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LJ F&R 13: Every silver lining...
Mar. 11th, 2016 04:54 pmThe story so far:
Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Part 10
With the secret panel closed behind me, I stood in place for several minutes, both to make sure than Gellerat did not raise an alarm regarding my presence inside—or, rather beneath—the inn, and to allow my eyes to become accustomed to the dim light. As I began to recognize details, I took stock of my situation.
The passage I was in was almost wide enough for two men to walk abreast. There was dust on the floor, enough to make it well-nigh impossible for me to hide traces of my passage, but the amount of dust and its condition convinced me that nobody had passed this way for years. So, I set off carefully down the passage.
What I had thought was light coming through cracks in the far wall as I stood at the threshold of the secret panel in the root cellar turned out to be light being reflected from the rungs of a ladder that descended from the passage ceiling in the middle of the building. When I got to the ladder, I looked up and discovered a rectangular shaft that went up through the center of the building.
I saw the underside of what appeared to be a platform that covered half of the shaft’s area at about where I figured the second floor would be. Still looking up, I moved my head toward the ladder until I saw another such platform at the level of the third floor. I saw some brightly lit boards at the far end of the shaft, doubtless the underside of a shelter to keep rain and birds out of the shaft.
After making sure all my effects—especially my knife and Malon’s dagger—were secure, I started climbing the ladder. I did so slowly, applying and removing my weight gradually and deliberately, so as not to cause any creaking noises.
At the second floor, I put my weight on the platform, found it to be sturdy and soundless, and stepped off the ladder. I looked at the shaft walls around me and saw a cleverly disguised peephole set into a secret door in the shaft wall opposite the ladder, and peepholes on the walls to the left and right of the door. I carefully worked the peephole in the door, looked out, and saw the landing of the staircase where Lascaux and I had been waylaid on our way to our room. I then looked through the peephole on the wall to the right of the door, and confirmed that it was, indeed, the room Lascaux had taken for us. In fact, I suffered something of a pang when I saw his robe still hanging on the back of the door, and then idly wondered what else of ours might still be in the room. When I looked through the third peephole, on the wall to the left of the door, I found myself looking at two rough men sitting on chairs, deep in conversation.
“…think the boss’s gonna get rid of Fremd?” said the one with his back to me and his feet up on a low table.
“I dunno, Wilmer,” said the other who sat in a chair near the door, facing me. He leaned back slightly. “Fremd and the boss go way back, and him and Slamin went back further still.”
“Slamin!” said the first man, as if mouthing a curse. He hawked some phlegm and put his feet on the floor before spitting. “You’d think he woulda figured stuff out, but no…” His feet went back on the table. “He had to go disrespect the boss… so now him'n his wife are dead...”
“Well, it didn’t do him no good, neither,” said the man in the chair. “We got the girl, in the end.”
“Whaddaya figure the doc was doing here earlier, with the girl?” asked the first man.
“I don’t really know, but you know that pretty black-haired wench in the kitchen with the huge…,” he accompanied his words with hand gestures.
“Yeah,” interrupted the first man, “Rachel. What’d she say?”
“She says she heard the boss talkin’ with the doc,” and here, the man in the chair looked to both sides, as if to make sure the two of them were alone, and then came down on all four chair legs and leaned conspiratorially toward his companion. “And they were talking about a map that they thought was tattooed on the girl’s body, and that the doc had drawn a copy of.”
“What kind of map?”
“Beats me. I figure whatever kind of map it is, it’s to something like gold, or something valuable, because the boss is playing this one real close to his shirt. Rachel couldn’t tell me what else they were saying, but it must’ve been important. I hear the boss even took the doc with him to Celeron.”
The first man made a barking sound that may have been a laugh. “How much you wanna bet nobody in town sees the doc again?”
“Well, if there’s nothing to that map, or whatever it was they traced off the girl's skin,” said the man in the chair, “I expect the doc will live to return here and die of old age.”
“Hm-mm,” said the man with his back to me. “What if that drawing the doc made don’t mean nothin’? What if it ain’t a map?”
“Well, then,” said the man in the chair, “I guess the doc'll really be in the clear, but that little princess that Malon’s ol' lady's looking after is going to be in for some, uh, rough handling.”
“Yeah,” said the other, as he gave himself over to laughter, “I'd expect, among other things, the little slut’s gonna have Malon's ‘dark cloud’ inside her silver lining, too!”
Both men laughed raucously for about a minute, and then fell silent, apparently amused at their exchange.
I eased the peephole closed, and started to think.
If Malon had gone to Celeron to find out more about something that might or might not be a map, that meant that Usha hadn’t told him anything useful, which only made sense because she couldn't, having been drugged upon arriving at the inn.
I had a vague idea that Celeron was a little more than a half-day’s ride from where we were, which if true, meant that Malon and his party would arrive there in the late afternoon. Assuming he could complete his business in time to leave in the late morning tomorrow, Malon would be back tomorrow, in the late evening or night at the earliest.
That didn’t leave me much time to come up with a plan to free Usha and escape, but it would have to do.
But first, I had to reconnoiter what awaited me on the third floor, so I remounted the ladder and resumed my climb, drawing ever nearer to Usha with every step.
