Greener pastures
Matthias startles awake, as tends to be the norm lately and he shoots upright in the lounging chair. He is confused for a moment before he remembers where they are, how they got there, and his heartbeat finally calms down a little. At least he did not screaming this time, which is a relief, he is sick and tired of announcing his night terrors to everyone and scaring them half to death in the process.
"Bad dream?" Berwald asks quietly and leans back from the window where he was peeking through the curtains to stare out over the streets, much like Matthias did throughout the night.
Matthias rubs his eyes to clear them from sleep and sighs heavily. "Most of them seem to be bad these days, don't know if this was worse than any of the others I've had," he mutters tiredly, voice raspy from sleep. As he finally blinks properly awake, he realizes it is late morning already and the sun is streaming through the gaps in the curtains. "Why did you let me sleep this long?" he asks, looking around the living room for the two others.
Berwald gives him a long look. "If you had not stayed awake for most of the night, we might have considered it." Matthias grumbles in protest mostly out of principle, but Berwald ignores him. "When you didn't even stir from all the noise we made this morning, we thought it best to let you sleep. Vilje and Tino went out; they wanted to buy some food if they could."
"They went out on their own?" Matthias asks, suddenly wide-awake.
"They're fine," Berwald says flatly, not sounding entirely convinced himself. "They can look after themselves." He looks back out between the curtains as if the two others will just magically appear at the mention of them.
"I know," Matthias sighs and begins the process of getting out of the chair serving as a bed, brushing a hand through his hair, grimacing a bit at the feel of dirt and tangles against his fingers. "It's just strange to let them out of my sight when I feel responsible for their safety since all of this was my idea, even though I know they are very capable of taking care of themselves."
Berwald just hums quietly in response and Matthias sighs again and instead turns to the task of packing away his things. He stays silent for all of a few minutes before the need to say anything becomes too strong to resist. "Hey Ber," he says hesitantly. "Thank you for having my back."
Berwald shuts the curtains and leans back to look at him thoughtfully. "You have led us true this far." He does not elaborate further, and they become plunge back into silence again to Matthias' great frustration. Then Berwald looks at him again, this time with a deep furrow on his brow as if he is hesitant ask or afraid of the response. "What did the Rat King want from you when you went out alone with him?"
Matthias huffs out a breath of air and then tells Berwald everything that has happened between him and the Rat King. He tells him of their trip through Mud Town, all the threats, demands, and Berwald listens closely to everything, humming occasionally to confirm he is still paying attention and processing the information. It is a good distraction and takes his mind off the two people that are out on their own.
Berwald is stony-faced through most of the story, but his expression turns rapidly darker the more Matthias talks. Then the door slams open suddenly, and they shoot up from their seats only to calm down again when they hear loud, cheery chatter in the hallway from Vilje and Tino.
"Hello boys!" Vilje yells as she storms into the living room with several bags swinging from her arms. "You two are going to love us, we brought food, proper food. I can't remember the last time I ate a vegetable that was not halfway rotten or fresh bread." She keeps chattering, pulling several items out of her bag ignoring completely how silent the rest of her group is. Tino enters after her with a few packages of her own; there is an excited smile on his face.
Then Vilje stops in her tracks and wrinkles her nose. "Oh, my gods, you reek!" She shrieks, dropping her bags and points accusingly at Matthias. Then she glares at Berwald. "I thought we told you to make sure he takes a bath. We made sure there was water before we left; there is no reason why you should still be stinking up this entire place!" Berwald does not even have time to reply in his own defense before she switches focus again. She is a whirlwind moving about the house, chattering excitedly as she goes.
Matthias is too shocked to be insulted at her words, and before he really manages to process what she just said to him, she manhandles him towards the washroom. She stuffs a newly bough bar of soap and a rag into his hands and shuts the door behind him demanding he not show his face until he no longer smells like the sewers.
