Chapter XIV

“Who do you suppose those men were?” Mahla said, gesturing to the ten corpses lying by the bed of a river. Each of the corpses was clad in rusty chain-mail armor and blue tabards. Each of them had some fatal wound; a slashed throat, a hole through their chests, or a bashed skull, proving that they certainly died violent deaths and did not simply fall into the river and drown.

“Does it matter who they were?” Lila, the assassin, asked.

“It does it does,” said Mahla, grinning. “Look at the symbol on the tabards, twelve diamonds surrounding a crown, the symbol of the royal family.”

“So knights in service to the crown were murdered and thrown into the river?”

“Yes! Now, think about this, this river runs down from Marquis Husam's castle and into Sabura. Considering what the Marquis has been doing lately I feel it's safe to assume that the Queen found out and sent these men to apprehend him. He had them killed and dumped their bodies in the river.”

“That's treason!” Lila said. “Surely he'd never do something so risky!”

“He's been hiring mercenaries to maraud the villages in the south and bring back Saburan children to him for God only knows what reason. If the Queen knows about this then it's likely she wants to see him stoned. She probably only sent such a small contingent of men to arrest him so that she could give him a chance to come quietly, face a trial rather than immediate execution. Knowing that a trial would find him guilty, he must've known he'd be dead if he let these men arrest him. He's challenging her.”

“Next she'll arrive with a full army,” Lila said. “Likely not just royal forces, but she'll get some of the other lords to contribute as well.”

“She would, normally, and there would be a great battle with many deaths all to see this man brought to justice for crimes we helped him commit, but here's our chance to be heroes,” Mahla said. “And becoming heroes is our first step towards making me the Queen and all of you lords.”

. . .

Just a few hours later, Demir, a guard from Marquis Husam's castle, having just finished his duties for the night, made his way to the brothel in the nearest town. “Is Sevda working tonight?” he asked the madame.

“Aye. Sevda and Kadri both, if you're interested,” the madame said, with a wink.

Demir grinned widely. Sevda was an exotic beauty, one whose every word dripped with seduction. She was often aggressive with her patrons, sometimes even a bit on the rough side. Kadri, on the other hand, played the coy game, always acted like she was shy, and treated each encounter like it was her first time. In the past Demir had paid for both of their services at once and greatly enjoyed himself.

“Both of them, sure. And some Paradise Gate while I'm at it,” Demir said. Paradise Gate was a drug, usually smoked in a hookah, which enhanced the senses, especially the sense of touch and the sensation of pleasure. Demir had been saving up for this special night for a month, as he did every month.

He paid the madame and walked off to the room to await the arrival of the two lovely young harlots he'd come to enjoy. The room had red curtains, though these curtains didn't cover any windows for there were no windows in the bedrooms of the brothel. The bed was a large, circular bed with silk sheets. Uncomfortable for sleeping, but practical for other purposes. Shortly after Demir sat on the bed servants came in with a large hookah, filled with Paradise Gate, and set it on the stool beside the bed, handing Demir the pipe end.

Demir took the pipe between his lips and inhaled the smoke from the hookah, letting the fumes take their effect on his mind. The flavor had a hint of cinnamon to it this time, which was unusual but soothing. Soon the door opened again, and in walked the two young ladies he'd be making love to that night.

Sevda had dark skin, almost as dark as the women of Subra, but her hair was bright gold, and kept in hundreds of tiny braids. Her shoulders were wider than the average woman's, and she stood slightly taller than Demir. She wore only a see-through gown over her athletic but shapely body, of which she was clearly unashamed, as she walked in with her shoulders back, head held high, and chest pushed forward.

Kadri was short and somewhat plump, though patrons usually said that she was plump in “all the right places.” Her breasts were quite large and round, her hips wide, and her buttocks shaped like an inverted heart. Her face was freckled, and she had red hair, which she kept long and often hanging in front of her left eye. Both of her eyes were big, some said they were kitten-like, adding an adorable nature to her face. She wore an elaborate robe, with a large cloth belt wrapped around her waist, and held her hands in front of her lap as she entered. When she saw Demir she giggled and brought her left hand, balled in a fist, to her mouth, biting her own knuckle as if she was nervous. Clearly this was an act, but she did it so well that it wasn't hard for Demir to pretend that she really was as shy, sweet, and innocent as she tried to appear.

