Chapter Twenty-One

“Eleanor!” Eden catches up to her outside the prison; she has her arms crossed and is repeatedly tapping the ground with her foot, waiting for Eden to finish. “Well?” Says Eleanor.Eden chuckles while scratching the back of his head nervously. “Sorry, Eleanor, I had to ask Cyrus for help.” Eleanor sighs. “I don’t like this idea of bringing along a criminal to find another criminal. So? How are you going to have this thief help us find the Whale Stone? You got a leash to keep him on?”“Huh? No. Uh…” Eden hesitates to explain the plan that he and Cyrus had come up with. Eleanor would probably not like the idea that he’s helping the thief escape from prison. Considering that the plan may not go well, Eden will be put into prison, and dragging Eleanor down with him doesn’t sit well with him. “I just have to go ask the duke and see if we could borrow Cyrus for a while to help track down his comrade.”“The duke will never let that happen.”“It doesn’t hurt to ask, right?” Eden shrugs while his heart is pounding in a slow and painful beat. “Let’s do this; my plan might not work, so how about you go around town and come up with a plan B?” “It’s not going to work, Eden.”“I know, but it’s the only lead I can come up with, so…”“Fine. I’ll go into town and see what I can find. Come back when the duke says no, okay?” Eleanor growls. Eden nods and watches Eleanor as she’s finally out of sight. He sighs; his heart starts to feel hollow again, dreading what he’s about to do next. Instead of going to the manor, he goes back to the dungeons. At the gate, a guard stands still as a statue at the entrance. I need to get him to move out of the way but what? Eden looks around to see if there is anything he can distract the guard with. He notices a group of kids near the town playing; it seems like they’re pretending to be Legions as they swing sticks and pot lids and throw pebbles at each other. Grabbing his chin, Eden turns to the side of the dungeon to see a window. “Hm.” Eden picks up a rock the size of his hand and tosses it from the direction of the playing children. The glass shatters as a guard curses. Eden rushes his way around the walled fence to the other side and waits. “What happened?” asks a frantic guard.“A damn rock just broke our window!” Another guard replies angrily.“It’s those kids again!”A group of armored guards rush out of the gate, giving Eden a chance to jump over the wall and slip through the entrance. It looks like all the guards at the front desk went to scold the children, as Eden can hear their booming voices echoing through the broken window against some screechy, dirty-mouthed kids. “Now where would they keep the prisoners’ belongings?” Eden mumbles to himself and peeks through the gallery of doors. Washrooms, barracks, kitchen, and dining rooms, Eden continues down a flight of stairs to a vast room with a table in the center that leads to two doors. Reaching for the handle for the door, it swings open by itself.A tall and bulky guard with the scent of ale wafting around him pops out of the room. Eden gasps and frantically salutes. “Su-Squire E- Edeeson, sir! Reporting for duty, sir!” “Wot tis tis?” The drunken guard asks? “A nyuw su- suquire?” he hiccups and stares down at Eden with a glare. “Camone den, get me da booket.”“The what?”“I shaid, get me da booket!” The guard points and pushes Eden towards a bucket under the table. “Y-yes, sir!” Eden rushes to get it and then hands it to the guard. But vomit unleashes before the bucket can reach the guard and splashes all over the floor and on Eden. The stench of ale has a bitter scent of what looks like chewed-up bits of chicken and vegetables littered on the floor and on Eden’s clothes. Eden scrunches up his nose and turns his head away so that he, too, doesn’t gag.“Now ook wot ye diid! Ma soup fell! Peek up ma soup, boy!” The guard’s hand smacks Eden on the back so hard that he falls right into the puddle of vomit. “Oi! Wot ya doin? Nooooooooo leeping on de floor!”The guard grabs Eden and lifts him off the vomit floor. “Hey! Stop! Let me go!”“Eww! Why ya stank, boy?” Then he drops Eden back onto the puddle with a splash.Eden growls and clenches his fist, digging his nails into his palm. He has tasted the vomit. A burp makes Eden look up from the floor; the guard is holding both his stomach and mouth followed by a series of bubbly and gurgling noises. “Boy… I do feel so good.” Eden shoots up from the floor. “I’m done with your puke, old man!” He bashes his fist into the guard’s face as greenish liquid comes running down his mouth and splashes more onto Eden. The guard plops onto the sea of digested soup. Eden groans, smelling vomit in the air. Turning to the door the drunk guard had come from, Eden peers inside. It looks like another break room as there’s a table cluttered in dishes and tankards. In a corner of the room is a stack of ale bottles and a shelf that holds guard uniforms and their stuff.“I don’t think they keep criminal belongings in here.” Chatter murmurs from outside the room. Heart racing, Eden races to the door and peeks out. A clattering of footsteps and armor grows as they get closer. “What is that stench?” One of the guards exclaims angrily. “Aye, look, we have a man down!” a guard with a high-pitched voice cries out.