12th Day of Fireseek, 565 CY
The Billet Inn, Willip, Furyondy
"That's the last of it."
There was a brief silence as each of the seven carefully stowed away their portion of the proceeds in their belt pouches, sacks and backpacks. It had come to about two thousand gold wheatshaffs each. Aslan noticed the looks the Journeymen gave as an equal share was portioned out to Tadoa. They had said nothing though, so neither had the elf.
The paladin looked around at the small room they were crowded into. Quthfor had indicated that he and his two companions would be staying in Willip for a while. He had chosen the Billet because he was familiar with it, and much of its clientele consisted of mercenaries, as opposed to seamen. Aslan could see the early morning traffic on the Land Legs Road below the window. He then turned around to regard the ranger again, who was still sitting down, rubbing his eyes.
Although he had healed Elrohir and Tojo of their physical injuries yesterday, Elrohir was mentally still not quite back to his old self yet. He claimed to be feeling better though and had ardently refused all of Aslan's offers to have him healed at a temple, although Aslan was unsure whether Elrohir's reluctance came from a fear of losing most of their new-found gold, or a defiant belief that he would soon be fine on his own. For his part, the paladin had decided to wait and see if a few more days would bring his friend back up to speed.
The voice of the Journeymen's leader took Aslan's attention again. Quthfor smiled and offered his hand. "Well, I guess we part ways here. I only wish we could have stood beside you in combat." He shrugged. "Perhaps we may yet get the chance, on some future day."
Aslan took Quthfor's hand and shook it. "We will always stand by our allies." He then looked over at Mr. Right, who somewhat sheepishly offered his hand as well.
"Robert," he said. "My name is Robert."
"Is that Right now?" the paladin asked with a smile, shaking his hand as well. Mr. Not, whose real name turned out to be Bertram, was the next to say goodbye.
After all the farewells were said, the Elrohir party descended the stairs and out into the common room of the Billet. It was moderately full, mostly with armored men having breakfast and talking business. As they began to wend their way through the room, Tojo stopped and turned back to look at Aslan.
The paladin was standing on the bottom step, his light blue eyes scanning the room, a look of intense concentration on his face. As Tojo returned to Aslan's side, the others came back as well. They waited a few moments, and then Elrohir spoke first.
"Aslan?"
The paladin's eyes refocused on his. "It's all right, Elrohir. Let's go."
"You were checking these people out for evil auras, weren't you?" asked Tadoa, in a thankfully quiet voice, as the quartet made their way out of the Billet. Aslan nodded.
"You've been doing that a lot ever since we got here," noted Elrohir.
Aslan made no reply, but his expression gave no denial.
"Why?" pressed the ranger.
Aslan looked grim. "I've been lax, Elrohir. I wasn't gifted with this ability to let it go to waste. I- I feel that evil influences are close to us. I can't let them catch us off guard."
Elrohir put his hand on his friend's shoulder. "You're always on your guard, Aslan. No one does more for us than you do, day after day. Don't overextend yourself, my friend. You're only human."
"Spoken like a true half-human!" came a voice from across the street.
The quartet watched as a figure about five feet tall, garbed in a dark blue hooded cloak over leather armor, dodged horses and crowds of people to make his way over to them. Elrohir frowned. He knew who this was, but he couldn't remember his name. He glanced over to Aslan and was surprised to see that look of concentration again on the paladin's face as he eyed the approaching figure. He's really going overboard with this, he thought. Judging from his reaction, Aslan detected nothing amiss.
The figure pulled up to them and pulled down his hood, revealing the smiling elven face of Ailclesis.
"I should have known you were one of the Hidden when I first met you, Elrohir. I must be slipping." He shook his head. "That's not good in my profession."
Aslan, apparently noticing the momentary look of consternation on Elrohir's face, spoke up first, replying in elven.
"May as well speak the common tongue, Aiclesis. All of us know elven."
The elf raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Really?" he asked in Common, glancing over at Tojo. "I didn't know there were elves in Nippon."
The samurai shook his head and bowed, very slightly.
"Not rearn there. Rearn afterwards. Arways increase knowredge, to better serve with honor."
"And just what is your profession?" asked Tadoa with a sly smile.
Aiclesis looked up at the sky. "My, look at those clouds! It certainly looks like we'll get rain or snow soon, don't you think?" He glanced over at the child and winked.
Tadoa nodded sagely, still keeping the smile. "I thought so."
Elrohir decided to jump in. "It's good to see you again, Aiclesis. I assume your friends are here, as well?"
"Yes. I'm doing some solo ventures at the moment. It may be a while until we can get home, but it'll happen, sooner or later. I take it your expedition to the lair of Bellicose was, shall we say, profitable?"
The ranger nodded. "Some problems with a squatter, but we took care of it. Are Cygnus and Caroline still here?"
Aiclesis shook his head. "They departed yesterday, back to your home. Jinella and Zantac went with them."
Elrohir's face wrinkled up in puzzlement. "Who?" He looked over to Aslan, who smiled benignly at him.
"You're not forgetting anything, Elrohir. Jinella was one was of the clerics of Heironeous present at our trial." He paused, and then looked back at Aiclesis. "Why did she go with them?"
The elf's eyes widened slightly. "That's right, you don't know, do you?" His gaze turned back to Elrohir. "Jinella said that Mendoleer was murdered in his cell four days ago, and Talat has vanished. Her church believes Nodyath was responsible and has ordered her to stick to you people until they can get as much information as they can about him." He paused. "Are you all right, Elrohir?"
