Jalia and the Slavers (Jalia - World of Jalon) (13 page)

“Daniel al’Degar at your service. Begging your pardon, but I have to leave.”

Daniel spun on his heels and walked down the corridor as Jal al’Breen gurgled his last.

Jalia found that the monastery was immense. There were probably a thousand rooms scattered over five buildings, some of which were four stories high. What she needed was a clue as to where to find Dell Brode.

Jalia spotted two guards patrolling the inner wall of the monastery on foot. She had to do something about them as they were heading towards the room with the bodies in it. They would raise the alarm and then things could get difficult. She sneaked up behind the two men and listened.

“I can’t see the point of the increased security,” the guard slightly in front told his companion. “Putting the portcullis down just makes things difficult and it’s not like one girl is going to kill six guards. The whole thing is stupid.”

“Don’t let Dell hear you talking like that. He’ll have you whipped and thrown into the dungeon for sure. He’s terrified he’s going to die like al’Tren and Gore. They were tougher than him and after facing the girl they’re both dead.”

“But there isn’t any possibility she could get in,” the guard protested as he walked on ahead.

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure.” Jalia replied. The guard turned to find Jalia’s sword at his throat. He looked back for his friend and saw his body on the ground. The guard’s eyes bulged with fear.

“Now,” Jalia said briskly, “I want you to take me to your leader.” Jalia paused as she considered what she had said. “What a wonderful phrase. I’ll have to use that again. Come on, I haven’t all night. Take me to Dell Brode and I might not kill you. I’ll have my sword in sticking in your back the whole way so please don’t try anything.”

The guard led Jalia into one of the larger buildings and up three flights of stairs. Jalia was aware he might be trying to trick her, but he hadn’t appeared bright when talking to his late friend so she wasn’t particularly worried.

Eventually they came to a door and he pointed at it. Since he had been good, she knocked him out with the hilt of her sword. He fell noisily to the floor and a voice called out from the room.

“Is that you, Brel? You were supposed to be here half an hour ago. Come in, man!”

Jalia shrugged and lifted the latch before kicking the door violently. The door hit someone when it got most of the way around and bounced back. A man stepped out from the other side as if he expected to surprise her and stared stupidly as Jalia’s sword cut him a new belly button. She pulled her sword from his body and walked over it to get into the room.

The man on the wrong side of the door had blood pouring from his nose and appeared to have a broken knee. He lunged at her with his sword and Jalia stepped aside, stabbing him neatly in the back as he went past.

A heavy set man in chain mail sat behind a desk. The desk had a two sided axe with a four foot handle resting on it. He stood, picked up the axe and then heaved the desk at her.

Jalia retreated to the door as the desk flew towards her. She stumbled over the body of a man she’d killed. The desk hit the open door and tumbled out of her way. As she looked up she saw the man with the axe swinging it down towards her head.

Jalia jumped backwards and hit the door jamb with her shoulder before tumbling into the corridor. Her sword fell from her hand, which had been numbed by its impact with the frame.

The man with the axe laughed as he strode after her. “You won’t find it so easy to kill Dell Brode as you did Marcus and Vincend!”

Jalia flipped the throwing knife out of her boot and threw it at his heart with her left hand.

The knife hit his chain mail point on. The mail was not strong enough to block the strike completely, but it did stop it penetrating more than half an inch. Brode looked at the knife stupidly for a second and then snarled as he pulled it out and flung it back at her. He began to raise his axe when a second knife penetrated his groin.

“Oh, you should never throw a knife back to me,” Jalia said brightly as her first knife penetrated his throat to the hilt.

Brode fell dead at her feet.

She picked herself up a little unsteadily and limped over to Brode. She pulled her knives from his body and wiped them on his trousers. She had sprained her ankle in the fall and limped over to get her sword. As Jalia stood, she heard the guard she had knocked out groan. She sighed and stabbed him in the back with her sword.

“Sorry, Useless Guard. I’m injured and will need longer to get over that damned portcullis. I can’t afford the chance of you alerting someone.”

Jalia wiped her sword on the dead man’s body and limped off down the corridor. She mused that Daniel was right about one thing, being an assassin was proving to be no fun at all.

