Chapter 17 #2
As we tie our horses at one of the city’s hitching posts so we can mingle with the townspeople, a sharp voice carries over the softer hum of everyday conversation.
“King Konram and his court have bullied us for too long! Everyone should stand up for Silana and embrace the ways the All-Giver intended us to live!”
A woman with a cluster of followers is standing on a crate at one corner of a nearby square. She hands out pamphlets to everyone who passes nearby.
I pick up one that’s been dropped on the street and restrain a grimace. The Order of the Wild has taken one of the old myths about Creaden supporting the first kings of the realms and twisted it to make it sound as if even the godlen of rulership would support their cause.
The very fact that there are no soldiers or local law enforcement around to shut down the woman’s hostility toward the Crown shows how thoroughly the scourge sorcerers have taken over. I shudder to think what they’ve done to anyone who tried to stand up to them.
Julita’s voice stays subdued as she takes all this in through me.
There was a pub around this end of town that the staff often talked about visiting.
The Silver Stag. I went there a couple of times myself.
It’s possible we’ll spot someone I know who’ll talk to us there…
I think if we take a right at that cross-street…
We follow her directions through a few turns to a pub on the corner that’s bustling with lunchtime business. Rheave’s eyes light up as he watches the conjured illusion of a stag leap from one end of the sign to the other and back again.
When we slip past the door into a room smelling of fresh-baked bread and fried dumplings, almost all of the closely packed tables are full. So are the seats along the varnished bar where some people are having a more liquid sort of lunch.
I ease between the tables as if looking for someone I meant to meet, letting my gaze sweep over the patrons. None of their faces mean anything to me, but toward the back of the space, Julita gasps in excitement.
There’s Hanie! The woman alone at the small booth on the back wall—in the olive-green dress with the brassy hair. She’s the head maidservant at our estate. Always making sure the newer maids were looking after my clothes and hair properly and keeping our rooms clean.
I pause to study the woman Julita indicated from the corner of my eye. She’s hunched over a bowl, her gaze flicking toward the rest of the room between bites.
If she was in Julita’s house when the uprising reached Nikodi, she must have escaped it. She looks as if she’s afraid her association with the county’s rulers will be found out.
At the very least, I don’t think she’s comfortable with the shift in authority in the city.
Go on, Julita urges. Talk to her. Tell her you’re a friend of mine and see what she knows.
I duck my head close to the men to tell them what’s going on, and they follow me over to Hanie’s table. When I reach her, she stiffens with one hand raised partway to her mouth and the other braced against the bowl of stew.
“Are you Hanie?” I ask, because technically I shouldn’t know her for sure on sight.
The woman eyes me warily, lowering her spoon into the bowl. “That’s my name. Can I help you?”
“I hope so. We’re friends of Julita’s. She told us who to look for… Would you mind if we join you so we can talk more discreetly?”
Hanie’s eyes widen. She dips her head in agreement, tugging a strand of her brass-brown hair behind her ear as Casimir and I squeeze into the seat across from her. Rheave shifts position to block us from view from most of the rest of the room.
“Has Julita come back to Nikodi?” the maidservant asks in a hushed voice that betrays a mix of excitement and worry. As far as I can tell, she still cares about the family she worked for.
No one in Nikodi will have any idea what happened to the daughter of their count and countess. The story passed around the royal college is that Julita made a hasty departure for home, but I doubt anyone’s bothered to check whether she completed that journey yet.
As far as anyone here knows, she’s still studying away in Florian, not murdered and buried in an unmarked grave with her spirit stuck in someone else’s body.
I shake my head. “She couldn’t leave Florian yet, but she’s been upset after hearing what’s been happening here. It was easier for us to make the trip. We promised her we’d do whatever we can to help.”
Hanie’s gaze drops to her bowl, her expression morose. “I’m not sure there’s much helping to be done. The past two weeks… It’s been a nightmare.”
Well, she definitely doesn’t support the uprising. Good to have that confirmed.
Casimir’s mouth twists in sympathy. He speaks up in the gentle voice that could soothe a thunderstorm. “We’ve had some dealings with the people behind this ‘Order of the Wild’ back in Florian. We’ve been able to prevent them from carrying out some of their worst plans.”
“I think we can do the same here,” I add. “We just need a better idea of what exactly they’ve been doing.”
Hanie’s shoulders come down a little. She glances around the room again and drops her voice even lower.
“They stormed Julita’s estate first—and the local Watch building.
I heard all the soldiers in the fort farther south were slaughtered too.
Since then, the Order people have mostly been talking about how they’re going to put a ‘real’ king on the throne and pave the way for the All-Giver to return.
And coming down on anyone who questions them. ”
I wince. “Have you seen any odd-looking figures with them? People who’ve made an unsettling number of sacrifices, or covered up so you can’t even see their faces?”
“Knowing where they’re gathering to make plans or keeping supplies would also be useful,” Casimir puts in.
Hanie’s expression turns distant with thought. She brings her knuckle to her lips. “I’ve noticed a few things around town… I try not to get too close. You’ll need to be careful. Anyone who’s pushed back at all forcefully, they just disappear.”
I swallow thickly. “We won’t be blatant about it. But someone has to stand up to them before they do any more damage.”
Julita squirms at the back of my skull. What about my parents? She said the scourge sorcerers stormed the estate—what’s happened to everyone else?
I can’t blame her for wanting those answers while she has the chance to get them.
I drag in a ragged breath. “And if you can tell us, so we can send word back to Julita—where are her parents now? Are they being held in the house?”
Hanie’s face pales. I brace myself for the worst.
Her voice falls to a mere whisper. “They’re gone. The brigands—they dragged them out of their beds and cut their throats.”
Julita lets out a wail that resonates through my head. I close my eyes for a second, grieving her loss alongside her.
How much more blood is going to be spilled before we can stop these psychopaths for good?