Jalia in the North (Jalia - World of Jalon) (3 page)

Daniel gulped and decided it was time to get some protection between his legs. He hastily put on the trousers she had thrown him. He was never sure with Jalia about when she was joking, but then her face contorted into the grin she had been trying hard to suppress. “You always believe me, don’t you?”

Daniel looked her in the eyes, “I have been told that the application of a birch rod on the buttocks can still the chatter of a wayward maiden”

“You would have to find a maiden first,” Jalia retorted, but she stopped teasing him. “So what have we found out?”

“The King is insane and has killed all the males in the city except the old ones and his guards.”

“So why haven’t the women put him out of his misery?”

“Because they are women and we old men cannot fight his soldiers,” Sandor responded, shocked at the idea that the women might fight.

“I lost a dagger to the guards. Where might they have put it?” Daniel asked.

They have their quarters in the tower above the gate, but if all you want is a dagger I’m sure I can find you one.”

Jalia was using the knife she found to eat the eggs in the pan. She swallowed a large piece and was about to say something when they heard a crash at the front door. Then shouting from outside as a voice yelled at them to “Open up and be quick about it.”

Sandor’s face blanched as Jalia stood and threw the knife to Daniel who caught it expertly before stopping to fasten his shirt.

Swordsman

King Fran and Captain Haran rushed down the corridors to the Long Dungeon. There were two doors to the dungeon one at each end of the palace complex but they headed for the only door that had been used in the last ten years.

Captain Haran and Sergeant Trant stepped in front of the King as Trant turned the key. They opened the door slowly, ready to kill anything that moved on the other side, but the long dungeon was as empty of life as the corpses that hung within it.

Haran and Trant walked in front, with the King behind them and four guards bringing up the rear. It took several minutes to reach the spot where they had chained Jalia and Daniel.

The pool of sticky blood was clearly visible as were the two sets of manacles that hung on each side. They was no trail in either direction, the bodies were simply gone.

“The girl must have been manacled badly, probably slipped her wrists through them and dragged her man’s body away. She’s probably whimpering at the other end of the dungeon,” Haran suggested after examining the scene.

“They are here,” The King whispered. “They have finally arrived and they plan to kill me. You must find them, Haran. Search the city, find them and kill them.” He turned on his heels and headed back. Haran’s men stepping clear as the King strode passed them. Haran nodded to the guards and they ran to catch up with their King.

“Come on out you little bitch,” Sergeant Trant shouted down the dungeon, his voice echoing like the voice of ghosts.

“Shut up, Sergeant,” Haran ordered. “Come with me. I am sure she’s still in here and she’ll not be going anywhere.” The two men started down the corridor, the Sergeant walking backwards with his sword drawn, Haran walking as if he didn’t have a care in the world. They closed the door, locking it securely behind them and went back to the Captain’s quarters above the city gates.

Lying on the Captain’s table were the items they had taken from Daniel and Jalia. The pile consisted of their clothes, Daniel’s stained with dried blood, and their weapons.

“I’m taking the sword and one of her daggers. Take whatever of the rest you want, Trant.” The Captain fitted the scabbards of the sword and dagger to opposing sides of his belt.

The Sergeant picked up Daniel’s dagger and pulled the blade from its scabbard. The blade looked so sharp he felt it might cut the very air. Putting the blade back in its scabbard he fastened the dagger to his belt. He took Jalia’s other knife and fastened it inside his boot. He stood up and waited for orders from his Captain.

“Take three men and search the Long Dungeon. Find the bitch and kill her. Find where she has hidden the man’s body and cut of its head to bring back for the King. Be as quick as you can, as who knows what the King might do in his current state of mind?”

“And you, sir?”

“I think I’ll take a few men and search the town. Some of the old fools think they can disobey us and a few public floggings much needed to restore discipline. The order from the King serves as a fine excuse.” The captain grinned at his subordinate who grinned back. “Meet me in the town when you are finished in the dungeon, I’m sure we can find some pretty girls to flog.”

“Yes, sir.”

The Captain rounded up a few guards to accompany him and they marched towards the inhabited part of the city. Much of the city was empty these days. Captain Haran had a particular target in mind, there was a man called Sandor Jant who had been asking for a beating for some time.

Jant’s house was part of a terrace of houses in a narrow street. Captain Haran and his guards crowded around the front door before banging on it. They didn’t bother to send anyone around the back, because to flee the Kings Guard was to declare yourself guilty and was a one-way ticket to the Long Dungeon.

Sandor fled through his back door trying to cling to a few more hours of life, but already resigned to his imminent death. Daniel and Jalia didn’t consider running and made their way to the upper floor where they peered out of the window above the front door.

