Free Riders
Author's Note: Eragon is not mine. Char, Blaster, and Saranya are. Comment as you see fit. Title is a reference to Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, which I also do not own.
Chapter 22: Kung Pow: Enter the Castle
Blaster and Sara talked it out that afternoon. After explaining what had happened that day, and discussing what the werecat had said. They talked until dusk, then went their separate ways. He and Eragon met up just outside of Jeod's. They knocked on the door.
"Has Neal come back?" Blaster asked the butler.
"Yes sir. I believe he's in the study right now."
"Thank you very much," Blaster said. He and Eragon strode to the room in question and peeked inside. Brom was sitting by the fire, smoking.
"How did it go?" Eragon asked.
"Bloody awful!" Brom growled around his pipe.
"That good?" Blaster commented, sitting down.
"So you talked to Brand?" Eragon asked.
"Not that it did any good," Brom grumbled. "This administrator of trade is the worst sort of bureaucrat. He abides by every rule, delights in making his own whenever it can inconvenience someone, and at the same time believes that he's doing good."
"So, a no-go on the record show?" Blaster asked.
"No," Brom snapped. "Nothing I could say would sway him. He even refused bribes! Substantial ones, too. I didn't think I would ever meet a noble who wasn't corrupt."
"Gotta watch out for those," Blaster said. "Even I prefer the greedy bastards over the ones who abide by every law they are given and enact." Brom muttered some curses, but otherwise didn't comment.
"So, what now?" Eragon asked.
"I'm going to take the next week and teach you how to read," Brom said.
"And after that?"
A smile grew on Brom's face. "After that, we're going to give Brand a nasty surprise." Eragon pestered him for details, but Brom refused to divulge.
Dinner was held in a sumptuous dining room. Jeod sat at one end of the table, Helen at the other, sporting hard eyes. Brom, Eragon, and Blaster were seated between them, which seemed to Blaster as a not-so-ideal place to be. True there were empty chairs between them and there was some space, but not everyone was one hundred percent protected from the glares of their hostess.
The food was served, and the hosts began eating, followed closely by the guests. With Helen's death glare and simmering resentment pouring from her, dinner was tense. They were all soon finished, and they left the table for bed.
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Over the next few days, Brom began teaching Eragon in learning how to read and write. Then, he and Blaster would spar before dinner, drawing a crowd of children as spectators. The dragons were all but abandoned, being only greeted during short intervals in the evening. What was worse was the news of powerful people disappearing in the night, with only their mangled corpses being discovered in the morning.
A week after they had begun the routine, the dragons were alerted to their possible exit from Teirm, with one scenario suggesting that they would be running with soldiers on their heels. The night before they were to infiltrate and sneak a peek at the records, Blaster took his chance at scrying. He thought of Char then invoked the ancient language.
"Draumr kópa," Blaster muttered, and he looked upon the water basin in his room.
Blaster's fears had come true when he looked into the basin. Char was chained in a cold and dark cell. She had been crying, her eyes bloodshot. Moonlight shone through a barred window set high in the wall, and fell on her face. She muttered something in Torillian that Blaster didn't catch. Feeling his own power draining, he let go of the image, a single tear on his cheek.
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The night in which they were to look at the records came quicker than expected. When they all met, Eragon had his bow as opposed to Zar'roc, mostly due to his slowly growing proficiency with the blade. Brom had his sword and staff, and Jeod had his rapier, although he was dressed all in black.
"That toad sticker is too thin for any real fighting," Brom observed. "What will you do if someone comes after you with a broadsword or a flamberge?"
"Be realistic," Jeod retorted. "None of the guards has a flamberge. Besides, this toad sticker is faster than a broad sword."
"It's your neck," Brom shrugged.
They walked casually along the street, avoiding watchmen and soldiers. Eragon seemed tense. As they passed Angela's shop, a flash of movement caught the two Rider's attention. Blaster knew, but Eragon was unsure of what would have caused the movement because the source had disappeared.
Brom led them along Teirm's outer wall. By the time they had reached the castle, the sky was pitch black. Eragon shivered slightly, but not because of the cold. It was the sealed walls of the fortress. Jeod silently took the lead and strode up to the gates, attempting to look at ease. He pounded on the gate and waited. Seconds later, a small grille slid open and a surly guard peered out.
"Ya?" the guard grunted. Blaster could tell by both look and smell that he was getting drunk.
"We need to get in," Jeod said.
"Wha' for?" the guard asked, peering at Jeod closer.
"The boy here left something very valuable in my office. We have to retrieve it immediately." Eragon hung his head, shamefaced.
The guard frowned, clearly trying to get back to his bottle of booze. "Ah, wha'ever," he said, swinging his arm. "Jus' make sure 'n give 'im a good beating f'r me."
"I'll do that," Jeod assured as the guard unbolted a small door in the gate. They entered the keep, then Brom handed the guard a few coins.
"Thank'ee," the man mumbled. As soon as he had tottered away and out of sight, Eragon pulled his bow from his tube, and Blaster unbuttoned the restraining strap on his holsters. Jeod led them quickly into the main part of the castle, hurrying to their destination while listening for soldiers on patrol. At the records room, Brom tried the door, but it was locked. He pressed his hand against the door and muttered some words in the ancient language. It opened with a faint click. Brom grabbed a torch from the wall, and they darted inside, closing the door quickly.
