Chapter Two - "Thalambath" - Part One

[Ílarolén'yliás (Drustai)]

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!", Altario exclaimed, "What did you say? You're telling me that Te-oh is a traitor to us?"

Drustai turned her gray eyes to him, and nodded. Yes, he was a filthy traitor. A highwayman, looking to score quick coin at the expense of travelers like themselves. A smart plan, though risky--as their forthcoming demise would soon confirm.

"I'll kill him, myself!"

Drustai pulled her lips back into a smirk. At least Altario was quick to believe her word. She had worried he might try to argue for Te-oh's innocence, completely fooled by the trick.

"Be my guest," she replied, before turning to follow Lili out of the tent. Her movements were slow, and stiff, and she suppressed a groan as her legs tried to move for the first time in days.

When the light of the injèrá met her eyes, Drustai could not help but stop to place a hand to her eyes. "Caeháemín!", she hissed. She kept her hand to her eyes as she waited there for a few moments, trying to will her eyes to adjust to the sudden bright light. Caehí injèrá! This was not the time to be worrying about this. She grit her teeth together as she removed her hand and opened her eyes again, blinking them rapidly a few times as her sight continued to adjust. Finally, she managed to hold them open long enough to look towards Lili and Altario, and follow them back to the others.

As they approached, she could not help but sneer a little at the orc as she saw it again. It still bothered her that Altario was hypocritical enough to keep one with him. She would not be so bold to rectify the situation herself, but it was certainly a matter that displeased her. Regardless, however, she did find it within herself to listen to the orc's words, and even respond after the orc and Toama had finished speaking.

"We are not leaving, yet. Altario and I have valuable supplies that must be recovered. His sword, my reagents. They should be kept in the storage room," she paused, then said, "And there are four of them, not three. Te-oh, a wizard, and two others."

[grallen gast]

"We are not leaving, yet. Altario and I have valuable supplies that must be recovered. His sword, my reagents. They should be kept in the storage room, and there are four of them, not three. Te-oh, a wizard, and two others."

Grallen was silent for a moment, struggling to control her thoughts and stop them from becoming rather violent actions. Eventually she managed to hiss, “You what? A wizard, for khan’uck’s- bloody hell is it that important?! I’ve got blades to spare if you want...”

She trailed off into furious muttering, all in a vehement whisper as she was now painfully aware of the four, yes, four people so close, and one of them a wizard. I’ve not had much experience with magic users, by dint of careful choice. Thieves who steal from mages tended to regret it, from what I’ve heard.
 
A cautious little voice in the back of her head pointed out, you’re standing in front of a magic user right now. And then there’s Altario. Remember Altario? You have some of his flesh still lodged under your fingernails, and don’t think you can forget about that because I doubt he will. We don’t necessarily have a choice in this.

Suppressing a groan, she looked to the others, hoping they could help sanity prevail upon these two sunstruck fools.

[Toama SorInyt]

Toama listened to Grallen's hissed outburst, her own feelings mixed. On the one hand she wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible. On the other, if it was her own scimitar, she would want to go and get it back. Not only were swords expensive to replace, but there was something special about the sword she'd had for years. As far as she understood, that went back even further in Altario's case, if she rightly understood the word "heirloom" that she had once heard him say in regards to the weapon. What reagents were, she had no idea, but according to Grallen they belonged to a wizard.

The orcess looked at her, possibly hoping that her own voice would be added to hers, as it had just before. Unfortunately, Toama could not oblige her, this time. Their mission would fail if their leader did nothing for the rest of their time together than blame them for the loss of his sword, and she had seen enough of Drustai not to want to make an enemy of her, whatever 'reagents' were. If they first went back to the cart to decide on a plan of action, the chance would increase that the group of men inside the tent would discover that their prisoners had escaped. If they were going to get these things back, they would have to act now. And she had seen enough of the determination in both Drustai's and Altario's eyes to know that no matter what the others in the group might say, at least they two were going back.

