by Pirateaba
“Mrsha?”
The Gnoll licked at her face, slapping Ryoka lightly with her paws as the cub tried to climb all over Ryoka. Ryoka laughed and yelped at once, trying to grab Mrsha. But the Gnoll was a blur. She grabbed at Ryoka, hugging her tightly, making small sounds that weren’t words.
“Mrsha! Relax! I’m glad to see you. It’s okay. I’m here. I’m glad to see you too!”
Ryoka finally found a bit of fur and grabbed it. Mrsha latched onto Ryoka, hugging the girl so tightly her paws dug into Ryoka’s skin through her coat. Ryoka hugged her back, whispering to the trembling Gnoll child.
“I’m sorry. I was gone for a long time. But I’m back, see? I’m back.”
She didn’t try to prise Mrsha away, and the Gnoll wouldn’t have let go for anything. Ryoka sat up awkwardly in the snow. Only then did she realize she had company.
Four tall Gnolls stood watching her and Mrsha in the snow. They might have been male, or female. It was hard to tell. But they were tall, adult, and watching her. Ryoka’s stomach lurched a tiny bit.
“Uh, hi.”
Thought and fear raced ahead of everything else. Why were they here? Were they worried she was trying to attack Mrsha? Or was it because Mrsha had white fur? Were they after Mrsha? Where was Erin? But then one of the Gnolls spoke and put Ryoka’s fears to rest.
“The Mrsha child smelled you and ran to find you. We came to ensure she was not in danger.”
“Oh. She came from the city? Wait, what was she doing there?”
One of the Gnolls, the tallest, nodded. He had red-brown fur and had a sheathed axe at one hip.
“She was with Krshia for lessons when she scented you. She knew you were coming long before we smelled you.”
“Oh. I get it.”
Mrsha had a stronger nose than any Gnoll adult due to her youth. Ryoka felt Mrsha shift her grip as she clung to the young woman. She was licking Ryoka and nuzzling her head against her. It was intimate, but Ryoka felt awkward in the presence of the other Gnolls.
“Well…she found me. Do you all need anything?”
The Gnolls stared at her. They had a strange intensity about them. The lead Gnoll pointed at Ryoka, eyes searching her face.
“You have returned with what honored Krshia needs, yes?”
Ryoka stared up at the reddish-brown Gnoll as Mrsha tried to coat her face with saliva. What they—oh! The book! It had been so long since she’d made that promise that Ryoka had nearly forgotten. But she’d carried it with her in the bag of holding all this time. She nodded.
“I—yes. I’ve got it with me. I can give it to her—”
“Good.”
So saying, the Gnoll reached down and grabbed Ryoka’s legs. She froze.
“What are—”
Another one seized Ryoka from behind. She yelped and began to twist, but it was hard to with Mrsha clinging to her.
“Wait, what are you—”
The Gnoll lifted her up into the air as if Ryoka were a feather. She yelped and twisted, but suddenly found herself gripped from below. One Gnoll had her legs and buttocks, another her back. They began running with her over her head, helpless, as Mrsha hopped up and down on Ryoka’s stomach, making noises of excitement.
“Hold on! Hold on—put me down! I have to—I’ll give it to Krshia in a bit, okay? Put me down—Mrsha! Stop moving!”
The Gnolls didn’t listen. They had a tremendously strong grip and try as she might, Ryoka was in no position to get free. They began to run with her held above them like a log. Ryoka yelped, but suddenly she was moving fast down the hill, straight towards Liscor!
“Put me down! Put me down!”
No one listened. Ryoka hollered, but Mrsha was delightedly climbing on Ryoka’s front, and the girl had to grab her to make sure she didn’t fall off. Liscor came into sight, and then Ryoka was headed straight for the gates.
The [Guardsmen] on duty stared at Ryoka as she passed by, born aloft by the small crowd of Gnolls. She shouted at them to help, but they were too busy laughing to do anything.
—-
Zel Shivertail stared at the proffered plate of Ssarish. It was a traditional Drake dish; sliced meat, very thinly cut and served raw or cooked depending on the area. It wasn’t a bad food and Zel enjoyed it at times. He knew the Gnolls did something similar, although in their case they chopped their meat incredibly finely and mixed it with a light mustard sauce.
