Death Or Fortune

by James Chesney

  As the four of us exited the temple I looked down the long street in front of us. I could see Pare, running down the street as fast as he could. As I watched I could see another person running this way, no more than a hundred yards away. It wasn't a guard but another halfling. As he skidded to a stop in front of us he had mile wide smile on his face. I asked him what was going on. 'Oh I am pretty sure she is going to kill me, you have to help me. I can't fight a girl.' The still running halfling was getting closer by the moment, she looked like she was near death her face was so red. I wondered how long she had been after Pare. When the halfling stopped she was so out of breath I couldn't understand a word she said. I stood there with my hand on the hilt of my sword. I could hear Hans off to the side of me. As I took a quick look I could see he was asking his god for a favor. When the new halfling started pulling something out of her belt, I did the first thing that came to my mind. I drew my weapon. I think that was what woke up Windfall; he was off in his own world. When I drew my blade he pulled out his right away.

  It was then that she backed away dropping something on the ground. 'I am gonna demand double for this.' she said as she pulled out her own weapon. Pare ran toward the girl yelling for us to stop. That is when Hans took over and put her under. 'I will not have you fools killing each other on these temple grounds.' Pare was bent over her as she laid on the ground. I asked him who she was. 'Her name is Miri, I think she is the bounty hunter Turk hired, guess he forgot to tell her I was ok.' I shook my head and put my sword away. I picked her up and put her over my shoulder. I then told them we would take her to Turks office on the way to see the king. Later that night as I lay in bed with Jasmin I told her about this small part of my day. She could not stop laughing, I don’t understand why but she found it funny. So much so that she had tears rolling down her face. Laughing so hard she began to gasp, I then watched as her body started to heave and shake. The laughter had stopped as she was crying tears of pain. I held her as she sobbed on my now damp shoulder. I could do nothing but ask her what was wrong. She took two deep breaths and told me something that rocked me to my core. 'I am with child!' Once the shock wore off I took her into my arms and kissed her, just once; just one time. It was then that I told her that I have never been so happy in my entire life.

  76. Awake

  The day the dragon came was a strange one. Most people in Arcadia didn't understand it, most never would. Some would say they saw it land on the temple grounds that day when they were nowhere near it. They did not understand what was going on yet they saw it as a good sign. The one person who wanted to see it the most would ask others if they were there, some would lie, some would tell the truth. More than anything Pare wanted to see it, see it up close. He wanted to know if he could see his face in the scales of the silver beast. Yet looking back, Pare would always see it as a special day, even if he didn't get to see the dragon. As the small procession passed through the streets of Arcadia people over looked the halfling, well the one that was walking that is. First the priest, then a paladin, the warrior and a half elf. Pare was between the last two, watching who it was his friend Darmot carried over his shoulder.

  "You are lucky she didn't catch you Pare, she is heavy for a halfling. She might have hurt you pretty good. What did you say her name was?" Darmot shifted the still limp body from one shoulder to the other.

  "Miri, Miri Rivermyst." Pare told him as he shifted from one side of his friend to the other as if he was the one being carried. All the while, he looked at her sleeping face. "Hans, she is going to wake up right? She won't stay like this will she?" The bishop rubbed a hand over his face and told the halfling not to worry. Still, Pare had never seen anyone sleep so long when Hans used his powers on a person. It wasn't a short walk from the temple of Solarth to the office of the royal guard.

  "Darmot is right little thief, had she caught you, she would have shown you a few new ways to feel pain." Pare looked back at the bounty hunter with a questioning look on his face. "Yes, I know who she is. She is very good at bending body parts in surprising ways. Don't let her size fool you, that girl is as strong as an ox and has the temper of a rabid dog. You might want to be far away when she wakes up."

  "It is just a misunderstanding is all. I am sure she will understand." Pare went back to watching the small face slung over his friends back, looking for some kind of sign that she was awake. He started to wonder if she was just faking it until the time was right.

