Her outline in the light was tall with black hair that seemed to sparkle a bit, and she was toned like a dancer. A light melody, playful and building, began from musicians outside the light. It reached a swelling note, and her voice began. A breathy, low, and seductive tone carried over all of us. I couldn’t take my eyes away or pay attention to the world around me.
“A sweet summer breeze brought me to my knees and I saw you…” She turned around slowly, letting the audience catch her made-up face with smokey-looking eyes glancing at each of them in passing. “You lit up my night, made me feel alright—yes it’s… true.”
She began to sway, her arms and body shifting to the beating pulse of the rhythm. As she continued to sing about this mysterious summer lover, the crowd began to clap to the beat as she swayed across the stage. At the conclusion of the song, the lover had gone and so had her will, but then she found her fall knight, and there the song ended.
A small man came on stage as the lights began to brighten slowly. “Ladies and gentlemen, the lovely Pharazulla!”
Now that the harsh lighting wasn’t in her face, I could make some of her features out. Her cheeks were soft and girlish in a pretty way, and her hazel eyes were flashing in the light. Her lips, drawn from smiling, looked a little thin, but her teeth were dazzling, and her skin was oddly pale. I could also make out the small points in her ears. A Half-Elf maybe?
“Thank you, all of you,” she spoke, and her voice was still pretty bewitching. “Your adoration is so wonderful. I would like to thank my wonderful hostess, the lady Governor. May she reign forever!”
The crowd cheered and anyone with a drink near toasted to the statement.
With the show completed, the place began to take on a different air, and the music livened up a bit.
“Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes this evening’s entertainment!” the little man said solemnly. “Please, do feel free to mix about and dance if you should feel so inclined. Lady Pharazulla will be taking interviews shortly after she rests her voice.”
Man. Rich people, huh? I looked around the room and saw that this didn’t upset any of the folks around us in the slightest. That led me to believe this sort of performance was commonplace. Expensive food, drink, and a song by a hot lady?
She seemed to be running quite the racket if this was all her idea.
“Interviews?” Muu asked in a soft voice. We watched as Pharazulla left the stage and went into a small hallway behind it to the left. “We need to see her first.”
Bokaj and I agreed, and as dancers took to the stage area and waiters moved tables to accommodate more—we made our way toward that hall.
“Stop!” The small man who had been on stage waddled toward us. I realized, belatedly, that the man was a Gnome. “That area is off limits until I say so.”
Bokaj turned on the charm with a wink to us as he turned. “Sir, you don’t understand. I’ve come a very long way from the tribes of the north to find my long lost cousin, a half-Elven maiden who sings exactly the way she does. Please, you simply have to let me speak to her.”
Bokaj took a knee in front of the little man and continued before he could interrupt, “I’m the last heir to the chiefdom, and it was my father’s wish that all his kin be brought to him as he lay dying.” Here his eyes began to water. “Please, sir. Please help grant a dying man’s wish.” As he said the last bit, he cupped the gnome’s hands in his, and I heard a discreet tinkle of coins being exchanged. “Please?”
The gnome looked into his hands and jumped at what he saw before clearing his voice a couple of times. “Well… I suppose we cannot keep a dying man waiting, can we? Come along.”
Nicely done, man, I congratulated him mentally.
He threw a grin over his shoulder at me and then looked forward to follow the gnome. He led us down a hallway with one door to our right near the beginning of the hall and then a door at the rear on the left. That was the door we stopped in front of.
The man knocked smartly, then spoke, “Madame Pharazulla, you have a guest who needs to speak to you most urgently regarding a matter of great import.”
“Uh, one moment!” the lady called. “I’ll be right there. I am changing!”
It sounded… off to me at best. As if she were stalling. We heard a series of grunts and thumps a slight whisper that I couldn’t catch the words, then nothing. The looks on my friends’ faces said the same thing, but we couldn’t push into the place without alerting the man with us.
A moment later, a frazzled—but dressed—Pharazulla opened the door and poked her head around. “Ahem. Yes, who may I have the pleasure of addressing so soon after my performance?”
