Luck in the Shadows - Chapter Five

[kalinara]

So last time, Alec got a new job. He also managed to learn a professional level skill in like two days! Go him!



So this is the shopping chapter.

You know how it is, in every (good) wish-fulfillment story that involves a poor person getting adopted by/picked up by a rich person, they get the scene/chapter where they get spoiled with stuff they never could afford before?

Basically, the later part of this chapter is a scene from Pretty Woman, in which Julia Roberts is played by a teenaged hunter who doesn't take baths, while Richard Gere is a show-off bard-spy. It works.

But we're not to that part yet. First, we start with Seregil waking Alec up in the morning, with orders to find himself something to eat and they'll meet in the market later. Seregil, of course, has Things To Do.

So Alec gets breakfast. Seregil must have paid well, because they let him have as much as he wants. And well, I'm not the only one who might be reading a little into this set up, because:

"However did you get so thin with a master as kind as that, eh?" She smiled, watching with satisfaction as Alec tucked in to her cooking.

"He only just took me up," Alec told her around a mouthful. "I had some hard times before."

"Well, you stick by him, love. He'll make an honest fellow of you."

Bless him, this goes completely over Alec's head. He still has reservations on the matter of Seregil's honesty after all. He leaves a coin for a tip. Good boy.

Unfortunately, while Alec is good at finding his way through a forest, a city is a completely different animal, and he quickly gets confused by the narrow, twisting streets. He heads toward a tavern to ask for directions, but this goes a bit poorly:

Turning a corner, he spotted a tavern and decided to try his luck there. He'd almost reached it when the door swung open and a knot of Plenimaran marines spilled unsteadily out into the street. There were five of them, staggering and singing drunkenly in their foreign tongue. Spotting Alec before he could duck back out of sight, they ambled over in his direction.

Giving them a polite nod, Alec tried to hurry past but one caught the edge of his cloak and yanked him roughly into their midst. His captor, a round-faced man with a scar twisting his lower lip, rattled off some sort of challenge, punctuating it by poking Alec in the chest with his finger.

"Stupid drinker!" a taller fellow with a black beard growled, pushing Scar-Lip away and throwing an arm heavily around Alec's shoulders. His accent was thick but he made himself understood. "What my Soldier Brother says, you is a likely looking man-child to be a marine. Why you don't join us up?"

Alec tries to demur that he wouldn't make a good soldier, and states that he's not old enough or big enough. He even tries to make peace by offering to buy them a drink. But it's pretty clear these guys are just looking for an excuse:

Without warning, One-Eye and Round-Face pinioned his arms. The bearded soldier tore Alec's purse from his belt, emptying the contents into his hand.

"Sure, you buy us all many drinks!" he said, grinning as he inspected the coins. Suddenly his face darkened, and he thrust something up before Alec's eyes.

Before you get any ideas, it's the Skalan coin that Seregil gave him. They are angry that he has "filthy bitch queen money" and accuse him of being a spy. And it's incredibly stupid, because this is the largest town on the main trade road. But then, as mentioned, I doubt these guys believe what they're saying. I think they're just out for an excuse to hurt a kid.

Alec remembers his prior traumatic experience briefly, and they knock him to the ground and kick him in the back. He starts to reach for his dagger when they're interrupted.

The man and the mercenary leader recognize each other by name. The mercenary leader is Tildus, by the way. The newcomer is Micum Cavish, which is so catchy a name that I suspect this guy will be important. You don't waste a stylish name on a one shot character. He suggests that it's a bit early in the day to torture children.

Tildus denies the torture and claims to be questioning a spy. Actually, Alec isn't a spy, according to Micum. He's Micum's brother's son! He insists Tildus let Alec go. Alec is confused until he gets a better look at the guy:

Cavish was the hooded man Seregil had spoken with the night before. The hood was thrown back now to reveal a freckled, strongly featured face under a thick mane of auburn hair. Heavy reddish brows overshadowed his pale blue eyes, and an even heavier mustache drooped over the corners of his mouth. His stance was relaxed, but his right hand, hooked casually into his belt, was in easy reach of his sword hilt. The fate he was outnumbered five to one was apparently not of the slightest concern to him.

Yep. This is definitely a major character description.

