"Are you calling me a coward?"
"No, sir, I am calling you a fool and a coward."
The fat man stood up indignantly and drew a dagger from his belt. "I demand satisfaction."
The youth stood and unsheathed a long sword. "As you wish."
"You would duel me sword against dagger and call me the coward?"
"I also called you a fool, and a fool it is who holds a dagger and challenges a man with a sword."
Several people in the room laughed at this, which only infuriated the fat man more. "Do you have no honor?"
"I'm but a poor soldier's son from in a destitute town. I can't afford honor." Again the crowd laughed. "I'm also a practical man who knows it's more important to win than to die-for honor is something that concerns only the living. But understand this, if you choose to fight me I'll kill you any way I can, the same as I'll try and save this city and its people any way I can. Honor and allegiance be damned!"
The crowd applauded now, much to the chagrin of the fat man. He stood red-faced for a moment then shoved his dagger back in his belt and abruptly stalked out the door into the rain.
"But how can we turn the city over to the Nationalists?" the old woman asked.
The youth turned to her. "If we raise a militia, we can raid the armory and storm the city garrison. After that, we'll arrest the viceroy. That will give us the city. The Imperial Army is camped a mile to the south, when the Nationalists attack they will expect to retreat to the safety of the city walls. But when they arrive, they will find the gates locked. In disarray and turmoil, they will rout and the Nationalists will destroy them. After that, we'll welcome the Nationalists in as allies. Given our assistance in helping them take the city, we can expect fair treatment and possibly even self-rule, as that is the Nationalists' creed.
"Imagine that," he said dreamily. "Ratibor, the whole city-the whole kingdom of Rhenydd-being run by a people's council just like Tur Del Fur!"
This clearly caught the imagination of many in the room.
"Craftsmen could own their own shops instead of renting. Farmers would own their land and be able to pass it tax-free to their sons. Merchants could set their own rates, and taxes wouldn't be used to pay for foreign wars but instead used to clean up this town. We could pave the roads, tear down the vacant buildings, and put all the people of the city to work doing it. We would elect our own sheriffs and bailiffs, but they would have little to do for what crime could there be in a free city? Freemen with their own property have no cause for crime."
"I would be willing to fight for that," a man seated with his family near the windows said.
"For paved roads-I would, too," said the elderly woman.
"I'd like to own my own land," another said.
Others voiced their interest and soon the conversation turned more serious. As it did, the level of the voices dropped and men clustered together to speak in small groups.
"You're not from Rhenydd are you?" someone asked Arista.
The princess nearly jumped when she discovered a woman had slipped up beside her. She was not immediately certain that it was a woman, as she was oddly dressed in dark britches and a man's loose shirt. With short blonde hair and dappled freckles, Arista initially thought she was an adolescent boy, but her eyes gave her away. They were heavy and deep as if stolen from a much older person.
"No," Arista said apprehensively.
The woman studied her. Her old eyes slowly moving over her body as if memorizing every line of her figure and every crease in her dress. "You have an odd way about you. The way you walk, the way you sit. It is all very…precise, very clean-proper."
Arista was over being startled now and was just plain irritated. "You don't strike me as the kind of person who should accuse others of being odd," she replied.
"There!" the woman said excitedly and wagged a finger. "See? Anyone else would have called me a mannish little whore. You have manners. You speak in subtle innuendo like a-princess."
"Who are you?" Hadrian abruptly intervened, moving between the two. Royce also slipped from the shadows and appeared behind the strange woman.
"Who are you?" she replied, saucily.
The door to The Laughing Gnome burst open and uniformed imperial guards poured in. Tables were turned over and drinks hit the floor. Customers nearest the door fell back in fear, cowering in the corners, or were pushed aside.
"Arrest everyone!" a man ordered in a booming voice. He was a big man with a potbelly, dark brows and sagging cheeks. He kept his weight on his heels and his thumbs in his belt as he glared at the crowd.
"What's this all about, Trenchon?" Ayers shouted from behind the bar.
