Now he looked at the faces of the men in the group. The only mounted man was in his prime, lean with a face full of sharp lines. It was reasonable to assume that this was Erak Brand, if the two targets were of equal rank. Batsen never assumed anything, however, and wished to be sure that there had been no changes to the knights' manpower before the left Andon. It wouldn't do to kill this man and then find that Brand had been held back for some reason.
It would be a simple enough matter to ride down in wind and shadow and eliminate the entire group, but then he could not be sure that he wouldn't still have to find and deal with Brand. And as he was being paid to eliminate two people, he didn't believe in charity.
No, the best approach would be to watch DeZantez and let her confirm Brand's identity for him. Then he could take them both together and collect his fee with the minimum amount of fuss.
Gabriella and Erak dismounted in the little plaza in front of the church, and a couple of squires immediately took the horses' reins and led them towards the stables near the cloisters. Gabriella arched her back and yawned.
"So, this is home while we pursue our man."
Erak nodded. "I imagine it's too much to hope he's right here in town."
"We'd have heard all about it from Enlightened One Stoll if he was." Gabriella flashed him a smile. "But where would the fun be in that?"
She looked around at the little plaza and the people in it. She knew Erak had been expecting the people of Pontaine to be wearing different clothes, or be somehow foreign in appearance, but she knew better. There were more pastel colours, but in general people wore much the trews and jerkins and robes as did the people in the Empire. The main difference seemed to be that clothes were less padded here as it was noticeably warmer this far south.
The church door opened and a tall, thin man with untidy straw-coloured hair emerged. He hurried down the stone steps to greet the new arrivals, smoothing down the sky-blue robes that he wore. A silver crossed-circle rattled on a fine chain as he approached with an eager smile.
"Enlightened Brother, Enlightened Sister, please allow me to welcome you to Solnos and, indeed, to Pontaine. I'm Kurt Stoll." He thrust out a hand, which Gabriella shook.
"Gabriella DeZantez," she said, "and Erak Brand. And, as it happens, this is something of a homecoming for me. I was born in Andon."
Stoll raised his eyebrows. "Andon, eh? There's a DeZantez at the Cathedral archive there… Marta, isn't it?"
"My mother," Gabriella confirmed. She liked this man immediately and was surprised to realise how quickly she was beginning to feel at home.
"Of course," he said warmly. "The resemblance is obvious." He hesitated and glanced at Erak. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, Brother Brand. I didn't mean to exclude you. It's been such a long time since I enjoyed the company of my fellow clergy. Please, come inside. If you wish to pray, confess, eat, or simply freshen yourselves after your journey, it will be so."
"They all sound good to me," Erak said. "Freshening-up first, though."
"Definitely," Gabriella agreed.
She went to find a suitable cell in the cloisters. It was simple but comfortable, with a low bed, a chair, stool, table, water-basin and jug. She hauled off her mail shirt and hung it on a beam and sank gratefully into the chair. She felt that she stank and briefly wondered whether any of the townspeople would mind if she spent some time in their fountain. She smiled to herself, deciding that, having just come to put an end to one source of moral laxness, it wouldn't do to risk being the inspiration for the next one.
She washed in water from the jug and changed into a tunic and jerkin, with a white tabard bearing the symbol of the Faith over it all.
Erak had done likewise, and now they were both ready to join the Enlightened One for refreshments.
No-one in the crowded tavern on the corner of Solnos' market square paid much attention to Dai Batsen. He was just another customer, leaning against a wall.
Even the tapster behind the bar hadn't noticed that this customer had been nursing the one mug all afternoon.
Batsen himself paid the keenest attention to everyone in the tavern. He could tell at a glance which were the local workmen trying to drown the stresses of a long day; which were the travellers looking for refreshment after a journey; which were the smugglers and thieves; which were the eyes, ears and noses of a Vos Duke, a Pontaine Lord, or the Final Faith.
He was also able to tell which worked in the stables used by the Knights who had recently arrived. He watched as a scruffy-haired burly lad came back from the bar with two mugs of beer. The lad was Kurt Stoll's chief altar boy and Batsen had been buying the lad drinks for the past hour.
"You were saying," Batsen began mildly, "about the new arrivals."
"Yeah, They're going to be staying. Using the church as a base, while they wander around."
Batsen merely raised an eyebrow. "Wander?"
"There are a lot of villages with no church. They'll go out and hear confession and lead prayers, I suppose."
"And only these two Knights are staying?"
"That's what the letters said."
"And their names…"
"Gabriella DeZantez and… Erik Blond, or something like that."
"Erak Brand?"
"That's the one." Batsen sat back, satisfied. He had the confirmation he needed.
The altar boy yawned and blinked sluggishly. "Bloody hell. Strong stuff. The drinks are good here."
"I guarantee you'll never drink anywhere else." Batsen said.
The young man slumped face-first onto the table, snoring low and deep. Batsen stood and slipped out of the tavern while the boy was still breathing. The poison was not the quickest-acting, but it was decent, and actually quite kind. There would be no spasms or fire in his veins; just drunken slumber during which he would stop breathing. Batsen felt no urge to hurt the boy, or cause him pain. He just needed to be sure there would never be any mention of their conversation.
Gabriella and Erak ate with Enlightened One Stoll as he gave them a potted history of both his career and of the church. Gabriella and Erak had both wondered why such a decent sized church was here rather than in Fayence, but it had turned out that an exiled cousin of the then Lord Defender of Vos had built it a hundred years earlier. Relations between the two nations had been better at the time.
"You've heard about the assassination attempt on Eminence Rhodon?" Erak asked and Stoll nodded. "We have information that there may be a connection to a place in this region: the Golden Huntress."
Stoll's face crinkled into a knowing smile. "Ah yes. The Huntress… It's the bane of moral development in this quarter of Pontaine."
"Do you know it?" Gabriella was surprised.
"Well, not directly, but I have heard rumours of girls for sale and the use of Dreamweed. It's one of those places… Everyone knows it exists yet no-one claims to know where it is. You know the kind of thing."
"Well, we intend to find this house of ill-repute and do something about it." Gabriella said.
"It's about time." Stoll said, with a mixture of enthusiasm and relief. "How do you plan to go about it?"
"There must be enough people in Solnos who use the Huntress; we just need to persuade them to tell us where it is. However… unwittingly that might be." Gabriella smiled. "I suggest you drum up some business first thing in the morning. Just provoke some reactions and see if any of them are Brotherhood reactions. They're bound to know we're here, so we may as well act openly."
"And you?"
"Scouting, I think. If the Huntress is as profitable as was implied, it must be large and I didn't see anything large enough in town."
"Unless it's in a loft or a cellar."
"Always the optimist."
Erak propped himself up on one elbow. "Why don't I scout and you sing?"