by Ennki Hakari
The boy held his hands to his bruised stomach as he maneuvered himself into a sitting position. He tried to stand, his face contorting in pain, but his legs just wouldn’t support him.
“Please, I am…a knight of Houvan. I have the ability to use healing magic, and I can make your pain go away in the blink of an eye. What do you think?”
I pulled the black cloak tighter around me to conceal my armor and lowered myself even more, to bring myself down to the boy’s eye level. I could see a slight change in his demeanor.
“Healing…magic? You’re a priest, dressed like that? Can you cure even worse injuries?”
“I am no priest, but…yes, I can.”
I figured if I could bring people back from the dead, most injuries should be no problem. And even though I’d decided reviving people was mostly off limits, I didn’t see the harm in healing a kid.
The boy’s eyes lit up. “If you heal my sister, I’ll give you some important information. Will you help?”
“Hmm. I wouldn’t really feel comfortable accepting any kind of payment.”
“I insist! I don’t want charity from no one.”
The stubborn look on the boy’s face suggested he was proud beyond his years.
“What kind of information do you have?”
“Shortcuts, secret routes…” The boy’s face relaxed slightly as he rattled off a list.
“Do you know a secret entrance into the castle?”
His eyes darted about to make sure no one was nearby before lowering his voice. “Why do you ask?” He looked me up and down, skeptically.
Considering how badly the guards had just roughed him up, I doubted he was some kind of informant. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to explain my situation.
“There’s something in the castle that I’m looking for.”
I still didn’t want to risk being too specific about my objective, so I kept my answer vague. The boy furrowed his brow and glared at me in silence while he made his decision.
“Fine. I’ll tell you how to sneak into the count’s castle. But first, I want you to meet my sister.”
“Understood. I will heal your sister, and in return you will provide me the information that I seek.”
His pain seemed to have subsided, and with gritted teeth, he managed to pull himself to his feet. He started walking, albeit uneasily, down the street. Ariane and I followed him.
We were walking back along the route that had brought us here, back toward the southern gate.
The farther we got from the Houvan estate, the less glamorous the wooden houses became, replaced again with run-down hovels.
Once we reached the wall, we found ourselves in the slums, filled with rows upon rows of tiny shacks. This place was nothing like what we’d seen in other parts of town. The place reeked—some unidentifiable sourness mixed with the stench of rotting meat—suggesting that these were far from sanitary conditions. Ariane scowled from beneath her hood.
“Over here.”
The boy, however, appeared unfazed by the smell. He turned down a narrow path and ducked into a shack.
The ramshackle building looked like a light breeze might blow it right over, and the roof was so low that Ariane and I had to duck to avoid hitting our heads. I had the feeling four people would be a tight fit.
Inside the hut, a little girl slept under a blanket that looked ready to fall apart at any moment. The boy shook her awake.
“Is that you, big brother…?”
Even though she referred to him as older, they didn’t look all that far apart in age.
The young girl’s hair was black, just like the boy’s, though it was much longer and messier. She was incredibly thin, resembling a withered twig about to snap.
“What happened? Did the guards hurt you again?”
She propped herself up and focused her large, black eyes on her brother, a look of concern spreading across her face.
“This? Just a scratch. Anyway, I brought someone here who can fix your legs.”
The boy wiped the blood from his mouth before glancing back to introduce his guests.
She followed his gaze and, apparently only just having taken notice of us, ducked behind her brother.
“You have nothing to fear, miss. I am not a guard nor knight of Houvan. I am Arc, a simple mercenary. This woman here is an…um, she is my travel companion. Excuse me for coming unannounced.”
Ariane bowed to the girl, her cloak still pulled low over her face. Ponta’s tail poked out from where the fox sat in Ariane’s bosom. The little girl’s expression softened slightly as soon as she saw it.
But the boy’s face turned serious. He knelt, bowing low to the floor.
“Mr. Arc, can you do something about Shia’s legs?”
I nodded and bid him stand up before gently pulling back the girl’s blanket to take a look. Strips of wood had been wrapped around her spindly shins with thin twine.
“There’s an old man here who told me that if we don’t keep her like this, her legs will never heal.”
I had no idea if I could cure this type of paralysis, but I hoped the mid-tier Bishop class’s healing magic would be able to do the job.
I took ahold of her legs and tried to move them gently. Shia grimaced, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
“Nnng!”
It seemed like her bones hadn’t mended at all.
The boy looked up at me, fists clenched as he fought back his own tears.
“It’s been a month with the splints and she hasn’t gotten any better…”
It took a lot of nourishment in the early stages of recovery to heal bones. I had my doubts that she was getting what she needed from this place.
“Leave it to me. Heal!”
I waved my left hand over Shia’s legs, summoning up my Bishop-tier magic skill. A warm glow enveloped her, her legs shimmering slightly before the light disappeared into her skin.
The two siblings watched in astonishment as this mystical scene unfolded before their very eyes. Ariane let out a sigh and slumped her shoulders.
I grabbed hold of Shia’s legs again and moved them around to show her that they were now healed. She touched her legs in disbelief.
