Death Or Fortune (27 page)

     The little
halfling, sat in the corner and could not look away from the fight.  No
weapons were drawn, no fist were being thrown or was there any blood spilled.
 Yet it was a fight. Windfall explained to Captain Turk about the contract
on Jasmin's life.  He explained how this person did not think Darmot would
return from his mission in Toryth Vol and wanted to take over his seat. Of the
thirty Arcadian Lords, Darmot sat in the third seat away from the throne.
 Captain Turk listened with great care, making sure that he understood
everything the bounty hunter had to say. Things were going well until Windfall
explained to the good Captain what his plans were to find the so called
contract holder.
     "Sir, you expect me to believe that I am going to
stand by and let you turn the city on ear while you hunt for the unknown? While
I appreciate your concern over this matter, your help is not needed.  This
is a matter for the royal guard.  We will conduct an investigation of this
supposed contract and deal with this our way."
     "What do you mean, your way? Are you telling me
that I have to stand back and do nothing?" the half elf asked.
     "You can do whatever you bloody well want to but
if you get in the way of my investigation of this matter I will arrest you and
put you in a hole so deep you will need an entire village of dwarven miners to
find you again."
     "Is that a threat?"
     "No sir that is a promise! I know who you are
after all.  I saw your handy work from the other night.  I will not
tolerate a vigilante running wild in the Lords District.  As I have said,
thank you for your report.  You have done your part, now I will do mine,
as I have been appointed to do."
     "I am sorry
Captain
but I will not stand
back and do nothing.  I think of Darmot like one of my son's.  This
is his wife.  I thought he was your friend?  Why won't you let me do
something?"
     "The fact that he is my friend cannot dictate my
course of action.  There are laws that must be obeyed.  The royal
guard will handle this matter.  There is nothing else to say.  Now,
where is Lady Kromwell? I am going to dispatch a squad of men to protect her."
Pare watched the half elf. His face was turning an odd shade of red from the
fury that was building inside of him.

     "Let
me help you." The half elf said in a slow, even voice. Captain Turk leaned
back in his chair and looked the half elf in the eye. Pare thought for sure he
could see smoke rolling out of the bounty hunters ears. After what seemed to be
an hour long staring contest the good captain just shook his head no. He had
nothing else to say on the matter. "Very well Captain, Lady Kromwell is located
out at Darmot's estate home.  I have left two men there to guard her.
 Pare and myself will be in the city over night and then we will head back
there.  If any of your men arrive there before me, I cannot promise they
will go unharmed.  Ebbit answers only to me. You might want to wait for me
to get there before you approach the house." With this said the half elf
turned and swiftly walked towards the door.  Without using the handle the
half elf opened the door, causing the guards outside to jump as the wooden door
crashed to the ground.
     "I am sorry about that Turk.  I'll see you
later I guess." Pare said as he jumped from his chair to follow after the
half elf. By the time he got out the door Windfall was already mounted and
waiting for the halfling.  Pare climbed up into the saddle of his small
horse and just looked at the half elf for a moment. "Is it normal for your
ears to turn purple when you are angry? My mom was the same way. I knew what
was gonna happen when I saw her coming at me with purple ears. Bam! She would
smack me right upside the head and yell at me for doing something stupid."
The half elf gave the little halfling a sideways glance, the color in his face
had returned to normal and even had a slight grin on his face. This worried the
halfling to no end.
     "Lead the way my friend.  I would like to
see this Red Dragon Inn that Darmot owns." Pare thought about pointing out
that the inn really belonged to five people.  Pare, Hans, Hetaron and
Jasmin all had a share of it after the reconstruction.  While the Inn had
belonged to Jasmin's family for years before the fire, they could not afford to
rebuild after its destruction during the riots in Arcadia.  This was all
on the tip of his tongue yet he somehow thought better of it.  Pare couldn't
figure out why he looked so happy all of a sudden. "Oh I want you to stop
by the city jail on the way, I want to let Captain Myers know I will be headed
back out of the city in the morning." The halfling thought that sounded
practical and was more than happy to lead the way.

