The Questing Game f-2

by James Galloway

  "Snazzy," Miranda said, looking around.

  "Elegant," Keritanima agreed.

  Dolanna walked up to the table and lowered her veil, which made the man's face light in recognition. "Madame Dolanna!" he said with a slightly twanged voice, a Torian accent. "So good of you to visit with me again! I didn't know that you had your eyes on marriage, or I would have suited you," he said with a sly wink.

  She smiled. "A costume, nothing more, good Haley," she replied. "I have need to move about without eyes following me. How have you been?"

  "I've been destitute without your company," he said in a completely insincere voice. "My nights have been long and lonely, and all the color has bled from the flowers."

  "Flatterer," she said with a slight smile, motioning for the others to join her. When they got closer to him, Tarrin caught his scent, and it almost immediately made his hackles raise. It seemed human, but there was something more in it, something extra. He wasn't entirely human. "Haley, you remember Faalken. These are the other members of my group. Azakar, Dar, Allia, Mistresses Kaylin and Allison, and their bodyguards Ben and Sestra."

  The man Haley seemed to stare at Binter and Sisska, then gave Keritanima a rather curious look, but then his smile returned. "I see you travel with an unusual group," he said. "I'm surprised her Highness there agreed to not be your shining star."

  Dolanna gave him a curious look, then she chuckled ruefully as Keritanima glared at him. "I do hope you will be discreet, my friend. This is part of the reason why we travel like this."

  "For you, Dolanna, I'll cut out my tongue and let you keep it until you leave," he said grandly. "I take it you're looking for rooms?"

  "If you have them," she nodded.

  "Of course. Nobody's rented the top floor suites, so consider it to be yours. Seven rooms, with a view you'll not find anywhere else on the islands. I'll even give it to you at cost, because you are an old friend."

  "You were always good to me, Master Haley," she told him gratefully.

  "What's 'at cost'?" Keritanima asked.

  "Why, it's a steal at ten nobles a night," he said with a bright grin.

  " Ten nobles! That's piracy!"

  "For seven rooms, included meals, the services of a maid and page, and a view that will take your breath away, ten nobles is a bargain," he replied with a wave of his hand, as if her argument was baseless. "The usual rate is twenty."

  "What is a noble?" Allia asked in a whisper to Dar, so quiet that only Tarrin's sensitive ears picked it up past him.

  "It's a coin worth five gold crowns," he whispered back.

  Tarrin converted it quickly. For a night here, they could rent rooms in a boarding house for all of them for three months.

  "We accept, old friend," Dolanna said with a gentle smile, taking his hand. "And tell me, has Renoit left for his spring performances?"

  "Renoit? He's still performing in the Circus Square, so I guess he hasn't left yet," he replied. "Did you want to see his troupe? I have to admit, they are astounding. More than worth an afternoon."

  "Perhaps we will at that," she said. "If you do not mind, we really must settle in. It has been a long journey."

  "Of course, of course! Dareen, escort our guests here to the Grande Suites," he ordered one of the pretty young ladies standing behind him. "They are to be treated like the old friends they are."

  "Yes, Master Haley. If you would follow me please," she told them.

  "I don't like him," Keritanima said waspishly as they went up the stairs.

  "You just don't like someone that's more royal than you," Dar jibed.

  "He's much more of a princess than me," she shot back.

  The suite was huge. It was a large central sitting room with six assorted bedrooms leading away from it. It took up the entire top floor of the inn. Each of the six rooms were large, but some were obviously meant for wealthy guests, and some were meant for their servants. Each was well decorated, but the lavishness of the larger bedrooms was apparent to any who cared to look. Tarrin remained in cat form as Dareen showed them the suite, then promised to have a very large meal brought up for them. Only after she left did he wriggle out of Miranda's shoulder satchel and shift back to his humanoid form.

  "This room is mine!" Keritanima shouted from one of them, probably the largest and most luxurious of them all.

  "Six rooms, ten of us. Some of us are going to have to double up," Faalken said.

  "I hope your snoring isn't as bad on land, Faalken," Azakar said.

