Chapter Two

Bang!

The banging continued growing more loud and reckless.

"Kerik you're not expecting anyone, are you?" Tara asked, immediately walking straight to the door.

"I know I'm a lot of things, but I don't keep insane humans as friends." 

Following Tara to the door I thought about who must have been desperately trying to break down our door.

Tara slowly reached for the door and opened it gently. Standing grumpily in front of us was a burly figured bald man. Glancing at him, I quickly observed an ornamented sewing of a black serpent on his chainmail amour. A knight you might say, but no ordinary one. He was a member of the keepers. The bald Knights. Even the women always were too. It was believed that they had to get all form of impurities so one can be pure and cleared from their sins. Like that made any of them less corrupt.

"Took you long enough!"he scolded, his cold eyes fixed on us.

Those bastards!

Tara tried to reply stammering through her words "s..s-so sorry sir -"

"Are you trying to talk back miss?" He questioned quickly, interrupting Tara.

Just as I was about to reply the lunatic, Tara grabbed my hands tight,then looked right into my eyes. No words was needed for me to understand what she meant. 'Don't talk.'

Silence filled the air as I was forced not to alter any word. The thought of that infuriated me even more.

"I didn't think so." He grunted.

His creepy eyes wandering the whole room as he advanced inside uninvited. There was nothing much for him to see anyway. Other than the old rug, faded pained wall, some pile of rubbish on the floor next to the huge table that carried some garbage loads and the small bed. But what was he looking for?

"A social gathering has been called for immediately." He continued, standing close to Tara.  "I've heard of you and your sister, mostly that little one." He said pointing his creepy finger at me.

I couldn't take it anymore."Why are you personally telling us? Don't the town crier do their work anymore? Sir!"

He expression suddenly turned intense that for a moment I thought he would immediately reached for my delicate neck and strangled me to death. Then a spooky smile slowly worked across his ugly face, instantly turning into a roar of laughter.

Tara and I locked eyes again, but this time I saw fear in them. I had gotten us into trouble.

Tara began to babble as she tried pleading for forgiveness."I'm so sorry sir,please forgive us. My sister,she...it was a mistake sir." She was always like this whenever she became tensed. I had to apologize too. Even though we were the ones who deserved an apology from this moron.

"Sir, forgive me. I've made a terrible mistake." I tried to sound sincere but the mood just wasn't there. I could have sworn he saw me rolling my eyes.

Still looking amused, he finally managed to talk."Well then. You my friend." he continued leaning closer to me." Kerik isn't it?"

"Yes?"

"How would you like working for me as my personal servant?" He said smiling like a dummy.

"No sir, thank you. But I respectfully refuse." I tried for an apologetic smile to cover for the straight-from-the-shoulder refusal of his proposal.

He was still standing in front of me with a big smile of his face, grinning from ear to ear.

"Very well then. Till we meet again, Miss Kerik." He teasingly bowed before heading out.

Air of relief filled the room as we both sighted in chorus.

"That was intense. Do you know him?"

She raised a brow up as she tried to remember his face.

"I think so. He looked just like-" Her eyes opened wide just before she replied. "He's one of the elder members of the keepers. He was appointed of recent. He wasn't there those times I worked for them but I remember him during the last gathering we had last week. Lord Fenrel Derintwater."

Tara had worked for the keepers while grandma was still alive. When she died, she had to stop her work to be with me. We've lived through our obstacles together ever since then. 

"Is that so? You really do know your people don't you, her royal highness?" 

"Oh please, enough with the joke. This is serious. We need to be careful Kerik."

"Yes mother." I knew I shouldn't be teasing her right now, but I just couldn't help it.

"Fine! Sorry. Now let's go get something to eat, I'm starving already."

<><><><><>

  Since nothing goes for nothing, to eat a decent meal nowadays you had to work for it. Literally work for it. Ever since we'd been sacked from Madam Agnes's bar, we'd been living a nearly hand-to-mouth life. Now we have to supply freshly baked bread round the whole town to earn us a day's meal. Old man Ayer has been very generous to us. He owned a small bakery where he sells good pastries, so we helped him sell them by distributing to people. The more we sold, the more commission we got. Along side with his only daughter Ragnila, we were popular enough considering that we just started working there. Ragnila has always been very shy, but secretly turned out to be a real talkative once we knew her.

  After another hell of a day's work we finally waddled home. At least we still had a roof on our head.

"Finally, we made it through another day. I'm exhausted Tara."

"Likewise honey." She agreed leaning forward to open the door. As she fumbled for the keys I noticed the door was slightly opened. Following my gaze she noticed too. Why was the door ajar?

I felt my heart skipped a beat. Someone was inside, waiting for us.

We silently drew out the dagger from our pockets. You never know when you'll need them.

Slightly tiptoeing in, we walked closely observing everything in our way. The tiny bed from across the room was upside down with the walnut chairs in pieces. Scattered papers littered everywhere. My special cup smashed along with every other dishes, the table covered with linen completely destroyed. The whole room was entirely upside down. It has never happened before. Tara lowered her guard and pointed to the floor of left side in the room.

"A letter." She walked towards it bending down to pick up it up." It's an invitation."

"From bloody who!"

"The keepers. They're onto us Kerik."