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They all owe a favour to Lord Avran, the vampire major-domo of the Palace of Shadows.
Zeal, having finished her days work observing various undesirables, returns to the House of Vigilance, the headquarters of the Order of the Eye, the Empire's spying and intelligence service. As she enters, a slave of the House approaches and kow-tows, offering her an envelope on a silver platter. Zeal takes the envelope and opens it after dismissing the slave. It is a message from Lord Avran - "It is time to return the favour you owe. Meet with me in my rooms at 8PM."
Captain Lyle returns to his quarters in the Iron House, the main military headquarters in Umbra after a days training. Once one of his slaves has removed his boots and armour, they give him an envelope. It asks Lyle to meet with Lord Avran, at 8PM. The slave is sent to get Lyle's dress uniform ready for the meeting.
At the College of Surgeons Professor Virgil returns to his quarters from his work. He too gets a message asking him to meet with Lord Avran at 8PM. He gets cleaned up, abuses his slaves a bit, and has a clean unform laid out.
Blunt is in his room in the flooded rookery, down by the river Deminorsk, preparing to go out to 'work' when a raven lands on the nearby windowsill. He throws a boot at it, but it hops aside, and doesn't fly off. Blunt notices it has something on it leg, and is able to grab the raven - it sees quite tame. It seems to be a note, which the essentially illiterate Blunt translates to also mean that he should meet Lord Avran in his rooms at 8PM. He decides he probably shouldn't eat the raven, and lets it go; it flaps off. He then leaves to make his way to the Palace of Shadows.
Zeal goes to the Palace of Shadows, buying something to eat from a street vendor on the way. Upon arriving at a small side door she shows her Order of the Eye signet ring (identification for spies in uniform) to the black-armoured elite guards. They let her pass, the door swinging silently open by no visible mechanism. Just inside she encounters a slave, who she has escort her to Lord Avran. The corridors are dark, and the shadows move strangely.
Lyle rides to the Palace. He arrives at one of its many entrances, an ornate black stone archway closed with iron doors. Two elite guard bar his way with their halberds until he shows his papers and explains his business. They raise their halberds and the doors swing silently open. He rides into a large courtyard of black stone, with only a few torches scattered about to dimly illuminate the place. He hands the reins of his horse to a slave, and another leads him up the steps into the palace, towards Lord Avran.
Virgil gives orders to one of his slaves for dinner, then rides to the Palace. On the way he accidentally runs down a slave and leaves him to die.
Blunt sidles up to a Palace servants entrance. He gives his name to the elite guardsman posted there, and they say that he is expected. The door swings open and Blunt scurries in. He encounters a slave within ten feet of the door, and kicks them, then orders them to show him to Lord Avran. They do.
Virgil arrives at the Palace, at the same gate as Lyle. Like him, his way is barred until he explains himself, when he is admitted, gives his horse to one slave and is lead off to Lord Avran by another.
All four are led through the dimly lit palace. It is noticeably colder and dimmer inside than it should be - even the flames of the torches seem colder than they should be. Eventually they all arrive, at about the same time, in an irregularly-shaped antechamber with lots of corridors leading into it, and one closed door of iron. Two long black leather sofas with low tables in front of them face each other close to the door.
Three of the slaves leave, and the remaining one knocks on the inner door. Nothing happens for a little. While they wait, the four introduce themselves to one another.
After a little while the door squeals open, revealing a scantily clad young female slave. The two slaves whisper to each other, then the female slave turns to the characters and says that they will be seen now. She ushers them in and down a short corridor panelled in dark wood; doors lead off to left and right, but the slave girl leads them to a set of double doors at the end. She knocks.
A voice from inside says "Enter." The slave girl opens the door, and they do. The room is cold, panelled in black wood, and very dimly lit. There is a large fireplace but no fire. Lord Avran stands behind a large desk facing the door, and welcomes them in. He is tall and thin, with very pale skin and close cropped silver hair, immaculately dressed. Blunt kow-tows onto the floor as he gets into the room. Avran invites them to sit; there are three armchairs, and one stool, facing the desk, the stool slightly back from the rest. They sit, Blunt on the stool. Lord Avran invites them to pour themselves drinks from a cabinet off to one side. Lyle pours himself some water; the rest decline.
Lord Avran says that they all owe favour to him, and that a matter has arisen which needs their skills to resolve. Thus he is calling in their favours. Something has been stolen, which they must recover. "Follow me," he says.
