The Tomni'Tai Scroll (Book 1) Read online

  Kelden bowed his head. “As you wish.”

  Karmt’s excitement vanished from his face and he pulled Kelden aside. “A lot has happened in your absence,” he said grimly. “Yeoj sent us a message that you should meet them in the Alchemical shop as soon as you returned.”

  “Is everyone alright?” Kelden asked.

  “More or less,” Karmt replied with a frown. “Go.”

  *****

  Hinges squeaked in protest as Kelden pushed the door open. Inside the shop he saw an elderly lady behind the counter, mixing liquids into a glass bottle. Another woman was on her knees on the floor vainly scrubbing bloodstains in the wooden planks.

  “I am Kelden,” he announced to the old lady. She nodded her head.

  “I am Agnes, but you already know that I presume,” she replied. Agnes turned her attention back to a blue bottle as she delicately tipped it, allowing its contents to flow into the other bottle on the counter. A faint tendril of smoke rose from the bottle, dissipating as Agnes exhaled. “Your friends are upstairs,” she said as she set the blue bottle back on the counter. “Be a dear and take this bottle to Sebina.”

  Kelden closed the door and walked to the counter. He took the bottle in hand and held it up to the light. “What is it?” he asked.

  “Ointment for burns,” Agnes replied. She turned abruptly and set the blue bottle back on a low shelf. “Go on up, the bottle isn’t going to walk itself up the stairs.”

  The woman on the floor chuckled a bit, but tucked her lower lip to hide her grin when Kelden shot her a sidelong glance.

  Kelden nodded and made for the stairs. When he reached the top he was greeted by an empty hallway with only a couple of doors on either side.

  “Second door on the left,” Agnes called out from below.

  Kelden arched a brow and glanced back down the stairs, but he said nothing. He shrugged and moved on. He opened the door as instructed and stepped inside. He saw Sebina first. Her long, black hair hung in loose waves down to the middle of her back as she sat on the edge of the bed with her left shoulder against the wall and her head slightly forward. Her right hand rested on Yeoj’s arm just below his elbow on one of the few areas not covered with bandages.

  Sebina slowly opened her eyes and straightened up when Kelden knocked on the doorway. Kelden raised the bottle in front of him and she motioned for him to bring it to her.

  “How is he?” Kelden asked.

  “He has burns across his back, hands, and legs, but he will make it. Just needs some rest,” Sebina said. She took the bottle and set it on the bedside table in front of her. “I will need to get more bandages. I’ll be back in a moment.”

  Kelden watched her rise from the bed and walk past him. He continued to look out the doorway after she had already departed. Something inside him yearned to go with her.

  “I told you to introduce yourself,” Yeoj whispered hoarsely.

  Kelden turned around. “I suppose you have made good use of the time I have been away,” he said.

  Yeoj grinned that half-sly grin of his and grimaced when he tried to shrug. “She’s a beautiful woman, and someone had to keep her company and comfort her.”

  Kelden stepped forward and folded his arms across his chest as he surveyed the extensive bandages. “It looks like you are the one in need of comfort.”

  “Bah, I’ve been through worse than this,” Yeoj retorted.

  “Really?” Kelden asked skeptically. “When was that?”

  Yeoj sat silently for a moment. “Well, at least I have beautiful women to keep me company.”

  Kelden gave up with a sigh. “Yeah, I suppose that accounts for something. Where is Pendonov?” Kelden asked, changing the subject.

  “He left about an hour ago. He took a sword to the arm, so he isn’t very useful at the moment, but he is ambulatory, so he has been coming and going fairly regularly.”

  “Any idea where he went?”

  “Not really,” Yeoj said. “But, I am sure he will be back by lunch time.”

  “Why is that?” Kelden asked.

  Yeoj grinned again. “He and the redhead are sort of hitting it off.”

  “I see,” Kelden said with a slight frown.

  “Don’t worry,” Yeoj said with a wink. “We didn’t forget about you, Agnes is single.” Kelden opened his mouth to say something just as Sebina walked in from behind.

