Aspirat primo Fortuna labori
Translation: Fortune smiles upon our first effort. (Virgil)
Four Days to Full Moon
When they finally reached the inn, Tony saw to the unloading of their bags and made sure their horses were saddled in the inn's stables.
Pepper followed him to the inn's reception. It seemed like a shabby, gentile establishment. The innkeeper and Tony were engrossed in an interesting round of haggling.
Must be over the room cost. Come to think of it, I've never seen Tony haggle before. He seems really keen. I wonder if he is taking two rooms or one.
She blinked then.
A single room and me and Tony in it. Sharing a room. Me and Tony. Darn it. I do not know if I can handle being around Tony at such close proximity.
Tony shook the inn keeper's hand, triumphantly. The innkeeper was muttering something under his breath. Tony came closer to Pepper, bowed deeply and said very theatrically, "Milady, your room is upstairs."
Pepper looked at him with one eyebrow raised. Single room then. No problem. Wait... Tony, what are you up to?
He took her bag, picked up his and a servant picked up the trunk. They walked upstairs, Pepper following the men.
It was a small single room with a cot and a balcony. Simple but clean and cozy. The servant placed the trunk, Tony tipped him and he left. Then Tony picked up his bag and stood in the doorway.
"Well Pepper, you freshen up, call for a bath if you'd like. I will clean up too. I will see you downstairs in 1 hour. We need to meet King John's scout master, to decide our next step.
He was going to close the door, closing her in when she called out, curiously. "Tony, wait, where are you going?"
He looked at her evenly. "To the stables. This is your room."
"What! I thought we were sharing a room?! Why are you staying in the stables?"
He said very casually, "I bargained with the inn keeper. I told him you are a rich lady and I am your humble servant, so I cannot stay in the same room as you. And I do not need a separate room. A single room for you and I bunk in the stables. That way, we are together to plan and prepare and yet you can have some privacy."
Pepper could not believe what she was hearing. Some part of her was telling her to be glad that Tony was clearly giving her space and the other part of her was mad that Tony could not bear to stay in the same room as her. Mad and hurt.
She wanted to be contrary and so she said evenly, "So you do not mind staying with the horses, just to give me some space? Do I make you feel so uncomfortable? Please! Tony, I have some measure of emotional maturity. I can stay in the same room as you and act professional... I mean I can act in a dignified manner. You need not fear any histrionics or emotional displays from me."
She lifted her chin and glared at him, hoping he had not heard the hurt in her voice. He glared back at her but growled "Pepper..."
She waited patiently, sensing he wanted to say something.
He said softly, "It is not about you... troubling me with your presence or anything like that... I do not want to explain it."
But something stirred in Pepper's brain. Tony haggling with the ostler at Loros, over the wagon. Tony haggling with the inn keeper. Something she had never seen before. She gasped as the thought hit her.
"Tony, has this got something to do with money?"
He looked so flustered that Pepper knew she had hit the nail on the head. She also knew she had to let him tell her because this was a sensitive issue.
Sure enough, Tony sighed loudly and closed the door. He sat on a three-legged stool near the door and leaned against the wall. "I have been traveling between Patait and Loros for three weeks now. Sending messages, receiving messages, staying at this inn, it has not been cheap. And bringing you by the Sambuca. That was not cheap either. It is not that I do not have money. It is just that... it is not an endless supply. So I am trying to be careful. I could sell the dagger of Aramiah. But," he pulled out the dagger and Pepper looked with admiration at the beautifully curved blade, "it has become very dear to me." He caressed the blade lovingly with one finger.
He should not sell it. It is all he got from Carinthia.
He stood up and saw Pepper had caught her purse in one hand. He opened his mouth to argue but she reached him quickly and placed her finger against his lips.
"Not a word, Anthony Stark." She said fiercely. "We are equal partners in this adventure right? So expenses get divided equally as well. Now I cannot sleep in this room in peace, knowing you are struggling to rest in the stables. So equal partners means equally sharing the pain as well as the joy and I will handle the expenses part of the inn. If you will excuse me, I will talk to the inn keeper."
She moved towards the door and when he stepped forward to follow her, she firmly put her hand on his chest and said simply, "Tony, I will handle this okay. Please trust me."
He stayed where he was, eyes wide.
Pepper worked her magic on the inn keeper and got a much larger, single room for her and Tony to share, at a slight increase in cost. It had a larger bed but also a screen divider and a large settee as well. They changed, freshened up and were sitting in the salon with Le Loup.
