This chapter is for Puritan Pam from my strange little poem, banana boy, pumpkin girl, and all the others I've invented, as well as Sammy's bisexual horse, and the Harry Potter 3 movie. And to my 'high pitched nasally voice' which I wish people would stop going on about! My voice is not nasally!
Chapter 15There was silence. Well, almost silence. Just audible, were the sounds of thin cotton brushing the damp, stone walls of the primitive air vent which led out of the dungeons under the watch house.
There came a small snuffle from the depths of the gloom. Some water dripped off the ceiling, landing with a slightly sinister plop.
Then, the sound of several very…penetrative sniffs, each louder than the last. A cough came, and then a pause. A very awkward, long pause, broken by a little moan, and followed by a louder one.
Someone hissed, and the moaning stopped.
Almost silence again. Then…
Aatishoo…, Rat sneezed, showering Joren's backside with droplets.
"Rat!" came the exasperated, pointlessly loud whispers from Keita and Kel, who were up front.
"We told you to keep the noise down Rodent." Joren growled.
Rat snuffled, fumbled, and blew his nose, emitting a loud parping sound.
The others groaned in disgust, and edged further forwards, to get away from him.
They were in a line, Kieta, then Kel, then Joren, and then Rat, all on their hands and knees, trammelling through a labyrinth of underground air vents which, according to Keita and her map anyway, spread out to the furthest corners of the city. Rat had pointed out that it defeated the purpose to have an air vent which circulated air underground. The others had ignored him.
The only light came from the grimy lantern which Keita was at this moment holding up, enabling her to scan her yellowing map for the thirteenth time.
"I'm sorry." Rat mumbled, his voice thick "It's the mould. I'm allergic." Unfortunately, after half an hour of crawling in the dark, they were all slightly uptight. Joren more so than the other two, because he had to put up with Rat bumping into him every time they stopped suddenly. Joren himself had taken exquisite care to make sure that his head didn't bump into Kel's…well, backside. That was the last thing he wanted.
"Could you be allergic slightly further away from me." He snapped at Rat, and, seeing that it was going to be a long wait, edged himself into a kneeling position, which he could just about manage if he bent his head forwards. "I'm getting sprayed."
Joren was grateful when Rat made no reply.
Keita continued to pour over the map, squinting her eyes to follow the spindly brown lines which marked the tunnels they were currently traversing. So absorbed was she, that she nearly didn't hear Rat's sudden snigger.
Everyone kept silent, realising Rat's mischievous mood, and knowing that to mention the snigger would only goad him on.
Rat sniggered again, slightly louder this time.
Silence again. Kel nudged Keita's leg. Keita swung her head around to look back; she could just about make out Kel's face in the dim shadows which seemed to suck in everything beyond that.
"Are you nearly done?" Kel asked in an urgent whisper, which was nevertheless, quite quiet. She jerked her head back to indicate Rat, who was now emitting more sniggers.
Keita nodded, but creased her brow.
"It's odd." She muttered, "But he normally knows that there's a time for jokes, and a time for work. He's acting odd."
Kel felt a weight sink down in her stomach as she remembered the drink which Rat had eagerly guzzled down.
"The Captain gave him something to drink." She whispered, "Maybe we should get a healer to look him over when we get out."
Keita's eyebrows shot up, and she nodded and turned back to the map, clearly searching as fast as she could, and muttering to herself whilst she did so. She didn't hear Joren's morbid mutter of
"If we get out."
Kel sighed, and settled down with her legs crossed. She had to bend her neck slightly, and winced as it gave a slight click.
There was another awkward pause of a few seconds before the sound of Keita folding up her map reached their ears.
"Let's move." She whispered.
They continued to crawl, with sniggers from Rat, growls from Joren, and the occasional exasperated whisper from Kel, who had bumped her head ten times in total, and was developing a migraine. It was a relief to them all when, after another twenty minutes of crawling through the damp tunnels, Keita finally whispered that the ladder which would lead them to their destination, was directly ahead.
