O Brother, where art thou? part III

My Dear Domini,

Master d'Arrent tells me I missed you by a matter of days, but that you had to leave because the Warden of the Chateau Roulement Noble has become aware of your work. I wonder at the forces that drive our lives, that even though you and I are separated we follow the same path. It is as if the Order knew that in sending me to the von Tannen group that they would lead me to Charouse, and it gives me a strange comfort to think that wherever we may go, you will have been there before us.

As we travel through Montaigne I find myself ever more missing your guidance and insight. The Montaigne, if possible, are even stranger than the Eisen. Where the Eisen seem obsessed by the tragedy that has befallen their country, the Montaigne seem to not care about the state of their country at all, as long as they look good!

In the capital of Charouse we determined that we must send someone to visit Dandelion's brother Lucerne. However, his name is not Lucerne, it is Louis Rois et Reines. We must also, for the sake of our glorious leader Eduarde, rescue the lady Jamais Sices du Sices. They are both imprisoned together and the visit was to give them garments that would serve as a costume of sorts which can be used to establish some decoys. For the lady Jamais we have a red shawl, and for Lucerne, or Louis, or whoever he will be when we arrive, a red cloak. It was decided that Antonio and Eduarde should undertake this assignment, for it is rumoured that the Warden at the Chateau du Roulement Noble where the prisoners are held can sniff out sorcerers.

This plan, suggested to us by Adrian Fletchyr, is to hijack the "death wagon" which takes condemned prisoners from the Chateau to meet their appointment with Le Coiffeur (surely only the Montaigne would make execution sound like the height of fashion!). It is a daring plan; not only must we defeat the guards as they escort the wagon to the Chateau, taking care to avoid damaging the uniforms we must use as our disguise, but we must pass ourselves of for revolutionaries within the lion's den itself! Then once we have our two prisoners we must make our way to a nearby five-way intersection where there will be four more wagons with red-garbed passengers. Thus will we depart the intersection with a number of decoys riding in different directions to occupy the revolutionary guard.

Borstennskoldmund and Pistol went to check the passage of the wagon both on its trip to the Chateau, and then from the Chateau to Le Coiffeur. Also, apparently, the number of guards varies with the number of prisoners so they wanted to get some idea of how many guards were used.

As they watched the wagon travel to the square where Le Coiffeur is located they noticed that one of the prisoners, a silver-haired old woman, bore a striking similarity in appearance to Dandelion. They watched her execution but then became aware of a group of mounted revolutionary guards passing through the crowd checking papers. They attempted to slip away before the guards reached them, but this apparently drew their attention and a shout rang out across the square. I am told that at this point they bolted, and managed to escape as a wagon crossed the street between them and their pursuers, buying them enough time to reach safety. Later when they mentioned the woman to Dandelion he sighed "Grand mere!" and called for several more bottles.

[Edit: Lucky for Pistol I didn't tell the others that he took great delight in 'playing the part' of a revolutionary sympathiser by purchasing some rotten tomatos to throw at the prisoners. Dandelion would have been horrified to hear that one of Pistol's squishy red missiles landed fair and square on Grand Mere's nose! - Borstenn]

In order to gain more insight into the nature of my companions, I accompanied Antonio and Eduarde in their visit to the Chateau. We presented out papers to the guards and they apparently accepted the forgeries we carried: for this occasion I felt it best not to use the legitimate papers provided by the local Chapter house. There was some discussion between Antonio and the guards, but being in Montaigne the content was largely lost on me. At one point it seemed the guard was reciting a list which I assumed to be the prisoners currently held in the Chateau, and then Antonio gave the guard a vast sum of gold. You know that I have never had a head for such things, but I would hazard that it was a greater sum than I have ever held!

Indeed it seemed as if time stepped slowly as the coins fell one by one into the guard's hand. At first all eyes were fixed on the large glittering coins. Then after that frozen moment all eyes fixed on Antonio as if seeking some silent explanation. Eduarde's face bore an expression somewhere between fear and horror; the guard's face an expression of disbelief and suspicion; Antonio's face a bland mask of nonchalance as if he had done nothing abnormal. After time's next hesitant pace I could see Antonio's mask cracking as if he realised he had somehow erred but seemed unsure how. My eyes flicked back to the guard as his expression was supplanted by one of a great hunger fed; to Eduarde and a look as of an old wound once more irritated.

And then the river of time once more flowed smoothly and the guard joyfully waved us through.

