Fragments of Antiquity
an excerpt

(From Chapter Eleven)

Noting the silence of the constables, Elaurei frowned. She was hardly going to get any useful information out of them this way. In order to work a con, she had to get into their heads, determine their personality types to see how she could concoct a story that would lead to her realease. But first she needed to get them talking.

"If you gentlemen don't mind my asking, who was it that brought such charges against me?" she asked to none of them in particular. Surely at least one of them would speak up.

And sure enough, one did – the tall, out of shape one. "I do happen to mind your asking. Who brought the charges up is unimportant. Are you going to be so foolish as to claim that the charges are false?"

Hmm. Not very trusting, that one. She shook her head in response. "No, sir, not at all. Were I not guilty of some misdemeanour, then I would not have ran. I had no intention at all of questioning the validity of the accusations. I was merely curious."

"Curious because you swindle so many people that you've lost track?" he shot back, venom in his voice.

At this, Elaurei flinched, and bowed her head, letting her hair fall into her eyes. Time to see how the man's two partners reacted. Each one, in their own fashion had shown her some sympathy upon her capture; it was time to see how far on her side they might be.

The constable that originally caught her sighed, squeezed her hands almost kindly. "Now, there's no reason to be so harsh, Celembrin. She's just a kid, probably doesn't know any other way."

Elaurei was glad that both her posture and her hair hid her smile. Her original perception had no doubt been correct; the one holding her was a soft touch, one whose trust could be easily gained. Her heart had sunk almost into her knees after her capture, but now it rose to normal position, strong and assured. There was hope here; she might not be back on the way to prison after all.

"Don't listen to a word that girl says!" Celembrin's voice was hard, unyeilding. In spite of herself, Elaurei flinched at the tone. "How do you think she conned all those people? They believed anything that she told them; don't be idiot enough to fall into the same trap that they did."

The short one sighed beside her. "You know, the both of you have a point. Celembrin, you're right; she's a criminal in need of punishment. But Resh is right, too. Criminal or not, she's still some young kid that could do something with her life given the proper chance."

Elaurei wrung her hands a little, ostensibly in discomfort. But she was feeling for a slackness in her captor's grip, one that she could take advantage of. Even to get only one hand free so that she could properly get one of her spells off. The grip was as firm as ever, though. Her hands could not find any place to move. In spite of her captor's sympathy, there was no way that she was breaking free just yet.

"I don't know why either of you even took this job," Celembrin said. "We're not in the business of letting somebody go just because they apologized, or have the excuse of a rough life. Laws apply to everyone without exception. I don't care how young she is."

Ouch. There seemed to be no getting through to him; any effort would be immediately brushed aside. And if he were influential enough, he might have his two partners agreeing with him, which would hardly suit her purposes. It was time for a little damage control.

"I agree that I need to learn a lesson," she said at last, making sure to dart her eyes around feverishly as though looking for someone to help her. "But how long is the punishment to be? I can learn to stop, and if I did, it would be very wasteful for me to be in prison for an extended period. Not just to me, but to whatever body pays for imprisonment in this town."

To hear Celembrin chuckle, she found, was a most unpleasant experience. The man's voice was deep and gravelly; every word that came out was rough, unpolished, and the laugh was even worse than that. It didn't even really sound like a laugh, more like a cascade of small stones scraping against each other. Frankly, she would have covered her ears had she been able. As it was, all she could do was grit her teeth and hoped that nobody noticed.

"Any cost is well worth it, little girl," he said. "The money is there to keep the worst of criminals off the streets, and with all the allegations against you, you won't be seeing these streets for a good long time."

Elaurei pouted at these words, hoping that the expression would be taken for sadness instead of anger. Though he had been unwilling to do so before, Celembrin had given some insight as to who might have charged her with these crimes. Or rather, it was the knowledge that it had been several someones. While this was not the biggest of towns she had been in, there were so many ripe people for the picking that she had not been able to help herself.

And years upon years in prison? Absolutely unacceptable. Were she able to dwindle it down for a few months, Elaurei might have been willing to consider it. But with this knowledge facing her, the situation had become an all or nothing deal. She still had a chance with these other two, and she would be a fool to waste it.

"Personally, I find it hard to believe that all of them are true," Resh piped up, her ally once again. "By all accounts, she's new in town, and any good swindler would have to know her targets pretty well. She would have to be unbelievably proficient in order to have conned so many people in so short a period."

The as yet nameless one shrugged. "Would be quite a feat for someone her age, to be able to pick things up so well and so quickly."

Elaurei ducked her head again, this time to hide a flush of pleasure. How perfectly sweet of them, offering such a compliment on her abilities. And how lucky was she to be in the custody of two constables who seemed to have an underlying appreciation of a good con? She ran her tongue along the backs of her teeth, practically tasting freedom. A little bit more prodding and they might actually release her on the spot.

But this thought was dashed in the next second. Celembrin stopped short, whipping about to face them. Involuntarily, Elaurei took a step back from the fierce expression that darkened his face, and a quick glance showed that his hand was twitching near the sword at his hip, ready for an excuse to draw the weapon and wreak havoc on all those before him.

"That's enough!" he barked, though his hand moved away from his sword. Instead, that hand shot out and easily pried her out of Resh's grasp, locking her into his own. "Be thankful that I'm going to refrain from reporting the both of you for supporting a criminal! There are other warrants to execute; why don't you go and take care of those while I take this one in? That is, if you don't decide to feel sorry for everyone that you arrest."

The nameless one raised his palms in a calming gesture. "Hey, take it easy. All we were saying is that the world isn't as black and white as all that. But by all means, take her in and we'll get going on other warrants. Come on, Resh."

Elaurei's heart dropped again as her two best chances to stay out of prison strode off, unable to help her any longer. Now she was stuck with only Celembrin, who was not about to offer her even the slightest bit of sympathy. The idea of spending years in prison was seeming to be more and more of a reality than it had mere moments ago. Damn it.

"Come on!" Celembrin roughly tugged on her hands, forcing her to walk ahead of him. Both of his hands covered hers, pressing down painfully, and Elaurei bit her lip to keep from crying out. "And don't you even open that mouth, little girl, or you're going to lose that pretty tongue of yours. I've had more than enough of your lies."

Elaurei did not tempt fate by speaking any more; the tone of Celembrin's voice had made it quite clear that the threat was not an empty one, and she did not even want to think about what that kind of mutilation would feel like. She kept her eyes on the passersby, the pleading in her eyes not a construction of her mind, but all the truth of her heart. Her hands struggled to move in Celembrin's grip, but could not.

And no one would help her.