Honored (Book 2 of the In Search of Honor series)

Henry and Dan had both finished picking out all the armor they wanted from the chested, putting it on themselves, and Henry had even left to go check on his men by the time three cloaked figures came bearing piles of capes.

“I hope this is enough capes for you,” A familiar voice came from one of the figures.

“Maybe. I might need more in the future. Who should I ask for when I need more equipment?” I asked. All I knew was this man’s voice and that he was my contact. Other than his voice, I couldn’t tell him apart from the other two figures.

“Say, ‘Mr. Repair Man’, and I will come.” He chuckled, “The title fits me more than a name.”

Great, he wouldn’t even tell me his name. And did the title mean he was the only one, or just he was the repair man who would help us?

“I do have one more request right now.” I said, thinking about the pamphlets.

“Another request? You are a demanding woman.” His voice mocked me with the breathiness that sounded like contained laughter.

“Yes. I need a pamphlet made to pass out to be people.” I responded with complete sincerity. I didn’t feel like joking about my requests.

“A pamphlet.” He sighed, the breathless sound gone from his voice. “Ok. Do you expect me to write this pamphlet for you and pass it out for you?”

“No, I will write it. Henry’s men will pass it out. All I need from you is for it to be printed and brought to me. Oh, and I will paper and a writing implement to write with.”

“You do realize we have a limited amount of paper? Only so much bamboo can be grown in the stacks every year. And the city uses bamboo for a lot of things. We get very little of it.”

“And, this is a good use for that paper. Wall sanctioned rebellion.”

“Fine.” He gave in quite easily.

I smiled knowing that he was probably told to comply with any requests I made as long as they were for things the Wall could provide. He didn’t really have much room to negotiate here.

He was still standing there holding the pile of cloaks and making no move to set them down, so I reached out and grabbed one of the cloaks of the pile he was holding. “Time to transform into a Wall person,” and with that the cloak swished beautifully as its lengths unfolded and wrapped it over my shoulders. For a plain brown cloak it did look quite nice and flowy. Special Wall material fabric. The hood was much more difficult to figure out. I couldn’t get the black part to come up over my face.

Mr. Repair Man sighed and set down his bundle of cloaks on a chest. “It’s not a normal hood. You have to lower the hood part of the cloak on to your head like you are putting on an executioner’s hood.”

A shudder rippled through my body and I suddenly felt cold. “Why do you compare it to an executioner’s hood?”

“Because I am certain you’ve recently seen one,” he pulled on the top of the cloak as he said this, lifting the silky material off my shoulders, and then lowering it, the black screen darkening my vision as it lowered.

When it was fully lowered, I could still see the things around me, but it was like they were apart from me as I was condemned to this shadowy black world. Did this separation from the world make executioner’s less connected to the death they brought? “I guess it is an apt description for this hood.”

He tied the neck of the cloak over the edge of the black screen hiding the edge from view, and hiding my armor from view. “Now you can pass as one of the Wall’s repair division.”

Footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs and I tensed, worried that somehow the guards had already found us. I looked at Dan, and though the hazy blackness I could see he had pulled out his pistol and had it aimed at the stairs.

The figure rounded the corner into view, and I realized it was Henry. A second figure came into view next to him. Had he betrayed us?

“Who is that next to you,” Dan had his pistol pointed straight at Henry

“Whoah!” Henry raised his hands. “It’s good to be paranoid, but don’t go suspecting me too much. This is my second in command, Daniel. Liv should remember him. I tasked him with finding a new hideout for us, and he found us a cozy place in the Undesirables area.”

Dan still looked skeptical, but his pistol slowly lowered. “You did save our lives. At this point Liv would already be dead if you just planned to turn us in that quickly.”

I wasn’t quite certain I fully trusted Henry yet, but what choice did we have?

“Uh, where did Liv go?” Henry looked around the room, his eyes quickly passing over the group of us in the cloaks.

His eyes narrowed, crows feet appearing at the edges as he looked at Dan. “Did you send her somewhere? She shouldn’t have left this place yet.”

I debated speaking up, but I didn’t want to ruin the fun quite yet.

“She’s right there.” Dan waved in my direction and Henry glanced at us again.

“I don’t see her. Are you messing with me?” He seemed quite perturbed, but I wanted to see how long it took him to realize what was going on.

“She’s in a Wall cloak, “ Dan pointed directly at me, spoiling the fun of making Henry figure it out.

Henry looked at me now, and stepped back, then forward stepping in to inspect me. “Is that you Liv?”

The game was over now, “Yes, it’s me. Mr. Repair Man here brought Wall cloaks for us to hide in.” I pulled the black mesh up so that Henry could see my face.

He sighed as his face relaxed into a look of relief. “I’m glad to see you are actually here. I was worried these rascals would do something stupid such as sending you at to talk to people in the streets. It’s not safe enough out there for you to go around talking to the masses yet. Your little speech on the platform got everyone plenty riled up.”

