Her Dreadful State of Affairs

[Ladies' Man]

Gabriel knew he was losing the council. Their faces were worried again and not one person was looking at him with the kind of grateful concern that he’d been expecting. Maybe it had been a mistake to let Valentino choose the dueling time. He should have scheduled it for dawn so that they could have had a little time to let the magnitude of his sacrifice weigh on their consciences. But the bandit had just walked out and was obviously ready for a fight, and the council members were following him, brushing past Gabriel with mistrustful glances or averted eyes. What had he done wrong? He hated not knowing how to make people happy. The mayor was still seated at his table, somberly staring at Gabriel as if the younger man had just evicted him from his home. But he hadn’t . . . yet.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve, Gabriel.” Elise’s voice was like a beam of angry sunlight splitting the clouds of doubt that nagged at his mind. She had been standing at her father’s shoulder, but now she moved towards him, her arms crossed over her chest, and the beauty of her face helped him ignore the fact that she was glaring at him as she drew near.

He forced an unaffected smile onto his face as he took off his coat. “I promised, Elise, remember?”

He had to pretend not to see her answering grimace, but the slight cut him to the core. He set his coat over the back of a chair and moved closer to her, his expression somber. “I’m just trying to help.”

“You’re hinging everything on your own skill! Not only is that incredibly vain, but it’s also incredibly foolish,” she exploded. “What if you lose?”

“They were going to burn the town anyway, Elise! At least this way there’s a chance of getting them to leave without hurting anything.” He didn't like having to lie, but it wouldn't hurt his case if he kept her in suspense.

“We don’t need you to die for us,” she said hotly.

“Well that’s good,” Gabriel replied with a smile, “because I don’t plan to.”

Elise shook her head, her golden hair spilling across her face. “This is stupid. We should have just fought them! We have weapons and men and . . .”

Gabriel stood in front of her and took hold of her shoulders, bending slightly to look her seriously in the eye. “Fighting isn’t always the answer,” he murmured sagely.

Elise frowned and shrugged off his gloved hands. “That’s especially meaningless coming from you.”

Gabriel chuckled and loosened the daggers on his belt. Valentino was outside, and it probably wasn’t wise to make the bandit wait. But he still had time for one last move. He walked with heavy steps to the door, his head bowed as if he were struggling under the pressure of his task. When he reached the doorway, he turned to look at the green-eyed beauty again.

“If I win, Elise,” he said, his voice tinged with a hint of solemnity, “It’ll be for you.”

Then he turned and walked out of the inn without waiting for a response. Elise seemed the kind of woman who liked to react in private. He stepped into the street and took his time walking towards the small crowd of observers and the bandit that waited at the center of their circle. The inn’s door opened and shut behind him, but he kept his eyes on Valentino, who already had his weapon out and ready. He was in a showy but unhelpful position, and when Gabriel was about five feet away from he stopped, pulled out one of the knives on his belt, and assumed an equally flashy but ineffectual pose, standing sideways with his weight on his back leg and his unsheathed dagger in his left hand, extended towards his opponent while the other hand hovered in front of his face in defense. The sky was growing dark, but adrenaline was already moving through Gabriel’s veins, and he couldn’t hold back the vicious grin that spread across his face at Valentino's invitation.

“Love to,” he murmured in reply. A second later he propelled himself off his back leg, hurtling forward and twisting the knife in his outstretched hand so that it sped in a curved arc towards Valentino’s head. It was a fast attack, but his movements were subtly exaggerated so that anyone with any training in knives could tell exactly what he was aiming to do. It was the kind of swing that would've cost him the fight against a seasoned knivesman, but he didn't want to make any mistakes with this one. The bandit had said that he was good, but before Gabriel worked too hard to make the fight look realistic, he needed to know exactly how good his opponent was.

[Rayse Valentino]

While Rayse agreed to the duel, he wasn't exactly sure how to carry it out. He had been in plenty of mock duels in the army, but he wasn't sure Gabriel knew how they were done. The way pretty boy acted, it seemed unlikely that he was ever in the army or anything similar. His stance seemed very unorthodox for Rayse, it was like something out of fencing. Maybe he took some sort of lessons? Knife demonstrations are usually very quick and concise... could I make a fencing match out of knives?

