<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Okay, here's the next part. I wasn't originally planning to actually have Gallus tell the whole story, but... well, I wanted to just keep adding more details to my characters. Plus, I came up with some new things for my characters to say.<div> </div><div>----</div><div> "Well," Gallus said, "I guess it goes back to when we first met them in Tullwine, two months ago." He tilted his head upward in thought. "We had just lost three guards from a large bandit attack. No, none of us died. We successfully routed them all. But one of us got shot in the leg and chose to quit while he could still walk. Another one had gotten rattled during the fight, and decided to retire so he could start a family. The third one had fought so well, he sought a recommendation to become bodyguard to the lord mayor of Tullwine." He shook his head. "Gwayn, of course, wouldn't give one, so I had to vouch for him. Gwayn still hasn't forgiven me for that. "In any case, we were searching for replacements in Tullwine when these two men came up to our table at dinner. My guess is they'd been watching us all day. The shorter one, the one we would know as Rodrick, said that he'd heard we were in need of new guards, and offered their services at our starting rates. And he had us come outside to demonstrate their swordfighting skills." He chuckled. "They didn't realize the mayor had forbidden swordfighting in his city, and it only lasted about ten seconds, long enough to show he could disarm your brother, who put up quite a fight of his own, enough to impress Gwayn into hiring them. I was worried that they were thieves and con artists, so Gwayn assigned me and Reed to watch over them. "I still think my hunch was correct. I caught Rodrick several times looking at our coin box. But he saw me looking at him, too, and he kept flashing that innocent smile at us. Jerrod came to me a week later, and apologized for Rodrick being so suspicious. He said he and Rodrick had had some trouble in the past, but they had straightened themselves out, and he promised he would keep Rodrick out of trouble." He shrugged. "This new company was much more on edge than any other. I didn't fully trust Reed, either -- he'd only been with us for a year, but he never spoke about his past before becoming a guard -- where he was from, how old he was, why he joined, how long he planned to stay with us." "This man, Reed," Freya interrupted, her eyes still on the road behind them. "Was he tall, lanky, tending to step with the front of his feet, with a sharp chin, a wide brow, and ears flat against his head?" "Um... something like that, yes. Do you know him?" She made no reply, and gave no indication that she even heard. "My brother," Gillie said. "Tell me more about him." "Ah, yes. So after we hired him, we bought some ale in Tullwine to take west to Elvquelin..." Timios sat up. "Oh?" With one smooth, well-practiced motion, Timios reached into a saddlebag behind him and pulled out a red book with black notches cut into the pages. He thumbed open one section and had a pencil pressed to the page an instant later. "What price? How much? What sizes did you get?" "Um... four hogsheads. I guess about three crowns apiece, the same as usual." "I see, I see," Timios quickly jotted the figures down. "Who did you purchase from? Do they have many buyers? How much do they produce? Have they had any off-years recently? Do they regularly sell to Elvquelin? Where else do they sell it?" "I don't know, this was months ago," Gallus waved it off. "This has nothing to do with Jerrod, you know." "I know," Timios said. "I'm sorry. It's just so rare to get decent economic data from anywhere." Timios looked back expectantly. Gallus spent the long pause adjusting his grip on the wagon. "So, in Elvquelin, we picked up another man." Timios closed his book in disappointment. "Gwayn likes to pick up recruits from one of the local captains. Aldwin didn't have much experience, but he had great enthusiasm. We didn't stay long there. Gwayn was a bit behind schedule, you see; every year he takes a delivery of rugs up to Metamor to a carpet dealer, to be sold during the summer festival. We got paid in advance for the expected profits, but then we leave for two weeks so we can return and run our own booth during the festival -- quick purchases like alcohol, soaps, and perfumes. Impulse buys for newcomers who weren't expecting a massive crowd of animal people." "Did Jerrod know he was going to Metamor?" Gillie asked. "Not for quite a while. New guards tend to desert if they're told right away about Metamor. I'd been making these trips for fifteen years, twice as many as Nathan, so I'd gotten used to being discreet. We told them that we'd only be headed as far north as Menth." Gallus stopped to catch his breath. "At first, I suspected Rodrick and Jerrod were two mercenery deserters. They were obviously hiding some kind of secret. Rodrick was the more spirited man, I'd say. He was always making small talk during our travels -- though he knew to keep his mouth shut at the most dangerous spots. But he was always telling jokes, or sharing tidbits about our destination, or stories about places he'd been. Or said he'd been. Really liked to talk, that one. "Jerrod was harder to read." The wagon jerked suddenly from a hidden dip in the road. Gallus threw his weight against the wagon to catch it, while Timios grabbed the tall rattling bundle behind him, still clutching his book. The wagon's built-in suspension squeaked and groaned; it