Customs & Duty

By Brian Wakeling

There's a vicious new bandit chief operating in the area. There's also a conspiracy to usurp King Dashell and prevent his marriage to Queen Elspeth (for economic reasons, not political). Guess who gets hired to sort it all out?

If there's one piece of advice a young soldier of fortune might get from an older one, it would probably be, "never mess with religion, politics, or trade". This does tend to cut down the available avenues of work, though. So with a coup being plotted and not much time left before it swings into action, Alys, Cullan, Kenyon and Morgan have to take their new mercenary company after the ringleaders, and hope they don't get involved with all three at once.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Apr 22, 2012
• ISBN: 9781326235802

Book preview

Customs & Duty

Customs & Duty

Book VI of the

Have Sword & Sorcery: Will Travel™

series

A NaNoWriMo Novel

by Brian Wakeling

About the Author

Brian Wakeling was born in the Midlands, bred in the Home Counties, raised in Yorkshire, and went to university in Edinburgh, where he studied fencing and drinking at QMUC – from where he was finally kicked out for the second time in May 2000. He returned to Yorkshire nine months later where he tried to get a life but couldn't afford one. In summer 2005, following his ambition to get a job in a theatre, he moved down to London – and almost completely failed in this ambition. He has been writing in one form or another for most of his life. He was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome in March 2009.

Other Books

Have Sword & Sorcery: Will Travel™

Please Kill the Neighbours

Finish the Job So We Don’t Have To

All’s Fair in Love and Politics

Things Never Go Smooth

Cult Following

Customs & Duty

The Dragon, Shrouded

The Dragon, Rising

The Dragon

Copyright

Copyright © Brian Wakeling 2011

I, Brian Wakeling, hereby assert and give notice of my right under sections 77 and 78 of the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. Any unauthorised copying, lending, distributing or hiring is prohibited, whether by electronic or by any other means.

All characters in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The GURPS rules and system used as part of the creation of this work are © Steve Jackson Games. GURPS is a Registered Trademark of Steve Jackson Games.

Cover images:

Detail of Coronation Day of Mary of Hungary, L Giarri & V Stanghi, 1831 (not in copyright)

Castillio de Biar, Alicante, Spain, by Rodriguillo (public domain)

Detail of Battle of Hastings Re-enactment, by A Borrillo (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence, from Wikimedia Commons)

Forest at St Ingbert, Germany, by Oliver Herold (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence, from Wikimedia Commons)

Bear Attack by Luizpuodzius, 2011 (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence, from Wikimedia Commons)

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

First Edition 2012

Second Edition 2015

Third Edition 2016

ISBN 978-1-326-23580-2

This forms part of The Published Works as defined in the SOAUL

(http://www.sabremeister.me.uk/soaul.html)

Have Sword & Sorcery: Will Travel is a Trademark of Brian Wakeling

http://www.sabremeister.me.uk/Hsaswt.html

Map

Dedication

For Daniel and JoAnne,

who helped keep me smiling

PROLOGUE

The ship ghosted into the harbour on the last dregs of the wind before the autumnal mist closed in and enveloped the coast in a smoky blackness. The short figure, hooded and cloaked in the prow, may have had something to do with it – they were holding a short staff, the tip of which glowed faintly, then winked out as the wind died. The ship coasted to a stop just a few yards short of a quay. There was some shouting on board, and a few minutes later a rope was thrown to the barely-visible stonework with a grapnel hook at the end of it. It was retrieved and thrown again, and again, and on the fourth time it caught on something – a raised cobble, or a piece of metalwork – and held firm. A wiry figure climbed out along the rope to the quay. It examined the place where the rope had caught, and searched the nearby area. Finding a mooring bollard, he tied the rope to that, then shouted back at the ship. Several larger figures took turns climbing to shore, then they all took hold of the rope and heaved. The ship drifted slowly closer. More heaving, then a shout, a splash, more ropes were thrown to the quay, the ship stopped, and a gangplank was run out. The wiry figure untied his rope, then headed back aboard ship. Several minutes later, he returned to the quay, burdened now with a small pack and a sword, and leading about ten people similarly equipped, including the small hooded figure from the prow. They ignored the ship’s crew, and walked up the quay into the shrouded town.

The small procession headed unerringly through the now-foggy streets. On only one occasion did anyone try to interrupt their journey. A handful of men bearing cheap and ugly swords loomed out of the fog and got no further than the first two words of their threat before the small hooded one raised their staff, and the attackers staggered back, pawing at their eyes. The group did not pause, and neither did they hurry, but one of them broke step long enough to kick one of the attackers as they passed.