Who, much to Tony's irritation, was busy ogling Pepper, while she charmingly ate some scones and jam. Tony gritted his jaw at the scoutmaster's openly visible admiration.
He cleared his throat and Le Loup snapped to attention and pulled out a map. The scoutmaster spoke. "There are only 4 more days to the full moon. You two must get into the castle by then, in order to be there when the next disappearance happens. Now today, we must interact with the city people. We must learn what they know."
Le Loup pointed at the map with his stubbly finger. "There are two main classes of Patait, that are affected deeply by the going ons and will be vocal about their fears. One are the simple working folk, the garbage men, the dredgers, the sweepers etc. They congregate in a part of the kingdom, called Imo Incolis. They are especially fearful of the Chonsario, as the horsemen are pretty vicious towards them. They jail them for petty crimes, harass their women, start fights etc."
"The other class is the rich middle class and the people who serve them. Now I stress, rich middle class because the upper classes are somehow connected to either the priests or the king. So we cannot fool them with innocent queries. The priests have ears everywhere. If they come to know there are strangers asking questions, we are done for. The place for this is the Marketplace, around 6 pm. It is a hub of activity where the middle class come to make their purchases for the day."
Tony nodded and added, "Pepper, we need to split up for this. You go to the Marketplace. I will go to Imo as I already have the perfect disguise for it."
Le Loup nodded in agreement. "Tony, you will be a garbageman. Seek out a seedy tavern called the Slutty Spoon. All the bottom dwellers congregate there for drink and food. Lady Virginia, if you go as you are, you will attract a lot of attention. You need to be disguised as something that no one pays attention to, so you can observe all."
He snapped his fingers. "I have got it! A beggar woman."
Pepper nodded excitedly and Tony smiled slightly. Got to hand it to her, she is always enthusiastic and eager at any aspect of a quest.
Le Loup said, "You cannot change here. Someone may see and get suspicious. I have your disguises in my cart, let us go to a clearing nearby and you can change there."
Pepper's heart was beating fast as the garbage cart rolled rickety-rackety over Patait's cobbled streets. She and Tony were traveling to the Marketplace.
They had changed into their respective disguises. Pepper was wearing multiple white articles of clothing and a voluminous cloak with a hood, that she had pulled around her head. She looked plump and scruffy as a result. She had rubbed soot and mud on her face and bandaged her eye with a chocolate soiled rag. Sitting in the cart with all the garbage, would give her a stink.
Tony stopped the cart at an alley behind the marketplace, so Pepper could slip out quietly. She did so and hobbled into the alley. When she reached the end, she turned back because she got a niggling feeling. She realized Tony was still waiting there, trying to look at her in the shadow of the alley. Why is he waiting? She shooed him off with her hand and he finally drove off.
Pepper hobbled into the marketplace and gasped in awe at the magnificent metropolis shopping center before her. The area was circular with high ceramic columns that were used to hold a canvas canopy, high above the stalls. The floor was tiled in an intricate pattern of tiles colored in blue and black. Pepper looked down at them curiously. They seem to be arranged to resemble a profile.
The place was teaming with people and animals in all shapes and sizes. It seemed as everything and anything was available for sale, from fine rugs and jewels to food and furniture. She gasped again as she saw the most exotic animal walk into the marketplace led by a dark-skinned man. It defied explanation with its long, long legs. swaying gait, light bronze fur and a funny hump on its back. It had a bovine face on a long slender curved neck with the longest eyelashes, Pepper had ever seen. She followed the whatcamacalit with fascination until it abruptly unleashed a stream of smelly urine unceremoniously on the street. Then she decided to set herself up near a vegetable seller.
Hardly had she sat down when another beggar came over, also a woman and sat down next to her. She was a much older woman and looked at Pepper suspiciously. "Now you seem new ... who are you and why are you in my spot?"
Pepper said hoarsely, "What is your name?"
The old lady tilted her head suspiciously. "It is Prithe... Why?"
"Well I do not see the name Prithe anywhere here so ... sorry I did not know it is your spot."
For a moment, the woman stared at Pepper who was praying she would not cause a scene. Instead she smiled a toothless grin and stretched out a skinny, wrinkled hand for Pepper to shake.
"Smart one you are. Us beggars need to stick together. Times are tough as it is. What be your name?"
"Ari."
"Ok Ari, you new here?"
