«Can’t say it’s not a nice place.» Alek whispered.
«Yeah.» Orin answered him.
«Imagine the sight from up there.» Alek made a slight nod toward the large tower that dominated the fortress on top of the hill.
«And the duke expects to be able to launch a surprise attack.» he continued, still in a low voice.
From up there, any approaching army would be seen from more than ten stadia away. The idea was foolish. Elis could be conquered only after a long siege. Alek wondered, and it was not the first time he did, if it was worth it.
«What the duke thinks is his own problem. Let’s find my…» Orin stopped for a moment, then he resumed «Let’s find logothetes Niketh and then get out of here.»
Alek felt no small admiration for his colleague’s effort to remain calm and professional.
The very day delegate Timios had been sentenced to death, Orin’s father had suddenly left. He had gone to Elis on his own initiative, to ask exarch Stefan to personally deny the accusations. Nothing had been heard of him since. In the few days that had passed, the situation in Arlis had only gotten more tense. Regent Sofron had ordered to capture Stefan alive or dead, and strategos Leon had mustered an army to carry that order out. An army that right now was a few miles away, marching under duke Zeloth.
Orin and Alek had used their authority to be included as bodyguards for the duke and then precede the troops to Elis, in order to have at least the slightest chance of finding the logothetes alive. Because if (or rather, once) Elis sentinels sighted the approaching host, Niketh would become nothing but a hostage. Alek determined they had about one day to fulfill their mission.
«We have time to grab something to eat. Let’s go.» he said to his colleague.
«I’m not hungry.» Orin answered.
«You will be. Or do you want me to make that an order?» Even if it was only due to his seniority, Alek was at least informally of a higher rank.
Orin groaned in protest; Alek took it for an “alright, fine”.
So, making their way through the thick lunchtime crowd, the two spathari entered the first tavern they found: a cozy-looking building which had a bull and a frog for a sign.
As it turned out, Orin actually was hungry.
As the two ate a fish-based lunch, Alek started to inconspicuosly listen to the other customers talking. Food wasn’t the only reason he had entered that establishment: they needed information. Logothtes Niketh would not be found by searching aimlessly.
Luckily or unluckily, the tavern was nearly full. Some customers looked like travelers, much like themselves, but most of them game him the impression of being locals. People dressed in simple clothes, that prioritized practicality rather than elegance but were clearly not made for long travels.
«I believe something must have change in the recipe. Ever since a few weeks ago, bread tastes different here.» Alek heard from a table to his right.
No. He disregarded the rest of the conversation. It was of no importance to them.
«This morning my little girl said her first word!» A wave of congratulations followed those words, somewhere behind him.
No.
«I mean, flying has always been man’s dream, hasn’t it? The idea of a flying machine is already present in the oldest texts we know of, you know this better than me. And I am one single step from actually creating one! How can I not be excited?»
«I understand perfectly, Mak. But the soup is getting cold.»
No.
«Who gives a damn about the Regent! Even if the accusations were true, what did Arlis ever do for us except making us pay them taxes? The rot take him and the rest of the Principate, I say!»
I should take note of the name and face of whoever said that… but no.
«Old Prauss came to collect the usual shipment! When will he learn that changing out of his captain’s uniform makes no difference when you have a face like his? I’d recognize those scars anywhere!»
The voice came from his left. The words “Prauss” and “captain” drew his attention. Alek knew that captain Prauss Kleptid of the Elis watchers was exarch Stefan’s right-hand man. Even the physical description was a match: he was infamous for the scars on his face, that he flaunted as some kind of war badge even if they had been caused by a peacetime accident, if what Alek heard was true.
Thinking of scars, he was reminded for a moment of Eureth. He wondered where that man’s wanderings were taking him right now.
But he rapidly came back to the present. He located the table the voice had come from. A group of four, five men was sitting there: their features were rough, their skin burnt by long hours of work under the sun. All the men’s attention was on one of their own, a fellow with red unruly hair and an unkempt beard, but whose eyes shone vividly as they darted from one member of their little gang to another without ever stopping, preventing any one of them to turn theirs away.
Alek understood that the speaker had been him. And that he was a man used to let his mouth run free.
«Did you manage to see what was inside it this time, Pol?» one of the others asked.
«You bet I didn’t!» the man named Pol exclaimed. «Didn’t even attempt to get close! There was watchers everywhere! Masked, masked badly, but they were there! Prauss is stupid, but not that stupid!»
