Plincourt shrieked, a piercing scream much resembling the cry of a monstrous bat. He tore the axe from the hands of the dumbfounded barbarian, reversed it, and hurled it toward Chert's face. 'Now you, small man!' the vampire said with a growl, darting forward to grapple with Gord.
The long, thin frame rushed at him, but Gord had already withdrawn his blade and was dancing back, point before him on guard. The sign of Fharlanghn hung free around his throat, and the supple thief’s free hand now held his long poinard as main gauche. He spat at the horrible visage of the vampire as it rushed toward him. 'No easy foe here!' and then struck again twice at the exposed form, thrusting sword into Plincourt's abdomen, dagger into throat. 'These fangs drink blood too!'
The force of his own furious lunge carried the vampire into the darting blades. Plincourt groaned and jerked back from the pain which the dweomered steel conveyed to his unnatural body. Eyes blazing, mouth set in a horrific snarl, he screamed. 'For that I will make your death slow and painful, your afterlife one of degrading service to me!'
Gord laughed and taunted him, buying time for his friend. Chert had moved so as to avoid the full force of his own weapon, but the heavy axe had torn a gash in his forehead and stunned him. Gord saw the barbarian out of the corner of his eye, risen to one knee now, and holding Brool once again. At that moment, Plincourt launched himself at Gord in another furious assault.
'Penwolf!' Chert boomed, shouting his clan war-cry as he stood erect and swung his axe from his hip in one, smooth motion. Brool sang like an angry hornet as it arced from the floor to strike the lunging vampire in the upper torso. The edge nearly severed Pllncourt's extended arm. and the force of the blow skewed the vampire's lanky form toward the left where Gord's shortsword waited.
'Die. undead thing!' Gord said from between clenched teeth as he thrust the blade forward to pierce the vampire's body in a blow that sank past collarbone through chest and protruded from Plincourt's back.
Plincourt jerked backward, alive somehow despite the terrible wounds inflicted upon his unnatural form. Right arm hanging limp and useless, the vampire held up his left hand, saying, 'Wait! Before you slay me consider the wealth I could bestow upon you!'
Chert hesitated, his great axe poised at shoulder height. Still recovering from the vampire's last lunge. Gord, too, slowed his attack at the creature's words. As Gord watched, however, the vampire's form seemed to grow translucent and hazy. What was happening?
'Quickly. Strike!' The young thief shouted to his friend, for he suspected some trick on Plincourt's part.
Too late. Brool flashed through the air and swept through the insubstantial form of the vampire — uselessly. The smoky shape wavered, coalesced upon its core, and swirled, shrinking and pouring downward through a space beneath the floorboards.
'He escaped!' Chert cried.
Gord sheathed his dagger and loosed the holy disc from around his neck, placing it over the crack through which Plincourt had vaporized. 'The monster is somewhere below — let him stay there!' He looked around the disheveled room. 'So, what have we got here?'
Both adventurers rapidly searched the small office, but found nothing there save a small box filled with coins of little value, notes, some bills, and the scroll that Plincourt had been studying when they had attempted to take him by surprise. Chert scooped the coins into his purse while Gord rolled up the scroll, tied it fast, and thrust it into his pouch for perusal at a more convenient time. Then they departed the small room hurriedly, Gord grabbing his necklace from the floor as he went.
'It is nearly dawn,' the barbarian muttered as they came to the foyer. 'Let's hasten upstairs, get our gold, and leave this place forever!'
'Wait a moment,' Gord said, and proceeded to search behind the rosewood counter. A few minutes later he had found what he sought. The thick book that they had registered in laid open on the counter's polished wooden top. 'There!' he said, with satisfaction as he ripped out the page that contained his signature and Chert's mark. 'That will make things more difficult for any who seek our identity.'
Both men bounded upstairs then, and upon entering their chambers went to work. The gold and platinum coins were bagged in lots of one hundred, each group housed within a small, leather sack. Using the blankets off the bed they made two bundles. Gord carried one. Chert the other, as they departed the Hostel of Ineffable Comfort.
'What of Yagbo and his crony?' Chert asked.
'I have a feeling they're going to turn up missing — tsk, tsk.' Gord clucked his tongue and shrugged, then burst into laughter. The huge hillman grinned and with a jaunty step followed his friend.
The pale light of the milky dawn revealed a number of establishments surrounding the plaza. The lights of the previous night had been insufficient to show these places when the two had peered into Falre Market from the street below.
'No ways leading out,' Chert nodded grimly.
'A teahouse there, the Fragrant Blossom, should serve to get us out of sight,' Gord replied. 'See, a scullion is removing the shutters, and the house will be open for business in a minute. We'll be safe enough there until Sogll the Gemner is ready to show his wares!'
'Safe? What of Pllncourt and the rest? Surely there will be a hue and cry raised soon!'
'Bah! Plincourt won't be out and about Weird Way until night falls — he's a vampire, remember — and who else is to accuse us of misdoing? Yagbo? His scabrous associate Lou? Whoever comes in to run that hostel when Plincourt must retire is probably as guilty as the others.'
'But you told me that thug said only Plincourt was in the murderous scheme along with Yagbo and Lou,' Chert contended.
'Nonsense. I knew it for a lie the moment I heard it but considered it immaterial to our needs. Let's continue our discussion over a mug of alder-root tea — and some breakfast too, perhaps. This running about and fighting has given me a superb appetite!'
Chert nodded and pulled his hood up so as to conceal the wound on his forehead. Although Gord had wiped it clean, and the smears and splatters as well, the gash was obviously a recent one. It might draw unwanted attention if not concealed. A bit of hair and the hood's shadow did the trick.
Several other patrons entered the tea house and took seats at the small tables filling the room. None were suspicious-looking or near enough to overhear the conversation, so the two adventurers discussed their options over their breakfast.
'Try the whortleberry muffins 'n butter!' Chert exclaimed through a mouth stuffed with the very food he recommended. 'So, what's next?' he mumbled, spewing crumbs over the tabletop.
Brushing bits of muffin from before him, Gord detailed the plan. 'It is certain that we must reduce the bulk of our gain to some portable commodity. At Sogil's we'll buy two essentially equal pieces of jewelry, agreed?' The barbarian nodded his agreement, so Gord continued. 'We must then locate a means of egress. Mind, I am not in a hurry to leave this safe haven, but I like not the feeling of being trapped. We must find an egress prior to really exploring the whole of Weird Way.'
'Sound reasoning.' said the giant hillman as he spooned honey atop a bowl filled with semolina gruel topped with green figs and swimming in thick, yellow cream, 'Some porridge?'
Gord demurred, breaking off a bit of rusk and flavoring it with a thin layer of black current jelly before nibbling it. After sipping the astringent infusion he had ordered, the young thief finished his exposition. 'It seems certain that we have discovered a place where we are free from the filth who hounds us. With luck, we can find quarters here in Weird Way and use them as a base of operations. There is also much of interest here. Despite our unpropitlous start, and I mean Yagbo, the hostel, and that blood-sucker Plincourt, this might prove our most favorable occurrence.'
'I'll say!' Chert said happily, sinking his teeth into a leg of fowl. 'And despite the number of odd-looking folk about the place, most of the girls are absolute smashers!'
'Brother!'
'Yes, we are brothers indeed!' The barbarian nodded, not looking up from his trencher. 'But, ah, we have at least another hour before the gem shop is open, so what say we order more food, brother? I'm famished!'
Eventually the third hour arrived, and with it came old Sogil. Gord and Chert were loitering outside his shop, and the gemner eyed them suspiciously. 'Do you have any business with me?' he demanded, fingering an oddly shaped brooch he wore at his neck.
