by Eric Ugland
“Hey, buddy,” I said, “these guys have been with me through some serious shit, and they’ve done nothing but blow me out of the water with their willingness to do what it takes to keep others safe. Most importantly, me.”
The badger-looking dude gave me a look. Kinda like I’d just insulted his mother and mentioned his father was dying. Then he turned and walked away.
“Today is not going well,” I said to the woch.
He shrugged and smiled. I took it to mean that at least his day was going better than expected.
We moseyed over to my guys. Well, I moseyed and the woch tromped. He didn’t exactly have much in the way of a light step about him.
Ragnar and Skeld looked past me at the new guy while Lee walked right up to me.
“You got one, uh, worker?” Lee asked.
“I got more than one, but, uh, it maybe cost most of our gold.”
“Most?” Ragnar asked. “You’ve dumped an actual ton of gold into that damn bag.”
“Look man, we have a lot of non-empire gold.”
“And some broken furniture,” Skeld offered.
“Oddly enough, they didn’t take that as valid currency,” I said.
The woch made a noise, but his wide mouth was smiling, so I figured we got him to chuckle a little bit.
“I also have some wizards coming on board,” I said. “Four of them. Plus two dwarves and a—” I spied the fox-girl walking across the road towards us. “And her.”
“Kitsune-girl,” Ragnar said breathlessly.
“Great,” Skeld said.
“Don’t tell me you’ve got a problem with her,” I snapped.
“I have a problem with him,” Skeld replied with a thumb over towards Ragnar.
Maybe Ragnar was drooling a little. Who was I to judge?
She stopped in front of me.
“Hello,” Ragnar said smoothly. “Ragnar Helfdane, at your service.”
She looked down at him, being that she was about a foot taller, and raised one perfect eyebrow his way. “And you are?” she asked.
“Hirð member of Lord Coggeshall—”
“Oh, Lord Coggeshall,” she said, snapping her look to me and giving me a beguiling smile, “you are so young to already have a hirð.”
She was a beautiful creature. Human looking for the most part, except with dimensions that were slightly off. Oh, and the big fluffy twin tails. Her red hair was back in a big pony tail (fox tail?) leaving short bangs framing a pretty face with big eyes. She was pretty damn close to being a classic cartoon princess. You know, provided the classic cartoon princess had two big fluffy tails. She wore perfectly unblemished leather armor over her curvy torso, and had tight leather pants on her legs. A bag was across her back, with an unstrung long bow peeking out the top.
She reached a hand out to me, and I shook it.
“Lord Coggeshall,” she said, “you may call me Amber.”
“Amber, it is nice to meet you. You’re already good friends with Ragnar here, and the other lutra is Skeld. Lee is this guy here, and the woch is, well, not talking.”
“His name is Conall.”
“You know him.”
“I do. Somewhat. We lived near each other in the dormitory.”
Conall the woch nodded to Amber the kitsune-girl.
“Great. We’re all friends now,” I said. “Which means I should probably take a minute to, uh…”
I trailed off as I looked around the group. I could start talking about Coggeshall, my plans, who Lee was, all that good stuff, but then I’d just have to repeat myself when the Dwarves showed up. But, considering where I was, I figured I could stop in and have a quick chat with Léon.
“I’m going to hold off on explaining things until we’ve got the rest of, uh, our group here. So, you guys talk amongst yourselves, maybe grab some lunch out here, and I’m going to go meet with someone real quick.”
I pulled some gold out of my bag and handed it to Lee. Then I walked across the street and into the Imperial House.
Chapter 19
Apparently I was memorable enough that when I walked into the lobby of the building, the young woman behind the desk just smiled at me, then got up and left to find Léon. She returned a moment later, and escorted me to a small meeting room about ten yards down a hallway.
A minute or two later, long enough for me to sit down at one of the two chairs and clean my fingernails with a dagger I’d picked up somewhere, Léon came rushing into the room.
“How did you do it?” he asked.
“The prison?”
“Yes. Is there a dungeon?”
“There is.”
“And you made it through?”
“Yes, but on a technicality.”
“There is little I would like more than to hear the tale you must have, but—”
“Our time is short.”
“Yes. Even now, I am sure there are those who are trying to find where I have gone and how to listen in on this room.”
“Here’s the quick and dirty: I’m safe, Nikolai is safe. Thing is, someone who works for or with the prison has a new power — he can steal levels, skills, everything.”
Léon’s tanned face paled. “That is a nightmare.”
“Might want to look into that.”
“I will.”
“Are we wanted men in Osterstadt?”
“Were you arrested?”
“Yeah. I think Northwoods is involved somehow. I think he wanted the land Benedict chose.”
“He did. You should be aware that he has connections to Valamir.”
“Of course he does.”
“And he is angling for quite a bit of a promotion in the hierarchy.”
“Naturally. He’s a lord right now, yeah?”
“He is a type of lord. He was a baron, and now he is a count, but he has dreams of moving higher still.”
“So he wants the Coggeshall dukedom?”
