‘Human,’ Kana said. ‘I’m just… not a local. So, she’s Mimi…’
‘My name’s Rain, and the shameless hussy in black is Constance.’
There was a snort from nearby and Rain grinned. ‘Oh, and that’s Ranulf.’ The pony tossed its head, responding to its name.
‘But why did you help us?’ Constance asked. She was a dark beauty with rather hard features and, now that Kana could get a good look, a rather lush figure barely hidden by her outfit. She had black hair that fell to her shoulders and slightly feral amber eyes. Her lips were full with a bit of a pout to them, but now they were fixed in a thin, suspicious sort of line.
‘Honestly?’ Kana replied. ‘I’ve never got to fire that spell off at live targets before. And you looked like you could use the assist. I hope I didn’t jump your claim or something.’
‘Nothing like that,’ Rain said before Constance could reply. ‘If we’re lucky…’ Trailing off, Rain started off across the grass toward the fallen goblins.
‘You just happened to be walking past?’ Constance said.
‘Well, yes,’ Aneshti replied. ‘We’re on our way to Dvartim and we were kind of hoping you were too. Travelling together seems like the safe way forward, right?’
‘Sounds good to me,’ Mimi said in a very cheery tone.
‘It is,’ Constance said, still sounding wary, ‘but we may not be able to–’
‘Yes!’ Rain’s shout drew everyone’s attention. The fighter was walking back toward them, holding up something she had apparently found on one of the goblins. ‘He had it on him. Mission accomplished.’
‘Huh. I suppose that means we are heading for Dvartim then.’
Constance did not seem especially pleased about that.
‘Great!’ Mimi exulted. ‘We get paid and I get to talk to a shitagi. Soansha is really smiling on us today.’
‘On you, maybe. Getting chased by goblins was not a great start to the day.’ Constance turned her attention back to Kana. ‘I guess we can travel together.’
‘Don’t mind Constance,’ Mimi said. ‘She has a suspicious sort of mind.’
Kana shrugged. ‘That seems like a survival characteristic in this world. We can talk as we go. I’m sure we can put you at ease.’
~~~
‘So, you’re a priest of Soansha?’ Kana asked.
‘Oh no,’ Mimi replied, ‘I’m just a lay cleric.’
‘You’re not just anything,’ Constance said. ‘Soansha clearly views you as something special. You’ve got as much power as some bishops.’
Mimi blushed. ‘Well, I suppose I have, but I’m still a lay cleric. I can perform rights for the dead and suchlike, but I’m not a formal member of the clergy.’
‘Bunch of stick-in-the-muds anyway.’
‘That seems… overly generalised,’ Kana commented.
‘Not really,’ Aneshti said, rather cheerfully. ‘Vertagi aren’t exactly the most innovative of people. It’s not an absolute, but their idea of a new idea happened two thousand years ago. Shitagi have spent more time integrating with human society, so we’re a lot less hidebound.’ Hence the cheerfulness: Aneshti’s people were more flexible.
‘I suppose it’s fair,’ Mimi admitted reluctantly. ‘It’s kind of tough rising through the church if you’re not an elf. Then again, she is their goddess, even if a lot of humans worship her too.
Are you a follower of Soansha, Kana?’
There was a little gleam of zealotry in Mimi’s eyes which kind of worried Kana. Still, she figured honesty was the best policy.
‘I’m… not really religious.’
‘And I pay more attention to Marlethi,’ Aneshti added. That, Kana knew, was the elven god of magic, or maybe the patron of mages was a better term. Aneshti did not really seem to really worship Marlethi, but she did occasionally offer up a prayer when she was in the mood.
‘Well, you’re a mage. It seems fair.’ Mimi might have had some zeal for Soansha, but she also seemed to be fairly magnanimous.
‘It’s not like Soansha demands that everyone worship her. I leave the proselytising to the priests.’
‘We should get along fine,’ Kana said.
‘Anyway, Constance isn’t religious and Rain pays her respects to Gunthard. And we’re not sure who Ranulf worships, but we’re sure it’s something to do with oats.’ Ranulf was busy chomping grass to his heart’s content and did not pause to comment.
