Death Or Fortune

by James Chesney

  71. Discovery

  The following month after I returned home seemed to be a non-stop fight with things beyond my control. Of the twenty nine active Arcadian lords I was the only one who didn't care who replaced Hetaron. Well there was Lord Wendel Marigrove. He just wanted to be moved from his fife to Hetarons so he could get away from his troubles. His land was on the border of both Westheath and Toryth Vol. I honestly don't blame him for wanting the move. Most of the land under my care is covered with forest and I only have to deal with the lumber workers. There are a few farms but nothing that requires my constant attention. Lord Warren kept insisting I had something to do with the death of Hetaron but his views were not making him popular. Some of them still remembered why I was made a lord. Some of them were there when we saved the king. Yet King Roderick continued to listen to him. Until the mess was cleaned up or forgotten, anything I wanted to do would have to wait.

  I started to feel like a prisoner in the city. Three times I had people in my home to ask questions about the trip to Toryth Vol. Asking just how it was that Hetaron died. I did the best I could to keep from losing my mind but you can only answer the same question so many times. I was told by Roderick that Warren even sent people down to question Zender and Lomark. Not that they could find them, from what I understand when they inquired about the two of them with King Darius they were run out of the city before they even got inside the castle. They only questioned Zackary once and he was so drunk at the time they decided he was too biased in my favor to tell them anything different than I had told them. So I spent my time with Jasmin and made the best of things. After two months I started looking into buying a second inn. I had to find something constructive to do with my time in the city. As I doubted the city was going to be attacked by monsters any time soon I was starting to get restless. So Charles and I would inspect different locations, see if current owners would consider selling or retirement. Charles was also worried about profit; he did not want to see me waste my money.

  I am glad he never noticed all the gold I used to commission a new set of armor. Not until it was too late anyway. I needed something better, something that would protect me from stray crossbow bolts and the like. Between Boris and the wizard I hired; I ended up spending far more than I should have. Yet good armor doesn't grow on trees. After three months things started to ease up but Warren had issues with me, I thought about facing him directly but knew that would only end in me killing the man. I often wonder if he would still spout off about how he is so much better than me while I was slowly choking the life from his body. Not that I would ever do that unless he attacked me, in front of plenty of witnesses. Sometimes when things are at their worst I think about what would have happened had Hetaron returned to the city with the Rod of the Arcane. These pompous fools have no idea how many lives were saved with his death. Even after a replacement was named Warren continued his ranting. Even though it was a replacement that I had nothing to do with. In the meantime I worked to make not only my fife a stronger place, I worked to improve things in the capital. It wasn't until much later that I learned someone else in my little family was doing just the same.

  While I had seen Captain Turk a time or two since I had been back I never really got a chance to spend time with him. As he was my friend and I wanted to talk to him about the Messiah. I invited both him and the new captain of the city watch to my home for a dinner. Captain Myers seemed like a good man, much better than the one he replaced. I told them of my trip to Toryth Vol and how I discovered about where the Messiah might be hiding. Both of them had an interest in seeing something done or at least finding out the truth. Seeing if he was really there. The two of them at first launched into a talk about how to approach it, plans of battle, sending in scouts to find out the size of the forces there. When I told them King Roderick shot down my plan to hunt for him they were disappointed. Yet they were a bit more understanding than I was. While the man who killed my friend Arturo was dead and gone, I still held the Messiah responsible for it. Turk said he might send a single scout or two to check the area, off the record but he never told me if he did or not.

