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Chapter 4: Torhafn by Night
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By the
time she left the Silver Mermaid it was considerably later than Tevi had intended
and, as her feet stumbled on the uneven cobbles, she realised she had drunk
a little more than was wise. Not that she had any serious fears; dressed in
the common clothes of the islands, soiled by work in the market, she hardly
presented the appearance to attract the attention of the professional thief
and, even in her present, slightly tipsy state, Tevi felt she could cope with
the amateur opportunist.
Night had long since fallen
and most doors were locked and shuttered. However the narrow, rubbish filled
streets surrounding the docks were not deserted. Surly individuals posed aggressively
at intersections, their faces lost in deep shadow. Drunken gangs of youths whispered
among themselves in the light of the occasional torch, their voices breaking
into shouts as they spotted friends or rivals. One fight broke out as Tevi passed
through an open courtyard, but no one attempted to waylay her.
Derag was right to say she was
acquiring a name in Torhafn. She had been quite pleased about it; it meant,
as a result, that trouble generally left her alone. However, as that night's
challenge had shown, notoriety could also attract attention. So far, her reputation
had not gone beyond the circle of quay and market but, if the bosses atop the
hills got to hear of her, there might well be attempts at recruitment, or elimination.
It was a possibility for the future she had to consider. In the meantime, for
the benefit of anyone watching with robbery in mind, she straightened her shoulders
and walked purposefully through the darkened town, back to her boat, moored
on the east wharf with the houseboats and the poorest fishing craft.
The east wharf was one of the
more depressing parts, of a generally depressing town. The poverty, both material
and spiritual, was sharply visible. Few of the craft were sea-worthy. Many were
little more than lashed together rafts, the occupants of which lived in flimsy
shacks tacked precariously on the deck. The area swarmed with rats and other
vermin, some of it two legged. Rubbish and filth floated in what little scum-covered
water could be seen between the jostling boats. Everywhere there were wide-eyed
children, ragged and hungry.
The inhabitants of the wharf
formed a tightly knit community, spending the whole day in and out of each other's
boats. Tevi had given up trying to make sense of their family structure, deciding
that it was either non-existent, or so complex and interwoven as to be incomprehensible
to the outsider. Throughout the day, the air would be filled with shouts. The
people seemed to need to conduct their lives at high volume to compensate for
the other deficiencies.
At night Tevi would lie in the
bottom of her boat, listening to the sound of cold water slopping against the
hull, the creaking of timbers and the dull knock of wood on wood as boats rolled
together. The only human sound would be that of a baby crying or the distant
shrieking of a couple, raising their voices in domestic strife. She desperately
wished she was somewhere else, but had no idea where to find anything better.
In Torhafn, she had a mooring and an income, for the summer at least. Perhaps
autumn would be a good time to leave the town - if she could stand it that long.
Tevi paused for a moment and looked back along the squalid, filthy street -
there was little she would miss about the town when she left.
Eventually she emerged from
the smothering crush of houses into the comparative open of the dockside. The
usual assortment of people was visible, moving to and fro between the pools
of light given off by oil-soaked torches. There were guards patrolling the warehouses,
vagrants curled in dark corners, a few sailors coming back from the town and
whores trying to attract their attention as they passed. Further down the quay
dockers were loading a ship, working into the night so the vessel would be ready
to depart on the dawn tide.
Tevi passed a lamp that smoked
and guttered in the offshore wind. She stood on the pockmarked flagstones and
breathed in deeply. The rising moon reflected off the water on the horizon.
Closer in, bands of surf showed luminous white in the moonlight. The sound of
the waves was gentle, calming, and somehow honest. Tevi reached a sudden decision
- tomorrow she would give the market a miss and take her boat out fishing. In
the freedom of the ocean, perhaps she could find both fresh air and peace.
The renewed bounce in her step
carried Tevi swiftly along the dockside. She jumped over a coiled rope on the
wharf and rounded the last warehouse. Her boat's mooring was less than twenty
yards further along the quay, although the craft itself was lost from sight
between the larger houseboats. For once, the east wharf was peaceful - quiet
enough that her ears could pick up the desperate sobbing from the depths of
a nearby stack of rubbish. The sound of crying was not uncommon on the quay.
