unreasonable. I warned you they were dangerous.”
“I beg to disagree. They are
All eyes turned to the entrance, where the high priest of the temple stood.
“Sarru,” Mayor Arbuckle said, a note of forced joviality in his voice. “Welcome.”
Sarru Firebrand had the thick, muscular kind of build one usually associated with a bouncer in a seedy tavern, and the polished wooden staff he carried did nothing to soften his image. He had red-gold hair that he braided in two thick cords on either side of his head, and his beard was held in place with three descending gold clips. His robes were crimson with gold trim and an amulet of Reorx, wrought in steel, hung about his neck.
“I seriously doubt that I am welcome here,” the priest said, his eyes sweeping over the room accusingly. “What do you mean by restricting the religious freedom of the good dwarves of Ironroot?”
“We did nothing of the sort,” Bladehook said, his voice sounding suddenly less confident than it had been a moment before.
“He’s right, Sarru,” Mayor Arbuckle said defensively. “The law simply requires that preaching be done in the temple, where it belongs.”
“That’s right,” Bladehook said, trying to regain his superior footing. “It keeps the preaching off the street. I should think you’d relish the idea of us eliminating the competition for you.”
At that a scowl crossed the priest’s face.
“I do not know why Reorx chooses to send these messengers here,” the priest said after a long moment’s pause. “I wonder if perhaps he is displeased with me. Regardless of the reason, however, I will not hinder his will, and neither will you.”
“That sounds like a threat,” Bladehook said complainingly. He opened his mouth to continue, but Arbuckle cut him off.
“Nobody’s trying to prevent these people from being heard,” the mayor said with all the dignity he could muster.
“Really?” Sarru answered him. “Did you know that since you passed that ordinance, over forty dwarves have been arrested? Are you aware that the Goldspanner family is in the city jail right now for praying over their food in a tavern? One dwarf was taken right off the street for saying ‘Reorx bless you!’ when someone sneezed!”
Mayor Arbuckle looked shocked; then his face reddened slightly. “Uh,” he said, clearly trying to form a coherent response to Sarru’s assertions. “Well, uh, it seems our city guard has, uh, misinterpreted the spirit of our ordinance,” he muttered.
Bradok noticed the mayor cast Jon Bladehook a dirty look. Then he remembered seeing Bladehook drinking with the captain of the city guard that very afternoon.
“Misinterpretation or not, the people won’t stand for it,” Sarru declared haughtily. “There are several hundred dwarves over at the temple who I’ve convinced not to burn city hall to the ground. Right now they’re willing to listen to me, but I don’t know how much longer that will last, with their friends and families in jail.”
“Of course, of course,” Arbuckle said, taking out a piece of paper and scribbling on it. When he finished, he dribbled wax onto the paper and stamped it with the seal of Ironroot.
“Here,” he said, waving a guardsman over. “Give this to the captain of the guard”-he glanced irritably at Bladehook-“and tell him, in no uncertain terms, that he is to release all the prisoners arrested in violation of the no-preaching ordinance.”
The guard reached out to take the paper, but Arbuckle pulled it away before he could grab it.
“And tell that fat-headed buffoon,” the mayor added, loud enough for his words to carry throughout the chamber, “that if he messes this up, he’ll be a street sweeper before lunch.” Arbuckle handed over the paper, and the guard departed.
“It will take more than that, I’m afraid,” Sarru said tersely.
Arbuckle ground his teeth but smiled pleasantly before reaching for his gavel. “All in favor of rescinding the ordinance barring street preaching, say ‘aye.’”
The room thundered with assent.
“Any opposed?”
There were none, not even Bladehook, who dared dissent.
“Then I declare the ordinance against street preaching rescinded.” He nodded toward Sarru. “I’ll leave it to you to deliver the news to the faithful.”
Sarru harrumphed then turned and left, his staff rapping sharply on the floor.
“Everyone go home and get some sleep,” Arbuckle roared once Sarru had vanished. “Jon, Bradok, not so fast, you two,” he went on. “I’d like to see you in my chambers for a moment.”
Bradok looked warily at Jon Bladehook, but Bladehook simply looked annoyed. As it turned out, Arbuckle met with them separately. Bladehook went in first, staying almost an hour while Bradok waited in an overstuffed chair outside Arbuckle’s heavy office door. Toward the end, Bradok became aware of raised voices inside.
“You move too soon!” Arbuckle was saying.
“And you do nothing but bide your time,” Bladehook replied vehemently. “We passed an ordinance, correct? All I did was tell my brother-in-law to enforce that ordinance to the letter.”
“But you didn’t give the people time even to learn about the law, Jon. You have incited them and called our motives into question.”
“What do we do now?” Bladehook asked, clearly piqued.
“We wait, Jon,” Arbuckle said. “We bide our time.”
A moment later the door burst open and Bladehook stormed out. He marched past Bradok and down the hall without a backward glance.
“Sorry about that, Bradok,” Arbuckle said, standing in the doorway to his office. “Jon can be a little high- strung at times. Come in.”
Bradok rose and followed Arbuckle into his office. The round room had been cut from the wall of the cavern. Cabinets of dark, polished wood curved along the back wall. They had glass fronts so Bradok could see that they were full of thick leather-bound books. Arbuckle’s oval-shaped desk stood in the middle of the room with two comfortable-looking chairs before it. Papers, books, and blotters littered the top of his desk.
“Sit down,” the mayor said, waving his hand in the direction of the chairs.
“If this is about that ordinance,” Bradok said, sinking down into the seat, “I just-”
“I know you had nothing to do with what happened,” Arbuckle said, some of his easy manner evaporating. “I brought you here tonight because you seem to have a level head and a keen mind.”
“Uh, thank you,” Bradok said uncertainly.
“Your ordinance was a good one,” Arbuckle said. “A sound idea.” He got up and began to pace back and forth behind his desk. “But it seems we have quite a few citizens who took it the wrong way.”
“Starting with our captain of the guard,” Bradok ventured.
Arbuckle cleared his throat nervously and went on. “I don’t want something like this to happen again,” the mayor said in a pained tone. “Things could have gotten out of hand tonight. People could have gotten hurt.”
“What do you want me to do?” Bradok asked.
“Ah, that’s what I like about you, Bradok,” Arbuckle said with a beaming smile. “You get right to the point.”
He sat back down at his desk and leaned forward on his arms, giving Bradok an intense look.
“We need to find out what the people really want,” he said. “I want to know what they
“I think they made that clear tonight,” Bradok said hesitantly.
“No,” Arbuckle said with a sly smile. “Tonight they showed that they don’t want to lose their religious freedoms. That’s a long way from whether or not we let wandering preachers annoy them in the public square. The problem of those preachers is still with us, and I think most of the town would like a solution.”
“I see,” said Bradok, nodding. “So you want to know what they want done about the preachers. Ideas for a better solution.”
“Precisely,” Bradok said. “Let’s say you make up a survey that we can hand out to the people of Ironroot, something innocuous and nonthreatening. We’ll use the pages here at city hall and ask them to take your survey and canvass the city.”
