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Sleeping Beauty Reloaded	By : dschinny Category: +S through Z > Witcher 2, The: Assassins of Kings Views: 1938 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own the Witcher, this is purely for fun, and not profit

Chapter List
- 19
- 20
- 21
Chapter 20 - The Midville Billboard
In the afternoon, Gernot got Alfred’s grey horse and the cart to drive down to Midville to pick up the priest for the burial. He halted in front of the billboard at the market place and nailed the bounty to the wooden boards as the count had requested. “By request of the Count of Midville…” the steward had even drawn a picture of Velita’s face that wasn’t completely off. The text below read “Runaway slave (named Velita), wanted for questioning, 175 Orens alive and unhurt, 50 Orens injured or dead (bodily proof required), 20 Orens for information that leads to arrest.”
“Is that the witcher’s woman?”
Gernot did not have to look down far since it was big John, the blacksmith standing beside him, studying the picture. “That’s Velita, our gardener. Geralt of Rivia left the mansion yesterday morning. He did not take her with him as far as I know. Velita vanished last night, from the tracks I would say between the fourth and the six hour in the morning.”
“Did the Count shackle her with the manacles I made for him?” – “Yesterday afternoon, he did for about an hour but afterwards he took the shackles off again. She was not injured or held by your manacles. If you worry about a quality problem, there is none. We had dinner together, she did the dishwashing with our cook, all was well. But in the morning she was gone and Adda failed to track her down. The trace we picked up went through the garden and downhill in the general direction of Midville. Then it was lost in the vicinity of Fredhiana’s hut. Suddenly. I don’t know what to make of it. Velita had no reason to run away and her shoes and clothing is still in her room.”
“Then she did not run. At least not yet. Maybe she is hiding and waits for the search to widen, the mansion’s personnel to leave and then sneak out while the compound is deserted.”
“Well, my brother died last night. She did nothing wrong, but she might be afraid of the Count’s reaction.”
“Why should the count punish his slave over your brother’s death …unless you request it?”
“He is suspecting her because she bathed his foot. But it was Fredhiana who mixed the medicine and Alfred’s own behavior that caused the infection of the injury.”
“No healthy man dies because of a foot bath. Nevertheless, the Count offers a generous reward. The custom shackles were zero use for gardening but a pricy affair as well. What was that track?”
“She has torn out a piece of her night gown when she climbed over the compound wall.”
“You mean she had enough clothing on to leave a trace but nothing on her body to protect her skin against cold and her feet against thorns. You can hunt down a wounded red stag over ten miles but you fail to track down a bare foot woman over half a mile?”
“I know that sounds odd.”
“I have reason to believe you want her to escape. You like her and you would rather lose her to the witcher than to leave her with the Count.”
“I did nothing to deserve your suspicions and neither did Geralt of Rivia.” Gernot set his jaw.
“Since you are certain of your own intentions, you can continue to identify the other suspect. Somebody must be cheating. Who has an interest in her vanishing?”
“Nobody. The count looses either his property or my pay. Yesterday I offered the count to buy her to keep her safe and working. He said he would think about it.
The steward doesn’t like vanishing property in general.
The captain wanted to punish her, but he is dead since the early morning.
I could complain that nobody helps me with the dogs - if I wasn’t so damn worried.
The cook complains nobody gets her the eggs.
The guards have to do her chores with the horses and… well they had hoped for certain bonuses.
Velita running about without clothing is not the freedom she was interested in. She’s not stupid, you know. ”
“And the Countess?”
“She has never met Velita. She is a very private person. Rarely leaves her rooms if she is not travelling”
“Maybe she did not like to see her husband taking freedoms in the afternoon for a full hour with a shackled slave. My Anastasia would call me a pervert if she knew that I produced such an item, let alone use it on a woman. If the countess is such a private person, maybe she just let the slave vanish to avoid embarrassment?”
