Chapter 4: An Unexpected Aid
Sunlight shined through the window to Flusk's room, glittering off the mirror. Flusk opened his eyes and heaved himself up in his bed. There were no dreams last night, for that much he was grateful. Yet he could have done without the constant noise in the common room downstairs. Even without the gleeman, his father's inn still attracted many people. Sleeping at all was a challenge, but he finally got to sleep. Flusk washed up and walked downstairs groggily. This morning was similar to most, only a few men at the tables and the room had the feel of a slow day just beginning. His father was not downstairs, which meant he was still in bed. Bartim was pretty shaken up from last night. Bartim had had another conversation with the man dressed in black from the night before, and when he came back in he looked more pale than possible. Again, when Flusk asked what the man wanted, Bartim only stammered in half slurred words that if anyone asked about their "friends", to say that he'd never seen them. Flusk planned to attend the next conversation his father had with this man in black. Perhaps he could ease his father's nerves by sharing the man's attention.
Yesterday the patrons had required every inch of his help. The common room was packed last night, filled with people from Tear, Caemlyn and even as far as Cairhien. The inn's business really couldn't get much better. Flusk decided to go outside and think a while before the people woke up, but before he could get outside the doors opened to admit 3 men. One of them was an old fellow, probably in his sixties if Flusk had to guess, wish bushy white hair and a snowy mustache he walked ahead of the other two and had a look of authority about him. The men behind the old man couldn't be much older than Flusk himself. One of them was rather tall with gray eyes and a reddish tinge to his brown hair. He looked wary, and stressed. But the other man was the one who held Flusk's attention the most. He was about a head shorter than the gray-eyed man with brown hair. But his eyes looked strained and they constantly darted left and right trying to see everywhere at once. One of his hands was inside his coat and Flusk had no doubt he was cradling a weapon of some sort in it. The whole group had a look of trouble, and that was one thing Flusk did not need this morning. Before Flusk could move toward them to welcome them, Bartim lumbered out of his room and stifled a yawn. He walked over to the 3 men and began talking with them in the usual greeting manor. Flusk thanked the Light that he didn't have to deal with these men and walked outside. While seated in his favorite chair he began sifting through his thoughts, analyzing each event that had happened recently and trying to get a better understanding of them all. Bartim found a chest full of gold, and now we are rich. Then Jasin Natael confronted me about my heightened senses. That night I met Dan and Garc, and made friends with them. That very same night Bartim first spoke with the black clothed man. That night I had the strange dreams that I still don't understand. The following morning I ran into a Tairen noble in The Proud Lion. When I left the inn, the man called Kalor Hunbren talked to me and followed me around. When I finally tried to tell him to leave, he was gone. Dan and Garc left that day also and yesterday's busy night of working gave the inn a nice increase in funds, not that any are needed now that we are rich. That night Bartim spoke again with the strange man dressed in black and came inside scared to death. And now the appearance of these three strange men. Light, so much to think over and all in such short period of time. But thinking all this through was what Flusk loved to do, even if it was time consuming. Flusk observed the crowd in front of him as he did every day. He never got bored of it, every day was different. Someone who watched what he did for two days would say it was the same. But that is not exactly true. The crowd was different everyday, different only to the trained eye. People would be buying things and bustling about to the crowd as usual, but they would buy different things, at different places, at different times. Flusk tried to put a pattern to certain people but it just never happened. Flusk could solve riddles just fine, but people always confused him. Something caught his eye. A difference in the normal bustle of the people. A flash of color… a flash of black…
Flusk focused in on the image of a man clothed in black. Flusk felt the blood drain from his face at the sight of the man. His face hidden by the hood of his cloak, sword in hand he seemed to glide through the crowd towards the inn. The sword seemed… different. It often flashed black then back to silvery steel. This had to be the man that scared his father so much, and now he knew why. The crowd parted away from the man with shouts and cries of terror. Obviously the man had the same nerve bending effects on the other people. Flusk didn't stick around to find out what the man was after; he bolted from his chair to the inn faster than he thought he could. Flusk was no hero, and he defiantly knew when he was outmatched. When Flusk entered the inn, he found other people running about as well. Apparently he wasn't the only one who saw the man. Bartim was shouting for people to calm down and relax, but relaxing was the last thing anyone appeared to be doing. Out of the corner of his eye, Flusk caught the three men from before slipping out of the window on the side of the inn. The suspicious man with the brown hair had a ruby hilted dagger in his hand and his eyes darted frantically about until they rested on Flusk. He snarled at Flusk and quickly scrambled out the window after his 2 companions. Flusk tried to hush people with along with Bartim but it just wasn't going to happen. The whole inn was crazy. People climbed out windows, or ran upstairs to their rooms and slammed doors. Suddenly there was a flash of blue light and the sound of metal on metal from outside. People inside paused for a moment, only long enough to scream "The One Power!" and run even faster. At the sight of the blue light, Flusk gave up all attempts at calming people, and ran to his own room. He saw Bartim doing the same. Flusk got in his room and slammed the door shut, locking it and barring it with whatever he could find. Light, I'm no fighter and I'm certainly no bloody hero. I don't need this! Blood and ashes I did nothing to deserve this trouble! Bloody strangers, bloody One Power, and bloody black-cloaked men!