When she answered, it was in a low whisper, while sending up a fervent prayer to Foiros that they would remain undetected a while longer. "I am thinkink storage room is here. I was seeink boxes when looked in. Question is, are we gettink back just things, or are we goink fight bad men?"

[Altario Shialt-eck-Gorrin]

Placing Lili's blade into his belt at the small of his back, Altario followed Lili outside, crawling along.  He squinted in the bright light, feeling the relative coolness of the tent disappear quickly with the heat of the outdoors.  His palms burned in the soft sand.  His knee protested the crawling.  This only served to worsen his demeanor.

Outside, the Remusian listened to Drustai as she spoke about needing to get back their stuff.  Although he cared little about the mage elf's magic stuff (honestly, that he wouldn't mind leaving behind), he wasn't about to leave his sword.  A family heirloom like that was irreplaceable.

Still, if they needed to fight a mage, having a mage would be invaluable.  His mind went back to the night he and the dark elf met and how she had tossed him around with nothing but wind.  The thought made him scowl even as he realized that he and her had come along way since that night.

He looked at the orc.  She was offering her blades?  Inferior and no doubt stolen from the body of a victim of an orc raid no doubt.  No, he wasn't about to accept the looted booty of a murderous orc raid.  "The sword has been in my family for over a hundred years.  I'm not leaving it."

The dark skinned Toama brought up a good question.  Were they going to just quietly steal their goods back, or were they going to kill these men?  His first reaction was battle.  Te-oh deserved to feel the steel of his father's blade. But, the wizard made him nervous.  What could he do?  Was Drustai capable of defeating him?  Would her wind tricks be enough?  Altario was smart enough to know that he had no inkling of the power of these magic users.

He tried to think back.  In Remusia there had been those who were trained in how to attack mages.  Horvahn, was that his name?, had been particularly renowned during the war for capturing a few mages and bringing them to Remusian justice.  Someone like that would be useful right about now.

He then looked to Drustai. "What do you think?  Are you up to doing battle with an unknown mage?  As much as I want Te-oh under my blade, it's not worth getting us killed if we can get our stuff back without getting caught.  I leave it to you."

[Ílarolén'yliás (Drustai)]

"You what? A wizard, for khan’uck’s- bloody hell is it that important?! I’ve got blades to spare if you want..."

Drustai looked at the orc, eyes narrowing. It was a cowardly wretch, and she would have loved nothing more at that moment than to use the thing as bait for the highwaymen, to get it out of her sight. She still could not believe that Altario traveled with it.

"We need no blades of yours, orc," she stated dismissively.

Drustai then looked towards Altario as he mentioned his family blade. As much as she was inclined to view the weapon as replaceable, she knew the emotional power of heirlooms, what they meant to a person. It was his piece of home. She nodded as he continued speaking, then looked towards the dark skinned woman as she commented.

Drustai frowned. She would prefer not to fight, if she could avoid it. They were not outnumbered, but without her equipment she felt vulnerable.

"What do you think?", Altario said, "Are you up to doing battle with an unknown mage?  As much as I want Te-oh under my blade, it's not worth getting us killed if we can get our stuff back without getting caught.  I leave it to you."

"I can do some minor tricks, but without my reagents my aid would be limited. They are essential to my spellwork. Thus I would rather get our things back, first, before we make any moves to combat them."

She paused for a moment, before adding, "If we do have to fight them, then the wizard must be neutralized quickly."

[Altario Shialt-eck-Gorrin]

Altario nodded.  Yes, the mage was a prority.  He looked at the motley crew.  Were they up for it?  Somehow, he thought not.  Some of them were still hurting from the battle on board the pirate ship back in Strata.  And his knee was aching, being bent low and crawling along the ground like an animal.

He stared at the dark skinned woman. "Let's get our stuff.  If we need revenge, we can get that later."  He kept his voice low.  No telling where these thieves might be.

He looked to the orc.  This was her specialty.  "Okay, Grallen.  Show us how to do this quietly and quickly."

Grallen?  Did he actually use her name?  He really was getting soft.

[grallen gast]

It was no good. Damn them all, they were absolutely set on regaining their things. Grallen couldn’t help bristling as they repeated their arguments.
"The sword has been in my family for over a hundred years.  I'm not leaving it."