‘I don’t think I know Gunthard,’ Kana said.
‘He was the first human hero on Soken,’ Rain said. ‘When he died, people started praying to him. He’s basically a war god. Patron of warriors anyway. I’m not much of an adherent, but it seems reasonable to pay my respects when I’m passing a shrine.’
‘Which is a lot when we’re in Hillock,’ Constance said. ‘There’s a shrine in the Adventurers’ Guild there. Rain drops to one knee every morning we’re in the place. Me, I don’t trust gods and goddesses of any form.’
There seemed like there was some bad history there; Kana decided to change the subject. ‘So, you’re all adventurers?’
‘Pretty much. We’re usually based out of Hillock, but we came up here on a job.’
‘You won’t know Hillock,’ Mimi said, ‘if you’re from the north.
It’s a little town about a hundred miles north of Alabeth. Right beside Alabeth Forest. There are a bunch of dungeons in the area and some things in the forest that get annoying to the locals more than they might, so the Adventurers’ Guild has a pretty big presence there.’
‘And it’s cheaper than living in Alabeth.’
‘And that. Alabeth is expensive . So, we live in Hillock where the work is plentiful.’
‘Ish,’ Rain said. ‘Plentiful- ish . To be honest, we’re not the most successful adventurers around, which is why we took the Dvartim job. Some guy’s prized magic item was stolen by goblins when they came through Skygge Forest, and he wanted it back.’
‘That thing was his prized item?’ Kana asked. She had analysed the magic on the ornate-looking necklace and discovered that it basically attracted people’s attention to the wearer. She supposed it might be considered worthwhile by a hobgoblin, but it was basically a vanity piece.
‘It’s worth sixty or seventy gold if you were to sell it, but the owner’s a politician and I think his popularity has waned some since he lost it.’
‘Ah, that figures, I guess. Well, we were kind of planning on becoming adventurers.’
Aneshti nodded her agreement. ‘That’s the plan. I’m not exactly a warrior, but I have some offensive spells. Anyway, Kana’s got the combat side of things covered.’
‘Uh, yeah,’ Rain said. ‘We noticed. I’ve never seen a spell like that one before.’
‘I had a good teacher,’ Kana said. ‘But I have been pretty isolated for the last few years while I was learning. Adventurer seems like the way to go, but I think we both have some more learning to do before we’ll be good at it. Neither of us knows that much about the south.’
‘You could join us!’ Mimi said, beaming.
‘Now wait a–’ Constance began.
‘We could use some more offence, Constance,’ Rain said. ‘I’m basically what we have.’
Constance frowned. Deeply. ‘I suppose that’s true…’
‘It’ll be great!’ Mimi said, still beaming. ‘And they did basically do this job for us. I mean, Kana fried the hob and that
got us the trinket back. We owe them for that at least. What do you two think?’
‘We have a sort of job to do too,’ Kana said, ‘and it would be easier if we had someone who knows the area. Plus, you all know the adventuring thing so we can count on you for advice.’
‘I’m good with it if you’re all happy,’ Aneshti said.
‘I guess we can at least try it out for a while,’ Constance said.
‘I think you’ll change your minds when you get to know us, but…
For now, welcome to the team.’
Chapter Six:
The City of Dungeons
Dvartim, 27 th Sokarte 6023.
Dvartim was not exactly an attractive city. It was built almost entirely of grey stone mined from the nearby Dvartim Crest range or from directly under the city itself. About twenty-five percent of the population were dwarfs, a lot of them living in the extensive underground tunnels and halls built beneath the walled city the humans inhabited. Playing to type, dwarfs just loved being underground, it seemed.
The city also wore its heart, or soul, on its sleeve. More specifically, it displayed its allegiance right above the main gate. You entered the city through a huge gatehouse from which guards watched you as you marched in. The gates were massive wooden things and there were two sets which could block either end of a tunnel that led through the building. Kana spotted arrow loops and murder holes all the way through the tunnel, but the thing which had caught her attention on first seeing the place was the huge carving on an anvil over the gate. It was the symbol of Waylan, the elven god of metalworking, who was worshipped by the dwarfs and many human smiths. He was actually more popular with non-elves than elves. He was also the patron deity of Dvartim which was famous for its metalworking.
