The Green Thief: The Land in the Void, page 21
“Don’t worry friend, I’ve got you,” he said with jovial reassurance.
Argus uncorked the bottle and lowered it down to Edo’s mouth. Edo opened and allowed a splash to run straight down his throat. Graciously, the liquid turned his thoughts back to fuzzy, and he suddenly remembered the joys of having a pillow beneath your head.
This sleep was thankfully empty. There were no dreams, no visions, and no memories. If there was one person you could count on to knock you out and fill a stretch of time with no memories, it was Argus Rubyoar.
Knowing that he was here gave Edo the reassurance he needed to awaken slowly, opening his eyes and taking in his surroundings. The small wooden room, and the noise coming up through the floorboards, told him he was in Tarello. Specifically the Sapphire Anchor, Argus’s inn and tavern that sat on the docks of the city. Even without the noise, he could have guessed where he was. The odd, but most welcome thing about the Sapphire Anchor was that whatever whispers there were from the Void at any given moment were never able to reach him here. Edo sighed with relief as he stared at the familiar brown wood over his head.
“You’re awake,” came the soft voice Edo had heard earlier.
Edo’s head jolted down, looking past his feet to see the same woman from before.
“Who are you?” Edo asked weakly.
Edo attempted to sit up, and took a better look at her. She arose from the stool she was sitting on and came to help him, easing him up into a sitting position.
“Chaya,” she said. “Try not to move too much, I did my best, but that wound was big enough that it might tear again.”
Edo winced as he suddenly remembered and felt the pain in his shoulder. Looking down, he saw that his clothes were gone. Covering everything below his chest was a white sheet, and covering the wound was a poultice made of some sort of wet moss.
“How do you feel?” Chaya asked, holding Edo up.
“I feel fine,” Edo lied.
“That’s a lie, but you don’t look as bad as some I’ve seen,” Chaya put her hand to his forehead.
“You’re not even warm. Wound like that, I would’ve expected the fever to have you by now.”
“This is Argus’s place, right?” Edo shrugged off the previous statement.
“Yes, Argus pays me in advance to keep me around for any of his people,” Chaya said drolly as she began to press her fingers along Edo’s neck, and then to his face.
Edo let her do so while staring at her out the side of his eye. She had long, dark hair pulled into a braid at the back of her head. Her eyes were a dull blue, almost gray, and were either naturally thin or she was squinting closely at her examination of Edo's body. She had a thin face that Edo guessed most people would find pretty. Aside from that, all else Edo noted was that her hands were cold.
“So you’re a healer?” Edo asked.
“No, Argus is a terrible judge of someone’s abilities,” she sighed quietly.
Her finger went to Edo’s eye, pulling down the lid and looking directly into it. Edo flicked it to look directly at her, but she did not react. When she was finished, she stood up fully, and ran her hands to smooth out the purple and white dress she was wearing. Edo glanced down quickly, noting that instead of shoes on her feet she was wearing heavy traveller’s boots. Then her hands folded across her chest, and she looked down at Edo as if she were upset.
“How are you not dead?” she asked bluntly.
“Excuse me?” Edo asked, acting offended.
“That wound you had was straight through, and whatever did it was large enough to make a hole in your shoulder, not just a flat stabbing from a blade. Even if by some miracle you didn’t bleed to death because of it, the fact that it went untreated right away should have you burning with a fever by now.”
“I did treat it,” Edo pointed out.
“How?” Chaya asked.
“On the road, I made due with the medicine I found.”
“Oh? Well it all fell out, because your wound was untouched for me.”
“Where’s Argus?” Edo asked dismissively, sinking down onto the bed.
“It’s not just that either,” Chaya took a step forward. “You look like you should already be dead. That wound aside, you look terrible. I’ve seen starving peasants with fuller frames than you.”
Edo glanced down at his exposed torso. His stomach was indeed sunken in, and the skin of his chest clung tightly to his protruding ribs.
“Your eyes are bloodshot, and the circles underneath them tell me that before you passed out from this wound, you had barely slept.”
