The Mists of Sorrow: The Morcyth Saga Book Seven (27 page)

“Uh…” he says, “yeah, that would be great.”
With a barely perceptible nod, she returns to the bar.

“I’ve been in some dives before, but this
place has to rank among the worst,” comments Potbelly quietly.

“This place is a Den of Hollow Eyes,”
remarks Jiron. “Did you smell the smoke when we entered?” When the
others nod he adds, “They’re doing biloci.” Biloci is a weed and a
highly addictive narcotic. The user smokes it and is visited by
hallucinations while they’re under the direct influence of the
drug. Once the drug begins to wear off, it leaves them with a
feeling of euphoria which can last for hours. The downside is that
when the euphoria wears off, the user tends to spiral into deep
depression lasting days.

Dens of Hollow Eyes are illegal in most
places and the Empire being no exception. Some places tend to go
lenient on those caught within one, but the Empire has a more
stringent approach. Death.

Glancing around, they can see many of the
men sitting at the tables are not entirely there. Their vacant eyes
stare at imagined visions the drug induces. Every once in awhile,
one would grunt, burst out with noise, or exhibit some other
indication of the drug’s influence.

At the bar, the woman is loading a tray with
six mugs. Picking it up, she sloshes some of their contents onto
the tray as she turns and heads toward Jiron and the others. As she
makes her way through the tables, one man in the throes of biloci
touches her posterior as she passes. Without hesitation, she takes
her left hand and strikes him across the face with a blow hard
enough to send him to the floor. Men at other tables pause in their
conversations and glance at the man on the floor for a second, then
the talking resumes when nothing further looks to be happening.

“It’ll be two silvers,” she says as she sets
the tray down. When it doesn’t look as if she’s going to remove the
mugs, they quickly snatch them off. Jiron hands her the silvers and
before she can depart, nods to Reilin.

“Uh, we were wondering…” he begins and then
trails off as she turns her face toward him.

“What?” she asks.

Clearing his throat, he begins again. “We
were wondering if there was a chance to have some female
company?”

She eyes him a moment and says, “I don’t get
off for a couple hours. But if you hang around I’ll be available
then.”

Reilin’s eyes widen at the misunderstanding
and he stammers, “Uh we don’t have that much time. Gryll said there
was a certain girl that works here that always took care of
him.”

“He did, did he?” she asks.

“Yes, he did,” he replies. “I don’t suppose
she would be available.”

“Hmmm,” she says as she mulls it over, “the
only one I can think of who he might mean is my sister.” Then her
face creases into a frown and a moment later anger begins to work
its way across her face. “So, he dallied with my sister did
he?”

Reilin is astounded by what she said. He
can’t for the life of him imagine anyone would wish to spend time
with this woman’s sister. The others glance at him, wondering what
he might have said to elicit such a response.

With a roar she yells, “I’ll kill him!”
Picking up the tray she flings it across the room with such force
as to embed it in the wall. Smashing her right fist onto their
table in anger, Reilin’s amazed to hear the wood crack beneath her
blow. When she raises her fist, the edge of the table is drooping
slightly.

Then she turns her attention back to Reilin.
“So you would think to dally with my sister too?” she asks. The
eyes of the entire room are now directed at their table.

“What’s going on?” asks Jiron.

Reilin turns to him and says, “It’s all a
misunderstanding. She thinks…” He’s forced to leave his sentence
unfinished when she grabs him by the front of his tunic and yanks
him to his feet by her left hand. Cocking back her right to strike
him, she’s knocked to the floor as Scar leaps from his seat and
tackles her before she can complete the blow.

Twisting as she falls, she takes him by the
shoulders and once her back slams into the floor, knees him between
the legs. With an ‘oof’ he rolls off her. Then she grabs Reilin’s
leg and trips him to the floor. Getting up on one knee, she strikes
out at Reilin and hits him in the side.

“Reilin, what did you say to her?” yells
Jiron as he comes to his feet. Just then, a hand grabs him by the
shoulder and spins him around where he’s struck on the chin.
Knocked off his feet, his back slams into the table and smashes it
on his way to the floor.

