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Back to the previous chapter: Revelations
First Draft
Bilbus thanked the professor and excused himself and his comrades. The party went back down the stairs and out of the building.
Bilbus turned to Eric. "Think we should check in on Kasey?"
Eric looked towards the building into which Kasey had gone several hours earlier and the empty grassy field in front of it. "Perhaps we should. I don't see Farran on the grounds."
The party walked to the campus public house. Bilbus left his crate of seaweed with Rishala, then went in with Eric and Sturm. After numerous gestures and halting questions, they gleaned that Kasey had gotten drunk on the beer served in the pub, then staggered off towards Athenapolis with the help of Farran.
"He probably went back to the ship," Eric surmised. "He wouldn't be likely to take a room at an inn without telling us."
"Besides," Bilbus added wryly, "Meri is still aboard the ship." He yawned, stretching his arms wide. "But I am not going through the hassle of the Customs House again. I am taking a room at an inn in town."
"Bilbus, that's nae a bad idea," Rishala observed. "A room in an inn."
Adria sighed. "I still need to go back to the ship. I need to get some clean clothes for tomorrow."
Bilbus turned to her as he picked up his crate. "Think about it, Adria. A warm bed that isn't rocking." He moved his crate in a wave pattern to emphasize the constant roll of the Bard's Hearth.
Adria thought about it for a moment. "Once we get settled at the inn, I'll go back to the ship to get a change of clothes."
"I'll get a room for us," Eric said to Breanna.
"Okay," she replied, not really paying him attention. "I am going to the library. Maybe it is open all night. I want to find some books."
"Okay," Eric said. He turned to Bilbus. "What about Sturm?"
Bilbus glanced back towards the public house. "I don't think we need to worry about him. He was getting comfortable at the bar, and I think a couple of the female students were interested in studying him." He grinned lecherously.
Breanna wandered away from the party, heading towards the library.
"Once we have a room, I'll come find you and let you know where it is," Eric called after her. She waved nonchalantly, without looking back, and kept heading towards the library.
A few blocks from the Athenapolis Gate was a large inn with a brightly painted sign. It had a large, reddish mountain with a brilliant blue lake at its base.
"This looks good," Bilbus said as he surveyed the three story building.
He walked through the door and approached the front desk. Gesturing, he indicated that he wanted a room, and that his companions needed two additional rooms. They went up the stairs and settled into their rooms. Adria left to get a change of clothes from the ship.
When she returned a while later, she took two steps into the room and scrunched her nose. "Gods, Bilbus! That seaweed reeks. Take it out of here."
"I can't just leave it lying around, Adria," Bilbus hissed. "My sword is in there, remember?"
"So take it out of the box and get that box out of this room." She strode across the room and threw the window open wide, hoping that there was enough of a breeze to clear the stench out of the room.
"Very well," Bilbus growled. He dropped the still damp crate on the bed and pried it open, then fished through the dank seaweed until he found the grip of his sword. He drew it out and shook the dark brownish-green leaves off of the black weapon. He dropped the sword on the bed and carefully sealed up the crate.
He hefted the crate onto one shoulder and left the room with it. Adria carefully picked up the sword, grumbling to herself about the smelly wet spot it left on the bed covers, then picked up a pitcher of water on the table in the room. She poured the water into a washbasin, found a wash cloth, and soaked the cloth in the water. She then wiped the sword down until it no longer had brackish spots of water on it.
Bilbus returned shortly after Adria had finished cleaning his sword. He found it lying across one of the chairs in the room.
Adria was sitting on the bed, her arms crossed. "Now, get our of your clothes. They stink, too."
Bilbus started to protest, then noticed the mischievous look in Adria's eyes. He started loosening the straps on his armor, a grin forming on his face.
A couple of hours after sunset, Eric rapped lightly on Bilbus's door. When Bilbus finally opened the door, Eric noted that the mountebank was naked.
"Yes?" Bilbus asked impatiently.
"I saw a Karasimian exhibit in the antiquities building. There was a suit of armor and a sword there, but the sword had a wooden blade. It was a nicely made blade, but still wooden."
"So? People aren't supposed to have swords here, so maybe they put the wooden blade in to make sure no one stole it."
"If I get some paint, can you make my sword look wooden? I could import it as a 'museum replica' that way."
Adria made some noise from somewhere in the room behind Bilbus. Bilbus glanced back over his shoulder, then looked back at Eric.
Adria peered over Bilbus's shoulder. "Can this wait until morning, Eric?"
Eric nodded. Bilbus quickly shut the door and set the lock.
Bilbus woke abruptly. He kept still, for he heard something in the room with him. He nudged Adria, and got a sharp jab in the side in response, but she did not stir.
"Bilbus," hundreds of voices whispered quietly.
Bilbus sat up, fully awake. He grabbed his sword, which had been leaning against the wall next to his bed, and lay it across his lap, carefully keeping the point away from Adria.
"Well," the voices whispered again. Athenapolis had enough street lanterns to provide a fair amount of light in the room. Standing in the far corner, near the open window, was the shifting robes of the Shadow Kindred. "We have given you time to make a decision. Choose now whose side you support."
A bell rang once somewhere outside, announcing Latins, three hours after midnight.
"A decision, huh?" Bilbus replied. "The Great Lord has made a couple of interesting offers to me, you know. He gave me her," he gestured at Adria. "Although I still don't know if that was a present or punishment. Another time, he offered me Avillonia, for me to rule over. There are a few things I need if I am to rule Avillonia. I know where Excalislibre is," -- the magickal sword that was used in the ceremonies of coronation -- "and I know where Uther's crown is. I just haven't had time to go digging it out of the rubble of Camelough." He laughed, a short, mirthless bark. "Some friends of mine even have his old battle flag. But I want his spear. Tell the Great Lord that he must grant us safe passage to Erelhei Cinlu, and give us Uther's spear."
"You refuse to give the Great Lord an answer." The Shadow Kindred was not asking.
In a blur, the Shadow Kindred rushed forward, bringing its sinister curved blade to the ready. Bilbus jumped out of bed with a yelp, bringing his own adamantine blade between him and his unnatural foe. It swung the darkblade at Bilbus. Desperately, Bilbus brought his sword up to block, feeling the force of the swing as the darkblade struck the flat of his own sword.
With the metallic ring of the swords contacting, Adria bolted awake. She rolled out of bed, reaching for her quarter staff as she did so. She was near the window, but Bilbus was on the far side of the Shadow Kindred, blocking its lightning-quick strikes as best he could. Adria screamed.
As the Shadow Kindred focused on her husband, Adria swung her staff at its head. The metal-capped wooden pole struck the shimmering creature soundly, and it staggered a step, but it still kept pressing its attack on Bilbus, who was losing ground in the small inn room.
Adria glanced to her right, at the bed. She dropped the quarterstaff and grabbed the light weight blanket that was crumpled over the foot of the bed. As the Shadow Kindred swung again at Bilbus, Adria threw the blanket over the creature, covering its head and upper body.
She darted past the Shadow Kindred and grabbed Bilbus by the arm.
"Let's go!" she shouted, nearly pulling Bilbus off balance as she ran for the door. She heard the Shadow Kindred bang against the armoire as it struggled to remove the blanket. She fumbled at the latch of the door for a moment.
"But..."
Adria cut off Bilbus's protest. "We need to get back to the ship!"
The door opened towards her. She pushed Bilbus back a pace and threw the door open, then swung Bilbus out the door. She followed after him and slammed the door behind her, then grabbed Bilbus by the wrist and raced down the hallway.
Rishala opened his door. He saw Adria running towards him in a shift, her face unusually pale, with Bilbus in tow. Bilbus wore black silk smallclothes and brandished his adamantine sword. There was a bloody cut on Bilbus's side.
"What the hells?" Rishala shouted.
"Shadow Kindred!" Bilbus gasped. "In my room!"
Rishala almost wanted to laugh at the absurdity, but Adria's expression silenced any thoughts of disbelief. Bilbus's door opened violently.
Rishala grabbed the lantern shining next to his door and threw it at Bilbus's doorway. It shattered on the wooden door, splashing burning oil back at something coming out of the room.
