Chapter 9

Varanu rose very early the next day. She found difficulty sleeping in a room with other people in it even if they were quiet, and that was not the case in the Bruma guildhall. She had a better breakfast than she'd seen in a while in the dining room before she left. It was otherwise empty. No wonder, as late as they were all up last night. She hadn't seen anyone she knew, so she'd kept to herself and mostly been left alone. Mostly. And hopefully that Nord won't remember anything when he wakes up.

She stepped outside the guild hall to find Esgeriad already mounted up. He sat the gray gelding with aplomb on the snowy ground below the boardwalk. A roan mare stood placidly beside him.

"Good morning," he said, yesterday's irritation apparently quite forgotten. "I do hope you can ride. It will make the trip much shorter." He watched her slyly from behind a strand of golden hair, waiting for this fact to overcome any initial objection. Varanu glared at him for being right as she mounted up.

"What do I owe you?" she said.

"Not a thing, dear l – Varanu. As it happens, the mare cost me nothing. I have a friend in town who was willing to lend her to me."

"Are you sure you're celibate, Esgeriad?" Varanu said. She patted the mare's neck, testing. The animal huffed good-naturedly. We'll see how well she takes to carrying somebody in heavy armor. She's not as big as the gelding.

"Oh, one doesn't easily forget something like that," Esgeriad said, with no apparent trace of irony. "As it happens, I spent the evening yesterday trimming the hair of everyone in her household. Including servants. I fancy I've become rather good at the Orcish coup knot."

"Not too many mer can say that," Varanu said.

"Indeed," said Esgeriad. "And how did you spend the evening?"

"Sword practice," Varanu said. "Repaired my armor. Turned down a job that actually would've paid money. The usual."

"I have never heard that votaries of Arkay may not profit by their vocation," Esgeriad said.

"It's not a rule," Varanu said. The mare followed the gelding down the street without any direction from the reins. He's borrowed her before. "But it's how it generally works out. I can't take jobs that don't fit the duty. It's part of the vow I've made."

"You must have saved for a long time to buy that armor," Esgeriad said as they rode out of the city gate and onto the road.

"I didn't buy this," Varanu said. "I was given it. Also part of the agreement. The god will have it back when I'm finished."

"And the scimitar?" said Esgeriad. She shot him a look. He shrugged. "It is an unusual weapon."

"That's mine," Varanu said. "Though I didn't buy it, either. I've had it so long I half think it will turn to dust when I do. What about you?"

"My armor, you mean? I bought it," Esgeriad said. "I found my way fairly early, so I began saving when I was very young."

"You don't look exactly old now," Varanu said.

"It's the service I've chosen," Esgeriad said.

"Smug fetcher," Varanu said. She refrained from asking the obvious question. If he's actually older than I am, I don't want to know. "See? That's why I don't like Altmeri."

"Is it indeed?" Esgeriad said. He was combing his fingers through the gelding's mane as he rode. "And whom do you like?"

Varanu pondered this silently. "I get on pretty well with Nords," she said. "And Khajiits and Argonians."

"I note that this list lacks any reference to Dunmer," said Esgeriad.

"Lots of necromancers are Dunmeri," said Varanu. "In fact, most necromancers are either Breton or some kind of mer."

"It seems an odd basis on which to write off four races, including your own."

Especially my own. Varanu shrugged. "I've got a funny bias about people trying to kill me."

"I wonder if there is another reason?" Esgeriad said.

"If there is, you're never going to know it," Varanu said. "Talk about something else."

Esgeriad smiled sweetly. "Ah, so there is another reason."

"I said talk about something else, mer," Varanu said.

"I could sing. I am told I have quite a good singing voice."

"Be my guest," Varanu said, relaxing slightly. "I'm sure we'll run into bandits with bows and arrows sooner or later."

Esgeriad laughed. Then he started to sing anyway. Varanu stared resolutely over her mare's head. The merish ear is generally more apt to pick out flaws in a singing voice than the human one. The Altmer's voice was flawless, a perfect liquid tenor. And I'd say the odds of our being shot aren't very good. I've heard Khajiit have unusually good hearing. They'll probably be hypnotized.

Varanu couldn't sing. She couldn't even plead injury; she'd had a bitterly thin voice since she was a girl. Guess it's just as well I chose Arkay, then, she thought dryly.

The trip went faster than she would have liked to admit, but it was still many long hours to Anvil. Esgeriad sang intermittently all the way. He stopped a few miles outside the city. It wasn't long after that Varanu saw a wagon turning off the road up ahead. It was driven by a lone Imperial, and it seemed to be stacked up with…

"Pillows?" she said. "Huh. Where are you going, serjo?"