Stig jumps up and connects with the jaw of
the man who struck Jiron, sending him stumbling backward into
another table. Reaching down a hand to help Jiron up, he gets
jumped by yet another man who kidney punches him hard. Striking out
behind him with his elbow, he has the satisfaction of feeling it
connect solidly with the man’s midriff. “Come on man,” he says to
Jiron with a grin. “Don’t just lie there!” Turning, he lashes out
at the man as he comes back for another attack.

The place erupts into a full scale brawl.
Chairs fly, mugs and tankards are used as projectiles. Jiron and
the others hold the center of the tavern and the perimeter
surrounding them is strewn with broken chairs, tables and
unconscious bodies.

Reilin is still engaged with the woman and
looks to be getting the worse of it. Blood drips from his nose and
a goose egg sized lump is forming on the side of his head where one
of the flying mugs connected with him when he tried to stand and
get away from the woman.

The pit fighters are in their element. None
are able to close with them without being pummeled hard. All the
frustration Jiron has kept bottled up during the search for Tinok
has been released and he feels better than he has in a long
time.

Suddenly from the right, Shorty jumps back
and cries out as a knife leaves a three inch long shallow cut
across his forearm. A lull develops in the brawl as both sides size
the other up. What once was a friendly fight has evolved into
something more.

Weapons are now held in the hands of many of
those who stand against them. One, the man who had been behind the
bar, holds a crossbow leveled directly at them. He shouts something
at the woman who now has Reilin in a strangle hold. When she
doesn’t respond, he nods for two of the men to come and drag her
out of there.

When they get her off of Reilin, Jiron asks
him, “You okay?”

“I’ll live,” he says then takes in the
situation. “If we get out of here that is.”

The barman with the crossbow begins talking
to them and Reilin translates. “You picked the wrong place to mess
around in,” he says. “We don’t take kindly to troublemakers.”

“We’ll pay for the damages and just go,”
Jiron says. Any chance of learning more about the necklace here is
gone.

“No, I don’t think so,” he replies.

Jiron sees Shorty standing next to him and
nods to the innkeeper. “You got him?” he asks.

“No problem,” he replies in a barely heard
whisper.

The barman raises his crossbow and aims it
directly at Jiron.

“Kill them!” screams the woman who’s being
restrained from attacking them by two men.

“Now,” Jiron says.

Before the barman has a chance to release
the crossbow bolt, one of Shorty’s throwing knives embeds itself in
his chest. Looking down at the handle sticking out of his chest as
if wondering how it got there, he staggers and then topples
over.

Without hesitating, Jiron draws both knives
and leaps at the man across from him. Even though the man’s sword
is out of its scabbard and in his hand, the unexpected move by
Jiron catches him totally off guard. Bringing his sword up too
late, he fails to block the thrust that takes him through the
throat. Kicking out, Jiron knocks the man off his knife as he moves
to the next. With a cry, the other pit fighters draw their weapons
and the battle is joined.

Leaping up atop a table, Shorty pulls forth
a throwing knife, takes aim and releases. The knife sails through
the air and penetrates a man’s chest to the hilt. By the time the
man begins to fall, another knife has already left Shorty’s hand
with deadly results.

Two men with swords and another with a knife
rush Scar and Potbelly. The first one falls to Scar’s swords before
he even realizes what he’s facing. Potbelly then takes the one on
the right and Scar the one on the left. With his knife, Potbelly
deflects aside his opponent’s thrust while striking out with a
slash of his own. He feels his blade connect with the man’s thigh.
As the man’s leg gives way due to the severed muscles, Potbelly
kicks out with his foot and connects with his face, sending him
stumbling backward.

Reilin blocks a downward thrust and sees the
sword of another man coming at him when Stig’s mace strikes the
blade, breaking it in half. “Thanks,” Reilin says as he blocks
another strike by his opponent. Stig nods his head and engages
another.

