by Guy Antibes
Whit went over both visions in detail again.
“I’m going to have to reassess a few things,” Gambol said. “I thought the saints were legends and never real.”
Whit tossed the coin to the gnome. “That is real enough.”
“Don’t tell the others. It may only complicate things,” Gambol said. “I don’t know what Deechie will do if he ever finds out.”
“Just between us?”
“And maybe Pin before you speak with the king,” Gambol said.
Chapter Sixteen
~
W hit looked back, sticking his head out of the coach and watching the ruin on the edge of the plateau, wondering if he should have stayed to search for the part that Varetta said might be within its crumbling walls. The carriages plunged into woods, and the temple was lost to view. The road was much better, and the villages much more friendly. None of them had an inkling why the pixies on the other side of the village were so unruly.
They stayed at the small town of Lilypond, and on the way out Razz spotted the sign pointing to the Forest Falls Retreat Center.
“Let’s see if Yetti is ready to rejoin the world,” Gambol suggested.
They all agreed to the detour, and they soon pulled up to an eight-foot high stone fence. Across the closed gate was the sign of the retreat.
Zarl exited Whit’s carriage and pounded on the door. Whit and Gambol stood behind the ogre. A woman opened the door and gasped at the sight of a seven-foot ogre. The pixie woman couldn’t have been more than three feet tall.
“Is Yetti Haslia still here?” Whit asked.
“She is and is currently engaged with another visitor,” the little woman said.
Whit smiled, trying not to look alarmed, having no idea who would visit Yetti. “We have come to take her back to Garri, if she is willing.”
“Oh, in that case, only two of you can come with me.”
Whit nodded to Argien. They knew Yetti the longest. The retreat was a complex of single-story buildings with long roof overhangs making a porch of sorts around all the buildings. It would be convenient in the rain, Whit thought as they walked on wooden walkways.
The woman stopped at a door and knocked before opening the sliding door just enough to poke her head inside. “You have more visitors,” she said.
“Their names?” Yetti asked.
She sounded calm enough to Whit. “Whit and Argien,” he said to the pixie woman.
“Whit!” Yetti cried inside her room. She came rushing out and gave them both a hug.
The visitor sauntered out.
A surprised Whit greeted the familiar face. “Jonny Evia. This is a surprise.”
“It is, isn’t it?” the pub owner said. He turned to Yetti. “We’ve finished our business, haven’t we?” Jonny said to Yetti.
“Yes” she said.
“I’ll be getting on my way. You are headed back to Garri?” Jonny asked.
“We are,” Argien said.
Whit wasn’t so sure they should have shared that information with Ritta’s friend, the man responsible for putting Yetti into the retreat center.
“Are you ready to return?” Whit asked Yetti who, he noticed, was wearing a simple homespun frock.
“I am. They gave me some exercises to do. Most of them involve meditation.”
Whit could see how that could help and nodded. “Can we help you pack?”
“No,” Yetti said. “I just have to change.” She slipped back into her room. “I won’t be a minute.”
“Does she owe any more money?” Whit asked the little woman.
“No. She worked for her fee.”
“She was successful?” Whit asked.
The women bit her lower lip. “Have her tell you the details, but she responded well.”
Whit was glad for that. In another moment, Yetti threw the door open, and they walked through the center to the gate. There was no sign of Jonny Evia.
“I’ll sit with Gambol and you in a carriage. I’m not going to describe what went on twice,” Yetti said.
Whit was actually happy that some of the pixie’s prickliness was still there.
“What was Jonny Evia doing?”
“Apologizing,” Yetti said. “He said you know that he was the one who intruded into my mind.”
“He did,” Whit said. “Do you still feel violated?” He didn’t know if he should be talking to her about the reason she entered the retreat.
“I do, but I was able to put it into perspective,” Yetti said. “He was instructed to do it at Ritta Misennia’s order.”
Whit didn’t think Jonny was that obedient of a servant, but he let Yetti talk.
“We may run into them before we reach Garri,” Yetti said. “Promise that you will protect me?”
Gambol patted Yetti’s hand, which earned him a glare. “We are team members. Of course we will protect you.”
Yetti leaned back. “Good. I expect they might stop us on the road. I’m almost sure Jonny Evie was being honest with me.”
“I’ll make sure I warn the others.”
“Deechie and Pin aren’t with you?”
Gambol told her about their adventures while taking the excursion into the countryside.
“I’m glad I didn’t go with you. I’m sure the temple would creep me out,” Yetti said. “I was forced to worship a phony pixie saint in Coria when I grew up. It wasn’t a pleasant experience.”
“Ours was,” Gambol said, with a lightness in his voice that Whit knew was false.
“Gambol even cooked everyone breakfast yesterday morning,” Whit said.
They stopped at a village for a quick pub lunch where Whit reminded everyone that it was likely they would be stopped by bandits, he called them.
“The same bandits at Cornno’s Pub?” Argien asked.
“Perhaps,” Whit said.
~
Everyone looked forward to returning to the inn during the twilight hours, or so Whit thought, when they stopped to avoid running into twenty riders lined up across the road.
