Chapter 2

The Mayor's Quandary

The bar maid had plopped the wooden tray down before either Lina or Gourry had even pulled back their chairs. With a few swift movements so fluid it might have been seen as one action, she moved the two pitchers and two mugs from it to the table without spilling so much as a drop. Tucking the tray under one arm, she winked at the swordsman before sauntering back into the kitchen.

Lina eyed the young woman coldly, annoyed by the casual bounce in her step. Like Lina, her hair was a reddish hue, though somewhat darker. Unlike Lina, however, she was tall, about equal in size to Gourry, and she had filled out in certain places that Lina would much rather have forgotten. Why did all the taverns and inns in the world have to hire women like that? At least Lina had the satisfaction of knowing that in a few years – when those infuriating dimples started fading to wrinkles – the wench would be shoved into the kitchen out of sight, something that Lina would never truly have to worry about.

As she slid back the chair and dropped down into it, brushing away crumbs from the last meal that had been eaten there, she realized just how little satisfaction that thought brought her. With a quiet groan, she snatched the mug and filled it. She quaffed half of the mug in one gulp than slammed it down hard enough that the two thieves in the back corner jumped at the sound.

Gourry sat down slowly, testing the sturdiness of his chair. When he felt confident that the chair would hold, he relaxed back, letting one arm hang behind him. Mayor Dastin, after paying for the food, followed shortly, sitting down quickly and without a word, his two attendants at either side.

Lina looked over the two of them, unsure of what purpose they served, but somehow amused by their presence as they continued to stare blankly. They were both too small for bodyguards – one of them was barely taller than her – and, though both carried poorly concealed dirks beneath their black vests, she couldn't bring herself to believe that either were very useful in a fight. Both had dark brown hair, worn shorter than the mayor's, a sign of rank that struck the sorceress as odd for the kingdom of Ralteague, particularly a small town like this. She would almost have thought of them as slaves from their behavior – or, more precisely, their lack of behavior – except that Ralteague had outlawed slavery around sixty years ago.

Slowly, she turned to the mayor. "So, you're the mayor of this town?"

"So I am," Dastin replied easily.

Lina carefully listened to the mayor's voice, aware that his speech was somehow different, but not quite sure how.

"And you're looking to hire a couple of mercenaries?" It was more a statement than a question.

"So I am."

The sorceress smiled, carefully concealing her pleasure at the way the sound of his voice put all the pieces into place. He articulated each word precisely, which any noble might, but unlike the stableboy and the innkeeper he also spoke through his nose and he held his m's for almost a half a second. She lifted the mug to her mouth as she carefully considered how she might make the most of the situation.

"Tell me about this town," she said before tilting her head back to drink.

"Solace is little more than a hamlet," the mayor began. "The soil isn't very good for growing crops and, except for lumber, there isn't much here worth mentioning. Most of our food is brought in from other towns or hunted for. If it weren't for the fact that this is the only town within a four day's walk in any direction, Solace probably wouldn't exist at all."

Lina nodded, putting the mug down. "A rest town."

"Indeed, so it is. And we do our best to make it comfortable for travelers."

Gourry, his brow furrowed in thought, nodded thoughtfully. Lina rolled her eyes; he was overthinking the situation.

The kitchen door swung open and the bar maid stepped out, two trays of food balanced carefully on her arms. The scent of roasted meat filled the air at her approach, and the two adventurers' mouths wetted. The bar maid slid the trays onto the table with a long practiced gracefulness, bending at the waist much lower than was really necessary for her to lay the plates out; low enough to catch Gourry's eye. The swordsman couldn't help but steal a glance at the cleavage exposed by the maid's red blouse. For a brief moment, he felt his blood burn and thought his heart might stop beating in his chest. Both sensations quickly reversed as he caught the angry glare in Lina's eyes. In a clumsy movement born out of sheer desperation, Gourry snatched his mug and buried his quickly reddening face into it, realizing instantly that he had not yet filled it. In another desperate act, he grabbed for the pitcher, spilling half as much as went in his mug onto the table as he filled it, and drank it down quickly. After he set the mug back down, he looked at his companion with a sheepish grin and a nervous chuckle.

