Defiant Necromancer (Book 2 stubbed)

“Perhaps that way,” Andric said as his two fiancees walked alongside him down the central street. He pointed toward an opulent-looking avenue. Even from a distance, he could see gold jewelry and fine leather goods on display.

The powerful always surround themselves with the trappings of wealth to communicate that status.

“I like this plan!” Tatiana agreed, nodding perhaps too enthusiastically.

Andric followed her eyes to where they rested, in the display area of a shop that sold expensive-looking silks.

Uh oh. He swallowed.

“You know, Tati, we have a limited budget…”

They had a bag of gold from Tybalt and whatever money each of the three had from looting some of the towns they had sacked, but who knew what prices were like in a place like this?

“There is also a weapon shop there for you, Andric,” Sabine suggested quietly, gesturing down the street.

It seemed she had mistaken his objection.

“No, I’m not saying I want to spend the money on me,” the foxman replied in a gentle voice, a little smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “But we’re here for a purpose, not just to have fun.”

“Right, intelligence gathering,” Tatiana agreed. She rubbed his upper arm in a way that felt like seduction, and she lowered her voice. “But look, if we want to spy on the upper classes, we can’t go looking like this, can we?” She gestured to her clothes, which were functional but plain. “We need to fit in.”

He almost laughed at the transparently self-serving reasoning. Then he thought, Does she actually have a point? We already stick out for being beastfolk.

Hearing no immediate answer from him, Tatiana pulled Andric and Sabine into the fancy silk shop.

***

Almost an hour later, they emerged.

Andric carried a single bag of clothing, while Tatiana and Sabine each wore silk dresses.

They looked great, and it had turned out that Tybalt’s gold went a lot further here than Andric had feared.

He felt a little bad about spending money on something that was clearly not mission critical, whatever he had allowed Tatiana to tell him, but on the other hand, the two harpies really did look too fancy for the common section of the city now.

I’ve never seen Tati look so girly before. It felt strange, in a good way. He was self-conscious about being next to her, but also proud.

Andric looked down at the silk jacket that Tatiana and Sabine had forced him to take. He doubted he looked as becoming as the two of them, but perhaps this would better enable them to infiltrate the wealthy quarter of the city.

“Next store!” Tatiana pointed at the jewelry shop across the street, and Andric froze.

He had heard murmured voices carry from that direction while they had been shopping for silks, and from those, he had a decent idea of the pricing. The jewelry shop before them was the most expensive establishment on this street.

“Tati, seriously…” he said after a moment.

She saw the look on his face and gave him a little smile.

“I was joking,” she said. “We don’t need any jewelry right now.”

Right now?

“We’ll wait until you and the Army sack the capi- ” Sabine began before Tatiana covered her mouth with both hands.

The three beastfolk looked around to see who might have overheard them on the busy street, but no one seemed to be looking their way.

Andric drew closer, put an arm around the two women, and began guiding them away.

“Remember, we’re still in the Kingdom, sister dear,” Tatiana whispered. She allowed her voice to carry a little more. “It’s dangerous to talk about our mercenary work out in public!”

Well, that might draw attention, but at least it wouldn’t make it seem like they were planning to attack the capital of Niet. The idea of someone recruiting some band of mercenaries to make a run at Enh was unthinkable, from what Andric knew of the Kingdom. It was too secure, its capital too distant from the frontier, for any sudden assault to be plausible.

Except from the north, where the Salt Waste lay.

That was a somewhat clearer route.

Andric guided them into the wealthier quarter of the city - the avenue they had been on was almost a gateway into the expensive parts of Eshangart - and gradually released his hold on the two sisters.

They all walked around in mild awe of the beauty around them. Everything was draped in silk or luxurious woven tapestries, fountains glittered with rare and brilliant metals and stones, and the buildings had shifted from a mix of wood and dull bricks to a pure white stone that Andric had never seen before.

The whole place looked incredibly expensive.

“Well, I think our shopping is done,” Tatiana said quietly.

No shit.

“We can still get something to eat, though, right?” Sabine asked. “Even the rich have to eat. And it increases our odds of running into someone important we can follow around.”

“Yeah, just be careful,” Andric said. He pretended to crack his neck and used his head to gesture at the visible security personnel, men with clubs and little gold badges pinned on their leather jerkins. They had dramatically proliferated in number as the trio crossed into the wealthy quarter.

Hopefully they don’t have their eyes on us. We should’ve asked Tybalt’s undead to leave the boat too. The three of us could easily be seized and thrown into a local jail on whatever stupid pretense. It’s not as if we can have faith in the Kingdom’s justice.

“Yeah, we’ll get some food,” Tatiana agreed. “After that, we’ll find the city government building and do some proper spying, though- ” She looked at Andric- “honestly, I doubt we’ll find anything of note.”

“I know,” Andric said quietly. “But it makes this feel more like a legitimate extension of our mission and less like a break.”

“Why shouldn’t it be a break?” she replied instantly. She looked at Sabine. “Don’t we deserve a break?”

Sabine nodded. “I got fried by the fire mage, and the two of you have been fighting the Kingdom nonstop for months. We don’t have magical necromancer stamina. We’re just flesh and blood.”

“I guess… you two do have a point. Treating it as a break, we would keep our morale up.”

“Right,” Tatiana said. She pointed. “Let’s go eat at that inn, maybe?”

Andric allowed himself to relax a bit and let the harpies pull him into the inn. It was fine. No one was stopping them, their journey would continue from here, and no one would ever care that they had spent a day relaxing in Eshangart. Maybe he would take in the measure of the city walls on the way back to port. That might justify spending the rest of the day relaxing.

“Are you folks looking for a room?” the innkeeper asked in a polite tone. He was a wizened older fellow cleaning wine glasses with a cloth from behind a counter.