     When the
strange duo arrived at the city jail, which the city watch operated out of Pare
figured it would be a short stop.  So he waited outside with the horses.
 After a half hour or so Pare wondered if he had to go rescue his
temperamental new friend.  Just as he was about to slide down from the
horse he questioned himself about if Windfall was really a friend.  Pare
was a thief and he was a bounty hunter.  While Windfall seemed to care
about Darmot, Pare's best friend and Windfall wanted to help with Jasmin.
 Could they really be friends, he asked himself? He wasn't sure but to be
safe he didn't want to get on his bad side.  Jumping down from his 
mount Pare poked his head into the city watch office.  On the south wall
near the entrance was a large area filled with notices from various lords, the
kingdom and wanted posters.  This was where Pare found Windfall.  He
studied each one in order.  Some were from other kingdoms but close to
half were from the capital.

     "I
almost expected to see your happy face up on this wall or at least someone that
looks like you" the half elf said. "Still, there might be something
we can work with here.  Do you see any one that you know?"
     "What are you going to do?" Pare asked in a
soft voice.  As if he was afraid of being over heard by someone.  The
half elf looked down and placed one hand on the hilt of his sword.  Pare
hung his head low and took a step forward then looked up at the posters on the
wall. "That guy there is dead, I have seen those two but they left town
months ago. That one is still around and I know I have seen that one." The
half elf patted the top of Pare's head and started walking towards the door.
"What are you going to do now?" he asked again.

     "Now
we eat.  So show me the way to the inn.  We will have a good, hot
meal and a bit of chat.  Perhaps you can tell me about the dragon you
killed.  I've taken down a couple in my time as well." Both men,
large and small, mounted their horses.  Pare made his way through the
streets without thinking about where he was going.  He had spent so much
time in the city that he could have gotten there in his sleep.  What he
did think about was what the half elf could be up to.  While he trusted
him, he wasn't sure why.  They did not have time to go track down random
folks just to fill a coin purse or two.  This is what Pare wanted to point
out to him.  That the men he was looking at were nothing more than just a
bunch of random guys.  None of them connected, only thing they had in common
was that they were in hiding.

     The two
arrived at the Red Dragon Inn with no problems, even if Pare wasn't paying
attention to where he was going. Yet the smell coming from the kitchen drew him
back from the waking dream he was caught in.  Pare waved to the serving
girl and made his way towards his normal table, yelling out for her to bring
two of everything.  A very pregnant woman by the name of Jessica brought
out two steaming bowls of beef stew and a loaf of bread with two large tankards
filled to the brim with the house ale.  The two men ate in silence, both
of them looking up at the dragon head mounted on the wall.  Watching them
eat their meal with its cold dead eyes.  Pare knew they were just glass
orbs but he swore from time to time that they moved, watching the one who
killed her child.
     "This is a nice place and the food is good.
 How do they keep the beef this fresh? I don't see where they could
butcher meat.  The only thing that was in back was the stables."
Windfall asked.
     "Follow me!" Pare said excitedly.  He
led the bounty hunter into the kitchen towards the back door of the inn.
 Grabbing a lantern from the wall he opened another door and took him down
into the cellar. "Just before the inn burned down we found this magic orb.
 Now, Hetaron was able to figure out what it did but did not have a single
use for it.  It was some kind of cold effect, Hetaron said if we used it
on a lake it would freeze solid and it would stay that way.  So after the
inn was rebuilt, Darmot came up with the idea to use it in here." Pare
stopped outside of a large steel door in the wall. "Anything we put in
there will stay cold. It is seriously the greatest thing ever. The orb is in
the very back and we can't touch it for any reason but I swear it snows in
there some days."
     "Incredible! Is there anything else down
here?" he asked while looking around.
     "Oh just Hetarons lab.  He did experiments
in there..." the halfling bit his tongue knowing he had said too much.
     "So do you know how to open the door?" he
asked, all the while staring at just the right spot on the wall. The halfling
started to speak only to have his own hand slam his mouth closed. "I know
he was your friend but I may need to see in there Pare.  This is very important."
Hand firmly planted over his mouth he shook his head about, mumbling that the
wizard would kill him. "Pare, it is for Jasmin." This was the second
time the half elf had used Jasmin as a weapon of guilt, scoring a direct hit to
his heart Pare knew what he had to do.