Tevi almost ignored it, and intended only the briefest glance in passing. She
had no wish to be drawn into one of the petty feuds between the inhabitants
of the houseboats.
The source of the noise was
a young child of ten or so, huddled between two broken crates, head sunk on
knees. The pitiful misery of the sight brought Tevi to a halt. Common-sense
and all of Aigur's advice told her to keep on walking, but that night her sense
of caution was dulled by the beer.
She went over to the child and
knelt down, "It's not that bad, surely?"
A tear-streaked face was raised
to hers. The first thing she realised was that the boy was not from the boats
- he was too clean, too well fed. He gulped for air but "Lost." was
all he could manage to say.
"And how did you get lost?"
Tevi asked gently.
"Don't know." The
downturn of his eyes gave rise to a strong suspicion that this was not the entire
truth.
Tevi sat back on her heels and
considered the boy. The inhabitants of Torhafn were always ready to leap to
the worst conclusions and mistrust was second nature to the townsfolk. Tevi
knew she could expect few thanks and even a charge of kidnapping if she were
found with the child, yet her thoughts drew her back to the islands, where everyone
was known and recognised. A stray boy would have been quickly taken back to
his family hall. Tears came to her eyes as she wished she could be a child again
- that somebody would come and take her home, back to Storenseg.
Tevi turned her face to stare
inland. The dark, menacing bulk of the town spread out before her, full of locked
doors and strangers. She looked up and down the length of the wharf, and then
took a deep breath and stood.
She held out her hand to the boy saying, "Come on. Let's go and find your
parents."
* * * * * *
All along the eastern wharf decayed,
ramshackle jetties projected over the polluted water, spaced at irregular intervals.
The jetties were joined by lashed together catwalks that formed a web of pathways
between the decrepit assortment of craft. The rough-cut planks were covered with
a film of green algae that made the surface difficult to walk on by day and treacherous
by night. Tevi's own small boat was moored on the sea-ward side of the swaying
mass, a dozen yards from the quay, and hidden from sight between two semi-derelict
river barges that now each housed several families of dock workers.
After instructing the boy to wait
on the dockside Tevi cautiously sidled out along the rotten timbers. The jetty
swayed beneath her feet, as the larger boats were pulled by the surge of the waves.
It drew tortured creaks and groans from the piles driven into the seabed. Tevi
reached the point by where her boat was tethered. The tide was out and her boat
was rocking gently several feet below the level of the jetty. She gripped hold
of the mooring rope in one hand then swung out over the edge and dropped down
into the open end of the hull.
The boat was now her home. The
mast had been lowered and a waterproof tarpaulin sheet was draped over it as a
roof, protecting the rear two thirds of the boat from the elements. There was
just enough space to crawl under the canvas, but it was snug, clean and adequate
for her needs, particularly when judged by the standards of her neighbours.
Deep at the rear was a heap of
blankets and a few spare clothes under which Tevi hid her weapons. As she scrabbled
beneath them her hand closed around the scabbard of her sword. She hesitated.
Aigur had given many lurid warnings about the dangers of roaming Torhafn by night.
It was tempting to take the sword, yet it would be wiser to avoid confrontation.
A visible weapon might attract more attention than it deterred. Surely the street
gangs would not expect to make much profit from an unarmed labourer and a young
boy?
There were other considerations.
Tevi peered out from under the tarpaulin. Through the piles of the jetty, she
could see the dark hulking shapes of other boats. A few silhouettes were moving
against the night sky. In what little honour they showed, the residents of the
wharf did not steal from each other, but Tevi placed no trust in this honesty.
She suspected the custom owed more to the fact that the boat people owned nothing
worth stealing. Since she was alone and could not guard her boat by day, she avoided
displaying the few valuables she possessed. After a few more seconds of deliberation
she returned the sword to its hiding place under the blankets. Instead Tevi took
a long knife, which she slipped inside her jerkin, out of sight.
She rejoined the boy on the dockside
and the pair of them walked back along the quay, leaving tightly packed houseboats
behind. To their left the black ocean stretched out into the night. The cold wind
carried the sound of unseen waves crashing in the darkness against the crumbling
harbour wall. They passed two figures arguing furtively in a doorway and another
staring bleakly out to sea. There were few other people about.