“He looks dead drunk. Probably slipped on his own barf.” says the guard with what sounds like his nose is stuffed up. “pick him up and put him back in the break room!”“No! He stinks!” “Yeah boss, and he’s too fat for me to carry.” “Then go find somebody! Check the break room!”Eden’s heart races. “Oh, goddess!” He frantically looks around for a place to hide. But there isn’t anywhere he could squeeze in or get behind. The uniforms! Eden rushes towards the shelf and immediately takes his clothes off to put on the uniform. But the stench of vomit is pungent on him. Ale! Eden pops open two bottles and soaks himself in the alcohol. The door swings open and Eden plops onto the floor, pretending to be asleep drunk. “We got another one drunk here, sir!” Says the guard with a stuffy nose.The sounds of the guards seem to surround Eden, but they don’t exchange a word with each other. He can feel the eyes of the guards staring holes into him that there’s a strong urge to see what they’re doing. But they’re just standing around him. Doing nothing. The silence is killing Eden, so he plays it off by stretching and yawning. He rubs his not-so-sleepy eyes to see the guards. And yes, the guards are just standing around him with a dumb look on their faces that makes Eden’s head twitch with anger. “What are you doing?” Asks the guard with a high-pitched voice.Eden shoots up from the floor and salutes. “Sorry, sir, I was on break, sir!”“Why are you all soaking wet?” Asks the guard with a stuffy nose. “I uh… I don’t remember, sir; I was drinking ale with, um, the other guard; I forgot his name, sir.”“What is your station, squire!”“Uh…” Eden glances off to the side of the guard and sees a mop. “Sanitation, sir!” “Huh. That explains your wimpy build,” says the angry guard. “Go and put Benny into bed!”“Who?”“The one drowning in his barf!”“Oh that guy.” Eden scratches his head, rushes out the door, and grabs hold of the drunk guard over his shoulder. Again the putrid scent of undigested soup wafts into Eden’s nostrils. He scrunches up his nose as he goes back up the flight of stairs and into the barracks, placing the drunk guard onto a random bed.“Good. Now go and mop up the sorry fellow’s lunch.”“Y-yes, sir.” Eden reluctantly goes back into the break room, finds a mop, and cleans the sea of vomit with the group of guards watching him do it. Why aren’t they leaving? Eden clenches onto the mop, feeling annoyed. After getting the cobblestone floor spotless, he turns to the group of guards. “Well now that I’m done, I should be going then.”“No you’re not,” says the angry guard. “I need you to help with a list of things.”“A list?” Eden’s whole body droops.“Of course! Now let’s get to it then.”The list of chores around the prison goes on for what feels like an eternity and yet the sun still sits high in the sky as if time had not moved at all. From dishes, torture room cleaning, weapons sharpening, and sweeping up horse dung, Eden wishes for the day to be over. The next task the guards make him do is in a room full of boxes and a pile of objects on a table and floor; it looks like weapons and leather armor that are more appropriate for bandits and criminals. Among those weapons is the black and violet curved dagger with three silver stars on the blade. Cyrus’ Armament. A sigh of relief leaves Eden’s mouth as this day wasn’t wasted after all. “Alright squire, I need you to sort this room out. We’ve been lazy for the last couple of days that we had no time to organize it.”“Yes sir,” Eden sighs heavily.“And here.” The angry guard tosses Eden the list of chores. “We have more important duties to do, but you better get all of that done before dusk,” says the guard with the stuffy nose. “After you’re done here, go to the kitchen and prepare food for the prisoners. A small loaf of bread to each of them is fine,” says the guard with a high-pitched voice. “Yes sir.”The three guards leave Eden alone in the storage room. The door clicks and Eden sinks to the floor while letting out a hoarse groan. He glances at the list on the floor. There’s a whole page of tasks to do, and it looks like there are more words on the back of the paper, too. “I’m not doing this anymore.” He quickly gets up and grabs Cyrus’ Armament. Heading to the kitchen, he holds a plate and a small loaf of bread, ripping it in half, and places the dagger in between them. Eden rushes down to the prisoner’s cell, where Cyrus sits in the corner of the room, looking at Eden with an eyebrow raised.“I thought I told you to be at this window?” asks Cyrus.“Food for the prisoner.” Eden slides the tray of the Armament sandwich under the metal bars. Cyrus, still eyeing Eden with a quizzical look, takes the sandwich from the tray. “Why is my dagger sandwiched? And why do you smell like alcohol and shit?”“I have nothing to say to you prisoner.” Eden storms off.“Hey guard, where’s my food?” A prisoner from somewhere asks loudly.“You’re not getting none!” Eden stomps up the flight of stairs and then down another towards the break room to collect his clothes and Armament. Then he passes the same three guards from before.“Hey, boy! I ordered you to organize that storage room! Why is it still a mess?” asks the angry guard.Eden sprints, and without looking back, he shouts, “I quit!”