01 - The Price of Talent (46 page)

              I decided not to let on about my moral quandary concerning the ethics of ending a potential pregnancy before it started. As someone who had killed people, even in self-defense, it somehow felt hypocritical. And from a practical standpoint, and to be honest, a horny teenager standpoint, I liked the idea of consequence free sex. The life I could foresee for Meredith and myself, as far as I could see it, was not going to be one of stability. While our journey so far had been danger free, we were still fugitives. Having escaped the church service, we were both now rogue mages on the loose. Society and the church took a really dim view on that lifestyle. So not having to worry about bringing children into it (or having to give up the joys of sex, something I had only just discovered) seemed like a good idea. So I grew comfortable with the idea. It’s funny how inconvenient moral dilemmas can be so easily ignored sometimes.

Chapter 26.

              It took us another couple of days to get to Nordshire. The going was slow because of the weather. After leaving town, the clouds started to gather. By the end of that first day it started snowing. It wasn’t heavy snow, just a slow persistent flurry. While I was driving, Meredith set about setting up the cart cover she had picked up at her old house. We did this both so the person who wasn’t driving could warm up and so that we could keep our wares protected from the weather. When it was done, we would each take turns driving and riding in the back safe from the snow. It made what could have been a miserable couple of days bearable.

              It was late into the afternoon when we finally caught sight of Nordshire. We came around a bend and the forest that had been at our right hand side opened up into a grassy valley. In the corner of the valley, the eastern forest met up with a broader longer stretch of trees running east to west. The forest to the north was different, more pine trees and less leafy trees. It had the look of a forest that saw a large amount of winter. From the books I had read in Caer Sud, I knew this to be the northern taiga. It acted like a buffer between the Holy Empire and the north.

              Past the taiga, large snow covered mountains and glaciers loomed, past that was supposed to be a vast tundra and perpetual winter. Having grown up on the plains between the eastern and western mountains, it was like looking into an alien world to me. Still, it was a beautiful, if stark, landscape.

              Fortunately, the city itself and the castle of Caer Nord were much closer. The castle, at least from this vantage point, was actually a large single tower with outbuildings surrounding it. Then there was a large wall that protected these buildings between the castle proper and the town below. The town was also walled, and sat like a donut surrounding the castle in the center. The castle sat up on a large hill, and it was clear that the top of the tower would give great views of the whole valley. The town sat on the lower steppes of the hill, with the wall being located where the hill stopped and the plains began. In the histories, this castle stood watch on the northeastern borders of the plains to watch for invading armies. Now, it simply marked the northeastern edge of the holy empire.

              Seeing the town and castle made me review our plan. As Meredith and I had discussed previously, we were going to go in to the town disguised as merchants. While inside we would sell our wares in the market and gather intelligence on the castle. Then, at night, we would don our guard outfits that Meredith had pilfered from Caer Sud, and sneak into the castle to try and find her father. Once we knew where he was, we hoped to be able to rescue him. If all of this sounds a little vague to you, that’s because it was. We knew that quite a lot of improvisation would need to take place based on the results of our intelligence gathering and conditions on the ground once we were inside the castle.

              It took us some time before we got to the front gate of the town. The wall was about fifteen feet tall, but the main entrance was quite large, easily big enough for two large carts abreast to pass through it. Outside the gate, there were just two soldiers. Neither seemed all that attentive to their work. As we approached, they looked at us, saw our wagons and just waved us in. I guess our disguises as merchants were good enough. Either that, or the impending darkness of the evening, coupled with the bad weather, made up for any missing elements to our disguise.

              Once inside the gate, the city opened up in front of us. The main promenade, which we were on, headed straight up into the city. As the whole city was on a hill, “up” was not metaphoric. While the angle was not steep enough to make it dangerous, it was still quite noticeable and slow going. About half way to the castle’s approach, the road leveled off into a large square where merchants were still making the last sales of the day before packing up their stalls.

              Fortunately for Meredith and I, a number of inns surrounded the area. We drove around till we found one with vacancy enough for us to have a private room and a spot for our cart. Once we had rooms and our cart was safely stored, we went for a walk around the town. The central market area was on the main approach to the castle, as I have mentioned. The plateau on this level went completely around the castle and stayed consistently level in the town. As we walked further away from the square, the buildings got less commercial and more residential. Businesses and shops gave way to tenements, then houses, and finally, towards the back with views of the northern taiga and eastern forest, large town houses for the more well off and connected members of the Nordshire community.

              By the time Meredith and I made it back to the inn, dinner was already well under way in the common room. Given the days living off traveling rations getting here and our long walk, Meredith and I were quite hungry. So we tucked into a very nice meal prepared by the inn and some decent mead too. After eating we lingered over our drinks and listened, well eavesdropped honestly, on conversations going on around the room. There was very little of substance being said, but we did learn that, due to the mild autumn and relatively late arrival of winter, local harvests had been good. This would have been bad news if Meredith and I were trying to make a lot of money on our wares, after all, scarcity raises prices. But since this was just our cover, we didn’t spend too much time dwelling on it.

              We evenutally grew tired of eavesdropping. Not wanting to get too drunk, we had only been nursing our meads. With nothing of interest going on, we paid our tab at the bar and then headed back to our room. We managed to find a few things to do there to pass the time, after which we settled into discussing our options for the next day.

“Tyr, I think you should be the one to sell our goods in the market tomorrow,” Meredith said.

