Elyon's Ghost, page 3
Looking down at the older warrior and rubbing her leg, Ailith quietly acknowledged her mistake. “Sorry, Prime. Jenx always says to keep me head on a swivel. I weren’t, but I will be from here on out. Th’ dark has me spooked, is all.” She hadn’t even realized Geller had come back toward her. That was how intently she’d been staring into the darkness.
Without a word, the Prime turned and continued her search. They came to the back of the warehouse, where a second set of stairs led up to the next floor. The Prime walked to the bottom of the stairs and turned back to Terrowyn, who was just now joining them. “Ya say there was two nobs as far as ya know on th’ second floor? Trib runners?”
“Aye. Don’t know if there were others. I never went on th’ second floor. I walked up th’ steps but then realized searchin’ a warehouse on my own was more than stupid. That’s when I came fer help.”
Geller turned to Ailith, “What do ya think about that, shiv? You think she’s a coward for not finishin’ th’ search?”
Ailith shook her head. “She’d of been a fowkin’ fool to search this place on her own, especially after chasin’ out two trib runners who probably shouldn’t of been here in th’ first place. She’s a tough Blade, but…” She lifted a shoulder. “As me old Sergeant used to say, ‘Tough is one thing. Stupid’s another.’”
Nodding, Geller held up the torch and started up the stairs. Before she reached the top, she turned back to Ailith again. She’d trained over thirty shivs during her time as a Blade and had supervised three times that many handler/trainee pairs as a Senior Guardian and then Prime. Even as a Prime, she never missed a chance to teach because she’d seen fifteen of those shivs, hers and others, die over the turns, either during their time as a trainee or, later, as full Blades. “How do ya go through a dark hole like this?”
Ailith studied the opening. It was obvious that blithely walking up the steps was a stupid idea. She nearly turned her head upside down, trying to study the problem. “I guess…” she shrugged, “…well, I don’t really know. If ya just walk up, ya might lose yer head to some nob waitin’ up there.” She scratched the back of her neck. “Maybe I’d stick th’ light up first before I stick me head through to make sure nobody’s in front of th’ steps, and then I’d crouch down low and swivel around before easin’ my way up to see if anyone were waitin’ behind where the floor’s coverin’ th’ back of th’ stairs. You know, up there, behind like.” She pointed to the ceiling directly above their heads. A grunt was the only reply Geller gave, but when she did exactly what Ailith suggested, she knew she’d guessed correctly.
Holding the flame above the top step, Geller drew her knife, crouched low on powerful legs ready to spring, and eased herself up the final steps. Her head was constantly moving, checking this way and that to make sure no one snuck up on her as she made her ascent. Satisfied it was safe all around, she rose and walked up onto the second-floor landing, with the other three following close behind.
Geller pointed to the left. “Jenx. Take yer shiv and search that way. We’ll go right. If ya see anything, if ya hear anything, ya call out. There’s no sense bein’ quiet. If anyone’s still in th’ building, they know we’re here.”
Jenx nodded, “Aye, Prime.” She and Ailith immediately did as ordered. This floor was as large as the last, and as they moved to the left, Jenx mentally divided their half of the room in half again. When she reached the center of their side, she motioned for Ailith to move away from her so the light from their torches could illuminate the largest area possible.
The torchlight only extended a few feet ahead, and as Ailith moved further to her left, the darkness closed in around her. She glanced over at Jenx and had to tamp down her fear when a waving mixture of shadows and light danced across her handler’s face.
Even though Jenx spoke in a normal tone, her voice echoed off the walls and ceiling. “Move to the wall, then back to the middle, then to the wall again, always moving forward a bit at a time. I’ll be doing the same to the right.”
Ailith hadn’t realized she’d pulled her knife from the sheath sewn into the side of her trews until she noticed the torchlight glinting off the blade. She moved left until she came to the wall and then moved back to the center. Searching dark buildings was completely different from the kinds of duties she’d had as a soldier in the Dreyuthan army. There, if you weren’t fighting, you trained with your weapons, cleaned privies and barracks, or stood guard duty in the forest or on the perimeter of the camp. Being closed inside a darkened building, not knowing what or who awaited her, was a new experience, one she didn’t particularly enjoy.
