Chapter 19 - Part 7

“Oh, Khyber, no,” Delegado scowled, wishing he had the whiskey already. “Do these morons go everywhere?”

“Is that a Silver Flame missionary?” Orphan asked someone at the table next to them, a human with an eyepatch.

“Aye,” the human nodded. “She brings food and magical curing if you listen to her. I think she’s full of silver excrement, but she healed my broken leg yesterday. I would have died if she didn’t. She’s been looking for King, too, planning on smiting him. I heard you did that for her.”

“I come to you again,” the bugbear began. “I come to you with hope, trying to make things possible. I am Flamebearer, and you must know that even know the Silver Flame is ready to accept the truly penitent.” Someone booed and the people around him told him to be quiet. Karbal’s men hefted weapons. Clearly Karbal was letting her speak and that was that. “The Silver Flame is hope. The Silver Flame is love. The Silver Flame can light the way…”

The bugbear continued on, and Delegado felt like punching the table. When the hobgoblin woman returned, he snarled at her for being late and grabbed the two cups of whiskey, knocking them both back and smacking his lips. It tasted like Jorasco disinfectant.

“Hey, she’s almost done, shut it already,” hissed a man of Karbal’s standing nearby. This fellow was a bugbear himself, and holding a loaded heavy crossbow.

“You want to eat that crossbow, then tell me what to do again,” Delegado snapped. The guard glowered, but said nothing.

“In conclusion,” Flamebearer said. “I want to remind you all, each and every one of you, of something important.” Here she began to look at each individual face in the room. “The Silver Flame can give you what you need. Evil cannot give you what you need. The Silver Flame burns even here. It calls us. Saint Valtros was the first one called, and as his day approaches it is important to remember what the Silver Flame can do. It vanquishes demons both within us and without. It –”

She stopped, frozen, staring at Delegado and Orphan. No, staring at me, Delegado realized. Why?

“It awaits us all,” she said finally. With that she hopped off of the stage and hurriedly made her way back to the door that she had entered the place from.

“An interesting religious approach,” Orphan said. “It would be fascinating to discuss theories of…er, nothing.” The warforged’s lame conclusion was due to the look of heavy revulsion that Delegado was giving him. The half-orc forced himself to calm down. Orphan was his friend.

“I don’t like the Silver Flame,” Delegado said simply.

“Right,” Orphan said.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t talk about it around me,” Delegado said.

“No problem,” Orphan told him.

Delegado smoothed his face, and realized a half-orc across the room was waving to him. He forced himself to wave back and look cheery.

About a half-hour passed, and a pair of girls did a dance on stage picking up customers to take upstairs. The kobold horn-playing got worse. Delegado refused two offers of food, but he bought food and snacks for some people that came by to tell him that they could be good hirelings. Their information was inconsequential, but it didn’t hurt to put out feelers. Feather showed an interest in some of the snacks, but Delegado fed his bird some grain from a bag. He didn’t trust the hygiene in this place.

As the smoke and noise increased, Karbal came over to where Delegado was sitting. He had three men with him now, and with a jerk of their chins they emptied the tables around the bounty hunter and the warforged. “Mind if I sit down?” the bugbear in the hideous velvet jacket asked.

“Your place,” Delegado said, his hand on his sword hilt.

Karbal laughed at sat across from Delegado, lighting a pipe. He waved his men back and a buffer of almost ten feet was made around the table. “I’m Karbal,” the bugbear said, puffing away. “I’m not about to attack you. That’s not my way in this place.”

“So there is civilization here after all,” Orphan said dryly.

“Never said that,” Karbal said, laughing. “Which one of you is in charge?”

Delegado looked at Orphan who made an exaggerated shrug. “I do the talking for us,” Delegado said.

“You here on Tharashk business?” Karbal asked.

“Private business,” Delegado said.

“You’ve got names?”

“I’m Delegado, he’s Orphan,” the half-orc replied. “Why do you care?”

“I don’t,” Karbal said. “A woman who I find incredibly interesting does, however. Flamebearer wants to know all about you. So far all I know is you’ve impressed Mrag, scared One-Eye, and ridded us of that pretentious King. But you have no problems with daelkyr-blood, because you came here with one, so this isn’t Gatekeeper business. And it isn’t narstone collecting, because Tharashk is doing that at the very other end of the Wastes, or so I hear.”

“You hear right,” Delegado said. “Blood Crescent. It’s pretty recent, surprised you heard of it.” Delegado forced his voice to be steady, remembering how his father lost his life as part of setting that place up.

“Just rumors,” Karbal said. “Also heard that you’re taking a room from that eyeless spell-meddler. Mine are better, and safer. I can control my people, she can’t.”

“Is that why they aren’t listening to this conversation?” Delegado asked. He’d been hunting goblinoids of all kinds long enough to not be impressed by Karbal’s bluster.

“They aren’t listening because I don’t want them to,” Karbal said with a note of irritation in his voice.

“What do you want?” Delegado asked.

“What do you want?”

“To sell you a horse and buy decent arrows and food that can withstand hard travel.”

“Hard travel where?”

“Wherever I want.”

“The fiends ignore this place, but not those who leave it.”

“That’s my problem. Why does this Flamebearer want to know about me?”

“I don’t know. She’s a conundrum.” Karbal grinned. “Surprised that I know that word?”

“How about the words enigma, puzzle, riddle, mystery, or cryptogram?” Orphan asked.

“I thought you were the one talking,” Karbal asked Delegado.

“Yeah, me too,” Delegado said, raising an eyebrow at the warforged. “What do you want to know, other than why I’m here?”

“You plan on killing anyone other than King?”

“Only if they’re a threat to me. I’m not staying long, Karbal, and I’m not trying to be top dog here.”

“You’re pretty insightful, I was wondering about that.”

“I’ve nothing to gain here, this is a waystation for me.”

Karbal nodded. “I can’t sell you oil or firewood, a hard winter is coming.”

“I don’t need either. How about I ask you some questions about this Flamebearer lady and you include it in my horse’s trading price.”

“Is that vague to be generous or vague to be shifty?” Karbal asked with a grin. “Alright, fine, what do you want to know?”

“When did she get here?”

“A few days back, walked in during a snowstorm.”

“Why’s she here?”

“She says to get converts. Maybe if she thinks she can do it here she can do it anywhere.”

“Why’s she interested in me?”

“I don’t know.”

“You attracted to her?”

“Of course, but she’s celibate.”

“People here listen to her?”

“Some of them attacked her. They’re dead. She helps the others, except the really nasty ones. Like King.” He looked at Orphan. “The reports on how you did that are varied.”

“I choked him until his neck snapped,” Orphan said calmly.

“Orphan is a lot more dangerous than he looks,” Delegado said. “What else?”

“She says she has a horse but I’ve never seen it,” Karbal said. “That’s really about it. When will I see your horse?”

“We’ll bring it by shortly. I hope you have some good stuff in return.”

“This isn’t Cannith or Ghallanda,” Karbal warned. “You’ll have to take what you can get.”

“Apparently it isn’t Phiarlan or Thuranni either,” Delegado snorted.