  When I asked how things had been in the city while I was away was when things took an odd turn. In truth I was looking for something to do, maybe a head to bash or two. Turk knew what I was looking for, he knew the tone of my voice when I asked and he could only laugh at me. Yet what Captain Myers had to say made me think about someone who was absent at that very moment. 'Believe it or not, crime across parts of the city is at an all-time low. Not long after you left on your trip, with the help of Windfall, we were able to make a major arrest. Breaking up one of the thieves’ guild that was working the lord’s district. After the war they were so entrenched here I never thought we would find them. The Lords district was spared a lot of damage during the riots, it gave them plenty of places to hide. With Windfall's help we were able to find out where they were hiding. Not only did we arrest two dozen men, we were able to take down three or four contacts outside of the lord’s district. Now after that I expected it to be quiet for a little while, I never expected this. We still have the normal problems that needs the attention of the city watch yet something in this part of town has the smart ones running scared.' I almost laughed but seeing the look on Turks face kept me from doing so.

  'He has a blasted vigilante running in the streets and we can't catch him.' Turk said. I looked at the two of them thinking they were trying to play a joke on me. I waited for them to start laughing at me, yet it never came. 'They call him a demon. Big silver claws, inhuman face, it will chase down a thief after they pull a job, tie them up and leave them in the streets. Now while I think this creature is doing a good thing, they don't always leave everything behind. Sometimes they will take something small, a bag of coins, gems. When the people who got robbed claim their things from us they would complain of something missing. If it was just one or two people I wouldn't think about it. Yet every time we find someone tied up like that, there is something missing from what they stole. Just about once a week we will find someone tied up in an alley. They all tell us the same thing. He comes out of nowhere, attacks them and ties them up. It never talks to them but it has this high pitched laugh, almost childlike.' I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. I asked them what they were planning on doing about it.

  'Well, Turk doesn't like the idea of this thing running all over the Lords district. He thinks someone is going to get hurt. It hasn't killed anyone yet that I know of but it is keeping us busy. If it would return the stolen items...' Turk slammed his fist down on the table. 'It isn't a creature, it is man. The fact that it is a shark that only eats other sharks but that doesn't make any difference. He needs to be stopped and put in jail where he belongs. There is a halfling bounty hunter in North Hembers right now. She is good, very good. I've sent word for her to come this way.' I called for Charles to bring us a bottle of the good wine from the cellar. For the most part I don't care for wine but I did not want this talk to continue. We each had a glass of wine before they left for the night. I reminded Turk one last time that we needed to speak with the king together about the Messiah. Once they were both gone I went upstairs to check on my wife. While she had dinner with us she did not stick around for the 'man' talk as she called it. Finding her asleep I went down the hall to Pare's room. The door was locked but I had the key. I almost felt guilty having to use it. When I found his room empty with the window wide open I knew for sure. I pulled out a chair and waited for the demon to return.

  72. Unmasked

  I sat in Pare's room waiting. The minutes turned to hours and I started to wonder how long he was going to be out. I closed my eyes for only a moment but the moment seemed to last forever. I was tired to begin with and the wine I had during dinner wasn't helping matters. The air was starting to get cool, winter was coming. I was just enjoying the feel of the cool air on my skin when I fell asleep sitting in that chair. While these dreams are now long past me, for the first six months o
r so I was home I would see them every night. The faces of the undead, the screams of the creatures in the holding cells under The White Spire, the undead giant whose blood nearly blinded me. I don’t know why that all bothered me so but I am just glad it has passed. Yet sometimes I see something worse, something that still makes me cry when I wake up in the middle of the night. I just hope this too will pass with time. I felt something crash into my foot and it jolted me awake. There was a small climbing hook sliding across the floor, I watched as it settled on the marble window ledge.

  I could hear the small grunts he was making as he climbed up the side of my house. I just sat in the chair and waited. As he tumbled in the window he was quick on his feet. I had not seen him in action in a while and I had forgotten just how nimble he was. Yet at times he was oblivious to what was going on around him, like when he thought he was in a safe place. I watched as he wound up the rope he used to get back in the house, I waited until he closed the window to say anything at all. I just asked him what he was doing. I never expected him to draw his blades. He turned around and looked at me with two daggers in his hand. He looked at me for a moment and tilted his head to the side like a dog listening to a strange sound. 'Ummm hiya Darmot. What ya doing in my room?' I told him I had a nice little chat with Captain Turk and Captain Myers from the watch. Pare put his weapons away as I talked. When I told him they were going to bring in a bounty hunter to deal with him he ripped the mask off his face and jumped onto his bed. 'But I am helping!' he said in a barely audible voice. 'I catch people who steal and leave them for the watch. What is wrong with that?'

