Escana

by J. R. Karlsson

  Gooseman sat on the bench outside in his usual position, sharing the butt end of a cigarette with a portly cook, he looked up at Garth with a genial smile. 'What's troubling you on this fine day, old friend?'

  Garth knew that tone, the kindly and reasonable balm to his more impassioned rants about the hardships of work. He shook his head at the small man, fear starting to creep up on him now that he had to speak. 'We need to talk.'

  He eyed the cook in what he hoped wasn't an overly unfriendly fashion and the man took the hint and waddled back into the kitchen. Now that they were truly alone there was nothing more to it than to tell it as it was. 'I had a visitor last night,' he began, seating himself next to a concerned Gooseman. 'He came on official business, or so he said. Threatened me in my own home and called me by rank.' Garth turned to face him now, to see if there was anything but surprise etched on those features.

  Gooseman hadn't so much as lifted an eyebrow at his startling revelation, as always, he knew something.

  For reasons he later couldn't explain, Garth seized his friend by the shirt and shook him. 'How does he know? What do you know? Why can't they just leave me alone?'

  He caught sight of a dangerous flicker on Gooseman's face and hastily let go as if stung, that had been a bad decision.

  Gooseman readjusted his shirt, taking a steadying breath and closing his eyes as if in great pain. Garth wondered for a moment if he had inadvertently hurt his friend with his own blunt stupidity.

  'He, if that's what you choose to call it, is privy to much information that the rest of us are not. Your secret was not divulged, I told you that no living man would know but I doubt that remains the case.' He shifted on the bench, the hard wood offering little comfort. 'When I made that promise to you, I wasn't anticipating the likes of this creature to take any interest, it cares little of such matters as yours. Nevertheless the subject in question has no doubt informed its superiors of your exile for some unknown reason and they will no doubt send for you.'

  'So that's it then?' Garth said, trying not to lose his cool. 'Twenty years of playing the smith and now I'm being dragged back into it?'

  Gooseman nodded. 'I have done everything in my power to prevent this from coming to be, old friend, however there are limits to even my influence.'

  He felt like he was going to be sick, few knew better than him what this recall would portend. Instead of mending the ravaged armour that was sent to him he would now be encased in a suit of one. It would be a quick death, if not a merciful one. Sah'kel was an unforgiving wasteland full of blood and treachery, but he could not escape the likes of El-Vador no matter where he ran.

  No, he would not run. His death was imminent but he had been given twenty years of life that he had no right to ask for.

  'I'm sorry, Garth,' Gooseman said, only making the smith realise how long he had been standing there in silence.

  'It's not your fault, Harold. This is something that needs to be done. May you remember me as a man of duty when the story-tellers ask of me.'

  'That is already a given.'

  Without further word, Garth left the inn and marched back into the centre of Escana. He had preparations to make for the ending of all things.

  32

  Jimmy

  The cell they were led to was dank and inhospitable, they weren't expecting anything better after Jakob's plan to gain them entrance had gone horribly astray.

  The guards had briskly shoved them both to the floor without grace and the door shut with a resounding clang. Their eyes had grown accustomed to the surrounding darkness but they had no idea how long the silence between them had lasted.

  Jimmy gathered himself into a sitting position and offered Jakob a pointed glare. 'Why did you try such a stupid lie with the guard? We could have waited for admission in one of the hamlets.'

  Jakob had propped himself up against one of the corners of the room and didn't deign to look back at him. 'We were being pursued, there was no time for half measures and there seemed no other alternative. Besides, you were right about it being legal in Daelovia. I didn't know Urial frowned on such things.'

  He couldn't believe what he was hearing. 'You were actually going to hand her over to those guards for entrance to the port?'

  'Of course not,' he replied briskly, the irritation creeping into his voice. 'I wanted them to think that, nothing more.'

  Jimmy eventually sighed in resignation. 'Alright, I believe you. What were we going to do then? Run from the law a second time?'

  'If needs be,' he replied matter of factly.

