“I mean, he hasn’t acted very smart. We knew that before we walked in here.” She’d been forced to agree with that. But still, there’d been too many weird surprises for one murder-minded dwarf to take in a single long evening.
“We go in slow and careful.” She said it in a tone that brooked no argument and Will, quite familiar with that particular tone, didn’t bother. “And cover your face in case some of that powder is still about.” He’d smiled agreeably before pulling a kerchief about his mouth and nose.
But it hadn’t mattered. They found Tremant slumped where they left him tied, dead and cooling. At Rat’s request, Will took his head to be absolutely sure. They both knew it probably wasn’t necessary. But Rat was feeling testy after a night skulking about fighting giants and demons, and Will found it an easy enough task if it made her feel better. She tossed the head in a pillow case and bundled it up with the Sladur demon’s head. “Should we take the wizard’s head too?”
Will shrugged and looked out the window at the brightening window. “You think we’re going to have trouble with the day shift?”
“Shit.” Rat looked out the window. “We haven’t yet, but maybe they just don’t come up here. Let’s clean out this room, then check the other rooms. I’d feel like the job was left half done if we left another demon wandering around.”
Will grinned at her. “I’ll turn you into a goody two shoes yet.”
She scowled up at him, then turned back to Tremant’s desk muttering. “Not likely. Milla just seems like the kind of woman to complain about a leftover demon or two.”
He chuckled. “She does at that.” He nodded at the papers that Rat was shoving into a bag. “What’s all that?”
“Bunch of crap about his plans for world domination. Also where he came from, what he did there. Milla might want to follow up on some of this. Maybe get some of our payment paid back from other people who are grateful he’s gone.” Finished with that, Rat started tossing coin and other valuables into a larger bag. She studiously ignored the smiles Will sent her till he shrugged and began digging through some of the other furniture in the room.
By the time they’d tossed the room, full light was beaming in through the windows. They’d heard nothing outside, nor in any of the other bedrooms, and it was starting to give Rat the creeps. “I guess we’d better check those other rooms.” She muttered balefully. They left the heads, the bag of papers, and the larger items they’d looted next to the door and carefully exited Tremant’s room.
]]>“You had to say it. You know we’re totally going to regret you saying that, right?” Rat sent him an amused look.
“Hey, a man’s got to eat.” Will shrugged.
“Yeah, but now we’re gonna be at this the rest of the damn night.” Rat rolled her eyes and opened the door. Inside the largest room they’d yet seen, a huge man stood with his back to them, brandishing an odd sort of sharp edged club at a terrified looking man chained to an…open closet?
Rat snorted quietly. The night kept getting weirder. They approached cautiously, but the huge man wasn’t paying any attention to anything outside of the frightened man.
“What should I break first I wonder?” He rumbled, his voice as low and large as he was. “I was thinking about your foot or knee, but that just seems boring. Maybe I should scratch at you a bit with the sharp side? Just rub that pretty skin right off of you?”
“P…, please.” The man strung to the closet wasn’t small, though he looked it in comparison to the giant. His eyes were enormous, fear driving the pupils wide and dark. “I just want to go home.”
“Now, now.” The giant swished back and forth a bit, the ugly orange robes he wore making a strange swishing noise. “You agreed to work for Lord Tremant, did you not? Well, this is the job he needs you to do.”
“Somehow, I doubt that was in the description.” Rat spoke loudly, causing the mage to spin about. “‘Man needed to bleed and pee himself in fear so ugly giant feels good.’ Yeah, I doubt he actually signed up for that particular job description.”
“Who are you?” The mage, for now that they’d got close enough to the closet, it was easy enough to see the ritual in progress, spat at them in surprise.
“We’re the poor bastards tasked with shutting you down.” Rat smirked at him.
“Not likely.” The mage boomed at them. He whipped back around and cleaved in the man’s head one handed. Will and Rat watched helplessly as a red plume of smoke rose from the victim’s body and flowed into the mage’s.
“Damn it.” Will snarled. “We should have just snuck up and killed him without talking to him first.”
“Well hell,” Rat narrowed her eyes at him. “Usually, you’re all ‘more talk, less kill.’ Maybe let a girl know when you want to switch it up.”
The giant gave a grin that showed off missing teeth and poor dental care and hefted his odd weapon. “Maybe we discuss it after killing the mage.” Suggested Will.
“Sounds good.” Said Rat.
“Not likely.” The giant took slow pondering steps in Rat’s direction. “I’m not very easy to kill.”
“Great. Another one.” Rat spat on the floor, just in case doing so bothered the giant as much as it had Tremant. She looked him up and down, lip curled in disgust. “What’s your story then?”
Seemingly unbothered by her spitting, he advanced on her single-mindedly. “I’m very good at what I do, little dwarf. And I’ve got protection of a kind you couldn’t possibly believe.”
“Try me.” Even as slow as he was, the man’s gait was enormous. Rat was running out of bedroom. She flung a knife at him, stumbling a bit on a footstool. The mage saw it coming and managed to get an arm up in a vain attempt to bat the blade away. Instead, the knife lodged there and set the giant to howling.
“No! You can’t hurt me!” He stumbled quicker at Rat, who scrambled up on the bed in near panic. Behind them, Will sliced at the giant’s thick legs. The huge mage stumbled and fell, but ponderously righted himself and kept after Rat. She tossed a packet of powder, catching him straight between two very surprised eyes. He slowed further and began to blink and shake his head. “Impossible!” He slurred. But he kept moving.
Rat stared at him in surprise. The powder had never failed her before, at least not at such a close range. But the giant was still moving. With Rat currently out of easy range, he’d turned and swung his bladed club at Will, who tried to block with his sword, but was forced to roll away after the giant’s heavy blow knocked the blade from his hand. It skittered across carpet and stone to lie in the far corner of the room, while Will rolled and barely avoided death blows from the enraged giant mage.
Pulling out her small crossbow, Rat buried four arrows in his fleshy neck. He roared and reached up to scratch at them like one might a stinging bug. He managed to pull two out, but a third broke under questing fingers. Unfortunately, the small bloody wounds didn’t appear to do much to slow him down. In fact, the damn giant seemed to be shaking off the effects of the powder and pain altogether.
He refocused on Will, nearly taking the warrior’s head with a faster than normal sweep of his huge weapon. Starting to panic, Rat gave up on the crossbow and pulled two long daggers from her coat. Ignoring the warnings at the back of her head, she took a running leap at the giant.
Rat landed high on his back and stabbed with both daggers. The giant swung about, but she gritted her teeth and held on to the daggers, causing them to embed further between his shoulder blades. Screaming, he continued to turn and swing, nearly catching her a handful of times, as the daggers began to slide downwards through the mage’s flesh. “Will! Hurry up!” She screamed as his meaty hand caught hold of her right leg.
For an instant, he was pulling and she felt as though all her limbs were about to be pulled from her sockets. Then his hand clinched painfully tight before releasing her. The mage fell to his knees.
“No! The slardur promised!” Hacking blood, the huge man grabbed at Will who was clutching his bloodied sword with grim concentration and shook him.
Rat yanked her daggers out of the giant’s back and jumping up once more, shoved them into the base of his neck. For long seconds, she hung there, aching arms barely holding on, as he trembled and bled and shook. Finally, he fell with a noise not unlike the crashing of a dead tree, leaving both mercs to scramble out of the way. When all was again quiet, Rat and Will eyed each other over the mountainous corpse in wide-eyed disbelief.
“Good thing we started at that other side of the hall, I guess.” Rat managed to croak out after a full minute of catching her breath.
Will laughed. “Yeah. That luck god of yours was working overtime.”
“Maybe. But for a mage without demon protection, he was bloody hard to put down.” Rat muscled her daggers out of the giant’s thick flesh one at a time and cleaned them on his garish robe.
On the other side of the corpse, Will was doing the same with his sword. He looked over. “You alright? I thought he caught hold of you there for a moment.”
Rat grimaced. “He did, just before you gutted him. Leg’ll be sore tomorrow, but no permanent damage done.”
“Good.” Will’d finished his work with the sword, and was looking at the mage’s weapon, though he hadn’t touched it. “Take a look at this thing. Looks like bad magic.”
Rat didn’t need to get too close. She could practically smell the blood magic on it. “Use a bed sheet to grab it and toss it over with that closet altar. We’re gonna have to cleanse it.”
Will sighed and did as she suggested while she rolled the mage for his valuables. She found little worth keeping, but several amulets and a bag stained in blood were quickly tossed on the altar.
They had better luck with the room itself. Will discovered an assortment of jewelry in the desk and Rat collected a small pile of quality weaponry into a pillow case. Unfortunately, they also found another box of odds and ends that probably belonged to victims of the giant mage. Tossing it on the altar, they repeated the steps they’d used on the altar in the office below. This closet took several of Rat’s red powder packets and she didn’t feel comfortable simply using acid. Instead, she lit it with the oil from a lamp on the desk. The evil thing burned merrily, but the fire didn’t didn’t spread much thanks to the blood soaked carpets surrounding it.
All in all, they were glad to get out of the that particular room. Back out in the hall, predawn light was starting to filter in through windows at either end of the hall. Will and Rat looked at each other. Finally, Will sighed. “Tremant?”
Rat nodded and they turned back to the room of the little Lordling who’d somehow started the whole mess.
]]>Again Rat entered the room first, with Will on her heels. They found a pale, thin man sitting at a desk in the corner, looking expectantly at them as they walked in. His eyes were nearly entirely black, his hair stringy and thin on a pallid scalp. In his bony, ink-stained fingers, he clutched a pen. When he made no move to do anything about their entrance into his room, they stopped and frowned at him.
Finally, Rat spoke. “Who would you be, then?”
The man smiled. It was a good smile if by “good” you happened to mean “empty, yet full of evil intent.” They both felt the impact of it, recoiling slightly. Eventually, he spoke. “I’m Lord Tremant. Certainly you’ve heard of me?”
“Possibly.” Quick as a blink, Rat sent two small knives flying at the seated man. He didn’t bother to make a sound as they hit their targets, one in the shoulder and the chest. For a moment, all three were silent, waiting.
Then Tremant began to laugh.
“Well, shit.” Rat loosed another knife. It sank in the man’s stomach, but didn’t stop his laughter.
Will muttered something under his breath that could have been a curse or prayer and Rat dug into her coat for something stronger than a dagger.
Tremant stopped laughing and pulled out the dagger in his stomach, dropping it with a bit of disgust on the desk. “You’re ruining the coat. You know what this cost?” He pulled out the knife in his chest, letting it clank onto the desk as well. It wasn’t even bloodied.
He was working on the knife still lodged in his shoulder when Rat spoke again. “You another demon?”
“Another?” For a moment, he looked confused. Then his face cleared and the grinned. “Ah, you must have met the Slardur. I did hear some commotion.” Tremant managed to pry loose the final dagger and let it drop to join the others. “Not even close.”
Rat spat. “You human? Because most humans are bothered a bit more by knives.”
The man chuckled. “Most humans aren’t protected as well as I. And yes, I’m human. Mostly.”
He leaned back in his chair, still insultingly at ease with two mercenaries of obvious ill intent staring down at him. “I’m impressed. With all the reports of fire and violence coming in, I’d have thought there were more than the two of you. You’re good.”
“Not so good.” Rat glared at him, irritated by his calm demeanor. “Or you’d be dead.”
“Well, I’m not exactly what most people expect, I suppose.” Tremant looked over at Will. “Does he talk?”
“If he wants.” Said Rat.
“Ah.” Said Tremant.
The three of them stared at each other long enough that it began to get uncomfortable, even for the jocular Tremant. “So. Are you going to try to run away, or…”
“Not yet.” Rat was still glaring hard at the Lord, thinking fast. “Only tried knives.”
“Oh. Right. Of course.” That was obviously not been the reply Tremant expected. “Most people get the picture rather quicker than you two.”
“Most people didn’t just kill a damn demon next door.” Rat spat again. She’d noticed that the Lordling hadn’t liked it when she’d done so the first time. Again, he looked a bit put out, though he hid it quickly behind a patronizing smile. “Trying to figure out what to try next.”
At that, Tremant actually looked a bit impressed. “Well, that is interesting. Feel free. Though I promise you it will be a waste of time. I’m not currently killable.”
“Currently?” Will spoke again. “What does that mean?”
“He speaks!” Tremant was back to grinning wildly. “It means whatever you try, I’m not planning to die today. Won’t happen.”
“Wanna bet?” Rat was really starting to hate this Tremant guy. He was annoying and worse, rude. Rude was usually her thing.
“No. I don’t wager.” The Lord leaned back in his chair. Looked at his fingernails.
“Figures.” Rat spat again, just to watch his eyes narrow. “Kinda boring, you know that?”
He leaned forward, no longer smiling. “Fine. You can leave now.”
Rat cocked a hip. Stared as rudely as she could at the man who’d never bothered to get up from the desk. “You able to do anything except for not dying?”
Tremant’s face took on a ruddy hue. He glared at Rat. “I can call on my people to end you.”
Rat pretended to think about it. “That could work. Or maybe we’ll just kill them like we did all the rest.”
The man sneered. Rat stepped closer to the desk. Testing him. He picked up one of her knives. He held it like a man who knew how to cut things, but not like a knife fighter. Rat grinned her own bad smile. He noticed, but only paused a moment before throwing the knife back at her.
It wasn’t a good throw. She knocked it away with a wave of a gauntleted wrist. Took another step forward. “You like knives, using them on people, probably. But you don’t know a single thing about fighting with ‘em.”
Tremant shrugged, a pouty puff in his lips. “Why should I? Can’t kill me anyway.”
“You sure?” Rat stepped aside quickly, giving Will the room he needed to sweep his large sword through the body of Tremant. It slid through like a heated knife through butter, but left no sign of any wound behind it. The Lord threw back his head and laughed. Rat and Will exchanged wide glances.
“Welp, this is weird.” Rat murmured. Will nodded.
“I told you.” Said Tremant.
“Any ideas?” Asked Rat. Will shook his head slowly, eyes narrowed.
“Run away.” Said Tremant.
“Wasn’t asking you, arse.” Rat spat again, just to push the issue.
She took a step closer to the desk. Tremant was still grinning, but he’d made no move to pick up another dagger. They were missing something. Rat walked around the desk.
Tremant began squawking immediately. “What are you doing?”
“Trying something.” Rat muttered dismissively. “Shut up and let me think.”
“You should be scared.” Tremant’s voice had risen an octave or so higher as she moved closer.
“Why?” Rat approached him from the side, grinning. “Because you’ve made a lot of noise and refused to die?” She reached for him, but he fell backwards from the chair and scuttled away from her.
“You can’t hurt me!” Tremant rushed to the corner of the room and pulled out a sword from a cupboard there.
“Then why are you worried?” Rat felt like the answer was right there, but it wasn’t quite jelling. She advanced on the Lording, but Will stepped in front of her. He swept his sword at the man, who blocked clumsily with his own sword. Rat stepped back to wait with a shrug. In a few minutes, Will had the man on the ground, his boot on his chest.
Will looked over at her. “He isn’t very strong. And he shouldn’t try to fight with swords.”
Rat stood over the wriggling Lordling. “Something I’m sure he’ll remember for the future if we don’t figure out how to kill him.”
“If a blade won’t do it…” Will slid his sword back into it’s scabbard.
“Don’t really have time for experiments right now.” Rat grumbled. She looked into Tremant’s face. “You aren’t the summoner of the demon, right?” When he refused to answer, she sighed. “Fine. Pout or whatever.”
Trusting Will to keep an eye on the “currently” un-killable man, she turned back to survey the large, too fancy bedroom and grinned when she caught sight of the overly decorative drapes. Stomping over, she grabbed hold of an handful of cords and sliced through them with a small knife. Then she stormed back over to Will and his struggling captive.
“Let’s tie the maggot up. We can figure out how to kill him later.” Together, they tied him to his chair, Rat grinning when he complained about the tightness of the ropes. Then she gathered her knives, checking for signs of damage before putting them away.
As they closed the door behind them, Rat tossed in a couple different packets of powder. At Will’s raised brow, she shrugged. “Worth a try.”
]]>Will snorted. “The pants might be overkill.”
She shrugged. “Makes me feel better.”
With no argument against that, Will opened the door for her.
Back out in the hallway, they found the area empty and looked at each other with disbelief. Surely someone had heard their fight? Shrugging uneasily, they moved to the next door, Rat finding it unlocked as well. She slipped inside the dark room, moving carefully to the bed where two figures lay. Getting closer, she saw a confusing sight. Both figures were covered in blood and very dead.
“Vardo’s balls. What the hell?” Rat spun around, looking about the dim room. Finally, she saw her. A small woman sitting curled up in the corner and staring at them with large, terrified eyes. She was clutching a blood encrusted knife in a white knuckled grip.
“Careful lass.” Will had already seen her. He approached carefully, hunkered over to look smaller and less threatening.
It didn’t work. The girl shied away from Will and towards Rat. She sighed. Did none of these women have a single cell of self preservation? Trying to wipe the snarl from her face, she slowly approached the woman.
“You kill them both? Or just the man?”
The woman crumpled. “J…just…Reemus. He killed Lil.” Tears streaked her face and she trembled violently.
“Right.” The woman was dressed in rags. Barely. Rat looked about. Pulled a nightgown from an open wardrobe and offered it to the woman. “So you took care of him. Good for you. And good timing too. Because you’re going to leave here. Tonight.”
The woman blinked at her. “But they don’t let us leave.”
“But we’re gonna let you. Right, Will?” Rat shoved the nightgown at her again. Behind her, Will nodded silently. “We killed or knocked out pretty much everyone if you go downstairs, then up to the wall. Just be quick and quiet.”
The woman took the nightgown, pulled it over her rags. Something about the clothing helped her escape her fearful stupor. She pulled the rags from underneath the tunic, then used them to wipe at her hands. Rat nodded in approval. The woman moved to the wardrobe, pulled out more clothing and began to dress more fully.
Rat moved back to the bed, noted a gold chain around the neck of the dead man. Removed it. She quickly dug through the desk and furniture of the bedroom, finding a few more items of interest. When she was finished, she turned back to find the woman cramming fancy scarves into a makeshift bag. Again, she approved.
The woman finished, kept her eyes on the bag she held. “My, ah, my husband sold me to Reemus. Said it was the cheapest way to get protection from our new Lord.” She paused, took a breath, then carried on with a rush. “I thought it would be hard to kill Reemus. Thought he would kill me too. But it wasn’t so hard, really.”
She looked down at Rat, her eyes shining hard and suddenly dry. “He’s dead and I’m not.”
Rat nodded. “You’ll do.” She held out the small bag she’d filled with the room’s small valuables. “This will help, whatever you decide to do.”
