Chapter 11: Chapter ten

Yarrlish tomology is a strange discipline of which we know relatively little and all of what we do know is disturbing. A brief summary of our intelligence is as follows: We know that it involves cutting pieces out of living creatures, we know that it can be used to enhance either weapons or Yarrls with some the properties of the creature used, and we know that such enhancements eventually drive their bearer insane. We do not know how the process actually works or all of the things the Yarrlish are capable of creating with it. Though, if their juggernauts are anything to go by, perhaps that is for the best.

• Report on Yarrlish military capabilities, from the library of the Shadows of Inveritus.

 

It had taken more than long enough, but Kalissa and Carlton had finally caught up with the Yarrls in Cadersville. Their quarry had set up camp just outside of town in a burned-out husk that had once been a farmhouse. They had good visibility in all directions so the Shadows couldn’t get close enough to do any actual surveillance on them. But, according to their local contacts, one of them had come into town and bought supplies enough for a week or two, so it was fair to assume they were planning on sticking around for a while.

And, though they couldn’t keep an eye on what the Yarrls were up to, they could look for Saladeen and the Dagger. Their contacts hadn’t heard anything about him directly, but apparently they had heard about someone getting into a fight with a delkin woman over at the Snake Pit, which was as good a lead as any.

“So, what do you think our next move should be?” Carlton asked as they mulled over their intelligence at a corner café. They had sold their horses—which were practically at the point of collapse after the journey there—and used some of their, newly bolstered, operational funds to buy a hot tea and a pastry each.

“We need to get into the Snake Pit and have a look around.”

“Agreed, thoughts on the approach?”

“Seems to me our problems are access and awkwardness. For example, one of us could go in posing as a potential employee. But it would be both ineffective and awkward as we would be unlikely to get the chance to look around much and a particularly bad idea for me as there’s about even odds I’d end up with some blubbery lord climbing on top of me by the end of the day. Similarly, one of us could go in as a customer but, again, we wouldn’t see that much of the place and one of us would end up having to deal with a whore of the wrong gender.”

“A lot of the higher end places have male whores too,” Carlton pointed out.

“And how would you know that?” Kalissa asked.

“I wouldn’t,” Carlton said with a grin. “But Slymon Askance would.”

Kalissa chuckled. “He might be a bit loud for this operation.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

“So, we rely on the oldest and most reliable Shadow method for getting information?”

“You want to bribe a servant?”

“The other oldest and most reliable method.”

“Ah, yes. Buying everyone drinks until somebody talks.”

“That’s the one.”

 

 

So, since Kalissa won the coin flip, she spent the evening buying everyone at the Snake Pit drinks using their operational funds. Obviously, this required a different cover, since Kally, the poor girl looking for a new start in life, didn’t have money to splash out on bottles of whiskey. Instead, she was playing Kate, the daughter of a moderately successful merchant back from successfully completing her studies at the university. She decided Kate had been studying mathematics to help her father with his bookkeeping. She knew enough math to fake it if anyone asked her about her studies, but it was also a dry enough subject that that was unlikely. She also made herself look a few years older, as she was young to have believably completed her studies at the university. Of course, she had, but Kalissa was brilliant, and Kate was not. She had also plotted out Kate’s relationship with her father, the tragic death of her mother, and an amusing anecdote about one of her math professors, just in case.

She needn’t have bothered with this level of detail. Nobody seemed to care why she was buying rounds of drinks, just that she was. The fact she was in a brothel was a bit suspicious, but she implied that if she drank enough, she might take up the services of one of the girls, and that thought was seemingly more than enough to distract the thoughts of all the men in the Pit.

It wasn’t all men drinking in the Pit though. Apart from the few women who were obviously employees, flaunting their wares for the customers, there was a delkin woman wearing a longbow and enjoying every drop of the whiskey Kalissa had bought her. Kalissa, being brilliant and all, put two and two together and realized that this delkin was someone she should talk to.

Kalissa sidled up to the much larger, not to mention greener, woman. “Hi,” she said a little shyly. “Do you work here?”

“Why?” the delkin asked. “Do you mean to buy me? How much do you think me worth?”

