Chapter 12

A silhouette of Anna was leaning against the tunnel wall. Her arms were folded, and her hair was pinned into an uncharacteristic ponytail. She heard the splashes of puddles upon my approach and her head darted towards me. The light from the sun behind her kept most of her features dark. Except for her eye. Its cloudiness emitted a faint glow.

“Are you hurt?” she asked when I neared.

“I was hit at the back of my head,” I said, still hearing the ringing from behind my ears. “What happened?”

“Not here, follow me.”

The sunlight hurt my eyes as we left the darkness of the tunnel. We were next to a small winding creek that was crannied between a series of hillocks, slightly bigger than Anna and me.

“We’re outside the city,” I stated, smelling the fresh air of the countryside for the first time since entering Wannihiem. I’d forgotten how pleasant that smell was.

Anna bent by the side of the entrance, which I could see now was a formation of large rocks.

“Come, help me help me hide the entrance. There is a farmhouse nearby that has little ones. We don’t want them finding this.”

She had picked up several large broken branches and started stacking them in front of the tunnel, then she fetched some sizable netting with leaves stringed to it. Together, we hauled it over the boulders until it covered the entrance. Anna then hopped up onto a boulder and started weighing the netting down with smaller rocks. Then, we covered the netting with more sticks.

It took longer than expected, but when we were complete, the tunnel had vanished. What replaced it was a thick, overgrown bush that looked as if it hadn’t been touched for centuries.

I wiped the sweat from my brow, “Now that this is done, what happened?”

“I said not here,” Anna hissed whilst checking her surroundings, “you never know who might be watching. I’ll tell you everything when we are on the river.”

We started to walk along a dirt path adjacent to the creek. It had rained whilst I’d been caged, and my sandals were not enough to keep the mud from squishing between my toes. It was just another thing to add to my already treacherous mood.

We followed the creek for some time, passing hillock after hillock, and eventually came to a large river. The Ghid, the Alora, or the Ra, I could not say.

A small rowboat was moored to a wooden post where the creek met the river.

“Hop in,” said Anna, “don’t worry, I’ll row. You’ve done enough.”

I jumped onto the boat and sat at one end. Anna unhitched the post and paddled off gently. Luckily for her, she was going with the river’s current rather than against it.

She rowed us to the centre without saying a word. It was quiet. All I could hear was the soft swishing of the oars motioning through the water.

She looked around and deemed us safe, “ask your questions.”

“What happened?” I repeated for the third time.

“Something that shouldn't,” she replied.

I remained quiet.

“The guard was late. We had everything planned but the guard was late. The timing on your end was perfect by the way, bravo on the performance. Gerert gave you immense praise to Raina and even she seemed impressed, but the damned fool of a guard was late. The guard that spotted the crime wasn’t the one who was supposed to and so he was acting how you would expect someone to act who had just witnessed a murder in broad daylight. If it wasn’t for the damn no good fool of a guard that came a moment later and hit you on the back of the head, then the first guard would have opened your throat. I’ll give him a small credit for thinking quickly, but the truth is. If that stupid, no good, damn fool of a guard wasn’t late, then this would have all gone smoothly and without flaw. Suffice to say, he cut his payment in half.”

“And what of my brother?” She averted her eyes.

“Tell me,” I said.

“He’s alive, he should be at the crypts when we arrive, but from what I’ve heard he’s had it rough, our informant told us that they tried to kill him straight from the start. If it wasn’t for our informant’s constant intervening, he would have been dead days ago... Jeb I would prepare myself if I were you. Your brother might not be the same man he once was.”

She had a rare look of seriousness on her face. It made me uneasy.

“Let's go see him,” I said.

*

Anna paddled along the river for some way until we diverted off its main body and onto a smaller stream. I could see the city walls up ahead. Thick, monstrous grey stone built as high as a hill from my homeland.

As we drew nearer, the stream opened and became a marsh. The water grew murky and brownish. The sounds of crickets filled the afternoon sky. The thick smell of dampness stung my nostrils. The air felt cold.

