A Good End in Badside - Part XXII
The questioning proved to be a big waste of time. Either no one had seen
anything or they were hiding it. Considering the hatred the staff seemed to
feel towards Cressidus I wasn't all that surprised. I was pretty annoyed
though, enough so in fact that I confronted Silibar with the thought that
maybe one or more of her staff were conspiring with the murderer or
murderers of one of her guests. I tactlessly suggested this reflected poorly
both on both her management abilities and her guest's safety. She did not
receive this suggestion well and promised to further grill her staff, her
choice of words, not mine. I think I'll eat elsewhere in the future. She did
promise to keep me posted on whether she learned anything from them. I
decided to leave and call back at a later date.
I'd managed to escape getting too much rubble runner gore on me so my
happiness at being clean wasn't completely gone. Unfortunately I wasn't sure
where to turn next. Now I had two dead bright boys on my hands and someone
or someone's who were actively trying to hide things and obscure matters by
stashing rubble runners in inconvenient places. If I could figure out why
they were bothering I might have a better idea as to why the bright pair had
been killed in the first place. I decided that I would head back to the Sun
Dome and see if I could have a chat with Karial the Pure.
I started heading back across town. As I was crossing Founders Market a
crazy caught my attention. Normally I ignored the crackpots and nutters that
Pavis seems to attract. I've said it before but it bears saying again,
despite its size the population of Pavis is almost as diverse as that of
Glamour. And that includes nutters. You get all kinds here most of whom are
left to their crazy little existence by the authorities. They're all assured
a free lunch by the Deezola kitchen and they're hardly in danger of freezing
to death if they sleep outside. The thing about this crazy that caught my
eye though, beside his being nicely dressed for a nutter, was the company he
kept. He was standing on a big sandstone block and haranging the sparse
crowd who had bothered to listen to him and at his back on the block was an
elf.
I hate elves, no make that all aldryami. My people come from Rist way back
some of the original settlers after the Moonburn and from birth we got it
knocked into our heads that elves are bad news. My grandad always said,
"They'll be back one of these days. Mind my words sonny boy someday you'll
see hordes of them leafy bastards coming over the horizon and when they do
we'll all be doomed. Doomed, I tell ya!" I shook my head. Grandad was
another nutter but it's hard to go against generations of hate. I know the
Goddess teaches us to be tolerant of everyone and everything but She doesn't
have to live with 'em. I'd sooner kiss a vampire than an elf, hell I don't
even like to eat vegetables.
But as I was saying this nutter caught my eye because of his sidekick
sprout. The nutter looked all rational and sane for a nutter and the sprout
looked leafy and mysterious like they all do. I decided to amuse myself by
listening to the nutjob and edged closer to his stone. I was catching him
mid-rant it seemed.
"...and I tell you good folks that this is a time of turmoil. A time of
nearing greatness, of great deeds and great heroes. I do not know where
these visions come from, I only know that some force sends me visions to
share with you, mad rhymes for mad times as it were." He paused for breath
and then continued, "And I tell you we shall see a time when the Red Moon
passes from the Middle Air.."
It was at this point that I started looking around for Lunar soldiers. This
is not the sort of topic they like to hear.
"...and a new age will dawn. Will it be a time of darkness or of new light?
That is up to you my friends."
Sure enough right on cue my trained ear caught the sound of marching
sandals. I decided to make myself scarce. The sprout had caught the sound as
well and grabbed the nutter by the arm. He started to resist but the sound
of hobnails was getting loud enough to pierce even his fantasies so he
didn't resist. They headed away from the square back down Parade Way. Since
that route led most obviously to the Pavis Temple or the wall around the Big
Rubble as they'd never get through the gate there my curiosity as to just
where the hell they were going was peaked. Against my better judgment I
trailed along behind them.
The rest of the small crowd had of course dispersed before the soldiers made
them do so. Very smart move on their part. I couldn't move as fast as the
sprout or the nutter but I did see them climbing the steps of the pyramid
shaped temple to Pavis. So did the leader of the Lunar soldiers who had now
come into view. He let out a standard, "Stop on order of the governor" which
was ignored of course. When they got to the top of the pyramid they stopped.
The nutjob was standing staring back at the soldiers looking extremely
worried, as well he should, while the sprout just stood there like he was in
a trance or something.
The soldiers didn't bother racing to climb the pyramid and arrest these
evildoers since they were pretty much trapped. Like them I was sure that the
pair were goners. Boy, were we wrong. As the soldiers reached the bottom
step something came whipping over the top of the bloody wall of the Big
Rubble like a snake! I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a vine of some sort
and it appeared to be growing over the top of the wall. It grew all the way
down to the top of the temple where the sprout grabbed it by one limb and
the nutter around the waist with the other. Then it seemed to shrink and it
pulled them back up and over the wall!
To be continued.
Oliver
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