Demi Heroes

by Andrew Lynch

  The hearthfire lit the room, illuminating Moxar’s support teams.

  The Legs group were planning for the terrain to come. Where they would need to place convenient food and shelter along the path for Moxar to find. Logistics, plain and simple. Known for their speed and efficiency, maybe they were the ones spying for Lord Orson?

  The Mouths had an easy enough job, just be at a village a day before Moxar arrived. There was no story if there was no word of mouth to confirm what happened. A subtle job, and a difficult one to get right - they couldn’t just tell people that Moxar was coming. Likable sorts, they used their charms to hustle anyone they could along to where the action was going to take place. They were only needed in the public places of Moxar’s journey, of course. Having random civilians milling around an evil castle would be impractical. They had already finished their planning and were heading off. Like every group, they wanted to give themselves as much of a head start as possible. They weren’t needed in the first stop, a small village, so they'd head to the second. Masters at blending in, they could be watching and reporting on Lucian without him ever knowing.

  The Eyes were deciding places where getting lost would be easy. They'd send out riders to those trouble spots, and depending on the position, either disguise themselves as locals or, if it seemed acceptable, just blend in with a band of Moxar followers. Despite being called “The Eyes”, Lucian didn’t think they’d be the ones looking at him. Too obvious.

  Lucian was surprised his group were the only Hands set to work on such a big Quest. For something so prestigious, typically two, perhaps even three groups would be expected. Part of his test?

  ‘They just know we’re competent enough to get the job done, clearly,’ Darrius said with unshakable confidence. Or unshakable sarcasm, Lucian couldn’t quite tell.

  ‘This isn’t going to be easy,’ Lucian muttered to himself. ‘We need to handle everything ourselves. The drop offs in front of him, and the clean up in his wake. We need to know exactly where our crossover points should be.’

  ‘Good thing you’re a master tactician,’ Jess said.

  ‘Well said.’ Lucian was too focused on the map in front of him to notice such minor things as her tone of voice.

  ‘We’ve got everything you’d expect. The day’s ride village, the magical fortress, bandits...’ Lucian was mostly talking to himself, deep in thought. ‘If only we could find some magical creatures, maybe an ogre. Or pirates? Then we’d have everything in this legend.’

  ‘I don’t think pirates are magical, sir,’ Darrius said.

  ‘Not in the same way Elves are, agreed, but there’s…’ Lucian searched for the right words and failed to find them. ‘There’s something about them.’

  ‘What first?’ Gar asked.

  ‘Tomorrow night, Moxar will be resting in a small town outside of the capital.’

  ‘A day’s ride, I suppose?’ Khleb asked. A common joke, as that was how every journey seemed to start.

  ‘Indeed,’ Lucian said. ‘Now, we need several things to happen at this town. Moxar needs information, and there’s no reason for anyone there to know exactly where the cave the artifact was stolen from will be. We'll need to plant the information and make sure Moxar gets it.’

  ‘Sounds like Mouth work to me,’ Khleb complained.

  ‘Not even remotely,’ Jess replied. ‘A Mouth does not plant information, merely the hint that something might be occurring. It is called subtlety. The fact you are in our group clearly shows that we lack such a prerequisite.’

  ‘I am a thief, you know?’ Khleb said. ‘Sneakier than you, swishing around in that stupid robe all day, clanking your staff on floors.’

  Lucian held up a sealed envelope. ‘Either way, it’s on our assignments, so we're doing it.’

  * * * *

  The village of Moatslocke was exactly what Lucian had expected. Bodies of water crisscrossed a few acres of land, with buildings haphazardly perched on what he was sure were eroding banks and sod. At least the weather was nice, as the morning fog broke to reveal the horizon. Usually hidden by the capital’s walls, it was a striking sight. The foreground of luscious greens and leafy trees, and the background of cold blues - the mountains in which they would soon find themselves.

  His group had ridden hard through the night, emerging from the Grand Imperial Forest in plenty of time to get their job done before Moxar arrived. It wouldn’t be a disaster if Moxar saw them at this point. However Moxar believed his assignments had sent everyone away from the danger. He never allowed his followers to accompany him on the trail. Not since “The Volcanic Nation”. Still, this close to the capital, an excuse of saying goodbye to loved ones would be believable.