  'Don't you see that even if we did escape them you'd be defeating the whole purpose of coming here? That in a way you'd just be further proving your guilt in the eyes of everyone else?'

  Jakob shot him a glance at that. 'Even you?'

  'What? No! I didn't mean it that way, I just.. forget it.'

  He shrugged. 'There's little point in forgetting it if we're going to be stuck here together for any length of time.'

  'Fine by me,' Jimmy said. As infuriated as he was, this was the last place he wanted to have an argument. 'So what's your plan for getting out of this?'

  'Well firstly we need to find out where they're keeping Ella and fast. Then we need to arm ourselves and either avoid detection or cut our way out.'

  Jimmy let out a desperate laugh. 'Sure, we'll just waltz out of here and rescue the girl and everything will be just fine. You're in a prison Jakob, there's a locked cell door in our way and a labyrinth of tunnels to negotiate, no doubt populated by guards.'

  Jakob stood up and set his hands to the door, running them up against the bars as if searching for something. He jerked them back and the door flew off its hinges.

  'There is no longer a locked cell door, we won't be in a prison for long, I've memorised the pattern of the tunnels and the guards don't care about the lower depths.'

  Jimmy looked at him aghast. 'How did you just do that?'

  Jakob smiled. 'We needed an exit.'

  He made his way out into the corridor, letting the door settle quietly on the adjacent wall, Jimmy followed him with some wariness, not entirely sure what to make of their unlikely escape. Jakob seemed reluctant to speak any further on the matter now that they were out in the open, engrossed in retracing his steps.

  The prison was largely silent. Occasionally their passing a cell would elicit silent weeping or chattering but otherwise the lower levels seemed abandoned. The stone walls were entirely dark initially and they had to rely solely upon Jakob's memory to guide their flight.

  Gradually as they headed upward through many turns and roughly hewn stairs there was the occasional smouldering torch that offered a faint glow. Jimmy had considered taking one of these but Jakob had slapped his hand away, whispering that the oncoming light would alert any guard instantly of their arrival. Jimmy had no idea what had brought about this odd change in his companion, and whilst it was proving useful it remained deeply unsettling.

  The torches became more abundant but still they had no sign of life beyond the increasing number of prison cells. They had walked past these on the lower levels without much concern for detection as the occupants were in no fit state to observe the outside. The upper levels presented an increasing challenge as the prisoners were aware of a presence and started begging for release upon sight of them, many seemed to think they were part of a rescue operation for some reason.

  Their luck finally ran out when Jakob started rounding a corner and Jimmy nearly ran into him.

  'There's a guard on the other side of the corridor,' Jakob hissed, pulling Jimmy up against the face of the wall. 'We need to disable him somehow.'

  'I'm guessing you can't tear him to pieces like the hinges of that door then?' Jimmy whispered, stifling a nervous laugh. 'Aside from tackling him straight on I see no alternatives.'

  'Then that's exactly what we'll do, except we use this corner to our advantage.'

  Jimmy looked at him, puzzled. 'What will tackling him around this corner achieve t
hat our rushing him wouldn't? He's armed, we're not.'

  'The very fact that he's armed means that if we do rush him he'll draw his sword and make short work of us. The corner gives us an element of surprise at least. It's risky but there's little else we can do.'

  A shout from below broke off their stratagem, a large number of booted feet were heading up the stairs toward their level.

  'Looks like we don't have time to coax him into an ambush. It's now or never, run at him.'

  They launched themselves around the corner and head first into the guard who had come rushing out upon hearing the disturbance.

  They went down in a tangle of arms and legs, each of them trying to extricate themselves in the panic. Jimmy fell backward as he heard the rasp of the man's blade finally being drawn clear.

  He watched Jakob duck under the initial swipe of the guard, then lunge for the man's sword in desperation. As they wrestled each other to the floor Jimmy spotted a company of well armed reinforcements running down the stairs from the barracks. A bell was tolling furiously in the distance, muffled by the struggles before him and the clank of armour mingled with the thud of feet from both sides.

