Hilda's Inn for Retired Heroes Page 12
"I am doing a look-see," said the torturer.
Lord Barton raised his eyebrows.
"The body is such a complex organism," he started with enthusiasm. "I just want to see what is in the body? I have heard such wonderful things."
Lord Barton walked over to the body. It was dead. He couldn't see anything complex about that. It was really dead. If he put pins under the fingernails, the body wouldn't move. However, the torturer had caught his interest.
What would they find if they opened up the chest of this body? The house servant hurried out of the room. He could hear some retching coming from the servant. The torturer must have done this before.
Then he was curious. He nodded at the torturer who took this as an indication that he could continue with his project. He opened up the chest with a knife, and then pulled out a saw. It took a long time to cut through the chest bone. The lord got his turn to use the saw. It was hard work until they finally opened the chest cavity and pulled out the organs.
The torturer drew pictures of some of the organs. He pointed to an organ and told Lord Barton that it was the heart. There were lungs, and intestines. He recognized the intestines from some battle wounds on the battle field.
He pulled the intestines out of the body, measured the length, and rolled them in his hands. When he was done he felt calm. He walked to his rooms covered in gore and fluids from the newly dead body. He called his body servant, who prepared a bath for the lord. His plans were coming into fruition. He had a son now. He had power. He would have to desecrate a body again, he laughed ruefully. It had helped him consolidate his plans.
He needed to get the mage under his control and then get the retired mercenaries out of his city. They made a natural army for the king. He wanted them dead or gone, preferably dead. He would start the next part of his plan to take Hilda's Inn. The mage had mumbled about the magic underneath the inn.
He would just burn down the inn. It would be easy and the mage would get his magic. Yes, he still had to do something about that mage, but not yet.
Chapter Nineteen
Delhaven, port city
Hilda's Inn
At the first morning light, Lord Barton was on his war horse in full armor, looking down as a handful of his trained knights rushed into the Inn and rousted the mercenaries, innkeeper, and servants. The knights disarmed the old and young men. They even took the knife from the cook's hand and broke her hand in the process.
When everyone including the drudges and servants were out of the Inn, one of his knights dressed in black armor with the visor protecting his face. He poured a liquid around the inn. A light brand was thrown on the liquid and the fire exploded.
Hilda yelled, "Fire. Fire," and grabbed buckets. She started pumping the hand pump on the small well in the courtyard. The retirees that had also been rousted out of the inn joined her. Her men rushed around the feet of Lord Barton, the knights, and the horses. The horses danced, jumped, and whinnied.
Lord Barton barked a laugh and then ordered his men to restrain her. So before Hilda could do anything with her small buckets of water, she was between the two armored fists of two black knights as she watched her Inn burn to the ground.
The fire jumped to the stable. Sassy, her elemental familiar, was doing her best to protect the barn and horses. The horses screamed and whinnied, which upset the knights' horses. When Lord Barton heard the screaming of the horses, he nodded to his knights who let her go.
This time the bucket brigade kept the fire away from the stable. Davi ran into the stable and pulled out horse after horse. Davi rushed past Hilda with his hand on one of the bridles as the horse kicked and screamed. They were able to save them all. Still most of the stabled was ruined. She was ruined.
When the fire was out, Lord Barton laughed. "You had one warning," he said. "Consider this the second warning. I want you and your friends to leave my land and my city." He looked at each of them, memorizing their faces. "If you ever come back, I will have your head on my gates."
A young boy slipped away from the crowd and ducked into an alley. Good. Word would get to her sister. Hilda kept the anger from her face. "M'lord," she said, nodded her head.
It would be better if Lord Barton thought that she was beaten. She could feel the magic slide across her skin. She could blast him and his knights with fire, but it would hurt the innocent people around her. She bowed her head. "Give us a few days, m'lord," she said as quietly as she could.
"You will be gone in three days." Lord Barton stayed in the saddle as his horse did a side-step. He turned his horse towards his castle, huge grin on his face. His men mounted and followed him. Hilda breathed a sigh of relief.
