by Tina Hunter
Dorjee reached out to touch them and they felt like leather socks. “Do I get a pair?”
“Not yet, I think. But you do get a pair of light shoes.” Lynn passed her a pair of shoes with thin soles and no heel. Dorjee gawked at them with nerves. She hoped she’d be able to walk properly in them.
Once they dressed, and their new identities as brothers fully discussed, Lynn led them outside. Lynn mentioned that she had paid the front desk to ignore the number of people coming in and out of their room. Lynn didn’t want them to know they were the same people, which made sense.
Outside, the morning was in full swing. There were people moving about every which way. It was busy. It wasn’t like this in Swanmouth but Lynn had said the Fort was different. She saw boys dressed like her all over the place, a couple were selling newspapers, others were watching the street from the sides. Dorjee felt the urge to grow small and hide, but then remembered that she was a boy today. She had to act like it. She straightened her back and held her head high. She was a confident young man following his older brother around town. She turned to look back at the boys who had been watching from the side but they weren’t looking at her anymore, too busy looking at the ladies coming up behind Dorjee. It was amazing how their eyes had just passed over her as a boy. Like she was invisible. It made her smile.
They arrived at the Square in just a few moments though it was more of an open space than a true square. Behind them were two roads, and two sides of the square, that lead to inns and the rest of the town proper. Then there was a bustle of activity off to the side where the steamship had berthed. The ship would leave soon for its trip back downriver if the lack of people on the pier and the amount of steam coming out of the stacks were any sign. Dorjee ran into Lynn’s back when the older girl halted.
“We need to move,” Lynn whispered. Dorjee managed a quick glance around Lynn’s back before Lynn grabbed her arm and dragged her away. In front of the wall that led up to the watchtower, there were a group of angry-looking soldiers standing around a small sailboat loaded with crates and men. Brutus among them. Lynn took them away from the docks, but down the other road, not the one by their inn. Lynn was looking up at the roofs as they walked, and then suddenly turned down an alley.
“Too many soldiers for my tastes. We’ll watch from up there.” Lynn said, pointing up the back of a shop.
“Where exactly?”
“The roof, silly,” Lynn said as if it was normal to climb up the side of a building in the middle of the day. Lynn reached up and grabbed a ridiculously small brick and pulled herself up using the drain pipe as a jumping off place to swing her body up to a higher handhold.
“Wait,” Dorjee blurted. “I can’t do that. How...” But Lynn was already holding onto the roof ledge.
“I know you can’t dear,” she whispered. Then she pulled herself over the ledge and disappeared from view. Dorjee felt exposed and alone. Then suddenly a fabric rope line fell down from the roof right in front of her. Dorjee looked up to see Lynn holding the other end.
“Do try to hurry though,” she said scanning around at places Dorjee couldn’t see from this vantage point. Dorjee grabbed onto the rope and tried to pull herself up as hard as she could. One hand over the other. She opened her eyes to check on her progress and found she was one whole head off the ground. This would take forever.
“Put your feet on the wall and walk up,” Lynn said, giggling. Dorjee didn’t appreciate being laughed at. It wasn’t like she’d ever had to climb a building before. Or ever thought she’d need to climb a rope. She put her feet on the wall like Lynn told her to and felt movement in the rope. Lynn was pulling her up, so all she had to do was keep a solid grip on the rope and walk up the wall. She was up in no time, and Lynn wrapped the rope around her hips into a belt.
From the roof Dorjee could see more of the town; even from just a single story up, she could see the steamboat pulling out into the river and making its way towards the far end of the lake-like section. And right across from where they stood was the fortress. It was like a castle out of one of her bedtime books. Towers and stone. And soldiers in their shiny shoulder armor and blue uniforms. And spears. So many shiny spears.
“Make sure you stay low,” Lynn said, tugging on Dorjee’s arm. Dorjee dropped down beside Lynn and tried to look where she was looking. They watched as the men on the sailboat and the soldiers worked together to load the crates onto the boat and then push off into the river. It wasn’t a long trip across to the fort, but from the number of guards on both the fort and town side, it was a heavily guarded trip.
