by LeRoy Clary
Despite her attitude about the constable, she was right. But they couldn’t walk down the road. As long as the buildings occupied the sides of the road, they could use them for cover. It only took a short time to make their way to the end. Only one window had a light in it, but they moved carefully.
Anna said, “I think it’s safe to use the road.”
“No, I don’t. If there is anything to hide down there, they’ll have a guard posted on the road. At least, that’s where I’d put one.”
“So we cross the road and make our way along the beach?”
They moved quietly, but the small sounds of the small waves on the sand covered any sounds that might warn a guard. Still, they stayed in the shadows and moved slowly, pausing and waiting several times.
A cough and then a man clearing his throat came from the road not twenty steps away. They froze and waited. A chink of metal touching metal broke the silence. They moved on down the beach.
The breakwater itself was of no interest. It was just thousands upon thousands of rocks piled upon others. But the three long, low buildings drew them. Dim lights slipped through the hundreds of cracks in the walls. They snuck to the nearest, positioning themselves under shrubs that grew on the side furthest from the single door.
The rough cut lumber confirmed Gray’s estimate that the buildings were new, poorly made, and almost temporary. The wood was pine. Knots already had popped out of many boards, some to be stuffed with rags from the inside. But only the larger knots were filled. Gray put his eye to a smaller one, as he noticed Anna doing the same.
Inside were more beds stacked on top of each other. Men and women sat on them or slept. A few talked in low, dull voices. There was no joking, laughter, or animation.
“Drugged,” Anna mouthed, then turned to watch again.
Gray put his ear to a knothole and listened. The speech pattern was odd. While the voices were low, he didn’t hear words he knew. He moved down the side of the building to another knothole where two men sat on a bunk talking. He put his ear to the wall. Words, responses, but not understandable. They were speaking a language he’d never heard.
Here and there a word or phrase sounded familiar, but he understood none. He reverted to looking again. Both men had blue tattoos on their forearms, swirling shapes. One turned, so the arm was turned to him.
It was a dragon. A dragon that stretched from his wrist to his elbow. The other man had one too, not exactly the same, but similar. Now that he knew what to look for, he found them on every man and woman, all different, some more detailed than others.
A door crashed open as it struck the outside wall when the breeze caught it. Anna and Gray watched two men exit and shuffle down a path to a much smaller building. Once they went inside, Anna and Gray followed. Ten paces away they realized the smaller building was an outhouse. The stench turned them away.
A third building was beyond the outhouse. It was smaller and had two windows on each side, all with candlelight streaming outside. They sprinted to the rear side of it and found they could remain hidden where the undergrowth grew right up to the side.
Again, there were dozens of holes from knots that had fallen out to choose from. Inside was a kitchen. There were large pots, clay bowls, and crude mugs. Three men and two women washed the dirty bowls by sloshing dirty gray water onto them and wiping the inside of each with a rag. They worked slowly, their eyes dull. There was little talking from them, but all wore dragon tattoos on their arms.
A wall inside separated the kitchen from the rest of the building. Despite having to be less concealed, Gray wanted to see what was inside it. He scooted down the siding and halted. He heard voices.
They came from inside, animated, and crude laughter followed. He peered inside and found five men, three playing a gambling game with dice and small stacks of coins in front of the players. Another sat apart and smoked a pipe, filling the room with dense blue smoke. The last was writing at a table, his concentration on his pen and ink.
All were large men, their clothing far better than the people in the other building. Their voices tended to be loud. They were the men who kept the others working. None had dragon tattoos on their arms.
“I’ve seen enough,” Gray whispered.
They made their way back to the apartment. Once inside, Anna said, “You know those were not the people we’re after, right?”
“I agree. Those last five are hired ruffians. Probably locals or people brought here from nearby towns. The ones with the tattoos in the first building are drugged like those in the town. But they speak a different language. They must be from Breslau, and work with the others.”
“Prisoners of the others is more like it,” she said.
“From the drugged water and the slow actions and thoughts of the people we’ve seen, most prisoners in the king’s dungeons are better off.”
Anna’s eyes shifted to the table where she had been sorting food for their trip, most of which had come from the store a few doors away. Her voice was soft. “You know, it might not be the water that is drugged. It might be the food.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The idea that food is easier to drug if you control all the food in the town was easy to accept. Food Gray had already eaten. Fortunately, it had been mixed with food they brought with them, and they had consumed only a little in any case.
Kelby. He had to warn her. If it was the water, she could avoid it by drinking wine or ale. But if it was food? She couldn’t go without eating. People in Shrewsbury were no better than slaves, with only a few strong arms needed to keep them working.
He couldn’t approach her at night. Tomorrow he would. She should only eat fresh vegetables and fruit until leaving. His head swirled with fears for her and more unanswered questions.
Anna put him back on track. “We have to get away from here. I think they supplied this room so we could fall under the spell of their drugs. It could be something in the air we breathe, for the sake of six gods dancing. They could have filled this room with strange dried mushrooms from across the sea. When we wake up, we may be like the others.”
