Chapter Twenty

Ryland’s question hung in the air, and all eyes fell on Jaxon Rudge.

“Well, uhh...I….” Jaxon stammered. “It’s like…”

“Stop being so serious, Jaxon.” Thabita chided him. “You’re going to make them all die of nervousness.” Then she turned and looked right at Ryland. “Cade, right? Me dad meant that you all would help to end the problem’s we’ve had around here with people trying to jump our convoys. There’s always been bandits, but recently there seems to be more of them, and some of the merchants here have started to wet themselves at night thinking about what might happen.”

She looked at the rest of the group with a concerned expression. “Truth is, there’s a big convoy going out in a few weeks, and some people wanted to cancel it for fear it might be a target. However, Jaxon here and my father convinced them that we could hire you to help keep the convoy safe. That convoy means a lot to many people, here and in the valleys, and a lot of families will suffer next winter if it doesn’t go through.”

“So please, all of you.” She said, taking a moment to look each of them in the eyes as she made her plea. “I ask you. Do your best to run off anyone who wants to bother us, and help us bring the convoy home.”

“Of course!” Prum jumped to his feet, “Oh course we will! That’s why we’re here. We’ll see your convoy right through to the end!”

Several more of the group also jumped to their feet excitedly declaring their intentions and supporting each other, until only Ryland was still sitting, watching Thabita bask in the attentions of her now loyal troops.

Then she noticed that he wasn’t standing with the others, and fixed her smile upon him. “Cade, I’m sorry, wasn’t my answer enough for you?”

“Yah Cade, what’s wrong with you?” Roddy accused, and Pat and Jandra joined in.

Koamalu started to defend Ryland, but Ryland gestured for him to stop, then shook his head.

“No, you answered a lot of my questions. But, since we’re the ones risking our lives, I would have liked to hear more about the bandits and less about your hopes and dreams. How many bandits are there? Where are they? When do they strike? What kind of weapons and training do they have? Why didn’t you tell us about them when we were hired? These are all important questions I’d like answers to, if you don’t mind?”

Now it was Ryland’s turn to smile.

The reality of Ryland’s words sunk in and made the excitement of a moment before vanish like fog in the morning sun. Hein and several others nodded in agreement, and the eyes of the group shifted back from Ryland to Thabita.

“I’m not hiding anything from you, Cade.” Thabita met his gaze. “I’m not hiding anything from any of you. I’ll share everything I can when I know it myself. We’ve got scouts out there looking for answers, and when we know it, you will too. I promise you all.” Then she smiled again and looked at the others. “And you’re not the only one risking their lives. I’m going to be riding on the big convoy too, so what hurts you, hurts me. We’re in this together.”

That answer was enough for the group, and even Ryland couldn’t argue with it. He returned her smile and they shared a friendly nod of agreement. “Alright then.”

The after-dinner conversation carried on until the moon rose high in the sky.

The escorts spent the next two days getting familiar with the town and its figures, being shown around by Jaxon during the day and hosted by Thabita at night. They learned the history of the town, about its many trade exports, and were given a wide variety of the local dishes to try and sample. The local merchants vied for a chance to sit down with the escorts and hear about the goings on in the rest of the empire and life where the different escorts had come from.

This wasn’t just for entertainment, of course, as these merchants were always thinking about the forces that might affect their business and probing for knowledge that might be useful. Knowing everything from fashion trends to the price of lemons in Northport could spawn new ventures and future profits.

Ryland especially enjoyed these chances to talk to the locals, but unlike his companions who enjoyed being the centers of attention, Ryland preferred not to speak but to observe instead. He would quietly sit aside and make notes in a little book while the rest of them drank and talked a little too much for their own good.

Three days after their arrival, Ryland asked Koamalu to join him after dinner and the two went up to sit in the garden. At this time of year, and so far north, the sun set late, so they had plenty of light until late in the evening. Thus, Ryland took out a travel set of the Surrounding Game he’d introduced Koamalu to back in Northport and they began to play.

“Place your stones as you wish,” Ryland said when they had the board set up on the stone table.

In the Surrounding Game, the weaker player given extra stones as a handicap to make things more challenging for the stronger player. When they’d started to play after their first game at Sinclaire Eaton’s home, Ryland had given Koamalu a bonus of fifteen stones. Now after a few games on the road, the gap was down to eleven stones, still significant, but it showed great progress on Koamalu’s part.

When Koamalu had placed his stones, they began the game.

“Tomorrow, they said they’ll start giving us work.” Koamalu said after a few stones had been placed.

Ryland nodded.

“I’m going to tell them we work as a team,” Koamalu continued. “If they want one of us, they need to take both of us.”

To his surprise, Ryland shook his head. “Please don’t do that.”

Koamalu’s eyebrows arched. “What? But...”

“I know you’re worried about me not getting picked, or worse, going out alone with one of the day trips or weeklies they talked about.” Ryland said, not taking his eyes off the game. “However, that’s exactly what I want.”

“Why?”

