The Fireborn Road

3. The Wizard's Request

3

THE WIZARD'S REQUEST

Iona cracked the reigns angrily and they sped away in silence. Neither Derek nor Elor were daft enough to say anything, they just let her drive. The cold city air rippled over them as they crossed the Brightling Bridge on the way to the Guild District and they were met with a blast of salt coming from the sea. Derek fidgeted in his breeches; he was looking forward to getting back to the Guild. Even though he hadn't been into his Guild room for a while, he was fairly sure there was a pair of more comfortable trousers in there. They may well be threadbare and frayed from adventuring and quite possibly infested with lice or fleas, but even so, they were one hundred percent preferable to the fancy article he was currently wearing.

Elor cleared his throat and looked over at Iona. Her lips were still pursed and her cheeks were still flushed. At first, he had thought this was a serendipitous meeting as he had been hoping to see Derek and Iona in the morning in any case, but now it seemed that the only thing that he had gained out of this encounter was a free ride to the guild district. Mind you at this time of night, in this slightly chilly breeze, that was nothing to be sniffed at.

As they turned the corner into the guild district, they heard the Law Temple bell chiming midnight. As they drew up past the Merchants Guild, they saw the last stragglers leaving through the guild's massive front doors, ushered by the proctor holding a lantern. The square was dominated by the trade guilds – weavers and dyers, cartographers, bakers and all – who did their business during daytime. The imposing buildings were in darkness, looming out of the shadows and casting murky pools onto the cobbled square.

Scattered amongst them the less salubrious buildings belonging to the Bards, Warriors, Mages and Adventurers. These were still teaming with life, noise and soft yellow light. Iona drew the chaise to an abrupt halt outside the Adventurers Guild gate and Derek hopped out to open it. As they waited Iona turned to Elor, her whole countenance relaxed and she was smiling.

“Plum brandy?” she said genially and the wizard nodded with a relieved sigh and a broad grin, crape diem and all that.

Half an hour later, Elor was sitting comfortably in the outer kitchen of the Adventurers Guild warming his toes by the range. Derek was at the table dressed in a pair of holey, foul-smelling hoses and a faded tunic with a suspicious mildewy stain on one arm. He was staring bleakly into a beaker of stomach tonic, rubbing his belly and burping profusely.

Moments later Iona appeared, dressed in similar attire to Derek although her clothes were in somewhat better condition. She had taken her hair pins and combs out and her long auburn curls bounced on her back and shoulders. She looked tired but pleased with herself and she was carrying a stoneware bottle with a hand-written Paravelian label and three small tumblers.

“So, Elor, long time, no see,” she said, stifling a yawn as she filled the cups with syrupy purple liquid and handed Elor his. “What's new?” Iona took a delicate sip of her brandy and seemed to revive a little.

“Well,” said Elor pausing to pass his cup under his nose, “funny you should ask.”

After ten minutes of listening intently to Elor's explanation, Iona leant over and refilled his tumbler. She went to refill Derek's only to find it untouched. He gave her a pained look and she pulled the cup back towards herself with a smirk. She took his cup away and re-stoppered the bottle with a smirk.

“Let me see if I've got this correct, I'm not sure if I tuned out halfway through or not,” she said, dipping her finger into the liqueur and licking the sticky plum-flavoured residue. “You've spent the last nine months with your nose in a book researching Tartarian totems, you think there's something going on in Jaffria and you want us to do what about it?”

“Well, the Mages Guild was thinking of commissioning a party to set up a new chain of three new transport circles, one of near the middle kingdom’s border, one in the middle and the last down on the Jaffrian border at Asparlah. The Clan Council of Tartaria have agreed…”

“Yeah, yeah,” interrupted Iona yawning again, “I remember now – Salamander's dead, the portal circle network can be extended across the borders of Tartaria etcetera, etcetera. Have I forgotten anything important yet?” Elor shook his head and scowled. He knew that Iona was needling him for taking ten minutes to say something she had summarised in two sentences and he wasn't sure whether he was offended, amused or ashamed of himself.

“A few questions spring to mind,” continued Iona dipping her finger into her drink again. “First of all, how long do you think it will take?”

Elor took a deep breath. Apparently he had taken such lengths to explain the ideology and magical significance of the plan because the logistics were extremely unappealing. He fixed Iona with a sheepish look and said,

“Somewhere between six and eight months. It's a long way to Jaffria over land.” To his amazement, Iona didn't explode, she simply nodded grimly. Iona was a well-travelled woman who had crossed the continent overland before.

