Berlina's Quest (9 page)

“Aah, yoo is good, Princess.” She blushed a little.

The road was mostly deserted between the little towns scattered along it. The towns themselves were generally friendly and welcoming—at least those they approached in the daytime—but there was still little information about their destination. “The Forlorn Mountains?” a villager would say. “Yes, I've heard tales that it is somewhere down the road, but I've never met anyone who has been there.”

They arrived at one town just before sunset, and Berlina planned on finding lodgings. Suddenly, she saw half a dozen horses wearing barding in Drailsen's colors tethered outside a tavern. She turned to the other two and said, “What say we see if we can recover a little more of the gold the prince took from us when he clapped us in the dungeon.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Felistia.

The two girls got off their horses and handed the reins to Lathan to hold. Then, they started pawing through all the saddlebags on the Drailsen mounts. In a short time, they extracted everything of value and transferred it to their own saddlebags. They were just about ready to remount when one of the guardsmen looked out and saw them.

“Thieves!” he yelled. “We're being robbed.”

He rushed out the door, followed by five more guardsmen, all drawing swords. Berlina quickly drew her sword. Lathan dismounted and drew his, and Felistia shifted completely into her wildcat form. This last seemed to surprise the guardsmen, and they halted their rush in confusion.

Berlina and Lathan jumped forward, swords swinging, and chopped down two of the men before they could recover. Felistia leaped and tore out the throat of another. The remaining three backed up a few steps and took a defensive posture. Then, Berlina pulled out her wand and cast her confusion spell. This totally demoralized the guardsmen, allowing Lathan to decapitate two while Berlina stabbed the third in the gut.

“Well, that's six,” she said, “and there are six horses, so that should be all of them.” She wiped her sword on one of the bodies and put it back in its sheath. She looked at the dead men, then said, “Lathan, we don't want to leave these corpses cluttering up the front of the tavern. There's a little alley over between the tavern and the next building. Please drag them in there, so they'll be out of sight.”

“Felistia, let's go inside. Lathan, come in when you're done. I am going to ask if anyone wants to buy these chance-found horses.”

Lathan paused in his task of shifting the dead guards, looking more puzzled than usual. “Uh, Princess…” he said, “we din't find these horses. They wuz here where the guardsmen left them. They belong to the guardsmen.”

“Yes, Lathan,” said Berlina, “but the guardsmen are dead. We killed them, and they have no further use for horses. It just sounds better to say we found the horses than to say we killed their owners, when we try to sell them.”

Lathan still looked puzzled, but said, “Uh, okay, Princess.”

The two girls entered the tavern. It was fairly full, and there was only one empty table, so they sat down at it.

The innkeeper walked over and said, “Ma'am, I'm afraid you can't sit there. Half a dozen troopers are sitting there, and they are likely to get angry that you have taken their seats.”

Berlina looked up at him and said, “Not to worry. I'm sure they won't object. All six of them were suddenly taken dead.” She put her hand on the hilt of her sword, drawing it out enough to show a few inches of blade. “Now, bring us some supper. For three. We have one more in our party who will come in soon.”

The innkeeper looked at Berlina, then at the sword, then back at Berlina. He nodded his head in agreement and scurried off to get their food. He returned and placed it on the table just as Lathan entered and sat down.

When they finished eating, Berlina stood up and called out. “Attention. Attention. We are in possession of six fine, chance-found horses that we don't need and wish to sell. What am I offered for them?”

Bidding was brisk, and it wasn't long before all six of the horses were sold. Berlina pocketed the gold, then turned to Felistia and Lathan and said, “Let's get out of here. I had planned to spend the night in this town, but after all this, it wouldn't be smart.” The three exited the tavern, got on their horses, and left town. That night, they again slept in a field.

Of course, many times, they arrived at other villages in the dark of night. In those villages, they loaded their packs with whatever food and supplies they could find. Berlina usually left a small payment when they did this, although she was very sparing of their meager supply of gold, and left less than the villagers would have asked for in a more open transaction. When they did this, they always pushed on for another hour before stopping to camp. Those nights, they were too tired to do anything but sleep.

