1014 NT
Happy Birthday Danielle @itsalwaysnarnia, I am a toad, so you have to be my princess. This is my last gift, while also a ‘gift’ to all else who have been waiting for an update on 1014 NT.
Beth @evennstars
and Rachel @the-half-blood-princess-diary make their first appearance
Chapter 16 - Under houses and over roofs
“I look like literal trash,” Lucy said poking out her tongue in the mirror. She tried moving so she could view herself in different angles, but that definitely didn’t work. If anything it made everything even worse. They had to be joking. Did they seriously expect her to walk around like this?
“If anything, looking like trash is far better than whatever it is Meredith’s friends are having me wearing,” came the familiar voice of Edmund in the doorway. Lucy turned so she could face him, and then had to force herself not to drop her jaw. Because he was right. What in Aslan’s name were these two having them wear? It was hideous, but in the ridiculous way. He would be ridiculed on the streets for sure!
“I have no idea what they’re planning, but it seems they know something we don’t.” Edmund scratched his head, walked over to Lucy. “Did you even catch their names?”
“I never got to-“
“It’s Beth. Nice to meet you. Pretty gal over here is a minstrel in the local Tavern.”
“My name happens to be Rachel, not pretty gal” the girl, well Rachel, added dryly. They arrived in the exact doorway Edmund had been standing in seconds away.
They were both pretty, but in completely different ways. Rachel did in fact look like a Minstrel when Lucy took a closer look, but what Beth was she had no clue. Her clothing had intricate patterns and looked quite expensive. However, she was wearing pants. You could argue that now so was Lucy, but she also looked like trash and was in a disguise. Beth didn’t seem to be in any sort of disguise, and if she was, Lucy would have traded her any day.
“Why do we look like this?” Edmund asked with a sigh, seemingly tired of not knowing anything. “And names tell us nothing, who are you?”
Rachel stepped forwards and smiled a little. “Let me answer the first one. Now, Meredith notified me and Beth many fortnights ago that you would show, and wanted us to tell you of all the secret passages around the city. As you must be aware of, the city is a giant fortress, and to survive here, it’s crucial that you both know your way around town. I will start the tour and show you around, we’ll start here and end at the tavern where I work. As far as I am aware, Beth is still bribing the old barkeeper so hard that he won’t mind me not doing my job. That tour, will cover the cities slums, and we will spend most of the daylight going through all the necessary points of access.”
Beth did not move out of the doorway, but remained there, smirking, and continuing where Rachel had left off. “At the Tavern you will change clothing into far more noble attire, yet still remain disguised. We will spend the evening and night in noble company. You will learn every name, every spouse and every layout in all noble castles in the city before dawn approaches us. Somewhere on that last route, Meredith will join us, as she knows some nobles far better than I do.”
That seemed fair and square, at least to Lucy. Spending the day more or less surveilling the city might prove very useful in case of unforeseen events. And if she had even remotely understood how her brothers spy network functioned, unforeseen events arrived plentiful on the worst possible occasions.
“Far enough, but some more information about who you are would still be appreciated” Edmund’s voice was unnecessarily threating and grumpy. Lucy saw no reason for that. They were here to fix a terrible thing from happening, so if he could stop alienating allies, that would be great.
“I am Beth, 7 times national Wicked Grace Champion and local noble. I am my father’s 6th daughter, and I assume you can figure out by yourself that there are sons too, so I don’t ran particularly high. So because of that I have been trained in the art of assassination and take on varying tasks that suit me and pay well enough. I get by. Meredith allowed me to join her secret task force some years back, and we’ve been unseprable ever since. Except when she attends meetings. Or ride into the night. Or go to balls. Or she sends me off to forsaken isles. Now that I think about it, we’re actually not that much together in the same place as I think”
Rachel said nothing. Neither did Edmund nor Lucy. Everything was just significantly awkward for a short while. It was probably seconds, but it felt longer.
“Right. Thanks Beth. Anyhow. I am Rachel, I am a minstrel, and I too am a member of Meredith’s secret task force that work within this city. None of us know the actual amount of members, not even Meredith, but I believe we have infiltrated every single part of Anvard’s society. It’s nice to meet you, but the sun has already been up for many hours, your companion has left, and so should we.”
“Hazel left?” Lucy asked, a vague hint of hurt lingering in her voice. “She didn’t even say goodbye. How rude,” she said with a sigh and crossed her arms.