  Khleb took up the rear, steering the group’s supply wagon. It slowed them down but was absolutely necessary for the first leg of this journey. Moxar would be able to catch up with them, if not for the solid twelve hours of sleep he liked to get before embarking on a new Quest.

  They were all weary after the night ride, all wearing their travelling cloaks, which kept them and their horses warm and safe from the elements. Apart from Gar, who wore, as always, his great fur. The skin of some obscenely large animal native to the deserts of Karakgar, was all the group could guess. None of them had seen the animal, but apparently its fur was light brown. That was all they had to go on, as the head and claws, if it had any, had been removed.

  They had entered the boundaries of Moatslocke and were letting the horses stretch themselves out in an active walk.

  ‘Was it dangerous?’ Lucian asked to break the silence and hopefully engage their tired minds.

  ‘What?’ Khleb asked.

  ‘Oh, Gar I meant. Getting your great fur.’

  Gar sat up straight after beginning to slump. ‘Yes.’

  ‘What was it?’

  ‘No point asking,’ Darrius said. ‘He hasn’t even told me. Won’t even tell his best friend!’

  ‘Won’t,’ Gar confirmed.

  ‘Outrageous! I invite you into my home, and you won’t tell me.’

  ‘I fix nose. You welcome,’ Gar said with a smile.

  ‘Well, what do you know about it?’ Lucian asked Darrius.

  ‘It’s a ritual. Or a law, I’m not sure of the difference over there,’ Darrius said. ‘Anyone that wants uncontested entry to the walls of the desert mountain must have one of these fur cloaks.’

  ‘Doesn’t sound like a very good security system,’ Lucian said.

  ‘And yet, they haven’t been conquered in recorded history, and no one knows much of what’s beyond those walls,’ Darrius pointed out.

  ‘Hmm, can’t argue with that. So what about the beast itself? I could just kill one and then get in?’

  ‘Yes,’ Gar said.

  ‘Oh sure, if you could kill one, and good luck to you there.The beast only lives inside the walls of Karakgar,’ Darrius said.

  ‘Okay, but I could still take one from anyone that has left the kingdom, right?’ Lucian asked.

  ‘Yes.’ Gar gave Lucian a look, telling him that trying would be a brave, yet stupid, decision.

  ‘Good luck with that!’ Darrius laughed.

  They approached the inn. The largest building in a village this size was always the inn. Everything else would be local housing, a single shop selling whatever it could find, and a complaints centre run by the Empire - probably filled with locals complaining about wanting larger grain subsidies. The inn looked exactly like every other inn Lucian had ever seen in any village a day’s ride from the capital.

  They arranged for their horses to be stabled along with their wagon, and entered the inn. They had to walk through the ever present cloud of pipe smoke and grumble of complaints that surrounded the entrance to every inn. The Empire had recently decided that smoking pipes indoors was a hazard. The smokers were hardy farmer folk, up after a night of lively drinking and getting their final puff on their banned pipes. Maybe some were even the dedicated few, using a cheap morning drink to fuel a day of hard work
.

  The innards were dimly lit, but as the rising sun was about to flood through the windows, that would be fixed soon enough. People started to enter to begin a hard day’s drinking, fresh faces compared to the crowd outside.

  Lucian’s team took a booth by themselves. Darrius went off to order a round, and they sat down to crack open the sealed letter from the Company bag, placing the envelope on the table. It would give them the information they needed to start Moxar’s Quest. Lucian felt his eyelids drooping.

  He awoke some time later.

  Nothing better than a power nap to refresh the troops, much needed after a hard night’s ride, even if it was accidental.

  The inn had filled to the brim by this time. Lucian patted the Company bag by his side, yup, still there. He then prodded Darrius and Gar, starting to wake everyone up. He decided to leave Khleb till last, as if anyone was likely to be angry it would be him. He couldn’t reach Jess at the other end of the table, so motioned for Gar to do it.

  ‘No,’ Gar said.

  ‘Come on, wake her up,’ Lucian insisted.

  ‘No. She mean when woke.’ Gar crossed his arms to make it final.