Inside the city, there was yet more grey stone. Everything was stone. The buildings were stone, the streets were stone, and the majority of the monuments – not that there were many of those –
were stone. Kana was almost expecting to find, on close inspection, that the people were stone with a thin layer of flesh-coloured paint on top. In reality, some of them appeared to have had a thin layer of stone plastered over them instead; Dvartim seemed to be a working city where you got your hands dirty.
That held true until you got into the city’s centre anyway. Here some of the buildings, mainly shops, had rendering on the walls to add a bit of colour and they tended to have broad windows with displays of their merchandise behind them. Kana was a little surprised to see good-quality glass like this in such abundance,
but Soken did have some peculiarities in its technology. Someone must have worked out how to make large sheets of glass. The colour did not really brighten the place so much as highlight all the grey. If they were going for bright and cheerful, they had failed. The people here were also brighter and tended to look less like they made their money through hard labour. The women were dressed in a variety of fashions, some more risqué than others, though none of them quite matched Constance’s array of scarfs.
It was as the party was passing one shop that Kana came to a grinding halt. ‘What the… What’s this?’
Everyone looked in at the shop window, but it was Mimi who answered. ‘Oh, that place is new. Latest fashion in undergarments from Alabeth, though I heard that it was all invented somewhere else. I have to admit, these burajā are fantastic. I’ve never felt so comfortable. Constance would say the same, if she could be persuaded to wear one.’
‘I wear one,’ Constance objected. ‘Not often, I admit. I can actually wear one of those. Wearing a breast band is like being attacked by something trying to crush my chest, but those are…
okay.’ Kana was entirely unsure what Constance’s cup size was aside from ‘huge.’ She was definitely well past double-D. Making a bra to fit her was possibly outside the remit of the local designers, or maybe the local engineers. ‘Never seen them before?’
‘No, I have,’ Kana replied. ‘I just didn’t know they had made it here. They were invented… in the north.’
‘Oh, everything eventually makes its way to Alabeth,’ Mimi said.
Well, in this case, Kana was fairly sure that it meant that Mistress Natishma had sent the designs to someone in Alabeth.
Where were her royalties? She would have to feel satisfied with knowing that women all over the world had more comfortable underwear, she supposed. ‘Where do we go for you guys to pick up your pay?’ she asked, mostly to avoid thinking about all the gold she was not making.
‘The guildhall,’ Rain said. ‘It’s not far.’
Maybe two hundred metres from the lingerie shop, they turned onto a fairly wide street where, for the most part, the colourful renders vanished to be replaced once again by grey stone. A sign had been bolted to the wall of one the buildings near the street’s entrance which stated that this was Guildhall Road. If nothing else, that seemed to indicate that they were getting close. The road seemed to stretch on for some distance, however.
Kana was not sure there were that many guilds to have guildhalls here.
‘Not everything along here belongs to a guild,’ Rain said, apparently reading Kana’s thoughts. ‘But all the guilds have their halls along this road now.’
‘The last moved in over a century ago,’ Mimi said. ‘They used to be all over the place, but the populace of Dvartim like to keep things organised.’ She giggled. ‘The street names tend to be pretty descriptive too. Or just boringly efficient. All the residential streets are numbered in Dwarvish.’
On the left, one massive building was not built of grey stone. On the other hand, it did not seem to be coated in anything either.
The stone itself was white and unusually smooth, which went with the grandiose architecture. The building was three storeys high with huge columns supporting an overhanging top floor. There seemed to be nothing on the building to indicate its function.
All the other larger buildings had some sign of which guild owned them, but not this one.
‘That’s the Mages’ Guild building,’ Constance said. ‘They use magic to make the stone look like that. Are either of you members?’