     "Turn
around, I don't want you watching me!" he said to the half elf who had
that strange grin on his face again. Pare found a step stool that he had used a
half a dozen times before to open the lab door. He had to use the stool to
reach the keystone that would open the door. He paused only for a moment before
pressing it in.  He wanted to make sure he didn't push the wrong one, some
of the stones were trapped.  As he had opened this door dozens of times,
he was sure which one it was.  With one quick push the stone sunk into the
wall and the door started to slide open. "Alright, come on it will close
on its own soon." Pare quickly picked up the stool he had been standing on
and put it back where it came from.  Soon the two of them stood in
Hetaron's lab, watching as the door slide closed.

     The room
was illuminated by globes of light on each wall and on the large table in the
middle of the room.  For the first time in years the bounty hunter felt a
small knot of pain form in his gut and work its way up to his heart.  He
was only five the first time he remembered being taken into his own father’s
lab. The shelves filled with old books, the large table just about waist high,
runes of protection on the walls. 'Argon was much cleaner than this Hetaron',
Windfall thought to himself. Yet he had many of the same books.  Looking
at the spines he was sure a few of them did belong to his father at one time.
 'He only wanted to live as long as you mother', Windfall could not finish
the thought.  His father had by far out lived his mother.  At the
very end of the top shelf was a book with no markings, just a blood red leather
binding.  He pulled it down from the shelf and flipped open the pages. All
were blank except for one.

     "I
dare not write my thoughts down as that will only make them all the more
real." Windfall had read the inscription aloud.  Placing the book
back on the shelf he looked around the rest of the room.  One thing became
clear this may have been the most private room in the entire nation of Arcadia.
While Windfall had no skill for the use of magic, thanks to his father he
understood the runes that marked the walls.  Reaching under his cloak
Windfall pulled out a single large sack.  It appeared to be empty from the
looks of it but when he reached inside, the items he wanted were just where he
left them. "I have a gift for you Pare.  Later on I want you to put
this stuff on. No questions asked."

     On the
large table in the middle of the room, from his empty sack Windfall pulled out
a small set of leather armor. Black in color, etched with runes that were blood
red in color he laid it all out for him. It was a full set, including a hood
with a mask that would cover his face. "This armor was my son's. I made
him wear it when I took him on the road with me. He outgrew it in a few years
but I spared no expense to keep him safe.  I give this to you now, knowing
that what we are going to do tonight will place you in a great amount of
danger.  I don't want to risk you being seen for who you are. So you will
put the mask on and you will like it."
     "What are we going to do tonight?" the
halfling asked with a slight touch of fear in his voice.
     "Tonight we hunt. We will take to the streets and
roof tops where we will haul anyone who is even thinking about committing a
crime into jail. Then we will hit the thieves’ guild and take down the
leadership.  If there is a contract out on Lady Kromwell, one of them will
know about it.  One of them will tell us what we want to know. "

     "Has
anyone ever told you that you are crazy? What about what Turk told you?"
     "I thought about it, he had to tell me no.
 He would get himself tossed out of the royal guard if he let me run
around the lord’s district causing trouble.  Let’s go back upstairs for
now, pack that armor away, don't let anyone see it.  Once it gets dark we
will get ready.  They keep a room here for you right?" The two men
returned to their table for one more mug of ale and headed upstairs for the
night.  As soon as the door closed Pare tried on the armor.  It felt
as if it was made for him.  He could tell just by walking around the room
that it was much better than anything he currently owned.  He could bend
and move as if he had nothing on at all.  He stood and looked at himself
in the mirror while placing the mask over his face.  It felt like a second
skin.  He took it off again and went and set it down on his bed, waiting
for darkness to fall on the city.