The Name of Evil by DemiSage

Chapter 4— Too Soft for Life in the Tunnels

After the two jail guards pulled Hilko from the cell, they bound his hands to one of the cell bars before giving him a vicious beating. Intended for his fellow prisoners to witness, the guards nearly killed him. When Hilko flopped down on the filthy stone floor back inside the cell, he had broken ribs and a concussion. None of his fellow prisoners bothered to help him for two days, although they were happy to strip him of his clothes. He lost his dagger as well.

Hilko learned later that the jailers needed space in the cells. Because he looked close to death, they had prisoners Hilko carried out of the building. As luck would have it, one person ordered to carry him was Silna. They dumped him in the alley to die. Silna later told him there were skeletal remains of other prisoners in the alley.

Later that day, the jailers released Silna when the Amryno merchant failed to bring his case before the lord sheriff. Her accuser was too cheap to pay off the authorities to let her rot in jail.

Fortunately, Silna went back to the alley where Hilko lay in the misty rain for reasons he never really understood. She got the injured smuggler to his feet before she half-carried him to a safe place that he knew. The woman nursed him to recovery and eventually became his roommate and friend.

Silna’s big dark eyes looked him over as she slid onto the bench across the grimy table from him. Her expression no longer held the sense of innocence like the first time he saw her.

“Alright, what happened?” Silna asked, giving him a toothy smile. The woman’s round reddish-brown face had a few pockmarks from a childhood disease. The woman’s curly black hair was short.

“Wolk chased me again. He thinks I did that last lift on the Faters,” Hilko explained before he glumly took a sip of the harsh drink out of the clay mug.

Hilko hated the mix of tunnel water and soured grape mesh. He sniffed his mug again with a scowl, then put it down. When he looked up, he grinned as her drink dribbled down on her simple white peasant shirt with a high collar and long sleeves. The woman plopped the mug on the table and used her sleeve to wipe her face.