by Guy Antibes
“Not at all. I am always learning. I think tonight I will learn about Boxwood’s drinking establishments.”
“Well said,” Oscar said, putting on his coat. “I am to leave this tray outside my door.”
Jack decided to grab his Masukaian sword, wand, and a few throwing stars and joined the pair at the stableyard gate.
“I’m not carrying any kind of weapon, so I will rely on both of you to protect me,” Oscar said, lifting his chin in the air just a little.
“Gladly,” Lorton said. “They were beginning to talk about the ball.”
“Ah,” Oscar nodded his head knowingly. “The Lady Kanlinn can get rather excited about such things.”
“I’m not sorry we missed the excitement,” Jack said.
The three of them laughed. Lorton asked for a few directions, and soon they found themselves in the Pensive Monk. It wasn’t as exalted as the inn, but the establishment easily beat the two pubs in Raker Falls. Jack looked around at the clientele that seemed to be men who worked with their minds rather than their hands, with a few working-class types sprinkled around. At least that was how everyone dressed.
“A young lord out with his servants?” the serving maid said as she greeted them.
“You might say that,” Lorton said, “or you might not.” He gave the woman a smile. “We have never been to Boxwood before. What is the best ale?”
“Pinewood Light,” she said without hesitation. “It isn’t our most potent brew, but it is our most popular.”
“Pinewood Light it is,” Lorton said. He turned to Jack. “If that is acceptable to you, my lord.”
Jack shook his head. “No lords tonight. I’m just Jack.”
“Very well, Jack,” Lorton emphasized Jack’s name, “Shall we order something to go along with the drinks.”
Jack turned to the server. “Another recommendation?”
“You have had your dinner?” she asked.
Oscar made a face but nodded. “Yes.”
“We have deep-fried noodles served with a savory dipping sauce. It’s quite popular too.”
“Then a serving. If we like it, we will order more,” Lorton said.
Jack had to admit, he was a little uncomfortable drinking with two men he hadn’t imbibed with before. He reminded himself that everything was a learning experience, and on this trip, he would be learning a lot of things he hadn’t known before.
“Where are you originally from?” Jack asked Oscar.
“Me? I hail from a town in the middle of Corand. I sought out my fortune in Dorkansee shortly after my parents died in an epidemic. I was about your age, Lord Jack, at the time. I bounced around doing odd jobs in the Fourth Ring and found a spot at a jewelry shop polishing the merchandise. The lady who owned the place taught me manners and how to speak with customers. A prominent lady had chanced in the shop, slumming I suppose, and her references increased the custom enough to justify moving to the First Ring. I served Lady Kanlinn as a customer when she was first setting up her household, and she asked if I would like to join her staff.” Oscar shrugged. “The lady who owned the shop had died a few years earlier, and her younger cousin took over. It wasn’t a hard decision.”
“You had to learn how to conduct yourself as a butler?”
Oscar smiled as the ale was served. His story paused while each of them took a drink and tasted the fried noodles. They were stiff, and Jack liked the savory sauce quite a bit. They ordered more before the butler continued.
“Lady Kanlinn taught me a bit, but I learned most of my craft when she brought in a retired butler friend of hers just released from service. And here I am. What about you two? All I know is that you are a policeman with a noble background and Jack is a noble with an adventurer’s background.
Lorton took a drink. “We all have our pasts, so I won’t bore you with mine. I joined the police as a wizard but soon found that I enjoyed investigations more. I work with Willet Barton often enough, I’m sure you know who he is, Oscar.”
“I do,” the butler said.
“I have met Lin before on a few Barton-directed investigations. I met Penny Ephram when Gary Green suggested I help her learn to throw a knife with magic. She should have learned how from you, Jack.”
“I’ve taught her enough things,” Jack said.
“I’m sure you have.” Lorton smiled. “I was chosen for this because I know most of our fellow players and have an investigative background. Lin can charm anyone into submission, but she doesn’t know how to strategize as well as I do.”
“You think,” Oscar said.
“That is what Lin told me,” Lorton said, “and I am going with that.”
“Drink up,” the butler smiled and took a long draft of his ale. “This is rather good. Wheat-based, don’t you think?”
Lorton nodded.
“All I know is that it is more potent than it looks,” Jack said. “I think the light is meant only for the color and not the content.”
Both men smiled and took another swig.
“I think we will be testing that quality out for the rest of the night,” Lorton said. “Lin doesn’t require us until tomorrow afternoon.”
Oscar looked at Jack. “I didn’t hear from you. I suppose Lorton knows all your stories.”
“Not my Tesorian tale,” Jack said. He had left his black bracers in his room, but Eldora’s box always hung at his throat. “Let me tell you how I wooed and lost a princess…”
By the time Jack told of taking the woman who would be Fasher’s wife north to Corand, he hoped he still made sense. It was time to go. The three of them stood, and then they staggered out the door and down the street. It didn’t take them long to find out they were lost. The sun had set long ago, and Jack’s mind was dull from too much Pinewood Light. He suspected Lorton was the same, and Oscar was snoring as he walked held up by both of them.
“Do you remember the name of the inn?” Lorton asked.
