Prisoners of the Keep

by Susan Bianculli

  Jason was instantly suspicious. “Hey! Wait a minute—you’re hidi–whoaaaa!” he ended up yelling instead.

  He grabbed at Arghen’s middle and hung on for dear life as dranth and horse were spurred forward onto the orchard road.

  CHAPTER 12

  In about half an hour we reached Meritzon. It was located inside a large grove of trees surrounded by an even larger clearing of clipped brown grass. Not dead grass, just—brown. As we rode in under the arched sign that had the settlement’s name written on it, Saffron’s hooves clicked and Stalker’s claws scrabbled as they transitioned from the dirt road to a smooth, slightly glowing main road.

  I couldn’t stop myself from looking around. The houses of Meritzon were either built into the trees on the ground, or cradled in their branches, or sometimes both. Bushes with leaves of green, blue, red and purple and shaped into geometric designs grew around to shade the windows of the houses on the ground. The ones in the trees’ branches had decorative staircases sweeping up to reach the front door. Striped grasses and flowering creeper vines made up the roofs everywhere. Smaller trees were trained into arches before each residence and decorated with flowering creeper vines, a plaque of some kind, and a softly lit lantern. But despite all the plants and wood used in its construction, the settlement didn’t look rural at all.

  The inhabitants also didn’t look rustic. The closest Surface-elves were dressed fancier than the field workers we’d seen earlier, and they stopped whatever they was doing to stare with either surprise, curiosity, or hostility at us.

  I felt butterflies in my stomach at the notice we drew and suggested to the others, “Let’s hurry up and get Jason a horse and then get out of here. I don’t feel hungry anymore.”

  Arghen leaned over and said in a low voice, “I would ordinarily agree with you, Paladin, except for two things: one, this is apparently the kind of reception we will always get no matter what settlement we enter. We are unique and will always need to explain ourselves. And two, we need to provision Jason better as well as re-supply. We may as well get some practice in doing business with others.”

  Jason interjected, “Yeah, well, I’m tired and hungry, so I wanna get some practice in doing business with a restaurant no matter what.”

  Arghen asked with confusion, “Restaurant?”

  Before Jason could reply I said without thinking, “He means a tavern.”

  “An excellent suggestion,” Arghen agreed.

  I mentally smacked myself again. I needed to watch my words better, or before I was ready, Jason was going to know for sure I was the girl he’d been chasing. Or, better yet, maybe I could shake him off here? I’d taken care of him for two days and discovered he could fend for himself in the wilderness, so that should be enough. Pleased with that idea, I snuck a look at Jason and saw that he was frowning at me. I needed to distract him and fast.

  “Hey, Jason! Look at that!” I pointed at random to a grand staircase whose steps were carved to resemble huge leaves.

  It worked. Or at least, I hoped it worked.

  The town—no, really, the word ‘settlement’ used by the Surface-elf in the orchard was the better word—was stranger than anything I’d ever imagined. There seemed to be no order to it. To my New York trained eye, it all looked extremely unorganized and random except for the road, which remained pristine. Nothing plant-related crossed or grew upon the gently glowing pavement, and smaller versions of the road went up to every front door. I was impressed with it. I was less impressed with the attitudes of those who lived here. Everywhere I looked Surface-elves either stared openly at us or turned their heads away and pretended not to see. I tried my best to appear unconcerned, as if this were the kind of place I visited every day.

  As we rode, Arghen caught the eye of a brown-haired Surface-elf. She was dressed in a robe covered with a gardening apron, and she had just come out of her house with pruning shears in her hands.

  He smiled winningly at her as he reined up. “Greeting, gentle maiden! I am a Champion of Quiris, and believe me when I say that in my travels I have never seen anyone as fair like the morning as you are. The wit that I see lighting your eyes could probably outshine the sun’s golden rays. Therefore, could you tell us two things, please? Where might we have a midday meal, and also, where might we purchase a horse for our friend here and supplies for ourselves?”

