by Noah Layton
To our right by a set of stairs that led up to the storeroom upstairs was a round table. Another human and a goblin were sat at wooden chairs, drinking from flagons of mead and talking quietly.
They acknowledged us briefly, raising their glasses before returning to their quiet conversation.
‘Yes, sir,’ the man at the counter said. ‘Morgan Ashwood, trader of weapons, at your service. What can I do for you?’
‘I’m in the market for a two-handed sword,’ I replied, retrieving the basic weapon from my scabbard. ‘Something a little more powerful than this.’
‘A grunt’s weapon,’ Morgan replied as I set the weapon down on the counter and he examined it. ‘Reliable, but basic.’
He turned to the wall behind him, tracing the stock with his finger, then jumped up onto the back counter, retrieved another two-hander and presented it before me by my own.
The stark difference was immediately apparent. It gleamed with a much greater shine than my own, the blade was sharper, and the dark leather that bound the handle looked much more sophisticated.
But looks always made me sceptical. It was what it could do, not its appearance.
‘It might look the part,’ I said. ‘But what difference does it make from my own?’
‘A lighter blade and a sharper edge, sir. The handle also provides for a greater grip. That said, as far as I’m concerned, if you’ve seen one of these you’ve seen them all.’
I picked up the two-hander. The difference was immediately apparent – the trader had been completely honest. Everything he had said about it not only looked true, but felt it too.
‘Brave thing for a weapons trader to say.’
‘I very rarely have repeat customers. Those who buy melee weapons either die quickly or are smart enough that they don’t need to buy another. Most of my coin these days is made from ammunition. Speaking of which,’ he said, turning to Lara. ‘That’s a fine bow you’ve got there.
‘You ought to know, you sold it to me.’
‘Indeed. I’ve got some obsidian arrows in stock if you were in the market.’
‘They give a deeper cut,’ Lara said, turning to me. ‘Take our enemies down much faster.’
‘We’ll take 20,’ I said. ‘How much for those and the sword?’
‘450GP.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Like I said, if you’re a smart man – which you evidently are – you won’t need to buy another sword. I receive little repeat business from my customers, aside from ammunition.’
‘Ariadne?’
I turned to my foxgirl. She had been carefully examining the weapons upon the wall.
‘How much are the twin blades?’ She asked, pointing to a pair of scimitars right behind Morgan.
He turned to examine them.
‘I’ll give you everything for 800GP.’
‘You’re sure you’re comfortable with the change from throwing knives?’
‘Definitely, master,’ she said confidently. ‘I need something with more bite.’
‘We’ll take all of it,’ I continued, returning to Morgan.
My total gold count ticked down, but we were fully equipped for our voyage. We got a quick breakfast of taurem meat and eggs at one of the vendors, bought a little extra for the journey to reside in our inventories, and filled our water canteens to the brim.
With the 800GP spent on weapons and another 10GP on food, my total ticked down to 2470GP. It was double what I needed to pay for the apartment, not including anything that we retrieved in our travels.
Stocked up, we arrived at the docks and took in the familiar but unwelcome scent of fish and river water.
We split up and inquired with no less than twelve different captains whose ships were docked to the port. The ships themselves couldn’t have varied more; some were small, belonging only to a single small-time trader who was bringing shipments of junk up and down the river, while others were manned by a twenty-strong crew and were transporting literal tons of produce on gigantic sailboats.
There was one thing that they all seemed to have in common, though – nobody wanted to go anywhere near the Black Patch.
‘You’re fucking crazy.’
‘Turn right around and go back in-land, half-wit.’
‘I’d rather shit in my own hands and clap, human.’
‘How wasted do you think I am?’
The last one proved to be true, but it applied to somebody different than the sailor who had said it.
Because the only sailor who would take us was an actual drunkard.
I knew we had our man as we approached his tiny vessel. It was a rusty, derelict fishing boat with enough space for four of us at a push.
‘Hello?’ Ariadne called out as we approached. ‘Is anybody in there? Hello?’
The boat looked abandoned, but as I smacked a hand against its metal side, there was a shriek of sudden waking and a loud, dull thunk as the owner of the boat hit his head against the underside of the desk in the small cabin.
‘Eughhh…’ A voice from within groaned. ‘Who the fuck’s out there? Whaddya want? If this is about the docking payment just give me a few more days. I’ll have it, I promise…’
The voice sounded like it had been dipped in whisky and thrown into the bay to cool off.
Ariadne shrugged at me, and a moment later the man himself appeared.
‘Who the fuck are you people?’
‘Paying customers,’ I said. ‘If you’re offering your services, that is.’
‘Look, I may be on the bones of my ass, but I’m not sucking anyone’s dick. I hear some of the tribes run brothels, if that’s what you’re interested in...’
‘I’m not interesting in anything like that,’ I said. ‘I need passage downriver.’