“Not many know this way,” Anna said.

Closer to the city we went.

I began to make out a grated, circular gate. It was small compared to the other gates of the city. In front of it was a pier.

“It’s the sewer entrance. A way in and out of the city that doesn’t draw attention.”

Sat on a wooden chair leaning up against the gate was a guard. A small, fat man sleeping soundly. I immediately felt tense.

“Do not worry,” she said, seeing me shuffle my feet uncomfortably, “he’s one of us.”

Anna moored the boat to a post, and we stepped off onto the pier. If the guard was here to watch for threats, then he was terrible at his job. Anna stood but inches away before he opened his eyes, and he only did that because she kicked him. His fat face did not look impressed.

“What!?” He grumbled in the local tongue. It was as if Anna and I were of the utmost inconvenience.

She spoke some words back to him, harshly by the tone. They went back and forth for a time. Voices raising. Then the fat man threw up his arms, sighed, and slowly got to his feet. Anna slid the chair over and opened the gate. I followed her in.

“Lazy prick,” she muttered in Bervian.

We walked in darkness for a bit. The sound of dripping echoed off of the tunnel walls and the faint scent of sewage was in the stale air. After a short while, we came to a lantern light that was set on a table. Four men were sat around it with cards in their hands. Quietness was about them. One of the men looked up at our approach. He spoke more words I couldn’t understand.

He was dirty looking, with a shaggy black beard and a stout belly. A green bandanna was tied tight to his head.

“Jeb, this is Dak,” Anna said to me.

The man grinned and showed a set of silver teeth.

“He’ll be escorting us back from here. He knows these sewers better than anyone.”

*

No one bothered to blindfold me as we approached the crypts. I supposed it was the Mard way of telling me that I was now trusted. Dak had led us to an opening in the northern parts of the city and then from there Anna and I went on alone. I should have guessed that the crypt entrance would have been in a graveyard.

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We had places of death like this on the hills, but they were not the same. Our graves were small, and shallow, with a single-coloured rock to indicate our stature in the tribe. We didn’t name or date them. It was the moon god Fanarah’s duty to remember Bervians long dead. In this city, they had hefty arched slabs that had worn and unreadable engravings on them, and where we had colour, they had none.

An old man in rags sat by the crypt entrance. He was missing an eye and had a thin, shaggy beard that went all the way down to his chest. He looked unhealthy, like he might die at any moment. He looked like a beggar. Upon seeing us, he stepped to one side and nodded at Anna. She nodded back and led me down a set of stone stairs.

We came to the open spaces of the training ground. We walked around the stage where two heavyset Mard men were wrestling one another. One grunted as he slammed the other onto the platform. The man wheezed as if his soul had left his body. I sympathised. Ben had done that to me enough times in the past week.

We walked out of the training ground and Anna led me down a dark corridor. About halfway down, she swung open a set of doors.

The room had shelves full of books on each wall. The shelves were stacked so high that they reached the ceiling. I had never seen a room like it before. It had no torches and instead was lit by a series of reflecting mirrors in each corner that drew light in from the sun above the ground. Working out exactly how it did it, was too complicated for me. But I knew the reason why almost instantly. A fire in this room would be instant, and deadly.

Raina sat at a desk in the far corner. Her hands turned the pages of a large grey book.

“What’s the latest?” Anna said.

The matriarch didn’t look up, “The other Bervian will be arriving any moment now. According to Raff’s scouts, The Helms are in disarray, Jaskal has rumoured to have killed two of his own in his rage and that hasn’t sat too nicely with his lieutenants.”

Anna grinned widely, “We’ve read him perfectly. I told him long ago that nothing good would come of him being that harsh on his subordinates. Today is looking to be a good one.”

Raina glanced up “I wouldn’t speak too soon. This is still a bad trade in my opinion.”

She glared at me before going back to her book.

Anna nudged me and smiled, “She means nothing by it Jeb. As I said, she was singing your praise earlier. Here, relax and take a seat. Would you like anything whilst we wait? Some food or water maybe?”

