To Stand Beside Her

by B. Kristin McMichael

  “I do not wish to know my future,” Leila said harshly. “I only wish to know where my friend is being kept, and then we can be on our way home. Thank you for your explanation of everything, but now it is time for me to be on my way.” Leila did not like talking about herself, especially with a stranger.

  Gabor slowly stood and walked to the door. He gave three knocks and the door opened. Anatolio stood before Gabor and bowed his head. “She wishes to be taken to the jail that is housing her friend Kay.” Anatolio nodded and walked back over to Leila.

  “Child, don’t let your heart grow cold. The immense power you have in your innocence can be amplified a hundred times if you let yourself love again. Erich is gone. It is not your fault. You may think you are alone in your pain, but there is another in just as much pain from being without love. I just hope that the day you see him you can recognize that you are not alone.” Gabor smiled kindly at Leila. Anatolio moved behind her and grabbed her arms.

  “I thought you were not keeping me here,” Leila asked suspiciously.

  “I am not, but in order for you to be brought into the jail, you must be a captive. No one apart from the king can walk into the jail with a guest and demand to see someone being held there,” Gabor explained. “Anatolio will take you there and put you with your friend, but that is all he is allowed to do. Jail will give you some time to think over everything we talked about,” Gabor said as he smiled at her. “May we meet again, child.”

  Anatolio pushed gently on her arms to force her to begin walking. This time around Leila did not test his resolve. He would take her to exactly where she wanted to be. Leila took no notice, though, of the change in her guard’s mood which was now more gentle. She was caught up in her own thoughts.

  Why did he tell me these things? What does he know of my future? Can I really be happy again without Erich? Leila questioned herself. She tried to get their conversation out of her head. I need to focus. Plan an escape. What does it mean? Leila began to trail off with her thoughts from the seer again. How did he know about Erich?

  “We are almost there,” Anatolio said to Leila breaking her thoughts. “I can get you into the same cell, but that is it. I don’t have any more authority than that.” Leila was shocked to hear him speak.

  “There are two guards on shift at one time inside the jail and two guards outside the gate,” Anatolio continued to explain. He let go of her arms, and she turned to face him. “The guards only change one person at a time so that there is always someone here. Right now there is only your friend in the jail and no other prisoners.” Gently, Anatolio turned Leila back around and took hold of her arms again. “Good luck,” he whispered in her ear as they approached the guards at the gate.

  “Open,” Anatolio ordered. “I have one prisoner here to be placed with the other prisoner.” The gates opened. Two men playing cards immediately jumped up as Anatolio approached. The portly guard’s mustache failed to hide the smile that crossed his face. He was always fond of having beautiful lady prisoners under his watch in his section of the jail.

  “She is to be housed with the other prisoner,” Anatolio commanded.

  “I will take her there,” the prison guard offered.

  Anatolio replied, “I will take her myself.” He changed his grip to hold back Leila’s arms with one hand. Leila played along like she could easily be held with one hand. Anatolio took the keys and led her down the hallway. He approached a room and unlocked the door. Leila walked through the door.

  “You are on your own now, so be careful,” Anatolio warned before locking the door behind her.

  Leila walked into the dim room. Though she had not noticed, it was already dusk. The room had no light in it except for the last rays of sunlight streaming in one window. This is bad, she thought, noticing they were not in the women’s quarters of the jail. Through the dim light she surveyed the room. The room was sparsely furnished. There was one window, a bed with a blanket in one corner, and in the other corner, staring at Leila with a tear-streaked face propped on her knees, sat Kay.

  Chapter 2

  Kay was happy to see Leila, but at the same time, she was disappointed in herself. She failed the mission. Kay sat in the corner staring at her feet ashamed to be caught in the jail when everything had been planned so well. Kay was just a child when she ran away from her home and wandered into Leila’s family’s vineyard. Kay met Leila and her life changed forever. Leila’s parents took Kay in and raised her alongside Leila and her two older brothers. When Kay got married, Leila’s father walked Kay down the aisle. When Kay had given birth to her son, it was Leila’s mother that taught Kay how to calm the crying baby. The only person in the whole world that Kay feared disappointing was her best friend, who she considered a sister, Leila.

  Leila sat down next to Kay. She studied her friend’s face. Kay had been crying. Leila felt a strong need to protect her, and Kay knowing this became even more disappointed in herself. Kay hung her head.

  “I’m sorry,” Leila said, “if I had known the papers had been marked, I would have thrown them away.” Leila hugged her friend.

  “It’s all my fault. You told me not to take those papers,” Kay blurted out while Leila hugged her.

  “I have been doing this longer; I should have been better prepared,” Leila took the blame again. Growing up together, they were always complete opposites.

  This current mission was far beyond Kay’s abilities, but she had traded for the assignment without Leila knowing; the higher pay that came with a harder mission was too enticing to pass up. Kay had tried to leave undetected, but being the better courier, Leila caught up with Kay before she reached Lexia. Kay begged and pleaded with Leila to let her finish the mission, and Leila only agreed after Kay agreed to follow the exact plan Leila had made.

