by Ben Wolfe
Table of Contents
ESCAPE OF THE CONCUBINES
Dedication
Map: Northern Territories
Map: Western Kingdoms
World of the Lianshae Stories
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Prologue
GLOSSARY
ESCAPE OF THE CONCUBINES
by Ben Wolfe
This Book is Dedicated to my Grandmother
For Never Failing to Believe in Me or Show
Me How to Be the Best Version of Myself
World of the Lianshae Stories
By Ben Wolfe
TALES OF THE LIANSHI
(5 Short Story Series)
- AND -
WRAITH RIDERS
(Novella Trilogy)
Book 1: Tales of the Lianshi → Curse of the Lianshi*
(DEC 2018)
Book 1: Wraith Riders → Escape of the Concubines*
(SEP 2019)
Book 2: Wraith Riders → The Bard of Masaghdiva
(Fall 2019)
Book 2: Tales of the Lianshi → The Imperial Dragon
(Winter 2019)
Book 3: Wraith Riders → The Handmaiden’s Tale
(2020)
Book 3: Tales of Lianshi → The Autumn Empire
(2020)
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On Twitter: @Wolfe_Ben
Escape of the Concubines copyright © 2019
by John R.Kolesa - All rights reserved.
Book Cover by Raven Brooks
ESCAPE OF THE CONCUBINES
by Ben Wolfe
CHAPTER ONE
THE WRAITH RIDER AND THE HANDMAIDEN
◆◆◆
Georgina and Artemis were hastily throwing clothes in two leather satchels. They had long given up on the nicer dresses that littered the room, focusing their efforts instead on fresh undergarments and the more functional and sturdy outerwear. They froze at the knock on the door and shared a panicked expression.
Georgina motioned hastily for Artemis to clear away the satchels and the clothes. “Just a moment,” she called. I will need a moment to make myself decent,” she called through the door.
Helping Artemis clear the clothes and hastily throwing a handful of dresses into the wardrobe and shutting it, she glanced once at Artemis who was hastily kicking the remaining items behind the canopied bed before unbarring the door. Two large men stood outside the door, waiting. “The Konigar wants to see you,” was all the smaller of the two said.
Georgina obediently nodded, turned to Artemis and said, “Do not wait up for me, Artemis. Take my clothes to be cleaned and bring them back in the morning at the usual hour.”
The two women locked gazes and Artemis nodded in understanding before Georgina slipped out the door.
It was several minutes past midnight when Artemis slipped into the servant’s corridor outside the Konigar’s apartments. The large man guarding the hall would pay with his life if it was discovered that he was humping his brains out with the brothel’s newest recruit. A little rabbit of a girl from Falshire who had come north as a runaway. Desperate to find favor with the guards who were well paid and free with their coin, she was all too happy to be shown the few places around the castle that were hidden and guarded, where the guards were more likely to die of boredom than encounter an invader or assassin. Given the chance to spend time with a guard for a few minutes, it was not even necessary to provide a reason. The guard probably felt justified in that few would be crazy enough to sneak into the Konigar’s rooms in the middle of the night uninvited.
She could hear Georgina’s pleas before she got to the door behind the tapestry that led to the Konigar’s quarters. Pulling a small tin of grease from the top of the satchel, she lubricated the hinges before slowly easing the door open. She peered into the dim quarters then pulled her head back quickly.
“Please,” she heard Georgina beg. “I do not know where she went.” Artemis squeezed her eyes shut and tried to regulate her breathing. The squire who had arranged for their horses was nailed to the upright posts on the bed, his chest bloody from multiple cuts, his eyes gouged out with bloody sockets staring into emptiness, and Georgina was crumpled on the floor at the Konigar’s feet. The image remained in her mind even with her eyes closed. “I don’t know.”
"You are my wife,” he said with emphasis. “Do not lie to me.” He pulled her up by her hair. “This boy admitted to providing a horse to your handmaid for gold. Gold you gave her. When the guards went to apprehend Artemis after bringing you here, she was gone. No one has seen her. She has abandoned you.”
“No,” she said. “She is saving herself because she knows what is coming. You have used every handmaid I have ever had as your concubine. They always disappear when you are done with them to be replaced by a new one.”
Artemis glanced around the room to assure that there were no guards when the door behind her opened silently. A figure dressed in black from head to toe stood in the door. She had a slight, feminine frame and wore a hood and a scarf covering all but her eyes. Both were made of the same lightweight black material. The woman lifted a finger to her face to motion for silence and gestured for Artemis to move out of the way.
Grabbing a hot pair of pincers, the Konigar replied grimly, “It is my right, both as Konigar and husband. You are my wife. I need the support of your family and heirs to further my line. You don’t need fingers or toes to do that. That gives you many opportunities to tell me what I want to know and to learn your place. I tried being nice to you, woman. Your incessant complaints about other women is unbecoming the wife of a Konigar. Now,” he said, ignoring her screams as he grabbed her hand and positioned the pincers around her smallest finger. “Where is Artemis? What did you do with the gold?”
