Benlunar - Episode 7
The trap is sprung and a deal is made.
Take the road up through the mystic mountains
Past the fantastic fishing fields and fountains
Three days through the Titan woods
Whose trees glare down through leafy hoods
Crawl in the darkness of the biting caves
It’s more dangerous the other ways
Then finally find yourself later or sooner
In the hidden valley town Benlunar
On the stone shelf, on the edge of Benlunar mountain, where the air is thin and the trees can only grow pins instead of leaves. The sun shines brightly overhead and the sparrow hawks screech into the valley. On the scree and stones that make up the shelf floor, a stranger is suspended mid step. They’re holding a knife in their right hand, the tip of which is almost touching the skin on the throat of a bearded, bald man. A young woman, Lilian, watches all of this as if from many leagues away. Her mind distancing itself so as to maintain its sanity. Slowly though, as she sees the stranger breathing under their cloak, fastened by a hand shaped silver brooch, as she hears the bearded man’s voice speak to the stranger, she is brought back to the present moment with a rush as blood flows into her ear drums.
“Thank you so much for joining us,” Said mister Attorcop, “As you can see, I was hoping you would.” Lilian wanted him to step away from the point of the blade, one quick sneeze, she thought, and he’d be impaled. But instead of stepping back, Mr Attorcop leant forward and dipped his right cheek down towards the blade’s edge. He then slowly dragged his cheeky across it with a soft scraping sound. Lilian saw a few short hairs from the edge of his beard fall onto the stones beneath him. He’s toying with them, she thought. Lilian knew this from the small smile that fell across Attorcop’s lips.
“Well I suppose we should finally see who we’ve been dealing with these past few days.” Attorcop stepped past the knife and threw back the stranger’s hood, in another second he’d lowered their cloth mask revealing the face of a woman. She had dark brown hair and dark green eyes. Lilian thought her very beautiful, particularly as she’d never seen anyone with such tanned skin with green eyes before. She was breathing very quickly and her eyes were darting from Attorcop to Lilian to the sky to the floor as if she was desperately seeking a way out of her own body. Lilian noticed that she was moving small muscles around her cheeks and forehead but the rest of her body was completely fixed in place. Attorcop stepped back, marvelling at the efficacy of his trap. He walked all the way around her and then turned to Lilian and said,
“I mean that’s at least worth losing a toe or something. Look how still she is!” Lilian knew he was referring to the deal he’d made to make this trap possible, she also knew he was making a joke, a joke that Lilian didn’t find particularly amusing.
“Is she alright?” Asked Lilian, in a small voice.
“I assume so, let’s ask her shall we? Hello? Are you alright there?” Attorcop leaned in patronisingly close to the strange woman’s face. Lilian saw her contort her face and desperately try to form words. Through all the effort however, they only came out as a whisper.
“Release me.”
“What’s that?” Replied Attorcop, Lilian knew full well he’d heard her.
“Release me.” The words came out quicker now, but were still spat out through gritted teeth and hatred. Mr Attorcop held his chin in a mock thinking pose.
“Hmm I think I’ll pass on that one if it’s all the same to you. Well, at least until I’ve got some answers of my own. How does that sound? Hm? I ask a few questions and you tell me a few answers and then we all go and grab a bite to eat?” Lilian looked at the woman, she said nothing but Lilian could tell she was desperately trying to think her way out of the situation. Mr Attorcop, hands clasped behind his back, began wondering around her in circles.
“Let’s start with an easy one shall we? Were you hired, or are you working alone?” As Lilian had expected the woman said nothing. Whenever Attorcop came in to view she merely glared at him intently.
“I assume you’re some sort of amateur assassin, is this your first job?” Attorcop spoke the words calmly and matter of factly. Lilian was unsure why he was pursuing this line of questioning but it seemed to produce some results. The strange woman began to breathe quickly and her face grew even angrier and more frustrated. Attorcop must have picked up on this as he continued.
“I see you’ve got a silver hand on your cloak. Is that what your family give to youngsters on their first week? Is it a sort of helping hand?” Lilian realised what he was doing. He was purposefully getting the woman more and more irate. Lilian could see her nostrils flair and she began spitting through her teeth with each breath. Lilian remembered what Mr Attorcop had said about assassin’s wanting their victims to know who they were, she wondered if Attorcop was attacking this woman’s pride. What ever he was doing, it was achieving results. Lilian was still nervous but was less scared now that she saw how relaxed Mr Attorcop was. She decided to join in, if Attorcop was indeed attacking this woman’s sense of self, then being insulted by someone young enough to pose no threat whatsoever might prove useful.
