Wrath of the Blue Lady (17 page)

“Serving is a task that should be respected. Not just anyone can do it.”

“Obviously the ability to carry a tureen of sauce separates those who can from those who can’t.”

Shang-Li shook his other fighting stick into his hand and continued to the tavern.

Bloody madness reigned inside the Edge. Men howled in anger and yowled in fear as blows bruised flesh and broke bones. So far, bloodshed was kept to a minimum and there didn’t appear to be any corpses among the bodies that littered the floor, but Shang-Li knew that was only because the wolves among the weasels chose not to kill.

The attackers employed their weapons enthusiastically, but to little avail. It was obvious, even in the cramped quarters and vastly outnumbered, that the sailors and mercenaries didn’t have the necessary skills to bring down the two warriors standing back to back in the center of the room.

The tiefling, born with thick horns that jutted above his temples, moved with the grace of a dancer. With his dark reddish complexion and

reddish armor that echoed the color of blood, he looked like he’d just crawled up from the pits of some Hell. His eyes glowed like fire rubies under the thick ridge of bone that covered his broad forehead. In spite of the devilish cast to his features, he looked young and strangely innocent, even more so with the joy evident on his face and the sparse clump of whiskers at his chin. His shoulder-length dark brown hair swirled madly around him as he moved.

His jagged sword cut the air with authority as he slashed two blades from his throat. He thumped his buckler into the face of another attacker and sent the man reeling backward with a broken and bloody nose.

With a lithe movement, the tiefling shifted and managed to lay the flat of his blade against a mercenary’s skull and knock the man out. The move also swept the tiefling’s long tail into the ankles of the man behind him. When that man hit the floor, the warrior kicked the man in the head and rendered him unconscious.

“Well met, Shang-Li,” the tiefling yelled, grinning the whole time. His blade swept away the weapons of two more challengers.

“Hail and well met, Iados,” Shang-Li replied.

“Are you just going to stand there?” Iados leaped to a tabletop and dropped on a knot of men trying to mob his companion. He promptly got pulled down into the middle of the men. “You’d best hurry if you want to join in. This fight won’t last much longer. Our opponents are already giving ground.”

“If I don’t fight, I don’t have to settle the tavern bill afterward.” Shang-Li stood to one side of the room.

The tavernkeeper, a big-bellied man with his hair pulled back in a ponytail, stood behind the bar and looked irritated. Two serving girls cowered and cheered on the combatants at the same time. “And you’d better have the coins to pay for this, Iados.”

With a triumphant roar, Iados emerged in the middle of

his opponents and lashed out with his tail, fists, and feet. Sailors and mercenaries flew backward.

“Consider it a present,” Iados proclaimed. “Your tables and chairs have gotten worn, Lukkob You should think on this as a much needed blessing.”

“Only if you can pay for what you break.” Lukkob reached out with amazing speed and caught a metal tankard speeding toward him. The serving girls cheered again.

“What was the problem this time?” Shang-Li asked.

Kwan Yung stood nearby and dodged the occasional impromptu missile. His face held no expression, but his hazel eyes followed every movement.

“They insulted our serving girl.” Iados placed his empty hand on the head of an opponent and vaulted over. As he landed, he whipped his tail out, caught the man in the back of the skull before he could turn, and knocked him flat.

“Me!” one of the young women standing at Lukkob’s side said in a prideful way and clapped her hands enthusiastically. “They insulted me.” She put her cupped hands to her mouth. “You malodorous swine!”

“When Thava took umbrage with them—” Iados began.

“Honor cried out for vengeance,” Thava rumbled in her deep voice. “I only answered to serve my god.”

She stood half a head taller than any of her attackers. Ocher scales trimmed in dulled gold covered her thickly muscled body. Her face was low-browed and wide, with golden eyes on either side of her snout. Her mouth was a curved beak that looked capable of snapping a man’s hand off without trouble. Darker ocher scales surrounded her neck and coils of scales slightly darker than her body scales formed horn-like structures that curled over her broad shoulders like human hair.

“—the sailors mistakenly thought Thava was fair game as well,” Iados finished. “To complicate matters even worse, they didn’t know Thava was female. She felt horribly insulted.”

