Chapter Nine

When Mercury and Garrett arrived at the Keeper Compound, they saw sundry activities occurring. Many Keepers were carrying bodies out – whether they were apes or humans, Mercury could not see. Others were removing broken items. But, whatever was happening, it was all being done in shadow and in silence. The only reason Mercury and Garrett could see the Keepers is because, well, they couldn’t. Once again, as with the time when Garrett had first come, Mercury only felt their presence and location.

As they stepped through the doorway, two rough hands pulled them aside.

“The Keeper Council is in session,” Cray said. “We will enter to speak to them soon.”

Sure enough, after a few moments, a keeper came out of a nearby room and said,” You may go in. The Council is expecting you.”

Inside the Council Meeting Room, there was a long glass table. Around the table were the Master Keepers, seated in ornate wooden chairs. At the front of the room was a podium where, it seemed, the speakers spoke. Right now, the Master Keeper who had shown them their rooms was standing at the front. Keeper Cray leaned over and whispered a few quick words to him, and then the Master Keeper straightened.

“Keeper Cray, Garrett, and Mercury have gone to visit Master Nightfall of the Circle of Stone and Shadow. The information they acquired while they were there is one of the purposes of this emergency meeting of the Council. Keeper?” he said, gesturing to Cray for him to speak. Cray cleared his throat, but Garrett spoke before he had a chance to utter a word.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the Council, Master Nightfall was kind enough to provide us with a brief history of his life, and another of his home city. It seems that he came, as a mage, from Karath-Din’s sister city, Kunath-Loch. It also seems that Kunath-Loch has vast libraries that will quite possibly contain information on the subject of the destruction of the Trickster. The proposal we have for the keeper Council is to embark upon an expedition to Kunath-Loch, and, once there, to attempt to find the information we seek.”

“Garrett,” said a Keeper. “Garret, Garrett, Garrett. We can not possibly agree with such an idea. How could we possibly embark on a mission to a place wed don’t know? In fact, not only do we not know Kunath-Loch, we also don’t know of it. In particular, where it is that a ship must be navigated to arrive there.” Garrett stared back with a withering look on his face, but the Keeper did not relent.

“I’m sure Master Nightfall could point out Kunath Loch’s location,” Cray said, wanting to avoid conflict.

“What about a ship? The Keepers own no ships…”

“I am willing to chip in for a ship’s purchase,” Mercury said.

“And I,” Garrett agreed.

“Then we must accept,” The Master Keeper said, still standing near them. “The finer points will be discussed later.”

“Well,” Garrett said, walking out, “that went better than I though, what with that little… never mind, you don’t want to hear the name.”

“He is usually a bit parochial,” Cray said. “He practically lives in the archives. He is a man out of history. We call him the Keeper of Stone and Shadow, because of the Circle’s reputation for preserving history,” Cray said. Garrett did not seem amuse, however.

“How much does a ship and its crew cost?” he asked, looking worried.

“I’m not quite sure. But the Keepers will pay for most of it. We have much more money than any of you two. I’m sure Master Mordak can convince them.” At the sight of their questioning faces, Cray realized they didn’t know who Mordak was. “Master Keeper Mordak is the man who showed you to your rooms.”

“Ah. Well, thank him for me. I’m not going to be here tonight.”

“Where are you going? The apemen can easily still be roaming the streets!”

“I’m going ship-shopping.”

“Besides, I’m going with him,” Mercury said. Cray had no answer to that. He turned and went to his room, his cloak billowing out behind him. Garrett watched him for a moment, then turned the other way and began to walk towards the door. Mercury followed, jogging to catch up. They walked through the shadows to the docks in silence, seeing the tall, majestic masts of the ships rising out of the water.

The two thieves approached the seaside bar, the Norlafish Tavern, with care. Drunken sailors were said to have ambushed many unwary people and to have thrown them in the sea. Norlafish, the sea animals that the tavern was named after, did not have much of a better reputation than those sailor murderers. The animals were sleek, with a body that started and ended in a point. At the back was a powerful tail that propelled the animal through the waters and high speeds. The front comprised of a small hole through which the animals somehow obtained food. The greatest danger of the Norlafish, however, was their sheer dimensions. They were large and fast and stupid enough to collide with ships and cause great, and sometimes irreparable, damage to their hull.

Mercury and Garrett walked into the tavern quickly, unnoticed until they arrived at the bar. By then, the usually raucous noise in the tavern had disappeared. Thieves usually stuck to the Crippled Burrick pub, and they never came to the Norlafish if they could avoid it. The entire bar was silent as the two thieves sat down and used this chance to look around at these new surroundings.

“’Choo doin’ here?” one of the sailors finally asked.

“We’re looking for a ship to take us to Kunath-Loch. We need it average-sized with a willing crew.”

“I dunno where this Kunath-Loch place is.”

“We’ll have directions, and, hopefully, a map. First, we need a ship.”

“Ach! I have one,” and old sailor said.

“How much?” Mercury asked.

“Twenty thou in gold,” he said.

“Fifteen,” Garrett countered.

“Nay, seventeen five.”

“Deal.”

Garrett and Mercury walked out of the Norlafish tavern happily, a spring in their step. They weren’t expecting the three men that tackled them. They both fell painfully to the ground. The three men hauled them to their feet and pushed them towards the sea. Mercury only barely heard the click of the red button on the flash bomb, but he turned his head. He heard the small noise the flash bomb made, and he turned his head again to see the three men clutching at their eyes, blinded by the bright light. Garrett had already cut himself loosed from his bonds, and he hurried over to Mercury.

As Mercury rubbed his wrists, the three men recovered their eyesight. Mercury quickly pulled out his daggers, and Garret his sword. Seeing the two so well armed, the three drunken sailors fled. Mercury sighed and put away his daggers, and Garrett closely followed suit. His long sword slipped easily back into its sheath, and its hilt winked in the faint moonlight.

