by Jon Kiln
Berengar blinked and looked away, slightly embarrassed. “It has been the honor of my life to serve you, now as ever.”
“What did you two expect to find when you entered my palace?”
“What do you mean?”
“You did not know I was being held in the tower. You did not know of Marlex’s involvement, and I assume you did not know that the evening was intended as a trap for you both. Did you know I could be trusted in your cause?”
Berengar cleared his throat uncomfortably. “We did not know who could be trusted or what your part in it all was. We certainly did not think you were being held, no. I suppose we were hoping that if we could bring the truth to you, that you would act toward the right.”
“I could have been in the wrong and your ploy would have gone very differently, captain.”
“We were aware of that distinct possibility, your majesty.”
“Your efforts are all the more impressive and appreciated then,” the King declared.
“We have a problem,” Nisero said from the window.
Berengar stood and moved in beside the younger warrior. Soldiers in regular army uniform moved up the center of the street and entered the shops and houses on the sides in a systematic search. They were a few blocks and maybe a dozen doors from the entrance to the apartment tenement where they all hid with the King. The officers stood in the middle of the street looking ahead and up at the buildings and windows.
“We need to leave before they reach us,” Nisero said.
Arianne pushed her bowl of paste aside uncooked. “To where?”
“We need to go,” Berengar said as he stepped away from the window.
As they stood and rushed to gather their gear, the King held the crown back out to Berengar. “Would you mind storing it with your gear again? I think I should concentrate my full effort on just keeping up.”
Berengar took it carefully and slid the crown back into his pack.
They gathered anxiously at the door.
“Where are we going to go?” Arianne asked again. “A pregnant woman, an injured King, and two wanted men?”
“You are wanted too,” Berengar pointed out.
“Father.”
He turned the knob on their door. “I’m hoping we are not the only ones in this tenement with reason to flee a search.”
Berengar pushed the door open to reveal people running with bundles across the balconies on all levels.
“Blessings upon my people and their wicked ways,” the King laughed.
“Will they distract or overwhelm the efforts of the army for us, do you think?” Nisero questioned.
“Better.” Berengar pointed up on the far corner of the third level where a board with notches had been leaned from the railing to the roof. Men and woman scaled and vanished over the top of the building.
“We are going to jump from rooftop to rooftop?” Arianne looked worried.
“You have managed fine thus far, daughter,” Berengar reassured her. “Time for us to fully embrace the smuggling class of which we are now a part.”
Chapter 16: Heights and Depths
The four of them cast uneven shadows as they staggered across the rise and fall of the slopes of the roofs. Others slid on the clay tiles as they bounded between buildings. The peasants fleeing ahead of the searching officers clearly had their own secrets to hide. They ran with a level of confident abandon that indicated this was not the first time most of them had fled this way.
Nisero saw others from streets parallel making the same airborne exit over the roofs as soldiers made their way along the ground below. The lieutenant read their speed and risk taking leaps as a desperation for whatever business they thought the soldiers might find. Many of them totted goods hidden in bundles under their arms and on their backs.
A few of the men passing the King, Berengar, Nisero, and Arianne did double takes. Nisero was worried that some of them might be recognizing the King. Then, it occurred to him that not many of them would have had opportunity to see his face close enough to recognize it.
He wondered if they would even notice or care if one King fell and another rose to claim the throne. They would go on with their criminal enterprises and might actually thrive in the resulting chaos. If the price of grain continued to go up, they might make a fortune stealing and selling that soon.
The lieutenant wondered if they might have seen his visage on the wanted posters. Like the King, the drawings would not prepare anyone to spot the real person with much accuracy. At the point that they were fleeing across the rooftops, there probably wasn’t much concern for identifying other criminals. It was pretty well assumed that they were all wanted for one reason or another – or at least they should be.
They stepped across a narrow gap which dropped several feet into a dark, wet space between buildings. Below, Nisero could see a short haired dog fighting with a rat over a scrap of meat. The rat was dragging the dog forward by it. Nisero started to think about the men fighting with the merchant over scraps of food. The image shifted to King Ramael and his banished cousin Marlex, fighting over the crown stuffed in Berengar’s bag. In his mind, the old men held it between them in their teeth, pulling back and forth in a dark, wet alley.
The King slipped on the tile shingles on the steep pitch of the next roof. He slid down into the lieutenant’s legs and threatened to spill them both into the drop. Arianne reached to try to pull the King back to his feet, but then she slipped as well. Captain Berengar lunged and grabbed the peak of the roof with one hand and Arianne’s arm with the other.
As the captain brought her up, Nisero took hold of the King’s belt with both hands straddled over him. Nisero braced his feet on both sides and pulled the King forward and onto his knees. “I apologize for this, your majesty.”
The King struggled up to his hands and knees and clambered up the slope with the lieutenant’s assistance. “Not at all. If we are ultimately successful, perhaps we will laugh about this moment over fine wine in the palace… in private, though. Only in private.”
