Chapter Eleven
1024 Words
The Tavern was well lit by lanterns hung at almost every corner despite being too dark outside. The small window behind the tavern lady showed a glimpse of a moonless night. The sky was covered with gray clouds again and the chilly breeze hitting my face felt like it was pushing me away, away from my path. But maybe it was all my inner fear which was getting on my nerves.
"Could you get a glass of water", I asked in a shivering voice.
The lady raised her eyebrow and asked one of the servers to fetch water for me. No one was kind here, you could be a boy or girl...
Looking by my side, I noticed the lady flashing a smile at the knight. I was wrong, the treatment was different if you were an official and not a commoner like me. Much precisely a girl here.
I had been constantly tapping on the ground when the server placed a dirty glass filled with water in front of me. Without giving it much of a thought I drank it and immediately regretted it. It tasted like dirt and I wanted to puke.
Not everyone was like Maria, not every woman was going to be kind to me. I should learn this sooner.
Placing the glass back, I stood up. didn't have much time. Checking my bag for the pennies, I started leaving the tavern. No one cared when I entered and no one bothered to stop me as I was leaving. But it felt wrong in some way. Even turned behind, I could feel gazes on my back, some whispering, while some loud enough for me to hear.
"They don't think as they belong here"
"Is that the daughter of the traitor"
I crashed the note given in my hand and kept the rest of the parchments in my back and quickened my steps toward the exit. They might not arrest me for coming into a tavern but they might mistreat me based on what they thought my father had done.
Shutting the door behind me, I placed the cardigan on my head and looked around. My heart was pounding against my chest and my legs were shaking. I didn't know why? Was it the cold, the fear, or some intuition which I was ignoring?
A dark shadow went in the alley just adjacent to the Tavern and I saw the fingers indicating for me to follow. I nodded my head and checked the small knife I had kept with me just in case things went south.
I could feel a few more movements, but they were coming from my side. Maybe someone had followed me from the tavern. Someone else might have come to know that I had some money.
Taking huge steps all while looking to my back, to my side, with my chest panting, and legs shaking, I was finally able to reach the alley.
I whimpered like a street cat and stepped back. The man who stood in front of me was dressed in black attire with a black robe covering his face. The leaves rustled by my feet as the wind took its pace and blew strongly. Keeping a tight hold on my bag, I started shifting back as the man started approaching me but suddenly my back was hit by something strong and I jumped.
Two more men had joined the alley. One in the front and one behind me and one stood at the end of the alley, lightening a smoke. I gulped the saliva and shook my head. This was wrong, so wrong.
"What do you know about the murder?"
The menacing laugh that the man in front of me left made me shiver to my spine. I could now clearly see his crooked front two teeth and a scar across his face. He looked like he was in his 30s, while the other man had no such specific feature, he looked just as scary as the man in front of me.
"This little fool believed I had an idea about what had happened"
"So gullible"
I was about to run when the man behind me jumped on me and took away my bag, while the first man kept laughing.
"Give me back my bag"
I launched myself at the second man as he tossed the bag to the first one, and joined in laughing with him.
"It's 1000 pennies" He checked my bag and laughed again, pushing me against the wall and leaning close to my face he whispered, "Maybe he was killed for 1000 pennies too, I don't think his life was worth more"
I shoved him back with all the force I had and started to hit his face with both my hands, but before he could even register any pain, the other one picked me up and threw me against the wall.
"Let's take him and sell his body parts, they would be worth something in the market"
As I slid down the wall, with heavy pain on my back, all three of them started kicking me one by one, making me fall on my back to the ground.
One of them came closer and took off my cardigan. As the robe was off, my hair fell loose over my face. The three men started laughing again by this time in surprise.
"Oh she is a girl"
I placed one hand on the ground and tried to get up when the first one kicked me again on my stomach, the other two following him and kicking me on my back and legs.
The pain was nowhere and everywhere. I didn't know where all it hurt because it was hurting everywhere. My knees were scraped, my back was sore, my stomach ached and there was blood dripping from my lips.
There were cuts and bruises all over my hands front and back but I was laying down conscious on the hard ground.
I coughed up blood and tried to get up when I felt the last blow on the back of my head and everything in front of me went blurry.
- Writer
