In theory, they were still heading for Hommlet.
They marched through a range of dusty, tree-smothered hills on a day that seemed eerily hushed and still. In the lead walked the Justicar-huge, shaven headed, and grim in his armor of black dragon scales. Draped over his head and back was Cinders, a grinning sentient hell hound pelt that wagged his tail in eternal glee. Jutting through the Justicar's belt was a magical sword named Benelux. Despite its wolf skull pommel, the blade was talkative, prissy, and prim. Even when silent, the sword managed to radiate an impression that it approved of none of the current goings-on.
Behind Jus was Henry-eighteen years old, tall, skinny, and apparently made up mostly of elbows and knees. His blond hair framed a face smattered with freckles. A fine shirt of elven mail, threaded with green chords to keep it silent, betrayed an occasional sparkle beneath his cloak. He carried a sword, and a hefty magical crossbow sloped over his shoulders as he kept up with the Justicar stride-for-stride, bravely trying not to look tired.
Henry snuck sly glances at the happy female sphinx who walked beside him. Enid was larger than a lion-a shy, pretty creature with freckles on her nose, white feathers on her wings, her hair plaited in a thousand braids. Her big paws padded amiably in the dust, and her weaving tail cast its shadow onto the dappled light of the road. Riding on her back was a large badger who perpetually scribbled notes in a dog-eared journal. Polk the teamster, reincarnated as a lovable woodland beast, was, if anything, even more annoying than he had ever been.
Flitting madly from one end of the party to the other, dressed in a costume so sleek it was outlawed on six outer planes, Escalla the faerie was having a busy day. Full of energy, the little creature held a stick, flew level with Jus's head, and waved her hands in the air.
"All right pooch! Are you concentrating?" Escalla hovered above the roadway, paused, then threw a stick down the road. "Fetch the stick! Go on! Fetch!"
The stick hit the ground a dozen yards ahead. Escalla looked happily from the stick to Cinders where he rode draped across the Justicar's helm. She whooshed her hands forward, trying to will the hell hound into a run. "Go on! Fetch!"
Marching tirelessly along the road, the Justicar decided neither to ask nor comment. Henry looked from one of his friends to the other. Polk was busy trying to put his chronicles into heroic rhyme, and Enid was carrying sticks for Escalla.
Intrigued, Henry asked, "Hey, Escalla? Um, what are you doing?"
"Trying to teach the pooch to fetch!" Recording the moment on her slowglass gem, the little faerie happily tossed another stick for Cinders, full of boundless enthusiasm. "Come on Cinders! Fetch!"
"Oh." Henry struggled to set his crossbow properly in the crook of his arm. He leaned close to Escalla and whispered. "Um, isn't that difficult when he's… you know, an empty skin?"
Escalla shot a glance at Cinders, and then drifted Henry out of earshot of the hound.
"It's my plan to get him mobile."
"Mobile?"
"Look: the pooch can wag his tail, he can lift his ears… I think getting him moving is just a case of mind over matter."
Escalla slapped a new throw-stick into her little palm. "That's why we're going to basics here! If we make instinct work for us, we can set over the mental barrier he has!"
"By fetching a stick?"
"Hey!" The faerie waved her hands. "Dogs fetch sticks! All the books say they do!"
"Really?" Henry peered thoughtfully over at Cinders's big teeth. "He's a hell hound. Maybe they fetch bones or skulls or something?"
With a heavy sigh, the Justicar looked at Escalla. "Escalla, I don't think Cinders is quite up to fetching any sticks."
"Ha! What you people need to learn is perseverance! You need some self discipline!" Escalla tossed a stick up the road. "Cinders! Fetch!"
There were at least two hundred sticks littered in the party's wake. Undefeated, Escalla eagerly made fetch motions at Cinders, who merely grinned. A tad annoyed, the girl speared him with a thoughtful glare.
"Are you really trying, or aren't you?"
Fun! The hell hound wagged his tail. Good exercise for funny faerie!
Escalla went into a sulk.
"Aw, come on, pooch! This is a serious experiment here!"
Long day. Cinders tired.
"Well, all right." Escalla tossed a final stick aside. "We'll give it a rest for a while. We don't want to strain your, um… whatever muscle things it is that let you move. But tonight, you practice for another hour! And you get a coal lump for each stick you snatch!"
The Justicar gave a patient arch of his brow.
"Escalla, the day he catches his first stick, I'll give him a whole wagon load."
"Hey, pooch! You hear that?" Escalla landed on Jus's shoulder and ruffled the ears of both man and beast. "See! He believes in you!"
Cinders happy!
"Good." The Justicar readied up to pat the hell hound's skull. "Good boy."
