The Wizard's Chalice, page 17
part #2 of Gags & Pepper: Protection Agents Series
“The late Terzian’s tribe was successful,” Gags said.
She called the server back and ordered a small plate. “Start at the beginning.” She cupped her chin in her palm and gazed at Pepper. “You begin.”
Pepper looked around at the mostly empty dining room and then launched into his version of events until Terzian attacked the wagon train. “Gags was the hero. I hardly had a chance to get my sword nicked,” Pepper said.
“But you were there,” Gags said.
“I was somewhat distracted at the time. Tell her how you saved us all.”
Gags looked at Pepper and grimaced before turning to Patricia. He recounted the entire fight with Terzian, including the arrow coming in at an angle and taking Gags out of the story which had almost covered the entirety of dinner.
“Uncle Honian said you might be unable to continue as a bodyguard. Does that mean I’ll be getting Pepper all to myself?” Patricia said.
Where was the woman who couldn’t wait to get off the ship? Gags didn’t know, and he wasn’t about to ask, just yet.
“I can defend myself. I didn’t need my staff to end Terzian’s life,” Gags said.
Patricia looked angry. “The betrayer and thief!”
Pepper pulled out his knife and let Patricia hold it. “Gags thinks it would be a good idea to disguise that.”
“Forever or temporarily?” Patricia said, looking closely at the jewels.
“Temporarily,” Pepper said.
“My father will probably give you a price for this.”
“A price for something priceless?” Pepper said with a smile.
“Nothing is really priceless,” Patricia said. “Sometimes the cost is a war.”
Gags shrugged. “I don’t think Terzian was after the dagger when he attacked.”
“Some people think they can’t put a price on their reputation, and uncle thinks that Terzian was furious that his men didn’t catch up and kill you all. Everyone has contacts in Naneera, so he cut through the dry lands and attacked you before reaching the hills.”
To Gags, that was ancient history at that point. “Do you have any ideas to make the dagger look cheap?”
She smiled, seemingly relieved at the change of subject. “I have a few ideas. Let me get back to you tomorrow on that. I have some people to consult. Will you let me take the dagger? I’m sure my father would love to see it.”
Pepper pressed his lips together, but he nodded. “I’d like it back tomorrow.”
“I’ll tell you what can be done to the dagger before I do anything with it,” Patricia said. “I’ll show my father now, if you can bear to miss me until tomorrow.”
Pepper stared at his treasure, but Patricia dazzled him with a smile. “It’s still mine.”
“I know,” Patricia said as she got up and left the dining room, giving Pepper a wave before she disappeared through a door.
Gags sighed. “I wouldn’t have done that.”
“What wave?” Pepper said.
“No! I wouldn’t give up the dagger. What if you never see her again?”
“But we still have business with Honian Garish,” Pepper said.
“Do we? What if Mexius dismisses us? We have no choice but to ride to Veilport and book our own passage back to Peria.”
Pepper gasped. “She wouldn’t do that!”
“I hope not,” Gags said.
Chapter Twenty
~
P atricia didn’t show up the next day, and they didn’t receive a word from Mexius or Honian, either. It was late afternoon, and the innkeeper reminded them it was a market day. They had nothing else to do, and Gags didn’t want to get worried, yet. They walked through the market, but neither of them were too excited about buying anything.
Gags was sure Pepper was more anxious than he was. He had a girl and a priceless piece of treasure to lose, but Gags still wondered about his real client, Portia Dapple.
Pepper stopped in the middle of a market lane. “Should we visit Patricia’s father or Honian?” he said.
“Honian. I’m not so sure Baltheus Garish was very happy to see us,” Gags said.
They were almost in front of the Basheer Trading and Transport offices when a carriage loaded with bags clattered past them trailing four riders. Honian Garish, his niece, Soxus, and Mexius were engaged in conversation and didn’t see them and the riders ignored Gags and Pepper.
“I think we are being left behind,” Gags said.
Pepper’s eyes goggled. “Shouldn’t we run after them?”
“And do what? We are on foot and without weapons. Let’s make sure they are leaving Basheer.”
The offices were still open and Honian’s assistant looked embarrassed when he told them Honian had left Basheer for Veilport, intending to leave Caless altogether for a few months.
“My dagger,” Pepper said once they were outside.
“Maybe they left a note at the inn?” Gags said, leaving an out for the travelers in his mind.
The innkeeper shook his head when asked about any communication from Patricia, Honian or Mexius.
“Can I post two letters? One goes to Artport and the other to a town in Karkle Cross.”
“I don’t know where Karkle Cross is, but address it thoroughly. I’ll send them out tomorrow.”
Gag didn’t have much time, but he quickly explained that they had been tricked and left in Basheer and would be following Mexius and Honian Garish to Veilport, intending to follow Mexius back across to Peria. They didn’t know where Pepper and he would end up, but he would keep Portia and Pophius advised. They paid for their rooms and for dinner before packing up and riding out of Basheer.
After they rode deep into the night, they stayed at a cheap roadside inn. Gags’s injured thigh ached from the ride, but he knew they were on the right path. They didn’t catch up with the carriage or the riders the next day, but Honian and his niece were distinguished enough to have caught the eye of a roadside vendor.
