“More the better, Zoran. Hope you don’t mind if I take your money, stranger.
New around here, haven’t seen you in town before,” the dealer said. “Name’s Bedrich.”
Three other players introduced themselves, but Zoran’s attention was drawn to a black
haired woman, who was watching them from a distance. She looked like she was trying
to make up her mind about joining them. Her short hair was nicely brushed, and she
was slightly thin. Then, she walked over to the table.
“Room for one more?” she asked calmly; her eyes darted from man to man,
lingering on Zoran for an instant before concentrating on the dealer. She was twenty-two, four inches shorter than Zoran, and fairly attractive.
“Sure why not. Ladies always welcome. Hope you don’t mind my taking your
money, little lady,” he said in a cocky manner.
“As long as you don’t cheat and play fair, I don’t mind,” she replied a little icily.
He gave her a sideways glance, but continued shuffling the cards, then dealt them. Zoran
got lucky on the first hand and pulled the few coins to his side.
Three hands later and the stakes were raised considerably. Sweat poured off of
two of the other players. The dealer coyly asked, “Cards?”
“Yeh, three,” both men said. They had a substantial wager already on the table.
Zoran discarded one and accepted a new one. He noticed that the woman had said very
little all this time. However, she watched every motion that the men made.
“Dealer takes two,” Bedrich said matter of factly, rapidly placing two cards before
him.
In a flash, the woman had a dagger in her hand and plunged it down into the
dealer’s hand, sticking its blade on down into the table. Bedrich howled in pain. Zoran
yelled, “What’s going on?” ready to knock the woman across the floor.
She snickered, “You almost lost your shirt to this card cheat. Look at the card he
just dealt himself.” Zoran slid the card out from under the man’s bleeding hand. He was
holding it tightly, trying not to move his hand. The pain was intense. Zoran flipped over
the very Ace that he had just discarded.
“Hey, that’s the card I just tossed back in. You, Bedrich, are cheating!” The other
players became quite angry, and the barkeeper came rushing over to the table.
“Caught him cheating did we?” the apron-clad man exclaimed.
The other three players angrily told the whole story. The barkeeper pulled the
woman’s dagger out of Bedrich’s hand, but not gently, causing him to howl even louder.
“You are lucky that I am not going to turn you over to these players. Get out of here. If I
ever see you in this inn again, I will have you killed. Do you understand me?”
“Whataboutmymoney?” he screamed, running his words together.
“It belongs to those you tried to cheat. Get him out of here now!” Several strong
arm dragged Bedrich out and tossed him into the street.
Wiping off the woman’s dagger, he handed it back to her, “Thanks, Jarka, well
done.” He tossed her a small money pouch, which she deftly caught, a sly grin on her
face.
“Anytime, Fredrich, anytime.” Zoran picked his coins that he began with off the
table, while the other three men followed suit.
“Why don’t we split Bedrich’s coins five ways?” Zoran suggested, hoping to defuse
the situation further. After doing so, the three grumbled and headed to get a round of
ales.
“Jarka, Jarka Mitova,” the woman said, putting her dagger away.
“Zoran. Excellent work, Jarka. I sensed something was amiss, but couldn’t put my
finger on it. So the barkeeper hired you to catch this card cheater?”
“Yes, he claimed he’s had a lot of customers complaining about Bedrich always
seeming to win the bigger pots. So a couple days ago he hired me to investigate. Been
watching him from the sidelines last couple of nights, saw him cheating. I figured I’d
catch him in the act. After tonight, he’ll not ever again be so agile with that cheating
hand. Stabbed him right where his nerves are at. Yes, it’ll heal, but he’ll find he has more
or less a bum hand.” She snickered, “Serves him right, the cheat.”
“Well, you certainly have a very keen eye and a lightning draw, Jarka. Thanks.”
“So, Zoran, you new town? I’ve not seen you before,” she asked rather covertly.
“Yes, I just arrived late last night. This morning I helped Zdenka and Bernard
capture some bandits trying to heist some wagons heading into town. Are things always
this wild around here?”
She gave him a strange look. “This
is
the Wild Lands. Where are you from
anyway? No, things are pretty tame around here, Archmage Oldrich sees to it.”
“Long way to the east. I’m here for the Picking, hoping to apprentice under the
Archmage.”
She chuckled, “Well, good luck with that. I’m throwing in my hat this time as
well. One never can tell who she will pick. Well, it’s still early; best be going. Lots of
pockets to pick out there tonight,” she teased or did she? Zoran couldn’t tell.
As he picked up his coins, Bernard came over to the table with two mugs of ale.
“Ah, I see you met Jarka. She’s a thief, you know. Good one too, by all accounts. Some
say that she is in the Archmage’s pay, thieving back from the thieves, but who knows for
sure. Kind of dull in here isn’t it?” he explained in his boring tone.
As Zoran sipped his ale with Bernard, he began to miss his two friends that he
had left back in Dorum. It just wasn’t the same drinking with Bernard. He retired early.
