Voices of Chaos
A Tortallan Story
Chapter One: Of Thieves and Spymasters
It goes without saying: without a leader, those that follow are left in the dark.
She could her days of limited freedom on her right hand and it made her groan in utter annoyance. Five days and her "master" and his son would arrive and his son would demand his usual mistress, which was herself, and because it was her part to play, she would have to go along with the whole charade and smile while doing it. She'd been lucky that the Baron of Stil and his son had planned their little vacation and she'd been twice lucky that another Tortallan man had come to travel with them. It had left her with three weeks of peace and quiet and being herself. She didn't have to worry about reports or sneaking next to closed doors. All she had to worry about was when she wanted her bath.
Cari of the Brighteyes was a spy for Tortall, in a time when spying was particularly tricky and useful. The Scanran War had only just ended two years back and any noble who had a border on the country had to be watched, thus her station with the Baron of Stil. She had hated it at first, but after a while and after she'd been showered with beautiful gifts, Cari found that she didn't really mind being a spy in Stil. It was lonely, especially after three years, but if Cari kept her act up, she could almost fool herself that she was happy. Besides, she'd been only sixteen when she first came and knew the Barony of Stil better than she knew Corus. Of course it went without saying that Corus was quite a bit bigger than Stil.
With a sigh mixed with restlessness and contentment, two very opposing feelings, Cari flopped onto her back in the middle of the large, feather filled bed and spread her arms wide. It may have been a hard life, living a lie, but Cari was good at it and she loved knowing all the little secrets. She didn't really even mind the Baron's son, Oliver. In fact, she'd grown to really like the man. He was handsome, strong, stubborn despite being a jerk and a fool. Well, at least there were a few qualities she didn't mind in him; his father on the other hand…
A knock at her door made her look up, annoyed but she drew a deep breath and climbed out of the big bed. She shoved her feet into her slippers and threw on her robe over her thin shift. Shaking out her dark, curly hair, she threw open the doors then stood back, surprised by the person standing before her.
"Raza? What are you doing here? The Baron isn't due back for another week." Cari waved the man in.
Raza was a short man, or at least shorter than Cari who was a tall woman. He was a few years older than herself with several scars along his left cheek and eye, leaving one of his dark eyes half closed with scar tissue. His blonde hair was always a mess but his clothes never were, always pressed and neat. It went without saying that if his clothes were as dirty as they were now, something wasn't quite right.
"He isn't back." He remarked sharply, coming into her room, then shutting and locking the doors behind him. "The room is secure?"
Cari looked about, tweaking her bright, sea-green eyes a bit so that her talent, her Sight shifted to look beyond the ordinary. She double checked all the listening spells very carefully, then nodded back at the Tortallan. "Yes, I keep the signs up to date."
"Good." Raza nodded and walked further into the room. He walked first along the wall that had her dressing screen and where her cabinets were located. At every bit of furniture along his way, he stopped and examined the craftsmanship. Cari often thought that the man had been a carpenter before he'd been recruited. He walked until his path was stopped by the mussed up bed opposite herself.
Cari turned to face him, hands on her hips. "I didn't lie."
"I know. I wouldn't have been able to tell. No Sight." He tapped his good eye but didn't smile at all. Raza didn't always have a good sense of humor, despite how likeable Cari found him.
"So, what brings you away from the Baron? Away from our assignment?" Cari wasted little time with games.
"You won't like it." Raza remarked, fingering the embroidered bedspread. His eyes never left her's however.
"Spill it, Raza." Cari shifted her weight from foot to foot. Why did Raza always find it amusing to tease people with good information and she knew he had good information by the way he was dragging it out. Raza didn't usually play games with Cari; she'd dumped him on his behind dozens of times already for it.
Instead of speaking, Raza reached into his belt purse and produced a crumbled up piece of paper. He slid it over to her across the bed where she snatched it up and tore open the seal. It wasn't even written in code, which made her frown before she even began to read the words. When she did get to reading the words, her breath caught in her throat.
