The Swordmaster, page 9
Loud shouts echoing from above. Clearly, her chasers were still searching for her and had reached the spot where she had only recently been standing.
‘She’s gone. How could she run so fast? And now she’s vanished into thin air.’
‘I could swear her voice sounded like Tandrik’s girlfriend – the one, they say, who murdered him. Her features were similar – it could have been this Calinka Cornika.’
Another voice asked in a fearful tone: ‘What are we going to tell Mondek now? He’s going to blow his top because she’s given us the slip.’
She couldn’t hear the other fellow’s answer – the pair had clearly moved away from the grille.
She stared down at her feet. Her relief at having been able to squeeze in here vanished the moment she noticed the faeces floating above her peasant buskins. ‘I’ll be throwing them away later, anyway,’ she said, comforting herself.
The stench was so appalling, she only breathed through her mouth now, especially as she had to stoop as well if she wanted to progress any further. A gentle curve and the daylight disappeared behind her. She felt her way along the walls. What was the meaning of this? Was her contract now to traipse in the dark through a sea of piss? When she finally saw reason and prepared to turn around, she noticed a flicker of torch light. Very well – just another few steps. Her wet shoes were squeaking. There had to be a lot of torches. A splashing sound, getting louder all the time. She was amazed to see that the canal led to an enormous chamber, for there were countless shadows dancing on its ceiling. Every so often, commands would be shouted, followed by the cracking of whips. Now she reached the end of the passageway. She gasped – this time it wasn’t because of the stink.
She was standing on a height, ten yards up, just below the ceiling, looking down on an enormous, underground vault. In front of her was a clay pit, stretching out for many yards, in which at least ten heavily armed soldiers were guarding half-naked men, who were scraping a bright substance from the walls. The stuff resembled crystallised white mould.
The effluent from her canal and from another one was trickling down the clay walls into clay drains.
Two men, not far below her, were holding with all their might onto a bloody lump of flesh, which, handily enough, had two arms and two legs to grip and to throw away.
One of the two men said: ‘Let’s get rid of him quickly. We still have to pick up the cartload of brimstone which has to be delivered from the pyrite mine of the Tower Mountains.’
‘Endless lugging about,’ groaned the other.
The lump of flesh was quickly carried away.
The vault extended as far as she could see. There were more clay pits, some of them empty, others with men digging up the ground or scraping at the walls. The end product was stored in casks, which were then stacked on each other at a wall.
It was from these pits, then, that a large portion of the stink that permeated the town came from. Why was Schohtar forcing prisoners to dig around in the piss from the town pissoirs? And to think that she had believed herself to be unshockable!
Lost in thought, she made her way back the way she came, once again squeezing through the grille. The first thing she needed to do was to get as far away from here as possible, then bathe, then put on new clothes. She walked quickly away from the Star of the South and into the wilderness.
secret passage
The prince made his way to the library in Fortress Beachperch. Earlier, Forand had declared that they had a free afternoon because he wanted to ride to the village of Klamm. Karek suspected that the captain wanted to make enquiries into the death of his friend, To Shyr Ban. The captain hadn’t said so specifically, but Forand was not the sort of person to accept a murder like that with a shrug of his shoulders.
Karek had told him that he shouldn’t make the same mistake as To Shyr Ban and leave the fortress on his own, but Forand merely smiled and explained that there was no need to worry about him.
Karek pushed open the big door to the library and looked around. ‘Milafine, are you here?’
And indeed, he heard a voice from one of the aisles to the rear. ‘Linnek?’
He hurried passed a multitude of racks, looked to his right and spotted her with a book in her hand.
It took no time at all before the prince smiling broadly at her. This girl could make block of wood beam.
‘Nice of you to come and keep me company, Linnek. My father told me what you’ve been up to.’
Indignant, he placed his right hand on his chest. ‘My heart is pure. I only do things with the best of intentions.’
‘My father said that you were too stupid to apologise profusely to Captain Bostun for your disgraceful behaviour. Bostun told Rogat that he wanted to carry out another flogging, but the latter wouldn’t hear of it.’ She giggled quietly. ‘And yet you really don’t look like a troublemaker. But you always seem to have an effect on people with your fortitude.’
He felt his round stomach. ‘Surely you mean my magnitude.’
She smiled. Alas, he had not quite succeeded in unlocking a laugh. Oh, how he would love to see and hear her laugh. Just once. Although the very thought of it made him feel anxious. After all, even seeing her smile made his heart stop.
‘What a funny soldier you are.’
‘Even funny people have their moments of earnestness. Milafine – I need your help.’
She raised her head and looked at him curiously. ‘If I can help,’ she said. ‘And if I want to,’ she added with a mischievous smile.
‘I need to know how I can secretly leave the fortress and then get back into it again. When you visited me in my cell, you said there was a way through the rocks down to the beach. Can you show me the secret passage and how I can use it?’
Her eyes grew rounder. And rounder. Karek felt a little dizzy now. And there was a lump in his throat.
This girl is causing me to question my sanity.
