DREAMWIELDER Book 1 of The Dreamwielder Chronicles

Chapter 22: ALLIES FORGED

Parmo casually came to a halt in the teeming central market of Kal Pyrthin and examined a basket of olives at one of the plethora of produce stands filling the massive marketplace. Or he pretended to at least. In his peripheral vision he watched the man who had been walking behind him for the last several minutes, a man wearing the colors and insignia of Sargoth. Parmo hoped he had not aroused enough suspicion to be followed, but still it was best to be cautious. Since arriving in Kal Pyrthin two days prior, he had busied his days chasing down rumors of the flying airship, and while he had tracked down dozens of witnesses who had seen the ship heading out to sea, no one had seen the airship return. The ship had either made landfall farther to the north or skirted south and gone to Valaróz. It was impossible to say which.

While Parmo had been discreet in his inquiries, he could not be certain that the Emperor's men weren't watching him. It was very possible they too were looking for the airship. Parmo had initially assumed the airship belonged to Emperor Guderian, but that was not necessarily the case. From the rumors Parmo had picked up on, the Emperor's men were questioning people and trying to track down the Princess Taera, too. And then there was the matter of Parmo's cohorts—the two men he had rescued. After learning that King Casstian had been imprisoned, Rufous and Gaetan had surreptitiously entered the city along with Parmo when they arrived in port. If it were widely known that they were survivors of Pyrthin's Flame there was no doubt that the three of them would be taken prisoner. The new regent—the houndkeeper—was ruling the city and ostensibly the kingdom now, and he had not been shy about throwing dissenters into the dungeon or simply executing them. That was why Parmo was so wary: Rufous and Gaetan were more than mere dissenters. The two seamen had been rounding up as many allies as they could find among the military and administrative ranks of King Casstian's government. Rebellion was in the works.

Parmo sniffed at the olives in his hand, then tossed them back into their basket as the man he had been watching walked obliviously on into the center of the market and was lost in the crowd of people. The Emperor's agent either wasn't following Parmo in the first place, or he was sloppy and had lost track of Parmo. In either case, Parmo turned in the opposite direction and headed for The Herdsman, the inn where he rented a room along with Gaetan and Rufous.

Outside the central market, the streets were decidedly less crowded at this late morning hour. The trouble brewing in the city seemed to have scared most people into staying home and out of sight unless they had business to attend to, especially since rumors had spread of Wulfram burning old women and girls alive in Castle Pyrthin. Parmo saw no more than a half dozen people on the side streets, and he arrived at the dilapidated harborside inn only a few short minutes later. He found Rufous drinking an ale all by himself inside the nearly empty common room.

"Parmo!" Rufous hailed from where he sat at a lopsided table.

Parmo joined him and waved for the bar maid to bring him a stein of ale.

"Any luck?" Rufous asked.

"More of the same. Plenty of people saw the airship head out after us, but no one saw her return. She could be anywhere now. How about yourself? How goes your... business venture?"

"The venture goes well," Rufous replied. "We've recruited several more partners, so to speak. The question now is not whether we have enough partners but what our plan is. Everyone has their own ideas, and all of them seem lacking."

"You're the one bringing everyone together."

Rufous rolled his eyes noncommittally. "I'll be honest with you, Parmo. I know how to sail a ship. I can command a crew of sailors when it comes to skirting a reef or storming an enemy vessel. But this business—it's a bit beyond my area of expertise."