Lina sighed and tapped her chin with one finger, noting the streams of ale meandering down his face. As the swordsman wiped his face clean, Lina turned to the bar maid.

"Tell the cook to keep it coming," she ordered.

As the maid disappeared back into the kitchen, Lina looked over the first course like a serpent observing prey caught in its coils, rubbing her hands together in anticipation, licking her lips.

"Now, as I was saying," began Mayor Dastin.

Lina held out one hand to silence him, not once taking her eyes off her food. It had been some time since she had been able to eat a decent meal and intended to savor every bit of what laid on the table before her for the entire thirty seconds it would be there.

The peas vanished first, gone in a flash of movement that left the mayor wondering if the sorceress had even bothered to chew. Half of the block of cheese followed an instant later in a single bite and the fork had sunk into the beef before the cheese had made it back to the plate. The meat's juices oozed out into her mouth with the first bite, its sweet flavor ambrosia to her palate after so many days of dried beef. The half-loaf of bread – a little stale, but not too dry – she washed down with the rest of the ale in her mug and the last of her cheese went into her mouth while her drink still wetted it.

Dastin stared, eyes so wide that one might expect them to be rolling across the table in the next moment. When the sorceress slammed her mug down, he glanced over to Gourry in time to watch him swallow the last of his meat, surprised – though very pleased – that it didn't all come back up with his tremendous belch. Glancing back over his shoulders, he saw his attendants shared his shocked expression. Slowly, he turned back to Lina, who was refilling her mug.

"As I was saying?" he dared.

Lina took a deep breath, closed her eyes and let it out again. "You were saying?"

Mayor Dastin cleared his throat before continuing. "Yes, well, we do our best to make things comfortable for travelers. Good food, pleasant accommodations and a welcoming atmosphere."

"I think you need to work on that 'welcoming atmosphere' thing," Lina said with a sly chuckle.

The mayor winced at the remark, abashed by such an impertinent interruption and insulted by the woman's mocking tone. He took a brief moment to remind himself who he was speaking to – and the many stories of what had happened to those who had aroused her ire – before speaking again, forcing a smile so false that he felt dirty for wearing it.

"Well, it doesn't bring in much money, but we do our best," he said. "We all did quite well, at least until two days ago."

"What happened?" Gourry asked.

"Bandits attacked," the mayor answered, a revelation not wholly unexpected.

"How many?" Lina asked.

"Fifteen. They came during the night and had half the town robbed before they were noticed. When they were finally spotted and the town guard called, they took a number of our young girls hostage," the mayor hesitated, his voice trembling with suppressed anger. "One of them was my own daughter. Their leader told us that if we didn't follow them, he would release the girls after a day. To make sure he kept his word, one of our guards went with them, but we haven't seen any of them since. We're all beginning to fear the worst for our children."

"You had trouble with just fifteen bandits?" Lina asked. "Your captain has to be better than any bandit and I have a hard time seeing guards under his command having difficulty handling such a situation."

The mayor shook his head. "Normal bandits might not have been an overwhelming problem, but these weren't just a rabble of common thieves; one of them was half-troll and that made things a little more complicated."

A brief pause followed as Lina considered the information. Dastin had understated the situation considerably. Human bandits she could handle with little effort; they were weak and she could usually send them into a screaming panic with a single spell. Trolls were also easily dealt with; their intelligence was on par with the ground they walked on and they were especially afraid of fire, her specialty. Half-trolls on the other hand? She had never actually seen one before, but the thought of a creature with the troll's natural abilities and, at the very least, a semi-human intelligence wasn't the most appealing of thoughts.

But, on the other hand . . .

Lina refilled her mug slowly, smiling just enough to make the mayor sweat a little. She swivelled in her chair to face the mayor, raising her drink to her mouth. A full second passed between each of the three deliberately loud gulps she took of the ale and once the mug was set back down, she looked directly into his dark eyes.

