Eilinland- Through the Wall

by Bailey Davenport

  “I did the same to the sniws who first brought news of the mutiny,” said the chief to Filen. “We can’t have word of any of this getting to Rundyl. I will send out more scouts to find out what happened to the girl, and then we can plan what we’ll do next.”

  **********

  Davick had travelled back to his own house. His sniw was waiting for him in the attic.

  “Did you find her? Is she alright?” it asked.

  “I got there just in time,” said Davick. “If you hadn’t overheard the conversation between your chief and Filen and told me right away, she would be gone unless the southerners managed to get there in time. I don’t think she could have stalled that long though.”

  “The southerners showed up?” asked the sniw.

  “Yes,” said Davick with a scowl. “I might have had a chance of convincing her to go stay at the mansion for a while, but they rode up in the middle of the conversation and whisked her away.”

  “That is most unfortunate,” said the sniw.

  “Maybe I will still have the chance to turn her against them,” said Davick. “I still plan to join up with them in the morning, and I’ll see if I can influence their plans to get some time alone with her.”

  “Does it seem like there’s much hope of her turning against them?”

  Davick hesitated.

  “Maybe we should just forget the whole thing,” said the sniw. “Maybe there will be some other opportunity in the future.”

  “There won’t,” said Davick. “Your chief and Filen have figured out our plan. They’re just playing games with us now, but when they’ve finished, they’ll kill us for treason. At this point, we either succeed or die trying.”

  **********

  Jekka rode up to the stable just as Aenin, Gillio, and Rheen were walking out towards the inn. She was obviously excited about something.

  “I see you found her,” she said with a nod at Rheen.

  “Yes, and she most definitely needed rescuing,” said Gillio. “Luckily, Davick got there in time. We didn’t get there until after the threat was gone.”

  “Well, we got there after Davick did at any rate,” said Aenin. They all gave him a puzzled look. “Don’t worry about it,” he continued. “I just have some concerns to talk over with Bierno when I get the chance. It might be nothing.”

  “At any rate, it’s good to see you, Rheen,” said Jekka. “I hope this is what you wanted.”

  “It is,” said Rheen, feeling happier with her decision by the minute.

  Jekka shot her a slight smile and then turned back to the others with the same exhilarated expression she’d rode in with.

  “Guess where I just came from?” she asked.

  “Somewhere northeast of here,” said Aenin. “I kept losing you in the shadows so I don’t know exactly where you ended up.”

  Jekka rolled her eyes. “I guess that’s what I get for asking a rhetorical question. But seriously, this is exciting. I just came from the Norville Mansion!”

  Gillio and Rheen looked confused, but Aenin raised his eyebrows.

  “It’s been a very long time since I’ve heard that name,” he said.

  “What’s going on?” asked Gillio. “What is the Norville Mansion?”

  “There was a scandal there almost a hundred years ago,” said Jekka. “If you’d paid any attention in our history class, you would know the whole story. What’s important now though is that there’s definitely something going on there again. I saw Charlemaine. She was sitting outside on a fountain and she talked to a sniw and it sounded like there were hundreds of people inside of the building. I couldn’t get any closer without a risk of being detected, and I had to get back here to tell you about it.”

  “That is interesting,” said Aenin. “This could be the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for.”

  “Should we tell Bierno right away?” asked Gillio.

  “I doubt there’s anything we could do about it immediately,” said Aenin. “We all need rest first, and there’s no use in disturbing his sleep for something that can wait until the morning.”

  They all agreed that this was the best plan. With that, Jekka went off to stable Breakfast, and the others went into the inn. They realized when they got up the stairs that Jekka had the key to the room that she and Rheen shared, so they waited in the hall together until she joined them. They all quietly said goodnight and then went into their own rooms.

  “I can’t believe this,” Jekka whispered to Rheen when they’d closed the door behind them. “The missions I’ve done so far have only involved saving a few people at a time. Norville was one of the biggest raids in history, and just think: we may be part of bringing the whole thing down again!”

  Jekka, for the first time in Rheen’s experience, was being talkative, and Rheen hardly knew how to respond.

  “It sounds pretty exciting,” she said, hoping it was enough.

  “I wish we could go back now,” Jekka continued. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to fall asleep.”

  She sat on one of the empty beds in the room while Rheen rummaged through her own saddle bags that were still sitting on the floor where she’d left them.

  “I thought you might come back,” said Jekka, “so I left your things how they were.”

  “Thank you.” Rheen pulled out some fresh clothes and started to change into them.

  “What happened to your arm?” Jekka asked suddenly.

  With her sleeve out of the way, the scrapes on Rheen’s arm looked pretty bad. She lifted the skirt of her undergarment enough to check the scratches on her shins and found more of the same.

  “I fell on some stairs earlier,” she answered Jekka.

  Jekka fished through her things and pulled out a bottle of ointment.

  “You should probably wash it off and put some of this on,” said Jekka.

  Although Rheen was now incredibly tired, she realized it was a good idea. There was a washbasin with a pitcher of water in the room and some rags near the door, so she went over and got to work soaking the dirt and dried blood off of the wounds and covering them in the ointment.

