Journey of the Messenger Cycle 2 Part 6e

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Prosker’s Square was a smaller market than Berri had expected, but it did have everything they needed, even an old gal who made her living selling and trading odd clothing. She certainly was no rag picker, her wares were in good shape and she was willing to haggle. Berri found three changes of practical clothing, a nice wide brimmed hat with a fancy feather and a full mantle cloak of a Tannican style. The others had found a few things as well, Kalitta found a vest, Moon looked adorable in her new fur lined hat and Tonn found a fancy dress shirt.

Berry haggled with the proprietor, she paid for all of it with two hundred and forty marks, the cloak was likely half the value, but it was such a nice heavy cloak with beautifully embroidered patterns, deep hidden pockets and the lower corner edges were decorated with brass weights with matching clasp and chain across the chest.

There were a few more small purchases before they made their way to the residence. Kalitta opened another bottle of gin, she and Moon took quite a while to decide what they were bringing, even though neither of them had a vast collection of clothing.

Berri and Tonn ended up waiting for them downstairs, where they heard a few other people talking about the unusual weather, some were convinced it was the air-mages messing with things, but there were others that claimed a big storm was blowing up from the south. As Moon and Kalitta came down into the common room, another resident burst into the room with news of a big fight that had just taken place at Walleron Peer, between the Work Party and the city guard. Apparently there were numerous injured and the breathless messenger also claimed there had been fatalities. There was an impassioned discussion that followed, many of the students had conflicting ideas regarding the Work Party.

Berri completely lost the thread of the conversation. It seemed that if it kept going there was going to be fight here, too. Kalitta and a couple of the others argued about their feelings on the subject. Berri stood quickly, “Hey. If there’s a storm coming maybe we should get going?”

It was enough to get Moon and Tonn moving towards the door. Kalitta joined them after a couple more emphatically declared statements, griping about the contrary opinions of some of her fellow students. Moon was clearly relieved to be leaving that situation behind them. While Kalitta continued to loudly declare her opinions, Berri lead them in the direction of the manor, retracing the route she had taken to get to the university that morning.

As they moved through the city there were indications that the day’s earlier events were causing ripples of concern through the population. They passed by more than a few small groups engaged in impassioned arguments. Some of the shops were also closing their doors early, though Berri figured that might have as much to do with the coming storm as it did with the spreading unrest. In the distance they periodically heard angry shouting, sometimes bells tolled and when they were nearly halfway back to the manor a large column of thick smoke rose up from the docks downhill.

A while later Kalitta stopped them, “Berri. Do you know where you are going?”

“Yeah.”

“Why are we meandering all over the place?”

“This is the way I came down this morning.”

“Well, if we’d just come up that street from our place we would have been here ten minutes ago.”

Berri shrugged, “I’m new to the city, Kalitta. I was just retracing my steps.”

From a few streets downhill of their position they could hear what sounded like a large group of the town guard marching in the general direction of where the troubles seemed to be taking place.

“I think things are still going on.” Kalitta said, “Maybe we should head down to Walleron Peer and see what’s happening?” As if to emphasize her point the bells that were tolling along the riverside were joined by other, closer bells.

Berri said, “You can if you want, but I’m heading back to the manor.” Moon was quick to agree and Tonn was able to convince Kalitta that going to the peer alone was probably a bad idea. When they resumed their trek uphill Berri set a quicker pace.

They had moved into a noticeably more affluent residential area, in the distance Berri could see the top of the gatehouse that lead into the district where Darra was staying. Periodically someone would pass them at a run and a fancy carriage moved uphill at what would normally have been considered an unduly stressful pace for the horse. Berri glanced at her companions; Kalitta was alongside her, flushed with excitement, Tonn had dropped back a bit and had taken Moon’s baggage, while Moon appeared to be struggling with the rapid uphill hike.

A few moments later Tonn called out, “Let’s take a breath.”

Berri did not really want to stop. Now in sight of the still open gate she could see there was a detachment of ten guards that had just marched up to the gatehouse. Along the street there were a number of folks moving with a purpose and there were a few people securing their yard gates or the doors and windows of their dwellings. Downhill there were more fires burning along the waterfront.

Moon was breathing heavily, she was pale, looking frightened. Berri was about to encourage them to keep moving, she really did not want to be locked out of the area of the city where Darra was, when the sound of breaking glass drew her attention to a dwelling downhill from them. An upper window had been smashed and someone was using a piece of luggage to clear some of the remaining shards of glass. Others looked in that direction, a few made exclamations of one sort or another but no one seemed interested enough to stop.

