They had just made it to the thoroughfare where Nilesh said
the book merchant lived when they saw a group of six armed men walking down the
street toward them. They had already
turned down it, so suddenly stopping and revering direction would look
suspicious. Worse, the soldiers were
pulling the hoods down and looking into everyone’s faces.
“Dammit,” Nilesh hissed.
“Maybe Kaler got a message out after all.
“Or they just saw us leave camp,” Ashrak said. “I know you thought we got away unseen, but
that’s not a given.” He felt his hand
clench, wanting to reach up and grab his sword handle. It was currently wrapped in rags to make it
look like a much less elegant weapon, but he knew they could probably take the
soldiers by surprise if they needed to.
Still, he didn’t want to attract attention. They would get some sort of warning off, at
the very least, and it would ruin their chances of getting what they were after
if they had to flee the city.
They were still about thirty meters from the guards when
Nilesh began to walk toward another group of people moving in the same
direction. They were a small group of
mid-level merchants with a guard following along with a bored look on his
face. Ashrak watched as Nilesh put his
hand into his robe and pocketed something white which he began to crush in his
grip. When he got close to the group of
men, he tripped and seemed to blunder directly into the guardsmen, a cloud of
white dust flying into the man’s face as he spun.
“Oh sorry, sir, my apologies,” Nilesh said, his voice
suddenly reedy and weak as he bowed and held his hands up.
The guard snarled, half drawing his weapon as he took a step
toward Nilesh. “Why, you piece of
filth! Watch where you’re going!” He was a brute of a man but Nilesh dodged
quickly out of his way while making it look like he stumbled backwards. The man would have pursued, but the lead
merchant called back to him.
“Guard, what are you doing?
I don’t pay you to play with the rabble!” The guard stopped and grunted,
giving Nilesh one more glare before he turned back. Nilesh just kept his head down and his hands
up, not looking back until the guard had resumed his place behind the
merchants.
“What did you do that for?” Ashrak whispered when he had
caught up to Nilesh who had turned and pulled out a water skin, quickly washing
his hands.
“Stay back for a moment,” Nilesh hissed, letting the water
quickly dissolve the white substance from his hand and drop into the sand. After he had finished, he quickly kicked
dirt over the wet area and then ground his foot into the spot. “Sorry,” He said, still facing away from the
direction the soldiers were approaching.
“I had to get that stuff off of my hands. I’ve built up an immunity, but it wouldn’t do
for you three to be affected.”
“Affected by what?” Chari said, looking curiously at the
ground.
“My guess, would be from whatever is making the guard act
like that,” Ellian said, nodding her head discreetly toward the group of
merchants. The heavyset guard had
stopped in his tracks, suddenly looking up into the sky. He was beginning to shake and mumble just
loud enough for the merchants to begin to notice. The soldiers were also just about to pass
him as well and were looking at him with concern. Suddenly, screaming incoherently, he lurched
and threw himself at one of the soldiers.
Before the man could react, he’d been lifted up above the guard’s head
and thrown into the rest of them, knocking them about like a pile of sticks.
“Come on,” Nilesh said, turning and beginning to move down
the street though keeping a distance from the suddenly violent
confrontation. “He won’t last long
against six soldiers.”
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