Outside of Loranisburg's southwestern wall, the unfinished hide tents of the Cascadian bazaar sprawled like a labyrinth. The paved roads ended here, and so did the law. Instead of copper and silver, severed heads, occasionally on display, were sometimes the currency of choice. Unfortunately, we brought a sack of gold.
I winced my nose, realizing I could not smell anymore. I tossed my lunch, a spam sandwich, into a clay bowl belonging to a row of beggars. A thin stray mutt, missing patches of fur, dashed over and stole it, not gaining any distance before keeling over. Barroco ran over to give it water, then closed its eyes for the last time.
"Barroco, why can't our contact meet us in the city?" I sighed, shifting the weight of the sack of manure on my shoulder. Inside, there was also gold worth a soldier's annual wages.
"Trouble with the law, my dear assistant!" Barroco whistled, distracted by the mundane humdrum. One can easily get lost as the voices of a hundred peddlers droned together. Rotting fish, the kinds that would not sell on the Loranisburg wharves, mingled with the foulness of an oat-like bone sludge.
"You're trying to buy lunarfritz, aren't you?" I double-checked my pistol belt. Though we were far from Companion territory, would we have to fight?
"I know what you're thinking. Why go through the trouble? Well, it's for a girl, and I'm doubling your pay." Barroco sank a little into the muddy ground. Luckily, we dressed as pig farmers, with straw hats and pull-up overalls.
The locals wore the kind of formless burlap clothing fashioned from the bags they carried. Though rare, some of them had old sorcerian trinkets, such as necklaces of wolf fangs, whalebone hairpins, and wooden bracelets with prophecies that no one can read.
"What kind of girl can smoke this much?" I wagged my sack of gold.
"Much more. My contact is in open rebellion against the Companions, so I'm getting it much cheaper." Barroco smugly replied. He squinted, searching among the sea of tents. He stopped to ask an escort for directions. Charming her, he squandered an hour until we finally got back on the road. He handed me her legging as a keepsake.
We came across a puddle in the middle of an alley. Surrounded by empty crates, it innocuously reflected the blue sky. Daydreaming, Barroco stepped into it and drowned. He flailed his arms. His body sank into the unfathomably deep water.
"Seven hells." I jumped in. No matter how furiously I swam, the bog dragged me slower than him. I was too light. I swam back to the surface and brought the sack of manure. I tied myself to it before I dived again. This time, I caught up. He was a struggler, so I knocked him out before dragging him back to the surface. Of course, I had to cut free our gold. Watching the bag fade into the abyss, I felt a more profound loss than if I lost Barroco instead.
"You're surprisingly strong." Barroco woke up quickly, coughing up murky water.
"Was that the sewer?" I hoped to go back for the gold after I rest my eyes.
"It's gone."
The puddle was gone. What kind of trap was this? I drew my arming sword and searched our surroundings. There was a metallic rattling.
"SQUAWK?" An irritable half bald parrot bashed its cage from within the stack of crates.
"Huh?" Confused, I handed it a cracker.
"The payment is good. The payment is good." The parrot unlocked its cage and flew away, making me flinch. Barroco limped over, smirking, as the shed feathers covered my soaked garments.
"Barroco! Barroco! The madam welcomes you" The parrot flew away.
"What?" No woman would ever call herself a 'madam' unless
"I know that parrot. It used to greet customers at the red light district."
"Your secrets safe with me." I patted him on the back.
There was a letter at the bottom of the cage. Wiping the bird shit, I saw it was a map with a red star in the center.
"These are from my contacts," Barroco smiled, sighing of relief.
"Don't we have to pay them?"
"They're capable. They can collect it themselves. We're at the right address."
"What were your instructions?"
"-Drop the payment in the well at the end of Hope Lane." Barroco recited.
I lightly socked him in the arm, wishing I could do worse. At least his contract didn't try to kill us.
"Let me check you for injuries." He interrupted. While it was hard to tell the old wounds from the new ones, he worked deftly, checking off from a list. He handed me a tree root to gnaw on. It soothed my cramps, even if it wasn't Lunarfritz.
"What about you, Barroco? You suffered far more than me." I asked.
"I'll manage, always have. You're hanging on a thread. Your body just exerted far more than it should be capable." He reasoned. He lightly tapped me on the shoulder, and I almost collapsed. I brushed myself off.
Now, who were the contacts? To machinate such a trapdoor, they must have had talented engineers. They deliberately told us they operate in the shadows. Open rebellion? No, they were likely a splinter of the Loranisburg Companions. What are their aims?
Leaving the alley, we chanced upon a crowd. Gathered around a steel vat, the locals passed around bowls of soup of carrots, peas, and chunks of meat I could not identify. Barroco pulled his hat down to cover his face. Suddenly a one-armed man with a great beard clapped him on the back.
"We meet again." The stranger spat. He had been handing out bowls.
"Officer Darius. Fancy meeting you here." Barroco groaned. The Loranisburg police? Why are they here? They'd never dare come down to the camps. Darius wore the Cascadian rags.
"Who are you eating?" I whispered.
"There once was a brigand. He was a Courageous Companion, so he strongarmed the royal court to give him a position. So they let him distribute the king's aid to the refugees. It's such a shame he realized how profitable it was." Darius smiled. The Loranisburg police were the culprits, that was certain. How? No official would ever be here. They had assassinated him and dragged him out of the city. The only way to do this was to hide him in a bag of manure or float his body down the underground aqueducts.
Darius made a gesture as if it was a jest.
I knocked the bowl out of Barroco's hand. I grabbed his wrist and dragged him away as fast as I could.