Eyes going wide, the woman took the bag. For a moment, she looked uncertain, till her eyes went hard again. “There are others here. Men and women. Trapped. Try not to hurt them.” Then she stuffed the bag into her new skirts and slipped quietly from the room.
Rat grinned after her. “Another one who’ll live. That one I even like.”
Will chuckled. “Good enough. On to the next room then?”
]]>“Should we knock?” Will hefted the small ax he’d picked up over Rat’s objections about weight and shook it teasingly.
Rat looked about pensively. “Who locks doors this close in? And where are the damn guards?” She turned to the row of three doors on the other long wall, but then shrugged and turned back. “Not a lot of choice. But lets try real knocking and surprise first, ok?”
Will shrugged and stepped back. She rapped the nearest door. After a few tense moments, it swung open. An irritated, pimply male face peered out.
“What?”
Rat waved, drawing his attention downward. “Hi.” She punched him in the face, twice. He fell, a look of surprise managing to drip across his face just before his eyes rolled up in his head. She caught the door with her boot. “Huh. Weighted to close.”
Will looked down at the unconscious man currently bleeding from a very broken nose. “Did you have to hit him twice?”
Rat snarled. “With what I’ve seen so far? He’s lucky I didn’t stab him twice.”
“Fair enough.” Will grabbed an arm and dragged the man into the doorway to stop the door from closing.
Rat rolled him quickly, holding on to a new key ring and tossing Will a sizable purse after looking through it. “Mostly copper. Bet he’s new up here.”
“Good thing you didn’t stab him, then.” Will said. He dropped the purse in with his nuts.
Rat’s answering “Eh” was non-committal. She’d seen enough to discard the idea that there were any innocents in uniform up here.
Past the door was a staircase, lined with fine carpets and well-lit with expensive looking candles in once shiny, but over-wrought holders. Rat grabbed the nearest, blew it out and broke it into several pieces that she pocketed. When Will raised a brow, she shrugged. “Nearly used up the last one on that girl.” Then she headed up the stairs, the thick carpeting muffling Will’s steps behind her.
The stairs took a wide turn, finally opening onto a wide hallway lined with doors. This hall continued the plush carpeting and the ugly candle holders of the stairs, but added hideous florid vases and portraits of people more rich than tasteful. Rat sneered. That stuff wasn’t worth the time it would take to cart it to a place with money and sell it. Breakable, though. Will caught her considering look and grinned, but pulled her past the first giant flower covered monstrosity. “Maybe we start with the quiet option?” He whispered, leaning over her shoulder.
“Do we have to?” Rat cast a final longing look at the thing then shrugged and considered the rest of the hall. “Too many doors. No idea about any of it. Want to just start at the first, or go kick in that fancy one at the center?”
“If we’re starting quiet,” Will stressed the word enough to get an eye roll from Rat. “Maybe kicking in doors isn’t the plan just yet.”
“Fine. First doors first, then.” Rat gritted her teeth and began testing keys on the closest door. Once open, it appeared dusty and unused. Without a word, they closed the door softly and moved to the next.
This one wasn’t locked. It also wasn’t currently occupied, though it had been long enough to get torn to bits. Even the stupidly fancy curtains were shredded. Rat shook her head at the waste and closed the door as quietly as she’d opened it.
The next door wasn’t locked, but it was occupied. Two forms lay under the fancy bedcovers of the large imposing bed at the center of the room. Seeing the sword and shield leaned up against one side of the bed, Rat slipped silently into the room. Behind her, Will stood ready as she pulled a packet of paper from her coat. Taking her time to avoid creaking floorboards, Rat approached the bed carefully. When she got close enough, she ripped the packet and flung it at the faces of the sleeping couple.
There was a strange, gasping interruption to the man’s snore as he inhaled the powder, tried to wake, then fell into deeper sleep. The woman didn’t react at all for a single long beat, then eyes opened wide to reveal glowing red orbs and she sat up in a single, fluid motion, shaking away ink black hair.
“Shit.” Rat backed up, nearly tripping on the carpet in her haste to be further away.
“So.” Will moved to his usual place beside her. “Demon?”
“How in Pathos would I know?” Rat watched the…woman(?) watch them, all her instincts screaming at her to run.
The black haired woman seemed amused. And not at all worried. When she spoke, her voice had an odd gravelly quality that made Rat cringe instinctively. “What is this?”
Pissed off about the cringing, Rat snarled. “What are you?”
The thing (it couldn’t really be called a woman, after all)…laughed. The sound made them both cringe again, this time with actual pain. “Oh little dwarf, you wouldn’t understand if I told you. But the one with you…” It sent a look at Will that had Rat stiffening in outrage and Will’s eyes widening in recognition.
“Tethas help us, it’s a Slardur demon.” His voice was hoarse, the words little more than a whisper. “What kind of idiot would release that?”
Rat looked quickly back and forth between the demon and her suddenly pale husband. “Information would be good right now, Will. What does it do?”
The thing turned it’s full gaze on her. Rat winced at the heavy feel of it. “I? I do nothing. But you? You will do whatever I tell you, little dwarf.”
The thing’s voice clawed through her body with a feeling so like dull knives that Rat actually looked down at her own chest, relieved to find it whole and unbloodied. But the tearing sensation didn’t stop when the demon finished speaking. It still felt like the thing had dug claws in her and left them there. She shivered.
Will tried to shove her aside. “Leave her be, demon!”
The thing was looking less and less like a human at all. It laughed again, louder, causing both Rat and Will to moan slightly in a pain that wasn’t purely physical. Then the head tore slowly open and something horrible and nearly as bad as the voice began to shove it’s way out.
Inside her head, Rat was screaming, but she found she couldn’t move. It was as if her feet were tied to the floor, her body stiff and no longer hers. Beginning to realize that the true danger of the voice wasn’t the pain it caused, she nearly panicked. But Rat wasn’t the panicking kind. Rat was the get pissed off and kill everything kind. Outside of her body that wouldn’t listen, Will was yelling at the demon. But inside, Rat concentrated on forcing a single hand to move slow and sure.
“Tethas take you!” Will nearly screamed it as he stepped forward with his sword held ready. He slammed into an invisible wall.
“Ah, ah, little warrior. I don’t think so.” The thing had pulled the woman’s head down and away from it’s own, and above where it hung, limp and oozing, the thing grinned, green teeth dripping foul smoke. “I can’t make you obey, but I can hurt you. But even better, I can hurt her.” It turned back to a still and frozen Rat and Will followed suit, a look of horror on his face.
“Rat! Don’t listen to it! You have to run!” He tried to grasp her arm, pull her, but she was frozen, fighting him. Not wanting to damage her, he released his wife with a low groan.
Rat stared at the demon, her face almost blank. The slardur stared back, still grinning as it continued to pull itself from the woman’s body with soft, sticky sounds. “Little dwarf, why don’t you pull out one of those delicious knives?” Slowly, Rat moved to obey with a slow and trembling right hand.
Will moaned softly. “Lena, don’t.” He clutched at her arm again.
Quietly, so softly that Will could have imagined it, he heard. “Idiot. Distract it.” He looked at her face, but her eyes were still locked on the slardur.
Taking a deep breath, he released her and turned back to the demon. Raising his sword, he approached till the invisible wall stopped him. Then he began to pray.
The demon laughed again. This time, only Will winced, but blood dripped slowly from Rat’s nose. She ignored it and concentrated on being pissed off. On the fear in Will’s voice and how angry it made her. She focused on that single left hand.
The slardur turned back to her. “Alright little dwarf. Let’s use that knife for something fun, shall we?” It paused while it pulled itself fully from the skin of the human woman. Somehow, it was still difficult to make out, the shadows of the room clinging to it in a way that made no earthly sense. But it’s glowing red eyes stayed on Rat. “Run that blade lightly down your face. Just a short bit of blood. Nothing that will kill or maim. Yet.”
Ever so slowly, Rat moved the blade up to her own cheek. At the wall, Will cursed, then began to pray even louder. The demon turned back to Will as the blood welled up on Rat’s cheek. “You see little Tethas warrior, what I can make her do? The hurt I can cause you both? Will you let her cut you too? Or will you fight her? Harm her to save yourself?”
It stared at Will, watching with fascination as the tears fell down his rugged face even as he continued to pray. His sword began to glow. The demon smiled ever impossibly wider. “You still believe? So much the better, little fighter.” Blood began to drip from Will’s ears. He brought the glowing sword down across the invisible wall. It gave with a sucking sound like a boot pushing into mud. He pushed forward.
The slardur cackled and waved a slimy limb. Will sliced through a wave of…something with his still glowing sword. For an instant, it hissed and fizzed at his arm and hands like Rat’s acid, till his prayers and the now glowing mark on his hand dissipated it. The thing cackled louder and Will’s nose began to bleed. “Oh, this is fun. But how long can you keep it up, little warrior? What if I tell the dwarf to kill herself?”
It swung back to Rat, then stopped in surprise, finding the space she’d filled empty. And all at once, it wasn’t smiling that awful green and smokey smile. Now it’s red eyes were large and surprised. And Rat was standing on the bed behind it, her bloody smile fierce and angry and her hands holding two wicked daggers stained to their hilts in blue.
“Blangdon take you, bitch!” Rat shoved the daggers again into either side of the slardur’s head. The last of the invisible sticky wall holding Will dissolved and he rushed forward to bury his still glowing sword deep into the belly of the beast. Rat threw herself from the bed and shouted, “Will, take the head!”
With a bellowed “Tethas!” he pulled the sword from it’s fleshy cocoon and swung it wide over his head, using the momentum to take the thing’s head clear off. It sailed across the bed with a spray of brilliant, sizzling blue.
For a long moment, neither one could do more than clutch at breath. Then a snore sounded from the bed and Rat shook herself, hard. She approached the bed and its gore-covered trophy with more care than she usually showed, but when she got close enough to be sure it was dead, Rat kicked at it with the toe of her boot. Then she exhaled shakily and swiped an arm across her blood covered face. “Well that’s a thing I never wanted to know existed.”
After his own hard shake, Will rushed to her side, pulling her into his arms. Toes no longer touching the floor, she tried to push at him, but finally subsided, patting awkwardly at his back while he clutched at her. “Damn it Will, we’ve got more shit to do.”
“Just…just give me a moment, Lena.” He tightened his grip, his cheek buried in her now messy braid.
She sighed noisily, but relaxed. Held on. “Just a bit of a scare. Won’t even scar, not that it would matter much.”
He gave his own loud sigh. “She’d have had you cutting us both up. And you’re good enough that it would have taken a very long time.”
She chuckled, but it was a mirthless sound. “I know. Bitch pissed me off.”
He chuckled at that, but at least his laughter held some humor as the fear and worry wore off. “Thank Tethas for that. Most people can’t even think once a slardur starts working on them.”
“Whatever.” Rat shrugged and pulled away from Will. He let her go with a knowing smile. “I bet the damn thing didn’t even have any coin on it. Gonna take it’s head though. Anyone argues with our loot, I’ll let ‘em have it back.”
“Right.” They approached the bed and wiped blue blood from their weapons. Rat pulled a case from a pillow and kicked the head inside.
“Why do demons always smell like crap?”
]]>The door wasn’t locked. The office it led to looked well used and Rat quickly found a large stockpile of coin. It took her a moment to secret it about her person so that it wouldn’t rattle. In the end, she handed off several small bags to Will with a grimace. He grinned at her reticence. “I’ll try not to lose it.”
She growled. They both knew he was hopeless at holding on to money.
She was distracted from worrying about the cash when she found a second stash, this one of jewelry and loose stones. “Hello.” These she found room for in her coat. She was starting to worry about running out of space when she discovered the third stash, this one of small knives and daggers. They were all fine weapons, well kept and clean. After a bit of experimentation, Rat settled a few into her own gear. Then she regretfully left the rest, promising herself she’d be back for them.
The last door was at the very end of the hall. Rat tried it carefully, finding it unlocked. Slowly, she slid it open. It opened into a large room half filled with benches and tables. At the far end, a sort of throne stood. Though some of the wall sconces were lit on both long walls, the room appeared to be empty. Rat frowned at Will, who wore a similar suspicious look. Where were the people?
Together, they entered the room, noting several doors on both walls and at the end behind the throne. Rat scowled. “We may never get through here.”
Will shrugged. “We could just leave with what you’ve found so far.”
“You’d never let me live it down.” Rat complained. “So stop tempting me.”
Rat scanned the room, but found it depressingly empty of all but fire and too damn many doors. Will watched her back as she edged closer to the first of two doors on the same side as they’d entered. It turned out to be a long kitchen and a storage room full of high quality food that was beginning to turn. Will found some quality looking packs of salted pork that he insisted on “saving,” but they found little else worth having except for a few pieces of high end silver that Rat quickly bagged and stowed in a cupboard.
They were both getting antsy. Time was passing. Though they’d found many rooms and fought a few guards, it didn’t feel like a great deal of progress. “We’ve got to find Tremant.” Rat groused. “Before things turn terrible and unsavable.”
Will, the optimist, simply smiled at her dark mood and nodded to the doors across the large hall.
Rat shook her head. “The place is too big. We can’t clean it all out tonight. Best find Tremant and deal with him. I bet one of those two doors behind the throne lead to the real power here.”
“Good call.” Will agreed.
]]>They found themselves inside yet another office. The room was dark, the only light filtering in from the hall outside. They slid to either side of the door, out of the light, listening hard and waiting for their eyes to adjust. A soft shuffling noise at the back of the room drew Rat’s attention and she found that she could just barely see that instead of desks or furniture, the floor was layered with rank hay and cuffs hung from the back wall, gleaming dully in the faint light.
Large frightened eyes peered out at them from under one of the sets of cuffs. When it seemed that they’d all just stare at each other forever, Rat sighed and spoke. “You alone?”
“I…I think so.” A quavery voice answered. “I think Bren be dead.”
“Well shit.” Rat pulled a match and a small candle stub from her coat and lit it, letting the glow illuminate the room. The large eyes belonged to a thin girl with stringy hair and torn, bloody clothing. The cuffs beside hers were empty, but on the other side, another girl was strung up. She didn’t move.
It was Will’s turn to sigh. He crept carefully over to the unmoving girl and rested a large hand on her face. Then he turned to Rat and the frightened girl, cold anger burning in his blue eyes, and shook his head.
“Cold.” Was all he said, barely above a whisper.
The girl began to weep. “I knew it when she didn’t wake. After he came the last time. She slept and wouldn’t wake.”
Rat curled her lip. “He who?”
The girl looked up at her with blank eyes. Rat held those eyes and murmured. “I’m going to get these cuffs open. You tell me all you know about the man who locked you in here.”
She nodded, a bit of the emptiness leaving her eyes. “Right. I…I can’t remember how I got here. Bren couldn’t either. She was here first though. And another girl, but I weren’t here long before they took her.”
“Alright.” Rat had pulled a thin tool from her coat lining and began to work at the lock of the first manacle. “Who took her? Guards? Men you knew?”
“No.” The girl shook her head. “They wore guard uniforms, but none of the men from the city actually work up here anymore.”
Rat snuck a look at her, then went back to concentrating on the lock. “So they were the Lord’s men? Did you see the Lord?” She heard the tiny click and watched with satisfaction as the first manacle fell open. The girl gasped with relief and pain as blood began flowing back into her limb.
“N…no. I don’t think so. A man in odd drapes came with guards twice. He poked at me and Bren. Cut us with an odd knife. Laughed. After, we felt tired and sick. And last time…” Her eyes rolled over towards her friend’s body. “Bren wouldn’t wake. I kicked her, but she wouldn’t wake!”
“Shh.” Will tried to sooth the girl. He’d crouched and was careful not to touch her. “Do you know how long you were here?”
“No.” The girl shook her head and dissolved into weeping. Rat sent Will an annoyed look, before making a hard jamming motion at the manacle. With a creak, it opened and the girl’s second hand dropped. When Rat stepped back, the weeping girl scooted towards her, making panicked noises. Confused, Rat tried to step back further. People never went towards her and away from Will. But no, as Will smiled gently and tried to comfort her, the weeping girl winced away from her very nice husband and scrambled closer to the not very nice at all Rat.
She huffed a sigh when the girl reached a trembling hand out and took it in her own. “You aren’t going to hurt me?”
“No.” Rat tried to look to Will for help, but he was busy trying to decide if he was amused by the strange turn of events or sad for the girl. No help there. She hunkered down so that they were at eye level. “No. We’re not going to hurt you. But we do have to keep going if we’re going to finish what we started here. And you won’t be safe with us.”
After a long struggle reflected in the girl’s eyes, she swallowed. “You’re going to kill him? The man in the drapes? Hurt him like he hurt Bren?”
Rat nodded. “We’re going to try.”
The girl considered that. Rat watched while her eyes dried and hardened. “Good. I want him dead.”
Rat approved. “Me too.” She held the light brown eyes. “Some people deserve worse than they ever get, but we’ll at least kill him if we can.” She hoped the girl got what she didn’t have the words to explain.
“It will be enough.” The eyes stayed firm on Rat’s.
This girl would live. Rat was sure of it. She smiled and the girl, unlike most people, didn’t flinch from the cold of it. Instead, she smiled back. “Alright. You need to leave here. Quietly as you can. Follow the bodies. We left plenty.”
Again, that smile. “Good. They all deserve it if they were here.”
“Right.” Rat stood and helped the girl to her feet. “You hear anything, you look for a dark corner and stay real quiet. You’ll get out on the walls just fine. That’s where we stopped killing, so be careful.”
The girl nodded. She turned towards Will, hesitated, then squared her shoulders and walked around him. He moved out of her way and they both watched her dig through a box neither had noticed by the wall. In the dim light of the dwindling candle, she found and tugged on a tunic and tattered skirt. Over it, she tied a scarf about her waist. When she pulled out two wicked looking daggers and slid them carefully into the scarf, Rat smiled.
This girl would definitely live.
]]>Will stepped around her and stared at the crusted thing silently a long moment before muttering his own curses. “Been used regular, and recent too.” Without looking at her, he held out a hand and took hold of the little bottle she placed in it. Murmuring prayers, he poured the oily fluid on the altar. Then he pulled a match from a pouch at his waist, struck it, and lit the oil. More than smoke bellowed out of the foul thing, crackling and flowing like a wave towards the two of them.
The smoke-like wave hit an invisible wall just in front of Will and tried to flow around it. He gestured and Rat tossed a bit of red powder she’d pulled out after giving him the bottle at the altar. The smoke sizzled, and with a sound reminiscent of metal grinding against stone, finally dissipated, leaving a disgusting golden pile of trash. Rat held out another bottle in question. At Will’s nod, she heaved the acid at the thing. They watched silently as it boiled through blood, hair, gold, bone and wood. When the effects slowed, Rat added another bottle. Will grunted his approval and they looked around the rest of the room.
