Mud Town
The next morning, they startle awake as someone rips the door open with no forewarning, all traces of sleep evaporated in an instant. Matthias instinctively reaches for his axe by their betting with one hand, and the other tightens a little harder around Vilje in case he needs to get her out of harm's way quick. The Rat King stands there in the doorway, leaning against the frame and staring down at them, head tilting thoughtfully to one side, and Matthias curses himself for letting anyone catch them of guard. The sun must have been up for a few hours already, judging by the daylight that seeps in through the cracks in the walls bathing the room in a dim light, showing off the dust particles whirling around the air.
"Come on, hurry" he says impatiently and taps his foot rapidly, dropping a few more layers of mud on the already filthy floor. "It is time to show you how Mud town really works." He smirks and leans casually against the doorframe, watching as they pull on their boots pack their bags. They carefully tighten the straps of the bags, and makes sure there is nothing sticking out for easy theft in a place that is crawling with desperate criminals, Matthias even going as far as to stare him in the eyes as he tucks in a stray edge of a blanket. It has no effect, if anything the Rat King's eyes seem to sparkle at their obvious distrust in him and his people, and is enjoying every second he can inconvenience them.
Eventually they finish packing and follow him out of the room and down the hallway. Matthias is surprised to see that there are people sleeping on the floor along the walls leaving only a narrow path to walk through. Most of them are still completely dressed, shoes and all and just covered up with a ragged cloak to fight off the cold and they do not seem to register their presence.
"They work hard, my rats," The rat king comments almost fondly in an overly sweet voice that clashes horribly with his other behavior. "They need their sleep during daytime so we can scurry our way around the city in the cover of night."
Matthias realizes they must have been more tired last night than they first thought not to have heard any of now sleeping men move about throughout the night. Then he remembers these people depend on being silent for their survival and they might be able to go unnoticed during most circumstances. It makes his hair stand at the back of his neck knowing they could hide just about anywhere and he might never know.
There are people sleeping on the floor in the main room as well, but also a three people sitting by the table, eating something grey and disgusting looking. They give the newcomers a suspicious glance as they enter, but quickly return to their meal. The 'king' gestures for them to pick a seat and after they sit down, he pours them a bowl each from a large pot in the middle of the table. "Eat," he orders cheerily and goes back to his slightly larger chair at the end of the table where he puts his feet up and watches them intently.
Matthias hesitantly shows down a spoonful, trying to gag at the taste and texture once it hits his tongue. People often say that any food tastes good if you are hungry enough, but that does not apply to whatever is in that pot. It is cold, slimy and tastes just the way it looks, utterly disgusting. The only reason he manages to keep a straight face is that he knows the Rat King and his men are watching their every reaction, and quite possible looking for a reason to think them weak. Slowly, he manages to empty the bowl. A quick glance at Vilje, tells him that she too is struggling, but keeping up a brave face, forcing down each spoonful.
As they eat, he thinks back to the previous night, feeling a little bit embarrassed about his smaller breakdown. He almost expects Vilje to treat him different after having seen him like that, but there is no look of pity on her face whenever he looks over to see how she is doing. That is a relief. The pitying glances from Trym was beginning to be the worst part of waking up screaming from a nightmare and he might go insane if the rest of the group begins looking at him the same way.
Maybe he should have been more careful about what he told her, but it is hard to deny something she already figured out to be a fact. It is too late to take back the conversation now, and he needs to believe that she will keep his trust and not discuss their conversation with any of the others. If she does not, he will be in trouble. Berwald has known him most of their lives and will realize something is off immediately. That sends his thought spiraling, and he must fight a bit harder to keep breakfast down.
The Rat King suddenly drops his feet to the floor with a loud thud, interrupting his thoughts and firmly returning his focus to where it should be. "I hope you enjoyed your breakfast; this is among the best cuisine we can manage down here," he comments lazily. "You are lucky I feed my guests, most people around here don't get food at all." He shrugs, "well, they could have food, but some are just too prideful to ask for help, you see. I'm a good king to those that are loyal." He grins broadly at them, and in the light of day, they can see that he is missing quite a few teeth. He is looking more the rat by each passing second, it is even hard to tell his skin is darker or if it is just the mud and dirt caked in it over time that gives that appearance. "Now finish up, we're going." He stands up abruptly and marches towards the door expecting them to follow.