By the evening of the dance, Zoran was incredibly bored himself. Back at the
castle, there had always been many things to do, sword practice or even taking off for a
horseback ride. Here, he just sat around staring at the walls. He donned his new suit and
satisfied himself that he looked presentable. He then knocked on Zdenka’s door. “Just a
minute,” she called out and then opened her door.
“Well, you look — well just great,” Zoran replied, rather shocked at the
transformation. Gone were the leather pants. In their place, she wore a light blue cotton
dress. She’d let her hair down and had brushed it. Golden locks fell over her shoulders.
“Thanks, shall we?” she replied.
“Of course,” he offered her his arm and walked her out of the inn. Again, she
noted the highly refined moves that came natural to Zoran, further convincing her that
he just had to be a nobleman. Both enjoyed the dance, and she found that Zoran was an
excellent dancer, ten times better than her father who had taught her. By the time that
they returned to the inn, Zdenka was convinced beyond all doubt that Zoran was a
nobleman in disguise.
All three sat around a table enjoying a long lunch the next day. What else was
there to do except wait? Just after the noontime crowd left, two others walked into the
inn. Both caught the trio’s eyes immediately. Both were teens, probably not much older
than himself, Zoran thought, but his inner senses began working overtime, so to speak.
They seemed to have a lot of facial features in common; he hazarded a guess that they
may be twins. However, it was their skin color that most attracted his attention, a pale
yellow, bordering on bronze or gold. He’d never seen anyone with such skin color,
though he had heard of other races around.
One was a young man, who had jet black hair and the blackest of eyes that he’d
ever seen. The other was a young woman, who also had the same black hair and eyes,
though hers was quite long, reaching the small of her back. Their hair was rather thick
and coarse. Neither looked like they quite knew what they were doing. He walked up to
their table, since hardly anyone else was now here.
“Excuse me, can you tell me how my sister and I may obtain a room?”
“Sure, just go ask the barkeeper over there. He’s in charge,” Zoran replied, adding
as an afterthought, “Say, once you two are settled, why not come down and keep us
company? We’re all waiting for the Picking this Saturday. Come join us. Not much else
to do but wait on the Archmage.”
The lad thanked him, and he and the young woman walked over to the bar. Zoran
tried to listen in on their conversation but could only hear the lad say, “Which coin is it?
We are new to Brn.” The barkeeper pointed the way to the stairs, and the two left to
check out their rooms.
Once they were out of earshot, Zdenka whispered, “Those are the strangest people
I’ve ever seen! Did you see the color of their skin? They must have come from very far
away indeed!” Both Zoran and Bernard admitted they had never seen anyone like these
two before. “Glad that you invited them to join us. Maybe they will tell us where they are
from.” All three were very curious — none more so than Zoran, who was mystified by the
pair.
Sure enough a short while later, the two newcomers came back down and over to
their table. Zoran hastily got another chair and helped the woman get seated. Strangers
or not, he minded his manners when it came to a woman. Zoran quickly introduced the
three of them.
“I am called Emil Vogler. This is my twin sister, Renata. We have come a very
long way to meet with the Archmage Oldrich,” Emil said in a rather aloof manner.
“Ah, so you are here for the Picking too. Say, where are you from?” Zdenka asked.
Zoran watched the eyes of the two teens closely.
“We are from Voss, a very long way from here. I’m sure that you have never heard
of it,” he replied.
“Say our clothes look so different from yours. How do we get clothes like yours?”
Renata asked. The conversation got going well at last. Zoran was certain that he did not
lie, but their eyes. There was something strange, foreign even, about them. He and
Zdenka volunteered to take them to the tailors and the dressmakers. It would give them
time to find out more about these two.
When Zdenka and Zoran had supper together, they had their first opportunity to
reflect in private on these two newcomers. “They are the strangest pair I have ever met,”
Zdenka began. “She had no idea how we put on dresses! Honestly this place they are
from, Voss she said, must be the strangest place. I caught her in a slight slip — well I
think it was a slip. I asked her what style of clothes she was used to wearing in Voss.
You’ll never guess what her answer was, Zoran. She said, ‘We don’t wear clothes.’ But
she caught herself at once and said, ‘I mean dresses like these. Ours are more different.’ I
asked her about them, but she pretended to be more interested in how she looked. We
also got her a leather outfit as well.”
“Good. She will probably need both. That sure is strange. Emil seemed to be
easily confused about normal simple things too. He had a devil of a time trying to tie his
shoe laces. But then I guess if we came from a foreign land, our customs would seem odd
here too,” Zoran acknowledged. “Still, it’s their eyes that trouble me, Zdenka. I cannot
put my finger on it, but their eyes intrigue me.”
“Sure are black, but I know what you mean. Still, both are friendly enough,
actually bordering on naive might be a better statement. Oh well, I guess foreigners are
just foreigners. Archmage Oldrich is famous, after all, and probably attracts all manner
of want-to-be apprentices from all over the world,” Zdenka concluded conservatively.
“Well, tomorrow’s the big Picking day. We’d best turn in early. I wonder what her
questions will be?” Zoran mused aloud. The two headed up to their rooms. Try as he
might, he could not get Emil’s eyes out of his mind. Something about them fascinated
him, but what?
Chapter 4 The Picking