In a false bottom of a desk drawer, Rat found a small bit of coin and a collection even she wouldn’t pocket. A few items were valuable, but most, like the bit of frayed ribbon or cracked button weren’t. “Likely his…trophies.” She looked over at Will. “You think the loved ones even want to know?”
He avoided looking back at the still fuming pile in the corner. “About that? No. Likely they know already that the person is gone. Better to think it was quick.”
“Right.” Rat took up the box and carried it over to the altar, dropped the items in the pile and used another acid bottle on the lot. That business done, she left Will to mutter more prayers and went back to the desk and finished ransacking it. “Lots of papers. Probably good info for whoever takes on leadership later, but nothing for us. I don’t care who shit on who down here.”
“Right.” Will dropped a hand on her shoulder briefly, then sighed. “Next room?”
“Yup. Looking forward to it after that shite.” Rat didn’t look back at the mess. “Except it was making the noises, so…”
Will gave a strained chuckle. “Think positive. Maybe it will be kittens and flowers.”
Rat snorted, gave him an incredulous look. “Because that’s ever happened.”
“Then we’re definitely due.” Will grinned at her. “Can we keep the kittens?”
“No.” Said Rat.
]]>Rat had bumped him slightly before moving ahead. “Don’t worry, I’m sure the fires will come in handy. And you know how much I liked the dog idea.”
Behind her, Will chuckled. “I do. And I hope so. I hate to think we caused all that trouble for nothing.”
Rat just shrugged, pulled out a sharp knife, and slid quietly through the door. It opened into a small chamber lined with barrels and empty boxes. Storage room. Shaking her head, she moved past the haphazard piles to the door on the other side. It was closed, but opened easily when she tugged on it. “Not very secure.”
“Maybe they just assumed everyone was too scared to attempt the walls.” Will looked as uncertain as Rat. “Be careful.”
She nodded. It felt like a trap, and she absolutely hated walking into those. Also, it didn’t make all that much sense. This was supposed to be a surprise attack. Rat eased through the second door, finding herself at the end of an empty and dimly lit hallway. She walked down it, taking care to make as little noise as possible. Halfway down, there was a locked door she didn’t bother with.
At the end, the hall made an abrupt turn. Peering carefully around the corner, she saw a bored-looking man guarding a door at the end. There were two more doors between their location and the guard. Rat turned back to Will, signaled him to be ready, and let one of the bags of stones clatter to the floor. At the end of the tunnel, the guard called out, “Hello? Who’s there?” When Rat and Will didn’t answer, he called again, “Damn it, is that you, Red? I told you not to drink so much ale before shift.”
Rat waited as, grumbling, the guard made his way towards them. When he came round the corner, she ducked and Will knocked him out with a single punch. The man crumpled and Rat searched him quickly. She pulled his purse and a large ring of official looking keys before Will dragged him back to the door. “Probably best not to tie this one. He’ll be out a while, and maybe anyone else will think he was drinking on the job.” Will murmured softly.
Rat nodded and finding each of the other doors locked, began testing the keys on the first door. When Will raised a brow, she grinned. “We should make sure what’s here, right?” He rolled his eyes, but said nothing as she managed to find the right key and softly unlocked the door.
Inside, they found another storage room, this one full to bursting with food stores. “This will come in handy for the people if we manage to oust Tremant.” Will muttered, looking around at the heaps of food.
“Right. Not so helpful to us though.” Rat shook her head and relocked the door. The next room was more interesting. It contained weapons and armor, most of which was damaged or poor quality, but Rat noted a few pieces that interested her. She swiftly wrapped those in a blanket and hid them in a dark corner. “We live, we can come back for these.”
“Got to live, first.” Will noted.
Rat chuckled. “And you say I’m the one that doesn’t think positively. I’ll be back for those beauties.” She relocked the room and led the way to the door that was no longer guarded. It was locked, but Rat quickly found the proper key and opened it. What turned out to be the armory with two small offices towards the back, were all empty of people, and showed recent disuse in the abundance of cob webs.
They tossed the room carefully, Will pocketing a few hard-to-find mending supplies, while Rat disposed of small sums of coin from each office. She bagged up a few other valuables that were less portable and hid them in a box at the back of the office for later retrieval. Will wrinkled his nose. “We’re going to have a lot of stuff to recover if you keep that up.”
Rat shrugged unrepentantly. “We were promised two pack horse loads and all we could carry. Worse case, other stuff later is better than this stuff and we leave this crap for someone else. But we’re getting paid.”
“Fair enough.” Will knew better than to argue with his wife about getting paid. If Rat had a religion, that was it. “You ready to move on?”
“Sure.” She looked around, a bit nervously. “This seems really easy, doesn’t it?”
“Now that you mention it, yes.” Will shrugged. “Should I complain about that?”
“No. Unless it means it really is a trap later.” Rat grimaced and glared over at the next door they had to check. “I hate traps.”
“At least you got to start your fires before the trap.” Will grinned at her.
“True.” Rat shook off her worry and slid quietly towards the next door. No reason to worry - it wouldn’t change the outcome anyway.
This time the door wasn’t locked. Rat met Will’s eyes and slowly opened the door. It opened on another long hall, this one cluttered with doors on both sides. Rat snarled. She hated trying to sneak through places with lots of doors. Too many places for people to wander out of, too many chances to be caught in the open while checking everything. Just too damn many ways for it all to go tits up.
“This is going to take all night.” Will whispered.
“We’ll just go faster.” Rat shot back. And true to her word, she crossed to the first door and checked it. It was unlocked. Inside, a small bedroom for two, probably for mid-level officers. It was empty and looked disused. Rat tossed it quietly and found nothing of interest, then motioned Will to be ready.
The next couple of bedrooms contained some coin and a few other small trinkets, but little else of interest. Rat was relatively sure they’d already been tossed. “Maybe these belonged to guys we killed…?”
Will shook his head thoughtfully. “Maybe? But I’m wondering if Tremant isn’t cleaning house. Or if the demon mage wasn’t using his own people when the townspeople started hiding.”
“Ugh. I was really hoping we were wrong about that.” Rat sighed and bent low to sneak to the next door, which was locked. There she found another office. This one looked well used, like the person was expected back at any time. Rat grinned at the large bag of coin (mostly silver and a few gold) and random jewelry she found in the false bottom of a drawer. A few larger items were bagged and hidden behind the door.
Several more doors led to bedrooms and another large storage room of food stuffs. Still, it was too quiet, the lack of any comings or goings speaking to something eerily wrong in a building of this size.
They ran out of luck at the end of the hall. Two men guarded the door on the other side and managed to alert four more before Rat could subdue them. When the next group of men arrived, she stopped trying to save lives and simply shot two of them with small arrows. She injured the third man and was nearly in a position to kill him when Will, having dispatched his own final guard, stabbed him from behind with his sword.
They waited, but when no one else came running, Rat rolled the bodies before Will drug them off to a corner. There were blood stains, but Rat simply doused one of the torches nearest the door. “Too dark to see much now.” She muttered when Will grinned at her “housekeeping.”
They were in a dining hall of sorts. Rat looked, but aside from food there wasn’t much worth stealing. Shrugging at Rat’s disgust at the sad state of what remained of the silverware, Will shoved several nice looking apples in his bag. Seeing a bowl of nuts, he dumped the whole thing in with the apples. At Rat’s impatient sigh, he grinned and shoved a few in his mouth. “Expensive enough you’d rather not pay for them. Already shelled and everything.”
Frowning at Will with more impatience than she really felt, Rat gestured towards the doors on the other side of the large room. Will followed close as they found, behind a lock, another storage room of food, and on the other side, another hallway.
“Great. Another hallway with more damn doors. Goram’s own castle, this place.” Grumbled Rat. Will smirked and looked around. This hallway was grander looking than the others. It was carpeted and had more torches on the walls. There was also the random bit of decoration: paintings, old shields, and ragged flags from past glory days. Rat ignored it all. None of it was worth much outside of the city, probably, or it wouldn’t still be on the wall.
On the plus side, it had fewer doors. Rat cautiously approached the nearest one, and found it locked. She frowned when none of her keys worked. Will handed her another ring of keys. At her glare, he smiled sheepishly. “Pulled it off the last guy I fought and forgot about it till now.”
After giving him a look that would have frightened most people and only got a smile from Will, she tried the keys on his ring and found one that worked. The room turned out to be another office, this one disused and thick with dust.
“Probably some bean counter that didn’t get on well with the new leadership.” Sarcasm didn’t help with the dust, but it made Rat feel a bit better about the sneezing. After a bit of searching, she found the expected secret stash of purloined goods and coin (bureaucrats were always a little dirty) and dug out the best bits for her own purse, before handing the rest to Will to dump in a sack he’d found somewhere. There wasn’t much else of value, unless one was interested in the overly comfortable chair cushion or the velvet hangings on the wall. Rat really wasn’t.
Puzzled, Will leaned against the wall while Rat finished her work. “I get why they didn’t bother keeping the bean counters, but what fool doesn’t clean out the stashes?”
Rat sneered. “Stupid person that’s never led anything larger than a small gang. Mid level ‘crats nearly always take their slice off the top. Wasn’t just that they didn’t care, none of these fools knew that, so missed out on the coin.”
Without another word, the two mercs worked their way quickly through the next several rooms. They were more of the same - mid level offices for glorified bean counters who probably hadn’t weathered the change in the city’s fortunes well enough to come back for their things. Rat pocketed their hidden funds, including one that offered a small fortune in jewels, and left most of the rest for whomever might come through next. Besides being bulky, most of it wasn’t worth the trouble or horse feed to drag it to a city with a working economy.
There were only five doors left in the hall when they heard it. Noise coming from the very end of the hall. “Sounds like trouble.” Will muttered.
“Yup.” Rat considered the situation. “Rather not have unknowns sneak up behind us. We finish the rest of this hall first.”
“Right.” Will agreed. He looked around grimly. “Be glad to leave this place behind.”
]]>This was the step that worried Rat the most. The stupidest guard was likely to become suspicious if he caught them traipsing through town with a cage of sleeping (and stinking) dogs trailing behind them. “Even you can’t act dumb enough to get away with this.” She’d muttered warningly at Will. He’d nodded and they’d taken extra care to slip unnoticed into and out of each area.
The ale seemed to have worked. There were fewer guards on the walls (visible from a distance by the lanterns they carried) than usual. Rat smirked and imagined that even those who’d managed to show up for duty probably weren’t doing all that well.
They’d approached a set of stairs that would take them up to the walls and Will, hidden in the shadows, had removed his cloak so that his stolen guard uniform could be seen. They’d argued when he’d tried it on, Rat noting worriedly that his armor wouldn’t fit beneath it and Will suggesting he leave the extra bits at home. Eventually they’d compromised; Will had carefully opened enough seams to allow the coat to fit over the armor. It looked ridiculous up close, but they were hoping it would pass a quick inspection in the dark.
If it didn’t…well, Rat wasn’t about to risk an injury to Will just to avoid killing a guard who probably deserved it anyway, no matter what her husband’s kind-hearted preferences were.
Once he was ready, they’d climbed the stairs and approached the first guard. Will, out in the open and carrying his own lantern, had hailed the man from a distance. Rat, hidden in shadows, waited till he approached Will with a questioning look on his face, and slung a little bag of small stones at his head. He’d dropped with a clang of the lantern, but after a worried wait, they’d not seen any sign of alarm from elsewhere on the wall or down below.
Rat had quickly rolled him, ignoring Will’s comments about the time, before tying the unconscious man’s hands and feet with his own belt and scarf. Will set the lantern further along the wall in case anyone was counting, and they’d moved on to the location they’d marked out for her first fire arrow.
While Will kept watch, she’d pulled a long pouch from where she’d tied it behind her and quickly put together a rather large and complicated looking bow. She’d tested the tension and string placement, then nocked the arrow and waited for Will to light the end. Then she’d loosed it quickly at the barracks roof below. The arrow embedded in the straw near the chimney. They waited till they saw sparks and small flames, then Rat slung the bow behind her and they continued on.
They repeated the earlier scene twice more before reaching the next section of wall near a guard barracks. Rat set that roof aflame as well, pointing out to Will that the first barracks was now sporting a large enough fire that it could be seen from their new location. “Wonder if anyone below has noticed yet?” They shrugged and made their careful way towards the next section of wall.
There was only one guard to subdue before Rat could set the next roof ablaze. This barracks was one with a cage full of dogs, and Rat grinned evilly when this time, the first sign of fire was met with disoriented sounding howling. “Dogs are waking.”
“Sounds like.” Will watched interestedly as two men below exited the barracks in search of the strange noise, only to find their roof on fire. When even that shock didn’t get them moving much quicker, he added, “Looks like your powder works, too.”
“Good.” Rat slung the bow back on and nodded him onward.
They quickly dispatched two more guards and managed to set another roof ablaze before a group of three guardsmen nearly ran them over. They’d stopped short at the sight of Will, and Rat, realizing that they were quickly going to figure out that he didn’t belong, jumped into action. She managed to knock out the first man with her little bag of rocks, but the second had figured out the con and drawn his sword before she could retrieve it. Will followed suit and they were soon fighting in the narrow space.
Rat turned to the third man, knife drawn, to find him cowering. “Please don’t kill me!”
She blinked at the unexpected response. “What?”
He held out empty hands. “You’re the ones they sent six men after a few days ago. They never came back. Now it’s fires. I don’t want any part of you!”
Rat smirked. This was apparently one of the smart ones. She pointed to a spot on the ground next to the already unconscious guard. “Fine. But you try anything and I’ll gut you.”
He gave a relieved nod and hunkered down. She checked on Will’s progress with the fighter and saw him finish the man off. Satisfied that he didn’t need her help, she gestured for the nervous man before her to stick his hands out behind his back. When he did so, she moved behind him and rapped him smartly with the hilt of a knife.
Wiping blood off his sword, Will spoke behind her. “Was that really necessary?”
“If we die, you think he wants to explain giving up?” Rat checked his pockets and pulled out a small purse. “Besides, I didn’t kill him, but I’m not taking the chance that he was trying to con us.”
“Fair enough.” Will looked down at the man he’d just killed regretfully. “Wish this guy’d been that smart.”
Rat shrugged. “Urden told us the stupid ones would attack.”
“I guess so.” Will looked over the walls. “Looks like your chaos is starting.”
Grinning, Rat watched as a group of sick guards fought to throw water on a fire while harried by angry feral dogs. They’d already killed two of the dogs, but the roof was nearly gone and the fire wasn’t stopping. Satisfied that they’d not be showing up on the walls any time soon, she finished tying up the sleeping men.
Rat and Will didn’t see any more guards before she shot the last roof with fire arrows. By now, they could see that one of the fires in the distance was nearly out, but all the others were fully engaged. And the howling of the remaining dogs echoed through the city. Hoping the mess they’d started would keep everyone outside busy for a good long while, they turned towards the castle where Tremant waited.
]]>“Bet they didn’t like waking up to find themselves with empty pockets.” Smirked Rat. She noticed two of them kept hands near daggers. The third looked…less worried. As he’d been missing when they’d put the others to sleep, she bet he’d found them and assumed it was their own fault. It had been, but he wasn’t going to make a big difference. They were all still leaning against the gate in much the same posture she’d surprised them in the day before.
Rat shared a look with Will, then stepped forward. “Well then, how much to get out of this city?”
The man in the center raised a brow. “Just the two of you?”
Rat grinned, made a show of looking behind her. “So far. Though if we don’t make this rather quick, it’ll be us and the city guard.”
“Ah, so that’s how it is, then.” The men grinned at each other. “Well maybe we should let the guard catch up and gain ourselves an award.”
“Right.” Will grinned at them in friendly disbelief. “Like any guardsman I’ve run into in this city would share a copper with such as you or I.”
The man on the right elbowed the man in the center. “E’s right about that, Roy. Damn guard is worst than bandits, nearly.”
The man shrugged. “Alright. Three silver. Each.”
Rat snorted. “Right. Like that’s going to happen.”
“We could just let the guard catch you. Entertaining, even if we don’t make nothing from it.” The man countered.
“Or we could just kill you, take what you got on you, and leave anyway.” Rat smirked as the man considered her words with a frown.
The man on the left leaned in, whispered something. “Yeah, yeah.” The boss turned back to Rat. “Two silver. Final offer.” He pulled a wicked looking dagger, moved it to catch the sun on it’s jaggedly sharp edge.
She sighed, looked beseechingly at Will. The man was an idiot with a terrible weapon. He smiled back at her, but shook his head firmly. There was work to do and she didn’t have time to play. Even if the man was stupid.
“Fine.” She pulled out a pouch and shook it out in her hand, counted it. Poured it back in. “Just to show we’re all friendly like, I’ll throw an extra three coppers in. Each.” She tossed it to the leader who made a show of pouring out the money and counting it. Then he slowly stepped away from the gate and waited while the man from his right pulled the key from the same pocket Rat had found it before and unlocked the gate with a screech.
They watched each other carefully as Rat and Will moved carefully into the tunnel, hands near weapons. When they’d gone through and into the dark, there was a loud screech as the gate was pulled back down and the lock put back in place. “They should oil that.” Murmured Will, rubbing at his ears.
“Unless someone else is listening and counting.” Rat answered. “Which actually, given the stupidity of those three, I don’t doubt.”
“Whatever, let’s get our things and get back.” Will shrugged and picked up the pace. “I don’t want to be drugging dogs in the dark.”
“Drugging Dogs in the Dark sounds like a song I’d pay to hear in a tavern.” Rat remarked.
“Let's get this done and then you can pick the tavern.” Muttered Will. “Though I’ll probably regret that promise.”
“Probably.” Rat bumped him companionably and matched his pace in the dark.
***
An hour later, they were back with horses and sleeping caged dogs. Dusk had settled about the city of Morgans Reach and Rat was working her way carefully down the tunnel. She smiled to hear the same three men in drowsy conversation at the gate entrance. Still sitting with backs against the gate.
Smiling because this was just too easy, she slowly pulled off her gloves and pocketed them. Then she pulled her kerchief up over her mouth and nose before pulling a packet from a hidden pocket. She opened it to fill with air before closing it again. Setting the “bubble” aside, she did the same with a second packet and walked quietly to the bars. Slowly, she slipped the packets between the bars above the leader’s head, one in each hand. Then she popped them together, quickly pulling the packets apart so that they spread their powder equally above all three men.
