Even though the cleaners kept the sewers underneath the Valar relatively clean, it was still not a place for an afternoon stroll. Its dark and dank stone tunnels crafted a maze rife with a rank odour that seeped into the skin and clothes. Water and muck flowed along a canal beside a wet stone walkway. The walls were stained with brown caked dirt and moss.

Samuel walked with a handkerchief pressed to his nose. They’d been down here for about an hour, but trudging through this place was proving a more difficult task for the group of ten than they anticipated.

Not only Samuel abhorred the stink. Other than the two cleaners Lord Dorian Kell and Erhan, every other patrolman either scrunched their noses or held a handkerchief. The two young cleaners wearing short-sleeved hemp tunics led the way holding two burning torches. They lit the occasional lanterns hanging from the walls as they passed.

The sick looking Erhan’s nonchalant walk brought him curious glances from the Dorian, a tall and wiry man in his sixties sporting a greying black handlebar moustache. But that didn’t matter to Erhan. He had been to worse places and smelled worse things. Instead, he concentrated. Spreading out his senses intervals, trying to sense minds different from rats, insects and other sewer creatures. Minds that didn’t belong to this underground labyrinth.

It wasn’t easy since he had to walk with his eyes closed. Due to his condition, sensing more than a few things were hard. And as most of his concentration was on the minds alone, he had had an occasional stumble or two along the walk. Only Samuel’s repeated assistance helped him avoid falling face-first on this damp, dirty floor. Erhan missed the spiritvision mantra. As long as he knew what or who to look for, very few things could hide the target from the mantra.

“Stop!” Dorian raised his hand. He extended his hand towards one of the cleaners and gestured him to hand over the torch, then he bent down and examined the ground carefully. Picking up some of the dirt on the ground with fingertips of his gloved hand he looked up towards everyone. “Blood,” he said. “It’s hard to tell, but it should be less than a day old.”

Samuel exhaled with relief. “So this is the right way after all.”

“Well, I can’t guarantee that. It’s only blood after all. We can’t determine exactly whose it is.” Dorian said as he rubbed his chin with his clean hand. “But if my hunch is right, this is the right way. It leads to the western outskirts. That’s where most of the cheapest inns are. A perfect place for the unsavoury sort.”

“Should we call the other teams in, sir?” one of the patrolmen asked.

“Umm…” Dorian considered as he stared into the deep darkness further down the sewers. “call team three and eight. Let the other teams continue their search. Who knows what clues might turn up. Might as well do a bit of sewer rat hunting with this chance.” he said after a while. Some of the more discreet criminal activities happen in the sewers. And a lot of criminals hide their stashes here. Weeding them out should give the reckless and rampant outsiders flooding in the city some pause.

The patrolman took out a small iron flute and blew it as he ran his fingers along the holes. Erhan raised his brows in surprise as he saw that. “A shamanic instrument!”

Dorian looked at him. “You know about it? Not many know of the magic from outside Clover, even amongst you druids.”

“Druids, huh,” Erhan didn’t comment on the nature of those so-called druids. But shamanic arts huh. They were akin to the Kapalic disciplines, only much more sinister. His voice held an air of caution as he said, “Shamanic arts are often... treacherous. You shouldn’t use them if you can help it.”

“You sure know a lot!” Dorian was a little shocked. “That’s what lord Giraldi said too.”

“Giraldi?”

“He is the chief of advisors in her majesty’s court.” Samuel leaned in and whispered in his ears. “He also handles foreign affairs and has a lot of knowledge about the land outside Clover. A man full of wisdom.”

“Yes, indeed. He is a great and respected person.” Dorian nodded hearing Samuel’s whisper which was audible enough in the silent sewers. “In fact, he is the one who introduced these instruments to our military.”

“I see…” Deep in thought, Erhan lifted his left hand to run his fingers through his hair. Noticing the bandage on it, he put it down with a sigh.

The patrolman, playing the flute looked up at Dorian. “They’d be here in about half an hour, sir.”

“Good,” Dorian nodded, “let’s wait for them then. We’ll continue more extensive search once they arrive.”

