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The High Cost of Living


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#1 Guest_Rose of Jericho_*

Posted 03 February 2003 - 04:34 AM

For the first time in her life, Renai found herself wishing she could bend her pride and her knees and pray to the gods for respite.

But Athkatla's Temple District did little to inspire that sort of supplication. Instead, like every other area within the City of Coin, it just made her feel like shopping. And try as she might, Renai couldn't find her way clear to trade gold for absolution.

What's the cost on my soul for today, I wonder. Renai sat slumped against the bridge railing and looked out at the district's many temples. Let's see. One Harper agent: saved. That's good. Two mage apprentices: dead thanks to Jaheira and me. Not so good. And crazy Xzar from the road to the Friendly Arm so long ago: led to his death at Harper hands by me. Well, he was dead before, so maybe it's all right.

Except that it wasn't. Somehow, the business of death had become business as usual. Realizing it now made Renai sadly wonder when she had stopped being Gorion's child and started being a Child of Bhaal.

She shook her head. Never mind this now. Maybe Jaheira is done with her little Harper meeting. I could go back to the docks and see. Dusting off her light linen trousers, Renai rose and headed toward the district's exit.

"My lady!" She heard Anomen's voice behind her and cringed. Oh, man. This is what I get for looking for religion. It comes looking for me instead. With a small sigh, she turned and watched the squire approach.

"My lady! I am pleased to find you here!" The normally dour priest's smile was so surprisingly warm that Renai was immediately suspicious.

"Why?" she frowned, "what's wrong?"

"Not a thing." Anomen's smile vanished under her glare. "Just that I ... ah ... I have news: I have secured employment for our party."

"Really? You did?" Renai mentally chastised herself for being so judgmental and suspicious. After all, hadn't she told Yoshimo that Anomen wasn't that bad? She forced herself to smile and was rewarded by the return of his. "Um ... That's great, Anomen. What's it involve?"

He nodded at a small crowd nearby. "It is good that this riff-raff has not dispersed so that you can see yourself what evil is involved."

Renai looked hard at the crowd and saw nothing except a bunch of agitated people, which was not unusual for this city. Before them, a man screamed at them about ... cutting out offending eyes? Surely she hadn't heard that right, but then most dogma sounded silly to her. "What? I don't get it."

"This!" Anomen pointed at the preacher. "This madness is the work of a cult that wishes to decieve the good people of Athkatla! My lady, surely you can see how we cannot allow this." He paced before her in time to his words. "The High Watcher Oisig from the Temple of Helm has asked me to investigate this matter, and I accepted on behalf of our group!"

Renai shook her head. "No."

Anomen halted and looked at her. "It would involve not only a reward, but a great amount of esteem both within the church and with the Order. Surely you can see ..."

"No."

"But my lady, the high watcher asked me to involve you specifically." His voice pitched into a whine. "My report of our victory at the de'Arnise keep has favored us. This can only advance us further."

"Did I mumble? I said no. I don't work for gods, Anomen. Count me out."

Anger hardened Anomen's face to its usual stubborn expression. "So! It would seem that everyone who asks receives your assistance -- including beggars and drunken men -- everyone, that is, except for those who stand by your side!"

"Hey, for your information, that guy we brought back to the city wasn't a drunk, he was a Harper."

"That is not an improvement. I had thought," he said, and Renai grimaced at the self-righteousness she heard in his tone, "when I took up with your party, my lady, that we were of similar minds. That you also worked for the cause of honor and righteousness."

"That's odd. I thought we were similar in that we both try to help those who can't help themselves."

Anomen started to say something, but stopped abruptly and flushed a dark red. "Why then won't you ..." he began, but swallowed hard and looked away.

... help me? Renai read the question in his miserable expression. Her irritation with him drowned beneath a sudden and surprising surge of sympathy. Well, this is a first. I'm almost scared to think what it is about this that's making him actually ask for help. Oh, give me strength ...

Anomen took deep breath and said in a rush, "If you will not assist me in this matter I will be forced to depart."

"All right."

He started but recovered quickly. "If ... if that's the way you feel, my lady ..."

"No, I mean all right, we'll look into this cult thing." Renai sighed. "Just don't tell anyone. I don't work for gods. But for you ... just this once ..."

The broad smile returned to Anomen's face. "That is ... that is excellent, my lady!" He grabbed her hand and propelled her down the sidewalk toward the district's exit. "You shall not regret this! Where are the others?"

