Chapter 7

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I awoke on a full stomach. The food that Anna had given me the night before had done its job wonderfully. Perhaps even too well, as my belly felt heavy when I sat up from my bedding. Still, it was a good problem to have, one that I hadn’t had for a while. Our room was much the same as we left it the day before. Untouched. When I finally made my way home last night, I was so tired that I didn’t even bother to start the fire. So tired in fact that I didn’t check to see if Caine was in his bed. It’s only now that I realised, he hadn’t come back at all. I wondered where he could have gotten to.

Conversing with Anna, the strange lady who helped me get back home, had given me hope. Hope that maybe we didn’t have to do Ottom’s bidding, that maybe we could make it out of this without our dead bodies thrown into a river. I wanted to tell Caine the good news.

We had a fight last night, one that seemed stupid now, and although spiteful, it was a fight out of fear and frustration, not hatred. He is my brother after all. I would apologise and hopefully, we could mend things. This wasn’t the first time we’d fought and wouldn’t be the last.

I got up from the bedding and made my way over to the fireplace. I looked up at the open ceiling to see grey, rolling clouds blocking out an otherwise bright sun. The weather here changed so often that it shouldn't have surprised me anymore, but it always did. I couldn’t say the time exactly, but I was sure it was a few hours before midday. That gave me enough time to find Caine, tell him what had happened, and then meet Anna at the statue across the Merchants’ Bridge.

As I ran the plan through my mind, pondering on where to look for him first, I heard something. Bare feet slapping across ancient stone. I perked up quickly, a nervous feeling running through me. Blood tingling. My first thought was that perhaps it was Caine returning home, but I knew it wasn’t. No, someone was near, one of the others. The people whom we’d hear throughout the night but would never see. Moments later, an old man moved across the ruins, hobbling as fast as his feet could take him. He eyed me as he walked, panic was riddled on his pale face.

“Helms!” He whispered at me and then kept moving deeper into the ruins.

I didn’t know what it meant. I was about to return to my room, thinking that whatever the man was running from was probably somebody else’s problem. Then, I heard a voice, one that I knew was for me. It made me cringe and tense and wish that I was anywhere else, it made me want to pretend I never heard it. I found myself walking to the entrance of the ruin. There was no point having him meet me in this room again.

I recognised the bone-thinned rider and the half-starved mare that was hitched to his carriage almost immediately. The rider once again gave me a toothless smile.

“Nice to see you so soon,” he said. His Naminian broken and husky.

My antagonizer poked his fat head out at first, then, upon seeing me, He swung open the doors and jumped out of the carriage. His large frame moved ungracefully and clumsily. The carriage swayed from left to right upon losing its large weight. He looked at me with a bitter sneer. There was an anger in his eyes that made my bones stiffen straight.

“How is it that I've seen your wretched face every day for the past three?” Ottom had that tone in his voice that wanted an answer I couldn’t rightly give.

“He tried to leave… Your brother. We caught him trying to make his way through the Gladiators’ Gate.”

The large man wiped his mouth as if cleaning something disgusting from it, “You will not run, understand! It’s time and effort that we don’t want to spend finding you, but it’s time and effort that we’ll go through if we need to. And that’ll make things unpleasant for everyone.”

At that moment I couldn’t have run if my life depended on it. The effects of the dust gin had worn off in my sleep and so Ottom scared me rigid.

What have they done to Caine? The thought went through my mind sharply. I wanted to ask if he was okay, if he was alive even, but I doubted that Ottom would have appreciated the panic in my voice. So, I just nodded timidly, hoping that the large man hadn’t noticed the beads of sweat that started to trickle down my face.

“Here!” he said and chucked a box that splashed the puddle at my feet. The same puddle that I fell in just two nights before.

“You will get him back when the job is done.” Ottom climbed back into the carriage “Oh, and Kling, you now have until the end of the week,” he slammed the carriage door.

The bone-thinned rider whipped the mare and smiled his toothless smile before taking off along the road.

I waited until they were out of sight to let out a breath. It made me feel as if I had been running for an hour. I took a knee for a moment as the panic set in. Slowly, the street started to fill with the others. Everyone was cautious of not being seen by the rider and his fat companion. It seemed I wasn’t the only one who feared the large man.