The mayor straightened up in his chair, a strange sight considering how straight he had already been sitting, and adjusted the collar on his shirt.

The two thieves in the back of the inn were rising from their seats. Lina glanced at them for only a moment, noting as they passed as far from the table where she sat as they could. Just as they passed by the front desk, the bar maid came out with two more trays, casually greeting them before they slunk out the door.

"You can handle this, can't you?" Dastin asked.

Lina's smile, as playful as a cat toying with a mouse, stretched from one ear to the other. "Of course," she replied. "For a proper payment. But that can wait until after the second course."

The mayor slid his chair aside to allow the bar maid to put the two trays down. Gourry wisely kept his eyes on the food as the woman scooped up the empty plates and replaced them. Her job finished, she nodded to Gourry, who pretended not to notice.

"Will you really be eating all that?" she asked, clearly elevating her voice to sound younger.

The only reply that the swordsman gave was to immediately begin stuffing the food into his mouth, a sight that caused the bar maid's jaw to drop open. Astounded beyond belief, she glanced under the table, expecting to see a sack or a bag that the two adventurers might have stuffed some of the food into. Seeing none, she turned questioningly to the mayor, who could only shrug. Lina snickered at the utterly overwhelmed expression on the woman's face as she turned back to the kitchen and it pleased the sorceress to see that the maid had lost the cheerful bounce in her step.

Lina devoured her meal quickly, pausing only briefly in the middle to prevent herself from breathing it into her lungs. As everything began to settle into her stomach, she emptied the last of the ale from her pitcher into her mug and washed down any remnants that might still have been in her mouth. Setting the mug down, she looked into the empty pitcher, then turned toward the kitchen.

"I thought you said this meal came with a strong ale," she shouted at the closed door. "I just emptied a whole pitcher and I'm not feeling anything." After a pause, she added, "Bring out another."

Lina turned back to the mayor.

"Now, back to the business of payment," she began. "As a standard, I charge fifteen gold pence for each bandit head that I bring back, but since one of them is half-troll, I'll have to charge an extra thirty for him. And then, of course, there are the girls; hostages cost extra, since they make the job more difficult."

Mayor Dastin had stopped listening at fifteen gold per head, suddenly feeling a very queasy sinking sensation in his gut. He had told her fifteen bandits, but he wasn't sure that there hadn't been more. On that alone, he would be paying at least two hundred and twenty-five gold. For a moment, he thought he might fall ill and he knew from Lina's expression that he must have turned pale.

"Surely, I don't want you to bring their heads back," he replied, hoping he didn't sound as desperate as he really was. "That's disgusting."

Lina's eyes narrowed dangerously. The mayor felt the blood drain from his face and worried he might shiver from the sudden waves of cold washing over him. Behind him, he heard the kitchen door opening and, pleased for any excuse to look away from that fiery glare, turned toward the bar maid who came toward the table with another pitcher. While the sorceress refilled her mug and drank, the mayor looked desperately to one of his attendants. The man grasped at the border of his vest, pulling it back enough to show the blade hidden inside. Quickly, Dastin shook his head, his eyes darting back toward Lina, who, still drinking, hadn't noticed, then to Gourry, who seemed to have had become absorbed in tracing a grain of wood on the table with his finger. He held in his relieved sigh, not wanting to press the situation anymore than he already had.

Lina put the mug down, then turned to the mayor with a disarming smile. "As you wish," she said. "Then I'll settle for four hundred gold."

Again, Dastin felt the sinking in his stomach. "Two hundred," he dared.

"Four hundred," Lina's reply came without hesitation.

"Three hundred." Dastin's voice was clearly desperate now.

"Four hundred." Again, no hesitation.

"Three hundred and fifty."

The sorceress seemed to consider this, leaning her head back, placing one finger on her chin. "No, four hundred. And I want half of it up front."

Dastin almost felt he might faint. A hurricane of thoughts swirled and thrashed about in his head, blown into a jumbled disarray. Exerting all his will not to stutter, he half-begged, "You can't expect that much. This is a rest town. How on earth would we be able to afford that much?"

