City of Fire

The Village

"Stop!"

The paladin's powerful tenor cut through the noise of the crowd. Those who saw her stride forward into their midst tugged on their neighbors, who turned and gaped. Others whirled as if struck. No one ignored her cry. Even the prisoner turned his one open eye toward the paladin.

Alhandra stopped halfway through the crowd. Regdar, Naull, and Ian watched uneasily as the men and women of the village closed in around her. Regdar pushed his way forward and the villagers nearest him avoided his spiked armor. Naull fidgeted with her spell pouches, knowing she had nothing left for this sort of situation. She saw Regdar trying to make sure Alhandra had a way out, if she wanted one.

She didn't look like she wanted a way out-or felt she might need one.

"You!" she pointed at the man nearest the rope holding the half-orc aloft. "Cut him down!"

The man actually started forward, but another, bigger man grabbed his arm. The big man held a spiked mace and wore a leather apron around his neck. He hadn't tied it around his back, though, and the apron swung free. Bushy muttonchops covered the sides of his thick face, and his black hair gave him a strong, almost violent appearance.

"No!" the man said.

He didn't exactly brandish his mace at Alhandra, but the challenge was there. Her sword stayed at her side, point down but gleaming naked in the sunlight.

She recognized the big man as Eoghan, the innkeeper. His eyes flickered over the adventurers, particularly Regdar, as his face grew red.

"What's going on? You're supposed to be out huntin' these."

"We were," Regdar shouted in answer. "We did. We got them. All of them," he added pointedly.

Naull wasn't so sure. The figure strung up at the bailing pulley looked very orclike in some ways… but not in others. His features, covered in blood and bruises, looked uneven and his skin was grayish, but he didn't have the exaggerated jaw or bushy fur she'd seen so recently on the orc lieutenants.

"Regdar…" Naull started.

"Quiet!" Regdar snapped in a whisper, glancing back. "No time for discussion. Shut up and back me up!"

Naull recoiled, stung by his words and surprised at his tone, but the fighter didn't notice.

He shouted to the crowd again, "We ambushed the orcs, followed them back to their lair, and finished them off. None of them escaped."

A ragged cheer went up, but was cut short as Eoghan stamped his foot, drawing everyone's attention back to the prisoner. The crowd murmured.

The paladin, picking up Regdar's cue, said, "Their leader, an ogre, lies dead not five miles north of here, along the forest path. He was the last."

Brandishing his mace like a torch, Eoghan shot back, "Not the last, knight! I don't know who you are, but we hired them to get rid of all th' scum raiding our farms and killing our friends. All o' them!"

He jerked the rope that held the prisoner aloft. Eoghan echoed Regdar's words in his challenge, but his eyes flashed at Alhandra.

She accepted the challenge. Sheathing her sword with a flourish that showed much practice, the paladin walked slowly toward the barn. Whether grumbling against her or looking awestruck at her, the crowd parted until she reached the bailing porch. She climbed up onto the stand gracefully, despite the bulky armor she wore. Eoghan did not step back, but Alhandra interposed herself between the innkeeper and the hanging half-orc.

"I am a paladin of Heironeous. You know what our order stands for?"

Eoghan didn't respond, but several in the crowd eyed the holy symbol emblazoned on Alhandra's breastplate and looked uneasy.

"Justice," she answered herself. "Law."

Her armor gleamed in the sunlight. Mutters of support began in the crowd, but Eoghan bristled.

"Law? Whose law? Where are you from, paladin?"The big innkeeper slurred the title but Alhandra didn't react. "This is our village. Durandell respects the laws of the king, but no outsider tells us how to enforce our laws!"

He wasn't speaking to Alhandra, but to the villagers. Indeed, Eoghan turned away from the paladin and took half a step toward the crowd. The big innkeeper was used to public speaking. He served as something of a combination mayor and lawyer in the little town. He had the villagers' respect, but he knew an outsider of Alhandra's stature was imposing to the simple village folk. Working to suppress his rustic accent, he wiped his bare hand on his apron and raised it over his head.