“I know what it means.” She said, Mr Attorcop whipped round to look at her, his expression was worried, perhaps he only meant for her to observe but his facely quickly changed when he listened to what she said.
“I’ve seen hand brooches like that before. They’re given to some children on their first day of school. The silver hand basically says, watch out, my child is a slow learner and needs extra attention.” She saw Mr Attorcop turn to stifle a laugh. The woman’s eyes were now wide in fury.
“Ah yes of course.” Said Mr Attorcop, “I suppose that explains the ineptitude.”
“Enough!” The woman spat the word out through gritted teeth. Considering she hadn’t been saying anything only moments ago, Lilian saw this as a victory.
“If I answer your questions.” The stranger continued, much to Lilian’s surprise. “What guarantee do I have that you’ll release me.” Lilian looked to Mr Attorcop to await his reply. The teasing smile had disappeared from his face, it was now fixed in a serious expression. Lilian expected him to answer formally and fairly, like he always did. She expected him to say something like, ‘you have my word’ or ‘you can trust me’ instead he moved directly in front of the mysterious woman, leant forward near her ear and said,
“You don’t. You just made an attempt on my life, so the way I see things is that every second I allow you to breathe is a gift from whatever God you worship. If you wish to keep breathing, you keep talking, because quite frankly I have no use for silent assassins that I cannot learn anything from.”
Lilian felt a chill run down her spine from her neck. She’d never seen Mr Attorcop like this. His countenance had completely changed, the light around them seem to almost dim as he spoke. There was no trace of humour or heart left in his face and for this first time since meeting him, Lilian realised why someone might want this powerful man dead. The stranger sensed this too as the fight seemed to slowly drain from her eyes. It seemed as though her only options were to talk or…
“My name is Kissandra. I’m from Bana house. In Freedos.” She whispered to Attorcop who stood up straight upon hearing the new information.
“Bana house! Well, I must say that’s disappointing.”
“Why?” Asked Lilian.
“There are many ways to get a person to kill someone for money. You could even pay a group of men at a local tavern, some people make it their business, and some of those people are very expensive and very good at what they do. Then some of them might decide to band together and drive prices up, as well as train new recruits. Bana house is one of those places. But…” Attorcop paused for a second and looked at the Kissandra, “well, it’s not the Endless Well is it?” This produced a furious and shaking response from the suspended Kissandra.
“Those drunken halfwits couldn’t catch a caged chicken.”
“Perhaps not. But nevertheless I’m disappointed my life was only worth one emissary from Bana house. I would have thought my reputation more dangerous than that.” At this Kissandra looked confused, or as confused as she could look with a semi-frozen face.
“You are an advisor to the Empress. A politician who buries himself in books.” Attorcop began walking towards the cliff edge. This time, his hand brushed his beard as if he really was in deep thought.
“Am I now…” Lilian heard him mutter. After a few seconds of gazing out over the valley he snapped his fingers and turned around.
“You were sent by Lord Edward’s Mother, Lady Florentina.” Lilian whipped her head back to witness the reaction from Kissandra but there was none. She said nothing and did nothing and this, Lilian realised was as much of an affirmation as if she had simply agreed with Mr Attorcop out loud.
“Ha!” Shouted Attorcop in triumph, “I knew it. Lilian, there are very few people I tell about my work with the Empress. Mostly I just say I’m an apothecary or a scholar if people ask, but sometimes, I tell certain ambitious individuals that I know and have served Empress Sylvia. Which is true, but only once. The last person I told this to was a woman who wants to see her son marry the Empress. I had agreed to help her, but, then why try to kill me…” As Mr Attorcop spoke his thoughts aloud, Lilian watched Kissandra out of the corner of her eye. The spark of panic had gone and been replaced by dejection and defeat. For this time since she stopped, Lilian wondered what they were going to do once Kissandra of Bana house became unfrozen. Mr Attorcop was wrapping up his train of thought behind her.
“Which is interesting because I knew her when she was a young woman, but she wouldn’t want me dead unless… Unless I knew something that would threaten her son’s eligability, OR something that would make his power unstable once he achieved his goal. I doubt this one is going to tell me anything else are you?” He directed the question at Kissandra, who maintained her silence.
“Well, I suppose this is your lesson for underestimating your target. Do they not teach you that at Bana House?” Mr Attorcop walked over to the outstretched blade and began carefully working out of Kissandra’s grip. It took him a while but once he finally managed to extract it he held it up in front of him and tossed it from hand to hand, testing its weight. Seemingly satisfied with his new acquisition he turned back to Lilian.