Vilje hastily downs the last bite of her meal with a grimace, before they stand up from the table and heads towards the door, giving each other a glance before they step into the light to see what Mud Town has to offer in the light of day.
Matthias wishes they could have stayed inside. They might have thought the slums were depressing and scary during the nighttime and from a distance, but it is nothing compared to the experience up close. In the daylight, the misery of this place is out on full display and it is obvious that most of the people down here are suffering. The few people on the streets wade through the mud that reach halfway up their shins without even reacting. Their clothes are dirty and various degrees of ragged and their grazes empty and hopeless.
A woman walks past them, carrying a young child close to her chest. The thing is tiny and just looks like skin and bone, and it is screaming its lungs out from hunger most likely, but the mother does not even attempt to sooth it. She just continues walking unsteadily through the streets, staring straight ahead into nothing.
The Rat King ignores the presence of everyone, marching out into the muddy streets, head held high and taking a deep long breath. People seem to clear out a path for him as he moves, lowering their heads submissively and looking away. Matthias wonders if they do it out of respect or fear of the supposed leader of the slums. Then he sees other people turn their backs and shrink into themselves to appear smaller, a few even running to hide behind buildings and he realizes which one is true. The man appears to have the entire district under his thumb. Those that do not work for him live in fear.
Matthias and Vilje struggle to keep up with him as the mud tugs at their feet with each step they take as if the ground itself is trying to hold them captive. A few of the locals give them suspicious glances, taking note of their slightly better clothing but then realizes who they are in company of and quickly decide to keep their distance from them as well.
It soon turns out that he is bringing them to one of the city gates and Matthias' feels anxiety brewing at the thought of getting close to where the guards can spot them. He pulls his hood over his head to hide his face a little better and Vilje does the same. The Rat King shows little care as he leads them to the last row of houses and even snorts mockingly at them when they take measures to hide their faces. "You don't have to bother," he chuckles. "To them you just look like the rest of us and none of them care."
The Rat King finally stops by the wall of one of the last houses of Mud town and leans his back against the building pointing towards the open area where the main roads lead towards the city. The ditch built around the entire city with the sharp poles to keep people away from the wall is a lot deeper just in front of the gate. It is so deep that they have built a bridge over it leading the road from the farmlands into the city. That detail was not visible from their camp on the outskirts of the forest. The drainage ditches along the road are also a lot deeper than what is normal on the first 50 meters from the bridge and out, keeping the road more separate from the slums.
"They built that bridge a few years ago to help keep the beggars away," the Rat King comments dryly. "It is important to keep the traveling merchants happy and they do not want the filth of the city to crawl over them when they arrive at a town and those trenches are the only place where begging is permitted. It also makes it harder to sneak into the city since you have to show papers upon entry to confirm your business in town or citizenship; we have been unable to sneak in through the gates since they built those bridges by each gate."
There is a crowd of beggars on both sides of the road, clustered close together in the deep drainage ditches; almost lying along the slope reaching up towards the roads and Matthias realizes that must be the exact reason why they are so deep and steep. They make it harder for the 'slummers' to climb up. Whenever somebody walks past on the road, they yell out for mercy, food and coin, anything, and they practically climb over each to get higher and closer to the road, reaching towards the people passing by. Most people walking past ignore their presence, clearly used to the grim sight.
Then one person walks past chewing on an apple and all eyes lock on him. When there is still a little bit left of the apple, he tosses it carelessly down towards the ditch and immediately people throw themselves at the scraps. Seconds later, it turns out in a fight between several of the beggars as they all struggle to get to the tiny scrap of food.
The Rat King just stands and watches, not even lifting an eyebrow when Matthias and Vilje stare in horror, mouth open at the sight of beggars practically beating each other to death, just for few scraps of food. "It is the same every day," he comments easily, not seeming affected at all. It is painfully how little he cares about other people. "Come winter proper, their cries will be even more pathetic, that is unless we all die in gruesome battle first of course, might even be a relief for some of this sorry lot."
He eyes the desperate beggars coldly and wrinkles his nose in disgust, making his thin moustache twitch like whiskers. "Usually, the travelers form all the surrounding villages means there are many more travelling through the gates willing to spare a few coins and some food for the poor, but this year the markets has been mostly empty. But you know everything about that already."
"Please let us go somewhere else," Vilje begs weakly, her voice barely a whisper. At some point during the skirmish in the ditch, she grabbed Matthias arm, and her nails are digging uncomfortably into his skin, leaving small crescent marks behind. There are a few tears trickling down her cheeks and her face is pale, and she looks on the verge of throwing up.