Edmund reached over to his sister and patted her shoulder. A weird attempt at comforting his sister. “Don’t worry about that Lu, I saw her leave. She is riding home, and I have a feeling what she will come to learn is quite important. I also saw her send a letter with a Raven before going to bed. She has requested assistance from Danielle and Wind, and they will meet her in Calormen as soon as they are able to.”
It didn’t comfort Lucy nearly as much as she wanted it to, but she supposed it was alright.
“Well then, I have to leave. I have some parties to arrange, some clothes to drop off, and then I’ll meet you at sunset” Beth said, turned on her feet and swiftly left the room. Despite the odd introductions, Lucy still didn’t feel like she knew them. For all she knew they could leave them and give them up. Who would know? Certainly not Lucy. Maybe Edmund. He had a sixth sense for that sort of troubles.
Rachel walked after her, and looked over her shoulder, while talking to the siblings. “Come on you two, we have much to see while we still have light with us.”
They did indeed have much to see. In the back of Meredith’s stables was an old wooden hatch leading into the city’s underground river and water system. It was an infinite tunnel, like a maze Rachel told them and they spent hours inside it. Now and then they opened some hatches. One was close to the market square. “Excellent place to hide. Always hide in crowds Lu” Edmund had said, and then the hatch was closed.
The hatch was lowered and they ventured further into the maze. Lucy did her best to remember where to go. Tried to remember the directions. But all the tunnels looked the same. Wet and slippery grey stone, with no markers that gave any sort of direction. They continued further. “Eastwards” Rachel told them, but down here, Lucy’s sense of direction was non-existent, so she followed the two others. They went around a corner, then upwards a little and stopped udner what appeared to be a second hatch. “This one leads to the Royal stables. It’s busy at this point of day, so we cannot open it to look around. It is however intended that you use this route to return to Meredith this evening. The last party will be held at the Royal palace. Now, we must trudge on, there are other places to see down here”
And so they did. They returned back from that arm, and walked in another arm. They looked so alike to Lucy it would make her sick, but she thought she had a vague idea of where the halls lead. At least there had been a year engraved in the tunnel they came from, the one that led to Meredith. At least then she could always find her way back. Given that she found that arm of the maze.
How was Rachel even a part of what they referred to as Meredith’s secret task force. She was a minstrel at a tavern. So sure, she would hear the typical gossip from any town, but that would be about it, no? So why was she an asset. Lucy decided not to ask any of these, pretty rude questions, and kept walking, following Rachel’s back. Then, without stopping, Rachel just pointed up at a hatch located in a corner. “That goes up to the Tavern’s backyard. But we’re going somewhere else, so let’s go. We’ve only got one more hatch to see down here.”
How long did they walk down there, under the city? Lucy had no idea. Maybe it was miles upon miles. Maybe it was some furlongs. Even so she was getting bloody tired of it. “When will we get-“
“Here.” Rachel broke her off, and simultaneously answered Lucy’s question. If Lucy hadn’t been so revealed, she would probably have been an ounce offended.
Rachel opened the hatch, and used her arms to drag herself up and out. For a minstrel, she had some impressive muscles, pulling up her own weight like that. Edmund repeated Rachel’s actions exactly, and then the two lowered one hand each down, for Lucy to grab onto, so they could help her out.
“You must be joking” Lucy said, rolled her eyes, and used her own arms to grab onto the ledge, and pull herself over the edge. It had been somewhat clumsy, but she had done it. Did they think she had joined in on a secret mission to stop an assassination just to get helped all the time?
She looked around. They were standing just a couple of feet away from a brick wall, that went all the way up to the sky, or at least it appeared to do so from their location. They could look over the great big meadow that the city lied in the middle of.
“Right. Now. We’re outside the city, as you may have devised from the meadow and the brick wall. We’re not too far from the south entrance, and even closer to where some people have built ledges and other constructions on the outside of the wall. We will use those to get up on the wall. The rest of the slums will be seen from the rooftops”
Now she was joking. She had to be. But no. So they walked a couple hundred yards and stopped. Indeed. Some poles and ledges went from where they had stopped, all the way up the brick wall. Someone ought to take it down Lucy thought, but then they wouldn’t have been able to use it. Maybe she would hint King Lune about it, when all this business was finished with. Rachel went first, then Lucy, and then Edmund. They climbed up the brick wall, using ledges, poles and stones that stuck a lot further out of the brick than they ought to. Then there were no more things to climb on. They all stood on a horizontal beam, somehow attached to the wall looking up the last 10 yards.
Edmund commented on it first. “Rachel. I think you overestimate how high I can jump.”