Matthias stands alone in the small room, blinking to himself, still in a daze. There is a flickering candle on a narrow shelf along one wall, enough to light up the room a little so he can see what he is doing. A bucket of water stands on the bench and another one on the floor. The water is cold, but Matthias still relishes in the opportunity to scrub his skin clear from weeks of dust and grime and their recent adventure in the sewers. The soap smells pleasant with a hint of flowers, and he suspects Vilje is the one that chose it.
By the time he finishes scrubbing every inch of skin he can reach and has dunked his hair, the water is grey and murky, and he is grateful for the second bucket of water to rinse off a second time. He cannot remember the last time he was this clean, and he feels like a new man when he finally dumps out the remaining water over the sewer grate in the corner. He hesitates as he looks at his clothes. They neither look nor smell tempting to put back on and he just stares at the sad pile on the floor that reeks of sewage.
He considers his options and apparently spends too long doing so, because there is a loud knock on the door. He startles out of his thoughts and crashes into the small bench with a curse and pain blooms across his hip from the impact.
"Are you alright?" Berwald's voice rumbles from the other side of the door.
"Yep," Matthias yells back, blushing furiously at his own reaction to just a sudden noise. "Just losing a fight against the furniture, clothing and indecisions and it's kind of embarrassing." He picks up his shirt from the floor to cover himself, feeling awkward running a conversation while stark naked even if there is a door between them.
"I got fresh clothes," Berwald replies gruffly. "Will that help?"
Matthias sticks his head out the door, awkwardness all but forgotten. "Fresh clothes? Really?"
"Vilje bought them," Berwald says flatly, staring firmly at the doorframe and he is indeed holding a stack of folded clothes. Matthias takes them gratefully and steps back in the small washroom to get dressed, shutting the door behind himself.
The clothes are a much higher quality than anything he would ever consider buying for himself just because they must have cost a small fortune. They are all made of a soft wool. There is a thin undershirt, dark pants, and a muted red tunic with simple trim along the hems. There is even a pair of thick socks and simple leather boots.
When he steps back out into the living room, Vilje grins brightly and tosses him another bundle of fabric. It turns out to be a thick, heavy cloak, well suited for winter. He ends up gaping like a stranded fish, mind reeling as it struggles to catch up with the sights before him. His friends are all dressed in new articles of clothing, just as well made as the ones he is wearing and a large plate of food resting on the couch.
"How much money did you spend?" he eventually manages to stutter out weakly when his brain finally seems to catch up. He thinks of the pouch of money left in his possession, the one they were supposed to keep in case they needed money to get out of trouble, not for splurging on comforts and dreads the response.
Vilje laughs manically for some reason and Tino turns bright red, hiding the lower half of his face in the collar of his new shirt, looking thoroughly embarrassed. Matthias looks to Berwald for an explanation, but he shrugs unhelpfully, and he must wait for Vilje to regain her composure.
"You would never guess, but Tino turns out to be quite the little pickpocket," she says with a vicious smirk. "We might even have earned some money on this little excursion of ours. We could make a fine living in this district as thieves with Tino in the lead."
"It is not pickpocketing when the victim drops the purse after I just bumped into him by accident," Tino shrieks in protest. "I just did not return what belonged to him when I noticed. If he has enough money to not secure it properly, he deserves to lose it." Vilje interrupts him with a wicked cackling, and it is obvious they have spent a better part of the morning discussing the subject already and Vilje does not intend to let him forget.
Matthias cannot stop a surprised laugh from sneaking past his lips at Tino's insistently sputtering in his own defense to no avail. He cannot even make himself complain about their recklessness. Even Berwald cracks a smile, his gaze fond as he stares at Tino. "If you two are done arguing," Matthias interrupts when both takes a breath long enough for him to get a word in. "Maybe we could eat some of that food you brought; I have to admit I'm really hungry and that looks good."
