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My map listed an inn nearby, so I headed for that. As I left the temple behind and reached the main trail going over the pass, I was halted by a fast-riding soldier.
"Please, make way for the prince." he said in a polite but commanding voice, and stood between me and the road as if some sort of parade were about to come by. How odd! A parade at sunset in November in the middle of the wilderness? Curiosity more than anything else held me from objecting.
Two minutes later, the parade came by. It was a small one, but well worth the wait. The centerpiece of the parade was a handsome man -- handsome and richly dressed. He also rode his horse masterfully. He was quite a sight! Surrounding him were six men: five soldiers dressed identically to the one who was barricading me, and one princely advisor of some sort who rode with his face covered by a scarf.
When the party saw that their lead soldier was stopped, another soldier quickly galloped ahead to take the lead. The party itself paused twenty meters away from me -- too far to open a conversation -- then hurried on when the lead soldier was 100 meters ahead. Once the party had passed, my soldier thanked me for my patience, then hurried on to catch up with the prince and his parade.
As the last soldier rode away, I smiled, and then laughed. This was a prince, all right, but I could see by how he looked and acted that he was a prince made a prince by magic! This is not something a person sees every day, not even a person such as me, who is well-versed in magic. I was very curious! But, it was clear that this Magic Prince was very nervous about something, so starting a conversation with him by walking up to him and saying, "Hi Magic Prince. How are you doing?" would end two seconds later with six swords pointed at my neck. I would have to bide my time.
I continued my own journey, and thirty minutes later I was at the inn on my map. No surprise, so was the prince. One soldier was at the stable guarding the horses and keeping the livery boy busy with tending them. Now that I was close to the horses, I could see two interesting things: first, that they were seven identical horses, and second, that they had been ridden hard and they were tired.
"You're really going to ride them more tonight?" the livery boy shook his head at the guard, "I'll do what I can, but you're pretty sure to have seven lame horses by morning." he sighed.
"Just do what you can." said the soldier. He was not surprised at what the livery boy said.
The livery boy stopped his tending long enough to take my horse and asked if I would be staying the night. "Yes." I said, and I walked to the inn.
Inside, the prince's soldiers were at a big table wolfing down a meal, and the prince and his advisor were at a small table talking earnestly. When their food came up, they ate fast as well. A third big table was empty, and the fourth big table had one man at it. He was drinking a beer and watching the prince very carefully, as if he knew him, and didn't like what he knew. I sat down at the fourth table, and ordered dinner.
I struck up a conversation with the beer drinker, even though he was not in a conversational mood. After the basic small talk, the conversation tailed off... until the beer drinker got a fresh look of disgust.
"Prince, my arse!" he muttered to himself. He downed the rest of his beer, wiped his mouth, "I'll show him a prince, or two." he continued muttering. He put a coin on the table and left the inn with evil thoughts on his mind. The serving matron took the coin when she brought my meal, and seemed satisfied.
"Who was he?" I asked the matron as she served my food, "He seemed in an awful hurry."
"I don't know him well. He comes through once a month, or so, and doesn't talk much when he does."
"How about him?" I motioned at the prince.
"Now he's a sight, isn't he! This is the first time I've seen him, but I hope he comes back. He spends like a sailor on shore leave and pays with gold."
The prince watched the beer drinker go. As soon as he was out of the room, he motioned to one of his soldiers, whispered to him, and the soldier left as well. The prince looked at me briefly, checking again if he recognized me. When he decided he didn't, he went back to hasty eating and talking with his advisor. The soldiers continued their fast eating, as well.
The soldier who was quickest eating got up and went out. He was replaced by the soldier from the stables, who wolfed his food as well. Clearly this prince was traveling in style, but fast, really fast: He had a Date with Destiny and he was determined to be at her side on time.
The new soldier hadn't been two minutes at this food when there was a shout from outside, some protesting, then a scream was cut off suddenly. We all ran outside to see what had happened. The beer drinking man was kneeling in the stable with his head only half attached. Standing over him, one of the Prince's soldiers was now wiping blood off his sword. "He was laming a horse." he said, and motioned to one of the prince's horses. It now had a large blood stain on its lower leg.