A loud round of laughter.
«Plus,» Pol resumed after the laughter died down «is there any need to see it? We all know what our exarch is doing here. It’s been going on for months: sometimes Prauss comes down to the harbor with his lackeys and tries not to draw any attention as he takes one or two sealed crates, almost always unloaded from a ship that docked that same day.»
«You mean it’s smuggled goods?»
«That’s the obvious part, you moron!»
Another round of laughter.
«No, the question is what is being smuggled. But as I said, there can be only one answer.»
«Come on, Pol, tell us!»
«Yeah, Pol, don’t leave us hanging!»
«Oh no, oh no no no!» Pol said. «I will not say it out loud. You never know who’s listening after all.»
A few laughs, but more uncertain.
«What I can say is this. Remember when that magistrate came from Arlis, a few days ago?»
«The one that wanted to collect our taxes?»
«Precisely, that’s what they told us. But if his purpose was collecting taxes… why is he still here? And why does he stay in the Rook all day without ever getting out since he arrived?»
Murmurs of «Well…» and «Now that I think about it…»
«Listen here.» Pol said, lowering his voice, then he spread his arms and drew his comrades at the table closer, starting to talk in a conspiratorial tone: «The talk of taxes is a load of crap. The reason that man has come here, and the reason nobody is making him set one foot outside of the Rook, are those crates. And I think we’ll all soon find out what’s inside of them, once our beloved Exarch asks us to… do our part for the good of the Principate.»
That last sentence was little more than a whisper, but it was still loud enough.
«Heard that?» Alek asked Orin.
«Heard that.» his colleague replied, having long since emptied his plate.
«Heard what?» a third voice asked, before the two had the time to stand up from their chairs.
Both turned with a startle. Without either noticing, two men had approached while they were listening to Pol. Alek guessed they were around twenty years old, like him. One was muscular, he had the body of someone who is used to eat a lot and work just as much, and his child-like face showed a bit of worry. The other one was leaner, didn’t look like a big laborer and was looking at them with what seemed to be vague interest.
The moment the two spathari turned toward them, the muscular one looked away, embarrassed. But the other one had no reaction. He kept meeting their gaze, unflinching.
«Nothing.» Alek answered, feeling suddenly uneasy: «Nothing that concerns you.»
The young man showed no sign of nervousness: «I see you’re travelers. May I ask you who you are, where you come from and what you’re looking for?»
The spathar felt that every eye in the tavern was now on them, including those of Pol and his gang.
Making a silent curse against that young man, Alek snarled: «No.» then he stood up together with Orin and left with all the speed he could muster without running.
On the counter, he left the money for the food.
Fortunately, they had heard enough.
The two quickly turned a corner and started rising a slope. As Alek checked they weren’t being followed, he told Orin: «If the army attacks, they’ll have to deal with every single inhabitant of Elis.»
They reached a wider street, running perpendicular to the one they came from.
«Exarch Stefan is amassing weapons!» Alek continued.
To their left, the fortress the locals apparently called “the Rook” loomed over them from the top of the hill. That was his destination.
«Somebody has to warn the duke.»
«My answer is no.» Orin replied.
Alek stopped, even if that was more or less the reaction he expected.
«What do you mean?» he asked, to be sure.
«You won’t send me back to the duke. You mean to go save the logothetes on your own, don’t you? Forget it.»
«I may order you to go.»
«Do it and I’ll disobey. He’s my father.»
«That’s precisely the reason I don’t want you to come with me. Imagine if we found him wounded, or worse.»
«If you can withstand such a sight, I can too. I’m as much an adult as you.» Orin made a step forward.
«That’s not the point.» Alek pushed him back with one arm. «Are you sure you’d be able to keep your wits about you? Even if you discovered they butchered your own father?»
Orin looked him in the eyes: «How would you feel if our roles were reversed and your father was the one in danger?»
Alek read in his friend’s brown eyes the late realization of what he had just said. He made a bitter chuckle.
«Alright, wrong example.» Orin granted. «But you understood what I mean.»
«Yes, you’re right.» Alek admitted. «Fine, you’ve convinced me. We’ll go together. Try to not slow me down.»
He started walking again.
«You try to not slow me down.» Orin followed him.
