As I walked to the secret meeting with Captain Corain, I thought about what had been discussed last night. Both the King and the governors raised several concerns. Concerns tied to the problem of the ancient treasure.

 

I ran through ever growing list of events. First there were the city raids by the Blood Flagon pirates. Their leader, Elise the Golden, had requested a parlay. There was much discussion about her history and why the pirates not only protected her, but allowed her to rob them. Very strange to be sure. It was pointed out that there might be two factions of the Blood Flagon pirates. Several of the recent attacks had been by orcs and jukas. Before being killed, one of the leaders mentioned that he had been hired. The question is who hired them, perhaps Tolivar the Fence. A new piece of the puzzle was a rumor that imps had been seen mining. It was something unheard of. I was puzzled wondering what could they be digging for.

Next was the robbery of the Palace vaults. Who was behind it and what they took was still unknownn. Sherry the Mouse was the only witness. She had given the Captain a scrap of paper she had found. The paper having a sheen that shimmered and a hidden message. All of the attempts to find the message had failed. It was suggested that using different colors might reveal the message.

Then there was the matter of Vos, Merrick and Tolivar Fence. Both Vos and Merrick were under the watch of the Royal Guard. Vos was in the Yew prison waiting for his trial which he didn’t seem to be in a hurry for. He had many enemies trying to kill him and a jail cell would be the safest place to hid. The trial delayed by information Captain Corain had gotten from him. Merrick had verified it. I had questioned the King about the wisdom of trusting the information. He reassured me that in fact he didn’t. Captain Corain was investigating it. Merrick presented another problem. The list of the crimes he had committed, was long but so was the list of things he has done for Britannia, was equally long. Merrick also claimed to know how to get the information listing atrocities committed during the command of the Spymaster Tolivar. A list supposedly burned.

 

But the most disturbing piece of information, was the possibility of a spy in the royal palace and in the Royal Guard. Elisa the Golden had hinted of it. I wondered could there be more than one spy. One sent by Elisa the Golden and another by Tolivar Fence. Hopefully the captain had arranged the meeting to provide more information.

At last I arrived at the meeting place, a lonely tower by of Brittany bay . Finding a place to watch unseen, I laughed at the thought that I was in fact a spy for the king. Captain Corain was frowning as the members of the royal spies and guards arrived.  He told us that several beggars thought to be spies had been arrested, but  we quickly learned that the meeting was about the mysterious Captain Elise.

Corain told us that information had come to his attention, that her life might be in danger. While Agaris had been following the Blood Pirates, he saw one of her immediate crew meeting with some men. It sounded like the false “Blood Flagon” that have been attacking Captain Elise’s crew, are receiving orders from someone close. Those orders also included a threat against Captain Elise. Could it be that the royal guards were being used by both sides? Captain Elise might be using us to solve her problems, while the secret leader could be using these attacks to distract us from the ancient treasure.

I quietly moved to another position. One that allowed me to see more of the assembly and their reactions. Most were surprised when the captain told us that today, Vos had given a good lead. He told the Captain he could tell him where to find Tolivar, but not today but tomorrow. When asked, his answer was strange. He could provide a thousand and one alibies for how Tolivar was found tomorrow. Which meant that Tolivar would welcome him like a friend, but if he was caught today, Tolivar would cut his heart out himself. So that could be the person Vos was hiding from. Strange that one day would make such a difference.  Captain Corain had the same thought but felt we would have to go along to see what Vos was up to.

Merrick was another loose thread. All of us had followed and trusted him. I was shocked when he had turned himself over to the Royal Guard. Finding the ancient treasure had seem so important to us. Hum… we still were no closer to knowing what the treasure was. Could Tolivar found some small clue we had missed. It would explain a lot of the recent problems.  Tolivar seemed working hard to keep Merrick from finding it. What was this treasure. Merrick was willing to die for. I wondered was it a thing or was it in fact a person. It had been mentioned that the treasure would pull you in and trap you.  I wouldn’t like to cross Merrick in that case. Spies, you have to trust them because they figure it all out, but you can’t trust them because, half of what they say is a lie.  With that Captain Corian sent us to help Agaris.