"Where were the knights o' the kingdom when the orcs started raiding the few traders we could get to come here, so far off their normal routes?" he asked. "Where were the law keepers when th' orcs raided Tesko's farm?" Eoghan jabbed a meaty index finger at an older man wielding a wooden hayfork. The man had a haunted look in his eyes and nodded grimly. "Where was the soldiery when they burned the Snailrooks' wagons an' killed half the little folk as they tried to escape th' flames?" A plump halfling woman's eyes flashed as several in the crowd turned to look at her. Eoghan whirled on Alhandra and snapped his fingers under her chin. "Where were you, knight? Where were you? When we sent out the call for mercenaries-paid for with what little gold we could raise-they came." Eoghan gestured at Regdar and nodded briefly. Then he trained his attention back to the paladin and enunciated his last three words slowly and carefully. "Where were you?"

Alhandra didn't blink, didn't flinch, but she didn't answer, either. Grumbling started again in the crowd.

"She came," Regdar said, stepping forward.

His weapon remained slung across his back, but he stood amongst the crowd in defiance. Regdar presented a stark contrast to Alhandra. Naull supposed the crowd could see just how much mud, blood, and even rust spotted Regdar's plate armor. The goatee and face Naull found dashing hadn't been shaved or washed in days, and dark circles stood out under his eyes. If a few patches of trail dust clung to Alhandra's silver armor and dark traveling cloak, that was all. Naull imagined Regdar looked like a hero the villagers could imagine one of their own becoming, but Alhandra was an alien, an outsider. She was someone who could be held in awe and maybe even respect, but could never be one of them, and Eoghan took advantage of that difference deftly.

But Regdar turned it back on him by supporting the paladin.

"She came," he said again, a little louder. "She came alone when she heard you were in need." He started to walk forward toward Alhandra, but the knight didn't turn. "She traveled miles alone, not for pay, but because she'd heard 'there was trouble away south'-her own words."

Regdar stopped just short of the platform, but didn't climb up to the paladin. He was tall enough that everyone in the crowd could see both of them. He looked her up and down for a moment, the crowd mimicking him, and even Eoghan's eyes followed his.

"We wouldn't be here to hold this debate if it hadn't been for her. An ogre-the orcs' leader-had us dead to rights, when Alhandra, who we'd never met, never talked to, never promised gold," he added with some emphasis, "came riding down and slew him." Regdar threw up his hands. "This woman saved our lives, and stopped the last of the raiders, once and for all. If there's any justice," he concluded, "that, at least, earns her a chance to speak."

With that, Regdar lowered his hands, pausing briefly to put one gauntlet on the edge of the hay porch, near Alhandra's armored foot. She hadn't moved during his speech, but she looked down at his hand, then back up at Eoghan, who still had something to say.

"Regdar," the innkeeper answered with exaggerated care, "no one is questioning your valor or trying to diminish the efforts of you and your companions." He nodded to the fighter and some of the flush started to drain out of his face, but his eyes still flashed and it was obvious he hadn't given up. "If you say this paladin performed valorously in the field, we have no reason to doubt you." He looked around and many heads nodded in agreement. "But-" and he raised his hand, attracting the nodders' attention again-"you are no longer in the field. We caught this orc spying around our southern borders. The outriders that you yourself said we should have on patrol caught him, and we aren't gonna just let him go!" Eoghan's voice rose again, not with anger, but resolve.

"Yes, you are." Alhandra stated matter-of-factly.

She put her hand to the hilt of her sword but didn't draw it. All eyes followed that slight gesture, but Naull realized it wasn't a threat. The sword, as much as the emblem on her chest, was a symbol of her god. She touched it for strength, for support, for divine guidance-or whatever paladins get from their deities.

Naull's tired mind raced. She looked to Regdar but he seemed to be wrestling internally with the same thoughts as her. They'd been hired to protect these people against raiders that turned out to be orcs. Now they were in the position of backing a stranger-albeit a paladin who just happened to have saved their lives-against those self-same villagers.

Then Naull had a thought.

"Alhandra!" she called out. "Paladin!" she cried with emphasis, dashing forward into the crowd.

Faces turned. Eoghan didn't quite turn away from Alhandra, but the paladin herself looked straight at Naull.

