The next day was spent in spell learning and mostly in recovery. John and I spent the day doing the former while Felix and Longhelim indulged in the latter. Victor and Drudge did leave the Lyceum and returned in the afternoon with some shocking news. A bedraggled refugee had staggered out of the swamp with a horrific tale. He had been part of a large group of other refugees, men, women and children as usual; then, out of the sky, a huge beast flew at them and with one breath, wiped out the whole lot of them with the exception of this one survivor. This poor wretch, now with the Hospitallers, kept screaming about her wanting her egg back and “where’s my egg”. It did not take a genius to understand that Your Mightiness had raised the stakes and was getting impatient. We would have one chance tomorrow. I really hoped we managed to catch the thief.
The next day, Longhelim and Felix were well on the way to recovery and we discussed our plan for the meeting with John’s thief and came up with a novel idea. There was a strange spell; one which created a small demi plane; tiny really, only big enough to house a few people. In a slightly eccentric twist, the only way to access this planar pocket was with a rope that hung from it; this was what had caught my eye about this formula in the first place. I had never read of anything like it and it intrigued me; a rope hanging from the air? It seemed so absurd; apparently, once you climbed up the rope, you could actually gather the rope up and store it up there with you….for some reason. Anyway, the whole point was that once anyone entered this planar pocket, they became invisible; ideal for hiding groups of people. It lasted quite some time and even better, it could be dismissed instantly.
So, our plan was simple. We would purchase a scroll of this spell. John would cast it a fairly long time before the meeting. We would climb up into the pocket. John, as the caster, would also be able to dismiss the spell when it was convenient. Once that was done, we would try to catch the thief.
As with most simple plans, the initial idea was quickly sketched and then some time was spent in working out the details, several spells to cast on people before the actual event and a brief discussion of what actions should be taken initially once John dismissed the spell. One could not cover all eventualities but certainly the most likely ones were discussed. That took the early part of the morning and then everyone left.
In the middle part of the afternoon, John and I were sitting in the library, discussing the spell which would allow me to see him when he was invisible, when Longhelim appeared at the door.
“Is it time?” this from John.
Longhelim just nodded and we collected all of our things and followed him out of the Lyceum.
We traveled to the meeting point in the ruins and ascended to the pocket plane created by John’s scroll. It was quite cosy; despite this, we held several discussions within about how to try to convince the various factions to co-operate, how to deal with the dragon, about the situation in Gate Pass, the Shahalesti blockade and their motivation for supplying Gate Pass while it was being assaulted by the Ragesians. Thus, the time passed very quickly until suddenly, Drudge, who had been watching through the narrow opening in the pocket, suddenly stiffened and held his hand up. We all stopped talking and tensed. The warriors readied, I tensed and then, the spell ended.
Unfortunately, the drop, although not unexpected, was still tricky to manage, especially for the warriors in their armour and the result was that we all ended up in a heap on the floor. Looking around, I could see John just in front of us, close to another individual matching his previous description, who was now cursing and unlimbering his bow with expert speed. I was able to cast my speed spell and Victor jumped up and lurched forward, swinging with his falchion. He was still off balance and thus did not connect. The thief’s hands blurred and suddenly, John’s body sprouted several arrows. He really was an expert archer. Longhelim also rose to his feet and tried to hit him only to miss. Then Drudge stepped up and also loosed several arrows at him, one of which did hit.
The thief shot again and this time John slumped, bursting in flames. This allowed Drudge to shoot also and this time the thief cried in pain, as he was hit by two arrows. Longhelim also managed to strike and then with a grunt, Victor clouted him around the head with the flat of his blade. The thief fell.
We stripped him of his equipment and then tied him up. While this was being done, Felix healed John and once we were all ready, Felix healed our captive.
“You treacherous scum!” he spat, looking at John. “Let me go and give me my things back, otherwise you will never see the egg.”
John replied: “Where’s the egg?”
“Somewhere you’ll never find it. Let me go now. You don’t know who you are dealing with. I’ve got some very good friends; powerful friends. I’m warning you”.
John turned to Longhelim: “I don’t actually know what to do here. Normally, we would exchange his life for the egg but the dragon wants him as well and his delivery was part of the bargain.”
There was a yelp from the thief: “What! You can’t do that! She’ll kill me! Let me go and give me my stuff for the egg. You have to do that!”
I chimed in at this point: “The bargain was for him and the egg. This is an evil dragon we are talking about. We are taking a massive risk in dealing with her in the first place and we are playing for the highest of stakes here. If we only turn up with the egg, we don’t know what the consequences are going to be. At best, she will turn around and declare that we did not keep our part of the bargain, take the egg and keep the lyre; at worst, she will take the egg and then turn around and kill us in a temper; she didn’t look happy the last time we saw her.” An understatement if I ever uttered one.
Longhelim was looking troubled by this discussion. I am not sure quite why but I think he was only realizing now just what kind of bargain he had made with Your Mightiness.
The thief was bleating again: “Look, I found the egg on the lake shore and I wanted the money to feed the refugees.”