"You would be smart to keep your hole shut, Ayers, or I'll close this tavern tonight and have you in stocks by morning-or worse. Harboring traitors and providing a meeting place for conspirators will buy you death at the post!"
"I didn't do nothing!" Ayers cried. "It was the kid. He's the one that started all the talk, and that woman from Kilnar. They're the ones. I just served drinks like every night. I'm not responsible for what customers say. I'm not involved in this. It was them and a few of the others who were going along with it."
"Take everyone in for questioning," Trenchon ordered. "We'll get to the bottom of this. I want the ring leaders!"
"This way," the mannish woman whispered grabbing hold of Arista's arm she began to pull the princess away from the soldiers toward the kitchen.
Arista pulled back.
The woman sighed. "Unless you want to have a long talk with the viceroy about who you are and what you're doing here, you'll follow me now."
Arista looked at Royce who nodded, but there was concern on his face. They grabbed up their bags and followed.
Starting at the main entrance, the imperial soldiers began hauling people out into the rain and mud. Women screamed and children cried. Those who resisted were beaten and thrown out. Some near the rear door tried to run only to find more soldiers waiting.
The mannish woman plowed through the crowd into the tavern's kitchen, where a cook looked over surprised. "Best look out," their guide said. "Trenchon is looking to arrest everyone."
The cook dropped her ladle in shock as they pressed by her, heading to the walk-in pantry. Closing the door, the woman revealed a trapdoor in the pantry's floor. They climbed down a short wooden stair into The Laughing Gnome's wine cellar. Several dusty bottles lined the walls, as did casks of cheese and containers of butter. The woman took a lantern that hung from the ceiling, and closing the door above, led them behind the wine racks to the cellar's far wall. Here was a metal grate in the floor. She wedged a piece of old timber in the bars and pried it up.
"Inside, all of you," she ordered.
Above, they could still hear the screams and shouts, then the sound of heavy boots on the kitchen floor.
"Hurry!" she hissed.
Royce entered first, climbing down metal rungs that formed a ladder. He slipped down into darkness and Hadrian motioned for the princess to follow. She took a deep breath as if going underwater and climbed down.
The ladder continued far deeper than Arista would have expected and instead of the tight, cramped tunnel she anticipated, she found herself dropping into a large gallery. All was dark except around the lantern, and without pause or word of direction the woman set off walking. They had no choice but to follow her light.
They were in a sewer far larger and grander than Arista imagined possible after seeing the city above. Walls of brick and stone rose twelve-feet to a roof of decorative mosaic tiles. Every few feet grates formed waterfalls that spilled from the ceiling, raining down with a deafening roar. Storm water formed a rushing river in the center of the tunnel that frothed and foamed as it churned around corners or broke upon dividers, spraying walls and staining them dark.
They chased the woman with the lantern as she moved quickly along the brick curb near the wall. Like ribs supporting the ceiling, thick stone archways jutted out at regular intervals, blocki
ng their path. The woman skirted around these easily, but it was much harder for Arista in her gown to traverse the columns and keep her footing on the slick stone curb. Below her, the storm's runoff created a fast-flowing river of dirty water and debris that echoed in the chamber.
The corridor reached a four-way intersection. In the stone at the top corners were chiseled small notations. These read, "Honor Way" going one direction and "Herald's Street" going the other. The woman with the lantern never wavered and turned without a pause, leading them down Honor Way at a breakneck pace. Abruptly she stopped.
They stood on a curb beside the sewer river. It was like any other part of the corridor they had traveled, except perhaps it was a bit wider and quieter.
"Before we go further I must be certain," she began. "Allow me to make this easier by guessing the lady here is actually Princess Arista Essendon of Melengar. You are Hadrian Blackwater, and you are Duster, the famous Demon of Colnora. Am I correct?"
"That would make you a Diamond," Royce said.
"At your service." She smiled, and Arista thought how cat-like her face was in that she appeared both friendly and sinister at the same time. "You can call me Quartz."
"In that case, you can assume you are correct."