And that makes it sharper, does it? Oh, I hadn’t realised, but yes of course, you couldn’t possibly leave it behind if it is old. Beg forgiveness, your lordship. The words hissed through her head, aceedic.

Drustai didn’t help her temper. There was something about the word “orc”, spoken like that, which had a direct line to her nerves without seeming to cross her brain. Grallen concentrated on not forming her hands into fists. It was surprisingly difficult.
"I can do some minor tricks, but without my reagents my aid would be limited. They are essential to my spellwork. Thus I would rather get our things back, first, before we make any moves to combat them. If we do have to fight them, then the wizard must be neutralized quickly."

Ye gods, if it has to come to that I will happily gut whoever causes it. The barely-healed wound on her belly still ached faintly from being crammed into the cart bed recently. Not ideal conditions for battling wizards. And those two fools won’t be much use, having refused my knives. I suppose, looked at backwards, that’s as good a reason as any to get them their toys back.

"Let's get our stuff.  If we need revenge, we can get that later. Okay, Grallen.  Show us how to do this quietly and quickly."

For a moment, she was too stunned by the sound of her own name to vent the bitter ocean of complaint she’d been damming up whilst the others spoke. For half a blink she stared at him, and then blinked, and murmured her instructions, not looking at anyone so as not to have to see their displeasure.

“Right, well fewest people inside is probably best. If there’s any trouble we can turn tail and lead them out onto everyone else’s blades. If we’re lucky nobody’s looking, and we can do this quickly and quietly and leg it before they know we’re about. I say we, because I’ve no idea what these reagent thingies look like, so guess who gets to come along?”
She looked up suddenly, and smiled coldly at Drustai. That’ll teach you to call me Orc like it’s a bad taste in your mouth.

“You will do as I say. No arguments. Everyone else, keep watch. How does that sound?”
For khan’uck’s sake, no more arguments, let us just get this done and get out of this bloody wasteland.

[Toama SorInyt]

Toama looked from Drustai to Altario to Grallen and back as they whispered back and forth. The tension between those three was almost palatable, seeming to crackle in the air between them. Something very close to hatred was sent out in waves from one to the other, or so Toama imagined. In her thoughts it looked like the shimmering in the desert when the sun was at its hottest and you were as likely to see a mirage as an actual reality.

Grallen explained how they were going to go about this expedition, selecting herself and Drustai to go in, the others would stay outside and guard them. For a moment the desert woman wondered if a third person should not go with them to protect them inside, but then Grallen had her load of knives, which should prove enough protection until Drustai had her stuff back. She was not used to subterfuge and stealing things, so as far as she was concerned Grallen's plan sounded good.

The orcess shot a triumphant look at Drustai when she was named as accomplice to go inside. Again Toama was reminded of the heat-waves that she had thought of earlier. She looked sideways at Lili, who had not contributed much yet to the low-voiced discussion. "You are feelink also left out of little group? I also..." The only sign that she was joking was a little creasing around her eyes. Not that their situation was so funny, but this was one way of dealing with the tension she was feeling. She wanted to get out of here fast.

[Lili the Elfcat]

Seyella has made up her mind,  thought Lili, that for Lili the Elfcat there are but two ways to be in the world: either on her own, with only a talking chicken for company, or amongst a bunch of priggish cockalorums that snarl at one another and take themselves far too seriously.  Well, the obnoxiousness had one thing going for it: it shook Grallen out of her habitual surly mood and brought out her bossy side, which Lili rather liked. If the lordships didn't like to listen to the commands of an orc, they shouldn't get themselves captured and their precious heirlooms nicked.

Toama had come to stand next to Lili and leaned over to her. "You are feelink also left out of little group?” she said. “I also..." After a blink of confusion, Lili understood. She furred her brows in an expression of mock-seriousness, and whispered back: ”Ah, let them have the tent to themselves for a bit. You know, when two people love each other, it's only polite to give them some privacy.”

