The boys continue in their revelry. Maximus wants no part of it. He can’t stay. In an act of consuming hate and jealousy, he had been capricious and careless; and it had cost him. He will not let it happen again. He walks off from the group, with head and eyes downcast. Phates follows him and nudges him in an attempt to assuage him but to no avail.
Chapter 25: Unwanted Ally
Baltan, the capital of Visi-Gaulia is a thriving township, which boasts several surplus stores, two churches, four full service taverns replete with whores to match each patron’s tastes (even the peculiar ones) two blacksmith shops, three banks, two gun shops, a theatre and even an antiquity dealership.
Felinius and his crew dismount their horses, noting the polished cobblestone roads on the main road. The street even had a name- Main. It is the perfect blend of unpretentious middle-class charm, opulence and the citizens who blend in seamlessly. Most importantly to Felinius, it is the perfect place to get lost and be forgotten.
He can integrate, camouflage himself as need be, deal with several tradespeople, who will be unwitting accessories to his clandestine activity and they will be none the wiser. If asked to recall him later, they will be at a loss. Yes, nothing compares to the large hubs. Felinius smiles to no one in particular.
Felinius reaches into his knapsack and extracts a piece of parchment paper and hands it to Talonius. Talonius takes out his bifocals and examines the list. “I ken that you will be able to procure such items, though they may be in short abundance,” says Felinius.
Talonius looks at Felinius dubiously and then sighs in resignation. “Maybe a bit difficult to obtain such things, but this is a big town. Someone will know someone who can obtain such items if they are not readily available at the market. As long as such procurement is not out of reach of proper coin.”
“Are we not in the employ of Herod-Sai?” Felinius asks rhetorically. He reaches into his pocket with a coin sack and tosses it at Talonius. Talonius opens up the string purse and looks inside, noting the numerous coins are all gold pence, enough to buy a small estate.
“This will be more than enough, I assure you,” says Talonius.
“See to it then, Statesman.”
“Set watch and warrant it so.” They turn to leave.
Felinius walks into Rufus’ Alehouse and Provisions, a large, boisterous tavern, which consists of numerous gaming tables. He regrets that he will have little time for card playing, perhaps only a game or two of spades, if that.
He looks around at the hardened men at the tables. Most of them are inebriated or well on their way and take little notice of him. Nothing about them goes unobserved by Felinius. Perhaps only one or two speed-shooters in the bunch and perhaps only one of those men is any sort of viable fighter, he surmises.
As he moves through the tables, his eyes find the gentleman he had been looking for- Jaden, the Nomad, with not an ounce of ambition, except to fuck every little girl he can get his hands on.
Jaden’s eyes peruse Felinius with just as much assessment, the lingering eyes of a brutal and deadly martial artist, who had survived more than one hundred death bouts in the Saltan mines. He had painstakingly procured his own freedom by using his only friend. He has no sense of loyalty or integrity and is motivated only by sex and avarice.
Despite his lack of attributes as a man of honor, he is one of the most dangerous men ever to pick up shooter. His draw is nearly as fast as Felinius. He hopes it will never come down to a pistol match with him. He isn’t sure of the outcome. He is extremely accurate within twenty yards. Beyond that, he is a wild shot and will have difficulty sustaining a long gunfight. But if he ever found himself in close range, his adversaries would have much to fear.
But there was an even more important reason for his inclusion in this particular mission. In physical appearance, he is nearly a perfect match for Felinius. In fact, if one were to look at their profiles, they would seem nearly identical. Head on, their faces are only mildly different. Felinius had slightly slanted eyes, olive complexion, deep set, aqua-blue eyes, high cheekbones, small nose, low forehead and a rounded chin with small villainous lips.
Felinius is attractive but in a very pretty way. Jaden is more ruggedly handsome, having a large but not overpowering nose, large forehead, large green eyes and full lips, with a square jaw. He is the perfect balance of refined masculinity and prettiness.