Edo did not answer, he just turned onto his uninjured side, away from Chaya. She said nothing else, but Edo could still feel her gaze upon him for several seconds. He kept his eyes open and stared at the light from the candles dancing across the wooden wall.
“Please tell Argus to come talk to me when he has time,” Edo said bluntly.
Edo heard Chaya huff through her nostrils, and then walk out of the room. The door closed behind her with more force than was necessary, and Edo rolled onto his back as he was before. HIs good arm raised to his face, covering his eyes, and he tried to feel any of the things she had brought up. He knew he needed to eat, but he was never hungry the way he had heard others describe hunger. He knew he should drink more, but his mouth being dry and parched never bothered him. Sleeping he could do, but whenever he did, it just brought up thoughts from deep inside his mind that he wanted to avoid.
“Starving peasants with fuller frames than you,” Edo muttered to himself, quoting Chaya.
“Never slowed me down before,” Edo said to no one.
“No wait,” Edo said again.
He stopped, and thought.
“Because unlike you...I’ve been…” Edo tried to think of something witty he could have said, and then gave up.
Beside the bed, the previous collection of healing implements were now gone, replaced only by a pitcher of water, an empty bowl, a clean rag, and a small looking glass. With a quiet reservation, Edo took it and looked at himself from bottom to top. He looked thin, as he always did, but after that was pointed out to him, Edo saw himself as grotesquely thin. He attempted to puff out his stomach, but it did little. He hunched forward to try to pull the skin away from his ribs so they were no longer visible, but it did nothing. Tipping the mirror several different angles to look at his own face made him feel nothing. He tossed the round looking glass back on the table, where it spun in a circle once and then lay flat. Edo shifted in place, bracing himself with his hands as he started to sit up. In a way he forgot to expect, a shockwave of pain roared through him.
The process of sitting up was interrupted by the door opening again. It was Argus, now dressed fully as Edo expected to see him. He wore dark breeches, a dark red jerkin with silver embroidery, a long and sleeveless black coat, and atop his head a tri-corner hat that had a plume of green feathers sticking out of the top. He looked at Edo as his mustache curved along with his wide smile.
“Chaya said you were half-dead, and I find you trying to get out of bed!” Argus boomed with glee as he crossed the room to Edo.
Argus put one hand on the back of Edo’s head and leaned down, planting a prickly kiss on his forehead. Argus was overly affectionate with people that made him money, and Edo had made him a great deal over the years.
“Of course I always assume rumors of your death are greatly exaggerated,” Argus said with a grin.
“It was closer this time than others,” Edo said quietly.
“Bah! You exaggerate too, I'm sure. Whatever man thinks he can kill you must think he can catch fog in his bare hands.”
“I’m sure he does,” Edo said, thinking about Pharroth. He slowly adjusted himself to a more comfortable position on the bed.
“I suppose it’s good you got here when you did though. The one who brought you looked like he was about to dump you in the bay if he had to wait any longer.”
“Oh,” Edo suddenly remembered the wagon driver. “Did you end up paying him?”
“I paid him alright,” Argus said, one half of his mustache twirling into a sneer. “He tried to convince me that you agreed to give him your armor upon reaching the city. I almost had him taken down to the basement and beaten for trying to swindle you.”
“Thanks. Speaking of, where is my armor? And my clothes?”
Argus gestured vaguely at the wall, pointing to some unseen destination. His sense of direction was without falter, even if he was blindfolded.
“Your clothes I sent to be laundered,” Argus sat down on the stool next to the bed. “They were a bit worse for wear. Your armor I took to a smith I trust. He’ll patch it up and give it a good shine. I didn’t see any weapons on you, but then again I didn’t see that farmer with any either, so what? You travelling unarmed? What I’m hearing from the road says that’s a terrible idea.”
“No, I had them. I just lost them,” Edo said miserably.
“Damn. Sounds like quite a time on the road. You lose something at sea, one can assume it was dropped in the water. Lose something on the land and there has to be some other reason for why you didn’t get it back, eh?”
