Random 62

Brice covered his eyes with one hand and rubbed his temples. Just how many people now knew that there was a connection between the Saba family and a certain dead body? This could not end well. "Yes?"

Wordlessly but with a triumphant, almost boy-like smile, the other person produced a tin and opened it, producing a certain crystal. "This, governer."

The sight froze Brice stock-still. This was getting worse and worse. If someone put together not only his family and the dead mage, but also the dead mage and the weather... If things got out, they'd be lucky if they were merely hanged.

"Where is this woman now?"

For a moment, Kai looked utterly confused, then smiled. "Oh, that girl. She's outside the city, see, so's she won't cause trouble if she escapes. It's a bit off the road to the Cross. I thought you'd want to see her, and rest damn assured, she's well-guarded, sir. Can take you there, like." The look on his face was pure and utter servitude, one of a person who hoped to be well paid for his wounds. And instead of someone smart enough to ask what's the price, his was that of one who was simple enough to just ask for more orders.

"Ought be still there, sir. Them two and that boss, they real big," Kai muttered, looking somewhat embarrassed, as if he were the weakling of the lot.

"Yes, I would like to talk to her, Kai" Brice still tried to catch up. It was quite a switch, from unanswered price quotes for grain to this. He did not think to doubt Kai was honest - the weakest of a gang being sent out on an errand made sense, and he seemed too simple to be that good a liar - but worried he might not be in possession of all the facts. "Who is this you're working with? 'Them two and that boss'?"

"Oh, them. The big guy is Kord. Kor? Something like that. I don't know, he was talkin' about this other guy... hee, name like mine. Kais... Kais-something, but the other two, they never told me." Pause. "Big drunk fuckers anyway. Really angry types, you know," Kai said with a wince.

"I can imagine," Brice murmured. Louder he asked, "And the place they are now?"

Kai happily rattled off a way to the farm not far off the walls, admitting that it might take some guidance just to get there. It wasn't too vague, really, it was just that city folk never really had an inkling as to where to go once outside the walls, and in any case, the farmers were really upset right now and might just get real angry.

Brice added "they're trying to lure the local Saba family head out of the city for a lynchmob" of his list of possible actual events.

"Thank you. I have to put a few things in order." He raised his voice. "Marl!"

The guard poked in his head, looking surprised. Brice tended to open the door rather than shout.

"Please take Kai here to see Haran or Tul, see if they can't do something for his wounds." Stacking some of the papers without looking at them, he added to Kai, "I'll meet you as soon as I can. It should not take long."

Kai's face brightened. "Thank youse, sir!" he said in a voice that carried sincere gratefulness. After all, maybe the Sabas had some physicians who might be able to give him stitches. He knew he needed some, as much as he knew they wouldn't help much.

Once alone, Brice raked both hands through his hair and took a deep breath, trying to clear his mind. He started hastily writing down the directions Kai had given, best as he could remember, and tried to think through the possibilities.

The idea that the truth had gotten out and a lynchmob was outside the city waiting for the head of the Saba family to come to them had been too hasty. They would just come here and burn down the whole property, or something similarly flashy.

Just days after finding out Ludovic had hired someone to kill Langoll, maybe he was just getting paranoid. Or Ludovic had gotten drunk while moping about the telling-off about "being rash" had given him then. But Brice did not want to believe that Ludovic had hired someone to kill him. Family had to stick together.

That left the people Ludovic had hired wanting to try something for their own profit, similar to what Langoll had done... Or maybe they are after personal revenge on Ludovic, if he offended them somehow.

Or then, it might be just as Kai described. The little rain crystal did not fit in so easily. Had he avoided thinking about it?

Do I need to talk to her? I need to try to figure out how much she knows, and if anybody else does. Yes.

Do I need to follow Kai to talk to her? Transporting her into the city was risky, including because cargo is sometimes checked for smuggled goods at the gates, and he did not have a location that felt safe enough. The only place where he did not have to expect passers-by or neighbours who might hear screams was one that could not be entered at the moment. Hopefully the place was as out-in-the-sticks as Kai had suggested.

He folded the directions, and sighed, forcing himself to finish the thought. It should make getting rid of the body easier, too. It seemed unlikely they'd have any chance at keeping the matter secret if she knew as much as he feared. Could he somehow make sure she did not recognise him? if she did, it would make killing her unavoidable. This was not a matter for second-hand information, though. Maybe if he had a middleman he trusted, but he hadn't.

Not for the first time Brice wishd he had looked for a position not in the family business, or at least not in this branch of the family.

He should get going and pick people to accompany him, get a coat... But first he paused to pen a short note to his parents.

"Ow," said Kai, when Tul prodded at his scabbing headwound. "Gentle, eh?"

"Quit crying, you," said Tul, grinning. Kai had secreted another flask of potent stuff with him, and the two were enjoying its medicinal uses. "So, she any good? Looks, I mean?"

"Mean that shedevil? Pretty as could be, nice smile... up until she hits you in the head," Kai smiled, wincing as stitches were being applied without any other sort of anesthesic aside from what (very) little he'd sipped from the flask. "Women."

Tul laughed out loud. "Tell me about it, brother. It's all mad when you've got boobs and no pecker."

Having heard that, Kai would have wanted to smack Tul senseless and leave him naked somewhere near a public house. Instead, he put on a smile and a chuckle, hating himself for that.

"Well, you're good to go," Tul said, finally, tapping his rather longish nose. "Keep them close, not too close, right?"

