Downtown Druid

Book 3 Chapter 58: Gold Forgives All Mistakes

Dantes sat across from Stone on the Mountaintop in his VIP booth at the Vixen. He’d never met Stone, but knew him by reputation. He was the head of the Adventurer’s Guild, a noble, and a member of the council. In the council he represented all of the guilds within the city. He was short and squat, even for a dwarf, with dark gray hair, and a face covered in scars including one that tore clear across his scalp. He wore a simple leather outfit with a warpick belted at his waist and chewed a fat cigar that he somehow managed to smoke even in the middle of sips of ale. He wore a necklace with an engraving of a dragon, to show that before he’d become its leader he’d achieved the highest possible rank an adventurer can reach.

“Alright. You invited me here, gave me ale, and offered me a whore. I’d say the pleasantries are over. Go ahead and start spewing whatever it is you want to get to. I’m getting no younger.”

“Are you sure? I think your hair has darkened a bit since you sat down. I’d bet you’ve gotten back a year or two since you got here.”

Stone snorted. “Get on with it.”

“I have two reasons I wanted to meet with you. The first is that I wanted to ask you to tell me about Gavain, and the second is that I want your support for a shift in how changelings are shifted.”

Stone shook his head. “Gavain? Gods that boy… he used to be such a perfect little tool. Now he’s just a black mark on us all.”

Dantes sipped his own wine, letting Stone choose to keep talking.

“He was the greatest adventurer we’d ever had. Came from a family of shepherds. He was everything people wanted from the Guild. He’s strong beyond strength, fast beyond speed, and had a smile that told people everything would be okay. When he first started taking jobs, he’d take three or four in a region at a time. He worked all of them alone, not because he wasn’t able to get along with other adventurers, but rather because other people slowed him down and he wanted to end whatever trouble he could as soon as possible. He slayed his first dragon at seventeen, and he did it alone.” He ran a thick finger along the scar on the top of his head. “I got this fighting a dragon with ten other men, and he’d killed one himself without getting a scratch on him.”

“What makes him so different? Is it some kind of magic? A blessing from a god? Some item?”

Stone shook his head. “I don’t know. We looked mind you, spoke to him at length, but he himself had no idea. We had him looked at by the best mages in the academy, and the greatest physicians as well. As far as they could tell, his muscles were denser than anyone else’s they’d ever seen, and his reactions to things were faster than anything they’d ever seen as well, but they couldn’t say why. He was simply born strong. Add on his impulsive need to help people, and adventuring constantly for a decade, and he’s only become stronger and sharper.”

“So, he only has one weakness then.”

“Oh?”

“He’s naive. Ideological.”

“Oh yes, that’s his greatest problem. It was good for the guild though. He never questioned what he was paid or asked to do. Children and fools adored him for that lack of sense behind his eyes.” He shook his head. “And now he’s one of the worst stains on the Guild’s history. Slaying a king, starting a war, possibly two.” Stone took a long inhale of his cigar, and turned his eyes to Dantes. “Why do you care?”

“There’s always a chance he might come back to Rendhold. I wanted to know what to expect.”

“Gods. I hope he stays away. Nothing good would come of him being back here.”

“We can agree on that.”

He sipped his ale. “So, what’s this about changelings?”

“I want all the laws against them removed, and for them to be welcomed here.”

“There’s laws against them?”

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Dantes nodded. “Yes. They’re arrested and thrown into the Pit or the Convent immediately when they’re discovered.”

“Huh, I didn’t know that. Makes sense though. They’re nothing, but trouble.”

“They are trouble, but what if they were trouble for everyone but us?”

“Couldn’t trust that. They’d double cross anyone the first change they got. Besides, we’ve just kept them here imprisoned for this long? If we let them out now there’s now way they’ll work for us.”

“It wouldn’t be complete freedom. This is Rendhold, no one has that.”

Stone sipped his ale, it was his turn to listen.

“We remove their previous bindings, and make new ones. They can live here freely without being arrested, but they are bound to not harm Rendhold or its people, or take revenge on us. The language will be more complicated than that of course, Argenta is working on that.”