The woman in black sprinted across the room, drawing a dagger as the Konigar turned his head, sliding leg-first on the ground past him as she cut deeply along the back of his calves.
As the Konigar roared in outrage, she leveled a gauntlet at him and fired a small bolt into his throat, silencing him. Hearing the strangled noise at the door behind him, he tried to turn but his legs would not take the weight of his step. He stumbled and nearly dropped the pincers as he reached out to the bed for support.
“Artemis,” he said in a gurgling voice, calculating quickly the situation and sensing his danger. “Traitors!” he grated hoarsely as the woman in black stepped towards Georgina.
The Konigar plunged the hot pincers into Georgina’s chest, realizing that the women were there for her and reached for the woman in black with his massive arm. Georgina opened her mouth to scream, but only bloody froth came out. The woman in black stepped back and fired two more small bolts into the Konigar’s chest from her gauntlet before darting toward the door where Artemis stood shocked, staring at her friend’s limp body. A pool of blood had started to form on the floor below Georgina, her eyes staring vacant at the ceiling.
The woman grabbed Artemis on her way out as they heard the Konigar fall. Pushing Artemis out the door, she pulled a small pouch from her belt and placed it at the base of the tapestry covering the exit. She struck her gauntlets together twice against each other, creating a spark and igniting the pouch. The flames swiftly climbed the tapestry as she followed Artemis into the servant’s tunnels.
Artemis was wide-eyed and still in shock. “Who are you?”
“My name is Margot. I am a Wraith Rider of Arkenheim. I was hired by Georgina to bring the tw
o of you to safety. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but right now, I suggest that we get out of here. Motioning down one of the corridors, Margot sheathed her knife and followed closely behind Artemis, who was now crying softly as the two ran down the endless corridors until they emerged near the back of the kitchens. There was a sleek black horse in the kitchen livery stable, saddled and prepared to ride. The mounts that she had taken from the boy the Konigar had strung up and killed were tied next to it. Seeing the third horse tethered next to the wraith rider’s horse made her think of Georgina.
“We should go back,” Artemis said. “She could still be alive,” she said in a frightened voice.
“Look, girl. I don’t know who you are though I surmise you might be Artemis. She talked about you. But she’s dead now and you are alive and she’d want us to try to keep you that way, so get up on that horse so we can ride out of here or I’ll knock you out and throw you over the back of that horse. The choice is yours, but make it quickly. I’ll not leave you behind to tell this tale.
Artemis wiped her tears and climbed atop her mount amidst the growing sounds of panicked voices raising the alarm for fire and desperate calls for water buckets. Glancing back at her home and realizing it might be the last time she might see it, she rode after Margot, away from the fire. Away from the Vordoshan capital of Vindhela and fleeing the murder of the Konigar. She did not know where she was going but she doubted there would be anywhere she could hide from the wrath of the Vordoshans if they ever found out what happened.”
As they reached the outskirts of the city, Margot slowed her mount, easing their pace. “They will not know what caused the fire, nor will they see the Konigar murdered. All they will see are the charred remains of three bodies in his quarters, the flesh seared from his body disguising any wounds inflicted upon him. I did not make the wounds to the bone.” Turning her mount to stop Artemis’ horse before exiting the city, she asked, “Do you have the balance of payment?”
Artemis replied, “You were paid half up front to see both of us out of the city and to a safe haven alive. You left Georgina back there to die. You were paid half, yet you brought only one of us out alive and not even to safety yet. We are settled between us when you deliver me to safe haven.”
“That was not the arrangement,” Margot said, “Both of you knew the risks. You knew it would be dangerous. The original agreement did not involve a rescue attempt for a captive of the Vordoshan Konigar. It did not include having to set fire to his stronghold to cover his murder and make good your escape. I would say we are more than even. Now, do you have the rest with you or shall I leave you here to find your own way to safety?”
Artemis tried unsuccessfully to look defiant but her trembling gave her away. “Look, get me to safety and you will have the gold you were promised.”
“I will have the gold that was promised regardless. I just wanted to see if you knew the value of your own life. I agreed to see you to safety. I am a Wraith Rider and I’ve given my word. So long as you keep yours, you will find safety, but there are others. You and Georgina were not the only wives and concubines in the west that were seeking to end your mistreatment at the hands of the Konigar and Kings. If the Dark Riders and Ebon Knights of Arkenheim can fight as mercenaries, the Wraiths can as well. But we will fight for the causes that we believe in. There is now a safe place that we can take all of you and the Wraiths will see that you get there.”
“All of us?” she said. “What do you mean? How many of us are there? How many of you are there?”