It was a small room, full of wooden racks piled high with scrolls. A barred window was set in the far wall. Jeod threaded through the racks, running his eyes over the scrolls. He halted at the back of the room.
"Over here," he said. "These are the shipping records for the past five years. You can tell the date by the wax seals on the corner."
"Now what?" Blaster asked. He was not overly surprised they had gone this far without getting caught.
"Start at the top and work down," Jeod replied. "Some scrolls only deal with taxes. You can ignore those. Look for anything that mentions Seithr oil." He took out a length of parchment from a leather pouch on his hip and stretched it out on the floor, setting a bottle of ink and a quill next to it. "So we can keep track of whatever we find," he explained.
"Way ahead of ya," Blaster said, tapping on his wrist computer.
They immediately went to work. Eragon positioned himself so that he could see the door. Blaster took one of the scrolls that Brom had taken off the shelf, unrolled it, and began scanning the records into his computer. Whenever he came to the mention of Seithr oil, he would mark it on his touch screen, then show it to Jeod to copy it again, just to be sure. Many scrolls were of ships that sailed in the southern seas. However, they all continued to work.
It was quiet outside, except for the occasional watchman. Blaster could feel a presence, but continued working. Eragon's head soon shot up. Blaster looked where Eragon was looking and saw a small boy crouched on the windowsill. His eyes were slanted, and a sprig of holly was woven into his shaggy black hair. Blaster attempted to infiltrate the boy's mind, only to stop seconds later when he realized it was Solembum. He was busy talking to Eragon anyway, so the alien went back to scanning the records.
"There are soldiers looking for us," Eragon suddenly said. Blaster looked up and saw Solembum was gone.
"How do you know?" Brom asked.
"I listened in on the guard," Eragon said. "His replacement just sent men to search for us. We have to get out of here. They've probably already discovered that Jeod's office is empty."
"Are you sure?" Jeod asked.
"Yes!" Eragon said impatiently. "They're on their way."
Brom snatched another scroll from the rack. "No matter. We have to finish this now!" Blaster too grabbed another scroll, quickly unrolled it, and skimmed it just as quickly. He didn't have time to mark times when he saw the Seithr oil. When the last scroll was done, Brom threw it back on the rack, and Jeod hastily jammed his parchment, ink, and pen into his pouch. Eragon grabbed the torch.
They all raced from the room and shut the door, but just as it closed, they heard the heavy tramp of soldiers' boots at the end of the hall. They turned to leave, but Brom hissed furiously, "Damnation! It's not locked!" He put his hand against the door, and the lock clicked just as three armed soldiers came into view.
"Hey! Get away from that door!" one of the solders shouted. Brom backed up, assuming a surprised expression. The three men marched up to them. The tallest one, the one who spoke earlier demanded, "Why are you trying to get into the records?"
Blaster rested his hand on his sword. He could have easily killed them, but he dared not.
"I'm afraid we lost our way," Jeod said. His speech was strained. A solder glared suspiciously at them.
"Check inside the room," he ordered one of the men.
The soldier stepped up to the door. He tried to open it, then pounded on his mailed fist before declaring it was locked. The leader scratched his chin.
"Ar'right, then," the leader said. "I don't know what you were up to, but as long as the door's locked, I guess you're free to go. Come on." The soldiers surrounded them and marched them back to the keep.
I still think it would have been easier to investigate if I were to play an officer or a detective, Blaster said, but I'm not complaining about these guys helping us get away.
At the main gate, the lead soldier pointed and said, "Now, you walk through those and don't try anything. We'll be watching. If you have to come back, wait until morning."
"Of course," Jeod promised.
Blaster didn't need eyes in the back of his head to know that the guards were staring at them as they left. On the other side of the gate, Eragon suddenly sprouted a grin, and he jumped into the air. Blaster shot Eragon a cautioning look, while Brom growled, "Walk back to the house normally. You can celebrate there."
Eragon adopted a staid demeanor, but Blaster could tell he was fit to burst with energy. Once they had hurried back to the house and into the study, Eragon exclaimed, "We did it!"
"Yes, but now we must figure out if it was worth all that trouble," Blaster said. Jeod took a map of Alagaësia from the many shelves and unrolled it on the desk.
Blaster committed the map to memory, both his and his wrist computer. The left side of the map was a giant ocean that extended to the west. The Spine, fittingly, stretched along the coast, even further north than the map read. The center of the map was filled by the Hadarac Desert, and east of that was blank. To the south was Surda, a small country that had seceded from the Empire after the fall of the Riders. From what Blaster had deduced by the conversations of the previous nights, Surda was secretly supporting the Varden. The eastern border of Surda consisted of a mountain range merely labeled Beor Mountains, the giant mountains Eragon told Blaster about. The whole range was supposedly ten times the height of the Spine.
