responding yet so I continued, “Did you even bother trying to discover any information while I was gone? Or did you just spend your time whoring around with priestesses?” My frustration with my situation was definitely spilling over and finding Marcus drunk when I needed him most had pushed me over the edge.
His eyes focused on me finally, “I’m not drunk. I’m a gods-damned heretic!” He held up a sheet of paper and waved it haphazardly in my direction. “See! I have papersh to prove it.”
“You’re a waste of air is what you are! It isn’t as if I have very many friends left. I’m up to my eyeballs in trouble and when I need your help you’ve gone and pickled what little brains you have left with wine!”
“You think I don’t know that?!” yelled Marc. “It should have been me! They were my besht friends! If I had any faith left I’d be praying to thoshe asshole gods to take me instead.”
I felt my heart grow cold at his words. “You think I wish you were dead in their place?” I could see the pain in his eyes even as I said the words.
“No idiot! I wish I was dead in their place. You need to learn how to lishen better.” He stood suddenly and shoved his paper in my direction, “Read thish damnitt.”
I plucked the sheet from his hand and then gave him a brisk push, sending him falling backward into the chair he had just risen from. “Sit down before you hurt yourself.”
Scanning the page I was surprised to see that it bore a reasonable likeness to Marc’s face drawn upon it. The top line read in bold letters, “Warning! This man is no priest of Doron or any of the other shining gods…” It went on to detail his real identity as an ex-priest of Millicenth and a disinherited heir of the duchy of Lancaster. Near the end it labeled him, ‘Marcus the Heretic’ and included strong instructions to deny him entry to any of the temples of the shining gods.
“How did you manage this?” I asked forgetting my anger.
“They caught me sneaking around in the high priest’s shtudy. I was trying to find invoices detailing what they’ve been shipping to that shecret compound of theirs,” he explained with a bit less slur in his voice.
I raised an eyebrow, “I’m surprised you weren’t locked up.”
“Ha! They might’a tried that but it was jus’ the high priest his pox-ridden self that caught me.” He punctuated his declaration with a soft belch.
“What did you do?”
He grinned sloppily, “I popped the fat bashtard right in his puffy face. You should have seen how surprished he was!”
“And then?” I prompted.
“He started screeching like a little girl so I hit him again, but he still wouldn’t be quiet. I wound up beating him half to death before he finally passed out. For such a weak man he took one hell of a pounding. I hafta’ give him that. Anyway, after he finally shut up I had to take my leave suddenly. I was lucky to get out before they sealed the whole damn place.” After he finished he began miming the high priest’s expression when he surprised him. “Whupsh! Pardon me Father, was that your nose!?”
It might have been funny if he had been sober. “When did all this happen?”
“Yesterday morning… they had those warningsh posted by mid-afternoon,” he replied. “I don’t think Marissha is going to want to see me anymore… now that she knowsh I’m a heretic.” He looked around for his wine bottle but I had already removed it from his vicinity.
“No more of that,” I told him, “I need you sober.”
“Why?”
“Dorian and Penny are alive,” I said abruptly.
His eyes widened and began to well with incipient tears. “Don’t do that to me Mort. That’s not fair.”
“I’m not making jokes you drunken fool. They’re alive and somewhere in this city. After you sober up you and Rose are going to help me find them.” I leaned in closely and my hand reached into the collar of his shirt. A moment later I had found the necklace I had given him.
“How? I don’t understand,” he said, trying to shake me off as I unclasped the pendant.
“I’ll explain when you wake up. I don’t feel like having to repeat myself,” I told him as I pulled the chain away and stood back.
His eyes widened as he realized I was about to put him to sleep. “Wait, I have more news. I found their hidden compound. It’s several miles…”
“Shibal,” I said quietly and he sagged back into the chair. “You can tell me about it when you’re sober.” After that I called Harold in and with his help we got him upstairs to his room.
Once Marc was safely tucked in Harold spoke, “What was that all about?”
“I need him sober and the best way to manage that is to let him sleep it off. Hopefully Rose will be here by the time he wakes up and I can explain things to both of them at the same time,” I said. As we walked back downstairs I could smell something good frying and my stomach began rumbling. It had been quite a while since I had eaten and my last food had been a cold camp breakfast. “What’s that smell?” I asked.
“It appears Walter is a passably fair cook,” Harold responded. “Once he got a good look at the pantry he decided to throw something together.”
My mouth was watering already. I decided to eat first before trying to magically locate Dorian and Penny in the city. I was pretty sure the king would have them kept somewhere far enough away that I wouldn’t find them anyway. Still I had to try.
The afternoon passed slowly into dusk. I spent most of that time in a sort of focused meditation as I searched the area within a mile or so of the house. As expected I didn’t find any sign of my wife or my friend, but I had to be sure. The city itself covered a much larger area, since it was at least two miles in diameter and simple math dictated that I would have to move at least four or five times to completely cover the area just contained within the outer walls. The King wouldn’t be such a fool as to keep them within the city.
Rose still hadn’t returned by the time the sun had gone down, which left me to believe she probably was staying at her own house again. Unfortunately that simply wouldn’t do. I couldn’t afford to wait several days for her to check in, and that meant I would have to go out and find her. Normally that wouldn’t have been a problem, but considering the fact that I didn’t want the King to know I was back in the capital I had to make sure I wasn’t seen. Once he knew I was here he would be able to send a summons or message, and my freedom to act would be greatly limited. Until he found me he couldn’t effectively leverage my wife and friend against me.
Naturally my house was being watched. I had already spotted the men loitering suspiciously outside with my magesight. The building across the street was also being used. Either that or the people that lived there had developed an intense interest in staring at my house for hours on end.
Luckily I had a secret tool in my arsenal, Walter Prathion, and after some consideration we hatched a plan. I disguised Harold to look like Marcus, since he was still sleeping upstairs. Walter used his talents to make both of us invisible and the two of us slipped out while Harold opened the door and looked out as if he were checking the street. Once we were past him he stepped back in and shut the door. Presumably the King’s spies already knew Marc was staying at my address, so we hadn’t made his situation any worse.
Rather than take chances Walter kept us unseen while we walked to Rose’s home. It was the first time I had ever been invisible while walking through a city and the experience was entirely different from the one I had had underground surrounded by shiggreth. The main difference being since we only needed to be invisible to normal vision we were able to use our magesight. For some reason walking in and around people on the street who didn’t even know I was there brought out my inner voyeur.
“You can just go anywhere like this can’t you?” I whispered to Walter as we approached Rose’s home at last.
“Pretty much,” he replied.
After we had reached her door I considered knocking but quickly discarded the idea. Sneaking was simply too much fun. Instead I used my arcane senses to make sure no one was in the vicinity of the door inside the house, and then, with a few words in Lycian I let us in.
“You really know an amazing variety of spells,” Walter observed quietly after we were inside. “Where did you learn them all?”
“I got some from a journal I found and the others I just made up, though I did have to study Lycian quite a while before I understood it well enough to really do anything complicated like the door back there,” I replied off- handedly.
