(Continued from The Case of the Three Torches- Finding Elsa: Part 2)
While Addie, Ryn, and Kraddock worked to devise rescue plans, on the other side of Bree-land Elsa was slowly beginning to regain consciousness. The heavy scent of grog filled her nostrils as she took in a deep breath which made her crave a drink to hydrate her dry mouth. She blinked once, twice, several times in an attempt to bring her surroundings into focus, but it did little to help clear her blurry vision. "Garon... Gerda is awake,” she heard someone call out, and she could see a figure moving through the dim candlelight toward the opening of the tent.
Instinct took over and Elsa jolted up from the cot that she had been placed on, but that action only served to remind of her injury; her broken leg had been heavily bandaged and was in a splint, and though she couldn’t feel the pain for some reason, there was no way she was going to be able to run. As she looked down to evaluate her condition, she noticed that she was still wearing her armor and that her weapons were next to her cot on the floor; but before she could reach for them, the tent flap opened and a man wearing quality chainmail armor with a shoulder piece fashioned like a snarling hound entered.
He was rakishly handsome despite the old, white scar which accented his jawline underneath the half-day’s growth of beard- sharp, bright eyes, Gondorian nose, chiseled jaw- and he wore a scarf around his neck even though the weather was warm. Elsa recognized him immediately; he was the one they had seen in command over the slave trade at Greenway Fort, the one that had brought back such horrible memories for Addie. “Well, well,” he said with a charming smile, “it’s good to see that you’re alive. You gave us quite a scare there.”
As the man spoke, a thin, wan-looking halfling wearing a leather collar walked in and placed a tray of bread and pot roast on the bedside table. Elsa watched in silence as the hobbit went about his task and then remained quiet after he left, making no effort to respond to the man that had spoken to her. After a few more awkward seconds of silence, he cleared his throat and spoke again. “You don't know me; the name’s Garon, but some call me Coinspinner. I do odd jobs for the Acquisition Teams now and again.”
Elsa raised an eyebrow at him and he flashed her another charming grin. He then wagged his finger at her and continued. “But you, everyone knows you… You’re the legendary Gerda, Calico Murder.” He paused for a moment and ran his fingers over his scruff of a beard. “It is a bit odd to see you here though. Aren’t you Drasia's blade?”
Since she didn’t know how to respond to the question, Elsa kept her mouth shut and opted to lie back down on the bed again. Garon nodded and pulled up a chair. "I get it, above my paygrade… That's fine, I am a good soldier.” He gestured his hand toward the tray of food. “You should eat something.”
Elsa looked at the food and then turned her head away. She was disgusted by the thought of having to share a meal with someone who had taken her against her will, but she also knew that she had to keep up the Gerda act; therefore, she gestured to him that she was too unwell to eat.
Garon’s eyes narrowed for a moment as he studied her closely. “My sawbones said that you should stay off that leg for a few days. It will take a while before you can go jumping around, but he got the bone set and says it should heal without going bad… It was a nasty break, one of the messier ones I’ve seen. Bad luck that, but all’s well that ends well, eh?”
Elsa nodded to show that she understood the instructions, but remained silent. Garon grinned and leaned in closer. “I assume, and you don’t have to say ‘yea’ or ‘nay’, that you were on a mission to take out that Knight of the Vanguard?”
Elsa maintained a neutral expression, neither confirming nor denying his assumption. As she stared at him, Garon nodded to himself and continued, “We lost track of him and that girl he was with in the hubbub, but apparently they made short work of the squad I sent for them. That’s no surprise really; they were just fodder to slow the knight down.”
He scratched at his beard again as he thought about the encounter. “From the quick look I got, I think he was the Vanguard's new captain. Strange for him to be out in this Wasteland…” He kept his gaze locked on her as he pondered those things outloud. Elsa started to open her mouth to answer, but decided against it at the last moment.
"Oh! I meant to ask you… I just caught a glimpse of her after you dropped in, but the girl that was with the knight- blonde, good looking in that farm girl style- who was she? She reminds me of someone, but I can’t put a finger on it yet.”
He waited for a response, but Elsa just shrugged her shoulders. “If the word on that one eyed Captain is accurate,” he rambled on, “he isn’t the kind to keep a slave or a whore... daughter maybe? She had the smell of sorcery about her, and I can’t figure where I have seen her before.”
“That’s above your paygrade,” Elsa finally replied.
A small grin curled on the corner of his lips. “That is....interesting.” A wolfish gleam appeared in his eyes. “OK then, if I can get my hands on her maybe she will tell me where I know her from. Or I might recognize her in the right setting… after her hands have been tied and she’s been relieved of anything that might cover her.”
"Pig," Elsa muttered under her breath as she shook her head at him.
His eyes widened slightly as he noticed her disdainful gaze, but he laughed as though it hadn’t made him somewhat nervous. "Sorry, that's a danger of the profession.”
Elsa raised an eyebrow. “Profession?”
"What I like to call Talent and Resource Acquisition,” he answered. “We can get a bit crass...” His lips pressed together tightly as he looked at her again. “You were just here for that knight, right?” There was some hesitation before he asked his next question. “Umm… Drasia doesn’t have a sudden interest in the East road, does she? If so, you can tell her for me that it isn’t as lucrative as everyone claims… but I would be glad to share if she wants a piece.”