Islands rested off the coast of Surda: Nía, Parlim, Uden, Illium, and Beirland, with Nía and Uden more like outcroppings, and Beirland the largest of the five, large enough for a small town. Near Tierm sat Sharktooth Island, named for its shape. Near the north was a large, knobly island known as Vroengard, the ancestral home of the Riders. Blaster thought it looked more like a volcano.
Level with Carvahall, but across the plains, rested the immense forest known as Du Weldenvarden. It was so large that it, like the Beor Mountains, didn't seem to have an eastern edge. Nor did it appear to have a northern edge. Blaster's eyes then moved to the plains where the city of Urû'baen sat in the center. There, Blaster knew, sat King Galbatorix and his black dragon, Shurikan. Eragon pointed to the capitol city and said, "The Ra'zac are sure to have a hiding place here."
"You had better hope that that isn't their only sanctuary," Brom said. "Otherwise you will never get near them." He pushed the rustling map flat with his wrinkled hands until Blaster put down full clips for his pistol on the corners as paperweights.
Jeod pulled the parchment out of his pouch and said, "From what I saw in the records, there have been shipments of Seithr oil to every major city in the Empire over the past five years. As far as I can tell, all of them might have been ordered by wealthy jewelers. I'm not sure how we can narrow down this list without more information."
"Okay," Blaster said. "Since the Ra'zac are the king's servants, he can tell them to travel whenever he wants, and he's sure to have a strong workload on them. If they are expected to depart at any time, day or night, then the best bet for them would be to stay at a crossroad where they could have easy access to the whole country fairly easily." Jeod stared at Blaster in shock. "It's a tactical advantage. I would know because I'm a General."
Brom got excited and started pacing the room. "Yes, I see. But, this crossroad has to be large enough so the Ra'zac can be inconspicuous. It also has to have enough trade so any unusual requests, such as special food for their mounts, will go unnoticed."
"That makes sense," Jeod nodded. "Under those conditions, we can ignore most of the cities in the north. The only big ones are Teirm, Gil'ead, and Ceunon. I know they're not in Teirm, and I doubt that the oil has been shipped farther up the coast to Narda. It's too small. Cerunon is too isolated…only Gil'ead remains."
"The Ra'zac might be there," Brom conceded. "It would have a certain irony."
"It would at that," Jeod acknowledged softly.
"What about the southern cities?" Eragon asked.
Blaster looked over the map and said, "You might be on to something, there."
"Well," Jeod said. "There's obviously Urû'baen, but that's an unlikely destination. If someone were to die from Seithr oil in Galbatorix's court, it would be all too easy for an earl or some other lord to discover that the Empire had been buying large amounts of it. That still leaves many others, any one of which could be the one we want."
"Yes," Eragon said, "but the oil wasn't sent to all of them. The parchment only lists Kuasta, Dras-Leona, Aroughs, and Belatona. Kuasta won't work for the Ra'zac; it's on the coast and surrounded by mountains. Aroughs is isolated like Ceunon, though it is a center of trade. That leaves Belatona and Dras-Leona, which are rather close together. Of the two, I think Dras-Leona is the likelier. It's larger and better situated."
"And that's where nearly all the goods of the Empire pass through at one time or another, including Teirm's," Jeod said. "It would be a good place for the Ra'zac to hide."
"Give the man a medal," Blaster said, patting Eragon on the back.
"So…Dras-Leona," Brom said as he sat down and lit his pipe. "What do the records show?"
Jeod and Blaster searched their respective records. Jeod found his first.
"Ah, here it is," Jeod said. "At the beginning of the year, three shipments of Seithr oil were sent to Dras-Leona. Each shipment was only two weeks apart, and the records say that they were all transported by the same merchant. The same thing happened last year and the year before that. I doubt any one jeweler, or even a group of them, has the money for so much oil."
"What about Gil'ead?" Brom asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No go," Blaster said, finding them in his records. "They don't seem to have the same access to the rest of the Empire, and they've only received the oil twice in the past five years."
Jeod thought for a moment, then said, "Besides, I think we forgot something—Helgrind."
"Ah, yes," Brom nodded. "The Dark Gates. It's been many years since I've thought of it. You're right, that would make Dras-Leona perfect for the Ra'zac."
"Then, I guess it's decided," Blaster said. "We go to Dras-Leona."
There was a rustling of parchment as Jeod rolled the map up. He handed it to Brom and said, "You'll need this, I'm afraid. Your expeditions often take you to obscure regions." Brom accepted the map with a nod. Jeod clapped him on the shoulder. "It doesn't feel right that you will leave without me. My heart expects to go along, but the rest of me reminds me of my age and responsibilities."
"I know," Brom replied. "But you have a life in Teirm. It's time for the next generation to take up the standard. You've done your part; be happy."
"What of you?" Jeod asked. "Does the road ever end for you?"
A hollow laugh escaped Brom's lips. "I see it coming, but not for a while."
They all soon left for their rooms. Blaster contacted Sara to relate the night's adventures before he dipped into his meditative state.
Their path is set. This journey is coming to an end. But, will they still get the Ra'zac and get out with their lives? Stay tuned as we reach the turning point in Free Riders.
Please, feel free to review, but don't flame or troll. That is all.