Rayse had no time to consider such possibilities as Gabriel lunged forward, aiming for his head. The Contractor could kill the man in self-defense, but he needed to lose this match. If he couldn't counter-attack, he could at least dodge. The easiest way was to pretend he didn't even have a knife. He bent down and prepared himself, and when Gabriel got close, Rayse side-stepped to his right and smacked Gabriel's knife hand to Rayse's left, stepping in and avoiding the urge to stick his foot into Gabriel's lunge to trip him up. After Gabriel's body had passed his, he pivoted to his left and slashed across towards his opponent. There was no strategical advantage to his move, but it would open up opportunities for Gabriel to counter-attack. The quicker this was over, the better. Rayse had, at the very least, proved his speed with his dodge.

[Ladies' Man]

The good thing about a knife fight was that if both participants were skilled, the competition could be over in a very short space of time. The trouble with faking a knife fight for a largely unknown crowd was that he had no idea of what the audience knew about knife-fighting. He didn’t want to arouse suspicion by making the fight too short, which might make them think something was fishy if they knew just a little about knives, but at the same time he didn’t want to give the impression that knife-fighting was the flamboyant and long-winded affair that sword dueling usually ended up being.

The bandit was behind him now after the quick sidestep, and Gabriel let himself relax a little. Even if he ended up being incompetent with a knife, he was at least fast, which was definitely a point in his favor. Gabriel turned with the push and saw over his right shoulder that Valentino was swiping horizontally at his back. Using his momentum to keep himself moving, he threw a leg forward and spun out and to the left, twisting along Valentino’s swinging arm until he was alongside him. With Valentino’s arm extended and out of the way, he drove the knife in his hand towards the bandit’s exposed ribs, following with the forearm of his other arm to push Valentino to the ground. He didn’t know how long the bandit wanted the fight to last, and if he dodged or blocked Gabriel’s stab then the match could go on for longer, but the intended shove gave him the opportunity to let it end quickly with Valentino on the ground and Gabriel on top, shielding the viewers from noticing that the dagger wasn’t actually stuck in his side.

[Rayse Valentino]

Needless to say, all actions are approved.

Rayse could tell that Gabriel was attempting something unorthodox with his reaction. Great, he wants to make it flashy. Rayse wasn't exactly enticed by that, for there was always a possibility that his life was in danger. He preferred for his knife to be dislodged from his loose grip, and wanted to keep his distance from his foe. As Gabriel made his flashy move, the thoughts Rayse had earlier reared their ugly head again. I can't let him even attempt this. With his non-extended hand, Rayse grabbed his foe's stabbing hand by the bicep and stopped it in place with his strength, not able to account for the forearm pushing him into the ground. Except, now he found that his hold of the man's arm was advantageous. He let himself be pushed into the ground by Gabriel, and using his own momentum, he lifted his legs as he fell and kicked Gabriel in the gut with both legs the moment he hit the ground, letting go of him and propelling his adversary forward.

He got up, about to make his next attack, when he noticed something crucial: He wasn't holding his knife! It was lying down on the ground. He must've dropped it when he was kicking Gabriel away.

"Damn it!" He yelled, although he immediately realized that this was what he wanted, and he put left hand on his forehead, "Well, it seems like you have caused me to drop my knife, which makes you the winner..."

It was quite the short duel, but it's impossibly difficult to prolong a knife fight. Honestly, Rayse actually lost control of the duel and acted with his instincts. He thought that perhaps he wasn't cut out to act in situations like this. The townspeople all looked like turkeys in a rainstorm. It was a difficult sight to behold, but Rayse tried his best to ignore it.

"Yes, well... Like I said, I shall now leave your town alone and deal with the boss myself..."

Something seemed off. He couldn't spot that woman that Gabriel wanted so badly to see this fight, maybe she was off finding some weapon to bludgeon Rayse with, since she seemed so confidence of Gabriel's abilities. Although, the thought crept up again that these people somehow knew who Gabriel really was. Rayse wondered if he could make any of these half-wits spell it out for him. He also wondered if any of them could even spell.

[Ladies' Man]

The brazen charge that Gabriel had launched didn’t exactly go as planned. Valentino was shorter than him, but the instant the bandit’s hand clamped around his upper arm he realized that the man was a good bit stronger than him anyway. The sudden vise-like grip caught Gabriel off-guard, but he was already so far into the shove that he was still managing to knock Valentino over when he realized with a flash of horror that his knife-bearing arm was still being held by the bandit, and that if he was pulled down on top of him, their ungraceful descent might result in the accidental impalement of the bandit.