“Can I get some new ones from you?” Edo asked.
Argus stretched his arms out to offer both hands to Edo, “What you leave are the only things I have that I haven’t bothered trying to sell. You’re welcome to whatever you need.”
“Thank you,” Edo said as he winced quietly. He tenderly touched the area around his wound and felt the poultice painfully sticking into it.
“I had best let you rest,” Argus said as he stood up. “Chaya will kill me if she thinks I’m keeping you from healing as fast as possible. I’ll send up another swig of something to help you sleep.”
“Thank you,” Edo said again.
“I’ll send up some food too,” Argus paused. “You look like you need it.”
“No that’s fine, I’m-”
“I’ve hired a new cook since the last time you were here.”
“In that case, yes thank you,” Edo turned his eyes back to Argus, who grinned and chuckled behind his mustache, and then waved as he went back out the door.
Edo waited quietly, staring at the opposite wall from the bed and trying not to acknowledge the burning in his shoulder. After some time, he shut his eyes, reaching out with his normal senses to try to get a feel of what was around him. Edo always liked being at the Sapphire Anchor. Whatever the reason he never heard the voice of the Shade or the Void while here, he was glad for it. They were gone completely, even if he listened for them in the back of his mind. Perhaps it was the ambient noise of the tavern.
The room itself was quiet, but under the floorboards was all the ruckus of an evening in Argus’s Sapphire Anchor. Sounds of drinking, singing, gambling, and who knows what else floated their way up and were muffled through the floor. Behind him, Edo could hear the night’s tide coming in. The Sapphire Anchor was built right on the docks, occupying a space where no ship could fit because of the rocks sticking out of the water. Argus saw it as an ideal placement for his establishment, and faster than anyone expected, the tavern and inn popped up.
Argus himself was something of an enigma to the city of Tarello. Much like his establishment, he had seemingly blown in overnight. He was stout, hearty, and rich. Therefore Tarello took an instant liking to him. He claimed he was a famous pirate from out west, outside the Backwater where the world broke up into smaller islands and then eventually another continent from where little news reached. Argus’s tale was that he had slain a great pirate king, took over both his fortune and his armada, and pillaged that corner of the world before deciding to “give someone else a chance.” Ever since then, he had been running the Sapphire Anchor.
Edo met him years ago. Argus was much like Falbert with his Flopping Fish, or more rather Falbert wished he could be like Argus and be successful in anything other than running a hole in a hill. Argus’s establishment was not only a hotbed for the same unsavory types to conduct business, but also legitimate business. Both of which Argus would conduct on a large scale. He provided shipping and transportation, he funded expeditions, he would coordinate neutral ground for exchanges, anything that needed to be done could be in the Sapphire Anchor. Edo of course often had use of his services, coordinating discrete transport as well as fences for certain objects. In addition to his cut, Argus’s only real demand of Edo was that he sit and talk with him. Argus was always entertained by Edo’s comings and goings.
A tapping at the door shook Edo from his thoughts. It slowly opened, and a girl entered carrying a tray with a variety of items on it. Edo waved her over and took it from her with one hand, remembering to thank her. She timidly hurried out without a word, her eyes sneaking one glance at Edo’s wound. As Edo adjusted the tray on his lap, a wave of smells washed up against his face, triggering his stomach to make its empty status known at once.
Staring up at him was a hefty bowl filled with a very thick soup. In a rich brown broth that looked more like gravy, Edo saw pieces of beef as well as potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, and sprinkles of something leafy and green of which he didn’t know the name. There was also a small loaf of bread that had been ripped open at the top, still steaming and with a blob of butter melting inside. Held by its own plate, was a large slice of pie. It was oozing purple syrup, and when Edo looked closer he saw it was stuffed with blueberries. On top there was a large dollop of white cream. In the corners of the tray were a large tankard filled with beer, and then a small glass flask with more of the red liquid Argus had given him before. Edo set that aside, and began eating.
