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.”Vaun smiled in spite of himself, his sour mood lifting.Thorne had a way of lightening his dark moods, and Vaun was grateful for the usually taciturn dwarf’s presence.When they finished their meal, the party members turned to their discussion of the night before.Merdel still said he wanted to try to obtain the wand on his own.His companions voiced the same arguments they already had.Drath pointed at the mage with his fork.“You realize if you’re caught there’s not much chance of us rescuing you.No one has ever escaped the Mahalian dungeons, and I’ve never heard of a rescue attempt.Of course, this is assuming they don’t kill you on sight, which they’ll probably do.”“Maybe not.It was a long time ago.Surely my offenses have been forgiven by now.” Still, Merdel sounded like he didn’t believe his own words.“I’d wager against it.” Dart turned to Drath expectantly at the words, prompting the tall man to hastily amend his statement.“I mean, I doubt it.I’ve never heard of Quiris forgiving anyone, much less a criminal like you.”Merdel’s eyes widened in mock indignation.“I beg your pardon.”Vaun grinned.“What’d you do, Merdel, to be so hated by the emperor?”The wizard hesitated.“I’d rather not say, because it might color your opinion of me.But I will tell you that one of the things I did was help someone escape the headsman’s axe.”“Must’ve been an important person for the emperor to hate you so much.”“Not really.” Thorne had that sour expression that appeared whenever the discussion turned to things he didn’t like.He eyed each of the men sitting around him, almost challenging them to dispute his words.Vaun wasn’t about to argue with him.Merdel coughed, breaking the sudden silence.“Now that that’s settled,” he began to rise, “I’ll be on my way to the castle.”Drath grabbed the mage, pulled him back down into his seat, and held him down firmly by one shoulder.“You’re not going anywhere alone.If you insist on carrying out this foolishness, at least take one of us with you.That way, if they try to kill you, you might have some chance to escape.Or at least we’ll know if you’re beheaded.”Merdel glanced shrewdly at Drath until the tall man frowned.“You don’t understand.I must go alone, otherwise it’ll look suspicious.I’ll see if I can have a conference with Pascor, wizard to wizard.That sort of thing isn’t unusual, so they might let me in.I didn’t have my beard when I left, and I was somewhat younger, so I might not be recognized.It’s the only easy way.If he won’t give me the wand, or won’t see me, we can let the elves try.At least let me do this first.” The wizard seemed desperate to prove his worth, as if someone had told him in recent days that his friends thought him useless.Drath sighed.“Okay.If you must.But Rush and Dart are going to follow you so they can inform us of any trouble.I don’t know what we can do, but I’m sure we’ll figure out something.If not, we’ll at least come to your funeral.”Merdel rose.“Thank you.But don’t worry, Drath, I’ll be all right.I’m a grown boy; I can take care of myself.” Smirking unlike a grown boy, the wizard walked confidently out of the tavern, his posture not quite concealing the dread the others knew he felt.Drath mumbled what were probably insults toward the retreating wizard.After a moment of staring at the door, mumbling about how Merdel had talked him into this idiotic plan, he nodded to the two elves.Rising smoothly with unusually serious expressions on their angular faces, Rush and Dart hurried from the tavern and went in pursuit of the bearded mage.“Okay, so now what?” Drath looked at both Thorne and Vaun across from him.The dwarf appeared to be trying to drink as much as possible before he remembered what city he was in, and Vaun was staring around as he usually did in an effort to see everything at once.“I know you probably want to stay as immobile as possible, Thorne, so I won’t ask if you wish to accompany me on a brisk stroll through the city.I need to walk around a little.What say you, young Swordsman? Would you like me to show you the gods-cursed city of Mahal? I won’t be as informative a guide as perhaps Thorne, but in our present location I will certainly be better company.” Drath made as if to rise.Turning to Thorne, who shrugged off-handedly, Vaun bid farewell to the dwarf, who growled at them and drank off the rest of his ale.Vaun and Drath left The Silver Platter.Mahal was by far the largest city Vaun Tarsus had ever visited.Granted, he had never been to any of the great cities of his own world, but he doubted they surpassed the splendor of this one.Buildings of all sizes rose on every side of him.Some were gargantuan structures of stone, looking as if they’d been there for centuries, while others were smaller, finely crafted buildings of wood, seeming to have been built only the day before.Almost all bore paint in bright and varied colors, and many had ornate signs or covered entranceways to proclaim the name of the establishment.The merchant stalls were almost as large as the houses, and Vaun wondered how they could possibly be moved.Houses, shops, warehouses, taverns, inns, temples, and a hundred other establishments sat right next to each other, with no plan as to organization or structuring.Warehouses might be prevalent on one block, while on the next were nothing but houses, with a tiny workshop of some kind squeezed in.Thrown together as if by some spoiled giant child with too many toys to play with, the buildings outnumbered anything the youth had ever seen.And then, of course, there were the people.Hundreds of people.Thousands of people.People everywhere.People buying, people selling.People walking around with seemingly no clue as to their destination, with others looking like they were on a divine mission.People from almost every known land mixed with the natives of Mahal to form the largest jumble of races in the world.Tall, dark-skinned foreigners milled about with shorter, light-skinned Mahals and other visitors.Elves and dwarves weren’t very common, but they were present.With the Western Kingdom’s attitude toward non-humans in general, Vaun found any individual of another race a surprise.The snow falling moderately from the cloudy, though sunny sky seemed to have no effect on these people.The flakes failed to accumulate on the streets because of the number of feet that trod them, making the cobblestones slick and difficult to travel.Fortunately, enough people surrounded him that Vaun could use them as supports when he lost his balance.If he’d fallen, he doubted he could have avoided being trampled.He felt like he was pushed or shoved by at least one member from every known race, and if he’d been keeping track he might have discovered he’d guessed right.The size and colors of the houses and the multitude around him, however, paled beside the noise assaulting his ears.Mules, oxen, and other beasts of burden snorted loudly as they hauled at their loads.The humans doing the same work made almost the same sounds at nearly the same volume, although their burdens tended more toward sedan chairs.Merchants virtually screamed at passersby, and those buying from them shouted back, all in a dozen or more different languages.Children laughed and cried, and parents scolded or praised.Birds for sale squawked and chirped, bells rang incessantly in high towers, and carts rattled noisily as they moved along.Vaun was approached almost every five steps by sellers of everything from shoe leather to a place in the Divine Playground [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]