“Ahh so here’s the other kling,” said a voice from behind. I recognized it. It was in butchered Naminiam with a thick Wannihiem accent. My mind shut off for a moment and fear gripped me like a vice. I turned and saw him standing in the doorway.

“Ottom?”

The fat man grinned with such ugliness that it turned my stomach.

“Surprised to see me?”

I looked at Anna “What’s going on?”

She swallowed, “Jeb, I’d like you to meet our informant.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Hehe, that’s unsurprising,” Ottom said and then turned his attention to Raina, “How did it go with that pathetic excuse of a man?”

“Accordingly. Gerert should be halfway down the Alora by now and on his way to Humn,” She said. “Good, then all has worked out. Well, that is if you excuse the fact that my cover – the one I had spent the last two years working hard to keep secret - has just been blown. And the fact that we are now at the beginning of a large-scale gang war. The magnitude of which hasn’t been seen in at least two decades” he turned and pointed a finger at Anna. “You’d best know what you’re doing Farian, you could have just killed us all.”

“I can assure you I haven’t. The Helms will retaliate quickly. Jaskal, being the rash man that he is will not wait to be granted passage through Archin’s territory. This will breach any ceasefire they have. His own men seeing the problems he’s creating will opt to overthrow him. There will be chaos in the city tonight.”

“Speculations. Not facts Anna. You underestimate him.” Said Ottom.

“More like intelligent guesses, and we also have fail-safes. We’ve doubled our lads along the bridges and tipped the ferrymen on the Alora handsomely. The Helms won’t make it north without us knowing. We’ve even hired a few out-of-towners for backup just in case.”

He grunted, “And so what do I do now?”

“You go into hiding, like Gerert.” Said Raina.

“On the Drunk god's arse.”

Raina looked up from her book, “You have been compromised Ottom. Jaskal not only has seen you and knows who you are, but he also trusted you as a lieutenant for the last two years. If he ever catches you. It would bear not to think about what he’d do.”

Ottom sneered “He couldn’t do worse than what he already does to people. My fate is set in that regard. No, I will not leave the city. I have too many interests here.”

“I told you he wouldn’t,” said Anna.

“My brother,” I interrupted “Where is my brother?”

Ottom turned to me and raised an eyebrow “He’s allowed to speak out of term?”

Anna shrugged, “he’s made no oaths.”

“Hmph, that’s weakness I’m hearing Anna, we hold the cards not him-”

“Oh, put him out of his misery Ottom, if it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be able to put this plan in motion.” Said Anna.

Ottom muttered something under his breath and left the room, slamming the door behind him.

I shut my eyes deeply for a moment and then opened them, “What is happening?”

“Ottom is our informant Jeb. He always has been.”

“But that makes no sense, he was the one who gave Caine the “job” in the first place.”

“Yes. You see, we knew that they were planning on killing Gerert, and we had a rough idea of how they would go about doing it. They would use a kling to do it for them. Jaskal, the Helms leader, wouldn't risk using one of his own for this sort of job. Not in foreign territory. He also wouldn’t risk paying anyone. Professionals, although useful, wouldn’t be loyal if caught. Especially if they were offered a bargain. So Ottom decided to choose which kling to use.”

“And he chose Caine,” I said.

“Yes,” said Anna, “in our defence, our intention was always to bring you two in with us. We weren’t planning on using and then discarding you like they were. But then your brother ran, and that complicated things.”

The doors swung open again. Ottom returned, holding a thin, frail, shirtless Bervian by the arm. His face was so disfigured and swollen to the point that he was almost unrecognisable. If it wasn’t for the deer mark that lay across his belly, I would have sworn it wasn’t him.

“Here!” Ottom said and shoved Caine at me.

I rushed off my chair and embraced him. He leaned all his weight on me which felt like half of what it used to be. He was shivering in my arms. I pulled him into my chair and held him. His eyes looked lifeless and if it wasn’t for his breath hitting my face, I would have thought him dead.

“Caine!” I said.

