Wildlings

[Claymore]

Dear Captain Doherty,

We are delighted to hear you accepted to lead the expedition. Much must be arranged before we can launch this expedition and we propose to discuss the details in the King's Head Inn inTemford on the Fifth of March 1750 Anno Domini.....

Djazi tugged his coat a bit tighter against the wind and checked the adress one last time before he entered the inn. The warmth and noise hit him like a hammer after the silent rainy streets of Temford and it took a few moments to reorient himself. Meanwhile he had not gone unnoticed and patrons were staring at him unabashedly. Though he had grown used to it by now he couldn 't help to think longingly of Dublin where his appearance did not raise brows anymore. To his right he heard the innkeeper come from behind his bar but a young well-dressed man intercepted him and spoke to him in hurried and hushed tones. Djazi ignored them and shrugged of his coat. Normally there would be a boy to take it, but the boy in question seemed too stunned to do it, so Djazi hung up his coat himself. Next he took off his tricorne and though he tried to be careful the water that had gathered in the folds splashed on the ground. He did not need to see the innkeeper´s face to know he was scowling. The young man from earlier approached him.
"You're Captain Doherty?"
"There aren't that many black captains, are there?"Djazi answered with a wry smile.
The young man looked at him for a moment, unsure whether Djazi was making fun of him or not. In the end he let it go.
'Please come this way.'
The young man led him to a table a bit away from the main entrance. Without counting the young man who led him, there were four people seated at the table and Djazi studied them carefully while he sat down.

The first the catch his gaze was an older gentleman, whom Djazi suspected to have hair just as white as his wig. He was still sitting straight however and was sporting the calluses of many hours in the fencing room. This must be Lord Laurence, who though was not going with the expedition, had been the one to organise it and who had been Djazi's contact until now. The second to catch his gaze, was the tall man seated to Lord Laurence's left. Though he was well dressed he gave the feel of a man used to danger and physical labour, and though he seemed relaxed Djazi did not doubt the man was observing him just as keenly as he was watching him. The man seated on Lord Laurence's right was his complete opposite. Short, genial and apparently absorbed by the papers he held in one hand it was easy to dismiss him as a distracted professor. The ring he wore in his earlobe, payment for a christian burial if his body ever washed up on a shore, was proof however the man had been a sailor some time in his life. The last man seated at the table was also well dressed, and extremely pale which made Djazi wonder until he saw the man's red eyes.
The Hunter protect us, an albino. The boys are not going to like that
His thoughts were interrupted by Lord Laurence's words.
"Thank you Jasper. Could you please ask the innkeeper if he could bring us some wine?"
The young man who had escorted him to the table nodded and did what he was asked though not without an envious glance at their table. The young man, Djazi suspected, was probably Lord Laurence's apprentice.
'Captain Doherty, welcome and thank you for joining us. Gentlemen, may I present you to Captain Djazi Doherty who has so kindly accepted to captain our expedition to Africa. Captain may I present to you, Lord Johnathan, who has greatly enriched our knowledge about magic with those of the traditional magics of his family, Sir Logan who like you is an expert adventurer and last but not least Master Millard our archaeologist.'
Djazi nodded to each of them.
'Pleased to meet you gentlemen.'
'Now, if we could go down to business? Captain I believe you have a few maps to show us.'Lord Laurence said nodding to the case Djazi had brought with him.
'Yes, gentlemen could you please clear the table?'

Soon the table had been cleared and two maps where folded out, one rather recent the other much older and written in Arabic.
'This,'said Djazi pointing to the recent map. 'Is the most up-to-date map I could find but as you see it doesn't feature the great lake were my contacts said they found the artifacts.'
He pointed to the other map. 'This is a map I found in al-Qāhira some time ago. It has apparently been drawn by the scholar al-Idrisi in 1154 and though you can see it is not as accurate as the other map it does feature the great lake.'
Djazi tapped a small expanse of blue in the lower right part of the truncated African continent.
'This gives us two options. Either we assume the great lake my contacts mentioned is the Lake Tana that Pêro Pais described in his "História da Ethiópia" or we assume that the recent map is wrong and we try to find the lake al-Idrisi drew.'
He looked around the table.
'Either way we'll have to abandon the my ship at the cataracts of Aswan, and go on foot from there. If I read the distance correctly on al-Idrisi's map the distance to this lake is a greater one than the distance to lake Tana and also potentially more dangerous. The choice is yours gentlemen.'