Duke Grandfather- The Whole Story

by James Maxstadt

  I climbed off of him and stood breathing heavily, looking down.

  “Return the money to Tollerson,” I said. “Next time, I won’t stop.”

  “He’ll kill me,” he croaked.

  “No, he won’t. I’ll be right back on that rooftop. You point me out, let him know that I’m watching and that I’ll take it personally if anything happens to you. After that, we’re done, you and I.”

  He scrambled to his feet, rubbing the back of his head and staring at me through slightly addled eyes. Then he shambled around the corner of the building, toward the Tollerson compound. I climbed back up onto the roof and stood in full view as he spoke to the guards and was led inside. A while later, he came out, looked up at me, hung his head and walked away. There were no jokes this time, only a lot of glares from the orc guards.

  Later on, I was feeling pretty good about myself. I saved the day, at least for one orc who was trying to clean up his own little corner of the city. And, I took a pompous jerk down a peg or two in the process. I was feeling so good in fact, that I decided to look up Jessup, get some lunch, and then take another look at the Nuisance Board and see if that golem was still there.

  I held myself to only three, or maybe four, ales with Jessup, then walked in to the watchhouse with my usual, “Hey, Sarge,” half expecting to get an earful about beating up another Nuisance Man and how the Watch, and by extension the Crown, would frown on that sort of thing in the future.

  Instead, I found five more Nuisance Men, gathered around the Board, talking in whispers.

  Sarge glared at me when I came in.

  “This is your doing, isn’t it Grandfather. I don’t know how, but I’m willing to bet you’re somehow behind it.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Sarge. What’s the ruckus?”

  He cocked his thumb toward the crowd gathered around the Board.

  “See for yourself. They’ve been coming in all afternoon.”

  Puzzled, I pushed my way past my colleagues, and started at the Board. It was covered in notices, pinned anywhere there was room, including on top of each other. All of them were orcs, and all of them were either from the Tollerson or Jarlson clans. It seemed that they decided that their war could be fought by proxy.

  I rushed back to the desk.

  “Take them down,” I said to Sarge.

  “Oh, okay, Duke. I’m sorry, I hadn’t gotten the notice of your promotion to be my boss, but I’ll get right on it, sir.”

  “Come on, Sarge. You know that the Jarlson clan is clean.”

  “Yet there they are, on the Board.”

  “Give me a chance to stop it,” I pleaded. “You know this is going to be a nightmare.”

  Sarge looked at me for a moment, turned away and yelled to the group near the Board.

  “All hear this! Any bounties on any orcs currently on the Nuisance Board are hereby suspended. Any attempt to collect on those bounties, will meet with the Watch’s extreme displeasure.”

  There was a lot of grumbling at this, and a couple of them put back notices they took down.

  Sarge turned back to me.

  “This is temporary only. You have until tomorrow afternoon to get it sorted out.”

  I nodded.

  “Thanks, Sarge.”

  “No problem. But, a couple of them were already taken, so you might want to start there.”

  “By who?” I asked, afraid that I already knew the answer.

  “That new guy, the other one with a weird name…what’s it? Raven? Something stupid like that.”

  I made for the Jarlson compound with all the haste I could. I had a feeling that Raven put one over on me, and didn’t return Tollerson’s money after all. I felt like an idiot for believing that he did. He was still going to go after Jarl, and if he killed a couple of other orcs in the process, he’d collect on them too.

  When I arrived, the Jarlson compound was in an uproar. I ran through the entrance, only to find one orc lying dead, his throat cut, and another heaped against the wall, holding his arm which had a huge gash in it.

  “Which way?” I growled at him.

  The fallen orc glared back at me, and for a moment I thought he only spoke orcish. Then he pointed to a building.

  I ran into it and came to a hallway, and a set stairs leading up. There were doors leading off of the hall on both sides, most hanging open, and a window to let in light and air at the end. I slowed down and moved carefully to the first room, peering in to make sure that Raven wasn’t lying in wait. No Raven, just a bunch of scared orc children, huddled behind a young female.

