Baris hadn't thought to inspect the surroundings. He was so focused on the advancing soldiers that he'd forgotten the house they had broken into must surely belong to someone! The room they were in was a large, rather luxurious living room. Across from the front door, a corridor led to the kitchen where the faint glow of a candle played with the contours of the furniture.
Suddenly, a shadow sprang out from behind the large wardrobe! Then another and another again!
"Damn!" Baris exclaimed. "They've already spotted us, they're here already!"
"Who are you?" asked a small, shrill voice. "And what are you doing here? This house is not yours, so go away!"
Baris calmly stood up. The person who had spoken to him didn't seem to pose any threat.
"And you? Who are you?" he asked. "I have a katana, so don't make a fool out of me!"
One of the shadows tilted its head to see better and then immediately hid.
"We... we live in this house," said the voice in an even less confident tone. "Leave or..."
"Did you spot them?" a man bellowed in the alley. "If you see the slightest thing move, even a cat, cut it down without warning!"
"Hi! The royal guard is already here!" someone shouted from behind the wardrobe.
"How do they know?" asked another voice, even shriller. "Were we betrayed?"
"Those two men," said a third voice, "could they be responsible?"
At the window, a thin curtain concealed the inside of the house from prying eyes. Baris slowly approached it, without a noise. He glanced: half a dozen guards were standing, arranged in a circle, discussing just outside the door, and even more were waiting down the street!
"Dad..."
"It's okay, they haven't seen us yet."
The three shadows came out of their hiding place and instinctively approached the window.
"Dad..."
But Baris paid no attention to his son's words or the arrival of three new characters: three dwarves with green caps, in their little green overalls, stood in front of the window, clinging to each other and casting desperate glances in all directions.
"But there are dozens of them!" one of them exclaimed, twitching his long, pointed ears.
"And they look pretty worked up about it!" said the next, wiggling his long nose.
"They must be more than tired of our kind's thievery," confirmed the third, showing off his tiny, decayed teeth, "if they find us, they'll massacre us!"
"Be quiet!" Baris snapped, raising a threatening fist. "They'll hear you."
But the three dwarves didn't listen to him at all and were more concerned about the pathetic death that awaited them. They collapsed on the floor, crying.
"Riga, go see if there are other exits we could use to escape. These three idiots are going to get us spotted."
After a short moment, he came back empty-handed...
"No door, no window that we could use to escape?" asked Baris, panicking as he watched for suspicious movements from the stationed soldiers.
"No, not a single emergency exit."
"Of course," he concluded with a resigned smile, "that's how the houses in this neighborhood are built: a door and a window overlooking the street. Nothing more... This does not help our situation."
The queen's minions caused a great commotion and began to drag all the residents out of their homes! Fortunately for the blacksmith and his son, they had started at the other end of the alley, but a group of soldiers was standing right in front of their door, and if by bad luck they also received the order to start searching, they would immediately begin with theirs.
"Hey! Haven't you seen two men, two rather tall humans?" the guards asked all the villagers they woke up.
An annoyed woman, disturbed in her sleep, retorted, "Of course! I see real men every day at the market, but certainly not in the army! Ah, the beautiful royal guard! What a damn bunch of scoundrels!"
The punishment was swift: it was her last night in Genib. The soldier spat on her body as she agonized:
"Damn vermin!" (He turned to the windows of the houses, shouting hysterically.) "But where are these two traitors!"
The dwarves squatted down, huddling together, and cast horrified glances at each other:
"Hi!... Hi!..." one of them trembled. "They killed her! They killed her even though she hadn't done anything! What will they do to us, who steal from others?"
"It's not us they're looking for," astutely noticed the second one.
"Yes, they are looking for those two men behind us! Let's turn them in to save our own skin!"
But Baris wasn't willing to hear it. He grabbed the last one by the collar and lifted him like a basket of rotten fruits:
"I didn't hear you right, you dirty little bug! You won't say anything at all! Don't you see this sword I'm holding or what? If any of you speaks, he'll die as quickly as that poor woman in the street!"
The dwarves were terrified and seemed on the brink of melting. They even thought about calling the guards for help: in the end, they feared them less than the blacksmith. The latter had a good sense that the little men's loyalty was not their first quality. He therefore had to find a way to escape. Suddenly, he exclaimed:
"The chimney! Riga, the chimney!"
Riga crossed the living room in the blink of an eye and then began to thoroughly examine the hearth. Immediately he turned to his father and declared, filled with hope:
"Dad! The flue is narrow, but I think we can still climb onto the roof through there!"
Baris looked up and whispered: "God has not abandoned us. No, God has not abandoned us."
"Very well! He declared all invigorated. You, dwarves! " He said, pointing at them with his chin. "Go first!"
But the dwarves didn't move an inch. They just lowered their heads muttering inaudible words. The blacksmith gave his son a puzzled look. The latter shrugged his shoulders, pulling a face. It seemed that the three brothers had chosen their side and did not want to be considered as felons to His Majesty. Between traitors and thieves, there was the same gap that separated life from death. But Baris was losing patience. In his opinion, he was only a few steps away from realizing his dream.