After a half an hour the commotion finally died down. The screams outside had ceased, and there were no more blue flashes of light. Flusk unbarred his door and unlocked it. In the common room, people were slowly gathering and gossiping over what had just occurred. Some people muttered about a duel in the streets, others spoke of Aes Sedai throwing The One Power around as a weapon. That rumor could not be true, one of the Three Oaths forbade Aes Sedai from using The One Power as a weapon, and besides, Flusk saw no woman out there with an ageless face that all Aes Sedai had. Bartim was out of his room and trying to get people to go on with their spending of money, and most of them did. People sat about the tables again with new mugs of ale and fresh new plates. The commotion had drawn out the sleeping patrons and now they were all hungry for breakfast. This meant Flusk had to get back to work. Flusk rolled his eyes and went upstairs to get into his work clothes. He was glad to be to work, anything to get his mind off what had just happened, the Light send it never happened again.
Hours went by with the normal routine of a normal day. The events of this morning were erased from people's minds and replaced by drunkenness. The sun climbed through the sky and then sunk back down the sky and disappeared over the horizon. Night took over the town, but business went on as usual inside the Wayfarer's Rest. At around an hour after the sun went down, Bartim took Flusk aside at a table in the back and ordered them both a meal and spiced wine. Bartim looked serious, Flusk thought he probably had something important to tell him.
"Boy," Bartim began, "you know that I got that chest full of gold the other day, and you damn well know that what's in that chest alone can support us for a lifetime." He said softly as to not attract ears. The last thing he wanted anyone knowing was that there were riches in the room next to this one.
"Yea, and?" Flusk said in reply.
"Well I've been thinking about selling off the inn and moving to a nice quiet place where there's not so much city bustle." Bartim said. What Bartim meant by "nice quiet place" was "place without evil black cloaked men who scare you out of your skin". Flusk nodded in understanding, quite frankly he wouldn't mind leaving this town either. With all the oddities happening, it seemed the prime time to pack up and leave. Bartim went on about how he knows a person who is interested in purchasing the inn and that the serving girls would keep their jobs. By the time Bartim was done talking, Flusk had eaten 2 meals and emptied 3 cups of wine. Bartim then slapped Flusk on the shoulder and told him not to stay up too late, then scurried off to his room. At least there would be no black-cloaked visitors tonight.
Flusk got up to leave just as 5 men wearing swords slammed open the inn doors and walked in. One of the men was someone Flusk recognized. He was the man who sold him the item he held in his coat pocket. The whole inn went quiet when they entered, and their attention was all on the 5 men. One of the men stepped forward unsheathed his sword and spoke.
"Do you all walk in the Light?" He commanded motioning with his sword. The men and women in the inn raised their cups on wine and hollered in agreement. The man swung his sword at the nearest man and cleaved his head straight off. "Then in the name of The Great Lord, I hereby condemn all of you to death!" He yelled. Two men behind him stepped forward and threw lit fireworks in different directions. Flusk had time to throw himself down to the ground before the fireworks exploded, sending tables and people flying. There was blood and severed body parts all around Flusk as he woozily lifted his head. Shouts rang out through the inn and outside as the floor and walls of the inn started to catch fire. People were ignited as well, running about screaming and diving out windows. The five men had begun walking through the inn and slashing people down with their swords. The patrons who had weapons themselves were trying to fight back against the men, but to no avail. The men were obviously trained to use their weapons well; where as most of the patrons wore their weapons as a matter of show, rather than skill. Flusk felt dizzy, but he forced himself up. He had no idea how to use a sword, but it was his inn he had to defend, it was his responsibility.
