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<blockquote data-quote="havenstone" data-source="post: 4551233" data-attributes="member: 61094"><p><strong>Dead Man Waking</strong></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><strong>AFTER WHAT FEELS</strong> like the deepest sleep of his life, Atrix slowly becomes aware of dull pains all over his body. When he tries gingerly to move, he finds that his blood seem to have turned into lead and is weighing down his limbs. His eyes flicker open to see a very relieved Darren and a tearful Kay at his bedside.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Did it... work?” Atrix wheezes.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“It worked – you impossible, irresponsible idiot,” cousin Kay says with some heat, wiping rapidly at her eyes.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“He’s alive!” Darren cheers.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">An exuberant Porphyry bustles into the room. Atrix recognizes the lavish furnishings as his merchant uncle’s style, and realizes with relief that as planned, Darren and Carwyn have brought him to Porphyry’s home to recover. “That’s my lad! It’ll take more than a bit of poison to do you in. I’m sure it helped that your skinny priest friend came down yesterday to have a look at you and do a bit of healing.” Leaning in, he whispers, “Brilliant work, my boy. Brilliant. As mad a scheme as ever I heard, and you pulled it off.”</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Then Adgar’s married?” Atrix says eagerly.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Oh yes, we were witnesses to the blessed event,” Porphyry says. “Gave us all quite a shock to hear of your demise. Nearly as shocked as I was to come back and find that Carwyn had smuggled you in here in my absence. But that’s not the half of it.” He roars with laughter. “Lad, within the day you were the hero of Lynar. A young man poisoned by the rotten d’Aramants on the morn of his wedding, who still managed to make sure his ring-brother got back in time to frustrate their scheme. Give us a year and we’ll make you a legend – as long as you stay dead. Kendall and I had already convinced a score of the merchants of Lynar to cut the d’Aramants out of the Caragond trade; now more will be willing to join the trade war. The season of d’Aramant power is passing, nephew, and your story is one of the weapons we’ll use to bring them down.”</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“I can... live with that,” Atrix agrees, settling back into his blankets.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Kay shakes her head. “And all because you couldn’t bring yourself to marry Sarele like any sane man would have done. Was she <em>that</em> terrible?”</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Oh, forgive him already, Kayene,” Porphyry retorts jovially. “You’d have been proud of her at the wedding, Atrix – she almost had Agerain d’Aramant’s eyes for the way he was talking about your death.” Kay turns crimson and waves him away.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Thank you... cousin,” Atrix says.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Atrix lad, the Army of the North moves out today, and you ought to move with it,” Porphyry advises. “There’s no safe place for you here in Lynar – too many people here know your face. Kendall, Kayene, and myself will be traveling to supply the army. We’ll keep you hidden in the wagons for a day or two while you recover, but we can’t have you with us for long – a lot of d’Loriads will be visiting our caravan, including several who can’t hold their tongues.”</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“But I know <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/4357816-post18.html" target="_blank">a band of dwarrow</a> who travel in the mercenary camp,” Darren chimes in. “You could easily join the camp as a lone mercenary. The sellswords mostly stay away from the rest of the army, and it’s rare for anyone from the Families to come round that way.”</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Excellent plan,” Atrix says appreciatively, feeling his eyelids sinking again. “Just tell me when... it’s time... to go.”</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"><strong>THE ARMY OF </strong>the North leaves Lynar at mid-morning, in a chaos of dust, creaking wain-wheels, nickering horses, and raucous cheers. Ash and Ontaya are still riding as squires, and Darren sticks with his dwarrow mentor Cannedun. Meeshak provides priestly care to the d’Syrnons and d’Loriads. Kyla is riding with Adgar in the d’Loriad host. Carwyn stays with Kyla, rather than returning to the kitchens; she plans to use her card winnings to set up a tent offering food, drink, and (most importantly) gambling on the outskirts of the camp.