Well, at least he didn’t say “honest” at the end of that statement.
Victor, quiet as usual, had been looking dispassionately at the thief. Then he leaned forward and spoke so softly that we all had to stop talking and lean forward to hear what he was saying.
“You’re a miserable thief who stole a dragon’s egg. In the process, you managed to enrage the most powerful creature in the swamp; a swamp that is being used as a thoroughfare by hundreds if not thousands of refugees every day. She has already killed the first group, screaming for her egg. She is a mother who has had her child stolen; and she is also an evil dragon; she will kill again; and you are claiming that you did it for the refugees?”
He then leaned even further forward until he was almost nose to nose with the thief.
“What I can’t work out yet is whether you are just stupid; or stupid and evil; or stupid and you just don’t care. Either way, not only did you just steal someone else’s child, but yesterday you also directly caused the deaths of a whole column of refugees.”
“We are wasting time here. Let’s do what Diogenes did to Sherliss at Gabal’s School in Gate Pass”.
John’s face brightened: “Got it!”
Then he ran off towards the Lyceum.
Longhelim’s face, which had been troubled, hardened once he heard Victor’s statement. Victor had a way of stripping situations down to essentials; actions, reactions and consequences; motivation was irrelevant as it was guided by interpretation and perception.
Longhelim turned to the thief and then he shook his head slightly. The thief opened his mouth again but Drudge gagged him.
We waited for a little time and the John returned with a wand. Rapidly, he began using it and almost immediately, there was a total change in the demeanour of the thief. In short order, he suddenly became very friendly and led us to his hiding place for the egg, one of the caves on the shore in the ruins. After that, he was knocked unconscious again and we began to get ready for an expedition to the swamp. The sooner Your Mightiness received her egg, the sooner she would stop killing.
We rested in the Lyceum and the next morning we set out to the swamp, picking up our boats along the way. The journey to the lake was uneventful, in fact very quiet, as if all the creatures knew that there was a dragon in a very bad mood around.
Arriving on the shore, we laid the egg down and threw down the body of the thief. Then we had a brief discussion as to what to do next and then decided to go and wake up the dragon. So, Felix cast the spell which allowed us to breathe underwater and Victor and Longhelim set out under the lake.
We waited for a little time and then suddenly, we saw Your Mightiness erupt from the water, with Longhelim and Victor clutched in her claws. As before, I felt the primitive fear induced by her presence but again I managed to suppress it. Drudge and John were not so lucky and they curled up in a foetal ball next to me.
“Is that him?” she roared as she spotted the form of the thief on the ground. Without waiting for an answer, she landed, threw Victor and Longhelim aside and scooped up the body. Then she began a minute examination of the egg.
“Ummph, it seems all right” was her verdict. “Now wake him up!”
Felix healed the thief and this poor unfortunate became conscious in the claw of the mother dragon from whom he had stolen an egg; harsh justice but justice nonetheless.
“How dare you!” she roared at him and squeezed; he became limp again.
“Heal him again!” was her immediate reaction. Felix did so.
“Do you know how much pain you have caused me?”Another squeeze and he went limp again.
“And again,” she said to Felix.
He answered: “Look, he is a thief and he caused you much distress but I will not continue to do this. Yes, he deserves his punishment but we don’t need to be here as you mete it out. We have kept our bargain; lend us the lyre and we will be gone and after you may decide on the punishment of the thief who stole your child.”
“Heal him now!”
“Keep our bargain!”
She stared at us and then her mouth opened; I steeled myself and prepared for a lot of pain; then abruptly, she wheeled around, dropped the body and dove into the water. A few moments later, she re-appeared with a lyre and gave it to Longhelim.
“You have a month; now heal him and leave!”
Felix did so and we hurriedly left, clutching the instrument which we hoped would the life for most of the refugees in the Seaquen peninsula. As we did, we could hear screams in the distance.
This had all been very distasteful. If the thief had not been so idiotic…..yet as we floated back, I did wonder at the irony of it. The thief had stolen the egg which, according to his claim, he wanted to sell so that he could buy food to save as many refugees as possible; by his actions, no matter how misguided, he had potentially saved an enormous amount of refugees albeit in a different way; far more than he could have saved if he had sold the egg and actually done what he claimed he would do; the theft of the egg had forced the dragon to make a deal for the lyre. It would have been unlikely that it would have had any interest in any bargains otherwise. So now, thanks to the efforts of the thief, the lyre was now in our hands and with it we would save a lot of refugee lives.
Somehow, I doubt the thief saw it that way though; thieves seldom do. Their mindset is that stealing solves everything.
We hurried back to Seaquen, where we first approached the Ragesian Druids, showed them the lyre and told them of our plan. They were very impressed with the idea and immediately began to help with the planning of a settlement for the refugees. As discussed previously, we had decided to use the stone from the ruins of the old city and this was most acceptable to them as it meant that the building material was already available and there was no need to reclaim more.
