Kingdom of thieves

Kingdom of thieves - part 16

Jamila cast another look over Narla and nodded before walking briskly from the room the others following close behind,

"Come" was all she said.

Narla followed obediently.

They left from another entrance to the one she had come in, the surroundings here were marketable less extravagant.

There were a lot more servants around here, all bustling around carrying things, nearly all of them stopped to stare at her as she walked past.

The corridors began to open, the ceiling disappeared to be replaced by, what appeared to be glass, allowing a lot more sunshine to come through, it was nearing night and the sky was a mixture of oranges and reds and pinks.

Her surroundings became even more open, with the walls falling away until she found herself in a large space, that seemed to inhabit the manual part of the servants duties in the palace, there was so much noise, clanging and banging and roaring sounds, as well as the shouts of the servants over the noise.

Narla walked past burly men, and a few women, working tirelessly to hammer, saw or nail pieces of wood or metal, potters sat shaping clay, artists splashed paint onto canvases, and sewed into tapestries. There was so much going on Narla couldn't keep up with what her eyes were seeing.

Jamila walked on with purpose, weaving and turning, completely sure of where she was going, Narla struggled to keep up with her.

First Jamila took her to a jeweler and got her some new earring, solid gold ones. It was a relief to have the hoops in her ears again, she didn't feel right without them.

Eventually they came to a blacksmith station where an impossible young girl was fanning the flames of the furnace, she could have only just have passed womanhood and yet her arms were muscled and tough looking.

Jamila got her attention by banging on the work bench, the girl turned and Narla saw that, while pretty, her face was scarred across her left cheek and her ear was almost completely gone, her hair hung in a loose bun away from her face, which was sweating profusely.

She barely reacted to Narla's presence but her eyes narrowed slightly, she turned to Jamila,

"What can ar do for yer" she said, she spoke almost like a ghetto dweller, but with a little more class.

"Evening Kozu" Jamila said pleasantly, "We need some slave bands for the Ghetto dweller" she jerked her head in Narla's direction.

Kozu's eyebrows went up,

"We lettin Dwellers work ere now, whats the world comin to" she shook her head in wonder, turning to Narla she asked, "Ay then, what strings you pull to get the gig en"

Narla liked this girl, she was blunt and straightforward,

"I aint pulled nothin, princess wanna someone from the ghetto, an she found me"

"The princess eye, girl got a few screws loose you ask me" Kozu said, with a grin,

"Nobody was, but I agree" Jamila said, "Enough chit chat, you gonna make her some bands or not girl"

Kozu just laughed, and turned back to the furnace, "Keep your hair on, ain't gonna take me a couple a minutes"

She set about pouring molten metal from the furnace into a mold and then hammering and beating it into shape, shoving it back into the furnace if the metal got too cold. Once she had got it into the right shape she sat down at bench and began to carve the runes into the metal, the tiny carving tools she used looked too delicate for her calloused fingers, but she worked with them fine, whispering the incantation that infused the symbols with their magic, when each rune was complete it glowed faintly gold.

Narla stared fascinated as Kozu worked, the girls whole countenance became very fixed as she worked on the runes, her scar was forgotten and she seemed once again whole and beautiful as she brought the metal to life in her hands.

Once the runes were complete Kozu bent the metal again until it joined together in a large ring. a couple inches thick and brilliant gold in colour, she laid the ring down on the bench and repeated the process to make two matching rings.

The she held out her hand to Narla.

Narla took a deep breath and put out her hand, Kozu grasped it and slipped the band over her hand and up her arm.

Narla felt a tingle spread from her finger tips, she flexed her hand. Kozu placed the band midway between her shoulder and her elbow and then took her hand away, the band hovered there completely still, then the glowing of the runes slowly faded and the band tightened, shrinking in on itself and slowly closing around her arm until it was just touching her skin. It felt completely comfortable and not at all irritating, how she had believe it would feel. Experimentally she flexed her arm muscled and watched fascinated as the band widened and then instantly shrank back again when she relaxed.

Kozu did the same thing with the other band, and once again the band shrank till it fit perfectly.

And just like that, from a nothing Ghetto dweller, Narla became a servant of the future queen of Saynts.