by Noah Layton
But I would need more allies if I was going to truly build a formidable team.
That night we had left the balcony doors open, and the music from the taverns below echoed up to us in charming abundance.
The songs and the faint cheers from the night drinkers and the bohemian wanderers spilled into our top floor hideaway, and after the day’s riotous events my beautiful women drifted off to sleep.
I should have been tired, but as my mind drifted from future plans, my thoughts shifted and dwelled on one thing and one thing only; the Poison Stag.
With Bartram dead there were now two remaining, and I intended to take them both down. They would be afraid now, and with midnight approaching I intended to go hunting once again tonight.
I slid carefully from the bed, careful not to wake my women, and dressed into a set of my hunting gear, equipping my weapons and my hood and cowl, then headed out into the night.
My destination was the Poison Stag Headquarters, the exact place that I had followed Bartram to the sun-elf opium den from, but my objective this time was different.
Bartram was the only one out of the three that headed to a more remote part of the district after the day was done for them; he had hardly ever gone home, and getting to him when I did made sense.
But the other two were a different story. They were more unpredictable. Some would venture home, some would go out and drink until the sun rose, then stagger home, sometimes they all did one, sometimes the other.
They were without routine, and the only way that I would be able to track them down was by following them or catching them at their quarters, and I much preferred the former to fighting them on their own turf.
It had to be at night, and I couldn’t be seen.
I traced the streets, keeping my head down until I arrived in the familiar alleyway across the street from their headquarters. I timed it as I usually did, arriving just before midnight and waiting in the shadows for them to depart.
Waiting there and watching, I knew that with the proper surprise approach and the right tactics, there was a reasonable chance that I could take them both down.
But this wasn’t just about killing them. It was about striking fear into their hearts.
No lanterns were lit inside. I peeked my head out of the alleyway and looked up to a clock jutting from a building above.
It was just after midnight. They still hadn’t left.
Maybe I’ve missed them.
I had enough patience to wait as long as was necessary, and I did just that. Ten minutes. Fifteen. Half an hour.
Still nothing. Not even a shadow.
I crossed the street and rounded to the side of the building along the adjacent alleyway, glancing either way as I did. Nobody around.
I moved to the window and crouched beneath it, then slowly turned and ducked my head to look in. The innards of the building were still too dark for me to see.
I was patient, but I had no intention of coming here to accomplish nothing. Hell, I wouldn’t hesitate at bringing myself to the precipice of death and risk tumbling over the edge if it meant taking them down.
Staying low, I headed to the other side of the building to the back door. They kept this place securely-locked, but the lock on the backdoor had a lock that could be jimmied.
I fished out my lockpicking kit and took up the necessary tools. I teased the suspender into the top of the lock, then turned it into place using my tools.
It clicked open, and I waited for any sign of life; footsteps at the door, approaching voices…
But there was nothing.
I drew my sword and turned the handle slowly, wincing at the slightest click that it made, then quietly pushed it open just enough that I could slide through the gap.
The main room was just up ahead, and the door was standing slightly open.
I moved through the darkness, cautious steps, one after the other.
The tip of my sword touched the door. I pushed it open and prepared to fight.
‘What the hell…?’ I muttered as I looked around.
The room was empty. Papers and pieces of trash were scattered on the ground. A chair was overturned in the corner, but the rest of the furniture was gone. The noticeboard remained, but there was nothing pinned to it.
I crossed to the board and examined it. The pins were still in place, and tiny scraps of torn paper were plugged to each, as if somebody had ripped everything from it in a hurry.
Those cowards have bailed, I thought, shaking my head in disbelief.
Bartram’s death had evidently put the fear of god into them. They didn’t just suspect that it was me who was hunting them down; somehow they had convinced themselves of it.
But they didn’t need to be afraid of god; I was the only that would be striking them down any time soon.
As I stood in the dead silent room, though, I realised that the hunt was now on. They would be laying low and keeping their heads down.