  I then asked him if he returned everything the thieves had stolen. 'I think so, sometimes I find little things, I didn't think anyone would notice really.' I told him that they did notice and that if he was taking stolen goods he was no better than the folks he was catching. I then asked him where he got the idea to do the things he had been doing. 'Well it was like this. I was working with Windfall to help protect Jasmin, he gave me this awesome armor and mask. People don't know who I am when I wear it. Windfall asked if I wanted to keep working with him but I didn't want to leave Jasmin here alone until you got back. I figured I can catch thieves here. Arcadia is a pretty big city, there are not that many guys on the watch. They call me a demon, they are scared of me. It is pretty funny really, I pop up and they all start screaming and running. They don't know who I am, you should go with me one night, it’s fun!' I then told him that he needed to return everything he had taken from the thieves he captured. I then told him that if it was up to Turk, he would end up in jail right along side of the guys he had caught. I thought he was going to pass out as his face turned a pure white color.

  'Everything?' he asked me in that low voice. I didn't say anything, I just looked at him, watched as everything I said sank in. 'I didn't mean to hurt anyone, I was just having a little fun.' When I asked him if he still had all the stuff he found while he was out he just nodded at me. I told him, this is about doing the right thing. That it doesn't matter if he caught a thief if he was walking away with the things that were stolen. 'It wasn't anything big, just little things. Things that shouldn't have been left behind. I just wanted to keep the stuff safe, I promise!' I thought for a small moment that he was going to start to cry. I felt bad for my friend, I really did. He believed in his heart of hearts that he was doing the right thing. At times Pare didn't think and the fact that he was walking away with other folks stuff just didn't dawn on him until I pointed it out to him. 'So what are you going to do with me? What are you going to tell Turk?' I told him to get in bed and that I would think about it. I also told him to stay in bed and to have all the stuff he took packed up before breakfast. I could hear him let out a small groan as I closed his bedroom door behind me.

  That was honestly one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. The following morning Pare came down stairs with a sack almost as big as he was. I almost bit my fork in half when I saw him drop it on the floor. He looked like hell and I don't think he slept at all the night before. We didn't talk at all during breakfast, Jasmin sat at the table looking at the two of us. I wasn't sure if she wanted to laugh or cry. I had told her about what had being going on, while she never admitted it, I think she knew what Pare was doing at night. I never asked her, she never told me. I will just be happy to live with that. Charles on the other hand knew everything, we had a nice long talk about it. He was under belief that the less time Pare spent in the house, the better. 'My lord, he is rather busy. I did not see the harm in what he was doing.' I told him that it could have harmed me if he had been caught. 'I understand that My Lord, yet only in the short term. In the long term we would be rid of the little trouble maker.' I sat back for a minute and looked at him. I then informed Charles that next time he knew of something like this going on, he was to tell me right away. I then told him that if he failed to do so he would start spending the winter months out at his little cabin near the lumber camps.

  So with Pare's bag of loot in slung over my back, we set off for the office of Captain Turk. He was the one who had a problem with what Pare had been doing so I wanted to make sure he understood this was over. If we dumped a big bag of stolen goods on his desk to return to their owners, he might not have Pare tossed in jail. Yet some time between the time we left the house and arrived at Turks office, I had a small change of heart. While he was just a halfling, Pare was still a hero of the Arcadian civil war. While most folks had forgotten it, I never would and he was still my best friend. Just before we arrived at Turks office I told him to keep his mouth shut and to let me do the talking. I honestly believe if I had let Turk talk to him, Pare would have broken down and cried the whole time. Once we were in his office he just looked at me then back to Pare. He said nothing, he just stared at me for what seemed to be the longest time. I told him that Pare and I had decided to do something about his demon trouble. We were able to capture it and follow it back to his hiding spot. It was there that we found the bag of items, just sitting there. Turk, still silent, continued to stare at me. I then told him how we explained that he was no longer needed in Arcadia and that it was time for him to move on.