Kadri stopped and stood several feet away from the edge of the bed, and as Sevda passed her she ran a hand along Kadri's shoulder and across her ample breasts, before placing her fingertips firmly on Demir's chest and pushing him backwards onto the bed. Sevda straddled Demir's hips and ran a hand down his face and neck.

“You came back, just like I told you to,” Sevda said. Demir shivered at hearing her speak so forcefully with him. Every time she took that authoritative tone with him it drove him wild.

“How could I not?” was all he could think to say. He wasn't as good at this game of dirty-talking as they were, but then he didn't need to be. He was paying good coin for this after all.

“Got some Paradise Gate, I see.” Sevda said. “Take a few more puffs of that while I help Kadri...get comfortable.”

Sevda kissed Demir's neck and stood from the bed, walking over to Kadri. Demir breathed in deeply of the hookah, getting ready for the night of debauchery ahead of him. Sevda pushed Kadri's hair back and leaned forward, planting soft kisses along Kadri's neck and throat. Kadri moaned and arched her neck, giving Sevda better access to it. Sevda's hands ran over Kadri's arms, shoulders, neck, and down to her plump breasts, which she fondled through the fabric with both hands. Kadri gasped and pulled away at that.

“Don't be shy, it's alright,” Sevda said, stepping towards Kadri again. “We'll be gentle with you, dear. Won't we, Demir?” Sevda glanced back at Demir, giving him the sultriest look she could as he inhaled from the hookah deeply again.

“Wouldn't dare risk hurting that soft, beautiful skin,” Demir said.

Sevda turned back to Kadri and kissed her neck again, trailing down to her collar-bone, which she gave the gentlest little bites. Sevda then slipped around Kadri until she was standing behind her, and reached around to grope her breasts again as she nibbled Kadri's ear-lobe. As Kadri moaned, squirmed, and blushed Sevda began to open the top of her robe, exposing Kadri's cleavage to Demir. Sevda's hands then wandered into Kadri's robe, touching her bare breasts underneath the cloth.

The scene before him was so erotic that Demir could feel himself starting to get a little light-headed, and he took another deep breath of the Paradise Gate. Sevda's hands trailed up to Kadri's shoulders, and she began slipping the robe down off of her shoulders, exposing their pearly whiteness and all but completely exposing Kadri's breasts to Demir. Kadri's eyes met Demir's, and she bit her lip in feigned anxiousness. Sevda's hands slid down to Kadri's hips and she began to lead her into a gyrating dance, her hips swaying back and forth to silent music.

Demir's head was swimming, he could tell this was going to be his most intense night with these two yet, and he took another drag from the hookah.

. . .

The next thing Demir could remember he awoke, tied to a chair in a tent. There were two women nearby, but they were not Kadri and Sevda. In fact, they didn't look like harlots at all, both were dressed in battle attire of some kind; one in studded leather armor and one in a navy-blue, form-fitting outfit, obviously meant to blend in with darkness.

“He's waking up,” the one in navy-blue said.

“Good. Excellent job, Lila,” said Mahla, turning to face Demir.

“What's going on?” Demir said, straining against the ropes.

“You can always trust a man to follow his loins,” said Mahla, smirking. “And a harlot to follow her purse.”

“What?” Demir said, still thoroughly confused.

“I guess the cinnamon did a good job of hiding the nightshade,” Mahla said.

Hearing this Demir finally caught on. These women must have paid off the madame at the brothel to let them add an extra drug to his Paradise Gate, a sleeping drug, and while he was unconscious they took him to this tent.

“Why am I here?” Demir asked.

“Because I have some questions for you,” Mahla replied, playing with a small dagger in her hands. “First of all, I need to get into Marquis Husam's castle, and not through the front gate either. Castles typically have secret exits, ways that those inside can escape during a siege so they don't get cornered.” Mahla did not hold the blade of the dagger up to Demir's face, but she did not need to. The subtle hint that she might use it was enough to put him on edge. “So tell me where it is.”

“On the west wall,” Demir said, his eyes on the dagger as Mahla twirled it in her hands. “The door is covered in bricks, but you can tell where it is because the bricks are just slightly lighter.”

“Very good. I didn't expect you to cooperate so easily. You've made me a happy woman. Now, if you'd be a dear and answer one more question we'll be done here,” Mahla said. “I want to know, what is Husam doing with all of the Saburan children he's been hiring mercenaries to kidnap?”

“The children?”

“Aye.”

“They're taken to tunnels in the mountains. There's a series of tunnels too small for grown men to crawl through, only children can fit in there. He has them exploring the tunnels.”

