Legacy, page 13
Astounded at what had just taken place, the shopkeeper continued to watch as they set off at a brisk pace through the streets of Karpella.
The party found themselves standing in a small square. The ground floors of most buildings were shops, all with hefty-looking tomes and thick rolls of parchment on display. A large wooden sign painted to resemble an open book was fixed to one building and read in large round letters: Bookbinder’s Square.
There weren’t many people in the area and, beckoning them on, Eleusia led Torben and Gwilym into a more bustling street beyond the square, to seek cover in the crowds rushing about their business.
As much as Torben wanted to soak in the sights, smells and sounds of the city, there wasn’t much time for sightseeing as Eleusia led them at a blistering pace through the streets. He quickly lagged behind as the ebb and flow of the tide of people battered him and made it impossible to walk in a straight line for more than a few seconds. Both Eleusia and Gwilym, however, passed through the crowds with no effort, seamlessly maintaining the relentless walking pace whilst slipping in between individuals and easing past wagons and animals trundling along the route.
Torben managed to keep his eyes on Eleusia, now quite far ahead of him, catching glimpses of her jet black plaited hair here and there in the crowd. Gwilym’s short stature, however, meant that it was impossible to keep track of him in the mass of people. His concentration broke when he inadvertently barged into a burly man wearing the uniform of the City Guard. The man’s chainmail clinked ominously as he recoiled from the unexpected contact.
‘Watch where you’re going, idiot!’ The guardsman glowered at Torben from beneath the rim of his conical helmet. The nose guard of the helmet ran down the man’s face, nearly to his chin, and made his face almost unrecognisable as that of man’s; the effect unnerved Torben greatly.
‘Sorry about that. I didn’t mean no harm!’
‘Aye, sure you didn’t. Now, get out of my way!’
Torben sprang to the side as the guardsman muscled past, barging him with a large kite shield as he did so. Torben could hear him complaining about the patrol to one of his fellows as he disappeared into the crowd.
Turning back to continue on his way, he scanned the throng, looking for Eleusia’s black hair, but she was nowhere to be seen. He hurried forward, peering into every shop and looking down every side street, trying to glimpse his companions. His panic, however, was short-lived; passing a large wooden door, he caught sight of Gwilym leaning against it, clearly waiting for him.
‘Ah, there you are!’ The dwarf smiled. ‘I was afraid you’d run off and left me alone with her.’
‘Where’s Eleusia?’ he asked as he stepped away from the flow of traffic and stood next to Gwilym in the doorway arch.
‘She’s inside, making sure everything is going to plan. She wanted to speak with her contact before we seek shelter here. I don’t like it, Torben. I don’t like it at all.’
The two of them stood in the double doorway of a large house, its face covered with dense ivy and climbing roses. Sticking into the street above the archway was a large fan that swayed in the breeze. Its surface was painted black with bright red ivy-like tendrils painted delicately on top.
The door behind them opened and Eleusia stuck out her head, and beckoned Gwilym and Torben to enter.
‘All clear then?’ Gwilym asked, sarcasm evident in his voice.
Eleusia didn’t acknowledge the tone. ‘Yes, I’m sure you’ll be glad to hear.’ She disappeared back inside, and Torben and Gwilym followed.
Quickly, Gwilym scanned the street and windows looking down from the opposite buildings, making sure that they weren’t being watched. Satisfied that no one had taken any notice of them, he closed the door behind.
To Torben’s surprise, the doorway arch led underneath the building and opened onto a sizeable courtyard littered with potted flowers, tables, chairs, and the occasional couch. There were several young women moving around, fetching water from a little well in the corner of the courtyard, and scrubbing flagstones.
Standing in the centre was a woman who watched the travellers enter and extended her arms wide to welcome them. ‘Come in, come in,’ she said with a singsong air. ‘Welcome to Ivy House, gentlemen! It’s always good to have guests, even those a little more … ahem … problematic, like yourselves. Would you like food and drink; you must all be hungry?’