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Nina, of course, is riding with the d’Aramants, but not as a squire. Agerain dismisses any idea of squirely service with a snort. “If I need to learn anything from one of our knights, I’ll have him teach me, without needing to shine his boots first. And <em>you</em> -- you could outfight half of them already.”</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">At camp that evening in the forests east of Lynar, Agerain irritably chases away all of his cousins save “Anseron” and sits, snapping up sticks and throwing them on the fire. “I’m told that Atrix d’Loriad is turning into some kind of hero. The whole wedding story is irresistable, and the bards of Lynar don’t like poisoners.”</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Do we really know that he died of poison?” Nina offers. “I thought Avric cut him up badly enough to kill him. And there has to be some reason the d’Loriads hid his body.”</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“You’re sharp, cousin,” Agerain says with a smile. “No, I never believed that Avric would use poison to kill the d’Loriad. It’s not in his nature -- and I saw the surprise in his eyes. He couldn’t feign anything that well. He was a good man, but not that bright.” He stands up and begins pacing. “Atrix had likely planned to denounce Avric as a poisoner if the duel started going badly. After Atrix died, I shouldn’t have left his friends in possession of Avric’s sword for even a second. That priest they keep with them, the one who prays and glares like a Sistechern – I warrant he knows a few things about poisons.”</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Nina is about to speak, but hears a noise in the woods and looks up as twelve lightly armed men emerge, some limping and bloodied under their black cloaks. The lead man nods wearily to Agerain, who frowns and nods back silently. When they’ve passed, moving toward the generals’ tents, Nina asks, “What was that about?”</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Agerain looks keenly at Nina for a moment and seems to come to a decision. “Huntsmen. Athriam sent them after the three Arawai spies to catch them and find out what they knew.”</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Nina nods. “No fear of breaking their flag of truce?”</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="font-family: 'Verdana'"><span style="font-size: 10px">“Barbarians can not offer a true embassy,” Agerain says with straightforward contempt. Then he shakes his head ruefully. “They can fight, though. Athriam sent twenty men after them. I wonder how many of the Arawai got away.”</span></span></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="havenstone, post: 4551233, member: 61094"] [b]Dead Man Waking[/b] [SIZE=2][B]AFTER WHAT FEELS[/B] like the deepest sleep of his life, Atrix slowly becomes aware of dull pains all over his body. When he tries gingerly to move, he finds that his blood seem to have turned into lead and is weighing down his limbs. His eyes flicker open to see a very relieved Darren and a tearful Kay at his bedside.[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]“Did it... work?” Atrix wheezes.[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]“It worked – you impossible, irresponsible idiot,” cousin Kay says with some heat, wiping rapidly at her eyes.[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]“He’s alive!” Darren cheers.[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]An exuberant Porphyry bustles into the room. Atrix recognizes the lavish furnishings as his merchant uncle’s style, and realizes with relief that as planned, Darren and Carwyn have brought him to Porphyry’s home to recover. “That’s my lad! It’ll take more than a bit of poison to do you in. I’m sure it helped that your skinny priest friend came down yesterday to have a look at you and do a bit of healing.” Leaning in, he whispers, “Brilliant work, my boy. Brilliant. As mad a scheme as ever I heard, and you pulled it off.”[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]“Then Adgar’s married?” Atrix says eagerly.[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]“Oh yes, we were witnesses to the blessed event,” Porphyry says. “Gave us all quite a shock to hear of your demise. Nearly as shocked as I was to come back and find that Carwyn had smuggled you in here in my absence. But that’s not the half of it.” He roars with laughter. “Lad, within the day you were the hero of Lynar. A young man poisoned by the rotten d’Aramants on the morn of his wedding, who still managed to make sure his ring-brother got back in time to frustrate their scheme. Give us a year and we’ll make you a legend – as long as you stay dead. Kendall and I had already convinced a score of the merchants of Lynar to cut the d’Aramants out of the Caragond trade; now more will be willing to join the trade war. The season of d’Aramant power is passing, nephew, and your story is one of the weapons we’ll use to bring them down.”