I sighed, “Give me a couple of months here, and I’ll go. Just let me come back for visits.”
“Sure. You’re my champion, Will, you’ll always be welcome here.”
# # # #
I spent another two months in Hiland, it was one of the most enjoyable times I’d ever had. I wished I could have stayed, but I did have to go for a while at least. I did take the time to make the high priestess happy. And of course that made me want to stay even more.
Rachel and I finally said our goodbyes, and I promised her I’d be back.
The trek to the gate I needed wasn’t too far. It took me two days up into the mountains. Once I found it, I could feel that it was what I wanted and I stepped through.
And dammed if I wasn’t in all my gear, riding my horse as well!
“Gonna have to ask how he did that!” I said to myself and looked around. I was deep in the woods, and I took a few minutes to get my bearings. I had a faint feeling to head a certain way so I did. I was pretty sure Fel could still send me directions, but it didn’t feel like him. I rode a couple of hours then came to a road. I made a real good note of where I was, I’d probably want to come back this way. Then I headed west. It was just a guess, but it felt right to me.
It was weird being a human again. The strangest thing was, I’d only been a felinoid for about three months. But it felt like I had been that way forever. I missed the extra hearing and better smell. I think I missed the tail too.
It had been almost a year since I’d been here last. I figured it was around December now; it was cold, and I was just thankful that it wasn’t snowing. Riverhead hadn’t really had any real snows until the end of December last year, so I was hoping I was close. It was still before noon when I’d come through the portal, and a few hours after hitting the road I spied a small village. As I got closer I recognized it as ‘One Last’, and smiled as I realized I was a day’s journey from home. I found the inn I’d visited the last time I was here and tied my horse up out front then grabbing my bundle of bows I went inside.
“Greetings barkeep,” I smiled and walked over to claim a seat at the bar. The inn itself was rather full. I suspect it wasn’t just the lunchtime crowd, there probably wasn’t much to do in this town in the wintertime, and it was later afternoon already.
“What kin I do ye for?” He asked.
“Well, some ale would be nice,” I said flipping him a few pennies, “and a room for the night, a stall for my horse, and food if your wife is still making that fine stew you serve.”
He peered at me a bit closer, and then looked at the coins. I’d used regular pennies from earth, “Well I’ll be! I was wonderin’ what had become of yea. Last time yea left here I was a bit worried as I saw a couple of the local naer’do’wells followin’ yea out of town!”
I nodded and looked around the room, spotting one of them sitting against the wall, I smiled at him and he started to look a bit nervous.
“Yes, I had noticed them too and was trying to decide how best to deal with it when one of the local guards dealt with the matter for me. Course now that I got me a new sword, I doubt I’ll have troubles of that sort anymore.” I turned back to the barkeep, everyone else was staring at the one I’d been looking at while talking. Their looks were less than kind, which made me feel a lot better. I had been afraid that they might side with him.
“Well, yea look like yea’ve come up quite a bit in the world. It’s been well over a year since yea were here last.”
I nodded to him again and took the ale he handed me, taking a long pull off of it. “Year and a half I think, maybe longer? But quite a time it’s been! Got me a wife in Riverhead now, got me a partnership in a nice little business there, and ended up fighting in a war across the sea for a couple of months.”
“Surely yea be pulling me leg!” He laughed, but he refilled my mug and sent a boy out to take care of my horse.
“Hah! Hardly,” I smiled, I knew these people probably were dying for stories and to be honest, I felt like telling one. So I told them mine, or rather a version of mine.
“I managed passage to my homeland working on a ship, was just luck that they were going there, but my luck held and I bought a few bows from a craftsman there, being as he was my cousin I got a rather good price too.
“Well when I got back, one of the city guards took a fancy to my bows and we made a deal. I gave him a good price and he made sure all the nobles saw him using it. Needless to say, I started a nice little business of trading quality bows for cash.”
“This nay explain a wife, or a war though.”
“Yes, well in the course of my trading, I met a rather comely lass, though of a rather poor family. To be honest, at first when I started chasing her, it was just for sport, but she grew on me with time, and well, when she got my child I decided to make an honest woman of her,” I grinned. “Maybe I’m a fool for that, but she sure was making me a happy fool!”
That got a round of laughs and I drank some more ale.
“Anyway, I had become friends with an innkeeper, actually at the inn at which she worked. I had made a nice profit, so I bought a share in the business and went into partnership with the owner. Him and his wife are getting on in years and none of their own children had any interest in the business.”
“Aye, none of me own children have a desire to keep an inn either. I know how it be.”
I nodded, “But I still had another trip to make to keep up my bargain with my cousin. The trip there was no problem, but on the way back we got caught up in a storm and blown waaaay off course,” I said gesturing grandly. “The ship took damage and we had to lay up in a port and there we came across a people involved in a rather nasty war....”
I told the story of the war I’d just fought then, though I toned it down some. It became myself and a logging party from the ship looking for a new mast that had saved Rachel. Rachel became the daughter of the local leader, and not the queen herself. The two warring city-states became warring tribes. And what had just been me became the crew and myself, using our better armor and weapons to help even the score against the tribe that had been continually raiding and attacking the other one.