Every scrap of everything on the tray was consumed. Edo’s sudden hunger was unending, as if his body had just remembered the feeling of it at all, and wanted to make up for lost time. Everything was warm, and every bite helped to chase off the chill that Edo carried with him from the caves and the damp of Pinemire. As he was finishing, Edo found himself thinking about it. This was what most people did at the end of their days. Relax, enjoy their meals, rest, and get warm. Edo had to imagine they did this often with each other’s company to enjoy.
There was an idea in his head as he finished the last bite of pie, that it would be nice for there to be someone else he could tell about it. Or share it with. He wondered where Timyl was now. They didn’t talk much, but it had been longer than Edo could recall since he sat across a fire from someone that was actually alive, and physically in this world.
Edo set his tray on the floor, and listened again. There was noise from downstairs, but the burning in his shoulder was picking up again.
“I’m going to sleep,” Edo said out loud.
He opened the tiny flask and drank down the red liquid.
“Good night?” Edo asked quietly.
He laid down, waiting for another voice to answer him, but none came. He closed his eyes and waited for his thoughts to blur to nothing.
Argus, and the Sapphire Anchor, made that easy.
Chapter 12:
The Sapphire Anchor
“Noise is silence to troubled minds.”
-Ilvrashe, Elven Singer
Despite the abundance of noise coming from below his feet and outside the building, nothing was able to disturb Edo’s slumber. Only when the rays of the sunrise came through the small glass window did he finally stir. The inn was quiet in the mornings, but sleeping in the sun was something Edo was never able to do. Morning’s light overtaking the settled darkness was always too intense for him. All was silent below his feet, the evening crowd having left to sleep, or more likely go to their day’s work. It left the activity of the docks outside as the only noise Edo could hear from his room.
Directly outside his window was Argus’s ship. “Finshine” he called it. It looked exquisite, as always. The entire thing was made of a rich, dark-colored wood, and the fittings all along the ship were made of steel. Mounted along the bow of the ship was a silver-plated sculpture of the top half of a shark, with its jaws ominously hanging open as if it were about to leap out of the ship and attack whatever was in front of it. The sails were rolled and tied, as they always were. Argus seemed content to never leave, but the ship as a whole was Argus’s version of “proof” to support his pirate king stories.
Further down the docks, past the normal string of merchant ships, there were larger ships. Some were already docked, but there were even more standing by out in the sea. Even those with their sails already furled were recognizable. King Tassic had sent a large portion of the kingdom’s navy to Tarello. Edo saw banners hanging off each ship’s bow, and although the sails were up he could see the colors they were spun with. Red and blue, with the golden dragon stretched out from top to bottom.
Joining the already busy dock, a column of soldiers in the King’s own colors filed off one of the ships. They were not as well-armored as the cavalry Edo had seen fighting outside Greenholt, but they were certainly equipped for a fight. Every single one, marching together in step, had a sword at their belt, a shield in one hand, and a long spear in the other. Mixed in with them were archers carrying bows of long black wood almost as tall as they were, with quivers of arrows hanging off their sides. There was a silence to their movements, as if they didn’t want to disrupt the morning’s business. They were failing, as everyone on the dock was stopping to stare.
There was another series of quiet taps at the door, and Edo spun around. The door was not opening. He quickly slipped back into bed, not wanting another lecture for being out of it in the event it was the healer.
“Yes?” Edo called.
The door slowly opened and a slightly older woman stepped through carrying a tray.
“Thank you,” Edo said, still looking back towards the window.
The woman set the tray on the bed and left without a word. Edo looked toward the window again and wondered if they would march straight out to face Kaland in the field. He hoped so, as the sooner Kaland’s army was destroyed, the sooner he would be vulnerable. Despite the C’rux granting him whatever powers he had, there was only so much Kaland could do when it was just him. Edo shrugged off the thought, knowing that he had to form a plan to find Kaland himself, dead or alive, and get the C’rux away from him one way or another. His gaze shifted back down, where a tray of food was waiting for him. In the moment, he figured that the best first step in his plan was to recover quickly, arm himself, and set off again. Edo’s stomach agreed by making a sudden rumbling noise.