Anyway, Tildus backs off and leads his men away. Alec thanks Micum. Micum tells Alec how to get to the market, and somehow he knows specifically where "Aren" is likely to be. Mysterious!

--

Alec catches back up to Seregil and explains what happened. Seregil also has news: the Plenimarians are leaving and there will be a banquet in their honor. There will be a need for entertainment.

As they're walking, Seregil sees Alec perk up at the sight of a bowyer's shop. Seregil and Alec have a brief conversation about the brand names of bows. Seregil has heard that Corda is the best, but while Alec admits that they're fancy, he says the Radly bows have better range. Either is outside of Alec's price range though, so he suggests a cheaper shop. Seregil's on board, but he's here to see someone about a sword first.

Seregil is in his element at the sword shop, and the owner recognizes him (or rather "Aren Windover") immediately. He reveals why he's there: to get a sword for Alec. Alec is pretty shocked, after all, he's never even held a sword.

The swordsmith, Maklin, uses calipers to measure Alec's "various dimensions" (...I'm Watching You.) And as it turns out, he's got a great option:

Maklin remarked to Seregil. "It's a good blade, well balanced and easy to cast about with. I made it special for a caravaneer, but the bugger never called back for it. Not overly fancy, but it's a lovely bit of steel. I slaked it in bull's blood during the forging, and you know there's nothing finer than that short of magicking."

Even Alec could see that the swordsmith was being modest. The gleaming blade felt like a natural extension of his arm. It wasn't light, but he felt a certain natural flow to the movements as Maklin had him hold his arm this way and that. The hilt was wire-bound, with a round, burnished pommel.

The bronze quillons arched gently away from the hilt, terminating in small flattened knobs carved to look like the tightly curled head of an unopened fern. The blade was unadorned but mirrored the light with a faintly bluish sheen.

Fancy!

Seregil points out the design of the quillons, which apparently can be used to disarm an opponent. Alec glances at Seregil's sword (dragon headed quillons of course, very worn from use.).

Alec tries to thank Seregil again, and gets a slightly ominous and/or kinky reply about "One way or another, [he'll] repay [Seregil]."

Alec doesn't quite realize that money is no object and Seregil likes to spoil him and is surprised when Seregil takes them back to Radly's shop. A good Radly bow will cost as much as the sword, Alec warns. He does admit it's worth the cost, and since Alec is going to be using it to protect them, Seregil's on board.

So we're well into the Pretty Woman moment now:

Alec's heart beat a bit faster as they entered the shop. His father, a competent bowyer himself, had often pointed the place out with uncommon reverence. Master Radly, he'd told his son, had gifts beyond the natural for bow making. Alec had never imagined that he'd enter the place as a customer.

Alec doesn't know swords, but he DEFINITELY knows bows, and he goes immediately for the "Black Radly".

Don't get me wrong, as much as I love certain other characters' massive sword/weapon angst, I love Alec's practicality. Seregil said he was okay with the price, so go for the best:

Somewhat shorter than the regular longbow, these were fashioned from the Lake Wood's black yew, a difficult wood to work. Less experienced bowyers were likely to ruin half a dozen staves for every bow they came out with, but Radly and his apprentices had the knack. Rubbed with oil and beeswax, the black bows gleamed like polished horn.

Swanky. Not quite "washed in magic blood" swanky, but Seregil is more impressed by stuff like that, I suspect. Alec just wants to make sure it shoots well. This is a little odd though:

Seven of these lay on a long table in the center of the shop and Alec inspected each one, checking the straightness of the tapered limbs, the smoothness of the nocks and the ivory maker's plate set flush into the back of the grip. Then, choosing one, he grasped it on either side of the grip and twisted sharply; the lower limb of the bow came free in his hand.

It's a "wayfarer's bow" and the split in two thing is a benefit for carrying it or concealing it. (Seregil appreciates the latter.) It's pretty strong too.

The shopowner, Radly, hears Alec talking shop and comes over to chat. OH, I hadn't expected one of these scenes:

I like these." Alec indicated the two he'd laid aside. "But I'm not certain on the length."

"We'd best check your draw," Radly said.

Alec held out the bow and drew an invisible string back to his ear while the bowyer stretched a measuring line between the back of his left forefinger and the angle of his jaw below his right eye.

