Jalia and the Slavers (Jalia - World of Jalon) (3 page)

The tunnel soon became a series of steep steps leading down into the dark. Karn picked up an unlit torch from a dozen or so in a holder on the wall, and went to light it from a torch in the pool room. He came back to the steps and used the torch to light the way. The steps went down six feet to where a fast running steaming stream flowed through the darkness.

“Once the body is in the stream it will be carried away and never seen again,” Karn told Daniel with satisfaction.

“Doesn’t all this water end up flowing out of the pass to the north?”

“There are creatures in the caves that will eat this carrion first. The stories of monsters in these caverns are not fantasy.” Karn pushed the body down the steps where it fell into the water and was pulled by fast flowing water out of sight.

“Another body coming through,” Jalia called and they stepped aside as Jalia threw the body of Gasporin after that of Smentar. She brushed her hands in satisfaction and offered her hand to Karn who clasped it in a sign of friendship.

At the entrance to the tunnel, they found Karn’s daughters completing the clear up. They took the dirty buckets and mops down into the tunnel to wash them in the stream. Talla looked on in bemusement as the three girls worked as a team and there was nothing for her to do.

“If you can find a moment during your stay,” Karn said to Jalia, “I would much appreciate it if you could give my daughters some lessons in unarmed combat. They learn fast and study hard.”

“It would be my pleasure.” Jalia said with a grin on her face.

4.
      
Sizing Up The Opposition

Everybody went into the pool to clean off any trace of the men.

“The pool’s water refresh every two hours and the salts of the earth in it are much stronger than the waters we drink, they will re-purify the pool in no time at all,” Karn told them.

After they were clean, they dressed quickly and quietly, anxious that they should be gone before someone wandered in and enquired where the guards were.

“You should come to my town house,” Karn said and the party made its way to a grand building in a road just beyond the square. An elderly manservant let them in and Karn took them to a large sitting room. There were no fireplaces except for cooking in Brinan, but the room was warm from hot water pipes hidden under the floor of the rooms.

To Jalia’s surprise, Karn invited his servant to sit in one of the more comfortable chairs and poured the drinks, including one for his servant. Karn noticed Jalia’s puzzled look.

“Sam has been with my family from before I was born and he has been a truer friend to me and my children than my blood relatives. There is nothing you need fear to say in front of him. I trust him with my life and why shouldn’t I serve him from time to time as he has served me?”

“What will the Association do when they discover they have lost two guards?” Daniel asked.

“At first they will think the guards have gone to get drunk or laid. They will eventually search the Gathering Pool and find nothing. Then they’ll check with the guards at the two city gates and will discover they haven’t left the city. Within three days they will be sure that they are dead and the Association will threaten reprisals against those that remain in the city.”

“This has happened before?” Jalia asked sharply.

“You have met the scum that run the city. What do you think?” Karn sighed and slid down into his comfortable leather chair. “It would have been one of my daughters if it hadn’t been you. The guards are getting desperate for sexual gratification and they regard all women as available.”

“How many men do the Association have here?” Daniel asked as he sipped on the strong liquor. Karn’s daughters huddled together on a long leather sofa listening to the conversation. ‘
Which is as it should be, as they were accomplices in the cover-up,’
Daniel thought grimly, if the Association found out they would not hesitate to have them killed, or worse.

“They have thirty men who guard the walls and gates in two shifts. There are usually thirty or forty men in the High King, along with the women, girls and boys they use. They bring their important clients here to be entertained. The Mine Owners Association has branched out into many businesses using the money their mines have brought them.”

“At any one time, there might be up to four of the eight owners in town with their guests, never more than that. Even though they have individual mansions, they often stay in the hotel with their friends. On top of that, they have another fifty men to guard the buildings and important public places where people might gather to plot against them, like the Gathering Pool.”

“There are about a hundred and twenty men in total then,” Daniel said his fingers steepled together as he thought it through, “That’s not many to control a city with thousands of inhabitants.”

“Most of those who are left are women, children or very old.” Karn said wearily. “It is difficult to start a revolution despite the fact we outnumber them so heavily. No one wants to risk their lives in the attempt and I cannot blame them. You should move into my house with us. It will make you less visible than staying at the hotel and you will much safer.”