At this, Lina chuckled girlishly, covering her mouth with one hand. Dastin tensed, feeling an ache in his shoulders as he wondered if he had just misstepped on the ice. The sense of drowning in freezing water did little to help.

Lina eyed the mayor sideways, the slyness of her expression causing his stomach to tie itself in knots.

"I'm not asking the town to pay," she told him. "I'm telling you to pay. And I know you can, because you're not from this town."

The mayor slumped forward in his chair, his mouth gaped open.

"Your dialect and articulation are too refined for this town," the sorceress continued. "You've picked up some of the speech habits from the locals, but your accent suggests that you're from much farther south. I'll venture a guess and say that you're from the Federation of Coastal States, which would explain your two slaves. I mean attendants. Am I correct?"

The mayor drew a sharp breath, glancing back at his attendants in shock. Of course, she had guessed correctly. Lina continued to smile at him, letting him know that he had no need to answer; she was well aware that she was right. He put a hand to the right side of his head, rubbing his temple to relieve the throbbing pain behind his eyes.

Dastin sighed heavily. He'd heard the tales about her, but he had never suspected that she would have been so perceptive. He had come to Solace over ten years ago and he had thought that his accent had lessened after all that time, but still she had recognized it. He suddenly felt almost sure that she could guess how long he had been here if he pressed the matter, though he quickly decided against it.

Lina emptied her mug, then refilled it, eyeing the mayor calmly.

"I'm not going to pretend to know why you chose to come to this town," she said. "It's not very important. What is important is that you pay me every penny that I demand. And the next time you feel like playing games with me, remember the simple truth of the universe: I always win."

This time, the mayor could not suppress his shudder. The tone of her voice retained its even quality and her smile, so confident it bordered on arrogance, almost seemed friendly, but her eyes told him different. Those flaming orbs said, with the utmost clarity, 'I am not amused.'

Dastin abruptly slid his chair back. Clearing his throat and rising to his feet, he nodded politely to her.

"Four hundred it is," he said through his teeth. "Two hundred now and the rest when you return with the girls."

"Have it ready and be waiting for us at your home," Lina said to the mayor's back as he slipped quickly out of the inn, his two attendants following at his heals. As the bar maid came out of the kitchen again, Lina turned to her partner. "Gourry, we have a job."

The swordsman nodded, sipping from his mug. Pleased with herself and how she had handled the situation, Lina emptied her own cup in one large gulp, slamming it down with a triumphant burst of laughter.

The bar maid stepped up to the table and smiled at the two of them. "You sure ran circles around the mayor, so you did."

Lina shrugged. "He was being an ass."

"Aye," the woman conceded, "mayhap he was."

The bar maid laid the trays down, once again bending much too far. This time, after putting up with the mayor's silly games, the sight of it was an insult too far for Lina. Her fist struck the table hard enough to dent the wood and the bar maid, startled, nearly dropped the plates.

"If you keep flaunting yourself like that," the sorceress yelled, her face turning a brilliant crimson hue, "then you won't have anything left to flaunt when I finish with you! Understand!?"

The woman trembled under the hot rage burning in the sorceress's eyes. Leaving the trays on the table, the bar maid whirled around and, whimpering, fled from the room. Satisfied, Lina pulled the tray closer to her, sinking her fork into the meat. Gourry watched the bar maid disappear into the kitchen, then turned back to Lina, disappointed.

"Not a word, Gourry," she said firmly.

Not a word was said.

The clouds had completely broken up by the time the two adventurers left the inn, and the late afternoon day sun had dried the rain. Rubbing her now slightly bloated belly, Lina looked up into the sky and let the warm sunlight sink into her skin. With a stretch and a lazy yawn, she turned toward her companion.

"Well, that was certainly worth the time, wasn't it?" she said.

"One of the mayor's attendants was about to draw a knife on you," he replied calmly.

