by Jamie Davis
Loud voices came from the Gilded Cage behind them. The Duke was arguing about something. Hal grabbed Kay by the arm and pulled him out past the gate into the shadows there. They reached cover just in time.
Several armed men burst from the back doors into the courtyard. They started searching the area with torches in hand to light the way. Hal and Kay watched for a few moments until the searchers came toward the gate. Kay pointed to their left, turned, and sprinted down the alley. Hal took one last look at the bodies scattered around the courtyard then followed after Kay.
The two didn't stop running until they were several streets away from the Gilded Cage. They stopped to catch their breath in the shadows by an empty market stall and check for signs of any pursuit.
"It looks like we got away, Kay."
"I'm not sure I wanted to get away. I should have stayed and avenged them."
"Kay, that's crazy talk," Hal said. "There were a half dozen of the Wardens' men there in the courtyard alone. Likely there were more inside. Running away to fight another day was the best course of action."
"But we have to do something, Hal. We can't let them get away with this."
"We will, later. For now, we have to find a place to stay until the search for us dies down. If they think we left town, then they'll stop searching. That is when it will be safe to plan your revenge."
Hal and Kay stopped talking when the sound of horse hooves on the cobblestones sounded from ahead of them. Ducking farther into the shadows the two fugitives watched as a group of four armed horsemen carrying torches rode by. They were clearly searching for someone. Hal had no doubts about who that might be.
Once they passed, an alert popped up in Hal's field of view.
HIDE IN SHADOWS skill to level 2.
WELL, that would be helpful Hal thought. Another thought occurred to him, and he tapped Kay on the shoulder.
"That patrol came from the opposite direction than the Gilded Cage. They must have patrols out all over the city looking for us."
"We'll have a hard time traveling all the way to the Harbor district if that's the case," Kay said. "It's a long way, and it's late. There won't be any people to mingle with and hide among for several more hours yet."
“Why the Harbor District?” Hal asked.
“There is a tavern there. The owner was a friend of Selena’s. I think he will help us find a place to hide. She often said he had more secrets than anyone else in the city.
"Then we'll have to chance it and try to avoid the patrols," Hal said. "I hope the tavern is still open when we get there."
Kay chuckled. "The taverns in the Harbor district never close. Ships come and go all hours of the day and night. There's always a sailor looking for food and drink down there. If we can get there, The Chum Bucket will be open."
"Let's go, then. That patrol just passed us. It's likely there's not another close by and we can put some distance between us and them before we encounter another."
Kay nodded. Together, they slipped from their hiding place and started jogging down the deserted streets, moving as fast as they could and still be able to hear an approaching patrol. Kay took the lead. He knew where he was going and the likely shortcuts and hiding spots along the way. Hal watched behind them to make sure no one caught them unawares from that direction.
Along the way to the harbor, they encountered several more patrols. Some mounted, others on foot. Each time, their ability to hide among the shadows worked in their favor. Only once did Hal's uncanny luck come into play.
A group of six men on foot searched a small square with a fountain. Hal and Kay barely ducked out of sight behind the fountain's low wall before the men spotted them. They couldn't stay there, however. As soon as the searchers came around the fountain, they'd be discovered.
The slot machine started rattling Hal's head again, and he looked around for a solution. The rattling slot machine told him there was a chance to get out of this; he only had to puzzle it out. He spotted an alley off the square opposite their position and behind the searching guards. There was a cat there walking along, probably hunting mice.
Hal reached down and found a small stone on the ground at his feet. He had one shot at this. Gauging the distance carefully and watching the guards for when they looked away from his hiding spot, Hal stood and threw the stone.
The cat yowled as the stone careened off the cobblestones right next to it. It turned and ran back down the alley. Hal ducked down and checked the guards. They'd all turned towards the unexpected sound behind them.
"We should go check that out. They must have gotten behind us," one of the searching guards said.
"Come on," said another. "They could be getting away. You heard what the Warden said. A gold crown each for the squad who finds them."
All six guards turned and ran towards the alley, disappearing into the darkness. As soon as the guards were out of sight, Hal and Kay ran from their cover behind the fountain, heading down a neighboring street, passing the alley entrance before the guards turned around. By the time the guards finished searching that alley, Hal and Kay were long gone.
15
THE CHUM BUCKET lived up to its name in quality and smell as far as Hal was concerned. A wave of every assorted fish smell you could imagine, good and bad, struck Hal's senses as soon as he and Kay walked through the doors.
It was nearly dawn, and Hal was exhausted. The flight through the early morning streets of the city had been long and difficult. Kay had been right, though. The tavern was open and pretty busy despite the hour.
Working their way through the mostly barefoot sailors, Hal and Kay walked up to the bar. Behind the bar was a shirtless man whose hairy arms and chest were covered with tattoos. He finished pouring a drink for a sailor at the far end of the bar and walked down to check on Hal and Kay.
"What can I get for you two?" The bartender asked.
Kay leaned over the bar a little and lowered his voice.
"We're looking for Griff. Do you know him? Selena is a friend of ours."