Flusk walked over to one of the five men who wasn't looking in his direction, grabbed him by the head, and slammed his head down as hard as he could on the table in front of him. The sound of his skull cracking sickened Flusk to his core. He had never killed someone before, but responsibility overweighed morals at the moment. He leaned over the dead man and picked up his sword. It felt odd in his hands; he had never wielded a weapon before. The four other men had seen Flusk's brave act and moved to stop him. Flusk worked the sword in the only way he knew; he swung frantically trying to ward the men off. Apparently the men were a little surprised by this odd behavior and they hesitated with glances to each other before advancing. Flusk backed away slowly with his sword extended and didn't look behind him. This caused him to trip over a chair and land on his back with a thud. As soon as he tripped, the four men rushed forward to sink their sword in him. Flusk acted instinctively and kicked the chair he tripped over forward. It hit one of the men in the knees and he landed face first on the ground. Flusk quickly sat up and dug his own sword into the man's back. The man twitched with a yell and was silent. Flusk pulled out his sword from the man's back and quickly held it up to parry a swing from another man's blade. With his free hand, Flusk clutched a broken leg of a table that was on fire and thrust it at the man. He backed away from it, but not far enough away from Flusk's sword that was thrust immediately after the burning table leg. Flusk's sword plunged into the man's chest and the man began to spit up blood. The man behind the dying one slashed at Flusk's hand and managed to slit it. Flusk let go of his sword with a yelp and hopped back as the man with the sword in his chest collapsed backwards dead. That left two armed men against his own unarmed self. Flusk backed himself against the wall as the two men came in for the kill.
Suddenly, a sword impaled one of the men from behind and stuck out of his chest. The sword came out of the man's back and he fell to the ground. Behind him stood Kalor holding the bloody sword. Kalor had been the last person Flusk had expected to see here besides one of the Forsaken. There was no time for thanks because the last man lunged for Kalor immediately. Kalor defended himself quite nicely from the man's attacks. But he lacked on the offensive side it appeared, because for every block he'd make, he never followed through with an attack. The man soon had Kalor backing up through the room with only enough time to block the next swing of the man's sword. Flusk heaved himself to his feet and watched as Kalor made a final mistake. As Kalor blocked an attack from the man, he bumped into one of the retreating patrons still in the inn. Kalor was bumped forward right toward the man's next attack. Anger took over Flusk as he saw what was about to happen. His rescuer was about to die. Flusk stretched out his hand and screamed "NO!" At that instant before the man's sword met with Kalor's flesh, the ceiling above the man collapsed down on him with a sickening crash. Relief flooded into Flusk as he realized Kalor was not going to die. But relief was replaced by terror when he realized that the whole inn was collapsing around him. He ran, cradling his cut hand, and practically pushed Kalor out of the inn in front of him.
Flusk sat outside of the inn and watched it roaring with flames. As soon as Flusk had sat down, his thoughts went to the chest of gold. Light what if the gold is all melted! Then guilt set in as he realized he had thought of the gold before his own father. He grabbed the medallion hanging around his neck tightly. I already lost one father; I'm not going to lose another. Flusk was about to run back into the inn when he caught sight of Bartim sitting on the chest outside the inn watching the fire. Flusk exhaled openly at the sight of his father safely outside and no in the inn. Flusk walked over to where Bartim was sitting and hugged him. He hugged him for a minute or two, just glad that he was alive. Bartim patted him on the back and asked if Flusk was ok himself. Flusk held out his cut hand and Bartim winced. It was a deep cut, and Flusk was lucky it missed a vein. There was quite a large crowd outside watching the fire. All murmuring about what had happened with as many different stories as there were people. In his joy, Flusk had completely forgotten about Kalor. He found Kalor where he had left him, watching the flames.
"There's really no amount of words I can express to thank you enough for what you did tonight Kalor. You saved my life and for that I owe you. I also want to apologize for my rude behavior from before, if there's anything I can do just tell me." Flusk said with as much gratitude as he could manage.
Kalor simply looked at him with an amused look on his face. "Don't mention it, it's nothing more than anyone would do. And as for before, it's ok; I guess I was being a little forward. And the only thing you can do for me is promise you won't be so headstrong next time you decide to take on 5 men at once." He said with a grin. Flusk thanked Kalor again for his help and sat down to watch as his father's inn went up in flames.
"You know boy, I think I'll be moving on down to that quiet place a little sooner than I thought." Bartim said with as much humor as he could muster. "Emonds Field isn't far from here, and it's a nice quiet place. I think I'll be making my new home there. You're welcome to come with me, but I think you should see the world a bit before you come. You've been locked in that damned inn your whole life and it wouldn't kill ya to live a little." Bartim laughed. "Now take this with you as well, no need to see the world poor." He said as he placed a purse of coins in Flusk's hand. Flusk nodded in acceptance. He did want to see more of the world now that he thought about it.
At the edge of the crowd, Flusk saw two familiar faces. Dan and Garc were both staring at him with cold gazes. Flusk had a feeling their bad mood had nothing to do with the inn burning down.
"We're thinking of going to Caemlyn for a little while, care to join us?" Garc said without any bit of his normal cheer. Dan said nothing; he just stared at Flusk with weighing eyes. Even Garc didn't look himself. Caemlyn. Flusk thought to himself. Now I've never been to there. Flusk nodded to Garc and said aloud, "Caemlyn it is."
