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Golden dust circled around the horse’s feet as it strained to go faster, the body stretched out completely in the air
before it landed again and crunched upon itself to push off into the air. The man and his black horse were just out of reach,
but if I shot at him, his horse would spook and change course. My mistake was in thinking that there was only desert and nowhere
for him to go and with that in mind, I chased him straight into the growing blob of sand adobes and white cotton tents.
Arani. If there was anywhere a stranger should go visit, it was there. The gargoyles were almost solid gold and people traded
fruit instead of coins for value. Thieves ran rampant and the general police force cared nothing about it. The king was so
corrupt that everyone except the townspeople seemed to know it but the only people depressed and ill were the princess and
the poor. But no one else cared as long as it stayed that gold was stuffing their pockets. The rich were gold and the poor
were mud and there was an abundance of all four.
Ironically, the city lay in the middle of the desert, one of the more golden places on the planet. Also ironically, I found
it by accident following a criminal for his bounty. The price on his head was too much to pass up; high prices guarantee harder
work. The hard ones had the worst crimes anyway.
There was no gate or walls; the city just sort of petered out once it was out of the shade and into the sun. Overshadowing
most of the market place and residential district was the castle, a large stone building with gold doors, shutters, curtains,
and gargoyles. The guards had gold armor and gold tipped spears and stood as perfect bookends next to the door. It was like
the closer people were to the castle, the better off they would be and leaving the shade of the castle meant leaving the security
of the king.
The market place started as soon as I hit the border of shade and continued in a semi-circle around the western edge of the
edifice. My little victim had escaped in the mass of people and somehow had escaped too much notice as he ran through the
throng of people.
I got off my horse and followed the curve of the building as close as I could watching the bustle of people as I went along.
It was fascinating, really; the yelling and shoving and bickering between prices as bags of gold and silver changed hands.
The castle soon turned into a residential district with mud buildings making their own shade. The market place stopped at
the steps of cheap crumbling apartment buildings on the edge of the district.
Between two of these buildings, a little ways from the castle a group of people had gathered around a street performer. The
girl looked no more than fifteen but was more flexible than children half her age. She flipped upside down over the scarf
she had tied to a plank bridging the roofs of two buildings, kicking her feet in the air in a single movement, and squeezed
her muscles as hard as she could to stay perfectly upright. She watched as people threw coins into her hat and clapped. She
climbed higher, tied herself up, and then let herself spin down the length of the scarf to the dust below. She bowed deeply,
counted to three, and then stood up and held the already full hat for people to put their coins in. Money flew at her and
she caught every coin nodding her head to the patrons she saw every single day.
With a flick of her cap, the coins were gone and bowing again, she placed the hat upon her head. A simple tug and the scarf
fell down from the rafter into her hand. The alleyway was empty, now, as all the people had left to tend to other things.
“Good show.”
She turned around to face a boy she seemed to know leaning against a building on her left. His brown hair looked black in
the shadows, but his eyes were still a vibrant green of an unripe lime. He was tall, but slightly muscular and compact and
in his hand was a bag of coins.
“You got quite a bit of money,” he said.
“People were just feeling really generous today,” the girl answered. “Something going on?”
“The king is happy again. Probably some new source of gold.”
“As if that’s what we need. You can’t really trade money for anything anymore.”
“Except for food and that’s all we need.”
“True, let’s go get—”
“Hey what do you want?” The boy turned to address me, his eyes flashing angrily.
“Information,” I said walking forward into the alleyway between the buildings. “Just information. Why so
jumpy?”
He relaxed a bit. “The king likes to arrest people who take money from the rich. No one but guards carry guns.”
“We’ll I can assure you, I’m not a guard.”
“I assumed that. What sort of information do you want?”
“How about starting with your names.”
“We don’t have to tell you anything,” the girl said. “We’re not giving you anything to put us
away.”
“Mi, shut up,” the boy whispered as he pushed her gently aside. He looked me up and down as he debated whether
to trust me or not. I let him ponder; if he chose to ultimately leave me alone that was his choice and I’d respect that.
“Miana and Tam,” he said pointing to the girl and himself, respectively.
“I still don’t trust her, Tam,” Miana said whispering loudly in his ear, trying to pull him away. “She
could be lying and we’d never know until it was too late.”
“Trust me,” he whispered back to her. Then back to me: “What’s your name?”
“Carmen Teasdale.”
“Wait, the Carmen Teas—”
“Yes. Now, tell me what’s the latest news with your king.”