"Me own flesh and blood just kicked me out of the house. Said I was getting on in age and not giving anything back."
Prithe chuffed sympathetically. "Me, I was always alone but I had a small shop, selling matches and pipes. Then those damn sarding horsemen decided to have a bit of sport and burnt it down. I have no savings, so I have to..." she shrugged. "It was either this or spreading my legs but no one will have me."
Pepper wondered what to ask her next and how not to seem too curious. Let's start with the Duke.
"Isn't Duke Rorsharch the Justice of this Kingdom? Can you not approach him for help?"
Prithe snorted. "The Duke will not lift a finger anymore for us common folk. He will probably sooner throw me in jail, my only crime would be poverty. He wasn't like that, he wasn't. He was a noble, kind man... we knew we would always be safe because of the Duke. But he changed overnight. He now sits alone in his house and sees no one. He kicked out his own servants. His own guards are scared of him. He acts very strangely. One night his wife packed up and left the city. God knows what he did to her."
Pepper listened to this with confusion. How can a just man start ignoring his own people overnight?
Then she heard a loud ominous chanting that grew louder. The chant was undecipherable. The Marketplace grew silent and Pepper saw the crowd separate as if to let something through. She stood up, only for Prithe to yank her back down.
"For God sake's, woman! Have you no sense! The Menolestes approach! Stay down..."
Pepper ignored her and stood up again, then shuffled quietly to stand closer to the stall. She wanted to see what was coming.
She smelled a sickly, sweet scent, cloying and exotic. It permeated the air. The crowd started to murmur.
Pepper saw a sea of deep, indigo blue move towards the center of the Marketplace. She realized it was a group of bald men dressed in blue robes, moving like a unit. The scent was coming from the ornate thuribles that two of the bald men swung as they walked. The chanting grew louder and louder and Pepper realized the crowd had started to chant as well.
The men halted in the center, right above a thick dark section of the mosaic tiled floor. They all looked the same, bald, chubby with huge pot bellies and amphibian facial features. One of them, the one in the center, lifted a hand. The chanting stopped. The man interlocked his fingers and rested them on his impressive stomach. Then he spoke loudly.
"Sinners, pious believers and heathens, hear ye, hear ye, the time of the Great One comes once again. Fear the Old Lords. Fear the Moon. Fear the wrath of the Great One. Repent for your sins and pay tribute at the Temple of Milene tomorrow. The Goddess is all knowing and will forgive those who admit their shortcomings."
Then the chanting started again, the crowd joining in as well and the group turned around and went back the same way that they came. Pepper sat back down and looked at Prithe .
"Alright, what was that all about?"
Prithe looked at her strangely. "Ari, do you not know of the Menolestes of Milene? Do you not live in Patait?"
Pepper affected a nonchalant expression and said calmly. "I am actually from Loros. My son brought me here yesterday on the pretext of taking me shopping. He then abandoned me here. I do not want to talk about it."
She felt slightly guilty for lying as Prithe immediately looked sad and nodded sympathetically.
Pepper was going to repeat her question when they heard a commotion behind them. A middle aged man and woman were roaming from stall to stall, asking something loudly to the shopkeepers, who were turning them away fearfully. Pepper watched as they came to the vegetable stall.
"Has anyone seen our daughter? Please... she has not come home from the Marketplace since yesterday. Please tell us, have you seen our daughter?"
The woman was nearly in tears. "She is tall and blonde with brown eyes and wearing red shoes... she loves the color red."
The vegetable seller whispered loudly, "I think your daughter has been chosen to be an Oracle candidate. A girl who looked a lot like her, was here today morning. But I saw the Menolestes take her away."
The woman started to cry and the man wrung his hands. "Oh god no, not the Menolestes. Not our Eleta!"
The vegetable seller grew stern. "You should be honored. She could be the Oracle. Even being considered as a candidate is a big honor. You ungrateful fools. Be careful lest the Goddess curses you."
The man said nothing but pulled the woman with him as they walked away sadly, the woman still sobbing, "Eleta, Eleta..."
Pepper kept quiet as another beggar hobbled over to sit next to them. He was a cripple. He looked at Pepper curiously but instead whispered to Prithe, "Twenty sheckles say she never returns. What say you, Prithe?"
Prithe smacked him loudly on the arm. "Have you no shame, Aramis? She is someone's daughter... look how anxious her parents are."
The cripple shrugged and turned to Pepper. "What about you, Blindy? Want in on some of the action?"