Next, we visited Votberd and sought permission for a new settlement for the refugees, a much more permanent and safer one. His approval was grudging at best:
“Why? There are so many of them already. It will only encourage others to come. Well, I suppose we should put this in front of Simeon, but no good will come of it; mark my words.”
I found this attitude a little difficult to take, bearing in mind that we had risked our lives to move this scheme forward but at least he wasn’t digging his heels in completely.
Simeon, when told what we had been doing and what we planned, was far more amenable to the idea. In fact, he was positively enthused; probably because he knew about the abilities the lyre and realised what a rare opportunity it represented. He immediately suggested sending a note to Guildmaster Sheena Larkins asking to hire her best lyre player to get the most use out of the magical instrument.
One look at Simeon’s enthusiasm convinced Votberd that any objections he may have had should lie dormant.
After that, things really began to move. Various experts were summoned; planners, builders, artists and skilled labourers were told of the abilities of the lyre and that the plan was to build a permanent shelter for the refugees using the stone from the ruins of the old city. Soon, a building was picked as the headquarters of this new enterprise and runners began moving in and out at great speed. Longhelim then suggested that the power of the lyre could be aided by the refugees themselves. They may not have been skilled builders, but they could still carry things. Soon, a veritable army of men, women and children began carry stone about, under the direction of the builders; as soon as everything was in place, the musician began to play the lyre and it was…….magical. Stone disappeared and then appeared as if it had been placed by a master builder or artist; roads, floors, drains, walls, windows, rooves, doors all began to appear in a miraculous way. In its own way, it was sight that was as wondrous as any I had seen so far, with the exception of the panoramic views of the planes of fire and water.
On and on played the lyre; for almost all the daylight hours until the poor musician had to stop because he was feeling faint due to lack of food and water; by then though, the foundations of a new settlement, in fact a large town were well and truly laid.
We went to the Lyceum very contented that night and as we walked back, we realised that almost no one was sleeping. Everyone was still gazing in wonder at the foundations of the settlement and people were already planning what would go where next. Everyone was talking and children were shouting and laughing in excitement. Suddenly, the whole atmosphere in the town had changed; instead of desperation we now had expectation.
The night passed uneventfully and the next day, Longhelim left on a mysterious errand and returned shortly with an enchanting kitten. It was white and ginger, curious and playful in the manner of kittens. It was not at all afraid and was already mock fighting and paw swiping at fingers and anything else that happened to be within reach. We fed it and then everyone bar me left to visit the Ragesian Druids. It was time to urge them to join the communal Temple.
This time, the absence of the rest of the group was very short. I had barely settled to study my latest formula, a method for me to fly, when I heard everyone else returning.
Longhelim strode through the door:
“Success! The Druids are now behind the project. They had little choice by this stage of course. By the time Ferox finished with the head druid, he was putty in our hands. He couldn’t say yes fast enough!”
“Ferox?” I asked.
“Yes, Ferox, the mighty feline warrior!”
“You called that kitten Ferox? What did it do to deserve that sort of responsibility?”
“Just wait! In a few years, Ferox will be the king of cats around here. Especially after the Druid…..boosts it a little. Legends will be told of his deeds throughout Cat Kind.”
Longhelim seemed to be in such a good mood he was being a little silly. Still, it was good that we had now convinced the Druids to join us.
“Right,” he continued. “Next, it’s the Order of Echoed Souls. You are going to have to come with us on this one, Faden. This lot worship the god of sorcery so it will give our discussions a boost of they can see that we have an arcane caster among our number. Ferox was so welcome by the Druids that they even gave us their bear cub.”
Grumbling, I got up. I felt like a trophy to be held up while Longhelim did the talking but I saw the necessity of it. I was thinking of better things I could be doing though.
We had been told that the Order had set up a camp in a forest clearing some distance apart from the other Sindarian camp; we had not realised just how different this Order was from all the other refugees. Upon entering their camp, the first feeling was one of serenity and peace. There seemed to be no sense of crisis or urgency. The monks obviously had all their families with them but everything was being done in a calm silence; even the children just watched or performed their chores and errands in silence. What also looked obvious is that these people really didn’t need anything. They seemed to have all their supplies and logistics in place. It made a very pleasant change from the utter chaos of the Ragesian camps.
We were quickly welcomed by Dreams No Sorrows, a woman who looked as if she was middle aged but with old eyes. She gravely accepted the bear cub with a smile and commented that it would be treated with the respect that such an important symbol deserved. Then she politely enquired about our affairs.
Longhelim said: “As I am sure you have seen, the situation in the refugee camps is desperate. People such as the Ragesian Hospitallers and Laura Beck Adelsberg have been doing their utmost to alleviate their suffering. Recently, we have also managed to achieve a few deeds which we hope will save lives; however, much more would be achieved if they refugees united and the first step to that would be a shared building, a place where all the factions could meet and discuss; could plan and execute; in short, a place that could act as a central point for refugee affairs. We have the permission of Magister Lord Votberd to build on the Southern Shore of the Peninsula and we already have the support of most of the factions. The only ones we have yet to approach are the Dwarves and the Ragesian Savages; we seek your support and participation. Will you join us?”