Kalissa made herself blush. “No. I didn’t mean. I’m sorry. I’ve just never met anyone from the Del. Are you all so…” She hesitated as though embarrassed. “Tall?”

The woman laughed. “I am rather statuesque aren’t I?”

Kalissa nodded. “I’m Kate, it’s nice to meet you.” She gave a little half-curtsey.

“Sarina,” the delkin replied, giving a friendly little wave. As she moved Kalissa got a good look at the bow on her back for the first time.

It was a bloody sur-bow. This woman getting drunk in a brothel was fada-sur. The greatest archers in all the world. Kalissa suddenly had no trouble believing that all of Saladeen’s archery support had come from this one delkin.

“Are you a mercenary then?” Kalissa asked, gesturing at the bow.

“I’m a bodyguard,” Sarina said. Then, in a conspiratorial voice she added, “it’s like a regular guard but I don’t stand outside stuff and I get paid a lot more.”

“Stand outside stuff?” Kalissa asked with a smile.

“Of course. Regular guards are always standing outside things. Doors, city gates, caravans. This is most of the job.” She mimed standing at attention and saluting.

“But you don’t do that?”

“I keep people alive, they pay me, then I spend the money on fine drinks like this.” She indicated the whiskey Kalissa had bought.

“Are you saying that if I keep buying you drinks, people will die?”

Sarina nodded, then knocked back the whiskey and snatched another off a table while its owner wasn’t looking. She stared at it intently. “For a drink such as this, perhaps it is worth it?”

Kalissa laughed and it had nothing to do with her cover. “In that case, perhaps another round for the house.”

The operational funds were going to take a hit on this one.

 

 

Several hours and a great many drinks later, Kalissa had gathered some useful intel and formed a positive relationship with one of the targets. All in all, a very successful mission, even if she did have to spend most of their operating budget and would likely have a wicked hangover in the morning.

Kalissa returned to the safehouse. Cadersville was significant enough for the Shadows to keep a property there; a small, wooden home near the edge of the city centre. She found Carlton writing notes in the main room and reported what she had found.

“Hmm,” he said when she was finished. “You think Saladeen is hanging around that brothel too?”

“If she’s still guarding him, which seems very likely, then yes.”

“Any indication why they’re there? If Saladeen hasn’t sold the Dagger yet, then it’s hardly time to celebrate. And if he has, why is his bodyguard sticking around?”

“Not from Sarina. My assessment is either he has sold it and he’s doing a spot of whoring now but has another job lined up soon or he hasn’t, and they are just working a job for whoever owns the brothel.”

“Or he sold the Dagger and they are both blowing their money how they see fit, in which case he could be anywhere.”

“I don’t think so. Sarina didn’t show any interest in the whoring aspects of the Pit. There are cheaper and friendlier places to drink if that’s all you’re looking for. I don’t think that’s where she’d go to spend her money if left to her own devices.”

“Okay, we need to put that brothel under surveillance until we know that Saladeen still has the Dagger. No sense starting a conflict with these two if he doesn’t, especially if this Sarina is fada-sur. We also need to keep an eye on our Yarrlish friends in case they go after the Dagger. Rotating shifts to avoid drawing attention to ourselves. It’ll be just us as our contacts here don’t have the proper training and need to keep an ear out for anyone buying priceless Lhintish artefacts besides. You want the first shift on the brothel or the Yarrls?”

“I’ll take the brothel first. There’s a market right by there, so I’ll keep watch from there.”

“You’re just looking for an excuse to spend more of our operational funds.”

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Kalissa made a face of mock outrage. “Why Carlton, I would never do such a thing. I’m only thinking of being as inconspicuous as possible for the sake of the mission.” She smiled broadly. “The fact that that means I have to shop while I’m surveiling is merely a happy accident.”

Carlton laughed. “Fine. I guess that means I’m on Yarrl duty then. It’s going to be suspicious if you go back there now, so get started first thing in the morning. We will meet back here tomorrow noon for a debriefing then swap over for the next shift to avoid raising suspicions.”

Kalissa nodded.

“In the meantime,” Carlton said. “You want some dinner? You look like you could use something to soak up the booze.”

