Niku, who had been chained to the stone wall of the cellar for hours, panted restlessly, his nose shifting from side to side as his head rested on his fore paws. The three men- all muscular Humans draped in wool due to the cellar's perpetual chill- had left him alone since chaining him up, since merely doing that had won one of them a savagely bitten hand.
"How could she have gotten hold of him?" one of the others asked for the fourth time since Silveredge and the brown haired mercenary who was escorting her began descending the stairs. "Not every little puppy you see has a fighter tattoo on its back."
"As right as I think you are, she says she knows him," the mercenary explained just as patiently as he had the first time. "Why don't you let-"
And at that very moment, the tan ears perked. First a hopeful whine, then a full fledged bark came from the tense shadow in the far corner. The two other men, who were each sitting in front of large, man or woman-sized cages, winced in spite of themselves. There was a flash of movement, and the chain gagged and strained as the hound pulled forward toward the descending Shadar-kai, prompting the jailers to stand up.
"Let him go," the mercenary finished, looking at the immediate reaction in the woman's face. It was a mildly unpleasant cross between familiarity and sorrow, and it tugged at his heart immediately. Being wholly unused to such sensations, he wanted the feeling to go away as quickly as possible.
The man to whom the mercenary was speaking turned, rustling the many keys on his ring for nearly a minute before finding the correct one. In moments, the chained collar at Niku's neck swung free, and the large hound bolted past his jailers toward the Shadar-kai, who knelt to receive him into her arms.
"I'm so sorry, little brother," she whispered, holding his massive head close to her cheek. He, the body of forgiveness, kicked his head back to give her encouraging licks to the face and neck. There could have been no clearer sign of affection even if he had the power of speech.
"Now, about that other matter-" the mercenary began, moving from behind Silveredge to join the astonished Humans who had formed a half-ring around the reunited pair.
"I hadn't forgotten her," Silveredge said plainly, looking up from her embrace with Niku. "Where is she?"
The man who'd freed Niku used the key that had freed the hound to scratch the back of his own neck in discomfort. "Ehmn...."
"Out with it, man," Silveredge's escort encouraged, elbowing his associate in his side.
"She, ehmn... got away from us," the man admitted, still scratching the back of his neck. "Not sure how she did it. We haven't left the cellar, but-"
Silveredge hugged Niku tighter, closing her eyes for a few moments. "Will you help me, Niku?"
The hound whined, shifting around in her arms.
"Oh, you remember. You've found her before- I'm certain you can do it again."
"She's talking to him," one of the other Humans marveled in a whisper to the Shadar-kai's escort. "Right to the beast- how can that be? Is she a witch?"
"Not quite," the armored man replied, though the thought had crossed his mind as well. "I was told she could do some magic, but not that she was a witch."
"I have a secret, Niku," Silveredge whispered, putting her forehead against the dog's wide head. "Should I try to tell you?"
The dog's long tongue lolled out with a low and pitiful whine, but quickly slipped back into his mouth as he pushed his head into her chest and neck. Silveredge put her cheek against his jowl so that he would hold still, then whispered so quietly that the mercenary behind her couldn't hide his straining to hear her.
"A 'coimhead suas. daonnan ab 'fheàrr leis na speuran gus an talamh."
The dog held completely still for the first time since he'd seen her; even his stump of a tail remained quiet behind him. For a few moments, it seemed as though the air around the Shadar-kai and the hound were different- warmer, thicker and heavier- than the air that the men near them breathed. Then suddenly, Silveredge sat back, and the dog burst away from her arms. The escort held up his hand to stay the dog's former jailers, turning his attention to the woman who'd let the him go.
"I thought you wanted to see him well," he noted quietly as he knelt down next to her. "So soon after he's returned to you, he's flying out of your reach again?"
"My lord will forgive me for thinking that his friends could use some help with finding the first beloved?" Silveredge replied as she looked down at the floor.
"But what if the true problem is that she needs help finding you?" the mercenary pointed out with a smile as he put a firm first knuckle under the Shadar-kai's chin. With ease, he picked her head up until he could look into her eyes.
Silveredge kept herself from making any outward signs of surprise or disbelief. "My lord is of course free to do as he wishes," she replied calmly, "but he may wish to check the window locks."
"That's nonsense," spat the man whose hand had been bitten. "There aren't any windows down here."
"You trust yourself and your companions a bit too deeply," the mercenary said, keeping his gaze on Silveredge as he stood again. "What she means to say is that the Tiefling got past you, toward the upper floors."
"Impossible," the one with the keys piped up. "All her things are in this chest. She can't have gotten upstairs; everything's locked."
"Not everything," the mercenary mused. "My dear Silveredge, about how strong would you say this 'first beloved' is?"
"She can fight all night without tiring," Silveredge replied calmly, knowing where the mercenary's line of thinking was going. "She would be as vicious at dawn as she was when Selune rose up."
