appeared to bear a simple, tarnished brass ring.
'Well, I'm convinced,' Crest said, blowing out his cheeks and whistling. 'You look like simple travellers to me.'
'A simple enough spell,' Dalquist replied, puffing out his chest a little with evident pride. 'However, it should suffice against casual eyes. Let us continue.'
The companions mounted their patient steeds and continued west. Grimm, allowing a little more of his weight to rest on Jessie's back, felt pleased that his muscles seemed far stronger today, strong enough to allow a few hours' ride.
Crar appeared as a small jewel on the horizon, gleaming white and polished. Around it were smaller black dots, evidently the homesteads and farms of the barony. After another hour, towers and turrets became evident, the tallest being a twisting black spire. After another hour, the true magnitude of the city became apparent: a fifty-foot stone wall ran around the city, with strategically placed firing-stations at thirty-yard intervals along the perimeter. Access to the main gate was through a long curving tunnel with thick walls, which would admit individuals but would exclude war machines and battering rams. How was this vast place to be supplied with raw materials, food and other supplies?
Then, Grimm noticed a series of derricks arrayed around the wall, some occupied in swaying supplies into the city from the outside. The people of Crar seemed both secretive and cautious.
Crest waved the group to a halt fifty yards from the entrance tunnel. 'I suggest you let me do the talking here, gentlemen,' he said. 'As I told you, I've been here before and I think I know how to wheedle our way in. I ask you to follow my lead, and not to contradict me.'
Dalquist nodded. 'That makes sense, thief. Very well, then, you are our spokesman. I am sure your silver tongue and ready wits will not let us down.'
He frowned when Crest demanded the bag of magic gold, but the elf swore he would only use it when faced with extortion. Dalquist shrugged and handed over the heavy purse.
The party moved in single file into the long tunnel. The horses' gentle hoof-beats were amplified into a cacophony of clatter by the stone walls, and Grimm guessed this to be a cunningly wrought acoustic trap, ensuring no one could sneak up on the city unannounced. After a number of twists and turns, the tunnel opened up like a bottle in front of an imposing steel portal. Above the fifteen-foot door, Grimm saw a viewing-port with an arrow- slit at either side. In the ceiling, he saw a number of gutters for the discharge of burning oil or some other assault.
If we need to get out of here in a hurry, it could be difficult, Grimm thought, feeling a sudden shiver run through his body.
With a swift snick, the viewing-port in the metal door slipped open, and a suspicious, bearded face appeared, looking down at the group.
'What do you want here?' the disembodied head boomed. 'We have no time for beggars and wastrels here. If you come looking for charity, you're wasting your time.'
Crest spread his arms in disavowal. 'We are adherents of the order of Blessed Kuhul, good brother, and we come here to purchase certain items with which to fulfil our pilgrimage to the shrine of our saint.'
Grimm heard such a plangent note of piety and deep humility in Crest's voice that he almost felt like dropping to his knees in fervent prayer. However, the gatekeeper seemed made of sterner stuff. The guard stifled a yawn and drawled, 'We don't need priests here, traveller, and we don't want penniless pilgrims traipsing the streets, shouting their mindless creed to all comers and window-shopping for items they can't afford. Be off with you'
Crest spread his hands in apparent supplication 'Ours is not a poor order,' he protested. 'We seek to magnify our saint by the magnificence of the items we can bring to his tomb. The rarer and more costly the gift, the greater the indulgence we gain. We came here in order to buy a gem-encrusted solid gold chalice with which to show our devotion, and we have brought good gold with which to purchase it.'
Crest opened his purse to show the glint of precious metal, and as quickly closed it. 'However, if you have no need of our coin, we will bother you no more. May the blessed Kuhul smile on you and yours, gatekeeper. Farewell.'
Crest turned to leave, and the others nodded respectfully and did the same. However, it seemed the talk of gold had roused the gatekeeper from his torpor. 'A moment, friends!' he cried. 'Perhaps I spoke a little hastily. I would not wish you to think the people of Crar uncharitable!
'My brother-in-law, Sham, is a master goldsmith. He might be persuaded to give you a good price if you were to mention the name of Quard. I am sure the necessary permits and passes could be arranged for an appropriate fee.'
Crest bowed. 'Would the sum forty gold pieces suffice for our entry to your great city?' he asked. 'I could offer more, but the bulk of our money must be retained in requital of our pilgrimage.'
Grimm hid his head in the folds of his robes, smiling. Forty gold pieces were as easy to promise as four hundred when one held a fortune in ensorcelled pebbles!
'Ah… I am sure that will suffice,' the guard stuttered. 'I'll write out the necessary permit at once!'
'Thank you for your good charity, brother. If the workmanship of your brother-in-law is as fine as you say, then the price is almost irrelevant,' Crest said, opening his bulging purse once more to let the unmistakeable gleam of gold illuminate the bottle-like chamber.
The huge portal swung open silently to reveal an inner chamber with doorways on either side, a steel portcullis in front. Three uniformed guards stood before them, each bearing a wicked-looking halberd. The entry portal swung shut behind the group with a decisive thud.
From the left doorway, stepped the gatekeeper, a tall, well-built man with greying hair and an expression of unalloyed greed on his face. When he spoke, his voice was a full octave higher than Grimm had expected, without doubt due to the clever acoustic design of the outer chamber. The young man found the high-pitched voice amusing, coming as it did from such an imposing figure, and he covered his amusement behind a forced expression of lofty piety.
A little out of breath, the gatekeeper handed Crest a note with 'PERMISSION TO ENTER' scribbled upon it. Grimm saw no mention of a fee on the shabby document, and he imagined the gatekeeper intended to keep the promised wealth for himself, perhaps after giving a share to the guards in order to buy their discretion.
Crest proffered a deep, respectful bow, reaching into his pouch and counting out forty ensorcelled pebbles into Quard's waiting hand.
Grimm smiled, noticing that the gatekeeper kept his back to the guards as Crest counted out the fake money.
Quard scooped the coins into his robe and said, 'Thank you, brother pilgrim. That is just the amount we agreed on. Pray enter our fair city.'
He scraped a clumsy bow. The gate swung open, and Grimm and his companions stepped into a seething cauldron of activity.
If Drute had been busy, Crar was a roiling mass of activity and noise. Caparisoned stalls thronged a huge town square with eager, strong-voiced stallholders shouting the advantages of their diverse wares and goods. 'Gitcha fine linen 'ere! Fifty silver a yard, best quality!' 'Hot chestnuts, they're loverly!', 'Best sandalwood snuff, penny a pinch!'
'You see what gold will do to ease locks even a master thief cannot open?' shouted Crest to Grimm, his voice barely audible over the chaotic tumult of the marketplace. 'If I'd offered less than I did, the gatekeeper might have been moved to search us and confiscate our weapons. As it was, he was only too eager to let us in. I'll wager twice what I offered Quard at ten to one that the guards have no idea I gave him forty golds-they probably think I gave him four or five.'
'I reckon I'd have to be pretty stupid to take your bet, Crest,' Grimm replied, smiling.
Hustle, bustle and buzz! Even though the four companions were on horseback, high above the milling populace, they were nudged and bumped by seemingly oblivious pedestrians at every step. Grimm noticed their glazed facial expressions and wondered if the people were ensorcelled; they shouted out for exorbitantly-priced goods, their faces eager and their voices loud. Vendors exhorted everyone to buy, buy, buy!
At last, the adventurers won free from the insane throng of baying townsfolk, and they took shelter in an empty back-street yard.
'Something is wrong here, Dalquist,' Grimm said with concern. 'I don't think all those people wanted to buy.