A few minutes later, the group passed through an archway into a courtyard, where one of them, a slim figure with more weapons than the others, began hammering on a door. Nothing happened for a couple of minutes, then the door creaked open a few inches. There was a subdued conversation, and the door opened fully, flooding the courtyard with a yellow light that rivalled the white provided by the just-after-full moon, showing the group to be six armed men, two armed women, and the small hooded one. They went into the house.

Cullan dumped his pack on the kitchen table. Landry still about? he asked, as the others removed their packs.

They went to bed just before midnight, replied the steward. It’s nearly four now.

Can my father be woken? asked Alys.

Is it urgent?

"It might be."

I still don’t see what all the fuss is about. This deep and sinister voice came from the hood of the small mage, who still had not taken off their hooded cloak.

Neither do we, which is why we need to take it seriously until we know better, Kenyon said. Wake Landry, we need his advice.

Ma’am? the steward looked for confirmation.

Alys nodded. Do it. Then find us all somewhere to sleep. The men will stay here, we’ll wait in the dining room.

Very well. I’ll have someone see to your gear. The steward left.

Cullan turned to the rest of the company. All right, Burning Rose, you heard the Captain. Wait here – if no-one turns up in five minutes, help yourselves to things. We’ll see you at noon.

Are we going to get paid then? asked the other armed woman.

It will be sorted out, Alys told them. Make yourselves comfortable.

Four of them filed out, after the steward. Cullan, the wiry one; Alys, the slim one with lots of weapons; Kenyon, the large one with a scimitar and shield; and Morgan, the hooded mage. They made their way up the stairs and ten minutes later were joined in the dining room by an older man in hurriedly-donned clothes, followed by the steward fussing behind him.

Oh, will you get out of it! Bad enough I have to be woken up at this time in the morning, without you clucking after me like a mother hen. And come on, look, you’ve not even had a fire lit!

I can take care of that, Morgan said. She pulled her hood down for the first time since getting off the boat, glared at the fireplace, and blinked. The remains of the last fire burst into flame, and kept burning, despite being mostly ash and cinders. She turned to face the steward. It’ll need more wood soon, I can’t keep it burning forever. The steward nodded and backed out.

Sorry to wake you, father, Alys said, but as you can tell, there’s been some developments.

Landry nodded. Mercenary company coming on okay? Not giving you trouble, are they?

They’ll do for now. They’re called the Burning Rose, by the way, since we needed a livery.

Burning Rose? Good name. He sat at the head of the table. So, tell me about these developments.

The others took seats, and Cullan began their tale.

2

So, what happened when you got through the Gate?

The fire had been replenished over an hour ago, and now the sun was rising. Goblets of wine had been provided for them, and even Morgan was drinking hers at the same speed as the others.

There were a shed-load of monks hanging around. Dalian had to talk nineteen to the dozen to get us out of there, and even then it was a bit dodgy, especially with us carrying a dead body. Luckily it was a foreigner, so they didn’t care.

You got out of the temple okay?

Yeah, the monks weren’t interested in fighting. We hadn’t been in the streets for long before we acquired an armed escort, though. They took us to the prefecture, where we had to give an account of our actions to a guy in a fancy hat. He ordered us to turn over Rassilon’s body for cremation, so we figured we’d better stay in the country to do the necessary witnessing, then we found a ship and bribed the captain to come here instead of Doronatha.

The guy in the hat didn’t take exception to you wiping out the Rose of Fire?

Nah – he seemed to think they’d been a thorn in his side for years, y’know, troublemaking and so on, so he was a bit glad they were no longer around to do stuff.

Landry sat back. So you got away clean? Much loot?

Clean enough, but no, not much loot. Just a statue of some Eastern God, and Rassillon’s gear that no-one else wanted.

So, what’s the problem?

You saw the trick with the fire, Kenyon reminded him. Morgan glared.

Couldn’t you do that anyway? Landry asked her.

It would have faded within a couple of minutes, before.

I don’t fully understand.

Morgan smiled at him. Ever since the spell in the Temple, I’ve been able to cast any spell I’ve seen cast before. I don’t know what learning that big spell of theirs did to me, or how they did it, but I can probably now cast all of Mordlin’s spells if I wanted to. But the big spell itself – that’s gone. One use only, and I used it to wipe out the bastards who taught it to me.