"Alhandra," Naull said when she reached Regdar's side. "I know something of paladins and divine magic." Regdar looked at her and cocked an eyebrow. She didn't look at him, but he remembered his own words about backing each other up. "Isn't it true that you can feel-sense-evil?"

Alhandra nodded slowly, and Naull thought she saw a small expression of discomfort on the paladin's face.

"It's true," she said at last.

"So if you examine this prisoner, couldn't you tell us if he's evil or not?"

Alhandra didn't answer immediately. She stood, obviously wrestling with some thought or other but Eoghan didn't wait for her to ponder.

"Is this true, paladin?" he asked. "Can you tell us whether it's a creature of evil?"

"I could," Alhandra said at last.

The crowd seemed to relax. More than a few of the villagers had heard stories of paladins and their holy abilities. Even Eoghan lowered his mace and considered the point. If Alhandra said she could do what Naull suggested, the crowd would obviously like to see it.

But Alhandra didn't relax. She looked up at Eoghan, then slowly turned toward the crowd.

"I could," she declared, her voice grim and cold. "I could examine him and tell you whether the dark taint of evil stains his soul. I could do that for anyone and everyone you brought to me, unless they were protected by powerful magic. I could sit in judgment of anyone you wish. Do you want me to do that?"

Murmuring, the crowd didn't seem to like the sound of that at all. Naull didn't either, but she felt a little betrayed. She'd just offered Alhandra a way out of the mess, and the paladin had rejected it.

"Eoghan…" the paladin said to the innkeeper, so gently the man started. "You are a good man. I could tell that were I not a paladin. You and your village have ruled yourselves and worked to obey the laws of the land without hurting others for generations. You don't need me to tell you how to do that, do you?"

The innkeeper stared at the paladin, almost in shock, then he lowered his head and shook it. The loose apron swung stiffly, almost like a wide pendulum, and a deep, rumbling, sardonic chuckle came from the man. He looked up again, an uneven smile on his face.

"Paladin… Alhandra, is it?" She nodded back at him. "Y'don't offer easy answers, do ya?"

A few people in the crowd actually laughed.

"The only easy answers are to questions not worth asking," Alhandra said, smiling slightly.

Oh, please, Naull thought, rolling her eyes. But she grinned, too. The crisis seemed over.

"All right, all right," Eoghan said, surrendering. "Cut 'im down!" he called to the guard nearest the hanging figure.

She moved immediately to the prisoner and started to work on the ropes around his wrists. The other guard worked the pulley and lowered the prisoner onto the hay porch.

"Y' don't mind if we ask him some questions, now do ya?" Eoghan asked.

"Of course not," Alhandra agreed, "but he should be treated in a humane manner."

"Well… I guess we could put 'im in the inn's root cellar. That's served as a bit of a jail from time to time-but somebody'll have to watch him. I'm not putting him down there with my provender, all alone!"

"I will watch him. I do not say this man is innocent of any crime," Alhandra assured the innkeeper and the crowd, "but he should not be treated as if he is a raider until it can be proven."

Eoghan nodded and stuck his mace in his wide belt. Reaching around, he tied the apron strings behind him. He looked to Naull and Regdar much as he had the night they rode into town. He acted like it too, instructing his guards to place the half-orc in a nearby wagon along with his gear, which lay in a pile nearby, and take him to the inn.

"I'd be feelin' a little safer if you rode along, my lady," he said to Alhandra.

"I will," she said.

"Can you give Ian a ride, too?" Naull asked from below the hay porch. Most of the crowd started back to their homes or nearby farms when Eoghan and Alhandra agreed to terms, and the half-elf looked alone and tired leaning against the fence post. "He's still pretty beat up."

"Still?" Eoghan said, climbing down from the porch.

"Alhandra cured him," Regdar said. "He nearly died."

The innkeeper caught the grim tone of the fighter's voice. He looked around.

"Trebba?" he asked. Regdar shook his head and Eoghan frowned. "And the dwarf, Yurgen?" Regdar shook his head again. "Damn!"

Eoghan stared at the wagon as it rolled away toward Ian with Krusk and Alhandra inside.

"I'm glad I didna' know that before all this. That one might not o' survived to be bickered over!"

