Delver Magic: Book 05 - Chain of Bargains (16 page)

Ryson just kept feeding her
frustrations.

"I bet that makes it hard to
run a business, especially a store."

"It's almost impossible. At
least the inferns keep them from stealing, I know they want to, but they don't
dare."

"I guess that's something. If
they could steal from you, you'd probably be out of business in a few
days."

"I'm almost out of business
anyway. The little cretins just find a way around it. They don't actually
steal, but they always demand samples of everything, especially food. They take
more than they should, eat half of it, then spit the rest on the floor. That
way they don't have to pay for it."

"They are a conniving
lot," Ryson agreed. "And you know they're doing it on purpose. They
probably sampled the same stuff from a different store down the block."

"Tell me about it. I've
talked to merchants that have just given up and shuttered their stores."

"You thinking about doing the
same?"

"And do what? Farm? Not
me."

Ryson saw an opening to gain
additional information on the outlying lands. Although he risked losing her
attention with a subject she didn't appreciate, he decided to fish for at least
sketchy details.

"It seems a lot of the
farmers are leaving, too."

The woman actually offered more
perspective than Ryson expected.

"Can't blame them. They're
out there alone with those goblins, living next to them and no one to keep the
peace. At least in the city we have the inferns to keep the goblins in line...
at least somewhat. Out in the farms, they don't even have that. It's just the
farmers and the goblins. I'd leave, too."

"So you're happy the inferns
are here?"

The woman appeared surprised, and
then insulted. At first, she wondered how he could even ask such a question,
but then she thought he was judging her and she felt the need to defend
herself.

"I'm not happy any of them
are here... goblins, inferns, the whole lot. I wish they'd all go back to where
they came from."

"But it seems like all the
people accept the inferns as kind of the law here."

"We were told they were going
to keep the peace."

"Told by whom?"

"The councils, the guard, the
mayor... everyone in charge."

"And do they keep the
peace?"

"Sort of."

"Can you be more
specific?"

"You just saw it. They didn't
let the goblins back there get out of control. The inferns are harsh and they
don't care about anyone or anything, but they keep things from breaking down
into chaos. And chaos is all the goblins really want. They don't do anything
else. They don't work. They just drink, gamble, and fight. "

The woman paused again and took a
good look at Ryson. She thought of what she said, and realized it was probably
too much. Anyone who lived in Ashlan didn't need to ask whether the inferns
kept the peace. They would know. The stranger across from her was not from
Ashlan, and though travelers and merchants from other towns still entered the
city, she believed just about everyone in the Great Valleys knew of the
situation.

She couldn't understand why he
would even ask such questions, and then, she worried about her answers. Talking
about inferns in a derogatory manner to the wrong person meant trouble, trouble
she didn't need. The expression on her face revealed she was sorry she even
spoke at all to the stranger at her table.

"I think I've been here too
long. I have to go."

She put a few coins down on the
table to cover her dinner, food that she left basically uneaten.

"It was nice talking to
you," Ryson stated to her back.

She said nothing further and never
turned around. She hurried out the door.

Holli explored Ashlan with the
greatest caution, wrapped in spells of shadow and avoiding busy streets and
crowded taverns. She inspected the city from above, creeping on the ledges of
rooftops and crouching behind chimney tops. As silent and inconspicuous as hay
stored in the loft of an abandoned barn, she became part of the city skyline.
She leapt from building to building without making a sound, not even creating a
silhouette in the night sky. She was the swirling breeze no one could quite
feel, and the rustle of leaves no one really heard.

With an elf guard's patience, she
monitored the movements of those that walked the streets and alleys
below—humans and dark creatures alike. She noted their patterns and analyzed
their motives. She evaluated them with a mind to her experiences in the towns
of Connel and Burbon, but she found few similarities. The elf quickly realized
that any comparison was futile. The situation in Ashlan challenged all reason.
Watching humans and goblins move about the city in both opposition and
separation, yet acceptance and close proximity, left her stunned.

Unprecedented.

The human element she could almost
understand—almost. People were adaptable, curious, sometimes even inviting of
change. Not all of them, of course, but even those that found comfort and
security in consistency could learn to live in new surroundings. She had seen
that in Connel after its citizens and dwarves agreed to trade treaties and
assistance pacts. Dwarves mingled with humans in nearly every aspect of life,
they came together out of mutual respect and benefit. Dwarves and humans
gathered together, worked towards common goals—a natural acceptance became
commonplace within days.

Still, it wasn't dwarves, or
elves, or even algors that marched through the streets of Ashlan. It was
goblins, and humans were naturally repulsed by such malevolent fiends. Adapting
to such creatures might be within the realm of human capacity, but they would
not do so easily.

More confusing than the humans,
the goblins defied Holli's understanding of dark creatures with even greater
emphasis. The repulsive creatures were nothing if not aggressive, combative,
and hostile toward other races, especially those they deemed inferior.
Certainly, goblins could be subjugated. They would bow to the will of a
superior, become the pawns of the more cunning monsters and evil mages. That was
part of their very heritage, but they never succumbed to harmonic co-existence
whether by treaty or even necessity. Cowardly creatures, yes, but agreeable,
even peaceful neighbors living in passive acceptance with humans?—not in all
the pages of elflore.

As opposed to immersing herself
into the details of the oddities, Holli focused on the city as a whole—obtained
an outlook of the bizarre situation from a high level and on a large scale. As
the entire population of Ashlan seemed to accept the coalescence of humans and
dark creatures, she viewed the city as one massive, complex curiosity. She
tracked individuals only to the point where she could understand their part in
the overall structure. She wished to understand how the city could possibly
operate under such radical conditions.

