"So, what now?" asked Tara, as she and Xeron
stepped back out into the streets. "We can't really make a move until that
sorcerer does, so should we just stay in Clauston for now?"
"I think that would be best," said Xeron.
"We can stock up on supplies, and I'm sure there are plenty of people here
who'll have work for us. It's a huge city, after all."
"So, where should we go first?" asked Tara.
"I think if we're going to be spending a lot of time
here, we should go find a place to stay first," said Xeron. "I saw a
nice-looking inn near the city gates, we should see if they have any rooms
spare."
"Good idea," said Tara.
The two headed off back towards the southern gates, and
within half an hour they had booked a room at the Three Sisters Inn for the
next week. This, they felt, would be ample time to earn some money, stock up on
supplies, and sharpen their fighting skills, and given the pattern of his
attacks so far, the sorcerer would most likely have shown himself again by
then.
Their next destination was the Market District, in the
southeast of the city. Not only was it conveniently close to the inn, but it
contained the largest range of items for sale in one place in the whole
kingdom. By the time they'd finished shopping, Tara had some new clothes, Xeron
had a new iron chestplate and lance, and their supply of potions and remedies
had been significantly replenished. Their funds, however, were starting to run
low, and so the pair turned their attention to finding work.
"I wonder if it's worth checking the Lower Quarter,
near the docks," said Xeron. "It's the poorest, roughest part of the
city, and there's always a lot of crime happening there. It's a dangerous
place, but we might be able to earn a lot of gold through collecting bounties,
or righting wrongs or whatever."
"That sounds good to me," said Tara. "I
mean, it can't be any more dangerous than when we defeated that Shoukan back in
Hilston, can it?"
"Good point," said Xeron. "Alright, Lower
Quarter it is, then."
The Lower Quarter was in the southwest of the city,
located on the other side of the gate. There were significantly less people out
in the streets of this part of town, perhaps because of its reputation as a
hotbed of crime. Tara saw several run-down, dilapidated buildings, some of which still seemed to be
inhabited. The golden pavement beneath them was chipped and cracked, and in a
few places missing completely, foot-wide chunks of earth poking out from amidst
the tiles.
"Why doesn't the King try and renovate this part of
the city?" asked Tara. "The longer it's left like this, the worse
it'll get. Some of these buildings don't even look inhabitable!"
"He doesn't have any incentive," said Xeron.
"It'd take too long, cost too much, and there'd be no guarantee it'd
actually fix anything. So I guess he's just gonna leave this part of the city
to rot."
Tara looked quite upset at this, but she realized there
was nothing they could do about the state of the Lower Quarter. Fixing something
like this was far beyond their power. Instead, she turned her attention back to
the here and now. There appeared to be a street brawl happening a little way
down the road they were walking on, and Tara felt Xeron tug on her shirt sleeve,
gently steering her towards a side alley. "We should go a different
way," he muttered. "We don't wanna get caught up in something like
that."
"But we could help!" Tara objected. "We
could stop the brawl, or something-"
"If the royal guard catch us getting involved in
something like that, they'll probably arrest us too," said Xeron.
"It's best that we try and stay out of trouble until-"
"Stop right there!" From out of the shadows in
front of them burst a young woman with tanned skin and dirty grey clothes. Her
left eye was covered with a black eyepatch, with a long scar just visible behind
it. What caught Xeron and Tara's attention, though, was the jagged knife held
in her hand, pointed straight at them. This young woman was trying to rob them.
"Hand over all your gold, and nobody gets
hurt!" said the woman.
Xeron's response was to lift up his lance, as though to
bring attention to it. "You sure you wanna do this?" he asked.
The woman seemed a little intimidated, no doubt realizing
that the man she was trying to mug wasn't just some random citizen, but she tightened
her grip on her knife and put on a brave face. "This is your last
chance!" she said. "Hand over the money or I'll cut you!"
Xeron sighed, and launched himself into battle. The
resulting fight happened too fast for Tara to make out what had happened, but
at the end of it, the would-be robber was sprawled against the wall of the
alleyway, wincing in pain, and Xeron was stood over her, holding her knife in
one hand and his lance in the other. Judging from the lack of blood, he must
have only used the shaft of his lance to strike her, rather than the tip. Xeron
pocketed the knife, and reached out towards the girl, presumably to pull her to
her feet.
"Whoa, whoa, wait!" said the girl hurriedly,
holding up her hands in a gesture of peace. "Don't arrest me! I don't
wanna go to jail again! Look, if you let me go, I can give you some good info!
You guys aren't from around here, right? I can tell you all this city's little
secrets!"
Xeron paused, a look of intrigue on his face. "What
kind of secrets?" he asked.
Sensing Xeron was taking the bait, the girl relaxed a
little. "Well, you're friend over there's a Witch, right?" she asked.
"I can just tell, y'know? Don't worry, I ain't gonna tell anyone. Anyway,
she's probably having a hard time looking for spellbooks and mana potions,
right? Well, there's a place right here in the city where she can go to get
more. But I'll only tell you where it is if you let me go. We got a deal?"
Xeron glanced over at Tara, seeking her approval, and
Tara swiftly nodded. She really did need new spellbooks and a supply of mana
potions if she was going to continue to be useful to Xeron, and besides, she
felt rather sorry for this poor girl, reduced to petty theft in order to get by. Judging from
the looks of her, she was probably homeless as well. It seemed Xeron agreed
with her sentiments, for he then nodded in turn. "We have a deal," he
said.
The girl breathed a sigh of relief, and scrambled to her
feet. "You won't regret this," she said. "Alright, follow me.
It'll be easier if I just show you where it is."
"How do I know I can trust you?" asked Xeron.
"Well, what do I got to gain from tricking
you?" asked the girl. "A one-way ticket to jail? No thanks."
"Point taken," said Xeron. "Lead the
way."
No comments:
Post a Comment