Lena tapped her lip thoughtfully at that. "If he had, he would have learned just how much good that would have done against your sword, wouldn't he?"

Gourry nodded, noting the sudden flush of red coming over Lina's face. The sorceress turned back and started toward the stable, wobbling slightly on her feet. Suddenly, her knees buckled and she started to fall. The swordsman leaped forward, catching her before she hit the ground and lifting her back to her feet. Leaning on the wall of the inn for support, Lina giggled girlishly.

"I guess that ale was stronger than I thought," she mused, patting her cheeks. "Next time, don't let me drink so much, okay?"

Lina tried to stand, but found she still couldn't support herself. The blood that had rushed into her face made her head burn in the heat of the day. She shook her head violently to clear it and when that failed, she snatched the water pouch from Gourry's belt and wetted her face. Handing it back to the swordsman, she tried to stand again, this time managing to stay up, though she wavered from side to side.

Gourry watched, ready to grab her the moment she started to fall. "Are you alright?"

Lina nodded. "The stable," she muttered. "Let's get going."

The sorceress glanced around, a little disoriented by blur of moving images around her. Again she slapped her cheeks, harder this time. It helped a little – she could at least see how to get to the stable – and so she started on, her companion following closely behind her.

Gourry opened the stable door and Lina half-walked, half-staggered in. The air in the stable was stale and thick with the scent of hay and horses, even though theirs was the only animal currently residing. The stableboy, busy brushing the horse, turned to look at them, greeting them in a cheerful, if empty manner. Lina swaggered over toward him, taking hold of the saddle hanging next to the stall and put her hand on his head.

"Was one of the girls your sister?" she asked.

The boy nodded.

"Don't worry," she said, her grin appearing almost goofy enough to make the boy laugh. "I'm sure you'll be seeing her again soon."

The stableboy's eyes lit up and his smile suddenly became genuine. "Really, ma'am?"

Lina nodded. "But don't call me ma'am. Gourry?"

The sorceress moved aside to let her companion take the saddle and put it on the horse. She sat down on a stool and reached into a pocket. Finding nothing, she reached into a different one. Again, nothing.

Lina put a finger to her chin in thought. Where had she put it? She had found it in the ruins near Dragon's Peak and she was quite certain she had kept it. She slapped her forehead as she remembered. She snatched one of the pouches at Gourry's belt and opened it up, withdrawing a pendant. Fastening its gold chain around her neck and holding the small ruby in one hand, she waved her other hand over it in a mystic gesture. The stableboy came closer, wondering what she was doing - Gourry groaned, wondering just how drunk Lina really was to be showing off so flamboyantly.

Outside, the sky grew suddenly dark, as though thick clouds had passed before the sun. As the sorceress spoke, her voice became harsh and guttural and the very air around them seemed to tremble at the sound of it. Frightened, the stableboy stepped back away from her, cowering behind the swordsman, who seemed not to notice the sudden change.

"Ilea'ahr,

La'tsphil coran vexta

Xukha aa'es siicor.

Di-to-ku-shi-fa-i!"

A hellish wind blasted through the stable and it was almost a shock that it did not blow open the door and all the windows. It swirled around the sorceress, causing her hair and cape to fly up before it passed back out the same way it came in, though no one could say exactly where that had been. In her hand, the pendant began to glow with an unwholesome and angry red light. The fire of magic surged through her blood, purging it of all the alcohol she had just drunk, replacing it with a much more pleasurable sensation; the sensation of pure power. The light faded to a dim glow and Lina rose to her feet.

Daring a peek around Gourry, the stableboy looked at Lina with an expression of horror and amazement. Lina gave the boy a sly wink and held up one finger.

"That'll be our little secret," she said.

The boy nodded.

With a smile, Lina climbed up onto the horse. Gourry backed Rusher out of the stall and turned it around, leading it out of the stable.

"First we stop by the mayor's house for our advance," Lina said. "Then, we set out."

Gourry grunted in reply, then mounted the animal. As the two set off down the road, the stableboy watched them leave, a mix of amazement, horror and relief on his face.