But, from almost any given distance except close up, it is difficult to differentiate them, especially when they wear similar garb. They stand nearly identical in height and have the same wiry, sinewy muscle, honed by a grueling physical regimen over decades of training.
Jaden sits by himself, nursing a pinter of whiskey sour and playing a game of solitaire. His dexterous hands seemed to magnetize the cards, causing them to shoot up into his nimble hands, but it is illusory. His hands are just too quick for the eye.
Felinius is not the least bit impressed. He had seen Merlin do much more impressive card illusions. And Jaden is no Merlin and never will be.
Felinius walks up to his table and sits down without uttering a word of greeting. Jaden barely seems to take any notice. His impression remains deadpan and he nonchalantly looks up from his game. “I ken you would have something for me, knight.” He pauses. “Oh, cry pardon, you are not knighted. I am remiss and cry pardon. It’s just Felinius now.” He says facetiously, knowing full well how the little jab would affect him.
Jaden smiles sardonically. Felinius looks indignant but does not return the slight. He reaches into his knapsack and extracts the coin purse, full of the one thousand gold pence promised him.
Jaden opens it and counts. “It’s all there. I assure you, pube-chaser. Enough to satisfy even the likes of your depravity and excesses for some time.” He smiles deviously. “I would ask for you to contain your wretchedness for the remainder of our mission.” Felinius looks at Jaden indignantly and then speaks in a low voice, to convey the seriousness of his threat. “Because if we are unsuccessful in this campaign and you stand as the reason, set watch and warrant it so: I will take great pleasure in your slow, much deserved death. Do you ken?”
“If our campaign goes the way of awry, you will likely not be alive to make good on murderous intent. You ken? And if we do not achieve goals, I set watch and warrant it will not be on my behalf,” retorts Jaden.
“Now, I ken that you would have something else for me as well, do you not?” asks Felinius.
“Ai. Set watch and warrant it.” Jaden reaches into his own knapsack and extracts several sheets of parchment paper. They are the engineering blueprints of Aramon’s castle, an impossibly difficult schematic to come by. He hands them to Felinius, who glances at them to ensure their legitimacy. He will later peruse them in great detail before his meeting with Prefect Aramon.
“It took a great coin and much conspiring to obtain documents. They will not go unnoticed for long,” remarks Jaden.
“I’ve no doubt, but by the time foul deed sees light, it will be of little consequence. I ken that you have scrutinized schematics?”
“Am I not in the service of Herod-Sai? Memory is as sharp as wit?” asks Jaden facetiously.
“I would ken that you are speaking of mine because your wit is about as sharp as ten-year-old peasant’s hoe,” replies Felinius facetiously.
Jaden looks wounded. “Set watch and warrant it so. I have committed all pertinent details to memory.”
Felinius nods his head and appears to be satisfied. “Then, well met we are for the remainder of this mission.”
“Ai,” responds Jaden.
Jaden’s eyes dart to and from, noting the pair of watchful eyes. “Who is the large Sandonista shadow riding you?”
“Our guide.”
“Will you keep him out of earshot for joint purpose?”
“Am I a pube at play? Set watch, if he follows us too closely, I will put an end to his coy ways for good.”
Felinius picks up his large saddlebag and is about to extract the duplicate cloth
ing for Jaden, but he hesitates. Tatamus walks up casually to their table.
He nods to them in respect. They both nod in return. They look at each other, exchanging a conspiratorial nod themselves. “May I sit with you? Captain Aramis has commanded me to keep abreast of your actions, though I have no doubt they are benevolent. Such is a precaution. You ken?”
Felinius nods to Jaden. “Ai. We are not tripe. We understand.” Jaden twirls a coin in his hand and then nimbly tosses it an opposing table, causing one of the cups to break, causing all in the room to immediately glance in their direction. Several over-anxious men even reach for their shooter.
In the time that it takes for this to transpire, Felinius grabs onto Tatamus head and twists it unnaturally and violently, snapping his neck and dislodging his vertebrae, killing him. He sits him in the chair and props him up, while a small trickle of blood seeps out of his mouth. Felinius transfers a bottle of whiskey to his table, closes his eyes and rests his head on the table gingerly. The movement is done so quickly, even if someone had caught a brief glimpse of the proceedings, they would never have been sure what happened.