“Now that it exists, and exists next door to his county, I imagine he does. You should be very wary of him. He has plenty of money and a decided lack of morals. I would not put it past him to hire his own legion and take your title by force.”
“Well, let’s put that on the back burner, and go back to the first question: are we wanted men in Osterstadt?”
“I cannot say for certain, but as we have not been informed of your, well, departure from the institution, I have the distinct feeling they are going to ignore that it ever happened. They will claim Nikolai has died, and that you were never imprisoned. That said, I imagine enterprising guards will find it hard to not snag you if they have heard you were once guests of the institution.”
“So you’re telling me to stay out of town.”
“That is likely your best course of action. I urge you to get out quickly, and make little noise.”
“Well, already failed on that second bit. Nathalie is fine, by the way.”
“Thank you.”
I slapped the table, and stood up. “Always good to see you, Léon,” I said.
“Ah,” he said, holding a hand up, “there is one more thing I have managed to secure for you. I had put the paperwork through for this when Benedict was still alive, when I thought there might have been more time.”
He set what looked to be a flat leather pouch of sorts on the table. He unfolded it, and there was a map of the Empire. Small. Lots of blank space where the Empire wasn’t, and a surprising amount of detail where the Empire was. He tapped on an area, and the map zoomed in.
“Google Maps,” I breathed involuntarily.
“I have not heard that name for this device before,” Léon said. “It is a map of the known Empire, done to as an exacting detail as we are able.”
True to what he was saying, he continued to zoom in until I was looking at individual buildings inside Osterstadt. He used his fingers to go back out, and around, showing me the basics of the map. Then, he got the map to the part of the world that most interested me — Coggeshall.
“Your ho
lding is here,” he said. Sure enough, there was the Coggeshall crest above the Coggeshall name. “Northwoods,” he tapped another part of the map, “is right next to you. Your boundaries touch on a few places. His lands are much smaller than yours. This map is kept up to date through magic, so if there is a change in the size or boundaries of any known holding, it will be reflected here. However, due to the lack of Emperor at present—”
“Expect nothing to change.”
“Exactly.”
“Léon,” I said, folding up the little map and putting it in my knapsack, “this is the best thing I’ve gotten all week.”
He stood and extended his hand. “Happy to help. And good luck out there.”
Chapter 20
Back outside, everyone was eating meat off a stick, and there was actually some conversation happening. A shared meal was always a fantastic way to bridge gaps and make friends. The dwarves had shown up, and had done so in force. From two dwarves, we now had fifteen. The male and female had not been a couple, and they each had rather robust families. Nine belonged to one, including some rather ancient looking dwarves, and six in the other, four of them adults and two very little babies.
I gave a little wave, and walked into the group.
There were plenty of hellos, and all the dwarves introduced themselves to me at once. I basically lost all the names in a heartbeat.
“Okay,” I said, “we need to get out of town and to our new home. Preferably before I’m arrested.”
There were more than few concerned looks, but before anyone could ask questions, I pointed to Lee.
“Lee, here,” I said, “is going to take you out to meet up with the others in our party. We’ll be camping there this evening, and heading out to the land in the morning. Okay?”
Lee was a little surprised, but he nodded, and said, “Follow me.”
Ragnar handed me a stick of meat.
“Should I ask what this is?” I asked.
“It’s tasty,” Ragnar said.
I took a big bite of the meat. It was delicious. A little chewy, but a robust flavor profile.
“Tell me how your journey into the other side of the tracks went,” I said.
“What tracks?” Skeld asked.
“Idiom. Just, uh, did you find anyone?”
“Lots of individuals, but I doubt there’s many you’d want to take with you.”
“And why is that?”
“It would seem there is something of a drug problem infecting in the non-human sector at present. We spoke to a cleric there, and he believed it was being pushed by some of the more pro-human, anti-imperial groups in the city.”
“Makes me wonder if the city is hoping they can slip out of the Imperial yoke during this turmoil.”
“That is something we have heard,” Skeld said, chewing his meat.
“I don’t think we should give up on those people there,” Ragnar said. “I did meet one group that I thought we should maybe talk to.”
“Who?” Skeld asked.
“The battenti.”
“Ah, right,” Skeld said, nodding. “They have a clan, the whole group wishes to leave, said things were getting dangerous in the district and they have been barred living elsewhere.”
“The more the merrier,” I said. “Did you check out the arena?”
“Yep,” Ragnar said through a full mouth. “Not much there unless you want to try talking to ogres.”
“Is there something I should know about ogres?” I asked.
“Ogres are simple creatures of violence,” Skeld said. “Hugely strong, quite literally unbelievably stupid, they seem to just meander around and kill things unless directed otherwise.”
“And we already have you for that,” Ragnar said with a huge smile.
Even Skeld laughed at that, choking a bit on his food.
I whacked him on the back, and a morsel of meat went flying.
“Serves you right,” I said. “But talk to me seriously about ogres. Are they—”
“They are monsters, rarely seen in polite society,” Skeld said. “I have little first-hand knowledge of them — never saw one in Saumiers — but I have heard they are very territorial and unceasingly cruel.”