Rishala darted into the hallway behind Bilbus, following the other two. The next door down the hall opened, and Eric glanced out. He saw the Shadow Kindred in its burning robe pursuing his friends.
"In here!" he shouted.
Bilbus dived into the open door. Adria had just passed the door, but Eric grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back in. Rishala followed his companions into the room, and Eric slammed the door behind the Caledonian. He set the latch, then glanced back at his friends.
"There's a Shadow Kindred out there," Adria said. "We need to get back to the ship."
Bilbus had stopped by the window. He had started to swing at the glass, intending to break it, then remembered that his arms were bare. Instead, he threw the window open and leaned out.
A resounding thump echoed in the room. The Shadow Kindred was beating on the door.
Without warning, Adria slammed into Bilbus, shoving him out the window. A startled yelp ended with a string of Kelltic curses as the mountebank landed badly. Adria jumped out after him, and Rishala did likewise. Eric followed the other three.
Bilbus limped along, favoring one ankle. Eric got to one side of Bilbus, supporting him. Adria went to the other, and the two half-carried Bilbus down the dark, cobbled street, hurrying south.
Rishala rushed after them, concentrating on an intricate Heka flow as he did so. He completed the casting as he caught up with his three friends, and he slapped Adria and Eric's shoulders.
"Slow down," the Caledonian whispered loudly. "We are invisible now. If we slow down, we won't make too much noise."
His companions slowed to a walk. Bilbus shrugged Adria and Eric away, walking on his own, albeit painfully.
"Did ye get cut, Bilbus?" Rishala whispered. "We need to wrap that wound so you don't leave a trail."
They stopped on the side of the road, in front of a closed carpenter's shop. Eric tore part of his silk robe's sleeve off, then started carefully tearing it into strips.
"It got me," Bilbus finally replied.
"The Shadow Kindred?!?" Rishala asked in alarm. He glanced around at the empty street and lowered his voice again. "Was it a bad wound?"
"They don't give good wounds," Bilbus replied, irritation creeping into his voice.
Rishala glanced back towards the inn. He could see the dancing of flames in what had been Bilbus's room, and the dark form of the Shadow Kindred looking out the window two over from Bilbus's room. The robes still burned, but the Shadow Kindred did not seem aware of it.
It ducked back into the room, and the party started walking again down the road towards the south west end of town. After a few blocks, the party could hear the rattling of armor approaching from around a bend in the road ahead of them. They moved to the side of the road and paused for a moment as a quartet of night watchmen jogged past them, heading for the inn. Bilbus waved at them as they passed, unaware of the four invisible observers. Once the watch was well past them, the party started walking again.
Breanna's eyes were heavy as she skimmed across the same words for the fifth time. She blinked and glanced up from the table.
The hall was dark, lit infrequently by lanterns hanging from hooks set about level with her head. Dozens of books lined shelves on both sides of the hall, and a window at the far end let in a little moonlight.
Breanna looked again at the books she had. Three of them were books on herbs and mixtures written in a Kelltic dialect with which she was unfamiliar. Reading them had been a challenge, mostly because of the odd spellings. The fourth book, slightly larger than the other three, was written in the elven tongue. It was a tome pertaining to demons. Sections of the book talked about identifying demons, or capturing and binding them, or finding their true names. Breanna already regretted saving it for last. Elven writing could be a challenge to wade through when one was alert.
Slowly, Breanna became aware of noises outside the library, coming from the direction that the window at the end of the hall faced. There was more light out there, as well: an orangish flicker, as if someone had lit some fires.
Breanna stood stiffly, stretching her arms as she did so, and fought a yawn. She approached the nearest lantern and took it off of its hook, and carried it to the large windows to look outside.
As soon as she could see the grassy field beyond the library, Breanna lowered the lantern to the floor and crouched, peering over the bottom sill of the window. The large, dark forms running on the field were distinctive, with their large bows and large swords. Orcs were on the Academy's grounds.
Fires licked wildly at the front of the antiquities building across campus. Breanna could see the flames roaring from the shattered windows on the front of that building, and a pair of orcs jogging away from it.
Another of the orcs stopped jogging, and in a fluid motion, drew an arrow and loosed it. Breanna looked to where the arrow had been fired, and she saw a student falling to the ground. As she looked again across the field, she could see other light-colored mounds where people had been felled by either orc arrows or orc swords.
Keeping low, Breanna scurried back to the table where she had left her bag and the books. She grabbed one of the herbalism books and the demonology book and stuffed them into her bag, then shouldered the bag, grabbed the lantern, and went down the stairs to the ground floor.
The front desk in the lobby of the library was staffed by a male student who was tediously thumbing through a book. He glanced up at Breanna and grinned.
"There are orcs out there," she said.
He looked at her blankly.
"Orcs! Outside!" She pointed towards the front door, fighting the frustration she felt.
The student said something, and Breanna growled to herself and switched to the trade tongue. He still did not comprehend.
Breanna ran back towards the stairwell. She had spotted a descending flight of stairs, and she hoped that the buildings had tunnels connecting them. She paused at the top of the stairs and looked down the dark stairwell. There may be no tunnels, she realized. I would be trapped with nowhere to go. At the end of this hallway was a doorway to the back of the library. She ran towards it, instead.
There was a window in the back door. She looked out it carefully, not wanting to run right into another of the orcs. Behind her, in the lobby of the library, Breanna heard some crashing, followed by an inhuman roar. The distinctive twang of a bow followed close behind the roar, and a definitely human scream, cut short, happened right after the bowshot.
Breanna threw the back door open, leaving the lantern in the hallway, and ran out. The loud crack of a heavy orc arrow piercing the door chased her into the dark night. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could see other people hiding at the edges of the buildings, and others running out of their dormitories, where they were cut down by orc archers.
Breanna raced towards the wall surrounding the Academy, here only twenty paces away. She reached the wall and stopped. She still wore the lightweight dress she had purchased earlier, and her armor was weighing down her bag.
She dropped the bag and quickly started loosening the laces on the sides of the dress that held it together. She pulled it over her head and dropped it on the ground next to her. Ignoring the startled glances she got from the students hiding nearby, Breanna pulled her leather pants and jacket on, quickly tightening the straps she needed to adjust. She stuffed the dress into her bag, closed the bag, cinched it shut, then looked at the wall.
Like most of the wall surrounding the Academy, this section was a wooden palisade, eight feet tall, constructed of thin planks. The posts were spaced every ten feet or so, and a pair of horizontal boards provided support for the planks. Breanna hefted her bag onto her shoulder, thankful that it felt lighter now, then climbed onto the lower of the horizontal boards. She quickly found herself atop the fence. On the outside was open fields leading back towards Athenapolis. She jumped down and jogged towards the Athenapolis Gate.
Near the Academy's gate were some of the Hellenic soldiers. They ran towards the open gates of the Academy in a tight formation. Just seconds later, some of them ran back out of the Academy, any semblance of military discipline lost. A few others staggered out with arrows protruding from them. Breanna tried to run faster.
By the time Breanna crossed the quarter of a mile between the Academy and the Athenapolis Gate, the Hellenic soldiers had started to organize a second force to head to the Academy. This time, they had archers along, and they had some large, thick wooden shields to stop the orc arrows. They ignored the foreign woman in the leather armor as they prepared to march back to the Academy.
Breanna tried to remember the directions Eric had given her earlier in the evening during one of his stops at the library. She had not really paid him much attention, since she had no intention to pass up the opportunity to study at the Academy. She wandered down the street, pausing at each intersection to decide if she should turn. When the ringing of firebells caught her attention, Breanna turned down a side road.
Ahead of her was an inn. Smoke poured lightly from one open window on the second floor, and several men ran towards the building with pails of water. The building matched the description she half-remembered Eric giving her, and she did not think it was a coincidence that there was a small fire. But her friends were nowhere to be found. They must have gone back to the ship. And if they didn't, I can get Kasey to help me find them.
Breanna turned southwest to head to the gate to Saronus and the docks.
Rishala had just reactivated the invisibility dweomer. He and his comrades were a half block from the gate that led to the walled road to Saronus, and there was a guard standing at the open gates.