He groaned with great effort. I felt a rage in my stomach hit its boiling point, my shoulders tightened, and an indescribable flash hit my temples.

I let go of him and turned to Ottom, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HIM!”

A sneer. The barrel-bellied man squared up. His eyes narrowed and glared at me unblinkingly. “Careful how you speak to me kling,” he said with venom. He beat his chest, “or doing you plan on doing something?”

If we were to fight. He’d win. I was never known for being tough, and with his weight, it would be hard for me to get in close. If I was quick, I might be able to land a few shots on him before he knew what was happening. But I doubt that would topple him. And it may get me killed. Still, I was tempted if it meant I could inflict some pain of my own.

I met his gaze, and took a step forward “I said, what did you do to him?” I spoke with gritted teeth.

There was silence in the room as we stared each other down. His breath reeked of dust gin and his breathing was loud and heavy.

He laughed and then broke eye contact, “truthfully you should be thanking me. If it wasn’t for me your brother would have been at the bottom of the river, and before that happened, he would have had his eyelids pulled out and his fingernails ripped off. He had had a toe cut off every hour and then his fingers after that. They would have put his hair in a vice and then strapped him to a wheel and pulled him until his hair ripped from his head. And after that would they have dressed him in female clothing to parade him in some sick twisted show for Jaskal. Klings like you are what the Helms call Easys because they know that no one worth their salt is looking for you. You are easy to take.”

“So, now be in my position. You have an easy who is not only Jaskal’s perfect type but also is not doing the job we have asked him to do, Instead, he tries to run and everyone around me knows this. Our next plan of motion is a simple one. We put the kling through the process so Jaskal can witness him in one of his shows. It’s what he does, it’s what he’s always done. Except now I have to make up excuses as to why not put him through the Process. It starts to make people suspicious, so, to make them less suspicious and so we both don’t end up in one of those damned performances, I have to beat him and beat him rough. But as you can see, he’s alive.”

I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t care for his excuse; I knew that much. Even if what he was telling me was the truth. I wasn’t going to just swallow it. My brother looked like a shell of a man. And the reason for that was standing in front of me. “

Not happy kling? Good. Because I’m not either. For two years I have been infiltrating that filth. Acting like them. Doing things that are beneath me for the betterment of my Mards, only for it all to be cut short on a gamble,”

He shook his head, “You’d better be right Anna.”

“I think tensions have gotten a little high,” said Raina, “Ottom, why don’t you go and get yourself cleaned up and your head straight? You can give us a full debrief later, and Jeb, we will get a priestess to oversee Caine. We’ll see him bedded and looked after. That I will promise.”

I gazed over at my brother and took him by the hand. It was then that I noticed the large scab across the side of his face. It was where his mark used to be. I held back tears as he lay there, staring aimlessly at the ceiling.

Ottom said something to the others in the local tongue. To my untrained ears, it sounded like a warning. He then left the room, giving me a final smile before leaving. I was going to make him pay somehow.

Moments later a woman walked in. She was petit and was dressed in a dark grey hood that covered the top half of her face. The matriarch gave a command in the local tongue. The woman nodded and then ushered me away from Caine without saying a word. When she neared me, I felt something. An unnerving. Not exactly bad, but it wasn’t good either. She felt like a cloudy sky just before a heavy rain. Like a humming sound that you couldn’t place the origin of. She didn’t cause discomfort, but she was impossible to ignore.

She lifted Caine from the chair and took him around her shoulders. I went to stop her at first. Purely from instinct, but Anna interjected.

“Careful there Jeb, That’s just Alia. She means him no harm and is only going to give him the attention he needs. It’s best not to disturb her.”

My eyes began to well again as I saw what was left of my brother leave the room. I put a hand to my face in hopes that neither Anna nor Raina noticed. They both did.

“Jeb is now your responsibility Anna, make sure he is all right and ready for his initiation.”

Anna nodded, “Follow me, Jeb.”

I Gave one last look at the matriarch as we left the room. Her brown eyes stared through me, and I saw a warning in them. I wasn’t scared, I stared right on back.