The lord didn't even bother to leave someone to watch them. He didn't consider her a worthy opponent. Or maybe his mage already had eyes and ears on them. But she knew a few tricks to keep a remote-seer from sensing her plans. If she were normal, burning her stuff would have been enough to scare her. It just made her angry.
First she needed to get her weaker dependents to safety.
Delhaven, port city
Hilda's Inn
Rob and the cook slipped away from the burning inn. The smell of ashes tickled their throats. The cook had family in the poorer side of the walled city. She would be safe with him until Lord Barton forgot about her.
The cook had saved a bowl of the hundred-year stew as a starter for the another pot of stew. Rob kept his arm around her and hustled her thought the streets. When they were safe, he would find a healer for her arm. The smell of ash followed them as they walked through the alleys.
As the other survivors of the fire poked through what was left of the inn, wood and ash, arrivals from the mercenary guild rode into the courtyard. They had arrived too late.
The mercenaries didn't say a word, but put the old men and disabled mercenaries behind them on the horses. They took all but two horses. Good. She wouldn't have to worry about them. She knew that the mercenaries would stop at the guild and retiree houses to let them know that they were at war with Lord Barton. He would not be able to hire any more mercenaries. Plus if the mercenaries, who were already tied to him by contract, learned of this tragedy then they could break their contract legally.
That left the drudge, Davi, Michael, and Stefan. They would have to travel with her.
Hilda's back between her shoulder blades buzzed and tickled. Someone was watching them. She didn't ignore these feelings on the battlefield and she wouldn't ignore them here. She turned around, looking at the courtyard, crevices, alleys, looking for a shadow or some hint that someone was spying, but she could see no one. She shivered. It was probably the mage, scrying.
She took a pot of coals for Sassy. Except for the horses and the pot, everything else would have to be carried out on their backs. Lord Barton's men had not only burned the inn. They had burned her clothes, her food, and her treasured possessions. She felt lucky to that no one was killed.
Hilda saw the drudge bent over, tears dripping through her fingers and onto the ground. "Where are we going to go?" she wailed.
Marie Rose stepped out of the shadows when Hilda turned away from the smoking ruins. She had been standing there too long with too many emotions coursing through her.
Marie Rose was not as flamboyant as usual. She was dressed in a gray robe, her face covered by the hood. She wrapped her arms around Hilda, "Shhhh," she said softly. "I've come for our brother. You need to get the dragon child out of here as soon as possible. Lord Barton will take him before the three days are gone."
Hilda knew she was right. The mage in Lord Barton's service would squeeze every bit of power out of Davi's skin, bones, and blood. But there was something else they needed to do first.
"You are right," she said to Marie Rose, as she hugged her sister. "But we need to take care of the magic, before the black mage claims it."
Mary Rose hissed in her ear, "Meet us at the Mistress Mary," then stepped away from her. Michael hugged her and then stood with Mary Rose.
"What." Hilda said. "Take the drudge with you."
Marie Rose took Michael's hand. The mist thickened. The drudge followed with her head down.
The shadows swallowed them.
Chapter Twenty
Delhaven, port city
Hilda Brant
The mist turned to rain and beat a rat-a-tat-tat on the roofs and cobblestones. Davi and Stefan lead the horses with their meager possessions. Hilda had recovered some of her mercenary gear that she had hidden under the floorboards of the stable, including the flamethrower. She strapped to her back. The Draugr was still out there and she might need it. She found her sword in the ashes of the inn. When they finally left the ruins, the rain had started mixing the ashes with sticky mud.
The three of them were still in thin nightclothes and the rain wet through them. Stefan and Davi held the reins of the horses. The horses were still not calm enough to ride. They plodded through the mist and rain. Hilda sneezed and wiped the rain from her eyes. She tried to braid the wet mess of her hair as she walked, but finally gave up and tied it back.