The four approached the gate quietly, stepping carefully with their bare feet to avoid any sharp rocks that may be on the ground. As they passed the guard, Adria stopped to look at him.
He was leaning against the side of the gatehouse, arms crossed and head tipped forward. What might have appeared to be a bored posture from a distance was clearly a sleeping posture at close range. His eyes were shut and he was breathing lightly. Adria muttered contemptuously under her breath, then kicked him squarely in the chest. Her bare heel hurt from the impact, but there was a clear dent on his breastplate as he fell to the ground, startled awake.
The guard looked around, one hand on the grip of his sword, as he tried to find the source of the sudden impact. He calmed and got back to his feet, still looking around. A grin spread on his face, and he called out in Hellenic. A few moments later, another guard arrived, and the two started talking, the first using animated hand gestures while the second repeatedly shook his head.
The party kept walking down the unlit walled roadway towards Saronus, past pushcarts that had been closed for the night.
The silence of the empty road was broken by the flapping of leathery wings overhead. Once more the party froze, looking cautiously into the moonlit night sky.
Something about the size of a horse flew overhead, ratty wings flapping quickly. It bore a rider upon its back, and the rider had a cloak that still burned. The Shadow Kindred and its steed flew out to sea.
The party continued its quiet trek to the Customs House of Saronus. Rishala let the dweomer expire for a time along the three mile roadway, since no one else occupied the road and the walls themselves were unmanned.
When they got closer to the Customs House, Rishala reactivated the invisibility dweomer. A large doorway, wide enough for a pair of wagons abreast, lay open on the left side of the gatehouse. A second door on the right was closed. Green arrows above the open doorway pointed into it, while red circles had been painted above the closed doorway.
Inside the large exit room was a single attendant, who sat behind a tall desk, thumbing idly through an illustrated book. As the party padded through the exit room, the attendant kept flipping through pages, never aware of the four.
Minutes later, they were aboard the Bard's Hearth. As soon as Rishala dropped the dweomer, Adria raced downstairs to wake Kasey.
When Eric caught up with the assassin, he found Kasey sitting up in bed, confused and worried. The Church Knight glanced towards Eric.
"What is she talking about?" Kasey asked.
Bilbus stood in the doorway. Dejectedly, he said, "I'm on your side."
Eric explained. "A Shadow Kindred visited the inn and talked to Bilbus. It also attacked him. We managed to sneak back here, but I'm worried about Bree and Sturm. They were still on the Academy grounds."
"Shadow Kindred?!?" Kasey jumped out of bed.
"We have to go back to the inn," Bilbus said. "Our stuff is there. All of my things. Assuming they didn't burn up already." He winced at the cut on his side. "Not that it will matter for long."
"How are we going to get through customs?" Adria asked. "My papers are in our room. It's going to be hard to explain how we got on this side of the Customs House without them."
"We can sneak back through," Bilbus suggested.
"I can mix something that we can put on a dart, just to make sure the customs agent doesn't notice us," Adria added.
Eric confronted Bilbus. "Just what did the Shadow Kindred do? What did you say? You told Kasey you were on his side."
Bilbus sighed. "The Shadow Kindred showed up in my room again. It wanted to know whose side I was on."
"And what did you tell it?"
"I told it that I needed Uther's spear before I could join them. I figured we'd have them give us safe passage to Erelhei Cinlu so we could get it. It didn't buy my offer. It tried to cut me to pieces, instead."
Eric nodded to himself. He looked back at his other comrades. Kasey was putting his padded armor on over his smallclothes. The others had watched his brief exchange with Bilbus.
"We should go get Bree and Sturm," he said.
"Why not wait for them?" Bilbus asked. "They can take care of themselves. Besides, we can't take any weapons with us. If there are more Shadow Kindred out there, I'd really rather have Kasey nearby with Caladbolg."
"True," Eric said.
"So why don't we take our weapons with us?" Adria asked. "Rishala can make us invisible, and we can sneak in, get Bree and Sturm, and get back here."
Eric considered his response. "If we have to use the weapons, there will most likely be witnesses. Rishala's invisibility won't protect us if we start fighting. And Hellenic law does not treat violators of their weapons policies well."
"So we don't get caught," Adria protested.
"No, Adria, I think that that is a bad idea."
"Then how do we get them out if there are more Shadow Kindred?"
Footsteps approached down the hall, stepping heavily and rapidly. Eric glanced into the hall to see Breanna approaching at a jog, face red from exertion.
"Orcs!" Breanna panted. "Orcs!"
"Orcs?!? Where?" Kasey said as he rushed towards the doorway, grabbing Caladbolg as he did so.
"Academy! They were at the Academy, burning buildings and killing students."
Eric asked, "Where's Sturm?"
"I didn't see him. I don't know."
"We should go get him," Eric said.
"Why?" Bilbus blurted. "Bree made it back here. I'm sure a Sun Knight can."
"Bilbus, you saw the prophecy. I'm sure the orcs know who he is, too. If they find him and kill him, all is lost."
Kasey set his sword down on his bed and grabbed pieces of plate armor. He started dressing himself, stopping occasionally to interrupt Eric for help with some of the straps.
Once Kasey had his armor assembled, he excused himself to ready Farran's barding. Eric left to get his own armor readied, and Adria went to her room to mix some strong sleeping poisons. Breanna tended to Bilbus's wound, finding it as untreatable as Sturm's was.
The party assembled on deck twenty minutes later, ready to find a way to the Academy, when Sturm staggered up the gangplank.
The sun was just peeking over the horizon over Sturm's shoulder as he reached the top of the gangplank. He surveyed his comrades, readied for battle.
"You saw the orcs, too," he said.
Eric looked at Kasey and Farran, who were both pacing impatiently from one side of the deck to the other. "Kasey, stand down."
"Awwww!" Kasey banged a gauntleted fist on the rail.
"You were able to get back okay?" Eric asked Sturm.
"The Hellenic guards took care of the orcs. It was not a pretty sight. The orcs outclassed the guards, but the guards had more numbers. They did not come prepared to fight. The first group got cut down by arrows. The second group took heavy casualties."
"They must have used the Portal," Bilbus said. "They took my idea!"
"They won't do it again," Sturm told the mountebank. "At least, not soon. They burned down the antiquities building. It is still burning, at least, what's left of it. A few other buildings were damaged. The orcs also killed a lot of stupid people who went running out into the open."
"At least we don't have to try to do a rescue through Hellenas," Eric said with relief.
"Where were you?" Bilbus asked the Sun Knight.
"I was in the women's barracks... dormitory." Sturm paused with a bemused expression. "Did you know the Academy separates the men and women into different buildings to sleep? I don't know what they expect to accomplish doing that, since I saw men sneaking into the women's building and women sneaking into the men's."
"At least you made it back," Eric observed. "We can plan what to do next."
"Get our stuff out of the inn," Bilbus growled.
"Yes, we can do that. Adria and I can go back through customs and get new papers. The people working this early in the morning are surely not the same people who worked yesterday afternoon, so no one should know we already have papers. We can bring everything back to the boat. You stay here, Bilbus. Kasey has Caladbolg, and Sturm has Gretorixmar. If another Shadow Kindred arrives, I think everyone is safer here, where you can fight it."
Bilbus nodded.
"We need to find an asylphar," Breanna said. "His wound is pretty serious, and I can not heal it without one."
Bilbus sighed. "If you can get my stuff back, I might have enough to pay for half of an asylphar. They cost, what, a hundred Kingdom Drakes? And I can sell Acquisition 2. A race horse like that ought to garner several Drakes."
"Let's make sure we can find an asylphar, first," Eric reminded Bilbus.
"I have one," Breanna said.
Eric shook his head. "That is in your family's necklace. You can't sacrifice it if there are other options." He looked at Adria. "Ready?"
Adria nodded. The two went down the gangplank and down the dock.
Eric and Adria returned in late morning, Adria with Bilbus's bag slung over one shoulder and her own on the other; Eric with his and Rishala's travel packs.
