Gritt's Tale, Part 4

Gritt tucked into the juicy steak, and chewed contentedly while the Scribe sat watching.  After he had mopped up the eggs and mushrooms, Gritt sighed contentedly.

“Well, we finished searchin’ the butchers.  Found a couple of boars, and cut them up for their meat.  Gave it to the folks waitin’ outside and told them the place was shut. We left the reefclaws in the sewer alone.  No-one was real keen to kill ‘em – ‘spose no-one saw the need.  Didn’t like they’d be coming out to pester folks.”

“We took all the guards back to the Citadel, and handed ‘em over to Kroft.  She gave em’ to a guy named Seth.  Real shifty looking fella – can’t say as I liked the look of him.  Anyway, his job was to get the truth out of them – and it looked like he wasn’t going to be doing it over tea and cake with a friendly word."

"Kroft asked what we wanted to do with Hookshanks.  We didn’t have any hard evidence, and neither did she.  Justin took him.  He met up with us later on.  Didn’t say what had happened – but he didn’t need to.  The bruises on his knuckles and the flecks of blood on his sleeves told the story by themselves.”

Gritt shrugged.  “Some figure a good thrashing can turn someone around.  Don’t know about that.  Way I see it – fear ain’t that good a way to motivate people in the long run.  Only works for a little while.  Still – figured we’d find out if we ever saw him again…”

"That night we stayed at a tavern.  It was run by a retired adventurer.  She looked like she’d seen a bit of action.  She gave me a warning.  Told me people who took up adventuring tended to start worrying about gold a bit too much.  They started up wanting to help people, save the world, then started caring only about the treasure.  Sounded like words of wisdom to me.  Turned out she was dead right – but I’ll get to that later.  There was a feller in the bar named Grau.  Thought he recognised Sol as someone called Neev.  We put two and two together and figured out he’d abandoned the guard.  Way he was getting onto a drunk, looked like he wasn’t too happy with himself neither.  We talked him into going back – didn’t take much talking – he knew the city was in a bad way.  Justin took him back to the guardhouse."

“Anyway, next morning, we went back to the Citadel.  All the guards we had taken back was going to hang.  Included Verik.  Didn’t see that was right, and I said so.  Ain’t my way to stand back and watch something going ahead that ain’t right.  Spoke to Kroft.  She said he hadn’t been handing out the meat just to do good – but was doing it to make people unhappy with the Queen.  Don’t know about that – but I still don’t agree with it.  Expressin’ an opinion about someone ain’t a crime worth killing, or dying, for in my book.  Ain’t right to stir up trouble – but that don’t make it right to hang ‘em either.  Still, that’s the way city life is."

"Anyway, even though I interrupted her execution, Kroft was still pretty happy with us all.  Introduced us to a man named Vencarlo.  Used to teach swordplay.  Not my style though – used a rapier.  Together they gave us the next job.  Said the ambassador from Chelliax had been stirrin’ up trouble, and they wanted to get some information on him.  They said there was a fella down at Eel’s End would know – guy by the name of Devargo – they called him the King of Spiders tho’.  We headed out straight away.  No point moping around."

"On the way to Eel’s End, had a chat to Vencarlo.  Turned out he used to teach both Grau and Sabina.  Small world.  Reckoned there must have been some kind of story between the three of them.  He wouldn’t tell us – but he had an old wound on his hand."

"Still, set my mind to wonderin’…  Vencarlo said Sabina didn’t have a man in her life.  Seemed like she’d had a boyfriend tho’ – either Vencarlo or Grau – not much else would get folks so on edge and miserable that they couldn’t talk about it. The chat brought her straight back to mind’s eye – she was a real beauty.  A woman I’d really appreciate it.  Decided I’d try and get to know her better, If’n I got the chance, seeing as she didn’t have a man.  Found out that Sparrowhawk liked women.  Sounded like she was interested in Sabina too.  Guess’d we’d find out what kind of woman Sabina was sooner or later."