I have to say, that although I did not say anything, even I found Longhelim’s presentation a little flat.
Dreams no Sorrows looked at us silently for a long time and then smiled gently:
“Honoured guests, you respect us greatly with your request. We are aware of the chaos and confusion that is reigning outside our encampment daily. It is for this reason that we will withhold our participation at this time. Although we understand the need of this alliance and we are aware of your worthy efforts, we feel this alliance you are forging is yet fragile and all it would take is one misstep and suddenly sides would become apparent; we would be asked to take a side and even if we refused, by not taking one, it would be perceived that we would manufacturing our own side. Please take this as a temporary refusal; but at the moment, we feel that we would like to wait until your alliance is stronger.”
Longhelim replied: “Thank you for your time. I hope we will be able to speak again soon.”
Disappointed we returned to the Lyceum.
After eating lunch, we then managed to get to a livestock dealer and purchased a goat. We were planning to visit the Dwarves and remembered that they felt that goats made a particularly appropriate sacrifice to their god.
Again, my presence was requested for this diplomatic maneuvering as I was a dwarf. This time Longhelim managed to put his speech across far more forcefully. He also spent hours reciting his ancestry, going into a genealogical spiral which had me agog. I had not realised that he could trace his ancestors to that extent. He was so convincing that I couldn’t tell if they were actually real or not. It did not matter. He convinced the dwarves, who enthusiastically promised to form part of the central Temple.
This took the rest of the day and it mitigated our failure to recruit the Order of the Echoed Souls. So, we still managed to go to bed with a sense of achievement.
The next morning, we had one final faction to approach. Our research had shown that the Ragesian Savages should be approached either first or last for our purposes, otherwise they would be greatly offended. They worshipped the God of Strength and believed that the mightiest were the greatest. Physical prowess was a manifestation of might and therefore desirable. Their philosophy was quite simple really.
As it was unlikely that my presence would aid Longhelim’s conviction, unlike yesterday, I decided to stay in the Lyceum and continue my spell research. Everyone else left in the early morning but were back by early lunch.
Longhelim quickly spoke to me: “This particular expedition was one of the simplest really. The Savages are led by a huge barbarian, incredibly strong; a half orc, Smashes Skulls by name. Despite the fearsome name, he is quite a nice chap. We connected fairly quickly. I think that as soon as he saw that Victor and I were warriors as opposed to diplomats, we were half way there. I spoke to him about the usual aspect of unity but I used the analogy of strength in numbers and layers as opposed to weak individuals and he got it straight away. We still had to show him that we could actually lift our swords but once he heard that we had managed to convince everyone else apart of from the Order, he was with us. I don’t think he gets the Order so it didn’t matter that much if they were in or not.”
“So, what then?” I asked.
“We went to see Laura. She couldn’t believe it. She had been trying so hard to get something going for months but as she said, there was only one of her. Poor thing, she burst out crying; she said that finally they could begin to get things going; that rather than people just dying, attempts could be made to better everyone’s lot. She began talking about setting up a school, a hospital……”
I had thought about the new situation a little further:” Votberd could still be a problem. His attitude seems to have hardened a bit; but that’s a political problem now. Lots of people here are better at politics than we are. Just so long as Idiot Pickins Frankart doesn’t get anywhere; mind you, I don’t think that Simeon considers him a problem, otherwise…..”
Longhelim replied: “Well, I don’t know about Frankart, but I tell you, if we decided we wanted to branch out in that direction, it wouldn’t be too difficult. I am not sure how but everyone seems to know what we have been doing and how we did it. We are quite the kings of the hill around here right now.”
I thought about it a bit.
“I don’t know for certain but that would most likely be Katrina. After all, it’s her job to sell us for Gate Pass and that girl is very good at selling. She’s also been very good at keeping people away from me when I am studying. Everyone here is hell bent on dueling; don’t know why. They’re all much better than I am. They’ve been practicing for years. Anyway, magic is more than about just using it for fighting. I’ve just worked out how Felix manages to fly and I’ve got this idea about these magical horses…….”
“Yes, all right, very good; Faden, you know that as soon as you start talking to me about things like that, I lose you after about the third sentence. Anyway, little more to tell you except that more refugees are still coming but that the trip through the swamp is not nearly as dangerous as it was. The lyre is still not ready to be used again but work is still being continued on the new settlements. Victor, Drudge and I are planning to go the Wayfarer’s Theatre this afternoon; not sure what Felix and John plan to do”.
With that, he left me to studies. I immersed myself in the magic and that night I dreamed of ghostly horses, riders and storms.
The next day, everyone left to mingle with the refugees, inspect the construction works, talk to various factions, soothe ruffled feathers, heal sick and ailing refugees, guide newcomers to potential allies and friends, distribute food and supplies; the tasks were endless but satisfying. Of course, I continued with my research and then everyone returned for a brief lunch. Victor, Longhelim and Drudge were full of their experience of the play. They found it hugely enjoyable if very fanciful and were most impressed by the magic of the ship.