“How could anyone not know I was female?” Thava roared

again as she flailed about with the flat of her bastard sword. Despite the possibility that the casual observer might miss the fact that Thava was female, there was no missing the actuality that her heritage had dragon mixed into it at some point. She opened her mouth and roared in the face of one sailor, who promptly fainted on the spot.

Shang-Li grinned. He’d missed the two fiercely these past months.

Iados tossed a man forward, narrowly missing Kwan Yung. The sailor tried to stop himself from sliding across the floor and finally succeeded amid a clatter of chairs. He took a fresh grip on his sword and pushed himself back up, roaring with rage.

Kwan Yung reached over to place a hand briefly on the back of the man’s neck and head. The sailor grinned suddenly, then dropped in a boneless heap. Noticing that Shang-Li had seen him perform the action, his father lifted an imperious eyebrow and looked away.

“Are you seriously not going to help?” Iados demanded. He slammed his buckler into the stomach of another man, then whirled, braced himself on his tail, and lashed out with a flying kick that knocked an opponent through the front window.

“If I do, who’s going to bail you out when the watch comes to arrest you?” Shang-Li asked.

“Surely the watch will be understanding,” Thava said. “This was a matter of honor.” She lashed out with a big hand and punched a man in the face.

The man went out like a candle flame in a wind and rolled up against the wall.

“The watch doesn’t understand honor nearly as much as you want them to,” Shang-Li said. “Now fines and punishment? They’re very clear about those things.”

Lukkob, the tavernkeeper, placed a tankard of hot tea in front of Shang-Li. “It’s good to see you, Shang-Li. It’s been a long time.”

“It has.”

Lukkob looked at Kwan Yung. “Would you like anything, master?”

“Master?” Kwan Yung stroked his beard and smiled in obvious delight.

“I have spent some time in a Shou monastery,” Lukkob said.

“To learn to fight, I suppose.”

“To learn to read. My father was very adamant about my life taking a different turn than his had. Reading was important to him, and it is to me.”

“Ah. So you listen to your father?” Kwan Yung shot a disdainful glance at Shang-Li.

“I did,” Lukkob agreed. “He’s gone from me now, but I knew him to be a very wise man.”

“It is so refreshing to hear a son praise his father,” Kwan Yung said. His elbow dug sharply into Shang-Li’s back as he bellied up to the bar. “Did you hear what he said?”

“Yes.” Shang-Li moved away and blocked a thrown chair with one of the fighting sticks. “He offered you tea.”

“Is it good tea?” Shang-Li heard his father sniff the tea he’d been given.

“Very good tea,” Lukkob replied. “A special blend that I have shipped in. You won’t find better tea in Westgate.”

“Then yes, please.”

The fight ended quickly. Near the end, with the grunts sounding winded and the blows coming with less enthusiasm, the watch arrived in their burgundy jackets and chainmail shirts. By that time, the mercenaries and sailors had realized they were totally outmatched and had started to flee.

The watch captured many of them before they could get away. Either they would be ransomed back to their ships or places of business by the watch, or they would be put to work for a time building new dock improvements in the city. Either way, their imprisonment wouldn’t be wasted.

“Who started this?” a watch sergeant demanded. She had fair hair and a good figure that the chainmail didn’t quite disguise. Attractive and self-assured, she commanded instant respect.

“Not us,” Iados blustered. “We were beset by these ruffians—”

“We started the actual fighting,” Thava said.

Iados rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. Then he glared at Thava. “Must you persist in always putting the noose about our neck?”

Shang-Li smiled. Thava never lied, not even by omission, much to Iados’s chagrin. The paladin’s sense of honor had gotten them into bad situations before because her view was so black and white.

“I like her,” his father whispered. She’s very truthful.”

“The two of you?” the watch sergeant said in obvious disbelief. “You decided to take on a whole tavern full of mercenaries and sailors?”

“No. But some of these men made disparaging comments,” Thava replied.

“To you?” The watch commander said that with some disbelief. “They must have been deep into their cups.”

“To our server.”

The watch sergeant blinked. “They made disparaging comments to your server?”

“Me,” the serving wench sang out happily and waved her arms for attention as if she’d just won a prize. “They disparaged me.”