  “So, where have you been?” Jekka asked Rheen as she started working on brushing out her hair.

  Rheen sighed. “I joined up with the people I used to live with, but it ended up not working out.”

  “Why’s that?”

  Rheen thought for a second and then decided to try trusting Jekka with a little bit of information.

  “Well,” she began, “I’ve just changed somehow. I didn’t feel like I fit in there anymore. Also, Rove, who’s sort of in charge, can be difficult to get along with. At first it seemed like he’d changed, but then something happened tonight that showed me he’s only gotten worse.”

  “Do those have anything to do with it?” asked Jekka, motioning to Rheen’s scraped up limbs.

  “I… well…” stammered Rheen. “Not exactly. It was partly my fault.”

  Jekka studied her for a moment but didn’t press the issue any further.

  “And why did you leave us?” asked Jekka after a moment.

  Rheen focused intently on wringing out the rag she was using as she tried to decide how to answer.

  “I didn’t know how you all were going to take it when you found out I was a northerner,” she said finally. “I didn’t want to be kicked out and I didn’t want to stay and have you try and change me.”

  “So why did you come back?”

  “I was starting to hope that maybe you wouldn’t try to do either, and when Gillio and Aenin showed up, it sort of confirmed it. They wouldn’t have come if they wanted to be rid of me, and they didn’t try to sway my decision or present any conditions for accepting me back.”

  Rheen felt like she was learning as much about herself as Jekka was as she answered the questions. Everything was getting a lot clearer.

  “Good,” said Jekka. “I worry about Gillio being a little pushy sometimes. I’m glad to hear he gave you the space you needed to decide for yourself.” />
  Rheen screwed the cap back on the bottle of ointment and handed it back to Jekka.

  “I still don’t know where this all leaves me in the end though,” said Rheen. “Even though I’m back now, and even if I travel south with you all again, I don’t think I have the makings of a warrior.”

  “Maybe you don’t, maybe you do,” said Jekka, “finding out what it is we’re meant to do can be the most challenging riddle we face in life.”

  Rheen sighed. “I’ve been told I was meant to be a thief.”

  Jekka wrinkled her nose. “The sniws told you that, didn’t they?”

  Rheen nodded.

  “They do that to everyone they talk to,” said Jekka, throwing the ointment back into her bag and jumping up onto her bed. “They’ll take your talents and twist them around to make it sound like you were meant to do something they want you to do. They’d probably tell me I was born to be an assassin or something if they ever got the chance.”

  “I’m so glad to hear that,” said Rheen. “In a way it made sense. I do have the skills to be a good thief, but I didn’t want to believe that’s all my life is good for.”

  Jekka nodded. “Don’t believe anything those groveling creatures tell you. There’s always a shred of truth in what they’re saying to make them sound believable, but they’re always just trying to manipulate you. They literally can’t do anything other than that. It’s how they’re made.”

  Rheen climbed into her own bed and lay down. She realized she was extremely tired. On the top bunk across the room, Jekka lit a candle and began scratching away in her journal. Before long, Rheen had fallen asleep, but it was at least an hour before Jekka did the same.

  Chapter 13

  The next morning, Rheen and Jekka awoke to the sound of knocking on their door. Since Rheen was the closest, she got up and opened it a crack. Aenin stood outside.

  “Bierno wants you and Jekka to join us downstairs as soon as you can,” he said.

  Rheen told him they would and then turned and told Jekka who was sitting up in her bed, blinking sleepily. Rheen took a minute to throw on a fresh set of clothes and untangle her hair a little, and then she waited as Jekka finished brushing through all of her hair until it would lay perfectly smooth when she tied it back.

  They walked downstairs and joined Bierno, Aenin, and Gillio who were already sitting at a table. Rheen looked out of the window and saw that the sun had just come up. It was early.

  “Rheen, welcome back,” said Bierno gently.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “It sounds like you all have some explaining to do,” said Bierno, turning to look around the table at the rest of them. “I already heard generally what happened, so I’m mostly interested in hearing why no one thought to tell me what was going on until this morning.”

  “You’ve been under a lot of stress,” said Gillio.

  “And seemed discouraged,” added Jekka.

  “And you don’t think this would have cheered me up?” asked Bierno. “Even if you decided it was best not to tell me when you left, you could have at least told me the news as soon as you got back.”

  “We were so tired ourselves by the time we got back,” said Gillio. “Or at least I was. I fell right asleep.”

  “It was my suggestion, Bierno,” said Aenin. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

  “Thank you, sir,” said Bierno. “And I forgive all of you, obviously. We can put that behind us and move on to the fascinating news Jekka brought back from the Norville Mansion.”

  “We need a better idea of what’s going on inside before we make a plan of any kind,” said Jekka. “I didn’t want to risk getting caught before all of you knew about it.”

  “And now that we know, you would risk getting caught without a second thought,” said Gillio jokingly.

  “Of course,” said Jekka seriously.

  “We can’t risk losing you,” said Bierno. “We’re going to have to get an assessment of the situation some other way that doesn’t put us in danger prematurely.”