John was a little more serious:
“I went to the Lost and Found Society as it has been dubbed; I asked about the disappearing girls in South Shore and was told in no uncertain terms to keep my nose out of things that did not concern me. That explains some things. If the Society is involved then our chances of catching anyone have become even more difficult. As we discussed, better leave this to the locals.”
With that, everyone left for the afternoon.
The next day, Longhelim and Felix were well on the way to recovery and we discussed our plan for the meeting with John’s thief and came up with a novel idea. There was a strange spell; one which created a small demi plane; tiny really, only big enough to house a few people. In a slightly eccentric twist, the only way to access this planar pocket was with a rope that hung from it; this was what had caught my eye about this formula in the first place. I had never read of anything like it and it intrigued me; a rope hanging from the air? It seemed so absurd; apparently, once you climbed up the rope, you could actually gather the rope up and store it up there with you….for some reason. Anyway, the whole point was that once anyone entered this planar pocket, they became invisible; ideal for hiding groups of people. It lasted quite some time and even better, it could be dismissed instantly.
So, our plan was simple. We would purchase a scroll of this spell. John would cast it a fairly long time before the meeting. We would climb up into the pocket. John, as the caster, would also be able to dismiss the spell when it was convenient. Once that was done, we would try to catch the thief.
As with most simple plans, the initial idea was quickly sketched and then some time was spent in working out the details, several spells to cast on people before the actual event and a brief discussion of what actions should be taken initially once John dismissed the spell. One could not cover all eventualities but certainly the most likely ones were discussed. That took the early part of the morning and then everyone left.
In the middle part of the afternoon, John and I were sitting in the library, discussing the spell which would allow me to see him when he was invisible, when Longhelim appeared at the door.
“Is it time?” this from John.
Longhelim just nodded and we collected all of our things and followed him out of the Lyceum.
We traveled to the meeting point in the ruins and ascended to the pocket plane created by John’s scroll. It was quite cosy; despite this, we held several discussions within about how to try to convince the various factions to co-operate, how to deal with the dragon, about the situation in Gate Pass, the Shahalesti blockade and their motivation for supplying Gate Pass while it was being assaulted by the Ragesians. Thus, the time passed very quickly until suddenly, Drudge, who had been watching through the narrow opening in the pocket, suddenly stiffened and held his hand up. We all stopped talking and tensed. The warriors readied, I tensed and then, the spell ended.
Unfortunately, the drop, although not unexpected, was still tricky to manage, especially for the warriors in their armour and the result was that we all ended up in a heap on the floor. Looking around, I could see John just in front of us, close to another individual matching his previous description, who was now cursing and unlimbering his bow with expert speed. I was able to cast my speed spell and Victor jumped up and lurched forward, swinging with his falchion. He was still off balance and thus did not connect. The thief’s hands blurred and suddenly, John’s body sprouted several arrows. He really was an expert archer. Longhelim also rose to his feet and tried to hit him only to miss. Then Drudge stepped up and also loosed several arrows at him, one of which did hit.
The thief shot again and this time John slumped, bursting in flames. This allowed Drudge to shoot also and this time the thief cried in pain, as he was hit by two arrows. Longhelim also managed to strike and then with a grunt, Victor clouted him around the head with the flat of his blade. The thief fell.
We stripped him of his equipment and then tied him up. While this was being done, Felix healed John and once we were all ready, Felix healed our captive.
“You treacherous scum!” he spat, looking at John. “Let me go and give me my things back, otherwise you will never see the egg.”
John replied: “Where’s the egg?”
“Somewhere you’ll never find it. Let me go now. You don’t know who you are dealing with. I’ve got some very good friends; powerful friends. I’m warning you”.
John turned to Longhelim: “I don’t actually know what to do here. Normally, we would exchange his life for the egg but the dragon wants him as well and his delivery was part of the bargain.”
There was a yelp from the thief: “What! You can’t do that! She’ll kill me! Let me go and give me my stuff for the egg. You have to do that!”
I chimed in at this point: “The bargain was for him and the egg. This is an evil dragon we are talking about. We are taking a massive risk in dealing with her in the first place and we are playing for the highest of stakes here. If we only turn up with the egg, we don’t know what the consequences are going to be. At best, she will turn around and declare that we did not keep our part of the bargain, take the egg and keep the lyre; at worst, she will take the egg and then turn around and kill us in a temper; she didn’t look happy the last time we saw her.” An understatement if I ever uttered one.
Longhelim was looking troubled by this discussion. I am not sure quite why but I think he was only realizing now just what kind of bargain he had made with Your Mightiness.
The thief was bleating again: “Look, I found the egg on the lake shore and I wanted the money to feed the refugees.”
Well, at least he didn’t say “honest” at the end of that statement.
Victor, quiet as usual, had been looking dispassionately at the thief. Then he leaned forward and spoke so softly that we all had to stop talking and lean forward to hear what he was saying.
