by Kody Boye
“Either way, you can pass over the items and we can end this transaction. I’m busy enough as it is without insubordinates littering about.”
Carmen had half the urge to kick the woman, but refrained from doing so and instead unhooked the purse containing the diamonds from her belt. She passed them over, turned, and was about to leave before a hand pressed to her shoulder.
“Come with me,” Cecilia said, the tone in her voice completely devoid of the condescending snarl that had inhabited it previously.
Though not particularly wanting to go with the woman, Carmen did as asked and followed her down a hall and into an office that contained a simple desk and number of cabinets along the walls. Once the door was closed and locked, the woman turned, made her way to the wooden desk, and deposited atop it the diamonds that the merchant in Ehknac had asked Carmen to ferry.
“These are the real thing?” Cecilia Winterburgh asked, taking a magnification glass and lifting one of the stones to her face.
“I have the certificate of authenticity right here,” Carmen said, withdrawing it from another pouch at her side.
Cecilia immediately snatched it up, tore it open, and giggled with glee as she looked upon its surface. “You’ll have to excuse my earlier behavior,” the woman said, looking up at Carmen with a completely different demeanor than she’d had upon their initial meeting. “I’ve been dealing with insubordinates all day and they’ve been driving me up the wall. I thought I’d never get these.”
“Well,” Carmen said, “I’m glad you did.” She turned and started toward the door. “I’ll leave you be, then. Thank you for your time.”
“Wait!” the woman cried, rounding the desk and blocking Carmen’s escape. “If you’re not a courier, then… why are you delivering items to the Merchant’s Guild? Especially from a guildmaster?”
So he was a guildmaster, Carmen thought, but only shrugged as the woman’s lips turned down in a frown. She waited a moment to see if Cecilia would allow her passage, and when she didn’t, Carmen sighed and simply said, “It was a favor for someone who helped me out.”
“At least tell me your name so I can properly thank you, Miss…”
“Delarosa,” Carmen said. “Carmen Delarosa.”
The woman’s eyes widened. “Thu-thu-The,” she began, “druh-drake slayer?”
Carmen nodded.
The woman took her in her arms and shook, her entire body vibrating with emotion. “Dear God, girl,” she whispered. “You only just came of age and already you’re doing something incredible.”
“What have you heard?” Carmen asked. “Especially so far out?”
“That a young carpentress declared herself to the military and then went out in search of the monster, only to return victorious with its teeth in her bag and blood on her mace. Why, it’s all anyone can really talk about, think about, sing about.”
“Sing?”
“Linda, the bard at the local tavern, has penned a glorious song about your triumph. It really is quite brilliant. And she isn’t one of those bards who have a bad voice and can hardly carry a tune. Her voice is gorgeous, child. You really should introduce yourself to her before you leave for the capital.”
“I’ll be sure to do that,” Carmen said, reaching for the doorknob. “Thank you for your time.”
“No. It should be me thanking you.” The woman paused as she noted Carmen trying to leave, then squeezed her upper arms. “Wait here,” she said.
Carmen turned and watched as Cecilia made her way to a vault inlaid within the wall at the far side of the room. After spinning its dial and then releasing from her belt a key, she opened it and withdrew a satchel of coin, which she then shifted through before stepping forward. “For you,” she said. “For making me rich.”
The Dwarven woman deposited five gold coins in her hand.
“Guh-Gold?” Carmen stammered, looking down at the money in her palm.
“Diamonds are worth ten times that a piece, dear child. I could give you more, if you like? If that isn’t to your liking?”
“No, no. It’s not that. It’s just…” Carmen paused. “I wasn’t expecting to get paid for this delivery.”
“Ardemiss never offered you coin in exchange?” Cecilia frowned.
Carmen shook her head.
“Cheap bastard,” the woman continued. “Always thinking he can dupe a woman into paying for something a man should more than willingly provide himself. Either way, it doesn’t matter. You’ve made me incredibly rich, and the debt between the two of us has finally been settled.”