Some nights, they spent in villages and towns. Berlina always managed to get one room for Felistia and herself, and a separate room for Lathan. This amazed or amused the locals.

It was the nights on a deserted stretch of road where they stopped for dinner and sacked out early that worried Berlina. It looked like Lathan was starting to become infatuated with her. She always made sure there was fifteen or twenty feet between them when they slept, and if possible, she positioned the three of them so that Felistia was between her and Lathan. Also, she wore a ring she stole from Zatarra—a ring whose charm was to “repelle ye over friendly manne.” She hoped these precautions would be enough, because Lathan was very strong and would be difficult to fight off if he did try something.

* * * *

Berlina woke suddenly. There was something wrong, and she could sense it. She opened her eyes, and moving her head as little as possible, looked around. There were two intruders in their camp—one standing between her and Felistia, and one near Lathan. Both were going through their packs. Still not moving, she thought about what to do. It would be fairly easy to scare them off, but who knew what valuables they had already taken. No, it would be necessary to take them down and search them.

The one nearest her was facing away, and the other was concentrating on the packs and probably couldn't see much in the dim moonlight. Her sword was next to her but still sheathed.
Stupid maneuver
, she thought.
We should be sleeping with swords ready to use
. Moving slowly and carefully, she pulled her sword free of its scabbard. Getting up would give the thieves too much warning, so she needed a low target, for either point or edge.

Carefully, she drew the sword back, then swung it in a flat arc, parallel to the ground. It hit the man's leg, sliced through his boot, and severed his Achilles tendon. Just as it hit, she yelled, “Help! Lathan! Felistia! Help!” as loudly as she could. The man's screams added to the din and woke her companions.

The spell that reduced Lathan's brain to Jell-O had no such effect on his combat training and battle reflexes. The second thief—the one closest to Lathan—started to turn and run, but before he could even get going, Lathan grabbed his leg and he ended up sprawled on the ground. The next he knew, Lathan was on top of him, pummeling him into unconsciousness.

The thief Berlina got with her sword had also fallen to the ground, his injured leg unable to support him. He tried crawling but stopped when she showed him the point of her sword…about a half inch from his eye. “Want an even closer look?” she asked.

“No,” he replied and fell back flat on the ground.

“Fee, go search the thief Lathan has there,” said Berlina. “I'll check out this one.”

She quickly searched him, recovering a bag of gold and several other things he had taken from her pack. She found several pieces of jewelry, not in her pack, that she liked. There were three knives, of which she kept the best two. She said to the thief, “You may need some kind of knife to cut bandages and do something about that leg, before you bleed to death.” She turned to Felistia and asked, “How is yours doing?”

“He's a little foggy, I think, but still breathing. I've gotten most of what's in his pockets, but there's something strange. Perhaps you should have a look.”

“Good. Come guard this one while I search the other.” She and Felistia traded places, and she ran her hands over the man who was just now beginning to recover consciousness. His pockets were empty. Felistia had done a good job of relieving him of his possessions. Then Berlina noticed an unusual bulge in his crotch.

She looked at him and said, “Are you lusting for me, knave? No, I don't think so.” She felt his pants then gave a hard squeeze. He shrieked and curled up into a little ball. She used her sword to cut first his belt, then the cloth of his pants. Underneath was a pouch of cloth, similar to a codpiece, but with coins sewn into it. “Cute,” she said. “Nobody would mess with you down there and the loot would be safe. Nope!” She squeezed again. He gave another shriek and passed out.

She cut the pouch off him, ripped it with the tip of her sword, and let the coins trickle out into her hand. “Here, I don't want this,” she said, and dropped the cloth right on his face. “Now, just one more thing. Tell me why you chose to raid us, to steal from us.”

The man spat at her. “Why should I tell you anything? I took an oath of secrecy and am honor bound to keep my lips sealed.”

“Ah, but suppose I were to give you a gift, a valuable gift, in return for what I want to know?”

“What gift could you give me that is worth my honor?”

“The gift I offer you is that you get to keep what you had in that cloth pouch…not the coins, but think what else you had in there.”