"Have you read this?" She asked without looking up, rereading the letter again.
"Yes." Raza replied quietly. For a moment he didn't say anything else. "Cari?"
"Yes?" She replied absently, still staring at the letters.
"What does this mean? What happens to us? Both of them-"
"Shut up, Raza." Cari snapped.
Raza didn't seem to hear the venom in her voice. "Both of them are gone. What do we do?"
Cari didn't hear her spy-mate. All she could focus on was the words written plainly in Common right before her eyes. There was no code, no hiding the message, just the message plain as day. It was sloppy work, but if the message could be trusted, it didn't matter anymore.
With a shake of her head in disbelief, she stalked over to her fireplace and poked at the embers of the fire. After a moment, a small fire rose up and she tossed the letter into the flames. Cari stared at the fire, not really seeing.
"Cari! Cari," Raza was at her elbow, squeezing it. "What in the name of everything do we do? Cari!"
Cari, finally feeling the pain of Raza's fingernails digging into her pale skin, turned on him, knocking him backwards with the palms of both her hands. She hadn't meant to react that way to Raza, but it had been instinct that took her over mind just then. Slowly, she came to her senses. "What?"
"What do we do?" Raza repeated slowly.
"We have to leave." Cari replied just as slowly. Then she began to pick up her pace and started for her clothing cabinet. She threw out her favorite brown tunic, tan leggings and her belt. Without more to Raza, she disappeared behind the screen, changing and stepping out from the screen as she laced up her belt around her waist. "We're running. We have to get to Corus, or Pirate's Swoop and confirm it. We can't stay here."
Cari brushed past Raza to her ointment table and swept a hand along it, scattering, breaking and spilling it all onto the floor. "Trash the place."
"What? Why?" Raza caught her wrists as she began to head for the table next to her bed. "What good does it do to trash your room?"
"Because someone broke in. We'll trash the Baron's and Oliver's room as well. We're fleeing the scene of a robbery and with any luck they'll think we've been kidnapped." Cari explained quickly. She wasn't sure her plan would work, in fact, she was pretty sure it wouldn't work at all, but trashing the people she'd had to pretend to be slave to was enticing and she wanted payback.
"Fine. You're the boss." Raza shrugged. He had hated them even more than she had.
"That's right, Raza. I'm the boss." Cari remarked with a mischievous little smile and pulled down the curtains.
Cari strode down through the courtyard and the Baron's "palace" with a belt purse full of her favorite stones to sell on their way back to Corus and Raza trailing a few steps behind her with a small pack of food and his own full belt purse. Cari and Raza had both been thieves in the Court of the Rogue before their respectable jobs as spies, so leaving perfectly good jewels that could fund their entire way back wasn't an option.
They walked casually enough, but even Cari wasn't fool enough to not to hear the shouts in the house as the nosy maids found the trashed and somewhat lacking rooms. She didn't look back at Raza but she could tell he was just as aware.
When they reached the guards at the gates, she smiled at them in her usual, flirtatious way, giving them a little nod of her head as she passed. Unfortunately, the guards were not deaf and heard the commotion. They looked at the house, then back at Cari and Raza who were just a few paces on the other side of the gate and unfortunately, they weren't stupid either.
"Hey! Stop right there, mistress!" One of them called.
Cari snapped her head around to look at them. She saw several other guards join the three gate-guards and she didn't like the odds. They would have to run for it and run Cari and Raza did.
Raza may have been shorter than Cari but he was quick enough to catch up with her long-legged strides. "Meeting place?"
Cari thought for a moment as they turned down a few alleys in the nearby village. She cursed Stil for being so very small and then cursed the people for liking their protection spells a little too much; the brightness of it all was hurting her eyes.
"South Road." She replied between breaths. "East side of the lane. Whistle for a signal."
Raza nodded in understanding. He reached out and took her hand in a solid clasp before turning in the opposite direction of herself.