“Our goal - our long term goal - is to start our own agency and earn money to pay for the Writ of Company. Both of us doing daily guard work won’t help reach that goal, as one of us is enough.” Then he paused, and said, “Escort agencies are built on four pillars - reputation, information, force, and resources. Which of these does guard work give us?”

Koamalu thought about it a moment. “If we do a good job, it gives reputation. When we’re out with the convoy, it gives us information. And...we make coin doing jobs, so that’s resources, right?”

“You’re also making friends,” Ryland reminded him. “Which are another kind of resource.”

“Oh, yah.’ Koamalu smiled. “That’s right. I’m good at that.”

Ryland looked up at him and smiled as well. “Yes. Yes you are. So please try to keep a good relationship between yourself and the others you think could help us in the future. Hein, I think, Jandra and maybe Prum. The rest of them… Well, we’ll see.”

“I like Boarsmouth.”

Ryland laughed. “Yes, I know you do. He makes a great drinking companion, but I don’t know how good he’ll be at escorting. He was the only one who didn’t copy us when we were coming here and you and I followed Hein’s example. He’s likely to rush into the first fight that comes up and get himself killed.”

Even Koamalu couldn’t argue with that and shrugged, “I’ll try to help him. He can do it.”

“I hope you’re right, but while you’re doing that, I’m going to focus on the other pillars.”

“You’re going to learn to fight?”

Ryland smiled. “Actually, I am. I realized just having a crossbow isn’t as useful as I thought. I’m going to find someone to teach me how to handle myself better.” Then he shook his head. “I’ll never be you, but at least I won’t be a complete loss.”

“D’you want me to teach you?”

“Actually, I was thinking Jandra might be a better teacher.” Then when he saw the disappointed look on Koamalu’s face, he quickly added, “It’s not that I don’t want to learn to fight like you do, but your fighting style doesn’t really suit me. I’m not going to master the short spear, but Jandra’s long spear style might be useful at keeping enemies away.”

“I guess so.” Koamalu said, still clearly unhappy.

“And, when I’m better at the long spear, then I can think about learning your short spear style as well, since every little bit helps.” Ryland continued.

“Okay,” Koamalu forced a smile and bobbed his head in agreement.

“But my main goal in staying behind isn’t about force, it’s about information. I want to know more about this region, and getting to know the local merchants will give us great leaps in that regard. I also want to see if I can find some ways to bring us more income besides the pay we’re getting as guards - there might be some products that are popular in the capitol that haven’t reached here yet. And finally…” Ryland stopped, looking at the stone Koamalu had just placed. Then he frowned and said “Oh my. I let myself get distracted, didn’t I?”

“Really?” Koamalu looked at the board, and then brightened. “Huh. You can’t get out of that? What if you put a stone there…” He pointed to a spot next to the stone he’d placed.

Ryland shook his head. “No, that won’t work. Those stones will be dead after ten exchanges.”

“Or here?”

“Four exchanges.”

Koamalu considered. “Do you want me to make a different move? I can take it back?”

“No! No. You made that move, it’s my job to counter it. I’ll just have to think about it.” Ryland shook his head.

After a time of Ryland staring at the board, Koamalu stretched and yawned.

“Uso, I’m going to bed.”

“Sure, we’ll continue this tomorrow.” Ryland waved goodbye absent-mindedly as he continued to focus on the game.

Shaking his head, Koamalu got up and left his friend among the falling shadows and rising fireflies.

The next morning when Koamalu had finished his exercises he went to get Ryland for breakfast, but found him very bleary eyed.

“You up all night thinking about that problem, uso?” He asked as he watched Ryland stumble around his room trying to find his socks.

“Ha!” Ryland gave a tired laugh. “Yes. Last night was very.... interesting.” Then he yawned loudly. “Are the others up yet?”

Koamalu nodded.

“Then let’s go see what the gods have in store.”

Once the escorts had finished their breakfast, Jaxon arrived and led the group of them down to the town hall. There, he introduced them to the town secretary, Dabbert Ross, a bookish man who acted as the contact man for the association. Since the heads of the Merchant’s Association which ran the town were too busy doing business, Dabbert was the man who acted to keep the town running in their name and kept them abreast of what going on.

“He’s kinda like the town’s mother,” Jaxon had explained on the way over, laughing.

However, there was nothing amusing about Dabbert, with his dark clothes, bald head and stern features. He spoke to others in a very matter-of-fact sort of way that made everyone feel as though they were wasting his time.

Dabbert had made each of the escorts sit down with him privately in his office and recorded their information, from their names and birthplaces to their skills and talents. He was very detailed, and the rest of them were left to while away the time inside the empty main meeting hall while he held his interviews.

By late morning, the hall itself had become a stifling hotbox that smelled of old pine, and the waiting group were drenched in sweat. Conversation exhausted, they sat with their eyes closed and backs against the wall, trying not to move because movement just made them hotter. All they could think of was hoping that the interviews would end and this exercise in torture would be over.

Then the front door to the hall creaked open, and the escorts (except Roddy, who was with Dabbert) opened their eyes in slits to see who it was.

What they saw made them jump to their feet in shock.