Chapter 11
"Lanport isn't as big as I thought it'd be," Katrin said as they approached the city.
"It's supposed to be larger than High Cove," Corec said. "I think it's just spread out farther along the coast, so we can't see it all from here."
The trip north from High Cove had been uneventful, other than the weather continuing to worsen. The light snow that had fallen the night before had melted, leaving the road muddy, and Katrin was looking forward to reaching the city and getting a hot bath.
It took them another hour to get to the city itself, but even as the North Road turned into the main street leading through town, it stayed a muddy mess, without the granite pavers which were common in other large cities. Wooden walkways lined the buildings to either side, so foot traffic could avoid the mud.
"Why do they leave the streets like this?" Katrin asked.
Corec said, "The caravan guards who work the Lanport run say the government here doesn't do much. They don't do anything about bandits, so the caravans get attacked sometimes. There are pirates, too, when the traders come by ship." Then he laughed. "I was supposed to come here once on a ship, but I got too sick, so they put me off in High Cove. I didn't even get paid for the first half of the trip."
"Bandits and pirates?"
"We should be fine," Corec said. "Most of them aren't stupid enough to attack two men in plate armor, and even if they are, they'll be scared off when Ellerie starts burning holes in them."
"Unless they're those red-eyed men. They don't seem scared by anything."
Corec nodded. "I wish I knew where they came from. The West Road to south of Circle Bay...I can't figure out who they're working for in that area. Terril Forest is between there, but I doubt the red-eyes are being sent by the elves."
As they drew closer to the city center, Katrin heard a mournful tune being played on a gittern. She could just barely make out the lyrics, sung in a woman's voice. Listening to the words, she saw the same scene in her mind, the lament of a soldier who'd survived a terrible battle.
"That's a bard!" Katrin exclaimed. She'd never met another female bard before. "Let's go that way."
"I'll come with you," Corec said, and motioned to the others to go ahead without them.
Katrin followed the sound of the music to a park-like square near a busy street filled with vendors. She brought Flower to a halt and dismounted behind a ring of people who stood around the singing woman. The bard was stocky, approaching her middle years, and her brown hair was starting to go gray. Instead of the fancy clothing typically worn by bards during a public performance, the woman wore a plain, sturdy dress that wouldn't have looked out of place on any other street musician.
Corec joined Katrin after wrapping Flower's and Dot's reins around a nearby hitching post. They stood with the rest of the crowd and listened until the song was over, then Katrin made her way through the ring and dropped a coin in the wooden bowl the bard had set out in front of herself.
The listeners thinned out during the next song, but Katrin remained, closing her eyes as she sensed the bard's deft touch in crafting the illusory visions.
She spoke quietly to Corec. "I'm going to stay here for a while if you want to go look for the others. I have a lot of questions I'm hoping she can answer."
"All right," he said. "I guess you know how to find us."
Katrin nodded. She could track him down through the warden bond, the same way he'd be able to catch up to the others. She turned her attention back to the bard after Corec had ridden back in the direction they'd come from.
During the next break between songs, the woman looked her way. "Don't just stand there, girl," she said with a hillfolk accent. "That's a harp case lashed to yon saddle, ain't it? Bring it on down and let's see what you can do."
#
The group stayed in Lanport the next day to resupply, so Treya decided to bring Bobo to an almshouse if she could find one. They made a quick stop first so he could buy the last few ingredients he needed to make new batches of his salves. He'd sold most of his first batch, and the ogre attack had taken up the rest. He and Shavala had foraged for as many of the herbs as they could find during the journey north, but this late in the year, they hadn't found everything he needed.
When Bobo was finished, the clerk looked toward Treya.
"I just need directions," she said. "Does Lanport have any almshouses?"
"What, like where old people live when they can't afford anywhere else?"
"Oh, no, I meant almshouses for healing."
"Ahh, you want the healing house, then. There's only one. Go out the door, two blocks west, then straight north for a quarter of a mile. You can't miss it."
"Thank you."
After they left the shop, Bobo sighed. "Well, there goes the last of my money. I'm going to have to borrow coin from Corec again until I can mix these salves up and start selling them again."
"I can loan you some of my share from fighting the demons," Treya said. "Of course, if you had come with us..."
"Hah. No. I'll leave the fighting to those that know how to do it. But I haven't been able to find any translation or scribing jobs lately."
"Well, I've got enough coin now. If we keep getting jobs like that, I can start sending some back to the Orders."
Bobo nodded. "If you can help me out with food and lodging for a bit, I'd appreciate it. I'll start brewing the salves as soon as we're on the road again, and pay you back as soon as I sell some. It would help if we'd camp out more often. I doubt the cook at an inn will let me use her kitchen all night long."
"I'll buy you your own pot, too. Katrin says the last time you made something, the taste lingered in the food for two days."
"Did it? I couldn't smell or taste anything after spending twelve hours stirring it."
While they walked, Treya cast her mind around for something else to talk about, because if she didn't, Bobo would bring up politics or philosophy again. He always took a position contrary to her own, just so he'd have someone to debate with, and she needed a break from it. Corec and Katrin never showed any interest in the discussions, Shavala barely spoke about topics she
was
interested in, and Ellerie and Boktar weren't friendly enough with Bobo to humor him, so it usually fell to Treya to keep him amused.
Finally, she settled on a more personal topic. "Why are you so interested in finding Tir Yadar? Is it really just for the treasure?"
"My grandfather was a librarian before me, and he used to read me stories about treasure hunters and grand adventures. It always seemed like such an exciting, romantic life. I spent a few years learning things from books, but after a while, that wasn't enough anymore, so I started looking for my
own
grand adventure."
"Tir Yadar?"
"Not at first, but it turns out that it's surprisingly difficult to create a great adventure out of nothing. I'm no warrior or wizard, so I needed to find a task to which I could apply my own not inconsiderable skills. I wanted to do something that could only be done by a scholar or seeker of knowledge; I wanted to leave my mark on the world."
"I'm not sure what that means."
"You've never wanted to do something that nobody else has done, or discover something that nobody else knows about?"
"Not really. I just wanted to protect people who need protecting."
"You're just making a different type of mark. For me, I went back to my grandfather's stories. A lot of them were about finding ancient ruins or lost cities. The old histories discuss a number of cities that we don't know how to find anymore. Of those, Tir Yadar is more of a legend—it's mentioned a lot, but nobody seemed to know for sure if it really existed. And then Ellerie brought that book and asked me if I was able to read it."
"So you stole the translations."
"It didn't really feel like stealing, since I was the one who'd translated them in the first place. I had a hunch about where to find the ruins, so I got greedy and took off. I didn't find anything, but I suppose you could say I spent that time in the hills having my own little adventures. It wasn't the epic quest I'd dreamed of, but it was certainly a new experience. And I got the chance to learn how to actually
do
