“Has it really been 50 years since my last time here?” Corcoran asked.
“Yes is has,” Ricky replied. “A lot has changed in the world since you last came through this way. You certainly have aged well.”
“I thought only 30 years would have passed” Corcoran stated bewildered. “Tell me, how much has this village actually grown? Last time I came through here the walls were not as high.”
“The population has more than doubled,” Ricky responded. “We increased the height of the walls not too long after you left here. A small band of thieves would climb over the walls after nightfall and we caught two of them and hanged them in the square. At that time a fellow by the name of Erickson brought a couple of apprentice messengers with him from Pespid. Erickson organized us and had the height of the walls increased.”
The two talked nearly till sunrise the next morning. You could see the pale orange glow of candles shining through cracks in the door all night. They talked all night and Corcoran has yet to unleash his plot to slow the two messengers down. While they were talking, Corcoran learned that Draven would be returning from Pespid around the same time Dustin and Galen would be coming through Norfolk. When the two came through Norfolk, Corcoran would be more than a week’s journey ahead of the swift messengers.
Finally, before Ricky was about to put out the candles and rest for a few hours, Corcoran mentioned his plan.
“Richard, did you know that some messengers from both Colodia and Atanna would be coming through here?” Corcoran spoke candidly. “I need you to slow these two down a little; it looks like your little militia here could use some training. I’ll bet that you could whoop any of them in a fight.”
“It isn’t right to slow down a messenger passing through.” Richard spoke with a town that reminiscent of a man of authority. “Even if we could slow them down it would take a lot of convincing. Draven has trained them well, but I could still whoop them in a fair fight. Why do you want to slow down these two messengers?”
“I am only attempting to get ahead of them,” Corcoran said. “I didn’t think you were much of a law man; I merely want to arrive in Colodia at the same time.”
“Regale me with your story about the old wizard you were chasing while I think about stalling those messengers.” Richard responded.
Come back next week for part Four...
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