"Thanks for getting us out of there," Hadrian offered.
"No need to thank me, it's my job and in this particular case, my happy pleasure. We didn't know where you were since leaving Colnora, but I was hoping you would happen by this way. Now follow me."
Off she sprang again, and Arista once more struggled to follow.
"How is this here?" Hadrian asked from somewhere behind her. "This sewer is incredible but the city above has dirt roads."
"Ratibor wasn't always Ratibor," Quartz shouted back. "Once it was something bigger. All that's been forgotten-buried like this sewer under centuries of dirt and manure."
They moved on down the tunnel until they came to an alcove, little more than a recessed area surrounded by brick. Quartz leaned up against a wooden panel and gave a strong shove. The back shifted inward slightly. She put her fingers in the crack and slid the panel sideways, exposing a hidden tunnel. They slipped in, and traveled up a short set of steps to a wooden door. There was light seeping around its cracks and voices on the far side. Quartz knocked and opened it revealing a large subterranean chamber filled with people.
Tables, chairs, desks, and bunk beds stacked four high filled the room lit by numerous candles that spilled a wealth of waxy tears. A fire burned in a blackened cooking hearth where a huge iron pot was suspended by a swivel arm. Several large chests lay open, displaying sorted contents of silverware, candlesticks, clothes, hats, cloaks, and even dresses. Still other chests held purses, shoes, and rope. At least one was partially filled with coins, mostly copper, but Arista spotted a few silver and an occasional gold tenent sparkling in the firelight. This last chest they closed the moment the door opened.
A dozen people filled the room, all young thin predators, each dressed in odd assortments of clothing.
"Welcome to the Rat's Nest," Quartz told them. "Rats, let me introduce you to the three travelers from Colnora." Shoulders settled, hands pulled back from weapons, and Arista heard a number of exhales. "The older gent back there is Polish." Quartz pointed over some heads at a tall, thin man with a scraggly beard and drooping eyes sporting a tall black hat and a dramatic-looking cloak like something a bishop would wear. "He's our fearless leader."
This comment drew a round of laughter.
"Damn you, Quartz!" a young boy no older than twelve cursed her.
"Sorry, Carat," she told him. "They just walked into The Gnome while I was there."
"We heard the Imps just crashed The Gnome," Polish said.
"Aye, they did." Quartz gleamed.
Eyes left them and focused abruptly on Quartz, who allowed herself a dramatic pause as she took a seat on a soft, beat-up chair, throwing her legs over the arm in a cavalier fashion. She obviously enjoyed the attention as the members of the room gathered around her.
"Emery was speeching again," she began like a master storyteller to an anxious audience. "This time people were actually listening. He might have got something started, but he got under Laven's skin. Laven challenged him to a duel, but Emery says he'll fight sword to dagger, which really irks Laven and he storms out of The Gnome. Emery should'a known to beat it then, but the dispute with Laven gets him in real good with the crowd see, so he keeps going."
Arista noticed the thieves hanging on every word. They were enthralled as Quartz added to her tale's drama with sweeping arm gestures.
"Laven, being the bastard that he is, goes to Bailiff Trenchon, right? And returns with the town garrison. They bust in and start arresting everyone for treason."
"What'd Ayers do?" Polish asked, excitedly.
"What could he do? He says, 'What's going on?' and they tell him to shut up, so he does."
"Anyone killed?" Carat asked.
"None that I saw, but I had to beat it out of there real quick like to save our guests here."
"Did they take Emery?"
"I suppose so, but I didn't see it."
Polish crossed the room to face them up close. He nodded as if in approval and pulled absently on his thin beard.
"Princess Arista," he said formally, and tipped his hat as he made a clumsy bow. "Please excuse the place. We don't often entertain guests of your stature here, and quite frankly, we didn't know when, or even if, you'd be coming."
"If we had known, we'd have at least washed the rats!" someone in the back shouted, bringing more laughter.
