Heralds- The Proving Grounds, page 10
Jen blinked a few times. “What? Why?”
Anna nodded as she glanced about. “Something definitely feels… wrong here.”
Jen frowned. It all seemed like a big step up to her eyes. “Walls, guards, a place people can be safe from the madness outside. How is that bad?”
Sam nodded to a couple of barrels stacked in a corner. Jen and Anna followed her over as hawkers continued to advertise their wares at the expense of their vocal cords.
“Arrange your inventory.” Sam sat on a barrel and made a show of opening her menu.
Jen tilted her head, but complied. She didn’t really need to… but it was a bit disorganized.
“Hmm.” Anna’s voice came from off to Jen’s left. “I count a dozen guards in the square. Another six people armed and observing, but out of uniform.”
“I figured.” Sam’s voice was level. Jen glanced aside to see her casually swinging a finger as if she was moving things in her inventory… but her eyes were not looking at her hand. They shot about the open square.
Anna was doing the same.
“Okay…” Jen closed her inventory but likewise moved her hand in the open air, probably much less convincingly. “Explain.”
“Walls are good, until you realize they are also keeping us in.” Sam shrugged.
Anna nodded. “Guards are also good, until you consider they are not public servants, but part of this town.”
Jen scoffed. “Paranoid much? They need to protect this place from red names.”
Sam nodded. “Super important… for the guards at the gate and the others watching the outside. But there are more in here than out there. You think anyone would be dumb enough to swing on a friendly in here? Doubtful.
“You ever been to a casino? The burly guys keeping tabs on the floor aren’t there to look out for you, they look out for the casino. If helping you helps the casino, they’ll help. If not, they won’t.”
Jen rolled her eyes. “Public order simply can not be their goal?”
“Oh, it is. Sort of.” Sam shrugged.
Anna nodded. “Order is better, yeah. Makes things easier. Lets people feel safe here.”
Jen sighed. “You’re both crazy.”
“Maybe… but caution costs us nothing.”
Sam hopped off of her barrel and gave Anna a nod. “I might have been wrong about you. You’re okay.”
“Awesome.”
Jen made a show of closing her inventory. “Well at least you’re getting along now.” She brushed herself off more out of habit than need. The ruins had a dusty look regardless of people working to make them livable again. “So, given all your careful observations, what’s the play here?”
Sam pointed at one of the shops. “Those two seem to have money to spare, but honestly we should all sell to someone different. Spread the stuff around, not get too much money from any one merchant.”
“So now the merchants are in on it too?”
“Duh. Protection racket much?”
“I’m glad we are so studied on Al Capone’s antics.”
“Call ‘em like I see ‘em.” Sam shrugged and stepped over to Anna. “Here, take some of this junk so none of us look too rich walking out of here.”
Jen blinked at that. If Sam was willing to give away money to Anna, she was being serious about this place. Jen took another glance around.
There were more than a few people clearly armed and observing the square who were not in uniform and also not taking part in any of the services. Just as Sam had said.
Ugh. The paranoia was rubbing off.
Unless they were right… well, they could be paranoid and still be right.
They split up with instructions to meet back up at the barrels. Sam wandered off to the loudest of the hawkers while Anna and Jen walked along a line of shops.
Jen sold a few things to each store, carefully pondering their wares.
She kept an eye out for weapons, as she had only found the one and it wasn’t exactly… lethal. A smith had some, but they had exorbitant prices. Each of them cost more than she had made from selling the excess armor.
There was more than one racket going on here.
A hammer caught her eye as she paged through the smith’s items. It wasn’t a weapon though, it was for crafting. Its description said it was used to create, repair, and restore items. Cheap enough comparatively… though Jen wouldn’t be telling Sam what she paid for it. Better than half of what she had made.
There wasn’t much of a market for rusted out armor from a previous age of mankind that probably wouldn’t stop hail.
She pocketed the hammer with a nod to the smith, who was an uncaring NPC, before turning and stepping away from the shop.
Anna did her own haggling for a few minutes while Jen kept an eye out.
She didn’t like feeling paranoid… but it seemed prudent here.
“Thank you.” Anna waved at the merchants as she joined Jen in the street. “Well, that could have gone worse.”
Jen shrugged. “The night isn’t over yet, and I don’t see Sam. Hopefully we made enough to bail her out of jail.”
Anna chuckled. “Not at these prices.”
They made their way back over to the barrels, but there was no sign of Sam. They settled in to wait.
Ten minutes later Jen was staring at the clock and wearing a frown.
10
Anna had her back to a stone wall as she sat on one barrel and propped her feet up on another. “Is she a picky shopper?”
“No.” Jen shook her head. “She doesn’t shop, she buys. Goes for a given thing, finds it, and leaves.”
“One would hope there was a ‘pays for it’ step in there somewhere.”
“That might be our current problem.” Jen shaded her eyes from the bright torch light as she glanced around.
“Put your hand down. Looking worried is tantamount to looking suspicious here.”
Jen frowned but did as she was told. She sat on the ground and leaned back against a barrel. “I don’t like this.”