Bilbus rifled through his bag, checking the inventory. He pulled out his armored jacket and started plucking at the stitching on the inner padded lining. Several small silk bags fell out, stained from sweat. The mountebank opened one and carefully emptied the contents. Several small gems glistened in the morning sunlight, deep reds, rich greens, dark blues, and a couple sparkling, clear stones. He opened the other bags and checked their contents as well.
Adria waited until he had finished, then went below decks. She returned in one of her silk dresses. "I'll find an asylphar," she told Bilbus. "I'll be back as soon as I can."
Sturm approached. "I am going back to the Academy. I want to make sure the Portal is not usable. I will walk with you to Athenapolis, Adria."
The two went through the port city of Saronus, then down the walled road to Athenapolis. Sturm took his leave, heading along the outer walls of Athenapolis to find the Athenapolis Gate. Adria continued into the city, looking for jewelers and other whitesmiths.
Sturm surveyed the campus. The dead had been moved together, to make it easier to haul the bodies away. Sturm counted about fifty dead. Numerous wounded, most of them not ambulatory, had been assembled on the greens in front of the public house. Healers worked through the wounded, using magicks and prayers to save the injured. A strong presence of soldiers marched through the area, all of them carrying bows in addition to swords. A group of men in white robes with purple sashes walked slowly amongst the wounded, offering verbal support to the injured.
The campus itself had sustained very little damage. Several buildings had fire damage, but none of the damage was severe. The one exception was the antiquities building. It had been burned to the ground, and the shrubs and trees near it had been singed from the heat of the fire. The building still burned, but most of the flames had died down. A mound of glowing embers and collapsed stonework marked where the antiquities building had stood. Sturm did a quick mental calculation of where the Portal was in relation to the building's exterior. Unless something had collapsed over the pink granite slab in an advantageous way, the Portal was buried on top and all around by at least five paces of smoldering rubble.
Satisfied that no orcs would be coming through the Portal any time soon, Sturm decided to return to the Bard's Hearth.
Adria found a jeweler who spoke trade tongue after some searching. Even better, the jeweler had a necklace that had an asylphar.
"It is a beautiful necklace," Adria said. "How much for it?"
"This one, it is a special piece," the jeweler said. "I worked it in platinum -- do you know how hard it is to work platinum?"
"I have heard. How much for it?"
"For this one, one-thirty."
"One hundred thirty geld?"
The man nodded.
"For the gem alone, how much?"
"This is asylphar. Very rare. I get mine from mountains north of here, along the Great Swamp. Very dangerous. But the finest asylphar on Oerth, the Hellenic asylphar. It would be a shame to remove it from this setting. It is a wonderful piece."
"Yes," Adria agreed, hiding her impatience. "How much for the asylphar?"
The man thought for a moment. "Ninety-five."
Adria looked at the gem. It was noticeably smaller than the asylphar Breanna had, but Adria was sure Breanna had valued her asylphar at around a hundred Kingdom Drakes -- a hundred "geld".
"Thank you," Adria said. "I will have to see if I have enough for it."
She left the jeweler, heading back to the ship to report her findings.
Despite Eric's advice, Bilbus went into town. He brought Acquisition 2 along, wanting to find a buyer for the horse.
After an hour of randomly wandering through Athenapolis, Bilbus found a horse dealer who spoke the trade tongue.
"I have a fast horse to sell," Bilbus said.
"How fast?"
"Very fast." Bilbus pulled out a section of maille and jingled it. Acquisition 2 raced away, slower than it used to: after three weeks on a ship, it was out of shape.
"It'll come back," Bilbus said. "So, how much?"
The man scratched his head. "Five Mina."
"Five Mina?"
"Five geld," the man translated.
"No, no, no. Fast horse. Twenty Mina?"
"Not that fast. Need to see it win races."
"When are the races?"
"Three days, next one."
Bilbus sighed. There was not enough time to get Acquisition back in shape in three days. He thanked the horse trader, then left to find where his horse had stopped.
After Bilbus had insisted on heading into town, Rishala suggested to Eric that they head into town to see if any of the fortune tellers could give them any information about the dreamlands.
It was a fruitless morning and early afternoon. Rishala concluded that every fortune teller in Athenapolis was a fraud, and Eric was willing to agree with him. The few who could speak the trade tongue had insisted on payment in advance, and they had given nothing more than vague ramblings that had little bearing on the questions Rishala had asked.
Disgusted, Eric and Rishala returned to the ship.
The party convened on the deck of the Bard's Hearth.
"The Portal is going to be blocked for a while," Sturm reported. "The antiquities building has burned down completely. The Hellenic guards took out the orcs, but casualties were high. And a lot of students were injured or killed as well."
"At least we won't have to worry about a larger group of orcs coming through," Eric said.
"I found an asylphar," Adria said. "The jeweler wanted ninety-five Drakes for it, or a hundred and thirty if we take the platinum setting it's in."
Bilbus groaned. "I wasn't able to sell Acquisition. I only have the fifty or so in gems."
"He told me where he gets the asylphar. There are some mountains north of Athenapolis, along the Great Swamp."
Eric scratched his head. "That's odd. Asylphar are found on very tall mountains. I didn't think the mountains on the edge of the swamp were that tall. Going there could be pretty hazardous. We would either have to go overland through Hellenas, unarmed, or we would have to sail back up to the swamp and go through it."
"Where there are orcs," Bilbus observed.
"Exactly."
"Or," Bilbus said, pausing to make sure he had everyone's attention. "We sell Bree's necklace to get the cash to buy this other asylphar."
"That's a stupid idea," Adria said. "Why sell her asylphar to buy a smaller one?"
"Because we won't sell her necklace. We sell a ringer. Like we did in Londoun to get your necklace."
Adria nodded. Bilbus had used her to help steal a necklace. He had been handling it, then used a Heka casting to create an identical necklace. He dropped the original into Adria's bodice, and gave the ringer back to the whitesmith. A couple of hours later, the ringer evaporated.
"Bree, get your necklace," Bilbus said. "Don't worry, it won't hurt the necklace."
Breanna returned a minute later holding her family heirloom. Bilbus took the necklace and concentrated on it, forcing dark Heka through it in an intricate flow. Breanna shuddered as the dark magicks flowed through her necklace. When he gave the necklace back to Breanna, he held one identical to it.
"Here you go," he said as he offered the necklace to Adria.
"Should I change outfits?"
"No," Bilbus replied. "No commoner would have that kind of necklace." He paused, a grin forming on his face. "Although, maybe you should change into a Hellenic dress."
"Why?"
"Bree can change your hair and skin. Make them darker. I can put a dweomer on you so you can speak and understand Hellenic. What better disguise? No one would be able to identify you if anything goes wrong."
Adria nodded. "It makes sense. Okay. Bree? Can you help me out with my hair?"
The two women went downstairs.
"Kasey," Bilbus said. "You should go with her to protect her."
"Okay," Kasey said uncertainly.
"Bilbus, he can't take a sword," Eric reminded the mountebank.
"So? He can take a dagger. I will wager that Kasey with a dagger can best any of the soldiers we have seen around here, even if they have their swords."
"Good point," Eric conceded.
A while later, Adria and Breanna returned from belowdecks. Adria had pitch black hair, pulled up in the Hellenic style, with a pair of her throwing spikes holding it in place. Her skin was of a complexion too dark for a Kelltic woman. She wore the scandalous Hellenic dress she had purchased at the Academy. And she wore the ringer necklace.
"Kasey's going with you, just in case," Bilbus said.
Adria looked at the blond knight. "Ready?"
"Okay," Kasey replied.
"Wait!" Bilbus said. He approached Adria, shaping a Heka flow into her. "Now, talk."
Adria said something in Hellenic.
"Good!"
Adria walked down the gangplank, Kasey following behind her.
Adria was getting worried that the necklace on her was going to evaporate before she found a buyer. So far, no jeweler had been willing to even discuss buying the exquisite necklace with its elemental gem.
She found one more jeweler, nearly across town from the one with the asylphar. She walked in, leaving Kasey to hold the horses.
The jeweler looked up from a necklace he was shaping. He grinned as he looked at the stunningly beautiful Hellenic woman who had just walked into his shop.
"May I help you?" he asked, still grinning.
