Edwin walked straight up to the lounging guards like a shortchanged trader. Tall wooden ships clunked their hulls against long oaken docks, as brass bells clanged limply in the humid breeze. Gulls cried as they dove from mast to sea.
“Very well, men, let’s have it!” Edwin said, putting his hands on his hips.
“Go away before I bust your skull, gramps,” one of the men growled.
“Not without my reward,” the smaller Edwin demanded, undeterred.
A stocky guard moved past and rammed his shoulder into Edwin’s, sending him twirling in his ministerial robes.
“How’s that for a reward, milord?” the soldier asked and slapped palms with his crew.
Edwin regained his balance and composure and straightened out his clothes. Then he asked in his most piqued voice, “Are you not the mighty guards from Millthrace sent here to retrieve wanted criminals, or are you merely the local dog-catching crew?”
The soldiers rose and gathered around him. Marko peered over the crates. He did not appear likely to burst onto the scene and take over, so Edwin continued, less certain of himself.
“Because if you’re searching for criminals, I have one of them here.”
“Where, here?” a guard asked, unconvinced.
“Well, actually right here—,” Edwin said, offering himself, but was cut off by a brutish voice behind him.
“Look what I found,” a wily but gruff soldier said as he marched down the planks from the city square. He dragged a small girl by the scruff of her neck. She kicked and clawed at the muscle-bound man, and caught his forearm in her teeth more than once. He hoisted her in the air by the back of her shirt, and held her an arm’s length away. “They warned us she was a fighter! I bet she could take Otto down, best two outta three!”
“Watch yer mouth, Walt, or I’ll knock ya into the sea,” the chubby Otto shot back.
“Olen!” Edwin gasped, forgetting his character. It truly was her dangling there before him. After all these months and all these leagues, they were back together. He had found her! Forget about Walt, Edwin felt justified in taking credit for this one. He had not been forced by some phantom drive to seek her out; he had made a plan to search for the girl, and now here she was! He looked over to Marko behind the crates and beamed. Marko angrily waved him off.
She stopped fighting the guard and looked up. “Edwin the Observer?”
“Historia—”
“You look like a grandpa with that beard. I don’t like it.” she said, swinging lazily in Walt’s grip.
The circle around Edwin fell open, and the eldest of the soldiers looked between the old man and the girl. The older guard demanded an explanation. Edwin identified him as the leader, and certain money holder.
“She is with me!” Edwin stated pointedly. “That is what I have been trying to tell you! I captured this…ragamuffin along the highway and brought her in to Brennan. That is when this brute—Walt, you call him—stole her from my grip, saying there was no way a commoner was going to get his reward! Well, Walt the Difficult, I may be common, but I caught her, so the reward is mine!”
“Reward,” Walt asked. “What in Nerikan’s chains is he talkin’ about Emmet?”
Emmet, Edwin quickly noted. The leader’s name was Emmet. Short fat Otto, and the muscular Walt.
Captain Emmet stumbled for his words as his troops watched him curiously.
It was Marko, master of all the swindles, who seemed to understand Emmet’s scam. He came quickly around the carts and praised the rough group of soldiers.
“Mayor Brynn!?” Edwin said to Marko’s admirable delight. “Is that you?”
Mayor Marko thanked Edwin for his help in tracking down the said ragamuffin and then asked the soldiers if their captain had kept them well fed on their long sojourn.
“We’ve been starvin’ our arses off in this damned smoky town,” the rather obese Otto said, drawing a concerned touch from the kindly mayor.
Emmet finally spoke up, “Now just one minute. This is not Mayor Brynn, he looks nothing like him!”
“Oh ho ho,” Marko laughed and sauntered right up to the head guard. He patted him strongly on the cheek, an act a breath away from a slap. “Same old Emmet! Don’t worry, you have done well and shall be rewarded accordingly. But for now, Walt has the girl, so give him his coins.”
“Yeah,” Walt demanded. “Gimme my coins!”