“Yes, your majesty.”
“And you should probably not identify me by title at this point in our escape.”
“Yes, your… yes, sir.”
They reached the apex of the roof and the four of them took a moment to catch their breath. The other runners began to leave them behind. The last few hit the steep roof with a running start, bounded over the top past them, and gathered momentum to make the wider leap over to the flat top of the next roof. A few of the men entered the building through a hatch. Others slid down drainpipes and some made the leaps to the next buildings and continued along the tops.
A number took a moment to glance back over their shoulders at the King and his party. Nisero followed their gazes and surmised that they were mostly focused on the pregnant woman making the daring escape with them.
“How much farther do you think we should go before we become earthbound once more?” the King asked.
Whistles sounded shrill and echoed up from below. A few of the ones from the drainpipes sprinted diagonally across streets to other alleys. Soldiers broke off to pursue them. Nisero saw a few of the officers strolling along the center of the street looking up at the roofs.
“Probably a bit farther, I think,” Nisero said.
“Let’s make the jump first, lieutenant,” the captain proposed.
Nisero and Berengar dashed down the slope of the roof and made the leap across the gap. As he looked back, he realized that it was not as far as it first seemed with the drop off between. The King helped Arianne up and they made the run down. Both their feet slipped and wavered. Nisero was sure they were going to spill right down the side of the building. That would play nicely into Marlex’s narrative of events.
The two of them made a decent jump and both Berengar and Nisero were able to guide them over to a safe landing. They made their way to the next gap and looked across. Again, it was a distance, but seemed wider due to the fall. The shouts and motion below inc
reased. They drew back to get a running start.
The hatch behind them flew open and a voice shouted: “Halt there in the name of the King!”
“I am the King,” Ramael growled softly.
“Go,” Berengar barked.
The four of them took to their heels and made the leap together. The next gap was a step over and they ran up a roof. Nisero looked back to see more soldiers climbing out of the hatch. They were inspecting the gap and drawing back to make their own jumps.
The four of them used the chimneys to keep their balance as they fled with greater speed across the skyscape. A covey of birds scattered up from one of the openings as they lumbered by.
“We have to go down soon,” Berengar said to them.
“Why?” the King asked, breathless.
“They will get ahead of us. Once they come up in front of us, we are trapped.”
“Here.” Nisero pointed at a ladder hidden in a dip between two slopes of roof leading down into the structure. “They probably don’t know this opening from below. This may be our chance.”
They climbed inside one after the other. They ran around furniture covered in linens looking like monsters hidden below shrouds.
“Where are the stairs?” Arianne hissed.
Berengar found them first, and started down. “Stay behind me and stay alert.”
They took the steps and followed the switchback down through the building. Some of the rooms did not have doors. Human faces and eyes peered out from around and under debris. From behind some of the closed doors, Nisero smelled boiling cabbage. Behind others he smelled human filth. The smells were surprisingly similar to him and turned his stomach.
A woman stepped out onto the landing ahead of them. She raised a wooden spoon in one fist and a stained mallet in the other. “Who are you? What are you doing here? You can’t just come running through any time you like. We claimed this block. Get out.”
She stepped into their path, but Berengar placed a palm between her collar bones and walked her backward to the wall. “Excuse us, lady.”
“Keep your hands off me.” Her eyes went wide. “I’ll tenderize your brains, I will.”
“We mean no trouble.”
They ran past her and continued down the stairs. The doors at the ground floor were closed and barred. Furniture was pushed in front and three young men held the doors as someone hammered from the outside.
“Help us,” one of the boys cried.
Glass shattered somewhere along the front of the building.
Berengar turned away from them. “Come on. We need to find an exit.”
They found another set of stairs and followed them down into the darkness below street level.
“This feels like a mistake.” The King’s voice echoed off the rotten wood and stone around them.
“Sometimes you have to go under instead of up,” said Berengar.
“Are you using my own words against me, captain?”
“No, your majesty. Just taking the advice.”
The captain shoved aside broken furniture from the center of the cellar. Something scurried away in the darkness. It was smaller than a human, but larger than Nisero wanted to deal with.
The lieutenant asked, “What are you seeking, captain?”
“A hole to crawl into,” he replied.
Berengar knelt and locked his hands in the spaces along a metal grate. He pulled and strained until the edges made a wet ripping noise. He set the grate aside with a thunk, exposing a dark hole.
There was a crash above them and dust sprinkled down from the rafters.
Berengar fed his feet over into the opening. “We must away. If I never find the bottom, fight your way back up, please.”
“We are with you,” the King said.
Berengar nodded and dropped through. A splash from the darkness alerted them of the captain’s landing.
“Sir?” Nisero called.
“I’m fine. Come down one at a time, but quickly.”
“Your majesty?” Nisero said.
