Dralin (2 page)

She squeezed his arm thankfully. “You’re the
only person I’ve passed who didn’t seem hard and mean. Everywhere I
look, people are too busy to pay attention to me. The few that
have
noticed me have a look in their eyes that’s hungry like
a carnivorous fairy.” She held up her right arm so he could see the
scar from where one had bitten her a few years earlier. Some of the
muscles in it never healed properly and she still didn’t have full
use of the pinky in that hand.

“Oh, that’s a nasty bite. I’ve only seen
them in the Zoo District. Scary things, carnivorous fairies,” Frath
agreed. “I’m glad we found each other. I’m taking you the Shining
Shield Inn. The innkeeper, Albert, nearly got killed by some thugs
about a year ago and I was able to help him. He owes me a favor,
but I didn’t do it for that reason. I helped him because he was in
trouble.”

“I think it’s wonderful. How many thugs were
there?”

“How many? . . . There were ten, but
Albert’s tough and can hold his own in a fight. I didn’t really do
much.” Frath blushed in embarrassment and turned away as he
answered. She got the feeling he was being modest.

“Thank you for helping me.” Sheela smiled at
him gratefully. He was sacrificing a favor that could have
benefited him. It occurred to her to wonder what he would want in
return.

As if reading her mind, he answered the
unspoken question. “You’re welcome. The only thing I ask is that
you do a good job for him. Other than that, I don’t expect
anything, alright?”

She nodded. “I’m a good worker and I’ll work
really hard.” The nodding made her a little dizzy and she leaned on
his arm.

“You look pale . . . When’s the last time
you had food?” he asked intuitively, stopping to peer into her
frail brown eyes. Sheela lowered her head, not wanting him to see
how desperately she wanted something to eat. In the last two days,
all she had was a half-chewed apple and some old leaves of lettuce.
Frath lifted her chin. “You’re lucky to be alive right now. If you
want to survive, you have to take care of yourself.”

He took her down a side street to the right.
There was still a lot of traffic, but nothing like the highway that
had been getting more and more crowded the further they went into
the city. After passing a couple more streets, he turned left into
a noisy, open marketplace.

“This is the East Bazaar. You can find just
about anything here,” Frath shouted above the drone of voices as he
shifted his arm around her shoulder, drawing her close. “Don’t ever
come here alone because it’s also a popular place for thieves and
other criminals. If anyone pulls on you, hang on to me. It’s real
easy for a woman to disappear even when in the company of a
guardsman.”

The warning sent a chill up Sheela’s spine
as she held onto him, trying to avoid the crush of bodies moving
around them. The growing darkness was making people seem more
threatening. A lamplighter used a wick at the tip of a long pole to
light oil lanterns on tall posts, but the glow did little to
illuminate the throngs below. Meanwhile, merchants were setting out
lit candles and hanging lanterns so customers could see their wares
better. There was no sign of business slowing even with the coming
night.

Frath shoved through the crowd more easily
than most. A few men turned to protest, but stopped when they saw
how tall he was and that he was wearing a guard’s uniform. Sheela
felt tugging on her arm twice, but she held onto Frath for dear
life and he kept her secure. He wasn’t just tall; he was broad in
the chest. She could feel his chain shirt underneath the tunic, but
wished she could feel him instead.

“Let me have two draddlies,” Frath said to a
food vendor in a wooden shack. Sheela watched as the man put some
meat and cheese between two pieces of bread slathered with some
sort of sauce. Frath put his mouth next to her ear. “These are
wonderful. It’s meat, cheese and bread all together. They’re
popular in the country of Eddland to the north of here and have
been spreading all over the world.”

“That’ll be four coppers,” the vendor told
Frath, who removed his arm from Sheela’s shoulders in order to grab
a pouch hidden in his tunic. Four coppers was a lot of money to
Sheela who had never had any coins in her life. Frath took the
coppers out and handed them to the vendor.

Sheela suddenly felt someone grab her arms
and pull her away. As she tried to scream, a hand clamped over her
mouth. With desperation, she caught Frath’s belt, but the hands
pulling her were much stronger and she couldn’t hold on. Terror
filled Sheela’s heart and eyes as she watched Frath turn in what
seemed to be slow motion.