Vilje immediately jumps back in action, slicing up bread, spreading butter, cutting up cheese and a few slices of cured meat and dividing it up on plates for each of them, grinning excitedly as she does so.
They tear into their meal like a pack of starving wolves, none of them quiet while enjoying the first fine meal in a very long time. The sounds they make while eating is nothing anyone would consider appropriate in any company, but in the moment, none of them cares. The bread is light and soft with a crisp crust, still a little warm in the middle, fresh out of the ovens this morning. The butter taste heavenly, mixed with salt and an assortment of herbs, a luxury nobody bothers with outside of upper classes. The cheese is soft and mild in taste and the meat thoroughly seasoned and smoked. Matthias thinks it might be the best meal he has ever eaten and slows down when the angry growl of his stomach dies down so he can make it last and enjoy it all just a little longer.
"Who would have thought you could be this caring?" Matthias teases through a mouthful of food and smirking at Vilje when she offers Berwald a second slice of bread. "I can barely even remember you are supposed to be a dangerous rebel and not a housewife when you take such good care of us."
"You watch your mouth," she snarls playfully and tosses a chunk of bread at him. It lands in the collar of his new shirt, and he eats it, chewing loudly with his mouth open to annoy her while she laughs at him. "When we're done eating you will all be getting a haircut," she states firmly and holds up a warning finger when all three of them open their mouths at the same time to protest. "No argument! We might smell and dress like we belong in this part of the city, but all that scruff on the three of you, makes it look like you have lived all your lives in a cave, and we can't have that."
Matthias drags a hand over the beard that has grown in thick across his jaw by now. "I thought we decided to keep the "scruff' as you call it as part of our disguise. All the posters show us before weeks on the road and I had short hair and no beard back then, so wouldn't it make me more recognizable."
She makes a disgusted sound and wrinkles her nose. "A beard is fine, but it has to look decent, and not as if you glued a haystack to your faces. I'm not going to cut your hair off. I'm just going to make it look a little more intentional and not like it was hacked with a sword and then left to grow as it pleases in every direction."
"Beard is beard," Berwald mutters quietly from his end of the room, never being one to care much about his own looks, mostly focusing on his work. He once told Matthias after a few too many beers that the only reason his hair was kept short was that the old blacksmith would hack most of it off with shears every few weeks, claiming it would get in the way while he worked, and he does not really care about how it looks for himself. Vilje growls at him as well and sends a withering glare his way. Matthias laughs mockingly until she tosses another piece of bread at him to shut him up.
"I suppose it would not hurt," Tino says diplomatically in attempt to restore peace. "It would be nice to get the hair out of my eyes again."
The teasing eventually stops, and they agree to let Vilje clean up their looks a bit, nobody trusting Matthias with a pair of scissors after a few too many jokes about the haircuts he intends to give the others. She turns out quite gifted in the task and none of them has any complaints when she puts down the scissors and comb, brushing errand hair off her skirts, looking rather pleased with herself.
Tino ends up clean-shaven much to his despair after several claims that if given just a bit more time he will grow a fuller beard. Berwald and Matthias's beards she trims down to an even length and leaves it as that. When Matthias jokingly ask for a glorious moustache, she smacks him over the head with the flat of her palm and threatens to shear him bald if he keeps disrupting her. He eventually leaves her with free reigns. She evens out his, hair, still leaving it a lot longer that he was used to keeping it back home. She ties up the upper half of it in a neat tail to keep it away from his face and futilely attempts to pat down the gravity defying hair that is short enough to escape the hair-tie.
"So now that we look the part, maybe we can do some exploring while it's still light outside," Matthias says impatiently, eager to get out and finally do something useful, feeling a little strange eating fine food in new clothing when he knows the rest of their people are living under quite different circumstances.
They pack away the remainder of the food, so they have something to eat later and put on their new cloaks, ready to step out on the streets. The back alley with the entrance to the safe house looks a little less run down in the light of day, but not by much. It is no longer obvious that the lamps are broken, but the cracks in the walls become visible and it is obvious that this part of the district is not that well looked after judging by the state of the streets and houses.