Fast on her feet where several guards, and the more practiced guards at that. Cari was running as fast as she could, turning and cutting through gardens and leaping small fences where she felt she had a good enough distance. She pushed off building walls to gain sharper turns and a short burst of speed. Her legs ached after a while and her chest hurt from the exertion but she couldn't stop. Stil wasn't kind to thieves, she'd seen quite a few killed for it.
She turned down one alley only to be met with a wall three times her height and solid. The workers had been good about the plastering, no cracks or lumps or footholds. Cari was cornered and exhausted for her efforts.
She faced the two guards that had followed her down and backed up against the wall until she felt the smoothness behind her back. Cari put on her bright smile and fluttered her dark lashes over her stunning eyes. It worked every time on Oliver and most of the time on the Baron, why should guards be any different?
"That's not going to work, wench." The tallest growled. "Hand over what you stole and come quietly."
"Oh, you see, that isn't the way to treat a lady." Cari replied sweetly, still looking about her for a way to escape. It was looking rather bleak. So much for escaping the lie she'd spun for three years.
"Yer not a lady." He smiled toothily at her.
Cari's smile dropped, a little ashamed. She couldn't protest what he was saying. For the past few years she'd lived as a glorified streetwalker. She couldn't even claim to be a good thief anymore; she was getting caught.
"I wouldn't speak t' a pretty lass like that."
Cari craned her neck upward at the voice's owner. On the top of the wall kneeled a lanky looking man with unkempt brown hair, dancing blue eyes and a crooked smile. He was just the sort not to be trusted for any help. Cari rolled her eyes and hung her head. Now she had guards on one side and a heckler on the other. Her day had certainly turned south in so many ways.
"Who be ya?" The shorter guard pointed his knife at the stranger.
"A friend." The lanky man gave a little salute to the guards, then tossed down a rope. Cari stared at it dumbly, not sure what it meant. With an irritated sigh, he shook it. "Grab it, lass."
Cari raised her eyebrow curiously, but did as she was told. She really didn't have any other options at the moment having been stupid enough to not have stolen knives before leaving the Baron's house.
"Ta, boys." The man smiled again, then dropped off the other side of the wall where Cari couldn't see him.
Without warning, Cari found herself flying upwards, her elbow rubbing against the wall in a burn that made her bite her lip in pain. She reached the top and hauled herself up onto the ledge the man had been sitting on before and looked down. It was quite a long ways down.
"Jump." The man ordered.
Cari shook her head with a laugh. "That's funny, mister."
"Do it a'fore they go an' get them some arrows." The man pressed.
Cari looked behind her. Sure enough the guards were calling for men with bows and arrows and she was sitting right and pretty as a target. "Are you going to catch me, mister?"
"Yeah," was all he said and all Cari needed before she pushed off from the wall. The man was good on his word and caught her in his arms. They both crashed into the ground and Cari winced at a twisted ankle, which she admitted was better than a broken one.
"Let's go 'fore they find a way 'round." The man dragged himself up and then hauled her to her feet and dragged her away from the wall. He headed toward the eastern road and she stopped in her tracks, crying out in pain at her ankle.
"Wait, no. I have to go to the South Road. I have a friend there." Cari pulled her wrist away from the man.
"Fine. Let's go, lass." He waved for her to lead the way.
Cari took off at a limping run, forcing the tears out of her eyes and cradling her burned arm against her chest. The day had been scheduled to go differently. She was supposed to have her bath, then sit in the library and read to go out into the yard and paint. She wasn't supposed to be limping, burned and suddenly an outlaw on top of being a spy that no one knew about anymore.
It was near nightfall when they reached the South Road, but at least they had reached it and they were not being pursued any longer. Cari, her ankle and her legs were very thankful for that. She was surprised her rescuer was still walking at her side, even slowing his pace for her. Didn't he have other people to pull down off of ledges?