“Secondly,” she continued, “How much are you planning to pay us?” Elor, an adventurer himself when he had the time, knew this was make or break time – if they were discussing fees then the proposal was viable, for the right money.

“Well,” stalled Elor doing some quick calculations in his head and trying to work out what wouldn't be an insult. He hadn't expected to get to this stage of negotiation so quickly. Strictly speaking it was the Guildmaster who made these price arrangements, but as Derek was now sitting with his head on the table making little groaning sounds, Elor assumed it was okay to deal with Iona. “The Mages Guild were prepared to offer fifteen guilders plus a magical item or weapon each and reasonable expenses obviously, healing, food and such like.” Iona pulled a face, well aware that this was more than generous for this kind of work but not ready to settle. Elor, not as skilled in this kind of business arrangement added, “Of course, in addition, I was planning to offer an extra three guilders,” Iona raised her eyebrows incredulously, deliberately pushing her luck. Elor stammered and said, “Um, er, sorry an extra five guilders per person and of course, there's whatever spoils you can carry.” Iona's face broke into a smile.

“Okay,” she said, “sounds fair to me.” Elor could tell from the sparkle in her eyes that he'd been done but he didn't say anything. “I assume once we've set up the last circle in the chain we'll be able to use it to get home.”

Elor nodded and said with a dry chuckle,

“That's the theory, can't have you walking all the way back.”

“Good,” said Iona. “Just one more thing.” Elor smiled accommodatingly, fees and transport home were the main sticking points in any guild contract - everything else tended to be peripheral.

“How do you expect us, a group of simple adventurers, to know the intricate magic required to set up a portal network?”

Elor cringed as Iona flung some of his own pompous phrasing back at him.

“Ah, well that's the thing,” he said timorously, he had been deliberately leaving this part out. “As part of the commission, you would be expected to escort and protect two of our most prodigious portal mages. They'll be doing all the technical bits.”

This thought took a moment to catch up with Iona, she was having a horrible thought.

“When you say prodigious portal mages do you mean Gerard?” she said slowly. Elor snorted. He had been Gerard's first tutor at the Mages Guild and struggled to think of him in the same sentence as prodigious.

“No,” said Elor smirking, “as your luck would have it Gerard is not one of our most prodigious anything and besides which he's taken a leave of absence to study some kind of twaddle to do with magical flux and the moon.” Iona nodded, she could hardly blame him. Whatever she thought about Gerard, and she thought plenty, he had had a rough break in Freetown. In his position, she would have taken a leave of absence herself, although she would have been more likely to study some twaddle to do with all the different types of Jaffrian liquor imported into Aberddu. “You'll be taking Professors Augustus Bobang and Bertrand Crozier. I don't expect you've heard of them, they don't get out very much, not into the streets at any rate.”

Iona shook her head, this description was ringing the faintest alarm bells in her head. After a moment, she said,

“Okay, in that case, I have one more question.”

“Go ahead,” said Elor with trepidation. He had been expecting more of a reaction to the news that the party were to be escorting a pair of unworldly wizards.

“If we're not doing the magic, then why not send the Warriors Guild?”

It was not the question Elor had been expecting but never mind. At length, he said,

“Well, two things really. First of all, I wouldn't expect the Warriors Guild to be of any use in following up my other agenda. They probably wouldn't have much of a clue as to how to spell anomaly, never mind investigate one.”

Iona nodded, he had a point there, the Warriors Guild were not known for their intellect. Elor had explained his personal agenda quite thoroughly, and she wouldn't have sent them to follow it up either.

“So apart from the fact that the Warriors Guild have to take their boots off to make change at the marketplace, what was the other thing?” she said and Elor cringed. He'd been hoping she wouldn't ask but he knew it was a faint hope.

“It turns out that, even including the magic items and the likelihood of you causing some variety of diplomatic incident, you guys are still cheaper.” Elor, who had been expecting an angry tirade from Iona since he'd started, was confused when instead of exploding she just snorted with laughter.

“Okay,” she said when she had calmed down. “Well, obviously, we can't seal the deal without the approval of the Guildmaster which I suspect will have to wait until the morning.” As if to emphasize the point, Derek let out a loud grunting snore followed by another voluble belch.