  "I'll do my best to make it worse," he teased.

  "I really need to take a bath," Dar said, tugging at his robes.

  "Haley has a large bathing room in the basement," Dolanna told him. "Or he will have a bathtub brought up to us, as we please."

  There was a knock at the door, which sent Tarrin back into cat form immediately. Dar opened it, and found a young, slim, pretty girl in a black dress, with an apron. Her blond hair was tied back in a tail, and it dangled all the way to her thighs. The dress ended above her knees. " Andevous, madamme. Abuyi Lisette. Jui sun ceci chate deaux?"

  "Do you speak the common tongue, young one?" Dolanna asked.

  " Oui, madame," she said in a heavy accent. "Do you require anything?"

  "I think I need a cold bath," Faalken said, looking at the young girl. That got him an elbow in the ribs from Keritanima. She winced when her elbow made connection with the steel of his armor.

  "Just a meal for now, my dear," Dolanna told her. "I will call you if we require anything more."

  " Oui," she said, giving a bobbing curtsy. "I will hurry the meal."

  "Be still my breastplate," Faalken said, watching the door for a moment after she closed it.

  "I think it's your codpiece you should keep still," Keritanima said waspishly.

  "I love Shacean maids," Faalken said with hearty sigh and a look at the door.

  "You love anything in a dress. That's one reason I'm so worried about wearing the robes," Azakar told him, which made the Knight glare at him.

  "I think I broke my arm," Keritanima said sulkily, rubbing her elbow.

  "That'll teach you to elbow a Knight."

  "I'll just set fire to your breeches next time," she told him with a slightly ominous smile.

  "I think the maid already did that," Faalken said, which made Allia and Dar break out in laughter and drew a nasty look from Keritanima.

  "Children," Dolanna chided. "We should settle in. We will probably be here for a few days."

  "I don't see how someone so old can be a child," Keritanima said in a surly tone as Faalken and Azakar entered one of the rooms.

  "Faalken's temperament passes a great deal of idle time, Keritanima," Dolanna told her in a calm voice, though she was smiling. "Given the choice of spending a month with him, or a month with you, I would choose him. He is much more entertaining."

  "That was low, Dolanna," Keritanima said shortly.

  "At least he does not shed," she said, passing into one of the rooms.

  Miranda burst out laughing, but it came up short when Keritanima whirled on her and gave her an ugly look. "Don't you start too!" she snapped.

  "Kerri, I never stopped," she said with a cheeky grin. "And you do shed."

  Keritanima growled in her throat, then stomped into one of the rooms. She made sure to slam the door. Hard.

  Miranda giggled like a little girl, then looked down and gave Tarrin a cheeky grin. Then she winked. "You two better claim rooms," Miranda told Allia and Dar.

  "What about you?" Dar asked.

  "My place is with her Royal Shedding Highness," she said simply. "Binter and Sisska will get a room too. They may be Kerri's bodyguards, but even they need time to themselves sometimes. I'll keep an eye on her Highness."

  "We appreciate your consideration, Miranda," Sisska said in her deep, unfeminine voice.

  Tarrin jumped up onto the deeply cushioned couch, upholstered in dark satin, then laid down sedately near the arm. "I think Tarrin is claiming this room as his
own," Allia said with a smile at him. Tarrin nodded to her. "Alright then. I think I would like to unpack this," she said, holding up her pack.

  All the others went into rooms, leaving Tarrin alone. He didn't mind all that much, for he was rather tired, and it had been a long day. The couch was soft and pleasant, and it would make a perfect bed for him. Azakar was carrying his pack, so he knew where to go to get his things. He had just drifted off to to sleep when the door opened, and two large men carried in a table. More men behind them brought in chairs, and then a series of ladies lavished large amounts of sumptuous-smelling food onto the table. Haley himself stood at the door watching the activity, and his smile returned when Dolanna came out of her room. "As promised, one meal to die for," Haley told her, kissing her hand as the last servant filed out. "After you dine, I'll have bathtubs brought up so you can wash the sea off of your skin."

  "That would greatly please me, Master Haley," she said sincerely.

