Chapter 27: Chapter twenty-six

It is unclear why children born of human-skard couplings retain a portion of transformative abilities of their skard parent. On the surface, it seems obvious; of course half-skard children should have some skard traits. However, when one considers the issue more carefully, the problem begins to show itself. If the skard has replicated the biology of a human, why is it that their progeny is not wholly human? Is there perhaps some deeper process to reproduction we do not yet understand?

• Untitled paper by Professor Hubert Archibald. Unpublished.

 

Once they were away from Bracken’s compound and on the way back to Cadersville proper, Kalissa and the others slowed down, and they were able to talk normally.

“Sarina, do you have the Dagger?” Kalissa asked.

“I do,” Sarina said, drawing it from her quiver and handing it over. “I am the greatest bodyguard.”

“That you are,” Kalissa said, feeling like her decision to tell Sarina the truth had paid off in a big way. Far more so than she had any right to expect in fact. “Thanks for the rescue.”

Sarina grinned fiercely.

“Looks like you didn’t need much rescuing,” Sal said. “Your friend here had a knife to one of the guards and a crossbow to two more when I found her.”

“I trust this won’t be a problem with you?” she asked, gesturing with the Dagger at Sal.

Sal shrugged. “That thing is getting too dangerous to sell. Besides, you stole it fair and square.”

“I killed Bracken too,” Kalissa said. “Still, getting out would have been difficult without your help.”

“You killed Bracken?” Sal asked. “Sarina, I thought you said she was kidnapped?”

“She was.”

“I was. He was torturing me. I objected.”

“You used your godhood?” Sarina asked with an expression that said that the idea was distasteful.

“Godhood?” Sal asked.

“Kalissa is part Savec-uhn, she is a quarter-god.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask you about that,” Kalissa said. “You said that before. You think skard are half-god?”

“Wait,” Sal said. “You’re a changeling? You aren’t secretly really old are you?”

“What? No, I’m seventeen.”

“Good. I was worried I was attracted to an old woman. I have a reputation to maintain.”

Kalissa wasn’t really sure what to say to that. Luckily Sarina saved her having to respond.

“Never fear Saladeen,” she said. “Your reputation as a scoundrel and a whoremonger is safe.”

“Well that’s good. I’ve spent years cultivating it through crime and whores. I’d hate for all of that to go to waste.”

“Right,” Kalissa said, dragging the conversation back to her apparent demigod status. “So why do you think skard are part god? And why are you treating that like it’s a bad thing.”

“Gods are not to be trusted,” Sarina said. “All delkin know this.”

“Right,” Kalissa said. “But you saved me anyway.”

“You are only quarter-god. Mostly human. And humans can be trusted. They make the best drinks.”

Kalissa laughed.

“That’s what you meant about not trusting our benefactor on this whorehouse job,” Sal said. “You haven’t really talked about your faith much before.”

“Not faith,” Sarina spat. “And you never asked.”

“Okay, that’s really interesting,” Kalissa said. “And I definitely want to hear more about how a whole race of people think I’m a demigod, but we’re almost back to town and some of the other Shadows in the area should have arrived by now. I need to give them the dagger. I’ll come by the Snake Pit and settle up with you tonight okay Sarina?”

“Of course. We have defeated our enemies and recovered the treasure. Tonight, we celebrate, and you still owe me a bottle of whisky.”

Kalissa was going to point out that Sarina hadn’t even wanted to get the Dagger back to Lhint, until she realized that she might be the treasure they had recovered. She left suppressing a blush.

 

Kalissa tied her horse up outside the safehouse and entered. Inside a short man with thinning hair was talking to an incredibly bland man with no distinctive features whatsoever. Kalissa was looking right at him and she felt she might forget what he looked like if she blinked for too long.

These would be the reinforcements then. Shadows stationed at Rockspar and tasked with protecting the supply of salt and discouraging any thoughts of raising prices or introducing tariffs.

“The brighter the light, the longer the shadow,” the bland man said. Even his voice was nondescript.