  'Is everything in the bag?' he asked in a dull flat tone. He didn't believe a word I had told him. That is when I told Pare to head home. I didn't want him to hear anything that would upset his fragile state of mind. That and I wanted to give him a head start in case Turk was going to have him arrested. I pulled Pare's demon mask out of one of my belt pouches and told Turk that it would never happen again. 'What in the nine hells was he thinking?' he asked me. I told him it was my fault for leaving him home alone with nothing to do. He really was just trying to help. 'Well, if you can keep him from running wild in the streets I will leave him to you. It looked like you had been pretty hard on him already. If everything he took is in here, I won't bother you about it again. You are my friend Darmot, so I will give you this one. Don't make this mistake again, Lord Kromwell. It wouldn't be good for you.' I told him I more than understood what he was saying and that it would never happen again. One night a little over a year and a half later Turk was in my home standing in front of my desk. It made me feel a bit uneasy, like I was sitting in his chair. He dropped Pare's mask on my desk and said only one thing to me. 'Make sure he returns everything and the watch in the Lords district will over look a masked halfling leaving them presents.' Yet by that time Pare had moved on to other things. Something else Turk had done had caught up with Pare. Between being a good uncle and friend Pare no longer had time to think about the criminals in Arcadia, his heart just wasn’t in it.

  It had been a little over seven months since the time I returned from Toryth Vol. I had been cleared of any wrong doing in the death of Lord Hetaron. From what Roderick told me, it had a lot to do with Lord Anderson Floyd. I don't know if he spoke up for me because he believed it or if he was just trying to get at Lord Warren. While I can't call Lord Floyd a friend, he is an ally and if ever he needs me I will stand up for him. He is over sixty ye
ars old, if someone has to battle for his honor, I will be glad to do it. He can't pick up his own sword any longer but he was more than happy to take the ring of regeneration I gave him. He still keeps up the sick old man act in public but I have seen him in private, I know better now. Seven months, just being Lord Kromwell. I had my hands full with the people in my fife and keeping a handle on both my inns. The Red Dragon Inn and the newly opened Star Sword Inn. I named it as such for the sword I bought from Boris Sparkcatcher. I did not think The Nameless Inn would have done as well. Seven months since I had returned, it was almost to the day when the Silver Dragon was seen flying over the city. The Silver Dragon that landed on the front steps of the temple of Solarth. When the Dragon flew away it had left behind a man who was battered and bloody, in the uniform of an Arcadian Royal Guard.

  73. Strange Visitor

  Bishop Hans bolted out of his modest bed wide awake. He looked around the room, seeing that he was alone yet he could feel something. It reminded him of being deep under water, the feeling of being under pressure. His hand went to his chest, feeling the one thing that gave him comfort, his medallion of Solarth. As his hand wrapped around it, he went to his knees to seek out his god’s wisdom for answers. Answers on how to deal with what cannot be seen, to battle the feeling of dread that was rising in his chest. As he cleared his mind and began to pray to the good god, he found something waiting for him. The shock of it all made his hand go limp and his head start to swim. He was given a vision of clouds and racing water. No, the water was still, he was racing over the water. He looked ahead and could feel the wind on his face, there was land ahead. As the vision shifted higher he could see the land and he knew it well. In his life he had served on one sailing ship, he knew the coast line of Eystlund when he saw it. As it soared over the land below he could see where it was headed. The capital of Arcadia looked tiny from way up above. When the beast let out a roar the vision was shattered, he was back in his room. The pressure he had felt before was gone, yet he knew it wasn't really gone. S omething was coming; this is what Solarth was telling him.