“If you need anything further,” Carmen said, “please, don’t hesitate to find me at the inn. I’ll be there for the night before my troop and I leave for the capital tomorrow morning.”
“I couldn’t possibly ask anything more than what you’ve already provided me,” Cecilia replied. “Thank you, Carmen Delarosa, for not only bringing me my much-awaited fortune, but for clearing the trade routes from here to Ironmend and Ehknac. You don’t know how much that means to me.”
Carmen looked down at the coin in her hand.
It wasn’t often one came across gold, especially when they weren’t of nobility.
That alone spoke volumes of her thanks.
- - -
Carmen returned to the inn after meeting with the guild master, settled down at the table alongside her companions, and ordered a healthy serving of meat and a glass of steaming chocolate with mint sprinkled on top.
“You’re in a good mood,” Lindsey mused.
“I just finished the extra business I had while I was here,” Carmen said. “And am now a bit richer as a result.”
“It’s hard to come across good jobs these days,” Barris agreed. “Especially if you’re carrying goods.”
“Is that why Ardemiss was keeping you so long?” Timon frowned. “Because he was arranging a delivery to the Merchant’s Guild of Xandau?”
Carmen nodded and took a sip of her chocolate, sighing as it the milky substance slid down her throat and coated her belly with warmth. “I figured I owed him for helping me get to the drake,” Carmen replied. “And though I did bring him one of its teeth, I thought it would be best to stay on his good side, considering how much equipment he gave me.”
“Those utility bucklers aren’t cheap,” Timon agreed, taking a bite out of his loaf of bread.
Carmen salivated over her meal and leaned forward to begin cutting her pork from the bone. Bathed in delicious sauces, she ate with abandon she felt herself incapable of considering how little they’d been eating on the road, downing helpings of the meat with a side of the hot chocolate.
When finally her meal was finished and Carmen was stuffed, she sighed, leaned back in her seat, and placed a hand over her belly. “Have you already paid for our rooms?” Carmen asked.
“Not yet,” Lindsey said.
“You forgot to hand off your declaration,” Arrick said.
“Shit. I’m sorry,” Carmen said, scooting he chair back. “I’ll do it right now.”
“We’re in no rush to bed down for the night, lass. Sit. Drink. Enjoy the time you have to relax before we’re off on our next adventure.”
“I can’t believe it’s almost over,” Carmen said. “Our time together, I mean.”
“Good company is hard to come by,” Barris agreed.
“Besides,” Timon said. “I hardly doubt this’ll be the last time we’re together.”
Whether he meant to sound pessimistic or not Carmen couldn’t be sure. But rather than dwell on it, she simply leaned forward, took her cup of chocolate in hand, and drank.
Its sugary sweetness was bliss.
The bard—who had remained in the far corner of the room—rose from her place in her stool and came froward to clear her voice. “I know we have a special guest here tonight,” the woman said, turning her eyes on Carmen and offering a small smile. “I spotted her the moment she walked in. I mean… how could you not know the Drake Slayer of Ehknac when you see her?”
>
Every eye in the room turned on Carmen.
Lowering her drink, Carmen reached up to pad her mouth with a cloth and gave the bard a small smile. “Thank you,” she said.
“My name is Linda,” the bard said. “And if you would be willing, I’d like to sing the song I’ve penned about you.”
“I would be honored,” Carmen replied.
Nodding, the woman retreated to the far edge of the room—where, upon a stone stage, she cleared her throat, reached up to rub the outside her esophagus, then closed her eyes.
She doesn’t want to face me, Carmen thought, frowning as the woman hummed to clear her voice. Is she really that afraid?
Who wouldn’t be, Carmen wondered, when in the presence of a hero?
With that said, the woman cleared her throat and began to sing.