If they were in the rain too much longer, she and Davi would end up sick. Stefan never got sick or at least that what he always said. His stories of campaigns always started with rain and mud, slogging through mud up his calves and sometimes up to his thighs. How the mages would sink a platoon and then cut their heads off when they were helpless. And the importance of moving, one foot in front of the other.
At least Hilda knew they were going in the right direction to find shelter. When Mary Rose had left she had slipped a key into Hilda's hand. If anyone had been able to eavesdrop on them, he would be sure that they were going to the ship, Mistress Mary. The key was long, bronze, and slick to the touch. She had heard of these keys in the rumors from the retired mercenaries. There was a brothel in the far side of the walled city in the middle of a garden that gave these keys to their best customers.
The key let you in, but also helped you find the brothel. It was whispered that the brothel was not in the same place every time. If this was one of Mary Rose's fine establishments, then Hilda knew Mary Rose didn't have magic. But Mary Rose was a master of propaganda. She had to be able to supply the needs of her customers and to protect her girls.
The horses hooves clipped clopped on the cobblestones. Around them the two and three level hovels rose above them. She could see glints of eyes, watching them as they passed below them. In three days the bounty for their heads would be high. Lord Barton was generous that way.
The small street opened in front of them into the merchant section of town. The houses were more affluent with walls around them. Guards at the gates would look down on the riffraff in the street. In rain like this there were not many riff-raff. The guards were probably under a roof and praying that they weren't found away from their duty stations. The only thing that could be heard in the street was the drip of the rain and the sounds of hooves. Even Davi hadn't said a word. He looked miserable. Sassy had said he might be a fire elemental. Fire and water don't mix.
The key lit and burned her hand. In front of them was a rolling fog wall. The rain had dampened most of the sewage smells. This cloud didn't smell, which made it an illusion. Hilda held the key up and a light pierced through the fog. A path opened up for the three people and two horses. They walked through.
The illusion hid a small palace. Hilda had seen something like this a long time ago in a land far away. The grounds were filled with rose bushes of red, pink, and yellow. The huge door opened and Annie stood there, smiling.
"I told you I liked men," Annie smiled at Hilda's confusion. Then she hustled them inside. A maid had blankets and she wrapped each of them. Hilda's shivering decreased as she started to warm. "Can you walk up the stairs?"
Hilda just nodded. There was a chandelier hanging from the center of the foyer. When she looked closely at it, she could see fauns and nymphs cavorting. She hoped Davi didn't get a look. There were marble and mirrors on the walls, and she could see how bedraggled the three of them looked.
"Our horses," she started when Annie interrupted her.
"The stable boy is bedding them down."
Hilda felt the worry leave her body for an instant. The three of them looked ridiculous soaked to their underthings and bundled in blankets. They followed Annie up the stairs until they reached the third floor. "This is the mistress' rooms," she put Stefan and Davi in one room and Hilda in another. "We'll draw a bath for you and then the mistress wants to talk to you."
Stefan insisted that Hilda get the first bath. When the warm water steamed in the tub, she slipped in and sighed. It was a luxury she hadn't had in many years. She scrubbed her body, arms, legs, and face. The she dipped her head under the water. Annie helped her wash her hair and enveloped her into another blanket. They left the tub to the other two men. In Hilda's room, Annie combed Hilda's long hair and then braided it.
Annie then played maid to Hilda by helping her into a gown. Hilda would have liked her peasant dress better or even her mercenary leathers, but then she saw herself in the mirror.
"I look ten years, younger." Hilda laughed at her reflection. The braid wound around her head and showed her face and long slender neck. A scar on her shoulder peeked through the neckline. Still for an older woman she was sinewy and strong, even with the aches and pains that came from prolonged campaigns.
Annie smiled back. "You would have been a beautiful courtesan." The words like your sister remained unspoken.
Hilda took it as a compliment. "No, it wasn't my thing," she said simply. "I'd rather kill them than bed them."
