02-03-2017, 07:11 PM
Carmelita waited until she heard the creaking of the wooden chair outside before continuing to talk softly.
“Sera, how long have you been trapped here?”
The girl continued to work as she talked, tossing smelly blankets into a basket nearby.
“I’m not sure. A few months? It’s not like I can measure time by the passing of the sun, and they took my watch when they captured me.”
Carmelita gave a noise of understanding, shifting out of the Sera’s way as she took unsoiled bedding from a pile by the door.
“How many people are held captive here?” Carmelita asked, frowning beneath her cloak. “What sort of state are they in?”
“There’s around twenty of us. There are several old people and sick kids who are left to lie in the prisoner area all day, and then we’re split sort of evenly between mining and serving. Most of us are half-starved as it is.”
Carmelita winced. That many people would be impossible to protect while also taking on the bandits, let alone the fact that some of them were immobile. Using her eyepiece to begin writing notes, she asked her next question.
“How often do the Silver Hand go out on raids? Do they have enough people to watch you constantly?”
Sera gave a thoughtful noise as she tugged a blanket into place.
“Scar leads a group out every four days or so, usually for at least a couple of nights. When he does, the guards end up locking us all up in the evening rather than staggering our sleep schedule like they do when they’re all here.”
Carmelita handed her the blanket she needed next, and the brown haired girl stared for a moment, transfixed at the sight of the blanket disappearing and reappearing again. Shaking her head, a little unnerved, the girl took it with a quiet mumble of thanks.
“Is there anywhere with a locked door?” Carmelita continued. “If there’s somewhere you could hole up…”
Sera shook her head.
“There’s nowhere that I know of.”
“Not even a vault?” Carmelita pressed. “Where do they store their ill-gotten gains?”
“There’s a passage we’re not allowed to go down, down near the mines. There’s a chute for dropping the coal and opals in, but there’s a guard there at all times and there’s some strange noises that echo up sometimes. Some of the Silver bastards go down there with food every day, and I’ve seen Scar take loot down and bring loot out on occasion.”
“Coal and opal? Interesting… Sera, I’ll visit you and Malon again this evening. For now, I need to go investigate the rest of the camp.”
Sera gave a nod, before raising her hand to stay Carmelita.
“Before you go… can I see what you look like?”
Carmelita paused, weighing the decision carefully, but the decision was taken from her as the sound of footsteps coming towards the door caused her ears to twitch.
“Sorry,” she said, before the door opened and she slipped past the female bandit who had come to grab a coat and padded out down the corridor.
---
Carmelita’s first priority was to check the main entrance. She’d got a glimpse of the gates hidden in the hillside as they’d entered, and something had struck her as off. Sure enough, as she walked unnoticed through the main cavern she found herself looking at the large gates in front of her, the wooden construction shot with small lines of metal.
Upon getting closer, she could see it for what it really was. A large brass arm, inscribed with some shimmering blue runes, sat inside a wooden covering between the left gate and the connecting wall, and Carmelita closed in to see that there was a large pipe buried into the earth nearby. Where it went she didn’t know, but she suspected that this was how the mound of earth that lay in front of the gates could be moved by so few bandits.
Looking around the base of the wall did not reveal anything that seemed like it might open the gate, so Carmelita took a risk and climbed the stairs to the top of the wall. Here there was no space to step aside if a bandit was walking down the walkway: on one side was a small wooden balustrade, on the other the palisade, its earthen covering and the beams that supported the overhang.
Walking along the top of the wall, she could smell the fresh air blowing through the peepholes that punctuated the wall. Peering through one, the midday sun shone weakly down on the trees nearby. A light drizzle dripped onto the tufts of grass that clung to the thin soil exterior, and Carmelita smiled for a moment to see a ladybug seek cover under a dock leaf.
A cough from further along the wall drew her attention and she crept towards it. She found herself within arm’s reach of a bandit who sat in an alcove, staring out of the small slits at the outside world. His cloak drawn tight around him, the man nursed a small mug in his hands. A small blue rune glowed dimly on the side, and steam rose from the surface.
Moving quietly along to the next alcove, Carmelita found what she’d been hoping for. A brass lever stood in the alcove next to the bandit who stood guard, waxing her bowstring between glances at the outside world.
Carmelita looked carefully at the mechanism. It appeared that the lever was connected to a similar pipe to the one she’d seen down by the gate, and she assumed that this was how the gate was controlled. With the information she needed acquired, she turned to go back the way she came.