“Gratitude. Anymore wandering eyes we should be privy to?”
Felinius shakes his head. “But the challenges will get thicker. Be on alert.”
“I will take heed.”
Felinius removes the thick wool, overcoat, the exact replica of the one he is wearing and hands it to Jaden. He then hands him the lavender, tortoise shell boots he is wearing himself.
“It’s a good ensemble. Well-fit.”
“As a bonus, you may keep the clothes. They are worth a pretty pence I assure you,” replies Felinius.
“I will take my own bonus as I see fit,” says Jaden.
“I ken that you would.”
Chapter 26: A Delicate Situation
Merlin examines Dante’s injury. He is quite impressed with the makeshift splint the boys had constructed. It does a good job of keeping his leg straight in a locked position. Dante is being brave, but he cringes with every step he takes, the least bit of pressure running up his leg in shock waves. Cammilia nudges him with every painstaking step, trying to comfort him.
Merlin goes to his lab table and removes some willow bark, cayenne root, and jasper toad extract. Jasper toads are quite deadly and excrete a venomous mixture at their would- be predators. The poisonous is lethal to humans in moderate doses; but in minuscule doses, it is a powerful sedative and anti-inflammatory. The combination of the compounds will sedate the boy and provide much needed pain relief.
Merlin grinds up the mixture and places it in the blue tea he had made. “Drink this. It will relieve your pain symptoms. The primordial jelly will relieve the worst of your symptoms. The pain should completely abate in a day or two. Still, you will have to be off that leg for some time. Let’s have a look and see how long. Do you ken?”
“Ai. And gratitude Merlin.” Dante sips the tea slowly.
Merlin removes the splint from Dante’s leg. Dante cringes in response and barely stifles a cry of pain. Cammilia nudges him in a vain attempt to prevent it. Merlin feels his leg, running his fingers over the ball socket, which is dislocated out of the joint. None of the bones had been broken, as previously thought, which is encouraging. But, after feeling the fluid buildup along his meniscus, he surmises that the cartilage there is torn.
Merlin further surmises that it was due to the fact that Dante reflexively twisted his knee when it was hit with the ball. Astonishingly, his bones remain intact, but the severe twisting tore the cartilage.
Because of the tempering exercises the boys perform, his kneecap and the adjoining bones are unusually strong and resilient. If it had happened to anyone else, it is likely that the bones would have broken in several places, necessitating the need for surgery and prolonging his recovery from weeks to several months.
As it were, his injuries are fairly serious but not devastating. The primordial jelly will speed up the healing process significantly. He can make a full recovery in as little as two weeks, allowing him to attend his first challenge, the first of many elimination bouts. As the rules dictate, he cannot participate if he is too injured to attend because the risks are too high. The risks are high even for those healthy enough to attend.
Merlin exhales a sigh of relief and one born out of frustration as well. Without Dante uttering a word, Merlin quickly surmises what had happened. Maximus had taken a shot at him with the sling in an effort to slow down and defeat Dante’s group.
“And how did Maximus’s plan fare, Dante? Did he achieve the win he so maliciously tried to garner?”
Dante smiles. “He did not. Our team won and with it, immunity.”
“Well done. And how did you accomplish this feat?”
“Well, I” “AAh!” Dante cries out in excruciating pain. He was so focused on the win, he was barely cognizant of what Merlin was doing. His kneecap is pushed back into its joint. The pain is agonizing, sharp but over quickly.
“I should have warned you that that was going to be very painful, but men like us don’t need such warnings. You ken?”
Dante beams at the compliment. “Ai. We are well met indeed. Gratitude.”
“To resume our discussion,” continues Merlin.
“I rode on Cammilia after I was injured.”
“You improvised. Very prudent of you.”
“And what became of Maximus’ group?”