"Yoshimo left when you did, when we got to the city. And Jaheria ... ah, after she and I took the Harper to his headquarters, we had a little ... um ... she's taking care of some business. They'll both be back, but I don't know when."

"Never mind, we shall begin ourselves." Anomen turned and steered Renai back across the bridge. At the sewer grate at its foot, he dropped to his knees and pried it open.

"What are ... " Renai began, but Anomen interrupted her. "Our mission begins below, within the sewers," he replied. Dank, fetid air rushed out from the opened grate. "Spies for the temple have found entrance to the cult's temples below."

"Woah, wait. Wait!" Renai rapped her knuckles on the back of his armor to get his attention. "Sewers are bad, bad places, Anomen. Let's wait for Jaheira and Yoshimo."

"What can we encounter that we two cannot defeat?" Anomen started to descend down the steps that lead into the dark hole. "Besides, my lady: we will not be alone. Sir Keldorn, a knight of Torm from the Order, will meet us below. He is a good knight, if a trifle arrogant. Come."

If he is arrogant, what does that make you? Renai almost said but managed to bite it back. Instead, she said, "Anomen, I'm not prepared for this. Look at me." She gestured at her clothes: a tight sleeveless shirt and linen pants instead of the leather dress of armor she normally wore. "I'm unarmed. Let me to run back to the Coronet and get my bow."

"Then this shall simply be an expedition to scout and make contact with Sir Keldorn, nothing more." He took her hand and looked up at her from the sewer steps in almost a courtly manner. "Fear not, my lady, for I shall protect you."

"That makes me feel so much better." He did not hear the sarcasm in her voice. Renai looked up at the heavens to weigh her options. He was determined to do this now. If she left, he'd go in anyway, and she hadn't seen him manage to avoid trouble yet. Warily, she followed him into the sewer.

Ankle-deep water filled with slime, mud and sludge pulled at Renai's legs as she followed Anomen through the sewer. Several times he looked at her and once offered her his hand, which she ignored. Gods, he *is* trying to protect me, she thought in disgust. Even unarmed I could show him a thing or three. I been fighting bare knuckled much longer than I have with a staff.

They had not gone far before Renai saw six men loitering near a bend in the path. "Someone's ahead. They don't look like knights," she whispered. Anomen nodded and held the Flail of the Ages ready.

"Well, well," one of the men -- a dwarf -- sneered as Renai and Anomen approached. "On a romantic stroll, are we? Odd place to take your girl for a bit of a romp, boy."

"We are here on business of Helm, dwarf," Anomen growled. "We seek no trouble. We only mean to pass by."

"Oh, by all means. If you'll just pay us a thousand gold, you can pass right on by. Can't they?" The others broke up into loud guffaws. Anomen tensed and took a firmer grip on the flail.

"Come on." Renai tugged on Anomen's arm. "Let's go. We'll come back later."

"We have a right to be here," he muttered. The hoodlums broke out again in mean laughter. As if on cue, they circled Renai and Anomen like wolves around prey.

"If you ain't got the gold, we can find other ways of payment," a stout human sneered. He reached a grubby hand toward her.

Renai kicked the man in the crotch just as Anomen swung the Flail of the Ages across his face. The hood collapsed into the sewer's watery muck, leaving Renai and Anomen standing back-to-back to confront the other five. "Behind me, my lady," Anomen cried.

"What for?" she snapped, moving to trade blows with a half-elven swordsman. Behind her, she heard Anomen mumbling a prayer before he took on the dwarf and another man.

All the sewer's noises ceased under a veil of silence.

Good boy! Good, good boy! she thought, only slightly disoriented by the magical deafness that Anomen had cast to cripple the spellcasters and even the odds.

Renai took several cuts from her opponent's sword before she got past his blade and grabbed his hair. She slammed his head into the slimy wall with all her strength. The back of his head shattered, and he fell lifeless into the sewer's murky water.

She caught the eye of the mage, who was still trying to cast despite the silence spell. Barring her teeth, she made a move toward him.

He picked up his robes and fled down the sewer corridors. The sixth man was no where to be seen.

Anomen was cleaning off his flail on the cloak of one of his opponents, both of whom were lying dead in the water. More death, she thought bleakly, trying to staunch the flow of blood from a nasty cut on her arm. It courts me like a lover in this dammned city, and I'm not even getting romanced in the bargain.