“I am Bokaj, my lady, and it is most important that I speak to you,” my friend said with a slight bow from his waist and a hand over his stomach.
“Forgive me, but I do not know you, sir,” Pharazulla said cautiously.
“You wouldn’t, Lady Pharazulla,” Bokaj said as if his world were crumbling. “That is the very fact I came to remedy. Please, if you would but give me a moment?”
“Fine, stranger, you may join me.” She stepped slowly from the door. “You may go, mister manager. I will see to them quickly. If I need help, I will shout.”
“Quite well.” The gnome eyed us a moment more, then scurried off.
The door opened and allowed the three of us in before shutting swiftly. The room was as long as the hallway and was larger than you would think. It was lavish, smartly decorated with a huge bed in the center.
“Quite impressive—using bribery and charismatic charm against an imbecile like him,” our hostess observed dryly as she moved away from entry area toward the bed. “I felt why you did, though I didn’t hear everything. That and money would be the only things to make the house manager break his own protocol. Why have you come?”
“I need someone to train me to be a Bard,” Bokaj stated flatly, dropping the charade. “You were the only one we could find quickly. From what I could see—and feel—you must be a good one.”
“I am,” she said simply, “and you were right to come and find me, but why do you not have time?”
“We have an urgent quest that will see us leaving town in the morning, just after we get cold weather gear,” Bokaj informed her. “We travel north.”
“Why?” she queried again, her interest seemingly piqued.
“Reasons,” I replied sternly. “You will be paid for your time,” I caught a stray scent and looked just over her shoulder, “protected and safe.”
I sent a telepathic message to Bokaj with our earrings, Hey, bad guy in the back, directly behind her, slightly hidden by the drapes. Has a crossbow.
When you out him, he’s gonna fire, Bokaj warned.
Then you’d better be faster with all that training you do without us, I finished and trusted he would be able to do what I knew he was capable of.
“What makes you think I cannot do that myself?” She arched an eyebrow.
“The man standing behind you by the window with a crossbow aimed at your back for one,” I informed her.
The man panicked and fired off a bolt that hit an opaque burst of energy that appeared around Pharazulla. An arrow struck the man in the chest, then another and another, dropping his health chunk by chunk. Finally, my great axe struck him, and his health completely fell.
The Bard gasped as the weapon turned to lightning and returned to my grasp. Muu, slightly panicked, took a second to collect himself and then sighed in relief.
“How did you…?” she began, but I put out a hand.
“We can protect you,” Bokaj reiterated for me. “Join us, get away from here and whoever is trying to kill you, and we will promise you payment and your life.”
She seemed to think a moment, put her hands to her temples, and sat on the bed.
“What do you say?” Muu offered his hand to her.
“No,” she replied. “I’m sorry, but I cannot go with you. My reasons are my own, but I will not leave. Not right now. You�
��ll have to find someone else.”
The hair on my body stood on end as a wave of whatever it was that Bokaj brought to bare on people when he was trying to convince them to do things rose around us.
“Please, come with us,” he said in a clipped tone.
Pharazulla’s gaze went blank as she stood and began to walk forward toward him. His look of concentration fell and gave way to one of victory.
As soon as she was within reach, her hand snaked out and slapped Bokaj across the cheek smartly. He looked at her in disbelief.
“You will need to be a much stronger person to ever have a hope of charming me, child,” she spat. “Especially as untrained as you are.”
“Come on, B,” I grunted. “Let’s get out of here.”
I tugged on his arm and motioned for Muu to come on too. As we left the room, the Gnome who had brought us back was there with some important-looking folks. When we cleared the building, moat and all, Bokaj stopped in his tracks.
“We need to convince her to come,” he said, temper starting to flare. “We need someone to train me.”
“Yeah, we do,” I agreed but continued, “Somewhere else. She’s not coming, and I’m pretty sure if we tried to make her, the whole city would come down on us. Besides, time is not on our side. We need to get this quest out of the way, and we’re competing with somebody trying to get there before us. We can try and find a Bard elsewhere.”