Adria put on her most despairing, pouting face. "I hope so. Our family has fallen on hard times, and I am afraid that we will lose our home. All I have is this necklace." She touched her chest lightly next to the necklace. "If I could get a loan for this necklace, we might be able to keep our house."
His grin was gone, and he looked genuinely concerned. "How much do you need?" He leaned closer, to inspect the necklace. "That is an exotic necklace."
"It has been in my family for generations. My mother gave it to me, and her mother gave it to her. I believe it is Kelltic."
"Indeed... May I take a closer look at it?"
"Of course," Adria said. She undid the clasp and handed the necklace over to the jeweler.
He took it and set it on a dark velvet mat on his work table. The jeweler inspected the asylphar closely, then held a hand over the necklace. The necklace sparked, then vanished.
"What trickery is this?!?" the man asked, his voice rising."
Adria covered quickly. "What did you do to my necklace?"
"There was no necklace! It was a fraud! We will get the town watch!" The jeweler strode past Adria, heading for the front door of his shop.
"Yes, we will! You stole my necklace!" Adria turned as the man passed. Kasey had let go of the reins of the two horses, and he had taken a couple of halting steps towards the door of the shop.
Adria gestured to the Church Knight, who opened the door. "Is something the matter, m'Lady?"
The jeweler had reached the door, but Kasey blocked it.
In Kelltic, Adria shouted, "He stole Bree's necklace!"
Kasey grabbed the jeweler by the front of the shirt and threw him against the wall. He charged in after the man and punched him squarely in the face. The jeweler fell to the ground, unconscious, with a small trickle of blood coming from his nose.
Adria ran behind the counter. She found a canvas sack, and she started scooping jewelry into it. She found the shop's lockbox, as well. She flung it open and found it stuffed with Hellenic paper currency.
"What are you doing, Lady Adria?" Kasey asked as he watched her rob the shop.
Adria paused for a moment. "He stole Bree's necklace, and we need to get something to replace it."
"Oh," Kasey said, his eyebrows still furrowed in concern.
Adria quickly finished filling the bag with the least distinctive pieces of jewelry and the cash. She walked towards the front door of the shop, glancing once at the unconscious shopkeeper. "Come on, Kasey. Let's get away from this crook."
The two rode away. Adria took a circuitous route towards the jeweler's shop that had the asylphar. A few blocks from the shop, she stopped in an alley to estimate how much jewelry she had. She hastily estimated the values of the various necklaces, bracelets, and earrings, then counted the Hellenic currency. Fortunately, the currency had numbers that Adria could read -- the dweomer Bilbus had put on her only helped with the spoken language, not the written.
Once she had a good idea of how much she had to work with, she continued to the jeweler's shop.
Once more, Kasey remained outside with the horses.
Adria approached the jeweler. "Hello," she said to him as she smiled sweetly.
"Good day," he replied, looking up from an earring his was inspecting.
"I am wondering if you can help me. I am looking for a very special gem that I could use in a necklace I have. My friends have some very ornate necklaces, and I really must find something better than what they have."
"How special of a gem, miss?"
"Oh, you need not worry over price."
"Well..." The jeweler pulled out the necklace Adria had inspected earlier. He showed it to Adria. "This gem is an asylphar. They are very rare and difficult to get. My supply comes from the dwarven kingdom in the cold north, but I have not had any contact with them for months. I may not get any more soon."
Adria leaned forward -- she had intentionally left the top of her dress loose -- and inspected the asylphar. "This is impressive," she said. "Is it magickal?"
"That is an asylphar. It is an elemental gem -- pure, elemental air. Like I said, they are very rare."
"Oh, I must have it. How much for just the gem?" Adria batted her eyes at the jeweler.
"For the gem? It is my last one..." He chuckled. "There was a foreign woman here earlier today who wanted it. I told her ninety-five Mina. You can have the asylphar for seventy-five."
Adria nodded to herself. "I was afraid it would be expensive. I do not have cash for it, but I can offer some of my old jewelry, if you are willing."
"Let me examine the jewelry," the shopkeeper said.
Adria dug into the canvas bag, picking out pieces that she estimated would add up to the appropriate amount. After several minutes of examination, the jeweler agreed that she had sufficient jewelry to pay for the asylphar. He took the platinum necklace back to his workbench and carefully removed the asylphar. He brought it back to the counter. He wrapped it in a silk cloth, put the cloth in a small silk bag, then gave the bag to Adria.
"Be careful with the asylphar. It is small and hard to replace. If you need to have it mounted on your jewelry, I can do it for you. I work with elemental gems, so I know how to mount them correctly."
"Thank you. I may just do that." She smiled sweetly at him, then left.
Outside, her smile vanished. "Let's get back to the ship," she said to Kasey.
Kasey gave her the reins to her horse and offered to help her up, then climbed onto Farran's back. The two rode back towards Saronus.
Once they were aboard the ship, the captain started preparations to put to sea.
Kasey approached Breanna. "Lady Breanna, I am very, very sorry. The jeweler stole your necklace. Adria got some others, but I know they can never replace a family heirloom. Please accept my apologies."
"Kase?" Bilbus said. "He didn't steal it. See?" Bilbus dangled the necklace.
"But... How?"
"Someone brought it by the ship."
"We must return the jeweler's goods, then. We took things from him to compensate for him stealing the necklace."
Bilbus shook his head. "We need to put to sea now, Kasey, before the tides drop. Besides, that jeweler was crooked. Those other necklaces were probably ill-gotten, anyway."
Kasey rubbed his forehead. "I don't understand..."
"Don't worry about it, Kase," Bilbus said.
Adria handed Breanna a silk bag. "Here is the asylphar."
"Thank you, Adria." Breanna paused for a minute. "We are about a week from the full moon. The cure will not work unless it is done on the night of the full moon. Bilbus will make it that long, but he is probably going to be irritable."
Adria nodded. "Thank you."
The Bard's Hearth sailed back to the northwest for Brallian. Soon, even the Hellenic love temple was far behind the ship as the sun settled over the sea in a flaming orange sunset.
Rishala glanced up at the sun shining overhead. It was a pleasant late spring afternoon, and his family's sheep were grazing contentedly in the shallow valley at the edge of his village's lands. It seemed odd that he was at home. He remembered being on a ship, and it was winter.
Aye, but it is warm near Hellenas, even in winter. He paused in his reflections. But I am at home, and it is definitely spring. A dream, then.
Rishala adjusted his kilt, then picked up his shepherd's crook. Several of the sheep were wandering towards a copse of trees on the far side of the valley, just a hundred paces away. And Rishala did not have the family's shepherding dogs, for some reason. Because it's a dream, he reminded himself.
The Caledonian walked after the sheep, ignoring the bleats of several of the herd as he walked through the midst of them. There were only a couple dozen sheep, anyway.
The herd escapees called from within the trees. Rishala followed the sounds, until he reached a clearing in the middle. The copse did not seem large enough for a clearing, but Rishala shrugged away the inconsistency.
In the center of the clearing was a dark staircase descending into the hillside. Wrought iron rails surrounded three sides, to keep one from falling in by accident. Rishala approached the staircase. It was an odd place to find one, to be sure. Perhaps the sheep had wandered down the stairs. It would only take a moment to check.
As Rishala stepped on the first step, the world around him went away. Ahead and below were the rest of the stairs, seventy of them in all, Rishala knew. There were seventy steps of light sleep between the lands of normal dream and the Cavern of Fire. There was nothing else around the stairs, no walls nor ceiling. There was not even blackness, for blackness was something.
Rishala followed the seventy steps downwards. The last step ended in nothingness, but Rishala knew he needed to step off of it. He did so, and the stairs and the nothingness vanished. All around him, instead, was the Cavern of Fire.
Small pools of lava and columns of flame populated the cavern, with the occasional flaming elemental gems of fire glistening from the ground or walls. On the far side of the cavern was another stairwell with iron fencing, along with two ancient, robed priests.
The robes reminded Rishala of al-Rhayidhian garb, but the priests looked like Kelltic men. Both had long, white beards streaked with darker color, and both had dark eyes that reflected the flames within the cavern.
Rishala approached them. The one to his left spoke first:
"Welcome back, Dreamer. Do you remember the questions? Do you remember the path?"