Turning to face the group, she said: ”Grallen's right. Let's do this, and let's start before next winter. Grallen, would you have a spare knife? I want to practice my throwing.”

[Ílarolén'yliás (Drustai)]

"I say we, because I’ve no idea what these reagent thingies look like, so guess who gets to come along?"

Drustai turned her gaze to look at the creature, as it stared right back at her. It thought it would insult her, but she cared little for the jibe. Someone had to go in with the orc to make sure it got the job done, afterall. Entrusting it with something on its own would be foolish. Still, Drustai would have rather gone by herself than with that thing.

"You will do as I say," the orc continued, "No arguments. Everyone else, keep watch. How does that sound?"

Drustai straightened her back and stiffly nodded at the orc. "Very well." She then looked at the others for a moment, before turning towards the tent. She reached up to unclasp her cloak, and dropped it nonchalantly to the sandy ground. She didn't want it getting caught in anything while trying to move quietly.

Without looking at the orc, she said, "I trust you have a better entrance in mind than the front door."

[grallen gast]

”Grallen's right. Let's do this, and let's start before next winter. Grallen, would you have a spare knife? I want to practice my throwing.”

Grallen nodded, and wordlessly slipped a narrow-bladed dagger from her belt, holding it out to Lili. She managed a brief grin at the woman, glad there were those that didn’t consider themselves tainted by receiving aid from an orc. The idea of the risk she was about to take
was fading away, replacing itself with a familiar excitement.

"I trust you have a better entrance in mind than the front door."

Ignoring how Drustai wasn’t looking at her, ignoring a gnawing uncertainty about the layout of the tent, she padded to the front of the tent, where they’d scraped away the sand by the base.

“Well, it’s the front door or squeezing under here... OK, we go under, but if there’s trouble, leg it out the door if we can. Right then...”

She grinned at everyone, crouched down at the base of the tent. For a few seconds her ears twitched, listening intently, and then hurriedly lifted the clot at the base of her tent. It’d be a lot easier if she could cut a slit in the fabric, but she knew the noise of a knife tearing through canvas would certainly attract attention.

Let’s hope this works.

She wriggled through the gap, feeling like a rat pushing under a door, and stood up, blinking and feeling exposed as her eyes adjusted to the light.

[Ílarolén'yliás (Drustai)]

"Well, it’s the front door or squeezing under here... OK, we go under, but if there’s trouble, leg it out the door if we can. Right then..."

Drustai looked at the orc, then at the base of the tent. It seemed like a tight fit for the orc, who was significantly smaller than she was. She wasn't sure if she would actually be able to get in under it. She hissed to herself. Perhaps the front door would have been better.

Once the orc was fully through, Drustai dropped down to her knees at the side of the tent. After a moment of contemplating, she dropped down onto her back and pushed the hem of the tent up as high as she could. She tensed her muscles, dug her heels into the ground, and attempted to push herself in.

It became pretty clear, pretty shortly, that this was not going to work. The tent was fit snuggly to the ground to keep sand from pouring in--meaning someone of her size would not be able to fit. After a silent growl, Drustai pulled herself back out, then got up to her knees. She then reached her hands down, and started digging sand away from the base of the tent hemming.

"Dig out some of the sand there," she whispered quietly to the orc on the other side.

[grallen gast]

Do not laugh, Grallen. Really, do not laugh in the grumpy elf’s face. But I thought they were all supposed to be slim and sylphlike? There again, Damien was never averse to letting me go through narrow gaps while he stood and “kept watch...”
Focus, Grallen, focus.

She stooped and quickly swept away some of the sand from under Drustai, listening intently as she did so. When it seemed the hole was a little bigger, she stuck a hand through and waved frantically. Not got time for this!

She allowed herself to look round the tent she was standing in, as her eyes started to adjust to the gloom. She couldn’t see a sword, just boxes and bundles and things... a light beyond the boxes she was currently ducked behind hinted that there were people alarmingly close, and she felt herself tense, all traces of laughter gone.

