Chapter 44: 3.6 – The Keep Over the Borderlands

‘This changes things.’

Robin was sitting with his back to one of the large stones that protected their little camp outside Bordertown. Lantha was pacing back and forth while Ora-Jean, Fiamah, and Grathilde quietly argued amongst themselves about Robin’s news.

‘Does it, though?’ Grathilde asked. ‘We still need to get back and tell—’ she shot a glance at Robin, ‘—people what we know.’

‘We don’t want to give Basgar several more weeks to build up his strength,’ Ora-Jean disagreed. ‘We need to sabotage his efforts.’

‘There’s no reason we can’t do both,’ Robin interjected. ‘I’ve already made contact with a rebellious element within the town who have agreed to help us escape. We can work with them to unite the other fractious elements into an organised resistance. Then, use their first assault against Basgar’s power as a distraction to help us escape. Basgar is kept too busy at home dealing with a small rebellion while we hightail it back to Noviel, and you can deliver whatever it is I’m not supposed to know about to whomever it is I don’t know.’

‘It’s a solid compromise,’ Fiamah conceded.

‘It’s ruthless,’ Ora-Jean said approvingly.

‘It sounds fun,’ Grathilde added.

Lantha looked at them all.

‘It could work,’ she finally said. ‘I don’t like leaving things in the hands of someone I don’t know, but there aren’t many options.’

‘And you can always get to know the someones and choose the best one to support,’ Robin said. ‘We just need an excuse that people can use to gather that won’t draw any suspicion. I suggest a performance by yours truly.’

Robin waved his hands through the air and used [Visual Phantasm] to have them trail rainbow sparkles.

‘Fine,’ Lantha said after a long moment. ‘Set up the meeting with your friend from the tavern and get a list of the strongest elements in town that are keen to resist Basgar. We’ll split the list and do some research of our own. I want to make sure these people can keep Basgar occupied long enough for us to get back to Noviel with news of the danger.’

‘Consider it done!’ Robin grinned.

‘And we keep our eyes peeled for any information that might help us get through that gate or over that wall,’ Lantha commanded. ‘I’d prefer we have some backup options in case our new “friends” don’t come through for us.’

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‘I can focus on that,’ Robin offered. ‘I doubt I’ll be much use assessing the fitness of potential insurrectionists. That’s not really a skill I’ve had much call to develop.’

‘Fine.’ Lantha said. ‘You do that.’ Then she proceeded to break down her orders into individual missions for Fiamah, Grathilde, and Ora-Jean.

That suited Robin just fine. He could use some time to think, anyway. He needed to decide how to handle the forthcoming deal with Avanus and, potentially, the Queen of Air and Darkness.

He’d edged around the subject with the others, but none save Lantha had much of an in-depth knowledge of the fey, and Robin wasn’t sure he was ready to try and fish for information from someone as sharp as the elvish rogue.

So as the Sisters Sharp planned, Robin stared into the flames of their small campfire and pondered.

***

The streets of Bordertown were more crowded than usual. Guard patrols were up and the place was abuzz with rumours of ‘Marcher rabbitkin spies’. Robin suppressed a grin as he moved through the streets, day-pass and his very human appearance making him all but anonymous.

So far, it seemed his true identity remained concealed from Basgar and Gis. Definitely a good thing, considering they still hadn’t found a way through that northern gate. Speaking of…

Robin pulled up the latest version of the ‘evolving’ quest, [A Dangerous Bargain!]. It had changed a bit after he had successfully escaped from Gis’s private quarters with half the priest’s private correspondence (and no small amount of his personal wealth) burning a hole in his extra-dimensional storage space.

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