A Gathering of Fools (Vensille Saga Book 1)

by James Evans

  A narrow track wound broadly south and west and Adrava followed it cautiously, looking for the camp that Baldy had mentioned. Attacking a band of outlaws hadn’t been part of her evening’s plan but she wasn’t about to leave them completely free to operate on the road behind her if there was something she could do about it.

  String wasn’t too cheerful about being led through the dark, especially as the moonlight was dim beneath the tress, but the monocle allowed Adrava to see exactly where she was going. After an hour’s slow progress along the narrow track she caught the first sounds of human activity - men singing a raucous tavern song - and she stopped to tie String to a tree. Another hour’s wait and the sounds died away.

  With String safely tethered Adrava crept toward the camp, scanning the forest for guards or sentries as she went. It had been a long while since she had practised her bush-craft and her lack of recent experience almost got her killed when, despite the monocle, she almost walked into a sentry crouched under a cloak in the lee of a tree, bow in hand.

  Adrava froze in the darkness, barely daring to breath, but the man was clearly asleep. She waited for a few moments as the sentry’s soft snoring drifted over the sounds of the forest. Beyond him in the clearing there were maybe twenty men, all asleep. There was no sign that they had noticed her and it looked, from the discarded wine skins, as if they’d drunk themselves to sleep. What to do next, that was the question. She needed to get past these men without alerting them to her presence. Time to move.

  She took a deep breath to steady herself then took a careful step backward, edging away from the sleeping men. Then she circled the camp until she found the gang’s horses, all conveniently corralled together for the night. There were two dozen animals tied to line strung between the trees and Adrava smiled to herself in the darkness as she cut them loose. Then she slipped back into the undergrowth, watching through her monocle as the horses began to explore their new freedom, searching for grass to nibble.

  She circled back towards String so that the outlaws’ horses were between her and the outlaws, then she spent a few moments looking at the nearby trees before finding one that suited her purposes - an elm, about fifty years old. Adrava backed away about ten yards and crouched down behind a broad oak. Then she focussed, drawing a huge amount of power which she dumped straight into the elm.

  Immediately the tree exploded, showering splinters across a wide area as super-heated sap expanded and rushed through the wood. The noise was tremendous and the horses, as she had hoped, took off in all directions, spooked by the sudden violence and determined to get away. The men were equally shocked, waking to a nightmare of noise and screaming horses, and they shouted wildly and charged around the clearing as they tried to work out what the hell was going on.

  Adrava smiled to herself and walked calmly back through the forest to where String was still tied securely to her tree. She reached up to comfort the mare, patting her nose and speaking softly to her, then she untied the reins and led her away through the forest, disappearing into the dark and leaving behind the sounds of men shouting at each other and at their fleeing horses.

  After an hour of walking she decided it was safe to stop and she made a cold camp, wrapping herself in blankets and trying to snatch a few hours’ sleep. Dawn, when it came, found her shivering and poorly rested, tired and hungry. She packed quickly and led String away from the rising sun, picking her way through the undergrowth and looking for the westward track.

  When she eventually found it, she mounted String and headed west at a fair trot, anxious to put as much distance as possible between her and the events of the previous night. Around mid-morning she was passed by a pair of men on horseback, going hard along the road. Roughly dressed and carrying bows, they looked a lot like Baldy and his companions. Adrava watched them go then hurried after them, aiming to reach the next town before the two men turned around and decided that she was the only person travelling the road.

  But it was worse than that. When she reached the edge of a small town an hour later both men were sitting at a table at the side of the road outside a small inn. They exchanged meaningful glances as she rode toward them and one of them stood as she got close.

  “Camping out, were we?” he shouted at her.

  She ignored them and guided String past the inn toward the town gate.

  “It was you, wasn’t it, at the camp?”

  She stopped and turned, looking back at the two men.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, but she could see that they didn’t believe her and one was staring at her feet. She glanced at her boots, dark spots of blood standing out on the pale leather, unseen in the pre-dawn light when she broke camp, and when she looked up again the man was triumphant - she’d given herself away. He smiled grimly at her and nodded but made no move. Too many people around, too public even for an outlaw.

  She swore under her breath and nudged String onward, leaving the two men behind.

  “We’ll be waiting for you,” said the bandit, “we’ve got questions.” She pressed on ignoring him, forcing String to go a little faster even though the road was narrowing.

  “Four questions. Four, you hear me? Four,” shouted the man, “and we want the answers.”

  Adrava slid from her saddle and tugged String deeper into the town, searching for an inn or a temple or somewhere she could find refuge. In the main square she found a large inn and she led String into the yard. She couldn’t see the bandits in the square or on the streets behind her but she didn’t doubt that they were following, waiting for their opportunity to ask their ‘questions’. She stepped quickly into the inn once String was stabled and sought out the innkeeper.

  “You’ll have to sleep in the common room with everyone else, miss,” he said, apologetic but disinterested, “I don’t have any rooms available.”

  She sighed, annoyed, but nodded agreement and paid the fee. The common room was all but empty when she went in and she found a quiet corner in which to sit. She pulled spare clothes from her pack and changed discretely, careful to avoid attracting attention, then she sat down to wait, her bags on the floor at her side.

