Well of the Damned

Chapter 43





Gavin spent the night with his wife, both overlooking their disagreements. When she brought up her concerns about the children being alone, he reassured her they would survive in the palace for a few more days. “You’re leaving tomorrow, aren’t you?” he asked her. She lay with her back against his front, wrapped in his arms.

“No,” she said, “I want to visit with the children once more and pay my respects to Asti-nayas before I go. I’ll leave first thing the next morning. What about you? When will you be home?”

“Hopefully a few days after you. I don’t want to leave afore I find Cirang or her corpse.”

“Hurry, Gavin. We need you home.”

He smiled in the darkness and kissed her neck. “As soon as I can. I promise.”

He arose shortly before dawn and woke Daia, Calinor and Brawna, eager to get going. Disguised as a burly warrant knight slightly different from the burly warrant knight he used to be, Gavin led his companions to the entrance of the old mine shaft in the south district of Ambryce.

Homes and shops surrounded the mine entrance as if it were just another building in a moderately populated neighborhood. He’d never known it to be actively mined and suspected it had dried up many years before he was born. The entrance had been boarded up, though now and then, a group of mischievous boys would pull off enough wood to create an opening large enough to wriggle through.

That stopped when one of them fell and broke a leg, requiring the lordover to organize a rescue. From that day on, anyone caught tampering with the barricade was guilty of trespassing and imprisoned. Years ago, he caught two adolescent boys trying to sneak in, but he hadn’t the heart to arrest or brand them. A harsh reprimand from a huge, scarred warrant knight was usually enough to make a young boy think twice next time he was tempted into mischief.

It was dawn when they reached the site of the mine entrance and dismounted. He’d been certain they would find Cirang here, but the entrance to the shaft and the hillside it burrowed into looked undisturbed. The boards covering the entrance were old and weathered, nailed together haphazardly. On the sides of the shaft opening, the boards appeared to be affixed to the hillside with mortar and nails as thick as Gavin’s thumb. He tugged a few boards and found them secure.

“Is there another entrance?” he asked.

The others shook their heads slowly, arms crossed and faces reflecting Gavin’s disappointment.

“It was a good guess,” Calinor said. “I was sure she’d be in here.”

“You there!” an armsman called, approaching on horseback. “Get away from there. The mine shaft is off limits.”

“Awright,” Gavin said. “We’re leaving.” He motioned with his head for the others to mount up. “Did you patrol this area overnight?”

The armsman eyed him warily. “I did.”

“Did you see a woman battler with short, dark hair?”

“No, now move along, ’ranter.”

Gavin was tempted to let his disguise drop and ask the armsman to repeat himself, but others were in the area, people going about their early morning chores, and he didn’t want someone else to accidentally notice him, and so he let it go. He climbed into his saddle and started north. “Let’s ask Trayev if he’s seen her since yesterday.”

The innkeeper at the Good Knight Inn greeted Gavin warmly and enthusiastically with a strong left-handed handshake when he walked in. Trayev had lost his right hand to a beyonder as a child and often bartered his rooms in exchange for help with repairs and other labor he and his son couldn’t manage themselves. Gavin had stayed at this inn many times during his time as a warrant knight because of his willingness to work for his room.

“Listen, Trayev,” Gavin said, “we’re looking for a swordswoman with short, black hair and thick lips. Have you seen her?”

“Yeh,” the innkeeper replied, “your friends there...” He pointed at Calinor and Brawna with two fingers. “...were asking about her last evening. She paid for a room yesterday and put up her horse, but she was gone when we checked. Didn’t take the horse, though, so I suspect she’s still in Ambryce. Fine warhorse, too. Well, you’ve seen it. That buck took it, said she stole it from him.”

Gavin nodded. “Yeh, it’s true.” He asked Calinor, “Did you leave the white mare you were riding?”

“No, I didn’t want to give her an easy escape out o’town. Left her at the lordover’s stable.”

Daia asked, “Have you heard rumors of a horse theft?”

“None since the woman got here,” Trayev said. “Odd that she’d abandon the horse and leave on foot. If you’re here to ask if she’s been back, I ha’n’t seen her, and the rooms are just as they were.”

Gavin clapped the innkeeper’s shoulder. “My thanks for your help, Trayev.”

“Good to see you again, Gavin— er, I mean, King Gavin. I’m damned proud to know you.” Trayev offered his hand and Gavin shook it once more.

“My wife’ll be at the temple soon,” Gavin said.

“Brawna and I’ll head over there now,” Calinor said. “We’ll look for Cirang in the crowd. Just in case.”

“Awright. I’ll see if I can spot her from above and meet you there.”

“Mind if we leave the horses with you?” Calinor asked the innkeeper. “There’s apt to be a big crowd.”

“Not at all,” Trayev said. “The boy’ll keep an eye on them.”

Brawna nodded at Gavin before following Calinor out. Though she was shy and quiet, there was a determination in her face that gave Gavin confidence the young battler wouldn’t let Cirang get past her.

