Bandits

Chapter 15: Tristan

Several hours passed with no word from Daedalus. They had two rooms rented to them, but all five of them waited in the princess's room. "Unwise to split up, even for a little while in this strange city," Tarleton had said. Naman and Gerard had both appeared about an hour ago, but said the captain was still some ways off. It was cramped and uncomfortable. The room was not designed to hold seven people, especially not when three of them were armed.

Andromeda and Vega sat on the bed. Tarleton stood in the corner watching out the window. Mordecai was leaning against the wall, looking at his fingernails as if hoping to find anything of interest. Gerard and Naman spoke in low whispers to each other from either side of a small table, keeping their weapons handy.

Gideon was getting impatient. He wasn't sure what was taking the Captain so long, and he didn't know what the plan was now that they had made it to Solicito. If Gerard knew of Daedalus' plans, he wasn't letting on.

Finally, a soft knock came at the door. The room stirred. Gerard placed a hand on one of his long knives, and Naman readied his crossbow. Gideon walked over to the door, and listened. He couldn't hear anything outside. Cautiously he opened the door a crack. Solomon stood in the hallway, waiting patiently. Gideon opened the door the rest of the way.

"Come on," Solomon said. "Captain's waiting."

The Princess was the first to move, rising from the bed and walking toward the door. Everyone else shuffled out of the room and into the hallway, following Solomon toward the stairs.

Back downstairs, Solomon led the group around the edge of the great room toward a more private area, cordoned off by thick red curtains. The room was still crowded. Horister Blanche still sat at the same table, with a few more empty flagons around him, and Ha'Jil Astraspo was nowhere to be seen.

Gideon was the last to enter the curtained area, with Solomon letting the fabric fall back in place once he was inside. The air was thick. Not much light from the chandeliers in the room outside made it past the curtains, only a sliver through the gap. A few candles on the walls and tables did their best to illuminate the gloom. Several men stood around a table, all of them armed. One carried a shortened boarding hook with an added leather handle, and another had twin axes hanging from his belt and a scattergun over his shoulder. All of them looked tough as nails, and meaner than a shaved badger; but it was the young man sitting across from Daedalus the caught Gideon's attention. He knew him.

"Ah, your highness," Daedalus said formally."May I introduce Tristan Cardiff. He has most graciously agreed to help withour situation. The rest of you, I'm sure, need no introduction."

Tristan Cardiff was one of, if not the youngest skycaptains on Solicito. He'd gained his own ship, the Iscariot, after he had led a mutiny when he was 16, off the western edge of Relucesco. If you believed the kind of stories that were whispered around the taverns and inns of Solicito, Tristan had revolted against his captain after one too many lashes at the whipping post. They say that he fed the old man to a pair of bearcats the ship was transporting in its hold. Since then, he had been gaining a reputation throughout the western Petra Field for both his daring raids and his roguish personality. Tristan was not the kind of man Daedalus kept company with; a scoundrel through and through. If the captain was willing to cut a deal with this cutthroat, things must have been worse than Gideon had realized.

"A pleasure, Princess." Tristan stood and took Andromeda's hand, bowing slightly, before kissing it. Gideon frowned.

"Likewise, Captain," Andromeda replied regally, letting her hand linger in the pirate's.

"Tristan, my lady, please."

Gideon was already growing weary of Captain Cardiff's company. He noticed Naman glance his way, one eyebrow cocked.