Jack shook his head. “Penny is the one with the memory.”
They wandered around the city, but even through his alcoholic haze, Jack could tell they weren’t shambling through the better part of Boxwood.
“A drunken lord with his two lackeys?” a voice said in the darkness.
Jack shook his head and took a few deep breaths. He couldn’t defend his companions unless he thought harder. Lorton drew his sword too quickly, and it slipped from his grip and clattered on the cobbles.
“Whoops,” he said. Lorton bumped into Oscar, and the pair of them hit a wall and slid down. “Go get ‘em, boy. They are all yours,” he slurred.
Lorton must be worse off than Jack thought. He struggled with what to do and spoke out loud, “CLEAN!” He willed the drunkenness out of his system, Masukaian style.
“Are you insulting me?” the voice said.
Jack had to shake a few cobwebs out of his head, but he was alert enough. He slipped the Masukaian blade out of its sheath and bent down for his wand. “Do you want to be insulted?” Jack said.
“Spoken like a noble upstart.”
“Do you know what kind of sword this is?” Jack asked.
“One that isn’t good enough to defeat us. I know that for sure.”
“Let’s find out. I will warn you that I am a wizard, as well.”
Jack pushed a tiny wizard bolt through the wand and let it sizzle at the thief’s feet. “Perhaps a little light?” Jack illuminated the lane to find eight men with various weapons in various stages of disrepair.
The men laughed. “Are you up to fighting all of us?” the leader said.
“If I must. I really don’t want to hurt you. I’m only in town for a few days, after all,” Jack said.
“That sword of yours looks very expensive,” the leader said as he took a step closer.
“It is priceless if you must know. Its brothers and sisters are made for an elite group of Masukaian warriors.”
“Something daddy bought you,” the man chuckled, “I like that.”
One of his me
n gave him a shield, and the man began to advance.
“You really think that shield will help you?” Jack invoked the void and sent a bolt at the shield, but he guided it around the shield and struck the man in his chest. The leader collapsed to the ground. He returned to normal speed.
“Take him away before I decide to fight,” Jack said. “Do you really want to die tonight like he did?”
The men looked at each other and slipped into the darkness, dragging the body of their former leader after them. Jack sent wizard lights around the area to make sure they really had disappeared.
His stomach began to convulse until Jack sought the shelter of an alley and lost quite a bit of Pinewood Light. The clean spell cleared his mind, but not his body, and he paid the price. He shook Lorton awake, and they eventually made their way to the inn without another confrontation.
Jack tucked Lorton in Oscar’s room since it was just off the stable at ground level. He trudged upstairs in the mostly silent inn and cleaned his clothes before he collapsed on his bed.
After missing breakfast, Jack made it down to the dining room. Lorton gazed at his breakfast. He might have felt worse than Jack.
“Is Oscar fine?”
Lorton looked up with bloodshot eyes.
“Worse than me,” Lorton said. “Pinewood Light packs a punch.” He smiled. “Did I dream something, or were we mugged last night on the way home?”
“We were,” Jack said. He told Lorton the entire story. “They weren’t very smart thugs. None of them approached Oscar or you to stop me from threatening them, and they didn’t rush me in a group. Had they been smarter, we might not be sitting here this morning.”
“That was quite a risk. We could have given them everything we had.”
Jack shook his head. “No. I can replace the money in my purse, but my sword is too valuable. I had to fight.” Jack didn’t want to tell Lorton that he might have killed them all if he had remained in the void. The thugs were spread out, and that would have made Jack’s job easier.
“I am appreciative, to say the least. I’ve been pretty hard on you all this time,” Lorton said. He thrust out his hand. “When I drink with someone and fight with someone, they become a friend.”
Jack shook Lorton’s hand. “You’ve always been a friend to me,” Jack said.
Lorton winked at Jack. “You shouldn’t be so charitable. Friends can easily betray.”
“I don’t expect you to, Lord Lorton and police officer Reedbrook.”
“It’s better to call me Lieutenant Reedbrook. That person is more honorable than Lord Lorton.”
Jack smiled. “Then it is Lieutenant Reedbrook.”
Lorton sighed. “Now I have to put this stuff in my stomach. Does that spell eliminate hangovers?”
Frowning, Jack shook his head. “I had an accident just after our unfortunate encounter. I learned that spell cleaned out my mind, but not my body.”
That made Lorton laugh. “Wizardry does not solve everything.”
“But it saved us last night,” Jack said with a grin.
“Indeed, it did.”
~
Jack endured an afternoon of shopping with four women. Sera came along to help Lin, Penny, and Dee try on shoes and dresses. He had thought that Lin had brought enough for her trip to Bristone, but he was obviously mistaken. He had to sit there and answer inane questions the women asked him about their frocks. Lorton was able to walk outside from time to time. Jack looked out the many-paned window to see him sitting on a bench outside. There were definite advantages to being a bodyguard rather than a male pet.
The agony of the afternoon finally ended. Dee had other commitments in the evening, a gentleman was involved, she excitedly told Penny, but Jack caught her eyes washing him with a quick glance. The girl wasn’t ready to settle down, that was for sure.