The bandit woman she’d seen in the kitchen, Cutty, was making her way along the walkway, no doubt here to relieve one of the guards. Carmelita turned and made her way further along the wall, hoping that she was here to relieve the bow-toting woman.
Cutty stopped, exchanging words with the woman in the alcove. Carmelita relaxed slightly.
After a few sentences, the two bandits laughed at some joke. Cutty turned and continued along the walkway. Carmelita turned and continued to hurry along the top of the wall.
At the end, a single alcove held a third bandit. Carmelita looked back at Cutty, then at the third guard, before taking a risk and heaving herself over the side of the balustrade. She hung there, arms straining, as Cutty approached the final alcove.
“Hey, Matches, I’m here to take my shift. Anything?”
“Barely anything. You know when Scar’s divvying up the gains from the raid yesterday?”
Carmelita’s arms began to burn as Cutty leant against the balustrade inches from her hands.
“No idea. Hope it’s soon, I’ve nearly got enough to buy that rare stuff Four-Eyes needs to make the disguise amulets. Then I’ll be able to join in when Teeth and Beast decide to go waste themselves down in Camelot.”
“I don’t know why you’d want to, Cutty. Me, I’m saving up until I’ve got a small fortune. Then all I need to do is convert it to Om, cross the Nexus and live in luxury on the sunny beach of Costa. No fuss, no worrying about looking over my shoulder or keeping some amulet safe. Just a long holiday.”
“Yeah right. You’d spend it all in the first week then be back here within a month. Face it, Matches, you’ve got all the money sense of a hermit.”
“Eh, just get on watch.”
Arms trembling, Carmelita watched as Matches and Cutty exchanged places. Without a backwards glance, Matches headed back down the walkway, and Carmelita pulled herself up and onto the walkway as quietly as she could. She ducked swiftly as Cutty poked her head out and yelled after Matches, lying flat on the floor as the bandit sung out above her.
“Hey Matches! You forgot your spyglass!”
“It’s not mine, it’s Ginny’s. She said to leave it there.”
“Got it.”
As Cutty turned back into the alcove, Carmelita crawled along the walkway until she was certain it was safe to stand up. She moved as quickly as she could to the stairs, descending them two at a time. Seeing no-one around at the bottom, she gave a sigh of relief and took a minute to regain her composure.
Once she recovered, Carmelita turned back to the mine and headed for her hideout. That had been way too close.
“Sera, how long have you been trapped here?”
The girl continued to work as she talked, tossing smelly blankets into a basket nearby.
“I’m not sure. A few months? It’s not like I can measure time by the passing of the sun, and they took my watch when they captured me.”
Carmelita gave a noise of understanding, shifting out of the Sera’s way as she took unsoiled bedding from a pile by the door.
“How many people are held captive here?” Carmelita asked, frowning beneath her cloak. “What sort of state are they in?”
“There’s around twenty of us. There are several old people and sick kids who are left to lie in the prisoner area all day, and then we’re split sort of evenly between mining and serving. Most of us are half-starved as it is.”
Carmelita winced. That many people would be impossible to protect while also taking on the bandits, let alone the fact that some of them were immobile. Using her eyepiece to begin writing notes, she asked her next question.
“How often do the Silver Hand go out on raids? Do they have enough people to watch you constantly?”
Sera gave a thoughtful noise as she tugged a blanket into place.
“Scar leads a group out every four days or so, usually for at least a couple of nights. When he does, the guards end up locking us all up in the evening rather than staggering our sleep schedule like they do when they’re all here.”
Carmelita handed her the blanket she needed next, and the brown haired girl stared for a moment, transfixed at the sight of the blanket disappearing and reappearing again. Shaking her head, a little unnerved, the girl took it with a quiet mumble of thanks.
“Is there anywhere with a locked door?” Carmelita continued. “If there’s somewhere you could hole up…”
Sera shook her head.
“There’s nowhere that I know of.”
“Not even a vault?” Carmelita pressed. “Where do they store their ill-gotten gains?”
“There’s a passage we’re not allowed to go down, down near the mines. There’s a chute for dropping the coal and opals in, but there’s a guard there at all times and there’s some strange noises that echo up sometimes. Some of the Silver bastards go down there with food every day, and I’ve seen Scar take loot down and bring loot out on occasion.”
“Coal and opal? Interesting… Sera, I’ll visit you and Malon again this evening. For now, I need to go investigate the rest of the camp.”
Sera gave a nod, before raising her hand to stay Carmelita.
“Before you go… can I see what you look like?”
