The Contest of Blood
Fantastic Freddy was enjoying the company of the other musicians, as they all sat around the large open air firepit that dominated the main courtyard at Bella Bells. The Solstice Festival had drawn them from far and wide to Skull River Bay, not only to compete for the 1000 gold piece prize awarded to the winner of the Contest of Song, but also of course. to ply their trade among the festival goers, trading song for gold in a dance as old as music itself.
Most of them were lodging at Bella Bells. Bella was quite the patron of the arts and gave musicians free room and board during the Festival, at least all musicians who were competing in the Contest of Song.
The Contest was entering it's final phase. The three masked judges had already winnowed the field down to four bands, and tomorrow those four were slated to compete to determine the final winner.
Freddy was the favorite of course. The other finalists were good, but none were at Freddy's level, and least not according to the bookies who took the best and set the odds. Still, he had some competition.
Sarky Lil's Big Damn Band was Bella Bell's house band and was a local favorite,
Lil, Fiddlesticks Joe and the other members of the band were pretty damn good too, Freddy thought. They played Island Swing, which was a variant of Freddy's own Valorian Swing, and popular here in Skull River Bay. He'd have to look out for them.
Wyclif the Wanderer was a different breed of musician. He hailed from the Garden Isles, his catchy tunes heavily inspired by the native music found there, said to be a blend between the First People and the music of Mbo.
Finally, the dark horse of the competition, two young sisters who had a duet act, Larkin and Poe.
Privately Freddy thought they were the most talented of the lot. Pretty inexperienced and untrained, no chance of wining this contest, but lots of raw talent there. The younger sister played her guitar in a style they had called "sidesaddle" back at the Valorian Ensemble where Freddie had been trained. It was a rare style to find these days, but it could produce some haunting melodies if done well, and she did it well.
Freddy was also more then a little worried about those two. They had that "fresh from the countryside" shine to them, a shine which indicated a relatively short life expectancy in these streets. They kinda reminded Freddy of himself, back when he first landed in Valoria. He might not have survived those first few nights if Rufus hadn't noticed him and taken him under his wing, shown him the ropes and gotten him into the Ensemble.
The impromptu gathering of musicians quietly talked and laughed by the large firepit that dominated Bella's largest courtyard. Wyclef passed around a truly humongous joint. Freddy smiled and took a hit, then passed it to Larkin who almost fell over in a fit of pure hero worship. Freddy grinned at her.
"Yo Freddy mon" said Wyclef blowing a huge smoke ring. "Lets jam". Freddy nodded and pulled out his guitar.
It was one of those nights where a group just clicked. None of the musicians had met each other before, they all came from radically different backgrounds and life experiences but they were united in their passion for music. And as conversation faded and turned into notes and melody, the music came. And it came on strong, and sweet, and wild.
It was the best jam session Freddy had participating in, in years. The various different musical traditions, which he'd thought would be dissonant and conflicting, instead blended together magically. They played and sang for hours.
Freddy had a feeling near the end there, as the ganja really took hold, that the music was turning into more then just music. That is was somehow transcending music. That magic was happening, magic that he really didn't understand.
And that's when he first saw her, quietly watching him from just outside the firelit circle. He blinked, and she was gone.
The music went on and on, but even Freddy needed a break every now and then. During one such interlude, Freddy found himself sitting next to Fiddlesticks Joe. The quiet young man kept looking surreptitiously at Freddy and seemed to have something on his mind. Freddy carefully reached out and engaged Fiddlesticks in conversation, and after a little chit chat, Freddy managed to draw him out and get him to talk about the source of his distress. Which strangely enough, turned out to be Vangeline, the young girl that Ricmo had adopted.
As Freddy listened, his mouth slowly dropped open.
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"We need to go now" insisted Davies to Freddy and Ozraeline, a little while later. "We don't have time to search for your companions. I have been trying to talk to this man for a week, now he wants to talk but his ship leaves on the tide in but an hour."
"This is dangerous" replied Ozraeline. "We know there are people out there looking for your blood, with only Freddy and myself we may not be able to protect you."
"Perhaps we could convince Lil to come along?" said Freddy. "She's right over there.
Ozraeline shrugged dubiously. "She's good with a blade., I'll give her that."
