CHAPTER SEVEN - OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
Julian and Raedrick awoke with the dawn the next morning. When they came downstairs, Julian was surprised to find the taproom all but deserted. A young man stood behind the bar and a single serving girl lounged on a barstool near him. Besides them, one man sat alone in one of the booths and another two sat together at the same table the mage lady used the night before.
It took a few minutes after they sat down for the server to notice Julian and Raedrick’s presence. She sauntered over hurriedly, her hips making a nice swaying motion as she moved, and spoke in an apologetic tone.
“Good morning. I’m Celine. I’m sorry to keep you gentlemen waiting. We don’t get very many customers this early.”
“No worries, Celine,” Raedrick said with a smile. “We’re just looking for some tea and breakfast.”
Celine returned Raedrick’s smile and nodded, then swayed away to the kitchens. It was hard for Julian to move his gaze away from her hips, but she soon passed out of sight as the kitchen door swung shut behind her. Ah well. He looked back at his friend instead.
“So Raedrick, what’s the deal with Lani?”
“What do you mean?”
“She was pretty into you last night.”
Raedrick snorted and waved off Julian’s remark. “We were good friends for a long time and had a lot of catching up to do. Of course she was excited about it; so was I.”
“Whatever you say.”
Celine returned then, carrying a tray that held a teapot, two cups, and a jar with two spoons. Smiling professionally at them, she set a cup in front of each of them and placed the teapot and jar in the center of the table. Then she said, “Your breakfast will be out in a moment,” and left them to return to the bar.
Curious, Julian opened the jar while Raedrick poured the tea. It was full of honey. Perfect. He took two dollops and set the jar back down where Raedrick could use it, then stirred his cup.
Getting back to the subject at hand, Julian asked, “So you’re saying you’d tell her no if she offered to… you know.” He left the rest of the thought go unspoken, instead grinning at his friend as he raised one eyebrow meaningfully.
Raedrick flushed but didn’t say anything. The silence spoke volumes.
“I didn’t think so.”
The room brightened noticeably as the front door swung open, admitting the morning’s sunlight far more effectively than the few windows in the walls did.
Julian turned in his chair, his eyes drawn to the glow of the doorway as two men stepped inside. Both were tall men; they easily had a hand on Raedrick, and he wasn’t short. But he wasn’t able to make out much more about them until the door swung shut and the glare from outside subsided.
The man on the right was plump, with carefully trimmed hair that had gone grey at the temples. His clothing was plain, but the fabric was obviously of high quality, and he wore a golden pin of some sort over his left breast. The other man was more lean. He was bald and wore the clothing of a working man, except for the silver pin he wore over his breast and the baldric that hung across his body from shoulder to hip, which housed a short weapon of some sort. Probably a sword breaker, from its shape.
The two men paused inside the front door and surveyed the room. Then the lean one nudged the other and nodded in Julian and Raedrick’s direction. They moved toward the table in a deliberate, businesslike pace.
“Who are these fellows?” Julian wondered aloud, earning a shrug of ignorance from his friend in reply.
He didn’t have long to wait to find out. The two men arrived at the table quickly. Up close, he could see that the plump man’s pin was in the shape of a fish jumping out of the water. The silver pin the other wore was shaped like a pair of scales dangling from a clenched fist.
“Raedrick Baletier and Julian Hinderbrook?” It was the leaner of the two who spoke first.
The two friends nodded in unison.
“I am Lucian Malory, the Constable. This is Wil Brimly, the mayor of this town.” Constable Malory gestured to the two empty chairs at the table. “May we join you?”
Julian and Raedrick exchanged glances.
The Constable wasn’t a big surprise, but what did the mayor want with them? From all the hints the previous evening, Julian knew Raedrick was curious and troubled about what was going on in town. And, truth be told, Julian was as well. It wasn’t often he got called a hero for stringing up a single robber. What could it hurt to hear what these two had to say?
Julian shrugged, and Raedrick replied, “Please do.”
The two men settled into the chairs and collected themselves quickly. Mayor Brimly wasted no time in getting to the point.
“You gents did a great thing for this town last night when you brought that thug in for justice.”
“Oh?” Raedrick affected a surprised tone, though Julian was sure he was no more surprised than he was himself. Enough people had made a fuss over that fellow already, after all.
Mayor Brimly nodded emphatically. “Absolutely. You two are the first who’ve been able to strike back at Farzal’s gang in any meaningful way. I can’t tell you how much higher people’s spirits are this morning, since the word of your deed spread around.”
Constable Malory looked sidelong at the Mayor as he spoke, his expression a bit less enthusiastic. When the Mayor finished talking, he cleared his throat and cut in, looking back at Julian and Raedrick. “Fendig passed your story on to me, but there are a number of details that need to be filled in, if you don’t mind answering a few questions.”
“Why would we mind?”
Julian could think of several reasons without straining, but they had decided on how to answer certain questions a long time ago, so there probably wouldn’t be much harm in it. All the same, he wished Raedrick didn’t sound so eager.
Constable Malory inclined his head, in a gesture Julian was sure was meant to portray gratitude, but it ended up appearing condescendingly superior. Irritation rose within Julian, but he forced it down. This wasn’t a time to go off half-cocked.
“You say the attack occurred just above the falls, on the river road. How many attackers were there?”
“Six.”
The Constable looked down his nose at them, doubt plain on his face. “That’s what you told Fendig. He didn’t believe it, and neither do I. Four, maybe, but six? Farzal’s men are too good for that.”
Julian snorted, not waiting for Raedrick to reply. “Good? They were careless. Sloppy. Only one of them was worth a damn.”
“The man you brought in?”
Julian shook his head. “No. He was the first to fall, and he’s damn lucky all I did was kick him.”
The Constable and Mayor exchanged long looks. The Mayor’s eyes gleamed with an eager light, but Malory held up a calming hand, silencing him before he could speak.
“What brings you boys into town?” the Constable asked as he looked back to Julian and Raedrick. “Not many folks come through this way anymore. Hell, almost no one does unless they’re part of a merchant’s caravan, and most of them take the southern routes now too.”
“It was time to come home from the Army, and I didn’t want to take the extra time to circle around to the south. Julian’s heard me talk about Mol Teribor enough that he decided to come along since he was leaving at the same time.” Raedrick told the tale quickly, but in an earnest enough tone that Julian found himself halfway believing it, even though he knew better.
The Constable’s eyes narrowed. “You boys been out on the front?”
They both nodded.
“I heard they were canceling people’s release from enlistment until the end of hostilities. How is it you got out?”
“We heard that too, a few days after we left,” Julian replied. “We’ve been thanking our lucky stars that we didn’t leave a week later than we did.”
Constable Malory pursed his lips in thought for a moment, then he nodded and leaned back in his chair. He turned to look at Mayor Brimly and gave a little nod.
Beaming, Mayor Brimly moved his chair closer to the table. “I’d like to hire you boys.”
“I beg your pardon,” Julian replied.
“The town needs good men on our side if we’re going to get rid of Farzal’s gang. You two seem like ideal candidates for the job. What do you say?”
Glimmer Vale is the first book of the Glimmer Vale Chronicles, an ongoing heroic fantasy series set in a world of valor and magic. It will be published here, one chapter per week, on Tuesday.
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Thanks for reading! See you in the next chapter!