“Eight of them,” whispered Jalia. “I don’t think my ring will work, it feels exhausted. It will have to be a sword fight. You stay here and I’ll take them.”

Daniel shook his head.

“I don’t think so. We’ll go together. Let’s jump from the window and trap them between us in the alley. That way no one will escape to warn the rest of the guards.”

Jalia sighed. “Daniel, I’ve been travelling with you for nearly two years and I’ve never seen you so much as touch a sword. You’ll not survive against professional soldiers with just a knife.” She had nearly lost him once today and here he was being male and stupid because men feel they have to protect women.

“This is not a matter for discussion.” Daniel launched out of the window, going to the left. Jalia had no choice but to jump through the window before the element of surprise was lost.

Daniel landed on a guard at the back of the group. The guard sprawled across the alley smashing his head against the cobbled stones. His sword was smashed from his hand and bounced down the street. Daniel scrambled after it.

At the other end of the alley, Jalia knocked down two guards, who yelled in panic as her boots heading for their faces. Though driven to the ground they kept hold of their swords and staggered to their feet, ready to fight. Haran and the other guards milled around the door, unable to get enough space to swing their swords.

Daniel picked up the guard’s sword and, crouching on the ground, spun on his heels, his sword sweeping an arc six inches above the cobbles. A man screamed as Daniel’s sword cut deep into his ankle. Daniel got to his feet, slicing the sword upwards into the man’s groin. The man fell back, screaming in agony. Daniel walked to the guard and sliced his head from his shoulders.

Jalia performed a summersault and kicked a guard in the stomach. In follow-through, she tore his sword from his fingers as he tried to catch his breath. She pushed him into a second guard who had to move his sword aside to avoid running the man through.

Jalia used the momentum in her push to bring her back against the wall before thrusting forward, her sword biting clean through the midsection of the first man and into the stomach of the second. Using her foot as leverage against the guard’s groin she pulled the blood-covered sword from their bodies. She stared down the alley, worried about how Daniel might be faring.

Daniel faced two of the remaining guards. To Jalia’s eye, his stance looked all wrong and he waved the end of his sword around like the head of a snake. But it was clear he easily outclassed the two men. However, a man carrying her sword and wearing a fancier uniform than his colleagues joined the other two, leaving only a solitary guard behind to fight her.

“Oy you. The fancy pants with my sword. Don’t you know that three on one is unfair?” Jalia shouted and the Haran turned to face her. He realized there was no room in the street for three men to fight alongside each other and this noisy girl had begun to interest him.

“I am Captain Haran of the King’s Guard and I would like to know your name before I kill you,” he said cheerfully. He knew how good a swordsman he was and he was only facing a slip of a girl.

“No need, Captain, because it isn’t me who is going to die.” Jalia saw Daniel make a strange move with his sword that knocked a sword from a guard’s hand and back towards her. The man scrabbled after it, leaving Daniel to face a single foe.

“Daniel? Where did you learn to sword fight? I’m jealous,” Jalia called out.

“My father taught me. He was considered the master swordsman of Delbon long before I was born.” Daniel parried his opponent’s sword as it thrust at his throat. “I was trained practically from birth.”

“You were trained by David al’Degar?” Jalia shouted as the Captain and the guard on her side tried a pincer attack, which she deflected without thinking.

“You know of my father? He never left Delbon from the day of my birth until his death.” Daniel pushed the two men down the alley so he could hear Jalia’s reply. The guards working as a team were barely making him sweat while perspiration ran down their faces.

“He was loaned to the King of Bagdor many years ago. My Swords-master was trained by him and swore he was the best swordsman that ever lived.” Jalia was almost dancing with delight. “But I don’t recognize the style you’re using.”

Daniel pushed the men nearer to the backs of their colleagues. “Father believed that if you fought like everyone else, you would die like everyone else. He encouraged me to find a style of my own and spanked me if I didn’t beat him when we fought.”

“You must have got a lot of spankings.” Jalia gloated.

“Only until I was ten years old, not once in the last two years of his life.”

Captain Haran was sweating. It was impossible, but these two fiends were easily prevailing against four of the best swordsmen in Ranwin. Worse, they were insulting them by not paying full attention, but chattering on like children. He could no longer contain his anger, this girl was going to die and then he would take care of the man.

“I suppose,” Haran said driving Jalia back using the full force of his body with each cut of his blade, “That you… expect me… to hand this… sword of yours… back to you!”

“That would be nice,” Jalia replied sliding her sword between his cutting strokes and slicing his belly in two.

Haran looked down in astonishment as his intestines slithered down his legs to the ground. He stared for moments at Jalia, before handing her back her sword, hilt first, as he died.