“You’re a miserable thief who stole a dragon’s egg. In the process, you managed to enrage the most powerful creature in the swamp; a swamp that is being used as a thoroughfare by hundreds if not thousands of refugees every day. She has already killed the first group, screaming for her egg. She is a mother who has had her child stolen; and she is also an evil dragon; she will kill again; and you are claiming that you did it for the refugees?”
He then leaned even further forward until he was almost nose to nose with the thief.
“What I can’t work out yet is whether you are just stupid; or stupid and evil; or stupid and you just don’t care. Either way, not only did you just steal someone else’s child, but yesterday you also directly caused the deaths of a whole column of refugees.”
“We are wasting time here. Let’s do what Diogenes did to Sherliss at Gabal’s School in Gate Pass”.
John’s face brightened: “Got it!”
Then he ran off towards the Lyceum.
Longhelim’s face, which had been troubled, hardened once he heard Victor’s statement. Victor had a way of stripping situations down to essentials; actions, reactions and consequences; motivation was irrelevant as it was guided by interpretation and perception.
Longhelim turned to the thief and then he shook his head slightly. The thief opened his mouth again but Drudge gagged him.
We waited for a little time and the John returned with a wand. Rapidly, he began using it and almost immediately, there was a total change in the demeanour of the thief. In short order, he suddenly became very friendly and led us to his hiding place for the egg, one of the caves on the shore in the ruins. After that, he was knocked unconscious again and we began to get ready for an expedition to the swamp. The sooner Your Mightiness received her egg, the sooner she would stop killing.
We rested in the Lyceum and the next morning we set out to the swamp, picking up our boats along the way. The journey to the lake was uneventful, in fact very quiet, as if all the creatures knew that there was a dragon in a very bad mood around.
Arriving on the shore, we laid the egg down and threw down the body of the thief. Then we had a brief discussion as to what to do next and then decided to go and wake up the dragon. So, Felix cast the spell which allowed us to breathe underwater and Victor and Longhelim set out under the lake.
We waited for a little time and then suddenly, we saw Your Mightiness erupt from the water, with Longhelim and Victor clutched in her claws. As before, I felt the primitive fear induced by her presence but again I managed to suppress it. Drudge and John were not so lucky and they curled up in a foetal ball next to me.
“Is that him?” she roared as she spotted the form of the thief on the ground. Without waiting for an answer, she landed, threw Victor and Longhelim aside and scooped up the body. Then she began a minute examination of the egg.
“Ummph, it seems all right” was her verdict. “Now wake him up!”
Felix healed the thief and this poor unfortunate became conscious in the claw of the mother dragon from whom he had stolen an egg; harsh justice but justice nonetheless.
“How dare you!” she roared at him and squeezed; he became limp again.
“Heal him again!” was her immediate reaction. Felix did so.
“Do you know how much pain you have caused me?”Another squeeze and he went limp again.
“And again,” she said to Felix.
He answered: “Look, he is a thief and he caused you much distress but I will not continue to do this. Yes, he deserves his punishment but we don’t need to be here as you mete it out. We have kept our bargain; lend us the lyre and we will be gone and after you may decide on the punishment of the thief who stole your child.”
“Heal him now!”
“Keep our bargain!”
She stared at us and then her mouth opened; I steeled myself and prepared for a lot of pain; then abruptly, she wheeled around, dropped the body and dove into the water. A few moments later, she re-appeared with a lyre and gave it to Longhelim.
“You have a month; now heal him and leave!”
Felix did so and we hurriedly left, clutching the instrument which we hoped would the life for most of the refugees in the Seaquen peninsula. As we did, we could hear screams in the distance.
This had all been very distasteful. If the thief had not been so idiotic…..yet as we floated back, I did wonder at the irony of it. The thief had stolen the egg which, according to his claim, he wanted to sell so that he could buy food to save as many refugees as possible; by his actions, no matter how misguided, he had potentially saved an enormous amount of refugees albeit in a different way; far more than he could have saved if he had sold the egg and actually done what he claimed he would do; the theft of the egg had forced the dragon to make a deal for the lyre. It would have been unlikely that it would have had any interest in any bargains otherwise. So now, thanks to the efforts of the thief, the lyre was now in our hands and with it we would save a lot of refugee lives.
Somehow, I doubt the thief saw it that way though; thieves seldom do. Their mindset is that stealing solves everything.
We hurried back to Seaquen, where we first approached the Ragesian Druids, showed them the lyre and told them of our plan. They were very impressed with the idea and immediately began to help with the planning of a settlement for the refugees. As discussed previously, we had decided to use the stone from the ruins of the old city and this was most acceptable to them as it meant that the building material was already available and there was no need to reclaim more.
Next, we visited Votberd and sought permission for a new settlement for the refugees, a much more permanent and safer one. His approval was grudging at best:
“Why? There are so many of them already. It will only encourage others to come. Well, I suppose we should put this in front of Simeon, but no good will come of it; mark my words.”
I found this attitude a little difficult to take, bearing in mind that we had risked our lives to move this scheme forward but at least he wasn’t digging his heels in completely.
