Chapter 30

As promised the tunnel came out in the kitchens. There was a large man in front of a pot, and several women working on other things. The space was larger than the cooking area where he’d failed to steal Ezhno’s jade pendant.

There was no way to sneak through the area. There were a dozen people and lamps all around.

Mato stood and walked into the open. The big man responded at once, pointing to another doorway. “Go. Get the guards.”

The youngest of the help staff rushed away. The others all picked up knives.

“Sotsona has stolen Thyra, wife of Erik Bloodaxe. This is against his own laws. I am here to take her back to her family.”

The big guy shook his head. “I don’t know how you got in here, but you won’t be leaving.” He lifted a large meat cleaver in his hand.

Mato drew his sword and went to meet him. “You are my people, but you stand in the way of right. Put your weapons down.”

Someone hurled a knife at him, and he stepped forward and let it go by.

The big man lunged, attempting a hard chop with his cleaver. Mato stabbed him in the shoulder and tripped him as he went by.

“You have courage, but you do not know how to fight. Do not make me kill you.”

Footsteps echoed in the halls and Mato repositioned himself in the center of the room and pulled through the warrior.

There was no effort to arrest him, they entered the room, saw him, and rushed. They would have done better to make it a coordinated rush. Mato dipped and executed teeth in the darkness. Four of the six fell.

Another group charged through a second door, and he moved on them, parrying a couple of frightened lunges from the nearby survivors.

He shifted to another form, made of kicks and high cuts. Bee in the outhouse brought down seven more, and then he crippled the last with a stab to the shoulder and a deep slash in the thigh.

“Who knows where Lady Thyra Bloodaxe is kept?”

No one said anything. Mato vaulted a counter and grabbed a woman, batting her knife to the floor in the process.

“Where?”

“I don’t know.”

“Who does?”

“I don’t know.”

“The faster I find her, the fewer people I have to kill before I leave. Now where is she?”

“I’ll take you,” said a middle aged lady a few paces away. She laid a butcher knife down and walked toward him.

“Thank you. If you don’t attack me, I will leave you alive when I go.”

She led him through the passages, taking turn after turn but moving with confidence. They ran into a pair of guards, and Mato cut them down, then chased down his guide and got her back on course.

“I have risked my own family for this. Please do not underestimate my resolve.”

“Yes, sir.”

They entered a moderate courtyard with lamps on the walls and four guards between Mato and a large doorway.

“Stand aside,” Mato said.

“You came here looking for trouble?” said a tall man built like Ezhno.

“No. I came for Thyra Bloodaxe.”

“I’ll show her your head when I am finished with you,” he said. His posture was relaxed, and the words were spoken calmly. It was a warning, not a boast.

Mato walked toward him, and when he lunged Mato cast a simple shield to deflect the strike, while allowing him to make his own strike. The guard took a step back. His shirt was cut, but there was no blood.

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“You have tricks.”

“I’m here for the lady. Give her to me, and you won’t have to see them.”

“Two coins on the kid,” said a voice behind him.

“You’re betting on him?” the slender guard asked. He lunged, and Mato backpedaled, then stabbed behind himself and twirled around the gamblers.

He weathered a furious exchange from the slender guard, slipped, and saved his leg with a well placed shield. Then he was up. The guard lunged, Mato parried, and the guard leaped backward, right into Mato’s shield. He bounced off and tried to fling himself to the side, but Mato’s sword found his liver.

Two more quick exchanges, and the slender guard was dead.

“I’m sorry, brothers,” Mato said. He looked around. His guide was gone, but that big doorway looked promising. He went through, and figured he was going the right way when the smell of flowers and perfume reached his nose.

The first room was empty. The second had an Abo woman. He closed the door and moved on. In the third he found Thyra Bloodaxe laying in bed.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“Mato Stone Foot, Lady. Erik Bloodaxe sent me. He holds the north gate. Please hurry.”

She grimaced. “You’ll need to help me. I am chained to the bed.”

Mato tried not to react to that, and just went to the bedside and uncovered her hand. It had a very stout leather strap around it, and a chain leading to the base of the bed. Fortunately leather was no match for a spirit blade. He made a careful cut, and her hand was free. Then he cut the strap around her ankle and went to the other side.

She stood, holding a light blanket to herself. “How do we get out?”

He couldn’t believe her poise. She’d been captured, chained to a bed, probably subjected to the things that being chained to a bed implied, and she had shifted smoothly from captive to escapee.

“Do you have clothes in here?” Mato asked.

“No. That isn’t what this room is for.”

Mato gritted his teeth and hoped he could get her out safely. This was no final memory for anyone. “Follow me. I think I can find the way.”

“You think, or you know?”

They found six men in the courtyard where he had dueled the slender swordsman. None of them had any real talent, and the fight was over in seconds.

“Good bye, brothers,” Mato said, and moved toward the kitchens.

“Perhaps there is a reason Erik sent you after all,” Thyra said.

“Yes, ma’am.”

He made a couple of wrong turns, but they made it back to the kitchens. It was good that they were empty now. Mato took one of the lamps and then led Thyra down the long hall.

“Where does this go?”

“To the well. We have to swim.”

“How far?”

“I’m not sure, Lady Thyra. It took me a long time to find the opening in the dark, but going this direction will make navigation easy. We just follow the tunnel until it opens up, and then we swim to the surface.”

He picked up the weights he had used to get there and hung them around Thyra’s shoulders. “These will help you make the descent. When you reach the end of the tunnel, just drop them and swim to the top. This will help as well.” He cast a small shield bubble around her head.

“Take that away.”

He dropped the shield, and she took several deep breaths. She motioned for him to put it back, and he did. Then she dropped her blanket and plunged cleanly into the water.

Mato went into the water behind her, and she was already so far down the tunnel he could just see the silhouettes of her feet kicking up and down together. Wishing he knew how to swim like that he pushed himself forward and made his way down the tunnel.

This time he had a direction and a need to move quickly. It wouldn’t do to dismiss Thyra’s shield while she was still swimming, but keeping it on once she surfaced probably wouldn’t be good for her.

He couldn’t believe how long it took to reach the well. Thyra was nowhere in sight, and he sent a little prayer to the Great Spirit that she was at the surface.

His eyes darted in every direction as he ascended. If she was floating in the water, he needed to find her quickly.

When the water gave way and his head entered the air again he breathed a couple of quick breaths out of habit. Thyra was laying on one of the floating docks nearby, and he dismissed the shield as he swam to her.

She sat up as he pulled himself up beside her. Then he put a hand on her arm and pushed warmth from his sword into her.

“That’s lovely. Thank you.”

He struggled out of his shirt and helped her put it on. It was too small, had been cut to ribbons, and barely covered anything, but he hoped the thought helped.

“I’m sorry I don’t have clothes waiting for you, Lady. This is my first rescue.”

She leaned down and kissed him on the forehead. “Thank you, Mato. You have been both brave, and a gentleman. I am grateful.”

That was nice. He felt almost as warmed by her approval as the rune on his sword.

“This way.”

The well was unguarded, and there was smoke in the air to the north. Most of Abo was fireproof, but someone had found something to burn.

They found a pair of pants on a clothesline, a pair of sandals on a doorstep, and a pair of shirts with no cuts. Thyra took a hammer from a forge, and they passed a patrol without being seen.

Staying hidden grew more difficult as they approached the gate. It began to look like every guard in the city was here. Mato led them around the activity to the wall just west of the gate. That would at least give them something to put on one side if it came to a fight.

They got close enough to see the courtyard before the gate. There were at least twenty men between them and their goal.