At that proposition, the man himself finally appeared, and his name was-
‘Captain Archibald Montague,’ he said, staggering up and making an effort to stand up straight. It was obvious that he was an elf, but in contrast to the few others that I had seen in Agraria – and read about in Earth’s myths – he was anything but graceful.
He still had the lean, thin arms and legs of an elf, his purple skin covering a body that easily stood eight-feet tall. His face was scattered with patchy stubble, standing above an undershirt with all the buttons undone, exposing a pot-belly that was completely, unashamedly left out in the open.
A pair of grey pants thankfully covered his legs, while only one of his feet possessed an old leather boot that looked like it had been fished out of the bay a while back.
He leaned out a hand to shake, but I just nodded at him and he withdrew it.
‘You can call me Captain Archie,’ he continued, patting the ship. ‘This is the River Gulp. She may not look like much, but she’s the most reliable vessel in all of the cove. What can she and I do for you?’
I was already regretting even starting a conversation with the guy, but there was no harm in trying.
‘We need passage to the Black Patch,’ I said, getting straight to the point. ‘I don’t suppose you could take us there?’
He looked between the three of us. More than a few of the sailors had eyed up Ariadne and Lara, and I had become an expert in telling people that I would kill them with my eyes over the last half hour, and I was ready to do the same here, but that isn’t what happened. He kept his view firmly at eye-level with myself and my wives.
‘Of course, sir, of course.’ He bowed low and stood back up. ‘I can take you there right now.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Absolutely. I spend much of my time there as it is.’
Even if the ship was a piece of shit, after all of our rejection I felt like this was too good to be true.
‘I’ve been told it’s the most dangerous place on this section of the river. What the hell are you doing spending all of your time there?’
‘I have…’ Captain Archie burped loudly, looked confused at the fact that that had just happened at all, then looked back
at me, ‘very little to live for, and also so much to live for at the same time. Since so few vessels are willing to even go near that section of river, the quantities of fresh fish in the area are in abundance. High risk, high reward, you see?’
‘I see.’
‘And…’ He moved to the edge of the boat, just a few feet from me, and looked me hard in the eye. I held my gaze. ‘Seeing as you are going the same way, I’m sure that you are risking your lives for a similarly high reward.’
I couldn’t help but smile back at him. Even if I didn’t exactly understand his cryptic mantra, he understood me.
We paid him 5GP each and set sail less than ten minutes later.
The captain may have been well over the limit for commandeering a boat back on Earth but he knew his way around the small fishing boat, even if there was hardly room for us all to sit down in it.
We left the bay in the shadow of the huge ships floating all around us, reaching the river and heading further south.
Considering the various things in the forest that had already tried to kill us on numerous occasions, I had no doubt that the water below us was also full of similar creatures.
That said, it was still beautiful. Despite the movement of ships up and down the river in constant droves, the water was a pleasant blue-green, spanning around thirty yards from one side to the other. A few yards beyond the river bank on both sides the forest began.
For once, people en-masse had done a damn good job of not destroying something beautiful. The ships didn’t shed waste, with all those that I had seen operating via rudders and sails.
Well, except for ours.
‘How long will the journey take, captain?’ Ariadne asked.
‘In these conditions? An hour, perhaps,’ he replied confidently. ‘Of course, we could get there a lot faster, if you’re willing to put in a little work.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘Here,’ Captain Archie said, fishing a pair of oars from inside the cabin next to a fishing rod. He moved to hand them to Ariadne but stopped, examining her face. ‘Have you and I met before?’
‘No, I don’t think so.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Quite sure, Captain Archie.’
‘Huh… Those ears of yours just ring a bell. Of course I did used to have a sailor’s hat just like that.’
‘With ears on it?’
‘Not real ones.’
He handed an oar over to Ariadne, who shot me a look and frowned.
‘Pass one to your friend there and start paddling,’ he said. ‘I’ll do the steering.’
Ariadne moved to pass it to Lara, but the captain caught her.
‘What are you doing?’
‘You said pass it to my friend.’
‘To your man-friend,’ he corrected, before pointing over at Lara. ‘I need her to use that bow of hers.’
‘… What for?’ Lara said suspiciously.
‘Protection.’
‘From what?’
‘Nothing bad. Most of the feral tribes left here long ago, but occasionally a straggler will fire an arrow at the boat.’
‘Wonderful,’ I muttered under my breath.
‘How do you protect yourself when you’re alone?’ Lara asked, quickly pulling her bow from over her shoulder, loading an arrow and scanning the treeline. ‘Steer with one hand and throw rocks with the other?’
‘No. I usually just keep my head down.’ He laughed hysterically, the sound of it like a seal. The noise itself made all three of us laugh in response. ‘No,’ he continued, his face suddenly falling flat, ‘I genuinely duck and hope for the best.’
Lara crouched at the front of the boat with an arrow at the ready for the next section of our journey while Ariadne and I paddled the boat on either side. I had never sailed before and I was doubtful about the effort giving us any extra speed at all, but it actually moved us faster along our path.
Still, I couldn’t help glancing at the trees constantly in search of movement.