Jenx returned and studied Ailith’s face. “You okay? It looks like most of this space is empty.”
Nodding, Ailith started back toward the wall again. “Aye.” Her voice shook slightly, and she pulled in a breath to steady herself. Seeing an enemy was one thing. Walking into a pitch-black space, not knowing whether someone waited to ambush her, had the little hairs at the nape of her neck standing on end.
On the tenth trip to the left, as she moved forward, she nearly bumped into a wall looming up unexpectedly out of the dark. At first, she thought they’d reached the end of the room, but then Jenx called her to the center again. “There are boxes stored on either side of this end with an aisle down the center. Stay close, and if there’s a gap, make sure you search it completely before moving past. Understand?”
Ailith stared into the dark tunnel between the two rows of boxes and didn’t answer. Pulling in another breath, she began to move forward into the darkness.
Jenx stopped her with a hand on her arm. “You use your right hand for your sword, so why do you have your knife in your left?”
“Because I’m just as good with me knife in me left as I am with it in me right. I need me right hand free to draw me sword if I need to.”
Jenx looked to where Geller and Terrowyn were searching their space. She knew they wouldn’t mind if she took a moment to instruct her shiv. “You’re carrying your torch in your right and your knife in your left. That means if you need to go for your sword in an emergency, you have to drop the torch, putting yourself in complete darkness. Is that really what you want to do?”
Ailith thought about that for a second, then shoved her knife down into its sheath. She changed the torch to her left hand and then drew out a second knife on her right. “And why are we drawin’ our knives and no th’ swords?”
“Because swords have a bad habit of getting in your way in tight quarters.” Always a patient handler, Jenx waited to see if Ailith had more questions. When she didn’t, she motioned for them to start forward. The space was barely large enough for the two of them to walk side-by-side, and occasionally their shoulders bumped as they walked steadily forward.
The boxes were about as deep as a full-grown man lying on the floor and just as wide. Each one came up to the middle of Ailith’s chest, and they were stacked one on top of each other, four boxes high. When they came to the first gap, Ailith stopped and moved her torch into the open space, hoping to see all the way to the wall.
“What happens if you do that and someone grabs your torch and stomps it out?”
Looking back at her handler, Ailith brought the torch close and raised it high before stepping into the gap. She walked with her knife arm cocked, ready to stab anyone who lunged for her out of the dark. When the side wall finally appeared, she released the breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and retreated the way she’d come.
They repeated the process in every gap they came to, and when they’d found no one in hiding, they retraced their steps back to where Geller and Terrowyn waited at the bottom of the steps leading to the third floor.
This floor was laid out exactly like the second—empty near the stairs but full of stacked boxes the further in they moved. They repeated their search and once again found nothing.
The fourth floor proved a different prospect altogether. A series of doors on either side of the staircase took up this space. Since they’d come up the stairs at the back of the warehouse, storerooms or, perhaps, offices bracketed a central hallway, disappearing into darkness the further away they were from the rear of the building. Geller motioned for Ailith and Jenx to wait. “Ailith, yer with me. Terro yer with Jenx.”
No one questioned her orders. Jenx and Terrowyn moved down the doors on the left, clearing each room as they went.
Geller walked Ailith to the first door on the right and quietly pointed to the doorknob. “Now, I know ya can pull that knife quicker than most. Put it away, turn the knob, and push the door open. Then jump back and draw th’ knife again. Understand?”
Ailith sheathed her knife. “Aye,”
“Once the door’s open, I’ll go in first and protect th’ left. You go on me heels, turn right and hold. Ya be quick with that knife. If there’s nobs what don’t belong in there, they’ll be after me first.” She held a finger in Ailith’s face. “It’s a small openin’. If ya burn me with yer torch, I’ll feed yer tripes to the blasted fish. Understand?”
“Aye, Prime.” Ailith adjusted her grip on the torch, took hold of the doorknob, and looked up at Geller for permission to push it open. At Geller’s nod, she pressed down on the thumb latch and pushed the door hard enough that it banged against the wall. As instructed, she jumped back, grabbed her knife, and paused just long enough for Geller to go through first.