"Uh…" The Imperial scratched his head. His clothes were worn but very clean, and he'd tied his dark hair back behind his head. His face had seen some hard use. He shot an uneasy look, not at Varanu, but at Esgeriad. "Got to drive 'em out to the cave."

"And what cave is that, friend?" Esgeriad said.

"Can't remember the name," said the man. "Used to be a mine or something. Nobody goes in there now. I heard where there's bad folk thereabouts."

"In that case, my fellow paladin and I had better escort you," Esgeriad said.

The man looked grateful. "Thanks much, Sir."

"Oh, there's no way it's going to be that easy," Varanu said as they turned their horses to flank the cart. "A bunch of assassins just order a cartful of pillows delivered right to their lair?"

"Got a mattress, too," said the carter. "Goosedown. Best kind."

"And you're going to unload them and leave them on the ground?" Varanu said.

"Nah. Leaving the cart. Going to ride the horse back. Part of the deal."

"Hm," Varanu said. It's not impossible. Everybody knows there's a Sanctuary somewhere around here, and they've got to get their furnishings and so on from somewhere.

The cave wasn't actually very far off the road, it was just well hidden by a grove of oak trees. The wooden door was easy to miss in the deep shade. Varanu found it by the alarming creak it made at the slightest breeze. It was set into a depression in the side of a little hillock, but it looked like it might fall off the hinges at any moment. Varanu listened carefully as the carter pulled up a few yards off, dismounted, and began to unhitch the horse from the cart.

Esgeriad dismounted gracefully from his horse. "Pardon me, Sir," he said to the carter. "Would you be willing to return our horses to the livery stable? For a fee?"

"But then how'll you get back to town?" said the carter, pausing with one foot in a stirrup. "It'll be getting dark soon."

Varanu dismounted carefully. Balance was important, wearing heavy armor. "I doubt that'll be a problem," she said. She let Esgeriad pay the man. It wasn't her horse, anyway.

She listened until the carter and the horses were out of hearing. Then she listened a little longer, ignoring the mana charge emanating from Esgeriad. Somehow they'd ended up standing back to back. The best detect life spell in the entire world can only see through maybe two barriers total, and caves have a lot of those. She didn't really expect to hear anything. Assassins didn't generally advertise their presence.

"Someone is coming," Esgeriad said. "Up through the cave."

"I'm going to feel really stupid if it turns out to be a goblin," Varanu said.

In the event, it was an Orc. He brushed the cave door open unconcernedly, looked around the clearing, and went to the cart. He gave the two mer no more than a casual glance. Varanu considered this. He's sort of glowing around the edges. Easy to miss, because it's green and so is he.

He wasn't big for an Orc, but this still left him larger than Varanu or Esgeriad. He seemed to be wearing nothing more than a ragged pair of trousers.

"What are you doing?" said Varanu.

The Orc stopped and set down the pillow he'd just picked up. "Unloading the cart?" he said. He sounded slightly puzzled, as if he knew what he was doing but couldn't quite remember why. "Got to take all the pillows downstairs. And the mattress."

"Why?" said Varanu.

The Orc frowned, wrinkling his heavy brow. Varanu, who was a reasonable judge of age in most races, put him in his late twenties or early thirties. He wasn't bad looking, for an Orc. His tonsured hair hung in a neat braid over one shoulder. "Because she told me to," he said finally.

"What's she going to use them for?" Varanu said.

The Orc shrugged. "Dunno. Don't expect to find out. Said she's going to kill me after that. Didn't seem like there was much point in asking."

"Oh, this has gone on quite long enough," said Esgeriad. He moved away from Varanu, raised a hand, and cast. A translucent sphere of magicka hit the Orc with a poof. The green light dissipated quickly, leaving him blinking at the two mer.

"What just happened?" he said.

"I dispelled the charm," Esgeriad said. "I am going to suppose it was placed on you by an assassin."

"I guess," said the Orc. "She'd got black armor on." He looked around the clearing quickly, then shook his head as if to clear it. "There were some other ones, too. Don't remember that too well."

"Were you in the cave?" said Varanu.

"Yep," said the Orc. "There's a lever you pull that looks like a torch. It's probably still open, though. I left it so I could carry the…" He frowned at the cart. "What's going on? Really?"

"You don't want to know," Varanu said. "If you've got a home, start for it. Otherwise, Anvil's that way." She jerked a thumb toward the city. "I'd run."

The Orc looked at her and at Esgeriad. "Thanks," he said. Then he turned and jogged off into the sunset.

Varanu drew her scimitar. "What's in the cave, Esgeriad?"

"Five or six of something," he said. "I'm afraid the auras are rather vague. They could be living or Undead. The spell does not discriminate. I'm not going to have to kill anything, am I?"

"Not to worry," Varanu said as she pushed open the wooden door. "The odds are good you won't live long enough to try."