  “Good, you’re awake,” she said to Yeoj. “I need to change your bandages.”

  Yeoj looked up and gave Kelden another wink. Kelden shook his head and stepped aside to allow Sebina enough room to work. Yeoj’s grin faded instantly as she started pulling the bandage on his arm. Bits of skin and hair clung to the gauze, but Yeoj said nothing. His body tensed and stiffened. He sucked in his breaths and his eyes focused on a distant point no one else could see.

  Under the bandages were patches of pink, black, and white skin. Blisters filled with clear fluid added to the rigid texture. Kelden closed his eyes and silently mouthed a prayer to the Old Gods on Yeoj’s behalf.

  “You should have been there with him,” Sebina said.

  Kelden ceased his prayer and regarded her curiously. “I was called away on business,” he replied evenly. “But, yes, I should have been there with him.”

  Yeoj made no attempt to enter the conversation. He continued to focus on that distant point with his eyes while he drew in large, loud breaths. A tear slid down from his left eye as Sebina applied a measure of the ointment to his arm and began wrapping it with new bandages.

  “I suppose I should thank you too,” Sebina said after a few moments. “The three of you saved us.” She paused and looked up to Kelden with her dark, brown eyes. “I am just happy it is over.”

  Kelden stood silently for a moment. He looked back to Yeoj. She began unwrapping his shoulder and chest. Yeoj couldn’t help but allow a few grunts and whimpers to escape as she rolled him to his side so she could access the back of his shoulder. Kelden gasped when she uncovered several sizeable holes over his shoulder blade.

  “He needs a physician,” Kelden growled. “Why haven’t you sent for someone?”

  Sebina shook her head, “We tried, but…”

  “No!” Yeoj hissed. “No one can know.” He forced himself to sit up and look at Kelden. “If I am discovered, then our secret will be uncovered. No one can know. Pendonov’s report was clear that the battle here was a simple burglary gone wrong. We also falsified a report to claim that Baldur’s Arms was burned to the ground by arms dealers.”

  “If it is over, and the traffickers are all dead, then why the need for pretext?” Kelden asked.

  Yeoj sighed, grunting heavily against the agony of sitting upright. “It isn’t over.”

  Sebina shot up straight, backpedaling with her mouth agape. “You said no one survived.”

  Yeoj nodded. “No one here survived,” he explained. “But, they were going to send you both to Blundfish.”

  “So, there are others there,” Kelden understood. “Do we have their names?”

  “No,” Yeoj grunted and relaxed as best he could back down to his side. Kelden looked to Sebina and pointed for her to go back to addressing Yeoj’s wounds.

  “Would Blacktooth Pete know?” Kelden asked.

  “Maybe,” Yeoj through gritted teeth.

  Sebina stepped forward and slowly went back to work. “What are we going to do?”

  “We will do nothing,” Kelden said coldly. “You will stay here and tend to Yeoj. I will send over a physician.”

  “No!” Yeoj grumbled.

  “It’s someone I trust, Yeoj, and you are in no position to argue with me. You need more than an alchemist and her apprentice.”

  “What will you do about the others in Blundfish?” Sebina asked.

  “I will handle them,” Kelden said.

  “That won’t work,” Yeoj interjected. “Pendonov is maimed, and I am pretty much bed-ridden for a while. You won’t be able to arrest them on your own.”

  Kelden looked ov
er the holes in Yeoj’s shoulder one more time. “I am not going to arrest them,” he said. “I am going to end them.”

  *****

  “We are out of ale,” Pinhead whined. “How about we go out to the local pub and…”

  Kai thumped the table with his thumb a few times. “I have another good lead,” he said. “It shouldn’t be much longer now.”

  “Is it in a pub?” Pinhead asked. Redbeard threw his stubby arms up in the air and grumbled incoherently as he walked away from them. “I’m just sayin’ it would be convenient, that’s all,” Pinhead shouted at his brother’s back.

  Kai shook his head. “You will have to stay here, Pinhead.”

  “I thought the reason for coming here with you was to help you wrap this up?”