“No,” Jalia said. “We’ll keep our room in the hotel and pretend to occupy it while staying here. That way we will have a safe haven. I think Talla should stay here all the time.”

Talla bristled with indignation. “I am quite capable of looking after myself, thank you very much!”

“Jalia’s right,” Daniel said as he smiled apologetically at Talla. “We create all sorts of trouble and you said yourself that you aren’t a fighter. Jalia and I need to be free to act without worrying about you.”

Jalia nodded, glad Daniel agreed with her. Daniel, for his part, was certain Jalia had reasons for staying at the hotel outweighing anything she said. But she still made good sense, even if she was misleading them as to her reasons.

“We could clear any gate or the hotel of this scum, if we wanted. The guards scattered around the city are the main problem, as they would rally around whichever mine owner survived,” Jalia said.

“This is not our fight Jalia,” Daniel said quietly.

“I will not have others punished for the death of those scum.”

“Neither will I. But if we fight our way out of a gate, would they assume we were killed their men and leave the locals alone?”

“Neither of you can be serious,” Karn’s eldest daughter, Kalla intervened. “The guards at the gate would kill you. You would each have to face ten of them.”

“We killed more than that head to head at Buran,” Jalia said quietly.

“The army that wiped out the slavers at Buran was the two of you?” Karn asked in astonishment.

“The rumors overstated the situation,” Daniel said, “But it’s true that we don’t like slavers.”

“They defeated Baron Tynes at Taybee too,” Talla chipped in and got an annoyed look from Daniel for her trouble. Jalia smirked, amused that Daniel was annoyed with Talla.

“I’m not ready to go yet, Daniel. There are some things I have to do here first.” Jalia stated this so firmly that Daniel knew there was no point in arguing with her.

“Can you get them done in three days?” he asked and she nodded.

“Then we’ll stay here for three nights while we pretend to be staying at the hotel. We must be careful we aren’t seen entering or leaving the house or we’ll put Karn and his daughters at risk.”

Sam spoke for the first time since they sat down. “There’s a back way to this house, sir. The Mine Owners and their men know little of the back alleys of Brinan. I’ll show you those ways so you can enter and leave without being seen.”

Daniel nodded. “On the third day we’ll collect our animals and goods and head back to the gate we came in. We’ll make sufficient fuss to make sure they know we killed their men, leaving one of the guards alive to tell the Association.”

“I wish you could rid us of these bastards,” Karn said vehemently and his daughters nodded.

“I think they’ll be more than a little upset with us,” Jalia said enigmatically and Daniel knew he was going to have to find out exactly what she was up to, in case it wrecked his plans.

“Let us move on to more pleasant things,” Daniel said, steering the conversation away from serious matters. “I have a few small boxes of spices from the distant south, which I’m told can brighten up the day”. He pulled four of the small reed boxes from his pockets.

Karn opened one of the boxes and sighed at the smell of cinnamon that wafted into the room. “Alas, our cook has left us and I have neglected my daughters’ education in cooking in favor of more deadly skills.”

“I can solve that,” Talla and Daniel said together and Daniel inclined his head towards Talla, indicating she should do the honors.

“Take the girls with you,” Karn called after them as Talla and Sam left the room. Karn’s daughters dutifully got up and followed Talla.

“You do have them well trained,” Daniel said admiringly.

“Don’t get any ideas,” Jalia growled.

Daniel went to look out of the large window, being careful to stay in the shadows as he inspected the street below. Jalia stood beside him, equally careful to avoid being seen.

“That bastard I killed said I had small breasts,” she told Daniel in a small voice, pouting as she spoke.

“They are the perfect size to me, just enough to cup in a hand and not in any way too small,” Daniel took her hand in his.

Jalia smiled and kissed him on the cheek, “Sometimes you say just the right things, Daniel.”

5.
      
Once a Thief

Jalia and Daniel made their way back to the High King Hotel via the back alleyways. Sam had given Daniel a key to the back door of Karn’s town house along with detailed instructions on how to find the tradesman’s entrance to the hotel. It had been dark for several hours and there were no lamps in the streets.

