Chapter 1: The Wreckage

[sirravd]

"Some dozens, I believe," said Galeschin after a bit of thought.

[tibbius]

After brief discussion, Robert decided to send in eighty infantry, armed with fauchards and short swords, as well as twenty crossbowers who would also bear short swords. He appointed Galeschin and Einrich to each head half the detachment, with Rus being free to assist as he pleased.

= = =

In Dr. Conte's office, the gnomish wife grew frantic while Alessio tried to examine her brick-stricken husband. "Help him, can't you?" she implored of Pelias. "You look like a learned man!"

[Rex]

Rus

Rus will stay with Galeschin. "I will watch your back."

[sirravd]

Galeschin thanked his friend, then commanded his detachment to return to the wreckage of the tower. If the rioters did not cease and desist, he would be upon them.

[tibbius]

Returning along East Street, which was barely wide enough for the column of four abreast with their pole arms held diagonally cross-body in a menacing way, they came to the central "square" - really more of a circular shape, paved with cut stones, two hundred yards across. People were gathering bodies, both of rioters and of those fallen from the tower the previous night. Other people were gathering valuables and papers into sacks. A group of seven, four gnomes and three humans, all wearing white armbands, stood before the charred front wall of the Silvered Branch. The rioters had vanished, or at least had abandoned their weapons and now were collecting their fallen. The looters began to leave the plaza with their bags.

Galeschin, Rus, and Einrich found themselves without a purpose other than parading the arms and possibly collecting the king's body. But when they marched the column up North Street to Alessio Conte's shop, the physician had left a note on the door, scrawled in gnomish script that Einrich puzzled out: On house calls, returning evening. They had no idea whether the king had been fully embalmed. Einrich slapped his forehead: "Fawgawt da lettah!" he exclaimed.

[tibbius]

The heavily-armed soldiers fidgeted and blocked the breadth of North Street along a stretch of fifty yards, causing uneasy crowds of mid-morning shoppers to form at either end of the restless column.

"So we go back to the camp?" Einrich suggested to Galeschin with his heavy accent.

Just then a slim woman in a richly-colored silken gown squirmed through the soldiery and approached the three principals. "Are you in command?" she asked. "Our entire street has been looted last night. What are you going to do about the thieves?"

[sirravd]

"The letter?" Galeschin asked Einrich. Then, to the silk-clad women (hiding his barbaric accent, which he could do almost perfectly): "I am in command, along with my friend Rus. Do you have any idea where the looters are? If we find them, you may be assured we will use them to send the other miscreants of the city a lesson they won't soon forget."

[tibbius]

"I'm sure they went to the Docks," replied the woman, "such a wretched hive of scum and villainy it is. They no doubt will be trying to ... <air quote>fence</air quote> ... our valuables there. I believe there is a market or markets for stolen goods along Water Street, right at the docks. I would be glad to come with you and identify my stolen possessions." Her tone was haughty. She was willing to tolerate a northern barbarian armed with an axe, but she knew he was her social inferior.

[sirravd]

Galeschin sucked his teeth. Ordinarily he would refuse to come to the aid of anyone who addressed him with such condescension, but he had agreed to help her, and he was a man of his word. Suddenly an idea came to mind.

Quickly surveying his ranks, he picked out five of his men who struck him as particularly weak or incompetent, and said: "Here, milady, are enough men to aid you. Men, if you find the looters, cut off their heads and mount them on poles. Now, as for the rest of us, we must be elsewhere." With that, not looking back at her, he strode off.

[Rex]

Rus

Rus chuckles to himself and follows along.

[tibbius]

Where do they go?

[sirravd]

Back to the central square, there to attack the remaining rioters gathering up their valuables and their fallen.

[tibbius]

It was early afternoon as the column of a hundred (less five) marched steadily back down North Street to Tower Plaza. There they deployed in squads of ten, eight in each with fauchards and the other two with crossbows. The looters, rioters, and bystanders quickly abandoned the area. After about ten minutes the soldiers had control of a deserted plaza littered with crumpled bodies, tattered books, and scattered precious things. The soldiers made some mutters about gathering the spoils. "Faw savekaypin," said a grizzled one with a stubbly head.

[tibbius]

Lacking opponents to menace, the soldiers became relaxed and chatty in their formations. There was a general complaint about the absence of drink. "Maybe go back to camp?" captain Einrich importuned Galeschin. "Otherwise they looting soon." His command of Thrannish speech and accent varied, maybe by his mood.

While Galeschin considered a response, there came a sound of drums and flutes from Ullin Avenue, which ran southwest from Tower Plaza down to Water Street by the docks. Ullin Avenue was the broadest street in Moontower, and indeed from the plaza it did give a partial view of the great river. Now a procession of yellow-gowned people, mostly humans but a few gnomes carried in chairs, paraded up the street from the river accompanied by musicians. They all wore flowing yellow silks and cottons after Dhartan fashions, and their leaders wore thin golden circlets round their brows. They were about a hundred yards down the street from the plaza and the musicians had just started to play.

[sirravd]

Galeschin considered commanding the soldiers to attack forthwith, but reflected that these people might not even be rioters––the rioters had yellow headwraps, after all. He asked Rus and Einrich, "Do you know who these people are?"

[Rex]

Rus

"No clue, I can't keep track of all the different factions. What do you think Captain, are they friend or foe?"

[tibbius]

"I guess they are Sun City high ups," answered the captain uncertainly. He gestured toward the northeast side of the square. "We should gather the fallen for treatment or burial." It wasn't so much that his accent was clearing up, more that Rus and Galeschin had become familiar with it.

The procession reached the place where Ullin Avenue opened to the plaza. The musicians halted and continued to play. The yellow-gowned humans continued forward toward the center of the plaza, passing groups of Galeschin's soldiers who stood uneasily with their fauchards held at attention. Next to the circular stage, the group of several dozen people halted and the chair-bearers lowered their gnomes. The gnomes sprang from their chairs to the stage, where they stood looking around the plaza and talking quietly to each other. The humans began to take an inventory of the scene, passing among the bodies and litter of treasures. A young man with his dark hair braided at both sides walked up directly to Galeschin, Rus, and captain Einrich.

"Who are you and what are you doing here," he said to Einrich in a highly-enunciated way that implied no answer would be acceptable. "Your soldiers have no place in this tragic scene."

"Captain Einrich fourth legion," responded the captain in his thick Stahlish accent. "My assistants Rus and Galeschin. My men. Keeping order on the scene. Who are you?"

"We represent Sun Citadel," said the young man, "here to assess the destruction. It seems complete. We will take possession of the remnants. Let your men gather nothing. Keep your barbaric assistants in check."

[Rex]

Rus

"Best to leave them to the mobs then and return to camp." Rus says without even acknowledging the gnome.

[tibbius]

"Of course we will take possession of the late King Bryce," added the young gnome. "If we have heard the true story, then he must be appropriately interred in the City of the Sun, beneath the citadel, consistent with the manner of his death. Is it true he was thrown from the stairs of the vanished tower?"

[sirravd]

"Is it true he was thrown from the stairs of the vanished tower?"

"He fell, at least," said Galeschin. As he spoke, he wondered how he would get back at the young man. Barbaric assistants, indeed.