The Brotherhood of the Blade
By Deuce Traveler
Chapter Five
Gentle hands held him and
pulled him from the pile of trash. He regretted that instantly,
being packed in there was like being back in the womb.
Surrounded, safe, and away from the outside world. Could there be
a better place to die then back where it all started, in a womb?
Thoughts such as these kept him warm.
"Is he dead? Oh no, he looks dead." He heard a
concerned feminine voice say.
"I think he is, love. I'm sorry, but he's not breathing and
that wound looks like it pierced the heart or close to it."
A man answered the woman.
"I'm alive, I'm just getting ready to die and I smell like a
trash heap, but it's supposed to be a womb," Deuce answered
and wished they would just let him be and stop asking silly
questions.
"Wait! I just saw his lips move! Saint, he's alive!"
The bothersome woman said again.
"Bye the gods!" The man spoke now, and started reciting
words in a strange tongue. His hands touched Deuce, and Deuce
could feel an energy flow into him.
As his life returned to him so did pain, and he almost went into
shock again. "Oh, wow. That hurts," Deuce exclaimed in
pain, gripping onto his now rebleeding wound.
"Hold on, Deuce, I've almost sealed the wound." Deuce
looked up to see the middle-aged Saint standing above him,
casting another spell. His fiance, Angeli looked over his
shoulder concerned. "You should be dead, what the hell
happened? Half the city wants your head, and I haven't been very
successful in explaining that you're usually a halfway decent
young man, just a little on the wayward side."
"Well if you put it like that to them, no wonder they don't
think I'm the holiest of men," Deuce grunted as Saint
continued to work.
"Heh! Ok, I'm convinced. He's fine." Angeli's worried
face softened, "So do tell us what you were doing in a trash
heap. When Saint and I heard that the Riversy guards were after
you he cast a spell to find where you were and we both came
looking for you."
Deuce explained everything that had happened as Saint worked on
his wound. Every now and then Saint would stop to listen in
surprise, or Angeli would ask Deuce to clarify something, but he
was able finish his tale by the time Saint was done fixing his
wound.
"Ok, I'm done with your wound, although it took a lot out of
me. You're a very lucky man."
The rogue agreed with the priest on that assessment. "Luck
of the devil, that's me. I've gone and gotten myself branded as
an outlaw, I didn't get paid for my last job, I got stabbed by
one of my oldest friends, but hey, I'm alive, right?"
"Right. What I'm wondering is what's in that drawer of Dr
Jonas. You boys be good and rest. I'll come back with some
information, and some water and food since I don't think Deuce
can get up and walk around Riversy shopping right now,"
Angeli said and walked down the alley.
Forty minutes later she came back to see that Deuce and Saint
were going through the garbage heaps, looking for disguises Deuce
could wear. Although she was glad to see that desk work didn't
stop her fiancee from getting his hands a little dirty when the
need permitted, she really wasn't keen on the idea of his hands
smelling like Deuce smelled right now. She liked his hands too
much. Any disguise they would have found would be an improvement
for moving around the city in the now early afternoon daylight (a
man in a black skin tight suit in broad daylight attracts
attention), but the smell would still be horrible.
Saint looked up at his lover. "Hey, dear. How did it
go?"
"Not bad," came the answer as she tossed down a small
bag filled with loaves of bread, wine, and some peaches,
"although I am puzzled by the papers Dr Jonas' assistant was
so kind to show me. "You see, Dr Jonas is in charge of
setting up the schedule and seating arrangements for Mayor
Bingle's Riversy Dignatary's Recognition Ceremony. The papers
were just copies of Dr Jones work on who will sit where during
the ceremony and its schedule of events."
Deuce pondered, "So if the part about the Brotherhood of the
Blade trying to teach high level officials a lesson is true, but
not by blackmail, what does this mean?"
Saint and Angeli looked in each others eyes for a moment,
communicating mentally between themselves. Finally, Saint nodded
and looked at Deuce, "What it means is that it's not a
lesson using blackmail. They plan to kill one of the dignitaries
to put fear into the rest of them. What a better lesson than to
show them that they can strike anytime and anywhere, even during
such a highly guarded event. The ceremony takes place right in
the center of Riversy Castle, right in the King's garden."
"So my second job was going to be unlocking some of the rear
doors in the guard towers and getting them inside Castle Riversy.
Not an easy job, but I've done it before."
"The ceremony should be starting by now, Dr Jonas was
heading to it," Angeli said in alarm.
Saint and Angeli were highly respected in the community. They
could get into Riversy Castle with no problem, but wouldn't be
able to identify Ratschoon. Deuce could identfiy Ratschoon quite
easily, but would have a hell of a time getting into the castle
since his was a known face and he was now an outlaw. "Why
don't you two get into the caste and see if you can find anything
out of the ordinary. I'll try to slip into the garden through a
back way." Saint and Angeli readily agreed, and headed off
at a run. There were two places to enter the Riversy river that
flowed underneath the city from his area. One was safer and in
the slums, but would take longer to work through. The other was a
few houses down behind the Riversy Theatre. Deuce grabbed a
smelly cloak, put the hood over his head, wrapped it around
himself, and headed out into the Riversy streets.