Elsa sat up and glared at him, trying to play the part of ‘Gerda’ as best she could. “I go where I so please...Care to object to that?”
From the way his eyes flashed when she said that, she was now certain that he was afraid of her, at least in some way. He held up both of his hands in a show of submission and responded, "Hey, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against a bit of freelancing. And I am not about to go tattling to that crone; the farther I am from the Surgeon of Balchort the better… I only wish to know if you have personal business with that knight. I don’t mean to pry, but I like to keep an eye on the Companies and how they affect the bottom line.”
“Speak to the crone about a promotion or two and maybe you will be in a paygrade where I will humor you with the answers to questions like that.”
His jaw clenched for a moment and then he pushed himself up from his chair. "Well....” he said through a forced smile, “you need your rest. This location is reasonably secure, we’ve got plenty of boys here to protect you and nobody else comes around except for little folk and the occasional Breelander looking for ore.”
Elsa watched him for a bit longer before lying back down. "My presence here is a secret. If anyone besides yourself knows I am here, you are to have those people executed immediately."
Garon nodded. “It's alright; the few that do know are oathsworn... As for the boys around here, I just said that you were an old flame I was getting reacquainted with; it explained the occasional moans while you were sleeping.”
She glanced up at him with a stern look in her eye. “See that it stays that way.”
“Of course,” he said with a flourished bow of his head. He then motioned to her injured leg. “When that starts to hurt again just sing out for some more joy juice. And if you want a message sent, I’ll get the boys to take it for you; I’ve got some runners that I trust.”
Elsa closed her eyes. When she didn’t respond, Garon cleared his throat. “Well...thanks for the conversation…” he said as he made is way toward the exit. “I do hope that you’ll put in a good word with your Mistress when you get back to Carn Dûm. We've done the best we could for you out here in the armpit of the world... Houses of Healing this place is not.”
He glanced back over his shoulder as he parted the cloth door. “I'll drop in again in a bit… or if I get any news.” With that, he slipped out of the tent and tied it closed behind him.
Elsa waited until the sound of his footsteps had faded before she sat up on the cot again. She was almost certain that he was gone, but she wanted to make sure; and so, she stood and tried to put weight on her injured leg, but it was still weak and not able to take the pressure yet. Frowning at the pain, she glanced around the tent for anything that could be used as a suitable crutch and spotted one leaning against the wall near her cot- clearly it had been prepared for her, which she found odd.
After reaching over to take the crutch, she slowly moved toward the the exit and peered out through the gaps in the ties; she could see a dozen or so other tents and an animal pen off to one side, but no one seemed to be around. Just walking across the tent seemed to take a great deal of effort and Elsa was forced to turn back so that she could sit down on the cot again. While there, she looked around at the different things in the room, trying to find something that might be of use to them for when she escaped the strings of her captor.
The tent appeared well-furnished and comfortable as far as tents were concerned- from the looks of it, it was likely that Elsa had been placed in Garon’s own quarters. She spotted a table on the far side, which seemed to be set up as a makeshift desk with curios and stacked papers across it, and after a moment she slowly pushed herself up again to make her way over. It took all of the energy that she had left to reach the area, but she was still able to make sure that she didn’t knock anything over as she plopped down in the chair.
Several piles of paper containing carefully penned lists and amounts were stacked neatly to one side of the table, and next to that were a few maps and a leather bound volume. On the other side of the table, there was a dagger in a silver scabbard and a small statue of what appeared to be Minas Tirith. Elsa started with the papers; the pages were covered in notations similar to the book she had seen in the farmhouse, but now there were amounts of money along with the dates and numbers of people. After looking through the first five or six pages, she frowned; those papers alone showed that at least three dozen people had been enslaved over the last few weeks, and based on the amounts that had been recorded Garon had made a fair amount of coin on the deals. She shook her head and was about to move on to the other things on the table when a scrawled note on one of the pages caught her eye. It read:
Contact Finnualith to deal with the Dove.
Leave note at Pony for Miss Chief.
Wait at crossroads at moonrise.
She pondered that for a moment as her gaze drifted over to the maps on the table. The maps depicted the areas of Bree, the outlying farms in Bree-land, and the Shire, and were very detailed; several houses in the homesteads had been marked and there was also a great deal of notations along the east road. Moving quickly so that she wouldn’t get caught snooping, Elsa made a mental picture of the maps and then turned her attention to the blade in the sheath. The dagger had a familiar winged motif that she had seen before and the hilt was decorated in silver with red inlays; at the base of the fine blade a small number was inscribed, ‘515'.
After she had examined the blade, she returned it to its sheath and carefully put it back in its place. Lastly, she inspected the statue of Minas Tirith to see if it contained anything that would make it unique compared to the numerous other identical statues of the city that she had seen in her travels. Inscribed in the base of the small statue were the words,
To Garon,
For Gallentry in the Battle of Alttaria.
-His comrades in the Hounds"
Elsa raised an eyebrow; she couldn’t believe that the same man that had captured her and was responsible for trafficking slaves had received some type on honorable recognition. She shook her head and looked back toward the tent opening; though she was weak, she knew that there was still more she could learn while she was here, and perhaps she could even sabotage them in some way. After taking in a deep breath, she decided to push her luck and slowly exited the tent to have a better look around at the camp.
(Continued in Finding Elsa Part 4)