It was over quickly. With some coughing and a bit of wheezing, the men were soon deeply asleep. She pulled the key from the same man who’d had it before, and unlocked the gate, taking the time to empty their pockets of anything of value, including her small purse and that wicked looking dagger the leader had threatened her with earlier.
She’d have left it behind if she weren’t bent on making a point. It wasn’t just a stupid weapon (the jagged edges would be hard to sharpen and catch on everything and slow the wielder down), but it was poorly made and had terrible balance. She doubted it could hold much of an edge and hoped the man had paid far too much for it. Would serve him right.
Before she went back to meet Will, she pulled the sleeping men into the shadows near the entrance. Then she took a moment to shake off her cloak and use one of their kerchiefs to wipe off her hands and arms before pulling the gate nearly closed and moving back into the tunnel. She’d not gone far when she met Will leading the horses.
“I thought you were going to wait at the entrance.” Rat raised an eyebrow and sent him an irritated look.
He shrugged, unrepentant. “You took too long. You either were stealing all their stuff, or needed my help. I figured it was probably fine to come either way.” He gestured at the obedient horses. “Besides, these poor nags aren’t causing any trouble at all. Hate to think how they’re used to being treated if dragging a bunch of wild dogs doesn’t phase them.”
Rat sighed. “We can’t take them all with us, Will.”
“I know.” Voice sad, he didn’t look at her. “But hopefully they’ll get a better treatment when all this is finished.”
She bumped against his arm in a gesture of support and moved up to take care of the noisy gate. On the other side, she quickly checked to ensure that all three men were still well and truly out. She kept the key and left the gate unlocked. When Will sent her a sharp look, she shrugged. “Just in case it all goes to shit, it might be helpful to have a quick way out.”
Eyes wide, he asked, “Since when does one of our plans go wrong?”
She snorted. “Right. Should have said ‘When it all goes to shit.’”
“There you go.” He chuckled and took hold of the pony’s bridle.
]]>He grinned and sent her a meaningful look. “I thought you liked that about me.”
Rolling her eyes, she grinned back. “There’s a time and place. Get your boots on. We’ve got places to be.”
“And guards to poison, fires to start, wild dogs to release…” Will cackled at his own joke and tugged on a boot. “You’re right. We’ve got a pretty full dance card.”
“I don’t even know what that means.” Rat was redistributing items to hidden pockets throughout her coat for the final time. “But I hope it means you’re about finished, finally.”
“Yes, yes.” Will stood and bowed grandly, nearly knocking over the small table as he did so. “It helps that I’ve got a lot fewer things to pack than you do.”
“Right.” She grimaced and tossed him two pouches. “So you can carry these.”
He shrugged and attached them to his belt. “Sure. Got pouches. Got sword. Got shield. Got fake uniform. Got the other sword. Anything else you need?”
Rat buckled a final pouch closed on her belt. She whirled experimentally and reached for hidden daggers that quickly slipped into her hands. Grinning, she re-holstered them and turned to Will. “Just this.” Reaching up, she grabbed hold of his hair and pulled him down into a hard, deep kiss. A moment later, she broke the kiss still grinning darkly, turned, and stalked from the room.
Will stood still a long moment, watching her go, wearing his own wide wolfish grin. There was nothing more beautiful than his wife in the moments right before she knowingly jumped into a fight that was likely to get them both killed. With his own fierce grin, he followed her into the darkness.
]]>When their eyes met, hers narrowed, and with a scowl, she tugged hard at his hair and muttered about “laziness” and “sleeping in.” Completely unperturbed, he smiled and wrapped strong arms around her, kissing the complaints from her lips.
An hour later they were dressing, Will with a smirking smile that Rat, preoccupied with thoughts and plans for the day, failed to notice till he grabbed hold of her from behind and planted a kiss on the top of her neatly braided head. “Vardo’s ass! Would you just finish getting ready, fool?”
He grinned easily and sat to pull on his boots. “Nearly there. Any particular thing bothering you about the plans for tonight?”
She grunted. “Too much to go wrong.”
He shrugged. “I thought that was part of the fun?”
She stopped, stared at him a moment. Smiled. “True enough.” She tossed him a glove he’d left on the floor the night before. “Also the fires.”
“Of course. Can’t forget the fires.” Finished with his boots, Will stood and looked about. “Time for breakfast though, right?”
“Obviously.” Rat rolled her eyes. “Wouldn’t want you starving to death before nightfall.”
“That would be a terrible turn of events.” He opened the door, checked the hall and stood back, waiting for Rat to take the lead.
She tucked one last packet into an unseen pocket and stepped out of the room. “Let’s be quick, shall we? I want to take a quick look around the city before we have to prepare for tonight.”
“Sure.” Will followed her steady steps down the stairs.
In the hall, they stopped to face a quiet Fro, who was leaning against the wall next to the door. Rat stepped up. “Ale getting delivered today?”
He nodded, looking a bit tired.
“You helping?” Another nod. Rat grinned and handed over a small bundle of packages. “Put one of these in each barrel of ale. No more than that, or we’ll be doing too much harm.”
The boy looked at her, eyes wide. “Every barrel?”
“Every one.” She sniffed. “I need to know that they’ll be drinking that powder tonight.”
She handed Fro a small purse with a number of coppers and one silver. He didn’t bother to check it, only made a small move and it disappeared into his new, too-large coat. “There will be more tomorrow, if you manage to do the work. Speaking of which,” She paused, stared at him for a long moment with hard eyes that had him shifting and glaring back defensively. “Stay inside tonight. Streets are going to be…unsafe.”
He gave her an angry look. “Inside where? I got a place, but it ain’t inside.”
She muttered curses and met eyes with Will who shrugged. “Vardo’s fat ass. Fine.” She leaned up into the thin face. “Before dark. Our room. We won’t be there, and if you touch anything, I’ll find you and skin you and use your damn hide for new boots. Got it?”
Eyes a bit wide, he nodded. “What’s up tonight?”
“You aren’t stupid enough to be asking that.” Rat glared at the small boy a bit longer, then turned and stomped off. Will winked at Fro and followed his wife.
Not wanting to be too conspicuous, they did not grab breakfast from Will’s favorite stall (despite his complaints). Instead they opted to grab a loaf of bread from Milla’s kitchen before taking a quick and quiet circuit of the city. They made sure to take note of the location of each of the guard barracks and anything they’d missed in prior walkthroughs.
Rat noted with glee that none of the buildings seemed particularly well guarded. When she’d pointed that out, Will had sensibly reminded her that few occupants of Morgans Reach wanted to be in close contact with the guard, and thus they probably didn’t need much security. By the fourth barrack, she’d begun to wish she’d brought fire traps after all; it didn’t appear that anyone (including the idiot guards themselves) would actually bother to notice if a person climbed onto the thatched roofs and danced naked while singing a goblin mating song.
When she suggested going back to pick up the needed items, Will reminded her that they had a perfectly good plan. “It isn’t like you won’t be starting fires. And you’ll be using fire arrows. You haven’t done that in a couple of seasons.” He said in a teasing undertone. She rolled her eyes, but stopped arguing.
Instead, they located several good locations for fire starting on the city walls and places to hide the three cages. From a distance, they watched as Fro and the old man delivered ale to the first barracks building. Rat could see why Fro didn’t like the duty. The old gaffer spent the time talking and playing a dice game while the small boy did the heavy work of moving barrels half his size. When one of the men cuffed him distractedly for getting underfoot, she noted the subtle look he sent the man and was certain that the powder would be delivered as she’d specified.
They got back to the inn in time for Milla to meet them at the back door, hands tightly wringing her apron. “Any progress on my job?”
Rat waved the question away and walked past her, but Will smiled gently at her. “Stay in tonight.”
Eyes wide, she grasped his arm with both work toughened hands. “What are you planning?”
Rat turned about, glaring at Will. “Yes, what are we planning?”
He smiled calmly at them both. “Just stay in. Possibly lock your doors.” Then he gently removed her hands and followed Rat up the stairs.
Upstairs, they’d double checked their preparations, or rather, Rat had double and triple checked her fire arrows, potions and powders till Will had pulled her teasingly into bed. She’d grumbled, but he made a perfectly good argument for rest and a bit of last minute relaxation. “You’ve checked it all five times already. Tonight is going to happen the way it happens. Come to bed for a few hours, Lena.”
Nose wrinkled at the nickname he rarely used, she’d turned to see the worry in his eyes. It was always like this, just before an expected fight or battle. There’d been a time when she’d taken it as an insult to her skills, or even his. When she’d railed and fought, argued pointlessly. Now, she knew it was only his huge heart showing through. Later, he’d fight with all the skill, toughness and even enjoyment she’d come to depend on. And he’d trust her to do the same. Now, in the quiet moments, he thought too much and worried enough for both of them.
So she bit back the acrid, angry words and instead, smiled. A real smile. Rare enough that his blue eyes still widened in pleased surprise to see it. And when she spoke, her voice was gritty and heavy with unspoken emotion. But the words…they were pure Rat. “Damn it Will, you’ve got too many clothes on. Get em’ off, won’t you?”
And his answer was full of laughing relief. “Of course, love. But aren’t you going to help?” And the afternoon slipped quietly away on a wave of laughter and love.
]]>Rat slowly pulled a kerchief over her own nose and mouth (no reason to be caught by her own trick) and slid the packet out between the bars. The men weren’t paying much attention at all. She rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers. In an instant, both men turned towards the small sound and Rat popped the packet, blanketing both men’s faces and fronts in the powder. She stepped back into shadows as they coughed and wheezed, struggling to wipe the soot-like powder from tearing eyes. In less than a minute, both men collapsed back, unconscious. Rat motioned to Will, then reached back through the bars and searched pockets till she found the key to the gate lock. She was fighting with the rusted thing when Will moved in behind her.
“I figured you’d just pick it.”
“Why bother when the idiot was wearing the key?” She bit her lip and tugged, forcing the lock open.
“Good point.” He gestured as she pocketed the key. “You keeping that?”
“Only till we’re finished here.” She rustled through the toughs’ pockets, relieving them of several items of possible value. “I’m hoping that they wake up, realize they’ve been rolled, and think that’s the entirety of it.”
“Ah. Good idea.” He squeezed her elbow slightly, then helped her move the rusty gate a bit. “Shall I get the horses?”
“Yes.” Rat looked around. “I’m going to hide somewhere just in case the third watcher comes back.”
“Right.” Will disappeared back into the dark tunnel, and Rat settled into a dark corner with a broken box for a seat. She didn’t have to wait long. Will arrived quickly enough, not bothering to be quiet when he knew Rat had the entrance covered. They quickly moved the horses through and relocked the gate. Then Rat put the key back in it’s hiding place on the still sleeping man. They were long gone before either man woke.
***
After a quick discussion with Milla and a mug of ale from the old gaffer at the bar, they settled into their old room at Morgan’s Keg. They’d worked hard the last couple of days, and Rat had insisted on a hot bath, happily pulling the coins from a dead guard’s purse to pay. Will made sure that they both thoroughly enjoyed it (and sloshed water all over the hearth) before they fell into an exhausted sleep on the bed they were growing too used to.
]]>Will (being Will) had to comment on that as they searched for the small stream that marked the entrance to the aqueduct into the city. “So, you feel pretty good about this plan and our preparations, then?”
Rat smirked. Even she’d been surprised by how easily the dog catching had gone. The sleeping potions worked like a charm. The dogs were pretty unhappy about it when they woke, however. Loudly unhappy. At least until Rat had fed them most of the rest of a guard. Will claimed he’d have nightmares for the rest of his life just from watching, but she’d only shrugged. They’d both seen, and done, worse.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure it will all go to tits up at some point.” She answered dryly.
They shared a smile. “Oh, good. I was worried that this might be too easy.” He scratched under his chest plate.
“Nah. We’ll be running into trouble at the castle.” Rat hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her suspicions about just what lurked there.
“You think Lord Tremant is a demon mage?” Will, despite knowing better, liked to say things out loud.
Rat winced, but she nodded. “Makes sense. Given its state, I figured the town was under bad management for years. But Milla and her brother say no, it’s only months. Do we know of anything else that can suck the life from a place so fast?”
Will grimaced. “And all the bodies?”
“What do you think?” Rat pushed.
He sighed. “I don’t like it. We aren’t magic users.”
“Never stopped us before.” She said it wryly. “Besides, I still have a few of those magebane potions from two jobs ago just waiting to be used.”
“True.” He grinned, trying to grab back good humor. “And at least you get to start some fires.”
“You see? Fires are always a good idea.” Rat pointed at a small spring that led out of the trees and towards the city walls. “I think we found it.”
“Great. Shall we rest till nightfall, then?” Will had already dismounted.
Rat followed suit. “I’m going to make sure. Then I’ll be back for a nap.”
He was already organizing the horses. “Be careful.”
“Always.” She hoisted a small bag and slung it crosswise over her chest before stepping carefully into the space where treeline met city walls. The aqueduct stuck out from the hillside the city perched on some 100 yards or so, meaning that it’s entrance was not easily seen from the walls. As she’d been told, the entrance had a gate, but the ancient metal was pulled up and rusted into place. “Pretty secure.” She mumbled sarcastically to herself. Rat carefully walked in, mindful of the crumbling brickwork along the side of the muddy stream. It wouldn’t do to take a tumble and injure herself now.
In a few minutes, she’d walked far enough to lose the light from the end of the tunnel. She rustled in the bag and pulled out a tiny stub of candle. Once lit, she walked a bit further into the darkness, then waited, letting her eyes adjust to the much weaker light in her hand. When she was satisfied with her night vision, Rat continued on, taking the time to check the depth of the stream and to ensure that horses would find plenty of purchase with wet hooves. Eventually, she could hear quiet talking up ahead and soon enough there was light from in front of her. She extinguished the candle, letting the melted wax and wick cool before putting it carefully back in the proper pocket. Then she slowly made her way to the city’s entrance.
An hour later, she was convinced of the ease of this particular entrance. There were three people watching the entrance, though as she’d listened, they planned for one of their number to sneak away on other business later that evening. They didn’t expect to be relieved until morning. A fact they bemoaned rather loudly. Rat wondered if everyone in Morgans Reach would prove to be this stupid. So far, she’d seen plenty of evidence that they would, and hoped it continued to prove so. She considered removing the three now, while she was close and they were distracted, but could hear Will’s voice at the back of her skull berating her for taking such a chance without him. She withheld the sigh that provoked and moved carefully back into the darkness before again lighting her candle.
An hour later, she was back with Will, chewing on jerky and some greens he’d found and describing what she’d learned.
“This seems too easy.” He frowned. “Are they all stupid?”
Rat laughed, nearly choking on a bite of food. “I wondered the same.”
“Perhaps the mage…” He didn’t finish the sentence. Didn’t have to. Rat shrugged and kept eating. “Well, the extra horses and dogs are settled. If discovered, they’ll alarm the finder, but give no clue of their intended use or where they came from. And they should be fine for the next day right where they are.”
“Good.” Rat finished her simple meal and stood. It was dusk, and time to begin their slow move back into Morgans Reach.
When he’d drunk his fill, Will capped the skin and handed it back to her. Then he gestured to the pot. “That looks awful. Smells worse.”
She grinned. “I found some monksbill. And far more rashweed than I needed for the sleep potions.”
He eyed her suspiciously. “So…what is that, then?”
“We’re going to put this in their ale.” She said it calmly, still stirring.
“Won’t they notice? It smells really, really bad. I can’t imagine that it will taste better.” Will didn’t normally argue with her plans, but the boiling mess did smell truly bad. “I mean, I know we decided they were stupid…”
“It’s going to be a powder.” She kept stirring. “The powder will mostly be tasteless. Unless we use too much. And since we’re not killing them, we won’t be using that much.”
“Ah.” And Rat knew he’d wondered.
“Since we were told that many of the guards out in the city aren’t true villains, I thought you’d probably protest if I suggested we kill them all. Though it would make things easier. A lot easier.” She sent him a knowing look.
“Right. Rather not resort to wholesale murder if we can avoid it.” Will smiled at her, glad he didn’t have to convince her to avoid more killing and happy she understood him so well. “So what does this do? Because it smells like murder.”
“It’s going to make them need the privy. Desperately. Possibly uncontrollably.” She shrugged. “It might also make them puke. I haven’t used this exact recipe before.”
“Well then. That sounds absolutely lovely. Embarrassment is fine, I suppose.” Will grinned. “And better in case someone steals some of that ale in the aftermath of our trouble causing. Accidental wide-spread poisoning is probably more forgivable than wholesale murder.”
“Right.” Rat grinned at him. “And this means Fro doesn’t need to try to sneak traps and we don’t need to fake barrels or whatever.”
“So we aren’t starting fires, then?” He looked a bit hopeful.
“Pfft. Of course we’re starting fires.” She growled at him. “I still get some fun. But I’m just going to use regular pitch arrows, I think. The roofs of all the barracks are cheap thatch, so it should be way easier than timing a bunch of traps I’m not setting myself. And I didn’t like the idea of climbing up the sides of buildings in daylight when we aren’t supposed to be in the city. Too much to go wrong.”
Will waved his hands at her in surrender. “Fine, fine. So we’ll still have fire. And poop, apparently.”
“Don’t forget the savage, biting dogs. That was your bit.” She was really proud of that idea of his.
He sighed. This was going to be chaos. “You’re sure we shouldn’t just…take the castle. Or something?”
Now she looked hurt. “Will, we’re helping people. Lots of people. Can’t I have a little fun?”
He rolled his eyes and poked her. “They’re paying us to help them. We’re gonna take lots of their stuff while we help. Isn’t that fun?”
“Like you aren’t looking forward to seeing the results of my new potion too. Especially after watching those uniformed goons misbehave.” She stuck her tongue out at him, irrationally playful despite the awful smell. “Besides, we’re good, but I don’t know if we’re good enough to take the castle straight on. You might get scarred or something, and then what will I look at?”
He grinned at her playfulness, knowing that he was never going to win anyway. “Well, we certainly wouldn’t want to risk my pretty face. Though I can’t really say I want to see it…”
She considered. “See it from a distance. Not downwind if possible.”
“Right.” He stood. “Guess I’ll go finish those cages now. Got any idea about dinner?”
She smiled. “Put a fish trap in that spring. Already had a couple in there when I checked earlier.”
“Great. We haven’t had fresh fish in a while.” Smiling with resumed good humor, Will went back to work. Rat kept stirring. It was never a good idea to let rashweed burn.
]]>“Stupid idiots are going to try it again!” Rat grinned excitedly. She’d started to worry that they wouldn’t when they passed through the line of bodies with no sign of being followed.
Will looked around. “Is this the best place to do this?”