  "Trust me little thief, you better hope she understands." Pare ignored the half elf as much as he could. He had an odd look on his face and his tone was off. Pare might not have been the smartest halfling in the world but he knew there was something very, very wrong with the bounty hunter. The question was on the tip of his tongue when he looked around and saw where they were. As they approached the office of Captain Turk the guard stepped aside and tossed the door open for the group. Pare was in shock, he had not expected that. In fact, this was the first time he could ever remember that happening. Pare watched as Darmot set the halfling down in a chair, her head flopping around like she had no bones in her neck.

  "Turk, I will be back to see you tomorrow but right now we need to see the king. I was hoping you could help us with this one." Darmot said as he pointed to the still sleeping halfling. Pare looked to the captain expecting some kind of argument. Pare then looked back at his friend. He stood upright, almost commanding, this wasn't his friend. This was Lord Kromwell and he had a look on his face that would not be denied. When Pare looked back to the captain he had only waved his hand and nodded his head. "Pare, stay here until this is straightened out. I will see you at home." Pare said nothing, he only stood there watching. Three of the men filed out of the room, the fourth, Hans bent over the halfling as he laid a single hand on her head. After which, he joined the rest of them outside. Pare watched as she started to return to life. Pare watched as her green eyes scanned the room, first looking at the human then to Pare.

  "Captain Turk?" she said with an uneven voice.

  "Miss Rivermyst, I am sorry. I thought you had received word that our Demon problem had been resolved. If you will, please see my assistant outside, I will make sure you are compensated for your time. If you have nothing else." The female halfling was still confused; she said nothing and just looked on.

  "Geesh Turk, you have an assistant? I never knew that." Pare looked at the older man with one eyebrow arched high above his eye. He said nothing in return, only looking at the halfling. "Where is he at? I'd like to meet him, the only person outside is the guard, who I happen to approve of, he knew who we were. He didn't give us any problems at all. Most of the others ones, we have to fight and claw just to get in the door. Really, this one is a huge improvement. You should give him a raise or maybe promote him. To head door man, I am sure he would love it."

  "Pare" Turk said at long last. "Pay the woman whatever she needs and then give her twice what she asks for. This is not a request." Pare was in shock.

  "But...Turk!"

  "Say one more word and I will make you regret it. This is your mess, it is time you clean it up."

  "But..." he said in a small sad voice.

  "GO!" he roared at the halfling. Pare jumped a bit off the floor just before he turned and headed out the door. "IF I so much as hear your name in this office again for a month I will have you arrested." Turk then turned to the second halfling in the room and smiled. "He has access to more money than you think. Have a good day, I will send word if I need you again." Miri knew that she was being dismissed and was smart enough not to try to argue with the man. While she had never broken the law herself, she had to keep good relations with the local powers. They sometimes frowned on the things she had to do in order to find a target. As she stood outside the closed door she took one look at the guard and then one look at the smiling face of Pare.

  "Boy, that Turk is something else..." Pare wasn't able to finish his thought let alone the sentence. A small but hard fist hammered into his face, stars filled his e
yes as he looked up at the coming winter sky. Before his vision cleared Miri was helping him to his feet.

  "That is for making me run so far, those men at the temple, who were they?"

  "Owww!" Pare moaned as he rubbed a small hand over his cheek. "You didn't have to do that, that really hurt!" Miri looked on as his child like eyes started to well up, she suddenly felt as if she had done something very, very wrong.

  "Look I am sorry, I tend to over react at times. Can we get moving though, I want to find an inn before it is completely dark." Miri thought about putting a hand out to comfort the smaller halfling, wondering just how old the trouble maker was. His small brown eyes were so smooth, he looked very young as Halflings go. "Really, I am sorry. Please!"

  "Sure!" Pare piped up as the mask of pain and suffering slipped away, the smile returning to his face. "Come on, we just have to head home first then I can get you a room." Miri started to wonder if he was playing with her, if he had just been faking the whole thing.

