Legend of Ecta Mastrino Box Set

by B J Hanlon

  “What are you doing?”

  “Trust me,” Arianne said, “and sit.”

  Edin sat and she grabbed a chunk of his hair and began to slice. He felt a tug at his scalp. “Ow. Seriously, what are you doing?”

  “Quiet.”

  Arianne sliced again, first with large chunks of hair then with smaller ones. She dropped the loose lumps off the side of the cliff. Wind gathered them and they scattered like birds when a tree falls in a silent forest.

  Fifteen minutes later, she looked at her work by yanking and twisting his chin in different directions. A little too rough, he thought.

  “Will you stop,” Edin said.

  She sighed and looked him in the eyes. “About as pretty as I can make you. Though that is not saying much.” She grinned.

  Edin realized this was the first time since the night at the Marquees that she had given one of her insults. The coy, almost cute ones that hurt just a little.

  “I need you to do me now.”

  Edin smiled. He heard the euphemism many times in the tavern and knew what she meant but for some reason, on the edge of the continent, a few hundred yards from the last port in Bestoria he’d ever see, he wanted to get her back. Make her feel something.

  “Alright.” Edin began pulling up his tunic. “Clothes on or off?” he said.

  “What are you…” she paused her face flushing, or was it a blush? “That’s not… cut my hair.”

  “So later then?”

  “Stop it, Edin.” Her voice quavered just a bit and he smiled.

  Snickering he took the sword and a soft few strands of hair. In the shadowy forest light, it had a seemingly red tint to it. It had grown long enough to cover her chest.

  “It’ll take forever if you do so little. Grab it and cut. Short like a boy’s.”

  Edin let a few strands of the silky hair fall between his fingers before taking a bigger handful and pulling it taut.

  “Not too short, give me at least two inches.” She grinned at him then looked down at his groin.

  “It’s more than…”

  She began tittering now, it changed to a deep almost husky laugh.

  “Stop, I don’t want to cut you.”

  It took half an hour, though he’d missed a few spots that Arianne somehow found them without looking and trimmed it. Then she took a jar of something black. “Grease,” she said, “from the lighthouse.”

  A moment later, she took a glob and slapped it on her head. The goo splat off in a fan shape. Drops hit Edin’s face as Arianne began rubbing it into her hair.

  “Come on,” she said. “It won’t look great, but it’ll change our hair color… a bit.”

  After they’d applied it, he watched Arianne cut a circle in the center of their only blanket. She tossed it over her head and it hid her womanly features.

  After a short time, he could see the transformation. Arianne was a glamourous hobo, Edin though assumed he looked like a bum that had gotten into an entire case of spirits.

  It was nearly dark now, the hills and mountains to the west cast their long shadows down onto the ground.

  “After dark, we’ll get close and then…”

  They waited in silence. Edin untethered the horse and took off the saddle and bridle. He flung them over the cliff and watched them splash into the black water.

  They were quiet in their own worlds as they waited. Hours bled past like the way they would when he’d play in the woods behind the manor with Berka. His old friend, his new enemy.

  A few times, people passing on the nearby road caused them to perk up and look, but no one came into the forest. They watched soldiers riding in and out of the city in groups of three or four. Some rode their way, others headed on an unseen trail west.

  It was nearly dark now. The grease and soot felt heavy and gooey as it mixed with his foul-smelling sweat.

  “It’s time,” Arianne said, still without telling him what the plan was though he had a pretty good idea.

  In the darkness, they kept low. Duck-walking or running through the grass at different intervals. There were lights on the walls that silhouetted people and lit up the turrets like they were exhibits at the traveling carnival.

  His heart raced and soon he could hear the river crash into the sea like a herd of buffalo following their leader off a cliff.

  They slowed about twenty yards from the river and crouched.

  Atop the wall, the guards were moving slowly, bored probably in their routine patrol of tall wall and looking out over the placid field.