But Lil was unable.
"Sorry Freddy, sounds like fun and normally I'd be up for the extra coin and maybe a bit of sword-play, but with Bella gone I am in charge of this joint. Say, I could probably send some muscle with you though, if you are up for it?'
"Sure" said Freddy
"Rocko, Sledge, you two up for a bodyguard job, want to make some extra coin?" Lil called out to a pair of beefy gentlemen who Freddy had seen around Bella Bell's occasionally.
"Sure Miss Lil, it's light tonight anyway, everyone over at the poker game"
Oz looked the two over. They were big enough, and they seemed to know how to carry themselves. Basically six and a half feet of solid muscle, times two.
"This is still risky" she said to Freddy and Davies.
"It'll be fine" said Freddy, still more then a little high.
But it was not fine.
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The rendezvous turned out to be a trap of course. Rocko died before he was even aware that anything was wrong, purely out of the misfortune of being the member of the group closest to Davies. The cloaked figure came out of the shadows, quick as lightening, his twin daggers plunging into the big mans neck, almost decapitating him.
At the same time the "captain" they had come to meet and his three companions gave a roar, drew steel and charged toward the unfortunate Davies even as he walked forward to greet them
"Fuck" muttered Ozraeline, drawing her blade and cutting off the four charging pirates, trying desperately to protect Davies.
To his credit, the remaining bodyguard Sledge didn't run, but roared in rage and drew his cutlass engaging the hooded man that had struck down his friend.
Freddy was not much of a fighter. He generally let his music fight for his. A strum of his guitar and an iron, glowing crown appeared over the head of one of the attacking pirates. The crowned pirate let out a mad scream and plunged his short-sword into the back of one of his companions, Freddy smiled.
But the numbers were still against them and while, with the assistance of the pirate Freddy had maddened, Ozraeline was keeping the four pirate thugs at bay, the unfortunate Sledge was proving no match for the hooded man. The big man's cutlass mostly cut empty air as the hooded figure deftly evaded his powerful blows. In response, the twin daggers cut and cut again making Sledge bellow in pain. Davies, with a cry, drew his own dagger and joined Sledge, but even the two of them were proving no match for the hooded man.
One of the downsides of Freddy's music was it faded quickly if he didn't sustain it. While he could keep the pirate maddened with his tune, if he turned his full attention to the hooded man, the pirate he controlled would be freed. While he could cast some minor magic while maintaining his main tune, to harry and wound, it wasn't much.
Still, as Sledge went down in a gurgle of blood, and the assassins turned on the unfortunate Davies, Freddy didn't have much choice. Ozraeline had dropped one her opponents and disarmed a second, so she was in better shape then Davies.
Freddy altered his tune.
Freddy's spell struck out at the assassins.... and was shrugged off. Freddy was impressed. That didn't happen often.
Davies was desperately defending himself with his dagger, however he was no match for his opponent and the assassin's twin blades struck him down. The assassin struck twice more as collapsed to the ground, and then just to make sure the hooded man stabbed the prone form.
Then he turned his attention to Freddy.
Freddy struck at him again, dissonant notes rang out, notes that normally drove men mad, and once again his target resisted. Quick as a striking snake the hooded man's two dripping daggers slashed toward the unfortunate bard.
Freddy felt twin tracks of agonizing cold scour across his ribs. The cold was almost immediately replaced by a burning sensation.
Freddy screamed in agony and out of instinct he strummed a song of hiding. The bard vanished.
"FREDDY" screamed Ozraeline and in a burst of dazzling blade work she downed both her remaining opponents.
The assassins probed bemusedly at the thin air that Freddy had apparently vanished into.
"Hey you." said Ozraeline furiously. "Pick on someone your own size."
The assassins turned toward her
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"Fuck" said Ozraeline, bending over the still form of Davies as Freddy pulled his rapier loose from the assassin's corpse. "He looks pretty dead, Freddy. And you don't look so good either."
"Something on his blade" moaned Freddy. "It burns."
"Poison" Oz replied grimly. "Drink this." She handed Freddy one of the potions she had bought at the market. "Better?"
"Better" said Freddy gratefully.
Oz looked down at the still form of Davies.
"Man, there went our payday.
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