This dish of Ssarish was lightly sprinkled with olive oil, garnished with a bit of white, crumbly cheese, and delicately brushed with a mixture of lemon, salt, pepper, and some spicy greens Zel didn’t recognize. It wasn’t that it had been made poorly either. In fact, the problem was that it had been overdone. Zel would have liked a plainer Ssarish, if he was even hungry for the stuff.
Which he wasn’t.
“I’m not hungry, Ilvriss.”
“Have some of the steak, then. This is Drake cooking—and I will have you enjoy it!”
“Drakes don’t have a monopoly on steaks, Ilvriss.”
“We invented them.”
“We invented a way to chop meat.”
“You are neglecting to include the art of seasoning food. This is properly spicy, nuanced flavor—”
“Just because some of our kind can breathe fire, it doesn’t mean I want to do it myself!”
Zel snarled at Ilvriss. The Lord of the Wall glared at him across the table as the innkeeper, Peslas, hovered in the wings, ready to dash into the kitchen and bring more food out for Zel to try. The [General] sat at the table, arms crossed, tail lashing the floorboards.
“I told you, I’m sure the cooking is fine. But I don’t want any right now.”
“I insist you try a cut of the steak.”
Ilvriss sliced into the rich meat, still steaming with heat. Zel sighed, but the Drake lord’s sense of pride meant he had to try some. Or run. Zel weighed the odds of Ilvriss chasing him down and reluctantly picked up a fork. He speared a juicy chunk of the steak and chewed it down. Peslas, Ilvriss, and a number of Drake patrons in the inn waited with bated breath.
“It’s good.”
Zel had to admit, the hot spices and rich meat was a good mouthful. Peslas exhaled loudly and Ilvriss treated himself to a smug smile. Zel raised one claw.
“But. I’ve had better lunches. And I could be eating one right now if you’d let me go.”
“Nonsense!”
A fist pounded the table as Ilvriss raised his voice in outrage. He speared a piece of the steak and waved it at Zel.
“This is prime dining here. You will have your lunch with me—”
“I don’t want steak, Ilvriss. It’s not as if this is the greatest steak in the world and I’m not a fan of your company.”
“This is the finest dish you could order in Liscor—”
“In it. But the inn I go to is a bit out of the city’s limits. And I bet the innkeeper there could make me a steak as good as this one.”
Ilvriss furiously chewed the steak, as if mastication could prove Zel wrong. He gulped it down and pointed at it triumphantly.
“Aha! There you are wrong. I can detect the quality of the dish, and this is excellent fare for one of the lesser cities on the continent. The owner of this inn, Peslas here, is to be commended for it.”
He nodded graciously at Peslas, who beamed and bowed his head towards Ilvriss. The Wall Lord pointed at the dish as he addressed Zel as if speaking to an infant.
“This was made by a cook with [Advanced Cooking]! No Human [Innkeeper] could—”
“She’s got [Advanced Cooking] too, Ilvriss. And her food is new. She makes this thing called a ‘pizza’, which is quite—”
“I will not hear of it! Peslas! Another dish! Bring me—yes, bring me some sautéed shrimp! The same dish you served me last night! As you will see Shivertail, no Human innkeeper could provide you with quality seafood in the winter.”
“I don’t want seafood! I want to go!”
Zel stood up. Ilvriss tried to hold him down
, but Zel was quite a bit larger than the Wall Lord. Still, Ilvriss was tenacious. The two Drakes were struggling at their table when they heard the shouting.
“—down now! I am not happy! I’ll walk—hell, I’ll run! Just stop carrying me like this! Do you hear me? Stop grabbing—Mrsha! Don’t jump on my stomach! Hey! Hey!”
Both Drakes turned. Someone was shouting quite loudly. Ilvriss scowled.
“Humans! They’re noisy even when they aren’t in the room!”
He let go of Zel and strode to the open entrance of the inn, probably to yell at whomever was making the noise. Zel went too, intending to make his own break for it when he saw the Gnolls.
There was a crowd of them, running through the street. But that wasn’t what made both Drake’s jaws drop. It was the young Human woman they were carrying over their heads. She was struggling, yelling, as the Gnolls held her over their head and ran with her. Everyone in the street was watching, some laughing, others pointing or scratching their heads in confusion. But that wasn’t what made Zel’s blood run cold. It was recognition. He knew that Human. He knew her name.
