18: Home to Roost

As we approached the von Bruner mansion, I began to feel increasingly nervous. Here was a chance to start the orphanage I had dreamt about. Previously I hadn’t even been able to imagine starting it until I was well into old age, at least forty-something. I wasn’t really sure how much fifty crowns could buy. I had never seen that much money, but I was sure it must be a lot. I had heard, too, stories about the nobility, how they never paid their debts to commoners, how they got rich and stayed rich by freeloading and using their influence to screw over the common folk. I couldn’t believe that Gutele was just going to hand over fifty crowns to me, especially as Kurtis had just punched her in the face.

But we were shown into the mansion. We waited for a bit. I’m not sure whether my nerves were showing, but everyone else was a bit on edge, too, except perhaps Otto who was too dim to realise what was going on. Then Moritz emerged, the same peeved expression on his face, and handed over a large purse. I was sorely tempted to count out every crown right there, just to make sure, but I resisted. But after leaving the house, and walking a few hundred yards out of sight, I did open the purse and begin to count. And sure enough, fifty gold crowns. I handed over ten to my colleagues, as we had agreed with Gutele to be paid ten crowns to capture the Fishrook, and we had done that. But I kept forty for the orphanage. I did make it clear to everyone that we needed to keep Gutele’s connection to the Fishrook secret.

I had barely finished counting the money when we heard a horse thundering towards us, and round a bend in the road came the Fishrook. His horse reared up before us and the Fishrook fired two pistols in our direction, hitting Erhardt and wounding him badly. Then the Fishrook shouted something about his sister. This was not Gutele, after all, but her brother, Boniel, disguised as his sister, disguised as the Fishrook.

Boniel drew his sword and charged in. Gulgad stepped up to receive the charge and swung his axe, knocking Boniel off his horse. He looked badly injured. I prayed this wasn’t fatal as the last thing we needed was a dead noble on our hands. Solvej grabbed Boniel’s neck in an effort to restrain him. Perhaps we had a chance of salvaging the situation, if only we could calm him down and keep him alive. So Kurtis drew his sword and plunged the blade into Boniel’s helpless body, killing him instantly. Boniel’s horse whinnied and bolted up the road. Quickly, Solvej loosed an arrow and brought the creature down with a single shot.

Shallya forgive me if I lost my temper for a moment, but I think a loud analysis of just how much Kurtis had messed up was reasonable and only to be expected in the circumstances. The idiot had practically signed our death warrants.

We quickly dragged Boniel’s body off the road and into undergrowth and then struggled with the body of the horse, trying to get it out of sight. Unfortunately, as we were doing so, a couple of merchants rode by. They didn’t say anything, but we must have looked very suspicious and unforgettable to them. Another step towards the gallows.

We decided to all go back to the temple of Shallya, at least this might be somewhere we could hide out for a while, but we agreed we needed to leave town very soon. We delivered the weirdroot to Father Gunther, and I think we handed it all over, though Otto may have kept some for himself. I was about to hand the forty gold coins over for Gunther to keep, but something made me hesitate. The luxury in his office, some of the things the temple did, just made me think twice, and I decided that if I were to start my orphanage then perhaps I would do it independent of the temple, here.

Then Gunther broke the news that Gudrun had died. We had taken too long to find the weirdroot and the young Dwarf had passed away a few hours before we’d got back. Gulgad was visibly shocked and after a few moments said he would go and tell Gudrun’s father. I said I would go with him to lend my theological expertise. I don’t know much about Dwarf customs, but I thought that they would probably appreciate having a priest there.

Gudrun’s father did not take the news very well at all. I have been listening to Gulgad and Erhardt talking to each other in Khazalid and have picked up a few words and phrases myself but have not got round to telling them that I can understand some of what they are saying. I will keep that to myself, for a while. But I understood almost nothing of what Gudrun’s father had to say to Gulgad except that it was not pleasant, and death threats were involved. Gulgad and I made our way slowly back to the temple, and the Dwarf seemed completely changed from the pit-fighting show-off that I knew and almost liked. He explained that Gudrun’s father had told him, if he saw him again, he would kill him. And I know Dwarfs don’t make or take these sorts of threats lightly. Another reason to leave town.

Back in the temple, Gunther had already prepared the weirdroot-rat-fluid concoction that he was hoping might be a cure to Ratte Fever and Gulgad and I drank it down. Needless to say, it was foul stuff. Erhardt was being seen to in the infirmary. I had taken a look at the wound but don’t know much about gunshots but one of the nuns in the infirmary knew what she was doing.

Kurtis was talking to one of the monks about absolution while managing to avoid describing his exact sin. The monk prescribed a course of painful atonement which I was not entirely happy with. The temple of Shallya has always been a source of comfort to me, but since Father Gunther arrived, I have had some misgivings. His predilection for the application of flagellation has always seemed to me to be rather Sigmarite and violent, and it might even be theologically unsound. In addition, the enthusiasm this has engendered among one or two of the other monks has been concerning.

I think that might be another reason I do not totally trust Father Gunther and why I hesitated in handing over the money. I thought that if I did decide to leave Ubersreik, after all, perhaps other temples of Shallya in other cities might lend something to my spiritual wellbeing in a different manner. Plus, it hurts. Even so, Kurtis did seem to have some of his burden lifted when he emerged from the session, even if he couldn’t sit down for a while.

Meanwhile, useful as ever, Otto’s latest mad scheme was to take up taxidermy, and he was hollowing out the body of a dead rat and stuffing it full of sawdust or horsehair or something in order to make it into, what I could only assume would turn out to be, the body of a dead rat.

After much heated debate, in a corner of the temple, that seemed to go on forever, we decided to leave Ubersreik. There was a free and frank exchange of views, and I stormed off before storming back in, and storming off again, because Kurtis was being such a dick. Kurtis had caused all the problems for us by killing Boniel von Bruner, and now wanted to go to Altdorf, to find his imaginary noble family, probably, or a rich noble widow.

Gulgad decided he needed to leave right away as he had things to do. He told anyone who wanted to come to meet him outside the south gate at first light. Everyone else was ready to leave. It made sense for Erhardt to go back to Altdorf and the Grey College and hope no one there ever got wind of his behaviour. Solvej said she didn’t have anywhere else to go and couldn’t go back to Nordland for fear of getting her fingers chopped off (or more likely, didn’t know how to get back to Nordland). I’m not sure what sort of hunting she could do in Altdorf, but to be fair, I’m not sure what sort of hunting she can do anywhere. And I think Otto just wanted to get away from his wife and kids, and if they are anything like him, I don’t blame him.

I wanted to stay at the temple but that was going to be difficult now. Before going to sleep, I prayed to Shallya for guidance. I didn’t understand why she allowed my best friend to kill the Fishrook-a-like, making sure I couldn’t stay in Ubersreik, just as I’d got enough money to start work on the orphanage. Why would she put the money in my grasp just at the moment she took away the opportunity to spend it for her? Why would she do it with a violent death? Why at the hands of my oldest friend? None of that made any sense at all. Why guide us to weirdroot and rat-bits to make a cure for Ratte Fever just too late to save Gudrun? And why is Father Gunther spending money on fine wine and luxury while the poor are starving?