“Just food for now,” Tatiana said. She seemed to have killed her slight accent as she spoke. “We’ve just come in, and we’re quite famished.”

Is she imitating the fire mage’s speech?

“Table for three, then?” the innkeeper asked.

“Yes, we would enjoy sitting outside to enjoy the beauty of your city,” Tatiana answered.

“Good choice, ma’am. It’s a fine and beautiful day, and the sea air is most healthy.”

The innkeeper led them through a door onto an enclosed area behind the inn. For the first time since they had entered the wealthy quarter, they were fenced off somewhere away from the armed security, and Andric felt his whole body relax.

“Here are the menus, and I will be back in a few minutes to take your orders,” the innkeeper said. “I’ll try not to take too long, but I do have another few guests who are dining upstairs, so I hope you will understand if it takes a little longer than you’ve come to expect in your travels. Can I get you anything to drink?”

“How about a bottle of your house wine for the table?” Tatiana asked before either Sabine or Andric could say anything.

The innkeeper looked curiously at the three for a moment as if surprised that neither of the other two had spoken up thus far. Then he nodded.

“It will be my pleasure.”

As the professional retreated back into the interior, Andric cleared his throat.

“Tatiana, your voice… You were doing something different there.”

“Yeah, did you like it?” she asked, her voice instantly back to normal, lightly teasing. “I was just copying the way Mariella speaks. Her accent is a Kingdom noble’s, so I figured talking that way would make me fit in more here. You two are deaf-mutes until we leave, though.” She looked at her sister. “I know you can’t do voices, Sabine.” She turned back to Andric. “And I’m guessing you can’t either.”

The foxman shook his head.

“Don’t worry, then, I have this matter well in hand.” She cracked her knuckles and smirked slightly. “Just tell me your orders. If the innkeeper gets too curious, I’ll say that you’re our bodyguard and have learned only to speak when spoken to.”

Andric shook his head. Typical Tatiana. He was about to say something back - probably a question about where she had learned this skill, and what nefarious purposes she used it for - when a voice carried from an open window somewhere above.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Baron Greentear.”

That’s where Tybalt is from. And he mentioned he was the bastard son of a noble. Could it be…?

***

“No, the pleasure is all mine, er, Major Geta,” the Baron replied. “Mine and my daughter’s.”

Miranda curtsied beside her father and gave the Major the thinnest smile. A socially appropriate, polite gesture. His face shifted in a look of undisguised interest, his eyes traveling up and down the gentle curves of the nature mage’s body. She was slim but beautiful, the spitting image of her mother.

Impertinent. But who needs noble manners when your house’s claim to fame rests on a military record, I suppose?

Baron Greentear cleared his throat.

“What brings you to Eshangart, if I may ask?” he said.

“You,” Geta replied. “You or your daughter.”

The Baron frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

“I understand that the two of you are here on a project of some… agricultural importance, but my father has need of a powerful nature mage.”

“What would General Caracalla want with us?” asked Miranda.

Greentear frowned down at her, and the girl closed her mouth and looked slightly chagrined. She was talking out of turn again.

“He is meant to go and fight against a necromancer who might or might not bring an undead army onto the battlefield. Everyone knows that nature magic, along with holy power, are the natural counters to undeath.”

“There are other nature mages,” the Baron observed, not at all liking the way Geta was looking at his daughter.

“The two of you are special,” the Major replied. “You have quite a reputation.”

“We are here under a contract with the Lord Mayor of Eshangart,” Greentear said. “We do have a reputation. We make the earth bloom where ordinary farmers and mages cannot. The city has finally committed to extracting some use out of that barren rock you see when you come into port.”

“The large island at the edge of the city?”

The Baron nodded. “Exactly. It’s such a large area of land, it may take years to give it life.”

“So, only one of you can be spared?” Geta asked. “I would take either you or your daughter, of course.”

“Well, perhaps I could see my way to postponing our contract,” the Baron said. “Miranda could stay here and assess the ground while I assist you on this little mission- ”

“May my father and I speak privately, Major?” Miranda asked, interrupting.

Greentear raised an eyebrow.

Geta smiled, shrugged, and stepped out immediately. Happy to let the father and daughter talk, it seemed.

He sees something he likes and imagines that it likes him back, Greentear thought, annoyed. He had been there before.

“I would like to volunteer,” Miranda said quietly, as soon as Geta’s footsteps had faded from hearing.

“What?!”

“Father, I’ve seen so little of the world. This sounds like an adventure.”

“You’ve seen little of the world, because you have been under my protection, dear. For your own good. And what of our work here?”

“They will have more confidence in it if the father is doing it than if the offspring is there alone,” Miranda replied. She shifted her voice to a tone of mock horror as she continued, “A girl, at that! What sort of faith can they have that a mere girl is doing a good job of making the land fertile? Do I even know which end of the plow goes into the soil? What would a woman know about creating life?”

Baron Greentear quietly chuckled at that, then shook his head.

“You might have a bit of a point. Almost as if you’ve been in some of those rooms… heard some of those conversations firsthand.”

She bit her lip as if trying to keep herself from confessing something.

“I don’t like the way that man looks at you,” the Baron continued. “If he tries something, you are a vulnerable girl. The rumors about his and his father’s powers suggest they’re not a pair to trifle with.”

“I will be careful, father,” Miranda said. She took his hand in hers. “Please?”

“Very well. I will trust you to behave virtuously.”

She smiled.

“And I will send a pair of bodyguards with you, to ensure that the Major doesn’t think you’re a vulnerable flower, easily plucked.”

The smile faltered slightly and then remained.

“You safeguard my honor well, father,” Miranda said.

“Indeed. You are my only flower, after all, dear.”