The Mage in the Iron Mask - Brian Thomsen [102]
"Well, can you smell it?" the thespian asked desperately.
"Hush!" Volo commanded. "I think someone is coming."
"Friend or foe?" Passepout asked in a quivering whisper.
"I don't know," Volo answered, "but we'll find out soon enough. Whoever they are they're coming closer."
Volo looked in the direction that he and his friend had come from, and saw the beginnings of a torch's glow entering the chamber in which they now sat, soon followed by the silhouette of either their savior or the latest threat to their existence.
"Well, it's about time I found you two," Chesslyn said, a bit of good-natured impatience in her voice. "Breakfast is almost stone cold."
The Harper secret agent reached into her pack, and handed the two travelers breakfast buns. Passepout devoured his immediately, and looked longingly at Volo's. The master traveler gladly offered it to his friend, who gratefully accepted.
Volo stood up, and hugged their savior.
"What took you so long?" he said happily.
"I'm a good tracker," she replied, "but not that good. Honor sent a message instructing me that what had transpired over the past few days had never taken place, and that it was only because I had been his favorite student that he knew that I would understand. He then made mention of his being grateful for my part in the beginnings of the restoration of Mulmaster to its former glory. That was it."
"I see." said Volo cautiously.
"Since he never mentioned you or Passepout, I naturally assumed something had happened," she explained, "and since you still owe me that chance to get to know you better, I decided to trace your steps from where I left you the other night and, voila, here I am."
"In the nick of time, I might add," Passepout interjected. "I had despaired of ever eating again."
Chesslyn handed him another breakfast bun and turned her attention back to Volo. "Do you think it's safe for us to return with you to Mulmaster?" the master traveler asked guardedly.
"I think so," Chesslyn answered. "Though Honor might allow you to disappear without a trace, I don't think he would actually lift a hand to have you removed, given the current business in court. It might attract too much unwanted attention. You should be safe around town for at least the next few days."
"Just enough time for us to get further acquainted," the master traveler offered.
"My thoughts exactly," she agreed with a smile.
The two held romantic eye contact in the shadowy subterranean chamber, until Passepout once again injected himself into their conversation.
"Do you think you can show us the way out of here?" he asked.
"Certainly," she replied, handing him the last of the buns, "just let me rearrange my pack and we can be on our way."
"Wonderful!" the chubby thespian replied.
As the Harper secret agent attended to her preparations, Passepout turned to his traveling companion and whispered assuredly, "See, I told you she liked me."
"Indeed," the master traveler replied, giving his friend a good-natured pat on the back. "Indeed."
"Wonderful!"
Epilogue
Over the previous few days Mulmaster was a flurry of activities. Two different executions were held with the normal accompaniment of festive fanfare.
Former captain of the Hawks Sir Melker Rickman was executed for conspiracy to incite treason. He was hung from the scaffold in front of the keep that had housed his offices. The customary last words of the accused were dispensed with as the prisoner's tongue had been removed immediately upon his incarceration. His lifeless corpse was allowed to hang in state for a full day before the annoyance and public health concerns necessitated it be removed.
Farther down the road, and a day later, the Thayan embassy added to the festivities when the Tharchioness hosted an execution of her own as former ambassador and envoy, Joechairo Lawre, a wormlike politician of the worst sort, was publicly incinerated at the stake by a fireball cast by the First Princess herself. The crowd that gathered was quite impressed since nary a cry of mercy or anguish escaped the Red Wizard's lips