The watch sergeant shot the server an irritated glance. Then she glanced at Lukkob, who only shrugged and smiled. She looked back at Thava. “I don’t suppose it occurred to you to simply ignore those comments?”

Thava drew herself upright and looked almost offended. “No. It did not. Her honor was at stake. As was mine. I live for honor. It is as necessary to me as the air that I breathe.”

“Gods save me from paladins.” Cursing beneath her

breath, the watch sergeant turned to Lukkob. “You’ve got someone to pay for this mess?”

Lukkob pointed at Iados and Thava. “Them.”

She turned back to the paladin and warrior. “You agree to this?”

“Of course,” Thava said. “This is an honorable debt. I could do no less.”

“You know,” Iados said, “since we’re traveling together, you might at least ask my consent before you speak for my purse.”

“Then
will pay the debt,” Thava said.p>

“No you won’t,” Iados growled. “You haven’t enough coins for all this mess. You keep giving your coins away to churches and paupers.”

“Some of us follow a higher calling.”

“Some of us like to eat regularly and sleep in dry places.”

“Then I assume all the debt and you won’t have to pay a single copper.” Thava folded her massive arms as she turned once more to the watch sergeant. “I will gladly work off the debt.”

The watch sergeant took in the dragonborn’s armor with a pained look. “You’re a paladin. I can’t have a paladin working on a jail crew. There will be arguments and fights every day. The churches will protest. Gods, the headaches alone from that will be too much to bear.”

“You can’t refuse my offer,” Thava said. “I have assumed the debt, and I must pay it. I will insist”

Several members of the watch stepped back.

“I really do like her,” Kwan Yung whispered.

Iados cursed and lifted a purse heavy with coins from the inside of his shirt. Til pay for the damages.”

Thava smiled and clapped the tiefling on the shoulder hard enough to jar him to his boot soles. “My companion and I will settle the bill.”

“I don’t see you reaching into your purse,” Iados said.

“I tipped our server for her troubles.”

“So you have nothing?” Iados sounded as though he couldn’t believe it.

“No. Wealth is an unwelcome burden, Iados. I keep telling you that.”

“7 gladly welcome it.”

The watch sergeant, obviously sensing another argument brewing, ordered, “Settle the matter.” She turned her attention to Lukkob. “Do you have a sum in mind?”

“I do.” Lukkob named it and looked apologetically at Iados. “It is a fair price.”

Looking at all the damage, Shang-Li had to agree. He tucked his fighting sticks back up his sleeves.

Grudgingly, Iados counted out gold and silver coins and spread them across the bar. His purse was considerably lighter when he returned it to his shirt. Lukkob scooped up the coins and made them disappear.

“Thank you, Iados,” Thava said happily.

“You’re going to make paupers of us both,” Iados complained.

“But you’ll have lived with honor,” the paladin said. “And honor is its own reward.”

“Honor doesn’t pay the tavern bill or for lodging.” Iados looked gloomy.

“Bahamut always provides.”

“Truly? I find your god provides from my purse quite often when it comes to your service.”

“Don’t blaspheme or question Bahamut. He accepts your faults and you should be grateful for the tasks he gives you.”

The watch sergeant gave the command to her men to take their prisoners from the tavern. Outside, a crowd had gathered to watch now that the violence had come to a halt. A few even dared to come in and have a look around. Lukkob immediately informed them there was a charge for gawking. Some of them still stayed and chose to pay the price.

Thava crossed to Shang-Li and grabbed him in a bear hug that crushed the air from his lungs. “It’s good to see you again, my friend.”

Shang-Li patted her on the back, then took a deep breath when she finally released him. “I’ve missed you as well.”

“You’ll have to tell me of your adventures.” Thava smiled, but a dragonborn’s features never

looked entirely devoid of threat. “I’m certain you have plenty to tell.” She reached over and casually righted a table with one massive hand. “We can sit here.”

Kwan Yung cleared his throat, managing to sound like as obnoxious as a strangling goose.

“Thava,” Shang-Li said, “may I present my father, Master Kwan Yung of the Standing Tree Monastery. Father, this is Thava, a paladin.”

Thava’s iridescent eyes focused on Kwan Yung. “This is your father?”