“If I trip over another pile of rubbish I’m going to scream,” Jalia whispered as she placed her foot in something disgusting.

“If this was the inside of a vault you would be walking as if it were lit by a hundred lights. I don’t know why you always have trouble outdoors.” Daniel moved swiftly and silently, detecting obstacles by the slight differences in shades of darkness.

“That’s different,” Jalia complained. She dropped back from leading and followed Daniel. It was easier that way, but it was also much more annoying.

Daniel led them unerringly to the back entrance of the hotel which was unlocked. They went through into the lobby towards the lift. Jalia would have preferred to take the stairs, but Daniel pointed out they were more likely to be seen entering their room if they used the lift.

The lobby was empty; there was no one manning the desk. Jalia opened the lift doors cautiously, half expecting to see a gaping hole in the floor, but what they found was more upsetting.

The lift boy, Gran, was slumped on the floor, his face covered in blood. He was breathing but he sounded as though he was going to choke at any second. Daniel rushed to Gran’s side while Jalia drew her sword and guarded the lift from attack.

“Let’s get him to our room, and then you can go and get Patrus,” Daniel said.

Jalia stepped inside the lift, closed the doors, and pulled the lever. The lift began to rise rather more quickly than it had when Gran operated it. Jalia eased the lever back until the lift moved at the right speed. She counted doors and stopped on the third floor. Daniel lifted the boy carefully while Jalia darted through the doors and checked the corridor. Finding it clear, she guarded Daniel as he carried the boy to their room.

“Whoever did this broke the boy’s nose,” Daniel said. “I’m going to straighten it so he can breathe properly. It’s best done while he’s still unconscious. You go and find Patrus.” Daniel noticed that Jalia held her sword ready to fight. “It might be best if you put the sword away.”

Jalia sheathed her sword and looked at the boy. He was breathing better now and showed signs of waking up. Gran grabbed Daniel by the arm, “Two of them, demanded to know where Jalia and the other girl were,” Gran blurted out. “When I told them I didn’t know, they hit me.”

“It’s all right, Gran,” Daniel said soothingly and the boy relaxed and went back to sleep. “It was probably those men that were eyeing you up when we first were in the lobby.”

“Why pick those two out from all the thugs in this city?”

“Because they had already raped Gran’s sister. Patrus warned me about them when he brought us to the room.”

“And you thought it best not to tell me any of these inconsequential facts?”

“We don’t need to go looking for trouble, Jalia. It finds us all on its own.” Daniel sighed. “Go and find Patrus.”

Jalia turned to the door and stopped, “I’ll send him up when I find him. I have other things to do tonight.”

“Jalia, we aren’t ready to take on the Mine Owners Association. Leave those men alone.”

“I’m not going after them… yet. But if they should cross paths with me….” Jalia walked out of the door, closing it behind her.

The lobby was still deserted but Jalia found a bell pull and pulled it. A man arrived in a couple of minutes. He looked like Patrus, but much younger being perhaps twenty years old.

“I need to speak with Patrus.”

“He’s asleep,” the young man said, “Can I help? I am his oldest son, Danus.”

“Your brother Gran has been attacked and injured. We’ve taken him to our room.”

The young man’s face paled. He ran back into the office and called for Jalia to follow him. They ran down narrow corridors with pipes on the walls and doors you had to duck under and around pipes to get through. A few minutes later they arrived in a well-furnished room where two young women sat talking.

“Granus has been attacked,” Danus said to the girls. They stood up, the youngest giving a little scream of horror.

“Is he alive?” The other women asked, she was in her early twenties, like Danus.

“He has a broken nose and was knocked unconscious, but he awoke for a few seconds and seems to be in his right mind. Daniel is looking after him and he is good with injuries.” Jalia did not want to offer them too much hope, you could never be certain of recovery from head injuries.

Patrus appeared in a dressing gown. Danus had gone to wake him while Jalia talked to the young women. Patrus looked at Jalia and seemed to relax a little as he recognized her.

“Gran is with Daniel?”

“In our room.”

Patrus ordered the girls to stay where they were and the three rushed off through the winding back corridors until they were back at the lobby.

