Chapter 24: Errands (2/2)
“... to most,” he finished.
In the end, the banker tried to offer her a few more services, as she expected. He offered to sell her traveling bonds that only she could redeem, something that she had no use for in the short term. He also offered to draw her will, which she agreed to do later. They left and walked across the plaza under the shade of its colossal tree.
“Your people and his people fight often?”
“All the time,” Marruk muttered, but she did not elaborate and Viv did not pry. The large woman was now fully in bodyguard mode with her door, sorry, her shield, on her back.
“Don’t you use a weapon in your other hand?”
“I can punch a man’s heart from his chest!”
“You sold the weapon, didn’t you?”
“...Yes.”
Viv sighed and they moved to the shopping part. They went to a large mercenary general store and bought sundries, a massive iron mace, and basic leather armor for Marruk. The tall woman categorically refused to let Viv pay, trying to use the advance Viv had given her. She paled as soon as the clerk had mentioned the price.
“One gold, four silver, fifteen bits, please.”
“Marruk. This is the bodyguard weapon and armor. I, uh, lend them to you. You can give it back if you decide to leave my employ.”
The embarrassed Kark stared at the heavy implement in her hand. It had bladish extensions on four sides and looked like the kind of weapon used by the right hand of the evil wizard in a cheap fantasy movie from the 90’s. She waved it up and down.
“Mass of the bodyguard. I understand.”
[Mass of the bodyguard: this cheap, decently made mass of iron can be devastating in skilled hands. It is also the badge of office of the Kazar witch’s bodyguard.]
...What?
Wait, no.
Ah, whatever.
Viv paid, noticing the bulging eyes of the clerk when her large pouch clanked with the sound of indecent wealth. Marruk growled softly, and the man averted his eyes. They left the store, then Viv had to coax Arthur into climbing down from the tree. The dragonling was gripping one of the boughs with desperation, squealing at terrified guards like one big stupid fruit.
The witch sighed and put on her leather armor.
“Come on Arthur, you can do it. Hop hop!”
The tiny one jumped and managed to turn on herself and more or less successfully crash into Viv’s waiting arms.
“Ooof.”
She was still super small, but she was growing fast. The cute one had barely reached her knee when they had met. Now, her head bumped against Viv’s mid-thigh when she begged for more meat.
Viv could tell that the guards were unhappy about the display, but they said nothing. She was a caster, a member of the ‘don’t fuck with me’ class. It felt weird to be so privileged that people left you alone at a glance.
She would try not to abuse it, except, as far as Arthur was concerned. And queuing at restaurants. And dealing with annoying civil servants.
Dammit.
It was a lost cause, wasn’t it?
Their steps next led them to a clothes store, a small family affair attended by a curious young man filled with questions. He was soon censored by an older woman who seemed to be his mother. She got Viv’s exact measurements with a glance, or so she claimed, and promised her several sets of underwear, undershirts, and the works. An entire wardrobe delivered over three days by package. It cost another two gold, but Viv did not mind. She could already see the weaving station in the back room moving at preternatural speed by a wrinkled hand. A soft, melancholic voice started a song and a few other voices soon joined. It was nice. She left that shop with her spirits up.
They passed by a small market on their way to the south gate and away from the deadlands. The houses there were in a better state than the other side, and the people bustled doing their everyday things. There were a lot of weavers around, and she saw thick rolls of cloth piled in compact crates for export, probably. There was a lot of food too and she negotiated a solid stock of flour, oil, meat, and large green beans. Marruk guided her into buying roots and spices as well. They were set. The sled left through the south gate and they found their new home easily. It was a cubic walled mansion with four bedrooms and even a cellar. Viv let Marruk have the one that faced the rising sun and picked the one that looked the most comfy.
She slumped on her new bed, freshly made apparently. The walls were white and bare, but there was a window to a small garden and a desk that she could furnish. It was hers, for now. She felt… weird. As long as she was squatting in a tower or enjoying massages in an, ahem, inn, she was a transient. A vagrant on her way home or at least, to a solution. Now, she had settled.
In her heart, she had accepted that this was her new reality, for now. No internet, none of her previous friends, no family. Monsters. Magic.
Power.
She shook her head. Do not let pride and greed get to her head, that way lay dragons. Err, the not cute kind.
“Squee!”
“Yes, yes, I’ll help you.”
Ten minutes later, they had settled with Arthur’s den and Solfis’ corner placed at the entrance. Viv had explained that Solfis was a golem, and Marruk had only screamed in terror for two seconds when the ancient being had uttered a few words.
//Kark make excellent auxiliaries, Your Grace.
//You were wise to pick her up.
//Do bear in mind that honor and promises mean a lot to them.
//If you cheat her, she might try to kill you.
