Page 12 of Potions & Pints
Valar must have sensed this because he threw up his hand. His elves visibly relaxed.
“Sir, I do have information,” Tan replied desperately. “I’m not lying.”
“Let’s hear it then.”
“I’ve been trying to find you,” Tan said. “Did you receive my letter?”
“As you can see, I am not in my own residence at the moment,” Valar said. “And you should know I have serious doubts that there was a letter. That’s on you. Occupational hazard of being a full-time liar. Can you blame me?”
Tan decided to ignore the insults. Vir was an orc, but he wasn’t going to make a very good soldier. Valar’s soldiers would probably listen to Vir’s poetry, have a good laugh, and then tear them to shreds. No, it was up to Tan to get them out of this.
“Look, I was looking into something. For you. There are rumors in Lameria—”
“Rumors,” Valar said, and spit on the ground to emphasize his disgust.
“I’m sorry,” Tan continued. “It just seemed like too many rumors to be ignored. And the facts, they made sense, added up. I was sure they weren’t just rumors. That’s what I was looking into when I was captured.”
“I’ll give you points for creativity, maybe,” Valar said with a yawn.
“Look, I was captured in Sunfall. I think one of my contacts betrayed me.”
“Who was it?” Valar demanded.
Tan winced. He needed to figure out a way to convince Valar without throwing some innocent person into a pack of hungry drochi.
“Well, not my contact, specifically. I think he may have trusted the wrong person. That’s who I was going to meet. I didn’t know his name. Instead, I walked into a trap.”
Valar considered the explanation, then nodded. Tan breathed out in relief, then quickly hoped no one had noticed.
“Cuff him,” Valar ordered. “And him,” he added, pointing at Vir.
Tan didn’t resist and neither did Vir. In the blink of an eye, they were cuffed together.
“Seriously?” Tan asked.
He pointed to his hand. Vir was so much taller that Tan was forced to hold his arm up.
“Don’t worry,” Vir said, patting his smaller companion awkwardly on the head.
From Tan’s perspective it was rather like being hammered into the ground by a very large mallet. He ducked away from Vir’s hand, but was quickly jerked back when he reached the full extension of the chain connecting them.
Tan landed on his ass with a thump. Some of the soldiers laughed. Valar rolled his eyes.
“Up you go,” Vir said.
In one swift motion he grabbed Tan under both arms and deposited him upright on his feet. It seemed purposely more gentle than the aforementioned thumping.
“Thanks,” Tan said.
He knew it wasn’t Vir’s fault, but the soldiers were still snickering.
“Don’t worry,” Vir said.
“I think this would be a really good time to worry,” Tan replied. “Hey, where are you going?”
Valar, who was walking away flanked by several of his soldiers, turned around.
“If I wasn’t so hungry, I’d take the time to put you in your place right now,” he thundered. “I’ll be back when I’m back. You will wait. Beat him if he complains again,” he added before walking off.
