Grenfell ... Part 4

After the fires had been put out Stephen came to the messenger’s guild looking for Adam. He had calmed the crowd down and ordered conscripts into the city guard. Boys barely old enough to grow hair on their faces were being added to the numbers. The guard had gained nearly half of the cities male population shortly after the riot.

Sven came down into the basement chamber where the four messengers were meeting. His voice cracked as he told the four Stephen was here to meet with them.

“He must see you, he cannot wait too long in the front room before coming to look for you” Sven said.

The basement chamber was a room only for messengers. This had been the same since the very beginnings of the guild. It was sanctuary for a weary messenger; it was almost 20 feet underground, mostly cold but in the hot days of the growing season is was a welcomed rest. Only messengers and the odd apprentice were allowed in the inner sanctum of the guild.

“We should go,” Galen spoke first.

“No, not right away” Adam said. “We still have more to discuss. It will not be long before the army at Macote will be on the march. We still have a lot of preparations to make. Donald is working with our forces in Colodia; so at least our home town will be prepared.”

Galen grew anxious. “Great, we don’t want to keep Stephen waiting.”

“You haven’t changed a bit” Adam looked briefly at Galen and continued. “Macote is not heavily fortified. There are a few week links in their guard. If I can get in, we could get a small band of assassins inside.”

“Do you know of any assassins?” Dustin jumped in before Galen made another reference to seeing Stephen.

“There are bands of thieves all over the place.” Adam replied. “Each band has a leader, the leader is an assassin. These leaders never show themselves unless they encounter a messenger that has reduced their troop on more than one occasion. It’s rare that you would run into the same rogue band of thieves more than once but it has happened before.

“Galen, since you are so keen on not keeping the magistrate waiting” Adam continued. “Why don’t you go see what the old man wants? Dustin and I will decide where to look for these elusive assassins. Draven, you should go with Galen as well.”

The two nodded in acceptance and disappeared up the stairs. Adam and Dustin were left in the cool well lit basement. They waited until they could not hear any more footstep ascending the stairs and both were quiet.
“If you listen closely you can hear what they are talking about.” Adam said as he got up from the table and walked over to a peculiar miss placed pole.

Adam pulled on the pole and up in the ceiling Dustin could see a light shining through a small hole. The smoke and the dust in the air were illuminated, creating unique patterns through the seemingly stale cellar air. Adam turned to Dustin and put his finger up to his lips as if to say ‘be quiet’ and they both were still and listened for voices upstairs.

They could hear Stephen shuffling around upstairs as he waited for Adam or a messenger to appear. The magistrate never came alone, he was always accompanied by his aide; a young woman no older than twenty. Adam and Dustin could not hear the magistrate’s aide; she must be quieter than a mouse. The magistrate’s aide did not speak at all in public; it was not her place.

Come back next week for more ....