Another Daja chapter. Hope you all enjoy. I'm gettin more into the Protector of the Small crowd here. Please R and R, thank you!
"I'm doomed, Merric." Neal moaned into his cup.
The red haired knight patted his friend sympathetically on the back, simultaneously signaling the barmaid for another round. He had a feeling he would need it. "Are you sure you can't fix it?"
Neal's head hit the rough wooden table with a thunk that echoed across the subdued pub. It was a little grimy for Merric's tastes, but Neal had asked to meet him in this lower city pub in a near panic. The broken sword wrapped in cloth that Neal had been dramatically clutching for the last half hour explained the hysteria.
"I've been to every smithy in Corus, and not one can repair it!" Neal sat up to take a deep draft of his cheap beer. He coughed a little. "Ugh, what is this swill?"
"You chose this place." Merric reminded him, rolling his eyes.
"I didn't want to risk anyone overhearing me." Neal said.
"You're not planning to commit treason." Merric said patiently. "And what the hell did you do to irreparably break a sword from Raven Armory?" His voice took on a pained note; the swordsman in him was cringing at the thought of such a blade being ruined. He reached over and drew the cloth away from the sword and- "What in the Kings name did you do?" He hissed.
The sword wasn't broken, exactly. It was still in one piece, the hilt to about a foot up the blade untouched and pristine. However, about halfway up the blade, there was a five inch section that had been completely melted. It was as if someone with molten hot hands had superheated the sword and then twisted, giving the formerly straight sword a crooked lilt.
"Gods." Merric breathed. "Kel is going to kill you."
Neal whimpered. "I didn't mean to." he said. "I was just- there was this spell in one of Yaolin Goalsdottir's spell books and it- it went wrong-"
"Did you go to the Raven smithy?"
"First place I went to." the Queenscove muttered. He took another long draft of ale. "I've contaminated it with my power, they said. Numair offered to help, but he said he'd more than likely blow it up if he tried."
"Does Kel not know?"
"No. She's on a training trip with the Own and the pages as a favor to Raoul. I told her I'd get sharpened and refinished for her birthday- you know how she hates surprises."
"You lied to her?" Merric asked Neal incredulously. One, it was almost impossible to lie to Kel- she could read most people like open books and two, Neal was a spectacularly bad liar.
"No- I broke it after."
Merric settled back with a sighed, giving his companion a gimlet eye. "You are doomed."
The barmaid took this moment to come to their table with another tankard of ale for the duo, depositing it in front of an already tipsy Neal.
"Thank ye, dearie." the girl winked, tucking the copper Merric handed her into her bodice before sashaying away. Merric grinned. Perhaps this 'establishment' had some merits after all. Huh. He wouldn't have guessed Neal would be the type to frequent bars with busty barmaids... though he had spent his squire years under Alanna the Lioness, who had a bit of a reputation for doing whatever the hell she wanted, including frequenting the seedy underbelly of the capital. She had married the Rogue of Corus after all-
"Can we please concentrate?" Neal asked, socking his fellow knight on the arm with drunken coordination.
"Yes, of course." Merric coughed, straightening. But he couldn't help his eye wandering across the floor again. This time his eyes caught on the dark skin of a woman in the opposite corner. She was exotic-looking- her skin was ebony to the bronze-skinned Copper Islanders and olive toned Karthakis.
"Merric!" Neal said, exasperated. "Can't you stop staring at women for five seconds and help me?"
"How?!" Merric turned back to Neal. "I'm no smith, man. Buck up and prepare yourself for a long day of jousting practice and Kel's blasted Yamani face. You know the Lioness gave her that blade; she'll be disappointed in you for a few weeks, and then she'll forgive you."
"That's the worst part." Neal whimpered. "Kel won't be angry- she'll give me that look that, I swear to the Gods, she stole from my mother. And on top of that, Yuki probably won't speak to me for a while and I know for a fact that Alanna will take me out to the training courtyard and beat me black and blue for being so stupid." He buried his face in his hands. "As a friend, I'm asking you to kill me-"
"Excuse me?"
