Night guild 2, p.22
Night Guild 2, page 22
Ronan shook his head. “The bounty will go to the people of the Scattered Islands, to help make up for the loss of trading income that they have suffered from all the pirate raids.”
The marshal raised his eyebrows at this show of generosity, but then he smiled. “That is a most noble gesture,” he said. “I will be certain to make sure that the bounty goes to the people of the islands as you have stated.”
Ronan caught something strange in the marshal’s eye and wondered whether the man could be trusted. He looked intently at the marshal, memorizing his face, his height, the small scar down on the bottom of his jaw.
“That is good,” he said carefully. “I’m glad to hear you promise that. I will be coming back this way, and I will visit the Scattered Isles again to make sure that the money was paid.”
“Excellent, excellent,” the marshal said hurriedly. “It will be as you desire. And now I had better get my prisoners away!”
Tanya grinned at Ronan as the marshal went off to deal with the prisoners. “That was well done,” she said. “The council are generally honest, but I think if you had not said that it might have taken quite a long time for the bounty to be paid. As it stands, I have no doubt that the money will reach the Scattered Isles soon.”
“Surely you and your villagers will be able to make sure that it comes back to the islands on the next sailing?”
“My villagers may be able to,” Tanya said, “but I will not.”
Ronan gave her a questioning look.
She smiled. “I propose to come with you,” she said. “I am a well-trained fighter and trained by one of the fighter guilds of the Twelve Isles, so I should be able to help you. I know where the fourth dragon egg is, and I know my way around this country well. Now that the pirate threat has been eliminated, I feel like journeying again.”
Diana and Eric looked at Ronan. Quickly, he transferred a thought to each of them. What do you think? Should we take her with us? he asked them.
I think she would come with us whether we want her to or not, Diana replied, an amused tone in her thought. And I doubt if she’ll tell us where the fourth dragon egg is unless we take her along.
I think we should allow it, Eric added. She is a trained and capable fighter and trained to fight in ways we are not. She could add a great deal of strength to our group. So long as we do not have to tell her our entire mission all at once, I’m in favor of having her along.
“Very well,” Ronan said out loud. “I’m happy with this arrangement.”
The others nodded their approval as well, and then they all shook hands on it.
“Excellent,” Tanya said. “I will not ask you to divulge more of your mission than you are comfortable doing, but can I ask where you are headed now? I assume that you want to get the fourth dragon egg, but what about after that? You did not come all this way just to help us on the Scattered Isles, that much is clear.”
“You are right,” Ronan said. “We would like to get this dragon egg that you speak of, but we have another mission as well. You will understand that I would rather not share more details of that mission just yet, but I will tell you that we are headed north, bound for Ghennet. Is that enough for you?”
Tanya nodded. “Yes, that is enough. I fully understand,” she said. “I will travel north with you, at least as far as the village where the fourth dragon egg is...or at least was last time I was there. The village is Eila, the place I told you about before, where I was born. It’s on the way, about halfway between Twin Mountain and the border of Ghennet, on the banks of the Round River that flows south from Ghennet to the sea.”
“You’ve been there recently?”
“Not so recently,” Tanya said. “My parents both died three years ago, you see. I went back there a year after that, but I’ve not been there since.”
“You said your parents were from the Twelve Isles,” Diana said. “How did they end up there?”
She shrugged, smiling wistfully. “My father was a blacksmith and my mother a potter. They used to like to travel, but they fell in love with the country up there, and just settled in Eila. It’s a prosperous little village, and on a hill near the outskirts there is a temple to Mala. In that temple they always had an egg, just like the ones you used to soak up the blood on the ship. ”
“What color was it?” Eric asked.
“Yellow,” Tanya answered. “Bright yellow with red veins through the surface.”
Ronan looked at Tanya, who obviously felt great affection for this little town on the banks of the river where she was born. He thought of the raid on Eric’s village, the sheer ruthlessness of the Silent Brotherhood and their agents, the atrocious lengths they were prepared to go to in gathering all the dragon eggs to themselves.
A cold feeling moved through his belly, but if the Silent Brotherhood had raided the village, there was nothing he could do about it now.
“And it was certainly there when you last visited?” he asked quietly.
“Yes, I visited it specially, because it reminded me of my mothers stories,” she replied.
“And have you had any news from the village since then? Do you have any friends or family there who you’re still in touch with?”
“I haven't kept in touch with anyone there, no,” she said. “Why do you ask?” she added with a frown, catching the note of concern in his voice.
“There are some other people looking for the eggs,” Ronan explained. “People who will stop at nothing to get them. If they are aware that your village has a dragon egg, they might go to great lengths to get it.”
Tanya’s expression darkened as she understood what Ronan was saying. “You think the village might be in danger?”
“I think it's very likely. In fact, I think there is no time to lose. We must set off at once, if we can.”
It proved easier than they could have hoped to begin their northward journey. Tanya had no roots to pull up, and she was ready to go with them at once. As they had found earlier on, there was a solid demand for protection on the roads north, and Ronan and his friends fit that bill perfectly. They decided they would find a suitable merchant, and offer their services for protection. That would be a good cover for a journey north.