Then she brought him back to reality.
She spoke in a demanding voice: ‘Yes, I could help you. What will you give me in return?’
His image of her as a fairylike, wondrous creation received a little scratch. Nothing serious, only a teeny-weeny blemish, like a miniscule speck on an otherwise spick and span metal shield.
‘What are you thinking of? I have nothing. What can I possibly give you?’
‘How about the truth, for starters?’
What’s she getting at?
He answered in a roundabout way to buy himself time. ‘The truth is…uh…a large meadow.’
‘If you say so – then I am going to lie down now in this large meadow and go to sleep. Good night. I can’t help you.’ Her voice was neither sarcastic nor accusatory. She looked down at her open book again.
Why are all women so complicated? And I thought the crow was moody.
The prince swallowed the anger that was rising within him and asked amicably: ‘If it’s alright, Milafine, please tell me what I’ve done wrong.’
‘Agreed. You demand from me that I reveal a secret to you – one that both my father and Rogat expect me not to blurt out to all and sundry. Yet, you expect me to trust you, although you keep your secrets from me.’
Now he was standing there, as speechless and helpless as during their first encounter in the library. Suddenly, he was certain of one thing. He had to reach a decision. Here and now. One way or another. He listened in on himself, hoping that his gut feeling would be of assistance. It assisted, for he understood what she was getting at and what he had to do.
‘Very well, Milafine. Let’s sit down.’
They went to a small reading table at one of the large windows.
‘I am not who I say I am. In fact, my name is not Linnek. It’s a complicated situation.’ He took a deep breath. ‘I’ve made a promise not to talk about it and not to tell anyone – which is why this is difficult for me. It is a matter of complete confidentiality.’
He paused.
She leaned back and wrapped a long strand of hair around her right forefinger. ‘I have kept it to myself up until now and I will continue to do so, Karek.’
He looked at her, wide-eyed, and felt the blood rushing up to his face.
Just what I suspected. Why am I still surprised?
‘How long have you known?’ he asked.
‘It was you, who let the cat out of the bag – the first time we met. In fact, I couldn’t get much more out of you. I didn’t give it too much thought, but when I started hearing stories about the noteworthy Cadet Linnek, I became curious. Most of the time, I live with my grandmother in Tanderheim. While I was here, she spent a few weeks in Cragwater.’ She giggled quietly. ‘When we were both back home again, I peppered granny with questions about what she’d heard regarding a prince by the name of Karek in Cragwater. And she immediately told me that this prince hadn’t been seen for months, either in the castle or the town. No-one knew where he was. I put two and two together. Later, I begged granny to describe the prince in detail, for she had seen him at a parade two years ago. And guess what? Our Prince Karek suddenly has a twin brother called Linnek, who is learning to be an officer in Fortress Beachperch, and who behaves daftly, and that’s putting it mildly.’
‘Yes, indeed, we are twins, we resemble each other like two peas in a pod, and from time to time, we get mixed up,’ grinned the prince. ‘Sometimes, I don’t know if I’m Prince Karek or Cadet Linnek.’
‘Which is exactly the impression I’m getting from you now. Which of you two is the one sitting opposite me, having asked me to show you the secret passage?’
‘Karek Marein – the Prince of Toladar is sitting opposite you and would like to know – for as prince, I must leave the fortress briefly. But I won’t get out the normal way, or to be more precise, I won’t be allowed out.’
‘I knew you were the prince when I visited you in your cell.’
He felt a little stabbing pain in his heart.
And I had hoped that it was interest in Linnek that had made her come, and not curiosity about the prince.
‘Why do you need the secret passage?’ asked Milafine.
‘I have to leave here for one night.’
‘Do you have a girlfriend?’
He hesitated.
I wouldn’t quite put it like that.
She noticed his moment of hesitation, pushed out her lower lip ever so slightly, and unwound the strand of hair around her finger.
‘No, not a girlfriend. More of an acquaintance, with whom I have to exchange important information.’
She leaned forward. ‘I don’t want to overdo it with my curiosity. If I show you the secret passage, will you tell me the whole story afterwards?’
‘Yes, I will.’ And to underline his agreement, he instinctively took her hand in his and squeezed it.
She didn’t pull it back but smiled.
He let her hand go, surprised at his spontaneous action. The feeling of her skin on his had the same effect as jumping off a ten-yard-high cliff into the sea. His stomach contracted, he felt dizzy, and he took a deep breath.
He tried to stand up. The cliff seemed to be twice as high as he’d thought – for he was still plummeting.
Milafine – will you marry me?
Finally, he dived beneath the surface. The cold seawater woke him immediately. And he remembered that his father wanted him to get engaged to the daughter of the King of Winslorien – for political reasons. Now, as then, such a marriage was the simplest and safest method of sealing an alliance between two kingdoms.
I was never asked what I think of it.
He managed to clear his throat.
‘Are there several secret passages or just the one?’ he croaked. As easily as a downy feather in the spring breeze, she turned to look at him. ‘There are lots of them. I can show you the first of them now. It starts in the library.’
