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DUN’S HEAD SWAM, IN a way he had never felt before. It felt as if someone had stirred his brains with a stick. His temples throbbed. He lifted his head, off what felt like a rush mat, and all the contents of his head whirled around. In a rush, he threw up, heavily and repeatedly until all he could do was retch.
“Oh great, that’s just great,” Padg’s voice came from across the small room. Dun felt around him.
“What kind of a greeting is that for an old friend?” Dun groaned. Then he retched again.
“Do give it a rest, Padg,” Tali said. “I can’t even give him anything since we haven’t got our stuff. You know he feels as bad as you do.”
“Where are we?” Dun said, finally managing to prop himself up on his elbows. He reached about for his pack.
“Don’t bother,” Tali said. “Our stuff’s all been taken.”
“A cell of some sort. No idea how we got here,” Padg said. “Last I remember was that powder shooting out of the walls, my head buzzing, and then waking up here.”
“We haven’t been awake much longer than you,” Tali added. “Three hundred, four hundred clicks or so. You seem to feel the worst of the three of us, but whatever it was we got hit with, it was pretty potent.”
“You said three of us,” Dun said, more alert now. “Where’s Myrch?”
“Don’t know,” Padg said. “When we woke he wasn’t here. Do you still think we should trust him?”
“I never said we should trust him, just that I thought he should be with us.”
“And now?”
“I’m not sure,” Dun said. “My head isn’t very straight at the moment.”
The room felt small and stone-walled. Low-roofed as well from what Dun’s air-sense told him. The rank smells of the cell drifted into his consciousness. He wasn’t the only one to have been sick from whatever the ancient trap had released. He hoped their captors wouldn’t take too long to check up on them. He was starting to feel ill again.
He was not disappointed. A metal key scraped into the lock of the large stone door and air rushed into the cell. Then a brief silence and a quiet gasp before a gruff voice spoke.
“Let us be getting you cleaned up before we take you to the Captain of the guard, you do not smell so good.” The voice was very thickly accented but precise. An odd dialect that Dun was having trouble getting his ear attuned to.
“Who are you? Where are we?” Dun said. “Please?” he added as an afterthought, remembering his lessons about the formality of the Stone-folk if that was still where they were.
“Now then, that is enough questions for a prisoner, I think,” the voice said firmly. Then after a pause, he said, “But since you ask politely, I will answer what you have asked. I am Tuf, of the palace guard, and you are in the dungeon under the Halls of Stone. Now, you two men-folk will go with me. The lady will go with Amber here.”
Dun heard Tali grunt disapproval. “Lady” What an odd turn of phrase that was. Dun was sure Tali wouldn’t imagine herself that way. In his disorientation, Dun had hardly noticed the second scent in the corridor, but of course, they would want to segregate males and females to bathe. It wasn’t something the Bridge-folk were used to, but it fitted with what he knew of the Stone-folk. This was going to take some getting used to. And he hoped that they got used to it before committing some dreadful sin of manners that would get them all killed.
“Now if you’ll permit me the inconvenience, gentle-folk. Your leg, please.” He picked up Dun’s foot in a firm grip and Dun heard a grinding of stone and a metallic click. There was the pressure of stone around one of his ankles.
“We have some precautions for our visitors down here. We would not want anyone to wander off and become ... lost. It is called a ‘quern’. If you walk slowly with it, it is merely an inconvenience.”
It was quite a heavy inconvenience; Dun reckoned it would be possible to walk in some kind of awkward way, but not run. Clever, he thought.
Dun and Padg were taken down the passage, Tali off in a different direction. They were led into a large room where Dun felt as soon as he entered, the presence of water. It took him a small while to hear the water; some kind of slow-running channel through the middle of the chamber. There were two other Stone-folk in the chamber. Dun assumed that they were lower status in some way, as Tuf didn’t even speak to them. He merely placed Dun in the hand of one of them, Padg in the other, and they were stripped of what clothes they had and scrubbed with some kind of a light but rough washing stone. Once this was over they were led to the corner of the room, where a warm air vent blew air of a smell that was the only thing here familiar to Dun at all. Their jailer must have left the room during the ordeal, as by the time they were both dry Tuf had returned with some kind of clothing for them to wear. It seemed to go over Dun’s head and right down to his feet. His arms were free to come out of the sides. Though it was the most clothing he had ever worn in his life, it was by no means uncomfortable, as the cloth that touched his skin smelled faintly sweet and spicy and was the smoothest material he had ever felt. It had a kind of sheen to it he had never felt in any kind of fabric, certainly not the rough weaves for blankets and bedding that the Bridge-folk used.
