Chapter 4
She awoke with a jerk, instinctively she grabbed for her blade, and she thought that she had heard the sound of someone attempting to pick the lock on the door to the modest little room.
Tick, tick, tweek
There she had heard something! She quietly got out of bed, and crept across the floor towards the door. Her breathe was coming hard and fast, she purposely tried to calm herself down, so she rubbed the magic ring on her hand for luck.
“Breath Lizzy” she told herself. “You can’t let whoever this is get the best of you.”
Soon she had control of herself again. It was starting to come easier to her after years of living on the streets, taking care of herself. The noise had stopped and now the door was slowly being opened. Lizzy squeezed herself back as far as she could against the wall. She held her longsword close by her side. It had become her best friend in the cold and cruel world that she knew. Slowly the door inched open and soon a dark shadow started to slip into her room.
“Don’t move!” Lizzy shouted at the shadow.
It whirled and Lizzy saw that it was just a man, a man with a very big wickedly curved sword! He lunged at her and she skipped backwards, dodging and dipping as he slashed repeatedly trying to hit her. She countered with her longsword, trying to get a feel for his defenses.
“He’s good!” she thought to herself, “but I’m better!” Confidence was not usually a problem with Lizzy.
She began to back him up with her thrusts and slashes. Fainting to her right, and then slashing in from the left, she cut him! He grunted in pain, the wound wasn’t much, high up on his sword arm; it was bleeding and dripping blood on the floor. “Who sent you?” she asked in between blows.
“I come from my master, Zhuerelm! He sends his greetings little thief! He wants you dead!” the assassin snarled at her and tried a quick backhanded cut towards her abdomen. Lizzy just as quickly parried it and using his momentum allowed him to slide along her blade and then she expertly changed direction and opened a large gash across his front leg.
“Ayeee! Little she-devil!” the man yelped at her. “You will die for that!”
But just as he raised his curved sword again to slash at Lizzy, she quickly slid up underneath him and buried her blade into the man’s gut! He gasped in pain and then fell over her, and she had to scramble to not have him fall on top of her. He was dead before he hit the ground.
“You first” she said and then pulled the sword from his body then sat down on the floor breathing hard.
“This is getting old.” She thought to herself. “I hope Uncle Vekao got my message and gets here soon.”
Hearing foot steps in the hallway she looked up as the innkeeper came up to her open door holding a lantern and a frying pan. The sight was so funny Lizzy just couldn’t help herself and burst out laughing.
“What’s going on here? Who’s that? What’s so funny?” the blustered innkeeper, Turley, stammered at Lizzy.
“Master Turley it’s so nice of you to drop by to check on me!” Lizzy said to him “In answer to your questions; over there is an assassin who was sent to kill me in my sleep, sorry I had to kill him. The funny part is that you came to help with a frying pan!” and Lizzy burst into laughter once again.
Turley blinked a little and then a big smile crept over his face and he too began to laugh!
“Yes well Lizzy I’m glad to see that you are OK, but these little raids are going to have to stop. It’s bad for business you know? “Turley said to Lizzy in as stern a voice as he could muster at the moment.
Not expecting an answer he continued and said to her as he turned to leave, “I’ll send the stable boys in to collect the body and to clean up the mess. Try to stay out of trouble until then!” With that he did leave and walked back down the hallway, grumbling to himself as he went.
Lizzy sat on the edge of her bed, with a slight smile on her face as she watched Turley leave. The smile soon disappeared as she focused back on the dead assassin lying in her room in a pool of blood. She got up and cleaned her sword on the stranger’s clothes, and then she lit her bedside lantern then promptly and skillfully searched him for anything of value. Not finding much, besides his sword and a few silver coins, which of course she pocketed right away, she brushed herself off and so left him alone.
Soon the stable boys, Garth and Farley, came and picked up the body and cleaned the blood off the floor with an old rag. They carried him out of her room and she shut the door behind them and locked it. Lizzy then went to the corner of her room and gently pried the special floor board up with the tip of her dagger, she reached down and pulled up the parcel she had placed there a few days ago now, it was wrapped in an old rag, but she soon had it exposed and she looked at it again.
It was almost a foot tall, solid black obsidian and weighed close to five pounds, it was an intricately carved piece, and she was fascinated by it. It was beautiful, but of course she really didn’t know much at all about it.
“What could it be?” she wondered to herself, not for the first time. “What could it be, that Zhuerelm would send not one but now two assassins to try and kill me for it and take it back?” For not more than a fortnight ago another assassin had tried to end her life, it bothered her that they were able to track her down so easily, she guessed that they were using magic of some kind.
