A Midsummer's Saga Pt. 08

"Gabrielle!"

She beamed and broke into a run. Past three cells, past a right turn in the passageway, deep in the dark, there he was, shuddering in the cold but unhurt. She dropped the torch on the floor and lunged at him, hugging tight through the bars. He grabbed her by the cheeks and kissed her straight on the mouth; but at once he broke off.

"Gabrielle, has Clement talked to you? He knows about us!"

"He's talked to me." She ran her fingers through his hair, frantically. "Listen, that's not that important now. The war's over, Oren's here. Paula will execute you tomorrow. You need to get out now!"

He stood silent for a second, processing all of that. "But what about you? They'll know..."

"I know how to fix this for myself! Listen, if you get out now and get a head start... fuck! I didn't take the cell keys from Dodo!"

She turned to leave, but he held her to him.

"They will know it was you! Clement knows!"

"Clement is not a problem. I'm telling you that I can..."

She broke off and froze. She stared at him, wide-eyed. He'd heard it too.

Someone opened the inner door and was now walking downstairs.

Her lower lip trembled, and her hand clenched around his arm. He looked up, and saw torchlight approaching behind the bend. She turned her head. Please be Dodo. Please, please be Dodo.

The footsteps were just around the corner, and now they were joined by a new sound. A tinkling of many keys.

Bearing a torch and a truncheon, along came Clement.

He saw that the cell was still locked. He lowered his truncheon and straightened up. His face bore no expression.

"Step back from the bars, Gabrielle."

She tried to say something, but only a groan came out.

"I said, step back from the bars."

She let go of Aerin. The boy let her slip away. He watched them from behind the bars, powerless, helpless.

"Clement," she said, shakily. "Listen to me. I'll do everything you ask me to. You can't..."

"I can do whatever I want! As for you, what an idiotic thing to do! I can't cover this up, with whatever it is you've done to the guards. Keeping your contact with this boy secret has now slipped beyond my power. Our deal is off, we're going straight to Paula."

He took several steps forward, but then hesitated. Gabrielle was still by the bars, and he was wary not to get close enough to them for Aerin to reach and grab him. The torch that Gabrielle had dropped was now two steps to his right. Just for a fraction of a second, Gabrielle glanced towards it.

"Okay, you're right!" she said. "You're right. It's all over, you got to tell Paula. But you don't need to tell her tonight."

He squinted at her, not following. She summoned all the self-control she had. This was the last chance, the last possible hope. She reached to the lacing below her collar.

"I have a proposition for you. Tomorrow, I will be lost. But tonight, I will be yours." She undid the fastening, and loosened the strap that was holding her dress together. At the same time, she took a step away from the grating. "Just let me free the boy." She let her dress open up, revealing her cleavage. Clement's eyes turned to it.

She succeeded at catching his attention, but that sudden conflict between his dick and his brain couldn't last long. She only had a few seconds, yet she had to proceed very cautiously. She took another step. She was keeping her distance from him constant, circling him.

"Let him go, and tomorrow I will confess that it was me. I'll never mention you. And tonight, you'll have me." Another step. She bared her shoulder, and the fabric parted further, revealing more naked skin between her breasts, even down to her stomach. Clement was still staring, but she ran out of things to say. He could snap out of her spell at any second. Yet another step. She was getting close to the torch now, and it threw more golden light on her, and gradually deepened the shadows: in the pit of her neck, in the vulnerable dimples under her collarbones, on both sides of her sternum, where her breasts gently rose and softly moved with her every motion.

At this moment, Aerin understood what she was doing. Silently, he sidestepped to a spot such that he, Clement and the torch were in one line, and braced himself. Gabrielle saw this out of the corner of her eye, and fought down a smile. Yes! Yes, exactly, my clever boy!

She pressed at her breast with her fingers; Clement watched her soft flesh yield under her touch in the half light. Step. She brushed her hair away to her back, strands falling in line with smooth, wavy flow. Step. She let the dress dangle lightly from her other shoulder, its material just barely holding onto the curve of her frame, hanging in delicate balance, boding to fall off at a tiniest instigation and unveil her, reveal her beauty. Step. She was right beside the torch. Clement was two steps away from her. Aerin was exactly behind his back.

