7 A Bit Of Shadowing

That same day, Maxwell Sorrentino decided to start his shadowing of the kitchen maid as Helena had advised. He wandered into the kitchen two hours to midnight and spotted the woman working busily in a corner. Sorrentino folded himself into a shadowy corner and watched patiently. At first, all seemed normal. Sorrentino remained in the corner, still and silent as a ghost and all he had for entertainment was to watch the procedure of making spicy beef broth. An hour passed, and then another. Midnight. The watching castle guard wondered if perhaps the others were right. Maybe nothing was going on really and he was just paranoid. Thirty minutes after midnight, Sorrentino was ready to abandon his stakeout and get out of there for the day when another guard walked in. Of course, another guard walking in was hardly earth-shattering. But what happened next intrigued Sorrentino very much. The guard marched straight over to the kitchen maid and began to examine a piece of cabbage very intently. Had he not been looking at the woman very closely, he would not have noticed. But as he stared intently, he suddenly realized something. Her mouth was moving. She was talking to the guard but trying to do it covertly. He angled himself a bit so he could direct a laser glance at the guard. Yes, he too was talking. He knew only too well what was going on. This was exactly the same thing he and Helena had been doing many months back. The kitchen maid and the castle guard had something to hide. Sorrentino looked at the guard again. He knew the man; went by the name of Strachan. A quiet unassuming fellow. So what were they hiding? Could they be in a relationship? Well, if that was the case, except the King was also after the woman, they had no reason to whisper around in secret. Even as he watched, Strachan's face suddenly contorted in fury and his fists clenched. He was furious about something. The next second, the man stormed out of the place. He watched the woman sighed heavily before she took off her apron and followed the guard at a much slower pace. Sorrentino needed no further invitation to follow. Moving silently and sticking completely to the shadows, he tailed after the kitchen maid and Strachan. He had no idea where they were going or if it would lead to anything useful but he kept at it anyway. The first thing he noted was that Strachan and the lass too were moving discreetly. Were it not for the fact that he had been tailing them from the castle, he definitely would not have noticed them at all. From time to time, he would see Strachan look back trying to make sure they weren't followed. Sorrentino merely laughed to himself. Personally, he did not think there was anyone more skilled at this thing than he was. He could shadow a ghost through a graveyard and it would never know it was there. As he watched Strachan performing all his antics, the more he became convinced that something was definitely not right with them. He did not know what it was, but he intended to find out. The little party continued along the quiet cobblestoned streets of Aerithor for a long time until they began to enter the not so palatable sections of the city. Sorrentino knew this area. Once, he had been detailed here to keep the peace when some nasty fellows threatened to overpower the local authorities. It was no place a respectable palace guard should be at this time of the night without good cause and it was definitely no place to take a woman. Strachan and the woman halted outside a seedy looking dwelling place and after looking around furtively and disappeared inside. Sorrentino held his position though. He reached out and felt for the dagger around his waist and a second one tucked into his boot. The feel of both hilts were very comforting. He had his sword with him but should action arise, the shorter blade would do a better job in such close quarters in the dark. He wished more than anything that he could hear what was going on inside the seedy dwelling but experienced as he was, he knew he had already achieved more than he had bargained. He had confirmed indeed that he had not been paranoid. There were shady dealings underfoot. There would always be another way to get more information. But what was happening in the seedy dwelling place really? A lot of shouting for one. "Why. On. Earth. Did. You. Bring. The. Woman. Here?" The man talking was so annoyed that he enunciated each word for fear that he would be unintelligible should he really speak the way he felt. "She's slipping." Strachan mumbled. "I needed to make her understand the force behind our movement. That we've gone too far to back out now." "You're scared of a woman now aren't you," Allan waded into the conversation now and spat derisively. "Tell me how you became the good prince's man anyway? Weak and snivelling fellow like you!" "Oh I'm weak and snivelling alright?" Strachan had flared up too. "Why am I the one working in the castle then and you're out here scrapping in the dust. And while you're at it, don't you ever speak about my master Lucas Corrad!" "You'll not speak to me that way!" His opponent yelled and pulled out a knife. Strachan, eyes with fury also pulled his out and the two men would have gone at each other's throats in the next second had the same soft voice not interrupted them again. "Now, now, now," Nordveka was suddenly standing at the door, curved staff in hand. Everyone jumped at the sight of him including the feuding men. The door was closed and no one had heard it open. But there he was right in the room. "Why do I always arrive to meet you fools at loggerheads? Do you think this is some sort of joke?" Still wondering how he had seemingly got through a closed door, Strachan scratched his head sheepishly. "I am sorry. He, er called me names I didn't like." "Why did he bring the woman here?" Allan countered hotly. "What is your problem with the woman being brought here?" Nordveka asked, suddenly looking interested. His voice remained soft but something had changed in his eyes. A chill settled over the air but unfortunately Allan was not perceptive enough. If he were, he might have known that if his answer did not please Nordveka, the results would not be palatable. "Well, I'll feel more comfortable if the numbers of people who know about what we are planning here are smaller, not bigger." The man launched into an explanation. "Now, this is one extra person who knows this house. Who knows our faces! What if something goes wrong? She could rat us all out." "Are you aware that I, Nordveka, am the one planning this." The voice was still soft but some of the men in the room could already sense a dangerous foreboding. Some anyway, not all. Including the loudmouth Allan. "Yeah, I know. What does that have to do with anything?" He asked, perplexed. When he should perhaps have just shut up.