Apparition

by Tom Liberman

  “What can you tell us of those names?” asked Rhia. “That is our job here, to find out who is likely to emerge victorious.”

  Borrombo looked over the list and pursed his lips before speaking, “The most prominent families are certainly represented,” he said his heavy jowls tightening as the thought. “But these others I’m not so certain about. The names will mean nothing to you of course. I will be able to tell you more later when I’ve had a chance to do some research. Now, what was the name of this bookie of yours?”

  Chapter 10

  Borrombo was seated near the front of a large grandstand built over the course of the last two days for dignitaries but, at the suggestion of Rhia, the girls remained in the main crowd where watching the actual combat was somewhat difficult. The battle ground stood at the bottom of the valley so that people could look down from a slight elevation, but only Rhia was tall enough to see over most of the crowd. Gnoll women were not allowed and the men were generally six feet or taller.

  “This is pointless,” said Mike standing on her tiptoes but utterly failing to see over the people in front of her.

  “I agree,” said Rhia who could see the main ring but people were constantly moving back and forth obstructing a clear view. “Why don’t we see if we can find out more about this Blackbear Tribe fellow? He’s the favorite and we know Adusko and those big gnolls have something to do with him.”

  “We can’t get anywhere near their encampment,” said Marianna with a shake of her head which sent her now rather luxurious red hair, a few good washings and healthy food had done wonders, swirling around her face. “I told you before, it’s heavily guarded.”

  “Maybe not now, for the fight?” said Rhia with a quick raise of her eyebrows.

  Mike nodded her head, “That’s a good idea, Rhia. But you and Marianna are too clumsy to sneak in. I’ll go myself and you two keep a lookout.”

  “I don’t like that plan,” said Rhia, shaking her head but she realized that Mike was probably right. The girl was stealthy and, dressed as a boy, much less likely to draw attention. The gnolls clearly disapproved of any woman not covered head to foot in robes and both Rhia and Marianna had received disapproving looks more than once in the last couple of days.

  “It’s that or just stand here watching these idiots kill each other,” said Mike with a frown. “This entire method of picking a new ruler is a complete disaster. It’s all rigged to begin with and even if it wasn’t the best swordsman is clearly not fit to rule, I agree with Borrombo about that.”

  “Mike’s right,” said Marianna. “There’s no point hanging around here.”

  Just at that moment the blast of trumpets pierced the air and the crowd cheered wildly as the first two combatants emerged from their little tents on either side of the ring. It was not easy to see what was happening but Rhia could make out elaborately cloaked religious figures in the center of the battlefield applying some sort of ritual rights to the warriors before the battle. Then the crowd, or at least the gnoll majority, sang a very solemn song that seemed to have a great deal of meaning to the creatures.

  “Come on,” whispered Mike and began to wander away from the hill overlooking the fighting arena.

  Rhia paused for a moment listening to the single voice of the gnolls as they sang their song, and again wondered what sort of fighting force they might be if united. Eventually she went after Marianna who had followed Mike.

  Soon they were away from the dense crowd and among the tents where only those uninterested in the fight were wandering around. Rhia did note a few heavyset men and women with swords at their sides standing at the entrances to some of the larger tents and realized they must be guards on the lookout for opportunistic thieves.

  “We should have left someone at our camp!” she said suddenly slapping her forehead. “Marianna, you go back to the camp and watch over it in case someone has the same idea as us.”

  “No,” said Mike. “That’s a good job for you, Rhia. Marianna is good with the bow and if I get in trouble she can help me from a distance. You’re good with the blade and guarding the camp is something you should do.”

  Rhia opened her mouth to argue but realized that Mike was once again correct, “Fine,” she said. “You’re right.” With that she turned and headed back to the camp at a quick pace. It was foolish to leave the place unguarded she realized, and she began to walk even faster. Borrombo generally kept his bags of coins and gems on him but there were their personal possessions plus all the notes they had gathered about the tribes of the various combatants. If anyone saw those it would be clear what they were doing in the region.

  A few minutes later she arrived back at their little camp and gave off a sigh of relief in that no one seemed to be around. She ducked her head in the tent they had set up and then went around to the back of the wagon where a clunk alerted her to the presence of someone inside.

  “You!” she yelled immediately pulling the sword from her side. “Come out of there.”

  All that greeted her was silence and she looked around the area but only spotted a stray dog digging for scraps from the remains around a fire pit one campsite over. “Come out right now!” She shouted.

  There was a scuffling sound from the front of the wagon and then a thump. Rhia rushed around and spotted a small gnoll, likely a child, lying on the ground where it had apparently fallen after leaping from the front of the wagon. “Don’t move!” she shouted and pointed her sword at the creature. “I’ll run you through if you try anything!”

  The gnoll looked up at her with golden eyes, snarled, rolled quickly onto his feet, and started to run.

  “I said don’t move!” shouted Rhia and lunged forward with a jabbing motion that caught the creature just above his right knee.

  The gnoll took a stride and then buckled to the ground. Then it turned to Rhia and snarled again, this time pulling a short dagger from a sheath at its hip.