Erhan looked up at the arched roof of the tunnel as his brows slowly gathered into a frown. Water dripped somewhere in the dark, but he was listening to something beyond that.

“I think we should continue searching,” he said after a while. “Sena might fall in danger right now.”

Dorian chuckled. “Don’t worry, she’d be safe, These are mere for the nobles. They might scheme and plot, but unless it’s something like feud, they wouldn’t dare cause any true harm, especially against youngsters. Not if they want to anger her majesty.”

“Gregor was hurt pretty badly,” Erhan said.

“That was probably an accident. But I do need to warn those schemers a bit this time. Unintended or not, it went too far,” Dorian shrugged and looked at Erhan. “You’re too young to understand the politics of this city, so trust me.”

Young is he? Dorian couldn’t help the wry twitch at the corner of his lips. “If you trust me, I still think we should move. I can help you track her down faster,” he said to Dorian.

Dorian shook his head. “I don’t trust you,” he said with an amused expression. Trust this man? He had seen less than ten druids in his lifetime, but even the weakest ones he’d seen were more than fifty years old. Besides along with their staff, they carried many charms and other strange articles. Just having a beard and a staff doesn’t make someone a druid. Besides, what kind of druid carries around a sword? This man called Erhan looked too weak to even lift the thing.

He looked at the tunnel again. “Besides, this place spanes underneath the whole city. I have a hunch it won’t be an easy task with only our team.” he gave Erhan a smile from below his moustache and said, “And I trust my hunch more than anything else.”

Erhan sighed and stretched his arms. “Well, you have your hunch and I have my instinct,” he said giving Dorian a calm and confident stare. “And I also trust mine more.” he looked at Samuel. “Would you come with me?”

Samuel’s eyes darted around with hesitation for a moment. Then he looked at Dorian. “I think you should trust—”

“There’s no time,” Erhan said as he impatiently shook his head. A sensation of worry was pressing down on his chest, chains of anxiety tied down his heart making each beat heavier than the other. He was all too familiar with this sensation. He had felt much worse when the Fade came. It seemed he had begun to care for Arya’s granddaughter. He walked towards one of the cleaners and extended his hand. “If you please.”

The cleaner looked at Dorian, who gave a slight nod of his head and said, “give him.”

Erhan took the torch handed by the cleaner and stepped deeper into the tunnels. Samuel hesitated just a moment before he ran after Erhan, his jaws set in determination.

Dorian gave a disapproving shake of his head. He wished to stop the young knight from following Erhan. But he had no right to do so. And trying to stop a knight, especially one from the border areas, determined to do something could get more than a bit frustrating. He was just annoyed Samuel placed more trust in a suspicious man than him, the commander of the city patrol.

---

A tankard crashed against the bare wall and splashed the damp stone wall with stale beer. “Are you kidding me?” a stout man stood up from a barrel at the corner of the small stone room, his face flushed with anger. “No more money? I lost my brother, and you say we’re not getting any more money?”

“Calm down, Hank,” Bruce said. He stood with his arms crossed before him beside a chair where Sena sat with her eyes and mouth tied with thick black fabric. A finger thick rope circled her whole body along with the chair, constricting all her movements. Her cyan gown was full of small wrinkles and tears because of the battle yesterday.

Sena cursed her abductors and their ancestors and...the people behind them inside her mind. Not being able to move for such a long time, Her whole body was cramped and painful. She was starving too. She hadn’t eaten anything since last at the ball, and even there she had only touched the food out of courtesy due to how tired she’d been. She wiggled her body against the ropes. She’d have eaten more if she knew she was going to get abducted. Now the question was, what were they going to do with her.

“So what are going to do with her?” the agile man who fought against Samuel pulled on his goatee as he asked the question that was on Sena’s mind.

“We’re going to let her go somewhere on the streets,” said Bruce.

“Let her go?” Hank looked at him with a shocked face. “We aren’t getting the money those damn swindlers promised us. And want to let her go?” he walked right up to bruce, his face only reaching the chest of the huge figure as he glared up his eyes as he bit off each word. “She. Killed. My. brother!”

