Chapter 9: Surprises

In which there are many surprises, great and small.

 

Chapter 9: Surprises

 

To Andra’s surprise, Eyrie led them back to the inn, not to wherever this Salthis was. She did so without speaking another word, less to Andra’s surprise. And Kylan certainly looked worse for wear. Andra felt pride welling up whenever she looked at the blue and purple blotches on his face. Her pride was only slightly diminished by the blotches she knew would appear soon on her own body.

            When they walked into the inn, Andra was only partly surprised to see Gryphon stand at their entrance. Of course Gryphon would have gone back to the inn when we separated. That was the clever thing to do. And now he is safe from Eyrie’s wrath.

            Still holding Kylan’s arm behind his back, Eyrie went up the stairs, Andra and Gryphon following them to their room. When Gryphon came in last, Eyrie nodded for him to close the door and when it was firmly shut she released her hostage.

            Andra noted his relief in his sigh and the way he stretched his shoulder and flexed his arm. She could not help being a bit smug. All the while, though, Kylan’s eyes did not rest; they flickered between the three like a caged animal’s, nervous and wary. They lingered longest on Eyrie, who was obviously in charge. With her sleeves pushed to her elbows and her arms crossed over her chest and her authoritative glare, Andra would have been surprised if anyone thought Eyrie was not in charge. Such an impossibility almost made Andra chuckle.

            “Relax, Kylan,” Eyrie finally said in a voice that made Andra want to do anything but. The low, quiet advice made her want to back closer to the wall, or stand next to Gryphon since he would clearly be on Eyrie’s good side.

            At this, Kylan steadied his gaze and glared at Eyrie. Thief though he was, Andra had to admire his courage. “What do you want?” he asked through gritted teeth.

            “Nothing. But I have business to take care of before I go see Salthis and you are going to stay here with these two until I return.”

            Kylan frowned. “Why not just take me now? You can’t just leave me here with this stupid goat-milker!”

“I said stay,” she said, her smirk disappearing. She brooked no argument. “And you two, as well. I mean it,” she finished fiercely through her teeth, raising an eyebrow pointedly at Andra. With that, Eyrie turned to leave.

            “Eyrie, I do not trust him. He tried to rob me!” Solanis burn her if she was going to suffer the boy and keep him from escaping.

            “I trust the two of you can handle one boy. I shan’t be gone very long.”

            When the door snapped shut behind Eyrie, the three turned their glares onto one another. Andra was surprised when the thief simply sat down, carelessly straddling the one rickety chair in the room. Resting his head on the back of the seat, he glowered at the other two youths. Andra glared back stonily and moved to sit on her bed, her eyes never leaving the thief.

            When Gryphon sat down next to her, Kylan snorted and rolled his eyes.

            “What now?” Andra spat.

“Nothin’, miss,” Kylan said innocently. “An’ have you twos been betrothed since you was mite-sized, as well? That’s the way they do it in them country towns en’t it?”

            Andra opened her mouth to reply, but Gryphon beat her to it.

            “We are not betrothed,” he said coolly. Andra looked at him and caught his glance at her.

            “Oh, I gets it. You wish you two was betrothed,” he smirked at Gryphon and then winked at Andra.

Gryphon and Andra just glared from under their dark brows.

            “What would you know about it anyway? You cannot have yet seen even fifteen summers,” Andra said.

            “My age is my business, miss. I’ve spent enough summers under Solanis’s blessed gaze,” he started sarcastically, “to know that love en’t nothin’ to get excited about. You can keep your silly betrothals.”

            For a long while, they sat in silence, the thief smug yet brooding and the other two annoyed. Andra used the time to size the boy up. There was not much remarkable about him. Aside from the cloth around his head, his clothes were plain. He looked young, his cheeks smooth and unstubbled. He was slim, smaller than Gryphon’s own leanness, and his face was too soft to be handsome, but too angled to be pretty or boyish. The strange middle ground was almost attractive. Strands of his dark hair hung out over the band on his brow and the rest of it was pulled back and hanging like a horsetail from his neck.

            “What are you twos called?” the thief said, breaking the quiet suddenly.

            Andra raised an eyebrow and kept her mouth shut.

“Gryphon,” Gryphon said. Even though there was no friendliness in his response, Andra was disappointed. Should have kept the boy in the dark, she thought angrily. She scowled at her friend. He raised his eyebrows.

            “Andra,” she said after a moment, rolling her eyes.

            “Well it’s a right pleasure to make your acquaintance, Andra,” Kylan said, lingering on the syllables of her name.

            “Wish I could say the same, Kylan,” Andra said, spitting his name out like it was something foul.

            “Oh, my. You stabbed me right through the heart,” he sneered.

            Andra’s lip curled but before she could look for the strength to avoid pummelling the fool of a thief, he leapt up, knocking the chair down in his haste to reach the door. He was fast, Andra had to admit, but so was she, and she was closer to the door.

            She made it there just before him, and when he raised his arms to try and forcibly move Andra from the doorway, Andra was stunned to see a fist fly in and knock him solidly on the temple.  Kylan collapsed to the floor with a thump.