“Oh, well, I didn’t know I was addressing the lovely Miss Teasdale,” he pulled away from Miana’s grip
on his shoulders and faced me again. “Sure, I can tell you what you want to know. King Edward is a greedy little brat
and loves gold more than life itself. And so, he looks for new ways to acquire it.”
“Doesn’t every king?”
“Eh, sure. But he’s obsessed with it; the only time he’s happy is when he gets more of it. He buys things
to be built and then the money goes in circulation or he keeps whatever statue he makes out of it and then has more than every
body else. You’d think with all this money rolling around there wouldn’t be people like us having to perform for
money, but prices keep getting higher these days…”
“Naturally.”
“Tam, we’d better go. You know what you’d get if they caught you talking that way,” Miana whispered
tugging on his shirtsleeve.
“Yeah, in a minute,” he said pushing her away. “How’d you come here to us, Miss Teasdale?”
“There’s a bounty on someone’s head and his trail led here.”
“Whoa, cool!”
Miana was looking more and more nervous and trying as best she could to sink into the shadows and disappear. Tam however was
the complete opposite of her, excited as a cat about to get a chunk of fish. I glanced around, but there was no one around
us save Theirn, my horse. I trust his instinct more than my own and he was lying in the sand calmly swishing the flies away
with his tail.
“How old are you, kids?”
“I’m fifteen and Mi’s twelve—”
“And a half!”
“—and a half. We’re not kids.”
“You’re not over twenty; you’re kids.”
“Is that how old you are?” Miana asked me curiously, coming out of the shadows.
“What’s going on over there?” A guard came running over to where we were as soon as he saw me. Theirn stood
up and moved to my side. I put my hand on his flank to tell him that it was all right. Tam and Miana were trying to slink
out the other side of the alley, without success. The guard grabbed their arms and pulled them out of the alley.
“What are you rascals doing, now? Stealing again?”
“There were just talking to me.”
The guard glared at me. “I’d check your pockets if I were you; these kids are swindlers.”
“I’ve seen much worse swindlers than a twelve year old acrobat,” I said.
“I’m afraid we’re going to have to take them away. Whose word do we have but yours and you’re a foreigner.”
“A silver tongued foreigner.”
“What could you possibly say?” He glared at me.
“I might suggest I’m related to these children,” I said, “and since they’re under aged, well…”
He looked at me for a second before shoving them at me. “Fine. Have it your way.”
Miana was trembling at my feet but Tam just stuck his tongue out at the guards back before picking Miana up in his arms and
making towards the alley way.
“Thank for covering our back!” he called over his shoulder.
“You’re welcome.”
I watched them go for a moment before turning my back on the alleyway. I had no ideas where to go to find the thief I was
following, but I knew the place to start was to tell the king his kingdom was harboring a criminal. Having him on my side
was much easier than doing it alone. For one, I didn’t have to escape the law because it would be on my side. I had
learned my lesson well after the incident where I had to track down a criminal foreign streets thinking I would be protected
by Edelsburg law system. The only reason I avoided jail was because they had no evidence I had done anything wrong other than
trespassing. But even though it was a waste in bail, I learned my lesson: it was easier going along with the law.
The castle was the easiest to find. It was the center of the labyrinth: the starting and ending point that all paths lead
to. The two guards gave me minimum hassle, but by the time I went in, I had no armor, weapons, or horse. The king’s
hall rose up into a dome in the middle of the room while the outer circle remained at even height. It was where his servants
stood and gold statues supported it up. Some had terrified looks on their faces and all were facing outward at the passage
around the side of the room. The throne was the only thing not gold: birch wood with black velvet seat underneath a giant
dragon skeleton overlooking the person on the seat.
“We’ll get him for you, Ma’am,” one of the guards said behind me. He walked around to the left of
the room and vanished behind the gigantic skeleton. A door opened and shut leaving the room ringing with silence.
I walked over to the wall and leaned against it feeling the cold stone and trying not to stare into the eyes of a terrified
pillar. Her hands were bound as well as her feet, and looked much more real than any other statue I had seen before. I reached
out to touch it and that’s when I noticed the sound of sobs. I followed the wall to the right of the room, my ear as
close to the stone as possible, backtracking when the sound got faint. The door opened on the other side of the room and shut
loudly, the sound echoing throughout the domed room.
“He’s not seeing anyone today, Miss…Miss?”
My hand brushed behind a tapestry, past a seam, and onto wood. I lowered my hand and pushed the door. There was a tiny bit
of give. I continued pushing and fell behind the tapestry, putting all of my weight into the door. In a creak, the door gave
way and I slipped behind it listening as hard as I could to the guard’s reaction.
