Once again, we were someplace that only one of us could speak the local language. That person was me. Since coming to this world, my group had been working very diligently to master a couple of different languages. The first was the pidgin English that we used to communicate privately. Those language lessons had started falling by the wayside when they started being instructed competently in the Orcish of Glan Galwick, which was the predominant language spoken around our former home. Now, we were somewhere else once again and they would have to start back over learning a new language. I wondered how many borrow words from the other two languages would make their way into our everyday vernacular. I would have to find yet another language tutor. I expected that I would regularly be sent on missions and someone would need to be available to advance our business interests.
As we walked off the gangplank onto the dock, I mentally reviewed the task list that I had compiled during our voyage. The first thing we needed to do was sell our gold and exchange it for some more portable form of wealth. Carrying around sacks of dense metal was tiring and it was also a bit too obvious. Then, we needed to book passage on a riverboat to get to Kollavik. I had no idea how long those two tasks would take, so we also needed to find a place to stay for a couple of days.
I glanced at my group and honestly most of them were craning their necks around in various directions appearing like they were yokels who had never seen a city before. I didn’t blame them. The dock was bustling. Large cargo wagons were moving to various ships laden with goods. People were everywhere. There were sailors and stevedores, merchants, guards, and I assume the other types of people who liked to prey on others where wealth congregates. Although we were on one of the smaller docks, we passed ship after ship on our way to land. I saw humanoid creatures of types I couldn’t even name. I started worrying that some of our people would become distracted and injured from being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Finally, I gathered everyone together and spoke.
“I know this is quite the sight,” I said. “But spending all our time trying to take in the sights is a mistake. I would hate to come this far only to see one of you crushed by a wagon or separated from the rest of us and lost. There will be plenty of time for sightseeing. We have some business we need to conduct first, and we need to get out of this area to do it. Please, look out for each other and be mindful of your own surroundings. Mero, you are going to need to leash Kadar. If he goes running off then you will chase him and then we will have to follow you and we will end up wasting most of the day.”
Mero reached into his pack and attached a lead to Kadar’s prominently spiked collar.
“Keep the leash short,” I told him. “I think Kadar might be stronger than you are, at least right now.” I noticed that Mero was still walking fairly gingerly from all the training that Aleyda had been putting him through. I imagined that he was stiff, tired and sore.
Turning to Patrick, I continued. “I’ll lead. You ride herd from the back.”
We made it off the dock without mishap. I thought the dock was busy, but the pandemonium reached a crescendo once we finally reached land. Take everything that I had previously described and multiply it twenty fold. After all, our dock wasn’t the only one at the port. In fact, it was one of the smaller and more out of the way ones. People of dozens of races, many nonhuman, teemed around us. I stopped everyone again and starting trying to see over the crowd to find an exit from the dock area. I wasn’t tall enough, though. Finally, I addressed Xeng, the largest among us.
“Do you see a way out of this mess?” I asked him. “I can’t see over the crowd.”
He stood silently as his gaze swept over the area. “I think there may be a gate of some sort over in that direction,” he said, pointing inland at a forty five degree angle. “I am not certain though.”
“Hell, at least it’s somewhere to start looking,” I said. “You lead. Everyone else, be wary of pickpockets.”
Xeng started forging his way through the crowds. The rest of us followed in his wake. Xeng was honestly a really nice man, but his size and the intent look on his face would have fooled me if I didn’t know him. Not many people grew to his stature in this world. It might have something to do with poor nutrition or maybe genetics. Putting him in front, though, was something that I should have thought of immediately. Seeing him headed their direction with an intent look on his face, quite a few people made way for him. We slipped along behind him. At least he was tall enough to see where we were headed.
It probably took us fifteen to twenty minutes to make it a few hundred yards. If the whole city was like this, our stay would be both long and maddening. We passed warehouses as well as a variety of businesses dedicated to supplying the ships and their crews. Beyond the ordinary maritime suppliers, there were also taverns and brothels. I happened to the glance at Mero while we were passing one of the houses of ill repute and I thought that his eyes were about to pop out of his head due to the amount of skin on display from the whores who were calling out enticements to those walking past. I briefly tried to recall what it was like to be a pubescent young man with raging hormones. After thinking about it a little bit, I realized that there was no way I wanted to revisit that part of my life.