Then time became normal. His arm shot
forward, grabbed the hand over her mouth and yanked. The motion
pulled her and her attacker forward. Frath sidestepped her and
pulled the arm down and around, spinning its owner. He pulled it
behind the man’s back and up. Sheela turned just as Frath broke the
man’s shoulder with a sickening crunch. The darkly dressed
kidnapper screamed in agony as his arm dropped limply to his side.
When Frath punched him in the back of the head with a powerful
fist, the scream stopped abruptly and the man collapsed to the
ground.

The immediate area became silent as shocked
bystanders created an open circle around them. Frath slowly turned
and stared them all down. The circle grew larger as many of the
people prudently chose to leave. Sheela stared at the hard face of
her protector and the bared teeth that looked as though they could
rend flesh. Instead of frightening her, it made her feel protected
as she rushed desperately into the safety of his arms.

Frath led her back to the food vendor who
quickly handed over the draddlies and even added an order of baked
chips made from cornmeal. Sheela took the draddly he handed her and
they walked off with his arm around her shoulder, leaving the
thwarted kidnapper unconscious on the ground.

A few minutes later, he led her to a bench
in a small park. Brick paths meandered through leaf strewn grassy
areas. The trees were still partially resplendent with autumn
colors that had been falling to the ground. More lanterns on tall
poles provided light for anyone out for a stroll at night. The last
of the daylight was disappearing in the west and the snow had
stopped. Two ponds had ducks that would soon be flying further
south for the winter.

“The parks of Dralin have almost no crime,”
Frath told her as they sat. Sheela moved as close as possible to
his warmth and security without actually sitting on his lap. The
feelings that were in her mind and body felt unfamiliar to her and
she didn’t understand them. What she did know was that it was nice
to be close to the handsome guardsman. His voice was smooth and
seemed to caress her skin, which was another sensation she didn’t
understand.

“You’re not eating . . .” he observed with
concern. She jumped at the words and took a fast bite. The burst of
flavor in her mouth overwhelmed her. It had been so long since she
had eaten anything substantial that she hardly knew how to handle
it. In a moment, she was chewing as rapidly as possible, trying to
finish in case it might escape.

Once he was certain Sheela was going to eat,
Frath continued speaking between bites of his own draddly. “I’m
sorry about what happened in the bazaar. Slavers and kidnappers
have been getting bolder lately and more people have been
disappearing than usual. I can’t believe one would be so stupid as
to try to steal you from my protection though.”

Sheela studied his handsome face, noticing
unease in the set of his jaw. A thin scar ran from chin to cheek
and she resisted an urge to run her fingers along it. “Are we safe
here?” she asked worriedly.

“The City Guard patrols all the parks,” he
told her, pointing at a unit of six guards walking between the
ponds. “But even the various criminal guilds help protect the
parks. They’re safe havens for almost everyone.”

“Almost?” Sheela asked around a mouthful of
food. She held a hand underneath her chin to prevent any crumbs
from escaping.

“The Deformed aren’t allowed in the parks.
They try to sleep here, but their taint would corrupt the parks
too.” Frath popped one of the chips in his mouth. They were nearly
gone between the two of them.

“What exactly are the Deformed?” Sheela
asked. “From what I’ve heard, magic corrupts them or
something?”

“Something like that,” Frath confirmed.
“What a lot of people don’t realize is that magic leaves residue
after it’s cast. There are more wizards in Dralin than anywhere
else in the world. There are also potion makers, priests and just
about anything else to do with magic.” He frowned, his thick
eyebrows lowering over sad eyes. “The residue gathers in streets
and sewers. The Deformed are generally homeless people who sleep in
polluted alleys. The magical waste corrupts their bodies and minds,
twisting them into deformed versions of people. They’re dangerous
and nobody knows what to do with them.”

“Why don’t they clean up the magical
residue?” Sheela asked. Her draddly was finished and she took the
last chip when Frath offered it to her.

