress and she hated to think what that would mean for Setherland.
They reached the guard and Elsebeth tried to stop herself from hunching down even more. Beside her, Bethan was getting tense but he said nothing as the guard came forward.
“Halt there!” he grunted.
Bethan complied and the guards searched his wagon. “What’s up?” he asked in as broad an accent as he could manage.
“Escaped lady prisoner, have you seen her?”
“No, just me and my sister heading home.”
Drawn by Bethan’s comment the guard turned to Elsebeth. “Head up girl I want a look at you.”
Elsebeth did not have to feign how nervous she was but lifted her head to face the guard.
“I can see she’s your sister but she’s pretty enough, you got her arranged?”
“Yes sir, next farm over.”
“Real pity that. Ah well, pass on.”
Then they were outside the gates. Elsebeth could hear her brother sighing with relief. “Don’t look back, we haven’t escaped yet. They could still send men after us.”
“Why should they do that?”
“Because then we wouldn’t cause as much disruption as a disturbance at a city gate.”
Elsebeth had been full of hope of returning home and now she felt just as worried as she had before reaching the gate. The road went up and over a hill and it seemed like forever before the city was obscured from view. It was only then that she felt that they had made good their escape. She wondered what had happened to the others.
Bethan stopped the wagon behind a small copse of trees and went back up the hill until he could see the gate. Elsebeth went with him, as she had no intention of being left on her own in the wagon. The horse seemed content to munch grass even whilst still hitched.
Looking back they could see some sort of disturbance at the gate but they were too far away to make out what was occurring. When guards on horses came through the gate and rode at speed towards them, they could only retreat to the copse and hope that the guards would not spot them.
* * *
A few minutes before, the sergeant of the gate guards had been disturbed from his routine searching of wagons by the appearance of a troop of guards on horses. Not just any guards, these had the black under-tunics of the high priests personal guards.
“We are after an escaped prisoner, we have information she was heading this way.”
The sergeant was none too keen on this guard captain’s haughty manner. “That’s why we are searching the wagons sir.”
“Were you told that she was rescued by a man believed to be her brother?” The captain asked.
The sergeant could piece two parts together and thought back to the couple that had shortly before left the city. He had two choices, deny seeing them and preserve his chances of making captain or admit the possibility that he had let the prisoner pass through his hands and hope for the best. In the end he realised that one of his colleagues would probably say something if he did not, none of them were particularly fond of him.
“Chances are, that a farm couple who just passed through are those you seek. They can’t be more than ten minutes ahead of you.”
“Well what are you waiting for, get those men of yours out of the way and let us through.” The captain gestured at the guards blocking the gate and the sergeant motioned for them to allow the guards passage. The four mounted men hurried away along the road that had previously been travelled by the wagon.
It was maybe half an hour or so later when a second group of mounted troops appeared at the north gate. The sergeant again went to greet the leader of this group another captain.
“What can I do for you captain?”
“We were wondering if you had seen anything of our escaped prisoner or the men who captured her?”
“Men? I was told by the last group of guards who came this way that it was only her brother who had helped rescue her.”
“There were several men who helped her escape and what do you mean other guards, none of my men have been ordered to this gate.”
The truth of the situation dawned on both captain and sergeant at the same time.
“Half an hour’s head start and with guard uniforms good enough to fool you. We aren’t going to catch them easily.” He and his men started off after the first group before the sergeant could mention the woman and her brother disguised as farmers.
* * *
Nedric and Elsebeth were riding together. She held him tightly, arms clasping his waist as the four horses raced away from the main route and down dusty side roads. They had no real route planned other than to head generally west and north. The aim was to cover as much distance as possible before night fell and then find somewhere secure for the night.
The rangers had the lead. They chose routes that took the horses along streams and over hard ground that hid their passage. They compromised speed for difficulty of pursuit. This helped the two horses that were forced to carry a double load. After several hours, when it became too dark to ride any further without danger to the horses, they chose a camp and quickly arranged things.
Nedric helped Elsebeth dismount and as she slipped to the ground he held her tightly. After all that had happened over the last half-year it seemed hard to believe that they were back together. After a while he released her enough that she could move to look up at him. Without conscious thought they both brought their faces closer so that they could kiss. They were somewhat interrupted by the cheer that came from the other men.
* * *
During that evening Elsebeth learnt all that had occurred since her capture. She was astonished with what the men had accomplished and how they had reached and then rescued her. She hugged each of them and brought laughter from the others when she kissed Scabad and made him turn bright red. The others took their kisses with good grace but she saved the most passionate one for Nedric.
They woke early and made their way across to a small village where they were able to purchase two wagons and exchange their horses for others, which were more suitable for the purpose. At each village after that, they purchased another item. This allowed them to move closer to being the entertainers they would have to be in order to get through the borders.
By the time they reached a small town, they were almost back in business. They had fashioned clothing from woollen cloth they had bought and with the help of the guard breastplate that Rialto had been wearing, now planned to pass Elsebeth off as a young man. In this they were helped by the normal attitude of the Nothering ladies, none of which would have raised their heads in the manner normal to the men but which Elsebeth had no trouble in doing.
When Nedric was able to get a turner to produce some wooden clubs that he and Elsebeth could pass between them, they had most of a show. Rialto still needed to find a mandolin but he could do a little juggling, tell tales along with Bethan and was able to perform some athletic balance manoeuvres with the rangers so everything was set.
The worry was that someone would suspect them of being the same entertainers that had disappeared in Fusdown but apparently this had not been noticed or perhaps communications were not good enough as there was no reaction to their act other than the expected delight in the performance. Elsebeth did creditably well for someone who had not performed before and she revealed to Nedric later that she had practiced her juggling as something to distract her from her imprisonment.
It was roughly two weeks later when they were able to cross the northern border of Nothering and know that they had made good their escape. It would be more than two months before they would reach Setherland but the worry was over.