He leads them out of the room, and off through the palace again. Eventually, they arrive at a set of huge ornate double iron doors. Avran pushes one of the doors open, revealing a large dark space beyond, and points to the right. "Light some of the lanterns there," he says. Two are lit, at which point Lord Avran says two is enough. He leads them into the room. "This is the Hall of Trophies," he says, "Here are stored and displayed trophies from the conquests of the Eternal Empire which are considered too sensitive to be left unguarded. It is one of these which has been stolen".
Avran leads them into the chamber. As they go in, the small amount of light cast by the lanterns reveals rusted armour, weapons, tattered battle banners, a pile of skeletons. Virgil can sense magical power in a few places, off into the darkness. After a bit, Avran stops in front of a display case. Inside is an ornate, gold chased, but rusting bastard sword. Lord Avran explains that this case used to contain the Sword of Skirion, the sun god killed by Cthon 6000 years ago; that sword has been stolen and replaced by this one, apparently in an attempt to cover the tracks of the thief. One of the slaves who maintains the Hall of Trophies has also gone missing, and Avran has had all the other slaves who shared that job executed for letting it happen. The missing slave, Andrik, was new - he had only been working in the palace for six days - and from a distant conquest of the Empire - Karthan. It was thought that he was trustworthy but obviously this opinion was sadly misguided. "Those who supplied him shall be punished," says Avran.
"The sword must be discretely returned in the next two days," says Avran, "Otherwise it's absence will become known. And if I should suffer this embarrassment then be sure that you, too, shall be similarly embarrassed."
He describes the sword. It is similar to the one on the case, but shown no tarnishing despite it being 6000 years old. It has a gold cross hilt with large diamonds at the place where the hilt joins the cross-guard, and another in the pommel, a red leather grip and mirrored blade with a golden sheen, engraved with flame patterns. It has lain here for 6000 years, and is allegedly a weapon of great magical power. The sword that replaced it was taken from another display case back into the darkness.
Andrik, the slave who is missing, is of stocky build, about 30 years old, handsome, dark hair, swarthy skin, blue eyes and a Karthan accent.
Blunt wonders why a replica of the sword could not be made. Avran says that those with magical senses would instantly know that it was a fake.
Avran gives Blunt and Zeal pouches of gold Chetrun to assist in their investigations, and help buy information from contacts.
He also produces a tiny red enamelled gold disc of the sun, the symbol of the Cult of Skirion, which was found in the slave quarters.
Avran leaves. The group splits up to better investigate.
Lyle and Virgil go off to talk to the Palace's Master of Slaves. They are escorted there by a slave, who seems nervous. They reach the slave training wing, and the door swings wide. They enter and are led to a hall where an assembled group of slaves (who all look afraid) and a large thug-like bald man are watching a screaming slave, hanging in chains, being whipped.
They introduce themselves to the big man, who is Dravin, the Master of Slaves, and ask to speak to him in private. The slave being whipped falls unconscious, but the whipping continues.
Dravin leads them into a plush lounge. They sit, and a female slave is sent to bring refreshments. They ask the Master of Slaves about Andrik. He tells them that he was purchased in the Great Bazaar, but he would have to check the account book for the details. The slave girl returns, distributes refreshments, and is sent for the account book. She returns with a huge leather bound volume. The Master of Slaves flicks through it.
Andrik was bought from Karkarham slavers, says Dravin, but he remembers nothing special about him. Another three slaves were bought from Karkarham slavers at the same time, from the same area; two now work in the palace kitchens, and one in the palace gardens. Lyle and Virgil ask if they can talk to them. The Master of Slaves has them summoned to 'interview chambers'. Lyle and Virgil go there to wait.
Meanwhile, Blunt and Zeal exit the palace via the 'spy's entrance' Zeal used earlier and head off towards the rookeries. As they walk through the crowded night-time streets Zeal disappears into the crowd to meet with one of her contacts, a street food vendor. She passes him some coins and tells him to pass on anything he might know or find out about their hunt. He says he'll put the word out and drop off any information in the normal place. Zeal reappears out of the crowd behind Blunt. Blunt is surprised.
As they go, Blunt suggests they go to see 'Uncle Bob', who does protection for the Gambling Hell in the flooded rookery - an old hang-out of his. He and Zeal decide to go there first. After a while, they reach the flooded rookery, down below the cliff of the gorge through which the river Deminorsk runs. The Gambling Hell is visible off across the scummy-looking water. They make their way there along wobbly duck-boards. Sounds of raucousness are audible as they get closer. Someone flies out of an upper storey window into the water, sinks, and does not resurface. Blunt and Zeal make their way over a wobbly duckboard bridge to the entrance (which is actually a window originally on at least the first floor). Blunt knows the doorman, so there aren't any problems, and in they go.