“Because the High Council runs the city.
They don’t care about the welfare of the people. Dralin is also the
richest and most powerful city in the world and they buy off or
kill anyone who complains too loudly.” The set of his jaw showed
anger at the careless disregard for the safety of the citizens he
was sworn to protect.

Sheela put a comforting hand on his thigh,
enjoying the feel of his leg through his trousers. “It seems
foolish. I heard that this is one of the only cities in the world
without a wall surrounding it. Is that because it’s so
powerful?

Frath nodded. “That and it would be useless
because the city keeps growing. By the time they finished a wall,
more houses would be built outside of it. At this point, it would
be impossible to defend any wall that surrounded the city
anyway.”

“Oh . . . why?” Sheela asked. Her only
education had been about taking care of chores on a farm. The
concept of defending a city seemed awesome to her.

“It would take all of the soldiers in
Altordan’s army to man it. Even then, a concentrated attack in any
direction would be too hard to defend against.” Frath sounded as if
he knew what he was talking about so she just nodded in agreement.
He saw circles of exhaustion under her vulnerable eyes. “Let’s get
you to the inn.” Frath took her hand and together they left the
park.

A little less than an hour later, they were
in a much quieter part of the city where the buildings were larger
and older. Lanterns adorned many of the buildings in addition to
the streetlights. Sheela looked in awe at the stone buildings with
their tiled roofs and green lawns, wondering how many coins it
would take to buy one of them.

“This part of the city is hundreds of years
old,” Frath said. “A lot of wealthy merchants and some of the old
noble families reside here. There’s not a lot of crime and the
buildings are beautiful to look at. I like coming here.” He
gestured to one on the left that had small cherub statues
underneath the eaves. The windows had glass in them, unlike most
houses that had window openings covered with leather, furs or
wooden shutters.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Sheela
admitted, gawking at the ornate etching in one thick wooden door.
“It’s more magnificent than I imagined.” An armed guard sitting at
the bottom of a stone railing nodded to Frath, acknowledging the
presence of a city guardsman. Sheela had noticed that many of the
buildings in this part of the city had guards.

“Here we are.” Frath pointed to a large,
four-level building just past the next street. The front of it took
up the entire block and she could see a tall stone wall extended
along the side street for a long distance. The inns along the
highway had been more massive, but nowhere near as elegant. Next to
the main walkway to the entrance was a large stone sign with a
picture of a shining shield and letters that Sheela didn’t
understand because she had never learned to read.

Frath led her up the stone steps to a
landing with four marble columns. Two sharply uniformed guards
appeared very capable to Sheela’s uneducated eye. At the door was a
finely dressed man in colorful red leggings that matched the color
of the guards’ tabards. He also wore a lacy white shirt and a long
red jacket.

The butler gave a sharp nod to Frath, but
took in Sheela’s poor dress and dirty appearance with disdain.
Frath spoke to him. “I’d like to speak to Albert, please. He’ll see
me.” The man didn’t look happy, but he led them inside.

The butler had them wait in a corner just
inside the door while Albert finished talking to a customer. Sheela
looked around the common room in amazement. It was clean and warm,
with wooden walls painted mellow green. Tapestries of magnificent
battle scenes covered most of the walls.

The Shining Shield Inn catered to knights
visiting Dralin as well as other nobles. A few of the men were
dressed in their armor, all polished and well cared for. Others
wore elegant clothing unlike anything Sheela had ever seen or even
imagined. Most wore fine swords on their belts. Sitting with the
men were squires and servants that helped the inn staff to take
care of the knights. Noble ladies were at many of the tables,
drinking wine and holding dignified conversations.

“Hello, Frath. It’s good to see you.” Albert
was a burly man built like a tree. Frath had told her that he was a
former knight who lost his sword arm in battle. Upon seeing Sheela,
Albert frowned in disapproval. “Why have you brought this vagabond
into my establishment?”

“Hello, Albert. This is Sheela and she just
arrived in Dralin. I heard that you need a new girl to clean rooms
and help out in the kitchen.” Frath spoke quickly with
determination. He kept a hand on Sheela’s back for moral support.
“I see a lot of people pass by every day and their faces all blur
together. I’d like to help a lot of them, but there’s not much a
simple guard like me can do.”