She examined it more closely and turned it around looking for any secret compartments or anything unusual. Seeing nothing she carefully wrapped it back in the rag and placed it back within her hiding place in the floor.
She decided it was time to get dressed, so she did so carefully donning her leather breeches, for she didn’t sleep in them, and the hauberk. The chain mail hauberk was special, given to her by her father, and worn in the war. It had kept her safe many times during her travels and hopefully would continue to do so. She fastened her sword to her side, with her trusty dagger on the opposite, she then pulled on her boots, donned her travel cloak and gathering up her pack she was ready to go.
She went out to the main dinning room of the inn called the ‘Rusty Wheel’, Turley already had a fire going and was busy cooking the morning meal, and it smelled wonderful to Lizzy! She hadn’t eaten since yesterday’s morning meal now, and her stomach was telling her that it knew this too! She lingered around the fire place for awhile, trying to warm herself; it was a bit chilly this morning, at least it seemed that way to her. She took the time to pull her long blonde hair into her traditional pony tail, so that it would not fall over her eyes if she happened to get into any combat situations.
“Well Lizzy are you hungry this fine morning?” Turley asked as he walked into the room. “I have some excellent sausages this morning, and the gravy is fresh!” he added as he walked up to her and winked. Turley knew that Lizzy was especially picky on how fresh the gravy was.
“Do you have some warm biscuits to go with it all?” she asked him and returned his smile.
“Of course I do! What kind of place do you think I’m running here anyway?” he responded. “Sit down over there and I’ll bring you out some.” Turley pointed to a table in the far corner of the room, knowing that Lizzy would prefer this place over the other tables.
Lizzy soon was seated and Turley was placing fresh biscuits, sausages, his special gravy and some fresh cider down in front of her. Lizzy’s stomach began to rumble. She was soon munching and drinking happily away, not so much as slowing to catch her breath. In a little while she had eaten it all, she wiped her hands and mouth on the napkin Turley had left with her and pushed herself away from the table. Lizzy fished a silver piece out of her pack and then she gathered up her pack and headed for the door.
“Good day Master Turley!” she said as she walked out the door. “Hope your day goes well for you.” She added.
“Good day to you too Lizzy! Take care of yourself and stay out of trouble.” Turley cried out after her shaking his head.
The day was shaping up nicely now that she had some breakfast in her belly. Soon Lizzy found herself whistling quietly as she walked down the narrow street of the city, she kept a sharp eye out though for anyone who might be trailing her, so that she wasn’t caught by surprise. She glanced at the merchandise in the windows of the shops that she passed along the way. Today she was going to speak with her fence so that she could find out what the item she had hidden in the floor boards of her room was worth on the open market, besides the sooner she got rid of it the better.
The fence was on the other side of town, so she had to cross The Point and then through the Noble district in order to get there. She wasn’t looking forward to that, it was in The Point district where she had stolen the strange looking piece of art to begin with, now the man whom she had stolen it from was sending assassins to try to get it back and to end her life. That didn’t make her very happy. But it did make her curious, curious as to why he hadn’t reported it to the town guard, and curious as to why he wanted it back so desperately.
“It must be something wonderful indeed!” Lizzy thought to herself as she trudged along, “perhaps even magical!”
Soon she had come to the edge of The Point. It was the home to many wealthy merchants in town and a favorite place for thieves, such as Lizzy, to come and parlay their trade. The city guard knew this too and kept a strong presence in the area to discourage this sort of behavior. But to the really good thieves, such as Lizzy, that really didn’t matter that much. She glanced around quickly, noting the positions of the guards posted and to see if there were any strangers lurking around. Not seeing anything unusual she ventured along down the street cautiously, but with a determined stride, also just to be safe she pulled the hood of her cloak up to cover her hair.
Soon she came to the crossroads where Zhuerelm’s home stood. She crept along the street, keeping her head down and staying to the shadows, hoping that she wouldn’t run into anyone or anything. She didn’t really expect to at this time of day, she didn’t dare come by here in the evening, knowing that she could easily be spotted. But she also knew that this was the best time to cross this part of town with the least amount of suspicion, soon she was past the house and the street seemed to open up, in her mind anyway, as she continued on towards her destination.
After a time she was into the Noble district, here it was even less crowded, but it was the shortest way to her destination. She walked as quickly as she could down the center of the street, not wanting to draw too much attention to herself, yet knowing that by walking in the shadows she would for sure. Her eyes darted left and right, looking for anything that might not fit. Like that city guard over there with the crossbow pointed right at her, and the other one across the way!