  By late evening the rush had passed and the common room was beginning to quieten. Adrava, having seen no sign of the bandits, had started to relax. She had eaten two good meals and washed them down with several mugs of weak beer and she was warm and safe. One of the maids had washed her clothes and they were hanging now by her table, drying in the warm summer air while she listened to the chatter and gossip of her fellow patrons.

  Eventually the noise of the common room died away completely as people stretched out on benches or the floor. Adrava slept fitfully, woken repeatedly by the unfamiliar sounds of the inn and the snoring of the other travellers. By dawn she was tired and not at all well rested but she got up anyway, packing her bags quietly before picking her way carefully between the sleeping travellers on her way to the yard.

  She saddled String quickly and led her out of the yard into the quiet town was quiet. The streets were almost empty so she hauled herself into the saddle and walked String westward, heading for the gate and the main road. At the wall, the gatekeeper grumbled and muttered pointed complaints about opening up so early in the day until she slipped him an extra coin.

  “For your troubles,” she said as she pressed it into his hand, although opening the gate didn’t seem like a huge task for a gatekeeper. As soon as the gate was opened, Adrava guided String out onto the road and kicked her to a canter, aiming to reach the next town as quickly as possible. As the sun rose she rode out from the amongst the roadside shacks and left the town behind.

  Mindful of her encounter with the bandits, she pushed String hard, crouching low over her neck as they galloped or cantered along the road. An hour later she had passed through several small villages and had made good progress but the road had become much busier as the day aged and now the way was crowded with carts, riders and animals. Staying on the road meant slowing String to
a walk and although she had seen no sign of the bandits she started to feel uneasy at the slow pace of travel, worried that they might reappear while she trudged along the road.

  Around late morning, with maybe ten miles to go to Riverbridge where she planned to take a boat downstream, the road cleared and she encouraged String to a gentle trot, a pace that she should be able to maintain easily for the rest of today’s journey. Adrava had started to think that she might have slipped away from the bandits but a few miles further on, as the road curved around a low hill, she saw a man standing beside a horse on a small rise on the other side of the road, maybe five hundred yards away. At that distance, she couldn’t make out his features but he mounted up and rode quickly down the hill, taking a path parallel to the road.

  She kept her eyes on him as he drew level, still some two hundred yards from the road, and started to cut diagonally toward her. Was he alone? Was he herding her toward an ambush? Adrava couldn’t see anything ahead but the road twisted and turned through the low hills and amongst clumps of forest. There could be any number of unpleasant surprises waiting for her on the road ahead.

  The man had closed the gap to a hundred yards now and now she could see that he looked a lot like the bandit who had shouted at her the previous night. Following the road at speed was clearly not going to be a great idea so she slowed String to a walk then stopped, sitting patiently at the side of the road. The bandit reined in his horse and turned sharply left, heading for the road just ahead of Adrava. Once he reached the road he turned again so that he was now coming back down the road toward her.

  And then Adrava saw that he wasn’t alone. Three horsemen had emerged from a small wood up ahead and were also coming down the road toward her. Turning in the saddle, she saw that three more were coming fast along the road behind her. Seven in total, all mounted. They must have ridden hard to get ahead of her and left behind those of their gang who lacked horses. Seven was too many for her to handle and if they had recaptured all their horses there could be another five somewhere close by. Time to act, then.

  Adrava kicked String and yelled at the top of her voice, charging toward the first bandit and pulling out her shock cannon as she went. The bandit checked his horse, yanking at the reins, and hurriedly tried to draw his sword as Adrava hurtled toward him, crouched low over String’s neck with her right arm extended as if it held a cavalry sabre rather than a small charm.

  The bandit pulled his horse around, trying to get out of her way and bring his sword to bear. Adrava guided String gently to one side of the road, passing within six feet of the bandit as he finally got his sword free of its scabbard. She decided to err on the side of caution and thumbed the slider to the high-power position then punched the actuator, dumping a third of the reservoir’s power in a single blast straight at the bandit. She didn’t see the impact but when she looked back the man had dropped his sword and reins and was lolling over his horse’s neck, blood streaming down the flank of the grey horse.

  Adrava turned her attention to the three men in front of her. Her sudden charge had caught them by surprise but they all had drawn swords and they were spurring their horses forward. She screamed at them and kept going, heading straight along the road toward the middle of the three men. The bandits’ mounts, spooked by the charging horse with its madly screaming rider, danced across the road as she thundered toward them.

  Again she worked the sliders, struggling to keep a grip on the cannon, then she pressed wildly on the actuator, sending low-power shock pulses at the horses, hoping to spook them. The range was too great for damage but she must have scored at least one hit because a horse reared, leaping sideways as if punched and throwing its rider. Adrava swerved toward the fallen man and charged him down, guiding String around the rearing horse and keeping it between her and the other bandits. The man in the road dived desperately to one side as String thundered past, then he staggered to his feet, clutching for the reins of his horse.