The woman was very kindly looking, though she did emanate an air of command, even when speaking in such a well-tempered manner. Whatever this place was, this woman was clearly in charge. Her sense of presence was amplified by the elaborate dress she wore, which was covered in delicate white lace embroidery, and appeared to be suspended on her body rather than encasing it. Vivid blonde hair added to her stature; it was piled on top of her head in a nest of carefully crafted curls. Her thick lips, painted a vibrant red colour, stood out starkly against the white of her skin.
‘I’m Madame Fleurese and I’m the keeper of this establishment.’ She clasped Gwilym and Torben’s hands as she spoke. ‘I’ve been informed that I may be of assistance to you and that the three of you, in turn, may be of assistance to me.’ She winked a dazzlingly blue eye roguishly at Torben as she released his hand, and began to walk around them, assessing the two up and down as she did so.
Gwilym glowered at Eleusia, and turned and fixed Madame Fleurese with a suspicious eye. ‘I’m glad you’ve been so well informed Madame, though I hope you’ll humour me and tell me exactly what my associate here has informed you of?’
‘No need to worry, Gwilym,’ Eleusia said breezily. ‘I’ve given nothing away, but we should retire somewhere a bit more secluded and hammer out the details of our scheme.’
‘Aye, we should … the three of us, that is,’ Gwilym rumbled. ‘We need to sort out the relationship of the existing parts before we can think of bringing others into this.’ He looked pointedly at Madame Fleurese, who instinctively picked up on his intonation.
‘Yes, I’m sure the three of you have a lot to discuss,’ Madame Fleurese beamed, apparently unconcerned with the seriousness with which he spoke. ‘I have a lot of business to attend to before the night’s work begins, so I can join your discussion later. If you’ll follow me, I shall show you to the Silent Room.’ With a graceful turn, her dress and underskirts billowing, Madame Fleurese headed towards a door leading off the courtyard.
The trio followed, Eleusia leading the way and Torben and Gwilym inspecting every nook and cranny of the courtyard as they walked—Gwilym because he was suspicious that they were being watched and Torben out of bemusement as he wondered what this place was.
On entering the building, Madame Fleurese led them through a large open room with a bar at one end; it was full of low-lying tables surrounded by large brightly coloured cushions. Above, a balcony ran around the room and was accessed by an elaborate wrought-iron spiral staircase painted black and covered in vivid red, decorative iron work resembling ivy, a copy of the sign hanging in the street. There were numerous, cell-like rooms branching from the first floor balcony. Lounging against the banister, observing them, were several young women.
Torben did a double take when he first saw them, as they were clothed only in short silk dressing gowns that barely extended halfway down their thighs. They laughed when they observed Torben staring at them, mouth open, and his face flushed bright red.
Gwilym pushed Torben onwards after Eleusia and Madame Fleurese, who’d already exited via a door behind the bar. ‘Keep walking, lad,’ Gwilym said, barely concealing a chuckle. ‘They’d be far too expensive for you right now.’
‘Bloody hell,’ Torben said, looking over his shoulder as he was marched onwards. ‘What is this place?’
‘What? Have you never heard of a broth …’ He paused and shrugged. ‘Well, I guess you probably haven’t. Never you mind about them; you’ll learn all about things of that nature when you’re older!’
Torben ignored Gwilym’s jibe. He was too transfixed by the young women hanging over the banister. As he disappeared through the door, there was a renewed bout of giggling from above, as the ladies of Ivy House waved him off.
Torben and Gwilym ambled through a kitchen, where several large pots bubbled away and two hogs turned on spits, and a small army of cooks beavered away, well on the way to having the evening meals for patrons prepared. Madame Fleurese stood by a narrow door on the other side of the kitchen, through which Eleusia had already passed. She held a ring with two large heavy keys on it, one of which had clearly been used to unlock the door. She snapped her fingers as Torben and Gwilym walked by, and two servants appeared, holding large platters of food and clay jugs of water and wine.