“And stupid,” Ragnar added.
“You mentioned that,” I said.
“No, like really stupid. Painfully so.”
“I have been dealing with more than my share of bigotry today, and I just want to be sure that we’re not making judgements based what we have been told and losing sight of what these creatures actually are—”
“They are actually violent stupid creatures who will eat anything they can catch and everyone and relish acts of cruelty.”
“Noted,” I said. “I guess we let them stay in the arena.”
“On a different topic,” Skeld said, looking over my shoulder, “a woman looks like she has something to say to you.”
I turned to look, just in time for a very intense woman to step deeply into my personal space.
“You are a duke?” she asked.
“I am,” I said, too flustered to say much more than that.
“Duke Coggeshall?”
“That’s me.”
“Are you a real one?”
“Uh, yes?”
“And you are a loyal supporter of the Empire?”
“Yes. What is this?”
“I am trying to understand who you are.”
‘Just a dude trying to be a duke.”
“You do not seem like a duke”
“Have you met many?”
A very slight hint of a smile tugged at her mouth for a second before she shoved it back down.
“Not so many,” she replied. “You are my first. But I have seen them. They rarely wear armor. Or walk around on their feet—”
“I can walk on my hands if you’d prefer.”
She raised an eyebrow in confusion.
Which, of course, meant I had to do it.
I did a headstand, and all sorts of pouches opened up or fell off. My dagger slid out of its sheath and clanged against the cobblestones. A few ‘steps’ and then I came back upright.
“Tah-da!” I said with a flourish.
“That really does nothing for you seeming like a duke,” Skeld said around a mouthful. I noticed he’d chosen to finish my meat stick.
“Makes me think you are more of a dick,” Ragnar said.
“I’m not a typical duke,” I said ignoring my hirð, “but I’d like to think that makes me one of the good ones.”
“Are there good ones?” the woman asked.
“At least one,” I said.
“You?”
“My adopted father. He was a good one. Me, I’m still a work in progress.”
That seemed to take her aback, and she took a moment to gather herself before looking back at me. Then at my friends.
“Is it true you have companions of all races?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t say all races,” I replied.
“Not for lack of trying,” Ragnar added. “We just had to talk him out of asking ogres to join him.”
“Is that a mark of desperation or a belief in the inherent goodness of others?“ the woman asked.
“The latter,” I said, a little surprised at the complexity of what the woman was asking. “Honestly, I think the attitudes in this city suck. Hard. I’ve had plenty of interactions with plenty of people, and I’ve met massive assholes on both sides of the plank. So, yeah, I’m going to take every individual on their own.”
The woman nodded.
“And this new place of yours, the city you want to build. Will it be like Osterstadt or will it be made in your image?”
“Uh, not sure it’s going to be in my image, but I am not a fan of Osterstadt, so it’s not going to be like this.”
“And if we come with you, you will keep us safe even though we are in the wilds?”
“I will do my utmost to keep you safe. But, uh, not be rude, who invited you along?”
&nbs
p; “My ass of a husband was one of the workers you sent away this morning, and when I heard about your offer, I wanted to know more of you. To see if you were really real.”
“I’m real.”
She just stared at me for a minute, and I had the distinct feeling she was judging me.
“I am putting my family at risk by going with you,” she said. “But I feel it might be the best way for my children to have a future. Will you still honor the deal you offered my husband?”
“Sure,” I said. “Provided you come with him to make sure he stays in line.”
She let out a breath I hadn’t realized she was holding. There was a distinct release. She’d been genuinely nervous over what I’d say, and I guess my response had helped calm her down.
“If you wait by the main gates,” I said, “we will be there shortly. One of the three of us. Or all of us, I’m not exactly sure. We have a few stops left to make before then, but you and your family are welcome to come with us.”
“Thank you, my lord,” she said with a slight curtsy. She walked away quickly, with purpose, and not much of the anger she’d come with. I wondered who her husband was, and realized that it could only have been the legendary carpenter because all the other humans left before I said anything beyond forgiving their debts. Maybe the day was looking up.
“So what are we still needing to do?” Skeld asked.
“There’s those, uh, that clan to talk to,” I said.
“The battenti,” Ragnar said.
“Right, and I have to pick up some wizards from the Magic Circle.”
“Different parts of town. How quickly should we be leaving Osterstadt?”
“Léon made it sound like the sooner the better, so—”
“Split?”
“Yeah. I didn’t really want to, but I think it’s the only way to get it done. Two of you to the battenti, and I’ll go to the wizards.”
The two otterfolk nodded, and were off.
I stood there and thought about where I might find the Magic Circle.
Chapter 21
I wound up asking a Legionnaire. I figured that was substantially safer than trying to interact with any of the city guard. The legionnaire pointed the place out on my fancy new map, and luckily it wasn’t that far into the richer side of town. After a twenty-minute stroll through the city, doing my best to look like I belonged, I came to the square holding the Magic Circle.