He realized he was wrong about falling on top of Valentino a moment too late—after he had made the decision to drop his dagger in a now unneccessary effort to save the bandit's life. His fingers had loosened on the handle, and the sharp double-footed kick to the stomach only encouraged him further in his knife-dropping endeavor. The pain was immense and entirely unexpected, so sharp and sudden that he doubled over immediately, grabbing his torso and stumbling away from the fallen bandit with a string of muttered curses. This was supposed to be a fake fight! Why the heck was the moron kicking so darn hard?

He wanted to lay down on the ground and breathe shallowly until his stomach stopped throbbing, but he forced himself to keep moving, doubled over and staggering drunkenly around the circle. He saw Valentino rising out of the corner of his eye, but he was still in too much pain to bother with standing up straight. Had boys been holding their punches whenever he’d fought before or did Valentino wear steel-soled boots? He came to the disturbing conclusion that it was most likely the former. Forcing the sons of farmers who worked for his father to attack him probably hadn't been the best way to try to get a realistic idea of what a fight would be like.

Valentino’s curse reached his ears just as he saw that the now standing bandit’s hands were empty. Gabriel’s eyes flickered to the ground and saw with dismay that there were two knives lying docilely in the dusty street. But who had dropped their knife first? Did it matter? Panic flooded his brain. He was supposed to win! If anyone challenged his victory, his chance of impressing Elise with his military prowess was shot!

The worrying thought of the beautiful mayor’s daughter gave him the boost of willpower that he need to force himself to stand upright, and it also gave him the burst of desperation he needed to abandon all the noble codes of ethics and morals that he’d espoused so vehemently growing up. As he straightened his back, he quickly and subtly drew the other dagger on his belt, sliding it from its sheath in a blur and crouching to face Valentino again, this time with a different but identical dagger in hand.

Valentino was talking to the gathered audience, but no one seemed to be listening. Some were showing signs of just the kind of awestruck wonder that he had been hoping for, others were looking at one another as if they weren’t certain that they could believe the saving words of the “defeated” bandit. He scanned the crowd intently, but no one seemed to have noticed that there were two knives on the ground-- yet. For the first time since the fight had begun, Gabriel felt nervous. The whole situation rested on the inobservance of the crowd, and though they were distracted now, who was to say that a glimmer of light off a four-inch metal blade wouldn’t send his whole future spiraling into chaos? And while he was on the subject of his future, where was Elise? Her glorious face was missing from the swathe of boring features that surrounded him. Had she really missed the fight that had been fought just for her?

Gabriel’s head was spinning from the multitude of tracks that his anxious mind was trying to follow. He looked at Valentino, trying to decipher the bandit's expression Had he seen Gabriel’s dagger on the ground? Had he seen Elise? The polite thing to do would be to say something to him. He wondered if it would be too impertinent to go for a flowery show of gratitude; the bandit might think that he was mocking him. But he couldn't just grin, thump his chest, and mutter some guttural cliche about the merits of fraternal competition. Could he go for humbly grateful? Or did he want gratefully humble?

Thinking was too much trouble; it was easier just to talk. Gabriel clamped down on the thoughts running through his head and opened his mouth to speak instead.

“You are a most noble opponent,” Gabriel said in a loud voice to Valentino, bowing slightly while maintaining eye contact. “I thank you for the munificence of the opportunity that you granted me today by allowing me to vie for Tradepost’s continued existence, and I am certain that every person here thanks you with all their heart for the mercy that you have shown today and the great dignity with which you have bestowed your grace.”

[Rayse Valentino]

Gabriel seemed quite affected by his attack. It really wasn't anything rough... was this guy really trained to fight? He seemed so inexperienced, so... Hmm. Rayse began to think that he may have made a mistake picking a fight with this guy. He needed to know for sure who he was. He decided that the mayor was most likely the one with the most brains around here. Gabriel gave some odd speech of gratitude, and Rayse felt like some sort of noble. Noble... The word stung at him. Wasn't he in a similar position in his youth? Rayse felt like he was always living on the streets, although that wasn't really true. Nonetheless, he felt obligated to reply, and only in a manner befitting his true character.

"I don't want to hear it, pretty boy," Rayse quipped, wiping his nose, "This town may be safe, but you are another matter entirely. You better hope we don't cross paths ever again."