The path led through deserted forests, past the ruins of an ancient tower, and into lovely quiet hills. This empty country separated the civilized kingdoms of the south from the savage kingdoms of the north where the minions of Iuz lurked. Even this far south, the lands had been depopulated by the Greyhawk Wars. War bands had swept through years ago, done their damage, then disappeared. Now the hills were quiet, and old bones crumbled softly into dust.
There was no game. No deer started out of the forest. No hares or doves fled as the adventurers moved along the old deserted road. After a while, it became uncanny. The Justicar walked slightly off the trail and ran his hands over a disturbed patch of grass, looking down at a pile of deer droppings that had turned white with sun and rain. Henry immediately sank into cover, cocking the magic crossbow. Jus let the boy do his work and began sifting through the forest's sights and smells.
"Cinders?"
No animal smell. No deer trail. No animals. Only bugs! Cinders sampled the world with sharper senses than a man's, scenting magic on the wind. Bad things were here. Now bad things gone.
"Bad things?"
Maybe troll. Maybe goblin. Maybe spider. Day-old smell.
Escalla hovered overhead, invisible up in the trees, covering Jus and Cinders as they worked. The faerie faded slowly back into sight and drifted downward, her eyes on the forest eaves.
"Trouble?"
"Trouble." Jus swept his fingers through the grass. "There's no wild game. No animals bigger than a mouse. Cinders smells troll and goblin."
"Troll?" Escalla unslung her ice wand and readied for trouble. "Oh, that's fun."
"They can't be native. Not in this area."
Escalla fanned them both with her wings and asked, "So where did they come from?"
"Yes-" the Justicar looked out across the quiet hills-"where did they come from?"
From back on the trail, Polk's voice brayed into the silence. "What's up, boy? We're waiting! You're too slow. Unhardened to the trail. Sign of a sloppy life, boy! Slack! Undisciplined! You need to crave the open trail, son. Become a true rugged outdoorsman just like me!" Polk grandly puffed his chest. "You can use me as a role model, son. I don't mind. That's what I'm for! An example to the needy! A figure of inspiration!" The badger waved a paw. "Come on, son! We need speed! Need to find civilization, get some dungeoneering equipment, and then get you on a proper adventure!"
Jus and Escalla shot a dire glance at the badger. Jus rose up from the grass.
"Polk, we need food. We need beer. We need ingredients for Escalla's spells. If you buy any more damned rope-"
"Oh, yes!" Enid radiated good cheer. "And Escalla wants ingredients for lots more potions of giant size!"
Jus scratched his head. "What?"
"Shhh! Nothing!" Escalla jabbed Enid's ribs with her elbow and bit her lip. Flying backward, dressed in elbow gloves, leggings and skirt apparently sprayed directly onto her skin, she suddenly became aware of all eyes upon her. She blushed, tugged her skirt straight and glared at Polk, who was watching her expectantly. "What?"
"Are you deaf?" The badger was making a shopping list. "I asked if we need growth potions as adventure equipment?"
"Well, I sure hope it'll be an adventure!" The faerie whirred busily up into the air. "Polk! No adventure equipment! We are not buying holy water, wolfsbane, silver mirrors, or pack mules. And the only garlic buds I want are ones sizzling in olive oil with bay leaves and diced lamb!"
"We already have wolfsbane." Polk gave a sniff. "It's in with my scrolls. And garlic always gives me gas."
"We tried to warn you about that." Escalla hovered beside the badger and tapped her chin. "If the priests reincarnated you as a badger, shouldn't you be eating badgery things?"
"What? Bugs and bark and week-old rabbits?" Polk gave a superior little sniff. "I may be furry, but I ain't stupid! Now come on. Let's find a town. I want a steak, frog-apple pie, and a cold beer-and not necessarily in that order!"
"Hen?" Escalla waved Henry out of his hiding place. "Come on, hon! Time to get walking."
The road dipped into a valley, then swept up over a hill, finally looking down upon a shabby town on the plains below. A nearby river had broken its banks with the springtime floods, turning the lowlands into a morass. Floods lapped at the city walls. Refugees from drowned villages had flocked into the city, and the smell of the place was enough to draw flies from hundreds of miles around.
From the hills above, the adventurers looked down at the region's first, best claim to civilization. Enid wore a look of shock and waved her tail to clear the flies from her flanks. Escalla looked at the mess and gave an irritated sigh.
"So much for spending a night on the town!"
The only happy person was Polk. He unruffled a huge map and spread it out over Enid's bottom, his snout beaming full of smiles.
"Here we are at last! Greyhawk, son! Adventure capital of the whole of the Flanaess!"