“I have very little insight in the mansion since I gave up my family’s quarter. I work late and very early, therefore I moved over in the chevalier’s house when Anna moved upstairs in the Countess succession of rooms, Fabian stays with the cook. Choi and the others put their bunks in that room.”
“Did you speak to them already?”
“No, the steward has them excavating in the graveyard. But I will. Once I have delivered the priest to the graveyard in Kreve’s name.” Gernot flipped the rains, but then stopped again and winked for the blacksmith. John approached quicker than the audience. “Can you make me a second set of keys for those shackles, just in case I find her?” he whispered.
“I wondered when you would ask, Gernot,” the blacksmith shook his hand and there was a strap of metal left within, “Don’t forget my reward if you find her,” he called out loud for the townspeople to hear.
Gernot continued to the temple. The priest was an old man wearing a long dark cloak with a cowl that was stitched in a pattern of squares above his forehead. He couldn’t even see his eyes and wasn’t talkative after Gernot had loaded the inscripted body board on the cart and helped the priest up on the seat.
He stood through the burial ceremony that consisted of a sermon in a strange language, hoisting a brazier around and burning incense. Afterwards, the Priest had to be carted back to Midville and Gernot wasn’t any wiser.
It darkened already when he returned to the mansion. The carriers had leaned the shovels to the hut at the back of the garden. He unlocked the door to put them away and then noticed that the blooming vines Velita had planted there were missing as well. They had not been used for the grave’s decoration. The last flower he had seen was in Velita’s hair yesterday. There where little stubs left in the ground, which proved they had not been replanted.
Strange, but he got more pressing business on his mind.
-oOo-
Gernot locked the hut and walked over to the mansion to ask the carriers if they had noticed anything.
Choi was very silent. They were used to slaves being yelled at, beaten and abused at times, threatened to be whipped at worst. All in all they were glad to be the countess personal property she had brought into marriage with the sedan. They were considered a valuable luxury like the milk white palfrey. Velita had been through a lot more, taken prisoner in a war, dragged around the roads in chains, sold for a low price to be used up for the whims of savage guards and for back breaking work. They had seen with their own eyes that her owner was unscrupulous enough to hurt a slave for fun and leave her to die.
They had seen the count vanish in the laundry room with Velita, a moment later he went upstairs alone just to come down again with a bowl covered with a clean cloth. He had seen them and told them to get lost. Afterwards Velita came out as unhappy as a bathed cat but apparently unhurt. They had expected that the count was done with whatever his fool mood had dictated. It was bad enough, but they could manage with care for each other and an occasional prank. They had expected that they would laugh secretly at the captain’s death, but now that Velita had vanished at the same time, nobody felt like laughing anymore.
If the count had just punished her publically, it would have been easier.
Gernot told them of the blacksmith’s assumption that Velita had not left the mansion but the whole thing was a cheat of sort. Maybe even with the countess involved.
“No I don’t think she knows. If the countess wanted to move or remove things, she would have ordered us to do so and not used her handmaids or the lady in waiting. If she had ordered a handmaiden out into the court what she never does, we would still have noticed. We are not allowed into Milady’s succession of rooms unless we prepare baths or carry furniture or baggage, but your daughter could have a look around up there for you. We cannot leave the mansion after dinner for a detailed search, it’s lockdown for us. But tomorrow, we’ll help to search the whole basement and cellar. If she is hiding as John suspects, we’ll find her before anybody else does, even if that means we have to look in every box, bale and barrel. But we don’t have the keys to the locked stores. Do you?”
“Just the garden hut, stable, barn, hatches, side- and main gates.” – “I doubt that he was still able to do so last night, but if the captain has tied and stuffed Velita somewhere on the compound before he died, we have to find her. But if the Count, the Steward or Cass are involved in hiding her, we have a problem. What about your brother’s set of keys?” – “The steward took them. They belong to the Count, they are no hair loom.”
