Fairy Tale Assassin - Chapter 5
At the Gates
A few days later, Ruby and I are standing in a meadow outside the walls of Morum. To arrive at the capital of the Glennot Kingdom, we followed a merchant convey who overtook us along the main road. The occupants of the wagons eyed us suspiciously at first. My initial thoughts about the column leader and adventurer, Aermus, was he’s a good man even if he’s brutally honest and aggressive as hell. He and another man held their pikes on me while Ruby mostly answered the questions. We easily persuaded the group we weren’t bandits when they saw how lightly armed we were. Judging from their expressions, I’m pretty sure they thought we were crazy for traveling a desolate stretch of road with no money, weapons, or armor.
Eventually, they allowed us to stay reasonably close to their wagons for protection. Since there were seven adventurers with the caravan, we enjoyed the idea of protection. According to the Aermus, packs of wolves attacked travelers. However, my eyes remained on the adventurers who carried lust filled expressions when they watched Ruby. Since some men spoke different languages, I wasn’t even sure of what they said. Still, if they wanted to take her, there’s not much I could do about it. Given the differences in weapons and fighting skills, I wasn’t stupid enough to think I could win.
Fortunately, Aermus wasn’t one to give his men opportunities to abuse women. My lips curled into a grin when I saw him smack a couple of larger men with the broadside of his sword while giving them warnings. As the days progressed, the stares at Ruby remained, but their expressions fell into more of wishful thinking category.
Ruby’s natural charm got more and more information from our fellow travelers. When she came to me each night, I asked her questions to get up to speed about this world and the news. As I learned more, I grew more nervous. Rumors of war coming, rogue wizards, and supernatural creatures stirring filled in our conversations. It’s bad enough I have no magic understanding, but I’m not very good with these weapons. Going up with modern weapons meant I had no experience with something like a sword and shield. On top of that, I can’t even understand some of the language which is supposed to be English.
Damn, I need a translator!
As I stood there, I thought about our new kingdom. The Glennot Kingdom, ruled by King Conmáel, was a name vaguely familiar to me, like one of those obscure trivia names in history. It seems the king is an undefeated champion knight whose never lost a battle. The merchants spoke about his fair rule and his beautiful Queen Findabair. According to the story Ruby gave me, the queen is so beautiful that hundreds of men died to woe her as a bride. Now, that’s just screwed up, in my opinion.
Listening to the conversations among the merchants and Aermus, I slowly figured out more about this world. It confirmed the obvious differences in my thoughts and the reality of this world. The fairy tales I grew up with were incorrect, but still a central part of these lands. The strongest wizard and witches match the descriptions of the myths I knew. However, while Merlin exists, but he goes by the name Myrddin Wyllt. My rudimentary knowledge of history makes me think it’s a Welsh version. Or maybe he sounds more noble with two names. Still, he’s still got a feud going with the enchantress Morgan le Fay. Their feud seemed to cause a lot of problems for the kingdoms, with various conspiracies and political intrigue. It appears the kingdoms go to war as part of stopping some curse or plague caused by a witch or sorcerer. There are quite a few bad people causing problems.
Of course, I told Ruby to lie about our past. Our story is we’re commoners seeking a better life in a good kingdom. I guess the merchants assumed we were married since they treated us that way. For my part, I tried to keep from speaking much and listened in on the conversations.
For money, we considered trading in her cursed dagger. However, we decided against it since neither of us knew about the curse. All I knew was the blade maintained a fine edge, even though it looked made of silver. To me, that meant the underlying metal was top notch, thus expensive, if I guessed right. Selling it for some food made little sense at the moment. The berry bushes and creeks with fish got us by without undo hunger. I even upgraded to crude fishing gear using a hook I found on a creek bed and uncurling some of the yarn used in my cape’s construction. Bigger fish seem to like worms just fine, and the cursed dagger gutted them like a filet knife.
Also, I discovered more about the kingdom that Ruby and I escaped from. The Joteland Kingdom which appeared somewhat like Vikings of old with the names like King Fornjót and Queen Grimhilde. Also, I escaped from a village called Draugr. The rumor going around was that a plague of undead creatures attacked the village. My guess is they thought I was a zombie when they saw my neck. Since I did not know where the wound came from, I can only surmise someone tried to kill me. Perhaps they were leading the mob. Either way, I kept my healing scar hidden. It also woke me up to the fact that I needed to find a way to become much stronger in fighting or get a sponsor of some sort until I could get the money I expected to earn.
As to the question, why am I standing in the meadow with Ruby?