We visited with people unknown to me. I assume that these men, Maurice Chevalier and Charles Aznavour, had wronged Antonio at some past time for he spoke to them harshly and relentlessly, reducing them to tears. We then passed on to a pit of a cell only arguably cleaner than the sewers through which we entered Charouse. Here we found the downcast Lady Sices du Sices. For all the pain she had apparently caused Eduarde in the past, he had few words for her, but wore an expression which looked to me little different to hers. While Antonio passed on the details of our plan I stood in the doorway ranting pointlessly in Avalon to prevent the guards from hearing anything. Her reluctance to take the shawl (admittedly in last year's fashion) surprised me - perhaps in Montaigne muck and excrement are always in fashion? Eventually Antonio managed to push it into her hands and we left.

With Dandelion's brother (I'm sorry, but it seems the easiest thing to call him!) things went somewhat better. Again I provided verbal cover while the others discussed our plan. They had some initial trouble convincing him that we were friends of his brother, but once that had been established things proceeded quickly. When Antonio passed over the cloak I could see the distaste on his face as well. These Montaigne are so amusing. While I grant that to be in fashion is desirable, only the Montaigne could pretend that this year's fashions were an improvement.

Our business finished, we return to the inn where my fellows and I are staying - a seedy establishment called La Belle Aurore. While I would have preferred to stay at the local Chapter house, Master Faith asked that I make other arrangements if possible.

The next morning we set our ambush and managed to take the wagon without causing any injury to the guards. Everything proceeded smoothly as we collected the prisoners who had, almost surprisingly, donned the red garments we had left them. As we made to leave the Chateau, however, the Warden's voice rang out to sound the alarm. I saw Pistol turn back to look at the Warden and the shouting stopped. Adrian tried to hurry the wagon but it was never designed to travel at speed and the horses plodded along at their accustomed pace. Then the Warden's voice rang out once more and I turned to examine our adversary. Strangely it took some time to locate him on the balcony overlooking the courtyard: for some reasons my ears seemed to be playing tricks on me and it sounded as if he should still be in the courtyard.

Still, we cleared the Chateau and made our way towards the determined intersection. Rounding a corner in front of us there was a foot patrol of guards. We made to clear them from our path by persuasion, since we were still disguised as guards ourselves, but from behind appeared a small squad of guards from the Chateau shouting that we were helping the prisoners escape.

Combat with the guards was ugly, as they were trained in the use of their muskets and bayonets. Eduarde took some telling damage early on, and Borstennskoldmund was still injured from La Belle Isle.

We managed to account for all but one of the guards, who fled for his life, or so we thought. It seemed barely any time before we heard the sounds of a group of riders behind us with the surviving guard shouting and pointing at us. Dandelion guided our group using his apparent knowledge of the streets of Charouse to good advantage. Indeed, we believed at more than one point that we might actually lose the riders despite their much greater speed and mobility.

It was not to be, and as the riders closed the crippled Eduarde made to hold them off by himself, which apart from being unquestionable suicide would not have slowed the riders at all, while depriving us of our great leader and greatest warrior. So as the wagon rolled on we faced the riders, Pistol taking the opportunity to "explain" to the guard that had fetched the riders his displeasure through the common language of the fist.

We managed to account for them as well with only one injured rider departing the scene.

We approached the intersection that was our target and were starting to congratulate one anoother, when in front of us emerged a group of three fops who doffed their hats at us before dropping them and challenging our better fighters while they drew their swords. Accompanying them was the rider we had failed to account for. These so-called Heroes of the Revolution were clearly greatly skilled fighters trained in the Valroux style, but our numbers and determination carried us through.

We finally reached the intersection and Adrian reached down beside him and raised a grappling gun which he pointed into the air. When he fired it a bundle of red streamers emerged; the signal for the four wagons to head off with their own red-clad passengers as we removed our disguises and made our way to the farmer's market where we were to meet Adrian's wife.

Apparently the success of our escape had returned some of her former spirit the the Lady Sice du Sice, for as she saw the other women with the red scarfs matching her own, she turned to Eduarde and slapped him full in the face. I managed to recognise the words for "idiot" and "imitation" and Dandelion later explained that she had been horrified to discover that not only was the shawl we had provided last year's fashion, it wasn't even a "one off". Perhaps she missed the point of the whole exercise.

We pushed on to the market where Adrian's wife Antoinette sat on the seat of a cart filled with pickle barrels, the central ones of which had been ingeniously hollowed and joined to provide ample space for our escaping prisoners. As we prepared our escapees for departure we bound Eduarde's wounds to stop the worst of the bleeding. When it was done he stood up and addressed us:

"Mes amis. It appears I am growing too old for all this, and there is much to be done amongst my countrymen in Wische. I have enjoyed my time with you all and count you the very best of friends, but I think I must bid you all adieu."

And so, since I instructed to join this group their leader has departed for the second time. I wonder who will next take up the mantle, and whether this apparent curse will also afflict him.

Avon Arthur,

Poor Knight of the Order