“Miss Lausanne, you may wish to avert your eyes from this.” for a second Lilian didn’t understand why he was asking, but she quickly realised what he intended to do.
“What?” She protested, “No no no, you’re not going to, you know…” Mr Attorcop raised a single eyebrow.
“Well I’m not going to braid her hair.” He said, sarcastically.
“You can’t hurt her.” Cried Lilian, “We’ve caught her, she’s lost.” Mr Attorcop’s expression grew strained.
“It’s not that she’s lost, Miss Lausanne, it’s that we’ve won. And that victory would mean very little if we just let her walk away to try again. You do know how Assassin’s work don’t you? I’m sorry it’s her first day.” He directed this to Kissandra who was beginning to look terrified again.
“I know how it works.” Said Lilian, who’s mind was racing to try and find an alternative answer, “You said she was hired right? Can’t we just pay her to not hurt you?” Mr Attorcop was beginning to lose patience.
“And what happens when I return to Freedos, fit as a fiddle and her friends from Bana House spot me? What do you think they’ll do to her? What do you think they’ll do to me?? More’s the point.” Lilian began shaking her head and stepping backwards. There must be an alternative, she kept saying to herself over and over, but realised that repeating the phrase in her head wasn’t allowing any new ideas to enter it. She could feel the stones beneath her feet shift under her weight, she was stepping back towards the edge of the circle now. The edge, she thought, suddenly, she had an idea.
“Then let’s make a deal!” Mr Attorcop rolled his eyes but Lilian ignored him and ran over to face Kissandra. Up close, she could spot small scars on her cheek and could clearly see the silver clasp holding the cloak together.
“Listen,” She started, “My friend here set you up, he caught you and I helped right?” Kissandra said nothing but simply looked intently at Lilian, “that means you lost and if he wanted to he could, I dunno, cut your throat or or or just leave you here frozen or what ever. Which means right now, you’re basically dead.” Kissandra still said nothing, seemingly having worked all this out for herself already, “So here’s what I’m going to say. If you agree not to hurt us in the future, we won’t hurt you right now. You’re paying for something later, understand?” There was a pause, Lilian desperately hoped that Kissandra would agree with her. Finally, through gritted teeth and a cracking voice, Kissandra spoke up.
“I thank you for your mercy. But you do not understand. What do I tell Bana House?” Now it was Lilian who was losing her patience,
“I don’t care what you tell them, make something up! But while you do, be sure to remember that if it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t be telling them anything!” This seemed to persuade Kissandra who looked into Lilian’s eyes and finally ceased to struggle, something must have changed in her, for as soon as she did this she fell to the stone floor in a lump. Lilian trusted the chalk circle and she trusted that Kissandra no longer meant them any harm, she even crouched down to help her stand up. Kissandra’s joints were stiff and aching so she gladly took Lilian’s hand and used it to balance herself while standing up. Mr Attorcop was still a few feet away, wary of the goings on in front of him. As he watched Kissandra stand up he waved her knife in front of him and said,
“And I’m keeping this, by the way.” Lilian shot him an angry look, he wasn’t helping the situation. She turned back to look at Kissandra and was momentarily taken aback at how much taller she was than Lilian had thought. Her dark green cloak, free from the demon’s spell flowed soundlessly in the wind. Kissandra herself stood up straight and took in a deep breath while rolling her head, relieved to have the freedom to move again.
“I thank you for your mercy.” She looked down at Lilian, her voice was clear now, it cut through the breeze and Lilian detected a strong Freedos accent,
“I promise to leave you but I must warn you that Bana House prides itself on completing their missions. I cannot speak for what they will do when they discover my failure. But it is true that I underestimated my target.” She turned to look at Mr Attorcop who was busy studying his new knife.
“I do not recommend you return to Freedos any time soon sir.” Kissandra raised her voice so that Mr Attorcop was sure to hear it. He responded with a curt,
“Mm hm...” Kissandra then turned to look at Lilian.
“You have a kind soul, my lady, I pray that you do not let the city…” She looked back at Attorcop, “Tarnish it.” With that she turned back towards the mountain path and began to walk away. Lilian, still slightly questioning her decision to let Kissandra go, shouted to her.
“And you’re leaving Benlunar, tonight, ok?” Kissandra turned around and bowed deeply, then she stood upright, brought her hands together in a loud clap and promptly disappeared, replaced by a pile of twigs arranged in a strange symbol on the floor.