seemed to barely add any comfort to the jostled passengers. Gallus paused for several seconds to catch his breath. "He didn't talk much, either on the road or at the tavern. He seemed to enjoy gambling; he did it nearly every stop we made. He'd win just enough to buy himself an ale, usually." He paused. "One time in Braasem, he had a big win. He bought a night with a prostitute with the money. He came back fifteen minutes later, and said it wasn't for him." Timios opened his book again. "How much for a prostitute?" "Timios!" Gillie shouted. "No one ever says," Timios grumbled and closed the book. "He liked playing games of all kinds. Besides the cards he kept on him, he liked to play morris and checkers with Aldwin and Reed, sometimes Nathan, while we camped. Never for money, though." He paused. "He treasured his weapons and his armor. He always had them on him. He woke us up one morning, swinging some imaginary weapon, shouting 'Father, hold on!' Gave Nathan a pretty bad bruise. Reed nearly took his arm off for that." He looked straight at Gillie. "You see, nothing about him suggested that he was a mercenary. He fought impressively with Rodrick, but he never practiced with anyone else. He always stayed towards the back of confrontations -- just a couple of times when we heard some animal in the woods, or we passed a band of soldiers on the road. And he never spoke about his past, or spoke when me or Nathan talked about ours. Reed, at least, had actual experience handling blades. But with Jerrod, it always seemed fake. Like he was practicing some routine with Rodrick. Am I correct in guessing that he was never a soldier?" Gillie nodded. "By the time he left, I barely knew my brother. But he had no professional experience. Most likely anything he did learn came from Rodrick. But what about Metamor?" "Right, so as I was saying, it was in Menth that Gwayn revealed we were actually headed to Metamor. I saw Aldwin go pale, and Rodrick actually seeming intrigued, but Jerrod went into a panic. He was tossing in his sleep, talking constantly with Rodrick, jumping at every disturbance. He'd mostly calmed down by the time we entered, but he was still tense at every encounter. We'd pass some female guards, and he'd growl how unnatural it was for a woman to carry a sword." Freya sniffed sharply. "We reached Metamor on the twenty-seventh of May. We met these two guards at the gates, a lizard and a ferret, trying to inspect our cart. They got too close to him, and he almost knocked them to the street, calling them 'filthy monsters'... and worse. Gwayn had to intervene to keep them from kicking us out. Jerrod refused to leave the room at the inn the first two days we were there. We weren't expecting to stay long, except... Well, our usual buyer passed away, and the competitors weren't selling at the prices Gwayn wanted. So for five days we stayed. We all started to get impatient and restless. Especially Rodrick. I suppose he was disappointed in being denied access to the inner Keep. All of us discussed mutiny at some point. I had been imagining a confrontation with Gwayn if he didn't find a buyer by the night of June 1st." He paused. The memories were still fresh. Even with fifteen years more experience, it was hard to badmouth men he so recently worked with. "What did my brother do?" Gillie's voice was tense. "Nothing, ultimately," Gallus said. "At least, not for the mutiny. I caught him gambling on our last day with some Keepers. They cheated him -- or at least, outsmarted him -- of all his possessions. We took him with us to meet a potential buyer. While we were gone, Rodrick and Nathan took off with two of our horses. They got captured soon afterwards. Soon after we got back to the inn, your brother took a knife and disappeared. I suspect it was to find and confront those two he was gambling against. But we never saw him again." "You left him in Metamor?" "It wasn't my choice," Gallus averted his eyes. Both Timios and Freya seemed disappointed by the anticlimactic ending. "Gwayn was also impatient to leave. As soon as business was over, we were gone." Freya turned. "What happened to Reed? I noticed he doesn't accompany you anymore." "Oh, that's another story, one I understand even less. He and Aldwin stayed behind to help some oni who was seeking help with some civil war in the far east." "A civil war?!" Timios's hands flew to his pack and drew out a little black book. He hastily flipped to the very back. "Which kingdom was he from? Did he say when it began?" "I know absolutely nothing. He only mentioned it in passing. He wanted to buy a rug for sixty gold." "Right, sixty." In a flash he opened the red book still in his hand, wrote a small figure, and extracted a third book from his pack, this one green. This one was far more battered, with stray bits of paper dangling from the rough sheets. He flipped through it several times before he settled on a page. "This oni, can you describe him? Any distinguishing features? Hair? Scales? Horns? Hooves?" "I'm afraid I don't remember," Gallus lied, tired of Timios's interruptions. "But you," he turned to Freya, whose eyes were now fixed on him, "what interest do you have in Reed? How do you know him?" Freya tilted her head back with a smile. "He is an object of great interest to me. And quite a troublesome person to track down." "Track down? Is he your brother, too? Or..." Gallus paused as he considered her knives. She WAS a bit over-equipped for a mere huntress. "Neither," Freya smiled. "He is my fiance."</div></div></div> </div></div>