Ryoka Griffin.
She was being carried by a group of Gnolls as they ran down the street. Zel stared. He saw someone else perched on Ryoka’s stomach, happily staring around as if this were an exciting new experience.
“Is that—Mrsha?”
He turned to Ilvriss. The Drake’s scales had gone pale. He had recognized Ryoka too. And the Lord of the Wall’s reaction was immediate. His hand went to his sword, and he unsheathed the shining blade. Zel took a step back.
“Ilvriss. Hold on—”
Ilvriss’ normal look of bored contempt had vanished. He stared after the group of Gnolls as they rounded a corner. Then he turned and shouted at the room full of Drakes. At his adjutants, the group he’d brought with him.
“After that Human!”
The Wall Lord charged out of the room. Zel cursed as a number of Drakes who’d been silently waiting against the walls charged after their lord. He ran after Illvriss, shouting for the Wall Lord to stop.
A few minutes after they’d gone, Peslas hurried out of the kitchen with a plate of sautéed shrimp. It was good stuff, but as even Ilvriss would have conceded, the [Chef] had let the shrimp go just a tad bit undercooked.
—-
Krshia was waiting in her apartment when Ryoka was shepherded into the room. A crowd of Gnolls came after her, spreading out around the apartment which grew significantly more occupied. Some stared or sniffed and wrinkled their noses at the smell of rot in the air—but it was better than it had been. Brunkr stared at Ryoka as he kept a bandage slathered with honey over his arm. He glanced at Mrsha, but the Gnoll was too busy sitting on Ryoka’s shoulders and nuzzling her head to pay attention to anything else.
Ryoka halted as she saw Krshia look up. The [Shopkeeper] looked like Ryoka had last seen her, if a bit more tired. She smiled when she saw Ryoka, though. With expectation—and fear.
“Ryoka Griffin. You have returned, yes? At last. And you have brought what was promised, I hope?”
She stared into Ryoka’s eyes. The young woman nodded slowly. She was aware of the Gnolls in the room who weren’t Krshia or Brunkr, and how they stared at her. Her, and Krshia.
Ryoka’s mind flashed back to the past, to what she’d learned before she’d left Liscor, weeks ago. It was Krshia’s clan who lived in Liscor. They had come to earn money, to prove something. And to gain something valuable to offer to the tribes when they met.
They had stockpiled spellbooks, tens of thousands of gold coins’ worth. And it had all been lost when Lyonette used a powerful artifact to destroy Krshia’s shop by accident. Ryoka had promised to give them something of equal value in return for Lyonette’s life.
And Krshia was afraid she hadn’t got it. Or she hadn’t got something her people would consider good enough.
“You have it with you now?”
Krshia was watching Ryoka very carefully. The girl nodded. She reached for her side, for the small bag of holding she kept tied securely there.
“I went to a…friend. A powerful [Mage], rather. I convinced them to give me something, a spellbook that would make up for what you lost.”
Behind his aunt, Brunkr stirred.
“One spellbook?”
Around the room the Gnolls muttered. Their voices were too quiet for Ryoka to hear, but Mrsha’s ears perked up and Krshia shook her head.
“One may do. If it is the right one.”
She sounded like she was trying to convince the others. Ryoka nodded, trying to appear confident.
“This isn’t just any spellbook. Look.”
She put the bag of holding on the table in front of Krshia, and then bent to reach into it with both hands. She had to use both hands, not because the spellbook was heavy, but because it was too big.
Enchanted to be as light as a feather. Big as…big as Mrsha. The Gnolls gasped as one as Ryoka lifted the spellbook Teriarch had given her out of her bag of holding. Krshia’s eyes widened into round circles. Ryoka grinned like a madwoman.
It had been too long. But now here it was. Some days she’d almost forgotten about it, but now Ryoka remembered vividly. A spellbook. Not just any spellbook, but one given to her by Teriarch.
Taken from a Dragon’s hoard. A book of teaching from another age, filled with magical knowledge.
A gift from a Dragon.
“By the tribes. What is this?”