//And that would be a waste of perfectly valid fodder.
“I’ll remember.”
“Is talking skull evil?”
That was a difficult question, was it not?
“He is on our side,” she replied noncommittally.
It was mid-afternoon for now, but before they could stop for the day she had one last important thing to do.
“Marruk, is the edge of the forest dangerous?”
It took a few rephrasings, but she managed to convey her question in the end.
“Only beastlings, sometimes. I win beastlings. Not dangerous. Further in, very dangerous.”
“Let’s take a walk then.”
Her bodyguard looked at her with surprise, but she wanted to feel the grass beneath her feet and the wind on her skin, and let Arthur have a bit of fun. The poor thing had been cooped up for too long without ever experiencing nature. Maybe she would just fly away. That would make Viv sad, but she would not keep the creature captive if it came to that. The bestiary insisted that dragons could not be tamed, therefore, Arthur had to stay out of her own accord.
“Arthur, come!” she invited. “Come!”
The tiny dragonling was obviously annoyed about being bothered so soon after making a new lair, but the mention of “flight!” pushed the excited bundle of scales outside. There, she followed Viv and Marruk, sometimes stopping to climb a roof and jump to her companion’s waiting arm.
Viv just hoped that Marruk would not rat her out about the chipped paint.
They walked through small estates more designed for temporary stay than to cultivate anything on their way south. At some point, they heard baying in the distance, far to their left.
“Dogs,” Marruk explained.
So they had dogs. Viv wondered why she had not seen any inside of the city.
It only took them twenty minutes to reach free land. Arthur grew more and more excited as they approached the edge of the tree. She jumped everywhere, testing the grass with her paws. Or hands? Her forearm thumbs looked opposable. Ah, whatever. She was just happy and Viv had a good time smelling the scent of loam and sap for the first time in forever. She was sure that she would grow bored eventually, but right now, those were nice. The trees did not appear magical though. Besides the unusual leaf patterns, they were like any deciduous essence you could find in a temperate climate.
“Look, you can climb!”
Arthur was soon zipping from trunk to trunk like an oversized gliding squirrel. Viv let her do so. She sat on a stump surrounded by tall grass and just waited there, doing nothing. The wind blew in her short hair. Kazar stood in the distance, with the hill behind that turning from vibrant green to gray at the top. The sky beyond was dark and menacing.
“SQUEEEEEEEEEEE”
Viv jumped at the sound of alarm, and moved just in time to receive a panicking dragonling on her chest. She and Marruk stood to face the incoming threat.
It was… a rabbit. Well. Something that was like a rabbit, with a spotted pelt and an elongated muzzle.
“Harrien. Harmless. Tasty in soup. I cannot catch.”
“Some mighty predator you are,” Viv teased the poor reptile with a light laugh. Arthur huffed and puffed, flapping her wings and bouncing from one foot to another like a drunk goose.
“Yes, yes, threat averted. Well done.”
Arthur finally looked at the creature with interest, but her prey promptly vanished back into the forest.
“We shall speak no more of this.”
Viv left the dragonling to sniff warily at the nearby bushes and returned to her stump.
Nothing happened. She stayed there for an hour or so, enjoying the fresh air. At some point, Marruk joined her and sat as well, facing the forest.
“You something deadlands for long?”
It was so weird to speak in almost similar languages, but not quite.
How long had she stayed there anyway? The days melted into each other.
“Almost a month.”
“In a fort, yes?”
“Only two weeks in a fort. The rest of the time, I was moving.”
“Moving in deadlands, dangerous.”
“Yes, and tiring. Always grey, always dry, no wind, bad smell.”
“Not like the forest.”
“No. Not like the forest.”
The shieldmaiden said nothing after that. She just hummed some song in a deep alto voice. Arthur eventually crash-landed nearby and manually climbed on Viv, signaling that she was spent. They headed back. The pair cooked food they had bought over a hearth and Marruk retired to her room soon thereafter. Viv sat down by Solfis’ side to charge him.
“What do we practice tonight?”
//Tonight, you rest.
//You have suffered several instances of mana poisoning, wounds, and traumatic experiences over a short period of time.
//We can resume with light training tomorrow.
“Damn, what am I going to do with my evening.”
//You may want to look outside, Your Grace.
“Ah?”
She did as suggested and opened the main door. Arthur joined her as she dragged a chair and a cover in their small courtyard. It was a cloudless night, besides the ever-present blight of the deadlands on her right. Even the encroaching darkness could do little to mar the breathtaking beauty of the myriad of alien stars on a canvas of midnight blue, unblemished by light pollution. Two moons graced it with their presence, a gibbous white one and a smaller red one, angry and full. Viv held the warm dragonling to her chest and lost herself to her new world’s beauty.