"Oh, I'll do that, mate," Kai said.

Brice picked only two guards to accompany him, Marl and Reo, because they were the only ones more likely than not to keep their mouths shut, and told them to get rid of the livery. He was certain they would be competent enough to deal with three "angry drunks", if neccessary, though the idea that those had killed Langoll made him nervous. Feeling like all choices he had were wrong, he had Kai show them the way.

---

Gemma eventually let Sylvie pay for the medicine they had used, since the young woman seemed geniunely distressed about owing them yet more, as she put it. Or maybe she was nervous in general. If the attack on Kai was the reason, she had an odd way of dealing with it: Going out alone. Well, with her dragon. But for the first time since she had arrived in the city, she took her staff with her, so that might be something.

In contrast to Brice, Sylvie knew where she was going. While both the strange morning and their plans were weighting her down, she was a little curious about the people she'd meet.

At first, the three men in the main building had been utterly speechless, and not only because a red-haired, dark-skinned woman had turned up with a two-headed lizard (who Selk, the other of the Treysens, found quite interesting), but it was the letter that sent them scrambling.

"About time," the ox-sized Kord muttered, still thinking this was a bit strange. Once the huge man took off his reading glasses, he settled down for a moment and then snorted. "Okay. I'm sorry, ma'am. Would you like some tea? We've got honey bread, too. If the Old Lady's eldest says you're here, then you're as good as a friend to us," the dark-haired man said, looking suddenly gentle, not paying attention to the Treysens in the background. All three of them were big, fit men who nonetheless looked melancholy. One look out the window, and it was clear as to why.

"That would be lovely, thank you." Particularly some tea to warm up after the slog through the rain. Trying to relax, she asked, "What do you mean with 'the Old Lady's eldest'?"

"Eldest son... hah. He's the only one. That silver-haired lunatic. My grandmother still told stories about him until last year. Efficient, once he gets kicked on the right path."

Kord nodded, then regarded Sylvie for a moment more and frowned. The tea. And the weather. "Herv! Get a towel for the lady! Selk! Leave the critter alone and put some of that tea your ma sent on the fire!" For a moment, he shook his head, watching the twins run off to do their tasks. "Difficult to get decent help these days," the huge lump of muscle said, eyes twinkling as if he didn't really mean his comment. In spite of all his bluster, he seemed quite fond of the two.

"So, how in the hells did that lazy bastard get you into this?" Kord finally asked, in the same tone, but looking a little wary.

"He told me there was a problem," She tilted her head, looking past Kord into the middle distance trying to remember that conversation. She reminded herself that she didn't know how much of the impression she got was Sebastian's filter, to take the edge off her irritation. "Somehow it sounded like his goddess and--well, he was probably talking about you--dropped the problem on his head and expected him to solve it all alone?"

Kord had the decency to look a little chided, but not entirely. "Look, we've got problems here. We've been digging ditches and trying to help the farmers. Shit, we've spent our cash trying to hoard food for the locals, and it ain't easy." The big man sighed and watched the twins hurry about. Towels, it seemed, were in short supply, but water for tea? Not so much.

Still... "You know, that's not the only reason we didn't do much, er, other than get him to work. It was a bitc-- er, a bit difficult to find him. Luckily... yeah, luckily. But the thing is, we're wardens and farmers and clergy, you know?" The man rubbed his face. "Can't go around running around doing that shit he does. Criminal, mostly. Wouldn't know how to, either." Looking a little nervous, he said, reverently: "She did show herself."

Sylvie could only nod to his points, sighing, bit drew the line before an apology. She had some trouble following Kord, particularly when he stumbled over cursewords. "Who did? The goddess?"

"The Old Lady herself, yes. Sort of. Walking sunflower, of all things. Talk about irony, eh?" Kord chuckled.

It was at that point that Herv showed up not with just a towel but woolly socks. The big man grinned apologetically, and only a moment later Sylvie was presented with a mug -- not a cup -- of dandelion tea.

"Thank you!" She gave Herv a big smile. The second pair of socks was very welcome; her mud-encrusted boots she had left by the door. She let the tea cool a little while drying her hair, snarled as it was.

"I guess? I'm not sure what is normal for gods."

Kord nodded. "Well, sunflower, rain. But then those things have stalks like you'd not believe, yeah. Anyway, it's the first time in ages anyone's seen her talk in any form to someone," the man said dreamily, even as Herv and Selk nodded in a pleased manner and began to go over something in hushed tones, heading out and toward the kennel. Kord pursed his lips. "I don't think anyone'd know what's normal for gods. Not even the eldest son."

"They are top-heavy. Takes some work on the balance if you want to make them walk, I guess," she answered distractedly, a tad wary of the theme of gods. The flowers she had been involved it making them walk had been rather smaller. The little pranks you got up to when you were around twelve...

That statement elicited a look of wonder from Kord. "You work with plants, miss?" He could not have looked more delighted -- and from a very, very large, muscular and friendly-like man faced with his favourite topic, that sounded very interested. Not in her, but the topic.

Sylvie smiled back. "By preference. Usually more useful things than making them walk around, nowadays." Belatedly fearing that have come out wrong, she picked up the mug of tea, wrapping her hands around it, by way of fidgeting.

"Hard to disagree with that. I've no idea. I'm just trying to keep people alive, and it don't look good," Kord said, furrowing his impressively hairy eyebrows. "Still... gotta ask. He said in that letter... you and him, gonna fix this?" There was a bit of worried urgency in his voice, even though he tried to look calm.