“She’s sneaky. I’m sure she’s fine.”
“Sneaky is good, but it usually goes hand in hand with subtle. Subtle she is not. Couple that with the missing ‘pays for it’ step and I’m a tad worried.”
“Huh.” Anna glanced around, careful to keep a bored expression on her face. “Yeah, that might be a problem.”
Jen let out a long relieved sigh when she spotted Sam moving through the crowd towards them.
Huh. She was getting kind of invested in this game. She’d never thought much of fighting or dying in the beta. Then again, there had been no permanence to that.
Sam was moving at a brisk pace. Not exactly nonchalant. She might have shoved a few people as she crossed the square.
“Hi.” Jen waved.
“Yeah, hey.” Sam glanced back over her shoulder a few times. “We might want to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because this is all a front for a PK guild that’s using it to bring in suckers who need to sell things. They buy the stuff, let people leave, then murder them once they are out of sight of the town. About a third of the people walking in are stooges carrying money back in after red names hiding outside do the killing.”
Jen blinked a few times. “That’s an… oddly specific assumption you have there.”
“Overheard some mooks talking with a gold transporter about it.”
Anna casually slid off her barrel and stretched her shoulders. “Okay, but doesn’t leaving in a hurry make us look suspicious?”
“Yeah. But it turns out being noticed while listening in also makes one pretty suspicious.”
“Oh.”
Sam nodded. “So let’s get to sauntering toward the gate, hmm?”
Jen shook her head. “If they’re onto you, that’s suicide. It’s down that narrow corridor. Lets find a blind corner in here and disappear.”
“They have eyes on me already. Probably been watching us since we came in. But you’re right…” She glanced around. “See anything?”
Anna tilted her head and made a show of yawning. She could really play up the uncaring attitude. “Maybe into an NPC shop one at a time, pop back to the island?”
Jen frowned. “Wait, we can’t just leave. You said they kill the people who come here to sell things.”
Sam shrugged. “Well not all of them. Only the ones who make a lot of money. They let the others leave to spread word of mouth and good will which gets more to come in. The dead ones can’t exactly complain.”
“The percentage doesn’t matter. They’re going to keep running this sham if we don’t do something.”
“Like what? Three of us, two level nines and a six? Even if they are all lower than us, bare minimum twenty of them to show up and cut us down. This is no time for roleplaying a paladin.”
“It’s not about that.” Jen crossed her arms and stood taller. “Our job is to get people to work together. To create a community. How does letting this… slaughter house continue to operate accomplish that? The people we need are being knifed for pocket change.”
“It works by not having us killed.” Sam shook her head. “Look, we’ll get the others, brainstorm something… but we can’t do jack squat right now.”
Anna casually leaned back against the wall. “Looks like it was too late anyway. They were on your heels.”
Sam sighed as she turned around.
Six armed guards were moving across the square. Where Sam had to shove and weave her way through, they were walking straight at them and everyone else made a point to get out of their way.
Anna glanced over at them. “What do you think? Threats? Recruitment spiel?”
“Recruitment?” Jen tilted her head.
“They could have shot us.” She shrugged. “Seems like they want to talk.”
Sam shook her head. “I don’t. This is… base. I’m an artist in the field of death. This is just idiots slinging paint. Shameful.”
A small smile crept onto Jen’s face. “Well, at least you have standards.”
Sam crossed her arms as she faced the guards. Anna fell in behind her. Jen stood a few feet back. She would need a moment to get her shield free if things went bad.
Anna glanced aside at Sam. “I take it running for a blind corner and disappearing is out of the question?”
“This sort of confirmed they were watching us. All the barricades set up in here are to funnel people around. You think there’s any corner blind enough short of jumping in a sewer grate?”
“Point taken.” She turned her eyes to Jen. “Bit closer, if you please.”
Jen tilted her head, but she complied. She moved closer to the others, directly behind.
Anna nodded.
The guards stopped in a line before them. One of them stepped forward and held up a hand. “Good evening, ladies. Just a few questi-”
“Aren’t you supposed to let us get beyond the walls before you mug us?” Sam stood with her chin raised. “Seems sloppier this way.”
It took a moment, but the man put on a fake smile. He looked like he wanted to sell them a used car. “Ha, very amusing. We would just like to offer you some… accommodations for the evening. A safe place to hang your hats.”
Anna glanced upward. “Oh damn. I lost my hat.”
Sam scoffed. “In this town, it was probably stolen. I can’t see anyone here that isn’t crooked. There was a priest trying to sell me discount holy water.”
“Scandalous.”
The guard’s face endured the exchange, but Jen could see his patience was wearing thin. His eyes were not amused. “I see being polite isn’t going to accomplish much. I’m afraid I must insist.”
“I dunno…” Anna tapped a finger against her chin. “That was still pretty polite.”
“Right?” Sam nodded.
Jen let her hand rest near the hilt of her sword. This was… buffoonery. And it was bound to fail. What where they up to? The guards held all the cards here.
