From alt.pub.dragons-inn Mon Mar 21 17:13:38 1994
Xref: netcom.com alt.pub.dragons-inn:7151
Path: netcom.com!csus.edu!csulb.edu!library.ucla.edu!news.mic.ucla.edu!unixg.ubc.ca!nntp.cs.ubc.ca!alberta!cab013.cs.ualberta.ca!aaron
From: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Newsgroups: alt.pub.dragons-inn
Subject: [SQ] Mistletoe: Strange Behaviour
Date: 20 Mar 1994 20:18:43 GMT
Organization: The Anna Amabiaca Fan Club
Lines: 99
Message-ID: <2mib33$8pj@scapa.cs.ualberta.ca>
Reply-To: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca
NNTP-Posting-Host: cab013.cs.ualberta.ca
Originator: aaron@cab013.cs.ualberta.ca


ADMIN: All characters herein are mine, except for Radan who is Tim
Vaughan's, but he's only mentioned anyway.  Oh, and Angus is property of
Bruce Lapham, but mine in his absence...


"Coming from you, this is nothing but strange behaviour
 What'cha gonna do, causing that strange behaviour
 So strange"
      --Animotion, "Strange Behaviour"


Technically, it wasn't a mutiny.  Remi was the captain of the ship, and he was
merely asserting his authority.  He wondered if naval law would see it that
way...but then, he already had enough naval crimes to his credit, escaping
from prison merely being the latest of them.

Of course, if he was technically in command, why was he doing this?  Because
he knew that the sorceror Radan's companions would not allow him to leave
before Radan returned from his underwater expedition, and he would rather take
the only chance he had of retaining his freedom.

Besides, they had some strange abilities...Mistletoe did, for sure, and Angus
had always been a mystery.  Maleiu might be normal in that respect, but his
normal abilities were formidable enough.

It would have to be finished in stealth.  And soon, before Bronwen came
around.

***

"Mistletoe?"  She looked up from her reading at the sound of her name.  It was
the second mate, Arbelec.  He looked like he hadn't trimmed his beard in
days.  "Miss Bronwen, she wants to see you in her quarters.  Something
private."

Mistletoe sighed.  It was probably going to be another of these endless
"conversations" that ended up as Bronwen's monologues about her love life, and
whether she really loved Angus or Remi more.  Mistletoe tried hard to be a
friend, but sometimes she just couldn't understand the priestess's scattered
feelings.  She should have sworn celibacy, Mistletoe sometimes thought.  "I'll
be right there," she said, putting away the book.  It wasn't much, anyway--
something Blythe had loaned to her, a collection of old sea-tales.  It even
had the Ceruputhon in it, although she didn't discover _that_ until after
they'd already run across it.  She'd already read it twice, anyway.  Maybe
she'd ask Blythe if he had another.  She wished Ornigan were along--he had
always had lots to read, and when he hadn't, he'd been a decent storyteller as
well.

"Where's Blythe?" she asked.  "I have to see if I can get another book from
him..."

She missed the expression of panic that crossed Arbelec's face, but heard it
tinge his voice well enough...  "H-he's indisposed right now, ma'am."

Her brow furrowed.  "Ill?  Perhaps Bronwen or I should take a look at him. 
I'd probably do a better job, since anything wrong with him at sea is more
likely that not something better suited to herbal infusions than priestly--"

"He's not that bad," Arbelec said hurriedly, the look of panic this time all
too evident to the elven witch's gaze.

She shrugged, outwardly calm though her mind was awhirl.  "I guess I'll just
go see Bronwen then," she said brightly.  Arbelec's expression changed into an
almost pathetic grin of relief.  Something was definitely curious here.  She
hadn't had someone this eager to get her somewhere, and keep her away from
somewhere else, since her aunt Hejiramela had thrown that surprise party for
her ninety-ninth birthday.  And it was most definitely _not_ her birthday.

Then she noticed something else.  Since she had summoned the Kelsie down in
Rameshan, there had been an _awareness_ of the fairy in the back of her
brain.  She hadn't noticed it actively since the Ceruputhon incident, and
rarely before that, but now she noticed its absence.  Her heart started to
pound.  She wished she could just turn around, run, and yell for Maleiu, but
something told her that Arbelec wouldn't let her.  And wasn't that Vanshar
slouching against the mast?  She recited the Litany Against Fear to herself.

"Here y'are, ma'am," Arbelec said, as if there were nothing unusual about him
accompanying her all the way to Bronwen's cabin for a "personal" conversation.
She smiled falsely at him, steeled herself internally, unobtrusively kept one
hand near her herb pouch, and opened the door.

Bronwen was lying on her bed, apparently asleep.  That was all she had time to
register before Arbelec grabbed her arms and someone put a cloth of some kind
of her nose and mouth.  Remi, she imagined.  Even doing his own dirty work
this time.  She put up a token struggle, holding her breath in case the cloth
was doped with something, and then collapsed, rolling back her eyes and
sagging in Arbelec's grasp.  He almost let her drop to the deck before Remi,
cursing, grabbed her around the waist.  "Clumsy fool," Remi snarled.  "Bring
her inside, and watch them both in case they come around."

She'd have to bide her time.  And hope Maleiu or Angus escaped.


-- 
--Alfvaen(Editor of Communique)
Current Album--The Nits:Hat
Current Read--Robert Reed:The Remarkables
"curious george swung down the gorge/the ants took him apart"  --billbill