Aleest who barely took his eyes of the procession of knights that was now passing by.
“Of course. He probably had that done as the first thing right after making her the princess. That knight there is a mean one. He wanted to beat me when I dropped his bridle once, but Em’risi was there so he didn’t. He wants his son to marry Em’risi, but he is so fat that he can’t even ride a horse. He has to have servants carry him on a litter whenever he goes anyplace. That one over there is always tripping because he lost his toes when a table fell on them.”
“A table?”
“Yes, a big iron one. The legs on one side were loose so when they put a boar, or was it an elk? Whatever it was, they had a big roasted one and when they dropped it, the table it fell over and smashed his toes.”
“That sounds terrible.”
“He deserved it. See that riding whip he has? It isn’t for decoration. He beats his horses terribly.” There was a vindictive undertone in Aleest’s voice that gave Cero pause as he noticed the knight’s horse had oddly straight lines of lighter color to his hide that belied the scars along his neck.
“It looks like all the interesting stuff is passed. We should see if we can find the rest of our people.” Cero scooted back to the hole they had used to climb through the roof of the ornamental bulwark. A few minutes later, they crawled through the broken masonry at the base and began working their way through the people massed around the gates. Eventually they broke free and took the back alleys to the market. The procession had already passed through by the time that they arrived. It took them a little while to find their friends because the stall that they had occupied were vacant. Even the wagons were gone. They had about decided that the other two teams had returned to the Red Thorn when Inadar encountered them.
Inadar explained that the people had been more than willing to spend their free coin because of the coronation. They had sold all their supplies in short order and an officer had come by and purchased their wagons with the oxen. Now with only the sacks of coin, they were looking for a different method of reaching the lower city rather than the gates. Seeing them without the wagons, the guard had demanded an outrageous fee to let them out of the upper city. They had managed to sell the items at a profit, but all the bribes and fees were putting them on the other side of the profitable line. Three official tax collectors complete with castle guards had passed through and demanded a percentage of the moneys earned throughout the day. If they made their rounds again before the small band could escape, there would be less money than they had started with. It was reason enough to explain why the other merchants had been surreptitiously slipping most the gold coins into secreted coffers.
Niman was the first to duck into the hole when he had been shown where it was. He seemed to have a certain familiarity with the sewers, but steadfastly refused to expound on how he had gained that familiarity. The rest were a little more hesitant, but they followed after Cero and Aleest without many complaints. Torroth had the presence of mind to pull the grate into place once they had all disappeared into the sewer entrance. They walked single file through the darkness with Cero in the lead, even though he didn’t explain why he was better suited for the task.
It took a few minutes to adjust to the light once they had left the tunnel, even with the setting sun nearing the horizon. Making their way to the street, they paused when they saw the castle guards systematically going through each building. Everyone got the idea at the same time and began moving towards the Red Thorn and the packs they had in their rooms that were filled with all manner of incriminating items. Cero gave Aleest a glance that set the lad at a trot back into the slums behind the street facing buildings. Once out of sight, they took off at top speed. The few people that were in the area didn’t comment when the two youth sped past intent on ensuring that Bani didn’t fall into the wrong hands.