'My loyalty is steadfast,' Bradan tried to explain. 'It is a custom, a tradition, where I come from. It cannot be bought or sold or transferred. Once I fix my loyalty on somebody, it remains there.'
'I have never heard of that before,' Dhraji said. 'It is a strange concept.'
'You may visit this pale woman.' Bhim dismissed Bradan with a flick of his hand. 'One of my guards will take you.'
'Thank you, Your Highness.' Although Bradan salaamed to Bhim, he intended the words for both. He had no doubt that Dhraji would exact a price for his request.
* * *
Bradan gagged at the stench. They were far underground in a place of stone chambers and iron chains, where rats and mice scurried over their feet, and sinister jailers loomed from the shadows. Hidden under the arches were dozens of dungeons, some packed with suffering humanity, men, women and children crammed together, others with a solitary inhabitant, heavily chained to the wall.
'Why is Melcorka held down here?' Bradan asked. 'She is no harm to anybody.'
'I would have killed her.' The head jailer was a stocky, lugubrious man with arms as thick as most men's thighs and a cynical twist to his mouth. 'If Lord Bhim had not wanted her alive, I'd have tied her big toe to her thumb and thrown her in the river. Lord Bhim says she may recover from whatever ails her, and if so, her pale skin could amuse him.'
In the chamber furthest from the entrance, amidst piles of filth and a thousand scrabbling insects, Melcorka was chained to the wall. She lay there unmoving, as Bradan entered.
'Mel!' Bradan knelt at her side. 'It's me!'
Melcorka looked up, her eyes still vague and a stupid smile on her face. 'Hello.' Her hair was knotted and filthy and her face bloated with insect bites.
'It's me,' Bradan repeated. 'Do you recognise me?'
'Hello,' Melcorka repeated. 'Do you like my house? They feed me nearly every day.'
Oh, dear God in his Heaven. 'What's happened to you, Mel?' Despite the filth that covered Melcorka, Bradan held her close. 'Mel, where are you?'
'Who's Mel?' Melcorka lay back again, still smiling through the dirt. Her breath was foul, her teeth yellowed and her eyes bloodshot, yet it was her blank mind that hurt Bradan the most. I'll get you out, Mel; I swear I'll get you out of this hellish place.
'Is she always like this?' Bradan asked the jailer, who shrugged.
'Every time I've seen her.'
'I want her moved to better accommodation,' Bradan said. 'I want a clean dungeon at least, with fresh straw and daily food and fresh water.' Bradan knew the jailer would have no power to release Melcorka. 'Can you do that?'
'I could, but why should I?' The jailer sized Bradan up with a single look and shrugged. 'You have no authority over me. You're a slave, while she's just a foreign prisoner. Either she'll die soon, or my Lord Bhim will order her executed.'
'Will Lord Bhim order her to kiss the elephant's foot?' Bradan asked.
'No!' The jailer shook his head as if that idea was amusing. 'She's not important enough for a public execution.' He indicated the heavy club at his belt. 'I'll come in and finish her off.'
Bradan shuddered. The thought of his Melcorka, scourge of the Norse, Melcorka of the Cenel Bearnas, Melcorka the Swordswoman, being bludgeoned to death by a fat jailer in a filthy dungeon was more than he could bear. If Melcorka had to die, it should be in battle, fighting against great odds like the hero she was.
'I want her moved,' Bradan repeated.
The jailer laughed. 'Who are you to want anything? You are a slave, a nothing, and a foreign slave, a less than nothing.' He waddled up to Bradan. 'Do you think your position as Lady Dhraji's current lover impresses me? I've seen them come, boy and I've seen them go – handsome young gallants who danced on Dhraji's bed and thought they were oh-so-important. Don't you ever think of your predecessors?'
Bradan kept a rein on his temper as the jailer continued.
'Some are dead. They either took the long step from the battlements to the ground below –' The jailer extended his arms and yelled, like a man falling to his death, 'or they kissed the elephant's foot. Some were less lucky. I have two here still. Come with me.'
Bradan followed the jailer to a dungeon next to Melcorka's, where a naked man lay curled up on the bare stone floor. As the jailer opened the door, the prisoner howled like a dog and backed to the furthest corner, holding his hands up in supplication.
'You see what I mean?' Then jailer poked the prisoner with his feet. Bradan saw in horror that the prisoner had been mutilated, with his eyes put out and his nose and ears sliced off.
'This fellow was Dhraji's previous lover.' The jailer held his torch up. 'Her Ladyship blinded him in person, and had great pleasure in emasculating him as well.' The jailer laughed. 'I have orders to beat him every third or fourth day. Her Majesty occasionally visits, to enjoy his suffering.'
Bradan stepped back from the dungeon, feeling sick. He had to escape from here and bring Melcorka with him, although he could not think of a way out. 'If you hurt Melcorka,' he said. 'I will kill you. I will hunt you down and kill you.'
The jailer shrugged. 'Aye, maybe,' he said. 'It's much more likely that I'll have you down here in a few weeks, or even a few days.' He turned away without showing any visible concern. 'Well, Bradan the pale man, you've seen the mad foreign woman. Now, get out of my domain.'
Bradan raised his voice. 'Don't give up, Melcorka. I'll be back for you.'
Lying on her filthy straw, Melcorka smiled. There was no expression in her eyes.
* * *
It was good to be back at sea, with the wind fresh on his face and the movement of the