Faced with the deadly skill of the pit
fighters, not to mention the fact that they have already mowed down
half the people there, the rest of the patrons of the tavern begin
to flee. Once the first person breaks off and races for the door,
the rest of them quickly follow.

Reilin sees the woman running out the back
door of the tavern. “Jiron!” he yells getting Jiron’s attention.
Indicating the open door where the woman fled, he says, “Her sister
is the one we need to talk to.”

With a nod, Jiron hollers, “After her!”
Kicking out with his foot, he sends his opponent reeling backward
then races to follow her. One man stands between him and the door.
When he sees Jiron coming toward him, he dives out of the way
rather than face his knives.

Jiron hits the doorway with the others right
behind. As Shorty is about to pass through, he glances back at the
grisly scene behind them. Fifteen men lay either dead or wounded,
ten tables lie broken and tipped over, blood is everywhere. Then he
runs to catch up with the others.

Racing down the hallway on the other side of
the door, Jiron sees her flee out the door at the end of the hall.
Lining the hallway are doors, most are closed but a few are open.
Within are people in the throes of biloci. Either lying on beds or
on top of blankets laid out across the floor, they are oblivious to
the carnage in the other room.

Jiron reaches the door and flies out into
the alley on the other side. Glancing to the left and right, he
sees her fleeing form running down the alley to the right. “This
way,” he says to the others as he races to follow. “Stop!” he yells
to her but his words have little effect.

She ducks into a doorway to the left and it
slams shut. He hits the door running and bursts through after her.
A small room lies on the other side of the door, another closed
door sits in the opposite wall. He runs to it and tries to open it
but find it’s locked.

The others are quick to join him as he pulls
a knife to work on the lock. “Stig, you stay here in case she
doubles back,” he says. “The rest of you fan out around the
building in case she gets out. Reilin, you come with me.”

As the others race back out into the alley,
Jiron feels the lock click open. Replacing his knife in its sheath,
he opens the door to find another hallway stretching further into
the distance. On his right is a narrow spiraling staircase going up
to the second floor.

He motions for Reilin to be still as he
listens for any indication of where she might be. Then above them a
floorboard creaks heavily as if a person of weight is moving around
up there.
That has to be her!

“Up the stairs,” he says and takes them two
at a time. Upon reaching the second level, he finds another hallway
extending in the same direction as the one below had. The sound of
the creaking floorboard had sounded like it was right above them
when they were still on the first floor. So whoever is up here must
be in one of the rooms near the stairwell.

Moving to the door to his right, Jiron kicks
out with his foot and bursts the door open. A young woman stares at
him with wide, fearful eyes from her bed. “Not this one,” he says
and moves to the next. Reilin tells the woman, “Sorry,” then closes
her door.

Making his way quickly over to the door on
his left, he kicks it open. The woman from the bar is there with
her back to a wall, in her hand she holds a knife out
threateningly.

Jiron sees that she’s all alone. Holding up
his hands, he says to Reilin, “Explain to her that we mean her no
harm. That I have no intention of hurting her.” Reilin translates
for the woman.

His words do little to convince her of his
sincerity. Jiron steps into the room and the woman raises her knife
a little bit higher. Reaching slowly into his pocket, he holds up a
gold coin. Her eyes widen at the sight of it and the point of the
knife drops slightly.

“Tell her that I’ll give this to her for
some information,” he tells Reilin. When Reilin translates his
message, her knife drops even further.

Footsteps are heard coming up the stairs and
Scar makes his appearance. He quickly scans down both directions of
the hallway and sees Reilin in the doorway to the woman’s room.
Coming over, he enters the room and brings his mouth close to
Jiron’s ear. “Make this fast, the city watch has shown up,” he
tells him.

Jiron nods and says, “Go get the others.”
Scar then races back downstairs to do as bidden. To Reilin he says,
“Tell her I just want to ask her sister a question.”

When Reilin translates, the woman’s eyes get
a calculating look and the knife falls even further. Finally, the
woman puts the knife back in its sheath though her hand still rests
upon its pommel. Then she asks something and Jiron looks to
Reilin.

“She’s asking what you wanted to ask her?”
he explains.