“They were disqualified for failing to preserve any of their own insignia colors.”
“So focused was he in sabotaging you that he failed to follow the rules of the game. Very imprudent of him.”
“Ai.”
“I sense that the Brotherhood may be too big of a place to sustain both of your egos. Do you ken?”
“I just want to be a part of the Brotherhood. It’s the only thing I strive for.”
“But Maximus strives for more, do you not see? He wants to lead the Brotherhood and ensure that he is the successor to his father on the throne. He doesn’t want to defer to you under any circumstances. He doesn’t believe that the two of you can co-exist in the Brotherhood. What do you think?”
“I sense he will do anything to get rid of me.”
“I sense you are right.”
Merlin cleans the wound with an astringent and washes it with copious amounts of water. The medicine begins to work on Dante and he relaxes, only tensing up at the most painful of times when Merlin starts to work on his bones themselves. They elicit a muffled cry of agony from Dante.
But Merlin’s hands are dexterous, nimble and incredibly swift, mitigating the pain that he would have felt from someone with normal reflexes and a rudimentary knowledge of the human body. Merlin is a master at human physiology and is as gifted a surgeon as he is a gunslinger.
“Now, I’ll leave you to get your clothes off and in the jelly.”
“Merlin?”
“Ai.”
“Have you found the man who has murdered my family?”
“No. But we are working towards that goal. You must trust us. We will find him. Set watch and warrant it so.”
“Ai. It is my best you hold in your heart, I’ve no doubt.”
“It’s true, boy. Our common enemy has made an enemy of our Brotherhood and our home we hold dear. The trespass will be dealt with most severely, I assure you. Hold these words to your heart and permit them to comfort aching heart.”
“Will try, if God wills it, there will be Manna.”
Merlin smiles and nods. “Ai.”
Chapter 27: A Tumultuous Meeting with a King
Prefect Aramon forces himself to relax and appear nonchalant when Felinius’ party walks into his chamber hall. Inside, he is restless, angry, suspicious and ambivalent, vacillating between the urge to execute the party outright or listen to their offer.
But he is not like Jason had been, prone to capriciousness and violence. He needs to be prudent in such a delicate manner. He had never approved of Jason’s decision to invade Gilleon, but he c
ould not afford to appear weak and irresolute in the eyes of so many nations. And his pride in his empire and the head could never allow him to dismiss what the Brotherhood had inflicted on his people. There would be serious sanctions. In time.
He uses a brass torquer to open roasted halenuts and then feasts on them, dropping the shells on the cement floor. A beautiful, young Terra-Gaulian girl’s task is to clean it up. Aramon had recently been informed by Captain Aramis of the party’s official business-oriented attire. Not one viable warrior among them except Felinius. And, by Aramis’ assessment, he appears to be especially dangerous.
His man-servant, Tellenius appears before him. The time had come, it seems. Good. Aramon is beyond restless. He bows. “Your grace. Captain Aramis has arrived with envoy and traveling dignitaries. Shall I lead them in?”
“Ai. See it done.”
Tellenius bows. “Ai, your grace. Set watch and warrant it so.”
Tellenius returns with Captain Aramis. Captain Aramis approaches Prefect Aramon and kisses his hand in response. Though the title of King had not yet been bestowed on him, he considers it merely a formality. He will receive the title, he has no doubt. Besides, he had the power of a King. He could decide life or death at his whim, same as a King.
Aramon quickly finds the arrogant one, Felinius. He had the gait of one who is not easily intimidated, who walks sure-footedly, one who commands respect and expects to be treated as such. He is dressed in resplendent garb, ensuring that he will be noticed first, well ahead of his traveling companions. Aramon observes how his shifty eyes dart about, back and forth, ascertaining everyone’s state of mind, disposition, and intent. Intelligence and menace radiate from those silver-blue eyes and it disconcerts him. He cannot afford to let this one out of his sight.
“Your grace, I present to you Felinius and his riding party.’’ Felinius nods and bows when Aramis mentions his name.
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