Carmelita paused, weighing the decision carefully, but the decision was taken from her as the sound of footsteps coming towards the door caused her ears to twitch.
“Sorry,” she said, before the door opened and she slipped past the female bandit who had come to grab a coat and padded out down the corridor.
---
Carmelita’s first priority was to check the main entrance. She’d got a glimpse of the gates hidden in the hillside as they’d entered, and something had struck her as off. Sure enough, as she walked unnoticed through the main cavern she found herself looking at the large gates in front of her, the wooden construction shot with small lines of metal.
Upon getting closer, she could see it for what it really was. A large brass arm, inscribed with some shimmering blue runes, sat inside a wooden covering between the left gate and the connecting wall, and Carmelita closed in to see that there was a large pipe buried into the earth nearby. Where it went she didn’t know, but she suspected that this was how the mound of earth that lay in front of the gates could be moved by so few bandits.
Looking around the base of the wall did not reveal anything that seemed like it might open the gate, so Carmelita took a risk and climbed the stairs to the top of the wall. Here there was no space to step aside if a bandit was walking down the walkway: on one side was a small wooden balustrade, on the other the palisade, its earthen covering and the beams that supported the overhang.
Walking along the top of the wall, she could smell the fresh air blowing through the peepholes that punctuated the wall. Peering through one, the midday sun shone weakly down on the trees nearby. A light drizzle dripped onto the tufts of grass that clung to the thin soil exterior, and Carmelita smiled for a moment to see a ladybug seek cover under a dock leaf.
A cough from further along the wall drew her attention and she crept towards it. She found herself within arm’s reach of a bandit who sat in an alcove, staring out of the small slits at the outside world. His cloak drawn tight around him, the man nursed a small mug in his hands. A small blue rune glowed dimly on the side, and steam rose from the surface.
Moving quietly along to the next alcove, Carmelita found what she’d been hoping for. A brass lever stood in the alcove next to the bandit who stood guard, waxing her bowstring between glances at the outside world.
Carmelita looked carefully at the mechanism. It appeared that the lever was connected to a similar pipe to the one she’d seen down by the gate, and she assumed that this was how the gate was controlled. With the information she needed acquired, she turned to go back the way she came.
The bandit woman she’d seen in the kitchen, Cutty, was making her way along the walkway, no doubt here to relieve one of the guards. Carmelita turned and made her way further along the wall, hoping that she was here to relieve the bow-toting woman.
Cutty stopped, exchanging words with the woman in the alcove. Carmelita relaxed slightly.
After a few sentences, the two bandits laughed at some joke. Cutty turned and continued along the walkway. Carmelita turned and continued to hurry along the top of the wall.
At the end, a single alcove held a third bandit. Carmelita looked back at Cutty, then at the third guard, before taking a risk and heaving herself over the side of the balustrade. She hung there, arms straining, as Cutty approached the final alcove.
“Hey, Matches, I’m here to take my shift. Anything?”
“Barely anything. You know when Scar’s divvying up the gains from the raid yesterday?”
Carmelita’s arms began to burn as Cutty leant against the balustrade inches from her hands.
“No idea. Hope it’s soon, I’ve nearly got enough to buy that rare stuff Four-Eyes needs to make the disguise amulets. Then I’ll be able to join in when Teeth and Beast decide to go waste themselves down in Camelot.”
“I don’t know why you’d want to, Cutty. Me, I’m saving up until I’ve got a small fortune. Then all I need to do is convert it to Om, cross the Nexus and live in luxury on the sunny beach of Costa. No fuss, no worrying about looking over my shoulder or keeping some amulet safe. Just a long holiday.”
“Yeah right. You’d spend it all in the first week then be back here within a month. Face it, Matches, you’ve got all the money sense of a hermit.”
“Eh, just get on watch.”
Arms trembling, Carmelita watched as Matches and Cutty exchanged places. Without a backwards glance, Matches headed back down the walkway, and Carmelita pulled herself up and onto the walkway as quietly as she could. She ducked swiftly as Cutty poked her head out and yelled after Matches, lying flat on the floor as the bandit sung out above her.
“Hey Matches! You forgot your spyglass!”
“It’s not mine, it’s Ginny’s. She said to leave it there.”
“Got it.”
As Cutty turned back into the alcove, Carmelita crawled along the walkway until she was certain it was safe to stand up. She moved as quickly as she could to the stairs, descending them two at a time. Seeing no-one around at the bottom, she gave a sigh of relief and took a minute to regain her composure.
Once she recovered, Carmelita turned back to the mine and headed for her hideout. That had been way too close.