But the one good thing about sleeping in was that the nurses’ quarters were empty by the time she got out of bed. And that made the first part of her plan easier. She dressed in her new trousers, her old cotton shirt and her boots, then rolled her cloak into a tight ball and stuffed it into a leather shoulder bag, along with her skirt and extra blouse. She tossed her meagre bag of coin on top, and stopped by the kitchen for some food. The cook was out for the moment, so she grabbed a bread roll for breakfast, then stuffed three more into her bag, covering them with the edge of the skirt. There was some cold meat on a tray as well, left over from last night’s dinner, so she took a handful of slices and broke open her roll, shoving the meat into the middle. It was a long walk to Palashran, and there was no point starting out hungry, even if it was a sure bet that she’d be near starving by the end of it.
Then she let herself out of the rear door, weaving between the outhouse and the root cellar until she ended up on the street. She paused, looking back at the town square, with the large clock on the town hall and the bustle of people already milling about, getting ready for the day’s business. Would she miss any of this? The friends she’d made, the new experiences. Her first taste of apples, which had quickly become her favourite fruit. The dancing and drums at the festival, which had been spectacular, for all her distaste with the reason behind the celebration. The first few days she’d spent with Nalyx, his flirtatious charm equal parts endearing and infuriating.
Yes, she was going to miss parts of it, she admitted to herself. But her stay was over. No more delays. No more excuses. It was time to leave.
“Clear the road! Make way!” A sudden bellow broke the early morning quiet, and Gantalla glanced to the right, seeing a throng of people and horses making their way down the road towards the city centre. Captain Leefe was at the front, shouting for people to get out of the way, and Gantalla was surprised to see him back here again. She hadn’t expected him to leave the gate until it closed.
Enough, she scolded herself sharply. Whatever the captain was doing was none of her business. She needed to leave, and she’d been delayed far too many times already. She set a fast pace to the east, following the road that Elria had shown her all those weeks ago, that would lead her to the crossroads to Palashran.
But as she walked, the shouts got louder, and people began rushing in the opposite direction, towards the ongoing bellowing from Captain Leefe. Gantalla picked up a few muttered words from the crowd. Words like ‘demon’ and ‘cage’ and ‘execution’.
Gantalla froze, looking back down the road in terror. Nalyx had betrayed her after all. And no doubt Captain Leefe was coming to capture her. A wild instinct told her to run, but she found her feet glued to the floor, even as she realised it would be futile trying to escape. The warriors had horses, and they were far stronger and fitter than her. They’d outrun her before she even made it to the edge of town. Perhaps she could hide? She took a step back towards the hospital, before dismissing the idea. That was the first place they would look for her.
But before she could think of anywhere else to go, the rear gate to the hospital grounds burst open and Henrietta rushed through. She spotted Gantalla immediately. But the look on her face, far from the expected wide-eyed terror at Gantalla’s presence, was one of excitement.
“Gantalla! Have you heard! “ she cried as she rushed over to her. “They’ve caught a demon! Come and look. They’re putting the cage in the middle of the town square. Great gods, it’s been over a year since they captured a live one!”
“No, I don’t think I should…” Gantalla started to protest, as Henrietta grabbed her arm and started dragging her back towards the town. But then the woman’s words sunk in. They’d caught a demon?Caught, as in past tense? They already had it in a cage? She experienced a bizarre moment of conflict, relieved beyond measure that they weren’t coming after her, at the same time as feeling a sick dread. Another poor bastard from Chalandros, captured and tortured, and now being shown off in some twisted public display. Gods, she wanted nothing more than to be far away from this town.
“I have to go,” she told Henrietta urgently. “I have to go to…” She cut the words off before she could blurt out that she was going to Palashran. “…to the seamstress.”
“The seamstress can wait,” Henrietta said. “Besides, she’ll probably be out at the square herself in another few minutes. No one’s going to want to miss this.”
Gods above, what was she supposed to do now? Giving in once again to having her plans disrupted, Gantalla allowed herself to be led back to the square. The horses were closer now, and she could see a large cage mounted on the back of a wide trailer, a low figure hunched down in the bottom of it, covered in a dark cloak. The procession carried on right into the town square, where four of the men began sliding the cage towards the back of the trailer. It was about a metre and a half square, and two metres high, and it looked like it weighed a ton.