  “So now what do we do?” Kay asked without looking Leila in the eyes.

  “We leave and go home. I will return in a couple weeks and finish everything then,” Leila concluded.

  “But this jail is not how you described it,” Kay commented.

  “That is because we are not in the women’s jail,” Leila responded. She had been in these jails once, many years ago. They seemed to have upgraded everything since her last escape from the men’s jail. “I was here once with Erich,” she explained to Kay. Kay flinched at the sound of Erich’s name. This was a very hard subject to talk about with Leila. For over a year after he died, Leila had not once said his name to anyone.

  “This might be a bit tricky, but we have to leave separately.” Leila walked over to the door and listened to the men outside. “Since we are the only people in the jail, if we both leave, they will know right away. You will leave first pretending to be sick and wait for me outside the gate.”

  “Won’t you have a harder time leaving if I am escaping?” Kay asked.

  “This place will not be hard to leave; I will go right out that window there,” Leila motioned to the window above the bed.

  “But we are over four floors up,” Kay said in disbelief.

  “Yes, and they seem to not have bars on the window,” Leila laughed to herself. “We will be heading home tonight.”

  Leila took one last look. “Now is as good of a time as any. Pretend you are really hurt.” Kay gave a blood curdling scream and the guards came running.

  “What happened?” asked the younger man.

  “I don’t know,” Leila replied. “We were just sitting here, and now she is screaming.”

  “Help me pick up this girl,” the older guard ordered. The younger guard helped the older guard pick up Kay. She continued to howl in pain. “Stay here,” he ordered the young guard.

  Leila stood in the doorway of her cell and watched as the older guard carried the crying Kay away. The startled young guard turned around and looked at her. The paleness in his face told Leila he was not one for taking care of sick people. He cautiously walked back over to Leila.

  Leila led herself back to the jail cell and closed the door. From what she c
ould hear, Kay was in the infirmary and they were going to try to treat her there. She quietly crept over to the bed and moved it slightly so that she would be able to use it to easily reach the window. In the dimness of the moonlight, Leila pulled herself up into the window. Kay was right: they were four stories above the ground. Slowly, she lowered herself out the window. The nice thing about being so high was no one would notice if she climbed out the window. She searched the wall with her feet and found a small ledge.

  For any male, the climb down would be extremely hard, if not impossible, but for Leila, with her much smaller feet, it would work just fine. It was slow going, but after fifteen minutes she was down to ground level. She decided that she preferred the women’s jail after all; she’d do her best next time to not get thrown in the men’s jail. She quietly ran from shadow to shadow until she was near the gate. Looking around she ran to a cart loading up to leave and wedged herself tightly under it. The cart had been packed and was moving to the gate. The cart stopped at the gate.

  “Let us pass,” a man said gruffly. “I found this girl coming out the window by the servant’s quarters and will be taking her to the king. She has to be the ghost courier.”

  Leila looked closely at the legs beside her. Kay had been caught again. The man holding Kay was the other newbie tracker from the tea house. He must have been waiting outside the palace to catch Leila.

  This is getting ridiculous, Leila told herself. I am never letting Roger put her on another mission again.

  Leila waited for the cart to move again as the cart driver received his stamp from the gate guard. She watched as Kay was marched back inside the palace compound walls. When the cart was out of the sight of the palace, Leila exited from beneath the cart. Leila quickly walked down the street towards the palace. She was back to the same position as before, but this time it was just a bit later during the night. The palace would not be so easy to escape. Leila tried to decide whether to just return or be caught again, but by now they must have noticed that Leila was gone so she would not be able to return unnoticed. She would have to go directly in and figure things out from there. Leila marched to the gate. The young man from before was gone, but another man was there in his place.

  “Hello,” Leila said to the gatekeeper who ignored her, “I just escaped the palace jail but have decided I would like to go back in,” she told him honestly.

  The gatekeeper laughed. “Little girl, go back home. Going around telling lies like that and someone might actually believe you.” He turned away from her. They must not have noticed she was gone yet from the jail.

  “I am giving you the chance to be the hero here. They soon will notice I am gone, and when they do...” Leila trailed off. The guard still had no interest in her.

  “Fine,” Leila said. “I will be sitting right here next to the wall. When you finally get the report that a girl has escaped from the men’s jail, come over and get me.”

  Leila marched over to the wall, still within view of the guard, and sat down on the ground. She leaned up against the cool wall and closed her eyes. It could be a while. The older jail guard seemed like the type that would be too proud to quickly report that she had escaped. As the cool night air blew, she undid her hair and rolled her sleeves back down. In Lexia, the days were always hot and the nights always cool. It made her miss her mountain home even more. Leila closed her eyes and tried not to think about her frightened friend. Leila waited over an hour before the gate guard came over to her. She looked up at him.

  “Um,” the gatekeeper stammered.

  “Do you believe me now?” Leila asked.

  “Miss, could you come this way with me,” he asked offering her his hand to help her stand up. Leila took his hand and stood. It was then she noticed she was taller than the man. No one would believe he caught her, but it didn’t seem like he was going to pretend. He led the way, and she followed behind him. As soon as Leila crossed through the gate, two more men, larger men, fell in behind the two of them.