  Jason rolled his eyes at the overdone flattery in Arghen’s voice.

  The Surface-elf blushed and lowered her lashes. “Champion, the inn called the Morning’s Glory is on the outskirts of the other side of Meritzon. That would be the best place for you to do both, I think. You should follow the main road straight through to reach it.”

  “I thank you, gentle maiden. May your day be joyful and prosperous,” replied Arghen smoothly.

  I was surprised. That had actually worked? Arghen chucked his beast forward, and I fell in with him, leaving behind us a buzzing from the folk who’d witnessed the exchange.

  Jason leaned forward and whispered, “Hey, not bad, Arghen!”

  “Quiet, Jason,” Arghen replied in a soft, warning voice. “I do not wish to draw any more attention to ourselves than we seem to be fated to do.”

  We walked our mounts in and out among the pedestrians and others on horseback on the glowing road until we came to a clearing of the same material in the center of the settlement. The main road continued on through it, but the clearing had a couple of empty wagons parked along its side. This surprised me until I saw that beyond them was a large flowering arch standing as a gateway to an area made out of more of the same material as the road. Stretching into the distance behind the arch stood many small stalls decorated with bright, fluttering banners.

  I eagerly pointed it out. “Look, there’s the entrance to a faire! Look at all the booths! We can re-provision there instead of the inn Arghen’s Surface-elf suggested. We can get a better selection there instead of being limited to whatever an inn has on hand. I also think we’d better buy as much as we can afford—after all, we don’t know how far we’ll be traveling.”

  As Arghen and I dismounted with me trying to hide my soreness, I saw Jason remain where he was.

  He said, “Uh, someone’s got to stay with Stalker and Saffron. So you go on, and I’ll be here with them.”

  The Under-elf gave a one shoulder shrug of agreement. I guessed Jason must be feeling even sorer than I was, and I felt sorry for him. To hide my own stiffness from Jason I latched onto Arghen’s arm and had him walk slowly towards the entrance, only half-pretending to be awed at the look of the place. As we were about to enter, a black-haired guard stepped out of a nearby striped half-shell tent.

  “What is your business here?” he asked, his purple eyes wary.

  “We are just here to purchase supplies for our quest, sir,” Arghen replied.

  “A quest?” the guard scoffed. “That seems unlikely.”

  “Please, sir, it’s true!” I spoke up.

  He pinned me with a sharp glance. “You look strange. Are you sick or something?”

  Arghen smiled thinly. “No, she is not sick. She is a Human, and she rides under the aegis of the Goddess Caelestis. Paladin, show him your necklace.”

  I pulled the pendent out from under my armor, and Arghen merely waved at his emblem worn openly on his chest. The guard leaned over to examine both closely, and his expression underwent a change.

  “I do not understand how it is that a Human is here,” he said to me as he scratched his head, “but I can see the Goddess Caelestis has taken you under her wing. And that the Goddess Quiris favors him. You may proceed; but if there is any trouble ….” He left the sentence hanging as he backed into his station still looking at us.

  I started to tuck the symbol back under my clothes, but Arghen stopped me. “You should leave it out, Paladin. It will be more of a help if people can see it first without you having to take it out from under your clothes for each occasion.”

  I left it in plain sight. As we entered the bu
sy faire grounds, the sights, sounds, and scents floating through the air overwhelmed me. I clutched Arghen’s arm.

  He arched a white eyebrow. “Have you never gone shopping in the Human world, Paladin?”

  “I have but not in a place like this! Usually it’s either building by building, or maybe a bunch of smaller buildings inside one really big place called a mall. The closest thing I’ve done to this is browsed the booths at Renaissance faires, but this,” I said, waving a hand around, “looks much more intimidating! Where I come from there’s a set price for something you want, and either you pay it or you don’t buy it. Is that what’s done here?”

  He shook his head. “No. Here, the merchant sets a price but it is open to negotiation. The skills of haggling and bartering are what is needed to obtain a fair price in the marketplace, or faire as I heard you call it earlier.”