People gazed and whispered and pointed at me. I took that as the time to leave. Shakily, I grabbed the box that Ottom threw at me, tucked it under jerkin, and made my way back inside the ruin.

Sitting on my bedding, I pulled the box out from underneath my jerkin and placed it on my knees. It was a plain thing, small and brown… with one corner stained red. That's when I noticed that the box was dripping. Blood. I gulped and felt a wave of horror sweep over me. It Started from my lower back and crept up to my neck. I opened the lid.

It was worse than I thought. I put my hand to my mouth, flung the box away, and leaned my back against the wall. The box hit Caine’s side of the room and out came what was inside. I’d recognise the mark from anywhere. I was the one who drew it on him after all. They had cut the skin off a part of Caine’s face. The deer mark that I pinned on him with ink and needle. The mark that signified his right as chief, now lay on the floor, trickling with blood. I felt sick. I started to shake, and my breathing became uncontrollable. What should I do? What should I do? The thought repeated itself relentlessly. A heavy lump came from my stomach and lodged itself in my throat. I closed my eyes and let out a flood of tears. I sat there crying. Alone.

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*

She was overlooking the Ghid when I finally spotted her. Her elbows rested on top of the waist-high wall, her arms casually hanging over the river. At first, I had tried to locate the mysterious woman as soon as the statue came into sight, but I could see no sign of her. Then, as I made it to the other end of the Merchants’ Bridge, she was there, right where she said she would be.

She smiled at the sight of me and stood upright, “You’re a smart man.”

“Please…” I uttered with a croaky voice; I could feel that I was still shaking.

Her smile faded, “What’s happened?”.

“My brother, they have my brother.”

She pursed her lips and gave a kissing sound, “Not good.” Leaning back over the wall she said: “Tell me everything.”

*

“And you’re sure it was your brother’s mark?” she asked after I had finished telling my brief but terrifying series of events.

“Of course I am sure. I drew the fucking mark myself.”

Anna sniggered.

“You find this funny?” I asked.

“Not at all,” she said and went back to facing the river.

She was quiet for a time. Her raven black hair sat boldly on her shoulders. The silence between us lingered. I patiently stood with my arms folded. Annoyed. Anxious. Worried.

I was about to yell, about to scream my frustrations when she said: “You see that ship there, the big one with the red and green sails coming under the bridge as we speak?”

I looked over, the ship was long and flat. Its sails nearly touched the bridge's underbelly as it passed through.

“Yes.”

“That’s called a Ghidian, a ship specially designed for this river. It sails up and down the Ghid from the port of Lundim in central Mirna to the capital city Parla in the Namin and so on. Its main export is lumber. Lundimian forest oak to be exact, and it’s been like it for generations. However, it is known to take other things for a price. She stopped gazing at the ship and turned to me, her clouded eye seeming brighter than usual.

I frowned.

“You’re wondering why I’m telling you this? Well, you see on that ship there is a sailor named Micah, and Micah’s job is to make sure that the captain of the ship does us a favour every once and a while.”

“What kind of favour?” I asked.

“When something creeps on that ship what’s not supposed to be there. Something that we want to send to friends in other cities. The captain of the ship will pretend to not have seen it. Will pretend it doesn’t exist and it’s certainly not on that ship. Now, say for instance that the captain doesn’t want to do it anymore. That he suddenly gets guilt-stricken and finds his Honour or that he’s feeling pressure from certain others to start looking into his stock. It's then Micah’s job to remind the captain that a deal has been made. And in this city, broken deals lead to severe consequences. If that captain, then still decides to meddle further in affairs that don’t concern him. It’s then Micah’s job to remove the captain and a new captain will be reinstated.”

“You mean?”

She nodded. “However, everything comes at a price, young Jeb. Once that happens Micah’s cover is blown, investigations start to become the norm and Micah has to make a quick getaway or he’ll see the dungeons. Which means we also must reinstate a new Micah. It becomes a nuisance after a while.”

“I still don’t understand why you’re telling me this?”

Anna smiled. “Because just like the Micah on that ship we have others elsewhere, and we have one, deep within the people that took your brother.”

My eyes widened, and the sudden realisation of what she was saying settled in, “So, you can help me? You can help Caine?”