A youth in a fancy suit with a long tailed coat jumped through the window onto the roof below him, he glanced back through the broken window, then turned and ran to the edge of the roof. He paused and looked around, spotting the four of them. He called out, “Hello, would you be so kind as to lend me your assistance?”

A burly man appeared in the window, he was dressed in work clothes and carried an axe handle, he shouted at the kid on the roof, “Hey! Get back here!”

Berri dropped her bundles and raced towards him, calling over her shoulder, “Get to the gate, help Moon.”

She jumped the short wall around the property, the big man was carefully climbing down onto the roof, there were others behind him, still in the room. Berri lost sight of them as she came to the wall under the youth, or maybe young man, he seemed older than she thought, short. He was perhaps five paces above her. He crouched on the edge and carefully dropped the case he was carrying. By instinct she caught it as he jumped for a well manicured evergreen tree. He landed in the tree, it bent, then broke with a loud creak. He fell with bits and pieces of evergreen raining down with him. “Ow!”

She moved to where the young man had fallen, he struggled to his feet, favouring his left leg. From above she heard a curse and looked up to see the big guy at the edge of the roof. A moment later a similarly dressed woman appeared beside him. From behind her Berri heard Kalitta cry out, “That’s Stick! Stick of the Forest!”

The woman above was the same one who had been passing around the leaflets for the Work Party that morning, she told her big friend to lower her down, another Work Party fellow came up along the edge of the roof, “Don’t let that little shit get away!”

Berri grabbed the young man by the arm and dragged him a few steps towards the property wall, she saw Kalitta standing atop the wall and heard someone drop down to the ground behind her. She gave the limping man his instrument case and a push towards Kalitta, she shouted, “Get him out of here!”

Turning back she barely evaded the axe handle that the Work Party woman swung at her head. There was another person being lowered by the big guy, most of them were still up on the roof. Berri backed away as the woman swung at her again. Things were looking pretty bad, she did not even have a knife.

With a scowl on her face the woman advanced again and swung. This time Berri jumped towards her, grabbing for her assailant’s arms. She managed to get inside the swing and the lower part of the handle slammed into her side as she wrapped an arm around the woman’s arms, Berri punched her pretty throat. She grabbed the axe handle as the woman fell back, gasping.

She pushed past the woman and hit the man moving towards them, in the jaw, he dropped to the ground with a dismayed cry. Berri advanced, stomping on the man who had just gone down. With a full overhead swing she brought the axe handle down onto the back of the next man’s neck, he had just been getting to his feet after his drop from above. He gurgled and slouched into the wall as another man dropped down and rolled to the side.

Something slammed into her from behind, she was pushed into the man whom she had just struck and the wall above him. She took a couple blows to the lower back, scraped along the wall as she stumbled over the man under her and staggered away, she managed to retain the axe handle. Swinging wildly she moved to the side and turned to face her foes as yet another man dropped down. The big guy shouted from the roof, “He’s getting away, forget her. Get Stick!”

The woman she had taken the axe handle from was closing on Berri while the two men she had hit remained down, one of them not moving. She backed away from the woman, the other two men, most recently descended from the roof, ran off in pursuit of their intended victim. Berri tried to move towards the property wall but the woman rushed at her the moment she did so.

She then tried to do to Berri, what Berri had done to her. She went as far as getting her arm around Berri’s forearms. Berri just dropped the axe handle, grabbed the woman’s arm, grabbed a fistful of hair and pulled her foe downwards as she slammed her knee into the woman’s side. Once, twice and a third time she kneed the woman.

“The guards are coming!” Someone shouted.

The big guy finally made it down off the roof. Berri gave him a glance as she almost casually changed her grip on the woman’s arm and forced her to her knees. His two companions sprinted past along the road, heading downhill shouting about the guards. He gave her a hateful look then turned and jogged off around to the other side of the house.

Moments later there were guards running past and coming onto the property, Berri did not argue when they told her to desist. She, her new friends and Stick of the Forest were taken to the gatehouse while other guards took the two Work Party members into custody and searched the house. It took a while to sort things out. Thankfully the Stick fellow identified Berri as his rescuer. A messenger was sent of to the manor, looking to verify Berri’s story about being a guest there, it did not take Darra long to show up. Shortly thereafter the guards released all five of them.

Outside the gatehouse, Stick looked lost and confused, clutching his violin case as thought it was some great treasure. He flipped his hair back, looked to Berri and then to Darra, “Would it be unseemly of me to ask for shelter for the night?”

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