Fire Angels

Chapter 4 part 2 Border Search

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As we approached the high white-washed walls of Glassybri we passed many people going back towards Gallia. They were almost all Gallians, but here and there was a richly clad Ishtaki merchant. If the Ishtaki, those angels of commerce, were leaving, the future must look bad for the Church of the Burning Light. It was difficult for me to see ahead, riding as I was behind Parrus, but finally I could see the tall walls of the town before us. About that time we were forced to halt. A great crowd of people was lined up on the road waiting to enter Glassybri and we joined the queue. The sound of crying babies and complaining donkeys came from the line before us. Every now and then one of the gates seemed to swing open for a short time and the queue would move forward. Our horses snorted restlessly and moved their feet. As we waited, my palms became sweaty with fear though I kept telling myself to be calm. Behind us the line of people grew. In front of us a group of travelling masons and a mercenary played dice in the dust of the road.

Eventually we got close enough to the gates to see that they were letting groups of people through ten at a time.

Once there was shouting behind the gate and the tingling feeling of magic. I craned my head to look but Tomas pushed me back.

"Don't draw attention to yourself. And act like you don't know us. You two will be safer that way."

At that moment the gate swung open in front of us revealing a dark, narrow street within. The soldier at the gate counted ten of us through and the gate swung shut behind us.

Inside, the street was cordoned off and groups of soldiers and hard-faced women in the black and grey garb of Sisters of Light, the nuns of the Burning Light, stood beside it. We were ordered to stop and dismount. Tomas and Hamel had moved away from us so that they stood at the other side of the group. A man in grey and black had approached them.

"Well well," he was saying, "if it isn't Tomas Holyhands." Then I stopped watching them because the same kind of official had come up to us. He looked over the papers Parrus handed him with a disbelieving air.

"Borgonese, Hey? Very convenient. Ren Parrus Latrides. A merchant? Why are you coming into Moria?"

"My wife has a sister deathly ill in Annac. She wants to see her before she dies," said Parrus in his halting Morian.

The official had lost interest in Parrus even before he stopped talking.

"And you," he barked at me. "Answer. Where were you born?"

He questioned me quickly in Morian. Had I not been a native speaker, I might well have got flustered and made some mistake. As it was I was glad I'd spent three days speaking Morian to my brothers. You lose fluency in any language even your own, if you don't speak it.

Then he lifted up a crystal ball and pressed it against my forehead. I knew that ball. It turned blue in the presence of any trace of magic. I hoped Parrus had been careful as I had been not to use magic for the last ten hours. Still I felt frightened. What if they decided to do a mind search?

The official turned and barked at the waiting soldiers, "Search this lot. Jacques, Woody take the woman."

I was seized and pulled ungently towards the cordon. I squeaked in fright and might have used magic against them, but I was wearing the necklace and could do nothing.

"Hey! What are you doing with my wife?" shouted Parrus.

"Stand still," said the leader. He was running the ball over Parrus while one of the soldiers patted him down. Two soldiers began to pull our bags roughly from the saddle.