She made a grin that struck me uneasy, “Yes, but as I said, Jeb, everything comes at a price. For us to help your brother, a man leaves himself vulnerable. He’ll be detected and in danger. It’s a man who we’ve spent a long time trying to get where he is.”

Things went quiet again, she stared at me with a knowingness that I don’t think I could ever get used to.

This time I broke the silence, “So what can we do?”

“Are you worth it?” she said bluntly, “Are you and your brother worth the time, effort, and cost it will take, to ensure the safety of both of you? Or do I cut my losses here and leave you both to your fates?”

“You help us,” I said.

“Is that so?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because… because otherwise, I will kill Gerert!”

Her shoulders stiffened and she clenched her jaw, “that would be a bad idea for you.”

I backtracked, “Because…. Because Caine and I will be in your debt. We’ll work, day and night, tirelessly to do whatever it is that you need doing.”

“That’s better.” She said. “Follow me.”

She set off without looking back to see if I was behind her.

“Where are we going?” I asked when I caught up to her side.

“I have to let a companion know that there’s a change of plan.”

*

I found myself in one of the large riverbank buildings that overlooked the Ghid. Anna had put me on a comfortable chair in a sitting room that seemed bigger than the Revellers’ Square. Since coming to the city, I had always wanted to see what was on the inside of these buildings and now that I was here it, was more than I expected.

Large, portrait paintings plastered the walls. They made Bervian art look childlike in comparison. We had such things as depictions of the seasonal hunts of Akerin. These were basic in detail and lacked proper attention. We used our art for fundamentals. Understanding and planning. Not for something to be gawped at.

In Wannihiem it was the opposite. Every portrait in the room looked lifelike. They were immaculately drawn, so much so that even the facial hair was intricately depicted to the strand. From what I could tell, all of them were of the same man. He stood upright in most of them, and in most, he was dressed in tidy, light blue armour that would have put any city guard plate to shame. In the larger paintings he was holding a sword, in others, it was a spear or a halberd. In all of them was the long red beard that finished just above his chest. I wondered who he was and what he had done to achieve a whole room dedicated to him.

The door opened and Anna entered. Behind her, a man followed. He was standing stiff with straight shoulders like that of a sentry on post. His hands were clasped behind his back which made his chest puff out to a stocky frame. His jet-black hair was oiled and slicked back neatly, and he had a goatee that was trimmed with not a hair out of place. His dark eyes were focused and knowing and somehow familiar. He gave a wide smile at the sight of me which had confidence. Sophistication.

I stood up to greet them.

“Jeb, this is Gerert,” Anna said.

“Gerert?” I said frowning. This couldn’t be.

“Nice to finally meet you face to face,” he said with an offering hand and a grin.

Unlike Anna’s, his smile seemed friendly and genuine. He spoke in Naminian which was clear enough. We shook hands slowly. My mouth was agape.

“I’m pleased with that reaction,” he said, “It means the disguise worked… for a time at least.” “Indeed,” Anna said who leaned on the wall by the door and folded her arms.

“Now from what Anna has told me, I Understand that it is you that is set to kill me, correct?”

I nodded dumbly, still not believing that the man in front of me was the same drunkard who fell asleep at his table in The Mule and Mare.

“And I understand that the Helms, they have your brother?”

“Helms?” I said.

That was the second time I heard that word today.

Gerert gave a glance back at Anna. “Yes, Ottom and the others.”

I nodded again.

“I would normally ask you if you were sure that you want to go through with this as once you’re initiated there’s no getting out, but it would appear that you don’t have a choice.”

“Initiated?”

He looked at Anna again, “Have you told him nothing?”

She shrugged, “There has been no time, besides, you can’t be too careful.”

Gerert shook his head mockingly and then looked back at me, “We cannot just let you join us, Jeb, there must be a proof of loyalty, something that you can do that earns our trust... The good thing is, the initiation has landed right on your lap.”

“How so?” I asked.

“Well, we’ve worked out a plan, a plan that we’ll set in motion in the coming week, and that will involve us getting your brother from the Helms alive, and then the two of you joining and working for us.”

“What is it?” I said desperately, “What’s the plan?”

“I want you to go through with it Jeb. I want you to kill me.”