By the road, the fight has ended the yelling fading back in favor of the pleas for more. One of the beggars are lying unmoving on the ground and some of the others shows him carelessly aside so they can come closer to the road and lean against the slopes.
"You don't like what you are seeing?" the rat king feigns insult, and then he laughs cruelly before he leads them away from the gate. "This is the best part of our little tour; this is where most of the people get their food to get through a day, this is the only place in Mud Town where they even see hope."
Vilje clutches harder on Matthias arm and he sees a desperate look in her eyes that he has never seen on her before. "It's going to get worse than this?" she whispers weakly.
The Rat King leads them a different route this time. Instead of following the streets through Mud Town, he follows the pike-ditch. All of a sudden, a horrid stench hits them and Matthias immediately gags, pulling a piece of his cloak over his face to try to block some of the smell out. The smell of the slums were awful to begin with, but this brings tears to his eyes and even with the cloth over his face, it burns. It is cloying and a sickening smell of rot.
Soon after, they see the source. Vilje gasps and let go of his arm, backing up until she reaches one of the houses and she flattens herself against the building, gasping for air. Matthias stands frozen to the spot, the edges of his cloak falls from limp fingers as he stares.
On one of the poles hangs the remainders of a body that must have been there for quite some time. Most of it is gone to crows and other scavengers, but it is obvious it once used to be a person.
"That is what happens when you try to enter the town without my help," The Rat King says almost smugly. "The poor bastard was desperate to get back inside the city walls; he got tossed out of the city the week before and refused to accept my generous offer of joining my ranks and did not like what Mud town has to offer." He steps up right next to Matthias, leans in uncomfortably close, and speaks in a low, sickeningly sweet tone. "He did not even make it halfway up before he fell and got caught by the poles. He didn't have the decency to die immediately either and spent half the night shrieking his lungs out."
The Rat King catches Matthias' jaw with one hand, and turns his face a bit down and to the side towards a second body on the ground, several arrows sticking out from the remains. He tries to pull away from the sight, but the grip around his jaw is surprisingly strong and dig into his skin as the 'king' forces his head right back and forces him to look. "That poor fellow next to him wanted to put the damned bastard out of his misery and give the rest of us some quiet and peace of mind. The guards did not care that he was not going to climb the walls and shot him before he made it three steps out on the pole-field." The Rat King tilts his head thoughtfully. "Had he been smart, he would have just shot the screamer from the shadows and been done with it, being merciful only gets you dead."
"Are you not going to move them?" Vilje asks horrified.
The Rat King looks back at her and then back to the two bodies, he gestures towards them with open arms. You are free to take that chance, girl. We would love to toss both of them in the river, and that way get rid of the smell. There is just one small problem," he pauses and keeps them in suspense. "No rat will step foot over the line."
Vilje looks confused and afraid, keeping her distance still. "What line?"
The Rat King grins brightly as if they have just given him a great gift, the change in demeanor so sudden and unsettling considering the circumstances; Matthias fail to react fast enough when the Rat king whirls around and grabs him by hair with one hand and grabs the back of his cloak with the other. Before Matthias really has a chance to fight against the hold, the Rat King forces him forward towards the slope for the pole-ditch, where he stops again just as sudden.
Vilje shouts in fear and is moving to catch up with them. Matthias tries to waive his arm, signaling her to stay back and her panicked footsteps stops again, but her breathing is rapid and panicked. He cannot see her, but he hopes she stays in place. The Rat King should not want to hurt them, but scaring people seems like one of his favorite pastimes and he is turning out to be quite unpredictable and he does not want her anywhere close.
The Rat King stands directly at his back leaning his head on Matthias' shoulder, chuckling darkly directly in his ear and sending a shiver down his spine. "You can't see the line" he whispers sweetly and laughs again, "but it is most certainly there."
Matthias winces as the Rat King yanks on his hair and forces him to look up towards the top of the wall. One of the guard walks past, glancing at them and the Rat King lets go of Matthias' hair long enough to make a mocking little waive towards the guard who just shakes his head and keeps walking. "Step over the line and the guards will shoot without hesitation. All the houses in Mud Town are wood; they can burn it down if they want to and kill us all and stay protected behind their walls of stone. We live at their mercy and they let us live as long as we stay on our side of that line."