With that said, he looked around the crowd, who seemed to shrink as he turned his gaze on them. He had to be intimidating, at least until he was alone with the mayor. He saw him, and walked towards him, putting up his knife along the way and noticing the second knife, but quickly ignoring it when he realized that if the loses the attention of the crowd, they'll catch on to what just happened. It seems that even though he won, the townspeople still didn't have much faith in their savior. As Rayse reached the mayor, the old man was apparently looking around for something.

"Where'd Elise go," he wondered, "She missed it! I wanted to see on the look on her face!"

Rayse started to wonder if there was a black hole of stupidity engulfing this town, and prayed to leave it as soon as possible.

"Ahem," The Contractor cleared his throat, "There's something I want to discuss with you before I go."

"Err-- what??" The mayor shrunk, "But... but the boy won!"

"Not that, something else. Just hear me out, privately, and I'll be outta here. Or do we have to go through this whole thing again?"

"NO! I mean-- No, of-f course not. Come with me. Also, you!" he said, pointed at Gabriel, "Find Elise for me! I'm sure she'll love to hear about your victory!"

The mayor and Rayse walked off to his mansion, leaving the bewildered crowd behind. It seems that Rayse was right about one thing: that girl wasn't here to watch the fight. He stayed on the alert just in case she was behind him ready to stick a knife in his back. In the mansion, Rayse was back in the mayor's office.

"Well?" asked the mayor, "What is it this time?"

"To be honest, I knew about your financial situation."

"What!" The mayor jumped up, "But... but... why?!"

"It's more of a request than a demand. You see, the men I brought with me are in a great deal of debt. They really have nowhere to turn to without money. This might be a bit hard to believe, but they were all once craftsmen of various trades, just like the people in this town. They were forced into mercenary work, which is always taking new people due to the high fatality rate."

"What does this have to do with me?!" The mayor felt like Rayse's lack of intimidation was more intimidating than anything Rayse has done so far.

"I figured, hey, why not subtract the money equation from their lives? You guys can't possibly afford all of the improvements you have planned, and they are men who can do them... and all you have to supply is food and shelter. Hell, consider them your own personal slaves if you want."

"Now you see here!" the mayor piped up, suddenly realizing that not just today he was being threatened, but potentially for the rest of his life, "I'm not about to go harbor a bunch of crazed killers in my town! You lost, so why don't you get on down and get out already?!"

"I can't do that until you accept my very generous offer," Rayse smiled. It looked like a genuine smile, which really creeped the mayor out, "Would you really deny these men a second chance in their lives? They're really quite agreeable if you get to know them. Not to mention, you're quite lucky that someone as generous as I have come here before anyone else. Don't act like you didn't know something like this would happen since you weren't part of any fief and thus had no formal lord. As well as doing various menial jobs, they could also function as guards."

The mayor sighed. This was going nowhere, and he was getting uncomfortably disturbed by Rayse's presence in the room.

"Fine! Fine! I swear, the things I put up with! Why didn't I retire when I had the chance?! Stupid, stupid!"

"Glad to hear it," Rayse assured him, but decided to venture into his mischievous topic, "And by the way, about that Gabriel kid, how is his father recently? I heard he's not doing too well, and I haven't seen him in a while. Mr... ?"

"Mr. Talisman? Oh, oh, I'm sorry, but he's no longer with us... quite a tragedy, you understand."

The mayor replied with such casualness that he didn't realize what he had done. Rayse tried as hard as he could to hold back his insidious grin of delight. He had taken a stab at the dark over Gabriel's father's condition, and it seemed like he hit the nail on the head.

The mayor started to have the uneasy feeling that he just said something he shouldn't have. After all... how did this thug know Gabriel and his family in the first place? He lured the mayor so easily into that conversation, as if he was waiting for him to break down and accept his offer before asking about Gabriel, when he was the weakest mentally.

Rayse had no time to celebrate his victory, as he heard some sort of commotion outside. He decided to pause his conversation with the mayor and they both walked outside.

[Ladies' Man]

His mouth was still dry with unease, but Gabriel’s mood was lifted by Valentino’s reply to his exuberant thanks. Sure, the “pretty boy” comment had probably been excessively insulting, but what did bandits know about subtlety? There was definite threat in his words, and though that was a bit disturbing in itself, the response was perfect for winning him the sympathy and respect of the crowd. He’d won, but he’d still manage to make himself a martyr for them. Elise would have to fall for him now!