"Helm smiles upon us this day. You see, my lady? We are more than capable of meteing out punishment to those who deserve it!" Anomen crowed when the silence spell broke.

"Punishment?" The look of satisfied accomplishment on Anomen's face made Renai feel ill. "What were they doing except pestering us? They deserve death for that?"

"We assuredly were not the first they've assaulted, and had we not done our duties here, we would not have been the last." Anomen kicked the dwarf's body. "This is truly judgment."

"Stop it." The sharp edge in Renai's voice cut Anomen's jubilation, and his smile faded. "We're calling this off for now, Anomen. We're leaving."

"But my lady, we've only begun."

"No, we're going. We're not prepared for this kind of quest. And besides, look at me." She gestured to the bloody cuts on her arms and legs.

"Oh. You ... ah ..." Anomen reddened again and said rather shyly, "even after the turmoils of battle, you ... you look lovely, my lady ..."

Renai couldn't help it: She smacked Anomen hard on the forehead with the heel of her hand. "I'm not looking for praise, you idiot! Look at me! I'm hurt! I need healing!"

Anomen rubbed his head and scowled. "I have healing spells, and our victory here will likely ensure we will not do such battle again. Let us continue."

"No! No more death today! I am sick to my soul of death today! We'll. Come. Back."

"That we find Sir Keldorn is all I ask. He would report to the high watcher favorably of us, especially now."

Renai kicked at the sewage, splashing Anomen's knees with muck, to keep from kicking him. "I'm not going to risk my life or anyone else's just so you can get credit at your dammned temple!"

Anomen shouted down into her face, "My duties ..."

"... aren't worth a copper with me." Renai turned her back on him and splashed toward the sewer's egress. "Have fun storming the sewers. I'm going to get healed at the temple. Of Lathander."

"You are no different than the rest of them," Anomen shouted. "You are nothing but a ..."

Renai turned and pointed a shaking finger at him. "Don't even finish that sentence unless you want to feel my boot so far up your ..."

Something sharp and heavy struck her back and took her breath away, robbing her of both her words and her strength. Stumbling forward, Renai turned and saw the sixth hoodlum melt out of the shadows, a bloody sword in his hand. Only then did she feel pain and taste the sharp iron tang of blood in her mouth.

Anomen ran at them, fury and fear blazing in his eyes. Renai did not feel the impact as she collapsed into the warm sewer water. In the distance she saw someone running toward them. She tried to cry out a warning to Anomen, but she couldn't. She couldn't do anything except die.




Renai sat up and looked around. And immediately regretted it. Nausea washed over her, making her slap her hand over her mouth and close her eyes before she saw where she was.

"Here, now," a man's voice said. Someone turned her on her side and held her long hair behind her as she was violently sick all over the polished parquet floor. "No need to worry, that happens sometimes with healings. Better now?"

Renai lay back onto what seemed to be a marble table and stared up at the man who now wiped her face with a cool towel. Parquet floor? This isn't the sewer. Above them she saw finely carved ceiling tiles and polished stone walls. "Where'm I?"

The man, an older, graying man in exquisite armor with a hard-as-stone face, smiled. "You're at the temple of Helm. I am Sir Keldron Firecam, a warrior of Torm. Squire Anomen tells me you two were coming to meet me when you were ambushed."

"Anomen?" Renai struggled to sit up, then swung her legs over the side of the table to stand. "Where's Anomen? Because I'm going to kill him."

But her legs collapsed the moment she tried to put her weight on them. Sir Keldorn caught her before she fell and gently deposited her on the table. "Young woman, stay there and rest a moment. I won't have you injure yourself. Or Squire Anomen. At least, not yet."

He grined at the small joke, but Renai was in no mood for jokes. "Was I dead? I don't remember being dead."

"No, but you were as close as I've ever seen anyone without actually dying." Sir Keldorn clasped his hands before him and and gave her a level look. "Squire Anomen is in the chapel, where he's been since the priests assured him you would be fine. He seems to believe that you will blame him for this incident."

"I blame him," Renai growled and sat up again. "If he had waited for the rest of our party -- or just for me to get my armor and weapons -- then I probably wouldn't have gotten stabbed and we wouldn't have killed five people."

"Six, actually. The thief who wounded you did not survive long."

"I. Blame. Him. Six dammed deaths," Renai said crossly. "No, let's round out my day. Seven, after I kill him."

