It is two days past the festival of the Lawgiver and I find myself alone in this flea infested hostel. This city of Golden Gates can be as cold and indifferent as our father's study.
Richter is at the Cathedral and Geoffrey dices with the soldiers downstairs. I was tempted to join the dice game but have chosen instead to take a few quiet moments to reflect on events around us. Tomorrow we leave and head for Laurmal where we meet one of father's ships. He told me that it would have some trade items to help us reach the Damali tribe.
A drunk argues with a whore beneath my window. She kicks him and then steals his purse. I love this town, this coast. Seshnela has so much more life than Arolanit. Most importantly though is the fact that we are finally away from the Ever Vigilant Eye.
This morning in preparation for our trip Geoffrey purchased spare mounts. He bargained well and returned with a goodly sum unspent. I took the money he saved and tripled it at Bacnat. Richter , of course, insisted that we give a full third into the Prophet's keep. I showed him my second fullest purse and allowed him his third.
My ward has been triggered.....
I am mounted now and we are two hours north east of Frowal. It is three hours since my last entry. Richter returned from the cathedral. He killed a man there, curse his temper. "It was a duel" he said. Still the man had family, and as we know only too well- blood will tell
We pulled Geoffrey from his game. He was winning, not that he cares. For him the pleasure is in the talk with the soldiers. They accept him for he is of their ilk. Perhaps that is what he seeks....
They were in the stables. If no one has moved the hay then they are still there. I hope that they were just hire blades. If they were more family we may have just escalated hostilities to a very unpleasant level.
Richter says that there is a chapter house three hours along. He will stop there and pray for the man that he killed. Not for the men in the stables though. The first fought bravely face to face. The craven others attacked without warning from out of the dark. It seems that they are not worthy of Solace.
My strength begins to return. my vitality, my essence. Father says I spend too freely and yet if I had held back in the stable would any of us be here now. I don't know...
The Vicar-General Cuiltane has granted Richter absolution. As the duel was governed by Cardinal Erin of Frowal, and as it was of the Law and by the Law, he was given no penance.
Geoffrey has traded our mounts with the guardsmen. Only Richter's damn plow horse remains. I have shaped its' shoes and given them new form. I have also robbed its' socked leg of some strength and Geoffrey has tied a gatebreak. We will head East for a week before moving North to Laurmel. Hopefully our precautions will prevent them from tracking us.....
more later....
Bill Thompson.
"I remember gaudy days
when the year was springing:
Tammuz, Gilgamesh, and I
Clinking cups and singing..."
JMM-Silverlock
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