Thud!

In flickering torchlight, the contrasting brightness of which causes all five to squint and continue to shield their eyes, the companions are led out at sword point, one at a time, hands in the air, their weapons and items removed from them and thrown onto what looks like an old cloak or blanket.

As their eyes slowly become adjusted to the light, they find themselves standing in a large square room, surrounded by eight soldiers, five dressed in the blue colours of Kerman, three in the red of Mupert.

Thud!

The room looks totally trashed, a large table and several wooden barrels lie splintered upon the floor, and what might have been brown clay bottles lie in fragments. Stone steps lead up the left-side of the room to a door which has been kicked off its hinges.

Thud!

The soldiers regardless of faction look haggard, bloodied and bruised and it begins to dawn on the companions that up until Dozer’s sneeze these two groups must have been fighting each other. Carlisle, the leader of Kerman’s group, sees the looks on their faces and surmises their thoughts.

“Funny how mutual enemies and money will unite two opposing factions together, ain’t it?” he says gesturing with his sword for them to back up against the wall behind them.

Thud!

Although Carlisle talks of unity, the two factions are still standing their separate ground, warily eyeing the companions but occasionally casting a furtive glance at each other.

“Now what we got here? Looks like a line up from a badly drawn circus troupe,” says Clem. “A giant, a cowled midget, a masked freak, a walking bucket and a…well for some reason you just look normal,” he says to Hy-Jinx, his eyes narrowing, “which in this crowd makes me even more suspicious of ya.”

The thudding sound fails to materialise within the rhythm that it has started which causes everyone to look up momentarily towards the ceiling from whence it was reverberating.

“So what’s the plan?” asks Clem, leader of Mupert’s red cohort, drawing everyone’s attention back to the here and now.

“Well first of all we need to set our differences aside, “ says Carlisle, righting a half barrel-top as best he can and placing one foot upon it so that he can lean on his knee, thoughtfully. “And that should be easy enough - if you’re willing. How much are you getting paid?”

“Six grot a week,” responds Clem, ” Yourself?”

“Eight, “ answers Carlisle.

“So that’s about sixty grot for the lot of us,” says Clem thoughtfully.

“This guy has a thousand shenk reward on him,” Carlisle indicates Hood. “So let us say six hundred with ten grots to the shenk, that would be two years worth of pay approximately for each of us with just that. But six thousand is only around half his bounty so actually we’re looking…What? Three and a half to four years of pay each, just for this one. Let’s err on the cautious side and say the rest of them aren’t worth more than a couple of thousand in total - we’re still looking overall at about five to six years of pay and that’s a tidy sum, enough to get somewhere outside this stinking city. So my advice is we quit our colours and then there’s nothing between us. Run these prisoners up to the quartermaster at the gatehouse as a party of ‘concerned civilians’ and then go our separate ways.”

“Seems reasonable, but how d’we get ‘em there?”

“Pardon?”

Thud! The thudding sound resumes.

“How d’we get ‘em there? I mean, we can throw off our colours, but the reds and blues are skirmishing all over the Inner Fayre. The only way out of here is either into the Outer Fayre, which is no use for anyone, unless you want axed, or back onto the battlements of the inner wall and back into the fray.”

Both Clem and Carlisle look thoughtful, and at the same time slightly deflated, their initial enthusiasm for the venture beginning to fade with the reality of the situation.

“Anyone?” asks Clem, turning to the remaining guard. All shake their heads slowly.

Thud!

“Oo! Oo! I know, I know,” says Hy-Jinx, having followed the conversation with interest, raising one hand higher than the other. “Ask me, ask me!” her shadow dancing large on the wall behind her.