“You cannot seriously expect me to climb on the bare surface of the wall Rachel” Lucy added, and they both looked at Rachel.
“No of course,” she said, stuck to fingers in her mouth and whistled. Three short whistles. “I’ve got this”
Down from the top one, two and three sturdy ropes were dropped, and they seemed to be just long enough. How considerate.
“So we are to climb?” Lucy asked, and took the rope in her hands.
“We are to climb” Rachel said with a grin, and used her rope as assistance to climb the wall. Lucy followed suit, scared to loose Rachel as soon as they went over the edge.
Edmund appeared to have been lost in thought, because he didn’t begin to climb till Lucy was halfway up, but he had far more experience than his sister in rock climbing so he wasn’t far behind her, when he too climbed over the edge.
It was spectacular. Best view in the entire area for sure. It was a panoramic view. Behind them was the great meadow, if they squinted to the east they would see a strip of blue, the ocean stretching across the coast. In front of them was the city. Houses stacked together, surrounded by the slimmest alleys. One broad main road stretched through the city from east to west. In the middle was a big square and probably market place. To the west the houses got larger, nicer and of a better quality. In the middle of the more decent houses, the Royal Palace, which they had been under was located, and it was truly more magnificent from this view, than below the ground.
“This view allows you to make a mental map of the area. Now, that right there is the tavern. I hope you can run, because we have to run over the rooftops to get there. Take a good breath and follow me”
That was the only warning they got. Maybe they should’ve gotten more, but they didn’t. Rachel jumped of the edge onto a roof and slid down, then she ran, and jumped and slid. She crossed rooftop and rooftop.
“SHIT,” Lucy yelled, jumped over to the same roof, and instead of sliding, ran down the roof, and followed Rachel as best she could. She ran over thin beams that lay from one rooftop to another, and rolled over rooftops. They ran downwards. The houses decreased in height, but still, keeping up with Rachel was hard, at the same time as they had no choice. Lucy dodged some clothes hanging on a thread, and ran as fast as her legs could bear here. Then she stomped her feet to the ground and stopped. She had reached the main road. It was several metres wide, and there was no chance in hell that she would make it across with a jump.
Filled with panic she looked around herself, trying to find some beam or similar that she could use to cross. There, to the left. She began to run again, and picked up her original pace. When she got to the beam, she got down on all four, and crawled over the beam. Don’t look down, don’t look down, don’t do it Lu. She got over, and saw Rachel waiting some houses away. The run over there was not very problematic and she reached her in less time than it had taken her to cross the main road.
“WHAT WAS THAT,” Lucy growled, desperately trying to catch her breath. Edmund arrived after her, seeming a lot less fatigued than Lucy. Cheater.
Rachel just shrugged. “It’s what I do in my past time. We locals call in parkour, they have similar styles in Calormen called free running, if that’s familiar to you”
“Of course it isn’t bloody familiar. Who spends their time running on roofs?” Lucy said and sighed. “Alright. Sorry, didn’t mean it like that. But where are we?”
Edmund viewed the area. “I’d say we’re pretty close to, or maybe even on top of the tavern. The sun is setting far into the horizon, and we are to meet Meredith soon”
“The latter. This is the Tavern’s rooftop, which quite conveniently, has a hatch leading to a staircase. No jumping down from roofs. Meredith would surely kill me in my sleep.” Rachel said with a laugh, walked over to a wooden hatch in the middle of the roof and opened it. “Come along” she said, and walked down the stairs.
Edmund and Lucy followed down, and just at the end of the stairs, some bar maid stood with two sets of clothing and directed them to a room of their own where they changed into far more noble attire.
Lucy looked at herself in the mirror. It was alright. Her dress was decent enough, a lot lighter than those in Narnian fashion, which served her well in the heat. She worked on her hair do for a short while, making sure it could play the part as well as the dress and then walked downstairs.
“It’s obvious. I am the smart ass, we all know this” That was Beth’s voice, nice, she must’ve arrived.
“And I am pretty sure no one would argue with me being the badass,” said Rachel.
“And what does that make you, Meredith?” came the somewhat mocking voice Lucy recognized belonging to her idiot brother. He would start a war with that damn sass.
“Meredith? That’s easy, she is the great ass” Beth said sniggering and then came a familiar sound of a high five.
She stood on top of the stairs and looked down at the four waiting for her, they didn’t appear to notice her just yet.
“And me then? What am I?” Edmund asked, with noticeable pride in his voice. Now, time to make yourself seen Lucy.
“A jackass, Ed”