Chapter 16: Chapter fifteen

The Shadows’ reputation is among our greatest assets. Do try to live up to it.

• Shadows of Inveritus training manual.

 

Kalissa ate her soup. It was pretty good. Not amazing or anything, but better than she had expected from whorehouse soup. The owner of the Snake Pit hadn’t really been what Kalissa had expected at all. Most pimps she had known were petty men with their minds on their purses. Carrus had seemed kind. It was a refreshing change.

“I hear you’ve been blackmailing Carrus,” the man who had been in the office earlier said, sitting himself down beside Kalissa.

Kalissa nodded, unsure who the man was or how this conversation was going to go. This whole blackmail plan had been completely improvised after everything turned to shit in the orchard. She was completely out on a limb here, and only her training and her incredible levels of competence were keeping her from falling flat on her face. She kept her expression neutral and rested her hand on a concealed knife, just in case.

“You’re a changeling too,” the man commented, looking her over.

“How can you tell?” Her heritage wasn’t a secret, but no one had ever been able to tell just by looking at her. At least, not unless she was doing something weird.

 The man met her eyes and his changed colour, going from hazel-brown to light blue and then back again. It was a quicker change than any changeling could make.

“You’re a skard,” she said. “I didn’t know you could sense changelings.” She had learned under a skard biology teacher at Inveritus, and he hadn’t mentioned her heritage. Though that may have been out of politeness rather than ignorance.

“Not everyone can. But there’s a trick to it. Perhaps I’ll show you sometime. For now it was nice meeting you, but I really should be going.”

He got up to leave.

“Who are you?” Kalissa asked.

“Good question,” the man said, and walked off without another word.

Well that was strange, Kalissa thought. The Snake Pit seemed to be full of odd characters. She went back to eating her soup.

“You seem to be making yourself at home,” Carrus commented, having apparently finished whatever he was doing. He motioned for her to follow him and they went back to his office.

“Right,” she said. “Now, where were we?”

“You were extorting us,” Saladeen pointed out.

“That I was. Thank you. I already told you what I need from Sarina. But from you two all I really need is information. So, we’re going to have a nice little chat about what exactly you have been doing with the Frozen Dagger.” she indicated Saladeen. “And how you fit into this at all.” She indicated Carrus. “And then I won’t talk to Bracken and you can both keep your heads attached to your bodies. How does that sound?”

Saladeen shrugged, Carrus nodded tightly.

“This will go faster if you tell us what you already know and we can fill in the blanks,” Saladeen said, sounding calm, almost bored.

“Faster, but harder to verify,” she replied. “You just tell me the story from the beginning.”

So, Saladeen laid out the story of how he had been contacted by ‘some northern noble’ with a contract to steal the Frozen Dagger for an enormous amount of money.

“You didn’t think that sounded a little suspicious?” Kalissa interrupted.

“It came through one of my regular contacts and the Dagger is easily worth that much,” Saladeen said with a shrug. “Besides, I am probably the greatest thief in the world. Seems like if anyone would get that contract, it would be me.”

“You’re not much of one for modesty are you?”

“Modesty is for people who have only a modest amount of talent,” he responded smoothly. “Besides, immodest souls are reborn as peafowl. That’s a lot better than my other options at this point. Have you seen their tails?”

Kalissa smirked a little at that. “You know, you’re the most charming person I’ve ever blackmailed Saladeen.” This was literally true as this was Kalissa’s first time blackmailing anyone. So far, it was going remarkably well.

“Excuse me?” Carrus said, sounding a little affronted.

“Thanks,” Saladeen said. “And please, call me Sal. You’re certainly my most charming blackmailer. And among the prettiest.”

Sarina made a harrumphing noise from the corner of the room.

Kalissa laughed at the absurdity of the conversation and for a moment the cold rage that had been slithering about the bottom of her stomach vanished. Then she refocused on the task at hand and felt it resettle in her gut like a bloated tapeworm made of ice.

“Well, that’s probably enough flattery for the moment. As you were saying?”

Sal explained that he had broken into the Silent Tower and stolen the Dagger, then gone to make the handoff in the woods on the outskirts of Inveritus. The next part she’d seen, the nobleman had double-crossed him and tried to pay with crossbow bolts rather than coin. He had escaped and headed for Cadersville to take up another job that a skard had told him about earlier.

Kalissa nodded along. That Sal’s story matched up with the parts she had already known boded well for its general veracity. She turned to Carrus. “Right, so this other job, I take it that’s where you come in? What’s your story?”

Carrus explained how he had murdered his previous boss after a disagreement regarding one of the girls and then been blackmailed by the local crime boss who had lumographs of him and his assistant dumping the body. He had hired Sal to break into Bracken’s compound and steal them back.

“And you contacted him through that man I met earlier?” Kalissa asked.