In hopes of finding some plausible
explanation, she looked more to the activities of the dark creatures than the
humans. Scores of goblins meandered along the streets in daylight as well as at
night. They traveled in packs, and did not socialize with the humans in any
intimate manner. Holli found this behavior consistent with her understanding of
dark creatures as described in elflore. She could not, however, understand why
the goblins established a presence in a human city without the desire to
conquer the indigenous population.

As she noted the size of the
goblin population within the city limits, that question became even more
vexing. The troublesome fiends numbered a sufficient force to take control of
at least one third of Ashlan. They could have hunkered down within and around
the closely built structures and thwarted any assault to remove them. All they
had to do was come together as a horde—which was their basic instinct—and
inflict heavy casualties on the humans in one particular area. They did not,
however, employ such a strategy.

Instead, they moved about as if
they had already conquered the entire population, but decided not to suppress
the humans into bondage. For the most part, they
 
simply ignored the people around them,
accepted them as an unavoidable minor annoyance. The only time they interacted
with humans was when they hoped to obtain some material possessions or when
some dispute arose.

While the humans kept their
distance, there were times when contact simply couldn't be avoided. Goblins
didn't like stepping around people and made their disapproval apparent in many
ways. They often shoved humans aside roughly and made grunting, scowling
threats to those that didn't move fast enough for their liking.

Still, the goblins showed much
more restraint than the elf ever expected. On many occasions, she waited for
what she believed would be an inevitable violent encounter, but the goblins
never pushed any confrontation to that level. Many times they would even back
down. It was not out of fear of the humans, for there were times they greatly
outnumbered their adversaries, yet still they refrained from outright conflict.

As Holli continued to monitor the
activities throughout Ashlan, the conduct of the other prevalent dark creatures
became apparent, and in this, she found her answer. She could not help but
notice the presence of inferns all around the city the very first night she
entered Ashlan. Their glowing bodies gave away their positions like burning
torches dropped in hollow black pits, but unlike the goblins, the half-demons
limited their activity.

They moved about the city, but in
slow methodical fashion. Whereas the goblins interaction with humans was
narrow, the inferns remained completely aloof. They walked among the people,
but never with them, never acknowledging the humans in any significant fashion.
They did not enter stores or taverns with any regularity. They did not press
their way through crowded streets. Never did the slightest conflict arise
between infern and human.

Just as with the goblins, the
infern behavior confounded the elf guard. As foot soldiers for draevols,
inferns served as shock troops. It was not only their mission, but their
inherent nature, to cause turmoil, and yet, they did not prey upon the weak or
make any attempt to cause damage or suffering. Holli would have expected the
city to be nothing more than a burning cinder with so many inferns walking
Ashlan's streets, but the half-demons refrained from all barbaric actions.

Holli could not help but recognize
the actions of the inferns, as they moved about the city like sentries intent
on keeping order. Their actions became obvious and their tactics were very
familiar to an elf guard who's duty it was the to protect an entire elf camp.
The half-demons positioned themselves as peacekeepers, and their appearance
often dissuaded the goblins from acting aggressively. They even revealed an
uncanny knack to anticipate goblin bedlam before it broke loose, and they
always appeared to lurk nearby just before any encounter destabilized.

Even from up high, Holli could see
that the goblins feared the half-demons. She witnessed them cease their
aggressive behavior and scatter at the sight of a disapproving infern. With
such dread in place, she could not deny the goblins' willingness to refrain
from hostility and to accept a less combative life among the humans.

The explanation did little to ease
Holli's concerns. It simply accounted for the goblins' restraint. It did little
to clarify the inferns' desire to act as mediators. It also did not explain why
the humans allowed the goblins to enter the city and why inferns were placed in
positions of power and control.

She was also becoming certain that
Ashlan was at the very heart of the turmoil across the Great
Valleys. After monitoring the
goblin activity, she realized that the dark creatures utilized the city as a
base for their activities. Many came and left during the first two days of her
investigation of the city. She watched the flow of travelers across the main
roadways, and the near endless flow of goblins simply could not be dismissed.

There was also the matter of
Prilgrat. He was obviously an influential figure within Ashlan, and in a town
where inferns kept the peace and goblins coexisted with humans, a man of
influence would hold many answers.

As a regional steward, Prilgrat
maintained contacts across several of the valleys, that much could be assumed
by the politics of the area, but he also served as the link to the soldiers at
Huntston. Holli still could not guess why Prilgrat ordered towns in the valleys
to keep watch for her and Ryson, but it proved another link to Ashlan and the
mysteries of the region.

During her reconnaissance, Holli
had located key town centers, including the offices of the regional stewards.
She had pinpointed Prilgrat from afar, even followed him to his home, but she
would not make contact until she spoke to Ryson. When the time came to confront
the steward, she wanted to make certain she knew the right questions to ask. That
time was growing near.

On the third night of her
excursion into the city, she turned her mind to another anomaly. The magic
around Ashlan behaved in a similar manner to that of the energy at Huntston.
The magical flow from above and around the city bent toward the collection of
structures and its inhabitants. She could not pinpoint an exact source for the
disturbance, but she could not deny its existence.

The magic washed over the city as
a whole as opposed to focusing upon one distinct point. She disregarded the
thought of a single spell caster trying to manipulate the forces. A wizard
redirecting magic with no cause or purpose was a waste of effort,
 
but she could not make any greater
assumptions beyond that. Something pulled at the energy, directed it toward the
city and then sent it back on its way.