On the other side of the door was a narrow corridor that led to another door, significantly stronger looking than the last. The thick oak was strengthened with thick bands of black iron, and Madame Fleurese had to use both hands to turn the massive key in the lock.
They all stepped into the room beyond, the servants silently following behind. It was relatively bare, with a single, large wooden table surrounded by six chairs and a small bureau at the far end of the room with various writing materials stacked inside.
‘Put the food down there. Then you may go,’ Madame Fleurese announced, addressing the servants in a business-like manner. ‘Now,’ she nodded and gestured as the servants left the room, ‘this is our Silent Room, where our most important clients conduct business of a more, errm, private nature. I’ve ensured that you have the room for the whole night, and I can assure you that you won’t be disturbed.
‘I shall return in a few hours when you’ve had time to discuss things but, if you need anything in the meantime, ring the bell and someone will attend to your needs.’ She pointed at a thick gold cord that hung next to the door and laid the keys on the table.
When she turned to leave, Eleusia took the keys and followed her out, whispering to her as they walked. There was a sharp click as Eleusia locked the outer door, and then returned to the Silent Room and locked the other door.
Gwilym had shed his pack and jacket, and was piling a plate with food. Torben joined him, and for several minutes all that could be heard was Torben and Gwilym breaking their two-day prison fast. Eleusia didn’t eat, but sat on a chair opposite, her feet on the table and, despite the relatively early hour of the day, she poured herself a glass of wine.
‘Shall we get down to business?’ Gwilym asked through a hefty belch, having cleared half his plate. ‘I’m intrigued to know, Eleusia, what ransom you’ll demand from us in exchange for your help.’
‘I hardly think that rescuing you from Björn can be classed as me holding you to ransom,’ she retorted.
‘Gwilym does have a point,’ Torben stated. ‘You must have sussed this out as an opportunity you stand to gain from … well enough to defy your old master. From what little I’ve heard and seen of Björn, you’d have to have a damn good reason to cross him.’
‘Well said, Torben,’ Gwilym mumbled through a mouth full of bread, spraying crumbs across the table. ‘How do we know that you’re not about to double-cross us once you get more information? And, for that matter, how can we trust someone who’s already dragging in more people without consulting us? How do we know that Madame Fleurese isn’t assembling a gang of thugs right now to drub our heads in?’
Eleusia sighed and, removing her feet from the table, leaned towards the two seated on the other side. ‘If it’s proof you need that I’m not going to turn you back over to Björn once you’ve spilled the beans regarding this scheme of yours, then here.’ Setting her glass on the table with a sharp clunk, she removed the scarf around her neck to reveal an angry red mark running around her throat; it was veined with deep purple bruises that stood out starkly against the brown of her skin.
‘After Gord took you up to the tower cell, I went back to convince Björn to pay me my full share for capturing you. I reckoned if we discussed it when you weren’t in his sight, he’d be more reasonable.’ Eleusia’s voice caught as she spoke. ‘I was wrong. He near choked me to death. Had Gord not come in to tell him he was needed downstairs, I’m sure he’d have killed me.
‘He never used to be like that; he used to be reasonable and fair, and take into account every point, good and bad, when we reported on our missions. Now … I don’t think I know him anymore. You know what I’m talking about Gwilym? Björn would never have turned on one of his own, except when he had concrete proof that they’d wronged him. But then, he wants you tortured, dead, with nothing to go against your word but his twisted thoughts.
‘Last week, the others told me he killed two of his sworn hands because one had dirty boots and the other said something that he didn’t like, not even aimed at him. There was no warning; he just cut them down where they stood. Madness Gwilym, that’s what it is. He’s finally lost his reason, and I need out of there. I can’t continue to do his bidding when I’m looking over my shoulder all of the time, wondering when he’s going to turn on me! I need to get far away from here … to escape him, same as you … and we both need the same thing to be able to do that.’
Eleusia drained the last of the wine and poured herself another with a shaky hand, droplets of crimson speckling the table.
