by Andrew Lynch
As they descended to a lower altitude, the snow and cold disappeared to be replaced by warmth - Gar disputed this of course - and they started talking again. Jess was giving everyone a lecture on Xly’dia.
‘The Aviq are a beautiful race. An envoy came to my village decades past.’ She was enjoying recounting the memory. ‘Males and females are covered in bright coloured feathers, ranging from deep magentas and reds, to vibrant yellows and greys that have no right being so interesting. They are to birds what humans are to apes.
‘What about them at war? How are they as fighters?’ Lucian asked, trying to figure out why Moxar had asked an Aviq to join him.
‘Like any other species all individuals have their specialities. Clearly the one we encountered had an affinity with magic.’
‘He seemed to not like it,’ Lucian said.
‘No. I think he liked it all too much. Either very sensitive to it, or became too powerful too quickly,’ Jess seemed to enjoy knowing more than everyone else. Everyone could have guessed that would be the case.
‘Addict?’ Gar asked.
‘Oh yes, magic can be thoroughly intoxicating. Regardless, as fighters, they are known for being very physical - even their Magi. A combination of short bursts of flight, and being large enough to tower over even the tallest of Elves.’
‘Why haven’t I seen one of these before?’ Lucian asked. ‘I’ve seen Orcs and Elves - even angry Ents - trying to make an honest living in the capital, but not a single Aviq.’
‘They are a reclusive race. Besides, most people end up in the capital after being displaced by war. The Aviq have never gone to war.’
‘Do you think this is something to be worried about?’ Lucian asked.
‘That is hard to say. A lone wanderer in the mountains could mean anything.’
‘Perhaps we’ll ask about Aviqs in Mounthold. Maybe some of the townspeople talked to the Aviq when the two of them passed through.’
As the road curved out of the mountain pass, the township of Mounthold came into view Nestled against a cliff, with the sea visible beyond, the town had strong walls protecting it. Lucian had a moment of daydreaming - this was the kind of place he wanted to live in. Safe from the outside world, free of evil. Perhaps after his days of Heroing, he’d marry Lily, and they’d settle down. He was sure she’d like it here.
‘Okay, we resupply here, and have to be back on the road. We need to get ahead of Moxar before he reaches our next task. Unless he hasn’t left yet, in which case, be prepared to hide.’
All the chimneys were pouring out smoke after the harsh weather last night.
‘Streets are well paved,’ Khleb noted.
‘Unusual for a town this size,’ Darrius agreed.
‘Their main export is the stone they quarry from the mountain,’ Lucian said, remembering trivia he had read about the town. ‘It’s a larger, more affluent place then Moatslocke.’
‘Thank Gods! Unsuccessful farmers aren’t great at conversation,’ Darrius said. ‘If you had a deep yearning to discuss grain subsidies, and what to do with a fallow field, then the inn at Moatslocke was the place.’
‘Streets well paved, all the buildings are built from the local stone, it will be a nice place for the tour groups to stop,’ Lucian continued, ignoring Darrius' grumbling. ‘They are also renowned for their horse breeding. More as a point of pride than a big money maker.’
‘Why do you bother reading so much about this stuff, boss?’ Khleb asked.
‘Knowledge is power!’ Lucian chuckled. If any of Lord Orson’s spies could hear him now, Lucian was sure they’d be impressed.
At the entrance to the town, where a stone bridge crossed a small river, there were several guards barring the way in. Like two armies lined up for battle, the guards and Lucian’s group kept their distance as two representatives moved forward to parlay. Halting on the bridge, Lucian gave a standard greeting.
‘Don’t “hail” me, lad,’ the guard said. ‘No one’s allowed in. You have to go around.’
‘Kind sir, we've travelled a long way and our supplies are almost finished. We only wish to buy food and water, then we'll be on our way,’ Lucian said.
‘Just following orders. No one allowed in until this mess has been sorted out.’
‘Mess?’ Lucian asked.
‘You can say that again!’ the guard said.
‘Umm, mess?’
‘You trying to be funny, lad?’
‘I mean, what is the mess you’re in? Perhaps we can help?’
‘Oh! Bunch of whippersnappers like you? Nah. Go around.’