  “He has a point, as much as it pains me to agree with him,” Redbeard said. “We walked all the way from Rasselin, dodging patrols along the way. We snuck into the city, and now we are hiding in this abandoned spider-hole with nothing to do. We should be scouring the city with you.”

  “Sometimes it takes a little while for an investigation to move along,” Kai said. “We didn’t have much to go on.”

  “All the more reason we should be out there.” Redbeard pointed to the dark, broken window emphatically. “We won’t catch anything but spiders and rats in this old shack. We need to be outside.”

  Kai sighed. “If you are spotted, it could alert them to our presence. Furthermore, the guards have likely heard that a pair of dwarves and a former Ranger escaped from Rasselin after slaying several people.” Kai rose from his seat quick enough that his rump toppled it over backwards. “I don’t like it either.” He took a few steps toward Redbeard and pointed at the diminutive, yet stocky dwarf. “You think I like hiding in the shadows while men connected with the group that kidnapped my sister run free somewhere in this city? You think I like being blamed for murdering Governor Gandle? You think I like the idea of running for the rest of my life from men who were as close to me as brothers only a couple of weeks ago?”

  Redbeard looked down to the floor and waved Kai off. “I get it,” he gruffed. “We just don’t like being cooped up. That’s one of the reasons we left our home to begin with. We like open air, and most of all we like action. We just aren’t much for waiting.”

  Kai nodded understandingly. “I don’t like waiting either. I have run down these leads the best I know how. Nothing has turned up so far.” He pulled a small piece of paper from his pocket. “But I have one more that should prove helpful.” He held the paper up. “I have the name of an enforcer for the group we are after. I also have the name of the tavern he is going to be at tonight.”

  “Finally, we can get some more ale!” Pinhead exclaimed with a fist slamming on the table.

  Kai shook his head. “Not tonight, my friend.” Pinhead scowled and folded his arms. “Let me make my move. Soon there will be plenty of action, I promise.”

  “And ale?” Pinhead asked.

  Kai nodded with a slight smile. “More than you can carry,” Kai assured him.

  “We’ll see about that,” Pinhead pledged.

  “You best get to it, then,” Redbeard put in.

  Kai nodded. “I will return shortly after nightfall.” He took his cloak from a hook near the dilapidated door and exited the run down shack.

  Redbeard walked back to Pinhead, brushing a cobweb from his beard and crushing a large, brown spider in his fist. “I hate this place,” he grumbled.

  Kai took in a deep breath of the salty air. It had been over a week, but he still wasn’t used to the smell, especially when it was low tide. The gulls squawked loudly overhead as they circled the rooftops of the port city. He tolerated the gulls little better than the smell of the ocean. He drew his hood up over his head and scanned the area around him. He knew the Rangers would probably be hunting him by now. After what had happened at the dungeon, there was no one alive who knew of Kai’s secret mission from Lador. Nor were any of the Rangers likely to believe him if he tried to explain it. They would check all of the nearby villages and settlements, they would likely look for him in Kobhir and even in Khatthun. The Rangers would also probably try to gain entrance into Shausmat to look for him. Sooner or later they would make their way to Blundfish. It was only a matter of time. He understood that they would eventually find him and that once they did, they would do everything in their power to put him down like a rabid dog.

  Kai knew that he needed to get off of the mainland and escape to one of the islands. That would be his best chance to plan his strategy, but he couldn’t leave without finishing what he had started in Rasselin. The men that had taken his sister had to pay. Even if the Rangers caught up with him in Blundfish, Kai would consider it a fair trade so long as he put the rest of the traffickers into the ground first.

  Kai set his feet to the dirt road and walked through the poor district. He spotted a few fishermen coming in with their morning haul. Some of the nets were decently full while others had only a fish or two in them. None of them seemed to pay him any mind. An old man stepped out onto a creaking, sun-bleached porch holding a ragged rug over his left arm. He fanned it out over the porch railing and beat it a few times with a stick. Gray dust puffed out with each strike, lighting on the wind and drifting away from the porch.