“Ay!” Otto shouted. “What about us? We worked just as hard as Walt, here!”
“Yeah,” the rest of the troops called out, and demanded Emmet give them a share.
Marko winked at Edwin and encouraged him on.
Edwin shouted above them all claiming it was he who had found the girl, and it was he who should get the reward. Then he slapped his thigh and declared, “If it were not for me, none of you would have even known about the gold pieces!”
Walt dropped Olen. She landed on her hands and knees and skittered away as Walt advanced on Emmet. The Millthrace guardsmen all jumped to their feet and circled their leader. Dockworkers who had been watching the altercation sensed the chill in the air and quietly slipped back onto their ships, or farther into the city.
“Gold pieces?” Walt asked, craning his neck as if inspecting his leader and truly seeing him for the first time. “They gave us golden manors?”
Mayor Marko leaned in and cheerfully added, “Two of them! And more for expenses!”
Otto stalked Emmet next, “And you were just gonna keep ‘em for yourself, as we starved eatin’ nothing but jerked beef?”
“Show us your purse!” Edwin demanded, in the boldest voice he could muster. He was seconded by all the Millthrace guards.
Emmet slipped a couple fingers inside his waistband and pulled out a small pouch. He untied it from his belt loop and held it high above his head. “Two gold pieces for reward,” he finally admitted and was met with angry shouts. “And twenty more silvers for expenses.”
Emmet tried to explain himself as he backed slowly to the docks. He said they claimed to have only eaten jerked beef, but they had also imbibed on whatever spirits these ships had delivered. His soldiers stalked him step for step, the small bag of coins dangling just out of their reach. Emmet said they had already gone through ten of the honors, and had nothing to show for it but hangovers, bruises, and worthless trinkets from overseas. “I kept the money from you, not to rob you, but only so we would have some left for when we were called home!”
“Are you saying you don’t trust your own men?” Edwin asked, so deep into his character he truly felt like the coins had been pilfered from his coffers. The guards shouted in agreement as they pursued their leader down the long pier.
“I will trust my men in battle, even to the death!” Emmet said, as he backed away. “But with gold, I trust no man—”
“Not even yourself!” Marko shouted triumphantly, to the hurrahs of Edwin and the soldiers. Together Edwin and Marko emoted dramatically as mayor and mercenary, working the soldiers into a manic frenzy, while plotting on the fly for the gold. They were flawless in their act and worked off each other, feeding openings and taunts that the other man ran with, fully in character and fully convincing; the greatest two-man show in Brennan.
***
In the growing commotion Olen sidled next to Edwin, his eyes fixated on the dangling purse. Had it been a hunk of steak, he would have been drooling. She kicked him in the shins, breaking him free from the trance.
“What the devil?” he said.
“Be ready to run,” she said.
“Not without our money,” Edwin’s friend shot back.
“That money is going into the sea,” she said, and their heads turned. “Don’t worry about your gold coins, I will get them. But when that purse goes in the water, run!”
She moved between thick legs and drawn swords as the coup escalated at the docks. Emmet had backed away as far as he could and was nearing the end of the piers. Sea water crashed against the docks, and gulls squealed overhead. His men were now left to shouting and demanding their reward. Only Olen knew Emmet had them right where he wanted them. She was the only one not surprised when the captain spun around and launched his coin purse deep into the bay along the shores of Brennan. She had seen this act so many times before on the streets of home. All ten troops of the Millthrace guard leapt into the cold waters right after their reward.
“Go,” she yelled to Edwin, who struggled to hold his friend back from diving in also. He pulled the man away and dragged him into town as guardsmen dove deep into the waters after a prize that truly was not there. Captain Emmet tried to run away, but Olen leapt in front of him.
“How will I get home?” she asked, pleading desperately with the guard and tugging at his shirt.
“How the hell would I know,” he said and tossed her aside.
When Olen sat up she held in her hand the tiny pouch that had been hiding inside Emmet’s shirt, just over his heart. She stuffed the gold coins in her pocket and ran after Edwin.