The Rat king then marches them forward, one slow step after another, pushing Matthias in front of himself as a human shield. Matthias instinctively dig his heels down to stop them from moving, but the mud is too slippery and they inch forward. The hold on his hair relentless and the cloak tightening around his throat, making him gasp for air. He reaches for his cloak to relieve some of the pressure on his throat, but the Rat King only pulls back harder on it and his breath comes out in wheezes.
One of the guards on the wall finally stops walking and takes interest in what is happening in the slums. Then he calls over some of the other guards and points town towards them. Matthias cannot hear what they are saying, but judging from the voices, they are excited. Then one of them brings out a bow and carefully notches an arrow, but leaves the string without tension. A few other guards are joining them along the wall and they seem to be exchanging money, making bets among themselves whether or not the Rat King will push him over the invisible line that gives them a reason to shoot him.
Ice rushes down Matthias' back in true dread and he scrambles to get purchase on the muddy ground to push backwards. The guards are too calm about this situation and he realizes it must be a common occurrence considering they make sport of it. He wonders just how many bodies in the ditch belongs to people that have tried to cross the Rat King.
The Rat King leans in closer and the whiskers of his moustache tickles against Matthias' ear. "If you or any of your little friends betray me, I will march you all up to the line and let the guards shot you for me," he whispers darkly. Matthias neck aches from the forced angle and there are tears stinging in the corners of his eyes from the lack of air. Another guard has picked up a bow and lets it rest atop the wall; he is twirling an arrow around his fingers, showing off and grinning down at them, clearly excited about the prospect of shooting slummers.
Vilje is making a desperate sound of protest from behind them, but she keeps still.
"I'm not going to betray you," Matthias gasps with as much conviction he can muster with the pressure on his throat. "We need each other, remember?"
"You better not," the Rat King snarls. He makes one final yank on Matthias' hair and then steps back and lets him go.
Matthias, who has been struggling to move backwards, fall on his ass in the mud when the Rat King no longer holds him up. He is still staring up towards the top of the wall, shaking in terror and heaving for breath. There is disgruntled arguing from the wall where one or more of the guards have lost the bet on his life. He lies the in the mud as his mind processes just how close he got to dying and bile rises to the back of his throat. He rolls over and heaves, breakfast even more unpleasant on the way up.
Then Vilje is there, pulling him up and away from the pole-ditch and the invisible line. She too is shaking like a leaf and she has given up on the brave face and openly crying.
"You have been warned, boy," the Rat King growls from a few meters away where he is watching them struggle to get up off the ground. "Now get up, our tour is not over yet."
Matthias clutches on to Vilje's arms as she helps him back to his feet. He legs as shaking like those of a newborn foal, threatening to give in at any moment, and there is a lingering taste of bile at the back of his throat.
"What have we gotten ourselves into?" she asks weakly.
"He is just trying to scare us," Matthias says shakily through clenched teeth, but he is not sure who he is trying to convince, himself or Vilje because neither of them really believes it. "Just follow him; I don't want a repeat performance if I can avoid it." He shakes off some of the mud that clings to his cloak, but the garment is already soaked through and dirty making him look as if he might belong in this place. He glances up at the wall where the guards have moved on now that their entertainment appears to be over.
The Rat King turns on his heels once they are both standing upright and trudges nonchalantly alongside the ditch, seemingly without a care in the world while Matthias and Vilje need to hurry after him to keep up, even if they are still shaking. They soon walk past another body in the ditch, the Rat King laughs darkly, and glances back to smirk at them as they walk past.
Matthias cannot handle the tension any longer and increases marches up beside the Rat King, making sure to keep the Rat King in between himself and the ditch. "Why does the king even allow Mud Town to even exist when the guards can eradicate you all within a day?" He asks angrily. "This place is crawling with criminals and beggars, and he obviously doesn't care about any of the others down here since he allows you to live like this. Why doesn't he get rid of what is obviously a stain on his glorious capitol?"
"We serve as a message. Pay your taxes or end up in Mud Town," the Rat King replies easily, and then his eyes glint darkly. "We also serve as human shields. Our beloved High King is a clever bastard. Any army attacking this city will have to go through us first. They might lose a few people to the backstabbers lurking about in here, but mostly it is quite demoralizing for many soldiers to kill innocents. There is also little use in trying to get rid of all the little rats in existence. Some always escapes and then a new nest pops out. With Mud Town in existence, he thinks he has control of the problem even though he has no idea how large the infestation is."