  He turned when a shout came from around the corner, a hooded figure led a charge of unarmed prisoners directly toward the oncoming guards. They were a furious sight to behold and the hunger for release in their eyes seemed to have an effect on the guards, who quickly marched back up the stairs to a more defensible position.

  He lost sight of Jakob as the crowd buffeted him, lifting him off his feet and threatening to trample him into the ground. The first guard let out a shriek as his body was torn apart in front of Jimmy's eyes. A heavy-set prisoner took up the man's sword and charged on, his faced caked in blood and a look of frenzy in his eyes.

  The initial rush of escapees had passed them by when Jimmy located Jakob sprawled on the floor. Fear struck him still as he noticed no movement from his friend's body beyond a shallow breathing occasionally stirring his chest. Crawling over toward him at an agonising pace, he vaguely realised that his leg had been trampled upon after a failed attempt to stand.

  'Jakob, speak to me!'

  Jakob's body stirred at this, any faint relief Jimmy felt at this disappeared when he noticed the blood pooling around him, he came closer to him at a faint beckoning from Jakob's hand.

  'The guard ran me through with his sword in the confusion, got me pretty good.'

  Jimmy let out a sob when he heard the cracked voice, as if in a dream he noticed aged figures drifting past him. He cried out to them, beseeching them for help but none turned a head toward him, all seemed entirely intent on reaching the stairs at the end of the hallway.

  'Jimmy,' he heard a voice call.

  There was a faint tugging on his shirt and he looked back down at Jakob.

  'There's nothing you can do. Go now, find Ella. Escape this place together.'

  Tears welled up in his eyes as he heard what he knew to be a dying command. He closed his friend's eyes and forced himself to his feet, oblivious to the searing pain in his leg. Ella. They had planned to free her from the barracks, what a foolish thought.

  Yet something inside him rejected this, he didn't much care for his own survival right now but he had another friend in peril and he wasn't going to give up on her, however stupid the idea of rescue was.

  He staggered forward, keeping his eyes fixed on the stairs ahead and refusing to look back.

  A hand grabbed his shoulder, he found himself turning and facing a man with a patch over his right eye. Everything was happening too quickly.

  Two men behind him were lifting Jakob. Jimmy started forward with a cry and was restrained by the man.

  'We don't leave anybody behind,' the man's gravelly voice told him. 'Come with me, we're leaving this place.'

  Dazed, he hobbled forward while leaning heavily on the man and watched as the others carried Jakob onward up the stairs.

  'Ella,' he murmured to himself. 'We can't leave Ella behind.'

  The stranger nodded in recognition of this. 'We've had this happen before, a number of our lads will head up to the tower chamber and get them back, don't worry.'

  The atmosphere ahead of them had sunk back into a tense nothingness, they appeared to be the last of the rescue party to come through this chamber. The apparent desertion caused an eerie silence to settle upon Jimmy, who would have otherwise been happy to relinquish his worries in light of the calm compassion shown by this stranger.

  'Why aren't we going up the stairs?' he asked.

  The man smiled bitterly at Jimmy. 'We made that mistake once before. I was the only survivor that day.' He stopped talking for what seemed like a long time then, searching the floor ahead of him for something before speaking further. 'They hunt you down like animals, a beast with more than one scent can confuse the hounds.'

  Jimmy nodded wordlessly, all meaning completely lost to him.

  His confusing saviour finally located what he was searching for in a series of metal bars to the left side of the floor. Tugging briskly at the bars he managed to dislodge two, sending them clanging downward into what appeared to be a sewer below.

  'I'll let you have the honour of going first, put your legs over the side of the hole and I'll lower you down so that the fall doesn't knock you out.'

  In spite of his bleary state, Jimmy couldn't help but catch the tone of urgency in the man's voice and thoughts of falling into an endless black hole loomed large. He nodded his assent and swung his legs over the edge to show him that he understood. Part of him realised through the muggy haze that he was probably taking a very big risk following a complete stranger but at this point he couldn't see any other way out.