Simeon, when told what we had been doing and what we planned, was far more amenable to the idea. In fact, he was positively enthused; probably because he knew about the abilities the lyre and realised what a rare opportunity it represented. He immediately suggested sending a note to Guildmaster Sheena Larkins asking to hire her best lyre player to get the most use out of the magical instrument.
One look at Simeon’s enthusiasm convinced Votberd that any objections he may have had should lie dormant.
After that, things really began to move. Various experts were summoned; planners, builders, artists and skilled labourers were told of the abilities of the lyre and that the plan was to build a permanent shelter for the refugees using the stone from the ruins of the old city. Soon, a building was picked as the headquarters of this new enterprise and runners began moving in and out at great speed. Longhelim then suggested that the power of the lyre could be aided by the refugees themselves. They may not have been skilled builders, but they could still carry things. Soon, a veritable army of men, women and children began carry stone about, under the direction of the builders; as soon as everything was in place, the musician began to play the lyre and it was…….magical. Stone disappeared and then appeared as if it had been placed by a master builder or artist; roads, floors, drains, walls, windows, rooves, doors all began to appear in a miraculous way. In its own way, it was sight that was as wondrous as any I had seen so far, with the exception of the panoramic views of the planes of fire and water.
On and on played the lyre; for almost all the daylight hours until the poor musician had to stop because he was feeling faint due to lack of food and water; by then though, the foundations of a new settlement, in fact a large town were well and truly laid.
We went to the Lyceum very contented that night and as we walked back, we realised that almost no one was sleeping. Everyone was still gazing in wonder at the foundations of the settlement and people were already planning what would go where next. Everyone was talking and children were shouting and laughing in excitement. Suddenly, the whole atmosphere in the town had changed; instead of desperation we now had expectation.
The night passed uneventfully and the next day, Longhelim left on a mysterious errand and returned shortly with an enchanting kitten. It was white and ginger, curious and playful in the manner of kittens. It was not at all afraid and was already mock fighting and paw swiping at fingers and anything else that happened to be within reach. We fed it and then everyone bar me left to visit the Ragesian Druids. It was time to urge them to join the communal Temple.
This time, the absence of the rest of the group was very short. I had barely settled to study my latest formula, a method for me to fly, when I heard everyone else returning.
Longhelim strode through the door:
“Success! The Druids are now behind the project. They had little choice by this stage of course. By the time Ferox finished with the head druid, he was putty in our hands. He couldn’t say yes fast enough!”
“Ferox?” I asked.
“Yes, Ferox, the mighty feline warrior!”
“You called that kitten Ferox? What did it do to deserve that sort of responsibility?”
“Just wait! In a few years, Ferox will be the king of cats around here. Especially after the Druid…..boosts it a little. Legends will be told of his deeds throughout Cat Kind.”
Longhelim seemed to be in such a good mood he was being a little silly. Still, it was good that we had now convinced the Druids to join us.
“Right,” he continued. “Next, it’s the Order of Echoed Souls. You are going to have to come with us on this one, Faden. This lot worship the god of sorcery so it will give our discussions a boost of they can see that we have an arcane caster among our number. Ferox was so welcome by the Druids that they even gave us their bear cub.”
Grumbling, I got up. I felt like a trophy to be held up while Longhelim did the talking but I saw the necessity of it. I was thinking of better things I could be doing though.
We had been told that the Order had set up a camp in a forest clearing some distance apart from the other Sindarian camp; we had not realised just how different this Order was from all the other refugees. Upon entering their camp, the first feeling was one of serenity and peace. There seemed to be no sense of crisis or urgency. The monks obviously had all their families with them but everything was being done in a calm silence; even the children just watched or performed their chores and errands in silence. What also looked obvious is that these people really didn’t need anything. They seemed to have all their supplies and logistics in place. It made a very pleasant change from the utter chaos of the Ragesian camps.
We were quickly welcomed by Dreams No Sorrows, a woman who looked as if she was middle aged but with old eyes. She gravely accepted the bear cub with a smile and commented that it would be treated with the respect that such an important symbol deserved. Then she politely enquired about our affairs.
Longhelim said: “As I am sure you have seen, the situation in the refugee camps is desperate. People such as the Ragesian Hospitallers and Laura Beck Adelsberg have been doing their utmost to alleviate their suffering. Recently, we have also managed to achieve a few deeds which we hope will save lives; however, much more would be achieved if they refugees united and the first step to that would be a shared building, a place where all the factions could meet and discuss; could plan and execute; in short, a place that could act as a central point for refugee affairs. We have the permission of Magister Lord Votberd to build on the Southern Shore of the Peninsula and we already have the support of most of the factions. The only ones we have yet to approach are the Dwarves and the Ragesian Savages; we seek your support and participation. Will you join us?”
I have to say, that although I did not say anything, even I found Longhelim’s presentation a little flat.