[Lili the Elfcat]

Lili took the knife Grallen offered her, and winked in thanks. Without looking at the weapon, she proceeded to weigh it in her hand, to let it twirl around in her fingers, to toss it three palmspans into the air and catch it again. She was coaxing it, teasing it, asking it questions – finding out how it would behave in her hand, which way it would fly if thrown in earnest. Eventually Lili smiled, and relaxed. The knife wasn't the straightest. Its path in the air would have a bias to the left, in fact – although Lili knew that only in her fingers, not in her mind. In any case, it would do. If someone came out of the tent, Lili thought, some person she had never met before, it would be impolite to let them run up to her for the greeting. Instead, Lili intended to be the first to introduce herself, from the distance of a few ped that separated her and the tent.

Meanwhile, Grallen and Drustai crawled underneath the canvas and into the tent. As the elf strained and wriggled her body to fit through the narrow makeshift entrance, she did not look her usual aloof and icily graceful self. Lili suppressed a grin, careful lest the proud Drustai should see any change in her face, should she chance to glance back. Only inwardly did she allow herself to enjoy her amusement. And that was her mistake.

She felt a well-known movement on her head, and distracted as she was by the spectacle of Drustai digging herself through the sand, it took her just a blink longer to react than it otherwise would have done. Her free arm shot up, but her hand could only grasp thin air. Kassandra was already out of reach above her. Fluttering through the shimmering heat, hanging over the vast expanse of yellow sand, the green jungle bird looked as alien to this desert as a flower would. Kassandra described two circles above the heads of the waiting adventurers; but hungry, thirsty and aggrieved as she was from the exertions of the journey hither, she had soon exhausted her spirits, and sailed over to the tent. She perched herself on its top and shook her wings. A few short breaths were enough to recover from her brief flight, then she was ready and began to sing at the top of her voice:

”Ooh muck, muck, rake all this muck,
Do it no matter if others shout 'Yuck!',
So join me, oh join me at night in this city,
Together we'll rake all this muck!”

Lili's left arm was still uselessly extended above her head, where it had stopped when she had failed to catch her bird. Her face expressed considerable compunction as she turned it to Altario and Toama and said apologetically:

”She always did like that song.”

           

(Song by Deklitch Hardin)

[Toama SorInyt]

Toama wrinkled her eyes at Lili's answer, though she did not make a reply. Better not to alert anyone, so long as two of them were inside - well, if they ever did make it inside, of course. Drustai was having some trouble fitting into the hole that she and Grallen had made earlier. The desert woman watched with some detachment as the cold elfess struggled to get inside. She would help, except that there really wasn't room there for another pair of hands.

A sudden movement to her side drew her attention away from the spectacle and in Lili's direction. She was just in time to see the woman standing in a ridiculous pose, and the bird she always had on her shoulder swooping up, apparently delighting in its sudden freedom. Toama watched as it spiralled up and then went to settle right on top of the large dome. Unbelievably, it burst into song there. Her gaze went from the bird back down to Lili, who was still standing in the same position. At the apology - if you could call it that - her mouth opened, then closed again. Great Foiros! She had no idea what to say to that. If they weren't quite in this position, she would probably laugh at the ludicrousness of it all. Everyone so careful to speak quietly and not draw their attention, and then that bird went and ruined it all!

However, there was no time now to do anything about it. With deliberate movements, she drew her scimitar, hoping with all her might that Drustai would hurry up and get inside. That way, at least this would be a diversion of sorts, and it would serve the purpose of leaving Grallen and Drustai unnoticed. Narrowing her eyes, she looked towards the door, where any moment now the thieves would come out to discover them.

Advanced search

[Members]

Members Total Members: 2849 Latest: abigailjordan Stats Total Posts: 214569 Total Topics: 8052 Online Today: 67 Online Ever: 216 (November 30, 2006, 09:08:03 AM) Users Online Users: 0 Guests: 23 Total: 23

[Artimidor]

	Powered by SMF 1.1.21 | SMF © 2005, Simple Machines TinyPortal v0.9.8 © Bloc
Theme based on Cerberus with Risen adjustments by Bloc and Krelia Modified By Artimidor for The Santharian Dream