Vilje and Tino quickly direct them out of the alley towards one of the larger streets leading further into the district. They see more and more people moving about and soon they hear the voices of a larger gathering, the market Matthias quickly realizes. A trill of excitement shoots through him at the thought of some normalcy a marketplace should provide, people yelling out their prices and trying to entice people into choosing just their wares instead of the others. He is excited to see what food, clothing, and other items they have on display in a marked that should be much bigger than anything he has seen before.
The excitement quickly turns sour in his gut when he realizes only half of the stalls seems have merchants occupying them. The other half have large boards covering up the storefronts and are firmly nailed shut. He then remembers that no traders from the outside have made it into the city this year and assumes that under normal circumstances the vendors and customers alike fill the entire square. Now however, most of the people present seem downtrodden and exhausted, the smiles not reaching their eyes when they thank their customers. He even sees someone grimace as they count their coin received, clearly not satisfied with the amount.
They wander around for a bit, pretending to be interested in the different displays and talking to a few of the merchants. Matthias freezes on instinct when a sees a guard marching between the booths, expecting him to spot them immediately and call out an alarm. Vilje is quick to put a calming hand on his arm and whispers a quiet mantra that they have nothing to be afraid of, that they are just common merchants, and the guard has no reason to suspect them of anything. Matthias still struggles to stand still and feels cold sweat gather at the back of his neck. His muscles tense and his heart bets faster as his body prepares to either fight or flee on a short notice.
The guard closes in, but he only gives them a cursory glance before he moves past them with a bored expression on his face, weaving slowly through the crowd. Slowly Matthias can regain control of his breathing seeing that the guard is not rushing off to tell his superiors that there are rebels within the city walls. Soon enough he disappears completely.
Vilje pulls Matthias away from the booth they just stood frozen in front of, watching the guard move past. She apologizes gently to the merchant for not picking up anything and he gives them a sympathetic smile, apparently plenty used to the guards putting people off making a purchase. They signal for Tino and Berwald to move along with them and together they head to the edge of the marked and out of earshot.
We will learn nothing standing in the market all day." Matthias whispers, he realizes his voice sounds shaky from all the adrenaline pumping through his veins. "It will probably look suspicious if we stay here too long and we should learn more about the district, find out how much how much freedom of movement we have and such."
"Should we all split up or walk in pairs?" Vilje asks.
"We will cover more ground if we all split up," Matthias replies carefully. "You all saw that guard walk straight past us without even stopping, we are nobodies here, we should be able to move around the district much as we please and we should take advantage of that. We should find out entries and exits to the districts, how we can move about and how the guards work."
"I agree," Tino adds quickly. "We can meet up back at the house around sundown. If none of us can find an easy way to move between the districts here on the surface, we might have to find our way through the sewers instead. The rats might not want to move further towards the capitol or risk breaking through the grates and have their paths discovered, but our army will be here in a few weeks at the most and nobody will care about the state of the sewers then, it is not like we can move an entire army through them unseen."
Matthias instinctively grimaces at the thought of going back down in the sewers and shudders, the stench, sounds and sights still fresh in his mind. "If I wasn't already sure about splitting up to cover more ground, I would be now. I would rather not go down there ever again unless I have to."
There is no protest from any others; they look about as excited as he feels at the prospect of more sewer wandering. "Then we agree," Vilje says and quickly turns to leave them behind before they have the time to discuss the subject any further. "See you guys later."
Berwald just shakes his head at her antics. "Be careful out there," he mutters and head out in the opposite direction of Vilje. Tino shrugs and smiles gently before he too leaves, and Matthias takes the only direction that is left to him.
