An Aimless War (Greatest Thief 2)

Part One - Family - Chapter One

It was Lothian Dusk when the two guards appeared at the door of my cell.

I could tell because the sunlight had just stopped streaming in through my little barred window. Sometime during the last year I had taken to watching the window, as if it would help me keep track of time. In the beginning I had kept a tally, scratching lines into the stone wall for every day that passed. Then I started to miss days, or count days twice, and I stopped tallying. Every day was the same.

Guards always arrived around Lothian Dusk to toss a battered plate or bowl of food in my direction. Half of it usually spilled onto the dirty floor, but I had never been a picky eater and I didn't care about dignity, so I always scooped up as much as I could. And all things considered, regularly having two meals a day wasn't all that bad. Being locked in a solitary cell wasn't that bad. The prison was cold and dirty but I was used to that.

At the beginning, my fear had been nearly overwhelming. Then that had dissipated, and after days of trying to think of a way out, followed by days of prayers to every god and goddess I thought could help, then days of trying to find any little thing to keep myself busy, boredom had settled in. Every day was the same.

Which was why, when the guards didn't slide an old bowl across the floor towards me, I was momentarily intrigued by the change. I sat up and turned to face them as they stepped into the cell. Then all at once I understood what was happening. There was only one reason they would be coming into the cell.

The fear came back. Overwhelming, freezing my racing thoughts. I drew back, huddling against the wall like it could somehow protect me. I wanted to stay in the cell. Being bored wasn't that bad. I liked the cell.

One of the guards easily yanked me to my feet by grabbing my right wrist. I'd broken that wrist before all of this, and absently I was happy to realize that his rough manhandling didn't hurt any more than it should have. Maybe it had healed properly. I watched blankly as he slipped a key into my heavy manacles. When they fell to the floor with a loud clang, I could have moved. A year ago I would have. Instead I watched him snap new, lighter manacles around my wrists.

They led me out of the cell and down a long corridor. We passed other prisoners, mostly men or boys, safe in their cells. Some of them, probably the newer ones, called out prayers for me. I heard them, but I didn't hear them. I couldn't think. I couldn't make my thoughts come together.

When we finally reached the end of the hallway, the guard leading me tugged me to a sudden stop. For a second my mind cleared. Then a filthy hood was pulled over my head and I felt the string cinch lightly around my neck to keep it in place.

When the hood was pulled off of my head the first thing I saw was the sky—the bright red of a sunset glowing around the Cliffs of Loth. Then I saw the crowd, and the wooden platform I was standing on. The trapdoor at my feet and the rope dangling in front of my eyes. Then I heard the crowd, as my senses almost came back to me one at a time.

We were in the upper city marketplace. There were still stalls set up, selling food or clothing or jewellery, as if nothing interesting was happening. Plenty of people had turned their attention to the gallows. Not far off, another wooden platform raised above the crowd. The king and his daughters sat there, looking as bored as they might have in a meeting room.

I wasn't the only person who was about to die. There were three other people standing on the platform, two men and a woman. I wondered if I looked as disheveled and scared as they did.

Someone started talking, but I didn't really listen. A guard had stepped up to our line. One by one, he slipped nooses over the other prisoners' heads. When he got to me, I closed my eyes. There was no fighting him. There was nothing to do but pray that Siour would take my soul in his chariot and Volava would welcome me into her underworld kingdom. Maybe my mother would be waiting with her.