Morday, 20 Dark Days 204
Three weeks have passed since Malant’s visitation to Ravenna,
and the sorceress’s confrontation to her uncle. In that time,
Elias has moved the group south. Following the only path he can
think of that will lead to Tibrai, Elias has led his companions
Ravenna, Raza, Drasha and Misgon to the singular city of Sorgar.
There, the paladin has arranged a meeting with the shadowy Dysan
of the Order of the Dragon. Although, Elias knows less than he would
like about the man, he was trusted by Alessandre and that is good
enough. Raza has no intention of journeying with his old friends
on their mission, but he has business of his own in this place;
business that he will not speak of, but his friends can guess.
And so it is, two hours before midnight, on a clear autumn evening,
at the corner of a paved canal-side path in a less than salubrious
section of Sorgar that Raza leaves them. He speaks to Elias about
the magical shield the paladin holds. It belongs to the Crown but
Raza (unwilling taking on the mantle of true king) tells him that
he may keep it and use it. In return Raza wants a favour from Elias,
but he doesn’t know what that favour will be. “The chances
of us meeting again are very slim,” says Raza, intimating that
he expects one or both of them to die. Elias says that if it is
within his power he will help Raza achieve his goal – even
if that goal is bringing down king Galahyde. Raza has been profoundly
annoying over the past forty-two months, but there is genuine friendship
between he and Elias when they depart.
Ravenna is not paying attention. A penny has dropping for her and
she is not happy with the conclusions she is drawing. “I don’t
think my father is my father,” she says getting everyone’s
attention. “Malant said that my parents were married on 14
Crispeven. That’s after I was born. My mother was all ready
pregnant when she came to Uris. What if I’m the product of
something the Potentates were doing? What if that’s the reason
they are looking for me? I have to know, I have to find my mother!”
Ravenna trembles with anticipation.
Raza wishes the sorceress well. Part of him is sorry not to be
going, but Raza has always believed that fate controls his life
and he is fated to travel a different path. Ravenna, seeing that
Raza is leaving and believing that she will never see him again,
grabs the monk and gives him a wet, sloppy kiss. Drasha and Misgon
bid farewell to the monk and suddenly he is gone into the darkness.
If Elias and Ravenna have reasoned that he is going to speak with
the Vampire of Sorgar, they say nothing and do not try and stop
him. The Chosen of Narramac are down to two. Elias and Ravenna head
deeper into Sorgar with Drasha and Misgon.
In less than half an hour they have come to their goal. Beneath
an ornate bridge that straddles a fifty foot channel they see a
flickering channel. Stepping out of the shadows to greet them is
Dysan, although only Elias recognises him. In his middle years,
heavily muscled and sporting an extremely severe haircut. He is
not alone. Four other individuals stand with him.
The first, and most obvious, is a mountain of a man. 6'7"
and with shoulders almost as wide, his head is only a whisker away
from scraping the underside of the bridge. On his back is strapped
a massive two-handed sword, and he is wearing leather armour that
seems a little tight for him. His hair is incredibly blonde and
falls past his shoulders. His eyes are piercing blue. Most bizarrely
is the animal hide drum that sits at his waist.
The second is a man of less prodigious build, but nonetheless intriguing.
Dressed in robes of an off-white his skin is a much darker than
is common in this land, and there is something about his features
that seems unusual. He is not Mannenite-black, neither is he Hadradan,
but his olive-coloured complexion marks him out as something exotic,
and his beetle-black eyes are a little unsettling.
The third is a man in his late twenties with neat black hair, and
lose fitting robes of the same colour. He is leaning on a sharpened
staff, but does not seem to require it for support. He has a wiry
frame. On his shoulder sits an owl of such a black that seems to
blend in with his outfit.
The fourth is female, and younger than Ravenna. She stands, at
5'0", the shortest member of the group, but her size is not
the first thing Elias notices about her. The lower part of her face
is obscured by a black mask, that conceals all her features bar
her eyes. She is dressed in skin-tight black that leaves little
to the imagination but, though comely, there is something about
her that does invite close acquaintance.
