I whipped my head around in a panic, finally noticing a man at a podium who might have been a receptionist.
“Excuse me. Did you happen to see someone take a pair of suitcases? Walnut leather, maroon retaining straps.”
“The unmatched set?”
Theymostlymatch! “Yes.”
“A pair of gentlemen of House Greanderal took them, I believe.”
“And you didn’t stop them?”
His expression suggested I’d asked him to stop a charging basilisk with a feather duster.
I darted outside to find the first of two coaches departing. “Stop.” My voice carried further than intended.
An annoyed Lady Arazniros poked her head out of the coach. “Whatisit?”
Two elven men in uniform, formal, military-style uniforms, stepped between me and her coach like a pair of closing doors.
The coach with Lady Arazniros departed with a crunch of wagon wheels and clack of claws of the pair of reptilian ospherants pulling it.
“Do not accost the Baroness,” said the first, a hand on his saber, a finger’s width of steel shining between hilt and scabbard.
I stopped dead, hands up. “Woah. I just… I believe there has been a mistake.”
“Indeed,” said the second man. “We are here to safeguard the Baroness from miscreants, ruffians, and rogues.”
“I am not a miscreant or ruffian.” Although the moniker rogue soundedoddlysatisfying at the moment.
I spied my luggage in the rear bed of the second coach. “I have no interest in the Baroness.” Possibly a lie. But if I was a rogue anyway, what was a little mistruth here or there. “You may have mistakenly loaded my luggage aboard your coach.”
“No mistake,” said the first man, drawing his saber another finger’s width from the scabbard.
My heart froze. Halamar was a large, civilized city. This wasn’t like the wilderness where one had to be alert for threats at all times. Did I just let myself…
“Do you really think we could mistakethoserags for something of the Baroness?”
I took half a step back. They wouldn’t attack me here in the open… would they? “Then why are you—”
“Impounded for inspection,” continued the second.
I took another half step back. I had weapons, of course. And armor. And I knew how to use them.
But both were in my luggage. I wasn’tsupposedto need it in a big city.
“There a problem?”
I glanced back to see a hulking human woman I recognized from my class. “These gentlemen seem to want to ‘impound’ my luggage.”
“Ha!” The woman’s booming voice managed to overshadow her brawny appearance. “Same old scam they use to shakedown tourists as in Arania. Here I thought you pointy ears were supposed to be all civilized.”
“Scam?” The second man’s face flushed red as he gripped his saber. “House Greanderal is well within its rights—”
“Pfft. On campus, you clowns can pound sand.” She glanced at me. “Where’s your steel?”
“Aside from my personal dagger… I was informed we were only supposed to carry ceremonial weapons within the city.”
“House Greanderal’s ceremonial regalia just so happens to include the saber.” The first man drew hissaber all the way and pointed it at us.