Gbariel stiffened when Valentino ducked to pick his own dagger out of the dust, but the bandit made no sign of seeing the other knife and approached the mayor without acknowledging Gabriel’s error. Several of the men of the council approached him with outstretched hands and grateful grins, and Gabriel shook hands with as much warmth as he could fake while sheathing his dagger. The clearing that had been made for the fight was gradually filling with meandering townspeople who were eager to turn the fighting ring back into the simple dusty street that it was supposed to be. He still had to get his dagger before some barefoot orphan tripped on it, but at least it wasn’t lying out as obviously as a naked woman in town square anymore.

Gabriel’s thoughts froze as the importance of a casual observation he’d made suddenly hit him like a well-aimed kick—Valentino was approaching the mayor?

He pushed past the appreciative men and headed for Valentino’s back, faking a trip as he went that let him swoop low and pick up his knife, which he sheathed before he was again fully upright. He affected an abashed smile at the worried coos of the surrounding women who had seen the stumble, but then the mayor’s gaze lifted from Valentino’s face and met his eyes over the bandit’s shoulders to issue an order that was almost more painful than the kick to the gut had been.

Find Elise? Find Elise? That meant . . . Gabriel’s heart sank as the words confirmed his worst fear. She hadn’t seen the fight. She’d slipped away after their intimate moment in the tavern and hadn’t watched a single moment of the battle that had been waged in her honor. She, the prize, had missed the whole competition. His Helen of Troy had missed the launching of her thousand ships!

So anguished was Gabriel at the verification of Elise’s absence that he only watched with paralyzed indifference as the mayor and the bandit set off together, the mayor looking none too happy with having to again consort with the conniving thief. Find Elise for me, the old man had said. Was he mocking his town’s savior? There was no way she would "love to hear about his victory." The last thing a girl like Elise would want was a man who touted his own skill, who sat around recounting stories of his glory days and basking in his own proficiency. What he had needed was for her to see him fight and win so that he would never have to open his mouth about himself in front of her. She would be the one spouting his praise, letting him only shrug in bashful modestly, a noble testament to the adage that actions speak louder than words.

But he would find her. He at least wanted to be there when she found out the good news that he'd saved them. Gabriel could hear people around him talking and celebrating in voices overly loud from relief but tinged with a trace of uncertain nervousness that would certainly linger until every bandit had left the town for good. He touched the daggers at his sides to reassure himself of their presence and then pushed his way through the crowd, heading for the last place that he had seen his beloved green-eyed beauty.

The tavern was still as the grave when he stepped inside, and no one had followed him, so he was completely alone in the dimly light room. He walked gingerly, not liking the ominous way the boards creaked under his feet. Where could she have gone? Had she hid from fear? That seemed highly unlikely. It was more plausible to think that she’d charged off to raise a peasant army of untrained, pitchfork-bearing kamikazes to fight the bandits.

“Elise?” His voice came out in a hoarse whisper, but a reply came just a few seconds later in the form of a wine bottle that flew through the air to shatter loudly against the wall behind him less than a foot away from the side of his head.

Gabriel yelped and ducked, throwing himself behind a table just as another bottle smashed against the door that he had just been standing in front of. He peered over the edge of the chair that he was crouched behind and saw a tall figure standing at the bar with a bottle of wine held by the neck in one hand and two more waiting in the other. Where had he come from?

“Come on out, scumbag!” The skinny figure screeched, hefting the bottle. “You wanna mess with Tradepost? Mess with me!”

Gabriel stayed down, stunned by the transformation of the strange little man who was now trying to peer over the edge of Gabriel’s pathetic defense, no doubt planning to start catapulting the bottles at him next.

“I said, come out! You’re sure brave ganging up to kidnap women; let’s see how you do against someone who’s armed, eh? Face me like a man, you pockmarked balls-for-brains!”

Where was this boy’s father? Gabriel resisted the urge to stand up to deliver his lambaste and instead just shouted his diatribe from behind the chair. “Who taught you how to greet guests, you whelp? I didn’t just risk my life for this pathetic little town just to get killed by some pimply over-hormoned punk with access to heavy bottles! If you get so much as a drop of wine on me, I swear I’ll—”

Gabriel’s jaw snapped shut as the boy’s words registered in his brain. He stood up instantly and moved with uncanny speed to the bar, where he slammed his fists down on the counter and glowered at the red-headed boy behind it.

“What did you just say?” He demanded urgently.