“We got to Eel’s End.  A few ships, all tied together.  All kinds of vices available.  We just went in , all business.  Mandraiv and Sol had a few words with me aforehand.  Said they wanted to try things their way – use a few honeyed words and talk folks into seeing their way.  If they could pull it off – all the better. They both tried it when we got to this Spider King’s ship.  Guards outside wouldn’t let ‘em in nonetheless, till I made it clear things weren't going to go well if they didn't open the door“

“Didn’t go so well when we met him either – they were jawin’ on about deals and negotiatin and prices and information when that King of Spiders picked Sparrowhawk for a Sable Marine.  Well, that was the end of talkin’ sure enough.”

“We had a real tough fight on our hands.  The King of Spiders was pretty handy with a couple of blades he was carryin’, plus there were all his thugs from outside.  Once we were gettin’ the better of him though, he took off, below deck.  Got a bit creepy down there.  Place was infested with spiders – some damn near as big as a man.  Anyway, made me really appreciate Sparrowhawk.  There was no doubtin’ who was the marksman – or I should say markswoman – she wouldn’t appreciate bein called any kind of man – her arrows were causin’ a lot of trouble.  Justin shot off his gun a few times too.  Nailed a spider with it – looked like it could be pretty deadly.  Kept moanin’ about how expensive it was though.  Reminded me of what Theandra, the barkeep, had said“

“We managed to cut them all down – including some thing that was half spider half man.  Real ugly thing.  Poisonous too.   Couldn’t figure out if the Spider King was his dad or not – the thing rushed out to save him though. If you ask me – it ain’t right if you ask me for a man to get friendly like that with a great big fat spider. I mean – a spider?”

Gritt shook his head in disbelief and sighed disgustedly.  The scribe’s mouth hung agape and he paled, as he couldn’t help picturing the scenario.

"Anyway – after the fight, turned out the Spider King wasn’t dead – just out cold.  There was a bit of talk about what to do with him.  I figured I didn’t care one way or the other – he was broken – and if he got out of line, we could just come back and fix him up.  Justin was worried he was gonna be sending assassins after us.  Sounded just like an excuse for killin’ if you ask me.  Still, no doubt the man was a real bad sort – Korvosa would be better off without him.  Anyhow – Mandraiv took matters into his own hands.  Just stabbed him to death while he lay there unconscious.  Then Mandraiv and Justin tossed his corpse overboard."

"I realised Mandraiv was a different sort to some of us – whatever Lamm had done to him must have killed a bit of his soul.  Made sense given what he was sayin’ when we was fightin’ the orphans – sounded like the only reason he wasn’t killing them was cause we thought it was wrong – not cause he cared one way or the other.  Kind of got me thinkin’ about why Mandraiv did it though.  Didn’t know whether he was pissed off with all the yakkin’, whether he thought the same way as Justin that the man was just too dangerous to let live, or whether he just enjoyed killin’.  Guess’d I’d find out if we were gonna be spendin more time together."

"Mandraiv just talked Watson into lookin’ the other way.  Don’t know what happened in Watson’s past, but he seemed real worried about doin’ the right thing, and wanted to take the Spider King somewhere for justice.  Poor kid was real naïve – hadn’t figured out that there weren’t no real justice to be had in Korvosa from those in charge – not in those times anyway.  If you wanted justice, you had to deal it out yourself."

"We were pretty beat up after that fight.  Headed back to Kroft, who told us take a few days off.  We needed it to get ourselves right – most of us got bit by those spiders, and weren’t feelin too good."

"Say, scribe, you feel like stretchin’ your legs?  Wouldn’t mind going for a walk.  You able to remember what I’m sayin and write it down later?"

The scribe nodded eagerly.  Gritt stood, gathering up his pack and sword.  He strode towards the door, back still straight and strong, and nodded at the bartender, on the way out.  The scribe scrabbled to gather his quills and inks, and scurried after him.

(to be continued…)