Despite the situation, Alek smiled. He felt the tension of the last few days had relaxed a little bit.
He was still deep in thought when they reached the gates of the fortress and a loud thump drew his attention.
In front of the large door, he saw a man lying on the ground and three figures in military uniform. The man held in his hands an empty cloth sack. Judging from the scene, he had been pushed by the three. That, or he had been forcibly thrown to the ground.
«Elef, come on, you know me, don’t abandon a family friend in dire straits…» the man began, as he tried to get up.
One of the three in uniform, a youth with short fair hair, took a step forward. On his face there was a mixture of irritation and plain spite. That expression and that hair color reminded Alek of unpleasant memories.
«The fact that I know you is the reason I am certain you’re lying to me. You’ve already had your ration, Klazon. Go home.» the youth said.
«And what about my children?» the man said, finally back on his feet.
The three moved closer.
Alek saw that it was their chance. He motioned to Orin and circumvented the guards as their attention was focused on the beggar.
«You don’t have any, Klazon.»
The main door was not an option. Probably they’d just find more guards on the other side. They’d better go around and look for another entrance.
«I do, actually! My wife just gave birth, this morning! Quintuplets!»
Alek walked alongside the wall of the fortress, going left, until the scene in front of the gates disappeared from view.
«You said the same thing last month. And last time it was quadruplets.»
Alek didn’t hear the rest of the dialogue, if it had a continuation. He and Orin now were in the gap between the outer walls of the city and those of the fortress. There was no trace of any guard, and a dozen feet above their heads he saw an opening: a window. That would become their way in, he decided.
He put a hand on the rough surface of the wall and started climbing. Orin did the same without any need to tell him anything.
The fortress was an ancient structure, built not by human hands, like Arlis’ Great Palace. From a distance, it looked like a single chiseled block of white stone, as magnificent in the midday light as in the redness of sunset. But from up close it revealed to observers it was made of many carefully cut stones.
Though time hadn’t eaten into the building’s sturdiness, the smooth surface that those stone probably once presented had worn out millennia after millennia, leaving cracks, holes and clefts that now offered the two spathari useful if not very easy handholds.
In less than a glassturn, Alek and Orin reached the window and climbed inside. They found themselves in a dark and unadorned corridor.
It took them a few blinks for their eyes to get used to the darkness. And to see the four mikrai pointed against them.
Before either of them could even only attempt to escape back through the window, they were pinned to the floor.
«Intruders. What do we do with them?» one of the guards asked, in a strangely dubious tone, as if he really didn’t know what to do in that situation.
Another guard, a woman, said: «Let’s bring them to captain Zalekh, for now. He will decide.»
They were led up a narrow stairway. Alek judged they were in the southeastern area of the fortress. On top of the stairs, he saw a door flanked by two men in uniform. The door was opened, and he and Orin were thrown inside.
He heard a vaguely nasal voice: «Who are those?»
And another one, answering: «We don’t know, Captain. They were trying to sneak into the Rook.»
Then a third one, one that he recognized immediately: «Orin!»
Lifting his gaze, he saw the owner of the third voice rush toward Orin, still stunned. He was the man they had been looking for, logothtes Niketh. Once he reached the young man, Niketh embraced him as if to protect him.
«What are you doing in this place? And you, Alek?» he said, turning his head toward him.
«Well, I guess we have the answer to our question.» Alek heard the nasal voice once again.
He saw a man, sitting at a table behind Niketh. He wore a slightly more elaborate version of the watchers’ dark green jacket. One fringe of his black hair covered his forehead, almost down to his long and narrow eyebrows. His dark eyes showed no particular emotion.
«You two can go. You two though will stay. I will need you soon enough.» he said to someone behind Alek’s back, probably the guards who brought them there.
Uneasily, Alek stood up. He didn’t know what would happen, but whatever it was he would not suffer it lying down.
«Relax. No one here is going to hurt you.» the sitting man told him.
«You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you.» he replied, sneering.
«Wait, Alek. I think he’s telling the truth.» said the logothetes.
The man snorted, his mouth curving in a barely visible smile. «The Exarch has low tolerance for unexpected factors at this moment. He has ordered to kill any intruder on sight. And yet, you two still draw breath. And not only that. In time, once your befuddlement has worn off, you will realize nobody took your weapons away. What does this tell you?»
Alek touched his arm and his side. Yes, the sklerygron bracer, his control band and his mikra were still each in its place.
