Chapter 182: Rendezvous
Two days later, outside of Cintra Castle.
“Roy, Roy. Why are you spacing out?” Ciri waved her hand before Roy, and she puckered her lips.
“Sorry, Ciri. I was thinking about something else.”
“You can’t ignore me just like that, you big meanie! Grandmother is about to lock me up, and who knows when she’ll let me out!”
Roy smiled. He picked her up and spun around once. “Take care of yourself, child. Don’t be too cheeky. Listen to your grandmother, and try to make her happy while you can,” Roy said. It might be the last time you’ll get to see her.
Ciri teared up, and she huddled closer to Roy. “You have to keep Geralt in Cintra. I’ll come for you.” She looked at the other witcher, whose face looked perpetually deadpan, and she commanded, “Do not abandon me this time, Geralt. Don’t even try to run.”
Geralt shook his head. “We’ve been traveling for two days. Get some rest. Mousesack, keep an eye on her. We’ll drink until we drop next time.”
The druid stroked his beard. “If we have the time, old chap. Until then, be safe. You aren’t as young as you used to be. Don’t get yourself hurt anymore. I don’t want this meeting to be the last.”
“Destiny seldom works that way, friend.” Geralt smiled self-deprecatingly, and he looked at the castle that was looming over them. Even though it was late at night, Cintra’s castle was still brightly lit, as if it were a lighthouse that was guiding lost wanderers.
“We shall meet again, Ciri, Mousesack.” Geralt waved goodbye to them and pretended to look happy, then he took Roy and disappeared into the darkness.
“G-Goodbye, Roy! G-Geralt!” Ciri screamed after the men. For an inexplicable reason, fear gripped her heart, and she teared up. She had a feeling that it would be a long time before she could see the two of them again.
***
The witchers weaved through Cintra’s streets and dark alleyways before arriving at a dingy shack. Roy knocked on the door three times, and a long while later, someone dragged their feet to the door. “Who is it?” the man asked impatiently. Apparently, he was angry that someone was disturbing him this late at night.
“As they say, always stab a drowner, and always give your old friend something to drink.” Roy smiled at Geralt confidently, but what happened next froze his smile.
“Sorry, wrong passcode. Leave at once.”
“Are you mad? I said it word for word! There’s no way it’s wrong! Wait. Passcode? Auckes, you bastard! Open the door right now!”
“Oh, relax. Calm down. Did you forget what I told you? Witchers have to have a sense of humor. You’re young and handsome. Don’t be so uptight like Letho and Serrit. The ladies won’t like you.”
The door was opened, and out came a smiling man. He looked at Roy for a while, and he hugged him. “You’re finally back, boy.” Then he turned his sights to the man behind Roy. “And this is?”
“I told you I’d bring back a friend.”
“Good evening, Auckes. I am a witcher from the Wolf School, Geralt of Rivia.”
***
The dingy house was filled with the smell of rotten food. The floor and sofa were filled with empty pots and pans and clothes waiting to be cleaned. Four muscular men were sitting on one side of the table, while a young witcher took the other side.
“Roy, you left us for so long to invite the famous White Wolf on the behalf of our school?” Letho tapped the table calmly.
“What do you mean ‘invite’? We risked our lives together, and now we’re friends.” Geralt shot Letho a glare, and he pinched his nose. “And it hasn’t been that long since I left, but you guys made this place into a waste area. Couldn’t you hire someone to clean it up?”
“Ahem. We’re witchers, so don’t sweat the details. We had some requests to tend to. Didn’t have time to care about hygiene. Unlike you, we weren’t on a vacation.”
“What do you mean vacation? I was doing my duty to revive the sch—”
“Alright, enough,” Serrit, the most uptight and serious one in the school, said. “Roy, Letho is just too worried about you. You just became a witcher, and it’s your first time going on a mission all by yourself. Besides…”
“Besides what?”
“You’re courageous, curious, and you create trouble wherever you go. Do please understand Letho. He’s like a father watching his child finally spreading his wings.”
“I create trouble wherever I go?”
“What do you mean ‘father’?”
They glared at Serrit and demanded at the same time, “You’d better explain yourself, Serrit.”
Serrit ignored them and turned to Geralt. “Apologies, Mr. Geralt. Sorry you had to see that.”
Geralt shrugged, and for the first time in ages, he seemed relaxed. “It’s fine. I can see that you’re close. That’s rare in this line of work. It’s not every day I get to see so many witchers in the same place. Most people I know prefer to be lone wolves.”
“We can deal with that. We’re all from the same school. White Wolf, Roy said you and he risked your lives for something. How did you two know each other?”
“Under a big hornbeam in Brokilon. We fought a yghern together, and we dealt with a group of bandits outside that forest.”
“Yghern?”
“That’s how the dryads call them. We call them pale widows. A gigantic centipede. Roy and I killed it together, and we had a little…confrontation. I have never seen a witcher like him. Most witchers would be on guard at the very least, even if they met another witcher in the wilds, but he didn’t. He approached me and called my name.” Geralt had a weird look on his face. “It was like he was an old friend who had known me for a long time.”
Letho interrupted, “Kid, how many times do I have to warn you? Be vigilant. If you ran into those madmen from the Cat School and approached them like you did Geralt, they’d have killed you before you even knew it. I’m going to leave you for dead when that happens.”
“Don’t worry, Letho. You weren’t there. You didn’t see it. I know Geralt’s a good man.”
“What happened next?” Serrit glared at Letho.
“Then we met Lady Eithné.” Geralt shook his head in amusement. “We drank ‘lethal poison’ just to save a girl, but thank Destiny, we got through it safely.”
***
***
