[WFRP] The Bloody Crown IX

[LCP]

Astoria, Ludo, Elsa & Sieghard

Sforza still looked amused. "Daniele Barbaro?" he asked. "You're quite sure?" He turned to his remaining guard. <Fetch Daniele. Tell him there's a young lady from Magritta here to see him.>

It seemed like the soldier had scarcely left when Barbaro appeared on the scene with preternatural speed. On her journey, Astoria had often imagined what the man she was looking for would look like - the picture in her head bore a much closer resemblance to the Captain than it did to the short, balding man now in front of her. Still he greeted her with attentive, elaborate courtesy, which was more than either Sieghard or the Captain had offered.

Relating a highly abridged version of Astoria's story, the Captain ordered the crate with her effects brought forwards. The letters were produced, and Barbaro read them intently, his lips moving just a little as his eyes scanned from line to line. He had got about two-thirds of the way through when he stopped and slapped Sieghard across the face with the sheaf of parchment.

"Stone-headed brute! This is how you treat an envoy of the Eagle?" He gestured energetically towards Astoria, still standing in the damp and filthy clothes she had been caged in. "How would you like it if the high priest of, of humourless ogres sent us a messenger, and I treated them like a common thief, hm?" He bowed his head to Astoria. "My deepest apologies. He is a local, he does not know how to behave in civilised company."

<She is who she says she is, then?> asked the Captain, far less outraged than his priest. Barbaro held up the letters for him to see. <See here, my Captain. The seals of the order, and of the Eagle herself.>

Sforza raised his eyebrows, mildly impressed. He inclined his head towards Astoria.

"You are our honoured guest, then, signora. If there is anything you need, please do not hesitate to ask my men. Daniele here I'm sure will see you are well looked after." Something about the Captain's expression seemed to imply he found that funny. "Sieghard, see that her possessions are returned to her at once."

"You must be exhausted," said Barbaro, already turning his attention back to Astoria. "Would you care for some refreshment? My friend Abdul supplies me with a wonderful drink from his country, they call it kofi. You must try some..."

---

Narcisa

It was a full day's lonely walk for Narcisa to return to the road. There she found the burnt-out husks of Marat's wagons, half-sunk into the mud. The rain had washed most traces of the battle away, but still she could see the indistinct tracks of hundreds of men around the wreckage of the wagon fort. They looked to have come from the direction of the city and then turned back.

A trampled path through the barley fields showed where others had headed west. If the others had gone in that direction, she ought already to have passed them; these tracks were cold. If Sieghard's militia had had a run-in with the Duke's men, then perhaps they had fallen back to the Captain's camp.