He called out a little while before running off and I knew that gave me a couple minutes to find out where I was and to get
out. I sighed. In the first five minutes of my meeting and I’ve gotten myself into trouble. The corridor behind me was
dark but not dusty, there were torch brackets on the wall every three feet or so, and a light at the end of the hall. Luckily
the passage didn’t open up straight into the other room, and there was a thin paper-like material covering the hole
that allowed enough light to see by into the dark passage.
Somehow in my panic, I had managed to find the source of the sobbing. A girl was lying on the bed her back up to the ceiling
and completely engrossed in whatever she was crying about. Her feet were tied with rope, but her hands were free and clutching
the pillow. There were no servants in the room but a quick check against the paper made it clear I wouldn’t get in without
making a lot of noise.
The girl pushed herself out of bed with both her feet on the floor and took a shaky breath. She looked at me, but I knew she
didn’t see anything and then hopped over to her vanity. I watched her utterly stumped on what to do as she brushed her
hair until it shined. She had blonde hair.
I remember thinking: My God, why is everything here gold? before the door and a servant came in with a tray of water and food.
The serving girl left it on the table and walked out, locking the door behind her. That’s when I decided to risk a confrontation.
If she was being locked in, why should she rat me out. I kicked the paper with a loud rip and proceeded to pull it up so I
could climb through.
The girl exclaimed and tried to jump back, but she ended up tripping herself on her bonds and fell backwards. There was a
loud bang as she fell, and for a moment both of us stayed still staring at each other and straining for another noise.
“That happens a lot,” she said after minutes went by. Her voice reminded me of an hourglass and the smooth falling
of sand. I reached to help her up.
“Thanks.” She hopped over to her bed and sat down. “Take a seat.”
“Sorry to intrude,” I said, blushing a bit. It hit me how absurd the situation was, but I had a goal in mind and
this was the only way I could see of getting there. I took a seat on the vanity chair she had just left and turned to face
her.
“Mind if I ask your name?” I asked.
“Princess Oriana d’Arani. Except I’m not really a princess anymore.”
“Oh, why do you say that?”
Oriana started crying again. “My father wants to have me gilded.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. I didn’t know what gilding was, except with gold onto a wooden object, but
she was obviously upset and any response I could come up with was pretty heartless. Thankfully she relieved me of having to
answer.
“What’s your name?”
“Carmen.”
She nodded. “How’d you get here? The passage used to be for servants so they could send messages into my room,
but, well, this is sort of a prison now.”
“Well,” I paused gathering up my options: lie or truth. “I’m a bounty hunter and I’m looking
for someone who wandered into your city. But I’ve gotten myself into a bit of a scrape…”
“Oh,” she said, “well, I can’t go very far from my room because of this rope, but I can tell you how
to get to my father’s chambers.”
“That’s probably not best,” I said, glancing towards the passage. “Tell me a little bit about this
gilding.”
She took a deep breath. “About a hundred years ago, my ancestor, who was a baron at the time, was wandering through
the desert and found a fountain in the sand. It just seemed to have appeared out of nowhere and at first, he was sure it was
a mirage. However, the fountain stayed for three days without disappearing. He thanked God for this source of water and then
started to refill his water skin before leading his camels to drink. But as he lowered the skin down to take the water, it
turned to solid gold. He realized that touching the water made things into gold and struck by a sudden idea, he went back
to get supplies. He carried with him gallons of water and shovels and with his family, built himself a house around the fountain.
This house grew and became the Castle d’Arani and the family grew and attracted other people from nearby towns or those
who were banished into the desert where they lived. There was no need for crime because people had all the money in the world.
If there was a dispute, a guard was there to break it up. So the city has flourished for a century, digging farther into the
ground and setting up wells for water. When it rains, the town collects more water. We grow our own food and generally, everyone
is happy.”
“Interesting story, but you didn’t tell me about gilding.”
“I told you! Gilding is when the king takes anything he wants down into the Well Room and dips it into the waters turning
it into gold. All the kings have done that, especially with criminals.” Oriana burst into tears. “And I don’t
know why I’m being treated like a criminal.”
“Calm down,” I said, “it’ll work out.”
“You’ll help me?”
“I’m not promising anything,” I said mentally kicking myself, “but I’ll try.”
“Oh thank you,” she tried to get up and move towards me, but she succeeded in tripping and catching herself on
her knees. “At least get me out of these bonds.”
“What sort of rope is that?” I asked.
“It was a gift from the King of Edelsburg,” she said. “Hydra rope, I think. The more you cut off, the more
is in the box when you open it again and it ties like no other. You could have a bow, and no matter how hard you pull, it
just won’t come undone.”