“Now,” he decided, reaching for his pack.
Anna finished packing at the same time. She followed him from the room. They took the road they’d come in on, climbing a long, low hill until they could look over their shoulders and see the entire bay spread out in the dim light.
Ahead, a figure appeared from the side of the road, hands on hips. “Where do the two of you think you’re going?”
Startled, they moved closer. It was a large man; a long blade flashed as he held it next to his leg.
Anna recovered her wits first, “And what business is it of yours where we go?”
“It’s the middle of the night. I don’t want you to get hurt out here.”
“You don’t even know me so why do you care? I think you’re a highwayman trying to rob us. Maybe kill us.” Anna moves to her left, putting distance between herself and Gray as she pulled her knife and waving it threateningly. It would have been funny under other circumstances.
“I said to go back,” he growled, his eyes shifting to her knife, not seeing the humor at all.
Gray pulled his knife, wishing he had a staff to fight with. A staff is often a single clean strike, little or no blood. Blades are messy. He doubted he could grab his bow, string it, and pull an arrow before the other attacked. Keeping his voice steady and calm, he said, “I was cut on the arm in my last knife fight I was in. Bled all over and ruined a good shirt, but the other guy didn’t live.”
Anna said, “He was a big man too. And you were fighting him all alone, but not this time.”
Doubt flashed across the man’s face, and then he shouted louder, “I said, go back.”
Anna held her knife in a fighting stance as she eased further to his side until she faced Gray. “Want me to go high while you go low?”
“Take your pick,” Gray said. “I’ll take the other. Slash, don’t stab. One or two slices like I taught you, a
nd he’ll quit. Or you can back off while I keep him busy and use that little bow of yours to place an arrow in his leg. Don’t kill him, he’s just doing his job.”
Anna slipped the bow from her shoulder and in one motion had the string set. She reached for an arrow.
The knife fell from his hand as he spun and leaped from the road to the bushes at the side. They could hear him crashing through the forest for a long time. They didn’t laugh. Gray said, “We have to come back this way to catch the ship. He’ll tell them we left so that might help.”
“So we report to the constable that a highwayman tried to rob us.” Anna slipped her knife into her scabbard and picked up the one the guard had dropped. She tested the blade with her thumb and made a disgusted sound. “We were perfectly safe with this in his hand.”
“Dull?”
“Dull, chips on the cutting edge, rusted blade, and poorly made, to begin with. Sort of like that stupid guard, if you ask me.”
Gray said, “He was put here to keep us in town where we’d either drink the water or eat the food is my guess.”
“Or breathe the air in that room, if they put something in it. What do we do now?”
“I think we find a place to hide, a place where we can watch the bay for ships. When ours arrives, we sneak into town and to the ship. I doubt if the Captain is under their thumb like the rest of the people.” Gray started walking, wanting to be out of sight of the guard posted on top of the hill long before the sun came up. He also expected more guards to hunt for them, if not tonight, certainly in the morning.
Anna said, “They expect us to go this way. What if we double back and move further up the bay instead?”
The idea was perfect. He should have realized it, too. He said, “Look for a place where we can get off the road without leaving any sign.”
A hundred steps further a small stream cut across the road. They grinned at each other in the darkness and headed upstream, in the direction of the Bay, but at the narrow end. Anna suggested, “We might want to camp higher up on the hillside to avoid part of the damp. I’m tired of being damp and wet like when we watched the dragons.”
“But close enough to the water to find shellfish to eat.”
Anna tossed her head back and flashed a big smile. “You’re from the desert. What do you know about finding shellfish? Have you ever eaten any?”
He smiled back, “Read about them in a book. You’re not the only one to read.”
“Did that book tell you which is safe to eat or how to prepare shellfish?”
Gray continued up the stream until a fallen tree provided a bridge to climb the bank. He said, “Ever do any trapping?”
“A rabbit here and there. What do you propose to cook it over? Just make a smoky old fire and if they don’t see the smoke, they’ll see the light it makes.”
“Anna, I foresee a day when you’ll sit at the head of the family council if you don’t take over for old King Ember.” He waited until she grinned. “That is if you manage to avoid being murdered for that long. If you ask me, those are long odds.”
He pushed aside undergrowth in the dark. When they had traveled half the night, far enough from the road to ensure they would not be followed or discovered by accident, Gray suggested they sleep under a pine tree. The accumulation of years of fallen pine needles made a soft bed.
Before falling to sleep, he said, “Feel any effects of drugs? Is your mind sluggish?”
Anna said, “No. And you?”
“Maybe all this walking got it out of our system.”
“If it was ever there. Your friend Kelby didn’t look half-asleep when we were in the bookstore.”
Anna was right. Kelby had been in Shrewsbury two days or more than them. How come she was not drugged? Why had that guard on the road refused to allow them to leave Shrewsbury? First, they didn’t want them there, then they tried to prevent them from leaving. Why were all the people drugged in the first place? What was the town preparing for? The questions tumbled over each other. Questions without answers.