The bartender's eyebrows raised in surprise. He glanced to the side to make sure no one was close enough to overhear before he answered.
"My name's Griff. If you’re the friends of Selena I think you are; you have a lot of nerve coming here and bringing trouble to my tavern.”
“We made sure we weren’t followed,” Hal said. “Your tavern is safe.”
Griff looked around them to the door then smiled. “My relief gets here just after dawn. I can help you then. In the meantime, here are two beers on the house. Enjoy them while you wait. There's a secluded table over there in the corner away from the door. You should be safe there for now. Keep a low profile. If guardsmen arrive, head out the back through the kitchens and come back when it's quiet again and ask for me if I'm not here."
"Thank you, Griff," Kay said taking the beer and handing Hal his. "We'll be over there when you're free."
Hal and Kay went over and sat on two stools at the small square table in the corner Griff had pointed out to them. Hal thought it was a perfect place to take a load off and wait. Their seats against the wall gave them an excellent view of the main entrance and the rest of the tavern's common room. It was also right by the kitchen so they could easily duck out that way if any of the Wardens' guardsmen came in. Griff had covered all the bases, it seemed.
The two companions sipped at their beers. Hal found the beer surprisingly good considering the rest of the tavern in general. He mentioned it to Kay.
"He probably gets the pick of the imported brews coming in from the harbor," Kay said. "I'm sure he's a smuggler of one sort or another and takes payment in things his tavern can use."
"You think he's a smuggler?" Hal said. "What makes you say that?"
"Selena mentioned that he had too many secrets. He’s here by the harbor where being a smuggler would make the most sense for a man with secrets."
"But what would Selena need with a smuggler? It doesn't make sense."
"Why because
Madame’s who own bordellos don't smuggle things?" Kay said. "Believe me. Nobility or social position doesn't preclude you from illegal activity; it just means you operate on a grander scale."
"You'd know, I guess," Hal said. He raised his tankard. "To Selena and other noble smugglers, then."
Kay smiled and tapped his tankard against Hal's.
The two settled back and watched the door. Hal's eyelids drooped numerous times as if tiny weights were tied to them. He caught himself just before he dropped off to sleep and jerked his head upright, staring around the common room for anything he might have missed.
Kay's head was tilted back against the wall, and his mouth was open, and eyes were closed. Hal nudged Kay with an elbow and Kay bolted upright, hand falling to his sword hilt.
"What is it?" Kay asked.
"Nothing, I nudged you to keep you awake," Hal said.
"Sorry."
"No worries. I'm dozing off, too."
"I don't think we have to wait anymore," Kay said pointing at the bar.
A new bar tender was taking over, and Griff left the bar and joined Hal and Kay in the corner. He glanced over his shoulder and then back at them.
"Wait a minute and then follow me into the kitchen. Walk through to the far end and turn right. Go down the stairs. I'll meet you there."
Hal and Kay both nodded, and Griff left through the kitchen doorway next to their table.
Hal counted a slow sixty seconds in his head then got up. He and Kay followed after Griff, walking through a bustling kitchen until they reached the far wall. A window there was filled with the bright, rising sun, coming up over the harbor below their vantage point. Shielding his eyes from the glare of the sunlight, Hal saw a set of stone stairs to the right, leading downward into darkness.
Hal placed a hand on his dagger's hilt but didn't draw it. He started down the stairs, taking his time and letting his eyes adjust to the relative darkness from the bright sunshine above. A room opened at the bottom with crates stacked along the walls and barrels and kegs of various sizes in racks near the stairs.
"Follow me."
Griff's voice made Hal jump a little coming out of the shadows to the left.
Kay joined Hal at the bottom of the stairs. The two companions turned and followed Griff down a long stone passage leading slightly downhill. The bartender paused after about fifty feet to light a lantern and then continued down the passageway. They walked onward for a few minutes, then Hal's foot slipped on something, and he nearly fell, catching himself by bracing against the walls on either side with both hands. The floor below was damp now and slick with some sort of growth or mold.
"Watch your step," Griff said without turning around. "We're nearing the harbor and the sea wall. It gets a little slippery down here if you're not careful."
They walked farther, then Griff stopped. A series of four doors opened on either side of them off the passage. The tunnel itself kept going before them into the darkness.
Griff opened the first door on the right.
"This is your room for as long as you need it," Griff said. He set the lantern down on a table in the corner next to a washbasin and pitcher.
"You can come up to the kitchen and fetch fresh water from one of the kitchen boys whenever you need it."
"We're staying together?" Kay said glancing around at the accommodations.
"You're the ones on the run," Griff noted. "I'd say you should be happy you've got a place to stay."
"Come on, Kay. It'll be fun," Hal said, smiling at his friend.
"What's in the other rooms?" Kay asked.
"Nothing you need to concern yourself with. The deal is this. You keep your nose out of my business, and I'll keep my nose out of yours."
"Fair enough, right Kay?" Hal said. "So, we just come and go via the tavern above?"
"No, not all the time. There's another entrance that comes out under the main pier where it meets the sea wall," Griff explained. "Be careful and use the peep hole there to make sure the way is clear before you exit. The same when you return. Don't ever use the secret door unless you're sure no one can see you."