After Kissandra’s disappearance Lilian turned to Mr Attorcop. She watched him hide the blade in his sleeve and braced herself for a telling off. Instead of shouting or berating her however, he simply walked back to the tree line from where Kissandra had emerged. Lilian would rather have been shouted at than treated so coldly. She looked up to see an empty sky, the birds of prey must have flown back to their nests, she thought, as all she could see now was a blue and beautiful spring sky, stretching from the mountain’s peak across the valley and over the horizon. She noticed how tense she was and relaxed her shoulders as she noticed Mr Attorcop emerge from the trees holding two short sticks, each about the length of Lilian’s arm. He walked across the stones to where Lilian was stood and held one out for her to take. As she did so he said,
“Well done Lilian, you played your part brilliantly, I owe you my thanks, and probably my life.” Lilian didn’t understand.
“What do you mean?” She asked, gripping the stick and feeling the rough wood grain against her palm and fingers.
“I was prepared to kill that woman, although I admit that I didn’t want to. However, if I would never have been able to convince her not to hurt me, not like you did.” As he was speaking he was inspecting his own stick, testing its strength by trying to bend it.
“Why?” Lilian was starting to feel as though she had also been manipulated.
“Well if your job is to kill someone you’re very unlikely to listen to them when they ask you to stop. I mean, that’s exactly what they would say, isn’t it? You however, you came in at exactly the right moment and saved that woman’s life, and for that she rewarded us with mercy. You saw how she dropped from her freeze? That would not have happened had she not relinquished all desires to hurt me. You played on her pride, which you accurately guessed to be her weakness. An excellent piece of diplomacy and now you have a Freedos Assassin in your debt. Perhaps not enough to hire but certainly enough to gain some information, particularly if you threaten to tell Bana House how she failed. Very good work.” Lilian didn’t know whether or not to thank him. She had not been complimented on anything recently and the feeling felt alien to her.
“Mr Attorcop?” She asked, “What would you have done if I hadn’t got her to make the deal?” Mr Attorcop did not reply to this, but instead looked at her with a very serious expression. Lilian had asked a question to which she already knew the answer and so decided to quickly change the subject.
“What are these for?” She held up her stick.
“Well, seeing as you’re happy to bargain with my life I think we should step up your training don’t you Lilian?” Lilian looked up at him,
“What happened to Miss Lausanne?” She joked. Mr Attorcop replied simply,
“I honestly don’t know.”
For the next few hours Mr Attorcop instructed Lilian in a very different form of self defence. It was more aggressive than before, which saw Lilian only blocking and defending herself from attacks. Now she was instructed to block incoming attacks and combine the block with an attack of her own. As Attorcop’s stick would swing towards her, she would strike it with her own and then move in to punch with the fist that gripped the weapon. This would then be blocked by Attorcop’s open palm and the dance would flow and continue. Each time an attack got through Attorcop would stop and show her how to approach blocking it from a variety of different angles but the principle would always be the same. “A block is never just a block,” he would say, “if it is not followed by an attack, it might as well not have happened.” The valley sang with the rhythmic clacks of wood on wood. As soon as Lilian thought she understood something, Attorcop would surprise her with a quick jab or a kick that would knock her to the floor. Despite the bangs and bruises Lilian felt herself enjoying the training more and more. The fluid movement of the fight, coupled with the satisfaction of blocking a difficult or surprising attack made her smile again and again.
When the sun had gone past its peak Lilian was almost collapsing with exhaustion. Mr Attorcop ran through one last block repetition and then took a step back and bowed, signifying the end of the training. Lilian bowed back and the two of them started to walk back down the mountain. They chatted about Benlunar’s history and Lilian learned things even she hadn’t known before. Mr Attorcop knew a surprising amount about the valley town, including the fact that the Padda Stone had indeed been placed there before any building or settlement and that the first building wasn’t the Stave Church, like Lilian would have thought, but actually a sort of Inn where travellers could stay and get out of the winter cold on their pilgrimage through the mountains.
“And was the Padda Stone carved by the travellers?” Asked Lilian, as they approached the outskirts of Benlunar, “Or did it, you know, move there itself?” Lilian dropped her voice to ask this as she didn’t want anyone to over hear her and think she’d left her wits in the hills.
“His name is Gorakja and I don’t think he bothers moving very much. I’m not positive but I believe he came from the mountain, carved by the winds and rains over millenia. He is one of a few such beings.” Lilian watched Mr Attorcop as he spoke. She noticed a change in his voice when he talked about the Padda Stone, a sort of reverence entered into his cadence. A deep, respectful tone that one might find in churches or funerals.
