Vagabond Mistress : Requiem

Chapter 6 : Rescue

Heldia had not intended to run that night. She had intended to kill.

The plan had been simple for ten years, which was why it had survived. Get the resin. Get the key. Get her sisters out of the locked annex behind the scullery where the Viscount kept the younger girls when buyers came. She had kept the clay jar with the Erax resin wrapped in oilcloth under the loose stone behind the laundry chute for three weeks, checking it every night after the lamps were out.

That night the courtyard was loud. Viscount Jerren di Galum had guests. Men from the Free City with heavy coin and heavy boots, men who laughed too loud and asked to see the merchandise. The guard rotation had been doubled but also drunk. That was her window.

She found Irina and Erina exactly where she thought they would be.

The annex door was oak and iron. Two guards.

"Seventeen," one of them said when he saw her approaching with a bucket. He was young, his helmet off, his hair damp. "What are you doing here? You are not on this floor."

Heldia set the bucket down. Her fair skin looked ghostly under the single torch. Her long cyan braid with the curly pony at the end swayed when she moved. Her red eyes did not blink.

"Master Rooga said to bring water for the guests," she said. Her voice was even. "He said the girls need to be washed."

The younger guard frowned. "Rooga did not tell us."

"The young master does not tell dogs when he kicks them either," Heldia said quietly. "Do you want me to go back and tell him you refused?"

The older guard, a man with a missing tooth, laughed and waved his hand. "Sure, but first let me dump something.. on your Prized Chalice.. hehe"

*sigh*

"...Ugh, damn it" she frowned

*slides*

*slides*

both of them unwind their belt and getting out their Soft Pipe.

"Hehe.. now, this is what i call a shift"

*fwips*

the younger guard turns her body back, rubbed her undies and ready to plunge her through the gap between.

but the older one pushed him and said "Young people these days.. tsk"

*Thwack*

"Nnggghhh-- quicker" she said in haste.

"hehe.. shut up" he said.

*Thwack*

*thwack*

*thump*

*splurts*

"pheewwww.. thanks for the dump" he said after reaching Overgauge, followed by clapping my fair lower fluffy afterwards

the younger one moves forward, swipe me face to face and hold my thighs with his hands until i fully carried midair.

then he moved forward until my back hit the wall

"Ughh.. f**k what are you intend to do, quicker"

he pulls me lower, letting the tip of his Solid Baton enters my Tomb, lift me up and down, sometimes the tip plunge deeper, sometimes grazed the upper meadow.

"Tch.." she clicked her tongue.

his lips munched my juicy pear lustfully

then tried to reach my lips. but i evaded it.

he tried again, i still evaded it.

he didn't give up, tried again, i still evaded it.

he got riled up, slurping my juicy pear again.

i let my guard down, when i looked below, he catch my lips with his. forcefully pushing my head towards the wall, and get a taste of whats inside.

"lou lastard" she tried to say you bastard.

*thump*

*thwack*

*thump*

*thump*

"Mmmpwaahh--!!" he let go of my lips, moving again to the juicy pear.

*thwack*

"here i come" he said.

"Ngghhh---" she tried halt her speech.

"HAAAAA--"

*splurts*

he finally let me down.

"Let her in. What harm can she do anyway?"

Heldia picked up the bucket again and stepped past them. The younger guard's hand brushed her waist as she passed. She did not flinch.

Inside, the annex smelled of damp straw and cheap soap. Four pallets. Irina was sitting up, Erina was standing by the small barred window. Both of them had grown in the last year. Irina's hair was cut short now, choppy, because she had cut it herself to stop Rooga from pulling it. Erina kept hers long and tied.

Irina saw her first.

"Heldia?" she whispered.

Erina turned. Her eyes went wide.

"Sister," Erina breathed.

Heldia put a finger to her lips. She set the bucket down with a soft thud and knelt. She pulled the hairpin from her braid. It was not a hairpin. It was a thin file she had stolen from Rohan's delivery crate two years ago.

"Listen to me," she whispered, fast and low. "We have less than ten minutes. The guests are drunk. The north postern gate guard is asleep, I gave him dreamroot tea in his stew. We are leaving tonight. Both of you. No arguments."

Irina crawled forward and grabbed her hands. Her grip was strong. For all that she was the ranged type, her fingers were calloused from drawing bowstrings in secret.

"You got it?" Irina asked, looking at her face. "The resin?"

Heldia nodded. "In the laundry. But we will not need it if we do this clean."

"What is the plan?" Erina asked. Her voice was always softer than her twin's, but it did not shake.

"We walk out," Heldia said. "If they stop us, I stop them. You two run to the back wall where the mortar is loose. You remember the spot? Near the old kennel?"

"Yes," Erina said.

"Rohan is waiting beyond the ditch," Heldia said. "If I do not come in five minutes, you keep running. Do not wait for me. Do you understand me, Erina? Irina?"

"No," Irina said immediately. "We are not leaving you."

"You will," Heldia said, and her red eyes hardened. "That is an order from your commander. Remember? You saluted me with a rock once. So obey me now."

Irina stared at her, jaw tight. Then she nodded once, sharp.

"Good," Heldia said. She stood and pulled the thin blanket off the pallet and wrapped it around Erina's shoulders. "Stay behind me. Do not speak unless I tell you to."

They slipped out. The two guards were now both sitting, sharing a skin of wine.

"Done already?" the older one asked.

Heldia did not answer. She stepped close to him and before he could stand she brought the edge of the empty wooden bucket up hard under his chin.

*thunk*

The man made a choked sound and fell back. The younger guard shouted and reached for his short sword.

Heldia was already moving.

For ten years she had carried two buckets when one would do. She had run the long way. She had circulated mana until her teeth bled. She was no longer apprentice stage with no skills. She had pushed into knight stage last winter in the washroom when she had shattered a stone with a single punch and felt the mana respond like a second heartbeat.

to be continued..