She modestly lowered her eyes and smiled. Clement inhaled and started to say something. Gabrielle kicked the torch at his face.

Now humans, like all animals, come with a certain set of pre-programmed instinctive responses to external inputs. One fine example of those is to urgently swat away at anything that approaches your face at high speed; and to do it double-urgently if said thing is on fire.

Thus Clement's brain stem now took control over his body, and in first order of business undertook to decide which of his hands should do the swatting; and, to its terrible consternation, found them both occupied, the right with a truncheon, the left with a torch (of all things!), neither item a safe object to bring up to the face at high speed; and unable to cope with this complex problem, sent it up to the upper brain to solve, as precious time ran on and the offending flare kept approaching at an alarming speed.

Whenever your nerves rush to consult your brain on an affair requiring immediate attention, it's always really helpful if they find it alert, and not distracted; and especially not heavily distracted by something deeply engrossing, such as, to give a completely random example, a pretty girl sensuously taking off her clothes.

So it must have been a solid tenth of a second after Gabrielle's kick, the torch having already travelled more than half the distance, sending out sparks and pirouetting gracefully, that Clement finally settled for a course of action. With so little time left, the only course available to him was rather mediocre.

He closed his eyes, turned his face away and raised both hands in front of him. This allowed him to parry the torch with the truncheon. His brain stem congratulated him on this good work. The immediate danger was successfully mitigated, at the small price of getting himself completely off balance, his body weight shifting upwards on an uncontrolled trajectory which the cerebellum was now scurrying off to calculate. Well, there was also the small issue that his eyes were now closed and his face turned away. Which meant that he didn't see Gabrielle lunge.

Aerin watched them tangle and Clement fall to his back with Gabrielle on top of him. A moment before impact, Clement let go of his torch and instinctively outstretched his left hand to break the fall. Crashing into the bars, Aerin reached out and caught it; then put his feet on the grating and pulled, with all the power in his legs, dragging Clement's whole arm, up to the shoulder, into the cell, where he twisted it almost to its breaking point.

Clement screamed. Aerin wrapped his knee around his throat. Gabrielle grabbed his other hand with both of hers and wrestled the truncheon away, fell off, hit the floor with her cheek, rolled over, and went to her knees, looking on, bewildered. Clement was kicking out and trying to make a grab at Aerin with his free hand, but it was clear he could do nothing; his prisoner had him completely pinned down.

Aerin shouted out at her. "Key and manacles, quick!"

She got up to her feet and ran, refastening her dress on the way. She sprinted into the guard room and snatched the ring with the cell keys, along with a pair of heavy manacles.

"S'alright, guys?" she asked breathlessly.

"S'alright," the guards agreed. They continued watching the wall with unwavering fascination.

Back at the cell, they clasped the fetters over both Clement's wrists and the bars, bundling them together and making him completely unable to move his hands. When Aerin let go of his throat, he started screaming again; only when silenced with a gag made of his own torn sleeve he acknowledged his defeat and slackened, glaring furiously.

Aerin leaned his hands on the bars, breathing heavily. Gabrielle got up, unsteady, from Clement's side and looked at the cell keys. Trying them at random, she eventually got the right one. With a loud clang that echoed all over the corridor, the lock opened.

Aerin didn't move at first. Only after some seconds of hesitation he walked over to the door and gave it a push. It opened obediently before him. He took a deep breath and stepped outside.

She swelled up. He would now be chased and hunted, but he had his fighting chance back. Right now, right at this moment, he was free.

He looked at her and grinned. She threw her chin up.

"Hi," she said. This was the first time they were ever together without any bars, chains, or restraints.

"Hi," he replied. He blinked and took a good look at her. "You've torn your dress."

She patted a small tear on her sleeve. "It's okay. I'm okay."

"Your face is a mess."

She brushed off her hair and wiped the dirt off her cheek. "It's okay. Everything's fine. Other than Clement, nobody suspects anything about us!"

"How could they know?"

She paused. He looked like he was about to add something, but didn't. Instead he took her in his arms and kissed her, and put his hand on her head and ran it down her neck, her back, back up, back down. Finally, if just for once, he got to hold her whole.