The next part.
Part 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Part 10
With the secret panel closed behind me, I stood in place for several minutes, both to make sure than Gellerat did not raise an alarm regarding my presence inside—or, rather beneath—the inn, and to allow my eyes to become accustomed to the dim light. As I began to recognize details, I took stock of my situation.
The passage I was in was almost wide enough for two men to walk abreast. There was dust on the floor, enough to make it well-nigh impossible for me to hide traces of my passage, but the amount of dust and its condition convinced me that nobody had passed this way for years. So, I set off carefully down the passage.
What I had thought was light coming through cracks in the far wall as I stood at the threshold of the secret panel in the root cellar turned out to be light being reflected from the rungs of a ladder that descended from the passage ceiling in the middle of the building. When I got to the ladder, I looked up and discovered a rectangular shaft that went up through the center of the building.
I saw the underside of what appeared to be a platform that covered half of the shaft’s area at about where I figured the second floor would be. Still looking up, I moved my head toward the ladder until I saw another such platform at the level of the third floor. I saw some brightly lit boards at the far end of the shaft, doubtless the underside of a shelter to keep rain and birds out of the shaft.
After making sure all my effects—especially my knife and Malon’s dagger—were secure, I started climbing the ladder. I did so slowly, applying and removing my weight gradually and deliberately, so as not to cause any creaking noises.
At the second floor, I put my weight on the platform, found it to be sturdy and soundless, and stepped off the ladder. I looked at the shaft walls around me and saw a cleverly disguised peephole set into a secret door in the shaft wall opposite the ladder, and peepholes on the walls to the left and right of the door. I carefully worked the peephole in the door, looked out, and saw the landing of the staircase where Lascaux and I had been waylaid on our way to our room. I then looked through the peephole on the wall to the right of the door, and confirmed that it was, indeed, the room Lascaux had taken for us. In fact, I suffered something of a pang when I saw his robe still hanging on the back of the door, and then idly wondered what else of ours might still be in the room. When I looked through the third peephole, on the wall to the left of the door, I found myself looking at two rough men sitting on chairs, deep in conversation.
“…think the boss’s gonna get rid of Fremd?” said the one with his back to me and his feet up on a low table.
“I dunno, Wilmer,” said the other who sat in a chair near the door, facing me. He leaned back slightly. “Fremd and the boss go way back, and him and Slamin went back further still.”
“Slamin!” said the first man, as if mouthing a curse. He hawked some phlegm and put his feet on the floor before spitting. “You’d think he woulda figured stuff out, but no…” His feet went back on the table. “He had to go disrespect the boss… so now him'n his wife are dead...”
“Well, it didn’t do him no good, neither,” said the man in the chair. “We got the girl, in the end.”
“Whaddaya figure the doc was doing here earlier, with the girl?” asked the first man.
“I don’t really know, but you know that pretty black-haired wench in the kitchen with the huge…,” he accompanied his words with hand gestures.
“Yeah,” interrupted the first man, “Rachel. What’d she say?”
“She says she heard the boss talkin’ with the doc,” and here, the man in the chair looked to both sides, as if to make sure the two of them were alone, and then came down on all four chair legs and leaned conspiratorially toward his companion. “And they were talking about a map that they thought was tattooed on the girl’s body, and that the doc had drawn a copy of.”
“What kind of map?”
“Beats me. I figure whatever kind of map it is, it’s to something like gold, or something valuable, because the boss is playing this one real close to his shirt. Rachel couldn’t tell me what else they were saying, but it must’ve been important. I hear the boss even took the doc with him to Celeron.”
The first man made a barking sound that may have been a laugh. “How much you wanna bet nobody in town sees the doc again?”
“Well, if there’s nothing to that map, or whatever it was they traced off the girl's skin,” said the man in the chair, “I expect the doc will live to return here and die of old age.”
“Hm-mm,” said the man with his back to me. “What if that drawing the doc made don’t mean nothin’? What if it ain’t a map?”
“Well, then,” said the man in the chair, “I guess the doc'll really be in the clear, but that little princess that Malon’s ol' lady's looking after is going to be in for some, uh, rough handling.”
“Yeah,” said the other, as he gave himself over to laughter, “I'd expect, among other things, the little slut’s gonna have Malon's ‘dark cloud’ inside her silver lining, too!”
Both men laughed raucously for about a minute, and then fell silent, apparently amused at their exchange.
I eased the peephole closed, and started to think.
If Malon had gone to Celeron to find out more about something that might or might not be a map, that meant that Usha hadn’t told him anything useful, which only made sense because she couldn't, having been drugged upon arriving at the inn.
I had a vague idea that Celeron was a little more than a half-day’s ride from where we were, which if true, meant that Malon and his party would arrive there in the late afternoon. Assuming he could complete his business in time to leave in the late morning tomorrow, Malon would be back tomorrow, in the late evening or night at the earliest.
That didn’t leave me much time to come up with a plan to free Usha and escape, but it would have to do.
But first, I had to reconnoiter what awaited me on the third floor, so I remounted the ladder and resumed my climb, drawing ever nearer to Usha with every step.
The next part.