"And she may be patient, as well," the mercenary concluded, turning on his heel and looking above him. He moved up the stairs into the building above with a quickened step. "Look up into the rafters!"
Silveredge took advantage of the spots of darkness in the basement and the fact that the men weren't actively looking at her. Breathing all the air out of her lungs as she concentrated briefly, she disappeared into the shadows around her without a trace, then waited. Sure enough, the savvy mercenary turned around again and realized that she wasn't there- or at least that she didn't seem to be.
"Tell me you gentlemen haven't managed to misplace the recruit as well?" he asked in a smooth tone that completely belied his annoyance.
The three Humans looked around themselves nearly comically at first, then began to really get close to look into each corner, behind each barrel and around each crate. Silveredge, knowing that sooner or later they would bump into her by accident, began moving toward the door, which was partially blocked by the brown haired mercenary. As she prepared to try scooting past him, she suddenly had a radiant idea sparked by her reaction to Ironfeather's sigil. She thought briefly of the glyph carved into the side of her mother's manse, then imagined the same sign appearing on the floor where Niku once lay. Moments later, the glyph actually appeared, first glowing a gentle, ethereal silver, then exploding into a radiant aqua blue. The jailer closest to the prestidigitation screamed, alarming the already-spooked men and bringing the mercenary down the rest of the stairs to peek back at what the problem was. The moment the stairwell was clear, Silveredge slipped up the stairs and out of the door- which was noticeably ajar.
Once back above-ground, on the first floor of the residence-like headquarters of the Sunfire Mercenaries, Silveredge stuck close to what few shadows were to be had with the late afternoon sun streaming through the windows above her head. At the center of the front room, between the front door and the hearth that gave its warmth to the entire place, Niku had sat all the way back on his haunches as though he would soon spring forward. Just in front of the hearth stood a shaggy haired Human male, naked to the waist, who was flanked by two hounds that were similar to Niku's build. Silveredge was struck by the fact that both dogs had swirling tattoos on their backs- they weren't the same as Niku's, and didn't even match each other, but the similarities were undeniable. Just after Silveredge noticed this, she heard the footsteps of the men coming up from the cellar, and moved farther into the corner on the left hand side.
"Call in!" the mercenary announced the moment his face was visible.
"Nothing, Bann," came a cry from upstairs, accompanied by thudding footsteps.
"We were checking the rooms, until Hammer tried to attack us," a voice came from somewhere over to Silveredge's left. When she looked over her shoulder, she saw four mercenaries clad in leather armor. "Snapped and growled, even at Howler. You'd think he'd never seen any of us before in his life."
"Well, move in and-"
"No, this is between me and Hammer," the Human at the center of the room said firmly, without taking his eyes away from Niku's gaze. "Down."
Niku continued to snarl menacingly, but didn't move a single inch. Itching to attack, the dogs on either side of the commanding Human struck up the familiar whine that threatened to become a bark.
"The recruit must be in here somewhere, gentlemen," Bann urged. "Split up and look for a Shadar-kai and the Tiefling. Howler, Hammer has her scent; he just slammed into her arms a few moments ago. Do you think you can turn him on her?"
The top-naked Human, whom Silveredge finally realized was Howler, moved a single step closer to Niku as he spoke. "She must be close. He's outnumbered, but holding his ground because thinks he's got to defend her."
"Bann!" one of the mercenaries hollered down from the second floor. "Coalwater Merc's gone! With two of the bum journals!"
"Interesting," the hazel-eyed mercenary mused, casting his gaze upward as though he would see Mi'ishaen himself. "One of the two of them- or both, even- must think they've come off with a haul."
Silveredge kept herself from sighing, and purposed deeply in her heart to teach Mi'ishaen to read at any cost. Taking a look at the area around her, she noted that the lower floor of the building only had four rooms- the small storage room that gave way to the cellar, a larger one that gave way to the dining room and kitchen, another- larger still- whose partially open door showed off fearsome animal-sized cages, and a room just off to her left whose door was closed. Making certain to keep herself in the shadows, she began to make her way toward the door closest to her.
"Down!" Howler hollered. His command was powerful enough to have effect on the dogs he wasn't actively talking to- they both ducked their heads instinctively, even in the middle of a plain snarl. Niku, however, merely barked twice, as though he were talking back to the Human in front of him.
"Careful now," Bann warned, drawing a small knife from his boot. "I'd rather put him down then have him harm you."
As though he hadn't heard, the dogmaster took two powerful steps forward, making voiced bark-sounds that resounded in the front room. Niku continued to growl, but backed up.
"You know," the Human said in a threatening tone. "I know you know who top dog is."
Silveredge pulled the one of the pins that had been in her hair out, allowing some of the braids that traveled down her head to begin unraveling at the nape of her neck. Gritting her teeth as she listened to the dogmaster attempt to lord over Niku, she began to work at the lock on the door.