As we got closer to our intended destination, I realized that Xeng had, in fact, identified a gate out of the area. It was manned by a guard unit of some sort who seemed very interested in the business of those trying to enter the port area but who seemed to largely ignore those who were being disgorged from the port in a constant stream. When we finally got close enough to the gate to see through it out into the city, I mentally sighed in relief. The streets outside were still busy, it was a city after all, but the congestion was significantly better than the port area. When we made it through the gate, we found ourselves in a large public square of some sort. A market had been erected to the east of our location and it was doing a brisk business. I could smell the scents of many different types of food wafting toward us. The rest of the area was surrounded by businesses of one sort or another. I thought we probably wouldn’t get the best price for our gold near the port so I didn’t even bother looking at what the businesses sold. Then, my attention was drawn to Xeng. A couple of dirty looking teenagers, a boy and a girl, had approached him and were trying to converse with him. Of course, he couldn’t understand a word they said. I stepped over.
“What can I do for you?” I asked them.
“We were just wondering if you wanted to hire us to guide you around the city for the day?” the girl replied. “It’s easy to get lost here if you don’t know where you are going.”
I eyed the pair. Were they the down on their luck street children found in most major cities of this world, or was something else going on here? I knew that sometimes children were used as shills for thieves and robbers, but honestly I lacked the ability to know the difference. Having local guides would be convenient but I didn’t want to make a wrong choice and expose all of us to unnecessary risk.
“How much do you charge?” I asked her, eyeing her sallow skin and lank and greasy hair.
“A silver a day each if you pay for our meals, or three silvers a day each if we need to buy our own.”
They did look like they were poorly fed and hungry. Would I let my fear of treachery get in the way of my good deed for the day? I didn’t think so. Even if we were attacked, I think the attackers would get a little more than they bargained for. We had some stout fighters among us.
“All right,” I said. “You’re hired.” I reached into my pouch and pulled out a couple of silver coins. “Here’s your deposit. Don’t go running off just because I paid you in advance. I don’t mind feeding you but you need to understand that I don’t easily accept betrayal and the consequences for that betrayal would be pretty dire for you. If you do a good job for us, I will pay you a bonus at the end of the day.” Ah yes, the carrot and the stick. Never underestimate the power of a classic.
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Her eyes lit up a little bit when I told her they were hired. “Where can we guide you?” she asked.
“Before we get to that, what are your names?” I asked.
“I am Keti and this is my brother Davit,” she replied, gesturing to the male who was obviously a year or two younger than she was, even though he was a little taller but equally thin. “You won’t regret this! We’ve lived here all our lives.”
“How did you find yourselves on the street?” I asked.
“It was plague,” the boy said. “Two years ago, a sickness swept through the city. Both of our parents died.”
“I am sorry to hear about your parents,” I said. “You both have had a rough time of it.” I don’t think they were accustomed to receiving sympathy. Both of them looked a little distrustful at my simple offer of compassion.
“We are headed to Kollavik,” I told them. “We need three things from you. First, we need a decent place to stay. Nothing extravagant, mind you, but somewhere clean and comfortable enough. Then, if there is someplace that goldsmiths practice their trade, we need to go there. Finally, we will need passage to Kollavik on a riverboat of some sort. Can you help us with these things?”
“The first two, we can help you with easily,” Keti replied. “The last one will be more difficult. The riverboat captains are in the port area and we aren’t allowed there.”
Of course they were in the port area. They were likely at some other dock closer to the river and we hadn’t even investigated things. Way to go, James.
“Do you want the place to stay or the goldsmiths first?”
“The place to stay,” I said. “A little ways from the port but not too far.”
“Follow us,” she said. “Do you know when you might stop for lunch?”
Right. They probably hadn’t eaten yet today. I reached into my pack where I had a little bit of trail food and produced a couple of large pieces of elan jerky. “Here,” I said, handing them each one. “Gnaw on this until it’s lunch time.”
They both were clearly ravenous. They immediately started chewing on the jerky. “Follow me,” Keti said somewhat unintelligibly through a mouth stuffed with dried meat.
