Summer 17: messages

Dear Zann,

I thought of asking the wizards what had happened to Knarrett. Then I thought some more, and I thought about not asking the wizards what had happened to Knarrett, and I liked that better, so I kept my mouth shut.

Sandavin hung a charm around my neck, on the same thong that held my coin. It was made of some dull metal and looked a little like an anteater. I wondered if that was a coincidence. “None of these curst soldiers and brigands should look twice at you if you’re wearing this,” he told me. “You can wear it as long as you’re coming and going on our business, but when we’ve settled everything, I want it back. It’s a good one.”

They seemed ready for me to be on my way, so I yawned and relaxed. “Just one more thing to resolve,” I said. “You have to remove any magic you’re going to use to spy out where I go to talk to Ambe, and you have to bind your whole Council not to track me through magic or any other way.”

So that started a long and frustrating negotiation. More frustrating for them than for me, because my position was that I was always going to believe that they were trying to cheat me unless they somehow convinced me that they weren’t, and it did take us a while to get past that. Eventually I was satisfied, and left, with their sealed message for Ambe.

With the charm around my neck, it was easy to get myself cleaned and fed and some less disheveled clothes, and also some comfortable rest out of the afternoon mist. How I was going to travel all the way to the palace with no longcoaches running I hadn’t thought about, but then I realized I could probably stow away on a boat going upriver. After all my time both on the docks and at the palace, I knew I’d be able to pick one out going the right way.

That worked, and a few hours later I was back at the palace. Nobody looked at me as I stepped off the vegetable barge onto the palace wharf; I ignored all the Rosolla Guards around and went right to Ambe’s lair.

She met me at the door. “Where did you get that thing around your neck?” she said, with some anger.

I detached Sandavin’s charm. “Guess.”

“I don’t need to guess. What do you want?”

“The Council is helping me find Wande. In return I told them I’d bring you this.” And I held out the message.

Ambe opened up a fan and spat on it. Then she closed it again, shook it, opened it, and fanned air onto the message. Finally she smelled the message. “I guess it’s safe,” she said, and took it.

“Can I come in?” I said. “I don’t want to get caught up in any guard stuff here. I want to find Wande.”

She fanned me and the charm, and smelled us, and beckoned me inside her lair. “I don’t like this. Why didn’t you just come to me? I’d have been happy to find Wande for you. Now I have to deal with these pests.”

“It wasn’t by choice,” I said, and told her the story.

Ambe shook her head. “I had no idea it had gotten so bad in the city,” she said. “All right, you didn’t do too badly. Now let me see what they think they have to say to me,” and cracked open the seal on her message.

I couldn’t see the message from where I was, but after a few seconds of reading she raised her eyebrows, and kept them raised. “Well,” she said. “They’ve gotten creative. You met with Sandavin?”

“And Rheux.”

“Oh, her. Ay. Well, this is much to think on. This may be too good a bargain for me to tell them to splash in my piss. Listen, I have to go into my workroom and meditate on some lore. Do you want to rest here for a time? There’s bread and cheese in the next chamber.”

And that’s what I did. I went easy on the bread and cheese, though; I figured everything would be a little easier now and I’d be able to eat much more regularly. Why wouldn’t that be true?

Love,

Ybel