He shook his head. “That still doesn’t cover the ones who may come here.”

“There’s already the remnants of the guard that specializes in finding them. We boost their funding, and have some changelings, that are willing, bound to help them. We may have trouble recognizing them, but their own kind doesn’t.”

Stone scratched his gray beard.

“On top of that, we encourage two-name no-names.”

“What?”

“People who have two equally valid names, they can see through changeling’s forms. Tell which is which. We give an incentive to those that do it and eventually we’ll have hundreds of people in the city that can see through it. That’s not to mention the benefits of changelings working for us, for Rendhold. No other place welcomes them, think of what we could manage with all of them on our side.”

Stone scratched his beard. “You make some compelling points, but I’m still not sure. Argenta supports this, and I’m guessing you have at least one other with you. You must need me to make it a majority in the council. There’s no way that Belman would be for this, so you either have Kline or Seras on your side, and I doubt it’s Seras since losing the changelings in the Convent would directly contradict the Church.”

Dantes sighed. “Fine. I can bribe you as well.”

Stone winked. “Looks like you are as smart as Argenta told me you were. I needed all those other explanations too, but this is Rendhold. Even good ideas need some gold to move things through.”

Dantes shrugged. “I’ve been a bit starry eyed about things here lately, you’ll have to forgive me.”

“It’s alright. Gold forgives all mistakes.”

Dantes nodded and they copper and silvered one another for a few minutes. Dantes didn’t have to think too hard about it, he’d already settled on his maximum number before they’d even started talking, so instead he listened to Alessa sing. Her voice was beautiful, he actually preferred how she sang to how Syn did, but that was a good thing. He wanted the mother of his child to be talented, it made him wonder idly what things his son would find skill in. Would he have nimble fingers? A fine voice? A gift with animals? He at least hoped he’d take after his mother in height and looks, though given how much more orcish ancestry he had, that was likely anyway.

He and Stone wrapped up their negotiation. “Well, if that’s all settled, feel free to enjoy your ale and I’ll let Sera know that if you do decide to bed a whore today it’s on me.”

Stone raised his mug with a nod and a smile. “You’d have been a good member of the guild you know. We never seem to have enough of you roguish types.”

Dantes smiled back. “They have you leading them, I’d presume that’s enough.”

He chuckled and put back his ale while Dantes made his way downstairs to give Sera a heads up. She’d been acting as the Madam while Vera was consumed with preparing for her wedding, and had more than proven that she was ready to run her own establishment.

As he walked he saw a man heading toward him and squared his stance to meet him, wondering who would be so foolish.

His father stood there. “Hello, Eddie.”

Dantes clenched his jaw. “Louis.”

“I heard you had a boy.”

Dantes stood there silently for a moment. “I did.”

“I uh, carved this for him,” he removed his hand from his dirty coat to show a small wooden carving of a ship with wooden wheels at the bottom so it could be pushed around.

Dantes took the ship and stared at it.

“That’s all. I hope he likes it.”

Louis turned to walk away. Dantes sighed. He was trying to manipulate him, that was obvious. He shook his head.

“One gold.”

Louis turned. “What?”

“A week. One gold a week. More than enough to live comfortably in Midtown, more than you made as a sailor.”

He shook his head. “I don’t need that. I just wanted to give the boy a gift. My Da made me one of those, and I made you one, though I don’t think you remember it.”

Dantes didn’t, but his father had given him random gifts over the years to win his affections.

“You’ll take the money, and if Alessa agrees, I’ll let you meet the boy.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Dantes shook his head. He’d won so much, bullying an old man for what he did as a father…it would give him some satisfaction, he hadn’t outgrown his pettiness, but it was such a waste of energy. He’d seen many men and women be far better grandparents than they were parents. A grandparent only showing up sometimes with a gift to spend some time with a child was a good thing, noble even. It just wasn’t enough for a parent.

Dantes reached into a pocket and flicked a gold coin toward Louis.

“Just don’t expect to get any discounts here. Vera’s in charge of all that.”