Dysan walks forward, as cautious and business like as ever. He
nods to Elias. “The ship sails on the midnight tide. It’s
a coaster called The Painted Lady. The captain is a friend of mine
called Susanna Montague. I know her well, she can be trusted. Rest
of the crew, I’m not so sure about so keep your guard up. You’re
not loved in this city.”
“Who are they?” Ravenna gestures suspiciously to the
four unknown individuals. Dysan looks over at them. “There
four are going with you, if you’re willing.” Ravenna doesn’t
seem particularly willing at all. Dysan has all ready pointed out
that they have few allies in Sorgar, and how they must be careful.
Why should they trust these four strangers?
“I trust them,” Dysan says, is if his opinion should
be all the reassurance Ravenna requires. “They’ll go with
you, and they’ll help you as best they can. How far they go,
and how much they’ll risk is up to them. You’ve got a
long sea voyage to size them up. They’re each here for reasons
of their own, but I can vouch for every one of them. They won’t
betray you, and you may need their help before this is over. Let
me introduce you to them.”
Dysan walks them over and introduces them to the giant Fallor (mighty
warrior of the Üganthé; to the white robed Jonus; to
the black clad Torr and to the masked Jessica DiFontaine. Ravenna
is still suspicious, but Drasha steps forward and begins introducing
herself and her companions. While she does this, Dysan takes Elias
to one side.
He says: “I’ve done some digging since we last met, and
I know who you are. No, don’t say anything, you don’t
know who’s listening. I just wanted to let you know that the
Order of the Dragon is ready when you’re ready. We’ll
stand by you. In the meantime, I’m giving you all the help
I can. These four, they’re good at what they do. Damn good.
Some are here through loyalty to the Order of the Dragon, some aren’t.
Use the sea voyage to gauge them – see what they’re like.
If they were in the right place at the right time, they could have
been Chosen of Narramac material, I’m sure.”
Elias is utterly baffled, and as Dysan’s words sink in, he
becomes more and more worried. However, there is no time to question
Dysan further. Montague’s ship sails from an island over an
hour away from where they currently are, and they have little over
that to get there. “Thank you Dysan, I has been a pleasure
working with you!” announces Fallor, clapping Dysan on the
back and making him stagger. Hedwig puffs herself up in an attempt
to impress Torr’s black owl. Elias is not happy by this turn
of events. Ravenna walks over to Elias. “Well?” she asks
urgently. “We can trust them,” says Elias, not really
knowing why he trusted Dysan as implicitly as he does.
Time is pressing and the eight leave Dysan and head off through
Sorgar to find The Painted Lady. They travel in silence. Speed is
now of the essence. Elias and Ravenna are charged with treason,
and must not be caught. There will be time for talking once they
have reached their destination.
“There are people out there,” says Jessica an hour later
as they are nearing a northern shore. She promptly disappears into
the shadows. Before most of the rest of the group can react to her
warning, a voice rings out in the darkness: “Halt! Stay where
you are! By order of Lord Sorgar, you are to surrender the traitors
Elias Raithborne and Ravenna Tannesh!” And with that a mob
of twenty guardsmen, dressed in the red livery of Iltilmus Devries,
and carrying sabres rush toward the party.
Jessica leaps from the shadows firing two shots from her crossbow.
One strikes the leader of the guards in the brain, the other the
heart and he goes down hard as the young girl disappears back into
the shadows. Jonus calls on the power of Zephyre, casts a Fly spell
and leaps into the air. Torr erects protective magicks and Fallor,
rather incongruously, begins to thump out a tune on his drum. But
it is Ravenna’s action that causes the greatest calumny.
“I’m sorry Elias, but we can’t miss this boat!”
she yells, and reaches for the rod of spell storing lent to her
by the Saldarím, and currently stocked with Nicos’s
full-moon enhanced fireballs. She gestures and a pea sized dot of
magical energy shoots through the group of on-rushing swordsmen.
For a moment there is silence, then the ball of fire blows backwards
down the street engulfing the party’s attackers.