He quickly walks away from the market, eager to leave behind the desperate look in people's eyes when they make a sale that earns them less than what they would like. They are the ones lucky enough to have food, clothing, warm houses, and several thick walls between them and the outside where war is already raging. They have no idea how good they have it when other people go around fighting for just a few scraps of food just outside the gates and only have the cold ground for a bed. Their concern for money seems so petty in comparison to those fighting for survival and it makes his blood boil even though he knows they are just people wanting to provide for their families.
There are only a few groups of guards moving through the streets, all of them equally indifferent. He realizes it does make sense. If the rats do not like to do their business in the richer districts in fear of the king's wrath, then there should not be much crime for the guards to deal with this far into the city.
Matthias follows the current of people from the market on one of the largest streets, soon enough he feels confident that he does not stick out from the crowd, and he even greets a few of the people passing by even though none seem too interested in greeting back.
He only slows down when the district wall looms tall above him and walk on the edge of the road to let people pass by him. The main road opens into a small square before a large gate to the neighboring district and there seems to be a checkpoint where guards control the people moving past. Matthias lingers on the edge of the square, mostly out of direct line of sight form the guards so he can observe the procedure. From what he can see, the guards only check the carts moving in to this district. They go over papers and rifle through the bags some of the people bring with them. Those that move out of the district seems to do so freely without even showing papers.
Matthias stands there for a while, observing the people moving past. He figures out quickly that this must be the gate out to the market district. It seems people are free to move out to the district as they wish but need paperwork to prove they either belong or have business in a district of higher class. He wonders if they have the same sort of control moving between the sections of the same class and so follows the looming wall until a new one stands before him.
This one is smaller, but still tall enough to make climbing impossible. He follows the new wall until he reaches the gate, this one also guarded but more as a precaution as they do not check any papers on the people passing through. Matthias does not want to risk moving out of the district when he can barely remember how to get back to their little safe house, but he tucks the information away for later, happy to know that if the need arise, they should be able to get out of the city with relative ease.
The sun is already sinking lower in the sky, and he is about to take a circle around the district just to see if there is anything else that might be of interest, when he notices a group of guards moving past and up to those by the gates and exchange few words. Then they swap positions and the guards previously by the gate walk back the same way the others came from, and Matthias makes an impulse decision to follow, curious to see what route the guards follow when they change shift. He stays a little behind them, weaving in among the other citizens, trying not to draw attention to himself as he stalks them.
They march through the streets, people rushing aside to get out of their way. They march towards the other tall wall that Matthias assumes must lead towards the nobility district. He is surprised when they step into a small street instead of following the main road, which should lead to the district gate. He waits a few seconds to let the guards get a safer distance ahead and then peeks around the corner and curses.
The street is already empty, no signs of the guards. He curses again, tearing a hand through his hair in frustration; he only let them out of his sight for a few seconds. The wall looms high on one side, and a row of residences on the other, nowhere that looks like a place the guards would head to, so he cannot fathom where they have gone in the short time they were out of sight.
Matthias moves slowly down the street, letting a hand drag across the smooth rock of the wall, wondering what is on the other side, sighing deeply. Then his fingers catch on a deep groove in the otherwise smooth surface, and he stops dead in his tracks. At first, he thinks it must just be a coincidence, but he runs his fingers across the surface and realizes the groove is much larger than he first thought. It runs all the way down to the ground and upwards it bends of and then runs down again about two meters further down, like a doorway.
He steps back, gasping in wonder and excitement at his find. It blends very well with the wall, but now that he knows it is there, he can see the portal clearly, and right in the middle of the portal is a small opening, just the right size for a key. He wishes he saw them pass through it is just an amazingly well concealed door or if there is any magic to it that makes it work.
Gods he wants to know where that door leads, if it is just to the other district, if they have other secret entrances like this all over the city. He almost runs back to the first wall he checked out towards the market district, eager to see if he can find another hidden door, and eventually he does. He is so excited, the guards do not need to use the main gates, they have their own secret doorways, possibly all through the city and none of them is guarded. They just need to steal a key and they might have free roam. It will be difficult, but certainly not impossible.