They charged through the door, one right after the other, ready for a fight. Thankfully, the room was empty except for a desk pushed against the back wall and two floor-to-ceiling bookcases full of what looked to be business records. Seeing the room was clear, they moved back into the hallway, and Ailith pulled the door shut behind them.
They repeated the process at the next four doors. These rooms held stacks of smaller boxes, and after checking around and behind each stack, they returned to the hall and moved to the final door.
CHAPTER 4
Ailith had begun to feel more comfortable with the dark, but as she swung around the door to the right, she stopped dead in her tracks. “Fowk!” She wasn’t shocked exactly, just startled. Slavery was outlawed in the Cibían Empire, but that didn’t stop the illegal trade in human cargo around the bigger cities where it was easier to hide the auctions from the City and Temple Guards.
Two large, locked cages holding twenty or thirty human beings of various ages and sizes loomed before her. Wide, frightened eyes stared out from between the bars, and one pidge even let out a shriek. A skelli she recognized from the Cesspool glared with a poisonous hatred bred from turns on the streets, battling for every scrap of food she could find. A nint, maybe the girl’s brother, lay in a heap on the floor.
Even though they were behind locked metal bars, all had metal shackles around their ankles and wrists. These were fastened to heavy metal rings driven into thick wooden floor-to-ceiling beams running up the side of the wall.
Terrowyn shouted, “Geller! Over here.” Geller stepped into the hall, but Ailith remained rooted in place, staring at the mass of humanity sitting in their own piss and shit. Geller reached in, grabbed the back of Ailith’s tunic, and pulled her into the hall.
Ailith tripped as Geller jerked her backward.
The Prime hauled her up and hissed in her ear. “Keep your head about ya, shiv. The best way to die is to let yer shock overtake ya.” She let go of the tunic with a shove. “You’ve seen slave markets before, Aye?”
At Ailith’s nod, Geller continued, “Well, where do ya think they keep th’ pitiful buggers while they wait fer th’ buyers to come, eh?”
“Aye, Prime. Sorry.” Thankful her voice didn’t come out sounding like a mewling kitten, Ailith followed Geller into a room on the opposite side of the hall. More cages, more people. The difference here was that these were all well-fed, nubile young women. None had shackles binding them for fear the metal might wear scars into their flesh. The frightened desperation on their faces told their story. They might not be bound to the wall, but the anxious hope in their eyes told Ailith just how terrified they were of the fate awaiting them.
Geller cursed, “Fowk.” She glared at Terrowyn, “Yer search just turned into Temple business. I was gettin’ ready to call the City Guard fer th’ nobs and nints anyway, but now….” She indicated the caged women with a lift of her hand. “Anyway, th’ skellies and pidges too old or too worn out fer th’ sex trade, and th’ nobs and nints are across the way. Go see if yer Ghost be over there.”
When Terrowyn left to see if Ghost was in the other room, Geller followed her into the hall and raised the single window that overlooked the alley. She let out a piercing whistle, giving her personal sequence, two shorts and a long, following it up with an extended burst meaning all Blades within hearing should respond. When she’d finished, she fished in a leather pouch on her belt and pulled out several coppers, which she handed to Jenx. “As th’ Blades arrive, give ‘em a copper and tell ‘em to go buy torches and come back. Tell ‘em I said they better do it on th’ run, or I’ll know why. And send th’ first one to Commander Shirin and tell her what we have.”
Acknowledging the order, Jenx brought her fist to her chest and turned to retrace her steps.
Geller stopped her with a word, “Jenx.” When the Blade turned back, the Prime raised her brows and, without a word, indicated the front stairs not ten steps away. If her shiv hadn’t been present, that lack of awareness would have earned the Blade a cuff on the head. Knowing full well what Geller thought of her lapse, Jenx muttered, “Sorry, Prime,” and headed for the stairs.
When Ailith moved to follow, Geller growled, “Not you.” Without waiting to see if Ailith stopped, she returned to the room with the nobs and pidges.