  “Don’t do it!” she shouted, her longer sword easily outreaching the little knife. She balanced on the balls of her toes preparing to dodge to the side if he decided to throw the knife. While in the circus she worked with Hiroto the Magnificent and his Whirling Blades. Even as she prepared to dodge the knife she remembered the bald-headed, rotund man who wore a black hood to keep his mundane appearance from the crowd. He could throw a knife with greater accuracy than anyone she had ever seen and they had worked together on his act both for his practice and to get her used to blades coming at her face.

  The creature immediately saw the disadvantage he faced with the long sword against his tiny blade and he pulled his right hand back to cock the weapon.

  Rhia, thanks to long training with the blade master, knew the motion well and came forward at an angle that would force the gnoll to throw across his body and flashed her blade toward his face. The creature reflexively shied away and the throw went well high and wide of Rhia who then stepped in and brought the pommel of her sword down onto his forehead with a crashing blow. He went down in a heap.

  She smiled and looked down at the unconscious creature, sheathed her own blade, and then turned to find the thrown dagger. It looked useful enough and was hers by right of combat. When she looked up she saw the massive orc Adusko standing by their tent watching her with no expression on his face. He spat a wad of tobacco juice on the ground and walked over the dagger which was lying not far from where he stood.

  Rhia put her hand back to the blade at her side but Adusko simply picked up the knife, flipped it with a casual motion so that he was holding the blade, and held the hilt out to her, “Yours now,” he said in that slow, drawn out way he spoke.

  Rhia nodded her head and stepped warily forward. The orc’s body language was loose and relaxed and when Rhia reached for the hilt his eyes never left hers. “Thanks,” she said once she had the blade in her hand.

  Adusko motioned with his head toward the fallen gnoll boy.

  “I’ll want to question him,” said Rhia.

  Adusko shook his head no.


  Rhia put her hand back on the hilt of her sword, “You can’t stop me!”

  Adusko smiled and pursed his lips. He looked over Rhia closely although did not move toward her or put his hand on the thick blade at his side.

  “Get out of here, this is our camp, not yours. He was stealing our belongings. It’s my right to question him!”

  Adusko nodded his head, “Yes.” He then walked directly at Rhia who pulled out her sword and took up a fighting stance.

  Adusko walked right past her without making even a single hostile move and over to the fallen gnoll. He put his foot on its neck and then put down his weight.

  “Stop that!” shouted Rhia waving the sword.

  Adusko looked at her with his cold, black eyes, and said nothing.

  “Stop it, I said!” said Rhia jumping up and down but not moving forward. Her hand trembled.

  Adusko said nothing and seconds went slowly by.

  The orc’s nonchalance as he choked the life out of the gnoll boy unnerved Rhia. It was as if he was standing at the corner of an intersection waiting for a coach. His eyes showed no emotion and his body language was loose and relaxed. He didn’t even have his hand near his sword hilt although he never took his cold gaze off of Rhia. She knew that if she did try to stop him with force, he was more than capable of preventing her from doing it, that she would die.

  After a while he lifted his foot, nodded at Rhia, and walked away.

  Rhia stood and stared at the corpse for a long time. The few people that were walking by simply glanced at the body if they noticed it all and nobody did anything. Eventually Rhia trudged over to an official looking building and, after many failed attempts to make her point, eventually managed to convey the problem. A couple of rough looking gnolls wearing chain shirts with blades at their side came along with her to examine the scene. They gave off those laugh-like barks with which Rhia was by now quite familiar, grabbed the boy by his legs, and dragged him off.

  Rhia sat down on a chair to wait for Mike and Marianna to return but her mind could not stop imagining both of the girls dead and being dragged off to presumably a garbage heap by a pair of gnolls who couldn’t care less about them.

  They finally arrived about an hour after the body was gone and Rhia spotted Marianna’s red hair, leapt out of her seat, and ran over to hug them.

  “What’s with you,” said Mike disengaging herself from the clutches of Rhia and looking at her with narrowed eyes.

  “I’m just glad to see you,” said Rhia and she realized she was crying.

  “Are you crying?” asked Marianna.

  “Of course not,” said Rhia wiping away the tears. “Just some dust in my eyes. What did you find?”

  “It’s a fortress over there,” said Mike shaking her head. “There was no way to get in. We waited for hours but they have guards guarding the guards. They’ve got the biggest pavilion by far and there were some of those demon-gnolls on watch as well. I didn’t see a way to get in at all. It was useless. Anything happen here?”

  “Not much,” said Rhia biting her lip, her mind reliving the murder of that young gnoll boy and the indifference with which it was carried out. “I don’t know what to do now. I guess we just have to wait until the tournament ends.”

  “Just because we can’t find out anything about that one family doesn’t mean we can’t learn more about the others. We should go check out the smallest tribe first. They’re least likely to have good security.”

  “They’re also least likely to win the tournament and I’m sure Adusko … I mean Pillswar doesn’t care anything about them,” said Rhia shaking her head and looking at the dirt.

  “What’s got you so down?” said Marianna coming over and putting her arm around Rhia. “Did something happen?”