The two began walking back to the keeper Compound, quietly slipping past clusters of talking guards and lonely peasants. Once at the Keeper Compound, however, Mercury felt something wrong. Something out of place, he thought.

“Isn’t it a bit quite?” he whispered to Garrett. They were still lying deep within the folds of a dark shadow, so they both felt relatively safe.

“Mmmmm… I don’t know. But I definitely feel something’s wrong,” Garrett answered. Blood began to pump adrenaline through both their bodies. Their muscles tensed, but their brains were trained to think clearly, even under pressure. Garrett picked up a small rock and threw it in the alley. Immediately, a giant, black… Thing came around the corner. “Tree beast,” Garrett said quietly, voice trembling with fear. “We can’t escape it. The Builder help us.”

Indeed, the massive thing was a walking tree. Two branches were especially long, and Mercury assumed, with a small shudder, that they were used to bash his beast’s victims to death. Horrible pictures of death began to pop up in his mind, but he shook his head to clear his thoughts. This is not the time to panic, he told himself. However, as the tree beast’s search brought it closer and closer to their hiding place, Mercury’s hold on sanity lessened quickly. Finally, the beast crossed into the light.

Suddenly, it dropped, apparently dead. Mercury’s heart thudded harder than ever in his chest. Was it dead? Was it just pretending? Could it possibly have seen them? As if to soothe Mercury, the door to the Keeper Compound opened and a shaft of light struck the street at an odd angle. Two Keepers came out of the door. The first, Cray, came towards the two thieves. The second approached the fallen tree beast.

“Are you all right?” Cray asked, looking worried. “We weren’t expecting you to come so soon. We were hoping to get rid of him before your arrival. But…” he said, gesturing helplessly at the fallen monster.

“I’m fine,” Garrett replied, no longer looking shaken. “We found a ship. The captain was the only guy willing to deal with us, but the price was okay.” Cray looked at him, silently questioning. “Seventeen thousand five hundred.”

“Oh. Well that’s not bad at all. I imagine you two have about ten thousand between you? We can use some of that for the food as well. We’re leaving as soon as we get everything we need. Master Nightfall has already provided me with a map of the Ancient Times and Places. He overlaid the City’s position and Kunath-Loch’s new boundaries on it. All we need are the supplies and the ship. Clearly, we will soon have the ship. As for the supplies… Tomorrow is our shopping day, and we’ll use it as such.”

Mercury went to bed after that, but he couldn’t sleep. Garrett had told him what Norlafish were, and his dreams were full of murderous apes, giant tree beasts, and ships being shattered by gargantuous fish. In the morning, a Keeper shook him awake. The rooms were windowless, as indeed was the whole Compound.

“They need you to get ready to look for supplies,” the Keeper said. Then, he disappeared around the doorframe. Mercury stretched, then put on his cloak and walked to the banquet room. There, he saw the tremendous change from yesterday’s scene of carnage. The Keepers had clearly labored all night to clean out the signs of the fighting. However, Mercury had little time to admire their work before Cray stepped in front of him.

“Com eat, soon we will go search. We have to avoid foods that may be poisoned. We are going to have a supply of food and clothing, but we will fire the sailors and maybe the captain.”

“What? Fire them?” Mercury had had a deep antipathy against anyone who would fire someone else ever since his move to California.

“We won’t be needing them. The Keeper Medal will do everything except the steering. Oh, don’t worry,” he said, finally spotting Mercury’s stricken look. “They’ll be able to find new work within a few days. Besides, we’ll be giving this ship back to its captain as soon as we’re done with it.” Mercury relaxed and walked over to a table where food was already set out for him. He thankfully devoured the food, but he sipped the warm drink as he contemplated the voyage.

As he was eating, Cray had shown him the map he had obtained from Nightfall. It showed a city that was fairly close, but, in order to take one week, one had to travel through the dangerous Norlafish-infested waters. It would be hard navigating to avoid the Norlafish, but Cray had said something about the Medal being capable of repairing all but the most severe Norlafish-induced damage of the ship. As he finished his drink, he stood up, and Cray led the way out of the Compound.

They walked through the streets, using sun-created shadows during the day. The bright sunlight made it even more difficult to see them, for it provided more contrast with black shadow than that fairly dim light of the torches. In addition, sneaking through daylight was made simpler because there were fewer guards on patrol. Guards were considered unnecessary in the broad light of the day, when thieves were thought to be incapable of traveling. Interesting how people could be so naïve, Mercury thought to himself. Aloud, he had a question to ask of Cray.

“Where’s Garrett?” he whispered.

“Back at the Compound. He’s poring through some of our books.”

“He can read those rune thingies? Wow. I though they were extremely weird.”

“No no. We have some normal language books. They tell the past, not the future.”

The rest of the trip was spent in silence. They wound around in small alleys and wide streets, moving through shadows fluidly. They passed several guards, but the guards saw nothing. Finally, they arrived at their destination. A small wall was in front of them, with a small gate placed in its center. Mercury had never seen it before, but the vivid descriptions that Garrett had given him made it so that he could not possibly mistake it for another place.

“Shoalsgate?” he breathed, fear infecting his voice. “The headquarters of the City Watch? Are you crazy?”

“Are you planning on being seen? No? Then don’t worry about it. We’ll just… borrow some supplies.”

“The Keepers steal what they need? I got the impression you people were quite righteous.”

“Hey, look, Keeping the Balance between Hammerites and Pagans is no easy task, my friend. And it usually doesn’t pay as much as it needs to pay. You think Garrett was the only one to find alternate uses for these skills of shadow exploitation?” Mercury acknowledged the truth in the statements and relaxed.