"Well then! What are you waiting for? The queen's guards will fall on you like a swarm of wasps if you stay planted there hanging around. You have a chance to get out if you climb on the roof so hurry up!"
One of the dwarves, trembling, suddenly burst out:
"We have a better chance of getting out as thieves rather than traitors! If the guards chase us along with you, they will consider us as one of yours but if we stay here wisely, then they will undoubtedly spare us."
"Poor fools..." Baris grumbled.
A guard turned a suspicious face towards the window and headed there with heavy steps:
"Did you hear that?" He asked his companions. "It sounds like there's someone in this house, behind this window…"
Baris froze while the dwarves made themselves even smaller. A stream of sweat rolled down to his chin. He signaled to Riga to climb onto the roof through the chimney while he grabbed a chair which he used to block the door.
"No, I didn't hear anything," replied one of the guards twirling his katana clumsily in his hands.
"Me neither," said another in a weary tone.
"Yes, yes, I'm sure," the first resumed drawing his weapon. "Someone spoke in this house," he affirmed while throwing a suspicious glance through the window.
In the back of the room, Riga had begun his ascent into the chimney flue. His father followed suit shortly after. Suddenly, the soldier banged violently on the door: the dwarves almost urinated in their underwear.
"Open! In the name of the queen, open!"
Riga hurried further but the dust and soot made him cough. The guard, who was listening at that moment, began to violently kick the door but this one, well wedged by the chair, refused to yield. So, he decided to enter through the window but fortunately, when he broke the glass with his sword, Riga had already reached the roof! The dwarves quickly moved away screaming, thinking that the shards of glass were intended for them. The soldier tore the curtain then leaped inside; he cast a look full of aversion at the dwarves huddled against each other and curled up near the wall then he began to yell:
"What are you doing here, you woodlice?"
"So what's up?" said one of the reinforcing guards.
"False alarm," he replied in an annoyed tone. "It's just dwarfs..."
He sheathed his sword then took a circular look at the room looking for the fugitives when finally his eyes ended up falling again on the intruders: he stared at them with a disgusted look.
The three brothers were completely paralyzed by fear. They were shaking so much, that despite their small size, the floor seemed to vibrate under their feet. Suddenly, one of them took his courage in both hands and stood on his ridiculously short legs. He swallowed quickly and chained the words with frightening speed:
"The two men you are looking for are in the chimney! We saw them break into this house and we tried to stop them while waiting for your patrol's help. They just got in there, if you hurry you will surely catch them!"
Phew! thought the little man all proud in his little green overalls. He felt relieved to have denounced Baris and Riga and was now convinced to have distanced danger from himself and his brothers. However, seeing the face of his host deformed by fury, his joy was short-lived.
"You woodlice!" stormed the soldier. "Couldn't you have said it sooner?"
The man was torn between the urge to punish the three dwarves and the desire to pursue the fugitives. Finally, he ran to the fireplace and stuck his head in. As he looked up the chimney, he saw a shadow disappearing into the sky, followed by a cloud of dust and soot falling onto his nose. He quickly backed away from the hearth, coughing, and wiped his face with his hands.
"Up there!" he shouted, still with his eyes closed. "Up there! They're on the roof!"
His colleagues scrambled in all directions, but in their panic, they didn't know how to reach the rooftops of the houses.
The soldier, beside himself with rage, ran towards the brothers. There, he stood before them. He slowly drew his katana.
"You thought you'd save your lives by betraying them, didn't you? You bunch of scoundrels! But I hate vermin!"
"Mercy!" they all begged in unison, pitifully.
"Filthy, stinking cockroaches," he said, raising his arm towards the sky.
With three distinct swings, it was over for them.
Meanwhile, two stealthy figures were leaping like agile beasts from rooftop to rooftop. Taking advantage of the peculiar architecture of this neighborhood, with its clusters of similarly sized houses and terraced rooftops, the fugitives moved swiftly, unbothered by their pursuers. By the time the soldiers finally made it onto the roofs, they could only see that their targets had long disappeared.
Now hidden in the dark shadows of the houses, the two men began to slip away silently, like spirits of the night lost in a labyrinth of madness. Wandering endlessly in search of an exit, they eventually reached the Rassan pass. The same problem arose: Taku and his personal guards were still keeping watch.
They turned back and paused for a moment to catch their breath. Leaning against a large barrel, they exhaled loudly. Baris was trying to think of a way to divert the guards' attention from the Rassan pass, but nothing came to his mind. Actually, his emotions were so mixed up that he couldn't focus on the course of action to take.
"What should we do?" he said, looking up at the sky. "We need to shake off the guards, get rid of Taku, and reach that voice. But how? I have no idea..."
Suddenly, beastly shouts followed by grotesque singing reached his ears. They stood up and followed the noise. They arrived in front of a tavern.
Andora allowed gatherings in drinking establishments. Here, all the scum of the kingdom thrived, from petty thieves to highway bandits.
A smile lit up Baris' face.
"I have an idea! Come on, Riga!"
"What do you want to do, dad?"
"Follow me, you'll see!"