you are being just like yourself. ‘How dare they touch me?’”
“I suppose you already have a plan?”
“I might. I’ve got three ideas I’m working on right now.” Sorgius moaned and leaned to his left. “They tie tight nots!”
“Three ideas? You’re the one who’s been knocked in the head,” Vordius leaned against the wall and laughed. “They’re going to strangle us and feed us to the fish by morning, and you say you have three ideas!” He turned and hit his head against the logs again.
This time, it was Sorgius who laughed. “Keep at it, friend, and you’ll solve our problems. Either you’ll break a hole in the wall and we’ll escape, or you’ll bust your head open. And that would be an escape of sorts.”
“Fine, oh deep thinker. What do you have? Entertain me while we’re still alive.”
Sorgius sighed and gave up trying to loosen the ropes that bound his wrists. “Here’s the first idea: lots of people don’t consider the consequences of their actions. When you deal with a person like that, you have to hit him in the head before he knows you’re there.”
“True enough,” Vordius grumbled. “I may be guilty of that. Sometimes.”
“And the second idea. This is the most realistic one. They simply don’t believe us.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s like this: you come into their territory and try to fool them, so they grab you by the collar and it’s off to the knackers with you. In this world, everyone is lying all the time. Nobody believes you, even if you’re telling the truth.”
Vordius frowned and looked down. “What a stench! I never would have thought that fish could stink like that.”
“It’s probably some old stores,” Sorgius said as he tried to get a look at the roof, which was hidden in darkness. Their jailers had given them one small light, but it was not nearly enough for them to get a good look around them.
They were silent for a time.
“What about the third idea?” Vordius finally asked.
“You won’t like it,” Sorgius said slowly. “There’s a big man with his hairy paws mixed up in what happened to Uni, and he’s got rank. Probably somewhere in the palace. And he and the people under him don’t give a fig about a guardsman and his little Vuravian friend.”
“Is that even possible?” Vordius was incredulous.
“Anything’s possible. You didn’t bring your badge with you, did you?”
“You told me not to!”
“It doesn’t matter now. But if they kill you…”
“Us! They’ll kill us!”
“I’m sorry. If they kill us, it doesn’t really matter to anyone. Vordius Onato, a nicor in the Imperial Guards, disappeared while on his own time. Nobody knows what happened to him. Maybe he deserted, betrayed his beloved Emperor?”
“Oh Heavenly Deity, what have I done?”
“To them,” Sorgius pointed at the wall with his chin, “it’s all logical.”
“Only because we’re a pair of idiots! Good old Sorgius knows what to do! I wish I’d never listened to you. You’re a dead man!”
“You don’t have to believe me if you don’t want to, but I still can’t see where we went wrong. I know all about the trade. I’m from Vuravia, after all. And that creeping reptile Yahey never let slip that he suspected something.”
They sat together in silence.
“Maybe Yahey is actually Fire Asp?” Vordius’ face lit up. “And if the redhead is his girlfriend, then he knew what you were after before you even opened your mouth. He was playing with us like a cat with a mouse, and we walked right in between his paws!”
“That looks like the size of it.”
“May the Shadow take you, Sorgius! This isn’t funny!”
“I didn’t say it was.”
A sudden, harsh sound made both friends jump, but it was just a door – an old door that didn’t fit its jamb and needed to be oiled. Vordius tensed his body and prepared to meet with a bitter fate ending in death, but once again he was tricked by an unexpected turn of events. A third person – small and limp – was tossed into their cell and landed in a heap on the floor, crying out in pain.
Before they had time to think, four ruffians entered the cell. They were all heavy-built and smelt of beer and unwashed bodies. One of the four squatted in front of Vordius and drew a knife out of a narrow leather sheath.
This is the end! flitted through the guardsman’s mind. He felt no fear. Instead, he looked straight in the thug’s eyes, firm in his intuitive decision that he would not look down, even when the knife went for his throat.
“You look like a carp on a hook with your eyes bugged out like that,” grinned the thug, showing his yellow teeth. His comrades chortled at what passed among them for humor. Vordius was distracted, and in that instant, the ruffian grabbed him by the shoulder, spun him around and shoved his face against the wall. The guardsman saw stars.
Now he’ll take me by the hair, pull my head back and cut my throat like a sheep! Heavenly Deity, what did I do to deserve this death?
And once again, the Heavenly Deity made it clear that no man knows his own fate. The ruffian pulled his arms over his head roughly and did something to his wrists.
“Let’s have that other one!” someone said behind his back. He looked up at his arms (which were so numb he could barely feel them) and saw that the cords that had bound him were gone, leaving only red marks on his wrists. Feeling almost drunk, he breathed in deeply the smell of rotten fish and thought: How wonderful it is to be alive!
Without waiting for an invitation, Sorgius turned his back and raised his bound arms as high as he could.
“Look at him! He wants it!” the ruffian guffawed, gyrating his hips at Sorgius’ backside. His colleagues laughed loudly, and the little Vuravian went beet-red, but his humiliation did not last long, and soon the cords were gone from his wrists, too.
The ruffian put the knife back in its sheath and growled, “You know what to do. We won’t get in the way.” And with that, they were gone.
“Did any of that make sense to you?” Sorgius broke the silence. Vordius shook his head as he stared off into space. Then he leaped up and looked around their cell. The body that had entered the scene first suddenly showed signs of life and began crawling for the opposite corner. It was hindered by the fact that its hands were tied, so Vordius caught up with it easily.
He looked at it closely. “It’s a girl!” he announced.
“No!” Sorgius waved his hands as if warding off a curse. “Don’t tell me it’s…”
“Have a look for yourself!” The guardsman took an oil lamp