At the market square, they found the very merchant who had offered them work the day before. He was bringing a caravan of southern goods north toward Ghennet, and he was willing to pay them well for their company on the road.
Fletcher was the merchant’s name. He had a cart loaded with goods pulled by two donkeys, and he would travel at walking pace on the roads. The companions would walk by the cart’s side, and in the event that the cart was raided by bandits, the companions would fight to defend Fletcher and his cargo.
For show, they haggled a bit over the price, but eventually they agreed on an arrangement. To Ronan’s delight, it turned out that Fletcher was running behind schedule and was willing to set off immediately. Not only that, but he was willing to stop off at the small town of Eila so that the four assassins could undertake some ‘business’ there.
So it came about that by late afternoon, Ronan, Diana, Eric, and Tanya were walking alongside Fletcher’s cart on the wide, packed dirt road that led out of Twin Mountain.
The roads were busy at first. People with carts, folk on horses, and other traders with carts and hard-eyed guards for hire made up a lot of the traffic. The wooden houses became humbler and more widely spaced the further they went from the city, and the surrounding land moved from urban sprawl to neatly farmed fields, then to wilder country interspersed with belts of untamed woodland. After about an hour, the road met the great Round River and Tanya told them quietly that the road followed close by the river for the rest of the way.
The river was broad and slow, dark green with steep banks overhung with trees and a lush growth of ferns, grasses, and creeping plants. Fletcher seemed disinclined to idle chatter, and that suited the four companions just fine.
Their days quickly took on a comfortable routine. They rose at dawn, ate, then set off on the road. They stopped twice a day to eat, water the donkeys, and rest their legs, and usually walked until dark. The weather was fine, clear and bright but not too hot, with intervals of gentle rain.
It would take about ten days to reach Ghennet at walking pace. The land in this southern part of Lithia was divided up into many small principalities, most of which were satellites of Ghennet in that they gave allegiance to the Ghennetian throne and paid a nominal tax but retained their own customs and ruled themselves in most matters.
Francium, the southernmost of these principalities and the largest in the region after Ghennet itself, was centered around Twin Mountain, but it extended north right up to the Ghennetian border.
The merchant Fletcher had—for the first few days at least—no need for the fighting skills of the four companions. The roads were quiet, but there seemed no threat as far as Ronan could see. However, the merchant seemed happier with them along, and Ronan wondered if perhaps there was a threat from bandits or highwaymen on the roadside that even his trained assassin’s eyes could not detect.
He raised the issue quietly with Tanya, who had traveled in these lands before, as they rested by a small fire one night.
“It’s after we pass the town of Eila that the road becomes that bit more dangerous,” she said. “There’s a hilly, sparsely populated stretch between Eila and the border towns of Ghennet. If Fletcher needs our swords, that’s where it will be.”
They were six days out from Twin Mountain when they came to the start of the hilly country and found the tiny town of Eila nestled in the river valley, surrounding a wide, slow bend in the Round river.
The landscape was breathtakingly beautiful. Having spent most of his time in the Twelve Isles, Ronan was not used to the immensity of the continental mountains. Their huge gray bulk swept up from green foothills surrounding the picturesque wooden buildings of the town. Cloud shadows moved leisurely across their sheer faces, and deep shadows filled the small glens and valleys that pockmarked their higher slopes. Sparkling waterfalls gleamed in the bright late afternoon sun, and a brisk northern wind blew down from the high slopes and pinched their cheeks and noses with its chill.
“You have some business here in Eila, you said?” Fletcher asked. “How long will you need?”
“Not more than a day at most,” Ronan answered. “We appreciate your willingness to accommodate our needs in this.”
“Oh, that is no trouble to me,” Fletcher replied. “You see, I may well find a buyer for my goods here in Eila if I’m lucky. I’ll go on to the border towns if I can’t sell here. I might get a slightly better price there, but it’s an extra six days of travel at least.”
He looked up at the sky, his weather-worn face wrinkling up as he squinted at the sun. “It’s getting late. I suggest that we spend the night here. You four can do whatever business it is you have to do, and I’ll seek a buyer for my goods at the morning market tomorrow. If I cannot find a buyer, then we’ll travel on together to the border towns, and we’ll all go better after a night in the inn. If I do sell my goods, then I’ll stay at Eila for a day or two and then make my way back to Twin Mountain, and you four may do as you please, either come with me, or travel on if that’s your intention.”
“You don’t require protection on the way back south?” Ronan asked. If Fletcher decided that he wanted them to accompany him back to Twin Mountain they would obviously have to refuse, because that would disrupt all their plans. At the same time, Ronan felt compelled to ask. He had grown to respect the taciturn merchant, and would not have liked to think of him making his way back, alone and at risk of being robbed.
Fletcher grinned. “No, lad,” he said to Ronan, “there’s little danger of that on the road between here and Twin Mountain. It’s north of Eila that the danger comes, as you may find out if we end up continuing on the road north together.”
