Andrew Hartley - Act of Will

I turned swiftly to see if he was behind the door. He wasn’t. I looked back and the girl in the blue dress spoke. “Welcome to Stavis, Will, and to our company. I am Lisha, elected leader of the group.”

I stared at her aghast, and I think my mouth fell open. She looked about fifteen. She was tiny. Smaller than me! Her hair was long, black, and straight and she had the small, elegant features and olive skin of the Far Eastern races.

But that’s off the subject. What I was actually thinking as the point was pounded home like a tent peg through my skull was No chance, mate. You have to be bloody joking. This might be your party leader’s daughter or even his bit on the side, but . Then I caught Renthrette’s glance of knowing satisfaction and I knew that this was indeed “the leader.”

She came towards me and shook my hand in a businesslike manner, ignoring absolutely the look of astonishment that gripped my face.

“Pleased to meet you, Will,” she said. Her voice had no accent. I don’t mean it was untainted by any special dialect; it had no accent at all. I could listen to her for hours and have no clue where she came from.

“What?” I said.

“Lisha,” she prompted with a small smile.

“Right,” I muttered woodenly. My eyes were starting to sting after all that staring at her, so I blinked them deliberately.

“And you are interested in joining us?” she said evenly.

For some reason this question brought a panicked chaos of un-certainty as I tried to cram this girl into the picture and then come up with a verdict.

“Well,” I hazarded, “I don’t know about join , but I may like to travel with you. Part of the way. A little distance. For a while, like.”

Did I really want to entrust myself to the wishes of this diminutive female? Hardly. I could see myself enjoying a few hours of cross-cultural entertainment with her, if she was up for it, but follow her? Respect her word and put my life on the line at her command? Fat chance. Still, I couldn’t have hoped for a less menacing-looking leader, and it did seem that one of my theories about Renthrette was well out of play. I cheered up.

“Well,” I went on over the silence, “Mithos here said I might be able to tag along, and I reckon I could be useful. And, er, I could really do to get out of the Empire for a while, if you follow my meaning. I’m not sure I’m all that desperate to return to Cresdon. Also, Stavis. I mean it looks real nice-seafood, diverse architecture, and stuff-but it’s not really my kind of town. You know what I mean, love? I’m sure you all have a ball here, but me? Too much water for a start, and. ”

I caught Garnet’s glance of shocked anger and realized that I had put my arm around Lisha’s shoulders in a matey kind of way and was being, at best, casual in the way I told her my feelings on the matter. I froze and drew myself back to attention, murmuring, “But. er, if you don’t mind me sitting in on your discussion, I would be grateful. My concern is that at present I would be more of a hindrance to you than a help. I am already in your debt for getting me this far.”

That ought to do it. She smiled again-disarmingly-and asked me to sit down. I did so. whatever she looked like, you did what she said, if only because Garnet looked ready to remove vital organs from anyone who didn’t hang on her every word. At the table the lamp’s ochre glow was stronger, and shooting Lisha a sidelong glance I saw, with a start, not a girl but a woman. A very young-looking woman, admittedly, but that was a feature of those Eastern females; any girl between fourteen and forty-five looked about the same age. I put her around thirty, but I had no real clue. In a short skirt and ribbons she might have passed for twelve. Except maybe for her eyes.

She did all the talking and the others sat there as if enchanted, saving their few questions till she had finished.

“The situation is a simple one, though I fancy the solution will not be,” she began, unrolling a piece of mapped vellum. “Stavis is here,” she said. “To its immediate east is a ninety-mile stretch of grassland and scattered hamlets. East of that the land is more fertile, but almost as sparsely populated and with few decent roads. Even traveling as the crow flies we would have to get across two hundred and forty miles of precious little. It’s not hard country, but it would be very slow. I think our best bet is to sail along the coast and dock in the south of Shale. It is the count of Shale who requires our presence. He is operating on behalf of his own lands and those of Greycoast to the east and Verneytha to the north.”

I shifted in my chair, and I think I made some kind of noise. Not words exactly, just a sort of grumbling sound, like the sound your stomach makes after one of Mrs. Pugh’s breakfasts.

“What?” she asked. “Will, do you have something on your mind?”

“Nothing,” I said. “Just. Those places. Shale, Greycoast, and Verneytha. I used to hear stories about them when I was a kid. Sometimes they come up in old plays. I kind of forgot they were real.”

“What kind of stories?” said Lisha seriously.

“Oh, you know,” I said. “Old tales of witches and sorcerers. Kids’ stuff.”

“Yes,” she said, as if I’d raised some important point. “The legends go some way back.”

She paused for a second and looked around the table at our expectant faces. I kind of wanted to laugh at the situation, these seasoned fighters taking their orders from this little bit of skirt, talking about musty old stories of witchcraft and God knew what else. It was obviously ludicrous; so why was no one laughing?

I remembered a flash of amber light which knocked down enemy troops, a light the same color as the stone in Orgos’s sword.

But that made no sense. If being around these idiots was making me believe in magic, then I really should get away before I lost my mind altogether.

“The problem is simply this,” she went on in the same measured, unaccented tones. “The three lands are connected by a series of vital trade routes upon which they depend for their economic survival. Recently these roads have been plagued by raiders. Not random groups of bandits such as you encountered on your way, but an organized force of trained soldiers, perhaps numbering a hundred or more. The three countries have soldiers of their own, but have been unable to track down the raiders who are slowly but surely bringing ruin to the region. Our task therefore is one of detection rather than of combat; we must determine who is responsible for these assaults and supply the baronies with the information necessary to engage and defeat the raiders.

“There is one more thing of which I think our employers are unaware. Over the last two months the Empire garrison in Stavis has almost doubled in size. Since there has not been any sign of revolt here, I fear that the Diamond Empire intends to push further east still. Shale, Greycoast, and Verneytha may prevent the Empire’s advance, but only if their current situation is reversed promptly. Are you willing to take on the task?”

If that was a genuine question, no one treated it as such. They nodded with hasty nobility and only I found myself looking doubtful and chewing over details of what she had said. Details such as 240 miles by sea and an enemy of over a hundred trained soldiers. She continued deliberately, “Good. You have come a week ahead of time, which gives us longer to prepare. Will, you should speak with Orgos as to how you can best use that time. And now it is late and we must begin our preparations early tomorrow. Sleep well. It is good to be with you all again.”

She smiled around at them with what seemed to be genuine affection and for a moment looked more like a mother than a daughter.