The sun is already low in the sky now and he rushes back in the direction of the safe house as fast as he can without looking suspicious and breaking out in a full run. The last few hours passed in a blur as he ran through the streets, eager to see if his theory was right and he does not want to worry the others by being late.
He is the last one to return and Vilje lets out an audible sigh of relief once she sees him.
"Sorry," he gasps, trying to regain his breath after rushing through most of the district.
"Did you discover something?" Tino asks sounding a bit excited himself. He must see that Matthias is practically bursting to tell them something, nodding frantically in response.
Vilje practically shows him down in the couch and they all gather around him. He tells them of the gates he visited both between the districts and the smaller ones between the different sections of the same district and the others are quick to confirm they have seen the same thing. He then tells them of the group of soldiers he followed and the nearly invisible door in the wall and he receives a collective gasp, from Tino and Vilje. Berwald is more restrained, but he does raise an eyebrow.
"That explains so much," Tino exclaims. "I followed some guards too and they just vanished into an alleyway, I almost thought I lost my mind there for a second and imagined the whole thing."
Matthias grins. "If we can just get a key, we might be able to move about as we wish avoiding those checkpoints at the gates."
"Easier said than done," Vilje grumbles. "They have to be real protective of those keys."
"You can always go back down the sewers," Matthias snipes back. "I bet the rats would love the company."
"Ugh." Vilje grimaces. "I hate you for even suggesting that. Fine, so we need to steal a key somehow, who is eager to learn pickpocketing?" She looks at Tino with a wicked smirk, still teasing him about his earlier theft.
He turns bright red and sputters defensively.
Matthias laughs and then yawns deeply. "I say that is a task for tomorrow. I am exhausted."
The rest of them agree quick enough. They eat a bit of the food from the morning and eventually settle down, much like the night before. Vilje claims the coach again and Matthias curls up in the chair by the window.
He quickly falls asleep thoroughly exhausted, but it cannot be more than a few hours later that he wakes up in an instant. One second he is fast asleep, and the next, wide-awake. The house is dark, indication it is still in the middle of the night. It is quiet apart from the soft snoring and occasional shuffle from his friends and he cannot understand why his body is suddenly demanding he wake up.
His stomach is in a turmoil and there is a strange pull in his chest that makes it impossible to lay back down and even close his eyes. The others are asleep; there is a snore from the floor and a rustle of fabric as someone turns over in their sleep.
Matthias' heart begins to beat faster, he knows this is one of his stupidest ideas so far, but he gets up from the chair. The floor creaks under his weight and every sound makes him cringe, as he fears the others will wake up. He pulls on his clothes and creeps out the front door as quietly as he can. He feels guilty and wonders what the others will say if they find out what he is doing, but the pull is stronger.
The streets are dark and empty and he follows the feeling towards the marketplace. He hears voices and peeks carefully around a corner, and sees a group of guards chatting in the square.
There, among them is Lukas.
Matthias' stomach does a strangle flip and the air leaves his lungs in a surprised gasp. This should not be possible. What the chances of waking up in the middle of the night and just wander to the exact place where he can find Lukas? He pinches his arm hard, thinking it must be a dream, but it stings and sends a sharp bolt of pain up his arm, telling him that this is no dream.
The group moves slowly towards one of the back alleys, chatting quietly among themselves and Matthias makes the reckless decision to follow. They eventually reach one of the well-hidden doors in the wall and Matthias hunkers down behind a crate, watches as one of them fishes out a key. He turns the key, the door swings open, and the guards walk through.
All of them leave except for Lukas who says something to the other guards and waits for the door to shut. He stands there for a few seconds, seemingly waiting for something. Without turning, he says firmly but without raising his voice. "We are alone now; you can come out rather than lurking in the shadows."