Chapter 30

Thank god no one checked on us until the next morning. I pulled and I yanked and I even flipped myself about and walked my legs up the side of the wall so I could brace my feet on either side of the anchor point and I hauled myself up and heaved on it with all my strength. The mounting had been there for years and the wood was old. Eventually it started to budge and once that had happened, it just became a matter of time. That was something I didn't have much of so I kept at it all through the night, even when every muscle in my body screamed with pain and my wounds tore open again from all the straining I was doing.

I ended up on my back lying on the floor of the cell when the eye finally came away from the wood. I just lay there and rested for a bit, too tired to move. I just huffed and puffed and groaned. Seconds became minutes and time just sort of slipped by for me. Then suddenly I heard the jangling of keys and the slamming of doors and I knew I needed to move.

A guard was coming. I slipped into the far corner of the room, next to the door leading into it. I slammed myself up against the wall and hoped that whoever looked into the cell wouldn't spot me. As I moved, I palmed a couple of the nails that had held the metal ring in place. I needed weapons.

"All right now my lads," a voice chuckled loudly in the quiet of the dungeon. "Let's see if you boys are up and ready for the fun the boss has planned for today."

As he spoke a key was shoved into the lock of the door. A second later there was an audible click as the barrier unlocked and that was it. The idiot just opened the door to the cell and shoved his head in. He hadn't looked through the grill in the door at all. Given the height of the cell, the man needed to stoop. As his head entered the opening he glanced around and then hesitated. I took that opportunity and struck. I'd wedged two nails into my fist and when I swung at his head, the nails drove into his skull killing him instantly. The man dropped in a heap in the doorway. Quickly I dragged him in and then started to search him. He had a knife in his belt that I scooped up and a second set of keys. I grabbed those and checked them against the shackles that I was still wearing. They fit. In seconds I had my shackles off and then I hurried over unlock the chains that held Lord Tailem.

"Keep quiet and follow me," I whispered to the man once he was free. "It's time we got out of here."

Lord Tailem listened to me. We slipped out of the cell and then locked it up behind us. I took a look about the dungeon and noted that there were a number of other cells, although they were empty at that moment. It was a good thing and a bad thing. I could have used a little help if there had been a loyal follower or two of Lord Tailem in them. Since there wasn't I kept my mouth shut and just kept looking about to see if there was anything I could use. I didn't find anything and I didn't take long looking. Time was ticking away quickly.

"Okay now," I said to his lordship, keeping my voice low. "We need to get out of here and away and to do that I'm going to need your help. I'm hoping you know your way around your own dungeon and that you can lead us out of here. Are there any secret passages that might take us somewhere safe, where we could rest and find food and weapons?"

Lord Tailem hesitated for a moment as if he was in thought and then pointed silently to an alcove in the far corner of the antechamber of the dungeon. We moved over to it and the man started feeling about along the wall. It took a couple of minutes but eventually he found what he was looking for. There was an audible click and then the wall slid away and there was a man size opening in it. I let him lead the way. Before going, I grabbed the torch that jailor had brought down into the dungeon to light his way. I had use of it. Once through the opening, the wall slid closed and we found ourselves inside the walls of the palace climbing a flight of stairs.

There were cobwebs everywhere and it was obvious that no one had used this passage in decades. The stairway was narrow. Lord Tailem had no problem on it but I was forced to climb sideways with my back to the cold stone of the wall. It wasn't fun. It went up and up for a couple of stories and then it levelled out into a corridor that led a dozen steps or so off and away from the landing at the top of the stairs. Again Lord Tailem led the way. At the end of it he poked around again and then there was another audible click and a wall opened again. This time we found ourselves in an ornate bedroom. Once inside, Lord Tailem turned to me and whispered an explanation.

"This was my father's bedchamber," he told me in a hushed manner. "It was he who liked to visit the dungeons from time to time to amuse himself. I found the passage as a boy and followed him down once. I saw what he did there and it frightened me. I've never used those stairs since and for the most part the dungeon has gone unattended for years.

While Lord Tailem told me this I had a quick look around his old man's former bedroom. It turned out that Lord Tailem hadn't made use of it since his father had died, preferring his own apartments over those of his deceased father. There were four rooms in the apartment including a bathroom that had piped in water. It was cold water but I didn't care. Both Tailem and I drank some of it and then I took a quick bath so that I could see to my wounds. While I did that, I had Lord Tailem scrounge about for cloth to make me new bandages. With his help we had it done in a matter of minutes. In addition to cloths to bind my wounds, his lordship found a couple of swords that had belonged to his father. They were ornate and covered in gems but they both had an edge and they looked functional and that was all that really mattered.