17.
Rest and Retaliation

Jalia and Daniel returned to their house by morning. Daniel arrived first while it was still dark. He stayed up the remainder of the night waiting until Jalia limped in a little after the cocks in the neighborhood started to crow. They went up to their bedroom and Daniel helped Jalia get undressed and back into the oversized shift that Una Thorn would be expecting to see her wearing later that morning.

Daniel bathed Jalia’s ankle, which at first looked very swollen. But as he rubbed her ankle, the swelling slowly went down and then vanished. Jalia, who had been dozing woke up and smiled at him. “I’ve always suspected you have healing hands.”

“Don’t be silly. All that’s happened is you have had a chance to relax and take the weight of it.”

Daniel frowned as he noticed how light it was getting outside their window. “Mistress Thorn will be around soon and we are hardly prepared. I need to change into my farm clothes. How did your mission go?”

Jalia yawned as she tried to keep her eyes open. “I killed Dell Brode, but it did not go well. I had to kill a lot of guards to get to him. You know the type, not bad men, but men who act the way they’re told to. Get rid of their leader and you couldn’t tell them from anybody else.”

“I do believe you’re developing a conscience, Jalia.” Daniel laughed at the very idea. “It must be having a civilizing effect on you. Whoever would have thought it?”

Jalia rolled over on the bed so her back was facing him. “Very funny, I’m sure,” she muttered shutting her eyes and hugging the pillow, more than ready to sleep. “And how did your foray into the dark world of the assassin go, if I may ask?”

“I killed al’Breen. He was a thug and deserved it, but I felt dirty all the same. I was careless and had to use magic to free myself and kill him. It didn’t feel good in the slightest.”

“That’s the second time in a row that somebody has caught you unawares.” Jalia mumbled as she rolled her face deeper into the pillows. She said something else, but Daniel couldn’t hear it. Before he could think of a suitable reply he heard soft snoring sounds telling him she was asleep.

Daniel changed into the farmer’s clothes Una would expect to see him wearing. He hid Jalia’s clothes and weapons with his own. Daniel didn’t put away the throwing knife that she left on the bedside table. It was possible she might need it in an emergency. He went down the stairs into the work room and made himself comfortable in a chair. Daniel was determined to stay awake so he could greet Una when she arrived. He was sound asleep within seconds.

The banging on the door was loud and persistent. It entered Daniel’s dreams as a war drum carried and beaten on the back of a horse. A thousand men surrounded Jalia and Daniel as they stood back to back with their swords and knives at the ready. The men attacking carried pikes and crossbows, but it was the men who looked frightened and Jalia was laughing with manic glee.

Daniel awoke with a splitting headache and every bang on the door pulsed through his head like a hammer. One hurried glance out of the window told him Una Thorn had arrived. The same glance told him it must be past noon, so she must be very late.

He called out to tell her he was coming and rushed upstairs to shake Jalia awake. Prying her fingers from his windpipe as she came awake took him another minute and he rushed downstairs to unbolt the door.

Una did not look as though she was happy about the delay and pushed past him, knocking him to the floor as she mounted the stairs to their bedroom. As she entered the room, Jalia whispered urgent instructions to her ring to once again convince Una she was pregnant and near to term.

“It’s noon girl. A farmer’s wife can’t spend her day in bed over such a minor thing as being pregnant. I would advise your husband to put a whip to your back except it isn’t a good idea when you’re this far gone. Perhaps a day after the birth would not be too early though.” Una finished her diatribe and stomped over to the side of the bed.

Her thick stubby fingers pulled at Jalia’s shift and Jalia arched her back so it could be pulled up to her neck. As on her previous visits, Una threw the rolled up shift over Jalia face. Daniel returned to the bedroom, walking to the other side of the bed.

“You are very late today, Madam Thorn?” he enquired solicitously. “Did you have a birthing emergency?”

Una looked up and spat, missing him by inches. “Those scum of a Miners Association sent their toy soldiers to harass me. It was your fault, yours and your lazy flat-chested wife.”