  Lucian sighed and leaned over the table to poke her arm, but Darrius grabbed him. ‘Really. It’s better for everyone if you let her wake up on her own.’

  ‘Nonsense,’ Lucian muttered, not wanting his authority to be ruined by something so trivial. He prodded her arm.

  Jess raised her head and took the deep breath of someone that had just woken up. She looked around, her eyes not focusing on anything. Then she saw Lucian retracting his arm, and her face turned to thunder.

  ‘You dare to wake an Elf?’ she spat. She then stood up and shouted loudly in a language no one understood, gesticulating both wildly and threateningly towards Lucian.

  Lucian tried to get a few words out. They probably would have been about him having authority, sleeping on the job, and other such basic facts, but he never quite managed to say a fully formed word.

  After a good few minutes of this, Jess returned to her seat and put her head in her hands, as though a great depression had settled on her. Lucian, looking slightly sheepish now, looked to Gar and Darrius, who both shrugged. It was a lost cause, and best to leave her alone and move on.

  So Lucian turned to Khleb, ready for something even worse, and poked his arm.

  Khleb woke up immediately, awake and alert, ‘Morning.’

  Lucian was a bit taken aback, ‘Oh. I expected more, to be honest. Never mind.’

  ‘Motto,’ Gar explained.

  ‘The big man’s right,’ Khleb confirmed. ‘Sleep whenever you can, but wake up ready to run. That’s the thief’s life.’

  Jess groaned and sat up. Everyone stared at her with apprehension. She let her head fall backwards.

  ‘Right.’ Lucian relaxed after Jess didn’t take another bite out of him. ‘The place seems busy enough and I’m sure that most of these people will still be here by the time Moxar arrives tonight. Let’s pick our targets and disseminate the information.’

  ‘Very good, sir. I like the look of that group over there. I'll get on it,’ Darrius said.

  ‘Good call, Darrius, I'll join you.’

  ‘Quick question,’ Darrius said.

  ‘Shoot.’

  ‘What is the information we're trying to disseminate?’

  Lucian realised that they had all fallen asleep before reading the letter.

  His heart skipped a beat! He realised the letter wasn’t on the table. Or in the Company bag.

  ‘Umm, did anyone take the letter?’ He was met with blank faces.

  ‘Darrius, for safe keeping?’ Darrius shook his head and shrugged, as if to say if he knew where it was, he’d put Lucian out of his misery.

  ‘Gar, because of some obscure motherland tradition?’ Gar folded his arms and glared at Lucian.

  ‘Khleb, because you are a slight kleptomaniac with very few scruples?’ Khleb gave a cheeky wink, but Lucian didn’t really think it was him.

  Lucian debated whether or not it was worth risking Jess’ wrath, but decided that if he really was being watched and evaluated by unseen eyes, he needed to show he was in charge. ‘Jess, do you happen to...’

  Jess flung her head forward and slammed her hands on the table. ‘Don’t you dare accuse me you filthy—' She slipped into her Elvish tongue for another tirade of insults. It sounded rather beautiful, but Lucian decided never to ask her what it meant.

  ‘The logical thing to do, instead of accusing your group, would be to ask the maid that served us,’ Jess finished.

  Lucian felt he was not doing well with the whole “maintaining a solid leadership” part of his role.

  He looked around the inn and saw that the place was doing a roaring trade and had very few seats left. The sun had lit up the large room, and really made it clear just how generic this tavern was. Large wooden beams at random spots throughout, completely ignoring where structural support was actually required and being purely decorative. A mixture of booths, tables, stools, and chairs were scattered around the room. A cross hatching of wooden beams and white plaster made up the walls.

  He waved a few times trying to flag down one of the servers. After a few minutes of frustration and being ignored, he gave up. ‘Well this is just ridiculous.’

  Gar pointed his thumb at Darrius. Darrius gave a heavy sigh and stood up. By the time he’d raised his head ready to dazzle the closest woman with his fifty / fifty smile, the barmaid that served them was standing in front of the table. Darrius just pointed at Lucian and sat down.

  ‘Fifty percent of the time. What can I say?’ Darrius said with mock humility, although he clearly enjoyed being able to show off.

  ‘Huh,’ Lucian grunted, having not seen a bard at work before. He didn’t feel that was such a tough job.