The boat made its way quickly across and the soldiers on the fort side converged to inspect the boat and its contents. Dorjee tried to pick out Brutus from the men in work clothes. She understood why he said Teodor wouldn’t have fit in because it looked like most of the men were not Dockers as Dorjee would have assumed. Dockers loved boats, all kinds, and lived wherever they would be. However, this group didn’t have the lighter hair and freckled faces of the typical Docker. Unfortunately, it was still easy to pick out Brutus from the crowd. He might look more like the rest, dark hair and darker skin, but he didn’t move like the rest.
“He’s not blending in well, is he?” Lynn said. Dorjee watched as Brutus kept himself apart from the rest, and he didn’t slump like them. He looked like he didn’t belong. He didn’t even make it through the front gate before being pulled aside by the guards.
“Dragon Shit,” Lynn cursed. She bounced on her toes like a rabbit, like she was ready to jump off the roof at a moment’s notice. Dorjee wouldn’t put it past her, but she really hoped she didn’t. Dorjee would have no way down.
Dorjee strained to see what was going on but she couldn’t really see where the soldiers had taken Brutus.
“Where is he?” she asked Lynn. Lynn appeared to be straining to see as well. Dorjee kept her eyes on the soldiers, hoping they would move and she could see.
“There!” Lynn pointed to a ledge on the opposite side of where the rest of the cargo movers were standing. Brutus ran along it. Dorjee couldn’t hear the shouts but she could imagine them from the waving arms and the running soldiers. They rushed after him. Dorjee’s stomach was in her throat. If they caught him he’d be killed, or worse, sent to the mine as a prisoner. She feared the mine only slightly more than mystery military men because she knew what happened in the mine. No one lasted very long.
Brutus jumped down the side of the front ledge and onto rocking shoreline that ran along the bottom of the wall that surrounded the Fort. The soldiers gathered above him on the tops of the wall and gave chase behind him.
“Go faster,” Dorjee whispered, waving her hands towards the trees at the end of the wall. She knew he couldn’t hear her, but she didn’t want him to get caught by the soldiers. They were closing in on him. Some sol on the top of the wall fired arrows down at him.
“Mute an Elf,” Lynn swore. “Please be smart, you asshole.”
Dorjee was a little shocked at Lynn’s face. It was red and Dorjee could almost hear her teeth grinding. Lynn’s grip on the edge of the roof made her knuckles white. There has to be a way out, Dorjee thought. He couldn’t be caught. He couldn’t.
Brutus dove into the tree line and Dorjee lost sight of him. She could only see the soldiers following him and the ones lined up along the shore. Where could he go? She could feel a tear running down her cheek. She didn’t even know him, but she didn’t want him to die.
Moments stretched to feel like hours. Where was he? He hadn’t come out of the trees and the soldiers along the water hadn’t moved or shown any sign he was coming towards them. In fact, it seemed as if Brutus and the soldiers that had followed him had disappeared into the forest on the far side of the river.
“Damn it,” Lynn shouted. She removed her hat and ran her hands over the top of her head and down over her face. After a few moments, she calmed down and put her hat back on. “If he’s smart, he’ll get lost in that forest for a while,” Lynn said quietly.
Dorjee peered at her face and saw quiet anger, like the man with the gun. It made her even more scared.
“He’ll be ok, right?” Dorjee asked. Lynn looked at her.
“There is no way to know. I can’t see what’s happening, and that’s good because that means that only Brutus and the soldiers behind him will know what happens in there. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
“How long do we wait?”
Lynn turned to look back at the Fort across the water. “As long as they wait, we will.” She said it with a forced smile, but Dorjee still felt better. Lynn wasn’t giving up on him. Dorjee turned to look back at the forest, scanning for any sign. Don’t give up Brutus, she thought to him.
The hours stretched on. Dorothy grew hot and tired and Lynn had to admit that they had stayed up on the roof for a long time. They had missed lunchtime, and the kid was probably hungry. The soldiers on the other side of the river hadn’t given up the search yet. There were still some stationed along the shoreline so there would be no chance of Brutus swimming back across. She’d need to ask Simon if Brutus was a good swimmer. She needed to ask him a lot of things.