Daniel put a restraining hand on Jalia’s shoulder. She was sensitive about the size of her breasts and had started to rise in anger.

“I don’t see how we could have done anything to annoy them. We have never come across the Miners Association.”

Una glared at Daniel, staring eye to eye before backing down in the face of his innocent expression.

“No, it was them being particularly stupid. They wanted me to confirm your wife was pregnant. They’re looking for some people they think have sneaked into the city.” Una looked thoughtful for a second. “They know that at least two of them are here because there have been assassinations…” Una paused for dramatic effect and to force Daniel to ask her the inevitable question.

“Assassinations? Why that’s terrible,” Daniel responded in as shocked a voice as he could manage. “Who’s been killed?”

“I don’t know. They barged into my house asking stupid questions about the two of you. They were asking if I had seen any strangers when another guard rushed into the house and gave them orders. He said two of the Owners had been assassinated.” Una had pulled a metal tool out of her bag that looked as though it belonged in a torture chamber. They looked like a pair of tubular pliers. “Now shut up and let me examine your wife.”

Daniel stood back from the bed. Jalia pulled the shift away from her face and glowered at Una. If looks could kill, Una would have been ash at that very moment. She squeezed Jalia’s breasts hard enough to make her wince before she took Jalia’s right nipple between her finger and thumb and squeezed it very hard indeed.

Jalia arched her back in agony as Una examined the nipple closely. “No sign that this one is going to be able to feed her baby. In fact, based on her breasts you would think she wasn’t pregnant. The nearest wet-nurse is over on Cee. I’ve sent her a message and she should be coming over in a few days.” Una let go of Jalia’s nipple and Jalia fell back on the bed in relief.

Una moved her attention downwards. Placing a hand on Jalia’s tummy, she nodded in satisfaction. “Yes, the baby is kicking like a trooper and is positioned just right for the birth. Now open your legs, girl so I can get this tool in and spread you out a little.”

Jalia did not respond fast enough for Una’s liking and she slapped Jalia so hard on her thigh that a handprint blushed red on Jalia’s pale skin. Jalia opened her legs while reaching for her knife. A feral grin appeared on Jalia’s face as Daniel dived towards her, pinning her hand with the knife in it to the side of the bed.

Una was completely unaware of Daniel and Jalia’s silently struggle as she concentrated on matters lower on Jalia’s body. Neither Jalia nor Daniel made a sound as Jalia fought to plunge her knife into Una’s back and Daniel struggled to get it out of her hand.

Una plunged her strange instrument into Jalia. It must have been cold as because Jalia made a loud oofing sound and lost her grip on her knife. Daniel snatched it and hid it behind his back as Una looked towards him. Una ignored Jalia, who snarled in her direction as tears of pain showed in her eyes.

“Don’t spare the rod with this one, young man. Though what you can see in such a skinny thing in the first place, I cannot imagine. She’s nearly ready to give birth and it will come within two days at most.”

Una paused as she put the instrument she had inserted into Jalia back in her bag, after giving it a cursory wipe with a cloth. “I’ll come around tomorrow and I do not expect to see her lying in bed when I get here. Get her to sweep the floors for you at the least. Good day to you.”

Una left out of the room as rapidly as she had entered it. Daniel grinned at Jalia who had folded her arms across her breasts and glared at him. The front door slammed shut hard enough to shake the foundations as Una left the building.

“That woman needs to be killed, Daniel. It would be a service to pregnant women everywhere. And we don’t need her anymore. You heard her tell you herself that she has confirmed my pregnancy to the Association. Please let me kill her tomorrow, please?”

Daniel sat at the edge of the bed and helped pull her shift down. “Before I found her, I asked around. She is the best midwife in Telmar. People told me she could be difficult with her charges and I think that has proved an understatement, but they also said that many children and mothers in Telmar would have died if it was not for her.”

Jalia glared at Daniel.

“It’s up to you in the end. But if you kill her you’ll also be future killing mothers and their children.” Daniel lapsed into silence. If Jalia decided to kill this woman, he wouldn’t stop her again.

“Damn you, Daniel. You spoil all my fun these days.”