Chương 9: City Watch

Captain Hughston was in his office poring over a detailed street map of Lorelark. It was marked up in pencil with the locations where all the missing persons lived, where they were last seen, and other relevant clues. Most of them had disappeared at night, leading to rumors around the city that they'd been taken. As a measure to reassure the public, he'd stepped up the night patrols, but that didn't stop the residents from clearing out of the streets at sunset in a sort of self-imposed curfew.

He wished he could just tell them to cut it out and go about their regular business. The problem was, the rumors were certainly right. But why had these people been taken? None of the victims' families had received any ransom demands. His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at his office door.

"Is this a bad time, sir?" It was one of this year's new recruits, a young man named Bradley.

"No, come on in and take a seat, private. Tell me what's bothering you." Bradley sat across from his desk and said, "I've submitted my shift report, but I thought I should bring this one to your attention personally. A dangerous monster was sighted near Restford." The boy fished something from his pockets and placed it on the desk. Hughston nearly jumped out of his seat.

"Are those troll's teeth?" he asked a bit too loudly.

"Rock troll, sir. After my shift, I went down and confirmed them with Evelyn at the adventurers guild." Hughston didn't need confirmation because he recognized them all too well. Before settling down into a life of public service, he'd been an adventurer. He'd only gotten as far as gold-rank, but had the good fortune to join a group of platinums on some raids one time. It was an experience he wouldn't trade for anything, but there had been some terrifying moments.

It had taken six of them—four plats and two golds—an entire afternoon to bring down a rock troll that had been terrorizing a mining town. How elated he was when it finally fell and they set about harvesting its materials. He had the job of collecting the teeth, which were strong enough to chew through iron. There was a trick to it, you see. The roots went in too deep, and the jaw bone was too dense to just pull them out. Maybe the Amber Knight could do it.

For everyone else, you basically had to chisel them free, wearing the bone away bit by bit. He'd only managed to get the first one out when the monster's parents returned to the nest and attacked them in a rage. He'd never run so fast in his life. Unfortunately the quest required them to clear out the whole nest, so they couldn't claim the reward. He heard that a few weeks later some crystals came along and finished the job.

In the end he did get a small payout for his contribution, plus his share from selling the materials.

"Did you say it was sighted near Restford?" he asked.

"It attacked a herbalist foraging in the Restwood," Bradley confirmed. This was troubling for many reasons. The entire region around Lorelark, including Restford and the Restwood, was supposed to be safe. It was rare to find a monster that a silver couldn't handle. He couldn't understand why a rock troll would suddenly spawn there. And he didn't have the resources to find out. His force was stretched thin with everything else happening at the moment.

The governor of Ygg Latten Bay had called up all the region's knights, leaving the local garrisons depleted. The city watch had to fill in the gaps left behind, and this was on top of their existing duties. They simply didn't have the manpower. The bandits on the northern road had taken advantage of this to waylay travelers with impunity. Then there were the people going missing, animals disappearing, and now dangerous monsters roaming the Restwood. Stolen novel; please report.

Maybe he had no choice but to declare the forest unsafe. But then the city's potion-makers and arthritic elderly would protest. The Restwood was an important source of alchemical ingredients that they all relied upon. But maybe he didn't have to make such a declaration. He looked again at the teeth on his desk. The obvious conclusion was staring him in the face.

"The adventurer making the report killed the troll, right? That means the problem's already solved. We'll send a runner to all the villages along the Restwood and warn them to be on alert in case the danger returns. If we don't receive any further reports, we'll put this one down as a freak one-off incident."

"I'm afraid I've got some bad news, sir." He looked up at Bradley.

"Worse than how the Restwood might now be spawning ground for rock trolls?"

"The witness doesn't know how the troll died, sir. She says that she found it dead. And while I was at the adventurers guild, I looked her up in the Maker's Shift system. She's only a bronze-rank, sir." Hughston tried his best not to let his emotions show. He had to put on a strong face for his officers. But he felt like sinking down to the floor. Because he knew what this meant. If the adventurer didn't kill the troll, then something else did.

If only he were so lucky, it would have been a crystal-ranker who happened to be passing through. But crystals were rare, and they wouldn't be wasting their time in a safe region like Lorelark. They also had a habit of announcing themselves, and he hadn't heard a peep. For another thing, they hadn't harvested the teeth. Troll's teeth were valuable, and not even the Amber Knight himself would have left them behind.

The only reason there would be any teeth left for the bronze to find was if the troll had been killed by a monster. Which meant that there was a monster loose in the Restwood capable of killing a rock troll. If he called up every officer in the watch, would their combined power be enough to take on something like that?

"Thanks for bringing this to my attention," he said.

"I'm going to have to think about the best way to approach this."

"Just doing my duty, sir." Once Bradley had left, Hughston allowed himself to bury his face in his hands. As he ran over all the problems again in his head, he couldn't help wondering, Why now? Why did everything have to happen all at once?

"Is something the matter, captain?" Hughston bolted upright in his chair. He must have been stressing too hard because he didn't hear this new person come in. He was a dark-haired elf in mage's robes with a bronze adventurer's badge pinned to the collar.

"Nothing that you can really help with," he said.

"What can I do for you?"

"I just wanted to impress upon you the importance of securing the Restwood," the adventurer replied.

"I would appreciate it if you could make it a priority."

"Impress upon me, huh? And who are you to be doing that?" The retort seemed to catch the man by surprise, as if he'd been expecting his own fame to speak for him. This was typical of adventurers, whose egos tended to be too big for their own heads.

"You're quite right," the man eventually replied.

"How terribly rude of me. But the matter remains of utmost importance to me." Hughston liked people who owned up to their mistakes, and the apology mollified him a bit.

"Before we get into it, can I see your guild card?" The adventurer handed it over.

"Havlo the mage from Restford," he read. That explained why the man cared so much about the danger to that village. He handed the card back and said, "I can assure you that we're taking the reported troll sighting seriously." He had to be careful about how much he told a member of the public. If there really were people going around abducting residents, they would only get bolder if word got out that the city was short-staffed.

"You're short on staff, aren't you?" Havlo said. The sudden accusation caught him by surprise, but he recovered quickly.

"We're always busy."

"I've been asking around," the adventurer continued.

"There's a lot going on, not just in Lorelark, but elsewhere. Ygg Latten Bay, am I right? So it seems to me like you could use a little outside help."

"And you think you could be that help?" His eyes darted briefly to the bronze badge. Havlo nodded and pulled out another card, this time just holding it up so that he could see. This one was much more worn. Hughston recognized it as one issued by the mages guild to identify their members. There were three circles on it, marking the man in front of him as a highly accomplished mage. Seeing the expression on his face, Havlo explained, "Every adventurer starts out at bronze." Of course.

And while magical training didn't always translate into real-world combat so cleanly, as a third-circle mage, the man in front of him had the capability to become platinum or even ruby. At that level, perhaps a little arrogance was understandable. He came to a sudden realization.

"So the one who killed that troll, it was—" Havlo shook his head.

"I'm afraid I don't know how it died." Too bad he couldn't tick that question off his list. But this was good. With the excitement over at Ygg Latten Bay drawing away all the talent, he'd thought that the only adventurers left in Lorelark were the sort who couldn't fight their way past a sewer rat. But here he had a third-circle mage offering his help.

"Before we begin, I ask that you keep my assistance between just the two of us," Havlo continued.

"Of course." He'd dealt with enough mages to know that they were like alchemists. They cared deeply about their privacy.

"Then let us begin," Havlo said.

"Tell me about your problems and I'll see what I can do."