The Two That Came To Ilarnek

Chapter 1

Two figures seemed to rise out of the mist-laden swamp like spectres, gliding silently between a twisted and blighted riot of moss strangled trees. These were not ghosts, but a living man and woman, tall wild-haired barbarians of far distant Thule. Behind them stretched Lake Thune, once a lone lake, the slow cycle of geologic ages had altered the landscape transforming it into a small finger of that vast inland sea, called the Scythian Sea by the nations of the West.
The strange pair wore only a ragged assortment of light leather armour, now spattered with noxious smelling black mud, over badly torn and soiled garments. Both the man and woman were armed. The male, Grimm of the Wolf Clan, carried a spatha longsword of Osirian make depended from a shagreen baldric. Freyja, a rangy lioness of a woman, wore an Eberosean broadsword and buckler behind a lithe yet well-muscled shoulder.
"Perhaps next time you find a map with an island marked 'cursed' we should choose to avoid it altogether, even if it does promise treasure. There are easier pickings in the cities," quipped the woman, Freyja.
"Cursed? Bah! Superstition," returned the rangy Grimm, with an ironic grin.
"Superstition? So those black bat-things weren't a curse? It scratched my arm up pretty badly for a mere superstition, Grimm," retorted the woman.
"More of an infestation than a curse, really," he replied. The woman only chuckled and rolled her eyes in mock disgust. "Look here, Freyja," Grimm pointed to a broken wall of polished marble stonemasonry that loomed up out of the malodorous swamp. The man cast his eyes about and walked over to investigate, Freyja at his heel. "It looks like the swamp must have swallowed up some ancient city," he speculated, running his hand over the surface.
The pair continued to examine the wall. Grimm wiped what he guessed must have been centuries of caked mud and grime from its surface revealing a bizarre mosaic. His hand recoiled. The mosaic depicted a scene of red slaughter, but only the perpetrators of the slaughter appeared human, the victims of the massacre were only vaguely humanoid in their general outline, but in all other features they seemed batrachian. Strange green-skinned men with bulging eyes and wide flabby looking lips were being burned, and hacked with axe and sword, and impaled upon spears. The pair simultaneously swiveled their heads about, a cold dread suddenly gripping them both, and they peered warily at their surroundings. In the thinning mist, they saw that they were, in fact, in the midst of vast ruins, that seemed to claw their way up from the very depths of the swamp, like a giant skeletal hand.
"Let us leave this place, it may be... infested" Freyja said quickly, suppressing a shiver, "and besides, I could really use a few tankards of ale and a warm bed just about now."
"You could use a bath too," laughed the man, shooting her a wry look, then quickly added, "So could I, dear Freyja, but we have no gold or silver and we are far from the cities, we will never make it back to civilization before nightfall, perhaps two days hence, if we walk late into the night," Grimm said, suddenly glum. The mist was clearing as they walked, and the ground growing steadily drier. They seemed to notice a clearing just up ahead, and quickened their pace.
"I'll split the belly of the next fat merchant we come across, then we'll have plenty of coin for ale at the nearest inn," said Freyja glibly, as they strode with uncharacteristic carelessness, into the clearing.
Suddenly the mist haunted treeline came alive with silent human figures, Freyja and Grimm found themselves beset by a bevy of corseleted men, with unadorned spangen helms, they were armed with spears and short swords. The men had been well concealed and even the keen senses of the two barbarians, honed by the harsh life of the hunter, in the vast northern forests of wild Thule, had not detected them until it was too late. It almost seemed as though the men knew the Thuleans would be approaching, and had been lying in wait.
"What have we here? A couple of thieves come to steal our master's wares," said a man as he strode forward. He was a bearded man of medium height with a stocky heavily muscled build. His helmet, unlike those of his comrades, had a tall horsehair crest, which likely marked him as an officer, perhaps their captain.
"Well, thieves, what have you to say for yourselves? Am I to believe two wayfarers merely stumbled out of that wretched marsh, into the camp of Abrim the Magnificent, greatest merchant of Sheemar, purely by accident?" he inquired commandingly.
"We...we are not thieves. We are but simple shepherds of Mnar, seeking after our lost sheep in the swamp," offered Freyja, lamely, "we'll just be upon our way."
The officer let out a sharp stentorian laugh, "Shepherds? Shepherds, she says!" The officer said, mirthfully, "Without a flock, and bearing swords? I think not. You had best come with us, the master wishes to speak with you presently." Then to his men, "Take their weapons, and if they resist, let the archers strike them down."
Grimm and Freyja glanced at each other, communicating wordlessly, as is often the way between those long familiar, and then complied. Their weapons were removed without resistance, they both understood it would be better to weigh their options, and if necessary, resist at a later point. Both knew the other to be dangerous both armed or unarmed. They followed the officer, with the spears of the men at their backs.
Grimm and Freyja surveyed their surroundings. They had somehow stumbled upon a caravan encampment on the edge of the fertile rolling plains of Mnar. The main east-west trade route, the Great Jade Road, lay many miles to the south of Mnar, so they had not expected to find such a large caravan encamped here.
The pair were led between a myriad of colourful tents and gaily festooned wagons, there were men and women, likely free men and slave alike, going about a variety of camp chores, heedless to their presence. A few waifish children ran about laughing and half-playing while they went about their duties. The children were doubtless camp followers, orphans and paupers who had joined the caravan in hope of payment, food, or maybe even the chance of adventure.