  Arianne slung the bow and quiver off her shoulder. “I’ll take the quarterstaff, but doubt I’ll be able to get in through the gate with this. It’s only about twenty yards to the top…”

  “No,” Edin said now knowing exactly what she was thinking. The scratches and bruises were gone but the memory of his exit from the cave was still fresh.

  Heights were always an issue to him, but after that trip he knew the real problem was falling.

  “Once you’re up there, I can enter by myself,” Arianne said. “I have more control.”

  Edin swallowed. The determination was in her soft whispering words. He probably could’ve seen it in her face if there’d been better light. As luck would have it, the moon was barely a sliver tonight.

  Edin sighed and nodded. “I can’t use my culrian shield; I’d light up the sky like a flaming arrow.”

  “I know,” Arianne said and patted his hand. “Trust me. I’ve never lied to you.” She let the ‘you’ hang there. Her meaning clear. A subtle dig, not a cute one either.

  Edin got the feeling that one day… maybe when they reached the isle and no longer needed each other to survive, she’d leave him and not look back.

  Her head turned toward the crenulations on top of the wall. “They’re rotating,” Arianne said. “In my father’s guard, they’d rotate every hour.”

  Edin wished he had a clock to verify that. Maybe something attached to his wrist… nah too balky.

  After a quarter hour, his eyes were growing tired from staring up at the fires and men. It was tedious and he was starting to get anxious. He’d moved from crouching to stooping to lying on his side and looking like a seductive courtesan looks at her John.

  “Not yet,” Arianne whispered as if reading his mind. The guard nearest the ocean, and the highest part of the wall, was moving toward them and his body was lit by the brazier’s light. The man yawned and covered his mouth with a fist. Then with a shake of the head, he turned.

  The guard right in front of them was turning the other way and starting his trip back west.

  “Undisciplined,” Arianne said, in the little light they had, she shook her short head of hair. “Now we move.”

  Edin slung the bow and quiver over his shoulder. “You sure you can do this?”

  “Yes,” Arianne said.

  “A kiss for good luck?” Edin said but Arianne glared.

  It wasn’t good enough for him but he had to trust her. Edin popped to his feet, his legs a little weak from inactivity and darted toward the river. His heart raced even more. A soft breeze picked up and the small bugs that had been annoying him faded away.

  The spot he was aiming at was just above the waterfall. The light from the braziers seemed to die out just above there.

  He could hear nothing but the water now in its suicidal dive off the bluff. As the falls drew nearer, his heart beat even faster. With a slight waver Edin nearly skidded to a stop. But at the last moment, he leapt. The waterfall casting droplets onto his boots.

  As he felt his body begin to fall, Edin had a moment where he nearly summoned the culrian shield.

  Then, a cushion of air caught him and the wind pounded in his head. For a moment, the movement was erratic and he bounced above the sea like a god floating above the earth.

  Then, faster than he liked, he was rushing up toward the battlements.

  The stone walls flew past him in a blur, he was closer now and felt like he could run his hands across the
surface of the rough wall.

  A second, two seconds. Above he saw the top of the wall approaching too fast like the ending of a great tale.

  Edin reached out for the smooth ledge of stone. The wind disappeared.

  Edin swiped at it, had it for a moment and then lost his grip. Now the wall was rushing past him the wrong way. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t swallow. He glanced down and saw the water below him crashing over the rocks.

  Edin’s heart pounded and he felt the culrian pulsing toward the edge of his conscious mind. The air cushioned and he slowed.

  He felt cold spray return and looked down. His toes were dangling in the falls. Then he was certain he left his stomach in that same place as he was flung up as if by some invisible catapult.

  He concentrated and tried not to think of the consequences if he missed. His arms shot out as he reached the top and swung both his arms over the parapet.

  The wind below him disappeared and he slammed into the wall with a silent thud. After a half a breath he started pulling himself up. His arms and legs shook and inside his chest his heart was thumping like a war drum.

  He cleared the lip and tumbled over the side of the wall and onto a thin stone walkway.