The tunnel ended suddenly, with a sharp, 90° turn upwards. There was only space for one of them to stand up at a time, so Keita began to ascend immediately, praying that the rusty rungs wouldn't give out.
There was no talking for a while, and no sound except for the clinking of their boots against the ladder. It wasn't that they needed to save their breath for climbing – they were all extremely healthy individuals, if slightly battered. The problem was that there was nothing to say. The situation they were in was pretty morbid. They had been discovered, (which had really been expected all along) and were still expected to escape with most of their limbs, and continue their mission. To aid them they had Rat's strange shape-shifting talent (no one could tell whether his hair was its customary pink today, it was hidden beneath all the grime), Kel's fighting talents, Joren's slightly scary talents, and Keita's…well, ability to be Keita. There was little room for small talk, as it was pointless to discuss clothes (theirs being slightly smelly) and being underground, there was no weather to make conversation of.
They were all glad when they reached the top.
The top was actually a room that was little bigger than the tunnel they had just climbed. It smelt the way a shirt smells when its been damp for too long.
"Shang?" Joren muttered thickly, trying to talk and overcome the smell of themselves and the room combined at the same time.
"What?"
"You said there'd be problems." Joren muttered again. In the corner, Rat started to whistle tunelessly, which made backdrop of silence seem even more eerie.
Something suddenly hit him on the head. Rat too, squealed from his corner, presumably having been hit as well, and Joren pulled the heap of black and white cloth off in time to see Keita light a match, flaring up her evil smirk.
"This is where they start, pretty boy."
Ten minutes later, and Joren would happily have punched someone very, very hard. As it was, he never ever wanted to repeat this incident ever again in his life.
"I am dressed in this ridiculous robe, why?"
He had gotten off lightly actually, refusing to wear anything but the black outer cloak, which was the mark of a priestess. Rat had been bundled up in the full outfit, but he still stood there, swaying happily, and conversing with the ceiling with a dreamy smile on his face. Joren winced as he looked at him.
Keita's tone was expressionless, but her face held some gleam of suppressed triumph.
"We're in the woman's baths Joren." She explained patiently yet again. "You and Rat are going to be noticed, unless you're dressed as someone inconspicuous, who is never bothered."
"And of course, we couldn't have taken another tunnel and come out somewhere else, could we? Because all of the other tunnels had caved in, or the ladders were broken, or they were infested with hordes of carnivorous hamsters."
"Yes, yes, no." Keita replied patiently, handing the grubby candle she was holding to Kel. She crossed silently to the door, and stuck her head out.
"Not many people." She muttered, "Come on. Just stay behind Kel and me. And bend down a little so they think you're hunchbacked instead of abnormally large."
Joren refused to deign that comment with a reply as they crept out.
As they got closer and closer to the centre of the complex there seemed to be more and more women. Grimy women, clean women, large women with towels wrapped around them, so that the rolls of fat spilled over the top, skinny women who wandered around with other skinny women, discussing clothes, muscular women with arms which looked as if they kneaded bread and pounded washing clean every day, frail little girls who ran around squealing and splashing each other with water.
Kel and Keita received a few glances and raised eyebrows, but from the state of their clothes, most people could understand why they had come to the baths. Joren and Rat, dressed as Priestesses, were largely ignored. They passed a few other sweeping black-and-white robed figures along the way, but each of them kept their gazes fixed firmly ahead beneath their shady hoods, never glancing at their over-large 'sisters'.
Things seemed to be going, Kel considered, quite well. They could be much worse. If anything, she wished that she could stay here for longer, and have a real bath. This made her wonder where exactly they were going. They wouldn't be safe at the palace for too long – no more than a few days. And the Captain was sure to be coming round by now, and sending out men to search for them.
Kel was about to nudge Keita and enquire about this matter, when there came a squawk from behind them.
A tall, muscular woman, clothed only in a sort of smock, which seemed to be the equivalent to underwear, was pointing an accusatory, trembling, purplish finger at Rat. Above the neck frill, a surprisingly pretty face glared with a force that may even have stopped Neal in his tracks.
