Framework of the Frontier, Sain Artwell [read me a book .TXT] 📗

square. William prayed that Rajza wouldn’t make him regret the soft judgement. Having a thick-skin was a requirement for any man of law, doubly so for a frontier Ranger. William had some toughening to go through.

“So, which will it be, service or silver?”

“What ‘bout me?” Uttaraa clanked the bars of her window.

“You picked prison.” William had only given her two days anyway. “Now Rajza, Velma, and Der. What’ll it be for you?”

“Get the coins for Velma and Der. I’ll do my time,” Rajza said.

The dark elf’s face gaped open in shock. “No way boss?! You can’t, I’ll do the draft days.”

“No, let me,” Velma protested. “I was too drunk to defend you last night. It’s only right.”

Rajza curbed his gang’s whining with a hiss. “Don’t question me Der. Springer, get Will the coin. Make up the difference in what we miss with oil and flour, if that’s fine by the Ranger?”

“Oil and flour is fine,” William said.

Springer, the redbeard faun, fetched a bag containing a collection of various coins, all seemingly of proper nibirian mintages. After some haggling, they agreed to handle the goods part of the fines through Rettete. His integrity was something every adventurer in Nastall seemed to value in high regard. Really, if it wasn’t for his shop the nibirian coins might’ve as well been junk metal out here on the Frontier.

William was left with heaps of coin, plenty of goods, and one untrustworthy penal soldier.

After Rajza was locked up, William watched his party depart through a window. The thought of his gang or the cat himself seeking revenge was a new stressor, which William had not needed in his life.

“Letter King must be crazy if she thought giving me the power to draft gangsters and criminals into an adventuring party would somehow make the delving go smoother.” William said.

Ember rolled some nuts and herbal paste in yesterday’s travel cakes. “Mmh… She can’t leave the castle and hasn’t been an adventurer in decades. Perhaps she imagined every town on the Frontier is calm and orderly like New Ea.”

“She’d have been better off hiring a real team of adventurers to fetch her rod.” William accepted his lunch with a thankful nod. “Suppose I should be grateful she didn’t.”

Knocking sounded from the open door as he had the wrap ready for a bite. Nevija peeked in. “Yoo-hoo, are you here mister Ranger?”

The kitties…

William’s voice took a dry tone. “Welcome, how may I be of service?”

“I do hope we’re not intruding on anything private.” More than a pinch of smugness showed through Nevija’s grin. Behind her happily swirling tail trailed Raia. “I do hope you have not forgotten your promise?”

“What promise…” William trailed off as an ‘ahh’ set in. He cursed. “That Palace Falls siren was real?”

“She might not be a siren, but she’s a real menace,” said Nevija.

“Right. And the water was poisoned?”

Nevija noded. “She’s fouling the streams from the Twin Statues all the way to Ur’liuh all the way from Palace Falls. It’s three miles up the canal from here.”

William scratched his head, thinking about it. There weren’t any other options than going out there and doing what a Ranger’s supposed to do. That kinda felt good — deciding that he was doing the right thing. “Let’s get this done then. As it happens I have an adventurer obliged to help me, what a convenient coincidence.”

The two miarii giggled through their grins and Raia said, “You’re welcome, mister Ranger.”

“We’ll see how you can repay the favor later,” Nevija licked her lips.

Ember spoke up, “Um, can I come along?”

William paused himself before an instinctual ‘yes’. “Actually…” Thinking about it, he needed someone to help him make sure the goblin didn’t escape. But then again, Ember’s magic and support could well make the difference between life and death.

“I’ll stay out of the way, but I might find new clues near the Palace Falls if there are golems there,” Ember insisted.

Nevija leaned towards her with a curious ‘hmm’. “Clues? What is it you’re here for fluffy butts?”

“Secrets.” Ember wrapped arms beneath her chest, puffing out her tail defiantly.

“Secrets? Now, we do like secrets.” Nevija leaned closer to her.

“We do,” Raia echoed.

Nevija eyed Ember with a predatory gaze. “Perhaps you are worth more than I thought…”

Ember leaned away from the slowly advancing kitty.

William patted Nevija’s shoulder to rescue her. “Let other people keep their business theirs, Nevija. Ember, you can come along if you want to. Let’s meet outside after I get Rajza.”

***

After three miles, William could no longer hear Rajza complaining from the back. He’d received the honor of dragging the kitty girls’ two-wheel wagon and their chest of gear.

They tracked the water channel upstream. Over a hill of rubbled ruins, and further uphill, up through a low incline covered by woods of gigantic dwarf pines and various carmine succulents. Those damn yipping monkeys haunted their upper branches, while round little nope cushions resembling sea-urchins scurried by the roots and trunks. Thankfully, they too seemed eager to avoid the sun’s sweat inducing gaze and steered off of the party’s path.

They heard the Palace Falls before seeing them. Theirs wasn’t a drowning roar, but a melody of hundreds of trickles dribbling in a calm ambiance not much louder than the crisp crunch of fallen needles.

“Move quietly from here on,” Nevija whispered. “Don’t want to let it get a jump on us.”

“Stay behind me.” William took the lead, hunching from a crouch to a crawl amongst the earthy detritus of dry needles. He shuffled through a shrubbery to get a view of the falls from a safe spot.

Water trickled down the grooves and ridges of a fifty feet tall crescent cliff, which might have once been the facade of a temple. Statues as tall as the cliff stood against the waterfall with eroded