“And Inveritus is the brightest light of all,” Kalissa responded.

“Is the salt supply secure?” the short man asked. Neither one of them introduced themselves. Some Shadows were like that; keeping everything need-to-know.

“Yes,” Kalissa said. “The Yarrls paid off some local thugs to burn the salt warehouse as a distraction when they found Carlton and realized we were after them. Clearly their intel on Inveritus is good, but I was able to put out the fire quickly and no salt was lost. Obviously this kind of tactic has to be aggressively discouraged, so I requisitioned funds from the local lightshaper and financed a pursuit of the Yarrls.”

This bit about the fire was a complete lie, but one that she had backstopped. She had scorched one wall of the building as if someone had tried to burn it, but it had been put out quickly. The lack of real damage, and the start-point of the ‘fire’ might make the imaginary thugs look incompetent, but it shouldn’t make her look like a liar.

“Were you successful?” the bland man asked.

“You tell me,” Kalissa said, withdrawing the Frozen Dagger from her cloak and handing it to him. She had been setting herself up for that one. Kalissa was not above a little drama.

“This is spectacular work!” the short man said. “And this was your first assignment?”

“Yes, very well done,” the bland one added. Even his praise sounded forgettable.

“Thank you,” Kalissa said politely. She wanted to add that what she had done was a minor miracle and she was expecting a personal commendation and a chest full of coin, but she didn’t really know these two well enough for that.

“Have you written a report of how you recovered the Dagger yet?” the bland man asked.

Kalissa was a little affronted at that. “No. I was being kidnapped and tortured by the local crime boss until this morning. Haven’t had time for paperwork yet.”

 The short man’s eyebrows when up at that. “Okay, perhaps you should just tell us what happened.”

Kalissa filled them in on the events since her urgent message, leaving out only the slightly treasonous parts.

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By the time she was finished, the short man’s mouth had dropped open. “So,” he said. “Since last night you and one bodyguard tracked down three Yarrls, including a juggernaut and at least one other with tomological enhancements, killed them all and got back the Dagger, then you got captured by Philious Bracken, killed him too, broke out of his compound and made it back here.”

“That pretty much sums it up, yes.”

“Who is this bodyguard?” the bland man asked. He had shown exactly zero reaction as Kalissa had told her story.

“Sarina, she’s an asset I was cultivating when looking for the Dagger. She’s a delkin fada-sur. I was able to become friendly with her.”

“And then you blackmailed her?”

“Yes.”

“And then she rescued you from Philious Bracken’s compound?”

“Yeah, well, what can I say? I’m very charming. Also, I offered to pay her. Speaking of, I still owe her a fair bit of money and some expensive whisky. Bracken’s men took my money when they grabbed me, so I will need access to whatever funds you have available.”

“What happened to Saladeen Hadon?” the short man asked. “The Tower will want to make an example of him.”

“The Tower will be disappointed then,” Kalissa said. “He disappeared while I was tracking down the Dagger. Probably best we just blame the whole thing on the Yarrls and have done. Otherwise the Silent Tower are going to have Hunters out in force for who knows how long.” Kalissa didn’t want to implicate Sal if she didn’t have to. She was loyal to Inveritus, but the man had just saved her life, even if it hadn’t been his idea. If she could keep his name out of what they told the monks, she would, and she certainly wasn’t going to tell them he was still here.

The short man shivered at the thought of Hunters, and Kalissa couldn’t blame him.

“You mentioned that these men had tomological enhancements,” the bland man said. “That suggests they are more than a band of criminals. Likely crown-funded. Telling the Tower that King Ormath has tried to steal their most sacred relic could spark a conflict between Lhint and Yarrl, with Inveritus in the middle. We cannot allow that. Better to the have Lhintish hunting their own than marching through our home.”

Kalissa hadn’t considered that. She had gotten too focused on the personal and missed what the Yarrlish intervention meant for the bigger picture. That was stupid. There wasn’t an argument she could make against preventing a possible war in which Inveritus would be caught in the middle.

