The Gypsy Queen (15 page)

  “I snuck up close. Really close. I could hear talking. It’s not a very big building but people come and go from it. People come out that never went in.” Emilee took a big drink of water as she chomped on a biscuit.

  “We’ll have to move in tonight. We can’t wait a day and lose all the captives,” said Bastion. “We’ll wait until just an hour before dawn. We need as much surprise as possible to get the slaves before they board.” Bastion looked at his little gypsy warriors. Three brave gypsy children, and
Yana
, the young woman they all looked up to.

 
Yana
gasped. “Emilee! What happened to your arm?”

  The cloth had fallen away from her arm as she scarfed down the first actual meal she had eaten in a while.

  “Wolves.”

  “You were attacked by wolves?” Luba asked, wide-eyed. “There’s wolves around? I hate wolves!”

  “I don’t hear any wolves,” said Dimmie.

  “That’s because I killed them all,” Emilee said proudly.

 
Yana
stopped with tending to Emilee’s wound. “What do you mean you killed them all? How many wolves?”

  “Six.”

  “You killed six wolves
by yourself
?” 

  “You saw them up on the ridge. I used the pixie tree and I sharpened my staff and I beat them!” she said. “I beat them by doing the things you taught me,
Yana
.”

 
Yana
hugged her precious friend. “I tried to hurry to come help you,” she said.

  “You saved me before you even got here!” Emilee said with joy.
Yana
kissed her little friend on the arm by her wound as she wrapped it in a new dressing.

  “
Ruv Mulo
,”
Yana
said. “Wolf death. Did you do the feast ritual?”

  “Yes. Only one problem,” Emilee said. “There’s hardly no food ‘round here but ginger root. And I hate ginger ro
ot as much as Luba hates wolves!
”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Brraaaaaap!” the man belched. Scratching his belly, he took another swig from the bottle he was nursing. He buried more food into his mouth as he sat alone at the table by candlelight.

  Tap, tap, tap-tap. Someone was at the door. He had no idea what time it was, except that his candle had burnt down a good ways, and he was tired. He shuffled to the door, and tapped it in reply.

  Tap, tap, tap-tap. The knock came again. Good enough, he decided. That was the code they were using that day. He opened the door just a crack and peered out. A young beggar girl was at the door. He snapped out of his haze. This wasn’t right. The girl was not the problem, though unlikely. The problem was that it could not have been her who knocked, he thought,  and-

  -figures in black shadow burst in the door, knocking him down.

“Hey”
he tried to protest. It was the last word he spoke, as a knife sliced his throat. Pinned down, his life faded to the sight of the dirt floor pressing into his face, and dark figures swirling into the room like demons.

  Bastion and
Yana
pulled their hoods back and looked for the entrance. They scanned the floor with candlelight, sweeping their hands through the dirt, and quietly overturning furniture. “It’s not here,” Bastion said. “The floor is solid.”

 
Yana
looked around with dread. If Emilee’s information was bad, all was lost.
Yana
kept looking. She trusted Emilee’s competence. Since the floors were solid, she started feeling along the walls. The wall closest to the castle revealed a false wall, just above the ground. She popped it open and looked at Bastion, sharing silent victory in finding it, and being right.

  They slipped into the passage, Bastion and
Yana
in the lead. It opened into a tunnel tall enough to stand in. They pushed forward and inward.
Yana
counted her steps to gauge the point where they crossed under the castle. The passage split; they would have to either go right or left.

  The team split up as planned, Bastion and
Yana
headed right, the others, left. The place was pitch black, and no matter how much
Yana
tried to adjust her eyes, she could see nothing. They were still undetected.

 
Yana
pulled at Bastion’s black garb, and pulled him to her. No one to see, in the midst of pure danger, she kissed him again, just as she had in the Great Hall. Bastion kissed her back, trying to take in the sensation of her touch, her form, her scent.

 
Yana
leaned very close into Bastion’s ear, standing on the tips of her toes to reach. “Ya tebya lublu,” she whispered.

  Bastion had no idea what it meant, but now was not the time for questions.
Yana
pulled away, feeling the heat between them, still keen on the mission. As she looked at him, she could see his aura start to glow. It was exceptional-
Yana
had never seen an aura in the dark before. It was red and gold, just like it had been the first time she touched him.
Yana
was fascinated. Then, something was wrong.
L
ight flickered.

  She pulled out her dagger, and lunged towards Bastion. She pushed him aside and launched herself behind him, driving her blade into a man that had just turned the corner with a candle in his hand, and a bottle in the other.  

  He grunted and collapsed, a jingle of metal accompanying his fall. She watched him fall, clutching her dagger in hand. She had never done something like that before. No time to think, she fumbled in the dark for the keys she had heard in his possession. The fall had snuffed out the candle; she just wished it had snuffed out the terrible smell of the passageways.

  She found the keys and deftly removed them from the fallen guard.

“Let’s find anoth
er candle,” she whispered to Bastion
. The pitch dark was starting to get to her, and she was no longer enjoying stealth. She wanted to find the captives and find her way OUT. Being confined was making her anxious.