“Yeah, I figured I would be, given I know a little more about selling farm goods than you,” I replied.

“That’s a big part of it, yes,” said Meredith. “But the other is that I think people will be more willing to open up to me and less likely to scrutinize me than you.”

“Oh?” I asked. “Why do you think that?”

“Well, for one, I don’t look like a young man of military age,” she said. “That means when I wander around watching the guards rotate at their posts, I’m more likely to be seen as a tourist instead of looking suspicious.”

“That makes sense,” I said. “Not that I need much convincing. You did quite a good job back at Caer Sud getting what we needed and sweet talking the guards. I have no doubt you’ll be able to learn more than me tomorrow. I’ll try to see what I can learn talking to the shopkeepers while trying to unload our goods.”

              With that decided, we snuggled down into the bed to sleep. I didn’t fall asleep quickly that night though. I spent some time just reviewing how my life had evolved in the past year or so. Going from farmer to bandit and then to initiate in the church, all involuntarily. It was a lot of changes in a short period of time. For the first time through all of this, I finally found myself in a position that didn’t feel like a trap. Being with Meredith on an adventure, one that I had chosen for myself, felt like I was finally getting some control over my life.

Well, don’t we look self-satisfied this evening?

              I had summoned the sword up to our room, not wanting the grooms to see it. I worried that it might tip them off that our mission here wasn’t just to sell root vegetables and cloth.

I find myself with a lot to be happy about this evening. Does that bother you?

No, not particularly. I like being out and about, even if that means occasionally putting up with seeing your bare butt.

Hey, I’m under the covers, you can’t see anything from where you are over by the bed stand.

Yeah, NOW you’re covered. I guess it could be worse though, you could be alone and naked. Ugh, that brings me bad memories of Caer Sud.

Well, tomorrow night, you may well be getting a good view of the inside of Caer Nord. Hopefully I won’t need to draw you, but I will want you with me.

Oh yes, that’s right. After you two go about figuring out how to break into the castle. A mission you are largely leaving to her.

Why do you care if I leave most of it up to her?

I don’t really, I would love to be drawn for battle once or twice. I just find it funny that you two have been a real couple for only a short time and already she’s calling the shots, telling you what to do.

My selling the wares makes sense. What does a mayor’s daughter know about commerce? Besides, I will be gathering what intelligence I can from the merchants I talk to.

Oh yes, that’s the reason you’re going along with her idea. Not that she sexed you up good. You’re wrapped around her finger and don’t even know it. Men’s minds get mushy when they’re getting laid regularly.

Hah! Being happy and satisfied doesn’t make you dumb.

It makes you focus on things other than the mission at hand. With your head in the clouds and your… little sword… buried in your girl over there, how much thought have you given to tomorrow really?

Little sword?! Are you just jealous of my relationship with Meredith?

I’m not jealous, I just think you aren’t thinking clearly.

You’ll see. Tomorrow we will find out everything we need to locate Meredith’s father and rescue him. Escaping shouldn’t be hard given how lax those guards at the gates were. From there, we find a place where we can start a real life together.

Yeah, right! That’s just what I mean. Say he is here and you do rescue him, what will you do then? You can’t go back to Forsburg, that would get you all arrested in short order. Really, anywhere in the Holy Empire would be a problem.

We could go to Tannerton or Neucester and live a new life as local merchants. No one there would know or recognize us. We could use the money left over from the Mayor’s house to buy a shop and live above it. Not a bad life really.

Yeah, except that if any of the initiates get stationed in that town, you run the risk of being exposed. Hell, any passing group of inquisitors could contain someone from Caer Sud that would recognize you.

You have a point. But there’s no point worrying about it now. We haven’t broken Meredith’s father out of prison yet, and until we do, there isn’t much point making too many plans.

Now you’re just making excuses for your lack of foresight. Whatever, I predict this will all end in tears. Just you watch.

Bah, now you’re worrying too much.

We shall see…

              He was right, damn him, I really hadn’t thought out the next step after saving Meredith’s dad. Also, I really wanted to figure out what happened to my friends in the woods. If we were going to be outlaws regardless of what we did, might as well do it with a group of outlaws I already know I can get along with. But that would mean finding them first. These were thoughts for another day though. Until we rescued Meredith’s father and put this town behind us, we needed to focus on the task at hand. Right now that was sleeping. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.

              Despite my many misgivings, I did manage to sleep that night. I won’t claim it was the best sleep I had ever gotten, but it was enough that when the sun came up the next day, I felt sufficiently rested to face the long day. Meredith awoke well rested too, she was excited to see the city and figure out how we were going to get into the castle.

              Once we were up and dressed, we headed down to the common room to have a light breakfast. The innkeeper and his staff had baked fresh bread that morning and the common room smelled amazing. We had a lovely breakfast of fresh baked bread with honey and butter, served with steaming mugs of hot tea. With such a breakfast, I could see how these northerners could face the cold of winter.

              Once breakfast was done, Meredith headed out into the town and let me go about selling our goods. Since I was already at the inn, I talked to the innkeeper. He indicated that while his pantry was pretty well stocked, he would be willing to buy some of my root vegetables for his cellar. Instead of getting cash, I arranged to exchange them in lieu of our room bill. It was in both our interests, I got a little more value for the goods this way, and the innkeeper didn’t have to part with any money he was going to need to make change today for all his customers. Having made my first deal, and feeling pretty good about it, I headed out to the market.