Pausing, Illan explains, “He’s my son.”
“Oh, okay,” replies James. Looking back at the guard at the gate, he can see the resemblance between father and son.
Illan opens the door just as another man is leaving. The bandage on his face tells them this must be the man whose nose had been broken by the captain. Without so much as an ‘excuse me’, he walks through the door and they have to step back to allow him room.
The man walks straight toward the gate and passes through to the courtyard beyond. “Nice man,” James says.
“Yeah,” replies Illan. “No wonder he got his nose broken.”
James nods his head as they enter the building.
“His office is up on the third floor,” he tells him.
Leading the way like he’d been here a hundred times before, he follows the corridor to the stairs winding up. He climbs them until they reach the third floor and then follows a hallway down to a pair of ornate doors.
Opening them, he walks right in, James following close behind. They find themselves in a reception area with several tables and couches. Another set of double doors across the room from them must lead into the magistrate’s office.
Illan crosses the room and swings them both open at the same time revealing a man sitting behind a desk with his feet propped up on top of it, snoring.
James can hear a quiet chuckle coming from Illan as he enters the room and comes to stand before the desk behind which the man is sleeping.
“On your feet soldier!” Illan hollers in his most commanding voice.
The man behind the desk starts awake and comes to his feet, standing at attention. His eyes blink several times and James can see his body visibly relax as he begins to realize what happened and who it is standing before him.
“Illan you bastard!” the man shouts as he sits back down in his chair. He glares at him a moment before breaking out in an uncontrollable laughing fit. After a moment Illan joins in with him. Even James has a hard time remaining calm.
“Good to see you again, Harlan,” Illan says when he’s calmed down some.
“You too, Illan,” Magistrate Harlan replies as he, too gets his composure back. “Though you about gave me a heart attack,” he accuses.
“Sorry, couldn’t resist,” he says, grinning.
“What brings you back to these parts?” Harlan asks.
“Need your help with something,” he says. He gestures for James to give him the letter which he does. Once he’s had a chance to read through it, he explains about the captain and how they need to cross the Sea.
Harlan leans back in his chair and gives them a look which could only be called despondent. “If only it was for anything else,” he says.
“Why?” Illan asks. “We have a letter from Lord Pytherian himself requesting any and all to help us.”
“I know,” he replies. “But the letter is only a ‘request’, it’s not an order. So it doesn’t have as much weight here as you would think.”
“What do you mean?” asks James.
“That captain hit a very important person around here,” he explains. “Whether he knew it or not is immaterial. And this person is demanding the stiffest punishment allowable under the law.”
“Which is?” asks Illan.
“A year,” he replies.
“A year?” exclaims Illan. “For hitting someone? That’s outrageous!”
“I know, but this man has a lot of influence in the area, not to mention he’s quite wealthy,” Harlan tells them.
“Who is he?” asks James.
“His name is Faetherton,” Harlan replies. “Though since he’s become so influential, he’s been taking to calling himself, Lord Faetherton.”
“Never heard of him,” states Illan.
“Not surprising,” he explains. “He arrived in these parts shortly after you left five years ago.”
“So there’s nothing we’re able to do about this?” asks Illan.
“I’m afraid not,” he says. Lowering his voice, he continues, “I have to admit, Faetherton has been such an annoyance, that I for one was glad that captain broke his nose.”
“So, hypothetically, if this captain was to disappear, it would sure upset this Faetherton?” asks Illan.
Harlan gives him a smile and says, “To be sure. Oh, and on a side note, the guard captain at the jail is a cousin of his as well.”
“I see,” Illan says. Then he extends his hand to his old friend and continues, “It was nice to see you again, hopefully next time I’ll have time to stay for awhile.”
“I understand,” Harlan says. “Sorry I couldn’t have been more help.”
“You take care,” Illan tells him.
“I will,” he replies. As they make to leave, Harlan says, “Good luck.”
Illan nods his head and gives him a brief wave as they leave his office. Out in the corridor, as they head for the stairs, James says, “I wish that had gone better.”
“What do you mean?” asks Illan. “I thought that went pretty well, all in all.”
“How can you say that?” asks James. “We still don’t have the captain.”
“No but we will,” he explains. Gesturing back to the offices they just left, he lowers his voice and says, “He all but told us to break that captain out of jail.”
“You sure?” James asks.
“Absolutely,” replies Illan quietly. “He even said the guard captain was a cousin, which to me means we can treat him roughly if we want.”
“I hope you’re right,” he says.
“Don’t worry,” he tells him.
As they leave the building, he stops by his son and says, “Tell your mother I’m fine, but things are moving fast and I won’t have time to visit.”
“I will father,” his son assures him.
Nodding, Illan continues on out into the courtyard and turns down one of the side streets. Keeping his voice low, he says, “Let’s go tell the others what we’re going to do.”
“What are we going to do?” asks James, afraid he already knows the answer.
“Break that captain out of jail,” he says.
Chapter Thirty One
At the Flying Fish they find the others, having just finished their meal. As they order theirs, Illan and James fill them in on what’s going on and what they are planning to do.
“Now, I can’t be a part of the jail break,” Illan tells them. Turning to James, he says, “You’ll have to manage that with the rest of these guys.”
“I’m sure we can do it,” Uther says.
“Yeah,” Keril says from where he’s sitting with Miko, “it’ll be easy.”
“Hope so,” James tells him. To Jiron he says, “You and Miko should stay with Illan, with your shoulder the way it is, you’ll not be much good should trouble develop. We’ll meet you down by the docks when we have the captain.”
Nodding, he says, “Alright. When do you plan to do this?”
“After I’m done eating,” he tells him. “There’s only three of them at the jail so we should be able to overcome them quickly. And once we’re down to the docks and on the ship, we’ll be safe. No one’s going to come looking for us anyway until they discover the guards at the jail and the captain’s missing. By that time we should be