The Prince's advisor ran to examine the horse. The Prince went to the man, examined him and got a sour look on his face. As he was doing so, the advisor came up, "We are lucky, the damage to the horse is superficial." I looked at the horse, and it looked as if the wound had healed completely. This advisor's skills in the healing arts were magical. Was this advisor the source of the Prince's magic and Princely appearance?
The Prince turned to the serving matron, who had also come out to see what had happened. Without looking at him, he snapped his fingers at his advisor, and from under his cloak the advisor produced a fist-size purse. The purse was heavy, and jingled as the advisor handed it to the Prince, who handed it to the matron. She needed both hands to hold it up.
The Prince said, "I am sorry for what has happened here. Please take your expenses for cleaning up this mess out of here, and give the remainder to his family, or his scruffy fellow bandits -- whichever show up first to claim his remains."
The matron and livery boy were speechless as the Prince and his men mounted and continued their journey. I was too, it was the smoothest walkaway from a murder I'd ever seen!
The livery boy and some other inn workers started cleaning up the mess. The matron and I went back to the inn. Once we were inside I asked her, "What have we just seen?"
Her mouth opened and shut a few times with nothing coming out. Finally she started talking, "The dead man is... was... a lowlife bum who hung around here sometimes. He was born around here, but his family disowned him years ago, and I think he was now a part-time bandit. Whatever kept him busy, he had money to pay for his food and drink here... most of the time, anyway. And he showed up only every month, or so, and didn't cause too much trouble when he did. We let him keep coming.
"That prince is brand new... but I have this feeling I've seen him before.... Beyond that, you know what I know.... Except I'm now damned worried about this money. Someone is going to die over it, mark my words! I just don't want it to be me or any of my inn-folk. That's my worry now!"
"Will you know who to give it to?" I asked.
"No. I don't know who he traveled with, but there are some very rough customers who pass this way, especially this time of year. The sheriff and the good folk are hunkering down in the valleys for winter, so a lot of bandits move over this pass this time of year. We close this place as soon as the first snow flies, and that could be any time now." She looked around a little, then made a decision, "In fact, we start closing up tomorrow! If word gets out that I'm holding a bag of gold for a 'lost relative', my life expectancy drops to about two days."
"I think you're making a wise choice." I said, "And I will help you shut down by leaving at first light tomorrow. In the meantime, if more surprises like this happen, and you think I can be of help, please don't hesitate to call on me."
The matron thanked me, and put me up in her best room. I went to my room thinking about the Magic Prince....
This prince is going somewhere very fast, and being cautious as he does so. He expects trouble. Not only does he expect trouble, he gets it.
He is not known here, but that dead man seemed to recognize him, and he tried to slow him up. That would indicate that the dead man expected "prince trouble" to show up soon. Hmm.... That would indicate something powerful enough to trouble a magic prince is in the area and looking for him. That something could be a monster, such as a dragon, but it is most likely a bandit pack -- a hundred or so armed and dangerous men.
So... the magic prince is moving away from a bandit pack, and those bandits are likely to be looking for him. What he is moving towards, what he is seeking, is not so clear. Thinking this through did not take long, I sought out the matron again to warn her.
I found her and said, "I've been thinking more about the prince. It is likely he's being pursued by an angry bandit pack. Can you fortify this place? Can you deal with them?"
The matron looked at me in a worried way. "I was afraid you'd say that because I thought it through myself about five minutes ago. My husband and I keep this inn here because it's popular with both summer valley travelers and those few folk who live here year round. No, we are not a fort."
"Then I suggest you move quickly. The more I think about this, the more worried I get." We nodded at each other and moved on.
I go back to my room and summon two Invisible Stalkers -- these are intelligent, tough, human-shaped creatures who live in the Ethereal Plane. These creatures can see into the Prime Material Plane, the plane that humans exist on, and have some effect here. But the thing they do best and easiest on the Prime Material is scout or act as a messenger. In this case, I will have them scout. I send one out to find the Magic Prince and follow him, and I send the other out to see if there is a bandit pack headed this way. That done, I rest.
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