"Polk, it isn't Greyhawk. Greyhawk is three hundred miles that-a-way." The Justicar had long since stopped letting Polk plan their routes. "If those refugees we met two days ago were right, then that's the Att River, and Verbobonc is still at least a hundred miles south."
"Verbo-what?"
"I don't name them, Polk. I just find them."
"Well, then, what's this place?"
"I don't know." The Justicar shrugged. "Someplace in the west of Furyondy, I'm guessing." The Justicar felt Cinders avidly wagging his tail. "Cinders?"
Stinky!
"I thought you were tired."
Stick tired! Not sniff tired! Go city-have fun!
The Justicar cocked a suspicious eye up at the hell hound and warned, "No burning. None! I mean it this time!"
Cinders good dog! Never burns one little bit!
"Remember Trigol City? Remember that tent city on the plains?"
Was accident!
"All right." The Justicar lay one hand upon the skull pommel of his sword. "Now-to get supplies."
The sword Benelux gave a lofty little sniff. I believe we should file a complaint against our welcome in this country! We are superior quality travelers. At the very least, we deserve to be met at the border by a committee of nobles. Possibly even a king!
"Good point, spiky." Escalla patted the sword's sheath. "All right, people! The sword here is going to file a complaint in writing right after she evolves herself a functional pair of hands. The rest of us-Jus, you and Henry go file the files and do the legal stuff. Enid and I will do the supplying. That gets us out of this cesspit in the fastest time."
Henry blinked. "Are you sure you'll be all right walking the streets without a man?"
"We'll take Polk. He's kind of a man." The faerie chucked Henry under the chin. "Hey, don't worry! This is our element!"
"Really?"
"Sure! Trust me. I'm a faerie!"
They decided to take a break before marching the last few miles down to the city. Polk trundled into his box of scrolls, looking for the deed to Hommlet and its surroundings-a purchase Escalla had made in the far distant past. Enid licked her paw and wiped travel stains from her freckled face. Seeing the Justicar move over to a log beside the road, Escalla drifted over, sat down beside him, and folded up her wings.
They sat together in silence for a while, the huge warrior in his black armor and the sleek little faerie with sly, laughing eyes. The two of them looked out across the hills, not entirely sure where to put their hands. Suddenly their friends seemed far away.
Long moments passed. Jus looked down at the reeking city-crammed with people and overflowing with trash, and he heaved a weary sigh.
"I'm sorry. I know you'd hoped this all might be more exciting."
"It is exciting! We have a wilderness to explore, there's evil ruins nearby…"
"So you really want to split up in the city?"
"Ooh, I think this smells like someplace we want to get out of in a real hurry." Escalla sat on her hands to keep them still and leaned forward, her long blonde hair cascading down across the log. "But Enid and I have… you know, stuff to buy."
"What stuff?"
"Um, girl stuff?" Escalla blushed. "You know… stuff."
"Oh. I see." The Justicar ascribed it all to the female mysteries. "Well, we have a ton of gold left over from the drow caves."
"Yeah, I guess we can manage to spend it." Escalla gave a sudden smile. "I'm going to get some jewelry for Enid, though-and a brush! I mean, how are we going to snare her a nice androsphinx if she stays stuck inside with her books all day every day? The girl needs a little romance to brighten up her life!"
The Justicar laughed at the thought. "Romance?"
Both Jus and Escalla froze their smiles and looked guiltily away from each other. The huge shaven-headed ranger turned pink, and Escalla felt her own cheeks blazing red. She covered herself by pretending enormous interest in the city far below.
"So… ready?"
"Yes." The Justicar heaved yet another sigh. "I'd hoped it would be more pleasant."
"Pleasant?"
"I wanted to stay somewhere halfway decent tonight." The big man was sitting on his own hands. "Maybe… maybe leave the other three and just go off somewhere with you for a little while." The Justicar coughed, blushing pink and staring at his hands. "Well, just talk to you about something."
Escalla swallowed. "Something?"
"Something really… important."
Behind Jus, the log gave off a hollow, rhythmic drumming sound. Both Jus and Escalla blinked, then looked up at Cinders where he hung in his usual place, cloaking Jus's helm and back. The hell hound's teeth gleamed, his eyes glowed, and he wagged his tail in glee. His tail thumped heavily on the hollow log.
Funny!
Escalla glared at the creature from one eye, and then turned her full attention back to Jus.
"You, ah… you wanted to be alone?" The girl faltered. "Together, I mean."
Jus had his hands out again, and was rubbing at his knuckles. He caught himself doing it and looked down at the ground, clearing his throat. "I… Yes. I mean… I just wanted to check something with you."
"Yes?"
"Something I've wanted to… to talk to you about."
Escalla's heart was in her throat, and she felt numb from head to toe. "T-talk?" She felt her voice quaver. "Um… fine!"