  “I’ve only read about bartering or seen it on TV, and they never went into detail. Even the Renaissance merchants I’ve been to don’t bargain, or bargain often—certainly not on every piece. What do we do?” I whispered frantically.

  Arghen patted my arm. “Do not worry, Paladin. I have shopped many times at the marketplace of my city-state in the Sub-realms. The split between the Surface world and the Sub-realms was only a couple of generations ago, so I am sure that the coinage hasn’t changed much. But,” he frowned, “we will need to find someone to whom we can sell the rings and other valuables that I acquired before coming to the surface. We will need the funds to purchase traveling supplies for three.”

  “The split?” I asked curiously.

  “I will tell of it another time, Paladin,” he said, leading me further into the marketplace.

  After asking around, Arghen found a jewelry maker who was willing to trade with us. I watched in fascination as Arghen haggled with the stall’s owner. It was just like from my stories. Though Arghen smiled throughout the friendly confrontation, his face fell into a frown as he turned away and pocketed the gold, silver and copper coins he’d earned.

  “What’s wrong, Arghen? I thought you did a marvelous job!” I said as he pulled me away from the stall.

  “I should have gotten more for what I had to offer. That jeweler took advantage of us, but I feel we have no recourse to complain.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I suspect she would then have canceled the whole transaction, and we would have no coin left except what you have in your belt-box. And it did not seem there were others willing to bargain with us for the treasure. And while trading a silver ring for a loaf of bread would work, it would enormously profit the bread seller rather than us.” He forced a smile to his face. “But let us focus on what we have to buy now. I would suggest that since you have no experience with buying and selling in this style that you simply watch and learn.”

  I nodded agreement. We started to browse the booths’ wares, which also helped me to walk off my legs’ stiffness. We made a conscious effort to be as pleasant and cheerful as we could, and tried to disregard the stares and whispered comments from the other patrons that surrounded us wherever we went. We made sure to make it obvious we were affiliated with Caelestis and Quiris as we did a first pass through, to help change the attitudes of the stall owners before we started shopping in earnest.

  As we walked about I kept hearing little knots of people discussing the poorer trade this season and comparing it to the better years. One person complained that it was the fault of the town council for not investigating the disappearances of the caravans in the mountains which made traveling merchants less willing to come to Meritzon. He was quickly hushed by his companions when they noticed me listening.

  After first scouting through the marketplace, which did not have any riding animals for sale, the Under-elf got serious. Each booth we approached seemed wary at first of dealing with us, and some of them refused to do business at all. The more we talked and spent, though, the less wariness we faced. Arghen noted wryly to me in between booths that the music of money soothed even the most savage of shopkeepers’ breasts. I grinned back at him, having recently read something close to that phrase in a fairy-tale book back home. When our arms became too full, we ferried our purchases out to where Jason waited. But even with the help of our divine connections and Arghen’s silver tongue, we had to forgo some of the things that he wanted to buy in order to save enough money to buy a horse.

  At the last booth we visited, near the entrance, I started to put back into my belt-box the last of our coins. I looked up as a riot of noise assaulted my ears from a bevy of happy children that ran screaming through the marketplace. One rammed into me and almost knocked me down, leaving me breathless and sending everything I was holding, including the money, sailing out of my fingers. The leather needles, lacings and patches I’d just bought scattered around me on the gently glowing ground, but a small pair of waiting hands neatly intercepted the coins. The child who’d run into me, as well as the rest of the little pack, wove in between me and Arghen in a dizzying manner. They disappeared around various booths while taking care not to jostle anyone else.

  Despite the confusion I understood what was happening from news stories like it on the six o’clock evening news, but I had trouble believing it here. Elven children pickpockets? But I was not confused as to which child had had the waiting hands. Gasping a little from the blow, I tried to reach for the blond haired youngster who’d plucked the coins from the air. Laughing, he avoided both my and Arghen’s attempt to seize him and bolted from the grounds towards the main part of Meritzon.

