Chapter 46: A Good Book

Alcar pushed away his empty bowl of stew.

The mood had shifted notably around the taproom. Some of the soldiers at the other table were even singing, now. Etienne and Olynka had decided to ask Seluff for another round of ales. Alcar, however, shook his head and held up one hand as the feline server came over. “The dog’s tired,” he said.

“Well then,” said Olynka with a stiff nod. “Good night, my friend. And no hard feelings about that fire earlier. I know you were trying to help save Kora.”

“Thank you. With luck, we will see Leppie in the next village, and hear her news. I really hope that Kora escaped safely from the goblins.”

“Yeah. Me too.“

As he rose and picked up his bedroll from the sack at their feet, it occurred to Alcar that he still only had a single copper to his name. “Uh... how much do you think they charge for ale and stew,” he said in a lower voice, reaching into one of the outer pockets of his robes.

“Relax, man,” said Etienne with a grin, patting his own coin pouch. ”I got you, man. I looted the bodies of those goblins and wargs before I set out. The wargs had nothing of value, of course, but I got a total of thirty five copper and twelve silver from the fallen goblins. That should set us up pretty well for the rest of the journey.”

Olynka smiled, nodding. “Good thinking, Etienne!”

“Yep. Oh, and not to forget these...” He reached inside his cloak and pulled out three small vials, each containing a glittering red liquid. “Healing potions. We can take one each.” He set them down on the table.

“Thanks,” said Alcar warmly, picking up one potion and tucking it inside his robes with his other jars and bottles.

“At a guess,” added Etienne, looking around the room, “I’d say we’ll be charged about ten coppers in total for our drinks and food in a scummy place like this. Perhaps a little more, depending on how many Olynka and I get through before bed! So please, take your share of the coin. Safest if we divide it between us, anyway.”

Alcar nodded, sweeping up the eight copper pieces and four silver that Etienne now put down in front of him. It occurred to him that he only had the little halfling’s word for how much the goblins had had to begin with.

But on the other hand, without Etienne’s efforts, they would have nothing.. so perhaps it didn’t matter too much if the little rogue had skimmed off an extra share, or tucked away a couple of extra valuables...

“Good night, then.”

As Alcar led Brutus upstairs to the communal bunkhouse above the taproom, soldiers were still singing downstairs – louder than before, it seemed. He wondered how well he would sleep with the noise, and amid the unfamiliar and threatening surroundings.

On the other hand, he felt truly exhausted.

He pushed his way into the upper area – a single room that was almost as large as the taproom below. One side of the room had a long tiered sleeping area with long bunks, rather like two enormous shelves, with a short ladder at either end leading to the upper of the two. Each bunk was lined with horsehair matting. The opposite side of the room was clear but for a few windows, with pegs on the wall in between them. The entire area was lit by just a pair of lanterns at either end, burning low.

On the sleeping area, there were no soldiers. Alcar supposed that they all slept in the tower. But he could make out the figures of four travellers under blankets, all on the upper bunk. There was room for at least a dozen on both sleeping areas, without anyone having to get too cozy.

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He leaned his staff against one of the pegs, and then chose to clamber onto the lower, unoccupied upper sleeping area, at the far end of the room. He was used to sleeping alone in the tiny chamber of the side of his father’s workshop, and the further he could be from other people, the better. And while he could see the appeal in being higher up – it was no doubt safer – he wanted Brutus to be close to him. And sure enough, the hound bounded onto the area beside him and curled up. Alcar rubbed at the dog’s neck and ears as he settled down.

The lower area also had rather better light, as the lanterns were hung low on the walls at either end of the room. Staying close to the end edge of the bunk and therefore in a pool of slightly better light, Alcar now began to pull out some of the many objects that he had accumulated in his robes over the past couple of days, as well as those that he had been carrying since Xian’s shop:

3 small empty jars

4 small empty vials

2 pieces of white chalk

2 pieces of ivory parchment

1 piece of dark parchment

Unidentified brown underground fungi

Unidentified tree moss

One vial with a healing potion

One vial of octopus ink

2 feather quills

‘The lost portal of Dathmir’ by Gorba Longtongue

A two-foot length of red cord

He now rolled all of the objects other than the book up in his robes, and pulled off his boots and tunic. He then rolled up the tunic so that it could function as a pillow, snuggled down inside the bedroll, and opened the book.

The first chapter recounted an episode of history that was well known to most of the moderately well-educated youngsters around the Empire – the rebellion of Dathmir, and how that uprising, led by the rebel warlord Gaax van Genke, was eventually crushed by Zoltan III of Varia.

As Alcar skimmed through the tale, he noticed that it took a considerably more sympathetic view of van Genke than did the history books that had been used for his own education, referring to the rebel swordsman as a ‘hero’. In some ways, that perspective wasn’t new to Alcar – many people around Katresburg hated the Empire and had much close ties to Dathmir than to Varia. Still, he hadn’t seen such views written down before.

It became more interesting still in the second chapter; the book now recounted the author’s own recollections of interviews with certain key members of the Dathmiri rebellion, including van Genke himself, as well as eyewitness accounts of Varian atrocities. “I’m going to need to read this more carefully,” he muttered to himself. “Olynka and Kora would love this stuff.”

All the same, he had begun to wonder whether Master Maluhk had shared the book simply as a piece of propaganda, when he reached the third chapter, and the entire tone of the text changed. Now, Gorba Longtongue (if that was indeed the author’s name) began to address the reader directly, explaining a last-ditch plan to defend Dathmir City, involving sorcerers and necromancers.

“Is this where the lost portal comes in?” Alcar murmured, as he turned one page after another.

And then Alcar stopped dead; the page he had just reached listed a long line of incantations as part of what appeared to be method for opening (or perhaps re-opening) an ancient magical portal to another world.

Among the enchantments were two familiar sounding phrases: rac al manuhka and rac et weimannia. The very same phrases that his master had taught him back in Katresburg. But there were several other phrases dotted around in the text, none of which Alcar had ever heard his master say:

rac al sintreta

rac sin trimannia

parohk al duphinoise

zek du manuhka

“That’s funny,” Alcar muttered, reading on with growing excitement.

Then, as Alcar’s gaze skimmed to the foot of the page, he noticed that the final section of this chapter appeared unfinished; it was written in pen, and several phrases were scored out. Finally, it ended with.

The last...

Still haven’t managed to...

Find out more at the Academy of Sorcery in Varia City.

(currently too dangerous for goblins).

Alcar turned to the next chapter of the book, only to find it blank. He flicked through several dozen blank pages; the only further words were two names at the end listed as the translators of the book: Connor Champion and Jadon Sancho, plus, beneath those, a dedication to someone by the name of Draco Silver, ‘the inspiration behind the writings’, according to Longtongue.

Even as he closed the book, Alcar’s mind was still racing. Could it be he wondered, that Master Maluhk had wanted him to find and try out these particular phrases, in lieu of sorcery lessons?

It seemed to him very likely.

And as for the portal, was that also something that Maluhk wanted him to know about? Could it form part of their plan to seat the von Dathmir family on the throne of Katresburg, perhaps? Or an even broader rebellious mission that they hadn’t yet explained?

If, so, he would need to find out more. A lot more. But how, and where? It looked very much as if he would have to be patient, and find out more from Lox’aar, Maluhk and Warlik when they were all finally reunited.