Cursing to herself she leapt to the side and rolled, she came up with her sword out and ready to run back the other way. It was blocked! She was trapped! There were at least three that she could see, she glanced back behind her and the two with the crossbows where quickly closing the distance between her and them.
“Halt! Surrender!” shouted one of the guards that were blocking her exit. “Place your sword and dagger on the ground, along with any other weapon you may have and raise your hands in the air!”
Lizzy, glanced back at him and decided to do what he said, she wasn’t sure if this had anything to do with her recent theft, but she had little choice at the moment. So placing her blades down on the ground she held her hands high and smiled. Who knows maybe she could charm her way out of this she thought to herself.
“What’s this all about good sir” Lizzy asked the city guard who had spoken. “You put a good scare into me, thought you were going to rob me or something there for a minute!” She added trying to cover her nervousness.
“We are stopping and searching all commoners who are passing through the district at the moment. That is all you need to know!” the city guard answered back curtly.
So Lizzy stood while they searched through her pack, also making her take off her cloak and shake it out. Finding nothing, they allowed her to continue on her way. Grabbing up her items and thanking her luck that she didn’t have anything of real value on her at the time, Lizzy quickly put as much distance between herself and the guards as she could.
Breathing a sigh of relief Lizzy was thankful that Zhuerelm was too secretive to alert the guard about her identity and recent theft. Soon Lizzy found herself through the Noble district and into the Dock district which was where her fence was located. She lived down here, close to the docks and had been a reliable source of income for her since her arrival in the city a couple years back. So now she was going to meet her in one of the dives here that the sailors liked to congregate at.
She entered the tavern called ‘The Rose and Snake’ and found her usual seat towards the rear of the place. Being early in the morning most of the ‘clientele’ were either in a drunken stupor or away to their respective ships, so it was mostly deserted. She ordered ale and sat waiting for her fence to show.
The time stretched out and her ale was almost gone when finally she walked through the door. Her name was Taithmar, and she had worked the docks area for many years now. She wasn’t very tall for a human, standing only a little over 5 feet, but she was stout and she could handle herself in a fight if need be. She usually kept her brown hair short and covered with a hat of various styles. She sported a scar down the right side of her face from brow to cheek bone. She wasn’t a particularly unattractive woman, but she wasn’t in this business to turn heads, she was in it to make money, and she was good at her job.
Taithmar made her way over to Lizzy’s table. “Greetings!” she called to Lizzy as she approached.
“Good morn to you!” Lizzy called back to her and motioned for her to seat herself.
After she was seated, the barmaid had come over to take her order. Taithmar had ordered some sausages and a large glass of goat’s milk, at which Lizzy had raised her brows in question. Taithmar had simply grinned and shrugged.
“So what is it you wanted me to look at Lizzy?” Taithmar speaking softly asked Lizzy, while they both glanced circumspectly around the tavern.
“It’s a piece I acquired recently and now I’d like to get it off my hands quickly. If you understand my meaning?” she said in response. “It’s a carving in black obsidian about this tall” holding out her hands to show the one foot height, “and I believe it may have some sort of residual magic about it.” She added and then waiting for Taithmar’s response.
“Hmm, interesting. Can you tell me more about what sort of carving? And why you haven’t had it tested for magic yet? ” Taithmar said to Lizzy, in between shoveling bites of sausage into her mouth.
“No I just haven’t had time. I was hoping you knew someone who could do it? “ Lizzy whispered back to her. “The carving itself is roughly of a human in nature, a very ugly human, perhaps even a dwarf, but I’m not sure of that.”
Soon the barmaid had returned with Taithmar’s order and set it down before her, the two women stopped talking and waited for her to retreat back towards the other side of the room before they continued.
“Well I might know someone who can caste a spell to detect what sort of magic is about the carving, but it will cost you.“, she whispered back to Lizzy. “And why haven’t you had the time to do this yourself?”
“Well I’ve been …busy” Lizzy said a little sheepishly.
“Busy huh? Well that’s understandable, considering your line of work I suppose.” Taithmar said with a mischievous look on her face. “Well we’ll have to set a time to meet so we can have this thing looked at properly” Taithmar added.
“Yeah OK, well then tomorrow night. Meet me here. Hopefully my friend Vekao will be here then.” Lizzy responded.
“Then I will see you tomorrow night then Lizzy. Be safe.” Taithmar said as she got up from the table dropped a few copper pieces down and left the tavern.
“Be safe” thought Lizzy as she sat nursing her ale. “I just wish Uncle Vekao would make it in time to help me out of this mess!”