The boy’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed nervously, still tightly gripping the wine bottle as if still considering trying to get in a good swing. “I . . . I called you a pockmarked balls-for—”

“Before that,” Gabriel snapped. “About kidnapping.”

The boy’s face went dark. “Those scumbags! They waited until everybody had left and then took her out back . . . I don’t know where they were going, but—”

“How did you see it?”

“My da told me to guard the bar while he was gone, and he went outside to watch the fight so I took him to mean that I was to stay here and defend it,” the boy answered, his words tumbling out of his mouth like rabbits out of a smoking hole. “I hid behind the ale when the two big guys came in, and then when everybody went outside I heard them talking about taking her, and there was scuffling and yelling and then they took her out through the back door.”

“Her? Who did they take?” Gabriel voice cracked as he spoke, but he was past the point of caring if he sounded like the pubescent boy before him. He knew the answer to his question, but his desperate brain wouldn’t let him leave without absolute certainty. Maybe the bandits had kidnapped the boy’s mother; that would explain why the youth was so upset.

The boy gave him a look that told him that his question was as moronic and unneccessary as he'd feared. “Who else? They kidnapped Elise!”

[Rayse Valentino]

Rayse's plan was fairly simple. Make up some sad sap story about the mercenaries, and be relentless in convincing the mayor to believe it. After that great hurdle was surpassed, a simple question about Gabriel-- Rayse's real concern, would seem like nothing to the old man. His question about Gabriel's father was based upon how he'd seen Gabriel act so far. He was definitely some sort of noble, Rayse could feel it due to his own experiences with them, but for some reason he was traveling around and not safely nestled in his estate. He assumed that Gabriel must've had some sort of reason to leave and decide to travel around, and what better reason than the sudden lack of authority granted by a dead parent? It was all hypothetical, and Rayse didn't directly accuse Gabriel's father of being dead-- simply ill, but it seems to have worked out in the end. Nonetheless, The Contractor's job here was done, and it was time to collect his pay from that noble brat and get out of here.

Before that, the screams worried him. Two possibilities came to his mind: One or more of the townspeople has gotten uppity (especially Elise) or his mercenaries have done something stupid. When he ran outside, his eyes widened as he saw a carriage being pulled by two horses make its way recklessly down the road past him, with Dereck at the head and a tied-up Elise screaming and scrambling to get out of the ropes binding her while Eric was trying to shut her up. Rayse never imagined that he would be right on both counts. Rayse was dumbstruck; he couldn't find any words to yell at them. The confusion slowly dissipated, and was replaced by pure, seething rage.

He ran towards the nearest frightened citizen and demanded, "Where is the stable?! I need a horse, and I need it now!"

[Ladies' Man]

The redhead’s proclamation sent Gabriel into a daze, rendering him too shocked even to react. He stared numbly at the flushed boy, not really seeing the youth’s glinting eyes and murderous scowl. Was he in love with Elise, too? Of course he was. Every male in town had probably dreamt of getting lucky enough to find a woman like her. Who else would the bandits have snatched away as a consolation prize? It was his own stupid fault that she had been taken. He had known her worth, had spotted her value at first sight, and yet he’d done nothing to protect her. He shouldn’t have let her out of his sight!

Gabriel didn’t move when the boy in front of him suddenly looked over his shoulder and drew back his bottle-toting arm.

“What the devil are you doing?” The harsh bellow broke Gabriel’s trance-like state and he blinked and turned to see a burly figure standing in the now open doorway, hands on his hips as he surveyed the glass and wine that littered the floor and walls of the tavern. Gabriel only vaguely remembered his face from the council meeting, but he only had to take a glimpse of the suddenly pale face of the redhead to know exactly who he was.

“Let me explain, Da,” the boy squeaked, launching into an incomprehensible babble, his words tripping over themselves like rats escaping a doomed vessel.

The barkeep’s face went red with barely-suppressed rage over the course of his son’s speech, and Gabriel surprised himself by opening his mouth to come to the boy’s defense when a piercing scream tore into the tavern, stopping the boy mid-sentence and turning every head towards the open doorway. Gabriel’s heart jumped into his throat and he ran for the door as a second shriek echoed through the air. He knew that voice.

He heard the pounding of hooves and reached the door just as a carriage came hurtling past the inn. There was a burly man in the driver’s seat and another in the back who was struggling to hold down the wingless angel who was struggling against the ropes that bound her holy flesh.