“Very well, then we tell them Saladeen was stealing the Dagger for Philious Bracken. He did try to sell it to Bracken, so it should stand up to investigation, and Bracken is dead now, so that will reduce the collateral damage.”

The bland man nodded. “Yes. I think that is best. I will write a report to the Lhintish and have riders deliver copies to nearby Lhintish interests.”

“The Tower is likely to have people marching this way as we speak. Best to send a rider with a copy of the message on each of the most likely routes to intercept them too.”

“Of course.”

“If there’s nothing else,” Kalissa said. “I need to sleep. I’ll write a proper report tomorrow.”

The bland Shadow shook his head and Kalissa went to bed.

 

Later that night, Kalissa entered the Snake Pit and found Sarina drinking in the bar.

“Kalissa!” Sarina said, raising a cup. It was clear she had already had quite a bit to drink. Perhaps even more than normal.

“Your money.” Kalissa took a pouch of coin from her pockets and passed it to the delkin woman.

“Fantastic. Now get that whisky you owe me and I’ll pour you a drink.”

“Can’t right now. Is Sal around? I need to talk to him.”

“Are you going to mate with him? You will definitely want a drink first.”

“No. He’s in trouble. My people want to point the Lhintish in his direction and I came to warn him.”

Sarina suddenly looked a lot more sober. “You said you wouldn’t do that. You promised me.” She was mad. Kalissa would need to be careful here. She really didn’t want to end up on Sarina’s bad side.

“I’m not doing it,” Kalissa explained. “It’s the other Shadows. I suggested blaming the Yarrls but that could start a war. Sal needs to get out of here and quick. I’ll try to send them the wrong way, but there’s not much more I can do.” This was mostly the truth. Kalissa was playing it pretty close to straight with Sarina, and by extension Sal. They had saved her life after all. If she left out some minor details, like that Inveritus had always known Sal was the one who stole the Dagger, it was only because they would unnecessarily complicate matters.

“He’s upstairs,” Sarina said, still sounding hurt. “Room at the end of the hall. Knock before you go in there. He might be whoring.”

“Thank you.” Kalissa turned to the bartender and put a pair of brightmarks down on the bar. “A bottle of your finest whisky for my friend here. Keep the change.” The bartender happily complied and Kalissa went to find Sal.

She knocked on the door Sarina had told her to, and Sal replied almost immediately.

“Yeah?”

“It’s Kalissa, we need to talk.”

Sal opened the door and let her in. There weren’t any whores in Sal’s room, for which Kalissa was grateful. He was concentrating on a small pendulum device, probably Siphoning force.

“Is this a talk with clothes on or clothes off?”

Kalissa explained the situation to him.

“Oh,” he said. “So, clothes on then?”

“This is serious. You need to get out of town and quickly.”

“I agree. But I haven’t been paid yet. Add that to not getting paid on the Dagger job, and I’m basically broke.”

“You can’t spend your money if you’re dead,” Kalissa pointed out.

“Again, totally agree,” Sal said. “But I don’t think they’ll be here for at least another day, maybe two. Worth sticking around and getting what money out I can out of Carrus when he gets back. Even with a saving-my-life discount and all my whoring, he still owes me quite a bit and I’ll need that money if I’m to be hiding from the Tower. I’ll leave once that’s done.”

“Where did Carrus go?” Kalissa asked.

“Oh, apparently he turned all the blackmail material I stole over to the local sheriff and now the sheriff is using it to take over the town. Carrus and his folk are looking for his skard buddy to help them. Or else they are in hiding in case the sheriff decides to kill Carrus. I’m not totally sure. I wasn’t really paying attention in the meeting. Either way, worth sticking around for a day and seeing what happens. Worst case, I spend some time between the sheets with some of the Pit’s girls before I go on the run. A man could do worse things with his time.”

“Ah, right,” Kalissa said. “That sounds like a bad thing.”

“I don’t insult your hobbies.”

“I meant the corrupt sheriff, obviously.”

“Oh yeah, it’s a real shame.”

Kalissa left, slightly annoyed she had come to help Sal in the first place.

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