The Rat King reaches out to place an arm across Matthias' shoulder, but he quickly slaps the hand away, not trusting the intention at all. The Rat King just laughs, pleased at his reaction.
"What more do you even want to show us on this tour of yours," Matthias hisses and he can hear Vilje gasp in shock from his tone. "I can't say we've had to pleasant of an experience so far."
"You wound me," The Rat King replies sweetly, but he is still smirking. "It is the last stop, I promise, and we'll be there soon."
The destination turns out to be the riverbank. The houses on this end of town seems to be in even worse shape than the others, the foundations sinking into the soft ground making the buildings sag. The water in the river itself is brown and there is trash floating on the surface, but there are people fishing and even a few people searching through the items that has washed up on the bank. Vilje wrinkles her nose in disgust at the sight.
"Yes," the Rat King sighs. "They let the city waste out into the river just here where the river exits the city and run through Mud Town; it's not very clean by the time the water reaches us, but at least we have water."
"But it must be pretty clear on the other side of town where the river first enters the city," Vilje pipes up. "Why don't you fish and get water on that side?"
The Rat King laughs manically, the sound loud and disturbing among the misery of the people. "You really think they allow us to contaminate their water supply by having access to it? No way. They have the same rule to that part of the river as they do the wall; get to close and you die. The only difference is that they remove the bodies instead of letting them rot in place. But the reason I brought you here, is to give you a little glimpse of what you are buying and prepare you a bit for what you can expect."
Matthias' interest peaks and he is surprised the 'king' wants to share anything without the price ready in his hand.
"I've now shown you all the roads into the city," the Rat King says. "There are the main gates, the wall, and then the water gate. Here they have portcullis to keep us from swimming in upriver or making boats. It is all quite hopeless, but if you look closely." He leans in uncomfortably close again and lowers his voice. "You can see there is a disturbance in the water on our side of the portcullis, just by the wall."
Matthias squints towards the wall and then he sees it, a strange ripple that interrupts the general flow of the river and where the color of the water is slightly darker than the rest, before it dilutes further downriver.
"Just there is our way in," the Rat King breathes, and then he thoughtful. "Have you ever heard of a sewer system?" He asks. "Most outskirters I've met haven't and they tend to find the whole idea really fascinating."
"I can't say we have," Matthias mutters, hoping the Rat King will come to the point soon, thoroughly sick of all the talk and games. He wonders what is causing the water ripple while his heart is beating excitedly knowing that he was right, the river was the key to the city even if he cannot see exactly how yet.
"To explain it simply," the Rat King, says in a slow condescending tone. "The finer folk don't want the city stinking of shit like most towns do. So underneath the entire city is a pipe system that takes care of the city's waste. People dump waste into a hole in the ground within their homes or on the streets and it end up in the pipes underneath, the pipes then lead the waste out into the river and exit the city just here."
"Pipes? How large? And underneath the whole city?" Matthias' brain churns for a few more seconds and then he truly realizes what the Rat King just said. "Wait, you mean we are going to use the waste-pipes to get in?" He can practically feel the color drain from his face.
The Rat King grins then. "That is exactly how you get in. There used to be a grate underneath the water that kept us out, but that has long since rotted away and the way is open. It is not at all pleasant or without its danger, but it works."
Matthias shudders at the thought of swimming through waste only to end up in a system designed to remove it. The others are going to be disappointed when they return, he did promise them there would be no swimming and now it is more than just freezing cold river water before them.
They stand there and look at the large gate into the river and the rippling water, Matthias and Vilje waiting nervously for what the Rat King might come up with next, when the atmosphere suddenly changes. A strange murmur spreads throughout the town as someone whispers something and people further away keep repeating the same thing until it echoes quietly between the ramshackle houses. The air seems to turn colder and all the people in sight suddenly scurry away towards their houses and out of view from the wall. Even the rat king looks uncomfortable, and he pulls them back into the shadows of a nearby building and peeks around the corner, up towards the top of the wall.
"What is going on?" Vilje whispers anxiously. She grabs the hem of Matthias' shirt and tucks in behind his back; he can hear her frantic breathing. His own breath comes out in a white cloud and his heart starts beating faster, expecting trouble.
"It is him," the Rat King hisses angrily, "its Trollbunden."