Whit recognized Ritta Misennia and Jonny Evia among the bandits.
“What do you want?” Razz said from atop the first carriage.
“A day of your time,” Ritta said. “Please follow us to a manor not far from here.”
“Why don’t we meet in Garri?” Gambol asked.
Ritta frowned. “There are too many eyes to see and ears to hear in the capital.”
Whit gauged their chances of success forcing the carriages through the line and outrunning the riders for an hours long chase to the capital as slim. “We will follow.”
All control was lost as they were surrounded and escorted back down the road a few hundred yards and along a lane branching off from the main road.
“Are we going to fight our way out?” Yetti said to Whit after glancing at Gambol.
“Do you know enough pixie magic to give us a chance if we have to run?” Whit asked. There were too many pixies for his magic-killing wand.
“No.” She folded her arms and sat back with her chin on her chest.
“Didn’t you just go to a retreat so you wouldn’t get upset?” Gambol said with a smile.
Yetti raised her eyebrows and gave Gambol a nasty look. “I haven’t lost my temper, yet,” she said. “I am doing well by my standards.”
Whit believed her, seeing Yetti in action during the trip. “If we don’t fight them, we can come out of this undamaged,” Whit said. “I’m not sure what they want of us, though.”
“Something uncomfortable,” Yetti said. “I trust Ritta less than I do her partner in crime, Jonny Evia.”
They rolled along the dirt road for a quarter-hour when they reached a gravel section of the lane and pulled into an ancient manor house that had seen better days. Their captors led them into the house and sat them down in a great room set up as a meeting hall.
Whit wondered if this might be Ritta’s headquarters.
“Sit on the front row,” Ritta said.
; The chairs were pixie-size, and Whit’s chair was uncomfortable. He couldn’t imagine how Zarl managed, but he noticed that the ogre had taken two chairs. Whit didn’t like the situation any more than the rest of them. “What do you want of us? I thought we had concluded our business.”
“I want loyalty statements,” Ritta said.
“Foreigners signing loyalty statements?” Gambol said. “What kinds of fools do you take us for?”
“International fools?” Jonny asked sarcastically.
Whit wondered how much Jonny agreed with what was going on. His little joke wasn’t presented with the kind of force he expected of the pixie. Ritta looked more sure than Jonny, but he realized that his conversation with the pair over dinner hadn’t been successful.
“I’ll sign,” Whit said. His team made sounds of astonishment around him. “But you’ll have to give me a good reason why I should.”
“Reason? Are you in a position to demand a reason?” Ritta said.
Whit was disappointed in the young woman. He thought she was daring and inventive, but her thuggish behavior disappointed him.
Whit had a thought. “Someone is putting you up to this,” he said. “This isn’t your idea because our signing anything doesn’t make any sense at this point.”
Ritta looked afraid for a second and then regained her composure, but Whit caught the slip.
“This is my idea,” she said.
“Without conviction. Your idea is without conviction.” Whit looked at Jonny. “Did you ask her to capture us?”
Jonny looked surprised. “Me? Why would I do that?”
“Before I sign, that is the question you’ll need to answer. I’ll sign if you can show me what our signatures mean. It is a loyalty statement, as you said, but to what do we have to be loyal to and what will we have to do to show that loyalty?” Whit said.
Gambol patted Whit on the back and nodded when Whit glanced at him.
“To our cause,” Ritta said.
“And why don’t you explain what your cause is and why it differs from the prime minister’s cause and the interior minister’s cause. Don’t they want to take over Perisia too?” Gambol said.
“Who asked you?” Ritta said.
“Since you want all our signatures, I can ask a question. I haven’t said I’d sign,” the professor said.
“I haven’t either,” Zarl said before the others echoed the same sentiment.
Whit tried not to smile. They had gone from a cowed group of foreigners to a united team.
“She’s doing it for the money,” Jonny said with a sly smile. “The interior minister is paying her to get your promises that you will show your loyalty by leaving Perisia and stop pursuing the artifacts.”
Ritta glared at her partner. “You weren’t supposed to say that.”
Jonny sighed. “You haven’t read the statements closely enough, have you? These people are smart, and they will see through the words.”
Whit was happy to receive the compliment, but happier that they had an ally of sorts in Jonny Evia.
“Then why did you agree to take them here?” Ritta asked. “They shouldn’t have come to the manor.”
Whit shrugged. “Don’t worry about that,” he said. “We don’t have a political stake in Perisia other than retrieving the Eye components. Just let us be on our way. There are those among us working for our rivals.”
“Greeb Deechie,” Fistian said with a streak of venom in his voice.
Argien nodded in agreement. “Undoubtedly.”
“The human?” Ritta asked.
“That’s Deechie,” Yetti said.
Ritta looked at Jonny. “Do you think we are being used?”
“More than usual,” the pub owner said. “Let’s let them look at the oaths.”
Ritta nodded. “We have to have them read the documents first, anyway.”
Whit grabbed his in both hands and examined the words. Like Jonny said, the true intent of the document was to get them to agree to leave Perisia as soon as possible in support of those in favor of improvements of the lives of Perisian pixies. It didn’t read like any kind of loyalty oath that Whit could imagine.
“We were supposed to sign this?” Razz said. He ripped his copy up and tossed the pieces into the air. “I am guessing we will have to fight our way out. I’m ready.”
“Not so fast,” Whit said. “If we can be allowed to line out a few sentences and modify a few phrases, I think we can sign this. You’ll get the signatures, but we won’t have to leave Perisia.”
“Who said you could do that?” Ritta said.
Jonny chuckled. “We can say they would sign with a few changes, and then we keep the money.”
Ritta’s face darkened with anger. “But that isn’t what we were told.”
“Are you agents of change or slaves of the interior minister?” Gambol asked.
“Agents of change!” Jonny said. “I like that. Yes, we are. Make your corrections.”
Ritta took Jonny aside but said loudly enough for all to hear. “We didn’t discuss this.”
“But you will agree, unless you are ready to end the cause,” Jonny said barely loudly enough to hear.
Ritta paced the floor for a moment and then jerked her head up and down as if making a decision. “Make the changes, but they must all be the same.”
“We can do that,” Whit said.
The other captors seemed to relax and began to grab a chair and sit down. “We don’t have to guard them anymore, do we?” one of them asked.
When the task was done, Ritta collected the documents, reading each one. “I am doing this reluctantly, but Jonny is right. We need the money, but we also need to pursue our dreams for Perisia.”
“Canis Bache might be able to help you with both of those, if you give him a chance,” Whit said. “Trust us. We won’t tell anyone of this place, and I guarantee we won’t tell Greeb Deechie.”
Ritta nodded. “You may leave. Forget you ever came here.”
“Easily done,” Gambol said.
Chapter Seventeen
~
“I
can’t believe you turned that all around,” Razz told Whit as the carriage clattered on the cobblestones of Garri. “I was concerned.”
Whit laughed. “So was I, but you should thank Gambol too. He picked up on what I started. The rebels are being manipulated by other rebels.”
“And the king is oblivious to it all.” Razz pulled on the reins to stop for cross traffic. “I almost feel sorry for him.”
Whit concurred. “I’d tell him if I trusted him, but I don’t. He is caught between two duplicitous ministers, and there are more factions that we don’t know about.”
“You will tell Pin?” Razz asked.
“About everything but the manor.”
“You’ve reminded us about that often enough once we got back on the road.”
Whit looked at the colorful buildings they passed. “They showed us some trust. We need to do the same, don’t you think?”
“I do,” Razz said.
Whit saw a glimpse of the palace far ahead. “It must be the same in every country. Intrigue, spies, rebels bent on a never-ending quest for power.”
“Don’t forget the royal families,” Razz said. “I think they are the worst, since they are so close to the throne.”
“The kings and queens have all the power, but because of that they are the biggest targets,” Whit said. “I learned all about it in my political geography classes. It’s different when you experience all the machinations.”
“We need the Augur’s Eye so we can back the right side,” Razz said.
“Is there ever a right side?” Whit asked.
“You took the classes, I didn’t,” Razz said.
Whit grunted. “We never got into the morality of usurpation,” he said. He didn’t want to talk about politics since he’d have to go over everything for Pin, so he stayed silent until they pulled into the inn.
Gambol joined Whit at the inn
keeper’s desk to get their rooms back.
“You have returned! Your human friend said you wouldn’t be returning and redeemed the deposit money,” the innkeeper said.
Whit groaned and Gambol looked furious. “Are there rooms for us?”
“There are, but some of you will have to share.”
Gambol ended up with Fistian and Argien joined Razz in a room. Zarl needed all the space he could get, and Gambol insisted that Whit have his own room.
“Is Deechie still at the inn?”
The innkeeper shook his head. “Took the deposit money and ran. I have no idea where he went. The belongings left in the pixie’s room are in storage. I’ll have them returned to her room.”
It took the rest of the day to get everyone settled. Whit ended up in a bigger room than he needed, but it had a good-sized round table. The entire team met in his room, and they decided to follow their meeting with a good dinner and a relaxing evening.
“What will we do about Deechie?” Fistian said shaking a fist. “I’d like to apply this to his chin.”
“He will have to show up, won’t he, after he learns we weren’t killed by Ritta’s rebels?” Argien asked.
“We can count on it,” Gambol said. “The man has no sense of shame.”
“I’ll demand the deposit money back,” Whit said.
“I’d do more than demand.” Yetti said. “He deserves punishment.”
“Shall we tell the king?” Zarl said facetiously.
“That wouldn’t be a bad idea if it would show King Quiller our sincerity,” Gambol said. “We still need permission to take the artifacts out of Perisia. Assuming we find them.”
“I have a little less confidence than I had before,” Argien said.
“The king deserves our fealty, at least enough to get him to trust us,” Yetti said.
“When everyone wants change?” Argien said. “What if something happens while we are here, and there is someone else to get permission from.”
“Discreetly put,” Gambol said. “Anything can happen.”
Whit nodded. “Maybe Ritta and her group of unhappy pixies will stir things up a bit, extending the time we need to deal with Perisia’s monarch.”
“Then nothing has changed since we left for our countryside excursion,” Razz said.