The Unsuspecting Mage - Brian S. Pratt [101]
“Yes ma’am,” James replies.
“Good. Now I’ll leave you to it,” Miss Gilena states as she returns to the door and leaves the room.
“What now?” Miko asks after the door closes behind her.
“I guess we better get his clothes off and get him cleaned up like she said,” James answers as he proceeds to remove Perrilin’s shirt.
“No, I mean about gaining access to the Royal Archives,” clarifies Miko.
When he removes the shirt, he looks with anger at the many shallow cuts and bruises dotting the bard’s chest and back. The cuts are obviously the source of the blood staining his shirt.
“They sure did a number on him, didn’t they?” Miko asks as he too examines the extent of his injuries.
“Yes they did,” agrees James. He takes another of the towels and dips it into the basin. Being careful so as not to reopen the wounds which have already begun to heal, he gingerly works to remove the rest of the blood and dirt.
“I think we will need to wait until he wakes before we do anything further about the Archives,” James says. “We’ll lay low until tomorrow and then when he awakens see if he can help us. Hopefully he will be awake by then.” Once he’s finished cleaning the wounds, James lays him back into the bed and places the covers once more up to his chin. Then he comes over and sits with Miko at the table.
Miko looks longingly at the food piled upon the tray and James says, “We may as well eat it, though let’s leave some for him should he awaken.”
As they eat, James asks Miko if he found out anything about Lord Colerain’s business in Cardri.
“It seems not much is known around here about Lord Colerain,” he explains between bites of food. “However, I did find out some things about a Lord Kindering.” Seeing the lack of understanding on James’ face he explains, “Lord Kindering is who Lord Colerain is staying with while he’s in town. I did find out that much.”
“Ah, okay,” James says understandingly, “go on.”
“Apparently, Lord Kindering is very wealthy. He has many different trading concerns all over Cardri and some even extending into the various kingdoms neighboring us.” Looking at James he says, “He even has businesses inside the Empire, or so it’s said.”
“Interesting. Did you find out what his connection with Lord Colerain is?” James asks.
“No, nobody seems to know much about that,” Miko answers. “However, some that I talked with seem to think that this Lord Kindering is on the shady side. Rumors are surfacing about dealings he’s had with slavers and smugglers.”
“Oh?” prompts James as he finishes the last of his share of the meal.
“Couldn’t find out the particulars, but it seems he is not one you would wish to cross,” he warns.
“Sounds that way,” James concludes. Seeing that Miko is done with his dinner, he says, “Why don’t you take the other bed, I’m going to be up for a while.”
Miko doesn’t argue, just goes over and plops down on the bed. As he lies there, he watches James as he takes the traveling case with the writing material in it and places it on the table. “What are ya gonna do?” he asks.
Opening the case, James removes a piece of paper, an inkwell, and one of the finely pointed quills. “I’m going to jot down some notes about what’s going on and different things. Just go to sleep and don’t worry about it.”
“No problem there,” he says sleepily. He lies there awhile watching James until finally drifting off to sleep.
James opens the inkwell and places it near his paper. Grabbing the quill he dips it into the inkwell and then brings it to the paper to begin writing. When the quill touches the paper, a big glob of ink flows off the quill and onto the paper making a great big mess.
This may be harder than I thought, he thinks. He dips the quill into the ink again, this time scraping the excess off before bringing it over to the paper. This time when he tries to write, he