Lowborn Ch. 04

After a bit more walking, she said, "Here it is."

Mindblind didn't see anything but more grass. It was only when Raven squatted down that he noticed a very weathered wooden door much like the entrance to the root cellar where she had led him when they first met.

"Found this place when I was high-tailing it out of town. 'Bout got caught pinching a dagger from the jail. Should have known better, but I was in a wild mood." She pulled a blade from its sheath at her hip. "Worth it, though. Never seems to go dull."

Raven put away her knife and tugged on the iron ring that served as a handle for the door into the earth, but it didn't budge. "Damn. Grass is thick as hell. Give me a hand."

Mindblind grabbed the ring and pulled, easily opening the door, and uprooting large clumps of grass in the process.

"Old storm shelter. I'd bet that there isn't a soul that even knows it's here any more."

Raven descended steps carved directly from the earth, surfaced with warped wooden planks. Mindblind followed a few steps behind, as the way was too narrow for more than one to pass without both scraping the sides. The walls of the stairwell were lined with bricks that looked quite old, but were holding up in the subterranean environment.

Raven reached into a niche at the bottom of the stairs before Mindblind's shoulders were even beneath the earth, and withdrew a torch. "Thought about using this place as one of my kips, but decided against it. Still left a few things here, though." She struck flint to steel, and the torch took the spark after a few sputtering attempts. "Close the door."

Mindblind grabbed the ragged rope attached to the ring on the inside of the door and pulled. He braced the door with his hand to keep it from slamming, and then ducked down to let it settle fully closed.

She waited with the torch until he reached her. Much like the stairs, the underground room had a wooden floor, and benches carved into the walls with wood seats. Niches for storage lined the entire room. Mindblind assumed that the soil must have a lot of clay in it, in order for the obviously old structure to have remained intact. The place was too large for a single family, and had probably served as a community shelter at one time. Considering the frequency of tornadoes on the plains, it was a wise idea.

A sconce stood in the middle of the room, and Raven slipped the torch into it. She then sat down heavily on one of the benches, and let out a great sigh.

"Look, Raven..." Mindblind began as he sat down, and then had to scoot a little closer to her because the warped edge of the board seat had jammed into his ass.

"No, we walked all the way out here, and I owe you, like I said."

She leaned forward, put her elbows on her knees, and cupped her chin in her hands. "Thought Yani'd found a way out, a few years before the old man died on us. She caught this guy's eye on the way through town, and he caught hers. She even forgot to pick his pocket. People told me that they just stood there staring at each other for the longest time, before he finally introduced himself.

"I resented her a bit, I guess. She spent more time in his fancy house than she did with me. Always wearing nice clothes and giddy." She paused and rolled her eyes. "Went on for a year, and he'd even hinted that he was going to marry her."

"Guessing he didn't."

Raven let out a derisive laugh. "Nope. She got a nice rude awakening one morning. He had a few Draxnians that took care of his garden and the house. She woke up to one of them screaming at her pretty man. The Draxnian was accusing him of fucking his wife.

"She knew as soon as he offered gold to the guy for him to forget about it that it was true. She walked out of the bedroom to confront him, and saw the Draxnian stab him in the chest.

"I guess the guy went crazy, and just kept stabbing. They found the Draxnian wandering down the street, and followed the bloody footprints back to the house. Yani was just sitting on the floor in a pool of blood, staring at him."

Mindblind guessed, "She thought that guy that night was the Draxnian that did the killing, huh?"

"Or her rich boy that was fucking around on her. I've heard her screaming his name when she goes after someone, too. She bawled for a couple of days and told me the story, and then wouldn't get out of bed for a couple of weeks. After that..."

Raven sat back up. "She started fucking anything with a dick, and getting stranger by the day. After she attacked a couple of guys in the middle of fucking them and damn near got hauled off to jail, I talked to this healer. He suggested those leaves in tea, and... Well, you've seen the difference."

"Least you figured out something," Mindblind said, at a loss for words in the silence that followed.

"Just enough to keep her from being a danger to herself and me." Her shoulders slumped, and her voice dropped to just above a whisper. "I haven't really seen my sister since she quit crying right after it happened. She just... Went away."

With every new revelation, the picture of Raven's life grew clearer — and even more horrifying — in Mindblind's head. "We'll get her back to the Cat, where she'll be safe."

Her voice still low, and completely lacking in the confidence that usually permeated her every word, Raven said, "That's what I thought when I took her there. So much for safe, huh?"

"Yasmine will hire more guards, and they'll keep their eyes open. Whatever this was about, it went wrong. Must have took a long time and a lot of gold to put this together. Somebody's licking his wounds."

Raven suddenly straightened, and though she tried to hide it, he saw her wipe a tear away from her eye. She stood up and said, "Not much else we can do, anyway. Think I'll be hanging around there keeping an eye out for a while, though. This whole thing still stinks. Doesn't make any sense."

"Want some company?"

She chuckled. "I'm bad company."

"So am I."

Her swagger fully returned as she said, "Ah, I'll think about it."

Mindblind stood up as well. "Let's get back. I could really use a beer."

"Or four," Raven suggested as she grabbed the torch again and headed for the stairs.

****

The taproom of the inn wasn't quite as packed as the night before, which Mindblind assumed was more for lack of coin than lack of enthusiasm. Still, the conservatively dressed ladies of the evening did brisk business.

Kayleen walked into the room at about the same time as Raven signaled for a second round of beer. She looked a little frustrated, and lost. After a moment of looking around, she noticed Raven waving.

"I feel... Idle. Restless," she said as she reached the table. "I was thinking of asking the barman if I could help out for the night."

The harried barmaid happened by at exactly that moment, and immediately changed course to approach. "Please do. And tell that ass that if he doesn't want to hire you on, then he can jolly well deal with this lot himself, because I'll walk straight out."

With that, she hurried off to retrieve the latest order that she'd received.

"Doubt he's gonna turn that down," Mindblind remarked.

"Go on," Raven said, and patted the blonde on her rounded bottom.

Kayleen smiled, and blushed, but otherwise didn't seem out of sorts with the familiar touch.

A minute or so later, Kayleen was rushing about the room, wearing an apron and carrying a tray with no small amount of skill.

From what Mindblind could see, there was no doubt that she'd spent many a night performing exactly this task. "She's done this before. Wonder what turned her to whorin'? Plenty of taverns in Lakenshire."

Raven shrugged. "At least she looks happy."

"Yeah."

At that moment, a flash of movement outside one of the windows attracted Mindblind's attention. He stiffened upon catching a glimpse of the man, and then snapped his gaze to Raven.

She was already sliding her chair back from the table, and had a dagger in her hand. She'd obviously noted the long dark hair, sun-browned skin, and drooping mustache as well.

"I saw him. Draxnian."

****

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