First, there’s a toll to enter the city. It’s a simple mechanism to keep out the rift-raft commoners like me and Ruby traveling between kingdoms. The toll for most cities is a half-silver coin. During our journey, Ruby explained that the merchants, the clerics, and the nobility mostly used silver and gold coins. A serf or commoner will seldom carry anything valuable beyond pfendings, a coin made of copper. In fact, commoners or slaves found carrying gold or silver coins makes you very suspicious in the eyes of the guards. Not that it mattered to us, since we didn’t have enough of any coins to pass through the gate.
Fortunately, I learned about our obstacles before we arrived. With an understanding about the general layout of the city, I hatched a plan for the day. After I explained my idea to Ruby, I mentioned our need for rope and another sickle. However, what Ruby offered next infuriated me.
“Then, I shalt lie with the men to receiveth our supplies!”
Her degrading offer to help really set me off. Alright, I’m getting possessive about Ruby during our time together. She’s pretty and I can tell she wants to hang around with me. Ruby’s eyes widened when I pulled her out of earshot of the caravan to really lay it on the line.
“Don’t you ever offer to do such a thing again!” I gripped her shoulder with one hand, pushing my face into hers.
“When you do that, you belittle yourself. You’re not a prostitute. Do you understand?”
“But how shall we consume and liveth in the city?”
I let out a sigh and moved back as I thought. Her confused expression told me she wanted to help, and her body was her vehicle to survive. As I thought about it, she’s dealt with growing up in a caste system. I haven’t. So, I released the grip on her shoulder and changed my argument.
“As long as you’re with me, you hurt my status as a noble by doing such a foolish thing. You are never—I mean never—offer your body to another person.” I poked my finger into her forehead for emphasis.
“Don’t embarrass me like that!”
My strange reasoning caused tears welled up in her eyes. Shocked at the woman’s reaction, I took her into a hug. I learned long ago how often that helped in dealing with a woman. She stiffened for a moment, then loosened up while promising not to embarrass me. After I released her, Ruby kept glancing at me as we walked back to the caravan. However, I paid little attention as an idea came to me.
Before dawn, I went to one of the merchant’s wagons. After I borrowed—well, I mean I stole a large rope coil. I added another sickle to my collection as well. Now, this is risky since they’ll string me up by my neck with the same rope if I’m caught. Aermus told me they hung thieves when we first met. But with the wagons so close to the city, I figured the merchants wouldn’t discover the theft until they got inside gates. Which leads me to the second reason that Ruby and I are so far behind the merchant caravan.
After I stole the materials from the convoy of wagons, we hid them. Acting out our ruse that morning, we followed the wagons for a while before Ruby gave a wonderful performance. She faked like she tripped and hurt her ankle. We waved them the wagons on as I put her arm over mine. When the wagons finally got out of sight, we hurried back to retrieve our stolen items. Near midday, we made it to the outskirts of Morum just as the merchants entered the city.
Now we waited for the darkness to fall while I went to work on my invention, the grappling hook. Alright, it’s not my invention, since the grappling hook dates back to the Roman era for boarding ships. I used to read a lot about naval warfare as a kid, so I’m sure that enticed me to join the Navy in the first place. However, I have a special use for my homemade version, which involves scaling a medieval wall. First, I cut out a small piece of the rope I stole, then unbraided the strands to wrap around the two sickles. I put them together with the blades facing opposite each other before I wrapped the small strands around the handles. Then, I took one end of the rope and spliced in the twisted strands with the cord, finally wrapping the handles again with more of the strands. When I finished, I had a crude grappling hook.
“Thou art most wondrous,” my pretty companion marveled at the device.
When a beautiful woman gives you such a compliment, trust me, it goes to your head. Full of myself, I tested the device out on a tree. It worked just fine for the first time; the hook wrapping itself over the limb. However, I forgot the sharp blades cutting into the rope. When I crawled about halfway up the tree, the rope snapped, and I ended up on my butt. Luckily, the two sickles fell out. However, I looked like a damn fool trying to avoid the sickles trying to impale me on their way down. My bruised ego joined my bruised backside while I remade my grappling hook.
After I finished grappling hook 2.0 (yes, I’m a grandpa who’s played computer games), I coiled up the rope. The sun was close to setting. We waited until darkness was almost complete before we went across the open field and circled around to one side of the walled city. The merchant’s descriptions of the walls were pretty accurate. About three people high, they told Ruby, which came out about fifteen to twenty feet by my guess.
From our position, we watched the men holding lanterns, making their rounds across the battlements on the top. It did not take long to spot a pattern. After I explained what I wanted to do, Ruby and I laid back and waited until the sounds of the city slowly faded away.