Krshia bent over the huge spellbook as the other Gnolls gasped and crowded around the table. Ryoka opened her mouth to reply and got a paw in her face as Mrsha climbed over her head to see. She gently took Mrsha off her head and cradled the Gnoll in her arms. Ryoka thought of how to explain and said one word.
“Worth.”
All the Gnolls looked at Ryoka sharply. She smiled.
“This will settle the debt.”
“Alone? It is a magnificent work, but by itself…”
Krshia hesitantly placed her hands on the tome, opening it, staring at the gilded letters—and illustrations!—in the book. The Gnolls around her were murmuring quietly, perhaps debating that very thing. But Ryoka shook her head.
“This is equivalent, Krshia Silverfang. Equivalent to fifty or a hundred lost spellbooks. For you see, this isn’t a spellbook.”
“It isn’t?”
Krshia looked up sharply. Ryoka smiled. She stood taller and pointed down to the tome, speaking with a voice that carried around the rooms. You had to sell what you had, even if it was worth more than diamonds.
“I didn’t bring you a simple spellbook with a handful of spells! No, this is a proper instructional tome, something that actually explains how spells work. You’d be lucky to find this in Wistram, let alone a normal [Mage]’s library! It’s a first-edition tome of Rihal, and it contains every spell they knew from Tier 1 to…I think Tier 4. It might be the most valuable thing you will ever see in your life.”
Every Gnollish eye stared at Ryoka. There was a pregnant pause, and then the room exploded into excited babble. Gnolls crowded around the book, fighting to see, but afraid to touch. They sniffed at it like Mrsha. But Krshia only had eyes for Ryoka, as did some of the older Gnolls. One spoke to her.
“If what you say is true…”
“It is. Every word. I swear it.”
Ryoka met his eye—or her eye—squarely. She knew some Gnolls like Krshia could detect a lie. The Gnoll hesitated.
“You would be willing to swear upon a truth spell?”
“Any time.”
The Gnoll blinked. She looked back at the tome, and her ears shook.
“Incredible. It is a dream. And it is true.”
Krshia spoke sharply.
“The knowledge of this will not leave this room, no? No one will speak of it! And it will be guarded, yes, guarded this time by [Warriors].”
All the Gnolls looked at her. Some bowed their heads, others nodded. Ryoka sensed it. Whatever power struggle Krshia had been fighting thr
ough, it was over in a flash. This was worth, pure and simple. More worth than the Gnolls of Liscor had possessed before, and they all knew it.
Krshia turned to Ryoka. There was jubilation in her eyes, but also wariness.
“This is a gift worthy of a [King], Ryoka Griffin. We owe you a debt for it. But you say it came to you from another? Do we owe a greater debt that must one day be paid?”
Ryoka hesitated. Here it was. The Gnolls were watching her again. So she thought back to her conversation and decided on the truth. You couldn’t lie so easily in this world. But half-truths were easy.
“It is a debt, but the one who is owed will never call on it. You owe a debt of gratitude to an incredibly powerful magic user, the equivalent of an [Archmage]. His name is…uh…well, it’s Teriarch.”
She hoped using his name wouldn’t be a problem. But no one knew it, right? And if it was spread, well…Teriarch was vain. She heard other Gnolls murmuring the name.
“I convinced him to be a patron of your tribe. And I gave him something of equal value to the book.”
“You gave him something? How?”
“I cannot say. But it was worth it to him. It was a fair trade, I swear it.”
The young woman met Krshia’s eyes, praying Krshia did not ask more. Because Ryoka couldn’t explain iPhones and Teriarch’s magic and the simple generosity of a Dragon in front of the others. The Gnoll stared for a while at Ryoka and nodded.
“Then I will believe you. But this gift…it is too much.”
What now? Ryoka almost groaned to hear it, but the other Gnolls were nodding. Krshia looked at Ryoka as she ran a paw over the tome regretfully.
“It is too much for a gift, even one to repay a debt. You must ask something of us in return, or it will not be fair. And this debt is too great for us to carry now.”
She wanted Ryoka to ask, but she didn’t have anything to pay with. Ryoka’s mind raced. She stared at Krshia, imaginging all kinds of things, good and evil and petty and grand to ask of her. But then she thought of who she’d come to Liscor to meet. She looked at Mrsha, and realized some questions were trick questions, even if the only person doing the tricking was yourself.