Our Lady of the Islands by Shannon Page & Jay Lake

Author:Shannon Page & Jay Lake [Page, Shannon & Lake, Jay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Per Aspera Press
Published: 2014-12-09T10:00:00+00:00

Reikos shoveled the last spoonful of this evening’s ‘dinner’ into his mouth, scorning the sergeant’s empty promises. They’d received the same watery broth and rotten vegetables last night and tonight as they’d been given every other night so far. If there’d been any improvements made in their situation here, he had yet to detect them. “Probably hasn’t given us a thought since he stepped back into the light,” Reikos muttered to himself.

“What?” asked Pino, finishing his own slops across the room.

Reikos shook his head. “Wasn’t talking to you, lad.”

He was doing that more often now, talking aloud, but not to Pino. How much longer, he wondered, before he too preferred dying to rotting slowly in the bug-infested dark like this?

“What’s that?” asked Pino.

“I didn’t say anything … Did I?” Reikos turned to find the boy staring through their bars, head cocked uncertainly.

“Listen.” Pino set his trencher down and went to peer through the bars, down the rough-hewn passage toward the staircase. “Someone’s coming. Lots of them, I think.”

Reikos heard it too now. Boots on stone, echoing loudly down the long staircase above them. He went to join the boy. Clearly not just their jailer coming back for some reason. Were they to be hung at last? He dared not hope they might finally be freed. In such hopes lay madness.

The footfalls grew louder, joined by the soft clink of armor — or chains perhaps — and a voice he recalled almost at once, and did not think he wanted to be hearing again now.

“I can still make this easier for you, Sergeant,” came the Census Taker’s foppish whine. “Just tell me who those ladies really are.”

“I’ve already told you, sir. A dressmaker and a maid, as far as I know. If you’ll tell me what makes you think otherwise, perhaps I can be of more help.”

And that was Ennias’s voice. Was he coming to improve their situation finally, Reikos wondered, or to bring them some new grief?

“Stop being obstinate,” growled the Census Taker. “I am to believe that Cleone fell ill just in time for you to find such a distinguished and convenient replacement for her — and then a wealthy, discreet dressmaker I’ve never heard of either, practically waiting at my gates?”

“Cleone steered me to Freda, sir; and you sent me to get the dressmaker.”

“Who also falls suddenly too ill to speak with me before she leaves? And who my cousin, the famous healer, somehow neglects to cure of this affliction? If I were as stupid as you seem to think me, Sergeant, perhaps you would be the Census Taker now, and I would be the mercenary soldier on his way into a prison cell.”

“Well I’ll be a little purple sea monkey …” Reikos murmured in astonishment.

Pino turned to him, wide-eyed. “They’re arresting him now?”

Reikos shook his head, unsure, as torch-cast shadows filled the staircase landing.

“Do as you feel you must, of course, my lord,” said Ennias. “But when you’ve had a chance to check this out, I believe you’ll find you’ve been mistaken.

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