Pepper asked with confusion. "I do not understand. Are you placing bets on the young woman? Why?"
Aramis looked at Prithe. "Is she new?" Prithe nodded.
Aramis looked at Pepper and chuckled. "Well Blindy, we in Patait, are said to be experiencing the dawn of a new religious age. According to the Menolestes, a Great One is coming and an Oracle is needed to commune with the Great One, to help it adjust to Patait and so on. Without the Oracle, the Great One will not come. So our damnably powerful priests of Milene or Menolestes, are trying to find a new Oracle before a full moon."
Prithe interrupted here. "Find is the wrong word, Aramis. They do not find, they select and coerce the so called 'lucky' candidates into attending a special sort of ceremony."
Pepper asked, "How do they decide who is a worthy candidate?"
Aramis mused "Good looking, young, attractive, confident, clever. I do not know, something that grabs the head priest's eye? It is difficult to predict. Man or woman, rich or poor does not matter. All I know is the head priest sees what he likes and that person is gone."
"Gone? What do you mean, gone?"
Prithe and Aramis exchanged a look. Then Prithe continued, "The priests collect candidates. Then they have a special ceremony, where they invite their inner circle from amongst the Kingdom's rich, to witness the filtering of the candidates. These events always take place before the full moon. No one knows what happens in them but the funny thing is none of the candidates even remember what happens in these ceremonies. There is a gap in their memories. Not only that, after the full moon, at least one or two of the candidates go missing. That's why that girl's parents must be worried. There is no guarantee that their daughter will return to them."
Pepper's eyes widened with alarm. "The candidates just disappear?"
"Yup", Aramis continued. "Not all of them. Two or three out of a group of ten. Slowly but surely, they disappear. No bodies, no witnesses."
Pepper said "What of their loved ones? Why don't they confront the priests?"
Prithe stood up and whispered. "You see that stall over there?" She pointed at an empty stall with a red checked tablecloth. "That was Shanbag's stall. He was a poultry man. Made the finest breaded chicken fillets in the Kingdom."
Aramis nodded sagely.
"I was one of his customers, back when I was... prosperous. Anyways, before the last full moon, his nephew, Jorge, was selected as a candidate. Shanbag was so proud of his nephew. He was a religious man and visited the Temple every other day. So he considered it a great honor that someone from his family, was chosen. But after the full moon, Jorge never came back. And so Shanbag went to the Temple and confronted the head priest, who turned him over to the horsemen."
Both Prithe and Aramis looked at their feet. Pepper said slowly, "What happened to him?"
Prithe's eyes filled with tears. "The next day, his head was on a pike, placed at the Kingdom's entrance. The horsemen confiscated his farm since he had no other living family members. And the Menolestes use him as an example of what happens if you refuse or confront them with respect to the Oracle. That is why no one dares complain."
Aramis muttered angrily, "The priests always were powerful because Patait is steeped in mysticism and religion. And they are the representatives of Milene, the patron Goddess of this land. But they are now the real rulers because the horsemen are behind them. I do not know who is in charge, whether it is the horsemen or the Menolestes, but one thing is for sure, they are working together and they are dangerous."
Prithe murmured "Do not look now, but that group of temple worshippers is trying to shame people publicly. Quick, sit down and avoid eye contact."
Pepper obeyed her but strained to watch from her seat as a small group of mostly women, walked through the crowd, pointing at various people and talking about them loudly. Aramis whispered angrily, "Another consequence of the priests rise in power. Idiotic crones like these, whose main skill is gossiping, have become very bold. They spread intolerance and fear. Patait is a melting pot of different cultures but the priests have incited a religious fervor and so everyone must worship the Goddess irrevocably and completely."
Pepper looked at the sky. Evening had turned to night. She had to get back in the alley because Tony would come there to pick her up and take her back to the inn. She felt she had learnt all that she could from the Marketplace. And she had a very interesting idea on how she could infiltrate the castle. She could not wait to tell Tony.
Aramis and Prithe were deep in discussion on where to sleep for the night. Pepper tapped them both on the shoulder and said "I must take your leave. I must... relieve myself urgently in the alley. Goodbye." They looked at her with confusion.
Prithe called out "Ari, when you come back tomorrow, we will meet up here and then I will show you the menagerie. I think you will like it." Pepper turned to look back at her sadly and nodded. I promise, Prithe, after this is over, I will try and help you in any way I can.