When they turned the corner onto
the western wharf, there was a scrum of activity beside the berth of a sea-going
merchant vessel, where relays of dockers were noisily manhandling bales and crates
up gangplanks and into the ship's hold. Another small band stood not far away,
awaiting fresh instructions while warming themselves around a crackling fire and
shouting humorous but impractical advice to their fellows. The flames snapped
and flared, sending a stream of sparks up into the night sky. Hunched at one side
of the fire an old woman was stirring a large pot of stew. She was filthy, wrapped
in layers of rags that fluttered in the wind, but the smell of the food was tempting.
Tevi stopped at the woman's side. Before going any further, it might be wise to
soak up the beer she had drunk.
"Is the stew for sale?"
Tevi asked.
"It's for the loaders...
counts as part of their pay." The old woman looked briefly at Tevi, before
turning her head to scan the dockside. Her voice dropped slightly. "Why?
Did you want to buy some?"
"That would be nice."
"Well, as a favour I can
let you have a couple of portions for a tin half." the woman said.
"I don't want you to get
into trouble."
"I made the stew. I can sell
it, but don't let everyone see. I don't want the whole dockside bothering me."
Tevi smiled and passed over the
coin without comment. With the two bowls in her hands, she nonchalantly strolled
to a spot behind a large mound of cargo, obscured from the view of anyone aboard
ship. Of course the woman was planning on pocketing the money and the term whole
dockside referred specifically to the work overseers, who would be angry if
they knew - not at the theft of their employer's property, but that they did not
get their cut of the profit. It was the way things worked in Torhafn.
Safely out of view, Tevi and
the boy sat down on an empty crate and sipped the hot stew, using crusts of stale
bread as scoops. The stew was highly spiced - probably to disguise its contents.
Despite this, the food was welcome and its warmth offset the night's chill. The
boy's spirits had improved considerably, bolstered by the upturn in his fortune.
While he ate, he looked about with interest, obviously deciding to make the most
of the adventure. His eyes finally fixed on Tevi.
"I know you. You're the strong
porter from the market who unloaded our wagons. My name's Derrion, but everyone
calls me Derry." he said happily.
"And everyone calls me Tevi."
"Is that really your full
name?"
"More or less." Her
birth name was something Tevi was quite happy to have left behind on Storenseg.
In the light of the fire, Tevi
now also recognised the boy from the market, despite the dirt and the streaked
lines of tears that now adorned his face. His parents had been wealthy foreign
traders and, to judge from the extra payment, more generous than the local townsfolk.
They might even be grateful for the return of their son.
"Do you have any idea where
your mother and father might be?" Tevi asked.
"Probably at the inn."
Derry said after a pause for thought.
"Which inn? Can you remember
its name?"
The boy considered the question
gravely. "No." After a moment's thought, he added brightly, "There
was a sign hanging outside though."
"And what was on the sign?"
"It was a barrel."
"I think you'll find every
inn in Torhafn has a barrel outside as its symbol." Tevi said dryly.
"Really?"
"Yes." Tevi said with
a deep sigh. The question and answer session could take ages.
Derry took a mouthful of stew
and grinned cheerfully. "I'm not being much help, am I?"
Tevi tried a different approach.
"After leaving the market, did you cross over the river?"
"Yes. And we climbed up the
hill beyond, but not quite to the top." Derry said.
This was only as Tevi expected.
The west side of the river Tor was the richer part of town, where the better class
of inn was found, with views overlooking the bay. It was the place one would expect
wealthy traders to stay, but at least the confirmation of her guess gave her somewhere
to start the search.
"Do you think you'd recognise
the front of the inn if you saw it again?" Tevi asked.
"Probably."
"Well then, if you've finished
your stew, we might as well be off."
But, instead of moving, Derry
became unaccountably dejected. "Do you think mama and papa will be angry
with me?" he mumbled.
"You know your parents better
than me."
"I'm going to be in big trouble."
His voice was glum.
Tevi was about to assure him that
no one would be too hard on a boy, but stopped. Maybe, on the mainland, a boy
might be treated no more gently than a girl. Her face softened and she tussled
his hair. "Even if they are angry, you can't stay here forever." Tevi
said sympathetically, reaching out for his hand. "Come on, let's go."
