Chapter Two #4
I possessed the best of both worlds. The talent to track prey and speak with beasts as well as the patience, discipline, and ability to survey without being seen.
Also, I could hit a small target at a great distance from the back of a galloping horse.
Plus, I had grown up around criminal elements.
I knew how they thought, their names, and their locations.
Many bandit camps had been raided thanks to my memories of their locations.
That made me useful to the guards as well as the Shadow Master of Avolire.
All of those traits that would have brought the king’s thoughts to me for this quest. There were many things left unsaid.
I knew it, and Asdren knew it as well. As a sellsword, he would ask no questions that did not have import on this job.
I, on the other side of the coin, would seek out the answers that were hiding in the foggy corners.
The first person I would seek out when this meeting with the king ended would be the shadow master…
“I know you are wondering why I chose you, Beiro, to fulfill this task.” Aelir broke into my rambling thoughts.
I nodded gently. “You are the finest of the outriders who serve under me. Your talents are vast. I trust you as deeply as I do Pasil. I know I have called upon you both to face dangers untold for the good of Melowynn. Pasil brought my children home to me, now I ask you to bring home my…Coelum.”
The twins? Where had they gone? By Danubia, I had missed a great deal in a short amount of time away from the castle.
“As for the Sable Legion,” Aelir flicked his tired gaze from me to the dwarves who were chewing quietly to listen intently, “my scout requires a clever, powerful, forthright team to ensure he can do what he does best safely. I cannot send him off alone as you have said, for he would perish along the way. Your group comes highly recommended by an elf who works for the Sandrayan ambassador. Your cunning, muscle, and drive to get paid will ensure Beiro is able to locate this elf I seek and bring him to Avolire. If you guide him through the mines under the Witherhorns, I shall pay you triple what you seek.”
All four of the dwarves gaped openly at the sum.
They could retire with ease on that kind of coinage.
“Beiro.” Aelir looked at me. “If you bring me news of Coelum Cadere, I will grant you a wish fulfilled. Ask it of me, and I will see it done. Be it a new home, a place on the royal court, an advancement in rank. If this elf is alive or dead, and you bring him or the proof of his demise to me, I will bestow the merit of hero of Melowynn upon you. My family…it is most precious to me. This elf could be as well. So, do we have a deal?”
The dwarves shook off their stupefied looks to nod at each other. Asdren rose, padded over to Aelir, spit in his palm, and offered it to the king. Aelir placed his much finer hand in the rough one. They shook heartily. Then all eyes moved to me, sitting there like a stunned ferret.
“We’re to leave at the arse crack of dawn tomorrow, Chirp. Meet us in the bailey ready to ride. If you’re not there when it’s time to depart, we ride without you.”
“I will be ready.”
Why were they like this? I’d be well and truly thrilled when my time with the people of the shale was completed. I’d not been so mercilessly teased since the last time I spoke with my father.
The meal progressed in silence, the king excusing himself to attend to other matters concerning the ceremony for Umeris. I pushed the greens and pear slices around my plate. One of the twins, Dulgar, belched, sat back, and then eyeballed my still-full plate.
“Why don’t you eat some of the kidney pie if those greens ain’t appealing?”
“Druids don’t eat the flesh of animals,” I replied curtly. Smuta, pausing from picking at some meat stuck between her teeth with a small dagger, spoke up.
“So why do you have leather boots?”
They were observant. “My boots were crafted from the hide of a red stag found dead in the woods. No beast gave its life for my footwear.”
“Ah.” She spat the sliver of kidney to the floor and folded her arms under her large breasts, pushing them up so far they nearly cushioned her chin.
“That makes sense. I ain’t had too many sit-down meals with druids, nor elves for that matter, and none so fine as this. ” She looked around the solarium.
“I don’t dine here often either,” I replied, poking at a pear slice with my finger. “Mostly, I spend my time away from the castle. Riding, exploring, mapping.”
“Mapping sounds almost as much fun as swiving your sister,” Narub tossed out and got a sound laugh from the others.
Asdren patted his belly and then rose. “We’re off to find a bed in town, a willing whore, and a few pints of good ale.
No offense to the king, but this sweet wine tastes like donkey piss.
” He looked right at me. “Dawn, in the bailey, and bring warm clothes. We ain’t going to be frolicking about on the beach in our short clothes.
We’re going into the Witherhorns where the Stonefather rules with a cold, heavy fist and little patience for twiggy elves with no meat on their bones. ”
“I will be ready,” I stated yet again. The foursome seemed to be doubtful but filed out in a line, talking to each other in a guttural language I knew to be Dwarven.
My ear for languages was good. Alone in the lush solar, I sipped some wine and made a face.
The dwarf was right. This wine was far too sweet.
Perhaps the son of a murderous bandit had more in common with the outspoken stone folk than he ever could hope to have in common with the noble elves.
Leaving my food behind, I slipped out of the solar to find Le’ral Fylson striding down the corridor.
“Ah, Beiro, I was hoping to catch you. If you could grant me a few moments before you go off to the scouts’ quarters to wash up and rest for your dinner this eve with the ambassador, it would be most appreciated.”
“Yes, of course, Grand Advisor Fylson.” I moved along in his wake, the scent of orange-apple tea and sweet berry cookies wafting behind the king’s now lone advisor. I didn’t ask how he knew of my dinner plans. Le’ral knew all.
We made our way to his office, a large, airy room with a thick door filled with a long, long lifetime of memories and mementos.
As soon as I entered the room, the subtle charge of a spell moved over my skin, the smell of the barrier spell tickling my nose with the aroma of energy, like the air right after a lightning strike.
It was an old spell in place here, protecting this room from magical surveillance.
Who had cast it, I did not know. “Sit, now we’re alone and unable to be overheard with a basic crystallomancy spell, we can discuss your upcoming mission in full. Cookie?”
“Yes, thank you, Shadow Master.”