"Honestly, Eoghan," Naull interjected, "he couldn't have been part of the raiders' group."

I hope, she added silently.

When they reached the inn proper, Eoghan sent Straw to tend Alhandra's war-horse and both Naull and Regdar helped Alhandra carry their prisoner down into the root cellar.

"He's a big one, isn't he?" Regdar said, huffing a little on the stairs.

The half-orc stood more than six feet tall, Naull could tell as they laid him out on the cellar floor. He had the long, well-muscled but irregular-looking arms common to orcs, but his broad chest and flat features hinted at his human heritage.

It was, however, a slight hint. Naull could see how the villagers mistook him for an orc, especially considering how few of them had ever seen a live orc up close.

"Let's get him cleaned up," Naull said.

Alhandra nodded and fetched a basin of water and a towel from upstairs. When she returned she found Regdar and Naull looking over the half-orc's belongings.

"Find anything interesting?" she asked with intended humor.

Both of them jumped slightly, almost like guilty children. She grinned.

"I didn't think paladins were supposed to have a sense of humor," Naull observed dryly.

Alhandra didn't answer, but an amused smile made the corners of her mouth twitch. She knelt and started cleaning the half-orc's wounds. Surprisingly, he didn't seem badly hurt. A shallow cut across his scalp produced most of the blood. His left eye was swollen but undamaged.

"He's dehydrated. It looks as if he hasn't eaten much in days," the paladin observed finally. "He's out from exhaustion, not wounds."

Regdar yawned.

"He's not the only one," Naull observed. Regdar started to jab her with an elbow but she backed out of the way. "Not with your new armor!" she said, indicating the spikes.

"You two get some sleep," Alhandra said. "I'll look after the prisoner."

Regdar nodded and started up the stairs.

"I'll take these-temporarily," he said, picking up the half-orc's weapons. The rest of his gear lay in a dirty pile on one of the shelves. "Make sure they wake us before they start questioning him, though, all right?"

"I don't think they'll do anything to him now," Alhandra said.

"I just think there's something…" But Regdar's mumbling turned to a yawn as he continued up the stairs.

Naull remained behind for a few moments, watching Alhandra clean the half-orc.

"You'll need more water," she said finally.

Alhandra nodded in answer.

"Alhandra," Naull said.

The paladin paused at her labors and looked up. The wizard pushed her bangs back and shook her head against the growing fatigue.

"Even if… and I say 'if'… this half-orc isn't one of the raiders, who's to say he isn't up to something?"

"Everybody's up to something, Naull," the paladin said, but without amusement.

"You know what I mean. He could still be evil, you know. Maybe a murderer, or a bandit or something. There are some strange things in his gear…" Her voice trailed off.

The paladin stood and looked at Naull. Her clear, blue eyes glistened in the dim light of the nearby lanterns as they met the wizard's. Alhandra's simple beauty struck a slight chord of jealousy in the wizard's heart, but she leaned forward, as if confiding in a friend.

"He isn't evil," she whispered.

Naull flushed and asked with a trace and of anger, "Wha-I thought you said you wouldn't use your ability to check him?"

The small smile was back, and Naull felt the flash of anger drain away involuntarily. It was like trying to be angry with a sister, and she'd known the paladin for less than a day!

"I didn't say I wouldn't examine him, only that the villagers should treat him fairly. I looked into his aura the moment I saw him." She looked down at the unconscious half-orc. "I mean," she said in a conspiratorial voice, "wouldn't you?"

Naull didn't know whether to laugh at or smack the paladin, so she did both.

"Ow! You're as hard as Regdar!" Naull said. Her anger was gone, and the brief pang of jealousy subsided. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Their eyes met again and Naull nodded.

"All right. I get it," Naull said, then started toward the stairs. "I better get to sleep. When one of you fighter-types can outsmart me, I know I'm tired."

She grinned and Alhandra returned the smile, but Naull paused with one foot on the top stair and leaned down.

"Alhandra, there's one more thing."

"Yes?"

Whispering, Naull asked, "If he had been evil, what would you have done?"

That blue-eyed stare fixed on the wizard's eyes for the third time.

"The same thing," she said.

Naull nodded again and headed for bed.