“The next time he wakes up,” Said Lilian, “I want to be there. And this time, I won’t run away.” Mr Attorcop smiled and nodded his head.
“I believe you would get on very well. Now, I shall see you tomorrow morning just here, and we’ll resume training.” They had reached the steps of the Thoreson house and Mr Attorcop began to climb them, before he reached the door he turned back to Lilian and said,
“Well done today Lilian.” The complement came out awkwardly, but Lilian still smiled back in thanks. Mr Attorcop then disappeared through the large wooden door and Lilian turned towards the town centre. The Morning’s events kept running through her head. She picked out moment after moment where things could have gone very differently indeed. She wondered if Kissandra was still hiding in the town somewhere or if she had heeded her request and left immediately. By the time she reached the square she was playing blocking drills over in her head. She looked up to see the town square brimming with life. Its coloured flagstones were barely catching the light of the sun with all the people milling and stepping over them. There were stalls set up by locals and various wears being haggled over by tourists and townsfolk alike. The Stave Church imposed itself on the scene as always, its wooden spire towering over the activity like a teacher in a schoolyard. Near its entrance, Lilian saw brother Thomas struggling to carry some chairs. As she watched, he dropped one and nearly fell over it as he walked, Lilian almost laughed out loud whilst watching him get caught up in his robes whilst vainly trying to carry more chairs than he could manage. She ran over to him and picked up one of the fallen chairs.
“Ah Lilian,” He said, “Thank you so much. I said I’d collect these this morning from Sara’s house, but Brother Ulnar was unable to help me. Would you mind taking them inside?” He gestured for Lilian to go on ahead and she obediently opened the large Church doors so that he could stumble through into the echoing main hall. Lilian then followed brother Thomas as he comedically quickened his step so as to get to the back of the hall without dropping another chair. Lilian looked up at the tall ceiling above her. She never particularly enjoyed the church ceremonies but the building itself never ceased to impress. From the centre of the hall you could see all the way up to the tower floor, which Lilian knew housed an impressive array of bowl bells connected to pipes that flowed in and out of the walls of the tower itself.
“If you could just bring that through to the back here.” Brother Thomas’ voice echoed off the stone floor and wall carvings as he lead her towards a small door which lead to a back room. Lilian had been in here once before, years ago when her mother had asked her to help Brother Thomas decorate the church for the first snow festival, an annual event where Benlunar citizens sing songs and celebrate the coming of winter as a way to off-set the dread of the long cold nights to come.
“Just set them down there, thank you.” He pointed to a corner of the small room where there was already a few mismatched chairs piled on top of each other. The room smelled like tea and Lilian walked past the small fireplace to put her chairs down with the others. Brother Thomas breathed a sigh of relief once the job had been completed.
“Ah, that’s great. Thank you Lilian, we’re just getting ready for tonight’s service. I’m hoping we’ll get some extra people in because of the visitors. Will we be seeing you this evening?” Lilian had all but forgotten about the visitor’s mid stay service. As a show of thanks and welcoming, Benlunar traditionally performed songs and told stories for the city visitors when they were part of the way through their stay. She had planned on going with her parents but all of the recent drama and chaos had pushed it out of her mind.
“Oh, yes I think we’re coming.” This put a smile on Brother Thomas’ face.
“Excellent. Well hopefully it won’t be just you and your family. I was talking to some of the visitors earlier and they weren’t even aware that it was happening so I’m a little worried no one will show up!” Lilian could tell that he was distracted as he kept fumbling with the chord on his robe and tripping over things whilst looking for various parchments and musical instruments. Just as he was complaining about Brother Ulnar not doing his job of advertising the service, he reached up to grab a pile of robes from a high shelf. His stress however affected his judgement and he accidentally knocked a small brass box off the shelf below it. The box crashed to floor and burst open, spraying its contents across the wooden boards. Lilian heard Brother Thomas mutter a word under his breath, one she wouldn’t have even thought Church Brothers knew and she knelt down to start helping him pick up the scattered contents. Most of the objects were useless bits that any household would accumulate over the years. A spool of black thread, a couple of broken paper weights, a hollow sculpture of a frog with a slot in its back meant for coins were all picked up and placed back in the bronze box. Brother Thomas was busy picking up clothes pins when Lilian noticed some of the object had rolled under an armchair near the fireplace. She reached under it, felt around and grasped the first thing her hand felt. It was cold and metallic and had a satisfying weight to it that suggested it might have been quite precious. She pulled her hand out and opened her fist to reveal a shiny, silver brooch in the shape of an open hand.