“I don’t know about need, but I could eat.”

Carlton placed a cookpot over the fire and set about adding meat and vegetables. Before long, he was ladling out a hearty stew into two bowls. It might just be because she was feeling a bit stewed herself, but it tasted remarkably good to Kalissa, and she told Carlton as much.

He laughed. “Thank you. Slymon dated the head chef to the Opoy family. I picked up a few things.”

“Was that a mission?” Kalissa asked. She could imagine plenty that could be gained from a source that close to a prominent family.

“No, nothing like that. I was fond of him. Handsome man, passionate, funny. One thing sorely lacking in high society is a good sense of humour.”

“Isn’t it dangerous to have those kinds of attachments?”

“Dangerous, yes. But human. We aren’t Lhintish monks; the Shadows aren’t expected to be alone all their lives.”

“Isn’t that hard though, having to live a lie?”

“Yes,” Carlton said, his voice low. “Yes, it’s hard. But, sometimes, it’s worth it.”

“Oh,” Kalissa said, feeling like she was stepping into awkward territory. “Well the stew is really good anyway. Thank you.”

“Thanks.”

They ate the rest of the meal in silence and then Kalissa excused herself to go to bed.

 

 

Kalissa spent the next morning at the market. It was too loud for her liking that morning, given how much she had to drink the night before, but it was pleasant enough for surveillance. Better than spending two days up a tree in any case. She bought herself a new dress. It was a long blue number that was a bit conservative for her, but it is exactly the sort of thing Kate would wear after returning to her father’s house, and she couldn’t be seen back at the Pit in the same travellers’ gear if she was going to maintain her cover. With that out of the way, she decided that it was important to the operation that she have something to eat, and set about finding the best food at the market by the method of trying everything that looked good. It wasn’t exactly the cheapest way to buy a meal, but she needed to be doing something so she didn’t look suspicious just standing around the market looking at the Snake Pit. Besides, Inveritus was footing the bill.

“Kate,” Sarina called while Kalissa was sampling an apple tart.

Well, that isn’t exactly going unnoticed. Luckily, Kalissa has planned for just such an eventuality.

“Sarina!” she said, injecting excitement into her voice. Sarina grinned and strode over.

“Couldn’t stay away from my company?” Sarina asked.

Kalissa lowered her voice and put some colour into her cheeks. “I, um. Didn’t make it home last night actually. Spent the evening in the company of a gentleman.”

“That’s a shame,” Sarina said with a grin. “In my experience its better when they aren’t gentle.”

Kalissa blushed as furiously as her gifts would allow. “Sarina!”

Sarina laughed.

“Well, anyway. I thought it best not to go skulking home first thing in the morning smelling of drink and sweat. So, I figured I’d do some shopping and then go home at a more sensible time. Care to join me?”

“I do like apple tarts,” she said, eyeing the confection. “But I have places to be today. Goodbye.”

“Goodbye.”

Well, that was exactly the sort of thing she had been waiting for. Kalissa waited for Sarina to be far enough away and then slipped after her.

Following someone through a city is generally much easier at night than it is midmorning. In this case it was made easier by the fact that her target was quite a bit taller, and a whole lot greener, than the other residents of Cadersville, so she tended to stick out. Kalissa could easily keep an eye on her, even following from a safe distance.

At least until Sarina ducked down an alley.

Kalissa hurried to catch up with her. It’s hard to remain inconspicuous while following someone down a dirty little alleyway. But when tailing someone, the most important part is to maintain a visual on them. When she got there, Sarina was already gone.

Kalissa cursed under her breath and broke into a sprint. She tore out of the alley in time to see Sarina slipping through a washhouse, practically moving at a run. Kalissa couldn’t keep up with that, at least not without drawing a lot of attention and probably being spotted by Sarina. The delkin’s legs were much longer and, though Kalissa was in pretty good shape, Sarina was obviously physically superior.

Which means it was time to get clever. Kalissa scanned the area. Washhouse, no. Fripper, no. Moneylender, no. Inn, two-storey, perfect. She dashed for the inn, ran past the owner and up the stairs.