            “Here, help me with him,” Gryphon said, grabbing the limp boy under his arms. Andra huffed. Just because he’ll be in the way of the door when Eyrie returns. She grabbed the boy’s legs and helped Gryphon drag him onto Eyrie’s bed.

            The boy had not been unconscious for too long before Eyrie came back. When she walked in and saw the toppled chair and the body lying on the bed, she raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Am I right in thinking that the boy did not fall asleep of his own accord?” she said with a smirk.

            Andra nodded toward Gryphon. “He did it,” she said innocently.

            “Did you, now, boy?” Eyrie raised both of her eyebrows then. “That does surprise me. I would have thought it to be you, child,” she said to Andra.

            “Well, I almost wish it had been, but Gryphon was a nice shot. I reckon he did it well,” Andra said smugly.

            Eyrie was at the boys side, nudging him gently. After slapping him softly on his cheeks to no result, she scooped a handful of water from the washbasin and tossed in onto his face. “Wake up, boy!” she said loudly.

            Kylan sputtered and blinked his way to consciousness. He started to lunge at Eyrie before he realised who she was. Then he sat up on the bed, glaring at everyone again. We’ve come a long way, Andra thought sarcastically.

            “I trust you all got to know each other well,” Eyrie said to the three. “Now we can go. Take your swords.” Eyrie, Andra just now noticed, had not been wearing her sword all this time. She picked it up now, though, and buckled it on. Gryphon left and returned shortly with his eagle-pommeled short sword.

            “Salthis won’t be intimidated by your weapons,” Kylan said. “He’s—”

            “You are not in the position to be defending Salthis, boy. You’ve been caught, remember?” That shut the boy up quickly.

            Without another word, she walked out, leaving the others to follow: Kylan, then Andra, and Gryphon bringing up the rear. When they left the inn, Eyrie immediately positioned herself closer to Kylan, close enough to hold his hand. She leaned down and whispered something in his ear that made him stiffen and then nod his head.

            The followed her though the curving streets, rounding along one, turning along a straight, then a curve again. Andra tried to keep track of their direction, but soon they had turned so many times that Andra would have been hopelessly lost trying to find her way back to their inn.

            The sun was just sinking from its zenith when Eyrie lead them into a non-descript, one-storey building. It was small and wooden and the inside was a spicer’s shop. Herbs hung from the ceiling, the walls; some were stuffed in glass jars and clay jars on shelves. The shopkeeper nodded at Eyrie but double-took when he saw her captive thief—for he was obviously her captive: he did not stray too far from her, the fear in his gaze when he looked at her. But the shopkeeper went back to his work, grinding something behind a small alcove.

            Eyrie led them to an empty space of wall and pressed what looked like a wooden plank in the wall. The blank section of wall opened as if on a spring, revealing a dark corridor. As they stepped into it, Kylan’s frown deepened.

            The dark corridor was actually a dark flight of stairs that led to a dark corridor. The walls were dark stone and when Andra touched them, her fingers came away damp. We’re underground! Andra thought incredulously.

            Even thought they were narrower, the corridors curved as much as the streets above. Andra supposed this would make it easier for thieves who knew the city to get around. To escape.

            They walked for sometime before Andra saw a door. Eyrie bypassed that one, though, and kept walking. Doors began to appear more sporadically.

            Finally, Eyrie stopped. She knocked twice, paused, and knocked twice again. After a moment, the door opened.

            The door was held by a small, swarthy man with short brown hair and a scar crossing his right eye. Inside the room was a bald man with broad shoulders and twinkling gray eyes reclining on a large chair with his feet kicked up on a table covered with papers and ledgers and the like. Andra could not quite make out the figures as Scar-face ushered them in.

            “Eyrie the Guardian!” the bald man said with a guffaw when they had entered. He whipped his legs off of the table with a speed Andra had not expected from his large torso, and slammed his palm down on the tabletop. “Tell me, are you still chasing yer stories?” he asked with a grin.

            Andra’s eyes widened in surprise. She had never seen anyone behave so familiarly with Eyrie. Even the people in Lithe’s Bend were slightly reserved around her. Eyrie wore a wry smile and raised an eyebrow.

            “I’m not chasing anything anymore, Salthis,” she said softly.

            “And it’s about time, en’t it? Now. Tell me why you’ve got my best girl scared of her own shadow?”

            Andra’s jaw dropped and she and Gryphon whirled around, gaping at Kylan, looking the thief up and down.

            His best girl?!

 

Author's Note

Is this a good read for you?

Reviews

[Chris]

Yes, it was a very good read and I liked how you ended the chapter to create a cliffhanger of sorts. I'm a little confused as to why you italisized "His best" and not "girl." If it's a thought, the girl should be italisized, and if it was to draw emphasis, I'd think it would be more appropriate if girl had said emphasis (and maybe best too, but not his). And a couple other things I noticed:

"Eyrie was at the boys side, nudging him gently. After slapping him softly on his cheeks to no result, she scooped a handful of water from the washbasin and tossed in onto his face."

You forgot the apostrophe for boys and I think you might mean "tossed it onto his face."

"The followed her though the curving streets, rounding along one..."

I think you mean "they followed."