“I’m going to go check on the guards!” Camelot stood and exclaimed. Some of the other council members looked up.
“You’re going to go start training them?” Clink asked.
“Oh uh yes, yes” the dwarf nodded. “The Pretorian Guard.”
“Good. You should teach them that move. You know – the spinning one.”
“Definitely.” Camelot scurried out of the council room. But he didn’t head for the guard room. No, he went via his bedroom. The backpack and rope were neatly prepared on his bed. The pack clanked loudly as the dwarf lifted it on his shoulders. He tied the rope to a bedpost and lowered the other end out the window.
“God I hate ropes” Camelot thought as he slowly rapelled down the castle wall “They are so weak, and can snap at any moment. Like a neck.”
This rope held out, and the swordmaster thanked Namthar as his feet touched the ground. He raised his hood and looked around. His window led into the small rose garden reserved for private occasions and weddings. It was quite empty now. The dwarf sighed, tightened his hood, and headed into the city.
He knew the way to the marked district from the gang’s latest adventure. It wasn’t hard to retrace their steps. He wrapped his cloak tighter, hoping that the clanking pack wouldn’t attract too much attention. The market was bustling so being unnoticed wasn’t hard.
“Beans! Beans! Get yer beans!” a salesman called out “We got broad beans! We got kidney beans! We got soy beans!.
“Beans?” Camelot glanced over.
“You there in the hood! You want some beans?”
“Who, me?” Camelot looked over his shoulder “Why would I need beans? What do beans do?”
“Huh?” The salesman raised an eyebrow. “Oh lad, these aren’t ordinary beans. They’re magic.”
“Magic?”
“Aye lad, these are magic beans.”
“Aaaah, not magic!” Camelot rushed into the crowd.
The place he was heading for was on the east side of the market. He was nearly there when a sign caught his eye.
“Blade’s blades” Camelot gazed into the shop window. The owner was spinning a whetstone, sharpenning a rather curvy scimitar.
“Ooh, she’s getting sharp.” Camelot remarked as he watched the blade bend over the whetstone. “Anyway I better stick to the mission. Wait did that owner just wink at me? Oh, I guess a little browse couldn’t hurt. After all I am the general.”
“Greetings master dwarf” the owner smiled. “I’m Blade, how can I help you today?”
“Oh I’m just browsing” the swordmaster nodded. “That longsword! How much is it?”
“Oh, you have a good eye, I see” Blade lifted a sword off the wall. “Lindone steel.”
“Polished too. The smith knew what he was doing.”
“It’s a ‘she’. Lady Gretchen from Lindone.”
“Oh course, of course!” Camelot laughed. “I should have recognised the felt on the hilt.”
“Sir is a connaisseur.” Blade smiled “Would you like to…?”
“Can I?”
“Please.” Blade handed the sword to Camelot.
“Oh, that is soft!” Camelot gripped the hilt and took a few swings. “What balance. Flies like a bird.” He jabbed into the air “Hell, you could fight underwater this this. Right? So thin.”
“Sir, it suits you well.”
“You think?” Camelot handed the longsword back to Blade.
“Yes, definitely.”
“It is different to my other swords… How much?”
“For sir, only twenty gold.”
“Ah what the hell” Camelot dug in his pockets. His hand hit the whetstone that he impulse-bought earlier that day. “No, no, I can’t! Gotta focus!” the dwarf screamed and ran out of the store.
“Wait!” Blade called after him. Camelot was long gone running across the street.
Victor’s Pawn Store was two blocks down from Blade’s Blades. The dwarf must have still shaken when he entered, because the owner immediately asked.
“Are you okay mister? Do you need some water?”
“Oh no.” Camelot looked around. His eyes fell on a letter opener. “Uh, how does this work?”
“You want this letter opener? That’s possible. Fine opener. Sharp.”
“Letter opener?”
“Aye. Ye get a lot of letters? Slice ’em open, impress your friends, intimidate your enemies.”
“Huh. I do need something to attack letters” Camelot leaned forward. He shook his head “Focus on the mission Camelot!”
“Are you okay mister?”
“Yes” the dwarf heaved his backpack on the counter.
“Um, mister?”
“I’d like to pawn these swords.” Camelot whispered.
“Swords? You want to pawn swords?”
“Shhhh” the dwarf placed blades one by one on the table.
“That’s a lot of swords you got there mister.”
“A lifetime of swords” he whispered “How much?”