Stefan and Davi were waiting for them, when they came out of Hilda's room and into the small front room adjacent to the bedrooms. They looked clean, dressed, and dashing. She could see that Davi, as a young human male, and looked the heartbreaker already. His dark hair was slicked back. His eyes were dark with a mischievous sheen. He was sinewy and thin.
Maybe dragons were like birds and had hollow bones so they could fly. She'd put the thought to the back brain for further consideration.
"The mistress and Michael are in the dining room. I'll take you there."
They followed Annie. Hilda wished she had a knife strapped to her thigh. Even in her sister's house, she would feel safer with at least one weapon. Well the eating knife would have to do.
Delhaven, port city
Mistress Mary
They followed Annie through a hallway. Hilda glanced at the art on the wall. Mary Rose had always liked roses when they were children together. So it wasn't surprising that the art was various styles of roses. Some were still life, others surreal, and others were abstract. As they reached the dining room. Roasted chicken and vegetables beckoned Hilda into the room. Her stomach growled. It had been yesterday since she had had a bowl of stew. She hadn't realized how tired she was of bread and stew. And hungry.
The doors were open and Michael and Mary Rose were seated at a long table, set for formal dining. There were elaborately folded napkins at each plate setting. Rooso was standing by his chair on the opposite side of Mary Rose. "Rooso," she exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
Mary Rose and Rooso glanced at each other, but didn't say a word. She had depended a lot on Rooso and he wasn't hers. For a moment her heart clenched. Then she shook it off. Rooso, the sometime thief and spy, was a perfect match to her sister.
Hilda glanced at Michael, leaning against the table as if he was ready to fall down. His face was pale and wan. It might take years before Michael vigorous again. A footman stepped forward and set Hilda to the right of Mary Rose. Rooso was across from her on the far end of the table. Michael was on her left side. Stefan and Davi was seated across from each.
Mary Rose broke the silence, "I'm sorry we don't have anything fancy tonight. I assumed you were hungry?"
Hilda nodded her head yes.
"Afterward," Mary Rose continued. "We'll talk about plans."
Hilda nodded her head again. They were all well aware of the
well of magic on Hilda's property. Mary Rose clapped her hands and the servants, placed the chicken on the table and served it up.
Hilda glanced at Stefan, who was showing Davi what utensils to use. She breathed a sigh of relief and then dug into her meal. It had been a long time since she had had to pull out her table manners. She knew they weren't good for polite company, but this was family. She wanted to ask Rooso how he knew her sister and what he intended. He must have deduced what she was thinking. There was a touch of amusement in his smile, but he didn't say anything. When the food touched her tongue, and she was so busy tasting and eating that she didn't feel the need to talk.
Mary Rose gave her an amused glance as she gulped the wine. "That's really good wine," she said to Hilda. "You shouldn't treat it that way."
Hilda blushed, swirled the wine in the glass, smelled it, and then took a sip. It may have complemented the dinner, but she wanted to swig it again. By the time dessert was served, Hilda was comfortably full. She took a taste of the custard and then didn't finish it. Davi gazed at her custard like it was a long lost love. He ate like a teenage boy in the grips of growing again. He was already as tall as Stefan. He would become noticeable if he grew much taller. Hilda passed her remaining custard to Davi.
Mary Rose laughed at the look. "I only see men look that way over women," she murmured. Then sent the servers for another serving of dessert. Davi sighed in ecstasy and ate the third one at a slower pace.
Once dinner was finished, Rooso, Stefan and Davi, went into a close room. Port and cigars for the men and tea for Davi. Mary Rose, Michael and Hilda settled into chairs around the fireplace at the other end of the room. The footman started a fire and then left. Mary Rose waited until they were alone to start.
"Michael says he has a way of sealing the magic," she told Hilda without preamble.
"Michael can't do it alone." Hilda said. "Look at him. He's still frail. He can barely make flame or any spells. If he did, I would be worried that he would die in the process."