Elise!

The carriage had swept past him before he’d even had time to voice her name, tearing down the main road as if it were on the homestretch of a racing course. The townspeople who had lingered after the fight were picking themselves off the sides of the road from where they’d thrown themselves to avoid the charging carriage, gasping indignantly and muttering urgently as the news of the kidnapping of their mayor’s green-eyed daughter spread like an airborne plague.

Gabriel stared after the carriage, too outraged to know how to respond. That scumbag Valentino had tricked him! The bandit had known that Elise was the whole point of saving the town in the first place; he’d surely been aware that Gabriel was only participating in the nasty affair because of her! Valentino was supposed to get the gold, and he was supposed to have the girl. But the bandit had broken his end of the bargain! Gabriel wanted to sit down on the ground and slam his own head against a wall. How could he have been so stupid as to trust a criminal? Of course it had been stupid to trust a thief to hold up his end of the deal. He’d probably been planning to kidnap Elise as soon as he’d laid eyes on her and just used Gabriel’s negotiating scheme as a way to make a little cash on the side. Heck, the whole heist could have been done just to make an opportunity to spirit the beauty away. Gabriel had launched negotiations with the bandit by declaring his love for her, not even considering that the rogue might be harboring similar feelings for the spirited woman. What if Valentino had initially been planning to ransom the town for Elise?

Gabriel let out a soft groan. His own stupidity had cost him his gold, and now it had cost him Elise. Only . . . Gabriel froze. He still had his gold, and Valentino hadn’t been in the Elise-napping carriage. That could mean that the bandit had snuck away with the rest of his gang, but it could also mean that the bandit was planning to stick around for his money! Either way, Gabriel still had a chance. How many carriages could there be in a town like Tradepost? With any luck, Valentino would still be on foot.

Filled with resolve, Gabriel dashed back into the tavern and retrieved his backpack from beneath the table that he had been sitting at before the council meeting. The innkeeper and his son were still going at it, though the conversation had now moved to who was going to be allowed to go after Elise. The redhead seemed to be losing.

Gabriel slung his backpack over his shoulder and stepped out of the tavern. Which way to go? He didn’t want to have to run around town hoping to find a trace of Valentino’s whereabouts, but he couldn’t hope to catch the carriage on foot. Was it wiser to go after Elise or Valentino? He saw the mayor standing in front of his house, leaning against the fence and looking positively sick as he gaped in the direction that his daughter had disappeared. But the mayor was alone. How long ago had Valentino left him? Gabriel set off across the street to find out.

[Rayse Valentino]

Running down the street in the opposite direction of the carriage, Rayse knew that the stable was definitely in this direction. All along the path, the people avoided him like he was an unstoppable train that carried some sort of airborne plague. It mattered little to Rayse what they thought, but there was someone's opinion he needed: Gabriel's. What would he think if he saw that scene a few moments ago? As a businessman and a person of trust, Rayse's reputation was on the line. After all, having some noble connections could be beneficial. Especially with someone who had no idea how rich he really was. Although, Rayse had never heard of the Talisman Fief or whatever it was called.

He reached the stable and caught someone who appeared to tend to the horses (for he smelled quite strongly of them) before he could get away from The Contractor.

He lifted the small man into the air, "Which one of these is the fastest?! Tell me-- Now!"

Finding himself speechless, the horse tender pointed to one of them, and Rayse dropped the man. He ran to the horse and examined it for a few moments. He certainly had horseback riding in the army, but horses were never fond of him. Nonetheless, it was already saddled and ready to go so he mounted the beast and took off after pulling his knife out and fastening it to his side. He might need it for this. It shouldn't take too long for a single horse to catch up to a carriage.

Charging down the road after the carriage, he saw Gabriel running towards him; probably towards the stables. He was going to try to avoid him, but he seemed to be running directly at The Contractor. Rayse didn't notice that there was a rope unfastened from the loose saddle that was dangling several feet behind the horse.

* * * *

"Big Eric, I want you to promise me something!" yelled Dereck as he whipped the horses in front of him, "Promise me you won't listen to whatever bullshit the boss feeds you, alright?! He's gonna try to play one of them-- those-- er, mind tricks on us! You understand?"

"Yeah!" replied Eric enthusiastically, although his expression was anything but jovial as he tried to fruitlessly restrain Elise, "Will ya quit moving around? You're only making this harder on yerself!"