Rat shrugged. They were surrounded by trees. She couldn’t see the town, or much else beyond their little section of road. “As good as anything, I suppose.” She sent him a look. “So? Ambush? Or do we try to talk our way out?”
Will grinned at her. “You’re letting me choose? Awww.” He noted the fire in her eyes. “Might as well ambush. Talking didn’t work so well the last time.”
Rat grinned. “Besides, we needed a uniform, right?” They were both moving into the trees as they spoke.
Will dismounted and quickly tied Attila and the pack horse lightly to a tree further in the woods behind some bushes. Rat did the same with Beve. Rat reached quickly into her pack, producing several small bottles and two paper packets. “Don’t breathe any of this if you can help it.” She muttered at Will. They each chose a large tree and began to climb. Rat, being smaller and wearing far less armor, managed to get up and over the road rather quickly. Will was in position just before six men on horseback wearing Morgans Reach guard uniforms thundered down the road. Rat tossed the paper packets and a thick, black soot caught four of the horses and one of the riders in a gasping, eye-watering cloud.
Two of the horses reared, throwing their riders. Rat tossed a bottle at one, and he began to scream as the liquid contents burned through his clothing and flesh. She hit the other, a larger man who looked of a size with Will, with an arrow through the eye. Will dropped from his tree to land behind an armored man trying to control his gasping mount and pulled him to the ground where he quickly snapped his neck. Then he turned and rolled, avoiding the charge of one of the other, still mounted, horsemen.
When the man who’d gotten a snootful of Rat’s powder fell from his horse, she tossed another bottle at him, laughing as he also began to scream between gasps for air. This caught the attention of the mounted rider not trying to mow down Will and he rode over to try and jab up at her with his sword. She grinned and finished reloading her small crossbow. Just as the man thought he’d be sticking her, she stuck him, a small arrow jutting out of his neck.
She turned to see Will leaping atop one of the stopped horses and turning it to meet the final rider. This man, seeming to realize that the fight was nearly over and not in his favor, turned his horse to run, but Will was already there, taking his head straight off of his neck with a powerful swing of his sword. Rat dropped carefully from the tree into a roll, then sprang back to her feet. Pulling a sword from the scabbard of the first man she’d killed with an arrow, she finished off one of the screaming, acid-covered men.
Will dismounted and took care of the other. Then he turned to Rat. “You changed the acid. That’s quite a bit nastier than I remember.”
She looked down at the damage caused by her new acid bottle. “Yeah. I haven’t bothered to muck around much with this recipe before because it isn’t as well-rounded as the usual one. If either of these idiots had bothered to roll in the dirt, it would have stopped working almost immediately.” Then she grinned. “But the ingredients are a lot easier to get. And I got to thinking the other day, when have we seen anyone do anything smart when my acid is burning them?”
Will shook his head, still staring in disgusted fascination at the results of the tiny bottle. “I think it’s probably fair to assume that most people will panic when they get unexpectedly attacked with acid. Would water stop it?”
Rat’s grin grew wider. “Not this one. That’ll make it worse.”
“Yikes.” Will grimaced. “Remind me not to mess with your saddle bags. Ever.”
“It got the job done.” She pushed the body nearest her with a careful shove of her boot. “We should probably throw some dirt on them before we roll them, just to be safe.”
They quickly set to work. Will corralled the horses, taking them to a small spring they’d passed a few minutes before to drink and wash the rest of the black powder from their eyes and noses. Rat rolled the dead guardsmen, grinning at the increase in the heft of her purses of coppers. Most of the weapons were second rate, but two of the guardsmen were carrying quality daggers with cheap jewels that they’d probably taken off merchants in the city. Rat pocketed them and tossed the rest in a pile.
She was carefully removing the uniform from the first man she’d killed with an arrow when Will returned leading the horses. “You were right about that soot powder. It washes off well enough. The horses seem fine now.”
“I told you it wasn’t going to cause long term damage.” She was frowning down at the uniform in her hands. “There’s a bit of blood on this. Of course, probably no one will notice if you’re wearing it in the dark.”
“How much is a bit?” Will looked down at the uniform. “Eh, that’s not bad.” He shot a look at his wife. “Did they have much good stuff on them?”
“Mostly copper. A few decent weapons.” Rat let out an irritated grunt and stood. “Not a terrible lot, actually. But at least we have the bait for the dog traps.”
Will sent her a disgusted look, his nose wrinkled.
“What?” She waved his distaste away. “Waste not, want not. Would you rather we use the poor horses? Besides, I didn’t make them attack us.”
“Right.” He sighed. “Any idea how we’re going to catch the dogs?”
“I’ve got a few, actually. The fun,” She wiped bloody hands on a tattered shirt stolen from one of the dead and looked up at him, eyes sparkling with dark fire, “will be in figuring out which one works.”
He laughed, pushing the thoughts of the planned “bait” out of his mind. “Right. So we’re experimenting, then?”
“Unless you’ve got a better idea. One you’re sure will work.” Her smirk was confident.
Will loved to surprise Rat. “I do, actually. Why not use your knockout powder? We’re bound to be able to find enough of that itchy weed you use to make it, right?”
Rat glared at him. “That was one of my ideas.”
His grin was an attempt to charm. “Exactly when were you going to suggest it?”
She was resistant to most attempts at charm, but Will’s attempts at charming her…occasionally had an effect. Sometimes. She smiled. “After you built a big cage.”
“After?” He raised his brows. “Not before?”
“I might have been looking forward to watching you and those bulging muscles of yours drag trees about.” She didn’t bother to pretend innocence. Will wasn’t stupid, and he’d take the compliment in her statement. “Also, we probably still need the cages. Because the dogs need to go somewhere after we knock them out.”
“And it would be cruel to keep them tied up for days.” Will frowned. “Damn. I didn’t really want to build a cage.”
“At least I still get to see those muscles.” Rat sent him a heated look. When he posed theatrically, she snorted. “And you hate gathering that itchy weed, anyway.”
“Totally true.” He gestured at the bodies with a grimace of distaste. “Are we doing with these what I think we are?”
“Yes. But I’m going to get started on the knockout powder first.” Rat sighed and stood. “Let’s just move the horses a bit further from the dead bodies, shall we?”
“I’ve got them.” Will sighed. “Besides, I’ll need one or two for hauling logs.”
“Right. Then I’ll meet you back across the road in that flat looking spot to set up camp in an hour or two.” Rat wandered off holding a “bag” she’d built by tying another shirt together at the tails and arms. Rashweed was not forgiving if you let it embed in your clothing.
Will rounded up the horses and, with a last look at his wife, got to work.
]]>Back in their room in the tavern, Rat wrapped packets of herbs and other random ingredients tightly together and rolled soiled clothing around them. Will, knowing that she wouldn’t let him help - she’d declared him hopeless at packing years ago - pulled out a small kit and worked on an intricate bit of wire jewelry in the light of their single window. When a quiet knock at the door interrupted the comfortable silence, Rat pulled a small dagger and stood to one side while Will set down his work and walked to open the door.
Fro looked warmer, and a bit better fed. He waited patiently for Rat to check the hallway and give him a careful look before gesturing him inside. “Got news.”
Rat pointed him to the single chair and resumed packing. She’d been debating the best way to hide the little bottles, finally, she shrugged and decided to pack them carefully and openly. They were still empty, so why not?
Fro, his eyes wide, stared at the little she’d yet to pack. “What are you planning?”
“Not the smartest question.” Rat speared him with a hard look. “And also none of your business.”
He shrugged, too used to such responses to take offense. “Got word about guards and laundry. They don’t send it out. Least not anymore, they don’t. Now they do it themselves.”
Rat frowned. “Damn.”
“But they do bring in food and ale.” Fro grinned at the sharp look Rat sent him. “Food deliveries every three days. Ale comes from this very tavern every two weeks. Next delivery is in four days.”
“Ale goes to each barracks? They drink it right away?” Rat’s mind was racing, a new plan forming.
“Yup.” Fro watched her intently, intelligent eyes measuring every word. “Tend to run out a day or two early, actually. Probably why the last couple days before the next delivery is worse for everybody in town.”
“Who takes care of the delivery?”
Fro grinned. “Granther. Usually hires a helper of some kind. Mostly so he can play dice with whoever’s off duty while the help does the work.”
Rat considered. “Is that help you?”
“Sometimes.” Fro shrugged. “Sometimes I can get better pay elsewhere.”
“Make sure that this time, it’s you.” Rat declared. “I’ll make sure it pays well enough.”
“You going to let Granther in on it?” Fro wore a look of indecision.
“No.” Rat let the word drop solidly in the room. “And you aren’t either. Do your job right, and everyone gets paid and he doesn’t even know you did more than earn his coin.”
The small boy hesitated. “He don’t cheat me.”
“Ain’t asking you to cheat him.” Rat held his eyes. “Just do the job for him and another one for me. Don’t hurt him, helps you.” Seeing he wasn’t convinced, she sighed. “It would be worse for him to know. Dangerous maybe. But you, you’re good at keeping secrets.”
“So’s Granther.” The boy looked sullen, but Rat could tell she was going to get her way.
“Just get the job.” She produced one of the decent daggers she’d taken off the thieves the other evening. “Your pay.”
“Not coin?” Despite his words, the boy stared at the knife longingly.
“Nope. We both know this is worth more than I owe you.” Rat handed it to him. “There will be more later. For now, just keep your head down and your mouth shut. Check with us here in three days.”
The boy nodded. The dagger disappeared under his new cloak. He turned and was quickly gone from the room.
Will spoke for the first time. “You’re going to trust him to set the traps?”
“Maybe.” Rat went back to packing.
“That dagger was worth five times what you owed him.” Will was watching her closely. “At least.”
She shrugged. “He won’t sell it. It’s solid, well-made. Better than his current sticker by far. He’ll keep it.”
“You do like him.” Will went back to his work with the wire, smiling slightly.
Rat didn’t bother with an answer.
***
That night, they spoke to Milla in the kitchen. “We’re leaving for a few days.” Rat said shortly. “We’ll be back, but for all our sakes, don’t tell anyone. Far as you know, we’re gone for good.”
Milla stared at them in confusion. “I thought you were going to help. I signed the contract.”
Will sent her a kind look. “We are, but we have some work to do outside the walls. And this will keep suspicion off of you if we get caught later. After all, everyone will see us leave. And you can tell anyone that asks that you honestly don’t know where we went.”
She nodded. “Alright. But you’re coming back?”
Rat grinned. “Of course. Signed the contract too, didn’t we?” She took a pull from the ale she’d taken from the old man at the bar. “And we’re going to be asking you for some small help. But till then, you don’t know anything.”
“And that keeps you and yours safe.” Will put in.
She frowned. “Just what do you have planned?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” Rat smirked. “Which I’m not going to do.” She set a silver on the table. “Here. This should cover the ale we’ve been drinking. I’ve refused to pay your old man out there since he sent the kid to steal from us.”
Milla groaned. “Granther can be…”
Rat shrugged. “We took care of it.”
“But you know that even if this town does pick up, people won’t stay in a tavern that steals from them.” Will sent her a stern look. “And Rat nearly hurt the boy he sent.”
“I understand. Thank you. You should keep this, then.” She reluctantly pushed the silver back towards Rat. “For your trouble.”
Rat glared at her. “No. But do something about the old man.”
They stood and left without another word.
]]>They spent the next morning investigating the aqueduct. Fro was correct about the watchers. There were at least three that Rat could find, watching the wide gate that covered the entrance of the tunnel that brought water under the walls and into the city. The gate was locked, but it looked as frail as Fro had suggested. So if one simply planned to pay or remove such watchers…Rat smiled, a bit darkly. She didn’t like paying for such things. But perhaps the watchers could be removed…
“It doesn’t look very well guarded.” Will was thinking the same thing she was, apparently.
“No.” She checked again. Still three watchers. “I wonder where it comes out?”
“Are we going to find out?” Will sent her a look and checked his sword subtly.
“Not right now.” She dipped her head in the direction of the street and they walked together towards the food stall they’d passed earlier. Will, as usual, was getting hungry. “No reason to draw attention to it before we need it. And I don’t think we’ll have much trouble finding the other side.”
“How are we getting outside the walls?” Will murmured quietly.
She smirked. “We’re leaving. In the open. Just so everyone knows we weren’t here to cause any trouble.”
“In case anyone’s noticed us take up residence at Morgan’s Keg, you mean.” Will sent her a small smile. “You’re protecting Milla.”
She glared up at him. “Am not. Just keeping our names and faces out of it. Till we can’t, that is.” She poked him. “You up for more camping?”
He grinned. “With you? Of course. Though the bed has been nice…” Will waggled his eyebrows foolishly at her. She made a point of ignoring him, but he noticed the small lift to one side of those lovely lips and nudged her. “Do we get one more night in the aforementioned bed?”
“Yeah.” She slowed and Will looked up to see what had captured her attention. Ahead, a city guard was loudly berating the owner of small cart that had lost a wheel, causing a backup of traffic in the street. When Will would have stepped forward to help, Rat stopped him with a hand to his arm. “Can’t. She’ll be ok, but we’d make the situation worse. Look, the shopkeeper’s coming out to help.”
Will gave a frustrated sigh, but nodded. “No reason to yell at her that way.”
“Probably has too much room in his trousers.” Rat said it quietly, but Will snorted, drawing attention from a few others who’d gathered to watch the show. “He’s gonna start waving his sword around any moment now, just to remind everyone that he’s got something scary and long. Bet he’s teeny tiny.”
She kept up a similar line of sarcastic comments till they’d cleared the street and Will had relaxed again. But he carried a frown nearly all the way to the food stall in spite of her best efforts. “Gonna be glad to get this job finished.”
“Yeah. Especially if we find what we think we will.” Rat rolled her shoulders and took a bite of the veggie roll they’d decided on for lunch. Even she had to admit that this particular stall could work magic with the basic ingredients still available to the townspeople. Will groaned aloud and gave enough complements to the stall owner that blushing, she passed him an extra small sweet roll and refused payment for it. He bowed low and hurried to catch up to Rat.
“See? Being polite does come in handy.” He waved the sweet under her nose. “Doesn’t that smell lovely?”
She shrugged carelessly. “Why should I bother? You’re going to share it with me anyway. And I didn’t have to suck up to her.”
He frowned at hr briefly. Then face clearing, he shrugged. “True. But the point stands. We could have had two.”
“Nah. I’m not pretty enough to manage it.” Rat sent him a rare affectionate look. “You clean up well enough, though.”
He grinned enjoying her good mood as much as the compliment. “You’re just better at hiding the pretty.”
“Right. You fight pretty good for a blind man.” She rolled her eyes and finished her veggie roll. “Let’s get the stuff on our list and get back to the tavern. I want to get packed up tonight so we can be off early tomorrow.”
“Sure.” Will shoved the rest of his own veggie roll into his mouth. Then he frowned. Mouth full, he grumbled. “How early?”
]]>
Fro waited until Rat entered and looked about, Will filing in after. He stood at the door uncertainty for a long moment before looking at Rat, watching as she lit two candles. “If you have paper, I can draw a map to show where the guard shacks are. Can’t tell you much about the guards’ laundry yet, except for a list of people who don’t do it. Get who does tomorrow.”
Rat nodded and pulled a fresh page from a pack. She handed Fro that and a quill. An hour later, Fro’d filled them in not only on the location of each of the guard barracks outside of the palace, but the size, approximate strength, and patterns of coming and going of each one. Rat gave him a look. “You’ve been eyeing these for a while.”
Fro shrugged. “Only places with any money now. Except for you. And the palace.”
“Leave them be for now. Even the stupid ones are dangerous.” Rat gave him a serious look.
The boy shrugged again, sullenly. “So’s starving to death.”
“But this is worse, probably.” Rat insisted. “Besides, if you aren’t a total idiot, I’ve got more work for you. So you won’t starve for a while yet.”
The boy looked up. “I’ll find out about the laundry. I promise.”
She gave him a stern look and handed him a small pile of coppers. “I know you will. And I’ll pay you the last five for that job when you do.” She cocked her head, sizing him up. Then she walked to the pile of goods she’d dropped to the bed when they came in and pulled out the coat and scarf. “Here.”
Fro frowned at her. “Where’d this come from?”
“Does it matter? Better stuff than yours and he won’t miss it.” Rat gestured with the bundle.
Fro stepped up and took the items carefully. He inspected both, still shooting Rat suspicious looks. “Still don’t know why.”
“Because they were there, I wasn’t going to use them, and neither was he.” Rat glared at the boy. “Take them or don’t.”
“How much?” Fro was still suspiciously eying her, though his hands were clutching the warm cloak tightly.
“Nothing. Probably couldn’t get anything for them in this shit hole town, anyway.” Rat sniffed. “Just don’t freeze to death before you get me my information, right?”
Fro nodded and was quickly gone.
Will smiled at her warmly. “He’ll do better wearing those.”
“Better him than some rag picker that won’t help me any.” Rat sniffed.
“Sure.” Will sent her a knowing grin, but didn’t push it. Rat didn’t like it when anyone pointed out that she’d done something nice. As a general rule, she didn’t believe in being nice. At least, that’s what she said. Loudly. And often.
“So.” She said, ignoring the smirk on her husband’s face with easy experience. “There’s four guard barracks. One for each corner of town. But only ten to twelve guards assigned to each. And two are off work and probably not in the area at any given time.”
“Half are on duty.” he mused. “So probably not more than four in the barracks at any one time.”
“Ought to be able to get near enough to the building to cause some trouble then.” Rat grinned. “I haven’t started any fires in a while, you know.”
Will rolled his eyes. “You started fires on the last job.”
“Just a couple of small ones.” Rat put on an innocent look that had Will grinning hugely and shaking his head. “Anyway, we set up each of these buildings for fires. If Fro can figure out where and when the guards uniforms are washed, I can burn that too.”
“What if we just stole a couple of uniforms?” Will asked.
“Right. Because even the stupidest guard is going to confuse me for another guard…” Her voice sarcastic, Rat sent him a look. “I haven’t seen a single dwarf in a guard uniform since we got here, have you?”
“Ok. But what if I stole a uniform? In the dark, they might get confused enough to let me get close.” Will offered.
“That isn’t too stupid, actually.” She considered. “If you’re distracting them, I could…ok. That might work.”
Will rolled his eyes at her. “Now that I’ve contributed with a not-too-stupid idea, do you have any idea how we’re going to set fires to multiple buildings at once?”
“Yes.” Rat grinned. “We’re going to modify a fire trap to work on a sort of timer.” She poked him. “You have any other not-too-stupid ideas for creating havoc?”
“Well, that’s sort of your job, right?” He grinned, leaned back and scratched his chin. “But I was thinking about how annoying those dogs were. Damn things attacked everything on sight, right? What if we could get a pack of those things into the city?”
