As we stood looking around the town square, there was a bustle from the trading house. A flight of wooden steps led up to broad double doors. The doors stood open, and striding down the steps was a tall, thin, imposing man with a high bald dome of a head and dark, piercing eyes. He walked stiffly, standing very straight, and he held up the luxuriant folds of his bright red robes with his left hand. In his right, he carried a tall staff of testing wood with a huge, glinting red gem fixed into the top. His dark eyebrows seemed clenched in a permanent frown over his brow.
In an orderly group behind him on the steps, his bodyguard of elite melee specialists stood three abreast and three deep. They looked very similar to the kinds of soldiers I’d seen in Aranor, wearing high-cheeked helmets, and matching dark red tabards over ringmail hauberks, and armed with tall pikes and shortswords. Their sergeant stood ahead of the soldiers, a step behind and to the left of the brightly dressed man.
“That must be the Arcanist,” Amelia breathed to me, and Veronica nodded.
I hung back slightly and folded my arms, concealing my tattoos. Amelia noticed and did the same. These men didn’t look friendly, and we didn’t want to attract more attention than necessary.
There was no chance of that, however. The Arcanist stood for a moment at the bottom of the steps, scanning the square with his piercing eyes. Almost immediately, his gaze found us. He said a word to the sergeant by his side, and the whole group marched smartly across the square and stopped in front of us.
Soldiers’ boots smacking paving stones in lockstep was an intimidating sound. I drew a deep breath, kept my arms crossed, and resisted the temptation to grab a fireball and blast them all to hell. That wouldn’t end well.
To my relief, the red-clad Arcanist ignored Amelia and I completely, though the sergeant took a good look at us, and at our shortswords. The Arcanist looked Veronica up and down, taking in her broad-bladed shortsword with its magical runes, along with her enchanted skirt and ring.
“You,” he said in a harsh voice, “who are you, and what are you doing in Brightwater?”
Veronica put her hands on her hips and snorted derisively at the man. “Who are you? What right do you have to go about demanding to know honest peoples’ business?”
The man’s thin chest puffed up with anger and self-importance, and his eyes narrowed. He pointed at his own chest. “I am Arcanist Maximillian, Taxation Regent of the King’s Court at Astros. And you, I know your kind. You wear expensive enchanted robes and flout your runic gear, but you are no true Arcanist. You’ve taken the magical training offered by the Arcanists in Astros and used it for your own ends. You’re a… mercenary.” He turned his head and spat, as if the word tasted foul to his refined senses.
“It’s no crime to hire out one’s services in the Kingdom,” Veronica retorted. “You’re right, I’m no Arcanist, though I was trained in Astros. That’s not a crime either. I’m in Brightwater on business of my own. I don’t care who you are, or what pompous title you take to yourself, you’ve no right to be harassing folks out here.”
“Pompous title?” the man huffed, looking more pompous than ever. “You dare to insult me, wench? Show me your stamps of authorization, you and your… servants.” His gaze flickered over Amelia and I disdainfully.
“I’m not showing you anything,” said Veronica firmly.
Veronica and the Arcanist stood glaring at each other, eyeball to eyeball, for a long moment. Our confrontation had gathered a bit of a crowd. I thought the Arcanist seemed about to escalate the situation, and I hoped very much that Veronica knew what she was doing. I didn’t think we’d fare well if we had to take on ten elite soldiers and an Arcanist. Judging by his position, I assumed he was probably a powerful mage, and the honor guard who traveled with such a man would be combat hardened veterans.
Suddenly, he leaned forward and hissed in Veronica’s face through clenched teeth. “You’ll regret this insolence, whore. I’ll not forget your face in a hurry.”
Then, without another word, he turned on his heel and marched off without a backward glance. His soldiers followed in smart formation behind him. It took everything I had not to strike the man down for speaking to Veronica like that. She wasn’t my woman, but I considered her a friend.
I let out a pent-up breath, and heard Amelia do the same beside me. “What an asshole,” I muttered, and Amelia laughed.
“That was not normal,” Veronica said as the crowd began to disperse. “I’ve never seen anyone do that in Brightwater before.”
“We might have to watch our backs,” I said. “He seems like he’s going to be trouble.”
Veronica nodded reluctantly. “He knows he doesn’t have much power here, not really. I guess I caught his attention because of my enchanted equipment. There are mercenaries about, and sometimes even mercenary Mages, but few of them are Astros-trained, like I am.”
“We’ll just stay out of his way,” Amelia said before something else caught her attention. “What’s that building on the right of the square? The steeple on top looks like what I’ve seen on many religious buildings in Astros. Is it a temple?”
She was pointing at another building, this one a strange mixture of wooden paneling and monster parts. It was longer and lower than the rest of the buildings in the square. Down a lane at one side, I could make out what looked like the entrance to a stable yard. As Amelia had pointed out, it
