Jenn had to dodge suddenly as a heavy set woman tossed a bucket of water out an overhanging window above, down onto the street below. Jenn was quickly remembering why she hated cities so much. The narrow confines of the stone and stucco walls made her claustrophobic, and the crude behavior of the inhabitants, both the ones above and the ones like she was now stepping over on the street, made her uncomfortable. Dodging the occasional garbage or manure pile in addition to the periodic drunk didn’t help a lot either. Actually, given its relatively small size, Gizzor Del seemed to have an inordinate number of drunks. Those drunks probably came from the large number of taverns they’d been passing, filled even at this hour by rowdy looking patrons.
Animage, my herb garden, Jenn thought, returning to the subject at hand. Said subject was apparently torn between gawking at the city inhabitants and acting like he was going to be attacked at any moment, Jenn noted. He was certainly acting nervous and hesitant. Like he was hiding something, certainly he was behaving strangely, and such behavior piqued Jenn’s curiosity. He was a mystery, and it was kind of nice to have some other mystery to take her mind off her current series of problems.
The party, led by Gastropé, turned a corner, and Jenn had to dodge a teamster loading his wagon in the middle of the new street. She still had no clue what this book she had was. She only knew that Lenamare and Jehenna would want it back, and that they’d be annoyed to find she had it. If only she could find a way to open it. Of course, if she did, and either of those two air-filled wizards found out, she’d be in even bigger trouble. This of course assuming, Jenn thought as she bumped into Rupert while trying to avoid a man sitting on the edge of the street on a bench carving wood, that if they ever managed to make their way Freehold, that Lenamare and Jehenna would be there.
Getting to Freehold wasn’t yet a done deal, they were now further than ever from the city. While it was doubtful they’d have any more trouble from Exador, there was still the possibility of those stupid pirates at sea. Why did all this have to happen to her? Jenn wondered, squinting as sunlight suddenly found its way down onto the street they were walking on. Here she was, getting effectively hired to fight pirates on a sailing ship. How was she supposed to do that? How many damn weeds would there be on a pirate ship for her to entangle people with? Pirates would just be the fruit filling to her pie, she thought angrily.
Jenn didn’t even want to think about the long-term future. No school, scattered students and teachers, would her life ever return to normal? As things looked now, she might as well consider her education over. Hopefully, her parents could eventually get a refund for this year. They finally reached the dock area as they emerged from the buildings. Edwyrd was glancing all over at the harbor. Staring nervously at all the people wandering the docks, as if they were all out to get him.
Great! Jenn thought, he’s probably got people hunting him, who’ll now be hunting us, for all we know he’s probably an escaped convict or slave. Actually Jenn wasn’t sure they had slaves in this part of the world. Slavery was outlawed in Turelane, but earlier they’d passed by something that looked suspiciously like a slave block in one of the town squares. Jenn had never seen one before, but the raised platform with large numbers of posts with manacles brought old stories to mind. Personally, she found the whole process barbaric; forcing a human being into servitude against their will was reprehensible. Other cultures however, apparently didn’t share her view, or her land’s view of such things.
Jenn decided suddenly, as they walked onto the boardwalk of the pier that would lead them to their ship, that she was being too pessimistic. After all, the demon was gone. That was something to be grateful for; she didn’t like having demons around, even less when it was patently obvious that the thing wasn’t under someone’s direct control. It was rather worrisome about where it went, or where its friend, that bug-like demon, went to. She really didn’t like the idea of that multi-limbed horror buzzing around on some sort of bloodbath holiday. She’d have to mention something about it to Lenamare, maybe next time he conjured the big demon, he could make it tell him the smaller one’s name so it could be bound, so it wouldn’t hurt anyone.
The other reason that she decided that she was being overly pessimistic was that they’d managed to find a ship going where they wanted almost immediately. Who could ask for better luck? Even if she did have to play mercenary wizard. She really hoped it didn’t come to that though. She couldn’t do much about pirates; Gastropé could probably do a little, and neither Rupert nor Edwyrd would be useful. Even on the off chance that Edwyrd really was an animage, what could an animage do against pirates?
Actually, she really wasn’t sure exactly what the limitations on animages were. All she knew is that most were very good healers and that they tended to manipulate mana directly with their minds rather than with spells. Very strange, but she doubted if it was particularly effective. Given the vast amounts of mana required for any serious undertaking, the pure mental concentration would be insurmountable without a well-designed spell framework to control the energy. If he were an animage, she really would like to talk to him about his profession.
At this point the four had reached the ship. “Ahoy!” called Gastropé, yelling up to the top of a gangplank. A man in a red and white striped shirt stepped to the railing. The ship was a carrack, a three masted vessel with a large forecastle and sterncastle, and thus well suited for carrying passengers.
“Ahoy yourself,” called the stripe shirted man. “Are you then the wizards?”
“Indeed we are,” replied Gastropé.
“Then come on up,” the man called, “the captain is expecting you.” He disappeared beyond the rails. Gastropé went up, followed by Rupert, then Edwyrd who looked very unhappy at boarding the ship. Finally Jenn went up after Edwyrd. As she reached the top of the gangplank, a tall thin man with a large black mustache wearing a long blue coat emerged from a small door in the stern castle on the port side. The man nodded to Gastropé.
“Welcome wizard, these are the others?” he glanced at Edwyrd and Jenn, barely sparing a glance for Rupert.
“Yes, we’re all here and ready to go as agreed.” Gastropé said as he handed over two gold coins.
“Fine then, Evert will show you to your quarters.” He pointed to a barefoot and shirtless boy standing nearby. “There’s one for the three men,” he looked down at Rupert while saying this, “and one for the lady. You can take meals in the officer’s mess. Evert will show you that as well. The cook has food available at the first hour of the morning, midday and an hour before sunset.
“I’ll expect you to basically stay out of the way, unless we encounter pirates or some other problem you wizards can deal with. We’ll hit Hoggensforth in about five to six days. Any other questions?”
Jenn glanced at Gastropé, then at Edwyrd, both she and Edwyrd shook their head in negation and Gastropé said, “No, I don’t think so, captain.”
“Fine then,” the captain nodded. “Evert,” he motioned for the boy, and walked off towards the forecastle. Evert nodded respectfully towards them and motioned them to follow him down through the small doorway through which the captain had originally emerged. He first led them to a room on the port side. “This one’s for you three.” Gastropé nodded and opened the door. With a quick look at the cramped quarters and a nod towards Jenn he went in with his small bag of belongings. Rupert then Edwyrd followed him in.