Rat stared at him. Then she grinned fiercely and leaned over, grabbed his face and pulled him down so she could kiss him hard on the mouth. “That is beautiful.” Then she poked him again, a bit harder. “Where were the ideas like that at the last job?”
He rubbed at the now sore spot on his chest, smirking. “We didn’t start the last job with a dog attack, did we? Sort of got the creative juices flowing a bit.”
She snorted. “I’ll say. Any idea how we’re to get a pack of dogs into the city?”
“Hey, I came up with the idea. Only fair for you to contribute something too.” He sent her big, innocent eyes and dodged the quill she sent flying his way.
Rat stood and paced the room. “Ok. I’ve got a list of things I’m going to need for the fire traps. Then we’ve got to get out of the city, catch a bunch of asshole dogs without killing them, bring them back, and set everything up without getting caught. Also preferably without having to pay the entrance fee again.”
“Right, because that would be the worst case scenario.” Will shook his head at her with a fond look on his face.
She ignored him. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and more guards will chase us down outside the walls. I could use more coppers.”
“You, my love, have a very odd idea of the meaning of the word “lucky.” Will took up another sheet of paper and reached for the quill he’d dodged earlier. “All right, shall I start the list for supplies? What are you going to need that we’ll have to buy or steal?”
She grinned. “Let me get a look at that slice you got earlier. Can you write while I clean it?”
]]>
Urden Longbough stared at the contracts. “I can’t believe she signed this.” He reread it. “I can’t believe you wrote this.”
Rat shrugged, dropped ten coppers on his desk. “Any Guild reason to disallow?”
He glared at her. “You know there isn’t. But if you talk, this hall doesn’t have 600 coppers, much less gold.”
Rat met his angry look. “We won’t. But if we die and Tremant figures it out, take her and the contract to the Hall in Gandarn. They’ll pay.” She shared a look with Will. Turned back to Urden. “But if we don’t die and didn’t talk, you best hope your sister is tight lipped. We find she talked, I’ll take that bar. And then her tongue.”
Urden waved that away. “She won’t.” He eyed them. “Gandarn will cover this? Seriously?” He waved the contract. “Who are you two?”
“Mercs.” Rat sneered. “Good at what we do.” No way she was volunteering any more than that.
“I guess so.” Urden shook his head. “Fine. Consider this filed. Got any idea how you’re going to do this?”
“A few.” Rat didn’t blink. “Got any suggestions?”
The man laughed. “I’d have suggested you not sign this and just leave. But, since you signed it…I’ll tell you that his best men are kept around the palace. Most of the men on the walls are idiots or not trusted by Tremant.”
Rat grinned. “Any way to tell the difference?”
“The ones that rush the two of you are probably the idiots.” Urden’s voice was dry. “Guards about the palace are decently trained. Nasty sorts. Rumors of disappearances among the locals. They say not all are for Lord Tremant. Course, there’s also the rumors of blood magic. Even though everyone knows that magic users don’t come this far north anymore.”
Will and Rat exchanged glances. Rat asked. “Tell me about those rumors.”
He glanced at them, saw something in their faces that made him swear. “You’ve seen magic users? This far north?”
“Fought them a few times. Fought beside a couple once or twice.” Rat shrugged. “What about those rumors?”
Urden grimaced. “People say that a few weeks after Tremant took over, he pulled a few men at random off the street. Disappearances been happening since. Men, women, children. Odd noises from the palace.”
“Not much to go on.” Will leaned in.
“There’s the feeling in town.” Urden looked uncomfortable. “This town looks like he’s been here for years, but truth is, it’s been only a bit more than a year. Town looked perfectly respectable, neat even, two years ago.”
“Ah.” Will considered that. “What’s the suicide rate like?”
Urden stared at him. “How did you know?”
Rat and Will looked at each other. “Shit.”
The Guild Master looked from one to the other. “What?”
Finally, Rat just shrugged. “Maybe nothing. Maybe we didn’t ask enough in that contract.”
Urden asked more questions, but neither merc was interested in giving any answers. Some things, especially dark magic things, were better left unsaid.
Finally, Will just sighed and shook his head at the concerned Guild leader. “We might be wrong. But if we aren’t, talking about it makes it worse. Leave it be.”
Having filed the contracts, they took their leave. On the way back to Morgan’s Keg, they picked up Rat’s repaired saddlebags. The work was nice enough that Will convinced Rat to pay an extra silver, leaving the craftsman nearly tearful in gratitude. They stopped for dinner at a stall that was closing up as they walked by. Glad to be making an unexpected sale, the stall owner included enough pocket pies for breakfast as well, making Will grin.
They walked back to the tavern in near darkness. When a frightened voice from an alley near their destination rang out as they passed, they looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Will mouthed the word “trap” and Rat simply shrugged. They pulled steel and entered the dark space.
At the far end of the alley, a lantern lay on the ground, highlighting a prone form, melodramatically weeping and clutching at her side. Will moved slowly towards her, talking a bit too loudly. Rat sidled into the shadows on his left. When two men in black jumped out halfway down the alley, swords drawn, Rat was on the first man before he could warn his friend. The second was soon fleeing from Will’s prepared attack. At the end of the alley, the woman began screaming in actual terror as Rat took down another hidden man and jumped at the fleeing actress.
When Will grunted in pain after another man attacked him from behind, Rat left the screaming woman and ran back to her husband. Before she could get there, he’d killed the man and stood holding the arm the dead man had sliced. Rat checked again, carefully, for any remaining thieves, then went through the effects of the three dead men. She pocketed a few coppers, two silk kerchiefs, two decent knives, one necklace, a pair of worn, but excellent quality leather gloves, one not too terrible knife with a large fake ruby in it, and a knitted scarf.
“What are you going to do with the scarf?” Will asked, slight confusion on his face. Rat hated such scarves - she called them death leashes and refused to allow either to wear them.
Rat shrugged and said too casually. “Might be worth something. In the light. If not, Fro could probably use it…”
“Ha!” Will grinned. “You liked the kid.”
“Tough enough, for his size. Not too stupid.” Rat glared at Will. “Might survive if he stops letting the old man run him.”
Will didn’t say anything more as Rat considered the coat on another of the men she’d killed. Pulled it off him. But he smiled knowingly until Rat threatened to gut him as well. Then he chuckled and took the resulting elbow to the gut complacently before settling his face to more serious lines. They left the bodies where they were and walked back to the tavern in the scant light of the stars.
]]>The man grunted. “Milla’s in the kitchen.” He set two ales on the counter. “Four copper.”
Rat raised a brow, but didn’t bother going for her purse. Instead, she took hold of the mugs. “That’s one of the things we’ll be talking to Milla about.” She handed an ale to Will, then turned and walked towards the kitchen. A few steps in, she turned back, looking around Will to glare at the man. “And if I have to take my belongings off another street rat, I’ll be talking to you about it.”
The old man gave a gape mouth grin. “Gave Fro quite the fright.”
Rat sneered at him. “Lucky I didn’t bleed him.”
The gaffer guffawed. “Tethas Warriors? Not bloody likely.”
She stalked back to the bar, clunked the worn mug down, and yanked the glove from her right hand. Held it up to show a palm that was calloused and scarred, but unbranded. “Don’t think you know shit about what I’d do, old man.”
The man shrugged and nodded at Will. “He’s still got the brand. May not claim it, but those brands go deep.”
Will spoke quietly, his eyes cold. “The boy kept quiet, even after you sent him up there. Even after seeing for himself what we were. Such loyalty deserves the same.” He pushed a chin in Rat’s direction. “Have a care. Her words tend to be punctuated with knives.”
They turned again, walked together to the kitchen. Behind them, the old man narrowed his eyes. He’d made a miscalculation with these two. Had Milla done the same? He poured himself an ale and sat, thinking through the puzzle of the two scarred mercenaries in his granddaughter’s tavern.
Done with the old man, Rat entered the kitchen to find Milla elbow deep in a caldron of soapy water. A stack of clean mugs sat drying on the table beside her. She paused in the act of scrubbing and gave the two of them with a weary look. “I hear Granther was causing trouble for you. If anything is missing, let me know. I’ll get it back.”
Rat felt Will relax next to her, but she wasn’t interested in letting it go so easily. So she gave the woman a hard look. “We got our stuff back.”
Milla noted the anger in Rat’s eyes and winced. “I don’t know what he was thinking. I suppose you’re not helping us now?”
“Depends on you.” Rat pulled the contracts from her coat. “And whether you sign these or not.”
She sighed, but looked relieved. “I’ll take a look.”
Will spoke for the first time. “I thought you owned this place?”
“It was my husband’s inn. Rightfully mine, now.” Milla dried her hands on her apron and tried to look sorry. “Help ran off after Trell got taken. Granther’s the only one brave enough to help out here now.”
“What did he do?” Rat cocked her head.
“Stopped a guard from taking a neighbor’s child to the Lord. Not even 15, that girl.” Milla sneered and to Rat, it felt more real than the earlier grief. “Whole family left two days later. Hope they made it out.”
Rat handed the her the contract. The woman read through it, twice. Then she looked up. “You want me to promise you a place to sleep forever?”
“Might not use it.” Rat smirked. “Don’t expect a private room if you’re full. But we live through this, gonna need some reward we didn’t find ourselves. Just a place on the floor and a healer if needed.”
“And a horse.” Milla glared up at them.
“We’ll steal the horse, fair and proper.” Rat grinned. “But you’re going to make sure no one argues about it.”
“And all that two pack horses can carry?” Milla raised a brow. “You planning to leave anything for us?”
“Sure.” Rat met her gaze. “A city without Lord Tremant. And anyone who doesn’t give up after he’s dead.”
“Right.” Milla looked at Will. “You fine with this?”
He met her eyes, shrugged. “I’ve read it.”
She shook her head. “I’d hoped for… She left it open, not sure what wouldn’t offend the strange pair in front of her.
“Stupid heroes.” Rat finished for the tavern owner, her tone sarcastic. “You know stupid heroes make terrible mercs. Mostly only manage getting themselves killed.”
Will snorted. “Get others killed sometimes, too.”
Rat shared a look with her husband. “Right.” She looked at Milla. “Sign it or don’t. Makes no difference to us. We can leave this shithole of a city a lot easier than you can.”
“You have a point.” Milla shrugged. “And I don’t have a lot of options. What does this part down here mean? It isn’t in Common.” She pointed to a bit at the bottom.
“Means you’re covered.” Rat picked up a small loaf of bread off a shelf and cut off a small hunk. Handed it to Will, then cut a piece for herself. “If we fail, we’ll not give up our client’s name. We might lie. We might…forget to mention we were contracted at all, we might not. But you don’t get mentioned by us. Otherwise, the guild covers you. Pays you 600 gold and gets you out of the city alive.”
“600 gold?” Milla looked at them, wide eyed. “For that much money, I don’t know whether to wish you success or not.”
Rat smirked. “Only get the money if we get pinched alive, which we won’t, and if we talk, which we won’t. So don’t get your hopes up.”
“You’re awfully sure of your abilities.” Milla looked again at the contract, then back between the two of them. “Just the two of you.”
“Tell her the rest.” Will spoke up.
Rat glared at him. “I was getting to it.” She looked at Milla. “Also, if you sell us out or tell anyone anything that gets one or both of us captured, harmed, or killed, you pay 600 gold to the guild.”
“I don’t have that!” Milla looked at them in wide-eyed alarm.
“No problem. They’d take your tavern.” Rat shrugged. “Or, you could just not talk. Like we won’t.”
“Talking would hurt me as much as you.” Milla stared at them both with a mixture of frustration and sadness. “You’ve no idea what Tremant’s men would do to me.”
“Sure.” Rat held out her quill. “Sign it or don’t. We’ve got work to do, staying or not.”
Milla bit her lip, then she took the quill, dipped it in the ink and scrawled it across each of the pages in turn. Rat and Will followed suit. Rat carefully sanded the signatures and replaced the top of the inkwell. When Rat tried to hand her a copy, Milla shook her head. “I can’t have that here. Take it to Urden. He’ll hold it for me.” Rat nodded and Will followed her out of the kitchen and into the back alley.
Rat and Will checked on their horses before venturing out into the city. “They’ll need exercise soon enough.” Will observed. “Especially your Beve. She’s going to start causing trouble here.”
“Tomorrow, probably.” Rat gave Will a look. “Pack horse too, even if the stupid thing could just sit here and eat for the rest of it’s life. Lazy.”
“Still not planning on naming it?” Will grinned at her. “This one’s lasted longer than the last three.”
“Nah. Soon as I name it, it’ll die. Probably from spite.” Rat grimaced at the horse in question. Horses were expensive and she hated replacing them.
Will laughed and opened the gate for her. Rat rolled her eyes, but didn’t comment. She’d long since given up trying to get Will to stop doing such things. It wasn’t that he didn’t think her capable - she knew he trusted her abilities and skills implicitly. He was just polite. And loved her, strange as that still sometimes felt. And…he was just Will.
Beyond the eye roll, she refused to comment, and instead looked around the alley. It was late afternoon. They had only a few hours till dark, and though Rat wasn’t overly concerned about their safety, she did have enough to do without fighting stupid street toughs or guards. So they’d best be quick. She turned towards the Guild Hall, Will right behind her, like an overgrown shadow.
]]>Though they were worth far more, he’d left her bottles in a neat pile on the bed. Either he hadn’t known their value, or he knew that not knowing the contents could be dangerous. Smart kid like that, she’d bet he knew at least some of them were poisons, and that anyone who could reliably identify what they were would prefer to make their own. He’d also avoided her packets of herbs.
Will was already putting items away. When she sat down with a quill and bottle of ink and the contract, he pulled out the shirt she’d been wearing during the dog attack. He sat in front of the small window and mended it while she worked. When she’d completed a first draft she was happy with, she handed it over to him.
He took it carefully, mindful of wet ink, and read through it. When he finished, he looked up and grinned at her. “You were really pissed about the theft, eh?”
She shrugged irritably. “No reason they don’t have a person at the bar, or locks on the doors. Stupid.”
“I agree.” He grinned. “But I have to wonder if she’ll sign it.”
“If she doesn’t, then my plans change drastically.” Rat glowered at the contract, then began the laborious process of creating a clean copy.
Will sighed. “Then I’ll hope she’s amenable. Because I know you well enough to know that I don’t even want to ask about Plan B.”
“It might be fun…” She grinned at him.
Still fascinated by her quicksilver changes in temper after years of partnership, Will grinned back. “I’m sure. But maybe we can have fun and save the city?”
“Eh.” Rat shrugged and went back to the contract. “Maybe.”
Will tied off a final strand of thread and bit it off. He held up the repair to the light of the window, and after approving of his own work, put away his tools and glanced at his wife. She was engaged in the scribe work and not paying him any attention. But perhaps she could be convinced to be distracted…
More than an hour later, Rat was pulling on her boots. From the bed, Will watched her with a pleased and lazy smile. She sent him a look. “You gonna put some clothes on? We do have other things to do today.”
He grinned. “Maybe. I’m pretty happy right here.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course you are.” She finished arranging her clothing and picked up the copy of the contract she’d been working on before Will distracted her. After reading both the original and the copy, she picked up her quill, dipped it and began on the next line.
On the bed, Will sighed with obvious regret, and sat up. He puttered about the room, putting on clothing and humming off key. At the table, Rat smiled, but didn’t look up from her work. By the time Will had pulled out the shirt he’d ripped in the dog attack and his tools, she was dusting the first copy with fine sand. She pulled the next sheet, dipped her quill, and began again. Will threaded a needle and got to work, still humming.
]]>The boy swallowed, felt the knife dig deeper at the movement, and paled. “Please, uh, I’m sorry! Didn’t know it was yours!”
“Not even close to good enough.” Rat leaned up into his face with a look of intent that had tears falling down his dirty face. “And tears won’t help you.”
“Just answer her questions.” Will stood behind Rat with what he hoped was a blank face. He didn’t think Rat would actually harm the boy (much), but even as long as he’d known her, he wasn’t absolutely certain. The poor kid was skinny to the point of bones and probably hungry. But that alone wasn’t going to convince Rat to let him go.
“I…I…Everyone knows you got coin. Been flashing it.” The boy sneered and even with the knife at his throat, managed to look disgusted at their supposed bad behavior. “I…found out you was staying here, so I figured…”
Rat sighed and the knife disappeared. “You were hungry, so figured to come get a bit of our flash.” She held out a hand for the bag. The boy handed it to her.
“You got lots, so why not?” He still looked frightened, but made a show of sticking out his chin at Rat anyway. Will nearly smiled. If she didn’t smack him for the attitude, his wife would probably admire it.
Of course, Rat was much better at hiding such things than he was. There was nothing but cold irritation on her face when she eyed the boy. “How’d you hear where we were staying?”
The boy trembled, but kept the pugnacious look on his face. “Not saying.” When the knife appeared in Rat’s hand again, his eyes widened, but he shook his head. “You kin cut me, but I ain’t saying.”
Rat stared hard at the boy a long moment, but other than losing even more color, he wasn’t talking. Finally, she nodded and the knife was gone again. “Maybe I believe you.” The boy took a deep breath and stepped away from the door. “Nope. Not done with you yet. Got four things to say to you.”
The boy stared at her, then nodded. Rat held up a hand. “First, what’s your name?”
His look turned to one of suspicion, but he wasn’t willing to upset her over a name. “They call me Fro.”
She grinned, but it was still mean looking. “I’m Rat and that one’s Will.” She stuck a thumb out behind her. “Fro, if there is anything else missing from our room, you had best tell me now because if I find out later, and I will, then you are going to find out just how good with a knife I am. It will not be pretty, and if you live, you’ll be missing parts you didn’t know you had.” She waited with an expectant expression.
The boy hesitated, then dug into a hidden pocket in his pants. He pulled out a small bag of coin and handed it to her. When she kept staring at him, he shrugged, and put his hand into the neck of his thin shirt and pulled out a cord. Tied to it were three small knives. He handed them all to her. Finally, he dug into another pocket and pulled out a small, richly decorated, but dirty cloth. He’d have handed it to Rat, but she shook her head. “Not mine.”
Will looked at it closely and sent the boy an odd look. “Nor mine.”
The boy shrugged, then returned the fancy cloth to his pocket. Rat waited till she had his full attention, then asked him. “Fro, you want a job?”
The boy’s eyes widened. “What?”
She smiled. “I’ve need of a smart boy who knows his way around and don’t talk over much. That you?”
He considered. “You paying coin?”
Rat pretended to think about it. “Five coppers now. Ten more when you come back with the information I need.”
