Escana (41 page)

Thom moved as if to draw
Skullcleaver but found El-Vador's sword pressed against him. Jimmy
hadn't noticed when the creature had drawn it.

'Guards, place the manacle around
their feet. El-Vador, would you be so kind as to kill either of them
if they move?'

Jimmy backed away from the scene,
the instinct to run pounding through his veins. Kelgrimm spotted him
immediately.

'Boy, if you so much as move I
will deal with you personally.' His arm flickered into life then, a
pulsing orange glow forming around it. Jimmy should have been amazed
but if El-Vador worked for this man he was powerful beyond reckoning.
He decided not to move, rooted to the spot by fear.

He watched the guards as they
secured a huge manacle around the ankles of both Gadtor and Thom,
neither man made an effort to prevent them. They looked oddly similar
then, both furious at this entrapment and powerless to prevent it.

'How the fuck do you expect us to
fight with this thing binding us together?' Thom risked asking,
eyeing Kelgrimm with a murderous look.

This brought a forceful chuckle
from Kelgrimm. 'You both worked so poorly together, it would appear
that you need to learn to solve that for yourselves.'

Gadtor seemed less angry than
Thom, he had been thinking about the circumstance.

Kelgrimm read his face like a
book. 'You think as soon as you're dispatched you can have any smith
unshackle you at the point of a blade?'

Jimmy watched the hope in
Gadtor's eyes die.

Kelgrimm wasn't laughing any
more. 'I have accounted for this possibility. No, I think you will
find that no smith in all the land will be able to release you from
the ties that bind. El-Vador, if you please?'

The manacle shook briefly,
nothing further happened. Jimmy thought back to the lock and knew
that this was more than it seemed.

'I'm sure you will try
regardless,' Kelgrimm continued, 'that's entirely your choice to
make, as futile as it may be.' He nodded at the guards and they
dragged Gadtor and Thom out wordlessly.

Jimmy half expected the men to
shout threats and curse Kelgrimm but they did no such thing. He'd
never forget those two pairs of eyes, the murder he had seen so
plainly on Thom's before came back to him now. Jimmy had seen his
fair share of that look over the last week of fighting for survival,
it still managed to startle him coming from the Warden.

Kelgrimm turned his attention to
the rest of them. 'It is Greyhawk for the remaining members of your
fine party.' He surveyed them dispassionately, a look of confusion
stealing across his face. 'Where is the girl?'

Ella. He knew Ella was missing.
Jimmy had a bad feeling about this.

The Hermit shook his head, Jakob
remained still. Neither of them knew where she was, of that Jimmy was
certain.

Kelgrimm swept his gaze over to
Jimmy and El-Vador, asking that same question again. 'Where is the
girl?'

Jimmy watched El-Vador remain
silent in the face of Kelgrimm's scrutiny, he knew that the creature
had hidden her away somewhere. Now the choice was his: would he
rather she remain in the custody of this monster or have her given
over to the same authorities that had raped her? He looked up at
El-Vador's face, there was no choice at all.

'She is with him, he is keeping
her from you.'

Kelgrimm arched a bushy eyebrow
at this, his eyes boring into Jimmy's. 'You speak the truth.'

Jimmy nodded furiously, hoping
that Kelgrimm could exercise some control over the growing chill in
the air.

He watched the older man confront
El-Vador now, stepping to within an inch of the creature's face in
the threatening display. 'I will have you reveal the girl to me, she
is my jurisdiction and mine alone.'

El-Vador wasn't smiling. 'I have
aided you as required, I have apprehended or exhumed all the varied
participants in this pitiful uprising against your impotence and
silently quelled a riot on your behalf. You would have me throw away
the spoils of my rarest of servitude? The woman in question is of no
concern to you, she played no role in the Black Quail and was merely
a bystander that this unfortunate conflict swirled around.'

But Kelgrimm wasn't in the mood
for bandying words any more. 'You will reveal the girl or I shall
exhume you personally.'

The guards stepped forward as if
on queue, weapons drawn and waiting for any sign of trouble.

El-Vador laughed then, an almost
maniacal sound. 'Oh but even I am at a loss to lament the misfortune
of your unlikely buffoonery. You were considered a learned man across
the land, yet you choose now to throw aside reason as if it were some
mantel to discard for personal gain? No doubt your powers are
considerable, I have felt them. Your impotence will extend further
than you suspect should you attempt to force my cooperation.'

Kelgrimm hesitated for the
briefest moment. Faster than Jimmy could see, El-Vador was face to
face with the man, who stared back at him in shock.

'You didn't expect me to wait
until you had given the order to engage, did you?'

Kelgrimm coughed, a strangled
noise sounding from his throat.

'That you didn't see this as an
inevitability of your resistance is further proof of your unwarranted
knowledge blinding your ability to govern effectively.'

With a deft flick, he sent the
old man sliding down to the floor off the blade, the guards advanced
cautiously.

El-Vador held up a hand. 'Your
new Justice will be arriving from his extended travels before
darkness greets you. I would suggest you carry out your duties as if
he were in situate until then.'

The guards to a man looked at
their commanding officer, who seemed torn between the same
overwhelming fear that Jimmy felt and the attention to his duty in
the face of such apparent treason.

He lowered his weapon, hand
shaking. 'Very well. Guards, take the prisoners to the cages for
transportation to Greyhawk. No one must enter this chamber until we
clear the body.' He looked at El-Vador now, his voice trembling
slightly. 'On pain of death?'

El-Vador nodded, looking
carefully at each man, who seemed to realise exactly what sort of
death the word implied.