[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]“I can... live with that,” Atrix agrees, settling back into his blankets.[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]Kay shakes her head. “And all because you couldn’t bring yourself to marry Sarele like any sane man would have done. Was she [I]that[/I] terrible?”[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]“Oh, forgive him already, Kayene,” Porphyry retorts jovially. “You’d have been proud of her at the wedding, Atrix – she almost had Agerain d’Aramant’s eyes for the way he was talking about your death.” Kay turns crimson and waves him away.[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]“Thank you... cousin,” Atrix says.[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]“Atrix lad, the Army of the North moves out today, and you ought to move with it,” Porphyry advises. “There’s no safe place for you here in Lynar – too many people here know your face. Kendall, Kayene, and myself will be traveling to supply the army. We’ll keep you hidden in the wagons for a day or two while you recover, but we can’t have you with us for long – a lot of d’Loriads will be visiting our caravan, including several who can’t hold their tongues.”[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]“But I know [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/4357816-post18.html"]a band of dwarrow[/URL] who travel in the mercenary camp,” Darren chimes in. “You could easily join the camp as a lone mercenary. The sellswords mostly stay away from the rest of the army, and it’s rare for anyone from the Families to come round that way.”[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]“Excellent plan,” Atrix says appreciatively, feeling his eyelids sinking again. “Just tell me when... it’s time... to go.”[/SIZE] [SIZE=2][B]THE ARMY OF [/B]the North leaves Lynar at mid-morning, in a chaos of dust, creaking wain-wheels, nickering horses, and raucous cheers. Ash and Ontaya are still riding as squires, and Darren sticks with his dwarrow mentor Cannedun. Meeshak provides priestly care to the d’Syrnons and d’Loriads. Kyla is riding with Adgar in the d’Loriad host. Carwyn stays with Kyla, rather than returning to the kitchens; she plans to use her card winnings to set up a tent offering food, drink, and (most importantly) gambling on the outskirts of the camp.[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]Nina, of course, is riding with the d’Aramants, but not as a squire. Agerain dismisses any idea of squirely service with a snort. “If I need to learn anything from one of our knights, I’ll have him teach me, without needing to shine his boots first. And [I]you[/I] -- you could outfight half of them already.”[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]At camp that evening in the forests east of Lynar, Agerain irritably chases away all of his cousins save “Anseron” and sits, snapping up sticks and throwing them on the fire. “I’m told that Atrix d’Loriad is turning into some kind of hero. The whole wedding story is irresistable, and the bards of Lynar don’t like poisoners.”[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]“Do we really know that he died of poison?” Nina offers. “I thought Avric cut him up badly enough to kill him. And there has to be some reason the d’Loriads hid his body.”[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]“You’re sharp, cousin,” Agerain says with a smile. “No, I never believed that Avric would use poison to kill the d’Loriad. It’s not in his nature -- and I saw the surprise in his eyes. He couldn’t feign anything that well. He was a good man, but not that bright.” He stands up and begins pacing. “Atrix had likely planned to denounce Avric as a poisoner if the duel started going badly. After Atrix died, I shouldn’t have left his friends in possession of Avric’s sword for even a second. That priest they keep with them, the one who prays and glares like a Sistechern – I warrant he knows a few things about poisons.”[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]Nina is about to speak, but hears a noise in the woods and looks up as twelve lightly armed men emerge, some limping and bloodied under their black cloaks. The lead man nods wearily to Agerain, who frowns and nods back silently. When they’ve passed, moving toward the generals’ tents, Nina asks, “What was that about?”[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]Agerain looks keenly at Nina for a moment and seems to come to a decision. “Huntsmen. Athriam sent them after the three Arawai spies to catch them and find out what they knew.”[/SIZE] [SIZE=2]Nina nods. “No fear of breaking their flag of truce?”[/SIZE] [FONT=Times New Roman][FONT=Verdana][SIZE=2]“Barbarians can not offer a true embassy,” Agerain says with straightforward contempt. Then he shakes his head ruefully. “They can fight, though. Athriam sent twenty men after them. I wonder how many of the Arawai got away.”[/SIZE][/FONT][/FONT] [/QUOTE]
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