  “It’s okay,” I told them. “Which way did he go?”

  They all pointed further down the hall. I left them and continued past more scared orcs hiding in the rooms I passed. This building was apparently a school, or some other type of building where only the young orcs and their caretakers were. No one was in here that could stop Raven, except for me. Even if his targets wouldn’t be in here, I wouldn’t have put it past him to start killing orcs for the fun of it.

  I made my way to the end of the hall, finding nothing, and then back to the stairs. There was more of the same up on the second floor, same hallway lined with doors and the window at the end. But this was the top story, so there was nowhere else for him to go. I took my time, looking in every room as I went. As I neared the end of the hall, Raven suddenly burst from the last room, sword in hand.

  “Stop right there!” I yelled, sounding like a member of the Watch myself.

  Raven spun, obviously startled to see me, and sneered.

  “Well, you’re either smarter than I thought, or you had help. It was that old geezer Sarge, wasn’t it?”

  “Shows your ignorance if that’s what you think of Sarge,” I said, drawing my own sword. My gun was still set on “orc”, plus, I wanted to do this hand to hand.

  I closed with him, and the sound of steel meeting steel rang out in the hallway. Like the last time, Raven was good. He met me head on, and I couldn’t find an opening in his defenses. But since he couldn’t find one in mine either, that was fine. I didn’t have to win this fight, I only needed to keep him occupied long enough for the orc guards to get here.

  Raven knew that same thing though. It wasn’t long before we heard the pounding of feet on the stairs and the yelling of orc voices. I could see in his eyes that he knew it was over.

  “You haven’t won yet,” he snarled.

  He reared back and threw his sword at me, causing me to dodge. He took advantage of that, spun, and leapt through the window. I ran to the shattered pane, in time to see him climb shakily to his feet and limp away toward the compound entrance.

  The orcs came pouring up the stairs behind me as I turned around, putting my hands up in the air. They were led by Jarl himself, who scowled when he saw me.

  “You again. Why are you here?”

  “I’m trying to stop a clan war,” I told him, lowering my sword and putting it away. “I think we need to talk.”

  “We know all about it. We didn’t ask for your help.”

  “No, you didn’t. But I know more than you think I do, Jarl. About a certain Tollerson.”

  He studied me for a moment, then turned to the other orcs and spoke to them in their language. They dispersed, with many a backward glance and a moment later, we were alone in the hallway.

  “Speak,” he told me.

  “I saw you, the other night. You went to the Tollerson compound, and someone came down a rope and met you in the alley. You looked pretty familiar with each other.”

  “What do you want? Money to keep quiet?”

  “No! Nothing like that. I don’t care who you’re getting cozy with, but this little war that’s brewing is going to cause a lot of problems. And if I can’t get it fixed, now, there’s going to be Nuisance Men crawling all over it, making it even worse. A lot of people you know are going to die, and maybe she’d be one of them.”

  He leaned against the wall with his head down, suddenly l
ooking tired.

  “It wasn’t supposed to happen,” he said. “She’s Tollerson’s daughter, his youngest one. Her name is Selvi, and she has the most exquisite fangs. She’s not a fan of her father’s businesses, so she came to me one day, to see if there was any way that my family could help hers into a more respectable line of work. I met with her, curious at first, to see what she had to say. What can I say? Her beauty drew me in, and before I knew it, she was all I could think about.”

  I must look like I’m a good listener or something. People are always telling me their problems and stories.

  “Anyway,” he continued. “Over the last couple of months, we’ve been seeing each other in secret. Neither of our families would approve. Jarlson would kick me out for loving the daughter of a known criminal, and Tollerson would do worse to her, I’m sure. But what can I do, Grandfather? The heart wants what the heart wants.”

  I did my very best not to sigh at the melodrama. I get it. I’m in love with a necromancer who could make my soul come out and dance around by itself if she wanted, so I understand, but I don’t mope about it to anyone who will listen.

