Hello my beautiful Steemits, here in Aussie Land we are sweltering from hot weather and cold shoulders, not that I am complaining, as of late my neighbours have started throwing watermelon at my house, so now I have a wonderful supply of refreshing melon juice. Anyhow lets get cooking, straight onto ->
Chapter 16
The Grey Cat Inn was a crowded place many a person was jostled and many an ale garnished a persons lap but Ruff was uneasy and tense, his eyes locked on to each and every passersby, waiting for them to reveal their killing strike. Motyl too hovered over her food and drink, chewing slowly but forcefully, if ready to pounce at the slightest sign of trouble.
Both had been in many inns over their life time but this inn was sombre, haunted, despite the crowd. Every face that Ruff and Motyl looked into was frighten, worried, angry or at a loss. Everyone whispered, everyone ate and drank like it was their funeral, everyone watched everyone else.
“This city is on edge, not like when I was last here.” Whispered Ruff over the near silent room.
“How can the people of such a large city be so sad, should there not be someone happy?”
“There is, the Prince and or the Princess’ or all of them.”
Motyl went red with angry distaste at Ruff’s accusation of the Prince and snapped at him, “Not the Prince, no way will I believe the Prince would be enjoying seeing his people suffer like this, that bitch Junta yes but not Micky!”
“Micky?” Ruff gave Motyl a curious look of intrigue.
“It...it is what he asked me to call him, when I was his father’s..um..comfort woman.” She looked away with shame at her words.
“Look, I don’t give a shit if you were a slave whore. But that was when you were younger and he could have changed since then or your ideology of him was different then and you did not realise how much of a piece of shit he was.”
Motyl went red again,”No! He was a nice boy, very gentile to me and all the slaves, He would never change, It was that bitch Junta, she must have him tied up or...or...” Her lips quivered a bit at the though of Prince Michel being dead and she went silent.
“Pfft, A nice boy! Fuck you are gullible, all royalty are varying degrees of arseholes!” Ruff clenched his teeth and glanced away from her in disgust. It was then that Ruff caught six royal guards marching through the door, their eyes barely scanned the room full of people. Instead they fixed on Motyl and him as if they knew exactly where they were. All the other patrons froze solid where they were, none dared to even blink.
“Oh fuck!”
“What?!” snapped Motyl, still steamed from his last remark.
“We have trouble, six very big, very ugly pieces of trouble at the door, about to head our way.”
Motyl spun around to look, the six guards started barrelling through the stiff crowed towards their table. Ruff stood up quickly from the table, knocking over his chair and unloaded one of his knives into the temple of the first guard, then he spun around and made his way to the bar, “Lets go!”.
Motyl launched from her chair without hesitation and equipped her bow, but the five remaining guards used frightened human shields to block her shot as she backed away. “What is happening?!”
Ruff pushes the barkeep out of the way as they both slid into the backroom, two women gave a shrill of surprise at the sudden uninvited guest “We have been betrayed. Someone knew we would be here and informed the royal guards.”
Ruff Cracked open a side door and gingerly peered out. He squeezed shut his eyes at disbelief and swore under his breath. Across the street and to the left stood at least a dozen archers readied for what ever come out the door and to his right another ten guards blocked the street. Behind he heard the loosening of an arrow, grunt of pain and a body hitting the floor in a clatter of armour.
“Ruff, whats happening?!”
“An ambush, that’s what!”
Motyl quickly looks out the ajared door to the situation and then back to her own door. “Ok, so what do we do?!”
Ruff stood silent for a minute, stratifying every conceivable scenario he could play through, without getting them both killed. He looked up to the ceiling then gave an answer. “We could run out and fight our way out, or we can go up and fight our way out.”
Motyl loosened another arrow but it clunked against a shield, “Up sounds good, get a higher ground advantage”
“Up it is.” Ruff wrestled a table into position then he started to mount some chairs on top. One woman became unsettled at Ruffs destruction of their kitchen, she made for the door and threw it open. Before Ruff or Motyl could react, arrows filled the woman’s head and chest, making both gasp at the senseless wast of life and the second woman burst into hysterical screams. The woman collapsed dead and slumped in the doorway.
