Despite Dhalooth's doubts about the lack of subtlety of my plan, we located Mei-Ju... Malishi by riding into Nyerdhan and demanding to see the corrupt doctor.
Alright, I'll admit that it was a little more difficult than that, involving a drawn-out interview with the local League office and considerable work to convince them that I was who I claimed to be (having handed my identification over to Gemara and her bandits). Eventually the tiresome official that I was dealing with admitted that they had received word that a League Agent was being held captive, and that my badge of office had been handed in as proof. Furthermore, word had filtered up from Llaza about the happenings in Nirhamsa several months ago - my reputation preceded me, it seemed, but I didn't like the smirk on the official's face as he related this to me.
After a laugh at my expense, he admitted that the local League office knew of a Master-in-Waiting who was rumoured to work for various underground groups but had little proof as yet. My suggestion was that they bring him in for polite questions, preferably picking him up whilst he was away from his house whilst I paid his current 'guest' a visit.
Waterfowl of all shapes and sizes wandered the lower streets of Nyerdhan, heedless that the savoury aroma wafting from a nearby cookhouse foretold their eventual fate on a roasting spit. We crossed over one of the many bridges that ran between the houses, each perched on top of its own earthwork mound like a peculiar land-based island. I thought that Nyerdhan looked a little like Llaza would if you drained the water away whereas Dhalooth was reminded of the treetop walkways of his people.
Master-in-Waiting Jorzefi had been picked up by League enforcers in the market place, quietly since the League don't have as much clout here as in Llaza. Dhalooth and I made our way to his house, which doubled as his surgery. Not many folk can afford to live and work in different places and with the ever-present threat of flooding the Nyerdhani are even less willing than most to split their resources between two locations that may end up separated for months.
'We'll do the same as we did when we captured "Death Sword" DurBhan in Tantura,' I muttered to Dhalooth as we approached the back door to Master Jorzefi's house.
'But without the bit where you nearly got your jaw broken?'
I rubbed the side of my face in memory. 'If I can help it. Now, let's see...' I tried the latch. People are so careless about security these days. We entered a room lined with shelves of jars, and stone-topped workbenches on either side. A durdrn was standing at one of these. I've never been able to tell the gender of these people, but judging from the embroidered silk lashong robes and wide sash that this one was wearing, I'd say it was female. Silk for a servant - it looked like banditry paid the good doctor well. She was pounding something in a pestle and mortar, her two prehensile noses grabbing jars from the shelf and adding the contents to the mixture.
Upon seeing us the flung up her trunks in alarm and made a feeble attempt to threaten us with the pestle. The thing with durdrn is that they are willing to do as they are told. I put a finger to my lips and the durdrn quivered in silence.
'You have a girl with a broken arm here?' I asked. The durdrn servant nodded and pointed upstairs. 'Thank you very much.' No point in being impolite. I could hardly blame the durdrn if her master was a criminal. Dhalooth and I exchanged a nod, and he trotted outside. I, on the other hand, drew my jo staves and headed up the stairs.
I found Malishi sat on a narrow bed, arm in sling, reading a scroll in the light from a window behind her. Large panes of glass; another extravagance by the not-so-good doctor. She didn't seem surprised to see me but I suppose she'd got used to my pursuit by now.
'A pleasure as always, Rishta. Have you come to deliver the invalid a bunch of flowers?' She reached up to scratch her head. By this time I was coming to expect trickery from her, which was why I ducked aside as her arm snapped forwards and a throwing weapon disguised as a hair comb 'thunk'ed into the door behind me. In response I hurled one of my staves at her. She dodged it, as I guessed she would, and it smashed through the window pane.
Malishi held up her splinted arm. 'Not very honourable to attack an injured woman,' she said with a mocking pout.
I gestured to the comb stuck in the door behind me. My right hand still held my remaining stave ready, keeping her at bay for now. 'Neither's a weapon like that.'
'Oh, don't be so moralistic Rishta. You're a League Agent, a dirty tricks merchant. You and I both pull strings to make governments rise and fall according to the whim of our masters.' This was true, and I was forced to admit to myself that she was probably better at it than me.
'I hate to see talent go to waste,' I countered. "The League could offer you double what you get paid now.'
She smiled derisively. 'You Leaguers, always in it for the money. That's why your heart's not in your job, Rishta. You don't have a cause to care about. You could triple my pay and I'd still say no.'
Any further conversation (such as asking Malishi what cause she believed in) was curtailed as Dhalooth slipped silently through the broken window and delivered a Raindrop strike to the back of Malashi's neck, felling her neatly. He handed my second stave back to me.
'In Tantura you just opened the window for me,' he complained, sucking a cut on his hand. 'But I must admit this was a more dramatic way of showing me where you were.'
I pulled the comb-weapon out of the door. The point of one of its tines had snapped off in the wood, and a thick dark liquid dripped from a tiny capillary within. Nice. I was willing to bet my last yen that it wasn't a pick-me-up tonic. We got the unconscious Malashi bound and carted off to the League House. I checked the scroll that she was reading and was amused to find that it was a Denralian romantic epic, probably property of the durdrn downstairs. I took it anyway, in case it held an encoded message.
After a lot of wrangling with the Nyerdhani authorities over the matter of jurisdiction, I was finally allowed to transport my prisoner back to Llaza for trial. Rather than travel west through the Ashoyin Protectorate alone, we joined with a League caravan transporting Nyerdhan pottery down to Fnoi and beyond. Malishi was safely locked in a heavy steel-plated carriage drawn by tembu. Knowing all too well her propensity for escape I made sure that between myself and Dhalooth we kept a constant watch.
About a week into Ashoyin our caravan found a large party of riders heading towards us, mostly mounted on those versatile beasts; horses. The caravan master set up a defensive perimeter but it was obvious we were badly outnumbered. Luckily for the merchants, if not for me, the arriving party sent out a spokesman who demanded the release of the female prisoner in exchange for safe passage through their lands. I wasn't entirely certain how Malishi had arranged this but somehow they knew that we had her captive. There then followed a heated debate between the caravan master and one Rishta Vallans, which ended in victory for the caravan master on the grounds that the lives of his men (and his goods) were worth more than one prisoner. My entreaties on the amount of effort that I had spent trying to capture her in the first place fell on deaf ears and Malishi was turned over to the horsemen.
The spokesman was wearing banner poles, from which fluttered the emblem of a green blade. I caught Malishi's eye as she passed.
'The Jade Sword? That's who you work for?' It made some sense - the Jade Sword fought against both General Chandrat and Minister Es-Gadar in Ashoyin. Preventing an alliance between either of these factions with Nirhamsa would be in the best interests of the Jade Sword. From what I'd heard, though, they normally restricted their activities to protecting peasants from having their rice crops stolen.
'Ah, Rishta. Wrong again, I'm afraid. But for the moment their goals and mine happen to be the same.' She mounted a spare horse brought up for that purpose. 'It's been fun. Maybe we'll cross paths again some time.'
My face was stone. 'I'd appreciate a rematch, yes,' I replied coldly. She laughed, wheeled her horse about and then she, and the Jade Sword, galloped away over the fields of Ashoyin.
(c) 2006 The Creative Conclave.
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