“They don’t hurt anymore, big brother!”
“Really?”
Shia gleefully yanked the splints off her legs. She tried to stand up, but quickly had to sit back down. Her legs still wouldn’t hold her weight.
“The bones are merely mended. Please, don’t overburden yourself.”
After having stayed in bed for nearly a month, she’d probably lost a fair amount of muscle. To make matters worse, she was so frail from malnutrition that she looked like she’d snap in two. I worried it was only a matter of time before her bones broke again.
“Boy, go get your sister something hearty to eat.”
I pulled five gold coins from the leather pouch at my waist and handed them to him.
The boy’s eyes went wide. However, he quickly composed himself.
“My name is Shil, and I already told you, I don’t want no charity!”
“Boy…I mean, Shil. Your pride is very noble. However, I want you to think long and hard about what is most important to you before you give me your next response. Please don’t think of this as charity. Rather, think of it as an opportunity for you to bring even more to the table when you return the favor. This isn’t just for you, but for your sister as well.”
I did my best to help him justify my meddling in his affairs, and I thought I did a pretty good job, if I say so myself.
Shil went silent for a moment. When he finally responded, the look on his face was begrudging. “Fine. But at least give me copper instead of gold. I’ll stand out too much if I’m flashing around that kind of money.”
He was right. I should have realized. A slum kid walking around with gold would draw a lot of unwanted attention, and possibly even be accused of stealing. In fact, if those same guards from earlier found him again, I had a feeling there’d be a r
epeat of this afternoon’s events.
“You’re really on top of things, Shil.”
“Maybe you’re just too careless, mister,” the boy shot back, trying to cover his embarrassment at my compliment.
Ariane giggled behind me. I reached into my bag, pulled out a small leather pouch, and handed it to Shil.
The pouch was bulging with coins, and it jangled as I dropped it into Shil’s small hand. His eyes bulged at the weight of it.
“How many are in here?”
“About three hundred coins, I think. You said you wanted copper, right?”
Shil looked down at the pouch in astonishment, a gasp escaping his lips. He shook his head frantically, as if holding the broken remains of a beloved toy.
“Th-this is more than enough! It should last us a long while!”
Shil stood back up, walking to a corner of the shack. He pulled a plank up from the floor and brushed away the dirt, uncovering a wooden box. If I had to guess, I’d say this was where he hid his valuables. He carefully placed the leather pouch into the box.
After returning the plank to the floor, Shil offered his thanks. He bowed his head, his eyes downcast, but I could see that he was smiling.
“I’ll return the favor for this, mister. Thank you.”
No matter what world you’re living in, a child’s smile always warms your heart.
“You’ve got a good big brother here, Shia.”
I tousled Shil’s hair and shot his sister a smile. She beamed back at me and nodded her agreement with my compliment.
Shil jerked away and immediately began rearranging his hair.
“Hey, don’t treat me like a little kid!”
“You really do have a soft spot, don’t you, Arc?”
There was a hint of surprise in Ariane’s voice. Still, I could tell that she was smiling.
“So, about that payment you promised…”
Shil’s face clouded over. I worried for a moment that maybe his story about a secret entrance had been some sort of ruse, but he stood and ushered me toward the shack’s doorway.
“I’ll show you the way in. Come on.”
We followed Shil as he slipped between the shacks, the sun dipping below the town’s walls. We finally stopped at a stone bridge that crossed a shallow river.
The bridge was covered in moss, and barely wide enough for a single horse-drawn wagon to cross it. Judging by its age, I had serious questions about how durable it was. Still, it was probably fine for us to cross on foot.
“Here it is.”
Shil wasn’t motioning toward the bridge, however, but rather the supports that held it up. He climbed down the embankment and beckoned for us to follow. Once under the bridge, I could see that there was a massive tunnel built into the abutment, large enough for people to walk through. A trickle of dark water poured out into the river through iron bars blocking the entrance to the tunnel.
It looked like a large sewer grate.
With practiced hands, Shil twisted several of the bars and removed them. Unfortunately, though the space he created was large enough to allow him and Ariane to slip through, for someone my size—encased in armor, no less—it was another story entirely. I got stuck on the bars as I tried to pull myself through the narrow opening.
Shil cocked his head at the ridiculous image in front of him. “Can’t you take off that bulky armor?”
Wanting to get through this without revealing my teleportation magic, I grabbed another iron bar and gave it a yank.
“Nnng!”
The bar came away easily with a satisfying snap.
Shil looked at me in disbelief, but I pretended I didn’t notice and started walking with Ariane down the tunnel. A little ways in, Shil pulled a lamp out of a small hollow in the wall.
This tunnel had everything. I wondered what its purpose was.
“I’ve got this.”
Shil pulled out a striking stone, but Ariane put her finger to the lamp and chanted a quick spell.
“Fire, heed my call…”
A small flame licked out from the tip of her finger, as if she were a human lighter, and ignited the oil-soaked wick of the lamp.
Shil’s eyes lit up, his voice rising an octave.
“That’s amazing! You can do magic, too, lady?”