Having all agreed on their plan, they made their way down the winding road into the verdant river valley that housed the town of Eila. All was peaceful. Sun shone on the shingle-roofed wooden houses, and wood smoke rose from the chimneys. On a small hill that rose up next to the road on the northern edge of the town, there stood the temple to Mala which, according to Tanya’s account, held a fourth dragon egg.
Tanya walked ahead with Fletcher, discussing the prospects for a quick sale of his goods, and asking about his trade and his connections to Eila. The merchant, though generally a quiet man who did not initiate conversation, was happy enough to engage when someone else started the talk. Soon, he and Tanya were chatting merrily as they walked along beside the donkeys and the cart, swapping stories and discussing the merits of the town of Elia’s only inn, and of its marketplace.
Ronan, Eric, and Diana took the opportunity provided for them by Tanya to fall back a little and have a hurried conference out of earshot of Fletcher.
“I confess,” Ronan said, “that I feared to find this little town in ruins. I’m very relieved to find it not only still standing, but apparently peaceful and undisturbed.”
“Perhaps it means that the Silent Brotherhood have overlooked this dragon egg?” Diana wondered. “Perhaps we will find it still in place?”
“I hope that will be the case,” Ronan said, “but my gut tells me it will not be so. I have a feeling that this egg may have been overlooked by the brotherhood up till now, but I will be very surprised if we find it in the temple.”
Eric was gazing sadly into the middle distance as if he were remembering his own village’s fate. “At least,” he said, “if they have taken the egg they have not seen fit to set the Crimson Knights to the task. If the egg has been stolen, then it’s been done in some subtle way. I’m glad about that.”
“The brotherhood might feel like they can use barbaric violence and destruction in the far north,” Diana said gently, “but here in the interior of the continent I suspect that even they would have trouble getting away with such things.”
“You’re right,” Eric said. “In Norskand, the clans are generally so independent that there is little hope of getting a large force together to take revenge, so an organized group like the brotherhood can do what they like without fear of consequence. Down here, it would be an act of war that would no doubt cause them more trouble than it was worth.”
“We have still to discover what their ultimate motivation is,” Diana mused. “There’s no reason I can see for their brutality in getting the eggs, nor for their desire to keep them from being activated.”
“We will seek the answer to these questions,” Ronan declared. “Even if we have to hunt them down to the heart of their citadel.”
Eric and Diana both looked at him and nodded. Whatever the answer turned out to be, they would find it. And they would start with their next step—the temple of Mala in the town of Eila.
Fletcher was perfectly happy to make his own way to the inn, and so the four adventurers made their way through the town toward the temple. As they went, they looked for any sign of disturbance or violence, but saw none.
They still had not revealed much about themselves to Tanya. They knew that she suspected they were from the Night Guild; she had recognized Ronan’s robes back on the Sea Swift, and had used the name, but Ronan had never actually confirmed or denied it. He could tell that his identity as a Night Guild assassin was obvious to Tanya, however, and he would not insult her intelligence by pretending he was not.
As he walked along the narrow, quiet streets toward the temple, he wondered how long it would be until they had to be more open with her. She had not pressed the question, but Ronan liked and respected her, and he was glad to have her along. Sooner or later, they would have to reveal their destination to her. If nothing else, their feud with the Silent Brotherhood would almost certainly lead Tanya into danger if she continued to be with them.
It would be unfair, and unnecessarily dangerous, to keep that from her.
He would have to discuss it with Eric and Diana, of course, but he felt sure they would agree with him. If Tanya was going to be with them for much longer, it would not be right to keep her in the dark about their true purpose, or the danger it might ultimately put her in.
For a moment, Ronan considered reaching out to Eric and Diana with their shared thought transference, to take their views on the question, but his morality rebelled against the idea. It seemed dishonest and disrespectful to use such a technique to discuss Tanya behind her back like that while she walked with them.
No, he thought to himself, I will discuss it with them when we are alone if I need to.
Then another idea presented itself. Perhaps, in the course of their investigation into the temple on the hill, more of their secrets would come out. He had a strange prescience, momentarily, that before this mission was over Tanya would know all there was to know about the three assassins and their mission.
Tanya’s voice recalled Ronan from his reverie.
“Here’s the temple,” she said quietly.
They stood looking up at it. Unlike the other temples to Mala that they had seen so far, this one was not made of stone—or rather, it was not made only of stone. As they walked up the low hill slowly, the evening light fading on the grassy sward on either side of the path, Ronan saw that the main body of the temple was made from timbers, but the base was made from worked stones which the wooden structure had been added to later. There were lumps under the grass around the stone, low mounds that made Ronan think of piles of rubble around a ruined building.
There was an older building here, he thought. That’s where the stone base comes from. It was destroyed, or fell into ruin, and this building here has been built on top of the remains. I wonder what the previous building was, and who destroyed it?
The building itself was circular. Small windows penetrated the walls the whole way around, and a tall double door stood open before the four companions as they approached.
Ronan cast his eye over the timbers. Worn, but not ancient. Perhaps twenty or thirty years old? Not less than that, certainly. The stones that formed the first few feet of the circular wall were blackened in places, as if they had been burned.