We followed the pair. They led us out of the square down a fairly well traveled street. As we departed the area around the port, things started looking a little more prosperous, a little better kept. There was less litter and manure in the streets and more care had been taken to maintain the properties around us. After about ten minutes of walking, we find ourselves in another public square, this one much smaller and clearly meant to serve the local neighborhood. Like most public squares, this one was fronted by both businesses and townhouses. Keti and Davit lead us across the square to a fairly nondescript inn with a nicely made sign handing from an awning over the door. The sign said “Petal of the Inner Sea”.
When we reached the door, I glanced inside. I could see a small, clean common room through the opened door. A couple of people were eating a late breakfast or an early lunch at a table off to one side but otherwise there weren’t any customers. I briefly did a little mental math. How many rooms did we need? Depending on their sizes, we probably needed at least six or seven. I waited for our guides to lead us inside but they stopped at the door.
“We are not allowed in a place like this,” Keti said.
I sighed internally. Our business would likely take us a couple of days and we would need guides for those days. I looked around the square. I could see a small tailor shop on one side of it and a public bathhouse down the row a little bit.
“Wait here,” I said. Then I walked inside and up to the bar where a member of the inn’s staff was getting things arranged for the day’s service.
The staff member, an overweight six-fingered human man, noticed me but didn’t immediately offer to help me. Finally, after finishing his current task he stomped over in my direction. “Can I help you?” he asked.
“Do you have rooms to rent for a couple of days?” I responded.
“We do,” he said. “How many do you need?”
“How many beds are in each room?” I asked.
“We have several doubles and a couple of triples.” he replied.
“I will need six rooms,” I said. “Five doubles and one triple. Do you have that many.”
“In fact, we do,” he replied. “That will cost you eight pieces of gold per night without meals.”
I had recovered the remainder of the money that I had left with the others while we were on the island, so I had more than enough to cover the expense. Reaching into my pouch, I pulled out sixteen pieces of gold and slip them across the counter. “Does this cover things,” I asked?
“It does,” he replied with a feeble attempt at an ingratiating smile. “How many keys for each room do you need? If you lose them you will have to pay for them.”
“Two keys per room,” I said. “I wouldn’t want to get locked out and have to bother you.”
He reached under the counter and produced the keys. Each of them was engraved with a room number. I accepted them.
“We are dirty from our time on the road and will be taking turns visiting the bathhouse I spied down the way.” I said. “I apologize for our appearances.” The last bit was said in an unapologetic manner.
I walked back out to our group. “Alright,” I said. “We will be visiting the bathhouse in shifts.” Then, I started handing out the keys. Sathebeena, Mariam and Helvia were given the triple room. Aleyda and I shared a room as did Patrick and Xeng, Bowen and Mero, and Jahhaf and Werner. But that was only five rooms. Why did I lease a sixth?
“Keti and Davit, you will be staying here tonight but we need to get you cleaned up first,” I said. “Patrick, Xeng and Bowen, can you stand guard over the valuables while the rest of us get cleaned up? Oh, and make sure to keep an eye on Kadar. Then it will be your turn.”
“We can do that,” Patrick said.
We moved our packs up into one room where Patrick and the boys could stand guard. The innkeeper didn’t look too pleased when we led Kadar in but it is better to ask for forgiveness than permission. Then, we went back down to the square.
“Come with me,” I told the others. We went tromping across the square to the tailor’s shop. I walked inside and ordered the two urchins to follow me. We weren’t welcomed warmly but within a short time had acquired some clean and basic clothes for both of them that sort of fit. Then, we went to the bathhouse, which was organized in a series of pools of various temperatures. While we were on the way over, Keti approached me.
“Mister, why are you doing this for us?” she asked. “If you are hoping to sleep with me that isn’t going to happen.”
“Aleyda would kill me if I tried,” I said. “I am doing this for you because we have need of you. Not your bodies but your knowledge of the city. I don’t want to have to go looking for you tomorrow. Also, I like to help people who are down on their luck when I can. You two fall into that category.”
“I don’t know what to say,” she said.
“The customary response is thank you,” I replied sardonically.
“Thank you!” both she and her brother chorused.
The two of them cleaned up decently although both were overdue for a haircut. We spent an hour in the baths and then returned to let the other three take their turns. The innkeeper didn’t even blink when we led the urchins to their room. I ordered lunch, which was overpriced, and a not all that tasty fish stew with bread. I’m not a seafood guy. As lunch concluded, I looked at our guides.
“I think we still have time to make it to the goldsmiths,” I said.