  "You never told me you had a pet, Dolanna," he said, looking at Tarrin. "I didn't see it when you arrived."

  "Mistress Allison was carrying him in her bag," she said calmly. "The cat likes it in there, and it makes it easy to transport."

  "He's a big cat," he said with a smile, approaching Tarrin, as if to pet him. But the closer he got, the more striking the dissimilarity of his scent became. It was blazingly obvious to him that Haley wasn't human, wasn't what he appeared to be. Didn't Dolanna know that? Was he an enemy, a lurker, someone who preyed on the unwary? Tarrin laid his ears back when Haley got near, and then hissed at him when he reached out to pat him on the head. A clawed paw took a swipe at that hand, which was out of range, but it got his attention. Haley backed off, slowly, giving Dolanna a rueful grin.

  "I am so sorry, Haley," she apologized as Tarrin growled at the man threateningly. "I have never seen him do that before."

  "Maybe your cat can smell me," he chuckled ruefully. "I know I don't smell like a human."

  That got his attention. That he referred to them as human meant that he wasn't one himself.

  "Tarrin's sense of smell is quite acute," Dolanna agreed. "Now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense."

  "Tarrin?" Haley said with sudden interest, giving Dolanna a sharp look. "You mean this is the Tarrin?"

  "How do you mean?"

  "Dolanna, how did you get this far?" he asked suddenly. "Do you have any idea how many of us are looking for him? I don't believe that you got all the way to Dayise!"

  "We have been aboard a ship for two months, Haley," she replied.

  "Yes, of course," he said to himself. "The search has been on land. But you must have come ashore, or else Triana wouldn't have sent messages about him. Did he really destroy half of Den Gauche?"

  Triana? How did he know Triana? He-

  – -of course! He was part of Fae-da'Nar! But what was he?

  "You have me at a disadvantage, Haley," Dolanna said seriously. "I did not think that you kept in touch with the others."

  "Dolanna, what have you done to me?" he groaned. "I've already given you hospitality, but now I'm harboring a Rogue. If the Circle finds out about this-"

  "They will not, Haley," she said. "We will only be here for a few days, at the most. Then we will be gone." She looked at Tarrin. "You can change, dear one. He already knows who and what you are."

  Tarrin jumped down off the couch, then shifted into his humanoid form. Haley stared at him for a moment, eyes searching, then he sighed ruefully. Then he chuckled. "I don't believe this," he grunted.

  "Who is this, Dolanna? You know he's not human, don't you?"

  "Tarrin, remember when I told you that I had a Were-wolf friend, who taught me most of what I know about Were-kin?" He nodded in acknowledgement. "Well, this is the Were-wolf. Haley, meet Tarrin. Tarrin, this is Haley."

  "Triana wasn't lying," Haley said appreciatively, looking up Tarrin's considerable height. Tarrin looked down on the slender man, finding it hard to believe that he was Were. He didn't look Were, though he did smell it. But then again, Jesmind had told him once that Were-cats were unique in that their human shape was no longer their natural form. It stood to reason that all other Were-kin could take a human shape. And when he was in human shape, he looked just he had, completely human. Haley, in human form, would look perfectly human. "You're a bit raw on the edges, boy. You need to leash that temper."

  "What are you going to do?" Tarrin asked bluntly.

  "Tarrin, Haley has welcomed us and given us hospitality," Dolanna said. "That means that until we leave his home, he will protect and see to our needs. Because he gave you hospitality, he will not do anything to you, or against you."

  "It's a Were-wolf custom," Haley told him calmly. "Until you leave my range, you are pack-mates. That makes you family. But now that custom is making me choose between custom and law."

  "Law?"

  "You're a Rogue, boy. I should be trying to rip your head off right now, but I've given you hospitality. Every Were-kin, Dryad, Druid, Faerie, Pixie, Sylph, Nymph, Gnome, and Centaur in the West is hunting for you. I'm shocked you made it this far without running into someone."

  "How did Triana get here before we did? Is she still here?" he asked.

