Chapter 17 OUTRAGE
The friends spent the next few days in or near their apart-ment, making small excursions to the Dwelf mostly to hear the chatter concerning the mysterious Crimson Shadow. The last daring hit, raiding two shops and taking out several cy-clopian guards in the face of an apparent conspiracy of sev-eral merchants, had heightened the talk considerably, and Oliver thought it prudent, and Luthien did not disagree, that they lie low for a while.
Oliver accepted the self-imposed quarantine in high spir-its, glad for the rest and thrilled to be a part of the growing legend. Luthien, though, spent most of the days sitting qui-etly in his chair, brooding.
At first, Oliver thought he was just nervous about all the attention, or simply bored, but then the halfling came to understand that Luthien's sorrows were of the heart.
"Do not tell me that you are still thinking of her," Oliver remarked one rare sunny day. The halfling had propped the door half open, letting the remarkably warm September air filter into the dark apartment.
Luthien blinked curiously when he looked at Oliver, but it didn't take the young man long to realize that Oliver had seen through his sad frown.
He looked away quickly, and that nonverbal response told Oliver more than any words ever could.
"Tragic! Tragic!" the halfling wailed, falling into a chair and sweeping his arm over his eyes dramatically. "Always this is tragic!" His movements shifted the chair, knocking it against a pedestal, and Oliver had to react quickly to catch the pewter halfling figurine as it started to tumble to the floor.
"What are you speaking of?" Luthien demanded, not in the mood for any cryptic games.
"I am speaking of you, you silly boy," Oliver replied. He paused for a few moments, dusting off the pedestal and re-placing his trophy. Then, with no response apparently forthcoming, he turned a serious expression upon Luthien.
"You have been searching for the meaning of life," Oliver stated, and Luthien eyed him doubtfully. "I only lament that you choose to find it in the form of a woman. "
Luthien's expression became a fierce scowl. He started to respond, started to rise up from his chair, but Oliver waved a hand at him absently and cut him off.
"Oh, do not deny it," the halfling said. "I have seen this very thing too many times before. Courtly love, we call it in Gascony. "
Luthien settled back down in the chair. "I have no idea of what you are talking about," he assured Oliver, and to em-phasize his point, he looked away, looked out the partially opened door.
"Courtly love," Oliver said again, firmly. "You have seen this beauty and you are smitten. You are angry now because we have not returned to the market, because you have not had the opportunity to glimpse her beauty again. "
Luthien bit hard on his lip, but did not have the conviction to deny the words.
"She is your heart's queen, and you will fight for her, champion any cause in her name, throw your cloak over a puddle of mud in her path, throw your chest in front of an arrow racing toward her. "
"I will throw my hand into your face," Luthien answered seriously.
"Of course you are embarrassed," Oliver replied, seeming not at all concerned, "because you know how stupid you sound. " Luthien looked at him directly, an open threat, but still the halfling was undeterred. "You do not even know this woman, this half-elf. She is beautiful, I would not argue, but you have imagined everything, every quality you desire, as part of her, when all you really know is her appearance. "
Luthien managed a slight chuckle; the halfling was right, he knew.
Logically, at least, Luthien was acting ridiculous. But he couldn't deny his feelings, not in his heart. He had seen the green-eyed half-elf for perhaps a minute, and yet that vision had been with him ever since, in waking hours and dreams alike. Now, discussed openly in the bright air of a shining morning, his obsession sounded ridiculous.
"You seem to possess a great deal of knowledge on this subject," Luthien accused, and Oliver's mouth turned up into a wistful smile. "Personal knowledge," Luthien ended wryly.
"Perhaps," was the strongest admission Oliver would offer.
They let it go at that, Luthien sitting quietly and Oliver busying himself in rearranging the many trophies they had acquired. Luthien didn't notice it, but many times that morn-ing, Oliver's expression would brighten suddenly, as though the halfling was reliving fond memories, or Oliver would grimace in heartfelt pain, as though some of the memories were, perhaps, not so pleasant.
Sometime later, Oliver tossed his winter coat across Lu-thien's lap. "It is ruined!" he wailed and lifted up one sleeve to show Luthien a tear in the fabric.