This hadn’t gone well at all. Not only were they one team member down, but they still needed a good look inside that Fortress. They had less than three days left. Even thinking that they wouldn’t be able to get the job done made her wrist under the bracelet ache. So much pain for one little necklace. Maybe Brutus was right, maybe it would be better to fail.
“So, do you think we could have some lunch?” Dorjee asked so quietly that Lynn almost didn’t hear her. The poor kid was upset, and rightfully so. This had gone terribly wrong.
“Of course,” Lynn replied. With one last look across the river, she headed to the side of the building they had climbed up. There was no one in the alley now and it was shady enough to avoid stares from passerby’s if they were to just emerge. Another bonus of being dressed as a man. She lowered the rope and showed Dorjee how to swing her body around and lower herself down. They’d have to work on the girl’s upper body strength. Slowly, Dorjee ended up on the floor of the alleyway and Lynn wrapped up the rope-belt around her again. She looked across the river again. Still no movement from any of the soldiers. She sent a prayer up to the Allsaint, and the Oracles. Hopefully, one of them was real enough to take pity on the poor healer and see him through alive.
Lynn grabbed onto the edge of the building and swung out, dangling her body from her fingers. She let go and dropped to the ground letting her legs absorb the impact.
“How do you do that?” Dorothy asked. Lynn winked at her. She would show her the balance beads later.
Lynn led them out of the alley away from the dock and through more narrow and dank-smelling alleyways until they reached the main road. Then they backtracked to the inn. Lynn was hopeful they’d run into Simon. Well, somewhat hopeful.
“Isn’t that Declan?” Dorothy asked. Lynn looked where Dorothy was looking but saw no one that looked like him. There was a fair number of people walking around though.
“Where?” she asked.
“I thought I saw him go in there.” Dorothy pointed to a particular seedy tavern. Lynn didn’t especially want to see Declan, but things were not going well and she could use her cousin’s advice. Maybe she would just pop in....
Dorothy looked up at her, tears threatening to spill from her wet eyes. “I hope he stays safe today.” The girl managed a weak smile, and Lynn squeezed her shoulder. What was she thinking bringing Dorothy into this? What if someone died? The poor girl would lose her mind. No, she’d stay with Dorothy until one of the boys got back and they figured out what to do next.
Lynn led them back towards the inn, her eyes scanning faces as she walked, hoping to see her cousin. Instead, she glimpsed another familiar face among four tall men walking into the brothel next door to the Corrupt Harpy. Could it really be the man from Wellspring?
“What did you see?” Dorothy asked, straining to look around Lynn’s body. “Was it Declan?”
Change of plans. “I think you need to go on ahead to the inn and get something to eat. Take it up to our room and lock the door,” Lynn said quietly. Dorothy’s eyes were wide with surprise and fear. “I’ve got this under control but I want to be safe. Just in case.”
Dorothy nodded and then, with a quick look at her surroundings, she ran to the inn. Lynn watched her until she disappeared inside. It was time to see if the girl was seeing things or if those men from Wellspring really were here. It was time for a character.
Becoming a character felt like pulling on a cloak to Lynn. Warm and familiar, but it made you move differently. This character was Edward, an old persona and a friend of Declan’s who would frequent brothels to gain information from the girls. Lynn sauntered into the brothel, noting the name - Mermaid’s Kiss - and how the door creaked as she entered. It was an older building, possibly an old establishment too.
The girls were on her as soon as she passed into the hot, dark interior. Beads and velvet draped the walls and couches. There were many people in here for lunchtime on a Wednesday, but perhaps the shifts were different in a town like Eldridge. She found an empty seat, pulling a plump redhead down beside her.
“I could really use a whiskey,” she said, making her voice gravelly. A blonde scurried away while the redhead whispered things in her ear. She tuned her out, she had no interest in actually sleeping with any of these women. Not only would it compromise her character, but she wasn’t interested in the female body that way. Instead, she scanned the smoky room. Incense was burning in various locations around the lounge making a haze in the air, and a heavy sandalwood scent that would linger in her nose for hours. Across from her was a large man, half undressed, already kissing and petting two lithe black-haired girls not much older than Dorothy. She noted his face and then made sure not to look in that direction again. It made her want to break several somethings of his.