Hydra rope. I needed some of that.
“Anyway, the passages are all interconnected,” she continued. “If you go out the throne room and go past
two tapestries, there’s another door behind the third one. It’s used more often, so if you push and run through
it shouldn’t take too much effort. That one leads to all the other servant passages to anywhere in the castle. It used
to lead to mind, but that was sealed off. Well, good luck.”
“Thank you.”
I went back along the passageway, being careful to listen at the door before I went through. There was no talking or commotion
that I could tell, but I kept close to the ground pushing the door open and keeping my back to the wall as I went. The ringing
silence hit my ears and I was almost at the third tapestry when the door opened in the opposite corner of the throne room.
“She just disappeared,” the familiar voice of the guard said to someone.
“We’ll find her,” another gruff voice said.
I took the opportunity to push open the servant door, which thankfully was right where Princess Oriana had said it would be
and slipped behind the tapestry letting the door close behind me silently. Also thankfully, the hinges were well used and
silent. I had faith they didn’t hear anything as they were talking.
I slipped through the passages as straight as I could. They were well lit, but strangely I didn’t run into any servants
through the tunnels. I stopped at the sound of voices on one end of a tunnel. The room seemed quiet except for people talking,
but what really piqued my interest was the sound of a name.
“Sir Rhydderch, please, let’s not be irrational. The girl is absolutely frightened.”
Rhydderch. Samuel Rhydderch. It wasn’t such a common last name in any of the empires and though there was a slight chance
it could be another Sam Rhydderch, I highly doubted it.
The last place I had heard that name was on a wanted poster back in Edelsburg, in a town a couple hours’ ride from where
I was currently. I had chased him for avoiding the police and charges of arson, theft, and scrounging public funds. It made
sense I would find him in the gold capital of the world.
“Of course she’s frightened. She should be afraid of the king! Fear establishes power and maintains it.”
“But is there no other way of getting the money?”
I crept closer to the end of the passage being extra careful to stay in the shadows. I could see Samuel Rhydderch, looking
just as I remembered him. The king sat at the head of the table, keeping silent this whole time and looking grave and focused.
The third person in the room I could only see the back of his head, but he was finely dressed and seemed quite flustered in
the way he talked. I sat down a ways from the opening and sat down so I could keep an eye on the meeting.
“Of course not!” Sam said hitting the table “The king is now among the poorest of his subjects and this
cannot continue! Besides, you need money for a larger army. Edelsburg keeps getting larger.”
“Nonsense, Edelsburg continues to be friendly to us,” the other man said. “And the treasury is full of taxes.”
“A daughter is no good, anyway,” Sam continued. “They cost much more than sons between dowry and always
shopping for more goods, and jewelry. Women are much more costly than men.”
It took all I had to stop myself from laughing. Disregarding the sexism of the statement, it was incredibly ironic that this
man had cost the kingdom of Edelsburg hundreds of thousands of dollars almost annually before he was traced and caught. In
this case, a man was much more costly than any woman I know.
“Her gilding date is set,” the king said finally, standing up, “and I believe that’s final on the
matter. You have far too many personal reasons involved in this, Lord Argyris for me to believe you have the interest of the
country at heart.”
Personal matters?
“Please, sir, a final word with your daughter?”
The king looked at Argyris with contempt but then waved him away with his hand. “I will allow it, but do not be there
when I arrive to take her.”
Both Samuel and Argyris bowed deeply as the king passed before glaring at each other behind his back. Samuel followed him
out while Argyris stayed behind. The door was shut thoroughly behind them before Argyris moved towards the passage. I stood
up and made towards the nearest branch away.
“What are you doing sitting there?” he asked me as I moved to run another path.
“Nothing, my Lord.” If they paid me double the reward for this criminal, I might be satisfied for this job.
“I know you’re not a servant. You’re clothes suggest you’re from Edelsburg, is this true?”
“Yes,” I said sighing, “of sorts.”
“The king’s new advisor, Sir Rhydderch came from Edelsburg.”
“Oh yes, and he had a very high position in the financial institutions there.”
“Well if you’re looking for the king, you’d probably find him in the throne room.”
“I’m not sure that’s necessary at this point.”
“Well, I’m going to see Princess Oriana, but I suppose you knew that.”
“Any reason why?”
“Well, we were lovers, however, she seems to have an execution date lined up quite promptly.”
“When?”
“Supposedly tonight. I had hoped to postpone it, but the king had his mind set.”
“I’ll let you go.”
He paused before, “Thank you.”