Sir Keldorn sighed and his rigid posture fell into a slump. "Anomen has never been what I would call patient, but I had hoped he would have learned some by now. This will not bode well for him with either the Order or the high watcher." He looked out the door and shook his head. "I had great hopes for that boy."

"What do you mean, 'It won't bode well for him'?" Renai shook Sir Keldorn's arm, and he turned his solemn gaze to her. "I'm really not going to kill him. Maim him, maybe, but we're at a temple. He'll get healed."

"As a member of the Order of the Most Radiant Heart, Squire Anomen has taken a vow to protect. As a priest of Helm, he has vowed to never go into battle ill-prepared. And he has failed to do either."

"So what's going to happen?"

"I cannot speak for the temple of Helm, but I can say that the Order will call Anomen back for discipline."

Not good at all. This is my problem, not theirs. No one gets to smack him around for this but me. "They can't do that. I need him. He's part of my party, a ... um ... a valuable member. I need him."

Sir Keldorn did not move, but his stare intensified and made Renai want to squirm. "You just said ..."

"I know what I said, but ... listen, don't get him into trouble. This is between me and him."

"He seeks to be a knight of the Order, and he is a priest of Helm. He answers to them, first and always"

Renai met his stare. "We'll just see about that."

They stared at each other for a moment before Sir Keldorn smiled again at her, and this time Renai smiled back.

"I shall offer you a deal, young woman." Sir Keldorn leaned against the table. "Tell me why you would take this man that you do not like into your party and defend him after his mistakes, and perhaps I will reconsider my report to his superiors."

"Because I'm an idiot," Renai said immediately, then shook her head. "No, I don't mean that. Well, not completely. It's because ... he's trying. I can see it inside him, he doesn't want to be such asn ass. And when he tries, he's someone I don't mind having around. He's ... a good guy. When he tries."

Sir Keldorn looked at something in the distance Renai did not see. "I will tell you something," he said after a moment. "My wife and Anomen's mother were dear friends. I have watched him grow into a man, and I know the demons he wrestles. You are correct. And I will tell you this as well: His judgment is close at hand. Because of those demons, he has had to fight harder for his place in this world. And the harder he tries ..."

"The worse he is. I get it. I knew ... I know someone like that." Renai slid off the table and stood wobbily. Sir Keldorn took her arm to help her keep her balance as they walked out the door. "So what will you tell the Order about what happened in the sewer today?"

"I could tell them," Sir Keldorn said slowly, "that Squire Anomen did save the life of his companion, for he did do that. He battled the thief only after he healed what he could of your wounds." Across the temple's main hall, Anomen stood by the doors, looking contrite for the first time Renai could remember. "If you're sure, that is."

Renai nodded. "I think so. I can give him another chance. After I maim him. No," she grinned quickly at Sir Keldorn. "I won't do that. Not much. Only a little. All right, not at all."

As they watched Anomen cross the floor to meet them, Sir Keldorn whispered, "You can wound him if he fouls up again," and winked. Renai fought down her giggles and looked solemnly at Anomen.

"My lady," he said quickly and without looking at her, "I have given this matter much thought, and I believe that I should depart from your party. For your sake." When she did not answer, he looked at her. "I believe it would be for the best. You would be ... your party would be better off without me."

Renai studied Anomen and tried to use the same look Sir Keldorn had to make her squirm. I've got to get him to lighten up, or I *will* kill him. Or he'll just explode from all that angst. Well, wonder boy, let's see what I can do with you. She smacked Anomen hard on his forehead with the heel of her hand. "That's for almost getting me killed." Before he could react, Renai took his head in her hands and drew his face down to hers. And kissed him as thoroughly as she could.

"And that," she said a trifle breathlessly, "is for saving my life. So, we'll meet up later at the Coronet? I'm going to find Jaheira. Then we can set up a plan for this cult job." Anomen stared blankly at her. She nodded. "Do this if you agree. This means yes. Yes? Good. So we'll meet later. Sir Keldorn, will you join us?"

"Young woman, I would not miss it." The twinkle in Sir Keldorn's eye betrayed his serious expression, and he clapped Anomen on the back as Renai walked out the door.

"I do not think I understand what just happened," Renai heard Anomen say as she left.

Sir Keldorn's laugh rang through the hall. "Lad, I don't think you're supposed to, but I'll try to explain it. Come."




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