Kel, noting Keita's horrified look, turned slowly to look at Rat. He was a mess; his hood had been pushed back, revealing pink-streaked hair which was in tetters. He was grinning happily around, and chewing a damp, grungy blue towel.
"There's a man in here! And he's eating my towel!" The woman shrieked into the silence which had fallen. Other women wasted no time in adding their own cries.
"Call the watch!"
"There's a madman!"
"He attacked a woman!"
"He's got a crossbow!"
There was a huge flurry of activity. Women were skidding over the wet floor in all directions, screaming, yelling. And in the midst of it all, stood Rat, chewing happily on his towel.
Joren was the first to recover. He slung Rat onto his back, towel and all, and nudged Keita and Kel to start moving.
"We have to get out of here now" He said urgently, "The watch will be on their way."
They moved fast, slewing through puddles and stumbling over deserted towels which Joren eyed thoughtfully.
The street was just as crowded as the baths when they emerged, breathless and shaken. Keita panted for a few seconds, looking frantically around, before recognising the area.
"This way." She said, setting off down the street at a jog. Kel and Joren glanced wearily at each other and followed her, Rat still bouncing on Joren's shoulders with every step, and emitting the occasional giggle.
"I got a man who owes me a favour to sell me a couple of tickets on a ship heading to the Yamani Isles for half price." Keita panted, keeping up her long, loping jog. "The ship should be waiting for us at the docks."
It seemed like a sensible idea to Kel, but clearly not to Joren.
"Why aren't we…heading back to Tortall?" He panted, his words coming out in laboured drags.
"We still have a mission to finish." Keita replied stoically, only slightly winded, "Save your breath for running."
Joren ground his teeth together but said no more.
It took them no longer than 15 minutes to reach the docks (they had to stop once in order to allow Rat to throw up bits of towel), and once they arrived, the Wisterblossom was fairly easy to find. It looked just as motley as they'd expected on the outside, but inside it was clean and mould-free, which was more than could be said for the places Kel had recently been. If it did have a few strange hidden compartments from which were emerging odd smells, no one said anything.
Keita stopped the first man they found on board.
"We need a healer." She stated, gesturing to Rat who was trying to see if he could make his finger go in through his nose, and out through his eye socket. "Urgently."
The man led them to a small, shabby cabin at the back of the large ship. Keita rapped at the door, and it opened to reveal a weather worn, tanned man in his forties. He took one look at Rat, and gestured towards the bed in the corner.
They trooped in as the man hurriedly snapped on a pair of thin gloves. He began to fire questions at them.
"I take it you are travelling with the ship?"
Keita nodded. The man grimaced, and rapped Rat on the head.
"Say aah." He told him.
"Aaaahhh." Rat responded solemnly, allowing the man to peer down his throat.
"He's inflamed. And burning. " The man sighed. "I try not to use my magic too much. We get so many injuries, and I'm the only healer on board – but I don't think I have a choice."
The others watched in silence as pale orange fire engulfed Rat, who looked around in bewilderment.
The healer's eyes were wide and frightened as he stepped back, and the fire faded. He walked briskly over to a small cupboard, and wrenched the door open, searching frantically through the shelves.
"He has the Alobe virus." He shot over his shoulder, still searching. "It works fast and hard. Lucky for you it's easily cured, if it is spotted in time."
"That looks like it'd be pretty hard to miss." Kel commented, indicating Rat, who was gazing around him in awe, and squelching his finger in his ear.
"You'd be surprised, the healer replied, "at the number of people for whom this type of behaviour would be considered normal. Aha!" He held up the fruit of his search. A tiny bottle filled with water, in which floated an even smaller bottle, in which was a tiny amount of dark green liquid.
The healer pulled a thin rod out of his pocket, and walked over to Rat, after carefully dipping the rod into the green mixture. He asked Rat to hold his mouth open again, and lifted the rod up, with his leather apron held under it.