  “What do we do now?” he asked me. “Tollerson won’t listen if we try to ask him to back off, and I’m not sure that Jarlson would either, at this point.”

  “I have an idea,” I told him. I moved nearer and spoke in a whisper so that only he could hear me.

  The next morning, Jarl gathered up all of his males and females of fighting age and got them ready. They were armed to the teeth and ready for blood. He led them through the streets of Orc Town to the front of the Tollerson compound, and lined them up there. I was hiding nearby, waiting for the right moment.

  “Tollerson!” Jarl yelled out. “Enough of this! Let’s end it, once and for all! Come out and face me, or be branded a coward!”

  That did the trick. The doors of the Tollerson compound opened, and orcs boiled out of it, like wasps swarming from a nest that’s been hit with a rock. Luckily for Jarl, I had no intention of letting this turn into a real war. He was outnumbered, and from what I could see, out armed as well. They lined up across from Jarl’s group and held their ground.

  Finally, that slimy Ragold appeared, which is what I was waiting for. Tollerson himself wouldn’t come out, but Ragold spoke with his authority.

  I came out of hiding and stood in the middle of the street, Jarl’s group on one side, Ragold’s on the other.

  “Everyone hold up!” I yelled. They all stared, mostly amazed at the stupidity of someone daring to come between them.

  “I’m Duke Grandfather!” I yelled, and for once, no one snickered when I announced this. “Some of you have heard of me. Those who haven’t, count yourself lucky.”

  I was piling it on now, making sure they were all looking at me.

  “The Watch has sent me as their official representative. We don’t care about a bunch of orcs killing themselves in the street. Have at it. But this will not spill beyond the confines of this block, or there will be hell to pay! Understood?”

  Jarl stepped forward.

  “Who are you to tell us what to do, Nuisance Man? We don’t recognize your authority here!”

  There were a lot of growls of agreement from both sides at that.

  I looked at Jarl, pulled out a sheet of paper from my cloak and glanced at it.

  “Are you Jarl Jarlson?” I asked, making sure that everyone could hear me.

  “Yes. What does that have to do with…”

  That was as far as he got. I pulled out my gun, aimed and shot him. The rest of the crowd went silent and you could have heard a hair pin drop.

  A scream split the air from the Tollerson side of the street. A female orc pushed her way through the crowd, clawing to get to Jarl. She ran to him, and kneeled down, cradling his head in her lap.

  “Back up!” I yelled, and pointed the gun at her.

  “No!” she yelled back at me, and turned back to Jarl, sobbing.

  “What is the meaning of this?” Ragold said. “Selvi, get away from him!”

  She ignored him and continued to weep over Jarl’s still body.

  “Last chance,” I said. “You’re in the way of me collecting my reward for him, so I guess you go too. Fine with me.”

  I cocked the gun and was about to pull the trigger when another voice spoke.

  “Don’t shoot, please.”

  The voice was calm, cultured even, and came from the Tollerson side of the street. The orcs gathered there parted and a large, prosperous looking orc came forward.

  “You can stop the charade, Mr. Grandfather,” he said to me. “Your point is taken and well-illustrated.”

  I lowered the gun and looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

  “There’s no blood,” he said simply. “Please, get up Mr. Jarlson.”

  Jarl opened his eyes and smiled up at Selvi. She stared at him and smacked him square between the eyes. Jarl winced, pulled her head to his, kissed her, and climbed to his feet. Selvi looked furious.

  “Be calm daughter,” Tollerson said. “This little play was arranged by Mr. Grandfather and Jarl for all of our benefits. Isn’t that right, Mr. Grandfather?”

  I smiled at him.

  “We needed you to show yourself,” I said. “And…”

  Here I turned, and scanned the crowd of orcs behind me, finally spotting what I was looking for.

  “And you Jarlson. Come on out here please.”

  Another large, male orc, nearly the size of Tollerson came forward.