Luthien studied the cut carefully. It had been made by something very sharp, he knew, something like Oliver's main gauche, for instance. The weather had been unseason-ably warm the last few days, even after sunset, and as far as Luthien could remember, the halfling had not worn this coat at all. Curious that it should be torn, and curious that Oliver should find that tear now, with the sun bright and the air un-seasonably warm.
"I will throw it out to the greedy children," the halfling growled, hands on hips and face turned into one of the most profound pouts Luthien had ever witnessed. "Of course, this weather will not hold so warm. Come along, then," he said, grabbing his lighter cloak and moving for the door. "We must go back to market that I might buy another one. "
Luthien didn't have to be asked twice.
They spent the day in the bustling market, Oliver perusing goods and Luthien, predictably, watching the crowd. The thief of the young man's heart did not show herself, though.
"I have found nothing of proper value," Oliver announced at the end of the day. "There is one merchant-type who will be in a better bargaining mood tomorrow, though. Of this much, I am sure. "
Luthien's disappointment vanished, and as the young man followed his halfling friend out of the market, his expression regarding the halfling was truly appreciative. He knew what Oliver was up to, knew that the halfling was truly sympa-thetic to his feelings. If Luthien had held any doubts that Oliver's lecture concerning "courtly love" was founded in personal experience, they were gone now.
They went through a similar routine at the market the next day, breaking for lunch at one of the many food kiosks. Oliver carried on a light conversation, mostly about the shortcomings of merchant-types: winter was
near at hand and he had found little luck in reducing any of the prices for warm coats.
It took the halfling some time to realize that Luthien wasn't listening to him at all and wasn't even eating the bis-cuit he held in his hand.
The halfling studied Luthien curi-ously and understood before he even followed the young man's fixed stare across the plaza. There stood the half-elven slave girl, along with her merchant master and his entourage.
Oliver winced when the half-elf looked up from under her wheat-colored tresses, returning Luthien's stare, even flash-ing a coy smile the young man's way. The worldly halfling understood the implications of that response, understood the trials that might soon follow.
Oliver winced again when the merchant, noticing that his slave had dared to look up without his permission, stepped over and slapped the back of her head.
The halfling jumped on Luthien before he even started to rise, blurting out a dozen reasons why they would be foolish to go over to the merchant at that time. Fortunately for the halfling, several of the people nearby knew him and Luthien from the Dwelf and quickly came over to help out, recogniz-ing that trouble might be brewing.
Only when a group of Praetorian Guards came over to in-vestigate did the fiery young Bedwyr calm down.
"All is well," Oliver assured the suspicious cyclopians. "My friend, he found a cock'a'roach in his biscuit, but it is gone now, and cock'a'roaches, they do not eat so much. "
The Praetorian Guards slowly moved away, looking back dangerously with every step.
When they were out of sight, Luthien burst free of the
many hands holding him and stood up--only to find that the merchant and his group had moved along.
Oliver had to enlist the aid of the helpful men to "con-vince" Luthien, mostly by dragging him, to go back to the apartment. But after the helpful group had gone, the young Bedwyr stormed about like a caged lion, kicking over chairs and banging his fists on the walls.
"I really expected much better from you," Oliver remarked dryly, standing by the pedestal to protect his treasured halfling warrior figurine from the young man's tirade.
Luthien leaped across the room to stand right in front of the halfling.
"Find out who he is!" the young Bedwyr de-manded.
"Who?" Oliver asked.
Luthien's arm flashed forward, snapping up the figurine, and he cocked his arm back as if he meant to throw the statue across the room. The sincerely terrified expression on Oliver's face told him that the halfling would play no more coy games.
"Find out who he is and where he lives," Luthien said calmly.
"This is not so smart," Oliver replied, tentatively reaching for the figurine. Luthien jerked his arm up higher, moving the trophy completely out of the little one's reach.
"It might even be a trap," Oliver reasoned. "We have seen that many merchant-types wish us captured. They might sus-pect that you are the Crimson Shadow, and might have found the perfect bait. "
"Bait like this?" Luthien replied, indicating the statue.
"Exactly," Oliver said cheerily, but his bright expression quickly descended into gloom when he realized Luthien's point. The previous danger hadn't stopped Oliver from lift-ing the bait from the hook.
The halfling threw his hands up in defeat. "Lover-types," he grumbled under his breath, storming out of the apartment and pointedly slamming the door behind him. But Oliver was truly a romantic, and he was smiling again by the time he climbed the stairs back to the street level.