But this was not the place, and not the time. On the floor beside them, the restrained majordomo kept glaring.

"Well, he knows everything now," Aerin said.

Gabrielle hesitated. "What are we going to do?" she asked, although she knew they only had one option.

Aerin stepped over Clement's legs and picked up the truncheon. He tapped it against the wall. It made a dry harsh clack, and carried vibrations stiffly to his hand. It was very hard, very solid wood.

"If they catch me, they can't kill me any harder for one extra murder," he said. Gabrielle clenched her fists nervously, and said nothing. You shouldn't have snooped around so hard, Clement. Now it's you or me.

Aerin was now standing over Clement. The majordomo fixed his stare on him, unflinching, stone cold, though all blood flowed away from his face. Aerin gripped the truncheon harder. He tried to work up the exact logistics of a killing blow. From up down, or from back to front? Would his skull crack open like an egg, splashing brains all over the place? What if he got it wrong, and had to do repeated blows? How many would it take? How do you know for sure someone's dead?

Clement was still looking at him, and his breathing was faster and faster.

"Are... are you doing this?" asked Gabrielle. Aerin twiddled the truncheon nervously.

"I'm about to."

"Look, it's worse for him if you prolong this."

"Yeah, well, maybe you want to do this?"

"Me? I'd never... what sort of a warrior are you going to be if you don't want to kill?"

"I dunno, a defensive one! How are you going to deal with court politics if you don't?"

He braced himself. Alright, asshole. It's you or Gabrielle. But to her, suddenly, all was clear. How is she going to deal with court politics indeed?

"Aerin, let him be and just take me with you."

He lowered the truncheon and stared at her.

"I found out today that Titulus wants to marry me. I don't think I'd handle this all that well. Besides, I'm starting to think I don't really fit in Harmen after all."

He had in one second a thousand vague visions of taking her home, of all the things they'd do together, of days in the sun. Then, also, he thought of the practicalities.

He looked down at Clement.

"Let's go talk this over somewhere more private," he said. "Hey, guy, looks like it's your lucky day after all!"

He threw away the truncheon, which bounced several times on the floor to hollow echoes. Then he smiled, leaned down, and with full force punched Clement in the stomach.

The majordomo curled to the side, groaned, and called Aerin something that was very difficult to understand because of the gag. But it might have been "otter chucker".

*

They blew out all candles but one, which made the room dimmer and drew some complaints from the two men on the lookout for giant spiders, but also meant less visibility from outside.

"Hey," Dodo said with effort, turning his head to Aerin. "Aren't you the prisoner?"

"What? No. As you can see, I'm not imprisoned. So I can't be the prisoner."

"Oh. Right."

Aerin looked at Gabrielle, sitting tense on the bench right beside him. He recalled all he could of the road between Behem and the border, which he had seen like a nightmarish vision when hauled over here in binds. It ran through open farmland, with many villages by it, with many people, many eyes, many dogs. He rubbed his forehead. Crossing that land alone on foot would take him several days, and the chances of detection were huge.

What if they kept well off the road? If there was woodland, he would know how to live off it. But such a passage could take weeks. And surely Paula would have the locals, who actually knew the land, look for them. This option was then even worse.

He frankly didn't see much of a chance of making it. He should off Clement, persuade Gabrielle to stay, and go off by himself - a suicidal escape was still better than outright execution. But here she was, gorgeous and determined. If she stayed, she was condemned to a miserable life. And if somehow, someway, they succeeded...

"You know Kontaria is not really a princess kind of place, right? I mean, your life would be very different..."

"Aerin, do we really need to have this talk?"

"But... you'd leave behind your family, your friends..."

"Titulus would be my family now. My previous life is as good as over. I've been kidding myself that I could ever be me in Harmen. It's only people like Oren that live here on their own terms. I'm not like him, I... I have too much of an eye for detail I guess."

"Detail? What?"

"Oh, just a thing he said today. Doesn't matter. Look, don't worry about the people I leave behind. I'll fucking write. Trust me, I know what I want."