  “Nothing,” said Rhia but didn’t move away from the hug. “It seems like we’re not doing any good here and I just don’t like it here. This place, there’s something wrong with it.”

  “It’s not so bad,” said Mike with a smile.

  Rhia shrugged.

  “How many fights were scheduled for today? Two I think? They should be over by now,” said Mike looking around and noting that the area was still largely clear of spectators. “Shouldn’t people be coming back by now?”

  Rhia nodded her head, “I think there were just the two fights scheduled for today, and they can’t last very long. A few minutes at most. Even if there’s an hour between fights people should be back by now. I don’t want to leave the tent unguarded though. Marianna and Mike, why don’t you stick around and I’ll go see what’s happening.”

  Mike thought about it for a second and seemed to want to object but eventually went over and sat down, “I could use some relaxing I suppose, and there’s nothing to find out anyway. This whole trip has been utterly useless.”

  Rhia nodded and walked away thinking to herself that Mike was completely correct. It seemed like there was really nothing they could learn to help Lofo no matter what happened. Whoever won the tournament would win the tournament and there was nothing to do until they learned who that was going to be. Only then would they be able to learn what the new chieftain had planned and probably not even under those circumstances.

  “It’s all pointless,” she said to herself, scuffling her feet along the ground and kicking a loose stone that got in her way. “This whole thing.”

  She hadn’t traveled far when she ran into a horde of people moving in her direction all babbling excitedly to one another. Rhia picked her away against the flow of traffic and looked for anyone who seemed as though they would speak her language. Eventually she found a pair of orcs who spoke a language she understood, that of the Tanelornians.

  “What’s happened?” she asked coming up to them. One was rather short and pudgy while the other was a bit taller with a slim blade at his side.

  The two stopped and smiled at her both adjusting their hair with a quick wave of their hands, “Quite the goings on. There was a long delay although no one can get to the bottom of why and then when the fight finally started it went to the death!”

  “Really?” said Rhia her eyebrows arched.

  The second orc nodded his head vigorously. “Very unusual indeed. I was here for the last event, ten years ago as I remember, and I have to say it was quite anticlimactic. Most of the battles seemed to have a prearranged winner but that is apparently not the case this year. It certainly makes things more interesting.”

  “Agreed,” said Rhia. “So who won?” She reached in her pocket to grab the crumpled copy of the parchment that listed the various combatants.

  “A handsome young gnoll from some unknown tribe defeated one of the two main favorites in a brutal display of knife work. What was his name?” he asked the second orc.

  “Arden Sunbringer or something like that,” said the second orc. “Handsome fellow with golden fur and green eyes. He gave a long speech to the crowd after the win but, of course, I couldn’t understand a word of it. They seemed to like it well enough. I’d imagine he’s a bit of a favorite now. I wouldn’t mind seeing him win myself. Seemed like he had some energy to him.”

  Rhia watched as the crowd streamed past and the gnolls amongst them did seem to have an excited energy she had not seen before. “Thank you,” she said and turned to go back to the encampment.

  “Wait a minute!” said the younger of the two orcs with a big grin on his face. “What’s your name? Where are you from? Where are you staying?”

  But Rhia was already striding away and if she heard the questions she did not answer them. A few minutes later she was back with her friends, “Something important has happened!” she said loudly but one look at Mike and Marianna told her they already knew. “Borrombo?” she said looking for the fat dwarf.

  “At your service,” came his boisterous voice from inside the wagon.

  “You’ve already told them?”

  “I just arrived back from the festivities and I could not keep events to myself. I’ve spoiled your
news though, I apologize.”

  “No need,” said Rhia although she did feel disappointed not to be the one to tell them. “You know what this means?”

  “I think so,” said Mike with a nod of her head.

  “This Sunbringer fellow is the one Pillswar is backing,” said Marianna. “Just like Lofo said.”

  “It seems so, but why was Adusko with that other family?”

  “Bribing them to lose no doubt,” said Borrombo emerging from the wagon while wiping a towel over his forehead. He was dressed casually in a light blue jerkin and sweat had stained it almost all the way through. “Now ladies, I need a cool bath,” he said and headed over to the large tent nearby that was setup as bathing quarters.

  Rhia watched him go and then looked at the girls, “He’s right. Pillswar has bribed the other main candidates to let this fellow win, no doubt about it. Now we just have to find out why!”

  “If he bribed them then it must have been a big bribe,” said Marianna. “Didn’t Borrombo say the Sunbringer fellow killed his opponent? Isn’t that unusual?”

  Rhia started to say something and then stopped, “I hadn’t thought of that.”

  “It doesn’t really matter,” said Marianna. “What matters is knowing what Sunbringer will do if he wins the tournament and becomes High Chieftain.”

  “Supposedly Sunbringer made a big speech after his win,” said Rhia remembering the words of the orcs. “We should find out what he said. I wish we spoke the language. That would help so much.”

  “Those gnolls mostly don’t want to talk to women,” said Mike. “They think we’re inferior or something. You should see how they look at you when you walk around without coverings. I guess they can’t do anything here but I bet if we weren’t at a big meeting place like this something would happen.”