‘No,’ Kana replied. There had been warnings about the Mages’
Guild. It was not that they were evil or anything, but they did not like the White Castle or its Master. Individual guild members were to be taken as they were found, but the guild itself and its upper ranks were not to be trusted.
‘Good,’ Constance said in a flat tone. ‘And that’s the Adventurers’ Guild.’
The guildhall of the Adventurers’ Guild was two buildings up the street from the Mages’ Guild, and on the opposite side of the road. It was plain, grey stone, three storeys in height, and it had a pair of heavy doors, now open, at the front. Above the doors was a relief carving of the guild’s insignia: a classic heraldic shield with crossed sword and staff over it. It looked like a functional sort of building, a place where things got done, which made the interior a bit of a surprise.
The ground floor of the building, or a lot of it anyway, seemed to be one big taproom. There were tables, with stools or benches providing the seating, dotted apparently randomly across the stone-paved floor. Off to the right was a long bar, also of stone but polished, with shelves of bottles and four large barrels behind it. A large man with a bald head stood behind the counter and there were waitresses in short, flouncy skirts and strapless tops chatting beside the bar or carrying mugs of ale to tables.
It was mid-morning, and there were plenty of people sitting at the tables, drinking ale and talking. It was like a scene out of a fantasy anime.
‘Every time I start to think this place is real,’ Kana muttered,
‘something comes along to remind me I’m dreaming.’
‘Huh?’ Rain asked.
‘Nothing. The outside looks so business-like, but you walk in and it’s a clubhouse. I mean, drinking at this hour?’
‘Adventurers tend to make hay while the sun shines. Which means they get drunk when they’ve got the copper for it.’
‘Not exactly regular employment then?’
‘You could say that.’
The party had kept going through the taproom and, at the back of the room, they found what might have been called a reception area if it had been at the front. There were a couple of ‘windows’
with women sitting behind them. There was no glass between them and their customers, but it still looked like the service desk at a small bank or government department. Off to one side was a wooden counter with metal pens chained to it and ink wells, presumably an area for filling in forms.
Constance marched up to one of the windows and placed the trinket they had rescued and a slip of paper on the counter. ‘One necklace rescued from goblins,’ she said.
The woman, a pretty brunette in the same plum-coloured strapless top as the waitresses, smiled and picked up the paper. She turned to one side and rummaged through something Kana could not see.
‘Ah, yes.’ Picking up the necklace, she examined it for a second, nodded, and vanished it behind the counter. Then she returned to Constance with a leather pouch. ‘Twenty-seven gold,’ she said with an even brighter smile.
‘Thank you.’ Constance took the pouch and turned to the others.
‘I’m thinking drink, bath, and then more drink.’
‘There are baths?’ Aneshti asked. ‘I could really use a bath.’
‘There are baths. But I want to wash the road out of my throat first.’
‘That seems fair.’
‘Like I said,’ Rain said, ‘when you’ve got the coin…’
‘I could stand a mug of ale,’ Kana said.
‘I’ll treat you to the good stuff. Besides, we have something to discuss.’
‘We do?’
‘Yeah, we do.’
~~~
‘Rain’s not joining us?’ Aneshti asked as she sank into the hot pool of the guild’s female baths.
‘She had to take care of Ranulf,’ Mimi replied, possibly a little too quickly. Ranulf had been tied to a ring set into the wall outside the hall, but there were proper stables behind the building. Ranulf always got a half share of the payment for a job, precisely because he had expenses such as stables to take care of. Okay, so he did not get to spend his own money, but Constance and Mimi seemed to think it was fair.
Constance had seemed less convinced about giving Kana and Aneshti half shares too. That had been what Rain wanted to discuss over drinks. Apparently, the three regular party members had discussed it on the road and Constance had been persuaded eventually. Kana had been the one to kill the hob with the necklace, and to save them from having to fight off a horde of goblins, and it had not seemed fair to leave Aneshti out of the windfall. Kana was quite happy with her additional six gold pieces, given that it had taken her under a minute to earn them.
The Girl Who Dreamed of a Different World Page 13