Gritt's Tale Part 7

Well, we didn’t settle down and relax.  Once Watson woke up, we spent some time searching the place.  Found the torso and an arm of the kid.  Came across some prisoners.  They were being guarded by a big, strong feller that had a head like a mouldy cabbage.  Something weren’t right about him, like his Mum and Dad might’ve been his Aunty and Uncle.  Anyway, he was ugly enough that he almost made Sparrowhawk look human.

We rescued the prisoners and took them down to the temple of Sarenrae.  I left em there, to tell their story.  One of the priestesses there got a bit upset about it all.  Wanted me to waste time chatting with her about where we found them.  Way I saw it, they could tell her themselves.  Anyway, I ain’t no fan of paperwork, so left the poor folks in her care.  Way I saw it, we rescued them just in time.  Otherwise, they’d have ended up like previous prisoners must have – a pile of severed rotting limbs left for a trash monster to chew on.

One of the prisoners was a woman – didn’t look too bad despite her treatment there.  It looked Watson might have been interested, but it was hard to tell.  Sometimes he seemed kind of bashful, at other times, more than happy to speak his mind.

Anyway, there was one more weird monster in there.  A thing looked like it had been made out of some of those rotten limbs I was talking about.  Thing charged out of a room stinking so bad I could barely move.  Luckily, the others managed to dispose of it.

We found the rest of the kid, and took the body back to Kroft.  She told us Trinia Sabor was to be executed the next day.  Well, can’t say I was surprised.  But I was disappointed.  Spoke to Sabina that night.  She told me that the Archbanker, man by the name of Darb Tuttle, had cast hisself the spells, and that Trinia was the murdered.  Well, I knew what I’d seen, and I knew that Sol was a man you could trust.  He didn’t have no agenda. 

Sabina also told me, in so many words, that she was in love with the Queen.  Maybe she figured that’d put me off, but if so, she didn’t know me well enough.  Way I see it, you love someone, it don’t really matter too much what they look like.  If I gave Sabina enough time, she’d come around.  Couldn’t really see her relationship with the Queen working out too well, neither.

Next day I went and saw Tuttle.  Couldn’t put my finger on anything in particular, but the man was as shifty as any other big-city bureaucrat.  Folks said he loved the city – well, didn’t seem like that to me.  Seemed like he loved power and loved money.  Told him he should investigate more.   Figured I’d keep an eye on him.

That evening, it was time for Trinia’s execution.  We all went along.  The Queen made a speech and wanted her to be killed.  I got up to say something, but before I talked myself into too much trouble, down came BlackJack, the legend of Korvosa.  Well, that threw the cat amongst the pigeons.  He flew off with Trinia.  The crowd, all the high-and-mighty from the town, well, they were all getting’ a bit upset.  Some seemed to be saying the Queen should be killed, others that Blackjack should be killed.  A real mess.

Nothing much happened for a couple of weeks.  The girl we'd rescued showed up at the 3 rings.  I thought Watson was going to make a move, but he didn't.  He still looked interested though.  Told me he was worried about her, and wanted to help her come good.  Was going to offer her a job at the inn.  Didn't see as it was his to offer, but she wasn't interested anyway.

Then Grau came, told us his niece was sick.  She had some kind of pox.  Sol said it looked like something he’d heard of – Vorel’s Phage.  Well, we paid for her to be healed up.  Only clue the girl gave us as to where she’d got sick was from finding a box of money.  Well, we followed that up, but didn’t find anything.  No clue where it came from.  We followed up on where she went as well.  She’d gone into town to buy some cakes.  Looked like the sickness was pretty bad – the baker was a bit sick too.  We went and told Kroft about it.  We could all see the way the wind was blowing.  Ain’t no such thing as coincidence.  She told us Vencarlo had been looking for us, so we went down to his school.  When we went in, we met him and Trinia.  Turned out he was Blackjack.  Ain’t no harm in telling you now – he’s retired.  Wanted us to get Trinia out of the city to safety.  Figured that was the right thing to do.

Just about then, Sol piped up and said the ghost of the fortune teller had something to say.  The ghost did another reading.  Common theme was sickness.  Looked like the plague was going to be trouble for all of us.  Seemed like Watson still hadn’t sorted out his Rabbit Prince issues.  She told me that I was going to meet a liar.  Someone who said they loved the city.  Well, I figured I might cross paths with the Queen again, or Tuttle again.  Could be either of them.  Or, maybe I’d meet someone new. 

She mentioned a red insect was going to cause trouble.  Didn’t need to go to a sage to figure out that she was talking about Red Mantis assassins.  I’d heard of them. 

Later on I talked it over a bit with Mandraiv.  He still figured it’s all a plot by the queen.  Well, it could be, but seemed to me like there was more going on than just the queen trying to make herself popular. Once the riots failed, someone comes up with a magic plague to stir up trouble in Korvosa... Don’t see how that benefits the queen.  Didn’t matter though – we’d get to the bottom of it sooner or later.