"Quiet, you reprobate. You must forgive them, my lady. They are the lowest form of degenerates and their lifestyle only aggravates their condition. I try to elevate them, but as you can see, I have been less than successful."
"That's because you're the biggest blackguard here, Polish," Quartz shot at him.
Polish ignored the comment and moved to face Royce.
"Duster?" he said, raising an eyebrow.
At the sound of the name, the whole room quieted and everyone pushed forward to get a better look.
"I thought he was bigger," someone said.
"That's not Duster," Carat declared, bravely stepping forward. "He's just an old man."
"Carat," Quartz said dismissively, "the cobbler's new puppy is old compared to you."
This brought forth more laughter and Carat kicked Quartz's feet off the chair's arm. "Shut up, freckle face."
"The lad makes a good point," Polish said.
"I don't have that many freckles," Quartz countered.
Polish rolled his eyes. "No, I meant just how do we really know this is Duster and the princess? Could be the Imps knew we were looking and are setting us up. Do you have any proof about who you are?"
As he said this, Arista noticed Polish let his hand drift casually to the long black dagger at his belt. Others in the room began to spread out, making slow but menacing movements. Only Quartz remained at ease on her chair.
Hadrian looked a bit concerned as Royce cast off his cloak, letting it fall to the floor. Eyes narrowed on him as they stared at the white-bladed dagger in his belt. Everyone waited anxiously for his next move. Royce surprised them by slowly unbuttoning his shirt and pulling it down to expose his left shoulder, revealing a scarred brand in the shape of an M. Polish leaned forward and studied the scar. "The Mark of Manzant," he said, and his expression changed to one of wonder. "Duster is the only living man known to escape that prison."
They all nodded and murmured in awed tones as Royce put his cloak back on.
"He still doesn't look like no monster to me," Carat said with disdain.
"That's only because you've never seen him first thing in the morning," Hadrian told him. "He's an absolute fiend until he's had breakfast."
This brought a chuckle from the Diamonds and a reluctant smile from Carat.
"Now that that's settled, can we get to business?" Royce asked. "You need to send word to the Jewel tha
t Etcher is a traitor and find out if a meeting has been setup with Gaunt."
"All in good time," Polish said. "First we have a very important matter to settle."
"That's right." Quartz came to life and leapt to her feet, taking a seat at the main table. "Pay up people!"
There were irritated grumblings as the thieves reluctantly pulled out purses and counted coins. They each set stacks of silver in front of Quartz. Polish joined her and they started counting together.
"You, too, Set," Quartz said. "You were down for half a stone."
When everyone was finished, Polish and Quartz divided the loot into two piles.
"And for being the one to find them?" she said, smiling at Polish.
Polish scowled and handed over a stack of silver to her, which she dropped into her own purse that was now bulging and so heavy she needed to use two hands to hold it.
"You bet we wouldn't make it here?" Arista asked.
"Most everyone did, yes," Polish replied, smiling.
"'Cept Polish and I," Quartz said happily. "Not that I thought you'd make it either, I just liked the odds and the chance for a big payoff if you did."
"Great minds, my dear," Polish told her as he too put his share away. "Great minds indeed."
Once his treasure was safely locked in a chest, Polish turned with a more serious look on his face. "Quartz, take Set and visit the Nationalists' camp. See if you can arrange a meeting. Take Degan Street, it will be the safest now."
"Not to mention poetic," Quartz said smiling at her own insight. She waved at Set who grabbed his cloak. "I know exactly how much is in my trunk," Quartz told everyone as she dropped her purse in a chest. "It had best be there when I come back or I'll make sure everyone pays."
No one scoffed or laughed. Apparently, when it came to money thieves did not make jokes.
"Yes, yes, now out with you two." Polish shooed them into the sewer, then turned to face the new guests. "Hmm, now what to do with you? We can't move around tonight with the city watch in a frenzy, besides the weather has been most unfriendly. Perhaps in the morning, we can find you a safe house, but for tonight I am afraid you will all have to stay here in our humble abode. As you can see, we don't have the finest accommodations for a princess."
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