A few miles downriver, the stream split into two sections. The larger, thirty-yard passage that we had been following proceeded straight ahead, but another route only twenty yards in diameter deviated off to the right, cutting into the forest.
The midday sun glowed down upon us but things somehow became darker the further we travelled along this new stretch of water. The trees grew taller and thinner, their branches dipping down over the river like hovering claws.
‘What kind of fish are you looking for out here?’ I asked.
‘All kinds, any that I can sell. I would like to buy a bigger boat someday, have my own fleet even.’
‘How’s that going?’
‘Well.’
I raised my eyebrow at him. He smiled.
‘I am aware of how this appears, human, but I aim to live on as little gold as possible. All of my gold resides in a safe location which only I am aware of.’
‘That’s a damn frugal lifestyle.’
‘Oh, that’s exactly what it is!’ He smiled.
‘So you’re going to build up your business and retire?’
‘Retire? Gods, no. I am going to become richer and richer until I am worthy.’
‘Worthy of what?’
‘Do you not think that it is strange that an elf is living out here on his own?’
‘I had thought to ask,’ Ariadne cut in from the other side of the boat. ‘But I had no intention of being rude seeing as you are our host.’ She turned to me. ‘High elves do not tend to leave their tribes unless banished. They work as a collective.’
‘Is that what happened to you?’ I asked the captain.
‘In a way. But I banished myself.’
‘Why would you do that?’
‘There was a woman in my tribe named Coria. She was the most beautiful of all my people. I loved her very much, but she chose to marry my friend Caspar. He was richer than I, came from a better family within our tribe, was more charming… Everything that I do not have.
‘I could not fathom the heartache. She was my first love… So I left, to make a better man of myself. One day I will return, and she will see what I have become, and see that I am worthy. She will leave Caspar and come to me, and we will live happily.’
‘You know,’ I replied. ‘I used to know a guy like that in a land far from here. His name was Gatsby. Same situation as you. He tried to do the exact same thing.’
‘Really?’ He said turning to me intently. ‘How did that work out?’
The captain was at least somewhat self-aware, but every one of his actions and words, no matter how much sense they had made up till now, had been doused in a drunken daze.
This was the first time, though, that he had shown genuine interest. His eyes lit up with lucid anticipation.
I could have broken his heart and told him that Gatsby had died face down in his private pool, shot to death after the woman of his dreams turned out to not care about him in the slightest.
But what the hell would have been the point?
‘And… She went back to him and they lived happily ever after.’
‘A role model,’ the captain grinned.
I kept paddling, smiling and shaking my head at the endless characters this place had to offer.
This was a land of lost souls, of divorced societies and cultures, untamed wilds and broken people, and Captain Archie was no different.
TWANG.
An arrow slammed into the side of the boat on my side. A few inches higher and it would have hit me right in the stomach.
‘Shit…! Get down!’
Ariadne and I hit the deck while Lara spun around, drawing her arrow and scanning the forest for a moment. It took her seconds to find her target.
TWANG.
The arrow flew into the trees. A grunt followed, and through the trees a green humanoid creature dressed in ragged clothes fell into the river with an arrow straight through his chest.
‘Oh, would you look at that,’ Captain Archie said casually. �
�You got him. Wood elves. I swear by the gods, they act all high and mighty, but leave them out in the wilderness and they turn into savages just like anybody else would.’
We all turned and shot him the driest look that we could collectively muster.
***
‘We’re here.’
We had been slowing the boat on the captain’s orders for a little while now. I could still make out the sun, but things were darker than ever. The trees out here were thin but in abundance, working together to block the light from finding us.
This would be a terrible place to die.
The water had become shallower, the ground beneath caked with mud; I knew because we hit it five yards from the shoreline.
‘I’m afraid that I cannot get you any closer.’
I made payment to the captain, and the four of us stood on the edge of the boat, looking into the darkened swamps of the Black Patch.
Right where we had stopped I could make out a gap in the trees and a small path.
‘Do you know if there’s anybody else out there?’ I asked the captain.
‘I have occasionally brought members of a small organisation out here. They are researchers attempting to find a rare plant. There are also smugglers who once used the land out there for storing produce. The river used to move beyond here, but after that storm a few months ago this section became even worse. Almost impossible to get through now. Only the gods know what is out there.’
‘I thought you said you would risk your life for riches.’
‘I will, but even I am not stupid enough to go in there, and I’m shot at on a reasonably regular basis. Those researchers I told you about? I have never seen any of them since dropping them here.’
‘Maybe I’d be insulted by the word stupid, but you might be right. Can you pick us up?’
‘When?’
‘Say, dusk?’
‘Agreed. Just don’t be late. I don’t sail the rivers after dark.’
‘Deal. I’ll pay you the fee when we next meet.’
‘If we next meet.’
I shot him a look.
We had around seven or eight hours by my best guess to find the Mossley, recover the Old Molly and any other riches we could get our hands on, and get back to shore.
