Search for Dastardly Part 3

This part grew in the telling, so Part 4 won't be far behind (earliest will be Wednesday next week).

Adrian awoke early the next morning. Down in a field nearby, he found Renda sitting cross-legged, facing the growing light of sunrise.

'We should leave now,' he said. 'I don't want any more magic happening. That stuff just isn't right.'

Renda kept looking at the horizon. 'That “stuff” wasn't magic,' she said. 'I don't know what it was, so don't ask – it just wasn't magic.'

'We can take Sal down to the city, we'll be there before midday.'

'There's the dawn,' Renda said. She stood up and turned to the knight. 'Alright then, let's go.'

They walked together towards the stables.

'No offence to your colleagues,' Adrian blurted, 'but you seem a little conscientious to be a mercenary.'

'What do you mean?'

'Finding my horse, for one thing – no one paid you to do that. I guess I just want to know who I am working with.'

The woman stopped walking. 'As long as we're doing this thing... I could ask similarly of you.'

'There isn't much more about me than meets the eye,' the knight said. 'I was born in the Clockwork City, I became part of the Guard and was knighted when I –'

'Hmm?'

'It's a boring story. I've been in service of the new King since the lentil harvests started.'

Renda's eyes widened. 'You're not that knight of the Clockwork City?' she said. 'The one who travelled the darkest parts of the Foreboding Forest and defeated the hag of the swamps?'

'Well actually, I just gave her some spinach...'

'It was you!' Renda said. 'Is it true that you killed a dragon?'

'How do you know about this?'

'The troubadours sing and rhyme about you everywhere!' Renda said, her face lighting up with more than the sun. 'I always wanted to be like the fabled Knight who found the Golden Lentil! Your story was spoken in the same breaths as Won the Conqueror!'

Adrian tried to talk over his own blushing. 'I doubt I'm as famous as Won. Perhaps we should just keep going.'

'Sir Adrian, I never knew your name, but I joined the mercenaries because of you. I wanted to go on adventures and save damsels, wrestling monsters with my bare hands.' Renda gasped, putting her hand to her mouth. 'Krotar, Bei and I were sent to catch you!'

'What?'

'That was our contract,' she said in awe. 'The plains Civility thought there was a spy hiding in the north, in the Sponge Country. It was you.'

'That's quite a coincidence,' Adrian said, carefully avoiding Renda's gaze. 'You aren't still going to do it, right?'

'Don't be thick,' she said, returning to her detached air almost immediately. 'We've got to go and talk to this Waory fellow, quick.'

'Right,' Adrian said. Without looking back, the knight rushed away as the sun reached into the sky.

***

Sal was a sturdy and reliable horse, if a little on the slow side. As Adrian and Renda settled into her trotting speed along the southbound lane, the knight turned his head slightly. The mercenary sat behind him, and it was the first time since her outburst that he looked her in the face.

'Watch out,' she said, and the knight turned back to steer the horse down the right path.

'Why did you join the mercenaries if you wanted to be a hero, Renda?'

'I'd rather not talk about that,' she said. 'The sooner we can find out what this whole business with Dastardly is –'

'Do you really care about what happens?' said Adrian. 'And what if he's just dead, nothing strange about it?'

'I don't expect you to understand, Sir Adrian, but I have no idea what is going on. Nius showed up and finagled our free will – I'm pretty sure he's anything but human. Now Krotar and he are on some mission to kill this freelancer? Even if he's probably dead? Where's the logic? What could possibly connect anything that's happened over the last few days?'

'I find,' the knight replied, 'that the answers can sometimes track you down, wherever you might be.'

'Like Sal and me finding you at the farm.'

'Yeah,' he grunted. 'There's got to be a reason that we're headed down this path. All we can do is hope that it's a good reason.'

***

Adrian spoke up again as they rode through the city outskirts. 'The whole place is designed to fan out of the main square and the palace. It actually looks pretty grand from the air.'

'You weren't on that airship from Hox, too, were you?'

'Of course,' said the knight. 'Don't expect me to settle for walking, I'm too important.'

'Where is it now?' Renda said, ignoring the jab at her supposed fanaticism. 'A working airship like that could fetch a hefty price out west.'

'Actually, it's back in the hands of a gnome,' Adrian said. He realised that the horse had stopped moving, and a crunching noise was coming from her mouth. The knight looked round and saw a small hand feeding Sal an apple. Connected to the small hand were a body and a face, somehow familiar.

'What are you doing?' he said to the new gnome.

'Nuffin',' it replied. 'What're you doing?'

'We have an urgent meeting at the palace, if you don't mind moving.'

'Fine,' the gnome said. 'I guess your horse has had plenty.'

As they gathered speed again, something was tugging at the back of Adrian's mind. For now he dismissed it as just a bit of flotsam from the time he had spent with the freelancer.

Continues straight into Part 4, coming soon.