  The old man looked up at Kai. One of his eyes was missing, and a long scar ran from the old man’s jaw to the top of his scalp on the right side of his face. The old man stopped beating the carpet and leaned forward, placing his knuckles against the railing and watching Kai keenly with his one good eye. Kai held the man’s gaze for a moment and then turned away, picking up the pace just a bit.

  Within a few moments the buildings around him became newer as he crossed out of the poor district. A few taverns stood out, with large hand-painted wooden signs over their doors. Houses rose up two or three stories, clumped closely together on blocks with narrow alleys between them. The alleys ran with water and muck, adding an altogether unpleasant odor to the sea air. Kai marveled that people would willingly live in such filth. Even in Rasselin, in the middle of a desert without ample water, the alleys never reeked the way Blundfish did. Kai had grown accustomed to broken bottles, wood scraps, and bits of food strewn through the alleys, but this was the first time he had ever seen people emptying chamber pots directly onto the ground outside their homes. He pulled his hood tighter, trying to cover his mouth and nose with a corner of it as he walked by a particularly large heap of waste in an alley nearby.

  After a few more minutes of walking he saw a large sign protruding out above a double door. “Honan’s Tavern,” Kai read aloud to himself. A couple of men sat around a wooden crate they had overturned to create a table for their booze. One of the men jeered and smacked another on the shoulder as he gestured to something across the road. Kai followed the man’s gaze to see a shapely young woman exiting a bakery across the street. The men whistled and howled at her, but she paid them no mind. She spat on the ground in their direction and continued on down a different road.

  “Nice piece of meat, eh?” one of the men shouted out. Kai then realized the man was addressing him. He didn’t bother to respond. Instead he looked back up to the sign and made for the double-doors. This was where he expected the enforcer to arrive.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Night’s blanket of darkness spawned a boisterous increase in activity at Honan’s Tavern. Kai patiently sat in the corner of the large dining hall, next to the fireplace. The stew in the bowl before him had long since grown cold and the single mug of ale had hardly been touched. Occasionally he would take a sip, or perhaps mill the stew around with his spoon or sample a tiny bit of the thick, over-starched mush, but mostly he just sat and waited. He examined each person who entered, searching for the tell-tale sign of a golden-handled sword. He was about to give up hope and start looking for a different tavern when in walked the man he had been waiting for.

  As the man entered the tavern, he made a great wave of his arm as if he was
some sort of nobleman. He wore a large, flowing blue silk tunic, trimmed with golden embroidered oak leaves that hung over his black trousers, which in turn were tucked into a pair of hand-tooled leather boots. His sword was definitely an expensive piece. The handle appeared to be made of gold, and not simply decorated with gold leaf overlay. A single ruby broke the yellow monotony near the base of the pommel, appearing to be an eye set into an intricately etched pattern of a large serpent. The hand guard flared out dramatically like a pair of claws.

  Kai watched him stride directly to the bar and address the barkeep. It was obvious that this was the enforcer. The barkeep didn’t bother to call for the bouncer, whom Kai had already seen in action earlier when a pair of drunks became overly friendly with the barmaid. Instead when the enforcer reached over the bar and pulled a leather sack from a shelf the barkeep just shook his head and waved resignedly before walking away to serve another customer. Kai thought it most interesting that none of the other patrons seemed to notice the exchange. However, it also didn’t seem as though anyone else was particularly allied with the enforcer. It simply appeared as though they accepted the enforcer’s presence as a matter of fact, and did their best to conduct their dealings in spite of his intrusion.

  “You’re a louse!” Kai yelled across the tavern. A few of the nearby patrons set their mugs down and stared at Kai incredulously.

  The enforcer cocked his head to the side and slowly turned around. He leaned back on the bar with his elbows atop the surface, holding him up as he bounced the sack of money in his left hand. “Are you speaking to me?” he asked cynically.

  Kai nodded his head and reached for his mug of ale. He took a deliberately long sip before responding. The others in the tavern grew quieter with each passing second. “I despise you, and your kind,” Kai added as he set his mug back on the table.