He stared at her a long moment, probably trying to judge if she was serious. It was a lot of coin for anyone in this broken city. For a small hungry boy, that would be a near fortune. Finally, he nodded and held out his hand. Rat dropped five coppers back into it. “Fro, I need to know how many guard barracks there are in this city, and where they are. Then, I need to know who washes the guard’s uniforms and when. Finally, I need to know the best way in and out of the city that ain’t through the main gate.”
He considered. Then he spoke up. “Best way in and out of the city is the ‘duct. You got to swim or boat when it’s wet, but we ain’t had ‘nuf rain for that in ages. Gate is locked, but easy for breaking. Always someone watching it though, so you got to pay or maybe get snitched on.”
Rat nodded. “That’s good. Get the rest to me by tonight and I’ll throw in another two coppers.”
Fro nodded eagerly. He took a step and Rat’s hand on his thin shoulder stopped him. He turned, reluctantly to face her again. She leaned down, met his grey eyes. “Fourth thing is a piece of advice. Hunger is bad, but dead is worse. You hear about people with too much money, you got to ask yourself where it came from. What kind of things they did to get it. Because maybe that person is meaner, quicker, or more dangerous than you. You find knives like these,” Rat held up one of the knives she’d gotten back from him, “you know this person is more dangerous than you and you best get right out of there.”
She took her hand off his shoulder. He stared at her a moment, pale eyes intelligent and considering in the narrow face, then ran off down the street. Behind Rat, Will spoke. “That was nice of you, giving him a job. You think he’ll be back?”
“Yup. He wants that coin.” Rat stared after him. “Right now, he’s going to spend that five copper on food. Eat too much. Probably make himself sick. Then, he’s going to find all of the answers to my questions because they aren’t hard and he’ll be hungry tomorrow too.”
“Good.” Will lightly touched her shoulder. “Then we’ll see him later.”
“Right.” Rat looked up at their window. “Now we go find out why no one noticed the boy was stealing us blind.”
“Certainly doesn’t look good for someone who wanted to hire us.” Will looked about. “Makes me wonder about our safety here.”
“Makes me think that the contract just got worse.” Rat’s dark eyes were cold.
Will shrugged. “She already told us that she didn’t have any money.”
“Yeah. So she isn’t risking anything. She thinks.” Rat sneered. “She’ll find out different today.”
Will shook his head in mock sorrow. “You’d think people would just take it for granted that screwing with us is a bad idea. I mean, as many people as we’ve killed, you’d think we’d have developed, I don’t know, an aura of death or something. But no, they just keep testing your patience.”
“I haven’t got any patience.” Rat pulled the door open with a violent yank.
“Oh, I know.” Whistling, Will followed her into the dark tavern.
]]>Will (once she got him moving) cut wide swaths through the curs with his ax before the whole pack fell back, growling and howling their anger and disappointment at a meal cut short. She finished off the injured animals as quickly as possible, and together they threw several bodies out beyond the firelight to be ravaged noisily by their remaining pack mates.
Even Will hadn’t wanted to go back to sleep after that, so they quickly packed up what remained of their gear, grateful the horses had managed to fight and kick enough to escape all but a few minor injuries. Though Will stood, ax ready, while Rat smeared healing paste on the worst bites, it took only a few minutes and the remaining dogs stayed away, seemingly satisfied with a meal of dead dog instead of horses and people.
Then she built up last night’s fire and boiled water for coffee while they waited for the sun to share enough light for them to be on their way. They sat together in the pale pre dawn, drinking coffee and listening to the mangy dogs fight and tear each other apart in the trees across the path. Characteristically, Will was in a decent mood. Also characteristically, Rat wasn’t.
“Goram bedeviled curs.” She held up an arm. “Tore my new shirt sleeve.”
Will took hold of her hand, pulled the arm closer to look down at the sleeve. “It’s at the seam. I’ll be able to repair it with no trouble.” He kept her hand, tucking it into his arm. Only grumbling a little, she let him.
“Sure, fine. But how’d we get attacked by dogs?” She leaned on his arm, just a bit, her cheek rubbing at the edges of his own newly ripped sleeve.
He smiled down at her. “Maybe we’re closer to that town than we thought? Looked like feral trash dogs to me.”
She frowned. “That map cost too much as it was. I’ll have Dorfan’s other eye if he sold me a bad copy.”
“I’m sure it’s only a minor difference.” Will nearly shrugged, but didn’t want to jostle Rat. “Or perhaps the dogs in this area are worse for some reason?”
“Well that’s just great. What kind of town did your friend Seggritt send us to?” Rat muttered in a scathing tone. Will snorted. They both knew Seggritt wasn’t anyone’s friend.
“I’ll admit that the welcome committee isn’t all that friendly…” A howl had them both tensing and looking out into the thinning dark. “But I’m sure we’ll win them over. We’re friendly, winning people, right?”
“No.” She uttered the word with finality. “And I hate dogs.”
“Right.” He leaned down and kissed her head. “After our friendly wake up this morning, I can’t imagine why. Thanks for the coffee by the way. Sort of wish we could have started with that instead of all that fighting and killing, but this isn’t so bad, either.”
“Better alive than dead, I guess.” She pulled out the map and squinted at it in the meager light of the fire. “Morgans Reach. Sure sounds like a fun place. Who did Seggritt say we should talk to again?”
“Bar owner. Named…” Will scratched his chin. “Milla. Milla…something. Said she owned Morgan’s Keg.”
“Shouldn’t be too hard to find, at least.” Rat downed the rest of her coffee, took her arm and hand back from Will, and began to sharpen a small knife she’d pulled from her other sleeve. “You think she’d be interested in some fresh dog meat?”
“Never know.” Answered Will amiably.
Rat looked at the mess left of their small camp. “Time to get to work.”
]]>Rat was unamused by the decor. “This whole job is starting to feel like a terrible idea. Worse than your usual, I mean.” She glared back at Will.
For once, he didn’t bother to argue. “Segritt told us the job was nasty. But he said the pay would be really good.” He grimaced as they passed yet another corpse covered in quarreling crows.
“Pay had better be really, really good.” Muttered Rat. “How’d he find out about this job, anyway?”
Will shrugged. “Friend of a relative of an acquaintance or something. You know, I don’t think he actually said.”
“Why did I let you figure out our next job again?” Rat’s mood had plummeted from bad to terrible at the sight of the first corpse. Now it was at historically low levels.
Will, well used to Rat’s moods, even the historically bad ones, grinned. Even though he’d wrapped a kerchief around his mouth and nose, it easily filled his blue eyes. “Because you didn’t trust me to sell the jewels from the last thing. Worried I’d get cheated or robbed.”
Rat sighed. “You would have too.” She shifted the scarf she’d wrapped about her face, looking for more coverage and less smell. “How big is this town? Are we sure they even have any people left?”
Will frowned. “Most of these were men. Big. I’d guess fighters. Someone is clearing out threats or making a point about bandits.”
“Vardo’s drawers! Who has this many bandits in one place?” Rat growled as they passed yet another corpse, this one little more than part of a skeleton and a pile of bleached, dislocated bones on barren ground.
“Good bet this town is under the thumb of a mayor or lord who doesn’t care for sass. Probably we should watch ourselves.” Will pointed out helpfully.
“Probably we should just keep on riding.” Rat glowered at another pile of bones too far gone to even look human.
“We can, you know.” Will gave her a look far more serious than he usually wore. “No reason to go looking for trouble.”
“Who are you and what the blighted hell did you do to the idiot I married?” Rat shot him a curious look and waved his good natured laughter away. “Seriously, since when do you see this nonsense, figure there’s a petty lord doing this shit to his own people and suggest we just ride on?”
Will chuckled. “Maybe I finally got old enough to find that wisdom you keep saying I lack.” He nodded back at her. “Besides, I know you aren’t going to ride past without at least trying to sell all that meat you made us pick up.” He pointed a thumb back at their pack pony, who even now cowered under a full load of dog carcasses.
“True.” Rat hated to waste an opportunity to make some coin. The damn dogs had torn up two saddle bags. Might as well see if she could at least get the cost of replacements. “You know me well.”
“Right.” Will nodded towards the walls they could only now see rising out of a set of brown hills pushing haphazardly out of the forest they rode in. “Besides, there aren’t a lot of other options. I haven’t seen an occupied farm or cottage since we started our ride this morning.”
“Hell. Maybe the whole place will be deserted and we can just scavenge some decent stuff and move on.” Rat suggested hopefully.
“Only you would think a town full of dead people is the best thing we could wish for.” Will shook his head. “But I don’t think so. In fact, we seem to have some company coming.”
They watched as a distant handful of men on horseback rode towards them. Something about the posture of the riders set off alarms and they both surreptitiously checked weapons. “Bandits?” muttered Rat.
“Nope. Too organized. And wearing uniforms, I think.” Will answered quietly.
She could see he was correct. The five men rode at a rough gallop to intercept the couple, who slowed automatically as they approached.
Rat noted with contempt that the leader of the group purposefully spurred his horse into jumping and rearing as the (guards?) encircled them. It was probably supposed to look threatening, but the man didn’t hold his seat well enough to carry it off. Rat herself was no real rider, but Will could outride nearly anyone. Having spent enough time watching him, Rat could recognize a lack of skill when she saw it.
She didn’t have time to do more than sneer before the leader tried to grab hold of her reins. Beve, a tough little desert pony, sidestepped his grasp easily and nipped at the man’s horse. Like her owner, she protected her personal space and tended to get cranky when even other horses got too close.
Rat eyed the man with irritation, noting that he hadn’t gone for Will’s horse, but now turned to her husband and huffed, “You’re on Lord Tremant’s land. State your business.”
The man was a self-important little runt, covered in far too much braid for the cheapness of his uniform. His thinning hair was over-long and greasy, a thin mustache crept across his lip like a worm, and his beady eyes gleamed with mean intentions. Rat noted that he wore ill-matched jewelry he’d probably looted off passing strangers too stupid to turn at the sight of rotting corpses.
Of course, they’d been too stupid to turn around at the rotting corpses. Ignoring that, she shared a look with Will, who gamely offered. “Heading to Morgans Reach.”
The man grunted. “State your business there.” He made a show of fondling his sword hilt, so intent on Will that he didn’t notice when Rat rolled her eyes.
Will ignored the implied threat and shrugged. “We were attacked in camp by wolves. Map had a town close, so we figured on selling the meat and getting a few things repaired before moving on.”
Rat nearly smiled as the lie rolled right off her husband’s tongue. Time was, he’d have botched it entirely. The other guardsmen shared glances. She bet they believed him, but she couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or not.
The leader shared his own glances with the other men. “Heading on to where?” Will stared at him, perturbed. He wasn’t ready for more questions. Basic lies could be learned, same as any skill, but true deception was an Uvel blessed talent her husband lacked.
Rat cut in. “Got a job a week’s ride down the road. Client paid well enough for privacy. Promised to pay better when we get there.” She met his eyes calmly, noting the dismissive way he looked down on her.
“Wasn’t talking to you, dwarf.” He sneered before turning back to Will. “You’re mercs?”
Will nodded, his lips drawn tight in irritation at the man’s treatment of Rat. The man smirked. “That means you ain’t likely to be missed, don’t it boys?”
The other four drew swords in response. Rat grinned. The leader barely had time to look surprised at her expression before she’d kicked Beve into action. The little pony jumped at the man’s larger horse, surprising it into rearing and tossing the man to the ground. While he flew screaming, she threw three small knives in quick succession, catching one of the still seated men in the throat and another in the shoulder and arm.
She caught sight of Will and his horse, Atilla dancing towards the last two riders. They’d separated, probably hoping to catch him off guard which wasn’t bloody likely. Will was magnificent on the ground. Mounted, they’d need at least a half dozen fellows to make it a fair fight.
Not that she cared much for fair fights. Fair fights were easier to lose.
Speaking of which… Rat hooked her reins on the saddle and jumped from Beve’s back, managing to land almost gracefully where she’d meant to.
The guard leader had not had her luck. With his horse gone and left leg at that particular angle, he’d not be running anywhere. Good. She turned to the men she’d hit with her knives. One lay in a heap on the ground, hilt dark at his throat, but the other was still a problem. He’d pulled one of the knives out and was fighting to stay atop his horse while he worked on the one in his shoulder. She pulled the small crossbow from her belt and shot him quickly in the throat.
Then she turned back to the leader on the ground. With a wide smile, she stomped on the broken leg. He screamed and reached for a knife. Stupid. She shot him in the face and neck with the little bow. Then she turned and watched Will dispatch the second of his foes with a sweeping sword to the chest. The man fell across his horse, which shied, dumping the body to the ground, and ran off into the forest.
Will looked around, found only Rat and the horses still moving, and shook his head. “Well that escalated rather quickly.” He nodded towards the city. “Think anyone up there was watching?”
Rat looked at the walls, then at their little spot on the road. She’d have been hard pressed to find a better spot to ambush the guards without being seen. “Nah. No good line of sight from the walls or towers. These jaktrops were stupid. Better to pick an observable spot in advance and wait there.”
Will dismounted, tossed his reins over the branch of a tree, and walked over to where Rat was pulling a little arrow out of the neck of the dead leader. “So how’re we going to explain killing their guys?”
She looked up at him in startled disappointment. “Obviously, we’re gonna lie.” She reached down and lifted the heavy gold rope the leader wore about his neck. “But first, we’re gonna steal their stuff.”
Will laughed and bent to wipe the blood from his sword on the coat of a fallen guard. “Obviously.”
]]>Rat took an extra moment to wrap and hide any weapons the guards had been carrying, before burying another stash of jewelry (which might easily be recognized by people in the city) under a large rock she was sure she could find again. They’d met back at the scene of the fight, which was mostly hard-packed earth and rock and bore few signs of any disturbance. Good.
The sun was still relatively high as they set off again, even after Rat took the time to coach Will on the lie she hoped would get them through the front gate of Morgans Reach. “You did pretty well today. But they are totally gonna ask about the missing guards.” Rat sent him a warning look, as if he’d argue.
He grinned back at her, ready. “Right. So I tell them the truth about our conversation, including the merc part, then mention that we all heard a disturbance further away. They told us to wait, but after a couple hours, we decided to go on ahead to the city.”
She considered. “Not bad. I couldn’t do it, but you play stupid well enough to make it seem at least plausible.”
He bowed in her direction, adding a playfully foolish flourish simply to make her smile. “I do my best.”
Rat rolled her eyes, but he’d earned the smile she gave him. Then she glared towards the city. “I can’t say I’m thrilled that we didn’t just take the horses and gear back towards Bralta. With some decent feed, those horses would have fetched a good enough price. Probably be treated better than they have lately, too.”
Will shrugged. “But we’d have lost the chance to get into Morgans Reach easily. Possibly lost the job, too. And you’ll still get the jewelry and the weapons you stashed when we’re finished.”
“Fine.” Rat sighed heavily enough to make him smile. “This is going to be a pain in the ass. You know that, right?”
“Isn’t it always?” Will asked. “That’s what makes it fun.”
She grumbled, but didn’t bother to hide her answering bloodthirsty smile. When Will was right, he was right.
***
An hour later, the sun was fast dipping towards the horizon. They approached the gates of Morgans Reach carefully, certain that the city leadership must be missing the guards they’d killed by now. Two guards in familiar uniforms stepped forward, swords drawn, to stop them. “Announce yourselves.”
Will smiled in a friendly, vacant way. “Where are the men we talked to earlier?”
The man frowned. “We ask the questions. Announce yourselves.”
Will didn’t seem to notice the frown, and kept smiling too wide. “Of course. I’m Will and this is Rat.”
The man gestured with the sword. “Why are you coming here?”
He shrugged. “We didn’t mean to be, but now we need some repairs.”
The other guard pointed at the pile of carcasses piled on their pack pony. “What’s with the dead shit?”
“We were attacked by wolves, sir.” Will’s beaming expression brimming over with open-eyed innocence only an idiot would believe. “They broke things, so we thought to sell the meat to help get the things repaired.”
“Look more like dogs than wolves.” The guards shared looks that clearly said what they thought of his intelligence.
“Oh.” Will said simply, pretending to miss the meaning of their looks entirely. “Ok?”
Rat nearly rolled her eyes as the guards began to relax. She knew what they thought they saw when they looked at Will: a dumb aging merc who’d managed to survive a bit too long due to good luck and decent looks. They took in his guileless blue eyes, full blond hair, and still roughly pretty face and thought he’d be an easy mark on his way down to wherever dumb old mercs went before they died.
“What about your dwarf girl, there?” The first guard pointed at Rat. “What’s her deal?”
Will swung around and looked at Rat, as though ensuring he knew who they were talking about. He snuck a quick wink at her and turned about. “I don’t know, sir. She’s a good cook. She wouldn’t cook the wolves though.”
“You mean the dogs?” The guards were both smirking now.
“Yes?” He looked at them hopefully.
The men put away their swords. “Does she fight with you?”
Will pulled a confused frown across his face. “Sometimes…” He glanced at her, then lowered his voice conspiratorially. “She can be grumpy about things.”
The guards laughed. “She’s a dwarf. Aren’t they all?”
The other man reached up and punched him on the arm good-naturedly. “But you’re a merc, right? Does she help you fight?”
“Oh!” Will beamed proudly. “Sure! She’s very good with knives!”
The men grinned, certain they were talking to the stupidest man alive. Rat couldn’t help shaking her head. These two were nearly too stupid to live. No merc that stupid would be out on his own, still alive, and wearing pants. They elbowed each other and one of them snickered, “I bet she knows right where to put the pointy end.”
Behind the empty smile, Will’s neck was growing red. Rat hoped Stupid and Stupider let them in before he hit one of them. Holding his temper better than she’d have done, he shrugged rather helplessly and the men guffawed and continued making rude remarks.
Still, the one who’d first approached them gestured meaningfully to the other who turned to go back to the gate. Then he held out a hand. “It’s two silver entry fee for mercs.” He grinned darkly at Rat. “But I’ll only charge you half for her, seeing as she’s about half sized.”
Rat met his eyes with cold indifference and he nearly stepped back. Unlike Will, Rat wasn’t good at looking innocent or harmless. Because she was small, she could avoid notice, but if people got a good look at her, they weren’t likely to forget it. Sometime in the past, she’d tangled with something nasty and clawed. She’d survived, meaner than ever, but it left it’s mark on her face in the form of claw marks that bisected her left eyebrow, cheek, and mouth. Her left ear was torn in several places like a cat’s. All in all, it made her uncomfortably memorable.