Dreams no Sorrows looked at us silently for a long time and then smiled gently:
“Honoured guests, you respect us greatly with your request. We are aware of the chaos and confusion that is reigning outside our encampment daily. It is for this reason that we will withhold our participation at this time. Although we understand the need of this alliance and we are aware of your worthy efforts, we feel this alliance you are forging is yet fragile and all it would take is one misstep and suddenly sides would become apparent; we would be asked to take a side and even if we refused, by not taking one, it would be perceived that we would manufacturing our own side. Please take this as a temporary refusal; but at the moment, we feel that we would like to wait until your alliance is stronger.”
Longhelim replied: “Thank you for your time. I hope we will be able to speak again soon.”
Disappointed we returned to the Lyceum.
After eating lunch, we then managed to get to a livestock dealer and purchased a goat. We were planning to visit the Dwarves and remembered that they felt that goats made a particularly appropriate sacrifice to their god.
Again, my presence was requested for this diplomatic maneuvering as I was a dwarf. This time Longhelim managed to put his speech across far more forcefully. He also spent hours reciting his ancestry, going into a genealogical spiral which had me agog. I had not realised that he could trace his ancestors to that extent. He was so convincing that I couldn’t tell if they were actually real or not. It did not matter. He convinced the dwarves, who enthusiastically promised to form part of the central Temple.
This took the rest of the day and it mitigated our failure to recruit the Order of the Echoed Souls. So, we still managed to go to bed with a sense of achievement.
The next morning, we had one final faction to approach. Our research had shown that the Ragesian Savages should be approached either first or last for our purposes, otherwise they would be greatly offended. They worshipped the God of Strength and believed that the mightiest were the greatest. Physical prowess was a manifestation of might and therefore desirable. Their philosophy was quite simple really.
As it was unlikely that my presence would aid Longhelim’s conviction, unlike yesterday, I decided to stay in the Lyceum and continue my spell research. Everyone else left in the early morning but were back by early lunch.
Longhelim quickly spoke to me: “This particular expedition was one of the simplest really. The Savages are led by a huge barbarian, incredibly strong; a half orc, Smashes Skulls by name. Despite the fearsome name, he is quite a nice chap. We connected fairly quickly. I think that as soon as he saw that Victor and I were warriors as opposed to diplomats, we were half way there. I spoke to him about the usual aspect of unity but I used the analogy of strength in numbers and layers as opposed to weak individuals and he got it straight away. We still had to show him that we could actually lift our swords but once he heard that we had managed to convince everyone else apart of from the Order, he was with us. I don’t think he gets the Order so it didn’t matter that much if they were in or not.”
“So, what then?” I asked.
“We went to see Laura. She couldn’t believe it. She had been trying so hard to get something going for months but as she said, there was only one of her. Poor thing, she burst out crying; she said that finally they could begin to get things going; that rather than people just dying, attempts could be made to better everyone’s lot. She began talking about setting up a school, a hospital……”
I had thought about the new situation a little further:” Votberd could still be a problem. His attitude seems to have hardened a bit; but that’s a political problem now. Lots of people here are better at politics than we are. Just so long as Idiot Pickins Frankart doesn’t get anywhere; mind you, I don’t think that Simeon considers him a problem, otherwise…..”
Longhelim replied: “Well, I don’t know about Frankart, but I tell you, if we decided we wanted to branch out in that direction, it wouldn’t be too difficult. I am not sure how but everyone seems to know what we have been doing and how we did it. We are quite the kings of the hill around here right now.”
I thought about it a bit.
“I don’t know for certain but that would most likely be Katrina. After all, it’s her job to sell us for Gate Pass and that girl is very good at selling. She’s also been very good at keeping people away from me when I am studying. Everyone here is hell bent on dueling; don’t know why. They’re all much better than I am. They’ve been practicing for years. Anyway, magic is more than about just using it for fighting. I’ve just worked out how Felix manages to fly and I’ve got this idea about these magical horses…….”
“Yes, all right, very good; Faden, you know that as soon as you start talking to me about things like that, I lose you after about the third sentence. Anyway, little more to tell you except that more refugees are still coming but that the trip through the swamp is not nearly as dangerous as it was. The lyre is still not ready to be used again but work is still being continued on the new settlements. Victor, Drudge and I are planning to go the Wayfarer’s Theatre this afternoon; not sure what Felix and John plan to do”.
With that, he left me to studies. I immersed myself in the magic and that night I dreamed of ghostly horses, riders and storms.
The next day, everyone left to mingle with the refugees, inspect the construction works, talk to various factions, soothe ruffled feathers, heal sick and ailing refugees, guide newcomers to potential allies and friends, distribute food and supplies; the tasks were endless but satisfying. Of course, I continued with my research and then everyone returned for a brief lunch. Victor, Longhelim and Drudge were full of their experience of the play. They found it hugely enjoyable if very fanciful and were most impressed by the magic of the ship.
John was a little more serious:
“I went to the Lost and Found Society as it has been dubbed; I asked about the disappearing girls in South Shore and was told in no uncertain terms to keep my nose out of things that did not concern me. That explains some things. If the Society is involved then our chances of catching anyone have become even more difficult. As we discussed, better leave this to the locals.”
With that, everyone left for the afternoon.
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