  “I am not going anywhere,” Leila commented to the two men. Neither of the men replied.

  “Is everyone in your city so serious?” she asked the guard leading the way.

  “Yes,” the guard replied. He began anxiously wringing his hands.

  Great, a city filled with serious, nervous people, Leila observed, a bit disappointedly.

  Leila remained silent and watched her surroundings hoping that they would give her an idea how to get Kay out. In her mind, she traced her steps through the palace on a map in her head she had memorized years ago.

  “This is not the way to the jail,” Leila commented. “Since I came back on my own, couldn’t you just put me back in the jail? I promise to behave,” she lied to the men escorting her but none of the men flinched or changed their course on the path led to the judgment chamber of the king. Leila was not in the mood to deal with yet another king.

  “If I had known that I was to have a date with the king, I think I would have just let myself back in,” she remarked not seeing the smiles on the faces of the men behind her.

  “I wish you would have,” the gate guard said under his breath.

  They passed a line of people that had exited the judgment chamber throughout the day. Each person who departed was either in tears or pale as a ghost. King Nalick was not one for soft punishments. The only people who did not seem to fear Nalick were walking behind her.

  The doors opened as Leila approached the end of the hall. Down the long pathway, inside the ornately decorated room, sat Kay with her captor directly beside her. In front of Kay was a large table that Nalick sat behind with two recorders on each side of him. Nalick was a large man, much more muscular and taller than the men of Lexia. His size reminded her of the mountain men of where she was from. Around Lexia, Leila stood a head taller than all the women and eye-to-eye with more than half the men. It was a different case at home where she was average size in her community and all the men were taller than her. The only distinction that made Nalick different than the people of Leila’s home was his coloring. He had the same olive skin tone, black hair, and dark eyes of the people of Lexia. Physically he was the formidable warrior that everyone claimed. I wonder if I could beat him in a one-on-one battle, she mused to herself. The last time Leila met him, she had been tempted to find out. She had yet to find a man who could beat her in both weapons and hand-to-hand combat.

  “Wait here,” one of the men behind her directed the gatekeeper.

  “You, to the front,” the same man said to her.

  “You could at least ask politely,” Leila responded. “There is no reason to be impolite. I kindly waited over an hour for them to let me back in.” He remained silent and smiled at her remark.

  Leila walked down the pathway between the empty rows of seats. The room was used once a week for King Nalick to hand out punishments to those breaking laws within the palace. After her miraculous escape, he demanded that once she was caught to be brought to him. King Nalick gazed at the woman in front of him. Though she had different color hair and dress, he was sure this was the woman he met over a year ago when he was in Dria visiting his father. Leila stood in front of the table as the king just stared at her. She waited patiently for him to begin the conversation, for, like hand-to-hand combat, talking to a king was a dueling to her. Over the last four years, Leila had met eight kings, and they did not appreciate when she talked first. So, she stood and waited.

  “My Lord,” the tracker that sat next to Kay spoke, interrupting the silence. “Can we finish the matter of the ghost courier that I caught?” he asked impatiently. The new tracker obviously wanted to be congratulated for his catch and was looking for the king’s approval.

  “We would be finished except you didn’t catch the ghost courier,” Nalick corrected the man. “For I believe if you ask the woman standing before us now, she might have something to say.”

  “Nope,” Leila responded. “I am fine.”

  Your turn, she thought.

  “Well
then,” he smiled at Leila. “If this woman here is the ghost courier, then she needs to be punished.”

  Good counter. “For what crimes?” Leila asked innocently.

  “Crimes against the city of Lexia,” the tracker demanded.

  “I think our new guest was asking about specifics,” the king responded to his overzealous tracker. “I have been told the ghost courier is responsible for several items that are missing from nobles here in the palace and possibly an item or two from my own treasury.”

  “Really?” Leila said, exaggerating her reply, “do you know if those items were really property of the nobles in question, or could they just be covering up their own shortcomings? And where is the proof? Did you find any of those so called items on this young woman?”

  Nalick chuckled. The young woman that stood before him did not disappoint. “I am not the one to decide that, but there is the matter this woman was caught trying to sneak into the noble’s quarters.”

  “How do you know that? Maybe she just lost her way,” Leila suggested. “Do you punish people for losing their way?”

  “In that case, should I not be punishing you too,” he asked. “I have been told you lost your way and found yourself outside the palace when you should have been locked in the jail.”

  “I just can’t keep my left and right straight,” Leila lied. “I get lost all the time.”

  “I’m sure you do,” Nalick smiled at her. Nalick did not believe her, but he also did not move to call out her lies in front of the people present.

  “My Lord, I demand the ghost courier be punished. If we lock her back up, she will just escape again,” the tracker interrupted again, trying to get his reward for capturing Kay.

  “Take her back to jail- but this time, not a room with a window,” Nalick ordered. The guards moved past the protesting tracker and grabbed Kay. The two men from earlier stood behind Leila.

  “And where should we put her, Nalick,” one asked. Leila was surprised to hear the man address Nalick so casually.