She tried to make a note of how the guards were armed… most of them seemed to have shorter weapons, clubs and daggers. Probably smart for fighting in closer quarters like the alleyways around them… but they were also weapons that were cheap and easy to produce. They might not be as tough as they tried to let on.
Was that what the others had picked up on? Hmm.
Beyond the guards were the people who had filed into the city to trade in safety. Sam had already let slip the scheme, but the guard had laughed it off.
The patron’s hadn’t. Several of them were glancing over at the scene and talking amongst themselves. Others further back were stopping to see what the commotion was about.
So, that was the play. The guards needed to play their part and Sam and Anna had figured they could use that requirement to their advantage.
Time was on their side and would continue to be. Each passing moment made the guards look worse for something they couldn’t control. Granted, it was no outbreak of violence, but word of what was happening on their streets might get around and sour business.
And the guards knew it.
Those behind the front man had their hands on weapons ready to be drawn. This place had not been born of politics. They had conquered the ruins and sent out word of a safe haven. They were people of action, not likely to be won over by a ploy like Sam’s.
The first blade leaving its scabbard was hardly a surprise.
The fact that they were Sam’s weapons kind of was. Well, it was a bit surprising. Not much, though.
Jen pulled the shield off her back and drew her sword as all the other weapons appeared. She stepped forward in front of Sam and Anna. “This doesn’t need to come to violence. We’ll be on our way, if you but step aside and let us.” Suddenly Sam’s idea to come back with the other Heralds sounded pretty good.
The leader of the guards had yet to draw a weapon. He held up a hand. “Well, that’s a different tone altogether. And punctuated with steel.” He seemed to consider the offer before shaking his head. “Afraid you know too much. If we let you leave, you’ll snitch.”
Anna scoffed. “And what, all these people wont?”
The man lowered his voice. “Frankly, lady, we could cull the lot of them without much effort, and the next batch would be beating on the gate to get in while we cleaned up the bodies. But letting people who think they know something get out into the world? Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. That’s bad for business.”
“Hmm.” A low voice sounded from off to Jen’s right. There was a wall there, she couldn’t see what was beyond it.
The guards could. The one in the front shifted his eyes. “What do you want?”
A large man stepped into view. He was dressed in the same uniform as the rest of the guards with a giant axe hanging on his back. “This seems like a losing proposition all around, to me.” He shrugged and kept his voice low. “Right now those people out there are curious. If you cut people down in the streets, they’ll rabbit. And sure, dead people can’t talk anymore… in here. They can take to forums and social media. It won’t be long before this place is outed and we need to pull up our stakes.”
The lead guard tilted his head. “And yet, I still can’t let them leave.”
“Leave? Certainly not.” The large man’s voice seemed familiar to Jen’s ears, though she couldn’t see his face. He was keeping his back to her. A terrible position to put himself in if he expected a fight. “Bring them in. Runners, at the least, though I think they might be more use as combatants.”
The guard shook his head. “You’re too trusting. They will run at the first chance.”
“Why? We offer safety, shelter, and money. Who is going to say no to that?”
Sam’s eyes shifted about and her ears perked up a bit. “Money?” Jen had known her long enough to see she was playing a part. Her body language didn’t match her words. She still had weapons in hand, after all.
Anna tilted her head, though she said nothing.
Jen kept her shield high. She was the front line if this went bad. “If you would hear us out.” She glanced back and forth among the guards. “We could use your help against Tobin Ironblood.”
The large man hooked a thumb over his shoulder back at them. “Now that has my attention. I’d love to win the title.”
The guard out in front narrowed his eyes. “The PVP rules as is are rather useful to us. Why end them?”
The large man stepped closer to the guards. “You’re right, of course.” He nodded a few times. “The rules are useful… but even so, they won’t last beyond this week anyway. Perhaps we should use the time to gather just as much wealth as possible.” He was standing close to the line of guards now.
The used car salesman guard nodded at him. “Exactly.”
“On the other hand.” The large man held up a single finger. “I do have one concern with the PVP rules.”
The guard in front shifted his eyes back to the three women. “Like what?”
The two handed axe across the large man’s back came free and struck the guard in the chest in the same swift motion.
The other guards stared dumbfounded. The guy was in too close for them to do much without being cut down.
The large man stretched his neck. It gave off a pop. His axe came free from the dead guard. “The problem with the PVP rules is, there’s always someone better. More crafty. And now you’re locked out until the PVP rules are struck down. Simple enough to convert him to my way of thinking.”
Jen blinked a few times. She kept her shield high.
Guards further away had taken notice now. They were pointing and talking amongst themselves. Questioning abandoning their posts, no doubt.
The large axe came to rest on the man’s shoulder. Blood trickled along the metal, the occasional drip hitting he paving stones under his feet. “I’m part of the Seven Eyes, and made note of the founding principles. One of those was the right to challenge. You may consider it enacted. If any would accept my challenge, I stand ready.”
Jen took a few steps closer. Sam hissed behind her, but Jen didn’t look back. Sam hadn’t noticed, then.
She ended up beside the large man, her shield high. She watched the guards. “If you’re thinking numbers will win, you’ll need to count again.”
