An Unearthing of Goddesses

An Unearthing of Goddesses Part 5

Anya rode on a donkey's back, approaching the seaside just at dusk. She stepped up to an inn that looked clean enough and tied up her mount, giving a coin to the small boy serving the horses there to feed and shelter him. Inside she sat at a large, roughly hewn table and ate a bowl of spicy stew. She drank a tall drought of cool ale and observed the room.

Soldiers – ranging in ages and degrees of squalor, along with a few men who worked the ships supplying the mines. Some women were also there, merchants from the town. And also, women of a more practical nature. A group approached her table, where she sat alone, her hood pulled over her head as she sipped her ale.

"Mind if we join you, friend? A woman should never sit alone in these parts." The speaker was a tall, pale woman with dark hair streaked with white. Anya nodded for them to sit. The woman sat by her side, scanning Anya curiously.

"And what brings you here, if I may be so bold? You don't look like a local."

Anya looked at the group. They were young, except this woman. They were dressed gaily, and rather scantily. Their hair was curled. They were fairly clean, and she could smell strong perfume. Prostitutes. She raised her cup. "Visiting a prisoner."

The older woman narrowed her eyes. "You must have a generous supply of drachmas. Visitation does not come cheaply."

Anya narrowed her eyes as well. "I may. Perhaps I can enlist your girls for a bit of advice? You may have met some of the guards here."

The woman smirked. "May have? There's not a guard here my girls don't know on a first name basis. They visit the mines every night. And our house, just past the temple of Eostre, is frequented by the officers of this regiment."

Anya nodded, signaling to the barmaid to come. It was as she suspected. "They are all on my tab tonight," she said to the plump server. The girls tittered and the grey haired woman took off her shawl. "What is it that you want to know?"

Later that night, Anya returned to the brothel with the women. She donned a scant robe of scarlet and tucked a pink blossom behind her ear. She left with a blonde, ruddy cheeked girl and traversed the winding road to the mine's entrance. The guard on duty recognized her companion at once.

"Lisanne. I told you that you girls are not supposed to come into the mines anymore. Our sergeant will have my neck."

"Your sergeant is one of our best customers" Lisanne clucked. "Now now, we just wanted to go for a little walk. No harm there, right? Show us how the sound echoes in the chambers below. I've told my pretty friend how the slightest whisper can be heard across the space. You go down with her just a bit, and I'll try to hear what you're saying from here. I'll bet she'll say something absolutely scandalous to you..." Anya batted her lashes at the flustered young man.

A few minutes later Anya was stuffing the guard's body into a crevice in the rock wall. While her goddess powers may not work in the mines due to the interstellar forces there, her old-fashioned jiu-jitsu skills did. She slipped down through the passageways to the next set of guards.

"Hello there lovers," she whispered to the two burly men, leaning sleepy-eyed in the doorway where torches hung on either side. "Your friend upstairs sent me down. Thought you might need a midnight snack."

They guffawed and elbowed each other. "Thought you girls got turfed out of here?" one of them said, leering at her through the filtered light.

"Well that just shows you how Army news can't be trusted," Anya winked. "Now, come here and I'll tell you something newsworthy." The guard leaned over to listen to Anya's whisper and she delivered a kick to the side of his head. Another kick sent him down, and a few more to his friend left the tunnel clear for her to traverse.