Merric started and looked up. Towering over his seated form, the tall dark woman stood at their table. She was broad shouldered, with heavily muscled forearms visible disappearing into her rolled up tunic sleeves. Her hair was swept back into a multitude of small braids and gathered at the back of her head witha few hanging down to frame her face.
Terrible flirt that he was, Merric immediately turned on the charm. "How can I help you?"
The woman didn't even look in his direction. Instead, her entire focus was on the naked sword on the table. "May I?" She asked, and without waiting for an answer she lifted it off the velvet cloth and cradled it in her hands.
"Hey-" Neal lurched forward drunkenly. "Please, be careful-"
"I could fix this." The woman said slowly, weighing the expertly hammered steel in her large calloused hands.
"Wha-?" Neal stopped. He took in her patched clothing and rought, worn hands. She looked more like a day laborer than a smith. Especially not the kind of smith that could pull of a job that the finest mages and craftsmen in the country had deemed unsalvageable. The woman set the sword gently down on the table, as if reassuring the nobleman that she wasn't going to run off with it.
"I didn't always live in Corus." she said as if reading Neal's mind and shrugged. "There's not many places for... me."
Ah. Neal recognized that shrug. It usually occurred when Kel was dealing with ignorant people she couldn't change. It was a simple leap to deduce that perhaps smith guilds (Conservatives, the lot of them) would be hesitant to take on a strange foreign woman in what was primarily a mans profession, no matter her skill.
"Okay." Neal slurred. "Take it. Fix it. Please." He shoved the sword towards the woman, practically off the table.
"Wait, wait- Neal. You're drunk. Stop." Merric ignored Neal's incredulous look. "Listen, if you can fix this sword we'll pay you. A lot. Hell, if you can reforge that monstrosity back into a sword befitting the name Raven Armory, I'll get you a job there myself. If you can fix it, which I doubt."
The woman merely nodded, looking thoughtful.
"But I won't have you running off with that sword."
This raised an eyebrow. "I need my forge."
"No." Merric shook his head. "You need a forge. You do this at the palace."
The smith stilled. "The palace?" Her eyes flicked up and down the two, skeptical. They certainly didn't look like nobles, with none of the fop and frillery that usually made the type stick out in a dump like this.
"We're knights." Merric offered. He should of expected this, really.
"Noblemen." the woman said flatly. "What are lords like you doing in a place like this?"
"Commiserating!" Neal sighed, setting his empty tankard down. His pathetic manner was so disarming, that the smith relaxed a fraction.
"No offense, my lords." Her voice wasn't quite hostile, but it wasn't as warm as it was before. "But I'd need to know I'd be paid for my work."
Merric nodded. "Fair enough." He plucked a gold noble from the hidden pocket in his moneybelt. "Consider this a down payment, to insure honesty by both parties."
The woman cocked her head, consider him. There was a long stretch of silence as the smith measured what he said carefully. Finally, she said "When do you need it done."
Both Merric and the woman's eyes swiveled to pin Neal to his seat. "Er- a fortnight?"
Slipping her hands in her pockets, the woman nodded. "It will take longer at the palace, but it can be done. The magic steeping in the metal- it is deep within the core of the sword. It will take some time to untangle the two."
"But you can do it?" Neal asked.
"Yes." She smiled, and her teeth were bright against the gloom of the bar and the dark of her lips. "I suppose you want me to start as soon as possible?" At Neal's thankful smile, she nodded. "I will come to the palace in the evening."
"Evening?" Merric couldn't help blurting.
"I do have a job." the woman said, an eyebrow raised. She bowed slightly. "I will see you tomorrow...?"
"Ah, Merric of Hollyrose." Merric stood and shook that woman's hand. He had a feeling that if he tried to kiss the back of her hand, she'd simply laugh at him. "And this drunken idiot is Nealan of Queenscove."
"Ha." Neal said sourly, still seated.
"I am Daja Kisubo." The smith said. "Pleasure doing business with you."