She stood up, walked along the central aisle, then turned to the left. Karek followed her and saw her stopping at a shelf with old lexicons, where she firmly pressed on a book that was head high in front of her. He took note: seventh book from the right on the fifth shelf up. To her left, the bookcase moved to the side with a scraping sound – as if by sorcery.
Karek was amazed: ‘How does that work?’
‘Magic! I’m a little magical fairy,’ said Milafine proudly.
Well, you’ve certainly charmed me…
The prince frowned and stepped into the newly revealed hole. ‘A magical fairy you may well be, but this has nothing to do with magic.’
He pointed at a sack filled with sand, whose weight had caused the bookcase to move. The mechanism was triggered by a lever, which was activated through the pressure on the book, which caused the heavy sack to be lowered by means of a hook and chain.
‘You’ve seen through me,’ she admitted cheerfully. ‘I’m not able to close the entrance on my own – because it’s very heavy.’
‘Where does this passage lead to?’
‘Come on – I’ll show you.’ Milafine disappeared into the darkness. ‘Help me close the bookcase again.’
Using their combined strengths, they managed to heave the sack up, turning the bookcase back into its original position. Now they were standing in the dark.
Milafine led the way along the passageway, which sloped downwards a little. There was a flickering light in the distance.
Spiders’ webs tickled Karek’s face. The girl stopped, causing the prince to almost knock her over.
‘That’s the way to the cells. The prison wardens always make sure that the torches are burning day and night. If we go right here, we will get to the strand. But further down it’s only passable when the tide is out. I think it’s too late now to descend all the way down, because the tide should be coming in now.’
‘Let’s keep going until we can see the water,’ suggested Karek.
Milafine turned and pointed at some sticks, each having one fat end. ‘We’re going to need light. There are lots of torches over there.’
They each took a torch from one of the large wooden boxes, igniting them with the light that was already burning.
Karek looked around uneasily. ‘Is there no-one else here?’
‘No, usually not. The only time the holding cells here are busy is when there are impudent, rebellious cadets, who are really princes. The harder cases go directly to the dungeons. There’s a secret passage there too, by the way.’
‘Milafine, only call me Linnek here, please, and avoid using the word prince,’ whispered Karek urgently.
‘Of course. From now on, my pr… proud friend.’ He saw her chuckle in the torchlight.
‘Come on! Follow me!’ Milafine walked ahead and soon they arrived at a succession of steps hewn into the rock. The passage spiralled down, growing narrower as it did so. Milafine danced down the gloomy steps in front of him as though she were skipping through the castle grounds on a sunny day in springtime. For Karek, too, the bare, damp, underground passageways had been transformed by the mere company of the girl into a light-flooded path in cottony clouds. He was feeling heavenly, in fact.
They crossed a junction. ‘Where the passages left and right lead to, I do not know.’ And then she skipped onward, down the steps.
The girl has no fear of the dank darkness or the narrow tunnels. Yet even a mole would feel queasy down here.
Karek struggled along behind her. It was getting damper and noisier in the passage.
‘Soon we won’t be able to go any further unless we want to climb down a deep shaft and get our feet wet.’
The narrow corridor widened into a large room, at the far end of which was a hatch set into the floor. Two thick iron bolts locked the reinforced latticed trapdoor.
‘When there’s a flood tide, this room is knee-high with water. The grille stops unwelcome guests from the strand. Even if the castle is besieged and the enemy discover the secret passage, it will only take two or three guards to stop them from getting in. Which is why the trapdoor can only be opened from above.’
Karek peered down through the grille. It resembled a well. Some step irons made it easier to descend. The narrow shaft, with only enough room for one person, smelled of salt and seaweed.
Milafine went down on her hunkers and tried to pull back one of the heavy bolts. It didn’t move an inch – small wonder, considering that the seawater had begun to corrode its iron surface. Karek gave her a hand – the metal creaked and squeaked stubbornly in its rusty runner before it finally began to move. The other bolt was easier to pull, so that the two young people eventually managed to swing open the grille by using their combined strengths.
‘That’s how it works. Down below there is another narrow passageway. If you’re going to go and return along this route, then you’re going to have to leave the grille open. Seeing as the shaft is only usable at ebb tide, that isn’t a problem when the tide is in. However, when the tide goes out, the fortress can theoretically be attacked using this passage. Which means, that at that time, there are regular patrols down here.’
‘Thanks for the tip. I think that’s enough for now. What does the end of the passageway look like during ebbtide?’
‘You have to wade through water for the last few yards, even when the tide is out. Then you come out at a little cave on the beach.’
They turned back. The way up was considerably more strenuous, of course. For the first time, Karek was grateful for the many training runs he had been forced to participate in, and that had undoubtedly improved his physical condition. Had he not done them, he would in all probably have collapsed by now, and would be gasping on the steps. He really didn’t want to show any signs of weakness in Milafine’s presence. When they reached the secret door in the library, he noticed that the girl, too, was out of breath.