He tapped into Daia’s conduit gift and lifted his mystical sight through the ceiling and over the rooftops, though he didn’t expect to see his escaped prisoner. Unless he found some evidence she was still alive, he would soon be forced to give up the search for her. From his vantage point above the city, he saw himself, Daia and Trayev at the inn, and Calinor and Brawna walking down the street, stopping passersby and talking to merchants on their way to the temple, but still no sign of Cirang.

“I don’t see her.” As much as he wanted to think Cirang had conveniently met her end, Gavin couldn’t rest until he found her corpse. He donned his magical disguise, choosing the wild red hair and beard to go with a round face and green eyes. “How’s it look?”

Trayev laughed. “That’s remarkable! I’ve known you for what? Five years? I’d never’ve guessed it was you. Even your scar is gone.”

Gavin smiled, showing the illusion of four missing teeth in front and the rest crooked and yellowed. “It’s good, ain’t it?”

Trayev slapped the desk with the palm of his hand. “Your teeth. Hah! Look at ’em.”

Daia was smiling as well. “All you need is a mouthful of tobaq and the disguise is complete.”

“I got some if you want it,” the innkeeper said.

Gavin wrinkled his nose. He’d never developed a taste for the stuff, though his papa had chewed it for years. “I only need people to not recognize me.”

“Then we’re ready,” Daia said. “If Cirang’s still alive and planning an attack on Queen Feanna, we’ll find her and stop her.”





People had begun to gather outside the temple, though they hadn’t formed a large crowd yet. The lordover’s men-at-arms stood near the door, turning away would-be worshipers. In his wild red hair and beard disguise, Gavin asked one of the men gathered what was happening.

“They aren’t letting anyone into the temple, but they won’t say why. My guess is the queen’s coming to take her sacrament.”

The advantage of being so much taller than everyone else was that he had a good view of people. He scanned the heads, looking for Cirang’s short, black hair. “Still don’t see her,” he told Daia. “Let’s go stand between those two buildings so I can look for her haze. Don’t want to stand here in the open when the disguise drops.”

They found a place where Gavin could look for Cirang without being noticed. From the vantage point of his hidden eye, he didn’t find her, but he did see people in all the nearby buildings except for one: the temple. There appeared to be no one inside.

He released the mystical vision and restored his disguise. “Didn’t see her, but something’s odd. The temple looks empty to my hidden eye. Why would it be empty if Feanna’s coming to take her sacrament?”

“Let’s go find out,” Daia said.

They made their way to the temple’s front doors where they were stopped by the two armsmen guarding the entrance.

“The temple is closed this morning. Come back later,” one said.

“We need to ensure the inside is secure,” Gavin said. He leaned closer and whispered, “For the queen’s visit.”

The two guards looked at each other. “All right,” the first one said. “The First Royal can enter, but you’ve got to stay out here.”

Gavin opened his mouth to object, but Daia said, “That’ll be fine. It’ll only need a moment.”

He supposed he could have given himself a disguise that included the mail and ribbons of a First Royal, like what Adro wore, but it was too late now. He could reveal his identity to the guards to gain entry and chance drawing the attention of the gathering crowd, or trust Daia to handle this task without him. He trusted her implicitly, but it annoyed him to have to wait outside and let someone else take care of important matters like this. He supposed that, as king, he would need to get used to delegating more tasks.

Daia opened the door to go inside, but she stopped at the threshold, looked down at her right hip and tried entering again. “Odd,” she said, opening her coin pouch. She withdrew the ring with the blue moonstone and handed it to Gavin. “Hold this for me, will you?” After he took the ring, she entered without further incident. He fingered

the ring in his hand, wondering why she couldn’t go inside with it. Magic barrier, perhaps.

Through the open door, he saw three clerics busy lighting candles, sweeping the floor, and straightening the benches. Daia walked up the aisle towards them, but the door swung shut before he could see anything else.

“You seen a woman battler dressed as a First Royal Guard with short, black hair?” he asked the armsmen.

They shook their heads.

“You seen any woman with short, black hair?”

One armsman lifted his chin and pointed with his eyes. Gavin followed his gaze and saw a woman matching his vague description, but it wasn’t Cirang.

“The one we’re looking for has thick lips, brown eyes, about this tall.” He held his flattened hand to his upper chest, indicating Cirang’s approximate height.

“Sorry,” the guard said. “Doesn’t sound familiar.”

“Awright. If you see her, don’t let her anywhere near my— I mean, the queen. She’s a killer.”

“Dressed as a First Royal?”

“That’s right.”

After several minutes, Daia came out of the temple and joined him. “She wasn’t inside, and the clerics haven’t seen anyone matching her description. I’m starting to believe she might actually be dead.”

The muscles in Gavin’s shoulders and neck relaxed. He wouldn’t be completely satisfied until he saw her corpse. “That’s a relief,” he said, handing her ring back. “We haven’t asked the city custodian yet if he’s got her body. Let’s do that next.”

Daia lifted her chin. “Here comes Feanna’s carriage.”