A Bard's Story: Here There Be Dragons

Chapter Two

"This is all your fault."

"My fault? How did I know we had gotten so far north they stopped trusting mages?"

Oren snorts privately. Whoever these two newcomers to the jail are, they are definitely foreigners, and not just by their accents.

"Please. Even the Menla would be suspicious if we started asking prying questions about mages who study dwarves."

"They would not."

"Kehdem, you are the crazy Menla mage who studies dwarves. I don't think you get a say in this. At least not an unbiased one."

The door to the cell clangs as the jailer unlocks it. Two people are shoved in — a girl his own age and a boy perhaps a few years their senior. They definitely look the part of foreign travelers — tired, out of placed, and thrilled to be both those things.

"We should have had lunch first," the girl says matter-of-factly.

"We'd still be in this cell."

"Yes, but we wouldn't also be hungry."

"So summon all that delicious hardtack in our packs."

"I tried already. I can't."

Her companion sighs theatrically. He mumbles gibberish that recalls for Oren some of the stranger spells he's watched Geri cast.

"It's not going to work," he comments idly. The pair spin around. Oren thinks they look far too excited to see him jailed with them. "He's a Protector."

"A what?"

"A Protector of the People." The explanation gets him only blank looks, so he adds, "The mage-hunting kind of Inquisitor?"

"Mage hunting?" the girl repeats with am impressive amount of disbelief in her tone.

"Officially, they only go after mages gone mad."

"And unofficially?"

Oren shrugs. "We've had some suspicious fires. Can't tell you why they decided to send a Protector over that — probably because of the way Semben made this town despise mages."

"You know Semben?"

"Not exactly," Oren says. He debates, very briefly, making something up. "He's dead."

She turns to her companion. "I told you this was fruitless," she says.

"I know his son, if that helps," Oren adds before he can think about it. More trouble is the last thing Geri needs, but these two might be their way out of town, if not all the way to the dragons. "If we ever get out of here, I'd be happy to introduce you." Geri would love to hear me say that, he adds to himself.

"We'll get out," the girl says confidently before his tangent can wander too far. "Unless you were the one who set the fires?"

"No," Oren says darkly. "One killed my family."

"And the Protector suspects you?"

"Apparently, when you give away all your possessions and make plans to leave town, it looks suspicious." To his surprise, her face lights up with a wry grin. It's remarkably similar to how Geri would have reacted to him saying something so obvious. The expression is so familiar that he finds himself speaking without thinking. "I'm sure it didn't help that I moved in with the resident evil mage."

The girl's raised eyebrows are quite expressive. "Evil?"

"Semben angered — or rather, scared — the town when he was alive. They're good people, but none of them but my — but me will come within a league of Geri if they can help it."