“Dan, stay here and don’t look so concerned, it will alert those bastards to the fact something is going on. I’ll go up and see to Gran.”

“I have other matters to attend to,” Jalia said as Patrus got into the lift. “Daniel is expecting you, but it would be safest to knock and announce your name before you enter.” Patrus nodded and Jalia shut the lift doors for him.

Jalia set off to the stables. She saw two guards standing at the door to the corridor leading down to them. Neither of the guards were the two that had stared at her in the lobby, which was fortunate for them. She smiled at them as she walked past.

The stables were one floor below ground as were the lockup rooms. Just before the lockups, the corridor opened into a large empty paneled room. Jalia had thought this room unusual when they first came through it and since her experiences in the Gathering Pool had a good idea of what it might be for.

She checked to make sure that the coast was clear and then spoke to her ring. “Magic Ring, if there is a door to the caverns in this room, please open it for me.”

For a few moments nothing happened and then a piece of large block of paneling swung open. Jalia stared down into a tunnel with a set of stone steps that vanished into darkness. The sides of the tunnel were lined with small handmade red bricks and thick mortar, exactly as the tunnel in the Gathering Pool had been. This was particularly important to the plan she had been fleshing out since she first saw the lockups. Once she figured out its opening mechanism she shut the secret panel. Then she went past the dozen lockup rooms to the stables beyond.

As she remembered, there were two guards lounging by the stables doors to the alley. There must be something valuable to the Mine Owners Association in this place if they had sited guards covering both entrances. Furthermore, eight of the twelve lockup rooms were in use. She and Daniel had rented the ninth. Jalia had an instinct about such things and the smell of massive wealth was in her nostrils when she walked by those rooms.

Jalia went to the stalls and petted Swift and Jet. The night shift stable boy came up to her as soon as she touched the horses and assured her that they and the donkeys were being well looked after. Jalia had known the boy would approach her because men always did wherever she went. She casually asked him who was renting the lockup rooms.

The boy tapped his nose and grinned at her. “The Mine Owners themselves. This is the safest place in Jalon to store their wealth. The strongest rooms with the best locks in a hotel nobody has ever managed to rob, in a city where the Mine Owners control everything, including the city gates. Brinan is one big strongbox for them.”

The two continued to talk about nothing in particular for another hour. Jalia gave the boy a big tip and told him she would be back each night to check on the horses. She then went from the stables towards the lockup rooms.

Once there, she went to the room nearest the cavern entrance. “Magic Ring, please open this door for me.”

Jalia felt as if she was cheating using the ring to open the lock. It was something she could have done without magic, but she didn’t want to waste the time. By the light of the lamps in the corridor she saw a large stack of gold bars at the far end of the room, exactly what she had hoped for.

Jalia worked late into the night. It took four hours to move the gold bars, two at a time, which was all she could lift, from the first two rooms to the tunnel wall going down into the caverns. As she built up a wall of gold bricks alongside the existing tunnel wall, she ordered the magic ring to coat them with brick and mortar dust so they looked exactly like the wall they covered. She was halfway through moving the bricks in the third room when the magic ring.

“Out of magical power,” Jalia said and sighed impatiently. “Still, we have two more nights to finish the job, don’t we, Ring? And you should be charged again by tomorrow night.”

Jalia went to the lockup that was still open and relocked it using the tool kit she carried in her boot. It took her half an hour to get the levers to move into place, because she was very tired and because it was a sophisticated lock.

She smiled and nodded at the guards at the passage to the lobby, before slipping out of the back entrance of the hotel without being seen and making her way to Karn’s house.

Daniel was waiting for her at the backdoor. He had the key and she had expected to have to pick the lock to get in.

“Did it go well?” Daniel asked. He was not sure what she had been doing, but needed to know if she was binging further trouble upon them.

“Better than I expected, and you’ll be glad to hear I didn’t run into anybody. How is the boy?”

“He seems to be recovering. His father took him back to their quarters.”

Daniel opened the door for her and she walked tiredly into the house, “Daniel, the magic ring will be exhausted when we leave, so don’t plan on being able to use it.”

“Are you going to tell me what you’re up to?”

“Before we go, I swear I will. But I want to finish the job first.”