As stories went, it might not have been the best, but they definitely ate it up.
“So what brings yea here?” The barkeep asked after I’d finally wound down and was eating the warmed stew his wife had brought me.
“On my way home.” I said between bites.
“Didn’t yea ship put in at Riverhead?” He asked.
I suddenly remembered then that Portsmouth and Riverhead were on the same river, and passage between them was faster than riding.
‘You put in at Kingstown’ I heard a whispered laugh in my head.
“We put in at Kingstown, with the war and all the captain got a nice cargo he could sell there. He wasn’t planning on coming back to Riverhead until the spring.”
‘Nice save’ I heard then, with more soft laughter.
“Kingstown? That be quite the trip.”
I nodded, “But I wanted to get home and see my wife and child. And I couldn’t find any ships making the passage I wanted.”
“But why ride four days when yea could have taken the river at Portsmouth for two?”
I looked at him in my best indignant style, “Do you have any idea how much money they charge to bring a horse on those boats? And the stables there, they’re no better than thieves when it comes time to buying horses if you’re going west. They know they have you by the short hairs.”
Everyone laughed at that one.
“For that kind of money, two more days won’t kill me. I may have moved up a little in the world, but I’m not rich!”
That got a few more laughs and a couple of nods.
“By the by, do you have a temple to Aryanna here?”
“Sure do,” and he gave me directions. “I didn’t know foreigners followed her.”
I shrugged, “I can’t tell you much on that, but I feel like she’s always been a f
riend to me, so I pay my respects when I can. Plus my wife is rather devout.”
He nodded at that and I finished my drink and went out the door to find the temple. It didn’t take me long; it was rather small, rather simple. I walked in and made sure the door shut behind me. It was cold outside and I didn’t want to let the meager heat from inside out.
“No, I’m not giving you every coin on me,” I said looking up at the symbol of Aryanna above the altar. “To be honest I’m rather surprised you helped me out there, seeing as I belong to Feliogustus now. But thanks anyway.”
“Excuse me?” A voice came out of the back, and an old man in priestly robes came out of the back.
“Sorry, Parson, was just talking to Aryanna.”
“Really now, son?” He said smiling and looking at me. “Are ye one of her flock then?”
“No, but I consider her to be a friend and she’s been rather helpful.” I pulled out my purse, the one I kept inside my shirt. I had two rolls of dimes in it. I looked around and remembered something Fel had told me, about how the more you spend, the more they can do. I took out one of the rolls and handed it to the priest. “Spend it wisely, Father, I owe your goddess a debt and so you get the benefit.”
He looked at it, and then at the end, then he opened it and poured the coins out into his palm. For a moment I thought he was going to have a heart attack.
“This is silver!”
“Yup, should be fifty pieces. In Riverhead it probably wouldn’t be that big a deal, but here, I suspect it is.” I bowed to the altar, “Have a good day, Parson.”
I heard some laughter in my head and left the parson staring at the coins muttering to himself.
The rest of the evening passed without incident. The room I got at the inn wasn’t much, but it had a door and a lock and I was happy for that. Sometime in the early hours of the morning, well before sunup I awoke to the sounds of someone trying to work the lock. So I quietly got out of bed, got my sword and waited.
After five minutes however I got tired of waiting and pulled the door open and put my sword point against the neck of the person there. Sure enough, my two ‘friends’ from last time were both standing there.
“Sit down, Brad.” I said softly.
“Don’t listen....” the other one started, but I pushed the sword into his neck and he shut up as it cut the skin.
“Sit down Brad,” I said again. “Or your friend here dies.”
Brad sat.
“Now, Brad, what is your weasely little friend’s name?”
“George,” he said nervously.
“Okay, now listen up, Brad. You are going to go wake the parson, you are going to tell him that the man who visited him yesterday wants you to be sent someplace far away from here, where you can learn to do some good for the goddess and her people. Understand?”
He nodded.
“Good, because if I find out you didn’t do it, and aren’t doing it, I’m going to hunt you down and kill you. Now GO!” I ordered.
He got up and he went.
I smiled at George, “The only reason I haven’t killed you yet is I don’t want to be smelling your body laying outside my door. Dead bodies do tend to stink. So give me a good reason why I shouldn’t just kill you?”
He looked rather pale, “Yea would kill me?”
“This ain’t a game, son. Twice now you’ve pretty much thought about doing it to me. As for your former friend Brad there, well from what I saw last time you were the one leading him on. I let him go because he just picked a bad one to follow. Now give an accounting of yourself, it’s your judgment day.”
“Well, I...” he looked panicked, “I ain’t never killed nobody! I ain’t never hurt anyone all that bad!”
I pulled the sword away and sighed. I cleaned the tip off on his shirt, I wasn’t going to get blood on mine. He jumped a little but held still when I told him too.
“What am I going to do with you? I can’t just leave you here; you’ll get into trouble again.”
“What do ye care? Why are ye making it ye business?”
“Would you rather I killed you instead?” I asked pointedly, “‘cause if so, I’ll be happy to oblige you and go back to bed!”