"Can you get him into a docile enough state for us to chain him back up without injury?" the head mercenary asked warily. "Our recruit came for him once; she'll come back."
"Still here," Howler replied, talking to the mercenary while staring straight at Niku. "Got to be. No other reason Hammer'd be so stubborn."
Silveredge managed to get the lock to give just as the dogmaster fished a slice of meat out of one of the various pouches at his waist. The door swung easily on its hinges as though nothing else but the lock itself had been holding it back, but Silveredge managed to catch it before the movement gave her away. Slipping inside without closing it behind her, she found before her a small office-type place. She went for the smooth wooden desk immediately, and found that although the large drawer on the left was locked, only one of the three drawers on the right side were locked.
Outside the door, the dogmaster stood tall as he called the dog on his right to heel at his side merely by pointing downward. The dog padded forward and sat, then laid all the way down on the floor when given the signal.
"Me first. Then the dam," the dogmaster said emphatically.
He dropped his right hand completely and allowed the piece of meat to fall onto the floor, but forced the heeling dog to wait for an entire minute with a single upraised finger. As this went on, Bann made silent motions to command the rest of his men to back off the dog situation and search the building inside and out. The three cellar guards returned to the cellar, two mercenaries moved around the dogs and into the kitchen, four mercenaries went upstairs, and two more moved outside, leaving the boss to continue to keep an eye on things in the front.
Silveredge broke her pin in the second drawer's lock, but simply pulled the first drawer all the way out of the desk to get into the contents of the drawer below it. Spying two slender books, the Shadar-kai wedged her fingers between the slats that would have held the upper drawer in place to begin coaxing the things up and into her possession.
The dog on the dogmaster's left bounced forward more energetically than his wiser packmate, and was plucked on the head as a result. However, he heeled well, waited for the piece of meat, and received his reward just as she had done.
"Fresh stud," the dogmaster grunted. "He's second. You're third. Get down. Or I will put you down!"
There was, for a few moments, a terse impasse between the two wills. Then suddenly, Howler surged forward and put his hands on Niku's back to force him to sit. Niku bucked up immediately, snapping at the dogmaster's face, but the dogmaster responding by grabbing hold of his entire head. The dogs that had heeled so obediently before hopped to a standing position, snarling and barking their desire to punish the wayward puppy before them.
"You got him, Howler?" Bann asked, wanting to step in to the situation, even though he knew he could do no help.
In the large drawer, which claimed another one of Silveredge's pins before she could open it, lay a few opened missives, a wax seal, and a rather hefty money purse. The Shadar-kai took up the missives and the money purse, then went through the contents of both open drawers, which yielded twine and the wax that would have been melted onto any letters sent from that office. There was also a small box that Silveredge found to be the case for a flint. The Shadar-kai carefully put the top drawer back in its place, and arranged things neatly, so that it would not be immediately discovered that anything had been moved. She locked the large drawer easily, but the smaller drawer on the right broke her last pin before she was able to lock it. Without all three pins, she felt her wealth of hair slide quickly free of the braids that had held it hostage. She used the twine from one of the unlocked drawers to bind one of the books to her belly and one of them to her back, then managed to tie the money purse to her with the slack. The books were a bit too forgiving to look like a true bodice or girdle, in her opinion, but she knew that if she carried herself stiffly enough, no one would think to question what was beneath her clothing. Just as she turned to leave, she noticed that there were more than ten unusually marked straps on the inside of the door- with some searching, she found that one of them bore the exact design that had been inked onto Niku's back.
Suddenly, Niku laid down, his belly all the way on the floor. The dogmaster nearly fell with him, since he'd been putting most of his weight into holding the dog back, but caught himself before he hit the floor.
"What happened?" Bann charged at once, mere breaths away from charging at the animal with blade in hand.
"She did something," the dogmaster growled, nearly as savagely as the animals he commanded. "Come out, you beta bitch, so I can whip you both good!"
At the sound of Howler's demand, most of the mercenaries returned to the room. Bann was just going to give an order when another cry came from upstairs- one of pain. Suddenly, one of the mercs that had been searching the upstairs rooms fell over the banister, helplessly writhing in agony. In the back of his knee, a tell-tale black dart bit deeply.
"Coalwater merc," one of the other men noted in a low voice to his commander. "We better-"
And just at that moment, one of the brass candle chandeliers that gave the front room light clattered to the ground, striking a mercenary in the head and starting a small fire. While all three of the upstairs operatives rushed to the ground level to help their compatriot and to lift the heavy metal thing, Bann looked up into the rafters just in time to catch a retreating shadow.
"Beware- watch your heads!" he cried out at once, rushing past Howler, whose dogs whimpered pitifully.