  “Now the cat’s out of the bag,” I said. “There’s a few ways this can go. The best is for you two to talk and to work out how these families are going to be combined. From the looks of things, unless you want to Unhouse your kids, that’s going to happen.”

  Jarl had his arm firmly around Selvi’s waist, and she was leaning into him. Their body language screamed that they were together in this, no matter what.

  “Or, I guess you could continue as you are,” I said. “I was only given a short time to try to fix this. If I haven’t, both of your clans will be visited by several Nuisance Men. I’m sure now that you’re forewarned you’ll handle some of them, but not all. You’ll lose a lot of your people too.”

  Neither Tollerson nor Jarlson seemed pleased by that idea.

  “Or, you could go at it now and settle it once and for all, as it were. I’m sure you’ll both lose a lot of good people that way also, and who knows what will become of Jarl and Selvi. And the Nuisance Men will still come for whatever’s left.”

  I hesitated for a minute to let this sink in.

  “What’s it going to be?”

  There was silence in the street again as the two senior orcs regarded each other.

  “Perhaps you’d care for a drink,” Tollerson finally said, indicating his orcish restaurant. “It seems that we have a few things to discuss.”

  Jarlson hesitated for a moment, looked at his son and nodded.

  “It seems that we do,” he sighed.

  I returned to the watchhouse and told Sarge what happened.

  “Good job, Duke. Who knew you had it in you?”

  “I did,” I said. “That’s the problem Sarge. People are always underestimating me.”

  “Yeah, well, sometimes you gotta play the odds, you know?”

  “That’s cute. Hey, have you seen Raven around?”

  “That new guy? Yeah, he was in earlier. Limping around and muttering something about ‘interfering’ and ‘revenge’. Took something off the Board, didn’t bother to show me, and left.”

  I nodded. I was hoping that I’d seen the last of him, but it looked like Raven wasn’t going anywhere soon.

  I walked over to the Nuisance Board and looked. It was as I thought. Sonuvabitch took my golem.

  INTERLUDE 6

  The young man chuckled as he finished writing his notes.

  “You’re saying that the Tollerson clan, one of the premier orc construction clans in the city, started out as criminals?”

&n
bsp; “Hell. They still could be, for all I know.”

  “You didn’t stay in touch after all that?”

  “A little. It turned out that Jarlson and Tollerson had a lot in common. They became not only business partners, but fast friends. Over time, several members of their clans intermarried, until you couldn’t tell who was who anymore. I think they kept the separate names to try to keep all the different businesses straight. I popped by every now and then, for a while, but…well, over time, I stopped.”

  The young man nodded.

  “I always get an education listening to you,” he said, smiling.

  “Then I’m doing my job. Now, get me another ale and kiss your grandmother good-night.”

  The young man rose.

  “Tomorrow?”

  “No,” Duke said, “tomorrow doesn’t work. I’ve got a couple of things to do. The next day. Come on by in the afternoon.”

  “I’ll see you the day after tomorrow, then.”

  He walked away to the kitchen, followed by the old man’s shout of “Don’t forget my ale!”

  When he was gone, Lilly came from the kitchen and sat in the chair her grandson vacated.

  “You like telling that story, don’t you?”

  “Sure, why not? It’s a great love story.”

  “And it doesn’t hurt that you come off looking clever in it.”

  “Well, I’ve got to give the boy someone to look up to, don’t I?”

  “What’s next?” Lilly asked, laughing.

  Duke considered.

  “What do you think of our grandson?” he finally asked.

  She looked at him sharply.

  “What do you mean? He’s our grandson. He’s a good boy.”

  “Yes, yes. Of course he is. I mean, do you think he can keep a secret?”

  “He’s writing all this down to try to make a book of it, Duke. I think that makes it not a secret.”

  “Hmpf. Well, you’re right there, of course. Still, I think I want to tell him about the one major story that’s not in the trophy room.”

  Lilly raised an eyebrow at this.

  “Really? The basement? Well, someone will need to know when we’re gone, so I guess it’s time. He’s a good choice, of course.”