“Should we tail them?” Pepper asked Gags. “You are more experienced at chasing people, whereas I’m sure I am more experienced at being chased.”
Gags stroked his thigh. “Are you willing to ride through the night?” Gags asked. “We know where they are going, so it would be better if we started following them when we are on the outskirts of Veilport. The Garish company has at least two offices in Veilport. The one where they kidnapped you and the place where Patricia went when she left the ship.”
“Patricia,” Pepper sighed with a sinking heart. “I thought she liked me.”
“Perhaps she does, but Patricia has priorities and her uncle’s business is hers.”
“But my dagger…”
Gags couldn’t say anything that would comfort Pepper. Neither of them had any idea where the dagger would be. She had stolen it from him just as Terzian had stolen the rest of the treasure from Honian.
“Perhaps Honian couldn’t let it go, even though he promised,” Gags said.
“I should blame my loss on her uncle?” Pepper asked.
“I’d blame it on both. If she had left a note of explanation, it might have been better.” Gags finished his meal. “Well? Shall we be off?”
“Whatever you say,” Pepper said.
Gags sighed. “Don’t be like that. We are partners.”
“You are the senior partner,” Pepper said.
“That may be, but you always have the right to speak up.”
“I know that. It’s just that I’m a little down. I can’t be as positive as you.”
Gags laughed. “You weren’t with me after I left the army and looked for Miria. I was down all the time.”
“Especially when you were told she’d been shipped out just after you reunited with her?” Pepper asked.
“Miria, the unicorn, is worth more to me than a hundred of your daggers,” Gags admitted.
“Then let’s look forward. If one of us gets tired, we will sleep a few hours before continuing,” Pepper said.
“Good,” Gags said, patting Pepper on the back on their way to the horses.
They rode off, passing roadside inns and slipping through a town in the middle of the night. Gags’s thigh began to pulse with pain, so he was the one to call for a few hours rest before heading out again. They didn’t catch sight of the carriage until they were a few hours outside of Veilport, while Gags and Pepper sat at a popular roadside stand. They waited two hours, sipping watered wine until Pepper spotted the carriage.
“There is a box wagon behind the coach,” Pepper said.
“Did someone join them along the way?” Gags asked, not expecting an answer.
“Must have,” Pepper said. “We still follow.”
“Right.” Gags and Pepper had already paid and mounted up riding within a hundred paces on the busy road. Their headdresses covered their faces. As they rode they gradually moved closer, Gags made sure he was up high enough to keep the two wagons and the riders in sight.
They entered the gates with minimum fuss and got even closer until the carriage went one way and the box wagon went another with the guards splitting up.
“I’ll take the box wagon,” Gags said. “You follow the carriage. We will meet at the inn we used before.”
Gags watched Pepper follow the carriage. If the box wagon was set up like the one they used to travel from Naneera to Basheer, anyone could be in either conveyance. The box wagon bypassed the city center and ended up in front of the small Basheer Trading and Transport storefront.
Gags rode past and tied the horse up around the corner before running back to see who exited the wagon. Gags’s eyebrows went up as he saw children with bound hands being urged through the front door by the two riders. The box wagon continued on and Gags decided to see where the wagon ended up. He tried to keep a few riders or wagons away from the box wagon even though the wagon didn’t have a rear window.
The wagon ended up pulling into an estate. Basheer T & T was worked into a wrought iron arc at the top of the gate. This was where Patricia had gone when she left the ship. Gags found a hitching post and walked across the street, standing in the shade of a tree, to see who exited the box wagon. Soxus was the only occupant, and after he went into the house, the box wagon rolled around to the back.
“They split up to fool us?” Pepper said, walking up to Gags.
“No. They are transporting children,” Gags said. “The wagon let them out at the office where you were held.”
He looked across the lane at the big, fancy house. “I don’t know what else we can do here. Let’s see if we can learn more by speaking to the children,” Gags said, frustrated they couldn’t confront Honian or Patricia.
When they returned to the office close to the city center, a lantern had been lit in the front room of the office, so Gags led Pepper to the back and to a curtained window.
“Keep quiet,” Gags said. “I have to use some magic.”
He spelled night sight which made the curtain almost invisible. The children were tied to chairs in two rows of five. There were four men and a woman standing around as the children ate a meal. Gags couldn’t hear anything and put his ear to the window, but the words weren’t clear enough to understand.
He turned around to ask Pepper if he felt well enough to fight, but when he did a spell hit him. Gags wasn’t able to identify it before he crumpled to the ground, landing on Pepper just as everything went dark.
Chapter Twenty-One
~
Honian Garish
~
“I
didn’t believe you,” Honian said to Patricia as Gags and Pepper’s bodies were carried into his estate.
“Kill them,” Mexius said. “They failed in their mission to protect me.”
“And that is a killing offense in Artport?”
Mexius worked his mouth. “It is for some. My brother was killed.”
“Protecting you?” Patricia asked.
“Doesn’t matter,” Mexius said shrugging off the question.
“I say we take them with us,” Honian said. “They may be useful.”
