Chapter 55: The Roads We Walk
Anomen watched as Harrian and Jaheira emerged from the trees, the former wearing the latter's cloak. They spoke quietly and quickly to each other for a moment before turning and heading off, but Delryn's attention was forced elsewhere by Keldorn's arrival.
The aged inquisitor was leading his horse, the fantastic grey named Edumar after one of the most famous knights of Faerûn legend. He gave Anomen a bright smile and clapped the cleric on the back.
Even though the squire was half a head taller and more muscular, he felt himself almost get knocked sideways by the mere cheerful gesture, and made a note to never find himself on the receiving end of Keldorn's blade.
"Hold my stirrup for me, lad?" the older paladin asked brightly. Anomen nodded numbly, moving around to the far side of Edumar and gripping the stirrup leather as Keldorn mounted, so as to prevent the saddle from slipping sideways. A fully armoured knight did not always have the utmost ease in mounting his horse.
Delryn straightened up, his eyes scanning the campsite again. Yoshimo and Minsc were taking the tents down, having finished dragging the bandit corpses a little further into the trees. Imoen and Haer'Dalis still sat on the logs surrounding the fire, finishing off breakfast. With a desire to move quickly, all that had been available was some bread and the heated up remains of last night's stew. Anomen, used to such things from his extensive campaigns, had cooked the meal, and he'd been quite delighted at the response he'd received. He'd spent much of the previous night discussing recipes with Imoen, who seemed to be the party's sole other cook.
He frowned a little as the pink-haired mage laughed at some tale of Haer'Dalis's. From the snippets of conversation he'd overheard, it was probably the joke about the Helmite, the rogue and the barbarian in a tavern the bard had told the night before whilst Imoen was out with Keldorn getting firewood. Jaheira had been the only one who'd laughed, oddly enough – Minsc had missed the joke, and it had had nothing to make Anomen, Harrian or Yoshimo feel anything but insulted.
He shouldn't be telling a joke like that to a lady like her, Delryn mused, absent-mindedly tightening the girth on Keldorn's horse. It's… well… it's indecent. The second buckle settled itself, and he took a step back. Though you had no trouble with Jaheira being amused by it the other night, did you. And Imoen's not a lady. Or, at least, not the sort of lady you're used to. She doesn't sit indoors and do needlework all day long with no knowledge of the outside world, or study the tenets of the Order in between battles. For some reason, that thought appealed to him.
Keldorn's voice interrupted his musings, and he looked up, knowing he didn't want to irritate his superior. "It's all good, squire Anomen. Thank you," the inquisitor said kindly, glancing across at the campsite. "Hopefully we should be ready to go soon."
The cleric nodded. "Yes, sir Keldorn," he replied automatically. Then, finally, as his brain kicked in, he smiled. "I believe you have the easy option. Edumar shall be doing the walking, along with the rest of us who are horse-less."
Firecam grinned in response. Delryn was quite amazed, but not altogether too surprised when he cast his mind back to tales told in the Order, that Keldorn was treating him as more of an adventuring equal than a knightly subordinate. To be fair, he reasoned, they were not actively serving the Order – at least, together – and thus it would be detrimental to the balance of the party if one member was to order another around.
Still, it felt most odd being treated as the equal of one of the most distinguished knights in the Order. Though, why not? Here they were both followers of Harrian, who surely trusted him more than Keldorn, so in this environment he was possibly superior. That thought probably worried him more than anything else.
"Keep your wits about you, Anomen," Keldorn said reproachfully, bringing Delryn back to the present and jerking him out of his thoughts. He also dispelled the illusions of being the inquisitor's superior. "Your mind seems to be running rampant this day. Do not get complacent; there are still dangers yet upon this road."
Anomen nodded mutely, before turning and heading to extinguish the campfire. Imoen and Haer'Dalis had headed off to the river to clean out the plates, bowls and cutlery. Harrian and Jaheira were tending to their packs, whilst Yoshimo and Minsc were still struggling with the tents. Fiddling with the straps of his armour, Delryn suddenly felt a little alone, and wondered why he hadn't had this feeling before. He was too daunted by Keldorn to have anything other than a conversation tinged with his own intense reverence and tentativeness.
As he stared absently into space, still musing, Harrian stepped up behind him and clapped a hand on his shoulder – the same shoulder Keldorn had previously whacked. Anomen winced slightly as another plate of metal on his armour dug into his flesh.
"Ready to go?" Harrian asked brightly. Although his tone was light, the smile on his face was forced and there was a tired tautness at the corner of his eyes. Delryn suddenly felt quite pathetic for lamenting his own troubles in the face of those of his leader. The man was on a course for hell, and at some point he'd still have to come back.
"I've been ready for the past five minutes," the cleric said wryly, "whilst all of you were still messing about with your other affairs." He cast a glance into the woods just as Imoen and Haer'Dalis emerged, still talking and laughing amongst themselves.
Harrian was also gazing at them, and as Anomen gave him a quick look he saw that the rogue was frowning a very little. Delryn cast that note into the back of his mind for future reference. Eventually they were both jerked out of their twin reveries, and gave the tiefling and the pink-haired mage identical reproachful looks.
"Come on, lazy ones," Corias rebuked lightly. "We're all ready to go, and you two are still finishing off your breakfasts. Try not to hold us all up." Despite his earlier expression, his tone was now light and there was no sign of the disapproval he had previously shown.
Imoen laughed at him briefly. "Keep your hair on, Harrian. There's plenty of time to get to Trademeet, it's not as if we're on a deadline or anything." She moved to stow the cooking gear she had cleaned in her pack. "Besides, I'm not marching on an empty stomach."
Keldorn, who had pulled Edumar closer to the arguing adventurers, chuckled briefly. "You should have told them to get on their feet and given them bread to eat on the way, Corias," he suggested helpfully.
Imoen stuck her tongue out at him, and Anomen almost keeled over. Nobody he knew outside of this party would be foolish enough to stick their tongue out at the most revered inquisitor of the Order. "That would mean we couldn't have the rest of Anomen's stew for breakfast. That would have been a waste," she said lightly, winking playfully at the cleric, who turned an odd shade of pink.
Harrian rolled his eyes, and smiled as Haer'Dalis laughed. He turned to Anomen. "I think you're in there, friend. The way to Imoen's heart is most certainly through her stomach," he told Delryn cheerfully, before hefting his pack onto his back.
"But come now," the rogue continued, giving them all careful looks. "We may not be on a deadline, but I would like to be able to get to Trademeet before we all die of old age. So may I suggest you two get thy arses in gear and shift yourselves?"
"You can suggest it, my raven," Haer'Dalis replied, not looking at him as he rolled his blankets into his pack. "And I shall do my best to meet that request, but I am not sure that our wildflower will be as receptive." Here he glanced at Imoen, who was fiddling needlessly with the straps of her pack.
Harrian threw his hands into the air with frustration. "I give up. Just… get ready, preferably sometime this decade," he whimpered, settling down on the floor and crossing his legs in preparation for a long wait.
It was about eight of the morning by the time they finally set off, almost two hours after they had been awoken by the bandits. Despite all that had taken place, they were mostly in good spirits, and, with a little luck, Yoshimo was predicting that it would only take another day's travel before they reached the town of Trademeet.