  Edin noticed the location wasn’t as dark as they had thought. The large braziers on both sides were like the lighthouse leading the eye to him. He glanced down the battlement but couldn’t see the shapes of the guards. Hopefully, they couldn’t see him either. Edin scampered on hands and feet to the other side of the path, a mere three feet and glanced over the far parapet. There was a thirty-foot drop to the street and hard stone with no stairs or ladder anywhere. “Damn…” he whispered.

  The only way up or down must’ve been in the towers. As he looked toward the one nearest the ocean, he saw the guard appearing in the firelight. Edin would be seen in a matter of moments.

  Across the drop was another building nearly ten feet away and probably five lower than the wall…

  It was his only chance. Edin ducked and scooted back toward the outer wall, with a quick breath he ran. It was only two steps. Planting a foot onto the short parapet, he leapt.

  Do not look down, Edin thought as he reached for the tiled roof with both arms outstretched.

  Edin’s heart stopped as the leap seemed to take longer than trip up the wall. It was getting closer… he’d make it…

  Then his forward momentum stalled and he dropped. His body landed hard on the angular roof top forcing air from his lungs like he’d been punched.

  A moment later, he was sliding backward. Edin reached for something, anything to arrest the descent. His fingers clattered helplessly against a tile.

  Then his legs dropped, his waist, and chest. With a last effort, Edin gripped the lip of the roof barely holding with his right hand. His body swung like a pendulum crashing into the wall.

  There was a crack, but it wasn’t him. In the white probably stucco wall, Edin spotted a circular indentation where his knee hit.

  Barely a heartbeat later, a section of wall above the knee imprint began to crumble. Edin swung his left hand up. His fingers found the lip of the roof and he began to pull.

  Muscles screaming, he rose. An elbow reached, then he swung a leg up. In a short time, he was on top of the angled roof with his chest pounding and his lungs gasping for air.

  From below him, he became aware of a commotion. Someone yelled and Edin noticed the wall guard looking down toward them.

  “Do you see nothing?” a voice from below called.

  Odd wording Edin thought. Maybe it’s a colloquialism.

  The guard looked toward Edin. The moon light wasn’t great but there was nothing to hide behind and Edin was sure the guard was looking directly at him.

  Edin tried to steady his breathing. He was caught like a fox in a farmer’s trap.

  But somehow, it never happened. He was in the lee of the peak and the moonlight didn’t get there… that could explain him not being seen, or maybe he was and the guard didn’t really care or had terrible eyesight.

  He shrugged, “must’a been a bird.” He called down before turning back toward what really mattered, the boredom of his duty.

  “A bird? You must be having a laugh,” the man below called. “Come on, let’s check.”

  Edin began to scurry up the peak away from the wall while trying to keep his footsteps light on the clacking tile. As he crested the roof peak, it began to drop down and then go up again.

  Edin followed the rises and falls of the building toward the interior of the city. He was just passing a small wooden trap door when he saw it beginning to open.

  With a quick movement he slammed a foot down on it and heard a shout of pain and surprise.

  After the forth peak, the roof top vanished and he skidded to a stop. His arms windmilling to keep from plunging off the edge.

  He heard footsteps and voices rising from somewhere behind him. In front of him was a five-foot gap, to the left, closest to the ocean, it was about twenty. To the right, the gap was somewhere in the middle like that old fable, only this time it wasn’t ‘just right.’

  He leapt to the next building and saw a balcony poking out of the alley side.

  Shouting came from the previous roof. He didn’t glance back. The balcony probably ran the length of the building… it was a guess. Edin dropped the ten or so feet and landed hard on the wooden platform and fell into a rail. The thud was loud and when Edin stood, he glanced into an open window in front of him.

  A thin woman, maybe in her thirties with long black hair stood there with her mouth gaping. Then, Edin’s eyes dropped. She was topless and from what he saw, she was a bit cold.

