Chapter 27 - The town of Silverdale

  The group rolled into the village and Cal noticed the looks on peoples faces. Some shock and sorrow, some looks of disappointed resignation. They had known the people who had owned these caravans. Probably sent them off with a party a couple of days earlier. They knew what it meant that they were seeing the carriages again so soon, and with so many fewer.

  Just before going back inside for the rest of the journey, Cal noticed something and frowned. There were a lot of men around. Big strong men just sitting around doing nothing. Sometimes drinking.

  This was a silver mine town, people like that should have been in the mines. It wasn’t so late that work was over, and yet…

  Cal moved to the front of the caravan, but made a point to not get too close to Kaila as they drove through the town to the main square.

  When they arrived, word had clearly gotten out, evidenced by the crowd waiting for them when they came to a stop. “Stay in the caravan for now.” Cal said to Kaila. “And you, don’t talk to anyone unless you want to get too much attention.” He turned and walked towards the back of the carriage and paused, looking back to Veil. “I guess if some of the survivors let people know about you don’t make them look crazy, just…” He shrugged and threw his hands up in the air, pointing one at Veil as if reaching out as he turned to go, “Keep a low profile.”

  “Can do, Cal!” Veil called after him as he leapt down.

  Landing on the cobbled stone square outside, Cal turned and unhooked the back of the caravan, pulling it down so that others could more easily access the contents in the back, then walked around the side closest to the buildings.

  Meliana’s caravan was in front of theirs and Teth’s horse, Steel, had led them in and pulled them up in front of the mayor’s building. Cal guessed it was both a government hall and a residence. He walked along the side of Kaila’s caravan, looking back over his shoulder as more people started appearing from the main road behind them and out from the smaller alleyways and paths. A handful of them were making haste.

  Cal passed where Kaila and Veil were sitting at the front of the caravan and Cal gave them a nod as he walked. In front he could see one of the adult survivors, a drakokin male, climbing out of the front caravan and starting to unlatch the back to help people out. Cal didn’t help, instead walking past as he saw Meliana jump down from the front and look back to him, motioning for him to catch up and then turned away. Beyond her a man in slightly nicer clothes than everyone else he’d seen, and wearing a sash across his chest was looking on in concern. Cal guessed that this was the mayor.

  Moving into a jog to catch up, Cal heard the man speaking to Teth. “…are you people? How did you get these caravans?”

  “Er, you should probably…” he motioned to Meliana. “Our employer.”

  Meliana reached them and Cal came in close behind. “Thank you, Teth.” Meliana said. “Can you go help them with unloading?” He nodded and walked away then Meliana turned back to the Mayor. “Mister Mayor.” She said in greeting. “My name is Captain Meliana Roe. We were on our way to your village yesterday when we came across the caravan. It had been attacked.” She motioned back to the nearest caravan. “You can still see where the arrows hit.”

  He followed her gaze and nodded. “I see…”

  “There were survivors.” Meliana cut in and the man’s brows raised in surprise. “And we collected the personal effects of those who died, as well as their equipment. Here, let me take you to your people.” She said and led him to the back of the first carriage where the eight survivors were stepping out and into the square.

  Cal followed them, keeping close in case Meliana needed him. “This is all that survived?” Cal heard the mayor say quietly, his shoulders somewhat slumped.

  “Mr mayor,” Cal said, stepping up beside him. As Meliana moved to check on the survivors. “I’m sorry for your loss. If you’d like I could mark on a map the location so that you can send some people to gather the bodies and make sure that they can all be laid to rest.”

  He looked over at cal and then nodded. “Thank you. Please give me a moment to talk to them and we will go to my office.” Cal nodded and stepped back, bowing ever so slightly as he did so.

  Meliana stepped around the mayor and followed Cal a few steps away. “Thoughts?” she asked.

  “Not here.” Cal replied. “I’ll explain when we’re in the tavern.”

  She nodded. “Anything I should be aware of now?”

  Cal considered for a moment and then, under the pretence of turning to move up the line of the carriages he turned his face away from the assembling crowd to say, “we’ll be taken into the mayoral offices, look out for any maps that have been left out. If your tomb was unearthed around here there’s a good chance the mayor knows about it.”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  He walked back up the side of the caravan and checked on Root, Meliana’s horse, offering it a treat as thanks for a good job, then on to Teth’s big animal, which he gave a quick brush.

  There was plenty of time for him to wait as the Mayor saw to the people. He had to talk to them, he had to get them situated with places to stay. Some of the children were lucky to have family in the village and went with them, those families were even nice enough to take the kids who had no-one. When it came to the adults, with one exception - a half-elven woman whose sister was living in the village - they had to be put up for the night in a boarding house that was usually used for miners with no family. It wasn’t a pleasant place to stay but it was warm, dry and they wouldn’t be taken advantage of.