I moved out of his way and moved forward into the passage. There was no other way to go besides the throne room and, for obvious
reasons, that was not my best option. I exited the door out the hall and following the path of mirrors and statues, found
the spot behind a vase of flowers where I could hide. The king’s chambers looked like they were down the hall, so I
cast my luck in the fact that they would come down this path again and lead me down to the fountain.
My gut instinct proved correct as the door opened again later in the evening and the king came through the door leading a
procession of guards. His daughter was in the middle and Samuel held up the rear. I followed them at a distance, but close
enough to see the path they were taking.
Finally they came to a door with a silver doorknob and red ribbon tied around it. The king tapped it twice with his finger
before stepping back and letting it swing open revealing a blue-lit hall before them. He continued down the stairs, everyone
else following as well. I knew I had a clear shot to capture Sam and get away from here, but tying him up might make noise
and if it didn’t, his absence would alert the guards.
I followed closely behind him and down the steps into a large shimmering room designed in black with gold accents and flowers
along the wall. In the center of the room was a large fountain, still spewing water that fell into gold basin after gold basin
until it reached the pool below, which was large enough to be used as a public bath if it didn’t have water made of
gold.
Because the walls were so dark, I could easily hide in the shadows so long as I was quiet and I sat on the penultimate stair
and watched the procedure. I was neither sure what to expect nor what to do, but watching was the first step to anything.
Timing is crucial.
They lifted Oriana by her bonds and held her up above the water. She was crying silently and no matter how sick I felt about
it, I couldn’t figure out what to do. By sheer luck, Sam provided me with the answer.
“Your majesty, there’s someone here.”
I slunk farther back into the shadows.
“What?”
Samuel took a step closer to the stairs and looked up. I don’t know if he saw me or not, but he kept walking up them.
I took out my rope and held it behind my back until he was right next to me. I swung it over his neck and pushed gently, putting
pressure on his windpipe but not enough to smash it.
He struggled against me a bit, but only managed to almost choke himself by falling down the stairs. Being merciful, I went
with him as he fell. We both ended up in the middle of guards at the bottom of the stairs.
There was a great commotion as people tried grabbing me, but I kept my hand on the rope and Sam as he stumbled with me as
I made my way towards Oriana. She had hopped away from the fountain in the commotion and as soon as I reached her she grabbed
an end of the rope in both her bound hands and sat down, bringing Samuel down with her.
I had no weapons save speed, agility, brute strength, and the fountain. I dodged flying weapons and limbs and made my way
towards the water. I could hear Oriana kicking some guards to keep a hold on the rope. One of the newer guards made a step
and a swing for me leaving his right side open for me to barge into him knocking him down and another soldier next to him,
who fell into the water.
It churned for a bit before returning to normal and bubbling happily with a new gold treasure in its depths.
“Don’t touch him,” someone yelled and unfortunately, everyone obeyed.
I tried pushing all the inexperienced soldiers in, but soon only the best players were left. I was trapped in a corner with
Oriana and Sam, where I had made my way for the final fight. I was going to lose, but it was worth a shot.
“Enough,” the king yelled. I wondered what had taken him so long.
“As entertaining as that was, my life does not seem to be in any danger. Please, part the way.”
The guards moved to the side of the room, sheathing their weapons and making a path for the king to glare at me. I stared
back.
“Who are you?”
“Carmen Teasdale.”
“Why are you here? I didn’t think a bounty hunter would come to save a princess?”
“I’m just here for Samuel Rhydderch, what you do with your daughter is your own choice.”
“I see. You do know he’s under protection of law?”
“You do know what he’s done to the government of Edelsburg?”
The king harrumphed. “Then leave with your criminal and don’t bother with my business again.”
“Fine,” I said, “but there’s more than gold in the world.”
“This coming from a bounty hunter.”
“I do more than just get money. My job is getting tricky criminals off the streets. People get paid for their jobs.
But my job does not involve helping out with family problems. I’ll leave.”
I made my way towards the stairs after tying up Samuel’s hands so he could follow me all the way to Theirn in front
of the castle. I gathered up my things from the guards at the front gate, who were utterly oblivious to the goings on inside.
Finally armed again, I mounted my horse and tied the end of the rope to the horn of my saddle.
“You’re walking,” I said to him. He glared at me, but I started moving.
“You know he wasn’t really going to gild her,” Sam said. “He was getting second thoughts.”
“That’s not our business,” I said. “Especially not yours.”
Indentations of sand where our feet had been led out from the city and into the large expanse of desert in front of us. Though
I knew we’d be there by nightfall, I felt like I still had a long way to go.
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