Sure enough, a second chandelier dropped down, showering the area with splattering wax and tumbling candles. As some mercenaries looked up and others moved to stomp out the flames, another man fell prey to one of the Coalwater merc's black darts. Bann opted not to waste his voice on further orders or warnings, easily slipping down the stairs to the deserted cellar for his own reasons.
Silveredge darted out of the room that she was in, not minding about the shadows, and Niku leaped up to bound after her immediately. When she opened the front door to allow Niku to charge out before her, only Howler the dogmaster, who hadn't moved an inch even though he'd allowed both of his hounds to retreat to the safety beyond the door with the cages, actually noticed her.
The Shadar-kai and the hound ran together in the afternoon sun, as fast as the make-shift girdle would allow the two-legged creature to go, until both were far enough away from the Bann and his Sunfire Mercenaries to flop to the ground. Silveredge put her back against the wall of a house and allowed her head to fall back, so that she very fortunately caught the owner of the shadow that darted over her head.
"Oh, Mi!"
Mi'ishaen smirked to herself, begrudgingly allowing herself to warm at the nickname. "Yeah, I knew those jerks were no good," she replied as she pulled herself into a backflip that took her from the roof of the house to the ground. "They're actually rather thorough, as an organization. I had to really think to get out of there."
"So did I," a third voice soothed calmly. "We're quite fortunate that we're all rather good at what we do."
Slipping around the corner of the house on the other side of the alley, the male speaking pulled the thin black cloth mask that was over his face above his head to reveal a pleasant Elven visage. Based solely on the discoloration of his right eye's iris, Silveredge assumed that he was blind in that eye, and began self-consciously scooting toward his left.
"I don't know if 'fortunate' means what you think it means. Remember when you said you wanted to meet my friends, Edge?" Mi'ishaen smiled sheepishly, sitting down on the other side of Niku, who promptly nudged her with his snout. "Oh, hey, dog. Look, the next time I say 'Come on,' you should probably do it, what do you think?"
Niku made a rolling grunt noise, as though he were attempting express exasperation, and Silveredge had to keep herself from giggling at it. Mi'ishaen raised an eyebrow at him, and he put his head down on his paws in surrender.
"Well, it's good to meet you properly, Silveredge, and you, Hammer," the Elf smirked, squatting down himself. "I'm Shiv- well, outside, anyway. What do you say to a proper lunch- plain, calm, in a safe place- maybe an with inappropriate offer or two?"
"My lord is more than welcome to do as he wishes," Silveredge smiled, feeling herself somehow relieved to be privy to Mi'ishaen's associates. "We are both quite glad to make your acquaintance."
"Acquaintance? You're kidding me," Shiv laughed, eying Mi'ishaen with mock suspicion.
"Why does everyone assume I told her everything?" Mi'ishaen complained. "I told Dark she was smart; that she ought to be brought in on her own terms- and don't call the dog Hammer. That's not his name."
"Anymore," Silveredge added quietly, feeling the weight of the illustrated strap in her hand.
"Yes, well, you know Dark," Shiv shrugged, getting up and offering Silveredge a hand. "Three birds, one stone. Never less."
Silveredge got up easily, and Niku stood with her, sniffing at the hand that held the strap. Silveredge looked down at him with a question in her face, and was surprised at the answer. Wordlessly, she slipped the braided leather loop over his muzzle, jowls and ears, then fashioned a loop out of the other end of the strap for her wrist.
"Pfft, never mind if we accidentally kill each other," the Tiefling sighed, looking at the interaction and knowing that it probably meant more than she could understand.
"Nah, we wouldn't have killed each other," the Elf argued as he scanned the alleyway for guards. "You'd've made off with those journals, thinking they were real, and I'd've ratted you out to buy me more living time. You look for advantages, when you're a rogue- that's what she banks on. You look for chances to off people, and you're just a murderer."
"Pfft. Sell that to one Mister Selvien; see if he'll buy."
"Well, some of us die for our sins, don't we?" Shiv breathed quietly. "Plainclothes incoming. Meet me back at the Dragon's Jaws, and we'll figure out how to get your stuff out of that house."
"My lord may also want to have a look at the books the handmaiden has come away with," Silveredge suggested.
"See?" Mi'ishaen smirked wickedly. "C'mon, dog; to the tavern."
Niku began trotting at a leisurely pace, not quite reaching the end of the strap's length before Silveredge and Mi'ishaen thought to move behind him. And Shiv found himself watching the two rogues amble off, speaking in clips and phrases as they took each other's hand, for a full minute and a half before deciding to slip into the shadows to pull his mask back over his face.
The plainclothes guard, who had been too far to tell whether the interaction had been of a legal nature or not, huffed her frustration, but moved on to tail the two women. Her gut told her that this was the pair for which her commanding officer had put out the search warrant, and her gut was rarely wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment