Chapter 10: To Search for a Grubber

A chill wind rose up from the plains as they walked and the sky turned overcast. Jack and Nolan pulled their weather-worn, dun-coloured cloaks tighter, seeking to deny the cold any crevice in which to creep.

“So Ash thinks we’re going to practice swordplay then does she?” inquired Jack, “Have you never told her I already know how to handle a weapon?”

“I haven’t told anyone you know how to handle a weapon,” replied Nolan as they walked, “If Sir Barrow or any of the other Knights knew I was secretly training you in the lance I’d be tossed out of the Order, or worse!”

“I suppose,” conceded Jack, “But you can’t deny having someone to teach and spar with you hasn’t been useful. You probably owe a great deal of your axe prowess to all the extra sparring you and I have had.”

“Besides which, it’s obvious you’re a good teacher.” Jack finished with a grin. “I nearly beat you last time,”

“I had a cold and I was hung over, and I’ll thank you for not mentioning it,” said Nolan defensively.

There was a pause and Nolan’s tone suddenly became worried.

“There’s something else I haven’t told Ash, or anyone for that matter,” he said. “If I don’t get my money back Ash, Mare, and my Mum stand to lose more than just a few pounds from going hungry this senturn. I’ve been behind on paying taxes for the house; my Squire’s pay hasn’t been cutting it recently. I’ve had to pick up a few extra chores around the castle just to make what I did this senturn. If I don’t get twenty crowns to the King’s office by tomorrow night my family won’t have a home to live in.”

Nolan paused again and Jack said nothing, utterly shocked at his friend’s admission.

“We need to find that Grubber today Jack, we have to.”

Jack looked Nolan in the eye and promised him. “We will Nolan, we will.”

Despite the sudden chill brought on by the wind and clouds, much of Castle Lane was busy and crowded with people as it ever was, with the ever-present din of a hundred voices combined with the constant click-clack of hooves on worn flagstone.

For as long as Jack could remember, the archway marking the entrance to the Lower Quarter was usually the most crowded, as the LQ contained the most occupants than any other Quarter in the city, but that was not the sight that greeted Jack and his friend. Instead, as they approached the archway, they noticed there was virtually no traffic going in and only a few traders from the homesteads coming out.

There were ten Royal Guardsmen blocking the entrance, looking as intimidating as they possibly could. The gleaming hilts of their weapons displayed prominently.

“What in the name of the Five is going on here?” Nolan asked Jack in a low voice, just out of earshot of the guardsmen.

“I don’t know. But I don’t like it,” Jack replied. “Let’s see if they’ll let us in. Just follow my lead and don’t let on that you’re a Squire, we don’t actually have a good reason to be here.”

Nolan grunted in agreement and the duo walked calmly to the archway.

“Halt,” said one of the guardsmen upon noticing the two. “By order of the King none shall enter.”

Jack stared at the man right in the eye with a look of righteous incredulity.

“Why?”

The guard stepped uncomfortably close to Jack. His face only inches away from Jack’s own.

“Are you questioning His Majesty’s rule boy?” the guard said obstinately.

“I just want to know why we can’t go inside. Look at us; we live there, so why can’t we go in? That’s our home.” Jack asked again.

“The King has ordered that those without a pass may not enter or leave the Lower Quarter due to the spread of the pestilence that afflicts the people most grievously,” replied the guard.

“Pestilence? What pestilence? I haven’t heard of any pestilence.” Jack said with indignant shock.

“If you don’t know about the pestilence then it’s obvious you two have not resided in the King’s Lower Quarter for at least a senturn, and as such you are not permitted to enter, go back to whatever mucking labour you lowlifes do and bother us no more, or face the consequences of justice!” replied the belligerent guard, placing a particular menacing emphasis on ‘justice’.

Realizing the situation he was in, Jack immediately adopted a subservient look.

“Uh right you are sirs, I mean sir, I meant no disrespect, we’ll be on our way now, praise be the King.”

He turned on his heel and he and Nolan made their way into the side street they had emerged from a moment earlier.

“What was all that about?” Nolan asked with concern, “Why should a pest problem concern the guard? It’s not like rats are a new edition to the Lower Quarter.”

“Pestilence,” Jack corrected, “Not a pest problem, it means a disease that spreads quickly and often kills,” he finished somberly. “Which can sometimes happen, it’s just that neither I nor Rhodes have heard of any such pestilence.”

“If there was such a disease it would have spread to the other Quarters regardless of the King’s quarantine,” he continued. “There’s no way to stop the spread of an illness that fast unless you’re already looking for it. And pestilences, by their very nature, often rise quickly and with no warning.”

“So….what?” asked Nolan, “You’re saying there isn’t really any sickness in the LQ?”

“Or if there is, it’s unlike any sickness I’ve ever heard of.” Jack replied. “With that in mind I say we find another way into the LQ. I mean, if that Grubber we’re after made it out just yesterday than clearly there are other ways in and out. Let’s check along the wall.”

Nolan nodded in agreement, evidently glad that a new plan had been devised so quickly.

Apart from the great twenty foot wall surrounding the outermost perimeter of the city-state (at its lowest elevation) the only other walls inside the city were the bastioned, fortified walls of the Stalwart and the plain brick and mortar walls separating the LQ from the Mid Quarter (and the rest of Lazaras).

As Jack and Nolan walked along the MQ side Jack could see that proper upkeep hadn’t been done in ages, there were cracks and crags at regular intervals, areas of the wall that were lower, and uneven due to decades, probably closer to centuries, of erosion. Evidently when the people of Lazaras decided to give King Durgas the title of the “Mason King'' they weren’t talking about the less-affluent areas of the city.

Walking southward along the wall the two friends started looking for weaknesses and ways to scale the near fifteen foot vertical impasse. Attempts of Jack standing on Nolan’s shoulders yielded no success.

“How’re we going to get in?” Nolan said anxiously.

“I don’t know.” Jack said resolutely.

“By the Five if I don’t get my wages back…” continued Jack’s hulking friend. “Blasted Void, what am I going to do! I won’t let Ash and Mare go homeless! I won’t, *I just won’t!*”

Jack, who was walking behind him, put a rough hand on Nolan’s shoulder and spun him around, placing his other hand on Nolan’s other shoulder and giving him a shake.

“Listen to me mate. I won’t let that happen, and you won’t let that happen. We’ll find a way into the LQ, we WILL. We just have to keep looking, there’s got to be a way. If that little Grubber can come and go as he pleases, then so can we. We just have to stay…” Jack paused and noticed something.

“We just have to stay…what? Finish your sentence mate, I’m losing my mind here!” Nolan demanded loudly, brushing Jack's hands off him.

“Sshh” said Jack.

“Sshh!? Why the Void would I sshh..”

“Shut up and look. Over there.”

Jack took his friend’s sleeve and led him behind the nearest building, brown and sandstone like everything else in that part of the city.

About 50 yards south of where they were walking someone was attempting to scale the wall into the Lower Quarter, someone who was clearly not from the MQ. As they watched in hushed silence Nolan spoke first.

“Is that who I think it is?”

“I think so," said Jack. "It looks like we’ve not only found our little Grubber friend, but also our way into the LQ.”