The lower floor is crowded, noisy, smoky and smelly. They make their way towards the stairs to the upper floors, where they will find Uncle Bobby. One of the local thugs tries to put the moves on Zeal - he recognises her as a babe regardless of her veil. Blunts attempts at negotiation ("We don't have time for this") don't go too well, so he ends up drawing a his gun on the thug. It all goes quiet, and Blunt gets lots of hard stares. "Later for you," says the Thug, backing down and slinking off. Blunts puts his gun away. Everyone relaxes, and they make their way to the stair without further incident.
A thug named Danny is on the door to upstairs. He passes the word that they want to see Uncle Bobby in, and says Uncle Bobby will see them in a short while. Blunt tries to convince Danny that it's important, with no real success.
Back at the Palace, the first of the three slaves is brought in - a girl named Darrik, who works in the kitchens; she also has a Karthan accent, and looks scared. Lyle and Virgil (acting 'bad cop' and 'worse cop') ask her about Andrik. Darrik says she spoke to him on the train from Karthan - they discussed what was going to happen to them, along with the other slaves in the carriage. Apparently his family were all dead. He didn't know anyone in the city, had no plans, and had no friends - it's discouraged among slaves.
She says Andrik was chosen for his duty because he was strong-looking. One of the Master of Slaves' subordinates chose him. Darrik is dismissed, and the subordinate is called in. He is a 2nd Slave Master, named Gavran. He says that a space came up in the slaves who maintain the Hall of Trophies after an old slave died - Andrik was the strongest of the new slaves, and so was chosen.
Lyle and Virgil interview the other two slaves, but learn nothing new. However, Lyle feels that the last slave, a man named Dallarin, is holding something back. He calls for the Master of Slaves to assist while he and Virgil step outside. When they step back inside, the slave is beaten up, with a bleeding, broken nose and various bruises. Dallarin is more ready to speak now. Andrik was a sun worshipper, he says; other slaves were executed in Karthan because they were, too. Dallarin says he's not a sun worshipper, but has known them, and "you can tell," he says. Dallarin is allowed to go.
Lyle and Virgil say goodbye to the Master of Slaves and are escorted to the slave pen (one of many in the Palace) where Andrik lived. They go via the slaves and servants corridors, going parallel to the main halls. They leave a message for the others to meet them later, and search the place. However, they find nothing new.
Back at the Gambling Hell, Danny lets Blunt and Zeal in to see Uncle Bobby. He is fat and ugly, and lounges in a luxurious (and very out of place) room, in a large armchair with two beautiful scantily clad girls draped on him. Blunt and Zeal introduce themselves, and explain why they are here. Some money changes hands, to 'sharpen the memory' of Uncle Bobby, after which he mentions that he has heard rumours of two groups of sun worshippers in the city; fools who, even though their god is dead, cling to their beliefs. As far as the rumours say, one group is in the East Side of Umbra - Blunt is surprised that Uncle Bobby's reach extends so far, but he says that, alas, it doesn't - it is in the rookeries which form the no-mans land between the territory of Uncle Bobby and that of Mad Attur the Knife. Allegedly, the second group is entirely with Mad Attur's territory.
Apparently the group in no-mans land is in or near the old College of Astrologers, which was abandoned when they fell on hard times, below the collapsed arches, towards the city wall. Perhaps the old observatory tower is where they do their rituals - at dawn. Uncle Bobby knows nothing of the group in Mad Attur's territory, and, alas, has no contacts in the no-man's land area.
Blunt and Zeal give Uncle Bobby their thanks, and leave the Gambling Hell, making their way back to the Palace.
Zeal pays off some more of her contacts a visit en route back to the Palace, and puts the word out to give her any news about Andrik. They also stop off at a second-hands clothes bazaar and buy clothes to disguise Lyle and Virgil when they go into no-man's land - sets of unpleasant smelly rags.
When they arrive back at the palace, Blunt and Zeal are directed to Lyle and Virgil, and the two groups swap information. Although not entirely keen on the disguises, Lyle and Virgil go along with the plan to investigate in no-man's land. Lyle's military facial tattoos cause some concern, but Blunt and Zeal know there are enough ex-military types in the rookeries for it not to be a problem.
Zeal, Virgil and Lyle go to investigate the places Uncle Bobby mentioned. Blunt goes to investigate via some contacts of his on the south side of the city
The World of Dran | Feel of the World | History | Inhabitants of Dran | Larger Universe | Magic
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Copyright © Tony Jones, 2007.
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