Lucian wasn’t sure if this guard was playing with a full deck. ‘What’s the nature of the mess?’ he tried again.
‘Some big shot hero comes through here last night, right? Burned down a block of stables, and his friend was some monster we've never seen before. So we got rid of them.’
Lucian’s heart sank. ‘Oh Gods, did you kill them?!’
‘Gods no! But after they’d burned down a stable or two, we set up a small angry mob to run them off. Still fighting the fires they started, so no one allowed in.’’
This was a huge job. The group of Mouths that should have smoothed things over would have already moved on, keeping ahead of Moxar. It would be up to Lucian’s team to put damage control in place and smooth things over.
The plus side was the guard had confirmed that Moxar had been this way. However, Moxar had already moved on. At this rate they'd need to find a faster way to travel. At the very least leave the wagon behind and run the horses hard.
‘We really need to get in. Is there anything we can do?’
‘Nope.’
Lucian knew what that meant and pushed his cloak back showing his coin pouch. ‘Are you sure?’
‘I’m seventy three, boy. I just do this for the exercise. I don’t care about money!’
Lucian harrumphed. ‘Right. One second.’
Lucian walked back to his team.
‘He wasn’t giving any ground. Darrius, this seems like your sort of thing?’
‘Right you are, sir,’ Darrius said, and walked to the middle.
The guards had also swapped to a new negotiator.
Lucian couldn’t hear what was being said, but Darrius seemed to be calm and collected. The guard he was talking to was shouting loud enough for Lucian to hear, but after a few seconds, Darrius had calmed him down. After a minute of talking, Darrius started shifting his weight.
‘Bad,’ said Gar.
‘You can’t know that yet,’ Lucian said, confident of the bard’s skills.
After another minute, Gar said, ‘He start move hands, it very...’ At that, Darrius started waving his arms around. ‘Never mind.’
The guard matched the arm waving and started pacing back and forth.
Darrius threw his hands in the air with a general shout of displeasure and returned to the team. He had worked himself into a light sweat.
‘Damn! Fifty / fifty,’ Darrius cursed.
‘Don’t worry. You gave it your best shot,’ Lucian consoled him.
‘Maybe it just isn’t my day. Well, that or he has professional bardic training. I threw my best at him!’ Darrius added, ‘Oh, and I gave him one gold.’
‘One gold?!’ Lucian spluttered, staggered by how a small - unsuccessful - bribe escalated to one whole gold. He composed himself. ‘Calm, friend. We tried subtlety. Now it’s time for brute force. Gar?’
Gar drew himself up to his full height and puffed out his impressive chest. ‘I handle.’
Khleb put a hand on Gar’s chest to stop him. ‘Boss, tag me in.’
Lucian looked to the others for advice. Darrius was sulking and paying no attention. Jess looked only mildly interested in life in general, now she wasn’t showing off her superior knowledge.
‘We need to get in. Are you sure?’ Lucian asked.
‘Have I ever let you down, boss?’
Lucian thought for a second and was surprised to find that actually, no, Khleb h
adn’t let him down.
‘All right. Do us proud.’ Lucian hit him on the arm for encouragement and immediately regretted it when his hand returned greasy. He hoped he’d remember to stop doing that as he wiped his fist off on a horse.
Khleb sauntered into the middle, and one of the guards from the end of their little formation took a leisurely stroll to meet him.
Lucian could only make out a faint murmur from the conversation on the bridge. Feeling nervous about entrusting such an important task to Khleb, he turned to Jess. ‘Tell me honestly, have I just made a bad decision?’
‘He is a disgusting and bigoted little Human. The only reason I have not killed him is because I am using him as a tool to strengthen my willpower - every day is a challenge, and if you ever wake up to find a hole scorched through his chest, then it was me. However, he will get you through that gate.’
‘That’s, umm, rather lucid of you,’ Lucian said. ‘I know you two don’t seem to get on, but at least you respect each other.’
‘Respect?’ Jess spat the word. ‘Do not be an idiot, Lucian. He hates Elves and possibly women too. I do not waste my limited reserves of respect on sub-humans like him. The thought of him makes my skin crawl. He is so repulsive, he is the only Human I can actually tell apart from any of you others. But I remain realistic and have seen him work before. He will get you through that gate and be the most disgusting person I have ever met.’