The Justicar tried to ease into the subject. "Well, it's just that I've been wanting…"
"Yes?"
"Look-I've been thinking."
"Uh-huh!"
Jus coughed and cleared his throat. "That is… I've wanted to ask…"
Funny-funny!
The hell hound thumped his tail even harder. Exasperated, Escalla leaped to her feet.
"Pooch!"
Pretty faerie!
"Look, Cinders. Do you mind if we just put you over here for a little while?" Escalla dragged Cinders over a stump. She crammed a large lump of coal into the creature's mouth. "Here. Eat!"
Funny!
Returning to Jus's side, Escalla sat, smoothed her leather leggings, and tried to get the conversation back on track.
"Talking? To me."
"In private, yes."
The Justicar had faced lich lords and tanar'ri in mortal combat. He had stormed breeches in fortress walls and had hunted demons in the dark, dead forests of Iuz, but at the moment, he found himself consumed with an idiotic terror. He slapped his hands on his thighs, heaved a breath, and determined to do what had to be done. He girded himself, took a deep breath, and decided to face the moment with a warrior's courage.
A prissy voice suddenly chimed in from his sword belt.
Well, I do wish you'd ask her and just get on with it! Some of us have work to do!
Benelux wriggled indignantly in her scabbard. Annoyed, Jus plucked out the weapon, sheath and all, and tossed it over to the grass beside Cinders. Cinders's big ears were pricked tall, and the hound sniggered. Jus signaled the hound to mind his own damned business, and then suddenly became acutely aware that Escalla's skin radiated a sense of warmth against his thigh.
She was pale white and beautiful, thin yet filled with her own glorious energy. Eyes as green as wild new leaves-cunning, innocent, and shy-looked up at him as she hung on his every word.
Jus reached out to caress a finger down the fine line of her cheek. Escalla held his hand quietly against her face, closed her eyes and nestled worshipfully into his caress.
"I found it! Verbobonc! Right here on the map!" Polk erupted from underneath the log, bulling his way between the two friends. "Verbobonc. Independent city-state."
Jus and Escalla moved apart, each blazing red with embarrassment. Polk ignored it all.
"Now what's all this about talk? If you've got something to say, then speak up, boy! Say what's on your mind! Information should be shared! That's called 'Exchange of ideas!' Backbone of progress!" The badger shoved Jus off the log. "Anyway, can't dawdle. Time to move on. Day's wasting! Life is precious. A stitch in time saves gathering moss! Here come the others!" Polk waved Henry and Enid over. "Now come on, boy! Let's get this paperwork done and get this adventure on the road!"
Cursing, Escalla kicked a toadstool to pieces. Enid, Henry, Polk, and Cinders all clustered merrily around, pushing Jus and Escalla onward down the road. Helpless before a wave of pure good will, Jus and Escalla were borne onward into the town, its stench, its crowds, and its flies.
Fuming, the Justicar tied Cinders into place over his helm. Savage with ill-humor he gripped his sword, swapped a look of mutual frustration with Escalla, and then took the lead down the road.
"When we reach the city, Henry, you come with me. We'll see if there is an officer of rangers, ask the best way south, then see if there's been any trouble we should know about. Escalla, you and Enid get the supplies, tools, whatever… We'll meet just inside the gates when we're all done."
"Whatever." In a bad temper, Escalla sat on Enid's head. "Let's get this done and get back home."
Henry looked up at the faerie as she sat upon the sphinx. "Are you going to do anything about the way you look?"
Miffed, Escalla jerked her little black skirt. "Hey! This outfit was made from pure salamander skin! This is the shortest fireproof skirt in the Flanaess!"
"Um, I was just wondering if a faerie and a sphinx might not cause… a bit of attention."
"Kid, when you wear a skirt like this, you're not worried about attention." Escalla clicked her fingers. "It's all fine. I've got it covered."
"Really?" Henry hesitated, unsure. "Well, just as long as no one tries to make you show them a pot of gold or something."
"Hey! No one touches the faerie." Escalla gave an irritated sigh and then took off to scout the way ahead. "Come on! Let's get going so we can finally get a little peace!"
Escalla turned invisible. Jus hunched his head, gripped his sword, and walked. Polk sat upon Enid's rump reading a map upside down between his badger paws. With her eyes upon Jus's back, Enid leaned down to whisper quietly in Henry's ear.
"Psst! So did he ask her?"
"No." Henry pulled his elven mail shirt straight. "He never asks her. He keeps dithering! Why doesn't he just say it?"
"Ah, the poor thing. It must be difficult." The sphinx draped her wing companionably over Henry's shoulders. "I think all he needs is the encouragement of his friends."