“Carmen, oh Carmen, oh Delarosa,
“Daughter of Brutus and Madeline,
“Born in a city where very few sleep
“But rose from the ashes of the phoenix’s keep.
“She ran through the fire with her mace drawn,
“And slayed, in the darkness, the one who did wrong.
“Oh Carmen, oh Carmen, oh Delarosa,
“She walked through the fires and out she had won.
“Through flames and fury and those that did wrong.
“Inspired the people with her very song.
“Through life, and through honor she avenged those fallen,
“And sent back to darkness the one who had wronged.”
The crowd burst into applause.
The bard opened her eyes.
Carmen lifted a hand and beckoned her forward.
It wasn’t long after that the bard collapsed into her arms—sobbing, likely, from the emotion of it all.
“Thank you,” Carmen said, slipping one of the gold coins into the bard’s hand.
The woman looked down, paled, then raised her face to Carmen in question. Carmen only nodded and reached down to close her fist over the coin.
“Thank you,” Linda said. “So much.”
“You’ll go far someday,” Carmen replied. “Thank you for your beautiful song. And thank you for spreading word of my heroism.”
“It is my honor.”
The woman bowed her head and clasped her hand to her breast.
As if knowing this would happen, the rest of the room did the same.
Her impact, this reaction—this was why Carmen had done this; and why, she now knew, she was journeying to Dorenborough.
The people needed her.
She would not deny them her arms.
- - -
“What did you have to take to the Merchant’s Guild?” Lindsey asked.
Carmen looked up from where she was untying her shoes and frowned. “Sorry?” she asked.
“What you took to the Merchant’s Guild,” the other woman repeated. “What was it?”
Carmen swallowed. “I didn’t mention it before, did I?”
“No. You didn’t.”
Sighing, Carmen drew her shoes from her feet before reaching up to undo the clasps on her leather chestpiece. “The man who supplied me to go into the mines,” she said, “he… wanted me to deliver some valuable objects to the guild master here in Xandau.”
“Which were?”
“Diamonds,” Carmen said, feeling the grimace as it spread across her cheeks.
Lindsey sighed and ran a hand through her short blonde hair. “I really don’t blame you for mentioning it,” the woman said, “but you should have at least said something to me. We could’ve been attacked because of what you were carrying.”
“They were in a pouch,” Carmen replied. “Nobody would’ve known they were there. You wouldn’t even know if I hadn’t have told you.”
“Some mages are capable of sensing precious stones through scrying,” Lindsey said, settling down atop her bed. “That’s how the king is able to locate such large troves of them within the mines. He takes mages, trains them as geologists, then uses their scrying abilities and supplies them with the tools they need to recover the gems once they’ve been uncovered.”
“So you’re saying my diamonds—”
“Were a giant target on your back,” Lindsey said, nodding. “Yes, Carmen. They were.”
Sighing, Carmen tossed the chestpiece to the floor and spread out along the bed, thankful that the mattress was at least decent and adjusted comfortably to her weight. “There’s so much I don’t know,” she sighed, drawing a blanket close to her breast.
“There’s no reason to blame yourself,” Lindsey said. “Just… in the future, you might want to have a confidant. Especially if you’re carrying such valuable cargo. I’d be surprised if someone wasn’t already following us.”
“But the gems are gone,” Carmen said. “They shouldn’t be able to follow us now… should they?”
“No. Unless they happened to see your face while scrying. You weren’t… playing with any of the gems while we were traveling, were you?”
“No. Why?”
“Because sometimes people’s faces or hands can be seen when scrying for particular objects,” Lindsey said, then sighed, nodding as the truth came out and the realization was made clear. “If you didn’t have them out of the pouch, then the only thing they should’ve seen was the pouch itself, maybe even the inside of it. We should be fine.”
“Should being the key word here.”
Lindsey frowned. “Everything’s going to be all right, Carmen. Though bandits wander the roads between Xandau and Dorenborough, I highly doubt they’d be so brazen to attack us now that the diamonds are nowhere to be seen.”