  “No!” I cried.

  If he made it out of the marketplace, we’d lose him and the rest of our money for sure. With his green eyes looking backwards triumphantly over his shoulder, the little thief ran straight into Stalker. Jason, having seen the commotion, had managed to maneuver both mounts into the child’s path. The youngster fell backwards onto his rear, and Arghen grabbed him by the collar.

  The child burst into tears. “Help! Help me! They are going to hurt me!”

  The gate guard who’d spoken to us first, plus four other guardsmen and a captain, appeared as if by magic.

  “What is going on here?” demanded the guards’ leader, an unsmiling red-headed female Surface-elf.

  She looked in a stern manner at Arghen as she gripped the pommel of her still sheathed sword. He released his hold on the boy’s collar and raised his hands in a placating manner. But before he could even say anything, the Surface-elf whom Arghen had flattered earlier appeared. She carried a basket that had several small potted plants in it, and it looked like she had been shopping.

  “Constable Gelorgia, these travelers were preventing mischief to themselves,” she said. Pointing to the child, whose tears had instantly dried up at her appearance, she continued, “And you know Constan well. I do formally give witness that he was trying to take some of their coins.”

  Arghen and I shared a look of surprise and relief that someone had come to our defense. The Under-elf lowered his arms to his sides.

  Gelorgia transferred her gaze to Constan, who howled at the newcomer, “You lie, Felleia! You are just looking to get back at me for running through your garden the other day! You want to see me be beaten up by this nasty old Under-elf!”

  Looking back to the guard leader, Constan beseeched, “Gelorgia, these strangers in our marketplace came here under false pretenses! I have been watching them. They have been spending money, it is true, but they have been taking more than what they have paid for. And to top it all off, they have stolen the coins my mother gave me to buy my lunch with today! It is not much, but it was all I had, and they took it!”

  I gasped at the outright lies of the child, worried the constable would believe him. Arghen, whose face had been growing darker and darker as the youngster spoke, now wore a terrifying expression of anger. I was disturbed to see that his hands had tightened into fists.

  Constan, seeing the change of Arghen’s expression, scrambled over to the legs of the guardswoman and c
lung to them. “See? See? Save me! He is going to hurt me!”

  Jason barked from where he still sat, “Now wait just a minute, you snot-nosed little rata callejera! I have half a mind to ….”

  He choked back the rest of his snarl as Gelorgia coolly raised her hand for silence. “That will be enough from all of you.”

  The guard leader searched the faces of everyone with hard grey eyes, and then motioned to one of her number to peel Constan off her and pat his pockets down. It was found that Constan’s ‘stolen’ money had reappeared in the side of his right boot. Gelorgia frowned at the boy and tapped her foot impatiently. Defeated, Constan turned his hand over and dropped the coins he’d snatched from me onto the road at Arghen’s feet. The little Surface-elf made a face at everybody, looking last at me.

  Before vanishing around a corner, he said rudely, “I hope you’re the one to go missing next!”

  My eyes widened. I had to talk to Arghen about what I’d overheard while we were shopping. What the boy wished on me was apparently common enough knowledge, and it certainly sounded like it could be related to what Caelestis told me to listen for. Felleia nodded once at Arghen and left the marketplace, presumably to go back to her garden with her new plants. I scooped up the few coins and put them safely in my belt box. I then hunted around the ground for everything else that had flown from my hands while Arghen answered questions for Gelorgia about our business in Meritzon. The guard leader then went and interviewed the nearest merchant from whom we’d bought supplies. She also double-checked a few of our purchases to make sure the rest of Constan’s wild accusations weren’t true. Once satisfied, she dispersed the guards. As the marketplace started buzzing with talk again, Gelorgia paused to give Arghen one final, meaningful look before she too returned to wherever she’d been stationed.

  Arghen and I quickly joined Jason, loaded our last purchases into our saddlebags, and quit the grounds as soon as was possible.