“Why?” Mahla asked.

“I don't know...I just follow orders!” In all of the stories he'd ever heard about interrogations this was the part where the torture usually began, when the captive claimed to not know the answer to the captor's questions. He'd tell her everything if only he knew the answer, but he truly didn't know, and he braced himself for whatever this warrior woman was about to do to him.

“Damn. I was hoping you knew. Well, Lila, the other prisoners said the same thing, didn't they? Door on the west wall?”

“They did,” said Lila.

“And no one knew why the Marquis is putting children in the mines. Weird. Well, we can ask the Marquis himself, I suppose.”

“So...” Demir began, “You'll let me go now?”

“You've earned your right to leave, but we're not letting you go yet. First we have to take care of something, then we'll let you go, alright?” Mahla pinched his cheek and shook it, patronizingly. “You can go back to your lechery soon enough.”

Both Mahla and Lila left the tent, joining the rest of the mercenaries outside, all of whom were preparing for the upcoming operation to capture Marquis Husam. “We'll have to leave a lot of our people behind,” said Mahla.

“How many?” Lila asked.

“Well, for one thing we can only take those whom we can trust not to make too much noise, the longer it takes for Husam's men to catch on to what we're doing the better. Furthermore if we want to keep this operation quiet we have to limit the number of people involved anyway, and there's the matter of guarding our prisoners until the siege is done...”

“You could just kill the prisoners,” Lila said. “Then we wouldn't have to take care of them in the mean time. And honestly I'm not sure anyone would care, whatever the Marquis is up to these men were obviously part of it.”

“As were we,” said Mahla. “We're as guilty as they were, probably more so, since we never swore any oaths to serve the Marquis and did what we did purely for coin. If we want to be forgiven we need to show a little mercy.”

“So how many do we leave behind?”

Mahla looked over the camp for a moment, taking note of which sell-swords were wearing heavy, plate-mail armor and which ones just had studded leather or armor made with tightly-woven silk. “I'd say we're leaving about half of them behind.”

“We'll be outnumbered once we get inside,” Lila said.

“Which means we'll have to move fast.” Mahla unrolled a map of the layout of the castle which one of the prisoners, another guard from Husam's castle, had drawn for her. “Once we've got the Marquis it'll be easy to get his soldiers to cooperate. Every man at arms in that castle has sworn an oath of fealty to him, if he's a hostage they'll let us go.”

“If that's the plan, and we'll be outnumbered anyway, wouldn't it make sense to take even fewer of our people with us? Easier to sneak in a handful of mercenaries than over two-hundred.”

“I'm convinced we'll have to fight no matter what, Lila,” Mahla said. “That being said, we want enough people with us to make a difference, but not so many that we lose the element of surprise.”

“Fair enough. Then once we have the Marquis we'll have to stay away from the courtyard, or from the windows for that matter. Don't want archers taking sneak-shots at us as we try to leave with Husam.”

“Yes. Thankfully there's a pretty clear, enclosed path from the secret exit to the Marquis' bedroom. It will be guarded, but if we hit them fast we can deal with them before they even realize what's happening. In such a narrow space regular bows aren't going to be much help, so we'll have to make sure our people are carrying crossbows.”

. . .

Two hours past midnight, Lila sneaked up to the west wall of Marquis Husam's castle, while Mahla and the other 200 mercenaries waited behind the tree-line far away. Lila felt around on the wall for a while until she felt a gap between the bricks. True to Demir's description, the bricks were lighter-colored than all of the others on that wall. Lila wedged a metal bar between the bricks and slowly pried the secret door open. Once the door was open Lila listened for movement of the few guards on duty patrolling the battlements of the castle walls. Once she was sure that the guards were far enough away to be unlikely to see the first few mercenaries sneaking in the secret door she gestured for them to rush in.

Each of the mercenaries chosen for this task was dressed in light, leather armor, with a navy-blue cloak on their backs and crossbows in their hands. Mahla held back and waited for the first ten mercenaries to cross the open field to the stone passageway into the castle. Once inside, the mercenaries opened the door into the hall, immediately firing their crossbow bolts and cutting down the guards in the hall before they had a chance to sound the alarm. Lila, seeing this, then signaled for the rest of the mercenaries with Mahla to rush in.