After returning the empty bowls,
Tevi led the way into the maze of houses behind the docks. The sinking moon lit
the wider roads but did not penetrate the small alleys running between silent
houses. There were fewer street gangs than earlier in the evening, although they
were more blatantly ill-willed. They watched the pair pass with hostile eyes,
but made no move to intercept them. Voices were raised in angry shouts a few streets
away, then abruptly a scream cut above the sounds of fighting. Tevi was glad their
route did not lead in the direction of the brawl.
The market place was now deserted
as they skirted its edge on their way to the main bridge over the river. The shop-fronts
and warehouses were blank and lightless. Even the gangs seemed to have melted
into the darkness, leaving only a threatening silence. Derry was jittery and ill
at ease. Tevi put her arm around the boy's shoulder.
"It will be better once we
cross over the bridge." she said, trying to encourage him.
However, they did not get that
far. The narrow passageway from the market opened out onto a riverside wharf for
unloading barges. The open expanse of cobbles was about 10 yards wide and five
times as long. The moon lit the side nearest the water's edge, but the shadows
of warehouses covered the other side in thick darkness.
Derry suddenly grabbed her arm
and pointed. "There they are." Despite his excitement, the oppressive,
darkened town had affected him and his voice was barely a whisper.
Tevi followed the direction of
Derry's outstretched arm and saw his parents at the far end of the wharf, near
to the water's edge. That was not all she saw. The well cut clothes and obvious
wealth of Derry's parents had not gone unnoticed. Silently emerging from a dark
passage, half way down the wharf, were two stocky figures. The thugs crept furtively
through the thick shadows, cudgels in hand. Tevi propelled the boy into a darkened
doorway. "Stay here and don't make a sound." she whispered. Derry stared
back at her with wide-open eyes, but said nothing.
The hilt of her knife felt reassuring
as Tevi pulled it from her jerkin and slipped it into her belt. Then she too began
to edge around the side of the yard, keeping to the shadows.
The two traders were deep in conversation
and completely unaware of the danger when a third figure stepped into the moonlight.
"Well, well, well. What
have we here?" A light, woman's voice delivered the mocking cliché
with real menace.
The words jolted Derry's parents.
They looked up startled and then nervously backed away - unknowingly retreating
straight towards the other two thugs. At first, the other footpad stood her ground,
hands on hips in jaunty belligerence, then she raised a hand and snapped her fingers.
At the signal, the two accomplices stepped from the shadows, menacingly swinging
their cudgels. The sound of footsteps behind them rooted the pair of traders to
the ground, as they realised they were trapped. The leader of the gang began a
slow advance towards her victims, clearly enjoying the game.
"Now why don't you behave
yourselves, and hand over all your money, and anything else that you think I might
like?"
The thieves' attention was fixed
on the traders. No one noticed Tevi's stealthy approach. As the leader of the
gang got to within a few feet of Derry's parents Tevi made her move, leaping forward.
The nearest thug was hoisted into the air and literally hurled against the other,
sending the pair of them smashing into a brick wall with a bone-breaking crack.
The two collapsed to the ground in a mound of arms and legs.
Tevi did not bother to wait and
see if the thugs would offer further resistance. Hopefully, Derry's parents would
have the presence of mind to claim the dropped cudgels for themselves. She turned
and charged past the traders, bearing down on the third thief, only to be confronted
by a drawn sword.
The years of training took over.
Even before Tevi realised, her knife was in her hand and outstretched before her.
She dropped to a defensive stance and met the gang leader's angry eyes. The pair
of them glared at each other for long seconds.
Tevi broke the silence, saying
steadily, "Why don't you go and find someone else to play with?"
"Why don't you get out of
my way?" For the first time the woman sounded rattled, upset by the unexpected
interruption, however she was clearly not ready to back down. Slowly the two adversaries
began to circle, each watching for an opening.
In icy calm Tevi reviewed Blaze's
advice on how to fight when your weapon was outmatched, "Let your opponent
make the moves. She'll be over-confident. She'll let her guard slip. Take no risks.