“She does seem like the kind to try and fuck us,” Muu observed, “and not even in a fun way.”
Despite the tension in our conversation, we found ourselves chuckling.
I looked Bokaj straight in his eyes. “Look, man, this quest could give us an in with the Elementals, and that could be good for us. Plus, there’s a good chance we may have to fight over the target. Good EXP in the meantime, and we find a better trainer. What do you say?”
He mulled it over for a moment, then nodded. “Okay, man. We get our shit and get gone tomorrow morning.”
I clapped him on the shoulder, and we headed back to the inn for the night and some well-needed rest. Maebe spoke through Shadow Speak with me for a while. She hadn’t been able to do anything other than petition Samir for me to be able to return with no response, and she felt I should know. After that, we simply sat in each other’s company for a while until I fell asleep and the spell fizzled.
Chapter Seven
I rose early in the morning and wandered downstairs after packing to enjoy breakfast. As I cleared the stairs and looked to the bar, I found Vrawn wearing a nice lilac dress sitting with Giledt. In the dress, she looked almost dainty. It was a lovely look. She looked to be enjoying the conversation, but when she saw me, her eyes lit up a little.
“Good sir!” she greeted me with a wave. As I walked over, she produced a bundle from her own inventory. “You were in such a hurry last night that you forgot your clothes that we had laundered for you. I recalled you saying that you were leaving this morning, and Remy told me you had been recommended to us by Giledt.”
She smiled at the barkeep who grinned back knowingly. “He’s a friend from another time.”
I took the clothes from her with a grateful smile and put them into my inventory. “Thank you, Vrawn! You’re a lifesaver. And please, call me Zeke. You aren’t at work. I love that color on you—the dress looks great.”
Giledt smiled at me with his usual grin and motioned to the seat beside him. “Care for a seat, friend? Can have the kitchen cook up some chow for you, maybe treat the lovely lady to breakfast in appreciation?”
“You got it, Giledt—you the man.” I grinned at him. I turned back to Vrawn quickly to check, “If that’s okay with you?”
“I would be honored, Zeke.” She spoke my name as if testing it. When I smiled at her, she repeated the gesture. This morning, her hair was swept out of her left eye and behind her pointed ear. Both eyes locked on me. “I know that you said you had enjoyed yourself last evening, but I wanted to be sure that you truly had?”
“Oh, absolutely!” I waved her concerns aside. “I’ve never had a massage like that before. Ever. And you were so nice to me, a complete stranger. I had nothing to complain about, and I wouldn’t ever bad mouth someone who takes care of me like you did. So, thank you very much.”
“It is always my pleasure, good–” I gave her a look with raised eyebrows, and she blushed. “Forgive me, Zeke.”
“Better.” I took a water that Giledt offered us both and listened as my friends noisily made their way downstairs. “Here come my companions. This should be fun. Try not to let them tease too much, and if they bother you, let me know.”
She nodded once, and I turned to face them. “Hey, guys!”
“Yo,” Yohsuke grunted as he plopped down.
“Howdy,” Jaken said. James waved at us and sat beside Yohsuke.
Bokaj plopped down next to Vrawn with an easy grin. “Hello, I’m Bokaj.”
“Vrawn,” she replied and bowed slightly. “It is a pleasure.”
“Where’s Muu?” I asked. Bokaj held up a hand to still us, and then I heard a sudden cry of anger and outrage.
Muu shot out of their room with Tmont barreling closely behind.
“Get the cat!” Muu shouted, much to our amusement and the ire of the hungover patrons around us. “Fuck! Bad kitty! Not the TAIL!” He howled as she gave it one final nip and slinked over to Bokaj’s side.
Muu, wearing only his small pants and breathing heavily, stood staring at Bokaj with near murder in his gaze.
“That’s a very hairy alarm clock,” I observed playfully, “and thank god I don’t need that wake up call.
