Into The Darkness

Fernao nodded, politely but without intending to encourage further conversation. But, as he drank a little more wine, he could not help start ing to size up the man across from him. And, once he'd started, he found he couldn't stop. The fellow spoke unaccented Lagoan, but he didn't look like a native of King Vitor's domain. Lagoans were more various in their appearance than the folk of many kingdoms - Ferriao's slanted eyes said as much - but very few were dark and stocky and heavily bearded.

Even fewer wore trousers. That was a Kaunian fashion no kingdom sprung from Algarvic stock had ever adopted. Taken all in all, the stranger might have been put together out of pieces from three or four different puzzles.

He also noticed Fernao scrutinizing him, which he wasn't supposed to do. He smiled again, a surprisingly charming smile from a man less than handsome. After another sip at his hot cider, he said, "Am I correct in understanding, sir, that you are more than a little skilled at getting into and out of places where others might possibly not want to go?"

A trip into Feltre despite the anger of the Sibian Navy qualified Fernao to answer aye. He did nothing of the sort, instead saying, "You are correct in understanding, sit, that my business is my business - and no one else's unless I choose to make it so."

The fellow across the table from him laughed gaily, as if he'd said something very funny. Fernao knocked back his wine - the taverner, no doubt, would be pleased - and started to get to his feet. Where nothing else had, that made the stranger lose his too-easy smile. "Please, sit, don't go yet," he said in a voice that, despite its polite tones, held iron under neath.

His right hand rested, broad palm down, on the tabletop. He m ight have had some sort of weapon - a cut-down stick, perhaps a knife - under it. But when he lifted it, taking care that Fernao and no one else could see what he did, he revealed not a weapon but the sparkle of gold.

Fernao sat back down. "You have engaged my attention, at least for the time being. Say on, sir."

"I thought that might do the trick," the stranger said complacently.

"You Lagoans have the name of being a mercenary folk. That you trade with both sides during the current unpleasantness does nothing to detract from it."

"That we trade with both sides shows a certain common sense, in my view," Fernao said. "That you sneer at my people does nothing to attract me to you. And, if we are to continue this discussion, give me a name to call you. I do not deal with nameless men." Unless I have no choice, he thought but did not say aloud. Here, though, the choice was his.

"Names have power," the man across the table from him observed.

"Names especially have power in the mouth of a mage. But you may call me Shelomith, if you must stick a handle on me as if I were a hot pot."

"If whatever notion you have in mind could not bum me, you would have approached me in a different way," Fernao said. And Shelomith was not the name with which the stranger had been born. It sounded like one the barbarous Ice People used. Whatever blood ran in Shelornith's veins, it was not from that stock. Fernao went on, "You have shown me gold. I presume you have in mind paying me some. How do you expect me to earn it?"

"This for listening," Shelomith said, and shoved the coin he had concealed across to the mage. It showed the fuzzy-bearded king of Gyongyos, whose image was bordered by an inscription in dernotic Gyongyosian script, which Fernao, recognized but could not read. He did not think the coin's origin said anything about what Shelomith had in mind. Gold circulated freely all across the world, and a crafty man could use it to conceal rather than to reveal. As if to point in that same direction, Shelomith spoke again: "For listening - and for your discretion."

"Discretion goes only so far," Fernao said. "If you ask me to betray my king or my kingdom, I will do nothing of the sort. I will shout for a constable instead."

He wondered if Shelomith would find urgent business elsewhere on hearing that. The stranger only shrugged wide shoulders. "Nothing of the sort," he said in reassuring tones. Of course, he would have said the same thing had he been lying. He went on, "You may remain apart from the proposal I shall put to you, but it could not offend even the most delicate sensibility."

"Such a statement is all the better for proof," Fernao said. "Tell me plainly what you want from me. I will tell you if you may have it and, if so, at what price."

Shelomith looked pained. Fernao got the idea that asking him to speak plainly was like asking the Falls of Leixoes to flow uphill. At last, after another long pull at his cider, he said, as he had before, "You are, are you not, good at getting into and out of tight places?"

"This is where we began." The mage made as if to get up again, this time with the goldpiece in the pouch on his belt. "Good morning."