"Either of these would do for you," Radly concluded, "or that there." He pointed to one on the table that Alec had passed over.

"I'll go with these two," Alec said, sticking by his first choice.

Radly held the bows up side by side. "Have a look at the plates."

They're marked with a special R. Radly himself made them. It's a "our hero recognizes the awesome craftsmanship that no one else can see" scene WITHIN a Pretty Woman scene! I love it.

...I realize I might sound sarcastic here, but I'm not. These scenes are very fun, and I enjoy the bits of characterization strewn throughout.

But it's not quite so easy to buy an awesome bow as a sword. Alec gets to show off his skills in a test. Apparently Radly won't sell to anyone who can't pass:

Interestingly this is all set up in the alley outside, which makes me wonder if anyone's tried to mug them for the bow.:

At the far end, several targets had been set up.

The first was a simple bull's-eye painted on a cross section of a large log. The second was another bull, but to reach the center of it the arrow had to pass straight through three iron rings hung from wickets between the target and the archer. The last was simply eight long willow wands stuck upright in the ground.

Seregil is pretty amusingly bemused by all of this, by the way.

So, of course, Alec does amazing. He doesn't hit EVERY single shot, but he does pretty fucking well, and by the end, Seregil, Radly and some apprentices heretofore unmentioned are all grinning. So Alec gets his bow.

--

Later we learn that Seregil did indeed get someone's attention and they've now been hired to play at the mayor's banquet. They get dressed to the nines of course:

"You look better in this than I do," Seregil remarked as he adjusted Alec's sash.

Alec wore "Aren's" second-best garments: a long tunic of fine blue wool edged with embroidered bands along the hem and sleeves. One of the scullery girls had been paid to burnish his boots to a respectable shine.

Seregil himself was magnificent in a crimson tunic bordered with an intricate black and white pattern at neck, sleeves, and hem. His dark hair was bound back with a thin band of scarlet and black silk twisted into an elaborate knot at the back. Draping a new cloak of rich midnight blue gracefully over one shoulder, he pinned it in place with a heavy silver brooch.

Swanky. Oh, and Seregil, he's sixteen. I'm Watching You.

So anyway, Seregil fills Alec and us in on the guest list. Boraneus, a man whose name I am destined to misspell in so many ways is the head. There's some noble with him that doesn't say much by the way of Trygonis. And they're housed in the best front rooms.

He gets Alec to recite the battle plan: they sing and play until people start to get pretty drunk. Seregil will pause to tune the harp and "break a string". Alec's sent home to get one (he has an extra in his tunic), while Seregil steps out "for air". They'll then go upstairs to snoop

And Seregil has one more present:

Unrolling it, he showed Alec a handsome dagger. The handle was fashioned from black horn inlaid with silver. The slender blade was deadly sharp.

"This is for you," said Seregil, balancing the dagger across his palm for a moment. "It caught my eye while Maklin was fussing over you. It's longer than your other one and better balanced. A little fancy for a bard's apprentice, perhaps, but nobody's going to see it in your boot. If we do our job right tonight, you shouldn't need it anyway."

This last Pretty Woman moment is a bit too much for Alec who freaks out a little, finally:

"Seregil, I can't--" the boy stammered, overcome. "I can never repay you as it is and--"

"Repay me for what?" Seregil asked in surprise.

"For this, for all of this!" Alec exclaimed, sweeping a hand around the room. "The clothes, the sword, the bow--I haven't ever made enough in my life to repay all this. Maker's Mercy, I haven't known you a week yet and--"

"Don't be silly. These are the tools of the trade. You'd be useless to me without them. Don't give it another thought or insult me with talk of repayment. I can't think of anything that means less to me than money; it's too easy to come by."

Aw, poor kid. It has been a crazy few days for him when you think about it.

-

So at early night, they head to the banquet. Since the last time I saw a bard go to a banquet, it ended with a city practically reduced to ruin, I'm looking forward to it.

It's Seregil's turn to freak out a little, which he does after giving a grateful Alec some gloves:

Not for the first time that day Seregil asked himself what he was doing dragging a green boy he'd known for less than a week's time off on a burglary job. Or what Alec was doing going along with him, for that matter. Shrewd as he was in some matters, the boy seemed to place an alarming amount of trust in him.

