Page 16 of Potions & Pints
“Vir, this is Piliphre. He’s from a village not too far from Gamlin Ait,” Tan said.
“Hey, that’s where we’re going? Right?” Vir couldn’t contain his excitement.
Tan imagined standing on the bow of the ship, watching a tremendous wave come towards them. Vir’s last words would probably be something poetic about how beautiful it was. Then they would all drown.
“You know,” Valar said. “I’ve got a full belly and plenty of this.” He took a flask out of his pocket and drank. “So, tell me, how did you two meet?”
“I don’t really think—” Tan said.
“I want to hear the story,” Valar said. He pointed at Tan. “Now. Would you prefer I have some of my soldiers beat it out of you?”
“I don’t think he’d prefer that,” Vir said.
Tan admitted Vir was right. There was a brief delay while the soldiers changed their shift so the rest of them could eat. Then another while a chair was scrounged up for Valar.
“We met,” Tan said. “When Pili saved my life.”
Valar turned and stared at Pili.
“Yeah, it was a mistake,” Pili said. “Cause ever since then…”
“We set sail for Gamlin Ait,” Tan said. “We had the human wizard with us. Frederick. We made it.”
Tan shuddered as he remembered. Frederick had not exactly made a good first impression. Or second, or third. But when their lives were on the line, he had been brilliant.
The ship had floated through the rough seas as though the moon goddess from the old myths was guiding it.
There will be no wizard this time,Tan told himself.
Of that he was a hundred percent certain. Not only were wizards extremely rare — one was born only once every century — they were notoriously bad tempered. Frederick had borne that out. Tan had never been able to persuade Idrulo to reveal what he had promised the wizard for safe passage.
“What did Idrulo promise Frederick?” he asked Pili now. “I never knew.”
“Don’t you dare speak his name,” Pili said. “His name coming from your lips, in your voice, it disgusts me.”
“Who’s Idrulo?” A soldier and Vir asked simultaneously.
“Orc, you keep your mouth shut, do you hear me?” Valar thundered.
“Sorry,” Vir said.
“I have a muzzle, sir,” a soldier said.
He stepped forward and held it up. It made a horrible clanging noise.
“He’ll be quiet,” Tan said immediately. “You don’t need to…do that.”
He glared at Vir in the hopes that somehow the orc would finally listen. To Tan’s great relief, the orc nodded. Silently.
“Idrulo is dead because of you,” Pili said.
He poked Tan in the chest with his finger hard. Tan didn’t react.
“I still don’t know who Idrulo is,” a soldier whispered to Vir.
“His brother,” Tan said.
Pili’s face changed from one of anger to one of despair. To Tan it was like being punched in the gut.