“I hate it!” he shouted. I noted a few of the mercenaries around us groan. “There’s not even a pun to describe how much I hate cats.”
He stomped back upstairs and slammed the door. Bokaj flipped a gold to Giledt by way of apology, and we were served our food.
Dude, who’s the dress? Bokaj asked.
She’s a worker over at the Steam Palace that I went to last night. She took care of me. As soon as I said it, I blushed furiously.
The boys all went, “Ooooooooooh!” in damned near unison, and poor Vrawn was so confused.
“Nothing to see here. I’m just gonna go die,” I grumbled as I put my head on the bar.
“I would not like that,” Vrawn said, a little distress in her voice. “You were the model customer—better than. Serving you was my deepest pleasure.”
“WOAH!” James hollered. The rest of the peanut gallery gave high fives, and my cheeks should’ve been on fire.
I’ll kill you all! I roared through our earrings, and that just made things worse.
“Thank you, Vrawn,” I said tiredly. “Please, let’s enjoy our meal. Ignore them.”
She laughed, her rumbling giggle catching Giledt’s attention. He smiled and passed me a wink, and I really wanted to just Fireball the whole damned room at that moment.
Zhavron walked down the stairs with a bag and scratched his stomach as he eyed us.
After we ate, we bid Giledt and Vrawn goodbye. I thanked her again for bringing me my clothes. She reached down with her powerful, gentle hands and pulled me into a hug once more.
“Be safe, Zeke,” she whispered in my right ear. I gave her a squeeze around her ribs and looked up to respond but didn’t get the chance.
She ducked her head toward me so quickly that I couldn’t react and pressed her surprisingly soft lips against mine in a chaste kiss. She brought her face from mine, blushing furiously, her cheeks a slight purple color, and she smiled once more. “Good luck.”
Giledt clapped in delight, and even Zhavron grinned. I willed myself to smile back as more color crept into my face. That had been enough to cause all kinds of reactions.
The most obnoxious one being my friends whooping and acting the fool behind me. I waved goodbye, and we shuffled away. I saw Giledt pat a nervous looking Vrawn mid back and give her a thumb up. Zhavron just shook his head and gave me a little push on the shoulder,
jarring me out of my stupor.
“Come on, lover boy,” the grizzled Fighter ordered.
As we stepped into the sunlight of the street and the citizens moved around us, I was a little more conscious of eyes than before. Whether it was the heat, the heat in my face, or the fact that my friends were still dogging on me—I’m not sure.
I endured the jeers and good-natured teasing that lasted until we got to Kitty’s place and we walked in. A frazzled Kitty and her exhausted looking apprentices waited with a simple parcel on the counter.
“Ah, you have returned to Kitty, darling.” Her pipe lit up, and smoke filled the air before her. “Your clothes are ready. Henrique! Gather last year’s winter line of coats.”
One of the male apprentices leaped from his place to comply and brought out a rack on wheels. There were furs, thick jackets, and coats that looked really nice. The simpler ones were still good quality, and after I put a gray cloak with white fur beneath on my shoulders, I knew I had struck gold.
The others gathered appropriate clothing, cloaks, and other needed gear. I even made sure that Zhavron was taken care of. The old Orc picked the simplest looking thing he could find, and I tossed her three gold for our things. The others paid their own fees, and Bokaj tried to hand Kitty some money, but she slapped him again.
“You wear my clothing,” she ordered pointing at the package. “You will find a reason to look superb, and you will wear it. Mention my name. Always. Be gone from me. I must mourn.”
She began to pout dramatically as we left. The apprentices looked pissed, but they had probably gotten some good experience. I hoped. We made our way toward the north gate with Zhavron leading us. The crowds and people looking at us weirdly, but we probably just looked like a bunch of mercenaries on our way to a job.
As we left the gates, after declaring we were leaving to the guards, we heard a familiar voice to our right. I looked over, and Pharazulla sat in the shade of a tree just off the roadway.
Into the Dragon's Den (Axe Druid Book 2) Page 21