  As the sun was beginning to set, the Mayor returned to Meliana who gathered up Cal and Teth, leaving Kaila and Veil to watch the horses. They had unhitched them from the carriages so that someone else could take ownership of them later and now they were all hitched to posts at the edge of the square.

  They reached Cal and he left Teth’s big animal alone - coat all nicely groomed. “Captain, should I go rent an inn?” Cal asked.

  “Nonsense.” The Mayor announced, “You four are heroes, you will stay in the Noble Guesthouse. Give me a moment to get the key and you can send your girl on to prepare for your arrival.” He motioned back at Kaila.

  “We would appreciate that Mr Mayor.” Meliana replied, though Cal could hear a very quiet part of her tone that didn’t like the idea that they would be in such a high profile place.

  “Not at all, you are our guests. For as long as you need-” He announced proudly as they walked up the steps to the mayoral office, but then paused and considered for a second before continuing. “well… for- how long did you say you were staying?”

  “Only a few days.” Meliana responded.

  He seemed to perk up and nodded. “Of course, you are completely welcome!”

  They stepped into the building and the mayor led them through the hall, past a staircase that appeared to lead to the residence, and into a suite of offices off the back of the main building. He immediately walked around a large desk to a cabinet and took a large wooden box out of it.

  The room had three desks and all of them were incredibly messy. The one on the left was covered in books. History texts about the area, folk stories, beginners magic books.

  The desk on the right had maps, some very old and one newer one that had been marked with a cross south east of the city. A framed map on the wall behind that desk had a mark in a spot just north of that with a sketch of a mine stuck next to the mark.

  The main desk in front of the mayor had several work order pages, and documents to approve ‘discretionary wages’. There was also a document with his seal that ‘released funeral funds’, Cal didn’t know exactly what that meant and he didn’t see much more, but he had an idea, and it seemed odd.

  The mayor opened the box and inside, on a velvet cushion was the key, a big ornate bronze thing. He offered it up and Meliana took the whole box, then handed it to Cal. “Thank you.” Meliana said.

  He took the key and looked at it. It was almost the size of his forearm with ornate carvings all over the barrel, and a beautiful if pointless shape on the bit at the front. The bow, where one would normally attach a key to a ring was also over sized and ornately decorated, to the point that you wouldn’t ever be able to put it on a ring, which explained why it was handed to them in a box. It was a thoroughly inconvenient key, however he supposed it was less about the key being useful and more about it being a spectacle. After all, the person who was supposed to be impressed by it wasn’t the one who would have to carry it around all the time. Likely nobody did, they would leave the house unlocked, certain nobody would dare to steal from them.

  “It’s the large building with the small stable on the other side of the square.” The mayor explained. “Your horses will, I daresay, have one of the best sleeps of their lives tonight!”

  Cal closed the box and tucked it under his arm. “Captain, I’m not going to be of much use here, I’d like to show the mayor where his people can be found and then take Miss Kaila over to the Guest house to get the horses situated and prepare for your arrival, is that okay?”

  Meliana considered for a moment, eyeing him before nodding. “Please do.” She turned to the mayor. “Sir, do you have a map of the region? And is the guest house well stocked?”

  “Of course, of course.” He said, stepping around the table and walking over to the right desk. “Of course was the answer to both questions, I hope you understand.”

  “Of course.” Cal grinned, unable to help himself.

  The mayor paused and turned to him, pointing “Eyyyy, very funny young man.” He turned back to the desk and idly folded the large newer map over, then moved around it and pulled open a trunk, from which he pulled a regional map. He flattened it out on top of all the others and then pulled a pencil from the desk draw and offered it to Cal.

  Cal took it and eyed the map, following their route back the way they’d come and marked a spot by the Blackwood forest. “It was here.” Cal said and marked the map.

  “And what sort of resistance should we expect?” the mayor asked, frowning.

  Shaking his head, Cal handed the pencil back. “Minimal. We investigated the area and found that a large infestation of goblins, with a troll leading them was to blame. At my captain’s command when rescuing your people we were able to…” he looked up at Meliana.

  She sighed, rolling her eyes at Cal but finished his statement. “We eliminated the threat.” She said. She turned to Cal. “You should go. We wont be long, and we wouldn’t want miss Kaila to catch a chill.”

  Cal nodded and turned to the mayor. “Thank you for your time Mr mayor, I hope to see you again in the coming days.” He bowed and the mayor stepped over.

  “Not at all, boy.” He said, making him stand and taking his hand. “I thank you for your assistance in this matter. Taking out a goblin infestation? Marvelous!”

  Cal shook his hand and then took his leave. As he stepped outside he heard Meliana saying, “I should mention, Mr Mayor, you wont be able to find all of your people by the side of the road. Those you can’t find, don’t go looking for them. The goblins… well, they didn’t take them to do anything pleasant. What you find… it’s best left alone.”

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