As they worked, Captain Leefe hopped up on a nearby table, holding up his hands for quiet as the crowd muttered and cursed all around him.
“Behold, a live demon,” he announced, sounding inordinately proud of the achievement. “We found it wandering in the forest last night, not too far from the gate. Crafty little bitch, thought she could get away. But don’t worry,” he said, grinning at the gathered crowd. “My men are the finest soldiers in the world. No demon is slipping through our net.” It was a blatant display of showboating, arrogance and pride at its finest.
“It’s a female,” he went on. “Don’t worry, this one’s mostly harmless. I wouldn’t risk bringing anythingtrulydangerous this far into town. But at the same time, I wouldn’t recommend anyone gets too close. You never know what fiendish tricks these beasts are going to come up with. But look your fill, see how ugly these foul creatures are. And let that remind you what your warriors are fighting for. Your safety. The peace and prosperity of this fine city. Let’s never forget how important it is to support our warriors, as they keep you safe from vermin like this as it tries to infect our world!” The crowd broke into rowdy applause, all too eager to swallow the captain’s brazen propaganda.
The men manhandling the cage finally got it off the cart, and it settled onto the ground with a rattling clang.
“You have one full day to look your fill,” Leefe went on, “and tomorrow morning at eight o’clock, we’ll hold a public execution. And let that be a reminder that no demon shall ever pass through the gate alive. No demon shall ever infect this town with their evil. And the people of this city – the people of this world – have nothing to fear for as long as our fine warriors defend the Gate of Chalandros!”
A loud cheer rose up, the captain lapping up the praise until he finally stepped down from his perch on the table.
The crowd surged forward, everyone eager to get a glimpse of the sorry figure in the cage. But Gantalla just felt sick. She’d been so wrong to think she could ever make a life for herself in this town. And if she needed any more reason to leave, then the bloodthirsty baying of the crowd was more than enough.
“Let’s go take a look,” Henrietta said, pulling her forward. “I want to see what sort it is. They’re all different colours, you know. Red, and blue, and green. Such unnatural things.”
Gantalla stepped forward, Henrietta still tugging at her arm, and she resolved to take one quick look at this ‘demon’. There was nothing she could do to help the poor bastard, but at least she could remember this as her parting impression of this town, of the cruelty of the humans, so that she never, ever forgot who she was, or how fragile her place in this world was. She’d thought to make friends with Henrietta, shocked by her open cruelty now. Nalyx, too, had proven to be a bad choice in attempting to make friends, and she would do well to remember that when she arrived in Palashran. She should hold herself at a distance, being polite, but never getting too close. After all, she could never know when even a close friend would turn around and stab her in the back.
The rows of people in front of her parted, those at the front making way for more people to get a look at the captive, and Gantalla focused her eyes on the cage. A green hand with long, black claws poked out from beneath the woman’s cloak, and Gantalla’s heart sank as she realised that this must also be a hadathmet. Great gods, she could only hope it wasn’t someone she knew. She’d known dozens of the women in her old city, and there had been at least twenty women working in the palace. She knew several who had started the journey to the gate before she had, and if this was one that she recognised, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do.
As she watched, the woman in the cage straightened a fraction, peering up at the crowds of people leering at her. Insults were flung her way, promises of a slow, painful death, and the woman shuddered. Then she tilted her head up, and Gantalla caught a faint look of pride on her face, a split second before recognition hit her.
Gantalla felt her entire body go numb. No. It couldn’t be. The gods couldn’t possibly be that cruel…
Alithmain. The woman in the cage was her sister.
She looked again, unable to believe her eyes. But Alithmain had been so insistent about staying in Chalandros. She’d tried for weeks to dissuade Gantalla from leaving. She’d said again and again that the mages were going to fix all the problems in Chalandros, even long after the mages themselves had said such a thing was impossible.
What was she doing here?
“Don’t worry,” Henrietta said, catching her wide-eyed shock. “It’s perfectly safe. The bars are made of solid steel. There isn’t a demon in the world that could break out of the cage.”
“Uh… no, I suppose not,” Gantalla croaked out. “It’s just… I’ve never seen one in person before.”