"One drop should do it." He muttered, watching sharply as a single drop fell from the rod into Rat's gaping mouth. The healer quickly moved the rod back over his apron, where two more globules fell and sizzled on his apron. He put the bottle away quickly, but Rat still sat on the bed, looking no different.
"What exactly…is supposed to happen?" Kel ventured after a few seconds.
"Give it time" The healer replied. "Four…three…two…one."
Rat fell on his side with a whumph, clearly out cold. The healer nodded in satisfaction.
"I'll keep him here over night, but he should be fine by morning. You'd better leave now, I'm sure there will be more people here soon, all vying for my attention."
He hustled them out of his cabin, with the promise that they could return for Rat at any time the next morning. Outside, Kel, Keita and Joren stood and looked at each other.
"We'd better find where we're sleeping." Keita said finally, turning to go. Kel followed her silently, but Joren moved to the side of the ship and slouched down against it, to tired to move.
"I'll just die quietly over here." He muttered. No one noticed. He sighed contentedly and promptly fell asleep.
I just said I could write, I never said I could write well, so if your disappointed review and tell me. J I'm that desperate.
I did the best I could, but I'm still convinced I can do better. With all my exams though, quite frankly, I couldn't be bothered. At least I'm being honest.
If you do by any chance feel like checking out what I feel is my better work, then head to fictionpress.com and look my up under the same pen name. I'm working on about three things at the moment which I'm hoping will be added there soon.
Alternatively, if you're feeling incredibly bored one day, you can check out livejournal.com where my user name is rowana, and where I update my regular little journal, and put little links to cute stuff and chapters and you can leave comments and so on about my current obsessions.
I would like to impress upon all readers exactly what could be the consequences of not reviewing. Think about it, your review could be the thing which changes my view on the world. Your review could give me that sudden mad burst of inspiration to keep going with this story, which is starting to lag. Not reviewing could push me over the edge…into the bottomless pit of insanity. Have a nice day.J
Pietersite : I feel so loved! gives Pietersite a big hug until Pietersite starts to choke. Steps away and looks sheepish But you are going to update soon? Right?? Right???
MysticMoonEmpress : Joren doesn't know, but Kel knows, yes, you're right. However, in this chapter, what with Rat being poisoned and Joren being dressed up as a Priestess, Kel hasn't had much time to process all this.
Ossini: I didn't take that long with my update. Heh. looks at calendar heh, oops?
la dame noire : Bien means good in French. Ton review est tres bien. Don't know what review is in French, and my computer can't do the pretty accents, so I'll leave it at that. And I think I'm going to have to grovel yet again in that case for this late update. How long has it been? A month or so?
Nawat Crow: Sammy! You're not meant to cheer Ellie on! And why are you still not updating? whinges pitifully. And thank you for the lovely comments as usual. J And you're right, Maroon5 totally rocks. I still can't seem to get hold of their latest single though! V. annoying. How's your bisexual horse?
lfk214: Heh, thanks. The song was actually one I used to have to sing during long car journeys.
Imperfectionist ;D: You're too kind, you're making me blush! And I loved your latest chapter, I'm sort of torn between wanting to know the ending, and wanting it to never end!
Lynsi: Oh yes, GCSEs are still a pain in the ass. Lol, thank you for the great advice, I will cherish it. And shh about Rat and Keita! You're giving what little plot I do have away!
CrystalLili: Heh, I knew you hadn't forgotten me! And you pointed up my mistake! I was reading the chapter over once I'd posted it to check that all the graphics had come through, and I noticed this, you weren't meant to see! But thank you so much for your review, you can't imagine how much I appreciate them.
Mango Sam: Wow, I'm flattered, thank you.
Crowdove: Aheh, plot? What plot? Lol, thanks for the review.
Living People: Short, yet sweet. I like. Thankee.
Mia: Thank you. Again, short but sweet.
Drowning Rooster: I'd love to read your lj smith fanfic, just as soon as I finish revising! And thank you for the review!
lil-saturn-goddess: Lol, thank you.
Again, thank you to anyone and everyone who reviews, or even takes the time to read my stories.
--Rowana