Just after Mahla had ducked into the passageway she heard a guard from above shout, “We're under attack! They're coming in the secret door!” followed by the sound of a bell ringing. She turned to the mercenaries outside of the castle still and gave them the signal to hold back. They fell back to the tree-line and drew their longbows, raining volleys of arrows into the castle. They couldn't see any of the guards inside, but with over one-hundred arrows flying into the keep with each volley they knew they were likely to hit at least a handful of the guards within as they made their way across the courtyard from the barracks to the keep. A handful of the arrows they rained into the castle's courtyard had small vials on the end, instead of arrowheads. These vials contained a black liquid that, when exposed to the air, produced a thick, black mist, obscuring the guards' vision. The guards caught in the courtyard panicked as they couldn't see and they could hear their comrades screaming as they were hit with the arrows falling out of the sky. Guards tripped over their fallen friends, crashing face-first into the ground, and causing even more chaos and panic.

Mahla gestured to each of her fellow mercenaries inside the keep to guard the doors in the hall, and they each either barred the doors or pressed their very bodies up against them to hold them shut. From the other side of the doors they could hear shouting, and banging. Shortly, the guards sworn to protect the Marquis would be using axes and maces to break down the doors and get to their lord, Mahla had to act quickly.

Using the map that the captured guards had drawn for her, she made her way to the Marquis' bedroom and kicked the door open. With all of the commotion he was sure to be ready for her, so immediately after she kicked in the door she stepped to the side. She was glad that she did as she saw a crossbow bolt fly out of the room and strike the wall behind where she'd been standing. Had she not moved, or not moved quickly enough, that bolt would surely have struck her in the chest, punctured a lung or her heart. The fact that it was a crossbow bolt and not an arrow told her of her advantage, but only if she acted immediately. Crossbows took longer to reload, and so she'd be safe for at least the first few seconds. With her shield in front of her she charged through the open doorway towards the Marquis, who dropped his crossbow and scrambled for his sword. Mahla got to him first. Her shield slammed into his chest and shoved him up against the wall. His head fell back and cracked the glass in his bedroom window. She had to be careful not to kill this man. Only apprehending him would be helpful to her goals, if he died he was useless. This put her at a disadvantage, as she couldn't attack him with everything she had, while he would certainly want her dead.

Once he'd gotten over the shock of being pushed so hard against the wall, the Marquis shoved back against Mahla's shield. He pushed her away, and drew his sword from its sheathe. Unarmored as he was, clad still in his sleeping gown, he had the advantage of being able to move faster than Mahla. He took the advantage, tumbling off past her left side, using her shield to hide his body from her field of vision just for a second as he struck at her kidney. Mahla's block with her shield could, at best, be described as a panicked flail. She had succeeded in stopping his blade but had also thrown herself off balance. The Marquis could see her staggering and threw his shoulder into her shield, knocking her down onto the stone floor. Even though her head didn't strike the floor, it was still throbbing from the sudden jolt. Her ears were ringing and her vision was blurred.

No sooner had she regained her bearings than she saw the Marquis' silver-colored blade coming down at her face. She wanted to raise the shield in the way, but it was already too close for that, and the marquis' impact against it had injured her shoulder. She'd never get the shield up in time.

But the blade never touched her face, it stopped just centimeters away, the Marquis' hand was still. One of the other mercenaries took the sword from the Marquis' hand, and Mahla looked up to see Lila standing behind the Marquis, holding a knife to his throat. Lila gave Mahla a wink and a nod and then shouted into the Marquis ear, “Move!”

In the hall, the barred doors were barely holding up, saw-dust filled the air, and Mahla could see the ax blades breaking through. “Order them to stand down!” she yelled at the Marquis.

“Stand down, men!” the Marquis shouted. “They have me, stand down!”

The battering against the doors stopped, and one of the guards on the other side shouted, “My lord, are you alright?”

“They've captured me! They'll kill me if you don't back down! Order everyone to stay back!”

After that it was all too easy for the mercenaries to leave. Lila kept her knife to the Marquis' throat, and Mahla watched her back. Once they were outside Lila turned the Marquis around, forcing Husam to walk backwards, so that any archer on the battlements of the castle would risk hitting the Marquis should he take the shot.

“We've got him!” Mahla shouted to the mercenaries at the tree-line, who all cheered.

“What do you want with me?” Husam asked. “I'll make sure you're paid any ransom you want if you let me go!”

Mahla laughed, “You think I'm merely after gold? No, my lord, you had members of the royal army murdered and thrown into the river. You'll be taken to the capital to face the Queen's justice.”