They followed a circuitous route between the varied array of wagons, tents, yurts, and other temporary domiciles. At last they reached the center of the vast camp. It contained a number of large tents, but one in the center dominated the rest. It was larger and richer than the all of the others, a silken mountain of red and gold fabric, embroidered with arabesques and ornate designs in the shape of sinuous dragons, gryphons, and exotic flowers redolent of the East were worked into its scarlet exterior.
They approached the entrance of the great tent, spears poised at their backs.
"You will wait here, thieves," spoke the captain of the guard gruffly, as he stepped into the tent. They heard his voice, somewhat, muffled by the heavy fabric, from within, "I brought the prisoners, as you ordered, Master Abrim."
"Prisoners? Pish posh! Send in my guests, Marus", came a voice, somehow both ominous and mirthful. With that, the tent flap opened and the two Thuleans were ushered inside without ceremony. The interior of the tent could have held a score of men and was even more richly decorated than the outside, luxuriously furnished and lit by many bright paper lanterns.
"Welcome, friends, to the tent of Abrim the merchant!" the booming voice came from the far side of the tent, where lazed an immensely fat man on a great ornate, almost throne-like, chair piled high with cushions of purple velvet. His hawkish features, and coarse, dark hair marked him as a merchant of the Sheemar, his corpulent body wrapped in a fine crimson robe of silk, worked with intricate designs of golden thread that depicted strange blooms and fantastic beasts. His pudgy right hand cracked a walnut with ease, denoting a strength that seemed to belie the softness of his fat frame. "I am Abrim," he said, and he waved them forward, with a generous smile, his huge hand adorned with numerous garish rings of gold set with lustrous gems.
Abrim was not alone. Upon his left hand, in a plain high backed wooden chair, sat a very tall lean man with a sinister viper-like visage and dark piercing eyes that gleamed from beneath a black cowl. On the merchant's right hand a young woman in slave-livery lolled languidly on a sable divan.
As Grimm and Freyja began to approach the master of the caravan, Marus, the officer of the guard raised a hand and warned them to wait.
"Master Abrim, before you entreat with these two, I must warn you, I heard them say they were planning to gut you and rob you," Marus spoke dutifully. Abrim's shrewd dark eyes settled upon the Thuleans from beneath his heavy black brows.
"Is this true? Do you intend to slay your new employer so soon?" came Abrim's words, his wide mouth forming a devilish smile, while his neatly plaited goatee bobbed with barely controlled mirth.
"Employer?", blurted Grimm and Freyja, simultaneously.
"Why of course. Why else had I conspired to meet you here, in the hinterlands of Mnar, of all places?" the merchant said, as he folded his plump bejewelled hands over his jiggling girth.
"Conspired to meet us here? How could you know who we are, or that we would even be here?", asked Grimm, incredulously.
"The greater question is why you would seek us out in the first place," added Freyja, suspiciously.
The gaunt, black cowled figure to Abrim's right, shifted in his chair and then spoke in a rasping voice, "There are reasons too great to explain in this moment, but suffice it to say Abrim has eyes and ears in many cities. We knew of the map you purchased from a vendor's stall in Hurria, it was not difficult to ascertain where you were heading when you took to the eastern road. We knew that you would go to seek treasure on that strangely infested island marked on the map", explained the tall man.
"Infested," whispered Grimm, sagely, and nudged Freyja with his elbow. Freyja quietly chortled and rolled her eyes.
"There are other factors, but they must wait for another time.", added the black clad figure.
"How rude of me!", blurted Abrim suddenly, then gestured to the hooded apparition beside him, "This is the illustrious mage Katemperos-Tsa, my friend and trusted advisor. And to my left sits Despina, my ward".
"Still this begs the question: why us, in particular?" Grimm asked in measured tones.
"As Katemperos-Tsa mentioned, there are complex reasons, but suffice it to say that your reputation precedes you. Thuleans come but rarely to the Southlands, and you have become renowned as skilled thieves and as slayers to be feared. Your exploits as pirate captains first brought you to my attention. Your ventures at sea cost me more than a few gold coins, but I will forget that offense, if you will take employment with me," explained Abrim, magnanimously.
"Just what is it you wish us to do in your employ, Master Abrim?" questioned Freyja. With that Abrim drew two leather sacks from the cushions beside him and tossed them to each of the Thuleans.
"Look inside. There are sixty silver coins in each. If you complete the task I have in mind, I will pay you an equal number of gold coins." Abrim explained. Freyja and Grimm nodded and he continued, "The city of Ilarnek is not far from here. Within the city is a temple, within the temple is an altar, and upon that altar sits an idol of green stone in the shape of a water-lizard. I wish for you to steal the idol. It is pretty straight forward. Do you agree to the terms?".
"This temple, is it ...infested?" asked Freyja, with a hint of scathing humour in her voice.
"I am afraid it is quite cursed, henced the rich reward I will pay you for it's theft. And of course, you will be given the most luxurious treatment this camp can afford in the meantime, a warm bed, wine, ale, whatever your pleasure. What say you?" expounded the corpulent merchant. Grimm and Freyja shared a glance.
"Done!", exclaimed the Thuleans, in unison.
Abrim clapped his hands sharply twice, and a curtain at the back right hand side of the tent parted, from which two slave-girls stepped bearing an amphora of wine and several goblets.
"We must drink to the future success of your mission, then you can take your leisure. We will feast tonight and discuss the details", concluded Abrim.