The man thought for a minute, then suddenly horrified, he said, “You mean my…” His voice trailed off, and he shuddered. It was obvious that he understood what she meant, and he knew she would do it. “It was four men who set us on to you. A nobleman in maroon and orange, two of his guards, and a sorcerer. I know not their names. That is all I can tell you. Now, I beg you, spare my manhood!”

“What little is there,” she said, and the man bristled at the insult, “you have earned the right to keep.” She started to leave, then turned back to the man and sneeringly said to him, “Bunny rabbit pecker!”

To her companions, she said, “Pack up your stuff, and let's get going. I suddenly don't like this neighborhood. We can catch up on sleep later.” As soon as they were ready, they headed their horses down the road, Berlina's wand adding enough to the faint moonlight so they could see where they were going.

About a quarter mile from where they had been camped, Berlina saw something off to the side of the trail. She stopped and signaled the others to do likewise. Dismounting, she went over to two horses tethered a little way back in the bushes. “Must belong to those two robbers we just took care of.” She went through the horses' saddlebags, confiscating anything she felt to be of value. Remounting, she said, “Let's go. I'm going to be generous, leave them the horses as well as the saddles and bridles. They might need some of it…the one whose leg I cut will definitely need a horse…
if,
of course, they make it back to here.”

Lathan smiled and said, “Aw, yoo is such a good poisson!”

A few days later, they arrived at a small city on the near bank of a raging river that cut across the road, blocking further progress. The charred remains of a bridge were visible extending a little way out over the water. Berlina and her companions left the main road and wended their way through twisty streets. Eventually, they came to an open square in the middle of the city. There was a large fountain in the middle of the square. Scattered around it were tables, most occupied by elderly men engaged in chess, checkers, and other games. There were also benches with people sitting and talking, and a few reading.

“Hail thee,” said Berlina, walking up to several men who didn't look too busy. “I hight Bejanna, and we are on a quest to the eastern mountains. What happened to the bridge? How does one now cross the river?”

“Hail, Bejanna, and welcome to our fair city of River Crossing,” said one of the men, a tall and heavyset man with blonde hair. “Although it is not so easy to cross now as it has been. Four strangers destroyed the bridge that gave our town its name. There was a nobleman and two guards, but it was the fourth man, a sorcerer, who did the foul deed. He burned the bridge with magic flames. We treated them with the courtesy due a noble and his party, guesting them three days. On the fourth morning, they crossed the bridge. Just on the other side, they did their evil work before continuing down the road on their horses until they were out of sight. That was a few days, less than a week, ago”

A small, dark-haired man spoke up. “There is now no way to cross the river. It is very swift and very rocky. A boat or raft would be battered and destroyed. One man tried and died. The High Mayor is talking about sending a party to go upriver until they can get across somehow, and then come down river on the other side. With men on both sides, archers could shoot lines across and build a rope bridge. Unfortunately, there is much arguing, and it may be months before they actually do something. Politicians!” He spat on the ground.

Berlina nodded and asked, “Can you tell me more about this nobleman? We are hunting for a renegade prince, and it sounds like this might be him. What silks was he wearing?”

“Maroon and orange, ma'am. Definitely maroon and orange, and ugly as sin.”

“Good, good. It was indeed the renegade noble we are hunting. Now, this idea of going upriver and crossing, how does your High Mayor plan to have that done?”

“Chop down a tree or two, I believe,” said the blonde man. “If you go far enough upriver, the stream gets narrow, with steep cliffs on either side and tall trees growing atop the cliffs. The High Mayor is sure there can be found a tree which can be chopped down to span the stream.”

“This is interesting,” said Berlina. “We thank you for your information.” She paused for a moment. “By the way, I notice a number of people here reading books. Is that not uncommon? I thought only a very few knew how to read.”

“It may be so elsewhere, but here, we take pride in learning. All children must attend school, and learn to read and write. Of course, for some it is a chore, and they do it as little as they can. On the other hand, there are those who make it a lifetime habit, as you can see just looking around you.”

“Where do they get the books?”

All of the men laughed, and the dark-haired man said, “From the bookstore, of course, where else?”