Watch what she does. Wait for the mistake." It was the style of combat
in which Tevi knew she was at her worst. The memory of countless defeats on the
practice field assailed her, but this time her life was at stake.
The footpad's sword flicked out
in a few feints to test Tevi's defence. They were amateurish efforts, easily blocked,
and the sureness of Tevi's response drew a frown from her opponent. It was clear
that Tevi was not an untrained novice, making free with someone's kitchen utensils.
For her part Tevi was surprised at how easy it was. It was as if she could hear
Blaze's voice, offering advice.
"She's going for your
throat!" Blaze screamed in Tevi's ear, even as the woman made a more
ambitious high thrust. In automatic reflex Tevi ducked and knocked the blade aside.
She swung across sharply in riposte with her knife, and was rewarded by feeling
the point make contact. The footpad gasped and lurched a few steps backwards.
They both knew it was no more than a flesh wound, but the woman was unnerved and
her eyes flicked anxiously around the square.
The traders were frozen in paralysis.
The cudgels still lay where they had fallen. Fortunately, the two thugs were in
no condition to make use of them. They had barely recovered enough to clamber
to their feet, one moaning, the other hanging onto the wall. At last, this sight
provoked a reaction the traders. They began to shout loudly.
"Help! Watch!"
"Call the watch!"
Tevi grimaced. Like all Torhafn
residents she knew the town watch were very unlikely to come to anyone's aid,
unless by chance some members of the Protectorate guild were on patrol. However
the sound further alarmed her opponent.
"Shut them up." the
gang leader snapped to her accomplices. However, another quick glance showed that
she could expect no support from them. One appeared to have a broken arm. The
other, with a blood smeared face, was still braced against the wall for support.
The leader's bravado had almost completely gone, when the new sound of running
feet reverberated around the walls.
The circling action had taken
Tevi and her opponent through 180 degrees. Over the footpad's shoulder, Tevi could
see that the approaching footsteps, amplified by the echo, belonged to Derry.
He was running down the wharf, wildly swinging a wooden stake he had found. Fortunately,
the thief did not stay to investigate the nature of the arriving reinforcement.
She jabbed her sword forward again. Tevi parried easily, but the action forced
her to step to one side as she did so. This was what the gang leader had intended,
clearing her escape route. After one last wild swing of her sword she rushed past
Tevi. Her figure disappeared down the same dark alley she had originally emerged
from.
With the leader gone, Tevi turned
to the two thugs. She gestured with her knife in their general direction. "You
can clear off as well."
No second bidding was needed.
The pair hobbled in pursuit of the first thief with whatever speed they could
manage. The sound of their uneven footsteps faded away.
Tevi's gaze was caught by the
dark smearing of blood on the tip of her knife. She looked at it thoughtfully,
before wiping the blade clean on her leggings. Over by the water's edge Marith
had caught hold of Derry and was simultaneously hugging him while wresting the
wooden stake from his hand. Verron's face was pale in the moonlight and beaded
with sweat on his upper lip, but a relieved smile was starting to spread over
his features.
Tevi slipped her knife into her
belt and walked towards him. Suddenly, into her head came Blaze's voice, hammering
out one of her favourite lessons, "No matter how defeated she seems, never,
never, never turn your back on an enemy."
Tevi spun toward the entrance
of the alleyway, turning just in time to see a dark figure swinging its arm down
in an arc. Without time to think Tevi pitched backward, aiming her dive to collide
with Verron and knock him down. Before they had even hit the paving the thrown
knife flew overhead, passing harmlessly through the space Verron had just been
occupying. The knife's trajectory carried it far across the wharf before it fell
to the ground and skittered across the cobbles. Tevi pushed up onto her feet at
the end of the rolling dive, in a fast fluid motion. However, even before she
was upright, the figure was gone.
Tevi took a long step back to
steady herself, only to feel her heel hit a mooring ring anchored into the flagstones
beside the water. There was the sudden knowledge that the diving roll had taken
her a lot closer to the river than she had realised. The mooring ring wedged between
sandal and foot, twisting her ankle. Her arms flailed out in a desperate bid for
balance, but there was no longer paving beneath her second foot as it came down.
Helplessly, Tevi tumbled backwards into the river.