By now we had a good idea of what time it was. The apartments overlooked the main courtyard and the gates of the palace. The sun had risen in the east but it was still early in the day. We could see guards walking the ramparts and minding the gate and we could hear voices drifting up from the city but there really wasn't the hubbub of a city wide awake yet. I took that as a good sign and I told it to Lord Tailem.

"It's still early," I muttered to the man as we backed away from the windows, "and I'm betting the men who took hold of your palace are probably still in bed. If we are lucky, we might actually catch them sleeping. Of course that requires us to find them and find them soon. If they're intending to torture me this morning, someone will notice soon that I'm not where I'm supposed to be. Do you know of any other passages?"

Lord Tailem looked at me with amazement in his eyes. Then he spoke.

"Don't you want to escape instead?" he asked pointedly.

"Once I've killed a few more bastards, I might consider it." I replied coldly.

"But what about clothing," he asked, glancing at my naked form. "Don't you want to get dressed first?"

"When I have armour I'll get dressed and not before then," I told him bluntly. "Now do you or don't you know of any other passageways?"

He did. He told me of one leading from this room to his own chambers. His father used to use it to visit him in his youth instead of wandering the halls of the palace. Tailem showed me the opening and we went into it. Like the passageway up from the dungeon it was filled with dust and cobwebs. The passage followed the interior of an outer wall and headed to the rear of the palace. Four-fifths of the way across it took a sharp turn and then came to a halt. In a whisper Tailem told me we were at his chambers. Silently I had him unlock the panel and pull it aside while I entered the room beyond first.

The room we entered was the antechamber to his lordship's apartments. It was small, nicely furnished, and vacant. There was a double set of doors on either side of the room. One set led into the central corridor of the palace and the other set led into a hallway that joined his lordships suite of rooms together. There was a bedroom, bathroom, dressing room, sitting room, and office. I turned left and headed through the door and into the hallway. There was no one there so we headed to the furthest room along the hallway first. It would be his lordship's bedroom. If anyone was there, I would deal with them.

It was occupied. His lordship's bed was filled with bodies. There was one man and several women. There was a second man seated in a chair that was facing the bed. Bottles of drink lay scattered about the room. It was obvious that the man was sound asleep. The man was snoring loudly. I put my finger to my lips and then handed my sword to the wide-eyed Lord Tailem. Then I picked up a discarded silken scarf that I found lying on the floor. With this in my hands I stepped up behind the man who was sleeping in the chair. Quickly I looped the scarf about his neck and then tightened it. I didn't recognize the man. He was big like the other two I remembered but he wasn't one of them. He had red hair like my Caitlin and a big bushy moustache.

The man's eyes popped open when I started to strangle him. His eyes were bloodshot and the instant he opened his mouth a wave of stench rose up from his lungs. I pulled the scarf tighter as he began to struggle. He tried to speak but he couldn't. All the air in his lungs had been expelled in that great exhale and he had nothing left to make a sound with. He tried to rise up out of the chair but I pulled backwards and kept him off balance. He clawed at my arms to no avail and he kicked his feet trying to overturn the chair. I made certain that it didn't happen. The empty bottles were kicked about and that caused a noise. A girl on the bed stirred and looked up at me and the man. Her eyes went wide for a second and her mouth opened. Then Lord Tailem stepped forward and placed a finger to his lips. The girl just smiled and nodded her acknowledgement. By then the man was dead.

I left the man in the chair and stepped around it. There were weapons scattered about the room including mine. They were in a neat pile on a table. I walked over to it and grabbed my dirk. I then turned my attention to the man sleeping in the bed. In that time the girl who'd woken had silently woken her other companions, letting them know that Lord Tailem was there by pointing to him. Then one by one the women slipped naked from the bed leaving the man lying there alone. He stirred a bit but he didn't wake. I recognized him as being the tall, Nordic looking man who'd reminded me of a Viking. He was sleeping face down on his lordship's giant bed. I just walked over to the side of the bed, knelt on it gently so I could reach the man, and then I took hold of him by the hair and yanked his head back and up. As his eyes flew open with surprise, I drew my blade across his neck. Blood splattered everywhere and the man died in a fit of twitches. When I turned back to Lord Tailem I was surprised to see the man looking very pale. In fact, he looked like he was going to faint. Thankfully the women rushed to his side and helped him while I took care of other business.