Luckily Will was making a show of pulling small change from various places, distracting him from Rat. “I’m sure grateful to you. Do you get lots of fighters here? You must if you have a special fee. Let me see, I have twelve copper here, and five over here…” He pulled together a handful of copper and one full silver and dropped it into the waiting hands of the guard. Rat noticed that there was nearly four silver worth, but was unsurprised when the guard accepted it all as if the amount were correct.
“Right.” He said, suddenly more efficient. He gestured again at the other guard and the gate began to rise. “Stay out of trouble, and be out of town by next week, or you’ll need to pay up again.”
“Thanks very much, sirs!” Keeping up the ploy to the last, Will smiled gamely to each in turn, but Rat ignored them completely as they walked the horses slowly under the rusted metal. Both had to work not to jump at the sound of the gate falling hard to the stone behind them.
]]>“Light’s going. Good bet that people avoid being out after dark here.” Rat muttered quietly to Will.
He shook his head sorrowfully. “I doubt it’s much safer during the day. This is a main road just in from the gate. Wonder how much worse it gets in the alleys and back streets?”
“Way worse, I’d bet.” Rat sighed. “We’re gonna need to sell those dogs pretty quick.”
Will grinned. “Starting to regret bringing them?”
“Not yet.” She nodded at smallish meat shop with a few paltry bits hanging in the window. “Time to work, I guess.”
***
Half an hour of bargaining later, Rat was the irritated new owner of a small purse of coppers, a really decent set of bone needles for Will, and a pair of high quality horn cups. Will’s eyes were glinting with humor, but at least the idiot pack horse seemed relieved to be rid of it’s bloody cargo.
“Can’t believe the damn lordling has taken so much of their money. How’s he expect them to pay any blasted taxes?” Rat was grumbling as she loaded up her new goods. Though she was an old hand at bargaining and trading, like any good dwarf she preferred to trade for currency, stones, or metal.
Will grinned. “Those cups are nice enough. Fetch a good price elsewhere.”
“You mean somewhere they’ve actually got money?” Rat wasn’t going to be talked out of her irritation. The poor butcher hadn’t even bothered trying to cheat her, he just hadn’t had much to trade. She kind of hoped the influx of dog meat would help him change his fortunes.
Which was an uncomfortable feeling.
She usually made it a point not to care too much about useless things like the fortunes of random shop keepers. “What kind of place has butchers that get excited about a pile of dead dogs?”
“Morgans Reach, apparently.” Will looked sad. “But at least you brought in some fresh meat to the place. And you gave them a pretty good deal. Going to feed a lot of people.”
“Didn’t do it to feed people…” Rat grumbled, but she knew Will was right. This place was in desperate shape.
“So, where to now?” Will looked around at the nearly dark streets.
Rat lifted her chin toward a sign down the way. “We seem to have found Morgan’s Keg, at least.”
The sign was faded, but still featured cheerful enough lettering and brightish colors. It stuck out from the building at a jaunty angle. Underneath, the windows were relatively clean and the stoop was freshly swept. It was the only decent looking tavern they’d passed. Finding the stable entrance around the corner, they rode in.
After getting the horses situated in stables that, like the rest of the tavern, looked worn out but well tended, Rat and Will strode towards the kitchen door of Morgan’s Keg. Rat always liked going into a tavern through the kitchen. You could get a feel for the entire place (and whether one could safely eat the food), by inspecting the hearth. A tired looking woman waved them through. Rat just walked on, but Will bowed slightly, getting a slight smile for his polite behavior.
In the main tavern area, the place was dim, but the bar and several tables near the fire were lit well enough to see that it was clean, if spare. Like many such places, the tavern had various items, signs, and tools on the walls and mantel. Rat noted the places where items were missing and wondered if the inn suffered thieves or money woes. There were a few other patrons in the room, but not nearly so many as a place like this could, and should, hold at this time of night. It made her think the money woes scenario more likely than thieves.
They approached the bar, and this time, Rat took the lead. She gestured to the barkeep, an old man bent with age and missing more teeth than he had. “Two house ales.”
He pulled two mugs of frothy brown liquid, dropped them down in front of her, and muttered, “Four coppers.”
She slid five across the bar. “We were told to ask for Milla.”
The coppers disappeared rapidly. He cocked his head to one side. “Who you be then?”
“Your name Milla?” Rat slid Will his ale and took a small sip of hers. Deciding it wasn’t bad, she took a deeper drink and gave the old man a stubborn look.
The man grunted, then gestured to a table by the fireplace. Rat nodded, decided on a table against the wall instead, and made herself comfortable there. Will joined her, casually leaning against the wall on the other side of the table. “You might have tried to be polite.”
“Nah.” Rat took another drink of the ale. It was pretty good, actually. Especially for the price. “Old geezer like that? He’d want the entire tale and us buying drinks the whole time.”
“True.” Will took a long pull at his own ale. “Wouldn’t really be a hardship. This is pretty good ale.”
“It is.” Rat agreed. She grinned when Will rearranged his long legs and settled into his “Will has to stay still” pose. With all his armor and bulk and height, the chair groaned. “Try not to break the chair. Not interested in paying for it and I bet they get picky about the furniture.”
“They do, actually.” A woman’s voice broke in. Will jumped. Rat didn’t. “Granther said you asked for me?”
“Maybe.” Rat looked the woman they’d passed in the kitchen up and down. She was big, even for a human woman, with sturdy arms and shoulders. Pretty in a worn way. Curly red hair piled high on her head, more out of the way than fancy. The apron covering a well-mended dress that was clean and pressed. Her red knuckled hands bore the marks of ink and hard work. Rat met her brown eyes. “You Milla?”
“I am. And who are you?” The woman sat down in the third chair without asking and looked at Rat, then Will. Will smiled reassuringly, but didn’t speak.
“I go by Rat. This,” She gestured at her husband with a thumb, “is Will. Segritt told us you have a job.”
The woman’s eyes widened. Whatever she’d been expecting from Segritt, it wasn’t them. Rat nearly grinned. They tended not to be what people were expecting. “You’re the Tethas warriors?”
“Nope.” Rat didn’t need to see Will to know he’d hunched his shoulders. “We’re the mercs.”
“Oh.” Her face fell. “Segritt said he knew a couple of Tethas warriors.”
“Guess he didn’t find them.” Rat glared at her. “Did you have a job or not?”
She nodded, but still looked downcast. “Oh yes, but I’m not sure you’ll be interested…” She shrugged. “You might have noticed that the city is not doing well.”
Rat snorted. “Something about the corpses along the road did give us that impression, sure.”
Milla frowned and her eyes flashed. “One of those corpses is my husband. Plenty of other good men out there too. Been going like that ever since that “Lord” Tremant took charge of our city.”
“Bad business, sounds like.” Rat had a feeling she knew where this was heading. Problem was, she was pretty sure the woman couldn’t afford what she was going to ask for. “What’s that got to do with us?”
“I want him dead. Our city used to run itself, with a council and elected mayor. Prosperous. Lord Tremant ended that. With him dead, we might be able to save what’s left of the place.” Milla looked back and forth between them, full of anger and desperation.
Rat sighed. “That isn’t a cheap job. And we aren’t assassins.”
“I don’t want him assassinated. I want him dead. Properly, openly dead. Him and any of his men that stay loyal longer than the second it takes to check his pulse. I want our city back.” Milla pounded on the table. Rat nearly raised a brow. Under the tired, the woman boiled with anger.
“Alright. Say we take this job. What kind of pay are you offering?” Even as she asked, Rat was already counting up what it would cost to get to another city from here. Could they even find the supplies they’d need? She didn’t mind hunting for their feed, but hated to depend on it, especially near a place like this. Desperate people under stupid lords had a tendency to over hunt the land.
“I…I don’t have much money…” The woman looked away. “That’s why I asked Segritt for-” All at once, she grabbed at Will. Just as quickly, Rat pulled a knife, but Will, figuring out what the woman was about, waved her off. Rat glared and kept the knife out, but didn’t use it. The woman poked at the brand in the center of Will’s right hand. “You are a Tethas Warrior!”
“Was.” Will gently pulled his hand from the woman’s before Rat got too antsy. “No longer.”
Somewhat deflated by his gentle words and actions, Milla sank back to her chair. She looked at Rat, suddenly noticing the knife. “I…I wasn’t going to hurt him.”
“No.” Rat stared at her with cold, dark eyes. “You weren’t.”
She leaned away from Rat, then looked back at Will. “But Tethas Warriors don’t quit.” Brave or stupid, she ignored Rat’s snort and kept looking imploringly at Will.
He shrugged. “Didn’t quit, exactly. Just took on a longer term Lost Cause.” He and Rat shared a weighty look. Milla looked back and forth between them. “But you aren’t supposed to ask for money. You took vows of poverty!”
Will lifted a shoulder. “Do I look wealthy? She takes money. Barely gives me any of it.” He sent a fond look at Rat.
Not a complete fool, Milla re-evaluated. Rat shifted in her chair, waiting for the woman’s new angle. “So if money weren’t an object, you could do what I’m asking? You could rid us of Lord Tremant?” She seemed to be thinking hard.
Rat leaned in. “Possibly. Got lots of questions. But we’re good enough at killing people.”
Milla smiled. She’d been a beauty once. “I wasn’t lying. I don’t have much money. No one down here does. But Lord Tremant and his people…they have plenty of coin. The Gods know they took enough from us.” She set hands carefully on the table. “You could make plenty, if you aren’t against collecting your own fee, as it were.”
Rat raised an eyebrow. “Townspeople aren’t going to want theirs back?”
“Of course.” Milla met her eyes. “But they aren’t likely to argue with the people who freed them from Tremant.”
“Or the people who killed the guy they couldn’t get rid of on their own…” Rat stated flatly.
Milla nodded. “Or that.”
Rat considered. Checked with Will. Saw in a single look that he, of course, was all for helping. He was always for helping. She shrugged. “We’ll need a contract. Will and I are proper mercs. You got a Guild rep around here?”
Milla’s answering smile was knowing. “We do. Tremant hates him. So you can probably even trust him.”
Rat nodded. “We’ll do some looking around tomorrow. If we agree to do this, we’ll put together the contract. Let you know tomorrow night.” She looked around. “For tonight, you have a room?”
Milla actually laughed, though it wasn’t a happy sound. “Can’t actually remember a time I didn’t. Room goes for two silver for the week. Five coppers for a hot bath.”
Rat sent her a cold look. “I’ll pay for the bath. And more ale. But you’re gonna give me the room for tonight and tomorrow for making the trip. If we decide to do business, I’ll include it in the contract.”
It was Milla’s turn to consider, then nod. “You drive a hard bargain.”
“Wait till you read our contract.” Rat drained the rest of her ale. Will followed suit. She and Will stood. “We’ll see that room now. And I wasn’t kidding about the bath. I’m covered in dead dog.”
“Sure.” Rat shrugged and pulled off gore crusted gear. “No one with the silver to mess it up.” She dropped into the tub, sighing at the hot water.
Will raised an eyebrow. “I’m not likely to fit in that tub.”
“You don’t fit in any tub.” Rat tossed a wet sponge at him. “But you could stand to clean up.”
He grinned and tossed the sponge back before pulling off his shirt. “Sure.”
They bathed in silence before Will spoke up again. “You all right with this job?”
“Nope.” Rat poured rapidly cooling water over her head, working the last bit of soap from her hair. “Milla’s lying.”
“Hoped I was imagining that.” Will toweled off his hair with a cleanish shirt.
“You saw it too?” Rat squeezed water from her hair. “Shit. She’s not even a good liar then.”
“She wasn’t as upset about her man as she wanted us to think.” Will started pulling dirty clothes from packs.
Rat stepped out of the tub and accepted another cleanish shirt from Will. “Yeah, she doesn’t miss that one.”
“Maybe he was a bastard. Still doesn’t mean he deserved to decorate the road.” Will suggested as he tossed a load of clothing into the tub.
“True.” Rat tossed the clothes she’d taken off into the tub and began working on the snarls in her hair. When it wasn’t braided, it ran more than the length of her back and tangled easily.
“But there was more to the story than she told us. How’d this guy Tremant just show up one day and take over a whole town? And she only now decided to get revenge?”
Will shrugged, up to his elbows in soapy water. “Maybe she was happy enough to be rid of the husband at first. But this Tremant went too far.”
“I guess.” Rat finished braiding her still wet hair and pulled a line of rope from her pack. She rigged a clothes line and began taking items from Will and hanging them up. “Just all seems a bit odd to me.”
“We taking the job?” Will glanced over, curious.
“If she signs the contract, I guess.” Rat frowned. “She seemed pretty sure that she had the right to sign for the whole town. Wonder why?”
]]>They picked up breakfast at a stall just off the main road leading to Tremant’s castle. Again, suspicious looks were quickly replaced with grateful smiles when they paid in coppers.
They slurped coffee and munched on pastries as they walked towards the Guild hall. Will was growing more irritated by the minute. “Look at that, damn guard just stole a ribbon right off of that poor girl’s cart. Why bother having guards if they’re going to be worse than the people they’re supposed to protect?”
“Because they’re not here to protect the people. They’re here to keep them in line.” Rat was trying to decide if pickpocketing the guards was worth the trouble.
As if he could read her mind, Will led her away from the guard they were nearing. “Even if they don’t catch you, you’ll just get someone else in trouble.” He muttered quietly.
She sneered at the idea that they’d catch her, but didn’t argue. Instead, she pointed up the road. “I think that’s the Guild hall. Kind of a pit, don’t you think?”
Behind the sign reading Mercenaries Guild in flaking letters, Will took in the large, poorly repaired house with it’s dim windows and fenced yard behind it. An old barn, covered in vines and ready to fall down, peaked up from behind the fence, it’s windows dark. He shrugged. “Everything in this town is a pit. And really, at two silver just to get in, who’s stopping by if they can help it?”
“Good point.” Rat led the way into the shabby house.
Once inside, she stepped to the side to let Will in, giving her eyes time to adjust to the dim light. At the back of the large room, a small fire did little to ward off the morning chill. Beside it, a large, red haired man with grey at his temples sat sharpening a large and well used sword. He looked up at them briefly, then turned back to his work, his huge arms rippling as they moved.
“Got no jobs here. Best get back out on the road to anywhere else.” His voice was deep and filled the room with more warmth than the fire, but not by much.
Rat snorted. “You aren’t kidding. But we’ve found our own job. Just need a basic contract.”
The man looked up again. Eyebrow raised, he asked, “You Guild members?”
“No.” Rat sneered at him.
He chuckled. “Deserved that.” The man set aside the sword and stood, walking slowly over to them. He had a pronounced limp, dragging his left leg behind him, but the rest of him was well fit and muscular. “Sorry about the attitude. Been getting mostly green youths in here desperate for work. Even if I had it, which I don’t, they’d just get themselves killed instead of paid.”
“Your town’s in the shit, sure enough.” Rat remarked.
He shrugged. “It’s seen better days. But so it goes. A contract you said?”
“Right.” Rat looked up at the man and noticed a familiar set of brown eyes. With the red hair and broad build… “I didn’t catch your name?”
“Ah.” The man looked a bit sheepish. “Name’s Urden. Urden Longbough. And you are?”
“Rat and Will.” She angled her head. “Any relation to Milla in Morgan’s Keg?”
He frowned and eyed them with sudden suspicion. “My sister.”
“Ah. No wonder she said you were probably trustworthy.” Rat considered the large man for a moment, then looked about the dim hall. “But why only probably?”
“Because I probably won’t approve of why you and she know each other.” Urden hadn’t lost his suspicious look, though he wasn’t stupid enough to make any threatening moves.
“Probably not. But I’ll still need that contract.” Rat didn’t move or blink when he leaned down to glare at her. Behind her, Will tensed, but he didn’t speak up.
Urden continued to glare for a few moments longer before realizing it was useless. Then he gave up with a sigh and turned about. Lurching over to a desk, the man sifted through rough piles of documents and finally pulled out several sheets of paper. “Gonna be five coppers for the contract. Ten more to file it. Plus twenty percent of final pay.”
“Right.” Rat no longer complained about the percentage the guild took from their contracts. She and Will had learned the hard way how useful the perks of Guild membership could be. She pulled out two coppers and exchanged them for the rolled tube of papers Urden handed her. “Thanks.”
Urden grunted and would have returned to his work, but Will stopped him. “How long has Tremant been sucking your town dry?”
The man shrugged, then moved back to his seat. He took care with the leg when he sat, then said. “I wasn’t here when he moved in. Apparently, he just rode in one day with a small but nasty group of men. Killed the mayor, then killed anyone who argued about it. Lots of people just up and left. The rest…learned to live with him. More or less.”
He sighed and gestured to his leg. “After I got wounded, the Guild assigned me here. Seems the last Guild Master disappeared. As did the one before him. They figured since I was from here, I’d do better. Mostly, I keep my mouth shut. And the Guild makes regular inquiries, which probably helps me not get dead.”
“The guards. Are they all his people?” Rat sat in the chair across from him, ignoring the way his mouth firmed in dislike. She didn’t take it personally, most people weren’t fans of outsiders asking nosy questions. Fewer still seemed to care much for her particular kind of nosy questions.
“Not all of them. A few still remain from before. But most are his now, even if they didn’t come in with him. Only real way to ensure survival. People will do a lot to protect and feed their families.”
Rat knew that well enough. “He goes down, does the town recover?”
Urden grimaced. “Maybe. Depends. Do his people go down with him?”
“How many are his versus just following whoever’s strongest?” Rat asked.
“Good question.” Urden considered. “You’d need to ask my sister. She probably knows the whole lot by name. They drink in her bar regular like.”
“Good to know.” Rat stood. She’d just turned to follow Will out when Urden stopped them with a question. “You’re all that Segritt sent? Just you two?”
“How do you know Segritt sent us?” Rat glared at him.
“Who do you think gave my sister his information?” Urden glared right back. “Technically, I’m a free agent here. As long as he leaves the Guild be, I’ve nothing to say about who runs the city.”
Will spoke up. “He’s charging Guild members two silver just to enter the city.”
“After they tried to kill us outside the gates.” Rat added sarcastically.
Urden frowned. “You’d swear to that?”
“I just did.” Rat gave him a cold look. “If you need our sworn testimony and statements, you’ll have them. If we decide to take the contract, we’ll have it back by tomorrow morning.”
“Not sure what I’d do with it, but I suppose it’s a final chance to try to get the guild involved.” Urden nodded his head. “I’ll put in a report, request repayment from the Guild.”
“I’d take that repayment. Especially given what I’m like to turn over if this job doesn’t kill us.” Rat grinned hard and fast. “Tell them it was four silver. Each.”
Urden frowned again, but then shrugged. “Why not? Hell, I manage to get it, I’ll be taking my ten percent just for taking the report.”
“Right.” Rat walked out of the Guild hall, Will close behind her.
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