  He felt the man's arms clamp on to his own and ease him over the edge into the darkness.

  33

  Ella

  Ella stared up at the ceiling, the faint fear gripping her that one of the guards had dared take her home with him under the guise of some common whore. Not that he'd be far off.

  A creak of the floorboards indicated a matronly woman to her far left approaching her.

  'Where am I?' she ventured.

  She stayed perfectly still as the woman came closer, a sympathetic smile playing upon her face. 'You are on the second floor of the House of Falarus. You have been recovered by our missionaries and were thought a lost cause dearie, such was the state you were in. I knew better when I laid my eyes on you.'

  Ella's head throbbed blindingly as it tried to piece together another question.

  'I wouldn't try to think too hard right now, you've had a nasty experience and need plenty of time to recover.'

  The woman briefly dabbed Ella's head with a damp cloth, gazing over the bedsheets with an approving look on her face. 'You're well on the mend, it shouldn't be too long until you're up and about with a head full of questions.'

  She couldn't remember losing consciousness at that point but upon opening her eyes again she found the woman was no longer there. She propped herself up on her elbows with a gasp of pain, surveying the room with a much clearer head.

  There were eight beds in total around the room, a fireplace glowed at the end of it and cast long shadows over the floorboards. The windows were dark, she had woken in the night.

  The previous conversation came back to her piece by piece. She initially suspected that Falarus was a wealthy nobleman and that she was one of his new acquisitions. She doubted the slave market would have such qualms about giving her a good bed, though the battered state of the four women she could see in the beds did hint that they were being prepared for something else. No, a nobleman would scoff at the dregs here and a guard probably couldn't afford such a large chamber. There was something in the word 'missionaries' that didn't sit right with any of her previous guesses. Was this some kind of cult?

  A door creaked open and a small girl walked in with a pail of water in her hands. Upon seeing Ella upright in bed the girl set the bucket down with a splash and exited with great haste.
/>   She was still pondering the nervous and altogether mute reaction when the door opened again, admitting the larger lady she had seen before.

  'I see Elizabeth has found you awake at last, I'm sure you have many questions. This is a safe place, you have nothing to fear here.'

  'Where am I?' she asked again, stupidly.

  'You are on the second floor of the House of Falarus. You have been recovered by our missionaries and were thought a lost cause dearie, such was the state you were in. I knew better when I laid my eyes on you.'

  She had heard this answer before. 'And who are you?'

  The woman swelled up with pride. 'I am head attendant of the House of Falarus, Mrs Newbury.'

  Ella found the wide grin somewhat disconcerting. 'What is the House of Falarus?'

  'The House of Falarus is where Falarus lives. You are being cared for here.'

  She arched an eyebrow at the large smiling woman, wondering if she was being played for a fool.

  'Who is Falarus?' she asked.

  The grin beamed even brighter than before. 'He is the kindest soul in all the land, he opens his doors for anybody and asks for nothing in return.'

  As irritating as she found the simple and cheerful tone, Ella knew she had to draw blood from this stone while she was still awake. 'How did I get here?'

  Mrs Newbury shrugged. 'The men brought you in, our missionaries. They recovered you.'

  Ella sighed and closed her eyes, she knew she wasn't going to get much more. 'I would like to speak to Falarus.'

  The woman nodded at her vigorously. 'Oh yes, that's what everyone says eventually. Falarus will be here soon, he will answer the rest of your questions.'

  Upon seeing that her duties were done, Mrs Newbury pottered about the other beds making concerned clucking noises at a number of them before heading for the door.

  In spite of the woman's odd mannerisms, Ella felt assured. For reasons she couldn't touch on, this place felt as safe as it looked. She considered rousing herself and looking for Falarus under her own power but thought better of encroaching upon her mysterious host. If he was going to come to her then she may as well get as much rest as possible. As soon as she flopped back down onto the bed, sleep washed over her.