Shadow Honor - Book 1 of The Trial

Shadow Honor - 6

"I'm telling you, Lady Alsha, there was a pillar here before! You've got to believe me. It's my job to know these things, dammit!" The old man pushed his spectacles back up his nose as he wagged his finger at the knight. Kirra Elrhanadan eyed the situation with amusement. His commander, Lady Alsha, was a patient woman, but there was a limit to how long she would tolerate anyone speaking to her in such a disrespectful manner. She was a woman of high standing, after all.

Kirra was far more interested in the alleyway than the conversation. To the untrained eye it was quite unremarkable, a section of the city that rarely saw anything interesting, but there was definitely something about it that had his senses tingling. Whether there had been a pillar here before or not changed nothing; something had happened here. His slightly pointed ears could not stop twitching and that always meant that something magical had gone on here recently, though the physical tick could never determine anything more than that. There wasn't enough Gor heritage left in him to discern more.

"I understand you think that, Master Swallow," Lady Alsha replied in a patient tone but then became more aggressive as she fired off a series of questions, "But if there was a pillar here before, where did it go? And the demon that was reportedly sealed inside? Why isn't it rampaging through the city?"

"I have no idea. That is not my job to know," Master Swallow retorted with a glare. He folded his arms as he looked up at the taller woman and said smugly, "It's a good thing that I'm diligent in my duties, or I would never have found out that it was missing."

Kirra rolled his eyes. There was definitely no reason for Mr. Swallow to be so disrespectful, and now it appeared he was fishing for some form of compensation for his trouble. Even though Kirra knew that something had happened in the alleyway, he began to wonder if Master Swallow had staged it all himself and he had called them down to Pentalus entirely for the purpose of being rewarded.

Sneering at the man's arrogance, Lady Alsha continued to treat the issue as protocol demanded. "Yes, you've done your duty I suppose," she replied with a slight inclination of her head. "Do you know anything else?"

"Not a thing," the old man answered with a shrug, earning another eye roll from Kirra. Lady Alsha caught this one out of the corner of her eye, and her mouth quirked up in a smile as Master Swallow went on, "I know it was a smaller pillar, obviously not a major one or we would know."

"Thank you for your time Master Swallow," Lady Alsha replied with a dismissive wave toward the entrance to the alleyway. "We'll take the matter from here."

"Aye, I'll be taking my leave then," Master Swallow replied in a bit of a huff. He pushed his spectacles back up his nose before straightening the clump of ledgers he held in his hands. He looked between Alsha and Kirra, bowing to both of them before shambling out of the alleyway. Lady Alsha watched him leave while Kirra took the opportunity to survey the alleyway a bit more thoroughly. He crouched down and looked at the cobblestones, noting a chalky residue on several of the stones.

"Can you believe that?" Lady Alsha asked once the old man was out of sight, "What a lunatic! How could anyone credit what he says? A pillar just disappeared? I'm sure that the demon disappeared along with it!"

"Hold on a second," Kirra replied tentatively. He reached out and collected a bit of the residue on his fingers and then rubbed it between his index finger and thumb. It was as he had guessed; definitely chalk. "What if he's right? Shouldn't we still look into this?"

"Really? You think there's something to his claims, Kirra?" She regarded him with a raised eyebrow. She scoffed and shook her head dramatically before going on, "I never took you for a fool. Or maybe it's your age talking?"