Rishala considered his response for a moment. The foxhead medallion touching his chest, the gift he had received in Phaeree, tingled briefly. Of course he knew the answers. In a ritualized response, Rishala answered, "I know the questions: For what do I journey? I journey for knowledge. Knowledge that will save my world. To where do I journey? I journey the dreamlands. I know the path: Down the seven hundred steps of deeper slumber must I go to reach the Enchanted Wood."
The other priest nodded. "Well remembered, Dreamer. Welcome back and journey well."
Rishala stepped between the two priests, onto the first of the seven hundred steps. The world once more vanished, leaving nothing but seven hundred steps descending in a gradual winding path ahead and below.
Rishala followed the stairs, down to the last step, and stepped once more into nothingness. A world appeared around him.
He was in a clearing in a dense oak forest. It was early morning, and dew still glistened on the grass underfoot. The bright blue sky above competed with gaily colored mushrooms underfoot and lichens on the trees. Birds sang greeting to the new day, and the intermittent buzz of insects gave rhythm to the Enchanted Wood. A path, barely a game trail, led south and west, into the dense forest.
Rishala took a couple of steps, then paused. The journey through the Enchanted Wood, and the entire dreamlands, was not going to be safe for him to complete alone. He could use some assistance.
The medallion tingled again, and it hummed briefly. Rishala turned around...
Eric sipped from the delicate tea cup in his right hand. The jasmine tea was fresh, and it had not become overly strong from steeping for too long. His uncle's silk robes were far better than anything he had back home, but his uncle's lands were far famed in Karasimi for the quality of their silk. It was nice to be visiting his uncle again, for it had been many years since last Eric had been able to cross the Azirmar.
And, even better, Eric found a useful book in his uncle's library. It was an old book, well preserved, that detailed the return of the Dark One. Eric had read through it, noting the details that it contained that coincided with his own experiences. He had finally reached a chapter that described, in detail, how to defeat the Dark One.
"Eric!" his uncle called from another room. "Come here, nephew!"
Eric looked at the book for a moment. He could finish it later.
He stood, still holding the tea cup, and walked towards the nearest paper-on-wood-frame wall. The Karasimian home interiors were much different than the Avillonian styles, and even his father's formal dining room in Armagh did not completely capture the differences.
Eric slid a panel aside, revealing a hallway beyond. He turned to his left and casually sauntered towards his uncle's day room.
He paused when he noticed the stairwell in front of him. It was certainly an odd place to put stairs, since they blocked the hallway. The iron railings were even odder. They looked Kelltic in style, not Karasimian. Perhaps his uncle was downstairs?
Eric stepped onto the first step. The world around him disappeared, leaving nothing but seventy steps. Eric immediately recognized the stairs. He had been down them many a time in the past.
Beyond the seventy steps of light sleep was the Cavern of Fire. The two wizened priests waited next to the steps that led to the dreamlands. Eric approached them to answer the questions that are asked of all dreamers who pass through the cavern.
Eric found himself on the steps of deeper slumber, not really remembering the questions or his answers. He felt a slight tingling on his chest, almost a half-remembered itch. Curious about the difference he had experienced this time upon passing through the Cavern of Fire, Eric turned back up the stairs.
Of course, the steps upon which he had already walked no longer existed. Eric pondered stepping off of the top step, but decided not to. He knew what lay ahead, but did not know if anything lay behind him. Down the remainder of the seven hundred steps did he walk.
It was a cold, rainy Londoun night, late in the fall. Adria had been stalking her target for hours. The man was singularly deserving of an unpleasant death, but Adria knew she did not have the luxury of anything less than a quick kill. Besides, Bilbus was nowhere around to help. Adria suppressed a snarl -- she knew Bilbus was in a tavern somewhere, dry and warm, flirting with a barmaid. Typical of him to leave the unpleasant work to her alone.
Adria rounded a corner, looking onto one of the main arteries that fed Falagos Square. Near the middle of the road was her target, a man with pitch black skin and silvery hair. A drow? Adria wondered. She did not remember that she was hunting down a drow.
Next to the drow, in the middle of the road, was a descending staircase. It had wrought guard rails around it, and the drow leaned against one of them. His back was to her.
Adria studied the situation for a moment. She could drop him immediately from here, but her arrow would go right through him, and who knew where it would end up. But, if she could get onto the stairs, she could nail her quarry from enough of an angle that the arrow would not overpenetrate.
Adria walked steathfully towards the stairs, bow readied in case the drow turned. She got to the stairs, now five paces away from the drow, and glanced down the stairwell to make sure no witnesses were there. The stairwell was dark and empty.
Adria stepped into the stairwell. The rain, the cold, and the city disappeared, as did the drow. Hells! Adria cursed. Still, a stairwell in the middle of the road was unusual. Perhaps something was at the end of the stairs. Keeping the bow ready, Adria stalked down the stairs.
She passed through a cavern full of fire and lava and elemental gems -- to bad Bilbus wasn't along: he would have spent hours there plucking gems from the cavern. There were two odd, robed men in the cavern, as well, and Adria talked to them briefly, but she could not remember what she said or what they asked. She was descending another flight of stairs, and she felt a bit of an itch or tingle on her chest. Maybe is was time to look at getting a new scabbard for the dagger she kept in her bodice.
...to find his friends standing in front of an oak tree. To one side, next to the men and women, was Farran.
Rishala thought it odd that Farran was there as well, but he did not linger on the thought for long. Even visits to the dreamlands did not abide by what one considered normal when awake.
His friends looked a little disoriented, and Rishala idly wondered what sort of dreams they had been having when the stairs had appeared to them: Adria wore her leather armor, and her bow was in hand. Eric wore a fancy Karasimian silk robe and held a delicate tea cup, from which he occasionally sipped. Kasey wore the modest fineries of a country noble -- the same outfits he wore at home. Sturm wore strange plate armor that fully encased him -- armor that should have been too heavy to move.
Bilbus wore fine silk robes in a foreign cut. It took Rishala a moment to place the robes. He had last seen them over a year ago in a dream: the dream in which he had first seen Bilbus. A dream in which the Dark One was trying to buy Bilbus's loyalty. Bilbus wore the Dark One's royal garments.
But Breanna had the most unusual outfit. It was something that could only exist in a dream. It was a short, scandalous dress, almost Hellenic in cut, that reflected light like silk, but was diaphanous to the point of transparency. Breanna realized what she was wearing, what she was not wearing underneath it, and that others were looking at her. Rishala watched a flush of red creep from her chest to her face.
Farran spoke: "Perhaps m'lady would be more comfortable in a different dress?" The material of Breanna's dress became an opaque green in the blink of an eye.
"You can speak?" Breanna wondered aloud.
"In the dreamlands, I can speak your tongue," the kelpie-horse replied. "I have always understood your speech."
"I talked to him before," Bilbus said dismissively. "Granted, I had to use Heka to do so. But this is a dream. Why shouldn't he speak? And why did you change your dress?"
"I didn't," Breanna protested. She then paused. "Bilbus!" She slapped the mountebank.
"Although it is strange," Bilbus said to himself. "Usually, in these sorts of dreams, the naked woman shows up..."
From the path beyond Rishala a naked woman jogged in, giggling to herself. She ran up to Bilbus and tossed large pickles at him. After she circled around him, she ran back down the trail. Bilbus had a goofy grin on his face as he watched the woman leave. Even when he saw Adria's fierce scowl, he refused to stop grinning.
"It's my dream!" he protested.
"Rishala, did you bring us here?" Eric asked.
"Aye, I think so. I found myself entering the dreamlands, and I knew it would be a long journey to Celephais. I thought I could use some assistance, and this necklace tingled. I turned around, and there you were."
"Interesting necklace," Eric commented. "I wonder what else it can do."
"We may find out," Rishala replied. "It is a long journey to Celephais. The nearest port town from here is Dylath-Leen, at the mouth of the Skai River. We can find the Skai down that path." He pointed at the trail leading southwest from the clearing. "There is a bridge in the village of Nir that will get us onto the other side of the river."
"How far is this village?" Bilbus asked.
"A couple of hours," Rishala estimated.