He smiled. "Alright, listen. Our only chance, I think, is to steal horses from the castle stables. Two for each of us. That way we can keep changing them, and that will get us to the border by tomorrow afternoon. A pursuit would get fresh ones from the villages, but with a whole night's head start we'd just about make it."

"We can take horses from the stables easily enough, but we'll never get them through the gate. There are always two guards on top of the gatehouse and two on the ground within the passage itself."

"Is the gate locked at night?"

"It's closed, but not barred."

"So we two can open it?"

"Just one man can open it with a hard push."

"Okay, so if we can only get those guards away there for like two minutes, then maybe... let me take a look!"

They peeked out of the door. The gatehouse was illuminated with torchlight some ten dozen steps away from them. The stables she knew to be by the wall opposite from them, but they could not be seen in the darkness. There was barely enough starlight to outline Behem's walls against the sky. Gabrielle could just make out the cone-roofed turret over the stables, some three hundred steps away...

Wait.

"Aerin! There's a shitload of fireworks in that tower!"

"What?"

"They're leftover from the festival... If we blew that up, the guards would surely at least turn that way for a minute..."

Aerin squinted. The turret was only an area of blackness blacker than the surrounding sky. A fireworks display may just work, but it would also wake up the entire castle. This was a shit plan that could very easily backfire. But there was no time. They had to wing it.

"Okay. Suppose we can launch them with some delay..."

"I saw extra fuse."

"Okay, good. So we take four horses from the stable, stuff their ears with something, fashion something to block their vision, wrap their hooves with cloth... we lead them here on this side of the gatehouse before the show starts, and the moment it starts exploding, we go for it. Might work."

Gabrielle played this out in her head. "The whole castle will wake up and come down here to watch. They'll notice I'm not here. My servant Mista, who's probably wondering where I am right now... and Paula and the others will be coming here from the Great Hall, and she will immediately get suspicious if she doesn't see me with that crowd... I need to be in the Great Hall when the fireworks go off."

Aerin swore. "Then only I can get the horses through. But I can only get two. I need to be holding both by the head, or they'll start looking around, see the fireworks and get spooked. We won't make it before the chase with no spare horses."

They closed the door and sat back at the table, frustrated. Priceless minutes were escaping. Aerin closed his eyes. Maybe, if they rode the horses to near exhaustion, they'd at least make it far enough to go the rest of the way on foot? He visualised the maps of this part of Harmen which he saw back at the village...

"Fuck," he said, suddenly getting up, "wait, there's a way. If we don't go east straight for Kontaria but north, the wilderness soon starts. We would reach the Blue Cliffs, keep going north along them, and make it to the City of Ys. From there, it's just a short ride south to Kontaria. If they pursued us there, it would be easier to hide..."

She frowned. She knew nothing about the geography of this province, having been confined to the castle. "You think it's a good plan?"

"No. We could beat them, but it will be close."

"Even if they chase us down, we could at least be free together, just for one day."

He looked at her. That girl. "Okay, let's fucking do this. We'll need to break into the stable, the turret, and get some food from the larder... are there guards around?"

"Not inside the castle, not with everyone gone with Titulus. There's just locks."

"How do we get inside those places then?"

They looked at each other. "Clement's keys," they said together. The course of action seemed clear.

"I take the horses and the food," Aerin said, "you set up the fireworks. We'll tie a rope to the walls somewhere where they are low. You light the fireworks and run for the Great Hall. When they start exploding, I get the horses through the gate, and you come here to act surprised. As soon as they stop paying attention to you, you run for the rope, get out, and meet me. By dawn we're a long way away." A long way away. Free. Her eyes glittered in candle light. "First, get me some clothes and a map, okay? And I'll take these guys somewhere inconspicuous."

*

The chapel was very quiet. The lights in the nave turned infirmary had all gone out. It was probably near midnight now.

One major advantage of stone floors is that they don't creak. She glid towards the young bald soldier's bedside like a ghost.

She heard him breathe evenly, just like the rest. Her eyes were adjusted to the darkness enough to discern his belongings by his bed: his short spear, his armour and his clothes. They had been washed and stowed here, but he hadn't had any use for them, staying in this room and on the bed all the time. She was sure he would mind if he knew that she was borrowing them for Aerin. Good.