“Now, however, we may have a problem,” said the blonde man. “The bookstore got most of its new books from somewhere far off to the east. With the bridge out, who knows when we'll get any more new books? The High Mayor is trying to organize some kind of book sharing plan, a ‘Liberry' I think he calls it. Never work, I say. Those who have books are going to hang on to them with all their might.”

“Thank you for all the information, and have a nice day,” said Berlina. She signaled to her companions, and they walked off. When they were out of earshot, she muttered, “I wonder where that bookstore is?”

“Bee, do we really have time to fool around looking in a bookstore?” asked Felistia.

“Don't worry, Fee. Just a few minutes to see if they have anything I haven't read…just a few minutes, I promise.”

“Hah! That's what you always say. I've never been able to drag you out of a bookseller's place in less than two hours, but you're the boss.”

Berlina looked at her friend, then said, “All right, all right. I'll give the books a pass. Let's go find what we really need.” They headed down the street. As they walked, Berlina said, “I suspected, from what those robbers the other night said, that Drailsen and Zatarra were ahead of us and heading the same direction. Now, we can be sure that it's them. They must have gotten a head start while we were still walking, before we got horses.”

“What are we going to do about them?” asked Felistia.

“I'm not sure. It depends on whether we catch up with them, and whether there are just four of them as the man in town said. They may have more guards, more warriors, hiding around here somewhere, or out in front of them. We'll just have to play it by ear.” She turned to Lathan and asked, “Are you any good with an axe? Chopping down trees?”

“Oh, yeah. Choppin' down trees is easy, easier nor choppin' heads off villains.”

“You have an idea?” asked Felistia.

“If we had to wait for this High Mayor to get off his ass and do something about a new bridge, we'd be here forever. I hope we can do for ourselves what he plans…if he ever gets to it.”

She looked around, finally spotting an ironmonger's shop whose display showed a number of large, heavy axes. She led Lathan over and said, “Pick out the axe, no, two axes that will be the best for you for chopping trees. And an adz, we may need it for smoothing the wood.”

“Uh, two axes?”

“Yes, suppose one broke. It would be a long way to come back. We need to have a spare.”

Lathan got off the horse and began trying the axes, slamming them into a large chopping block obviously put there for just that purpose. Finally, he turned to Berlina and said, “Uh, dese two axes and dis adz.”

The iron monger, who had been watching, came up to Berlina and stated his price. She replied with a much lower offer, and for the next five minutes, they haggled back and forth. They finally reached an agreement, and Berlina paid while Lathan tied the tools to the back of his horse.

They headed out of the city, along the small road that led upriver along the bank. When they were far enough from the city, Lathan asked, “How come you paid fer the axes and din't steal em like all the other stuff we din't pay fer?”

“Too many people around, too much danger of being caught. Sometimes, it's safer to be honest. Besides, we had a lot of extra money from those two robbers who tried to steal from us a few nights ago.”

Lathan looked more puzzled than usual over these fine distinctions, while Felistia tried to suppress a laugh.

* * * *

A day later, they reached a spot where the river was almost hidden in a deep, narrow trench, and gigantic trees stood atop the high banks on either side. Berlina spent quite a bit of time figuring angles and distances. Then, she picked a tree. She told Lathan to chop it down, carefully indicating where she wanted it to fall. The tree was large and even Lathan needed several hours to fell it. It took him several hours more to smooth one side of the trunk into a surface they and the horses could walk on.

Once they had their bridge, Berlina used a variation of the
Hypnos
spell on the horses, eliminating their fear of falling and enabling them to keep their balance while being led across. When all three horses had made it to the other side, Lathan followed. They mounted and headed downstream.

Berlina led them away from the river several miles before they got to the road. “Why are we cutting away from the river so far up?” asked Felistia.

“If they see us come out on the road, they'll want us to help with their rope bridge,” answered Berlina. “If I can't afford the time to spend in a bookstore, I certainly don't want to waste our time doing that.” Felistia blushed a little at the barb.

When they did finally get to the road, several bends ensured that they were out of sight of the city.