  Adrava kept going, pushing String along as fast as she would go. Glancing behind she saw that five of the bandits were now following but they were a long way back and String, better fed and well rested, was pulling away. In a few minutes the bandits were left behind and then, to her huge relief, a temple spire came into view above the low hills. Riverbridge, at last.

  She slowed String to a canter and then to a trot as she got closer to the town until, at a walk, she reached the comparative safety of the walls.

  She stopped, briefly, to look behind. Five mounted men were arranged across the road maybe half a mile behind her. They were still sitting there when she rounded a corner inside the town and lost sight of them.

  A little while later Adrava reached the river docks, which bustled and heaved as barges were loaded and unloaded with all manner of raw materials and trade goods. She dismounted and walked String through the crowds, searching for someone who might give them passage downriver. Eventually she found the dock master, a hugely fat man in a stained vest sitting in a small kiosk at the end of the docks, who offered to find a vessel to carry her and her horse for a relatively modest fee.

  “But you’ll have to sleep on the deck and care for your horse yourself. And the boat don’t leave till the day after tomorrow, if everything goes as planned.”

  Adrava tutted in annoyance.

  “The day after tomorrow? Is that the earliest departure? I really want to get to Vensille as soon as possible.”

  “Sorry miss, can’t leave any earlier. It’s the ‘orse that’s the problem, see? If it were just you I could have you out of here today but with the ‘orse it’ll be the day after tomorrow.”

  He strained to look at the horse, peering around the edge of the kiosk.

  “Fine looking beast, that. The road would take you to Catshed, if you’re in a hurry, and from there you could easily get a boat to Vensille. Lots of traders don’t come further upriver than Catshed.”

  Adrava shook her head.

  “I’ve seen bandits on the roads on the way here; I don’t want to find more. I’ll take passage the day after tomorrow.”

  “Right you are miss. What name and where are you staying, just in case we need to find you.”

  “Naseep. Can you suggest an inn? Somewhere safe and reputable.”

  “N-a-s-e-e-p?” asked the man, making a note in a ledger, “The Bargeman behind the kiosk should be fine and we’ll know where to find you. Riverbridge is safe, largely, but after dark some of the taverns can be a bit lively, if you know what I mean. Best avoid them, if you want my opinion.”

  Adrava nodded.

  “I’ll see if they have room at the Bargeman. When will the boat leave?”

  “Around noon, miss, so if you’re here, or at the Bargeman, around mid-morning, the crew will be able to load your ‘orse and get things sorted.”

  “Thank you.” She walked away toward the Bargeman, leading String. As she looked back toward the kiosk from the entrance to the Bargeman’s yard she saw a roughly dressed man with a bow and a sword talking to the dock master. She hurried inside.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  WHEN MARRINEK RETURNED to the House of Duval, he found it open for business and the party in full swing. Both the ground floor reception rooms were busy with punters and girls and music floated down again from the first floor. Shad and his colleague were maintaining a discrete presence at the rear of the hallway but Elaine was running the show, greeting the guests, keeping the wine flowing and generally ensuring that everyone was having a great time.

  Marrinek passed swiftly through the happy crowd, nodding to Shad at the back of the hallway and letting himself into Madame Duval’s study. The lady of the house wasn’t there so he rested Bone Dancer against the mantelpiece and lowered himself into one of the armchairs. He closed his eyes for a few moments, meditating on the happenings of the day.

  He woke some time later to find Madame Duval standing over him, shaking him gently by the shoulder.

  “Fancy some dinner? We have a spiced pork stew with ba
ked potatoes and bread.”

  Marrinek shook himself awake and pushed himself upright in the chair.

  “Eurgh. I didn’t mean to fall asleep. Stew, did you say? Thanks.”

  The noise of the party had died down a little but it was clear that Madame Duval’s girls were still entertaining clients.

  Madame Duval herself had changed her hair and her dress, wearing both long to cover the scrapes and bruises she had collected at the Lighthouse. Even under her makeup, the swelling on her face was obvious, as were the worst of the bruises. She noticed Marrinek staring and shrugged painfully.

  “Not the worst beating I’ve taken,” she said, gingerly fingering her cheek before sweeping back her hair to show Marrinek the full extent of the bruises, “and if the Flank Siders stop taking the bulk of my profits, it’ll have been worth it.”

  “That, at least, I can promise,” said Marrinek, running his fingers through his hair and feeling the new scabs on his scalp, “Fangfoss has taken charge, Gauward is running the Lighthouse and neither of them will bother you. Your house is off limits and they know it.”

  She looked at him sceptically and Marrinek saw a glint of fear in her eyes.

  “What?” he asked, “You’re still worried about the Flank Siders?”

  “Not the Flank Siders, no,” she said, shaking her head.

  “Then what, me?”

  There was a pause before Madame Duval nodded. Marrinek look at her and sighed.

  “You don’t need to be afraid of me,” he said, “I won’t,”

  “How many men have you killed in the last few days?” she said suddenly, interrupting his reassurance, “Five? Ten? Twenty? Do you even know?”

  Marrinek sat back in his chair and stared at her for a long moment.