Turning Wheel

II. Her disgraceful lover

Pitraan, a village south to Winter's Eye

Mr. Tallson ran to sound the alarm. We could hear his shouts even five hours after, it almost seemed as if Korveus had forgotten to mention the real importance of that fisher's boy. Maybe he saw something that he wasn't supposed to see. Even could be that Mr. Tallson had set him free himself for a private matter between him and the fisher's boy, or maybe he wanted the boy to help him frame us for the kidnapping and alleged murder, because he changed his mind - didn't want or have the funds to pay us.

We decided to see Pollymare Tallson, she might know why Othen is so important to her father. Pollymare wasn't dead, at least yet. Yes, we're picky hitmen, our hearts are still too good for the murder of innocents, but our wallets too poor to decline. We put her in the basement of Blinda's cottage, the same old woman with rotten teeth and feet. So we didn't have to go far, because we were staying at the same house.

Blinda promised us privacy and to ask no questions. "A woman too old for your shenanigans," she always said. And we were grateful for it, although she could be feeding information to Mr. Tallson.

Mr. Tallson's daughter Pollymare sat on the ground although she had a bed, a chair and a table. Her appearance was as ragged as her father's this morning, and she looked like him too except the hair - hers was a lighter brown.

She looked at us and spat at our feet. Her whole face was tense and her expression was angry. She didn't say anything yet.

"Why're you sitting on the floor?" asked Ribi in confusion. All four of us stood in front of her and urged her to sit somewhere else but she refused.

We tried to make her stand up but she scratched us with her long bear claws, so we let her go. She dropped to the floor again and started screaming. She knocked down all the furniture. "I'll kill you if you touch him!" Pollymare shouted.

All of us met each other's eyes. "Are you talking about Othen?" said Ayka. But she wouldn't stop the tantrum. Chairs were flying around the room and the table was broken into little pieces.

"Enough!" I said, and Pollymare's feet froze in place. They were covered by a thick layer of ice. She looked at her frozen feet and screamed even louder. Ribi and Xiomara held her arms so she couldn't move, but somehow she managed to break her leg by tilting forward too much. The bone wasn't visible but we heard a crack and there was a horrendously loud scream to prove that her leg was broken.

We couldn't decide whether to bring her to a healer or bring a healer to her.

"Well.. we can use her broken leg to torture her for the information that she's clearly hiding," suggested Ribi.

Everyone looked at Ribi, including Pollymare, with a mix of shock and concern. "No, we can't," Ayka and I said at the same time.

"She won't tell us otherwise! Look at her - she's a pathetic little fifteen year old girl with a broken leg, who's clearly trying to cover for someone or trying to protect them." Ribi won't stop.

"Well?" said Ribi a little too loud.

I couldn't bring myself to neither agree or disagree, so I asked Xiomara and Ayka what are their opinions.

"Absolutely not!" immediately answered Ayka. But Xiomara wasn't able to answer as quickly as Ayka, she stared me in the eyes and then finally said, "We give her a chance to speak. If she doesn't, we'll do it how Ribi wants."

I bobbed my head in agreement.

Pollymare started to sob in horror. "I'll speak. Ask me anything."

We lifted her up onto the bed and put her broken leg on a pillow for support, but she refused to lay down, so she remained upright.

"Please, don't harm him," she quietly said.

"Who?" I asked.

"Le..Le..Lennie," she said almost whispering. "That's why you need me, right?" Polly had given up, you could see in her face that she became a lot calmer and sadder too, to replace the rage. "My father," she began, "asked you to get Lennie. He doesn't like Lennie, or rather hate him greatly."

"Why does your father hate this Lennie?" I asked. It was like speaking to a child, although she was already fifteen years into her life, one forth of all her life.

"Because we're in love!" Pollymare claimed as it were as obvious to us as it is to her. "My father is a monster! A beast!" she raged, all the calmness disappearing. "He said we're to marry when I turn sixteen! At the very hour of my birth."

"I knew he'd do this, I refused him. My Birthhour is in four days." She mumbled. "Protect him, I'll pay you!"

Blinda made us a delicious dinner of her garden greens and a pigeon especially for me. "Hunted it meself, dear. Ain't that old of a lady eagle."

She even lit some candles for us to see the delicious food as well as taste it. Bilnda, who were as rotten as she were, could cook quality food and even beautifully place it on the plate, like the highest ranking cooks.

When she left Xiomara demonstratively coughed. "I must admit something," she started. "There was a boy around seventeen named Lennie Ketch, who offered me a drink at the Rocher's Inn."

"Said he was willing to pay for kidnapping Pollymare Tallson. I obviously said I don't offer any services."

Ribi snorted. "Depends on the services, doesn't it?"

"Quit it!" I snarled at her, then turned back to Xiomara. "Tell me what happened next."

"He said he knows what Mr. Tallson's planning, said Korveus told himself." She continued whilst occasionally glancing towards Ribi. "I didn't want to say anything because I've never seen him since, and he said he'll send you a letter."

She tried to remember something by counting her fingers. "Tomorrow. The letter is due tomorrow."

This made me somewhat angry. "How could you keep quiet?" My face tightened in an unpleasant expression. "I'm disappointed. Very disappointed."

I got up and left the room, took my coat and went outside. Almost no-one was in the streets at this hour, although you could hear people getting ready for tomorrow's festivities.

When I reached Mr. Tallson's house I knocked twice. His servants took me to him in his study.

He looked almost as before but his shaven face. It made him look younger and uglier.

"I want to ask you some important matters," I said. "Tell me what you know of Lennie Ketch."

Korveus's eyes widened and his face became more stiff. "He is my daughter's disgraceful lover."

"Lennie Ketch is a sick bastard," he added.

"Doubtful that he'd marry his daughter." I tried to read his expression, or if it has changed, yet still it was stiff.

"No, he wouldn't. He'd marry you," quietly said Mr. Tallson. "Would you like to be Kimer Tallson?"

"Why'd you ask something like this?"

"I want you to marry me the day after Mabon. You'll inherit my gold when I die, in return you have to kill Lennie Ketch and my daughter."

"Why'd you give me all of your gold?"

"Because it's Rory Atticus's gold."

I understood what I had to do, when he said his name, I knew I had to marry him. "We should start planning then."