Sadly, Carmen had learned that doubt could play a huge roll in the way things turned out.
If doubt existed, chance followed with it.
- - -
The final leg of their journey began at dawn the next morning, when they rose from their beds, dressed, ate, and began to make their way from the fortress and into the darkness of the Northern Roads.
“This will undoubtedly be the most dangerous leg of our journey,” Arrick said. “Bandits are known to haunt these roads.”
Though it was obvious from the cobblestone roads that this was a path often traveled, there was no way of knowing whether or not they were near a patrol. Considering these men and women rode their boars up and down the road for a living, it was likely they would eventually come upon them, but when or if that would happen was up for debate.
Regardless, Carmen couldn’t concern herself with it. As five well-armed and trained people, they were more than capable of taking care of themselves. What Carmen worried about more than anything was mages.
Raining fire from the sky, she thought, or rending bones with earth.
She knew naught of the Dwarves and the magical numbers within their midst, though she was aware that it was a rare art that many were not gifted to have. Even rarer were those who could use it appropriately. To find one of these men or women out here, in the wilds, when they could easily be bathed in the lap of luxury within the king’s court, was highly unlikely, but with the possibility still there, Carmen couldn’t help but be anxious.
“We’ll be fine,” she mumbled beneath her breath. “We can handle ourselves.”
“Damn right we can,” Barris said, readjusting his hold on the sunstone staff. “We’ve fought Skitters, braved the mines. You’ve killed a drake. What could possibly stop us?”
“A mage,” Carmen said.
No one replied.
In the silence that followed, Carmen shuffled forward, reached down to take hold of her mace, and sighed as its cold iron cooled her hot skin.
Surely there wasn’t anything to worry about. She’d deposited the diamonds—had left them long abandoned within the hands of another woman within a heavily-guarded complex. To think that anyone would swoop in now and try to hurt them was absolutely—
Carmen stopped.
The idea, so chilling in its ferocity, slammed into her with enough f
orce to push the breath from her lungs.
Her mace was studded with sapphires.
If they were to scry any stone—if they were to find anything upon their persons—then surely it would be—
She didn’t have time to finish.
A bolt flew forward and struck Barris in the shoulder—knocking both him, and his sunstone staff, to the ground.
“BANDITS!” Timon screamed.
“SHIELDS UP!” Carmen cried, drawing her mace and lifting her buckler as she felt another bolt fire past her head. She took off into a run and began to move in unpredictable patterns, zig-zagging, twisting, dodging and spinning. The light from her glow worm erupted into life as she ran her buckler hand across its surface and brought into view the man wielding the crossbow.
She jumped.
They collided.
They fell.
When they landed on the hard cobblestone ground, she thrust her buckler into his face, then reared her mace back and began to bludgeon his nose with it. The fragile bones visible beneath his helmet cracked under her assault easily enough, and soon, he was dead.
But there was more than just one.
An overhead swing from a longsword would’ve taken Carmen’s head off had she not rolled to the side. Instead, it severed his once-companion’s arm and sent blood sailing over the road.
Carmen slipped, fell, landed on her knee, screamed as the jarring impact shot pain through her leg.
Timon appeared out of nowhere and slammed his poleaxe into her attacker’s chest. His patchwork armor buckled easily under its assault and instantly killed him.
A third attacker—this one a woman—came forward and tried to sweep Carmen with a double-handed club, but was stopped as Arrick blocked the attack with his hammer and knocked her back a few steps. She screamed, ran forward, slammed into his body, and tried to strong-arm him aside. It was obvious she was far stronger than the aged man, and as such, she was able to overpower him and drive him to the ground. She slung her hammer over her head and had just started to bring it down when Lindsey tossed her shield at her head, immediately knocking the woman offguard.
Barris lunged with his sword and staff, clipping her along the head and then slashing a gash down her arm.