«Who are you?» he asked the man. Orin and the logothetess too had fixed their eyes on him, waiting for an answer.
The man stood up and walked closer to the three.
«My name is Zalekh. Alas, My father’s name is not known to me.» Those words made Alek feel something almost akin to physical pain. «I am the third captain of the Elis City Watch. But more importantly at this junction, as I was saying to logothetes Niketh less than a glassturn ago… I am a concerned citizen.»
As he spoke that last sentence, his expression darkened.
«What concerns you?» Alek asked.
«That which my exarch intends to do. Stefan is planning rebellion. He has struck a deal with Dysis and gathered enough weapons for every man and woman in the city. He wants to declare war on the Regent and drag us all with him. He must we stopped, wouldn’t you agree?»
Alek relaxed his tension a little. He still wasn’t sure if he could trust that man, but he didn’t seem to be lying. «So you’re saying you’re on our side?» he asked.
«Exactly.» Zalekh answered, slowly enunciating every syllable.
«And how do you propose to stop him?»
«Stefan has most of the populace on his side. Though they’re not privy to their exarch plans, among the inhabitants of Elis you’ll find little sympathy for the Regent. But most of them have touched no weapon in years, they’re civilians who have forgotten any training. The Watch will be the real heart of Stefan’s army, and they are another matter entirely. The soldiers have sworn loyalty to the Principate, not to the Exarch. Only those higher in rank are directly involved in the conspiracy. Stefan expects the others to follow their commanders unquestioningly once the plan is set in motion. However, I doubt it will be so easy to convince the youngest and most uncompromising to renounce their pledges. I, for my part, have explained the situation to my subordinates, and they are with me.»
«A mutiny. You will prevent Stefan’s rebellion by starting your own?» Alek was still unconvinced.
«Would that really be a rebellion? It would be against a traitor to the Principate.» Zalekh smiled enigmamitcally. «We are a third of the armed forces in the city. All that I need is a small help from outside.»
«Duke Zeloth and his army!» Orin suddenly exclaimed.
«Not one other word, Orin!» Alek chided him. All that man said could still be a ruse to gain information from them.
«I appreciate your lack of trust. It means you’re not a fool.» Zalekh said. «But I don’t need you to tell me anything. All I need is that once you’ve gone your way you report back to whoever might be interested and willing to collaborate… that the Regent has friends inside these walls. And that, were the right conditions met, these friends will be ready to act.
«So you’re letting us go?» Orin asked. Then he looked at his father. «…What about him?»
Zalekh slightly bent the corners of his mouth, in what was probably meant to be a deeply apologetic expression: «Too many people know of his presence here and keep an eye on him. He has to stay. But you have my word: I will let no harm be done to him.»
Orin looked satisfied with the reply. And Alek understood that he now saw that man as a friend.
«Now, let us take care of getting you out.» Zalekh said, turning his gaze to the two watchmen who had stayed in the room, standing a little away, close to the door.
«First things first, take off your clothes.»
About a glassturn later, Alek and Orin were leaving the Fortress from the front gate, accompanied by Zalekh.
The captain had made them wear two watchmen uniforms and then had guided them to the exit.
«Now you can change back, then take the road to your right. At the first junction go right again and you will see the walls. Hug them while going left and you will reach the West Gate. Here we say our goodbyes. Good luck.»
«One last thing.» Alek said. «Why are you doing all this?»
Zalekh gave him a surprised look. «I though I had told you already. I am a loyal and concerned citizen.»
«Fine. Allow me to correct my question. What are you getting out of this? What do you hope to gain by betraying your exarch?»
Before he answered, Zalekh drew a deep breath.
«I love this country. And I love this city. Here I was born and raised, like my mother before me. If I have permission to be honest, I doubt there’s a single person who loves it more than me. Or who knows it better than me. Not even Stefan.»
Finally, Alek understood. «And when all of this story is over, Elis will need a new exarch. One who knows and loves this city. And who maybe is provenly loyal to the Regent.»
Zalekh’s only answer was: «I trust that, when the time comes, the Regent in his wisdom will choose the right person.» then he went back inside the fortress, disappearing from view.
Alek and Orin followed his direction, they reached the West Gate and left the city behind, going back to duke Zeloth with their message.
The sky was clouding over. It would probably rain tomorrow.
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