Chance slept well that night, despite everything. The exhaustion from healing so many during the evening saw him plunged into a deep sleep that he doubted even an attack from a dragon could have roused him from. It was only after the sun had well and truly risen that he woke; that was more like the old Chance who had lights and electricity and the house to shelter him from the rhythms of the day than the new Chance who got up and went to bed with the sun.

The many refugees who crowded the courtyard were awake and receiving breakfast from grey robed servants who circulated around among them, distributing it out. The morning meal appeared to be some type of watery gruel. It did not appear all that appetising, but Chance wasn't going to complain. Not after knowing of the difficulties that Elmesu and her servants went through in providing for those who were sheltered there.

Elmesu emerged from the main building at some point while they were eating, moving around the courtyard to check on those there, eventually coming around to where Chance and his friends were.

“How is he?” Chance asked as she arrived.

“Alive,” she told him. “His wounds were grievous when he arrived, but thanks to you he will live. It will take him some time to recover physically from it. Mentally it might take longer.”

“It is good to hear that he is doing better.”

She nodded. “He will live, but others won’t. I don’t know who you are, or what you can do, but you have seen what is going on around here. This situation is no longer tenable. We are going through a slow decline that has but one outcome.”

“It is that bad?” Snarl asked.

“Yes, it is,” Elmesu replied, eyes tightening. “We are just delaying the inevitable, but as long as there is an inevitable to delay, I shall fight on.” There was a grim conviction about her words and her face, despite the weariness that rested on her. Her eyes flashed determined, if at the same time haunted. It was a mindset that Chance had never understood, not before. There were always stories of those that had given themselves for causes, even their lives, and he had never been able to fathom why. Putting others before yourself was not his way. Yet here was an example of it staring him right in the face, and he felt humbled by it, the magnitude of her convictions. Maybe it just required finding a cause worth fighting for, and if there was one, it was here.

“What needs doing to stop this inevitable?” he asked of her.

“The bandits need to go. Travel across the plains of Yereshalaz is no longer viable as long as they are around. The towns are cut off, the farms are being abandoned and going to ruin and people starve as there is no longer enough food, despite the riches of the land. There are too many bandits, and few willing to stand up against them. Those few heroes that are around are not interested in dealing with the bandits. It isn’t lucrative enough, not when other riches can be found elsewhere. They say there is no reward in it.”

“Doing the right thing is often its own reward,” Yrip pointed out.

Elmesu gave half a laugh, one tinged with a trace of bitterness. “They can’t spend that reward.”

“If they are not willing to do it, then we shall,” Chance told her. In part it shocked him that he had offered to do so, but Elmesu’s example had spurred him on. He couldn’t let her, and the people down.

“There are only four of you,” she pointed out, “And they are many. If you are to deal with them, you need a plan, and more than that. Speak with Mayor Hilesia. She knows more of what is happening with the bandits than I do.”

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Chance nodded slowly. The gravity of the situation he had signed up for was becoming apparent. “I will do so.”

So saying, Chance and his companions made ready to leave. They headed across the courtyard of the compound, through the crowds there, to the doors that led out. Passing through them, they found themselves on the street once more, one that was fairly busy already. They turned and made their way along it back to the town square that was at the heart of Estethford.

Once again the square was crowded and busy, with merchants hawking their meagre ware and the desperate crowds who had money pressing them for whatever was on offer. Chance didn’t need to be Shags to smell the desperation in the air. It could not go on long, not without something breaking. Time was ticking down for the town, giving him a sense of urgency. They hurried across to the large building where they had met the mayor the previous day, all the while drawing looks from the crowds who were not used to the likes of them around.

The mayor was not outside the building, and so they entered in, to find themselves in a large forechamber. A young man loitered around in there, one with a self-important, almost imperious, look about him. He looked at them, giving off the impression that he was looking down at them, even Snarl, despite the fact that the gnoll towered over him.

“Yes?” he asked, the word long and drawn out.

“We are here to see the mayor,” Chance told him.

“The mayor does not see just anyone.”

Chance leaned forward towards the young man. “Then it is a good thing that I am not just anyone, is it?” he asked, half growling as he spoke, his eyes narrowing. “Now, if you want this town of yours to survive, you will tell the mayor that Chance the Guardian of Azval Stalvaq wishes to speak to her.” He felt Snarl looming behind him and saw the man swallow hard, and even sweat a little.

“Maybe I should go and find her,” the man stammered.

“That would be a good idea.”

The man hurried away, almost stumbling in his haste and Snarl laughed after he was gone. “You enjoyed that,” he said to Chance.

“Maybe a little, but I wasn’t planning on it,” Chance replied. “He just rubbed me the wrong way. Small, petty minded people who would count paper clips while the building they were in was burning down around them do that.”

It didn’t take the man long to reappear, with Mayor Hilesia with him.

She nodded a greeting when she saw who it was. “You wish to speak to me?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Chance replied. “If I am to look into your bandit problem then I will need to know all that I can about them. It is getting worse I understand, with some of them striking close to town yesterday.”

Hilesia nodded, her face bleak. “They get bolder with each passing day, drawing nearer. I fear it will not be long until we are under siege. Come with me and we can talk properly.”

She led the way further into the building, coming to a room with a large wooden table in it, one that was covered in parchments and papers, with quills and ink, abacuses and other items mixed in with them. An old chair sat behind the table, one that was well worn from use.

Hilesa sank into the chair. “Now, what was it that you wished to know?”

“Whatever you can tell us,” Chance responded. “Where the bandits are, how many of them there are, who leads them. Anything that you can think of that might help us to get rid of them.”

Hilesia rose from her chair and began to rummage around on the table, searching through the parchments and papers. After a while she pulled out a piece of parchment with a map drawn on it, one of the town and the surrounding countryside.

“Here is where we know that there are bandit camps and lairs,” she told them, pointing to the map. “There may be others that we are unaware of, but these are the main ones.”

Red marks had been made on the map, strung out around the town in an arc from the north to the south on the eastern side of the town. There was one lone mark off to the north west, which appeared to have been the camp that they had visited. There were no others on the western side of the town, as very few lived that way and there were no trails that led anywhere besides to Azval Stalvaq.

“Are there more elsewhere on the plains?” Chance asked.

“As far as we know, yes,” Hilesia told him. “Contact with the other towns and villages is rare, as you might imagine. Very few travel any more.”

“The heroes that slew the dragon did.”

“They didn't say much, beyond boasting of their deeds and treasures.”

Chance nodded slowly. “I see. Then it looks as if we have a lot of work ahead of us.”