  They moved forward, and Bastion spotted another guard up ahead, with his back partially turned to them. His candlelight could be an advantage, Bastion thought, because it would impair his eyesight trying to peer into the dark. Bastion didn’t intend to give him anything to look at. The guard looked like he was trying to fight off sleep while still standing. He never had a chance to fight off Bastion. Bastion gripped the front of the guard’s neck in the same motion of driving his blade into his back. He eased him to the floor as quietly as he could.

  They turned another left, candle in hand, and found what they were looking for. Barred doors. Iron locks. The other black riders in their group stood in front of them, looking grim.

  “We cleared the tunnels. We are alone down here now. Well... nearly alone,” Nathaniel said.

  Cowering in one of the cells, was a lone gypsy girl with bruises on her face.
Yana
felt immense grief at the sight. This horrible place was no place for a gypsy, no place for anyone. She fumbled for the keys, struggling to see between the sparse candlelight and the tears forming in her eyes. Bastion took the keys
from her gently, and unlocked
the iron door.

  The girl cowered in the corner of the cell.
Yana
entered carefully, and sat down next to her. “What’s your name,” she asked. The girl said nothing. “Please,” she said, reaching out her hand to her, and touching her arm, “Please gitana, what is your name?” The girl looked up.

  She looked at
Yana
with a sudden intensity.
Yana
spoke again. “My name is
Yana
.” She looked a little closer, in the near dark. “I am
Yana
,” she said again. “You know me,” she added.

  “
Yana
?” the girl said. “
Yana
?”

  “Yes, it’s
Yana
,” she confirmed, brushing back the girl’s hair a little. “And you are Jaelle.”

  The girl nodded. “Yes. My name is Jaelle!” she said, as though she was just now remembering it. Nathaniel turned to Bastion.

  “She’s the only one here. All the others are missing. There are no other slaves here.”

  Bastion frowned, trying to understand what may have happened. He crouched next to
Yana
, to ask the girl.

  “You are safe now, Jaelle,” he said. “We will not hurt you. You understand?” The girl nodded.

  “Where are the other captives?” he asked her. “Where did they take the others?”

  The girl swallowed hard. “They are gone,” she said.

  “Look at me,”
Yana
said. “Where did they go?”

  “They beat us,” she whimpered.
Yana
tried to be patient, but her urgency was not allowing much. “They... they hurt us,” she said.

 
Yana
nodded. “I know they did. I know,” she said, trying to comfort her.

  “Jaelle, I need to know where they went. Where are the others?”
Yana
asked.

  “They took them. They said something about a ship,” she said.

  “Do you know where the ship is going?”
Yana
asked.

  The girl nodded. “They already sailed to Kaffa.”

________________________

The Gypsy Queen- CHAPTER 9- “Shipped”

  “I found the staircase that goes up above ground,” said Nico.

  “There could be more captives there. Let’s go,” said Bastion.

  “Can you walk?”
Yana
asked Jaelle, the gypsy captive.

  “I can
run
,” said Jaelle. She stood up and righted herself.

  The team emerged into the upper dungeon, at ground level, and looked outside into the courtyard. It was silent.

  “The cells here are empty, sir,” Nico reported. “But all is not lost.”

  “How can you say that?”
Yana
said, distraught
.

  Nico looked to Bastion, and to the barrel in the corner. Bastion was in agreement.

  “
Yana
, it is time to teach these slave traders a lesson, and shut them down. It only seems right that it should be at the hand of a gypsy,” he said.

 
Yana
liked the sound of that.

  “What are my orders, Captain?”

  A black shadow glided into the courtyard of
Tatu
Castle
. Two guards slowly paced the upper edge, on a catwalk of planks that encircled the inner castle wall. Dawn had yet to break, and darkness welcomed the moving shadow. No other signs of life were evident as the shadow slunk along the wooden corridors and buildings.

  The shadow stopped at each building, greeting each one with a caustic splash. Finally the shadow stopped, at the far opposite from where it had begun. The shadow stood taller, and from a dark hood,
Yana
’s face emerged. She looked around at the castle, plotting her course. No more stealth would be possible. She reached up and carefully took hold of a torch that was nearly spent near the main gates. She tucked her head back under her hood, and began moving.

  No longer a shadow, she was but a spark- a small, simple flame, floating like an ember from a campfire. The spark followed the path that the shadow had traced. The spark burst forth a greater light, as
Yana
touched it to the first building, where she had cast the lamp oil. She ran to the next one, touching the torch to it, watching the fire grow.

  Her eyes lit up with glee at the sight of it. The whole damn place was wooden! There were no captives here, she thought, and there wouldn’t be any time soon, either. She moved as a bird in flight, to each building she had stopped at. She heard a shout from the direction of the first building she had lit. Faster still, she lit the remaining oil she had cast, and found herself back at the entrance to the dungeon.

  Without a word, Bastion took her hand and they fled the castle, back through the underground approach. The rest of the team had already left, leaving just Bastion behind to escort
Yana
. They emerged from the dark little house and rejoined the team at the gypsy camp they had set up.

 
Tatu
Castle
began to light up the sky with fire. Voices of villagers could be heard from their distance. The camp moved quickly, already broken down. Bastion assigned two of his men to stay with the wagons, with Luba, Dimmie, and Jaelle, the captive they had rescued.