Cari wasn't about to ask such when she reached the spot she'd asked Raza to wait for her. She whistled, drawing a curious look for her rescuer, and then she waited. For a moment she was afraid Raza had been captured, but then a rustling nearby calmed her worries. It didn't calm her friend's worries who reached for his belt knife, though she imagined he had several others hidden on himself.
"Over here." A hoarse demand came and Cari dropped her head for a moment in irritation before she did as she was told, once again.
Raza appeared from the bush, eyed the man next to her but didn't say anything. He simply turned and started into the trees. They followed him for a few moments, enough that Cari was beginning to grow suspicious of where he was taking them. Suddenly, Raza stopped in a small clearing where a small fire was built up and a girl was sitting with a pot over the fire. Cari cast a look over at Raza.
"You brought a friend." The Tortallan spy shrugged.
"He followed. I didn't bring him. Who is she?" Cari asked as she walked over toward the fire. The girl looked pleasant enough but Scanran through and through with her blonde hair, blue eyes and pale skin.
"That's Toren." Raza answered from over her shoulder. He walked around her to sit beside the blonde young woman and look over the make-shift dinner. "Who's he?"
"Gardner, or Gard rather." The lanky man smiled his crooked smile. "Pulled yer lassy off a tall lil' wall. She's in one piece."
"Broken, you mean." Cari retorted, inspected her burn as she got closer to the light. "Why's she here? What did he get you into, mistress?"
"He rescued me from guards that thought I'd be a little too friendly." Toren replied, her head dipped downward and her hand twisting a little rag.
"Well, ain't we heroes." Gard laughed a little. He came over and grabbed Cari's burned arm and looked at against her squeaks. "I've got something for it in my purse."
"Good, it's your fault." Cari pouted and sat down. She pulled of her boot and rested her injured ankle against the cold dirt. In the morning it would be tender but as long as she babied it now, it would be fine.
Gard laughed again and took out a small jar and gently rubbed a bit of jelly along the length of the burn. Cari hissed and tried to bring her arm back to herself, but Gard held tight. He was stronger than he looked. "Be good." He scolded.
"I have some rags to wrap that." Toren perked up and reached behind her to a little basket that Cari hadn't seen till just then.
"You had time to go back to her house and get things?" Cari cast an amused and annoyed look at Raza. "I was running till I could run no more, corned by ugly men, hauled over a wall, and dragged all the way here and you have dainty little time to get things?"
"Hush." Gard scolded again. "Just 'cause ya had a rough time o' it don' mean he couldn't have it easy."
"I like him, Cari." Raza jerked a thump in the direction of the other man. "I like him a lot."
Childishly, she stuck her tongue out at her spy-mate. A few seconds later, when she had her arm safely tucked against her, she sobered up and stared into the fire.
"Oh, don't do that again, Cari. Don't go staring in the fire like that." Raza must have recognized the look in her eyes for the same look in her room.
"They can't stay with us, Raza." Cari quietly told him. They didn't need some peasant girl and whatever Gard was, hanging around and slowing them down. "We have to get to Corus, or Pirate's Swoop and we have to get there now."
"What's in Pirate's Swoop? I've never heard of the place." Toren remarked conversationally. She was sweet, Cari decided, a little too innocent for her own good, but sweet.
"What's in Corus?" Gard's tone was serious, a deadly sort of serious that made them all look over at him, then at Cari. Raza shifted so that he had his spy-mate's back if Gard decided to do anything rash.
Cari drew a breath, ready to construct a lie, when Raza laid a hand on her shoulder. "Tell them the truth. What harm can it be? Two people. Pretty soon the whole world is going to know."
Cari looked over at Raza, then back at the fire. She fiddled with the bandage tie on her arm a bit. "Raza…"
"Spit it out, lass." Gard cut off her complaint by grabbing her hand as it fiddled.
Cari shook off his hand roughly, glaring at him in the dying light. When he shrugged, she turned her sea-green eyes into the fire once more. "The… Um… Geor… Well, that is to say…"
"The spymasters of Tortall are dead." Raza finished for her. "And we were spies."