  "The humans, who were they?" She asked again thinking of the one with the flowing hair and the long red cloak.

  "Well, they are my friends. There was Bishop Hans, he runs the temple. Michaels, he was with us in the civil war. Now he’s a paladin, kinda crazy I think but he is good guy to have around. At least he doesn't drink all the time now. Windfall the half elf, he said he knew you by the way." Pare noticed she had stopped walking when he said the bounty hunters name.

  "You know that son of a bitch?"

  "Well I wouldn't call him that. He is kinda nice to me, what did he do to you?" Pare asked.

  "He took down one of my targets two years ago, snatched him right out from under my nose. I was watching this scum ball for a week. He was holed up in this old shack with a bunch of men. Then I see a shadow of a figure bust down the front door of the shack. He just strolled in, busted the place up and walked out with my bounty. Ten men, how did he fight ten men then just roll out with the one I wanted? I was waiting for the right time..." Miri started walking again, thinking about how she would like to give the half elf a shot like she did Pare.

  "Well, he is kind of crazy. Don't tell him I said that though. I guess his dad did all kinds of crazy magic on him when he was a baby. He is really strong, like I saw him pick up a horse strong. Then there is the whole curse. I'd rather not talk about it; he still gives me the willies." Pare's body shivered a bit as he rubbed his arms. Miri wasn't sure if this was him acting or if it was the night chill coming on fast.

  "What about the one with the long hair?" she asked.

  "Oh that is Darmot. He is my very best friend in the entire world. I thought he might change when they made him a lord and all that but he is still just plain old Darmot Kromwell. We do everything together, well he wouldn't take me to Toryth Vol but I really don't mind. I don't want to be a zombie, could you imagine being a zombie and remembering your life. You would be like, this sucks I used to be awesome but now I am just a zombie. I can't even pick a lock any more. Then there is the whole dead thing."

  "Darmot Kromwell...you mean the Lord Kromwell?" Miri asked. Pare never noticed her voice had softened when asking about him.

  "Yep! He doesn't make me call him that though. We live in the same house with Jasmin and Chuck. Chuck is kinda funny, just don't call him that. He doesn't like it very much. You will like Jasmin, she is super nice. Even if her parents are all dead and stuff, you would think she would be depressed about it but she is really happy and stuff."

  "Who is Jasmin?" she asked.

  "That's Darmot's wife." Pare told her. As they walked the streets Pare continued to tell her everything about the Kromwell's and never noticed how she fell silent. Yet she continued to listen, hang on every word it seemed. Not that she needed to talk, Pare seemed to never stop. While he was happy to have someone new to talk to. He had so many stories to tell yet no one ever listened to him like she did that day. Every now and then Pare would look at her out of the corner of his eye. She was a little taller than him but he didn't care about that. He had never seen a halfling woman who was so serious. She was a complete and total mystery to him. From her well-muscled arms to her short cut hair, she was different than any other halfling woman he knew. She was worlds different than his mother and Pare was pretty sure his mother was a paragon of all that was good and kind in the world. Still, she seemed to enjoy his stories about Darmot and his other friends.

  As the two of them approached the Kromwell home Miri looked up to the window she followed Pare to a week ago. She remembered seeing him in action. How fast he moved, how quickly he took down the thug he cornered. Now she listed to him and could not help but think that there was two every different sides to him. One that was kind and caring. The other was something dark and dangerous. She wasn't even sure at first it was the same person, when he was out in public he didn't carry on at all like she expected. Yet it became clear to her that it was him after a week of watching. Besides, he was the only halfling that lived in the lord’s district. Miri followed him into the house and up the stairs. She took a quick look around, wondering if she would see the Lord of the house or his wife. Miri also wondered why she had not seen the Lord before today. As Pare opened what seemed to be his room it dawned on her. He didn't have a hat on, he was the human that was always coming out of the house with that hat with the stupid white plume sticking out of the top. That is why she never got a good look at his face.