The traders rushed to the embankment
and a line was thrown to help Tevi climb back onto the quay, where she knelt,
wiping water from her eyes and trying desperately hard not to think about how
filthy the river looked in daylight. In response to the barrage of concerned questioning
she simply shook her head ruefully. It was exactly the sort of ending she knew
her mother would have predicted for her first serious duel.
* * * * * *
The lodgings the traders had taken
were small but very comfortable, easily the most luxurious place Tevi had ever
seen in her life. She stretched out her feet towards the fire and sunk back into
the cushions on her chair. Her eyes roamed around the room. It was currently empty
apart from herself. Her rinsed and cleanish clothes were hanging on a rack above
the chimney-breast. They appeared to be drying nicely, waving slowly in the rising
warm air. Amber firelight from the burning logs in the grate danced cheerfully
over an array of tapestries and furniture. Tevi's toes dug into the thick sheepskin
rug on the floor. It occurred to her how austere life on the islands was; even
the Queen's hall could not match the casual display of wealth about her. Yet,
she knew that, by the standards of the mainland, Verron and Marith were well off,
but not rich.
The door to the boys' bedroom
opened and Verron emerged. He sank into a chair with a sigh.
"Are they asleep?" Tevi
asked.
"Pretending to be. I think
they just wanted me to go, so they could talk." Verron replied.
"Have you sorted out how
Derry got lost?"
Verron shook his head, "I
doubt we'll ever get the full story, I don't think he's too certain how it happened
himself. I'm just so relieved to have him back safe." Contrary to fears about
his parents' anger, Derry's only ordeal had lain in being smothered by the repeated
hugs and kisses he had received.
"I guess you'll be wanting
to sleep soon as well. Once my things are dry I'll leave. You can have these back."
Tevi said, indicating the borrowed clothes she had on.
"Please, you're welcome to
keep them. They're only some old garments we had lying around. They were due to
be thrown away." Verron said, insistently.
"They may be cast-offs to
you, but if I start walking around Torhafn wearing these, I'll soon attract the
same sort of attention you did."
Tevi was not sure that she would
not attract attention anyway. By the time she had escorted the family back to
their lodgings she had been shaking from the twin effects of the cold dunking
and the ebbing adrenaline. On the other hand, the traders had regained some of
their self-assurance and insisted that she come inside. Then, they had badgered
the innkeeper into providing food, drink and a hot bath. The last of these had
been a completely new experience for Tevi. She was still trying to evaluate whether
or not she liked it. Whatever her final decision, it was certain that the effect
of the bath would make her stand out from the rest of the market workers for at
least a week.
From the corridor outside the
room Marith's voice was heard, calling to someone indistinctly, then the handle
turned and she entered, bringing with her a bottle of sweet brandy and three round
glasses.
"Is the innkeeper calm now?"
Verron asked.
"Reasonably." Marith
said, while pouring out three generous measures of the brandy.
"And you didn't pay him double
for the late meal?"
"Of course not." Marith
snorted at the idea. She distributed the drinks and sat down between the other
two.
"I could have warned him
that separating you and money is like getting a limpet off a rock." Verron
teased affectionately.
"That's not true. For example,
I'm going to try again to get Tevi to accept a reward."
Marith's indignant tone made Tevi
grin. However she still shook her head. "I don't want paying."
"But I insist." Marith
said, firmly.
"I don't particularly like
money."
The answer left Marith nonplussed
and speechless. In the resulting silence Verron asked, "We were told at the
market that the people on your home island make a potion that gives you your strength.
Do you think they might trade for it?"
"Never." Tevi had absolutely
no doubts of her answer.
"We'd pay well. You might
mention it when you return. Do you have any idea when that might be?"
"Never."
It took a second for Verron to
realise Tevi was not merely repeating her previous assertion. "But surely
your family will miss you and..."
Tevi fought to keep the expression
of pain from her face. From the way Verron's voice trailed off she knew she had
failed. The two traders discretely exchanged confused glances while Tevi concentrated
on the bottom of her glass.
After a few seconds of silence
Marith took up the conversation. "So you're planning on staying in Torhafn?"
"For the summer. Maybe I'll
move on after that."