The result is utter chaos. Ten guards are instantly burnt to cinders,
the remainder fall to the ground. All of them are burning, some
are unconscious. “Let’s go!” yells Ravenna and leads
a charge through the burning men with Torr and Jessica. Elias, coming
to his senses, looks around at the disaster Ravenna has caused.
He glances at Drasha. She can see it too. The lord and lady rush
forward, pulling off their own coats and trying to douse the flames
on their flailing foes. “Ravenna!” yells Elias, but the
sorceress cannot hear him, or if she can, she ignores him.
“Elias!” says Drasha, shaking her husband, “Look!”
The fireball has set light to the residential housing on the right
hand side of the street. “There are people in there,”
Drasha continues. Leaving Fallor and Jonus to extinguish the remainder
of the guards, the pair dash into the building. Misgon quickly follows,
after pausing for a moment to make himself immune to fire.
A family is trapped at the back of the house. A married couple,
their parents and three small children. Elias puts Ravenna’s
unthinking actions from his mind and rushes toward them. Space folds
in front of him as Jonus dimension doors in to the building. He
scoops up the tree children and leaves the same way. Fallor bursts
in behind them, and a few minutes later the family is safe on the
street, to join many other families who have been displaced by the
fire.
Elias gives the family some money for the damage (as does Jonus).
The children: Kurt, Ella and Rae are traumatised by events, but
at least they are safe, the same cannot be said for everyone. “This
is not good, Elias,” says Drasha. “We have eleven dead
men here. What was Ravenna thinking of?” she stares are the
burned and mutilated bodies of the guardsmen. “There did not
need to be any killing.” Jonus takes to the air and draws upon
his clerical powers to create walls of wind that will stop the fire
from spreading any further. From his vantage point, he also sees
something else.
“More guards,” says the cleric, returning to the ground.
“We have to go now!” Elias looks at the mess. His paladin-sensibilities
wounded by what has happened. “We cannot do any more Elias,
we have to leave now while we can,” Drasha says. Elias nods
and the group runs off into the night. Last of all is Misgon. The
youth, whom Ravenna has developed an attachment to, is more than
perplexed by what has happened here this evening. He is frightened.
Meanwhile, Ravenna has led Jessica and Torr to the docks and stolen
a rowing boat for the trip to the island where their ship is waiting.
Due to the superior strength of Fallor, a second boat carrying the
Üganthé, Drasha, Misgon and Elias arrives at about the
same time. Elias is fuming. He storms over to Ravenna. Before he
can speak, the sorceress says, “I’m sorry Elias, but I
have to find out what I am.” Elias’s anger is not easily
sated. “We’ll talk about it on the boat!” he exclaims.
Elias is boiling with rage. Ravenna is angry that no-one seems
to be seeing her side – that the ship was leaving and they
did not have the time to wait in a pointless mêlée.
The pair have a short but blazing row on the wharf and then head
in the along the jetty. Jessica watches them argue. “Always
the same when you meet famous people,” she says under her breath,
“they never live up to expectations.”
‘The Painted Lady’ is a not an ocean-going vessel, but
a coaster. A flat bottomed boat, fifty feet from foc’sle to
stern, it has a very slight draft and is therefore likely to roll
horribly on a wet flannel. Not the sort of ship for the easily queasy.
There is a single mast in the centre of the ship with a single sail,
but there is no crows nest and sail is controlled by ropes and pulleys,
meaning there is no rigging. There is only an aft-castle, that is
probably the captain’s cabin. On the roof of the aft castle
is a position for the tiller man. There is no sophisticated technology
such as a wheel on this boat. Along the gunwales of the boat, several
chests have been fixed to the deck. On the very front of the vessel,
rising up under a pointless bowsprit is the carven wooden representation
of a woman. Once it must have been garishly painted in reds and
greens but now it is faded and worn. Jessica takes this all in as
the party moves quickly up to the vessel. Elias and Ravenna do not.
Sitting dockside, watching the part are three men in the early
twenties. Jessica supposes that they are brothers, due to their
stunning similarity with one another. Heavily tanned and passing
a pipe between them. One makes a perfectly audible comment about
Ravenna’s chest that goes unheard by the sorceress (although
Jessica hears).