Gwilym stared hard at Eleusia, his eyes flitting up and down, left and right, reading her face to determine whether what she was saying was true. ‘Well,’ he said after a long while. ‘Here we are, two fugitives from a madman. and an outcast without a home. Three people I’d say are more than worthy of a hearty slice of the good life. It’ll be hard work to pull off the haul, and I warrant that we’ll only get one chance at the prize. Who knows what will happen once we open the vault, but to chance our arm slipping into the castle under the nose of the Imperial Guard twice in the same decade would be a fool’s errand.
‘I propose that once we secure the Keystone, we hit the vault hard and fast, take as much as we can carry, and split it three ways. Once we have the gold, sticking together would be foolhardy. We’ll get away scot-free more likely if we part ways. If, when we’re in the vault, we decide that we could make another attempt at a later date, we can reconvene at an agreed time and try again. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves now. Can we agree on a fair third share each?’
‘What of the Madame?’ Torben asked, curious.
‘What of her? Eleusia brought her into all this; therefore, I reckon that she should take a cut from Eleusia’s stake.’
‘Use your head, Gwilym,’ Eleusia admonished in exasperation. ‘You’ve outlined everything very neatly, but you haven’t considered logistics. The three of us would probably do fine on our own securing the Keystone, provided that Meckel is still hiding alone in the wilderness, but there’s no way that we could walk straight up to the castle gates, swan in, and open the vault.
‘We’ll need a base in the city where we can target operations from, and Ivy House is the best place for that. The City Guard, and many of the Imperials frequent this place regularly, which would keep Björn and his men away for sure, not to mention making this ripe harvesting ground for information about the castle. And then there’s the fact that Madame Fleurese is renowned as being the most well connected woman in the whole of Karpella. She’ll be able to source any information we need about the castle and the legend of Sarper IV’s treasure vault. Without that information she can secure for us, we’d sit outside the gates for years, looking for an in.’
‘What makes you so sure she can be trusted?’ Torben asked, his brow furrowed. ‘And what makes you think that she would even hear us out? The scheme sounds mad to me, and I’m in it!’
‘It may sound mad, but she’s a brothel keeper; she’d do anything for good hard cash, especially when she doesn’t have to stick her own neck out to get it. And she’s helped us so far. Unlike the other two people in this room, she hasn’t double-crossed you, or bound and gagged you. You’ve got a much better reason to trust her than either of us!’
Gwilym shuffled uncomfortably as she spoke. He’d much rather that the memory of his deceit not be brought back into the forefront of Torben’s mind. ‘She speaks the truth, Torben, I hate to admit it, but she does. In that case I suggest that whatever prize we bring back from the vault is split four ways, one for the each of us, and one to pay Madame Fleurese for her services, hospitality … and reimburse her for any expenses incurred.’
‘Agreed,’ Eleusia nodded.
‘Aye, agreed,’ Torben said.
‘The only thing that I’d add,’ Gwilym said, ‘is that, for security’s sake, we keep Madame Fleurese in the dark about where we’re going as much as possible. All she needs to know is that we’re going to get the Keystone and, once we return, we hit the vault.’
Eleusia nodded again, as did Torben though his brow furrowed again as a question came to mind. ‘Where are we going then?’
Eleusia chimed in, ‘Yes, you need to tell us where we’re going!’
‘Right you are, right you are. Meckel’s hoard was buried outside the town that he grew up in, near to his family, so that it could easily be taken to them in the event of his death. We need to head to that town.’ Gwilym picked up a goblet and took a long swallow of wine, enjoying the fact he was holding Torben and Eleusia on tenterhooks.
‘So where do we need to go?’ Eleusia’s voice was deep and threatening. She had no patience for the dwarf’s games.
‘Gallenford.’ He drained the goblet in a single deep draught and then began to filled another.
9
Most of that night was spent arguing over plans to escape Karpella unharmed and undetected. As soon as an idea was about to be agreed upon, either Gwilym or Eleusia would think of something that might easily go horrifically wrong. The table in the Silent Room steadily started collecting piles of parchment listing all manner of ideas and showing crude map sketches.