"Then you must accept a reward,
to see you through winter, when work dries up. We can really never thank you enough
for finding Derry, and rescuing us from the footpads."
"It was nothing, I only regret
leaving my sword behind tonight."
"You've got a sword!"
Marith said in surprise.
Tevi's composure had recovered.
She grinned. "And a shield, a short spear and a hunting bow."
Marith pursed her lips thoughtfully
while she swilled the brandy around in her glass. "I guess you have to be
well armed in a town like this."
At that Tevi laughed. "Oh,
I wouldn't dream of walking around the streets with all that on me. But is Torhafn
so much worse than anywhere else on the mainland?"
"Definitely. You've picked
just about the nastiest town I know." Marith said.
"So where else would you
recommend going?"
"Anywhere - it would have
to be an improvement."
"Except the Halvia peninsular."
Verron chipped in with a laugh.
"What's wrong with Halvia?"
Tevi asked.
"A family of dragons."
"Oh."
"But there's lots of other
places you could go to and make a decent living. With nothing to tie you to one
spot there are so many things you should see." It took little encouragement
for the two traders to launch into an enthusiastic account of their travels, which
rapidly turned into a mutual nostalgic review, their audience forgotten.
"You remember the first time
we met?" Verron asked his partner.
"You won't let me forget
it."
"There you were, hanging
over the rail on the aft deck. I don't know about the ship, but you were certainly
eight sheets to the wind."
"I was seasick, not drunk!"
Marith said indignantly.
"So you said at the time,
but I've never seen you have trouble with sailing since."
Tevi settled back into the chair
and closed her eyes. She had been working at the market since first light that
morning. The voices faded to a quiet background hum as the warmth and the brandy
overpowered her in a softly enveloping cocoon of sleep.
* * * * * *
Some time later she awoke with
a start. The fire had burned down to a dull glow, and the even pale colour of
her clothes indicated that they were dry. While she had slept Marith and Verron
had shifted away a little and now they were talking quietly, their heads close
together.
Tevi hauled herself upright in
her chair and said, "I must be off."
At Tevi's words the two traders
exchanged small nods of agreement, a decision seemed to have been reached.
Marith spoke for them both. "Actually
we've got a proposition to put to you. Tonight has brought home to us that we're
very vulnerable. Normally we'd have hired a couple of mercenaries as guards, but
due to local difficulties they're in short supply at the moment. We desperately
need extra protection."
"You want to employ me as
a bodyguard?" Tevi asked.
"Ah... well..." Marith
hesitated. "It's not quite that simple. We're members of the Protectorate
Guild of Traders and Merchant Adventurers. Our guild has a negotiated agreement
with the Guild of Mercenary Warriors so that, except in certain defined situations,
we're only allowed to hire their members to guard us or our property. In return
we get discount rates. If we were caught breaking the rules we would be flung
out of our guild, and all our loans would be revoked."
"Then what is your proposition?"
Tevi asked frowning. A month before, Marith's words would have been complete gobbledegook
to her. Her time in Torhafn gave her some insight, however she was still more
than a little confused.
"Well, there's nothing to
stop you coming with us as a friend. We could treat you to a guided tour of the
sights to be seen along the way. We could even pay you a reward, as long as we
make it very clear that it is purely for finding our son." Marith said.
"But of course, if we were
attacked by bandits we'd be very pleased if you were to defend yourself."
Verron added brightly.
Tevi frowned as she considered
what the traders had said - and what they probably meant. She thought she understood.
"Isn't that what they call 'bending the rules'?"
Marith shrugged and smiled. "Oh
no. Just being a little imaginative in interpreting them."
While she turned the idea over
in her head Tevi watched the embers twinkling on the burning logs. She did not
know the identity of the thieves she had clashed with, but it was certain she
had made enemies that night. Leaving Torhafn might be a very good idea - and sooner
rather than later. The two traders also seemed to be the nearest thing to reputable
company she had met since leaving Storenseg.
"OK, I agree. When do you
leave?"
"Tomorrow. Will that be all
right?""
"I've got a boat in the harbour.
I'll have to get rid of it somehow." Tevi said.
Verron smiled broadly. "Well
if you like, Marith will help you sell it."
Continued in Chapter 5
original
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