  "Well how much do you want?" Pare asked, he almost sounded like he was in pain.

  "Well Captain Turk was going to give me two thousand to bring you in. You give me that and we will call it even. None of that double stuff."

  "Ok, wait right there. Really, don't move I don't want you getting hurt." he told her. She stood and watched as he dropped down to the floor and slid under his bed on the hard wood floor. Not understanding why he said what he did, she started looking around the room. Some of them jumped out at her right away, others not so much. By the time the halfling came back out from under the bed she saw a half dozen traps. "Ok, you can move now, just don't touch anything." Miri was silent as she watched him open up a purse and started counting out platinum coins. He stopped after a while and looked at her. "I've got gems if you would rather have that?"

  "Gems are nice but getting someone to pay what they are worth is a pain." she told him.

  Pare just shrugged. "Hetaron used to give me all his coins for gems. I wonder if he used any of them to make evil things. I don't think you would have liked him very much." Three bags later there was a rather large pile of coins laying on the Halflings bed. "Well there ya go, I hope there are no hard feelings. Wasted trip and all, Turk said you were from North Hembers." Pare watched with a long face as she scooped up the coins and put them in one of her own pouches.

  "It wasn't a complete waste. I ran across another one that is on my list. A guy by the name of Sticky Pete. I will crash for the night and start looking for him in the morning. I saw him once but I was after you."

  "Hey I know him, he works out of the merchant district. Did he do something really bad? If so I can show you right where he is." Miri looked at the halfling, wondering if he was telling the truth. Then it came to her, the open inviting look on his face. He was not only telling the truth, he wanted to help. After seeing him in action, part of her wanted his help. He knew how to handle himself she thought that this could be a good thing. It was so hard doing this job alone, finding someone she could count on, someone she could trust to watch her back. Long forgotten were the long flowing locks of the very married Darmot. It wouldn't have worked out anyway she thought at last. Later that night, as the great eye shed its light over the city it was the only thing to see two small figures slip out a window and down a rope. Heavy winter cloaks hid much of what was there to be seen. Shortly after the two hit the ground, they could not be seen at all. They were not seen under a light until just before the morning when they were turning a very scared Sticky Pete McTavish over to the city watch.

  77. Planning

/>   I awoke the next morning feeling different. I laid there for a moment only looking at ceiling above my head. I didn't move or even twitch. Just looking above me, all the events from the day before came back to my head. My friend, who I would not say no to, asked me to risk my life to save a cleric that could very well be dead. My king, who wasn't too thrilled with the idea at last agreed to let me go as this was something that could cause us a problem if we just ignored it. At first he wanted to amass a great fleet of war ships and attack them. Truth be told, while there are some ships out there in service to Arcadia, we do not have what you would call a powerful navy. After a bit of talking, we settled on one plan. A small group of elite troops would land on the southern shore of the island. Make our way to the slave camp, free our men. A second group would steal a ship from the Orcs and cause as much damage to them as we could on the way home. Roderick was also going to draft a letter and send it to King Darius in Eystlund. As we didn’t know who the target of this invasion would be I thought it would be best to inform them. Just in case we failed to make an impact.

  All of this was nothing to the news Jasmin gave me the night before. I was going to be a father. I did not care if it was a boy or a girl. I did not care about anything. I only hoped that it was healthy. Since I have sat down here to write today, the child has walked in and out of my office twice, looking for Pare. At three years old, my son is convinced that there are monsters in our house and only Uncle Pare can keep them at bay. I keep meaning to talk to him about this but it is harmless. I remember rolling over that morning, to look at my sleeping wife. Never before has she looked as beautiful. I reached out and pushed the hair away from her face, exposing her ear. I leaned forward, slowly and kissed her just below the ear on her neck. I continued to do this until she was awake. As she rolled over to look at me I gave her the best smile I could and asked her if she needed anything before I left that day. We talked for a little bit, then talked some more. By the time I rolled out of bed I was just about talked out and she was drifting off to sleep again.