He turned white again and gulped. I went and found some rope and had him turn around. I tied his hands up then had him kneel outside the door. I tied his legs up then.
“I’m going to go back to sleep. You are going to sit here and think about your sins. Now I have a wife and a newborn son waiting for me back home. So if you’re not here when I wake up, and I have to waste time looking for you, and trust me I’m not leaving this town without you, I’ll kill you.”
“Yes, sir,” he nodded.
“Smartest thing you’ve said all night.”
I closed the door, I had looped a piece of the rope under it, of course he couldn’t see that in the dark easily, as it was to his leg and behind him and I’d set him facing away from the door. I watched the rope and counted to a hundred. I got to fifty when the rope started to move. I was about to give it yank when it stopped and I heard him start to softly sob outside the door. I smiled and went to bed.
I woke a few hours later feeling refreshed. George was still there, though he’d managed to fall asleep leaning against the wall. I got my things together then kicked him awake and untied his feet. I led him out to the inn where the innkeeper scowled at George then looked at me.
“Caught him at something did ye?” He asked.
I nodded, “I’ll be taking him with me to Riverhead. A small town like this doesn’t need his kind of trouble. Maybe I can find someone there who’ll make something out of him.”
“What about his friend?”
“I’m letting the parson deal with him. I suspect he’ll know what to do. I believe George here is the real troublemaker.”
The innkeeper nodded and I had my breakfast while I made George kneel.
“Don’t I get to eat?” He asked when I was finished.
“No, you don’t. Now come.”
I dragged him out to the stables. I got my horse ready then I re-did the ropes so his hands were in front of him, and could be held about ten inches apart. Next I made a leash out of the rope and tied it around to that. I let him use the latrine, though I kept the door open and watched him. After that I tied his leash to my saddle ring and rode out of town.
He complained at first, quite a bit. He was hungry, he was tired, and he couldn’t run all the way to Riverhead.
“I once ran for eight hours straight, while carrying someone on my shoulders,” I told him. “No food at all. So I think you can make this little trek quite easily. If not, well I can always drag you. In either case, bitching isn’t going to change anything, so shut up.”
The road there wasn’t bad of course, it was hard because it was mostly frozen now that it was winter, and there were a few muddy spots here and there. But mostly it was level and free of large rocks. Trees lined the sides, bare of their leaves now in the winter. Very picturesque, and quite enjoyable scenery really.
I stopped around noon to rest the horse and let my prisoner have some water. He wanted lunch, but I told him there wasn’t going to be any. I hadn’t even brought food for myself, it was only a ten-hour trip if you didn’t dawdle. I’d have probably been a lot further along if he wasn’t with me, I was very anxious to see Darlene again.
About an hour afterward I turned quickly in my saddle as I heard a twanging noise and everything slowed down just like it had whenever I’d fought before. I ducked down to my horse and saw the arrow move just behind my back as two riders broke from the brush on horseback, swords out. I turned my horse into them while dropping the leash on George then drew my sword, the only problem I was having was my horse was moving as slow as they were so I had to wait for us to close. I dodged another arrow while doing that and then I parried the one on the right, reversed cut hard, and took his head off before he was even halfway past me.
I laid back flat in the saddle and the blade o
f the other one whooshed over me, I then ran him through with my sword and twisted it as I pulled out, leaving him with a handful of guts. I was sure he’d be dead soon as well.
I dove out of the saddle next and hit the ground rolling; as yet another arrow flew and took me in the arm this time. I saw the archer in the woods and came up on her fast, a punch in the face sending her sprawling and laid her out cold. Everything snapped back together in real time then and I turned to look at George who was standing in the road, looking at me with his eyes wide.
“You killed them!” He gasped.
“What, did you think they were going to invite me to share a meal?”
“But the way you moved, it weren’t natural!”
I shook my head and grabbed the girl by the hair and dragged her out into the road where I started to bind her wrists and ankles. “Just because you’ve never seen something, doesn’t mean it’s unnatural. Now gather their horses and if they have any food on them, I’ll give it to you to eat.”
That got him moving rather quickly.
I looked at the arrow sticking out of my right arm. It hurt like hell of course, and it was bleeding. I grabbed the shaft and pulled it out, then put direct pressure on it with my hand as I tried to decide what to do about it. I didn’t have much of a first aid kit, but I did have something I could make a bandage out of, though it would be a pain doing that one handed. I remembered then healing myself on the battlefield during the fight. True I was no longer on that world, but the speed thing had worked, maybe this would as well?
So I thought about healing for a moment and I suddenly felt that warm glow in my hand and the tingling in my arm. Sure enough, when I removed my hand it was healed.
“So I guess my abilities still work, even here,” I mumbled to myself.
George looked at me when he brought the horses up, leading them by the reigns. He looked at the tear in the sleeve of my jacket.
“That ain’t natural either!” He said making a warding sign.
I smiled at him, “It wasn’t as bad as it looked actually, and if you were a better follower to Aryanna, you wouldn’t have to worry about such minor things either.”
Portals of Infinity: Book One: Champion for Hire Page 12