Never having been responsible for anyone but himself, Seregil wasn't quite certain what to make of it, except that taking Alec on as a partner of sorts out on the Downs had seemed like a good idea at the time. However much logic might dictate otherwise, looking at Alec striding along beside him, Seregil's intuition told him he'd somehow stumbled into a fortuitous decision.

So they're brought into the banquet, and Seregil starts to play. In the meantime, he observes Boraneus:

The one calling himself Boraneus sat in the place of honor to the right of the fat mayor and Seregil studied him surreptitiously as he played. Boraneus was tall, with the high coloring and thick, blue-black hair of a true Plenimaran.

He was younger than Seregil had expected, no more than forty, and extremely handsome despite the thin scar that ran from the inner corner of his left eye to the cheekbone. His black eyes sparkled rakishly as he shared some joke with the mayor's wife, but when the smile faded his face had a veiled, unreadable quality.

...He's kind of hot for a villain. But also Seregil recognizes him as "Duke Mardus", who we saw in the prologue! He's: "The most highly placed officer of the Plenimaran intelligence system, he was also known to be a sadistically ruthless inquisitor. Seregil felt an involuntary chill as Mardus' impassive gaze rested briefly on him. To have such a person study your face was the worst sort of luck.

The other dude, Trygonis, is less impressive:

A narrow, whey-faced fellow with lank dark hair, Trygonis was apparently doing his dour best to avoid being drawn into conversation with the garrulous matrons seated on either side of him.

Splendidly dressed as he was in the regalia of a Plenimaran diplomat, to Seregil's practiced eye his pale skin and silent, peering manner told a different tale. He had more the look of one who spent his life huddled over books in rooms where sunlight never penetrated.

That's a nice burn. I'm assuming this is the other dude from the prologue.

So eventually they enact the string plan. Alec is sent home, while Seregil asks for and receives a nice break to freshen his throat. They meet up at the servant's stairs.

Seregil gives a somewhat contradictory warning:

"Good. Now stay close and pay attention. If anything goes wrong, you're on your own, understand? If it comes to that, I'll do my best to come back for you, but your best guarantee is to not get into trouble in the first place. All right?"

So they snoop. Well, Alec keeps watch mostly. Among his other talents, Seregil is also great at picking locks. They search Mardus's friend's place first. Seregil finds a map of the northlands and commits it to memory. There are some red points next to various towns and freeholds. Including Asengai's.

Seregil also finds a weird gold pendant that's blank on one side and abstract carved on the other. I'm sure that's not important.

More searching, Mardus's room this time, they raid the dispatch box, which has some ciphered documents, another map, and another pouch with pendant. They also find his box of torture items and vials, which Seregil takes as proof that Mardus is Mardus. He finds one more pouch though, containing a few coins, two rings and some wooden disks. Seregil pockets one for study, just in time. Alec spotted someone coming.

They go out the window to hide, then up to the roof. The guards below thankfully do not look up. They get to the other side where the servant's stairway awaits. Alec heads off toward the kitchen door. He's actually accosted by one of the Plenimarians from earlier, fortunately friendlier:

"Hey, you sing good in there," the man exclaimed. His tone seemed friendly enough, but he hadn't released his grip on Alec's cloak. "You sing more for me now maybe?"

"I've got to get back in." Stepping away as far as he could, Alec pulled the harp string from his tunic and waved it like a pass. "My master needs this. I'll be in trouble if I make him wait."

"Trouble?" The man squinted at the string. "No trouble for you, Cavish's man-child. Go sing some more for the fat mayor and my master!" Turning Alec loose, he sent him on his way with a resounding slap on the back.

I'm Watching You too.

Anyway, things go well and they return to their inn. Seregil intends to leave at first light. But actually that's not soon enough, as Micum Cavish bursts in the door:

Panting, he said, "I don't know what you did this time, Seregil, but a pack of Plenimaran marines are on their way here right now!"

Somewhere below they heard a door bang open, then the sounds of heavy feet.

Can't help but notice he's not calling him "Aren" this time. Anyway, they escape just in time as Tildus and his soldiers burst into the room to find it dark and empty.

Oops. Wish-fulfillment part is over. Now the plot is back.

I kid, but there's nothing wrong with a bit of fan service. Especially when it ends with our heroes running for their lives.