Ariane waved her hand as if it were nothing. She looked around the now-illuminated sewer.
“Does this go all the way to the castle?”
“Weeell, you’ll have to walk for a while. It doesn’t smell too bad here, but it gets much worse deeper in.”
His response wasn’t exactly encouraging. Any excitement I’d initially felt at the prospect of us being like cave explorers was quickly extinguished.
Shil led the way down the tunnel, lamp in hand, while we followed close behind. Walkways wide enough for a single person lined each side of the tunnel, so we didn’t need to actually step into the sewage as we made our way deeper. The sewer reminded me somewhat of a coal mine, with its brick walls and joists running across the ceiling at regular intervals.
Shil weaved left and right down different tunnels, the stench growing stronger with every step. After an eternity, he stopped.
I looked around, but nothing about the area seemed any different from what we’d seen so far. However, Shil tapped on a brick, knocking it loose. He thrust his hand inside the hole to operate some sort of lever.
I heard a long clang followed by a loud thud as a section of the wall swung away, revealing a dark space beyond. Some sort of hidden entrance.
Shil ducked inside, lamp in hand. We followed him down a narrow staircase, which led to a damp hallway at the bottom. We walked in single file until we came to another staircase, this one heading up.
Silence hung heavy upon us. No one had said a word since we’d entered the hidden entrance, and the sounds of our footsteps echoed noisily.
At the top of the stairs, we found ourselves in a small room with a table surrounded by several chairs. On the far side was yet another stairwell, leading up to a square panel in the ceiling.
“That stairwell will take you into the count’s castle.”
Shil scowled. I wasn’t sure why he was making that face, but I approached the stairs all the same, running my hand along the ceiling. There was some sort of cover on the other side of the square panel built into the ceiling. Opening it would give you access to come and go freely to and from the castle. This was apparently some sort of emergency exit for people living inside. The only question was…how did it open?
Shil appeared at my side, his face pale with worry, his head bowed low.
“I’m sorry, Mister Arc! This isn’t some kind of trick, I swear! You did so much for me by healing Shia’s injury… I promise I’ll find you a way into the castle!”
“Huh. Seems like someone placed something on top of this.”
While Shil rambled, I managed to turn the panel in the ceiling, lifting both the cover and the object atop it. I poked my head through the opening, letting out a gasp of surprise.
Judging by the layers of dust, this was some kind of storage space. Its walls were painted a deep red from the dim light of the setting sun shining through the window.
“Looks like we got into the castle.”
I looked down at a dumbfounded Shil, who was opening and closing his mouth in amazement, like a goldfish.
“What’s wrong, Shil?”
“How did you do that, Mister Arc? It usually takes at least three grown men to lift that panel!”
The boy looked at me with all the shock of a pigeon shot by a peashooter.
“This is nothing for me.”
I raised and lowered the panel a few times with one hand. His jaw dropped even farther.
“Maybe they moved things around and lightened the load a bit…”
We switched positions and Shil tried to push the ceiling panel up and out of the way, but his tiny arms couldn’t budge it. While the boy busied himself trying to brute-force the panel, I turned to Ariane.
“How do you feel about sneaking into the castle after dark?”
“W-wait a minute! You actually plan on sneaking into the castle?” Shil turned to me in a panic, finally realizing what we were there to do.
I looked to Ariane, figuring she’d be better suited to field this one. She stood up from the chair she’d been sitting in.
“We need to get into the castle in order to…retrieve something inside.”
She spoke with an undaunted firmness in her voice, clutching Ponta to her chest.
“J-just hold up! If you enter the castle now, it’s going to cause a huge uproar!”
Seeing that Ariane and I had no intention of returning the way we’d come, Shil slid his body between us and the stairs leading up to the storage room.
Ariane faced the young boy blocking our path, her voice terse. “Uproar or not, we have a mission.”
I could absolutely understand her annoyance. Shil had promised to show us the secret entrance in exchange for healing his sister’s broken bones, and now he was telling us to not use it?
“Shil, if you don’t tell us why you don’t want us to sneak in, we’ll have no choice but to continue with our original plan.”
I reached up to close the ceiling cover and sat on the stairs next to the boy.
His eyes darted around, a look of uncertainty washing over him. At last, he seemed to make up his mind. He started speaking in a slow, measured tone.
“Everyone in Houvan is suffering from the hefty taxes placed on us. My mom and dad worked themselves to death just trying to pay them. The townsfolk were planning a revolt, but just before we could launch it, the Marquis du Diento was assassinated, and security became much stricter.”
Ariane averted her eyes as she listened to Shil’s story, a frown twisting across her face. She was the one who’d carried out the assassination that ultimately led to the extreme security measures being implemented in the town.
The count was probably worried about another elf attack. A member of the nobility engaged in the elven slave trade had been murdered. It stood to reason that another noble doing the same should be concerned.
“Apparently, they’re raising taxes even higher to pay for the increased security. We learned about this entrance thanks to a sympathizer on the inside, but they haven’t been able to offer us any more assistance. We’re just not strong enough to rise up against the count now…”