King Ramael nodded and mimicked Berengar’s motions in putting his feet in first and then sliding over the edge. He grunted as he dropped away. Nisero saw the King go at an awkward angle and nearly catch his forehead on the lip of the opening. He did not hear the landing below and waited while holding his breath.
“We’re good. Come on,” Berengar’s voice echoed.
The captain must have caught the King instead of letting him land free.
“Arianne?”
She lowered her feet in.
Nisero called down. “Arianne is next. Watch her belly when you catch her, captain.”
“Lower her down by her hands,” the King said. “We can ease her to the ground.”
“Yes, sir.” Nisero took hold of her hands at the wrists and spread his boots for a more solid foundation. He lowered her down dangling into the hole.
Arianne huffed and muttered. “This is degrading.”
“You are being held and lowered to your feet by a King and a captain,” Nisero whispered. “There are greater dishonors, I’m sure.”
Nisero leaned over as far as he could reach.
“We have her. Let go.”
Nisero heard footsteps thundering through the boards above his head.
“Come on,” Berengar called up.
Nisero dropped in with one leap. He bent his knees as he landed in ankle deep water with a splash. He suspected from the smell that it was more than just water.
“Which way?” asked the King.
“This,” Berengar gestured. “The flow is this direction and I feel a slight breeze. The city wall is closer in this direction as well. I think we’ll find our way out.”
They followed the captain, slogging through the tunnel. Light and voices rose and fell from grates above them. Noises above led Nisero to believe that they were under outdoor streets again. Rushing filth came in from pipes and some of the grates above. They walked wide, but still got splattered as they went around.
“I’m going to get sick,” Arianne said through a hand clasped over her mouth and nose.
“Hang in there,” her father answered. “Throw up if you need to.”
“Just get us out of here please,” she said.
“I’m trying. I’m just hoping we don’t have to swim in a cess pool.”
“I’m afraid I’m not familiar enough with the nether architecture of the city,” said the King, “to be able to say clearly whether we will or won’t.”
Arianne held her nose. “Did your ancestors consider digging a tunnel that went from the palace outside the wall?”
“I’m not sure what all they considered,” the King responded. “I know the risk of such a tunnel is that invaders will use it to enter a city and take the palace.”
“Couldn’t they do the same with this tunnel?” Nisero asked.
“Indeed,” the King concurred. “It has been generations since this city was threatened with siege, but when it was, regular army units were placed at the mouths of these tunnels day and night to defend just that. Be thankful you have never had such an assignment, I suppose.”
“I am, your majesty.”
The King continued. “Believe it or not, these tunnels represent the greatest in modern achievement. Most cities don’t have them. They lead to longer life and greater growth. Lower rates of disease too, I understand. They are under the people’s feet everyday and most of them don’t appreciate the great gift it represents. Of course, I think the protection from disease is negated if one decides to jump in and walk through it all.”
Berengar smiled. “I’ll have us out soon, your majesty.”
“Hmm, we’ll leave this part out of the chronicles of the kings.”
“Am I imagining it or do you see light ahead of us too?” Arianne said through her hand.
Nisero saw it and heard the rush of the thick fluid out of the end of the pipe. When they came to the mouth of the tunnel, they saw the sewage was pouring out through rocks piled down a
slope above a broad, brackish lake. It reflected the sky and the sickly trees surrounding it in its deep blackness. The grass growing out from the edges of the dark pool was the deepest green that Nisero had ever seen.
They climbed out along the rocks. Arianne slipped, but Nisero grabbed her shoulder. She came up groaning with her hand and forearm mucked. She did not bring her hand back to her face after that.
They reached the base of the slope and circled wide around the cess pool out into the trees. Looking back, Nisero saw the wall of the capital in the distance. He saw taller buildings rising over and behind it, but they were not close enough to see any of the entrances or gates to the city. Nisero counted that as a good thing.
“We are out on the western side, your majesty,” noted Berengar. “Other than away, do you have a particular destination in mind?”
The King took the opportunity to catch his breath before answering. “In the long term, I’m not sure yet. I might have a short term safe haven. It may be very short term, but one night at a time may be the best we can do until we find some real allies.”
“That should serve.”
They made their way west and then northwest. They stopped long enough to wash their skin and boots in a creek before continuing onward.
The King indicated an inn across a meadow as they exited the last line of trees.
“It looks busy, your majesty,” said Nisero, slightly concerned. “Are you sure we should risk the exposure?”
“I’m not much sure of anything, beyond our immediate company,” the King sighed. “But I have been here a number of times in the past, and they have kept my secrets.”
The four began to cross toward the inn in the open grass. Arianne addressed the King. “What business did you have out at this remote inn?”
Berengar whispered. “Arianne.”
King Ramael smiled. “No, it is a fair question. If I trust these rogues with my secrets, I should be able to trust the last three people in the kingdom standing by me. I’ll say that some meetings are not fit to have within the walls of the palace. This is one of a very few places where I slipped away for such business. Some of those meetings were dark business with dark men.”