Running from the dump he headed at a run towards the Riversy
Theatre. He got through unmolested from the crowd, who wanted to
stay away from what seemed to be a bum that smelled of the slums.
A few guards noticed him close to the theatre, however, and
started to follow him, being naturally suspicious of any man that
day who covered his face and ran through the streets like a bat
out of hell. Deuce reached the entranceway to the Riversy
Theatre, however, threw off the cloak, and quickly purchased a
ticket to go in. Deuce looked back to see that the guards got
into the entranceway right when he started going through the
doors. The ticket seller was giving them a hard time, telling
them he didn't care who they were and what they were doing, they
weren't going to get in without buying tickets.
The show had reached intermission, and Deuce pushed through the
crowd of play critics, families, and even ignored the occasional
pick pocket. He pushed himself to the front of the audience and
leapt onto stage, causing gasps from some in the crowd, and
started to head backstage. A stagehand put a hand up to stop him,
and got a punch in the nose for his trouble. Deuce got to the
dressing rooms unmolested, opened up a rear door, and stepped up
to a river. This river flows underneath Riversy and from Laketown
to the east, and towards Rodby to the west. It also flows from
the Riversy Theatre to the Riversy Castle gardens. Deuce jumped
right in, figuring he needed to do something for his stench
anyway.
He floated down river, trying to keep his head down near posted
guards. From the theatre it only took ten minutes to silently
flow into the gardens. Pulling himself gently onto the shore,
Deuce slipped into some thick bushes. Peeking from the his hiding
spot he could see that the ceremony was still going on. Mayor
Bingle, Doctor Jonas, the High Priest, and other noblemen were
all present. Some unknown nobleman was giving a speech. Angeli
and Saint had punch in their hands and looked to be just
mingling. However, Saint looked directly in Deuce's direction.
"Deuce, glad to see you could make it," Saint's voice
suddenly sounded in Deuce's head, "Angeli and I haven't
found anything, but can you somehow sneak up to the castle wall
and towers? No one except the guards are allowed in there, so we
can't investigate it without causing a scene." Deuce simply
started moving towards the stairs, not having the telepathic
abilities of Saint. The voice sounded again, "Ah, I sense
you are moving towards them, good man."
Deuce found the stairs to the top level guarded by two soldiers
with pikes. However, they were a good ten feet in front of the
door to the guard tower, and distracted by the ceremony. Deuce
slipped behind them and started climbing up the tower. He reached
the second floor without incident, but as he climbed up towards
the third, some guards came from a door on the second floor door
and happened to look up. The Riversy guard in the front gasped,
"Oh my lord. That's him! It's Deuce Traveler!"
"Oh hell," Deuce yelled as he ran up the stairs and
burst through the third floor door. And he ran right into five
members of the Brotherhood of the Blade disguised as Riversy
guards, led by a speechless Ratschoon. The five of them were
forty feet away from the door he just came from, two of them
loading crossbows. Before they or Deuce could act, the five
members of the real Riversy guards finally made it up the steps.
Ratschoon grinned at Deuce's misfortune, "It's Deuce
Traveler," he yelled to the real Rivery guards, "the
madman plans to kill the guests! Get him!"
Eight men began to converge on Deuce as two others continued to
load their crossbows. The rogue whipped out his two slim dark
daggers and did the only thing he could think of. He yelled at
the top of his lungs, "Saint! Help!" A sword slashed at
him from behind, and he dodged it while he parried a slash from
in front of him with a dagger. A third blade got through and
grazed a rib, leaving a thin red cut.
Suddenly, the air shimmered in front of Deuce and Angeli and
Saint seemed to appear from nowhere. Deuce immediately yelled,
"The guys in front of me are Brotherhood, the guys behind me
are real Riversy guards!" Saint stood in front of the
Riversy guards and with the force of his prestige alone, was
beginning to order them to stand down. Angeli simply nodded and
waded into the fray in front of her ally. Together Angeli and
Deuce started to push Ratschoon and his two henchmen with swords
back a few steps. The two men behind them had finished loading
their crossbows, however.
Ratschoon yelled behind his back at his crossbowmen, "Fire
at the target, damn it! Make the kill and we can get out of
here!" The two crossbowmen started raising their bows to a
firing position.
Angeli, the Golden General, roared in anger, and slammed the
Brotherhood rogue to the ground. Ratschoon was hit with such
force that he slid past his bowmen on the tiled stone floor. One
of his henchmen slashed her in her shield arm as she pushed past
him, but ignoring the pain, Angeli reached the closest bowman on
her next bound. Panic filled his eyes as he saw her barreling
down upon him. He raised his crossbow up in a futile attempt to
block her warhammer. Her hammer crushed the crossbow, knocking it
out of his hands, continued, and split his skull. The second
crossbowmen hesitated for a split second, but that was all the
time Deuce needed. Blocking a swing from the second sword
wielding henchmen with his left hand, Deuce threw his second
dagger with his good right hand at the remaining crossbowman. The
aim was true and pierced the man's neck. He died gurgling, trying
to pry the slim dark dagger from his throat.