Margot smiled behind her veil and turned her horse again without replying, leading Artemis out of the city as an orange glow lit the night sky from the stronghold behind them.
CHAPTER TWO
BASKETS OF FROZEN HEADS
◆◆◆
Artemis looked around as her cloak caught a gust of wind and snow that pulled on the hood framing her face. They had entered the northern pass in the mountains east of the Shonan Plains, their aelfen guide pulling up and pointing.
Their guide, an aelfen ranger named Kara, looked back upon the group of more than thirty women on horseback who followed her. “The northern pass is before you, but the men who pursue you are not far behind. This is as far as I can take you. They will know that you are heading for the pass at this point. You must hurry. There are Jintai lookouts upon the ridge on either side though you will not see them. I do not know that they will help you if these men pursuing you catch you.”
Margot stood in her stirrups and called back to the rest of them, her black cloak billowing. “I know you are tired and scared. You saw what they will do to you if you are caught. We have lost several of you already along the way before we could stop them. You know they are willing to kill you rather than let you go. They will have banded together to hunt you now. It will not slow them down. There are not enough of us to stop them. Our best chance is to make it through the pass as quickly as possible. Once through we will try to find the Lianshi’s troops who watch the passes. Her Jintai. Let’s go.” She wheeled her horse around and set off at a gallop, the other wraiths taking up station around the group of women, concubines and wives of the western and northern kings and lords.
The women were not very talkative and Artemis felt as though she was alone and isolated from the rest. They were noblewomen and she was a handmaiden who had lost her mistress. They tolerated her but she knew that even the concubines saw her as an outsider. All had heard of what had happened up north and she was sure that many held her responsible for what had followed. It didn’t matter that the hunters were descending upon them from all across the northlands and the west. The involvement of the wraiths was known now or soon would be and most of the half dozen wraiths that accompanied their group knew that their organization, if caught west of these mountains, would face the full wrath of the kings and the Konigar. That the Konigar had lived had come as a shock to Artemis, but Margot had informed her with a grim face of the Konigar’s survival days after they had met with the other groups fleeing from the western kingdoms. It was just before the first attack had come against them.
They had barely received advance warning of their pursuers before the first group of mercenaries and trackers had found them. Several of the concubines and one of the wives had been captured. Another had been killed, cut down when she attempted to flee on foot after her mount had been shot with arrows from beneath her. She could still hear the wails of fear and desperation of the women who had been captured when they saw their friend fall.
They had been on the run ever since. One of the wraiths had died defending one of the wives during the last assault, when they had finally stopped to rest. Though the mood of the wraiths had been somber, Artemis felt that there was something that they were not being told.
It had been a calculated risk to enter the Aelfen Woods through the Vale of Vorder and seek the help of an aelfen guide to get them to the northern pass before their pursuers who were denied entry to the aelfen lands once the Wraiths had paid their guide in gold. The Wraiths were not happy that they had lost one of their own. Artemis knew that even their service to Arkenheim would not be a shield if they were caught west of the northern pass now. They knew their pursuers were not far to the west somewhere on the Shonan Plains, riding hard to catch them.
As the others moved to keep up, Artemis hesitated, turning her mount towards the aelfen ranger.
Kara smiled at her. “You know, don’t you?”
“I’m not really sure what I know,” she replied. “Only that there is more that they are not telling us.”
“Their society was disavowed by the mage-smiths of Arkenheim. Their involvement in the attempted slaying of the Konigar implicated them for the first time in the politics of Vordosha and the kingdoms of the west. They have taken a step that they cannot turn back from. They are uncertain of their future and the future of the Wraiths, who will now be hunted and face exposure, even by their traditional allies. Worse, as a result of their actions being exposed, the kin
gs of the west and the Konigar in the north have called a council of kings not seen since the last high king’s council. For them to lay aside their feud over who should be high king is no small thing. It is an indication of their fury.”
Kara hesitated, watching the group of women riding hard for the pass. “I have done what I was paid to do, but I have not done all that I can do. I know that you are a handmaiden and an outsider to most of the women in that group. Do you want to see them survive?”
Artemis looked back towards the group of women shepherded by the Wraiths as they receded from sight into the light flurries and nodded sharply.
“Follow me,” was all she said as she rode past Artemis onto a trail that led higher into the mountains.
They rode hard in silence for what seemed like hours before Kara reined in her horse. She stroked the magnificent beast’s shoulder and whispered thanks into her ear before sitting straight in her saddle. “Jintai!” she called out. “It is Kara, of the aelfen rangers bearing a message from the women in the valley below.”
Removing a small, strange-looking tube wrapped in leather with several odd-shaped holes in it from her belt, she covered two of them and the device emitted a sharp bird cry, not unlike that of an eagle.
More than a dozen women began to emerge from behind boulders that littered the mountain path and behind the larger pines that grew near the top of the pass. All had arrows leveled at the two women who found themselves encircled.