"We appreciate the help. Thank you for putting us up," Kay said.
"Selena was an old friend, and neither of us had any love for the Wardens," Griff said. "If they’re hunting for you, you must be on their bad side. I know they've been searching for a pair of thieves for the last two nights. I can connect the dots. Be well."
Griff turned and left, heading back up towards the tavern. Hal stepped into the room. There were two lumpy burlap pallets on the stone floor. The room smelled musty, but at least it wasn't smelling of rotten fish like the tavern above. There was a faint sea salt tinge to the air, though, which made sense since the harbor was so close.
Hal took off his cloak and backpack and set them on the pallet closest to the door.
Kay looked around and shrugged, flopping down on the empty pallet by the table. "It is what it is."
"Hey," Hal said. "At least we have a safe place to stay. That's a plus."
"It doesn't put us any closer to getting revenge for what they did to Selena."
"That's not true," Hal pointed out. "You said the slave pens were here in the Harbor District. That means we are close to where they're holding the women from the Gilded Cage. If we're going to free them, this is where we need to be."
Kay nodded but didn't seem convinced.
QUEST ACCEPTED - Free the women from the slave pens.
HAL PRESSED ONWARD. "Tell me about the slave pens, Kay. You were a slave and escaped so you must have been there once. What are they like? What are their weaknesses?"
"I didn't escape from the pens directly. I escaped from my master after I was brought here and sold," Kay said.
"So, what are the pens like? We have to rescue our friends so let's plan this out," Hal said.
Kay began recounting everything he remembered about the slave pens, including the number of guards they could expect and how the auctions and shipment of slaves only happened on Temple day, which was three days away.
"That's great," Hal said. "That means we've got time to plan this."
"It's not just a plan to get them out, Hal. We have to know what we do with them once we get them free. They can't stay down here with us."
"We've got all the money from the warehouse job. It’s a lot of money, right?”
Kay nodded.
“Good. Then we'll charter them passage on a boat to take them away from the city. We can give them whatever’s left over to make a start somewhere else."
"That'll leave us broke," Kay said. "I'm not against that, mind you, but you commented earlier about having enough money to buy and do what you wanted to do. Are you fine with that?”
"It’s my idea. Of course, I’m alright with it," Hal said.
"Then we'd better get some sleep. We've got a long night ahead of us." Kay started arranging his blanket on the pallet, setting his backpack at the top for a pillow.
Hal settled down, too. This was exciting from a game standpoint, but he was still not any closer to finding a mage who could return him to his home. He wondered if Mona had filed a missing person's report on him yet or if the police were making her spend two more days waiting. It would be about that time.
He fell asleep praying his wife wasn't home crying herself to sleep.
16
IT WAS near sundown when Hal and Kay emerged from the stone tunnel under the pier. At the end of the long passage continuing past their rooms, there was an iron door. After searching around, Hal found a peephole in the door. A slot in the door slid aside so people in the tunnel could ensure there was no one under the pier when they emerged. The whole arrangement was ingenious. Looking out, he saw a broad swath of the pier stretching above and the shoreline underneath it.
Testing the handle after seeing no one on the other side, Hal pulled at the door. It opened inward. Hal was impressed when he looked at the exterior of the door. There was a faux stone surface on the other side of t
he steel door, matching perfectly with the stone of the sea wall outside.
After the two companions stepped out under the pier, Hal pulled the door shut behind them. A quick examination of the exterior of the door revealed the external latching mechanism. Hal pressed a stone on the outside of the door to latch it closed. He and Kay walked along the sea wall for about fifty feet until they came to a set of stairs upward to the docks and the main pier. It was time to get to work on their next mission to free the captured slaves from the Gilded Cage.
It took them a few hours of talking to ship captains to track down a ship with enough passenger berths to accommodate all the women they planned to free. The price was higher than Hal would have liked, but it still left a little silver to help the women get set up on their arrival in a new city.
Next, Hal and Kay got some food from a street vendor near the slave pens and pretended to eat their meal while scanning the slaver compound’s guard patterns and entry and exit points. There was a six-foot stone wall around the building and the pens themselves. Hal was shocked to see the slaves were kept in outdoor cages like animals.
"What happens if it rains or it gets too cold?"
"Then some slaves get sick and die," Kay said. "They're slaves. No one cares what happens to them."
"We have to get them out tonight. We can't leave them, not any of the people held in those pens. They must be freed."
"Easy does it, Hal. I'm the ex-slave, remember? I get it. It's horrible, and you want to rescue them, but we can't charge in there without a solid plan. If we try and fail, they'll never get free."
Hal grumbled under his breath trying to come up with an excuse to bypass Kay's argument. He was distracted from his thoughts when the gate opened in the compound across the street, and two men exited pulling a woman behind them. Her arms and legs were secured with chains.
"That's Ilsa, Kay. Look!" Hal said without pointing and drawing attention to themselves.
"It is. I wonder where they're taking her. They don't sell the slaves for two more days. They could have arranged a private sale, I suppose and that’s bad.”