In the stunned silence that followed Daniel dispatched the men he was fighting. They died so fast they didn’t even realize they were dead.

Jalia killed the last guard contemptuously and went to stand beside Daniel, looking at him with new respect. “I would love to have fought your father.”

“You would have beaten him. You fight better than I ever saw him fight.”

Jalia dropped her sword and embraced Daniel, kissing him full on the mouth.

“That is the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me,” she said when they came up for air.

Daniel pried Jalia’s hands away and looked at the dead at their feet. “Collect your scabbard and I think that’s one of your knives’. I think we have probably overstayed our welcome in Ranwin.”

“We still have your dagger to collect,” Jalia reminded him as she bent to retrieve her things while trying to avoid the guts covering the Captain’s belt.

“I had not forgotten,” Daniel replied, looking warily up and down the street. If the locals heard the fight they were not coming out to investigate. “We should search in the rooms over the city gates if I remember correctly.”

Port in a Storm

They made their way towards the city gates, keeping to the alleys to avoid detection. The choice made it difficult for them to be sure of the exact direction they were travelling. The streets twisted and turned and they travelled more south than they intended. The narrow street they walked performed one last unexpected twist and they found themselves looking out over a large harbor.

The harbor was a marvel of the ancient world. It was as if a glass dish had been dipped into the waters of the mighty river Jalon and its sides rose out of the water in elegant purple glass. A jetty narrowed at the farthest point and fused with the walls. Entranceways to the streets beyond were carved through the glass, as were doorways into buildings along its length. A narrow slice of the bowl was cut out to allow the harbor access to the river.

Daniel and Jalia stood near the western end of the harbor and the jetty in front of them narrowed as the harbor stretched into deep water. Large rotting crates littered the jetty, a memory of more prosperous times. Farthest out and moored to the dock was a wondrous boat with a hull made of darkest blue glass. The boat sparkled on its upper decks where gold leaf had been laid on carved wood, a mast of polished dark oak rose majestically from its middle.

“I have to get onto that boat,” Jalia said quietly, almost drooling at the thought. “There’s bound to be a worthy souvenir or two onboard.”

Daniel sighed. Still it could hardly make things worse to go and look. All they had left to do was to recover his dagger and then fight their way past a couple of hundred guards to safety. Visiting the boat would hardly add to their woes.

They made their way along the jetty using the decaying crates for cover. As they neared the boat they discovered two men guarding it.

The jetty had narrowed down to about eight feet wide and an enormous crate blocked six feet of that. The guards sat on crates in front of the big crate looking towards the city.

“I’ll take them,” Jalia said, stepping forward.

Daniel grabbed her shoulder and drew her back, “Alright, you do that. I’ll wait by the crates and protect our rear while you go and steal something.”

Jalia looked shocked. “Just liberating stolen goods from evil people, Daniel. I would never rob from an honest man.”

She slid between the piles of crates and Daniel followed behind. It wouldn’t be much of a fight, the men were unprepared and Jalia could take any ordinary pair of men. Before Daniel could catch up with her she dispatched the men and ran towards the boat, dropping out of sight behind the big crate.

When Daniel reached the crate and looked beyond his heart almost stopped. Jalia was held from behind with a razor sharp knife cutting into her throat. The man holding her was a madman, his eyes close to popping from their sockets He wore the finest of silk clothes colored in royal purple. Daniel guessed he must be the King and knew that Jalia was only a hairsbreadth from death.

“Hands in the air and speak not a word or she dies!” the King screamed. A vision had told him they would come here and he had known where Jalia would walk. He had hidden behind the crate to grab her as she passed.

Jalia knew the slightest move on her part would cause the King to cut through her windpipe. It was likely he would cut it anyway, without meaning too, because his hand was trembling so much.

Daniel raised his hands and walked slowly forward. There was nothing he could do to save Jalia. All he could do was play for time and hope for a miracle. He began to speak, but the King pushed the knife deeper into Jalia’s throat in warning and blood began to flow. Daniel closed his mouth and stood unmoving.

“Not one word, High King. Even a sigh and I will cut your Queen’s throat. I know who you are you see…” The King giggled hysterically, “And I know all about your magic ring, so hush, not a word and you may yet die before she does.”

Daniel pressed his lips firmly together and the King relaxed. He allowed the knife to move a few inches from Jalia’s throat. He did not fear her and he could kill her if she struggled in the slightest. It was only Daniel’s voice he feared because only his magic ring was predestined to kill him.

“What’s he supposed to say?” Jalia asked, and when the King did not respond she knew she had her chance. “Magic Ring cut the King’s throat.”

