Lorcan: Dragonquest

Chapter 23

Author's note: Getting Heshbon to spill about why he wants to turn himself into a bird has been problematic for Lorcan as the clerk has resisted telling him anything. Tonight, he changes his mind. Meanwhile, Kenn is out for revenge...

I need to know if my subplots are working in terms of making the story interesting. What do you think of Heshbon? Of Edric and his henchmen? Of Kenn the Soduane talking head?

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When Edric's company arrived in Telgawa, they found an inn and took a room. Edric took Kenn's box out and opened it.

"Wine!" gasped Kenn.

Reluctantly, Edric spooned some wine from a wineskin into Kenn's parched mouth.

"Lorcan is near."

"Where?"

Kenn's yellow eyes rolled back in his withered, grizzled face. "Some enchantment hides him from my perception but he is Soduane, and would therefore appear different to the people of this land, being paler than them."

"Then how do you know if he is here at all?" asked Garbert.

Kenn's eyes swiveled towards the young squire. "There are some things even magic can't hide, pup."

"If we find him, what then?" asked Edric.

"Tell me," said Kenn. "For whatever enchantment shields him from my perception can be used to aid your quest."

"Could it help us read that sorcerer's spellbook?" asked Garbert.

"Aye," said Kenn. "It surely could."

Edric glared at him. "I told you to leave that cursed thing there!"

"Yes, Edric, but I thought it might be useful to us. You can be sure that the others will have thought of using magic."

The knight glared at his squire. "But there's always a price to pay for using magic. Everyone knows that."

"Yes," replied Garbert, "but it doesn't seem to stop them." He looked pointedly at Kenn.

"Lorcan enchanted Kenn's head," snapped Edric. "He will suffer the consequences!"

Kenn grinned, showing his brownish-yellow teeth. "That he will. That he will."

***

The sun had just begun to rise as Lorcan and Cokelli rode their horses down to the marketplace. At one side Henorm stood near Heshbon and Beso, who were talking to people wishing to join their caravan. They got in line behind a clutch of merchants with their wagons and some Aefwealding knights. Groups of thuggish-looking men, some bearing clubs and axes, came to join them.

"Lorcan and Cokelli," said Henorm as the two of them approached the makeshift desk where Heshbon was writing down the names and occupations of the travelers.

Heshbon looked up. "It is a journey of two months to Karabi, then three more to Jal if you travel with us."

"It would be longer still without your gift of tongues," replied Lorcan. "And you know we can fight."

"Yes, we know," replied Heshbon. "You shall travel with the middle part of the caravan, as you did before. Same rate of pay, though the coins will differ as we enter the lands of the great sages."

Lorcan nodded his agreement and hung back with Cokelli until Henorm guided them to their place. To his amazement, he saw creatures he had never seen before. They were as big as horses, shaggy-haired with two humps on their backs. Their necks were long and curved, their faces had split top lips like a rabbit's, and long eyelashes. Some of them had people seated between their humps while others were loaded with goods. "What are these beasts?"