“Well I don’t want all of them” the broker pointed “That one is rusty.”
“Yeah, it’s worn” Camelot admitted “We dug it up on a beach.”
“This is a respectable establishment.”
“The rest are good.”
“Not sure” the broker shook his head. “Actually, this one has a gem in it” He lifted Relentless. “Guess I could pry it out, and push that for a thousand or so.”
“No!” Camelot snatched the greatsword back. He demonstrated a few swings. “This is RELENTLESS. Pried from the dead fingers of St Etrich. Forged on another continent. Charged with the energies of a legion of demons!”
“Okay, okay” the broker stepped back.
“Pry out the gem!” the dwarf spat. “You’d mess up tha balance asshole. Not to mention releasing the demons.”
“Relax mister. It’s a good sword. Let me have a closer look.” he produced his loupe. “St Etrich’s sword you say?”
“Pried from the Herald’s cold, dead, hands.”
“Fascinating. Might get seven thousand from a buyer in the capitol. Let’s have a look mister. What should I call you?”
“Mister… Sword?”
“Very well, Mister Sword.” the broker squinted at Peacemaker through his loupe. “Ah, this one I can push for sure. It’s a collectible! Got the Sigil of Vicetina on it. Genuine.”
“Pried from Sofia’s cold, dead, hands.”
“I’ll give you two thousand for it.”
“What else have we go, Mister ‘Sword’?”
“The dueling saber” Camelot pointed to Lilly’s sword.
“Ah, nice work. I see a ruby which I could…” the broker paused “I could use to increase the price. Fifteen gold.”
“Fifteen?!” Camelot grabbed the sword and swung it. “Fifteen for this balance!? For this manouverability!? Nonsense!”
“Okay, okay. I can see from your demonstration that it is worth at least a thirty.”
“Fifty” Camelot feinted, stopping an inch from the salesman’s throat.
“Okay, fifty.”
“This one” Camelot held up the bottle blade.
“That’s a bottle of rum.”
“No it isn’t.”
“Are you drunk, mister?”
“Hiiiii yaaaa” Camelot thrusted the bottle, willing it’s blade to appear as a cruel cutlass.
“Whoah” the broker blinked. “Nice trick. Can I try?”
“Yes” Camelot handed him the bottle. “You need to imagine the blade you want to appear.”
“Hiii yaa” the broker thrusted, producing a boring long sword. “Wow that’s amazing. One thousand easily.”
“Good” Camelot looked at the remaining swords. “What about those goblin scimitars?”
“One silver for the lot.”
“One silver!?” Camelot grabbed a scimitar.
“Five! Sorry, five silver. Each”
“Good” Camelot sat on a bench “Good.”
“So Mister Sword” the broker sat down next to him. “Are we doing business?”
Camelot took the side roads back to the keep. This made the journey longer, but there were also less people. The broker’s parting words echoed in the dwarf’s mind.
“You’ve got three weeks to get me the gold back Mister Sword. 3050 gold, plus twelve percent. Three weeks for three swords. You don’t get me the currency, these blades are going on this counter. Gonna be on sale for all to see. Doubt it’ll take me long to push these fine swords. Three weeks Mister Sword! That’s your time, that’s your time. Remember, no money in three weeks and these swords are mine. MIIIINE. ALL MINE.” the broker cackled in Camelot’s mind.
The dwarf shivered as it started raining. The side entrance to the keep was visible in the distance.
“Remember if I don’t get this plus 12% in two weeks, these blades are MINE. No longer yours, but MINE.”
Swordmaster Camelot opened the door to the Hellhest council chamber. The other council members barely registered the general’s return. He walked straight to the master of coin.
“Clink!” he declared. “I have your money here.”
“Oh, thank you Camelot” Clink took the purse and weighed it. “Four thousand?”
“Three thousand and fifty. Towards the debt.”
“I see. Lowers it to 950.” the tiefling made a note. “Where’d you get it?”
“Uh, oh. I found it” the dwarf hadn’t prepared for Clink’s question.
“You found it?”
“Yes.”
“You found three thousand gold?”
“I need to go train the guards” Camelot turned.
“How is the training going?”
“Oh good, good” Camelot nodded “I wonder what sword I’ll use to train them today? Definitely not Lilly’s Dueling Saber. That sword is useless for training.”
“I see.”
Camelot wiped a tear as he left the council chamber. Lilly’s Duelling Saber was of course the perfect training weapon. Light and controlled. No weapon could surpass it.