"Well, I'm going to need some company," the mountebank announced as he started towards the trail. His companions followed him.
The trail was more like a tunnel. The dense canopy overhead blocked most of the morning light, and the bushes on the sides formed low walls that would have been challenging to get through. The colorful mushrooms underfoot and the lichens on the trees glowed, keeping the tunnel from being overly dark.
Two women approached from ahead of the party. Both of them were voluptuous young women, wearing the dresses of barmaids.
One of them twittered, "Oh, there you are," as she slipped an arm around Bilbus's waist. The other took up a position on the other side of the mountebank, who glanced back to see the disgusted glare from his wife.
"What?!? It's my dream!"
An hour down the trail, Rishala stopped walking.
"What?" Bilbus asked. "Get your own barmaids. I'm surprised you don't already have some here."
"It got quiet," Rishala said. "The birds have stopped singing."
Indeed, the forest was strangely quiet. The constant chirps and singsongs of the birds had gone away, and even the little buzzes and clicks of insects had ceased. No wind rustled the canopy overhead.
Rustling started on the side of the trail. Several things, the size of dogs or very large rats, crawled out of the brush. Some of them walked out on the trail in front of the party, others climbed up trees using scaly feet and claws more appropriate on a raptor than on a rodent. The creatures were all about a foot and a half long, covered in brown fur, with two foot long, naked tails. The things' faces had large green eyes, with bat-like ears, and a bare snout. A group of small tentacles constantly shifted and intertwined under the nose, hiding the rat-things' mouth.
One of them spoke in a soft, hissing voice: "Half-child has returned to the Enchanted Forest." Immediately, another one added, "Half-child has brought others." A third: "Others do not have treaties with Zoog." A fourth: "Safe passage for all with treaties." A fifth: "Forests are dangerous for unprotected."
"What sort of treaty?" Eric asked.
Again, the zoog took turns answering: "Treaties have a price." "One treaty is good for all Zoog for one Waking One." "Knowledge and experience are small prices." "One exchange will ever be needed."
"Very well," Eric said. "I will agree to the treaty."
One of the zoog approached Eric, stretching itself along the side of his leg as if it were going to climb him. Eric stooped and picked it up, placing it on his shoulder. It twisted around until it was sitting on its haunches on Eric's shoulder, its head hanging over Eric's. Its tentacles started caressing the top of Eric's scalp. Eric flinched, then pushed the zoog off of his shoulder. The thing twisted as it fell, landing on all fours. It raised its tentacles and hissed, revealing sharp teeth in its small mouth as it did so.
"What?" Breanna asked in alarm.
"I could feel it taking things from my mind," Eric said.
"No treaty, then." "Waking Ones travel without a treaty." "Misfortune may befall the Waking Ones."
Eric racked his mind, trying to remember what he could of the zoog. He had never before encountered them, but he knew that he had heard stories of them. They had one natural enemy...
Cats. Eric pictured a cat on his shoulder, and he was quickly awarded by a deep purring from a Karasimian cat crouched on his shoulder. It snarled at the zoog, and the zoog hissed back at it as they scurried into the underbrush.
Eric scritched the cat's head as it settled onto his shoulder.
"We need to get back to Londoun," Adria insisted. "I had him."
"Had who?" Rishala asked.
"The drow. He needed to be taken out. Does this road take us to Londoun?"
Rishala walked along, keeping an eye open for more sign of zoog.
"And where were you?" Adria asked Bilbus. Bilbus looked over his shoulder, past one of the barmaids who still clung to him. "Never mind," Adria growled.
There was another commotion in the brush. A tiny drow, little more than four inches tall, ran out of the brush. It danced around Adria's feet, calling her name repeatedly. Adria picked it up, holding it with two fingers as it kept waving at her and calling her name. She snorted and dropped the miniature simulacrum. The cat on Eric's shoulder leaped down after it, pouncing on it gleefully. The drow screamed in a comically high pitch before the cat picked it up in its jaws and flung it a pace down the trail. The cat crouched, lashing its tail, and jumped on the drow once more. The drow stopped moving, and the cat quickly lost interest in it.
The party kept going down the trail, the cat following along on foot. Birds chirped in the distance, and a breeze blew through the thick canopy of leaves overhead.
The end of the forest tunnel was just paces away when the birds once more became quiet. Numerous zoog, nearly a dozen, crawled out of the underbrush to block the road. Eric looked over his shoulder. More zoog were blocking the path behind them. Still more were in the trees to either side. The zoog hissed, taking turns to create a continual noise.
Eric's cat had arched up, baring teeth as it bushed its tail.
"Zoog hate cats," Eric said. "We need more cats."
Rishala nodded. A dozen cats charged around the edge of the forest, onto the trail. They snarled, a raucous noise that startled the zoog. Eric looked back over his shoulder at the zoog behind the party. The cats were still outnumbered, but he could see another dozen cats slinking through the forest behind the zoog. The zoog were surrounded.
On an unseen cue, the cats charged. Zoog screamed and fought, and the cats snarled and clawed at their foes. With the zoog thoroughly occupied, the party quickly stepped past the fight and onto the plains beyond the Enchanted Wood.
Just ahead, on a low ridge a scant hundred paces from the edge of the forest, was the hamlet of Nir. The trail passed through the town, Nir's only street, then turned south to cross a stone bridge.
The party hurried down the trail to Nir, followed by the snarls of the fight in the forest. A short time thereafter, nearly two dozen cats trotted out of the forest, following the humans and kelpie.
The villagers looked at the party curiously, but none spoke to the strangers.
"Friendly lot, aren't they," Bilbus remarked.
"They've never been friendly," Eric replied.
"You've been here?"
"I've been to the dreamlands many times, just not many of them recently."
"So everyone else has already been in this dream before."
"Bilbus, the dreamlands are not a normal dream. It is more of a world of its own. There are certain things we can do in the dreamlands like you can do in a dream, but this world exists in its own right."
"Uh, huh," Bilbus said dismissively.
Near the middle of the bridge, Bilbus stopped. "How old is this bridge? It looks like it was built yesterday, but the road looks like its been here for years."
Eric looked at the bridge. "It is about thirteen hundred years old. One of the times a villager talked to me here, he told me that the builders sealed a living sacrifice in the bridge to ensure it would last forever."
"A sacrifice?" Breanna yelped.
"He would not tell me what they sacrificed, but he assured me that it was not human, whatever it was. Still, what could deserve a fate like that. I think it is below the central stone in the middle of the bridge." Eric pointed at the pace-square stone. "I think we should free it."
"No," Adria said firmly. "We need to get to Londoun." She finished crossing the bridge, continuing down the road.
Farran snorted. "You can get there faster in a carriage." Ahead of the party, on the side of the road, was a large carriage.
Rishala looked at it as his companions climbed on. The cats likewise were jumping onto the carriage. Rishala looked questioningly at Farran.
"No," Farran answered the unasked question. "I provided a carriage. You get your own horses. I'm not pulling it."
Rishala shrugged and climbed onto the driver's bench. He lifted the reins, and looked at the two draft horses who waited patiently where they had not been an instant before. Rishala released the brake, then clucked to the horses. They trotted down the road, pulling the carriage readily.
The party reached the next town, Ulthar, in midafternoon. The rutted dirt road turned into a cobbled road through a town the size of Armagh. Townspeople went to and fro on their business, and cats lazed on any surface visible. Hundreds of cats were visible.
Eric warned his friends, "Ulthar has laws against harming cats."
"Fine," Adria said. "When do we get to Londoun?"
Rishala stopped the carriage in front of an inn. He turned around, scowling. "M'Lady, we are not going to Londoun. Londoun does not exist on this world. We are in the dreamlands."
Adria screamed in pain. Something bulged in her leather armor, across her midsection. Struggling, she fought to undo the buckles on her armor. She threw the jacket open to find another arm.
"You did this!" she accused the Caledonian. "Make it go away."
"Make it go away yourself, Adria," Rishala retorted. "You have as much control here as I do."
Bilbus helped the two barmaids get out of the carriage. "I don't know, Adria. You could keep the extra arm. You would be hells with your bow. Imagine how quickly you could fire..."