Elrohir in fact felt somewhat ill, and he was sure he probably looked it. When Aiclesis had mentioned Mendoleer's death, he had had a momentary vision of his own body, ripped to pieces on the floor of a dark, dank prison cell. It rippled through him, leaving him feeling cold and somewhat feverish. He shook his head to clear it. It didn't really work, but he didn't want anyone making a fuss over something they couldn't do anything about anyway. He glanced back at Aslan. "Evil influences, indeed."
The paladin's face indicated acknowledgement, and disappointment. Nodyath, he thought. Damn. He then turned back to Aiclesis with a puzzled look. "And who was that other one you mentioned- Zantac?"
Aiclesis gave him a wry smile. "He's a local wizard, trying to sign up Cygnus to the Guild here. He's quite a piece of work," he chuckled. "He actually got Flond animated about something. Unfortunately, that wasn't much of an improvement, but there you go," he said with a smile that reminded Aslan of Argo. "Apparently, he's going to stick around and help out until Cygnus either joins up or strangles him, whichever comes first."
"Wonderful," groused Aslan.
Elrohir considered. Zantac sounded like Aslan would consider him a bad influence on Cygnus. Still, he considered, having another wizard around could be-
"Look" Tadoa was pointing down the street. The others turned to follow the young elf's outstretched arm.
People were moving to the far sides of the street, to let a horse-drawn wagon come by. On the wagon bed was a large metal cage, perhaps eight foot-square. Crammed inside were two male humans. Two mounted knights rode on each side, along with almost a dozen foot soldiers in total.
One of the captives, a brown-haired muscular man of about thirty-five or so, wore ripped padded underclothing. He had clearly been wearing some kind of heavy armor before being taken out of it. Several scars ran down his arms, and one down his left cheek. He had unruly brown hair and several days' worth of stubble. Below his dark brown eyes raking over the crowd, his mouth was curled in an animal snarl.
The other man looked a few years younger. He wore a simple shirt and trousers, with a light gray woolen jacket. His blonde hair was cut very short, and his chin sported a bit of peach fuzz. His look of utter calm next to the barely-controlled rage of his partner was unnerving. Elrohir was reminded of Tojo. He glanced over at the samurai, who as usual, was showing no reaction whatsoever.
Several members of the crowd were shouting obscenities and threats at the imprisoned duo, the barbaric-looking of the duo occasionally answering in kind. Suddenly, a piece of rotten fruit came hurling out of the crowd at him.
Instantly, the arm of the other man shot out of the cage, catching the fruit- an overripe karafruit, without so much as a drop of juice spraying. It was instantly sent back on a return trajectory, slamming into the forehead of the man who had thrown it, knocking him down to the ground. More pieces of fruit followed, but all of them were intercepted and returned in like fashion. The soldiers shouted at the crowd to stop. They obeyed momentarily, but then a rock came flying at the back of the blonde man's head. Without even looking behind him, his right hand came up, grabbed the stone and hurled it back over his shoulder in one smooth motion. The thrower, a wiry-looking youth, managed to dodge out of the way at the last second. The rock smashed to pieces against the stone wall of a building.
The wagon stopped. One of the mounted knights jabbed his spear at the monk (What else could he be, thought Elrohir) through the bars of the cage, but the man's foot lashed out and knocked the weapon clean out of his hand. On a signal from the lead knight, all his guards took their bows from off of their shoulders, notched an arrow, and aimed it at the monk. He smiled in an almost gentle fashion and raised his hands in a show of peace. The crowd continued to shout at the two, hoping to rile them up into another display that might result in their deaths, but even the bearded man seemed to realize that they were being baited, and made no overtly violent moves. Slowly, the wagon began to move again.
Out of the corner of his eye, Elrohir saw Tojo turn to him. "Faryow," the samurai said.
The ranger mentally slapped himself. He hadn't noticed that the mounted knights all bore the gray field and white stripe standard of the Earl. As they drew level with him, he stepped out towards one of the knights. "Good servant of the Earl," he called out. "Who are these two men?"
The knight sighed heavily, as if he had been asked this question many times this day already. He answered tersely, without turning his head. "They are the head of a band of brigands that have terrorized the Earldom for some time now. We have scattered the masses and captured their leaders. They will trouble us no more."
Elrohir turned to ask Aslan a question, when he noticed that the paladin was staring hard at the two prisoners in the cage. Well, I don't much see the point, but it's understandable, the ranger thought.
Then he saw the two men staring back. Their eyes were absolutely riveted on Aslan and remained so until the wagon, heading towards the Prison, had moved out of sight.
When Elrohir again looked at Aslan, the paladin was now looking directly at him. The ranger swallowed hard and said meekly "Well, now we know what the Earl's men were doing so that they-"
Aslan cut him off, a rare occurrence for him. "Aiclesis," he told the elf. "Tell Sir Dorbin of this. We'll get in contact later with you later." The elf nodded, raised his hood over his head, and moved off. Aslan began to herd his friends along. "Come on, people, we need to find a deserted alley."
"Why?" asked Elrohir. "I'm betting they were very evil men, but-"
"They recognized you, didn't they?" asked Tadoa. The paladin looked over at the child, as serious-looking as the elf had ever seen him.
"Worse than that, Tad," he said. "They thought they recognized me." His gaze swept over his friends.
"We need to get home. Now."