Chapter 15: Part 15: The Threat of Power Unspoken

But then —

Then had come the third song.

That song.

The one that had cost Sebastian more than a few nights' sleep. The one that had almost cost him his life.

One particularly unforgettable night spent running from villagers hell-bent on seeing him swinging from the town gate, chanting the chorus at the top of their lungs —

Take a leap,
So we can be free.
If only you'd
Fall, fall, fall —
— for me

 

*****

 

After two days of hunting it, Sebastian had finally found the nidhögg the villagers who worked the nearby woods had contracted him to kill.

Of course, they hadn't known it was a nidhögg. That would have made it far too easy.

He'd spotted the signal flag raised on the main gate two towns over, his first one of the year. It was a single flag, not a double; meaning word of a job for another town nearby.

After checking in with the alderman of the town flying the flag, Sebastian had gotten only a few terse details before setting off. Direction and name of the town, three men dead and a fourth missing for reasons unknown, the amount of the bounty offered. Basic stuff, really.

There was always the possibility that by the time he got there, another Relict might have it already handled. But as chance would have it, the town lay in the direction Sebastian had been planning to take this year anyway, so he decided it might be worth the risk.

Despite the direness of the situation, when Sebastian arrived in the village, he found it full of grim-faced and flinty-eyed villagers. He'd tried asking questions of a few of them, trying to get some idea of what he might be dealing with. But the answers he got were few and sparingly given.

It wasn't unheard of. That many men killed in a small town like this, right at the start of planting season? It was a heavy blow to any community, and one in the back of beyond such as Mirova couldn't be expected to be anything other than tight-knit.

Who was he to judge how a town mourned their dead?

So Sebastian had shrugged and simply gotten on with the job. He'd inspected the sites the bodies had been discovered in, deep in the woods towards the northeast of the town; tracing the routes the victims took in the course of their daily work.

The three men found dead had all been woodcutters; brothers, in fact. Together, they usually supplied the town with firewood. But when wood was needed for other jobs, they would supply that too.

They'd been working together to supply the lumber needed for a new hay barn. The village had been expecting to raise the building just before harvest season late this summer. A timetable that would now likely have to be scrapped completely for the year, or at least until replacements could be found.

This news had been delivered by a sour-faced old man with a permanent squint, who'd spat with impressive accuracy onto the toe of Sebastian's right boot a total of three times now without bothering to apologize.

Sebastian left just as he seemed to be gobbing up for a fourth.

The last man that had gone missing was a trapper who worked the area, and by the time Sebastian had arrived his partner had gone missing as well.

"A damn shame," the alderman had told Sebastian, his two…associates standing looming behind him. A mountain of a man himself, he'd had to practically fold himself into the small chair at the public house's table where Sebastian had been told to meet him. "Very hardworking couple. Brought a lot of custom to our village. Shame to lose them like this, but then, I suppose it comes with the lifestyle."

"What can you tell me about their territory?" Sebastian asked, writing down the details in his journal as they went.

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"Aren't you a Relict? Find out yourself, or what am I paying you for?" the alderman said contemptuously. "I certainly can't tell you. I'm not sure anyone in the town can. They were a quiet couple. Too quiet really. Bit shifty if you ask me. And very secretive. They wouldn't ever tell anyone where they went, and then could be out there for days at a time. Of course, we tried to get them to tell us —

Sebastian snorted, Saw how well they were doing and tried to get them to let you in on their best spots, more like.

"— it's just not safe being out there in the woods without anyone knowing how to find you if something goes wrong. What if they got lost or hurt, we would ask, how were we supposed to be able to help them? Well, now they've paid the price for their shortsightedness, haven't they?"

The two men standing behind the aldermen were nodding at his words.

"And what if they had brought back one of those beasts to our village, Relict, what then?" the man went on, warming to his subject. "I tried to talk to them a time or two, get them to see reason. At least to consider taking on an apprentice or two, to help with the workload. Fredrick's boy is a good lad, and I've got two sons of my own that would do well in the job. Plenty of animals in the forest I told them. Not like it's competition taking on an apprentice; make you more money long as you train 'em right."

"Someone's got to know what gate they would leave by, surely?" Sebastian asked, hoping to get them back on track. The bounty was good, but if they expected him to spend weeks tramping around the whole countryside without even a hint of what he was looking for…

The bounty wasn't that good.

"My wife said she'd always seen them leaving by the south gate when she was hanging up the washing," the associate on the left said in a raspy voice. "We live up on the southeastern side of the wall, so she's got a clear view. Said they'd circle around though, and head into the forest on the northeast. Dunno past that."

"It's a start — " Sebastian said, writing it down in his journal.

"It's an insult," the alderman interrupted angrily, banging his fist on the table and making the tavern-goers nearby jump at the sound. "Them going and sneaking around like that. Thought they were too good for the likes of us, did they? And where's that got 'em now I'd like to know. Dead, and their trade with them. Selfishness. Pure selfishness, if you ask me."

"You seem pretty sure your people are dead — " Sebastian tried, his eyes narrowing as he watched the alderman. They most likely were, really. But it wouldn't be the first time someone had attempted to hire Sebastian claiming a "monster" had killed the victims they themselves had done for.

"Not my people," the alderman spat. "Elves, both of them. Not from around here, certainly. Came up from somewhere in Dorei if I'm remembering right. Or was it Gel-Sinde? One of those places their kind always come from. But, not my place to hold it against them. We welcome anyone into our humble little village who's willing to work hard and become part of our community."

This time Sebastian didn't snort, but it was a near thing.

"Had a nice little house on Weaver's street, right there on the western wall. Clever too. They rigged up some frames to hang their skins and furs right over the wall to tan them, neat as you'd please. Don't know who's going to take the place now," the alderman said with a long suffering sigh. "They never mentioned any kin who could inherit, no children. Sent some of the young women in to tidy the place up, but they didn't find anything either."

"Shouldn't you wait until you know for sure they're dead?" Sebastian asked, cocking his head to the side as he studied the alderman.

"Oh sure, sure," the alderman said, flapping his hand as if that was a minor concern. "Not that it's any of your business. But it is mine, and I've got three young couples all in need of a place inside the walls before Mistide. Not to mention it's planting season, and you never know when you'll have a free pair of spare hands for even a moment this time of year. I find it's best to be prepared for the inevitable. I'm sure someone in your line of work would agree, right?"

"…right…" Sebastian agreed reluctantly, the word distasteful in his mouth.

"You just go about taking care of this creature, Relict," the alderman told him with a grin. "Best leave the running of the village to me."

 

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Author's Notes:

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