Very soon the party are on the boat. An attractive woman in her
mid-30s introduces herself to the party as Susanna Montague, the
captain and owner of this vessel. Beside her is the large and bald
Simian Black, her first mate. The three brothers are Guiseppe, Giacomo
and Wolfus Bashardi and, by the way Black yells at them, they are
not the most industrious members of the crew. The rest of the crew
is made up by young Sergenté Hulnar (well tanned and muscled,
but an astronomer by profession) and the hobbit, Little Bobby Proudfoot,
who is the ship’s cook and sports an amazing collection of
diseases on his feet.
“I am sorry there is no time for further introductions,”
says the captain, “but we must get under way as quickly as
possible. “You’re late,” Black says uncompromisingly
as he, the Bashardis and Sergenté go to get the ship under
way. Left to their own devices for a moment, Elias walks over to
Ravenna. “This should be good,” Jessica says quietly to
Torr, as she watches the proceedings.
“Have you no mercy?” Elias asks Ravenna. He names Kurt,
Ella and Rae who were almost burned to death by Ravenna. Ravenna
is unrepentant. They had to get to the ship quickly. “What
would have happened if we had been captured by Iltilmus?” she
snaps. Elias and Ravenna continue to argue. Although he dares not
mention it, Elias fears that the this is the evil nature of Ravenna
rearing its head again. Ravenna herself has thought about it, but
is convinced that she is in control of her own actions. Yet there
is something within her that is incredibly pleased with the destruction
she caused, and a little disappointed that the children Elias mentions
did not die. This makes Ravenna worried. Jessica is disappointed
that the argument does not flare up any higher, as Ravenna storms
away. Jessica notices that Ravenna looks at Misgon, as though she
expects him to come to her, but the lad is pointedly staring out
to sea.
Once the ship is underway and rolling nicely, Black shows them
below to where they will sleeping. There is but one hold below decks.
Ropes have been strung, and blankets draped over them, creating
partitions that will give the passengers some privacy. “Only
the captain has a bed,” Black says, gesturing to the six hammocks
that are strung up for himself and the rest of the crew to use.
The passenger ‘section’ is divided into four. One space
for the men in the party, one for Ravenna, one for Jessica and one
for the baron and his wife. Elias is relieved to see that there
are two hammocks in this section. He is not sure that Drasha is
willing to share a bed with him.
Jonus has been silent for some time. Ravenna’s actions earlier
this evening has made him exceptionally wary of her. Using his magic
he casts a series of divinations to probe the predisposition of
the party to Law, Chaos, Good and most particularly Evil. Jessica
and Torr do not register on any of these spells, Elias shines like
a beacon, but Ravenna gives him a very real cause for concern. There
is a black shadow on her aura. A terrible evil is upon her. It is
not something that Jonus has ever seen before. It is almost like
the aura of two people.
Elias goes to Drasha. Things have been strained between them for
a long time. They have not properly talked about Elias’s infidelity
since Elias rescued her from the hands of Mínaris. Drasha’s
mind has been completely focused on the Umbria she has left behind.
Who knows that person King Galahyde has placed in charge of the
barony. All the good work of her first husband and Elias could be
squandered and Umbria’s riches pillaged by an unscrupulous
man. Ravenna’s actions are the first thing that has raised
Drasha to speak of much else in days.
“How could she have done it Elias?” Drasha asks. “I
thought she had learned something from that entire experience with
Squire Osroth.” Elias nods. The similarity between the situations
had not been lost on him. Slowly and painfully he begins to tell
Drasha of what happened to Ravenna in the Great Dark, how they were
all overtaken by the swords of sin, and how Ravenna’s magically-induced
greed had caused her to touch the Weave. How the Weave had changed
her – had stained her soul. Drasha listens intently. “And
she knows about this?”
Elias nods. “Someone has to talk to her,” says Drasha.
“Someone has to make her see reason for what she has done,
and has to help her. To tell the truth, Elias, I feel a little awkward.
Ravenna saved my life. You know her so much better than I do.”
Elias isn’t entirely sure that is the case any more, but he
agrees to talk to her.
Elias then tells Drasha what Dysan said to him. “He told me
that he knew how I was,” the paladin reports. If Drasha is
alarmed by this, she chooses not to show it. “Without wishing
to sound cruel, Elias, you are not known for mental acuity. Perhaps,
Dysan meant nothing by it.” Elias tries to convince himself
that this is so.
At this point Jonus comes over to Elias and tells him what he has
seen in Ravenna’s aura. Elias is forced to explain to Jonus
what it is, and to verify matters he uses his own power to detect
evil. Now Elias is very worried. Ravenna’s evil aura is stronger
than it ever has been before. Could that have pushed her into using
that fireball? Elias asks Jonus to wait and to let him handle this.
Jonus agrees for the moment.
Sunday, 21 Dark Days 204
After an extremely rocky night, the party and the crew join each
other for breakfast. Ravenna waited most of the night for Misgon
to come to her, but he did not. Now she feels extremely vulnerable
and very alone. She knows that she did the right thing, she doesn’t
think that the taint of the Great Dark made her do it, but she can
feel that something isn’t right. She keeps gloves on her hands
to cover the physical changes to herself.
She goes and sits next to Misgon on the deck. He looks at her and
gingerly puts his arm around her. Ravenna almost immediately collapses
into him, her hard veneer cracked as she descends into paroxysms
of tears. “I thought it was the right thing to do!” she
weeps into his shoulder. Misgon gently raises Ravenna to her feet
and takes her below. Drasha watches him do this.
At mealtimes on the boat, a huge cookpot-cum-barbecue is pulled
out and fixed to the deck. There are facilities for cooking within,
and while it is relatively calm, Little Bobby Proudfoot will make
his repasts on deck. This morning Elias is a man with a mission.
Dysan said that Fallor, Jonus, Jessica and Torr are trustworthy,
but Elias wants to make sure of that fact. He asks each of them
why they are making this journey, and what they hope to gain from
it. He uses his abilities to sense evil and magic to judge whether
what they say is true.
Fallor says that he is searching for a creature called The Dragon
of the Seven Winters. “Do you know what it looks like?”
Elias asks. Fallor confesses that he doesn’t, but he doesn’t
see how this will stop him. He will know it if he finds it. Fallor
reveals himself as a teller of tales as he tells Elias (and anyone
who will listen) the tale of a united Üganthé. “We
were not always divided and warring,” Fallor explains. “Once
in Kerikal lived the Dragon of the Seven Winters. It looked after
the north, but the squabbling of the Üganthé displeased
it and it went away. When it left the clans were shattered and never-ending
war followed. Legend says that when it returns, it will bring with
it peace to the Üganthé people, and we will be reunited.”
Elias says that he will help Fallor if he can. He is searching for
a wise ‘man’ called Quenqurial, who may be able to help
in this matter. Fallor then gives a demonstration of his magical
power by using his drums to create a silence spell.
Jonus tells Elias that he was asked to help Dysan by his spouse,
although he will not say who she is. Jonus carries a magical bracelet
about his wrist that he says is a link to his spouse, and warns
him if she is in danger. Elias respects Jonus’s privacy.
Hedwig and Torr’s owl familiar (Naught) are getting on far
to well for Elias’s liking. He is not sure what it says about
his own relationship with Torr. “She just a tart,” he
says about Hedwig. “Aren’t she and you the same?”
asks Drasha caustically. Elias shakes himself and addresses Torr.
“Will you tell me why you are on this boat?” Torr thinks
for a moment. “Not at this time,” he says slowly.
That only lives Jessica. She tells Elias that she has left her
native Salmaynak to remove corruption in foreign lands, as she has
done at home. She met Dysan by chance, only recently and decided
to sign on with him. She is not welcome in her home anymore. There
is something about Jessica’s explanation that Elias does not
trust. Particularly as she just seems to want to get work killing
people. However, Jessica says that she can be trusted. She does
not form attachments to people because they can be used against
her, however, he word is her bond. Elias is forced to take her word
for that.
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