  "She didn't come here, boy. Triana is a Druid, and Druids can send messages to other Druids. I'm nowhere near Triana's ability, but I know enough Druidic magic to be able to receive messages. Every Druidic adept in the West is hunting for you."

  "I'm not surprised," he said with a grunt and a sigh. "Everyone else certainly seems to be after me. Why not the Druids too?"

  "I am surprised at you, boy. Do you have any idea how many people you killed in Den Gauche? You wiped out nearly half the city!"

  "So?" he asked in a grim, blunt voice.

  Haley paled and stared at him in a bit of shock, then he cleared his voice. He gave Dolanna a desperate look, but her own expression was just as calm, even cold, as his. "Dolanna, you are my friend, but I just cannot allow him to go out and-"

  "You do not understand the situation, Haley," she said calmly. "What happened in Den Gauche was entirely the fault of your Were-cat, Triana. She pushed him into a corner, and he fought back in the only way he had available to him."

  "He's feral, Dolanna! Almost as feral as Mist! Maybe even more so! He's not insane, but insanity would be better than this!"

  "Surprising that you can make that conclusion so quickly," she chided him. "I will be the first to admit that he has developed feral tendencies, but given the tremendous amount of stress that has been placed on him, it is no surprise. He is not truly feral, Haley. Not yet."

  Tarrin looked down at the Were-wolf calmly, his green eyes boring into him, and the impulse to strike first, strike now, crossed his mind more than once. This Haley wasn't coming across as someone that was going to be very helpful, and he had the power to bring the Druids down on him like a hammer. He was hovering very close to being an enemy in Tarrin's eyes, and that was a very unhealthy position for someone standing within his paw's reach. Haley looked up at him with his dark eyes, and he showed no fear. No fear-smell flashed through his scent. He was not afraid of Tarrin. That may be a bad mistake.

  "Don't look at me like prey, boy," Haley warned him in a dangerous tone. "I know how to fight Were-cats." He turned his back on Tarrin deliberately, a clear indication that he had no fear, then walked to the door and opened it. Then he turned and gave Dolanna a penetrating stare. "I've given you hospitality, and that means that I won't raise my hand against you. But I want you and him out of my inn tomorrow, Dolanna. I won't harbor a Rogue for any more than I absolutely have to. And after you leave, I suggest you make sure I don't find you. If I do, then I'll have my duty to perform, and I fear it won't go over very well with you."

  "As you wish, Haley," Dolanna said calmly, and then he closed the door.

  Tarrin gave Dolanna a calm look, but she dismissed it with a wave of her hand. "Do not worry about him, Tarrin. Haley is a very old friend. I will talk to him this evening, and h
opefully we can reach accommodations."

  "You came here on purpose," he realized.

  "Yes," she admitted. "Haley is a Druid. I knew that, and I knew that he would know where you stand among his society. That was information I needed to know. But he also gives us a way to present a defense for you to them. If I allow him to observe you, and let him understand why things have happened as they have, then hopefully he can convince the others that you are not as much a threat as they believe."

  "I guess," he said as Faalken and Azakar came out of their room.

  "I heard what was going on, Dolanna, but we decided not to barge in and mess things up," he told her. "I doubt that two Were-kin on edge would be very receptive to party crashers."

  "Wise as always, old friend," she told him with a straight face. "And I will tell you now. Haley's condition is among one of the best kept secrets in Dayise. That secret will not be revealed by us. Is that understood?"

  "Aye," Azakar said as Faalken nodded.

  "Is that clear, your Highness?" Dolanna called in a raised voice.

  From behind the door of the room she chose for herself, there was an angry stamp of a foot.

  "I am glad that that is settled," Dolanna said calmly. "Now, our dinner has arrived. Let us get to it before it gets cold. Tarrin, fetch the others, if you please."

  The meal was spectacular, and the long rides living on sea rations made it that much more heavenly. Tarrin found himself competing with Azakar over who would get the largest portions, even though there was more food on the table than the entire group could possibly eat. Tarrin had forgotten what meat tasted like without a cup of salt on it to keep it from spoiling, and it had been since the Stormhavens since he'd had goose or venison.