The first thing I did was to get dressed. It required a little inventiveness on my part. While my armour and weapons were here, none of my clothing was. Fortunately both men had been big men and both men had been naked when I killed them. That meant I didn't need to strip any one down to get a pair of britches to wear. The biggest problem was finding boots to wear. While the two men had been big like me and well built, neither of them had feet my size. I hoped that sooner or later I'd be able to find out what had happened to my boots.

While I dressed, I grabbed some food to eat. There were platters of meat and cheeses and bread and fruit lying on other tables from the night before and I salvaged what I could from it. I was hungry and I knew I would be needed my strength very soon. I saved some for Lord Tailem. The man was still looking queasy but I knew that he hadn't eaten for a couple of days and he'd want something eventually.

Once I was dressed and armed and I had eaten a bit I glanced over at Lord Tailem to see how he was doing. The man was sitting on an ornate couch surrounded by the women. There were seven of them and none had bothered getting dressed. They were all comforting Lord Tailem. One had fetched him a golden goblet with wine in it. The man was taking tiny sips of it. It was strange thing to see him being pampered so.

"Are you going to be all right?" I asked, keeping my voice down in case it carried.

"Yes my friend," Lord Tailem whispered back to me, forcing a thin smile upon his face. "It's blood that does it. I've always been queasy about blood. My father found it amusing. As a boy I revelled in stories of battles and bloodshed and it never bothered me. Even now I love listening to warriors talk about their deadly deeds. But show me blood and I become ill. My father laughed at that. The man revelled in swordplay and drawing blood while I hid from it. He said I would never be a great ruler so long as I couldn't draw the blood of another man. I guess he was right."

"Do your people love you?" I asked him pointedly.

"I thought so until the other day," Lord Tailem sighed in response, "but now I don't know."

"The people do love you my lord," one of the women said wholeheartedly. She was a small woman with a mixed heritage that suggested that she had both local and outworlder blood in her. She had long thick black hair, medium size round breasts, olive shaped black eyes, and a luscious figure. When she spoke she gripped Lord Tailem's hand and held it to her bosom. Lord Tailem smiled at her when she did that.

"You can't judge things by what Sir Assad of the Guard did," the woman continued, receiving nods of agreement from the others. "Many opposed his action and paid for it with their lives. Your chamberlain and advisors were killed as was the Master of the Port and a number of your guardsmen. These brutes took us for their own and used us as they desired, but truthfully my lord our hearts remained yours."

"Hush my pet," Lord Tailem whispered softly to the woman. "I do not fault you for this. If I cannot keep my throne against outworlder barbarians then I cannot blame you for what you have done with them." With that Lord Tailem kissed the young woman tenderly on the forehead and then looked up at me.

"Who are these women?" I asked politely, still keeping my voice down.

"They are my concubines," Lord Tailem admitted, "and the ladies of my court. It surprises you, doesn't it? Don't worry warrior, it surprised my father as well."

"It does and I'll admit it," I told him and the ladies, "however my interest in them is more of a tactical nature than a voyeuristic one. If the women are well known in the palace then they can move about without drawing attention to themselves. I have clothing and weapons and armour but no boots. If one knew where my boots were and found them and returned them here I would appreciate it. Also there is another of these men loose in the palace and I need to find him."

"That would be Grotius the Butcher," another of Lord Tailem's concubines informed me. "He was dreadfully injured yesterday in his fight with you. Amongst other injuries that you inflicted on him, you sliced through his left calf and now he is in bed cursing your existence. His apartments are those that once belonged to his lordship's mother."

"No!" exclaimed Lord Tailem in obvious indignation. I didn't let him continue.

"Then the guards are leaderless," I suggested, "now that I've killed these two."

"There are others in their band," the woman stated quickly, thus bursting my bubble. "One man replaced Sir Assad after you killed him yesterday. I believe he took over Assad's apartments and his wives and daughters. His name is Horace."

"Are there others?" I asked with interest.

"One other, who was more their lackey than anything else," replied the first woman who had reassured Lord Tailem that he was loved by his people. "I don't know his name, but the others barbarians had put my lord and you into his care. He is probably down beneath the palace, in the dungeon or the torture chamber."

"Then that must be the man I killed first," I noted aloud, "which leaves me two to deal with and whatever guards that willingly follow them. So do any of you know where my boots are?"

One did and she went and fetched them after dressing herself. I told her to be careful and to keep an eye out for anyone who might be loyal to Lord Tailem. If she was sure of them, she was to send them up to us without telling them that we were here. I hoped to gather myself a small force of loyal men for what I needed to do next. While she was gone, I searched the other rooms within Lord Tailem's apartment just in case. Fortunately I found no other intruders.