Adria jumped down from the carriage and punched her husband with two right fists. Bilbus shook his head, then noticed that she once more had two arms.
"See?" Rishala said as he climbed down from the driver's bench. He gave the reins to a stable hand from the inn. "Tend to the horses. We'll be staying the night."
Adria scowled at Rishala. "Staying here?"
"Aye," Rishala said. He looked up at the sun. "We may as well have good beds for the night. It's six days to Dylath-Leen, and there are no other villages along the way."
The party settled around one of the tables in the common room of the inn. Serving women, including Bilbus's two barmaids, brought food and drink. Kasey enthusiastically dove into the meal.
As the Eric finished his meal, a familiar young black cat jumped onto the table. He had seen it when it was much younger, on a previous trip to the dreamlands.
It looked at Eric, and spoke in the Tongue of Cats. ...Waking One, you do not need to worry about the zoog scouts who were following you... It looked towards the open door. Eric followed its gaze. Six cats were dragging the large carcasses of zoog into an alleyway across from the inn.
Replying in the cats' tongue, Eric said, ...Thank you, Cat. How may we repay you for your kindness?...
...Payment is not needed. Zoog are never welcome in Ulthar. However, if you have no other plans, we are going to chase mice in the crop fields this evening...
"Eric, you are meowing," Bilbus observed.
Eric looked at his friends. "The cat told me that they have taken care of zoog scouts that were following us. They've also invited us to go chase mice with them."
"Really?" Adria asked enthusiastically. "That could be fun."
In a blink, Adria had transformed into a black cat. She jumped down and followed the other black cat outside. Eric shrugged, then changed into a Karasimian cat. He followed Adria out into the street.
Rishala shook his head, suppressing a chuckle. He looked at Kasey, sitting across the table. The Church Knight had his eyes closed in concentration, holding one hand out to the side.
"Kasey?" Rishala asked.
Kasey opened his eyes and looked at his empty hand. "Nope." He looked at Rishala. "If there are any other things out here, we might want to have something other than Adria's bow. I was trying to get Caladbolg."
"Okay, Kasey," Rishala said. "Good luck. I'm retiring for the night."
The Caledonian rose and started up the stairs to the sleeping rooms. He heard a small thunderclap in the common room. Glancing back, he saw Kasey holding the Caledonian greatsword. Kasey's smile stretched from ear to ear as he looked at the sword.
Rishala noticed that Sturm was still sitting at the table as well. The Sun Knight had odd plates of armor jutting above his back. With a start, Rishala realized that Sturm had armored wings on his back.
Rishala shook his head and went to his room. As he was dozing off, he remembered a warning he had received from another Waking One he had met in a previous trip to the dreamlands: "Be careful not to change too many things. There is only so much we can do in a single trip. If you need to do something large, take several trips to do it."
I'll have to remember to warn them tomorrow, Rishala decided as he dozed off.
Rishala was enjoying a quiet breakfast the following morning. Birds somewhere outside sang cheerfully, no doubt on small ledges high on the houses, out of reach of the myriad of cats that inhabited Ulthar. The sun was shining in a clear, bright blue sky.
Sturm sat at a table in one corner of the inn's common room, gazing moodily at a platter set out before him. Breanna, Kasey, and Eric, who was still in cat form, were at another table, eating from a heap of hot breads and meats that Kasey had ordered.
Rishala glanced towards the stairs when Bilbus staggered down them. That he was carrying a black cat who was luxuriously curled in his cradled arms -- Adria, still in feline form -- did not faze the story teller. The uniform, however, was something else entirely.
The uniform was a fine-grain black leather, with shiny metallic panels, like vambraces, on the arms. The legs likewise had plates of metal covering both the upper and lower leg. A breastplate was attached to the front of the leather jacket. Etched into the breastplate, over the heart, were five crowns, arranged so the lower corners touched, as if they formed a pentagonal ring. It was the ancient symbol of the Five Crowns Alliance, King Uther Paendroeg's empire.
"Bilbus? What the hells are ye doing in that?"
Bilbus sighed heavily as he gingerly set Adria on a table. He fell into a seat at the table and stared at Rishala. The Caledonian saw dark rings under the mountebank's eyes. In a dejected voice, Bilbus said, "If I have to be good, I may as well dress the part."
Sturm scowled darkly at the mountebank, not even trying to hide his disgust at Bilbus's choice of clothing. The thief had the gall to wear the uniform of the Camelough Guards, the forerunners of the Order of the Knights of the Sun. "Clothes do not make a man."
Bilbus looked at the Sun Knight, still encased in improbable plate armor, unsure of whether the knight was trying to make a joke.
Bilbus leaned against the back of the chair, tilting it back until it rested against the wall, on two legs. His left hand sat on the hilt of a black sword at his hip -- the adamantine sword he had been carrying for months -- while his right hand toyed idly with the scabbard on his right hip that held his adamantine dagger. His eyes were heavy, gradually closing as he waited. On the table in front of him, Adria curled until her tail touched her nose.
The morning serving girl stopped at Rishala's table. "Excuse me..." When Rishala glanced up at her, she continued: "You said you were traveling to Dylath-Leen?" Rishala nodded. "A caravan outside is leaving for Dylath-Leen this morning. You might be able to travel with them."
"Thank ye, lass," Rishala said as he stood up. She smiled at him, then turned back to the kitchen.
About fifty paces from the inn was the end of a line of half a dozen wagons in the middle of the road. Men in white robes moved around the wagons, checking wheel spokes and the oxen in harnesses in front of each of the wagons.
One of the men directed the others. He wore a purple sash tied around his waist. Rishala approached the man, who stopped to acknowledge the Caledonian.
"A good day for travel, yes, Waking One?" he asked. Despite his unusual clothing, his accent was no different than that of any villager of Ulthar. All people in the dreamlands spoke the same unaccented tongue.
"Aye, it is." Rishala looked at the pleasant spring sky overhead. "A lass in the inn tells me that you travel to Dylath-Leen." Rishala looked at the caravan master once more.
"That we do. We carry ironwares from the Cuppar-Nombo desert."
"Would ye mind a group of Waking Ones traveling with ye? We have our own carriage."
"A group of Waking Ones? Such a sign is always welcome. We leave well within the hour."
Rishala thought for a moment. "We will not be ready that soon. Perhaps we can catch up?"
"We travel with oxen." He nodded towards the four hitched to the nearest wagon. "As long as the horses drawing your carriage are not lame, you will catch up. We look forward to your arrival." The caravan master turned his attentions back to the preparations.
Rishala walked around to the back of the inn. He stuck his head into the stables. The two stable hands waved to him in greeting.
"We need our carriage readied. We will be leaving soon."
"Of course," one of the hands replied.
Rishala went back into the common room. "There is a caravan leaving for Dylath-Leen any time now. They will let us travel with them. I told the stable hands to get our carriage ready. We will probably have to catch up with them, but that should not be a problem. They won't be moving too quickly."
The party finished their morning meals. By the time they were ready, their carriage was in front of the inn, the draft horses hitched and ready to pull it.
Farran stood to one side of the carriage, still devoid of any tack. When the kelpie saw Bilbus's uniform, he laid his ears back and bared his sharp teeth. In the human tongue, Farran snarled, "You will do well to remember that dreams in the dreamlands have their consequences. Not everyone reveres your Fire King."
"Huh?" Bilbus blurted, confused.
Rishala pushed Bilbus into the carriage. Murmuring quietly, Rishala explained to Bilbus. "The Sun King hunted kelpies to near extinction in our world. Some stories say that most of them fled to the dreamlands."
Without waiting for Bilbus's reaction, Rishala climbed out of the carriage and helped the feline Adria onto the roof. He took the driver's seat for himself. Once his friends were aboard, he shook the reins. The draft horses set out in unison, pulling the carriage down the road through Ulthar. The village of cats and humans slipped behind the carriage as it went down the road. Ahead, just over a mile from town, was the merchants' caravan.
The carriage and its occupants soon caught up with the caravan. One of the merchants on the rear wagon waved to Rishala as Rishala slowed his horses behind the wagon.
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Original Draft 29 October 2002
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