In the room they’d just come from, the women destined to be concubines or whores became very vocal. One woman, an upper-class one from Tuviste, by her accent, ordered Ailith to let her go free. “You. Warrior person. Get me out of here. Now.”
Ailith stuck her head back inside the room. “It’s up to th’ Prime when yer gettin’ out, so ya might as well sit quiet and wait yer turn.”
“Do you know who I am?”
“Don’t have a clue.” She pulled the door shut and crossed the hall to where Geller and Terrowyn were handing ladles of water to the people chained to the walls. The gate to both cells stood open, and Ailith briefly wondered how they’d managed to unlock the fairly substantial metal locks. “There’s a noble pidge in there demandin’ to be let go.”
“She can wait. We do this right.” Geller took back the empty ladle from a nob and handed it to Ailith. “And what does that mean?”
Ailith almost smiled. Geller, Terrowyn, and Jenx were always teaching, always training her to be the Blade she’d become one day. It was something she’d come to appreciate during her two full moons as a real, working shiv.
When she’d first returned to training after her brief ‘madness,’ which was what she called the way her anger had spiraled out of control when several former Blades had humiliated her, she’d been worried they’d treat her differently, more gently than they would the other “normal” shivs. The many bruises and welts on her legs and back had proven just how wrong her concern had been. Realizing she was taking too long to answer, she brought her shoulders back and gave her response. “Slow things down, Prime.”
Looking at her with suspicion, Geller growled, “Keep yer mind on th’ job, shiv. None of yer wool-gatherin’.” She didn’t cuff her because she was unsure whether Ailith’s mind had wandered or she’d simply been trying to figure out the answer. “Here.” She handed her the ladle. “Make sure they all get a drink before anyone gets a second.” She pointed to the nint curled on the ground. “That one’s hurt bad. I should of told Jenx to tell th’ Commander to bring one of th’ healers.” She pointed to a sconce. “Slip yer torch on th’ wall and get to work.”
Ailith shoved the wrapped grip into the cylindrical metal holder made specifically for this type of torch. Taking the ladle, she filled it from the water barrel on the other side of the room and returned to kneel in front of the skelli she’d recognized. That reminded her of the reason they’d searched the building, and she glanced over at Terrowyn, who was leaving the cell to refill her ladle. “Ghost?”
Terrowyn pursed her lips and glared down at her. “Not that it’s any of yer business, shiv, but no, she’s not here.”
She and Geller left the room, and soon after, Ailith heard Geller whistle for the Blades again. Handing the ladle to the skelli, she asked, “Ya see Ghost anywhere around?”
The skelli gulped down the water and wiped stray drops from her chin with a dirty sleeve. “Yer th’ pidge what I nearly stuck in th’ alley while back. I shoulda stuck ya.”
“I’m th’ one what’s gettin’ ya out of here and givin’ ya th’ water, so shut yer fanghole.” She started to rise but the skelli sneered at her.
“And what if I don’t wanna go wit’ ya? So what if I gotta spread me legs fer some nob? Leastwise I’ll get food in me belly regular like.”
Ailith squatted again. “And who told ya that? Do ya have any idea what happens to skellies in th’ slave trade?” She’d been on the streets after her family died before she joined the army, and she understood better than most they weren’t children to be coddled with hope for the future. “Yer passed around to sometimes eight, nine, ten nobs every night, and more during th’ day if they can make coin offa yer tired, sorry ass. And those men? Most like to beat the skellies unconscious and then do ‘em in their red backside fer good measure. They’ll tear ya front to back, and when yer no good to ‘em anymore, they’ll slit yer throat and feed ya to th’ hogs. And food in yer belly? Ye’ll get what’s left of th’ pig’s slops if yer lucky.” She scoffed at the lass. “I can’t save ya from yerself, but don’t let nobody tell ya goin’ with th’ slavers is a good thing.”
The girl bared her teeth. “And what do I got like this, eh?” She grabbed her filthy, torn sleeve. “More of what ya just said. ‘Cept maybe I can tamp it down with the Ruki dust, eh?”