After being dusted with some kind of fragrant powder that made Dun cough, they were led back out into the corridor to wait for Tali and Amber.
Tali had found herself in a similar chamber to Dun but had no one else to help her wash except Amber.
Odd that they think I need guarding less than males, she thought.
Her quern was lighter than Dun’s as well, she was sure it was. Amber was younger than her too, at a guess. Tali reckoned she could easily overpower her if it came to it, but for now, she was content to find out how things unfolded. And to do a little unfolding too, starting with Amber.
“Do you do this all the time?” Tali asked.
“I shouldn’t talk to you,” Amber said.
“Because we’re prisoners?”
“No, I’m a servant. I’d get punished.”
She spoke in such a defeated way that Tali suspected punishment would be a lot more than a stern telling-off. She had to tread carefully, but equally, she had to know more of what was going on.
“The guard, Tuf is he called? He’s gone with the boys, yes?”
“Yes,” Amber said in a tone of surprise, as if for males and females to bathe together was unthinkable.
“And we’re the only ones here?”
“Yes.”
“Then we can talk, if we’re quiet. I promise you won’t get into trouble.”
Tali knew what a servant was, but was quite unsure how to pitch a conversation with someone who had been brought up to think themselves less than her. All the tribe of Bridge-folk considered themselves of equal status no matter what their place in the tribe. The elders were only elevated by tacit agreement and even the Alpha could be removed if they got above themselves.
Slowly, in the act of tenderness of washing another, Amber unwound. Tali asked gently about Amber’s home life. She’d been an orphan but her uncle had cared for her enough to ensure she got a proper servant’s place in the palace. It seemed that—tough though the life was—there were plenty of worse places to work, and worse masters to work for than Tuf. After some more careful probing, it seemed that Tuf was mostly all bluster, except when he’d been drinking something that Amber called Gava. She guessed this was the fermented product of something or other. The Bridge-folk knew about making alcohol but mostly chose not to and didn’t really drink it, unlike the River-folk who did both to impressive degrees. That small insight into Tuf’s character, Tali filed away with some satisfaction; and then gently pressed on.
It turned out they were not prisoners yet, but rather suspected of trespass. They were to be brought before the Captain of the Guards, a stern fellow called Skarn. Although Amber didn’t know much about him directly, she did know that everyone else respected and feared him in equal measure. Then if it turned out not to be a simple matter, they would go before The Council. This she spoke in almost reverent tones, so Tali made some guesses as to what the situation was there.
Finally, she probed a little about the manner of their discovery. After they set off some kind of ancient alarm, along with the trap that was their undoing, a troop had been sent to investigate. It seemed that where they’d come in from was very deep in Stone-folk territory and not visited at all. Almost as if they’d forgotten it was there. Amber wasn’t sure how they were finally found, but all three of them were unconscious when they were brought to the level below the palace. And they stayed that way for a span. Amber made no mention of there being any more than the three of them and on that point, Tali thought she’d keep quiet.
As to where their stuff was being kept, it seemed like Amber wasn’t party to exact information, but there were many storerooms on the floors above, that being where cleaning and bathing equipment were kept. Tali liked Amber and thought that under other circumstances she might have the beginnings of a friendship. But Tali was done bathing, and it was time to dry out, don a robe and meet her captors.
Dun was unusually twitchy as he stood in the corridor with Padg. He had no idea how this was going to play out. And the fact that his foretelling seemed to be dormant when he most needed it, didn’t make him feel any better. His jumpy mood wasn’t aided by the door to his left opening suddenly and Tali being ushered out. As she bumped into him, he felt the soft cloth of the robe she was wearing and cursed himself for having any feelings like that right now. It felt like his entire mind was conspiring against him. He suppressed a laugh at his own expense, which came out as an odd grunt.
“Save it for the Captain,” Tuf said and led them up the stairs.