'Your men will not betray you
Captain. Have the former Justice escorted to his chambers. He has
caught an unfortunately malady and will not be able to speak to
anyone. Sadly he will perish overnight, conveniently a new Justice
will be appointed the following morning. Do you understand?'

The Captain nodded quickly and
the last sight Jimmy remembered was of the guards silently dragging
Kelgrimm's body away.

G
arth sat
amidst a pile of weaponry, sweating profusely and struggling to lift
his hammer. The trade wagon had barely enough room to fit all the
weaponry that El-Vador had repaired for him. He had thought it odd
that a creature that should have killed him would not only choose to
spare his life but offer to aid him in such a fashion. He wasn't
going to look a gift horse in the mouth and figured that now the bulk
of his backlog of repairs had been cleared he would have the chance
of a recovery and a reasonable work queue. He had been sadly
mistaken.

It would appear that someone had
taken notice of the enormous amount of repairs he had sent back, the
huge cart had pulled up outside his house littered with nearly twice
as much as any previous delivery.

Initially he had been angry,
cursing the driver blindly until realising that the poor man wasn't
responsible for the burden he carried and must receive a similar
lashing at any smithy he was sent to.

He had invited the man in then,
who had spoken candidly about how the war was turning into a
massacre. It was refreshing for Garth to hear someone agree with him
other than Gooseman.

The inn was his next port of
call, even his fierce determination to get the job done couldn't
satisfy the demand and there was only one man he knew who could
change that.

After a few inquiries he found
him meticulously arranging bottles in the cellar. Gooseman's sole
hobby as long as he had known him was to construct a place like this
within which he could stash his various vintages. He hoped against
hope that his disruption wouldn't ruin his friend's mood.

'I was wondering when you'd
finally arrive,' Gooseman said, still brushing down a dusty bottle
with his back to the smith.

Garth wasn't too surprised that
the man knew of his grievance already, it was Gooseman's job to know
everything that happened.

'You know why I'm here then,' he
said, matter-of-factly. 'You've also heard about the size of the
delivery I've been given.'

Gooseman nodded, carefully
setting the now-gleaming bottle back into the rack and pulling out
another. Garth hated when the man was silent, it was impossible to
guess at what he was thinking.

'The latest load is more than I
can possibly manage, someone is deliberately trying to replace me.'

The innkeeper continued silently
dusting his bottles as if nothing had happened, Garth plunged on
regardless.

'Then they'll pack me off to
Sah'kel for not doing my bit to aid the war. Only it won't be as a
common grunt on the front-line, they'll be drafting me as a General.'

Still Gooseman showed no signs of
reacting, Garth was growing tired of having this complaint coaxed out
of him.

'What have you to say to that
then?'

Another bottle was cleaned and
placed in the rack, then Gooseman turned to the smith as if seeing
him for the first time.

'I agree with them. As much as I
care for you Garth, your purpose in life was never to sit in a small
village mending horseshoes and fixing carts.'

Remembering his previous
encounter, Garth tried his best to dampen down the anger that came
surging to the surface. 'You... agree with them? What if I don't give
a damn about my purpose? What if I want a life free from constant
machinations and treachery? Have I not already paid my dues a hundred
times over?'

Gooseman raised his hand as if to
ward off the questioning, Garth knew he could say no more to the man
and expect his aid.

'You were once one of the finest
generals in all the land, you know exactly how the war is going out
there in spite of being thousands of miles away. They want you to
stop hiding away from your responsibilities and set you to task on
preventing the slaughter instead of repairing the results of it.'

Garth sighed, he had a feeling it
would go this way. 'I don't have a choice any more, do I?'

'You were given a choice many
years ago. You chose to accept the terms of the agreement, that
should your work in an external capacity simply not be enough for the
military you would return to active duty. It was your choice not to
take on any apprentices to aid you to that end, the repercussions of
this are being felt now.'

The words deflated him, had he
really expected this to go any other way? The world outside this
simple hamlet beckoned him inexorably, the compliance was simply a
matter of eventuality.

'I am not without sympathy for
you Garth. The choices you have had to make in your life should have
been forced on no man. Ultimately I know you are self-sacrificing
enough to return to that place so someone else need not.'

Garth shrugged. 'I've had a good
run here. It was a peaceful time, one that I hope to have again some
day. Thank you for your words my friend, I think I knew there was
nothing you could do before I asked.'

Gooseman smiled and offered him a
glass. 'Even I am powerless to prevent certain aspects of the future,
I wish you well and may we meet again in this life or the next.'

Garth grinned back at him as
Gooseman uncorked a dusty old bottle. 'You know I don't believe any
of that tripe. I'll try and get back here in one piece.'

The innkeeper poured out two
measures and raised a toast. 'To safe ventures and safer returns.'

They drank in silence, knowing
they'd never see each other again.

H
ern had
always prided himself on being able to adjust to the darkness
surrounding him. The pit he found himself in offered no such luxury.

He had been hurled in with
several chunks of rotting meat, landing heavily in a suffocating
layer of filth.

The lizard creature had turned
and chewed upon the new meat, offering Hern a brief sniff but
otherwise ignoring him. Given the freedom that Hern had promised it
he was expecting a fight to the death.

He had sat there for some time,
listening to the beast's cavernous breathing and trying to fight down
the urge to retch. It was clearly being kept in squalor and he knew
that if it didn't kill him in a fit of rage the conditions and lack
of any water would finish him in short order. His jailers had to
assume that the beast would rip him limb from limb out of rage or
hunger, whichever spoke loudest to it first. No, there wasn't going
to be anybody bringing him meals down here.