  Just then, Davick came in the door and walked over. He seemed in better spirits than the night before.

  “Good morning,” he said. He leaned over towards Rheen as he took the seat next to her. “Has the shaking stopped?”

  “Who was shaking?” she asked in fake indignation, but she was smiling nonetheless.

  “What are you discussing now?” he asked. “You all seemed pretty absorbed in your conversation when I walked in.”

  “You’ve heard of the Norville Mansion?” asked Bierno.

  “Everybody knows about that,” he said nonchalantly. His voice was a slightly higher pitch than usual though.

  “Well, Jekka brought news that there’s something going on there. I was hoping you might know something about it.”

  Davick shook his head. “I thought the place was abandoned. Do you think it has something to do with the disappearances?”

  “We don’t know for certain, but it’s certainly worth looking into,” said Bierno.

  “We were just trying to figure out a way to assess the situation without putting any of us in unwarranted danger,” said Aenin. “The sniws can sense the presence of a southerner, so any of us going in to find out what’s going on is out of the question.”

  “There are two of us here that aren’t from the south,” said Davick, wiping his palms on his knees. “I can’t speak for Rheen, but I would be happy to help in any way.”

  “Of course I would, too,” said Rheen.

  “I’m not sure that’s the best idea,” said Gillio. “Neither of you are trained fighters.”

  “I was able to handle the sniws last night just fine,” said Davick curtly. “Besides, we wouldn’t be going in to fight. We would just be looking around.”

  “We’ll give the matter some thought,” said Bierno. “Did you plan on staying around today?”

  “I actually need to go,” said Davick. “I can plan on coming back this evening if you would like.”

  “That will give us enough time,” said Bierno. “We’ll let you know what our plan is by then.”

  They all said their goodbyes, and Davick departed.

  “You aren’t actually considering his idea, are you?” Gillio asked Bierno. “We just got Rheen back to safety, and now you’re thinking of sending her right back into danger?”

  “I have a lot of things to consider,” said Bierno, “and Davick’s idea is one of them. Aenin and I are going to spend the day thinking and talking things through. You three,” here he gestured to Gillio, Jekka, and Rheen, “look like you could still use some more sleep. Besides, I’ll want you rested for tonight. I think we’re going to be out late.”

  “Is that why you called us all down here? To tell us to go back to bed?” asked Jekka.

  “I wanted to just catch up with you all before Aenin and I leave,” said Bierno. “I also had a question for Rheen.”

  “What is it?” Rheen asked.

  “Where have you been the past few days?”

  “With some old friends.”

  “Are these the friends who stole the wagon the first day we got here?”

  “Yes.”

  “And the jackalope the second day?”

  “Yes.” She couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed at the memory of it, even though there was no condemnation in Bierno’s voice.

  “And where are those friends now?”

  She looked at him, a little confused that he should ask. “They live across the street from where Gillio and Aenin found me last night,” she said. “Why?”

  “It may be important,” said Bierno. “Aenin and I should be going now. We will reconvene here tonight.”

  **********

  When the warriors, Rheen, and Davick were all back together that night, Bierno announced their plan.

  “Aenin and I talked it over today,” he said, “and we will go along with Davick’s plan tonight. We’ll all travel to the outside of the Norville Estate walls together, and
then he and Rheen will go in, scope out the situation, and then come tell us what they find.”

  Davick was pleased, Rheen was excited, and Gillio and Jekka were utterly confused.

  “Wouldn’t it work better to go during the day?” asked Jekka. “When it’s not as busy?”

  “They’re not trained,” said Gillio. “What if something happens?”

  “The night crowds will make it easier for them to blend in without causing any suspicion,” said Bierno, “and they don’t need to be trained to fight because we’re only sending them in to look around, like Davick pointed out this morning. We all know that Rheen picks up on details very well and is good at escaping situations. Both of those talents should help her out while she’s in there. You are going to just have to trust that Aenin and I have thought this through quite thoroughly, and, as a whole, it is an excellent plan.”

  Jekka squinted at him suspiciously but didn’t say anything.

  After a quick dinner, they retrieved their horses from the stable and started towards the mansion. The route that they took was, as Jekka had predicted, much more direct then the route she’d taken the night before. Aenin led the way confidently through the deserted streets. His horse was in full armor again to cover his white coat. They reached the outside of the estate walls after about an hour of riding.

  “Remember to stick to the plan,” Bierno said to Rheen and Davick. “I want you two to go in, look around, and then come back and report to us. Don’t do anything else.”

  Davick and Rheen agreed and then walked nonchalantly up the street to the north. Aenin said there was a gate up in that direction they could use to get in.

  “I have a bad feeling about this,” said Gillio as he watched Davick and Rheen disappear around the corner.

  **********

  Davick and Rheen found the gate without too much trouble. It was much smaller than Rheen expected. She figured a big wall like this would have a large entryway, but this one was just the size of an average door. She mentioned this to Davick.

  “Being that it used to be a commune,” said Davick, “it makes sense that the gate to the outside world wouldn’t be of much importance.”