Solo Warrior 22: Buckly Gets His Due

[Bungleau]

Back to Chapter 21 - - - Back to the Beginning

“Three of the finest crab shells this side of Wyvern’s Glen,” Missy Hissy stated calmly as she eyed Buckly in the shipyard in Brimloch Roon.

“Aye, nice they are,” agreed Buckly. “And certainly some of the finest I’ve seen. Not even a nick or a scratch on ‘em! Well, here’s your gold.”

“Thanks,” said Missy, pocketing the small amount of gold. “And speaking of nicks and scratches…” she continued as her eyes narrowed into dark slits, the heat rising in her voice as it went lower.

Buckly looked up at her with a quick flash of recognition in his eyes. “Something wrong?” he asked with false bravado.

“You might say so,” said Missy as she took out a throwing knife, sighted on a rat near the door, and pegged its hindquarters to the wall by the door. “Ya see, you sold me a boat, brand new and ready to sail the Enchanted Sea.”

“And you got the finest ship available in all the Gael Serran,” said Buckly nervously. “There is none finer.”

Missy took out another throwing knife, this time clipping the wing off a glowfly that had wandered in. The knife stuck in the wall, two handswidths above the still wiggling rat. “The point is,” she said, “you sold me a new ship. Not a rebuilt ship, not a refurbished ship, not the finest ship available. You sold me a new ship. And you didn’t deliver.”

Buckly’s hands slowly dropped below the driftwood counter. She could sense his fingers looking for something.

She took out another throwing knife, hefting it in her fingers, feeling the sweet spot where it balanced. “When you sell me something, but deliver something else, that’s cheating.”

Buckly’s hands stopped moving, and some confidence seemed to rise back into his voice. “Cheating?”

She looked Buckly square in the eyes and spoke in a low, measured voice. “Cheating. And I don’t like being cheated.” Kill or be killed. She turned the knife around so the tip rested among her fingertips, ready for its journey through the air.

“So you now have a problem.” You don’t have to kill the cockroaches if you don’t see them. Peekaboo. I see you.

As Buckly pulled a wand out from behind the counter, Missy threw the knife, hard. It hit the wand in flight and a small piece of the wand, whittled off, flew up into the air, releasing its pent-up magical energy in a shower of sparks. It fell to the ground a piece of charcoal-gray ash. The remaining portion of the wand began sizzling, sparks starting to fly from it. Startled, Buckly looked at the wand, and then at Missy.

“I’d get rid of that wand quickly, before it explodes. They don’t take to that kindly,” suggested Missy.

Buckly quickly ran out the back door, throwing the wand into the Enchanted Sea. As he walked back in, a shower of water followed the explosion from the sea. Missy leaned against a barrel of ropes, cleaning her fingernails with another throwing knife. “Now,” she continued, “we were talking about cheating…”

Buckly grinned weakly. “So I take it you’re not completely happy with the ship. We do aim to please, and take our customers very…”

“Put a cork in it, Buckly,” snapped Missy. “You tried to take advantage of me, and I’m looking for one good reason to spare your life instead of leaving you as a message for all those who flaunt the rules of the merchants’ guild.” She stepped closer, stumbling over a marlinspike on the wooden floor. As she regained her balance, the black pearl assassin’s ring fell from her pouch onto the floor. As she scooped it up and deposited it back in its home, she saw Buckly trying to quickly avert his eyes.

“You know something about this?” she asked.

“Well… you know… not exactly…” he stammered.

“Cut the drama!” she snapped. “I’m really irritated about being taken for a ride, and unless you want to go for a ride to the depths of the Enchanted Sea, you’d better find a tongue in you… and fast!”

“Well,” said Buckly, “my father, who started this shipyard, used to tell me about his guardian angel, as he called her. A woman came in, fronted him money to start it up, and never came back to check on her investment. All that was she left was a single ivory feather; she said it would let him know when her investment was due.

“She never came back, even after twenty-some years, to collect. He died beholden to her, and that never sat right with any of us.

“About four years ago, a woman showed up here. She allowed as how she was here to collect on the debt, and sure enough, she showed me another feather, just like the first. I still have them around, on that wall-hanging there.”

Missy glanced at the wall. Two ivory feathers were laid on a polished piece of driftwood. Curiously, the feathers touched, tip to tip and base to base, but the middles bowed outward, and then back in. Almost like an arrow with two points on it.

Buckly continued. “She told me how much she wanted back from her investment, and I didn’t have that kind of gold. I begged for time to get it, but she’d have none of it. Then she offered me a choice: either pay up, give the shop to her, or hook her up with someone.”

“So what did you do?” asked Missy.

“I played tour guide,” snapped Buckly. “I asked her who she wanted to meet, and she told me she wanted to meet the head of the assassins’ guild. She didn’t tell me much beyond that, and I wasn’t asking, either. I was happy to be done with her, to tell you the truth. Something didn’t seem right.”

“I tire of your story,” said Missy. “Who did she meet with, and where did she go?”

“I hooked her up with an old pirate from around these parts, and he got her in. Sad thing was shortly after that, he drove his ship into the ground and lost his mind. Hasn’t been in a right mind since. And that’s all I know, I swear it.”

Missy looked at him through hardened eyes. “Then why did this ring bother you so?”

“The last time I saw her,” began Buckly, only to quickly stop as another throwing knife pulled his hat from his head and stuck it to the wall behind him.

“I like being lied to less than being cheated,” said Missy in a low voice. “I want the rest of what you know. Or I’ll have the rest of you.”

Buckly looked at her nervously, then continued. “After I sent her over to Talrik, she came in one last time. She was wearing a ring like that one – a big one, I remember, and I remember that it bore a striking resemblance to her. She told me we were even up, and when I tried to get a better look at the ring, she got a bit upset. Nearly split me in two, she did; I was a month in the back healing up before I could walk easily again. And seeing that ring again, it just brought it all back to me.”

Missy nodded. “I see. Well, I should hang you from the yardarm outside the shop as a lesson to those who would cheat the merchants’ guild. And I should collect the cost of my ship back from you. But I’ll settle for less… this time. Give me those two feathers, and I’ll forget just how upset this whole thing made me.”

“Take ‘em, take ‘em!” said Buckly. “’Tis a small price to pay to settle this.”

Collecting the feathers, Missy slid them into her traveling pouch and headed toward the armory, to sell the equipment she’d picked up and to ponder this new information.

On to Chapter 23

[ 04-23-2003, 11:31 PM: Message edited by: Bungleau ]

[Wyvern]

Excellent!!!!

Had me hanging on every toss of the a knife (which was plentiful!)

BRAVO!!!!!

Wyv

[jsalsb]

YES! She's back, she's p'd off and she's getting even! Great instalment! Thanks for all the great entertainment!

[LiOnHe@rT]

haha! buckly sure pissed Missy Hissy off real good this time......!
anyway, excellent job bungleau!!!!!! every toss of the knife was superb, i didnt know missy was THAT accurate.... [img]graemlins/blush.gif[/img]

[bsftcs]

Oh yes, I almost forgot about your story, Bungleau. Nice to have another chapter to the ongoing saga - and a good one too. Keep it up!!!

[macoati]

ahhh... YES! Wonderful! Suspense...drama...skill...and foreshadowing. All wonderfully mixed in with a superb storyline! I feel like I'm watching cliff-hanger clips way back when at the movies... Is our heroine stepping into a trap? Is this information going to lead her to the end of the mystery or will it simply be another stop in the road of her life? Will Missy Hissy ever find out all about her father or will her quest be in vain?

Superlatives abound!!!

Keep it up, B! I am riveted!!! [img]smile.gif[/img]