Two royal guards took this as a sign of opportunity and rushed from the bar into the room, Motyl was on the back foot but managed to bury an arrow into the groin of one, Ruff side stepped the second and knocked him into a wall dazing the guard. “UP NOW!”, Motyl scrambled onto the table and chairs and fisted the pottery tiles, smashing them aside, making a hole that she hoped would be big enough for them both.
Ruff now on the table, grabbed her hips and almost threw her through the small hole, just as the final two guards from the bar entered. They both swung swords, only to slice air where Ruff’s legs once were. He landed surly on his feet behind them and kicked one into the table. The second spun a backblade move, missing Ruff only just, but bought his shield up to catch Ruff in the chest.
Ruff landed awkwardly on the guard with an arrow in his groin, causing the man more pain, the dazed guard scrambles to his feet with drunk movements and tries to wrestle with Ruff on the ground. The third guard is about to bring his blade down on Ruff when he felt a sharp pain pierce his back and an arrow head protrudes just below his sternum, he drops his sword and examines this new surprise. “FUCK ME, I’v been Sh…!” a second arrow burst from behind his right eye, and killed him instantly.
The dazed guard realised he too was about to die, as Ruff’s hands slowly twisted his head around. He pissed his pants and felt the warmth of his own shit ooze out from between his butt cheeks, just a moment before his neck bone gave a sharp, and very painful crack.
Ruff rolled the twitching, dying guard off of him and quickly made his way up and through the hole before more guards entered the room.
Arrows and shouts rained up from the street as Ruff and Motyl scampered from roof to roof, wall to wall of the city buildings. At times Motyl managed to loose an arrow, taking down a guard or archer but as one died, three more would take his place.
“Ruff, we need to make for the city walls!”
“Are you fucking nuts girl! Where do you think most of the army is going to be!”
“Oh!”
“Yes fucking ‘Oh!’ We need to make for the castle itself.”
“Now who’s fucking nuts!” screams Motyl in deep surprise.
“Yea, it’s not the safest place but the castle will have the least amount of guards, as everyone will be on the streets or on the city walls waiting for us. We need to split up, lose the guards and make our own ways to the castle.”
“But…?!”
“No fucking buts, we will meet...” Ruff scans the city skyline for the castle, once found he pointed to a certain spire. “..at that spire, if you or I are not there by sun up on the morrow, the other is to complete the contract!”
Motyl grabbed his arm in desperation “But Ruff…!” Ruff slapped her hard across the cheek, making Motyl loose her grip on his arm. He shoves her away in time as an arrow thuds a roof tile between them. “NOW GO!”
Ruff scampered up a wall and made his way across a roof without looking back, he didn’t want to look back, he felt the guilt, the shame of striking her, he just did not want to see that pain in her beautiful soft catlike eyes. Before him is the gap of an ally way, he bolted towards it and jumped for the far roof. In mid air he heard her scream in agonising screeching pain.
“RUFF!”
He landed true onto the other roof and spun around to see what had happen. His eyes grew wide at the sudden realisation of why Motyl was in pain, her hands clutched and groped desperately at her head. He had forgotten about the curse that bound them together. Motyl sensed he was looking her way, their eyes meet for a moment and in a desperate plea she reached out to him, she swayed, crumpled to the roof and rolled off the edge to the ground.
“NO!” he screamed in angry regret towards himself, “No, no, no, no!” He thumped his fists hard on the roof tiles making the occupants of the house react with screams and shouts. He at first didn’t hear the guard sneaking up behind him, but bad footing and a slight slip of the guard cued Ruff in to his immediate danger.
Ruff snapped around and caught a blade to his shoulder pad where the sword lodged in its thick folds. Ruff turns again which threw the guard off balance on the roof slope, the sword un-bit from the shoulder and flipped away to another part of the roof, clattered and fell below. Ruff, in his self rage, aids the unbalanced, wavering guard further with a blunt shove from his boot. The man tried to grab at him for purchase, Ruff slapping his hands away and instead the guard gripped at loose air and fell two stories to his death into the ally below.
Ruff chanced one more glance back to where Motyl fell, his shoulder sore and bleeding, anger turning to a small prick joy as voices from the street below indicate that she survived the fall but was now the prisoner of the royal guards. He skulked away, her tormented pain waft up from behind him to plague his mind, “I’m sorry Motyl, I’m so damn sorry!”. He now made a slow, silent journey to the castle.