Lucian hadn’t asked Jess or Khleb about their dislike for each other, but clearly it was real.
‘Wait, you can tell him apart... you can’t tell Humans apart?’ Lucian found this curious fact briefly overwhelming his other line of questioning.
‘Yes. You are all the same to me.’
Lucian looked to Gar, and his eyeline met the giant’s impressive chest. Lucian had rather average skin colour for the centre of the Empire, a rather dull, pinkish beige. Gar was from the harsh desert mountains of Karakgar, and his skin was darkened in response to the blazing sun of that region. That they were both male was about their only shared characteristic.
‘Even me and Gar?’
Jess looked directly at Lucian, for possibly the first time since they'd met. Then she looked at Gar in the same way. ‘If I focus I can see subtle differences. It is similar to how you would differentiate two horses of the same colour, perhaps.’
It occurred to Lucian that maybe Jess paid so little attention to Human affairs because she couldn’t tell who was saying what.
Lucian heard incoherent shouting from Khleb, and turned to pay attention, filing away Elvish / Human recognition issues for later consideration. Khleb had started making some grand point about the Gods, and was pointing feverishly towards the sky and God’s Hollow.
Matters seemed to be progressing. He asked Gar’s perspective.
‘He odd.’
‘Can you elaborate?’
‘Hmm... he good to me. Darrius. Friends. He loyal. Other races? Women? Hmm.’
‘Why?’
Gar gave a noncommittal shrug. ‘What Jess say. Not know truth.’
‘We all have our blind spots, I guess.’
Now Khleb seemed to be showing the guard the inside of his cloak as if he was trying to sell smuggled goods. Lucian hoped he wasn’t trying to sell smuggled goods.
Suddenly Khleb had the guard in a headlock and the two were throwing each other around wildly.
Lucian started to draw his sword but Gar motioned for him to hold. Certainly no one else had drawn steel or seemed at all concerned.
Khleb threw a few swings at the guard’s head and more flailing of limbs occurred.
After ten seconds of this they drew apart, threw a few curses at each other and returned to their lines. Khleb had a small trickle of blood running from his nose but was otherwise fine.
‘What the Gods happened there?!’ Lucian asked.
‘Just standard negotiations, boss. They're letting us through.’ Khleb flicked a gold coin at Darrius. ‘Got it back for ya, bud.’
‘That was not... standard,’ Lucian protested weakly, but sure enough the guards broke their line and stood aside as the team mounted up and passed through the gate into Mounthold proper.
Closer to the centre of the town, Lucian realised that, in fact, yes, the abundance of thick black smoke drifted from one corner of the town and the definite smell of burning manure surrounded everything.
‘Smells like shit,’ Khleb said, astutely. ‘Why did we go through all that to get in?’
‘If it had only been for a good night’s sleep, then yes, I'd have pressed on,’ Lucian said. ‘Supplies are needed, but I’m sure we could have bartered with the Guards. It turns out that all of this...’ Lucian searched for the word as he pointed to the black smoke. ‘Destruction. Was caused by Moxar.’
The team were silent for a second before Gar said, ‘Huh? Moxar no do this.’
Darrius had found his normal demeanour upon the return of the gold coin he lost. No doubt telling himself that his role was vital in the build up to Khleb’s victory. ‘I must agree with Gar here. This isn’t Moxar’s way. We've followed him for a few years and he’s never done this before. Without a Company sanctioned event in this town, he would never hurt anyone, I’m sure!’'
‘Really?’ Lucian asked. ‘He’s never burned down a town before?’
‘Oh, well, of course,’ Darrius admitted. ‘What self respecting Hero hasn’t burned down the occasional house. Stables too. Entire cities on occasion, sure. But never involving innocents. No, sir.’
‘Could it be the Aviq?’ Lucian guessed.
‘They are generally a reserved race,’ Jess answered. ‘But I only know of their official envoys sent out to the other species. I do not know anything of how a lone Aviq would behave.’
‘Also, this one may just have a few screws loose,’ Khleb added.
‘All right. Whatever happened, we need to find out what it was, and smooth over any negative impressions from the locals.’