So – what do you want me to do about it?

Nothing.

Cullan stood up and began pacing. That’s only her opinion. We need to know how unusual this situation actually is, whether it’s dangerous to Morgan, or us, if anyone’s going to come after Morgan again to try to get her to work for them, things like that.

What makes you think I’ll know any of that?

Alys spoke. Father, you were a mercenary captain, you’ve been all over the place, done incredible things, and seen more adventure than most people do in a lifetime -

Landry her. "Because I’ve had a lifetime to do it in. And you shouldn’t believe the publicity, not all of it, anyway. Some of the things attributed to me were actually done by my company when I was away from it, and some … well, complete fabrications, some of them. Fact is that most of the time, my company were just a countryside patrol unit with a licence to make money by trading and combat. We rarely did the sort of things you lot seem to get landed in. Hells, you’ve all had more ‘adventures’ than me!"

So – all the stories you told me as a child, they weren’t true?

"Oh no, they were true! I might have embellished them a little here and there, or told you about things that happened to a detachment of my men instead of me and the main company, but, y’know, mostly, they were true."

What about the one about how you and mother met?

Oh, that’s true. That’s definitely true. You can check in the city records for the citations and so on.

That won’t be necessary, father.

Cullan leaned on the back of Landry’s chair. So, despite not being all that’s claimed, do you have any ideas?

Landry groaned under his breath. "Look, of course there’s going to be complications. I’ve never heard of anything like it myself, and I doubt anyone in my company will have either. And yes, people will be coming after you, Morgan – you’re a powerful mage in your own right, and you’re still young enough to be seen as impressionable and malleable. And now you can cast almost any spell ever – there’s now no practical limit to your power. Every warlord and crime boss is going to be after you to try and get you to work for them, and they won’t exactly be picky about who they have to go through to get you on their side."

Then they’ll be disappointed, Morgan told him, I like working with your daughter. And, as you say, there’s no practical limit to my power, so I won’t have to work for anyone I don’t want to.

But you can’t bring back the dead, Kenyon said. What if whoever comes after you kills all of us before you can stop them? What’ll you do then?

Kill them, she said, simply. Painfully.

Besides any of which, we may not have a mercenary company after today, Alys pointed out. The others may not want to stay enlisted, especially when we tell them we’re heading back to Dentrassi.

Only one way to find out, though, Cullan said. By the way, we’ll need to get a couple of letters of credit cashed while we’re here. Before noon.

3

At noon, the members of the Burning Rose assembled in the courtyard of Landry’s house. They let Dalian fulfil his role as company clerk, and he doled out all their back pay that they’d accumulated in the last month whilst overseas, and noted it all down in a ledger. Then, they were formally paraded by Kenyon barking some commands.

Right, everyone listening? Alys looked along the line of her troops – two hulking men called Roland and Boruta who acted as their heavy infantry; a slender woman called Saggitta, a former Sword Sister who was thrown out of the order for being too zealous; an archer and former forester called Hode; and Dalian, the clerk. They weren’t much of a mercenary company, but they were effective. "Okay, here’s the deal. You’ve just been paid, all the money you were owed on the last job, which was the only job we needed to hire you for. We don’t, fully, need your services as of now, but we’d like them. We’re heading back to Dentrassi, the capital of Galorndan, where we have a residence. We expect the journey to take six to eight weeks, during which time there probably won’t be much opportunity to pay you, because we’re not going to be carrying that much cash around. Don’t worry, it’s covered by letters of credit we’ve already got, and you’ll receive full back pay when we get to Dentrassi, and then we’ll start having regular pay parades."

If we get work, Cullan muttered under his breath.

We might be recruiting on our way across country, so by the time we get to Dentrassi, you’ll be the senior members of the enlisted company. I’ll still be Captain, the Burning Rose is still my company. Cullan, Kenyon and Morgan here will be Lieutenants. Depending on how many we manage to recruit, you’ll all be either Sergeants or Corporals, and you’ll get extra pay depending on your abilities. But with your ranks will come responsibility – it’ll be your job to keep the new recruits in line, keep them happy, and run their training sessions. We shouldn’t have to notice problems with morale, you should deal with it or report it to us so we can do something about it. And none of us want to find out the hard way that one of the newbies is cack-handed and a danger to us all!

Why’ve we still got Dalian, then? asked Boruta.

Silence in the ranks! Kenyon snapped.

You’ve just been fined a tenth of your next wage, Boruta Alys told him. "But I’ll answer your question. We’ve