“What is happening out there?” It was strange to think that right above us, people were rising up against the King because of my words.

“We’ve built barricades on the streets, and we control a portion of the city.” He said as he grabbed a cloak from the pile and looked over it. “These are quite ingenious. No one can ever know what a Wall person looks like wearing these.”

“Yes, and the city guard probably doesn’t suspect that the Wall people are helping us, though they might start to figure it out when they can find us. So, what areas of the city do we control? Will we be able to have food, or will we run out of food fighting?” Supply lines were one of the big things that the military strategy books I read stressed. Plan how to get food for your soldiers. Even using the tunnel systems under the city, it would be difficult to feed the troops without access to a stack or a warehouse.

Henry nodded, “Our area includes a small part of the warehouse district. That area is seeing intense fighting though and we are struggling to hold it. We lost the stacks. Or more like we never fought over them. We had no one near them and they are too far away from the execution platform and from housing to try and hold them. We are holding the “Normals” area and parts of the “Honored” housing areas. We have no troops in the most Honored areas, and we lost the “Undesirables” area, but mostly we lost that because we didn’t try to hold it. There are lots of tunnels through there, and it will be useful for sneaking in behind our enemy and hiding behind enemy lines. Does that give you a good run down of the situation?”

“Yes, but didn’t you say our hideout would be in the Undesirables area? How are we going to get there and stay hidden if we’ve lost that area?” Wasn’t it best for command to stay well behind the front line?

“Exactly. What enemy would ever suspect the command headquarters to be in a location they have controlled since the beginning of the fighting?” Henry had a mad gleam to his brown eyes with an insane smile.

“That still begs the question of how are we getting there?” We had the Wall cloaks now, but he obviously had some plan other than that since he came here not knowing about the cloaks.

“The Undesirables were afraid of the streets. The streets were filled with guards and Dishonored trooping through. Who would want to leave their home and run into such forces?” He stopped, as if waiting for an answer.

Though it seemed to be more of a rhetorical question, I finally jumped and took the bait, “No one.”

“Exactly!” He seemed proud of himself. As if this answered my question on how we were getting there.

“If no one else wants to walk the streets, how do you expect us to walk on the streets?” I asked, trying to find an answer in his excited cheeky grin.

He pointed dramatically at Mr. Repair Man. “Can you guess it yet?”

Hmm. The Wall people and even the hidden room we were in now. “We use the Wall people’s tunnels to get there? But how does that relate to Undesirables not walking outside?” His clues weren’t matching up to the answer he was pointing at.

“The city is littered with tunnels, especially near the Undesirables area because legend has it that they built the first tunnel systems. According to legend, many of the Undesirables are descendants of the people who worked to build the city for the rich who commissioned it. Or at least that is the legend amongst the Undesirables.” He crossed his arms and looked way too proud of himself for knowing an old legend.

“And how did an Honored such as yourself hear of an Undesirable legend?” I couldn’t help but question his knowledge.

His smile disappeared and he scratched his head looking at the wall behind me as if unwilling to meet my gaze, “I have some Undesirable units under me. They’re not allowed to be promoted, they are required to have an Honored officer over them. My first assignment was actually leading a squad of Undesirables. Old grizzled men who could be my father but were still rank and file privates. They told me many a story before…” His voice trailed off.

Daniel stepped forward filling in the rest of the story, “Before his father found out he’d been assigned to a dead end position like squad leader for Undesirables and went and begged the King to move his son to a better position. No one knows exactly what deals were made, but suddenly the company commander was moved elsewhere and Henry was moved up to company command. Henry’s career went from dead end to rising super star; company command of one of the least desirable units. But Henry here quickly proved his worth. All the soldiers under his command love him as much as our gang loved him. Those old grizzly men believe in Henry, and since Henry says you will bring change and make their lives better, they believe in you.” Daniel’s eyes were narrowed in a glare that warned me I better not betray the trust everyone was putting in me.

“I wouldn’t say they love me. They constantly question me,” Henry’s voice broke through the silent warning. His cheeks were flushed red, probably embarrassed by praise he felt he didn’t deserve.

“The story of the Undesirables is true.” Mr. Repair Man interrupted. “It’s in Wall records. They built the City according to the blueprints that the first Wall people made. That included all of the tunnels, but they added more than the access tunnels that the Wall architects drew in. Their own area is riddled with multiple layers of tunnels. We Wall repair people only use about a quarter of their tunnels.”

Why hadn’t the Wall people told me about this labyrinth of tunnels before?

As if hearing my silent thought, he continued, “We didn’t mention them because we only know the blueprint tunnels. We don’t use the other tunnels or know them. You need an Undesirable guide to navigate that labyrinth.”

A place that confused even the people of the Wall?