They were interrupted by a man on horseback trotting round the corner. He was wearing official Empire messenger colours.
As he approached, Lucian flagged him down, ‘Hail! What’s happened here?’
The messenger reined his horse in at an easy speaking distance. ‘A bit of trouble with some passing heroes last night. Nothing to be concerned about, travellers. Please, carry on as normal, all our taverns and shops are still open.’ All said with the smile and geniality of someone who knew how valuable tourism was to his town.
‘Everything open apart from the gates to get in,’ Darrius mumbled.
‘And you’re off to...?’ Lucian asked.
‘A sad fact, but one of the men was actually a bit of local legend. Moxar! You may have heard of him?’ The team gave a chorus of shrugs, excuses and firm stares at the ground, allowing the messenger to continue. ‘Anyway, the magistrate sees this as gross misconduct and destruction of property, so we need to warn others. We may even press charges in the capital courts.’
‘Well, no need for that I’m sure,’ Lucian said. ‘Can’t punish him for a single night of having a bit too much fun!’
‘Not my call, sadly. Even if it was, we've already sent two other messengers off to big cities. Several people died, and justice must be served.’
Lucian decided they needed more time. The messengers couldn’t be allowed to leave the town. He gave Khleb and Gar a significant look. ‘Ahh, that is a shame. Have they already left?’
‘No, no, they'll be leaving by other gates. We’re all taking different routes - you never know what may befall a messenger. Anyway, travellers, I must be off. Please enjoy our town!’
Lucian nodded, and as soon as the messenger had passed, Gar put a meaty fist on the riders collar, and dragged him from his horse. The messenger was rendered unconscious in one smooth movement.
‘Better hide him in that alley,’ Lucian said. ‘Why do things always end up this way?’
As Gar dragged the messenger, Darrius chimed in, ‘Aww, cheer up, sir. W
e rarely have to assault Empire officials.’
Briefly, Lucian felt at a loss. How far could he really go for this job? It wasn’t a free pass to break the law. Yes, the Company had helped employees out of sticky situations in the past, but was this too much? What would Lord Orson’s spies think of this?
‘So... should probably get to work,’ Darrius said.
‘Okay,’ said Lucian. ‘We need to stop those messengers! Knock them out. When they come to, they will be obliged to report their assault to the nearest authority. That means they’ll be in the hands of the local judgement’s administration. It won’t be as bloated as the capital’s but it should buy us several hours to sort everything out.’
‘So we just need to straighten out the burning buildings, and several deaths,’ Jess said.
Lucian still couldn’t figure out when Jess was sarcastic or not, so kept his reply simple. ‘Yes.’
‘Disabling the messengers won’t need all of us,’ Jess said. ‘I will find out exactly what Moxar got up to last night.’ It turned out she wasn’t being sarcastic.
‘Right. Good call, Jess. We can triage the issues they caused and sort out what we think we can. With luck, our clean up will convince the local magistrate not to press charges. And coincidentally, when he recalls the messengers, they will be in the town hall tangled up in red tape, trying to report a crime.’
‘A sound decision, Lucian,’ Jess said, seeming to mean it.
‘Umm, thanks, Jess.’ Lucian wasn’t sure what else to say to a compliment from her. ‘Khleb and Gar, if you would do the honours?’
‘An honour indeed, boss,’ Khleb replied. ‘Now, what is the official policy on looting the corpses?’
‘You’re not killing them, so there won’t be any corpses to loot' Lucian said sternly.
‘Right! Right, of course, yes, no corpses. But hypothetically...’
‘No corpses, don’t rob anyone. Conscious or not.’
‘Ooph, that’s a hard line on things. Fair enough, boss, fair enough.’
As they walked away, Lucian shouted after them, ‘Gar! Watch him! No stealing!’
Lucian walked in the general direction of the large plumes of smoke coming from the north of the town. The horses and cart had been left at an inn which the guard had recommended to Khleb. When Lucian mentioned to the innkeep that he couldn’t see any ships, the innkeeper had told him to stick his head over the cliff. Unsure whether this was a local insult or good advice, Lucian gave it a shot. Sure enough, fifty metres below the rest of the town were the docks. There was a small jetty barely large enough to hold the three ships anchored around it.