Jalia knew her ring was near to exhausted but she prayed it had some strength left. She let herself fall back as she spoke and the King’s knife moved in towards her throat.

The knife fell from his hand before it touched her. She pushed away from the King and spun around in time to see his head topple from his shoulders from left to right, only three quarters severed, but still more than enough.

Daniel ran to hug her. He lifted her head and wiped the blood away from the cut on her throat revealing it was only a superficial wound. He kissed her and held her tightly.

“It’s alright, Daniel, squeezing me to death is not going to help.”

“Can we get out of here?”

“Yes you are right, let’s go.” Jalia pulled herself from Daniel’s arms and picked up her sword. She went to the gap besides the packing crate and stopped dead in her tracks.

“We may have a tiny problem to deal with first.”

Daniel strode to her side. As far as they could see along the dock the King’s Guard waited for them. At least two hundred men, possibly as many as three hundred waited silently. The ones furthest away along the dock were still struggling to put on their uniforms and boots.

Nearest to the crate, a man wearing what Daniel recognized as sergeant’s insignia stood waiting. They could see from a glance at his face that he was not about to let them go.

He snarled when he saw Daniel, “You bastards killed my Captain. He was more than a brother to me. I’m going to kill you very slowly.”

Daniel and Jalia took a step back, not far enough back for the sergeant to try to get beyond the crate, but far enough for them to whisper without being heard.

“Any ideas?” Daniel asked.

“I always thought I’d die fighting overwhelming odds, but I planned to be at least seventy by then.”

“I’ll take that as a no, shall I?”

Daniel studied the sergeant and an idea formed. He felt he had best act on it before common sense stopped him. He handed his sword to Jalia, “Look after this for me. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Before Jalia could reply he dived past her and towards the sergeant.

Whatever Sergeant Trant expected them to do, an attack by an unarmed man had not been on his list. Trant hesitated because he didn’t want these two to get a quick or easy death and running the man through would be far too easy.

His men stood watching and waited for their sergeant to take care of the madman.

Trant attempted to hit Daniel on the head with the pommel of his sword, but Daniel twisted aside at the last moment. He felt a hand at his waist and then Daniel’s dagger was back in Daniel’s hands.

Daniel backed towards the large crate with his dagger raised defensively. Trant moved forward to skewer him, but Jalia burst passed Daniel to knock Trant’s sword from his hand. A second later he was dead.

Daniel whispered to his dagger. It left his hand and rose into the air spinning ever faster, humming as its speed rose. Its bright blade glinted in the last rays of the evening sun. It flew into the massed ranks of guards and blood splattered wherever it passed. Men attempted to flee, but there was no escape. The blade followed them as they pushed into each other, desperately trying to get away from this uncanny spinning death.

Down the dock the dagger travelled, killing all who stood or ran before it. The screaming from the City Guard reached a crescendo to die down as only a few men still lived. Then there was silence, absolute deafening silence broken only by the hum of the blade as it hovered above the bodies.

The dagger flew high into the sky and then headed across the water to Daniel’s hand. It stopped spinning as it flew. High in the air, it lost all power and dropped towards the jetty. Daniel stepped forward to catch it before it hit the dock.

Jalia looked across the acres of bodies.

“I don’t ever want to hear you accuse me of being ruthless again,” she said and stepped closer to hold his hand. She knew Daniel hated killing and to do it on such a scale must have appalled him even as he acknowledged the necessity.

“He’s got your other knife.” Daniel said noticing it sticking out of Trant’s boot.

Daniel and Jalia trod carefully over the bodies and around the pools of blood as they left the dock. They chose a wide avenue to follow; sure it would lead them to the city gates. By the time they got there they were being followed by a large crowd of women and girls with a small number of old men among them.

When they reached the gate, Daniel turned to the crowd, which took a quick step back.

“Does anybody know how to open the gate?”

Sandor Jant stepped forward.

“How will we retain our skills without boys to apprentice?” he asked and Daniel stared at him bemused. Why did this old man think he had answers to such questions?

“Apprentice the girl’s, you old idiot,” Jalia said contemptuously.

“But girls cannot learn a trade,” Sandor spluttered and there were male grunts of agreement from within the crowd.

“Then the city of Ranwin will lose its skills forever, it’s your choice,” Daniel shouted, exasperated with these people. Who did they think he was anyway, their king?

Another old man came forward and operated the mechanism to open the gate. A girl staggered out of a door with their clothes in her hands.

 
“Well,” said Jalia as they once again approached the Ranwin Bridge. “I can’t wait to see what the nightlife of Baltar is like after such a boring day.”

Daniel attempted to slap her on the bottom, but she pranced out of his way, laughing delightedly.