“Useful for whom?” Mexius said sneering.
Patricia knelt by Pepper’s body and pushed an errant lock of his black hair from his forehead. “I won’t allow it,” she said. “I didn’t use that magic spell to have them killed. We can just leave them somewhere in Veilport, and let them find their way to Artport.”
“Can’t have that,” Mexius said. “I’d never be able to return to my wife.”
Honian laughed. “You can’t be serious. You’ve already told me you bilked her out of her savings. Is your charm that ironclad?”
Mexius thrust out his lower lip. “Perhaps my charm isn’t what it once was.”
“That is quite a humble admission,” Patricia said, caustically. She looked at Honian. “Where are we headed?”
“Sheerport,” Honian said. “Then it’s on to a crumbling fief called Fetishing. That is all I know.”
“It will cost you Pepper’s dagger to reveal that much to you,” Mexius said.
“What?” Patricia said to her uncle. “You sold Pepper’s treasure to get one city’s name?”
“Did you really think I would let him walk off with that?” Honian said, feeling put upon by his niece. She was the only one with the ability to make him feel the least bit guilty about anything.
“I agree with my uncle, we take them with us. If nothing else we can force them to watch the children,” Patricia said. “That solves Mexius’s problem with his wife in the short term and I can’t see them killed and be part of it, and we won’t give up the dagger. That is not up for discussion.”
“Sometimes you need a harder heart,” Mexius said.
Honian glared at Mexius. “And sometimes yours should soften up a bit.”
“Not possible,” Mexius said.
“I know,” Honian said. Mexius was a person Honian could have killed without qualms, but he had a potentially lucrative deal with Mexius and business was business, no matter what.
“I’m going to find something to drink,” Mexius said.
“We are sailing in two hours, don’t drink too much,” Honian said as Mexius walked into Honian’s office where the liquor was kept.
Mexius slammed the door, making Honian and Patricia wince.
“What an odious man!” Patricia said softly. “I wished he was in another line of business so you could have ignored him, uncle. He could be the death of you.”
“So could you!” Honian said, but then he grinned. “We will take your Pepper and his friend Gags. Who knows? Both earned Soxus’s respect, and you know how hard that is to come by.”
“I know,” Patricia said. “Soxus has been voicing his disapproval about this entire operation to me even though he’s your man.”
“Soxus will be joining us to make sure your bodyguards don’t cause trouble. I’ll get back on the Perians’ good sides and have the three of them protect us from Mexius.”
Patricia rubbed her shoulders. “I’m sure we will need it.”
~
Honian looked down at the three bodies on the carriage floor. His and Patricia’s legs were on the seat in front of them. Mexius had, of course, drunk himself into a stupor and rather than put up with Mexius’s obnoxious ravings, Patricia gladly agreed to put him under, too.
They were carried to their cabins. Mexius had a nice space for the long voyage from Veilport to Sheerport, and Gags and Pepper would share a more modest cabin. Honian shut the door to Gags and Pepper’s cabin after Patricia reinforced the spell to keep them asleep.
“That spell cost a lot of your energy, didn’t it? You are almost thin as a result.”
“I can handle thin, uncle. There is a lot of time between ports for me to put on more weight.”
Honian smiled. “Something I don’t have to think about. Now, make sure the children are out and stay out until the end of the voyage.”
Patricia sighed.
Honian took that to mean she was grudgingly obliging her favorite uncle. He would make sure she was sufficiently rewarded when they returned to Basheer.
Chapter Twenty-Two
~
Gags
~
G ags came to in a strange place. He looked out a tiny porthole and watched the waves roll. Why was he on a ship? There was no way to know the heading. Pepper still snored in his upper bunk, so Gags quickly spelled him with a real seasick enchantment, hoping that it would work this time.
He rose from his bunk and realized whatever spell the magician used wasn’t fully gone, so he sat in the only chair in the tiny cabin, thinking that he needed to get better at lurking around. His record wasn’t very good, even on this assignment.
Pepper stirred when Gags shook his shoulder.
“Where are we?” Pepper quickly sat up and hit his head on the ceiling of the cabin. “A ship?”
Gags nodded. “A ship heading for somewhere, but I can’t tell you where or how long we’ve been under. I guess that Patricia Garish is to blame. She is the most powerful magician we know in Caless.”
Pepper jumped down and then swooned before sitting on Gags’s bunk. “But we aren’t in Caless, anymore.”
Magical energy was building in Gags as he sat. “At least she doesn’t know how to sap my energy.”
“Is there such a thing?”
“There is, but few magicians can do it.”
“You can?”
Gags shook his head. “Not me. I have other talents.”
“Like shooting bolts from your hand and guiding them around horses and into attacking Feybeerians?” Pepper said.
“Exactly, but I was thinking of twirling my staff, Pepper.”
Pepper laughed, but then stopped. “What kind of fix are we in?”
“The fact that our throats aren’t slit gives me a little hope. I’m sure Mexius wouldn’t care where are carcasses are.”
Pepper grunted. “We are like a couple of buzzing gnats,” he said.
“Buzz.” Gags smiled as he used Pepper’s childhood nickname.
“Yes?” Pepper said