They slept late. When he woke, Anna was sitting beside him, picking through a handful of food. He watched her select a few items and toss them aside. She ate others.
“Throwing out anything we got in Shrewsbury?” he asked.
“There’s still quite a lot that we brought with us. Hungry?” she held out a cloth sack.
“I have plenty. What’s the plan for today?”
“We go down near the bay and watch for ships while we find a good place to stay, and we find a feast for a meal.” She had it all figured out, as usual.
He said, “I was thinking of sending you back last night to tell the family what we’ve found. But there isn’t really all that much. Each of the items is not conclusive of anything. We’re just guessing for most of it, and we have questions but no answers.”
“What’s happening here is not natural.”
“And not completely proven that the others have anything to do with any of it.”
She sulked for a moment, then asked, “Do you feel that?”
He did. As soon as she mentioned the red dragon, he felt the familiar warm tingle on his back. “I’ll bet it came near here last night when we were going to fight that man. My temper was pretty high.”
Anna said, “I didn’t know he had a dull knife to match his dull mind. Also, I didn’t appreciate you telling me to back off and use my bow. That warning tipped him off to what I was going to do. I just needed a little space and time to string it and notch an arrow.”
Gray nodded. “I didn’t know you were going to do that. Sorry. Listen, I want to try and send that dragon a message. I don’t want it flying here to rescue me and find two or three greens waiting to attack it. You might want to try it too.”
“Do you think I am more responsive to it?” She was almost beaming.
“No, but it won’t hurt. And your silence will let me concentrate.”
She didn’t speak for quite a while, either in deference to his request or because she was angry. Finally, she stood and said, “We need to find a place to camp.”
Gray stood, too. She was right, but the tone of her voice said they needed to walk instead of talk. Anna took the lead, generally moving down the slope in the direction of the water. Quicker than expected, they found a semi-flat area devoid of trees and shrubs beside a stream. It looked out over the bay, including the town and breakwater. The distance was so great that they couldn’t see individuals.
The shoreline was further away than he wanted, but otherwise, it fit his requirements. However, most importantly, the view was clear, and if there had been a ship at the pier or anchor, they would have seen it from the first. “I think this is good.”
Anna pointed to the side of the clearing closest to the village. “If we dig a hole and maybe bank some rocks around the top, we can build a small fire after dark where they can’t see the smoke.”
“We can do that. The ship should be here within a couple of days.”
She sat on the grass and said, “Let’s talk. Once it gets here, what are your plans? Just march right into town as big as life?”
“No, of course not. We’ll go through the woods and come out behind the shipping company. Then we’ll try to get inside the building so the agent can escort to the ship. For some reason, I don’t think anyone will prevent us from sailing once we’re on the ship.”
“I don’t like it. You’re leaving out too many things. What if they watch the shipping office? Or what if they do have men to capture us when we come out of the shipping office? I do not want to be walking around that town unprotected.”
“Your ideas?”
She hesitated, then said, “I believe we should slip into town at the waterfront, near the piers. We can run up onto the pier and run to the ship. We can tell the Captain to send one of his men to fetch the agent.”
“You really are smarter than me, you know,” he laughed.
She didn’t even smile. She said, “Another thing. When are you goi
ng to tell me about Stinson?”
The suddenness of the request took him by surprise, but at some point, he should have expected that she would ask. He had told the basic story that Stinson had died in the drylands, but for the sake of his family, he brushed over all the problems. “He fought me from the start. Actually, he threatened me at the door to my house before we ever left. He said he’d get even with me, or something like that. He said he was smarter, could run faster, and that he was stronger. All true, but threats.”
“You should have told the council.”
“I did. Or tried. They were way ahead of me and manipulated the situation. They told me I could handle him if anyone could. It was also made clear that he was not to put the family or me in danger, and if I needed to return alone, they would understand.”
“Gods above and below! They as much as told you to kill him.”
She was getting too far ahead. He said, “Now, wait up. Their exact word, their intent, and how I understood them may be different. Don’t go off spreading gossip or lies.”
“Stinson was a bad man. His brain was different. I can see their point. I can’t see why they put him with you.”
“Because I’m weak? I believe their hopeful intent was to strengthen me while correcting some of Stinson’s attitude.”
Anna thought about what Gray had said before speaking. “They knew what they were doing. They set it up. If Stinson had managed to get you killed, or killed you himself, they would have the excuse to execute him. They made you their bait if you haven’t realized it.”
Again Anna had put her finger right on something he’d missed. He had been set up. It had almost been a kill or be killed situation. His temper rose, a taste of bile in his mouth. His jaw was set.
She continued, “You never found his body, they said.”
“No. I went back to where I’d left him, but he must have tried to return to the family or make it on his own. I’m sure he ran out of water in the drylands. A sad and hard death for anyone, especially for someone who grew up with me.”