Acclayne Book 1: The Game Begins
Chapter 24

Rubbing his callousedfingers along his stubbled chin Alox was the picture ofconcentration, or at least; confusion. He had promised Stella somesort of compensation for subjecting her to travel by burlap sack,again. As soon as the words tumbled out of his mouth he began toregret them; she could have asked for anything.Clothes,shoes, make-up or heaven forbid; ladyproducts. Hewas in luck that day; however, and she decided that she would settlefor a sizeable portion of cheese. Odd, but he supposed it was strangethings you'd replace yourself missing in that sort of a situation. Atleast it was a simple request; cheese was cheese – only apparentlyit wasn't.

Alox had left hiscaptive – still sulking – in the small room they'd been given,above a quiet pub. Alox had to admit that a safe house that doubledas a pub was quite convenient; especially given the kind of day hewas having. He went in search of food alone. Stella had begged him tolet her come along; she hadn't seen daylight in so long. He had toremind her that, while he agreed that it might be nice to have thecompany, she was currently in a state of kidnap and that beingallowed to roam around outdoors she was liable to escape. Shereluctantly agreed although stayed silent about the fact that shehadn't even thought of escape being an option; he was giving her fartoo much credit.

Lookingaround him now he wished that he had brought her along. He hadn'texpected so many different shops and stalls; let alone entire stallsdedicated to cheese. Alox, like most of the residents of Corthus, hadbeen brought up to believe that cheese came solely in block form, itwas yellow, and it was quite nice in a sandwich. Simple. The stuff onoffer in front of him was pre-sliced, sometimes triangular, othertimes it was even round.Not only that but they were all various places on the orange to whitespectrum; here was something that was so white it was translucent andnext to it was something that was a bright, obnoxious orange. Nothingeven remotely yellow, and he didn't want to even think about thatgloopy looking stuff in the pot on the end. He scratched his headthrough his rapidly thinning hair. Cheese should not be thisdifficult.

With a little moredeliberation and the help of the kindly looking girl behind thecounter, he settled for a few thin slices of a number of so called'cheeses', she could hardly complain about that though he knew thatshe probably would regardless of the effort. He sighed and shruggedinwardly- there was just no pleasing some people. Cheese acquired; hedabbed at the spittle that had settled into the corners of his mouth.He was quite hungry himself. Bread to go with the cheese wouldn't bea half bad idea, then at least they could share. That's if herlady-ship had finished sulking. His mind, and stomach, nowpreoccupied by the promise of food; failed to notice the young womanstanding beside him and so when he turned around he found himselfface to shoulder with her.

“So sorry!” Sheflustered as he rubbed his nose with the palm of his hand, “Ididn't mean to stand so close!”

Aloxgrumbled, “Yeah, well maybe you wanna think 'bout a person'spersonal space sometime lady.” The tall red-head smiled sheepishlyand he shrugged it off, “no 'arm done though aye.” He couldn'thelp but think that the slender woman looked familiar; though it wasunusual to see such a bedraggled looking person in the Cortharenmarket. He watched her walk away and join her friend; another woman,significantly smaller and more robust looking who was glaring angrilyin his direction. Should he know her?He tried a smile; which she did not return. Geez, some people. Heshook his head, young people these days always had such an attitudeproblem – looking for a fight over the stupidest of things. Helooked after them as they walked away; the shorter one leading thered-head. Just thinking about it made him feel old. He'd seen herface before; he knew he had. Shoot, he really was getting old.

He snorted and did hisbest to shake the sobering thoughts from his head. Those young 'unsdidn't matter anyway, he'd more important things to be taking careof: like lunch.

***

“What in The Mother'sname are you playing at?!” Alox suddenly found himself pinned tothe door of his own room by his neck. He gurgled incoherently as hetried to focus on the face in front of him. Through the blood spotsthat were clouding his vision he could just about recognise the man'sface.

“Gaw, wha' happenedto yer face?” he managed to choke out. Where once he had two largedark eyes; he now had one. In place of the other was deeply scarredflesh over an eye that was now drained of all colour and use.

“It is none of yourconcern.” He snarled as he dropped Alox to the floor and back ontohis feet. “Do you realise that you could very well have been seen?”

Alox coughed andattempted to clear his throat, the action was painfully sore. “Noone'd recognise me 'ere anyway. 'sides – we needed supplies.” Heturned on the angry young man, “You don't want me to be starvin''er do ya?”

Theyoung man whirled round at him; his one good eye fixed him with awithering stare and ignoring Alox's comment said: “I found youeasily enough my friend.”

“Pah!” Alox barkedand as he did so sent a shower of spittle ahead of him, “but ittook you this long!”

“The price on yourhead; I should not want to be found at all; no matter how short orlong a time it takes.”

They stood staring ateach other for a moment in stalemate. Alox was the first to break thestony silence:

“You got orders fromthe boss 'en?”

“Stay hidden.”

“Ah yeah, 'elpfulthat is.”

“A simple order thatit seems not even you can manage; it is imperative that you stayconcealed.” He handed Alox a small pouch of coins, “somehow Itrust this will help.”

“Yeah, well it'll bea lot easier with that kinda motivation.” he grinned a rotten,gap-toothed grin as he weighed the bag in his palm. “What's goin'on 'en? I ain't 'eard anythin' in ages.”

“Nothing to concernyourself with as of yet.”

“Well word is thatCortharen is marching on Corthus. Got anythin' to do with this?” Hegestured with his head towards the locked door behind him; to whereStella was no doubt still seething over being man-handled. Yet again.

“All actions willhave their consequences.”

Alox scoffed at thevague reply, “You don't 'alf talk some shit.”

“Just stay hidden- Iam doing everything I can.” And with that he swept silently downthe corridor. Alox knew better than to follow; he'd have disappearedafter he'd lost him round the first corner. Slippery bastard. Hepocketed the bag of coins. Being paid was always gratifying –especially since he'd been working with minimal funding the last fewweeks. His stomach grumbled angrily. He suspected that right now,however; a cheese sandwich was going to be just as gratifying. As helet himself into the room he couldn't help but shake the feeling thatthings were going to come to a head a lot sooner than he'd expected.