  ‘Did you see a letter on this table, miss?’

  ‘Oh yes, sir,’ she said, a bit miffed that she wasn’t talking to Darrius.

  ‘We seem to have misplaced it. Did you see anyone standing around our table that might have taken it?’

  ‘Can’t say I saw any shady characters hanging around here, sir, no.’ She then pulled the envelope out of her apron and grinned. ‘I did however see this lying around so took it upon myself to keep it safe.’

  ‘Ahh, you’re too kind, fair lady,’ Lucian said, sighing with relief at finding the letter in safe hands.

  As he reached over to take the letter from her, she whipped it back and said, ‘Finders keepers, sir.’

  ‘That’s really not a thing,’ lucian complained.

  ‘I’m a fair lady, and I'll return it. For a price.’

  Lucian reached for his coin pouch and with a sigh asked, ‘How much?’

  ‘Three gold pieces.’

  ‘Three gold?! That’s extortion, we don’t have that kind of money to spare!’

  ‘Hmm,’ she said with a finger to her chin, ‘I suppose that is quite a lot to ask. Well, I'll swap it for an hour with him.’ She pointed at Darrius.

  ‘One second.’ Lucian held up his finger. ‘Group talk.’

  They all huddled close around the table, the roar from the other patrons shielding their voices from prying ears.

  ‘Finders keepers? This is ridiculous!’ Lucian exclaimed.

  ‘No, no,’ Khleb said, shaking his head as if he’d been bested in a game of wits. ‘It’s a legitimate rule among thieves. She’s got us on that one.’

  ‘Darrius, is this the kind of thing you do?’ Lucian asked.

  Darrius stuck his head up and looked the woman over. ‘I'd rather not. I got lucky and she got the right fifty percent of my charm this time. Who knows what might happen next time.’

  ‘Is that really how it works? Surely if she likes you, she likes you?’

  ‘I'll be honest, sir, I really don’t understand women.’

  ‘You’re all idiots,’ Jess added helpfully.

  ‘All right, all right. Darrius, we need that letter. I need... no, we need you
to get it for us.’

  ‘This isn’t a science, sir, but I'll do my best. For the Quest,’ Darrius said with a heavy heart. ‘I'll be back.’

  They broke the huddle and Darrius shuffled his way out from behind the booth. He smoothly plucked the letter from the barmaid’s fingers and passed it back to Lucian. Then he was promptly dragged up a flight of stairs by the now very excited barmaid. Lucian presumed to a bedroom, and was thankful for Darrius' sake that she was easy on the eyes.

  ‘He no like, you know,’ said Gar.

  ‘His job is, effectively, having his way with attractive women, right?’ Lucian asked.

  ‘A king’s job,’ Khleb said wistfully.

  ‘He loves his family,’ Jess answered, knowing that Gar wouldn’t have the eloquence she commanded. Gar just nodded. ‘But this job has better pay and is more reliable than anything else he can do, so he does it for them.’

  ‘He hardly mentioned them to me.’ Lucian hadn’t realised. Darrius’ skills were a useful resource, but in future Lucian would try to use them sparingly. That was the right thing to do. He couldn’t imagine being asked to betray Lily.

  ‘Maybe I should have paid the three gold pieces?’

  ‘He know job,’ Gar said.

  ‘Then let’s honour his hardship.’ Lucian opened the envelope, flourished the letter, and read. After a few seconds he passed it on. ‘Huh, nothing too exciting, but still necessary. Location of a path leading to a mysterious cave. And we know because someone’s cousin’s brother’s mother’s landlord saw a group of evil looking folk. They were carrying a shining object when the poor chap got too drunk one night and wandered in the direction of the mountain.’

  Khleb nodded. ‘That classic story? Good to get some of the staples of the genre in, I suppose.’

  Once they'd all read it, Lucian asked, ‘We've all done one of these information plants before?’

  Everyone nodded.

  ‘All right. Gar and Khleb, I want you on the barrels. Darrius and I will spread the information.’

  ‘Great, boss. Umm, what are the barrels for again?’ Khleb asked.

  ‘We just went over this last night.’

  ‘Well, a lot’s happened since then.’