“Well you can enfold yourself all you want later, just answer my question or I’ll enfold you inside out.” Gastropé’s right hand started to glow. Jenn grimaced at Gastropé’s trick of using Were Light to threaten the priest.
The priest turned whiter. “In the big robe’s pockets in the wardrobe.” Gastropé’ regagged him. Jenn walked over to the wardrobe. Strange, it didn’t seem like there were as many clothes in there as last night. She must have been more tired than she thought. She reached into each of the pockets in the only robe left. In the back pocket she found a small green pouch. She took it out.
Pulling its mouth apart, she gently poured three gold coins and nine silver ones onto her hand. Not a lot, but hopefully enough. She showed the others. Gastropé nodded and looked down at the priest. “Thank you for your donation, gentle sir.” A lot of his courage had come back now that the demon was gone, and he was away from Exador. “Now you could perhaps tell us how to get to Freehold from here?” He brought the intensity of light on his hand back up into the visible range as he removed the gag again with his other hand.
“Don’t know. I... I... never heard of the place.”
“Never heard of the place.” That gave Gastropé’ pause. If a supposedly educated priest had never heard of Freehold, it couldn’t be too close.
“Turelane?” The priest shook his head. “What about the wizard Exador? You ever hear of him?” The priest was about to shake his head, then stopped and thought for a moment.
“North and east, I think. I’m not sure though. He came to visit Duke Swery about four years ago.” Gastropé looked over to Jenn.
“Well it’s something. Maybe we can find a sage with a map. Look,” she turned to Edwyrd, “you’re Rupert’s cousin you should know where he lived.”
Edwyrd took a moment, “I know where he lived before he went off to school.”
“Oh.” Unfortunately, Jenn didn’t know where that was. It wasn’t clear to her that a little kid like Rupert would know how to make the necessary coordinate translations between the school and his old home. It would probably just be easier to find a sage. “Ok, gag him again. I guess we’ll go look for a sage.” Gastropé complied.
“What are your plans? You said you were passing through,” Jenn asked Edwyrd.
“Well, since he seems to somehow have gotten separated from his teachers, I feel it’s my duty as his cousin to make sure he gets back safely.” Edwyrd responded, also starting to pace slightly.
“So you’re coming with us.”
“Looks that way.” Edwyrd smiled rather shyly.
“Fine. Now we’ve got to go out and get supplies and directions. The problem is, I don’t want to leave the priest alone.”
“I can watch him,” Edwyrd volunteered. Tom really didn’t want to go back outside again so soon. He was afraid he was going to lose it any moment. If these guys would all leave, he could go into the kitchen away from the priest and turn back into his true form.
Gastropé looked at Edwyrd closely. “Aren’t you even going to ask why we have a priest tied up in his own temple? Before offering to guard him?” Gastropé asked suspiciously.
“Well... Rupert explained to me that he was this evil priest that had captured you after his henchmen attacked your caravan and killed a bunch of the people. You managed to turn the tables on him and now had him tied up so you could get away. Isn’t that what happened?” Edwyrd asked, as if trying to confirm Rupert’s story.
“Close enough,” Jenn said, trying to cut Gastropé off before he gave too much away. “Rupert, do you think it’s a good idea to leave the priest with Edwyrd?”
“I’d trust my cousin here, with my life. The priest won’t get away while we’re gone.”
“Ok then,” Jenn looked to Gastropé for agreement. He just sort of shrugged, apparently having nothing else to offer. “You wait here for us, with the door locked behind us.” She said to Edwyrd. “We’ll be back in an hour or so and we’ll knock like this,” she demonstrated. “Don’t untie him for anything.”
“Sure.” Edwyrd said, looking a little less tense for the moment. Jenn went and opened the door carefully, looking to make sure they weren’t observed. She motioned for the others to precede her out the door. When they had, she said “bye,” to Edwyrd and shut the door behind her.
Tom went to the door and put the bar across it. He looked over at the priest who was staring at him with pleading in his eyes. “Sorry,” Tom said. “But I’ve got my instructions. How can I trust you after what my cousin says you did?” The priest shook his head. Tom shrugged an apology and went into the kitchen.