Standing near the lit fireplace were three men in long coats. Not the men she saw, but they had an aura about them that spoke of danger. She couldn’t make out their faces from here. Beside her on another couch, two men sat in conversation. The one with his back to her had black hair and a military style dress shirt. Upper ranks from the way he held himself. The man he spoke to, however, was the gentleman from the Velvet Rose. He was grinning eagerly at whatever the military man was saying. There was enough of a hum in the air from the various conversations that she couldn’t hear what they were saying when they were sitting only a body length away. The blond girl came back with her whiskey and Lynn thanked her by flipping a coin into her hands. The girl walked away to the other end of the room where Lynn was surprised to see Teodor lounging with three lovely ladies in various stages of undress. They fed him food of some kind. She rolled her eyes. The one person on her team who wasn’t against her wasn’t being of very much help either.
The redhead on her arm was looking at her expectantly. Damn, she’d missed a question.
“Sorry my dear,” Lynn said with a yawn, “I guess I’m more tired than I thought.”
“It’s all right,” she whispered, her voice light and cheerful, “I was asking if you were here for the meeting. Most everyone else is.”
Lynn nodded absently, but inside her mind was racing. What meeting? “That Docker here for it too?” she asked. Maybe he wasn’t being completely useless.
Redhead giggled. “I hope not. He’s been here all day. Not the kind they are looking for,” she leaned in conspiringly, “You can almost smell the magic on him.” Lynn let out a short chuckle and inwardly groaned. So much for hoping for the best out of him. Now, what was this anti-magic meeting all about? The military man stood up, causing a hush to fall over the room. Teodor even looked up from his lounge and saw Lynn in the process. She raised her eyebrow slightly, and he shrugged almost imperceptibly. They’d have some talking to do later.
The military man finally turned around and Lynn’s heart stopped beating. She quickly raised her glass of whiskey to her mouth
to hide her shock. Uncle Benjamin?
“Gentlemen,” Uncle Benjamin commanded and walked towards a door near the fireplace.
Lynn turned and squeezed the redhead’s thigh. “I’ll be back,” Lynn whispered with a wink. The redhead licked her lips in response. Ugh, maybe she was laying it on too thick. She stood up and followed the other men into the back room.
What was her uncle doing here and organizing an anti-magic meeting for that matter? The last time she’d seen him was right before her mother - his sister - had the accident. Before her baby brother died and her mother had blamed Uncle Benjamin because he was an Inborn. The last she’d heard of him was that he had disappeared from the military and Pater called him an abomination.
Lynn took a seat near the back of the room and watched. There were many more men in here then she’d seen out in the lounge. Then she noticed another door that was being closed and realized that the rest must have come in that way. The ones she recognized were Gunman and two of his companions from Wellspring, plus the three dangerous-looking men who’d been standing by the fireplace. And her uncle, of course, who stood at the front of the room and waved them all to sit down. A short, bespectacled man went up to stand with Uncle Benjamin and a barrel-chested man with a military bearing.
“Thank you for coming,” Uncle Benjamin said to the quickly silent room. It became so quiet her heart beating sounded loud. “You know why you are here, and I am here to tell you that this is the right place and the right time for our plan. The mining of crystals has given the Donassi their wealth but at a terrible cost. It is time we right the wrong done by our ancestors and free this land of its magical influence.”
There were cheers and a hearty, “here, here,” through the room. Lynn joined in by clapping loudly. What horrible plan was taking place here?
“The day of reckoning is soon upon us. Within days the Aachin hold on this town will be removed and we can bring in a new Donassi era. Magic free at last. You will be the blade that cuts this evil from the belly of our country and I applaud you for it.” More cheers and clapping and Uncle Benjamin had to raise his hands to regain silence. “Some of you I’ve already chatted with,” he looked at several men throughout the room including Gun Man while he said it, “and I know enough to say that you are welcome to go out and enjoy your stay. I will call on you when it is time. For those I haven’t met, please come and introduce yourself to me or one of my compatriots. One at a time please so I can get to know the Blades of our cause.”