“You said something interesting.” Pike noticed, “While you were out killing the monster three days ago, the count had us re-arrange the wine cellar and we wondered why. We thought he wanted to make room for the cider, but the brew will stay in the barn for three weeks. He also ordered us to bring the work table form the barn into the cellar despite the fact it was needed in the cole slaw preparation there. What if it wasn’t the Captain but the Count himself?”
Gernot felt a hot and cold wave run over his body. The count usually did not get his hands dirty. But he had ordered the manacles on the same day. And the count had taken Velita on a table in the laundry room yesterday to shave her intimates. What else became possible? The captain had taunted Velita if she wanted to know what the count would do next. It was possible! Though he could not see the count’s reason to hide her and post a bounty at the same time. He had to be very careful not to put his boot in a machination he did not understand.
“Good evening Gernot, I thought I had heard your voice.” Cass poked her head into the carrier’s room, “What are you doing in here? I have to lock up the door for the night. Last chance to step out, boys,” she commanded and waited on the corridor while the carriers went outside through the backdoor.
“I thanked them for their help in my brother’s burial.” Gernot stood out in the corridor. “I still wonder why Adda could not find Velita. You were the last to see her yesterday.” – “Yes, she did the dishwashing and then went over to the stable.” – “Yes, and she must have arrived there; her clothing and clogs are in the saddle chamber. Did you hear or notice anything during the night?” – “No, I slept well. It’s a relief that the witcher is gone, that was one scary guy.” – “And Velita?” – “Honestly, Gernot, I know you planned to buy her, but you should think a bit more about your own interests. Maybe it’s for the better that she ran away with the witcher.”
“Hm.” – “What?” – “May I ask you a favor?” – “Let’s hear.” – “I would like to have a good bottle of wine tonight to help me sleep. I had a hard time and I need to rest my mind. I am paying. Could you please accompany me to the wine cellar?” – “Sorry my dear, I have no longer the key to that cellar. Follow me, I’ll give you a bottle of my kitchen red wine.” – Gernot was surprised “Did you lose your keys?” – “Of course not,” Cass locked the door behind the carriers for the night, “The Count has taken it because the Countess wants him to tighten control on our spending.” – “I understand.” The cook handed him a bottle of wine from her shelf. - “It is degrading and a bit of a hassle, but I’ve been through worse with the lordships.”
Gernot went over to the chevalier’s house. The guards had set him a bowl of pie-stew aside on the tiled stove. He ate mechanically, and then shoved the bowl aside to pour himself a glass of wine. Kevin wiped the table to have an excuse to sit with him. He slid an empty glass over in front of Gernot who filled it out of politeness and because he had to get a rid of the stuff. He was thinking that even though he was quite sure that Velita was in the wine cellar, he had no way to get in there safely.
It just started with the fact he had no key to this room, his main concern was that he could not just pop in on the Count and start asking questions. The Count was probably the only one who still held a key, the cavern was deep and the door was solid. If he asked the steward, he would be out in the open and nobody would back him up against the count’s wrath that could kill Velita on the spot and uproot his whole family.
The count had the right to kill any of his slaves. Even publically, just as he saw fit. Why the secrecy? Maybe the count wanted to hold Velita until she confessed that she was responsible for the captain’s untimely demise and then have her humiliated, judged and punished in front of town people?
“What’s wrong?” Kevin asked. – “Everything and nothing. I’m just tired. At least the burial is over.” – “Yeah, I can understand that. Always sad. But then, he certainly was in dire pain beforehand. In a way, a suffering came to an end.” – “Hm.”
To inform the count of his secret knowledge and then ask nicely to release Velita would not do. The count had certainly some sort of reason why he did that to his property and nobody was allowed to question or interfere with that.
And then suddenly the door opened and his nemesis strode in like he did that every day.
“Good evening, Milord,” the lord’s huntsman stood to his feet.
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Sleeping Beauty Reloaded