Angeli yelled, "Deuce, go get Ratschoon, I can handle two of
these bastards!"
Deuce nodded and ran past her towards his nemesis. Both Ratschoon
and Deuce reached the corpse of the second crossbowman at the
same time. Deuce reached for his embedded dagger, and Ratschoon
for the second chance to use the loaded crossbow. As Ratschoon
lifted the crossbow, Deuce reached out with a kick in between his
legs. Ratschoon's shot went wide as his eyes widened in surprise,
doing no damage to anyone below, but causing a lot of chaos to
erupt below as the bolt embedded itself into a garden table.
Guards were beginning to be heard coming up other towers. Angeli
stood off against Ratschoon's henchmen , Saint still tried to
convince the Riversy Guards not to join the battle against Deuce,
and the two rogues battled.
Ratschoon slashed Deuce across the chest, recovering from the
kick to the groin that he had received. Deuce returned his slash
with a punch that rebroke Ratschoon's recently set nose.
Screaming in outrage, Ratschoon blindly slashed at Deuce and was
easily dodged, as Deuce drove a dagger into Ratschoon's ribs.
Ratschoon screamed in pain, dealt Deuce another gash across his
chest. Behind Deuce, Angeli made two expert swings and caved in
the skulls of both her opponents and began to run toward the
fighting rogues. Suddenly, six Riversy guard archers burst from a
tower in behind Ratschoon as the two former friends continued to
wrestle one another. The guards were led by the guard Ratschoon
and Deuce ran by the last night.
"There they are, both killers who assassinated poor Private
Allan last night! Kill those bastards!" On his command, the
six archers knocked arrows and aimed at the two rogues.
Deuce naturally started leaning away from the archers and towards
the wall. Ratschoon smiled, grappled a shocked Deuce closely, and
threw his own weight towards the wall, causing both rogues to
start going over the wall and towards the rocks below. "Ha!
I'm going to die anyway, I'll see you in hell Deuce!"
"Deuce!" Angeli screamed. She saw two arrows slam in
the tangle of rogues as they went over. Saint was already
transporting himself to the outside wall of Riversy.
Deuce was falling, and as the ground rushed up to meet him, he
punched Ratschoon in the face, untangled himself from the other
rogue, and kicked off the wall. He thought he would never forget
the look of shock on Ratschoon's face as Deuce sailed slightly
past him and into the moat. The cold water slapped against his
body, stinging his face and chest, and for a moment he blacked
out.
Deuce came out of the moat choking and splashing. He winced as he
climbed to shore and realized the impact with the water still
caused him to break two ribs. His breathing labored, Deuce walked
over to where he thought Ratschoon fell. He found him, bones
shattered, two arrows lodged in his side, bleeding from his ribs,
and the life in his eyes fading fast.
"Goodbye, Ratschoon. The only thing I wish is that you could
have been the type of man whom I would have mourned your
passing," Deuce Traveler said and watched the light fade
from his enemies eyes.
A voice sounded behind him, "You're still alive? And
walking? Don't tell me you made the moat? Luck of the
devil!" Deuce turned to see a smiling Saint, and couldn't
help grinning himself.
"Luck of the devil? Definitely. I just got shot at, fell off
a castle wall, broke some ribs, I smell like a cross between
garbage and moat water, but hey, I'm alive."
Epilogue
Saint, Deuce, Rook, Esk, and
Angeli sat around a table at the Griffin Lounge Inn. It wasn't
Deuce's favorite place in Riversy, but at least the company was
good. Saint, Angeli, and Deuce had finished telling Esk and Rooks
about all the fun they had missed. Rooks had spent most of the
day checking up on his lemmings, and Esk had just come back from
an expedition in Quilininn.
"So," Esk began to ask, "you have no idea who the
Brotherhood of the Blade was trying to kill, so you don't have
anyone you can question about what they did to tick them off. You
have no idea where their homebase is or who works for them. And
you can't be sure what this killer said was true, and even if the
Brotherhood of the Blade is a real organization. On the plus
side, the Riversy guards have forgiven Deuce, and he won't be
hunted down anymore...until he finds trouble again."
Deuce smiled, "Right! But you also forgot that Saint,
Angeli, and I did get paid a few hundred coins each, by Mayor
Bingle for 'risking our lives for the city' or some such
nonsense. What this means is that I have enough money to either
live comfortably for a week, or get trashed for the next two
nights... hmmm, decisions... decisions...."
"Now be good! You got to take better care of yourself since
who knows when you'll get a job again," Rooks began.
"Nah, who am I kidding, I'll match you beer for beer
tonight."
"You're on, Rooks. And I deserve to party it up anyway. I
fell off a friggin' castle a few days ago, for goodness sake. As
for money, something always comes up. And you only live once,
unless you got the luck of the devil."
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