“Sort of,” Carrus said. “He had been working here as a guard for a while but that seems to have been a cover. He’s got some sort of plan of his own, though I don’t know what that is.”

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“He’s covering my bill,” Sal added. “I’m very expensive.”

“And your plan to steal the lumographs involved selling Bracken the Dagger?”

“Naturally,” Sal said. “I needed to sell the Dagger anyway and I figured I could either use it to get a look around Bracken’s compound and scout the security, or else track it once it was in there and follow it to his vault. That plan’s out the door now though since that Yarrlish monster snatched the Dagger.”

“How were you planning on tracking it?”

“I rubbed the scabbard with a special mix of herbs. I was going to use a philoweasel to track it down.”

“Do you still have a sample of those herbs?”

“As it happens, I do,” Sal said, producing a pouch from his cloak and handing it over.

Kalissa bared her teeth in something only distantly related to a smile. “And where would I find a philoweasel?”

Sal gave her directions to a place on the west side of town called Crazy Gary’s Critter Emporium.

“Thank you for the information. Sarina, I’ll be by to get you after I go philoweasel shopping. Get anything you need for a journey ready to go by then, okay?”

Sarina nodded and Kalissa left.

 

 

A short time later Kalissa was at Crazy Gary’s Critter Emporium, though the sign said Crazy Garys’ which made it sound like there was more than one. It was a large wooden building painted with garish greens and pinks. It looked out of place looming over the blacksmith next door, like it belonged somewhere wholly different and wholly strange.

Kalissa entered and was immediately hit with the odours of dozens of different creatures. Kalissa had never visited the pet stores that nobles took their children to back in Inveritus, but she had a hard time believing they were anything like this. The place was a jumble of strange beasts, arranged with seemingly no rhyme or reason and including many animals Kalissa couldn’t identify. From the front door she could see doves and hawks, peacocks and some kind of long-legged, pink creature that must have been from the Del, and that was just the birds.

Kalissa threaded her way through the various cages and crates looking for the proprietor. He found her first and burst out from behind some sort of stripy horse that was milling about the store untethered. He wore a bright red tunic and had a shock of messy, dark hair

“Hello miss!” he said in a voice like he was making an announcement. “I’m Gary, what can I do for you today?”

“I need a philoweasel,” she said. “I hear you have those.”

“Why yes we do. In fact, we are having a deal at the moment. If you buy two philoweasels, I’ll throw in a philoferret for free.”

“I’ve never heard of a philoferret. Is that even a real thing?”

“Strictly speaking? No. It’s just a fat philoweasel. I can see you’re onto it though young lady so how about this, you buy one regular philoweasel and I’ll throw the tubby one in for the price of a normal one. By weight that’s a great deal.”

Kalissa was finding Cadersville to be an exceedingly strange place.

“Or,” Gary continued. “Could I interest you in a bombat? I just got a fresh batch in. They’re a little pricey but they make much better pets than philoweasels. They’re a lot quieter. Cuter too if you want old Gary’s opinion. Only thing is, you have to be careful with them so they don’t, you know, explode.”

 Kalissa shook her head. “I don’t need any of that. Just a philoweasel please.”

“Sure, just go pluck one from the crate over in the corner there. Then see my brother, he handles the money.”

Kalissa crossed the room to the crate indicated and, sure enough, it contained five philoweasels. Kalissa had never seen one in person before, but it was obvious what they were. The creatures had the long, tubular bodies of regular weasels. Where they diverged was their heads. They were elongated and ended in a nose like the mouth of a small trumpet. Or not so small in the case of the large one that Gary had referred to as a philoferret. The thing was the size of a small cat. That would be a pain to carry around while travelling, better to go compact. Kalissa plucked up one of the smaller philoweasels and brought it to a shop counter she hadn’t noticed before in the centre of the menagerie that was the store. A tall man stood behind it. He wore a muted, blue tunic and had a shaggy mop of brown hair.

“Hello, miss,” he said, speaking in a monotone. “I’m Gary. Welcome to my store.”

“I thought your brother was Gary?” Kalissa asked.

“My name is also Gary.”

“Which one is Crazy Gary?”

“We both are,” he said. “Didn’t you see the apostrophe?”

Kalissa blinked at that. “Right. Sure. Anyway, I’d like this philoweasel please.”

“Of course, miss,” the man said. “That will be seven brightmarks, three dull.”

Kalissa hadn’t realized Philoweasels were so expensive. Luckily Inveritus was picking up the bill on this one. She counted out the coins to Gary and left with her new purchase.

The sun was setting and most reputable businesses were closing as Kalissa made her way back to the Snake Pit, but she picked up a couple of horses and some supplies on the way with more of Gerrard’s money. It was a good thing the man had a small fortune stashed away, this mission was getting expensive.

But then, what price can you put on revenge?

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