“Visiting a friend,” she called, taking the stairs two at a time. She found the window she had seen from the street, popped it open and scrambled out. The windowsill was small, and Kalissa hadn’t done this sort of thing since her first days training to be a Shadow. Her stomach did a flip and her vision started to tunnel. She gritted her teeth and kept her eyes up. She hoisted herself up to the roof above. There was a terrifying moment where she scrabbled against the roof, her weight on her fingers, and then she was up. She stood up and surveyed the streets around her.

She spotted Sarina a couple of streets over. She was going into a large building. Kalissa scrambled down the building to the street below and ran over to the building Sarina had entered. It was large, wooden and tall enough to be two stories, though the windows suggested it was only one. Probably some kind of warehouse.

Kalissa circled it looking for somewhere to sneak in. She didn’t get quite that lucky, but a side wall had a small hole in one of its boards. Not enough to see anything, but enough to work with. Kalissa took a broad, short knife from a holster on her leg and worked at the hole until it was big enough to peer through. She looked in, but with her blocking the light from outside, it was too dark to see much of anything inside. She spent a few minutes altering her left eye to take in light more effectively and tried again. This time she could see inside. There were casks everywhere, but nothing else seemed to be happening in there yet.

It's possible that Sarina had slipped out again, but this seemed like a suitable place for an illicit meeting. And if she was a bodyguard, she might arrive early to scope out the meeting spot and get a good vantage point to shoot from. Which meant Kalissa could be waiting a while. And that meant she probably shouldn’t be standing around in the open with her eye pressed to a wall.

She turned back to the alley she was standing in and swore furiously as the sunlight hurt her night-vision eye. She kept her left eye closed and worked to quickly block off the alleyway, stacking up refuse and detritus at each entrance. She finished doing what she could and surveyed her handiwork. It wasn’t a great job, but it would have to do. At least it blocked the view of her from the street well enough. She returned to the hole, shaded her eye with her hands, and then settled in to watch the building.

After about ten minutes a small man entered the building, flanked by a much larger man. Another couple of minutes after that, a man in a cloak that was almost certainly Saladeen entered and began talking to the small man. They spoke for about a minute, though Kalissa couldn’t hear what was being said, then the small man gestured at the larger one who stepped forward. Saladeen moved his hand and an arrow appeared in the wall about four inches from the big man’s head. The big man backed off and the little man bowed and moved to leave.

Kalissa closed her left eye while she worked to get it back to normal and hurried around the building to get a look at the entrance. The two men exited a moment later and strode off down the street. Kalissa followed after them, which was fairly easy as they didn’t know who she was and weren’t trying to conceal where they were going at all. They left town and walked for about an hour south-west until they reached a large, stone building flanked by two smaller buildings. It had thick walls and guards were everywhere. Kalissa knew it from the intel their local contacts had given them. It belonged to Philious Bracken, the nastiest crime boss around, with half of Cadersville under his thumb.

These were Bracken’s men. Which meant that Saladeen was probably selling the Dagger to Bracken, though what he wanted with it was anybody’s guess. Which meant they needed to find out when and where the handoff was happening and be there to swipe the Dagger. It was good intelligence, and it was past time Kalissa met Carlton anyway, so she went back to the safehouse.

Carlton wasn’t there.

That could have been good or bad news. The Yarrls might have been making a move in which case he could be keeping an eye on them and not ready to come back. Or he could have been in trouble and not able to get back. Either way, Kalissa was going to track him down and provide support. She walked briskly towards the area the Yarrls were camped, keeping an eye out for likely places to wait and watch.

She found something else.

She noticed the smell first. The ripe offal smell over the coppery tang of blood. She spotted it by the stable. The lower half of a body.

She didn’t bother trying to deny it. The body was wearing Carlton’s clothes and the stable was a good place to wait and watch as the Yarrls would almost certainly have to go past it on their way into Cadersville. Still, she looked for the top half. She moved numbly, almost automatically. Searching without thinking.

She found it after a period of time she couldn’t begin to guess at. Carlton’s face, always so calm when he wasn’t acting, was contorted in agony so acute it would have hurt Kalissa’s chest to look at it even if she hadn’t considered him a friend.

But she had, and he was dead.

Kalissa began to cry.

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