  Edin stared, remembering Arianne in the same state of undress and he felt a stirring in his nether regions. Edin grinned and waved at her. It was as if this movement stirred her from her stupor and she screamed.

  Glancing back toward the first building, Edin saw a pair of men looking directly at him.

  “There he is,” one of them shouted.

  Edin said nothing to her and started down the balcony. Unfortunately, there were waist-high railings separating the tenant’s balconies every two yards. Edin vaulted over them, the weapons clapping his back and the rails.

  He began to hear people stirring inside and more voices as if the entire neighborhood had come out to find him.

  As he hurdled a railing, he saw a pair of shutters flashing open. Edin raised a hand to cover his head. His forearm hit and slammed it shut.

  Wood shattered like glass and a man let out a painful cry. Edin didn’t look back.

  Then the building ended and there was nothing but empty street. Edin glanced over the rail and saw it was maybe ten feet to the street, possibly more.

  He heard more voices behind him. ‘Thief, creep and voyeur.’ The last word he didn’t know. Did he just jump off and use the culrian? No, bad idea. He’d endure pain before that.

  The thoughts were rushing through his head as he was only a few strides from the end of the building.

  Suddenly, a figure dropped down right before him and made to reach for Edin’s throat. Edin ducked the hand and drove a shoulder into the chest. The man grunted as they both flew toward the end of the balcony. They twisted and fell over. Edin reached out and was able to snag a balustrade just enough to lower the drop from four yards to two. The man didn’t. He somehow flipped completely over and landed on his feet. There was a loud crack and the man screamed and collapsed.

  Edin dropped and stood over the man. He was wailing, tall and bald with a grizzly black beard and a tattoo of a black knife on his neck. Not a man he wanted to be on the wrong side of… but the man couldn’t have gotten a good look at him.

  The man seemed shaken by the quick flip over the rail. Edin patted him on the chest. “You’re welcome,” Edin said.

  A moment later he was sprinting toward the ocean and diving through alleyways. He saw a stairwell that said Undercity. It was built into the ground and there was a flexible gate blocking t
he entrance.

  Edin ducked down a street and ran a couple hundred yards before turning down another, then another. Again, he had no idea of the layout of the city or where he could hide for the night so he just kept moving.

  Sweating profusely, he finally slowed and began to stroll. He was covered in grease and probably smelled as if he’d just worked in the hottest and dirtiest kitchen in all of Bestoria.

  Edin kept the hood up and his head down as he passed revelers, workers, and strollers. At points, he could see the shadows of some probably nefarious person moving just outside of the light.

  Edin couldn’t get a sense of the place he ran through. In the dim light of oil lamps, some buildings looked clean while the neighbors looked like it had been ransacked and left to decay. A boarded-up store front sat next to a large glass windowed shop with a large planter and blooming poppys and irises.

  All he could taste and smell was the sweat dripping into his mouth. Eventually, he guessed he had run far enough, maybe a full league, and fatigue was catching up to him even though his pursuers hadn’t been able to. Now, he had to hide.

  Outside, he and Arianne discussed hiding out in the undercity, but he’d seen two entrances, both had been gated off.

  It may not have been too late for new arrivals into the city to get a bed at an inn, but that would draw attention. Also, Arianne told him it wouldn’t be fair if he had a comfortable bed while she slept on the forest floor.

  With his hands on his hips, he started to walk. There were no courtyards behind any buildings he’d passed, there were dark doorways but none seemed to be occupied by homeless folk. Not a good sign for his prospects…

  Edin walked on. The thought of an inn was sounding better and better. But he couldn’t… he knew he’d feel guilty all night and would have to lie to Arianne tomorrow and she’d lord over him the fact that he lied yet again.

  Somehow, in the dark, he found a small city block covered in greenery. City Park, was written on a small sign post. There were midsized trees, bushes, flowers, and winding gravel paths. The place gave off the pleasant-smelling aroma of a flower garden and reminded him of the square he and Fali had ate barbeque in.