“What else can we do? She is a Moras.” Bruce looked down at him with an annoyed frown. “If we don’t let her go quietly the whole city patrol will after us. Not to mention what’d happen if the Moras’s track us down.” he sighed. “We still have the advance money. At most I’ll give you some from my share.”

“No! We can’t let her go that easily.” Hank stared at Sena with poison in his eyes. “We need to let her, to let those damn nobles know we are not pawns they can just use and throw away.” he looked around at the faces of the other three men. “We need to let them all suffer the consequences.”

Other than Bruce, the other two men also sat straight. They weren’t just small-time bandits or thugs. They were warriors for hire. Just because sometimes they earned money through darker means, didn’t mean they had no pride.

Only the big man gave a derisive laugh. “Then do you want to kill her?” he also looked at the other three men in their eyes. “Do you dare to kill her? Would we have anywhere to hide if we kill her? I have family behind me, don’t you?”

“Well, no, we don’t need to kill her,” said the last man. A mousy fellow with thinning straw-coloured hair. “We can teach them a lesson and get some money out of it.”

“Oh really? So again, the famous ‘Paul the mouse’ has some clever ideas for us.” Bruce said, with a chuckle. “Wasn’t it you who brought this job for us? You said it’d be a piece of cake, that these are just brats who can’t tell apart the broad side of a sword. What next idea do you have now?”

Paul said, “If we kill her, we really won’t have anywhere to hide.” he looked at his companions. “Not in the queendom at least.”

Bruce shook his head. “So this is your bright Idea. Do you think crossing borders is easy? Even if the kingdoms are at war, they won’t just let refugees in. No, it’d be even harder.”

“But what if we offer them something?”

Becker frowned. “Offer them what?” but then his eyes widened in realization. His head slowly turned towards Sena. “You mean…”

Paul the mouse also turned to look at her and even though Sena couldn’t see it, she felt his stare on her body. It made her skin crawl. Paul’s lips spread in a sinister grin showing dirty yellow teeth. He said with a throaty chuckle, “I’m sure some people in the other kingdoms would pay a hefty sum for a beautiful noble warrior slave from the queendom. Heck, they’d even be able to put pressure on the Moras through her. That’s double the value.” his grinning face looked at Bruce. “Do you think that’s not enough of an achievement to seek refuge in one of them?”

Sena’s heart nearly jumped out of her throat. What were these scoundrels thinking? No, they weren’t mere scoundrels, but lunatics. What the hell have those city nobles gotten her involved in? she swore if she managed to free herself, she’d find out the one who was behind that man and shove her sword through their arse. And Arakan, he was also going to get the same treatment. But that was the problem. Would she be free? Ever?

“I agree,” said Hank, looking at Sena, “but you need to sell her to the vilest, most lecherous person. Only that would satisfy me.”

“Leave that to me,” Paul said and then looked at Bruce. That man was the biggest problem if he didn’t agree, then they had no choice but to deliver the girl to a safe place. And they also can’t stay in the city after this and risk Sena recognizing them. They have been using each other’s names since the beginning. They’d thought to get out of the city after getting the remaining twenty crowns, but… they can't participate in the queen’s quest anymore either.

Bruce’s eyes darted as same thoughts fleeted around inside his head. Besides, if they managed to find the right customer, they’d get at least five to ten times the sum they were supposed to get for this job. That’s a lot of money. He clenched his teeth. “I’m in too,” he said.

Paul clenched his fist in victory and looked at the man with the goatee, Wilford. “And I assume you have no problem either?”

“Just one,” Wilford said, as he continued playing with his beard, “how are we going to get out of this city?”

“Through the sewers of course. Don’t you know where they end?”

“The Russet river,” Bruce said matter of factly.

Sena continued her futile squirming on the chair as she listened to the great plan of the rogues. She had no way to free herself. Were these people sailors? Only those seamen should tie ropes so tightly. So much time had passed. Why hadn’t anyone found her? Where were those boys, her knights?

As soon as the thought came, Sena stopped her struggle. Gorge! Was he alright? He was alive, wasn’t he? She wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if he died. No! He was alive. He had to be. She continued her futile struggle. Even if she couldn’t free herself, she’d never give up struggling. She’d never leave herself up to fate.