He decided to sit in the lobby all by himself and do some people watching, but Dee returned to the inn. Her eyes flashed when she saw him.
“Would you like to treat me to dinner tonight?” she asked.
“What of your male friend?”
Dee scrunched up her face. “Oh him,” she batted her hand as if pushing her would-be escort away. “I want to get to know you better.”
“I’m taken,” Jack said matter-of-factly. “Penny and I have an understanding.” He spoke out of turn, but he didn’t want to have anything to do with Deera of the roving eye.
“Understandings aren’t commitments. I can show you a much better time than Penny. She’s a bit boring.”
Jack laughed. “A girl with white hair is boring? You spent two years with her, yet you don’t know her at all. You are a pretty girl, Deera, but I’m not interested.”
The young woman pursed her lips. “You can keep our little conversation private?”
Jack shrugged. It was the only answer Deera would get from him.
“Good. I will see you at the ball. Save a dance for me, an old friend of Penny’s.” She smiled, but it didn’t make her look more attractive to Jack, and left.
“What was that all about?” Penny said, immediately stepping into the lobby. “Don’t tell me, I heard everything.” She smiled brightly. “So, we have an understanding?”
“I didn’t tell her what we understand,” Jack said.
“But you implied—”
“Implying and telling the truth may sometimes be different. I also shrugged when she asked me not to tell anyone. I didn’t commit to anything, but since you were listening in, I can shrug all I want knowing I didn’t tell her secret.”
Penny sat down next to him and took his hand. “We have an understanding to have an understanding?” Penny said.
“I’m good with that,” Jack said.
“Lorton said some nice things about you to Lin. I thought he didn’t like you.”
Jack smirked. “His gruffness hides a lot of love,” he said.
“I don’t believe that, but Lin said he was genuine.”
“We went out drinking last night, and I was able to perform a noble deed.”
Penny smiled. “Your first?”
“As a noble, yes. I was the least drunk of the three of us.”
“Three? Was Deera involved?”
“Lorton and Oscar were with me.”
“Oscar. That was nice to include him.”
“It was Lorton’s idea. We were about to be mugged, and I was able to fend the dastardly thieves off.”
Penny sighed. “How many were killed? Should I expect the constables or police or guards or whatever they call the law in this town?”
“Only one. The leader thought he was protected by a shield. One demonstration was enough for them. We made it back without incident.” Jack didn’t tell her about his alley decorations. “They have a very good ale in this town called Pinewood Light.”
Penny’s eyes grew. “Dee has told us about that. It is very, very, strong.”
“It is indeed. Getting home wasn’t an easy task, but we made it.”
Penny frowned. “And we had to put the two of you through an afternoon of shopping? Were you bored?”
Jack laughed. “Of course I was, but as the male pet, I was stroked from time to time and behaved. I didn’t complain, did I?”
“You looked uncomfortable most of the time.”
Jack just smiled. “Did you buy a nice dress?”
Penny sighed. “I don’t need another dress, but I have my part to play, as well. Sera was able to get something nice. Deera invited her to accompany us to the ball. It’s for everyone in town.”
Jack was happy to hear that Penny had a bit of common sense about not needing to buy dress after dress. Sera deserved a social event before heading into Antibeaux. Her role might not include anything as fun as a ball would be to a young woman, Jack thought.
“Promise me you won’t wear a sword to the ball,” Penny said. “I had a bad experience once.”
“I don’t have to wear a sword,” Jack said. “I’m not going to ask you to not wear a few knives
about your person.”
“I wouldn’t obey,” Penny said.
“So you won’t obey me, but you want me to obey you?”
Penny sighed. “It wasn’t an order.”
“Well, as long as it isn’t an order, I won’t wear my sword. I will take a healing rod and an energy rod, and I won’t wear my bracers. Will that be okay?”
She squeezed his hand. “It is more than okay,” Penny said.
Chapter Nine
~
O scar accompanied Jack around the Boxwood city center.
“Anything you want to see?” Jack asked.
“Perhaps a jewelry shop? I have an abiding interest.”
Jack smiled. “Of course.”
They walked around the city center and found three shops. Only one carried any jewelry of interest to Oscar.
“Where is this piece from?” Oscar asked the woman behind the counter. An expensive glass top showed the jewelry below.
“This is a fine example of Antibeaux ornaments. Few of them are permitted to leave the country. It is beautiful, is it not?”
“It is certainly unique. I’ve not seen the like,” Oscar said. “They don’t get all the way to Dorkansee?”
The woman giggled and spoke quietly. “These are stolen. This is the last one of four that I acquired. The shop owner imported them expressly for the ball tonight.”
“How much?” Jack asked.
The woman gave a price, but Jack was able to drive it down to half of that.
Jack dangled it as the woman found a box.
“Don’t show it to anyone,” the woman said. “If you see a person from Antibeaux, they might get angry.”
“Where were these stolen from?”
The woman just pursed her lips and scrunched her shoulders. She wrapped the piece up in its box, and the two of them left.
“I’ll let Penny wear this. Do you want it after we return to Dorkansee?”
“You would spend that much for me?”
“Let us make the offer conditional,” Jack said. “We might find the style a common one in Antibeaux.”