Which meant that I was going to need to go where I really didn’t want to; their home turf.
***
I returned home to the hideout a short while later and climbed back into bed with the girls for some much-needed shut-eye. We slept late into the next day, awaking just after midday, and lounged about the apartment for a few hours.
‘We’re taking the night off,’ I said, putting my feet up in the desk and marvelling at the myriad stacks of gold piled on the wooden surface. ‘After all that happened yesterday we deserve a night out. I’m taking you girls on a date.’
‘Where are we going?’ Veronica asked inquisitively.
‘A musician friend of mine is playing a set over at a tavern nearby. We’ll get a private table, a nice bottle of whisky, some good food. It’ll be perfect.’
‘My, we are lucky,’ Veronica said, climbing out of bed in her underwear and crossing to the desk. ‘Look at all of this gold… I could just… Mmm…’
Veronica climbed onto the desk and stretched out on her back, rolling in the thousands of gold pieces that resided there. The carefully managed stacks that I had composed fell to pieces, scattering over the table and rolling onto the ground in their hundreds.
But Veronica seemed to be enjoying herself.
‘I’m guessing you like gold, too, huh?’
‘Not necessarily gold,’ she smiled. ‘Just shiny things.’ She smiled up at me in a daze as her eyes flickered open, but when she saw my unimpressed face she fell flat. ‘Sorry… Is my enthusiasm too much?’
‘It’s not that, it just took me ages to count all of that and organise it.’
‘Oh… Did you have a final count?’
‘Nope.’
‘Oo-h-h-h…’ Veronica said slowly. ‘Well, it’s a good thing we have a lot of it.’
‘Very true,’ I laughed. ‘This is a lucrative business.’
‘It certainly is,’ Cassandra said, leaning off the bed and snatching up a piece of gold from the ground that had rolled over to her. ‘Which makes me think that our date tonight has some ulterior motive.’
‘Why would you think that?’
‘Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned about you since I met you, it’s that business is always on your mind.’
‘That isn’t true. When you two are spinning my head with those perfect bodies of yours my mind certainly isn’t on business.’
‘I’ll take that as a compliment.’
‘I will definitely take it as a compliment,’ Veronica said, propping herself up on her arm to face me and spilling more gold onto the floor.
‘So are you sure there isn’t another reason we’re going to this tavern tonight?’
‘Technically it’s not business,’ I answered. ‘Last night I went out to my old guild’s headquarters. The place was deserted. They’ve bailed, and I haven’t got a clue where they’ve gone. Wargo is dumb enough to hide in the area where he lives, but Killian I’m not so sure about.’
‘Wow,’ Veronica said, ‘you scared them so much that they literally
abandoned their headquarters? That’s impressive.’
‘I don’t know if I’d call it impressive. They’re a bunch of cowards, and I killed the weakest out of all of them. I’m going to kill the two remaining, but first I need to find out where they are, and there’s only one man who can help me with that. It’s time to touch base with the eagle eyes of the streets.’
Veronica gladly washed, dried and pressed mine and Cassandra’s clothes before we headed out that night. While they were soaking, she retrieved a new outfit from her satchel seeing as she couldn’t exactly go out in her maid’s uniform, and definitely couldn’t go out in the one she had worn for me last night.
She donned a pair of tight shorts and a blouse that gripped her slim figure, as well as a pair of boots. She wasn’t a fighter, but this made her look like one, and a sexy one at that.
At dark we headed out to the Broken Stable, a tavern down the road from the Queen’s Steed. I walked through the doors with Cassandra and Veronica on my arms like I owned the place, with more than a few heads turning our way.
But with the number of weapons on my person and the dark look in my eyes, not a single individual dared to mess with me.
We took a seat in a secluded private booth at the back of the bar. From here I had a complete view of the tavern while very few had a view of us.
I didn’t expect my ex-guild members to come bursting through the door and kill me considering they were probably lying low, but after acting on my emotions last night I was kicking myself into shape. I had to stay disciplined, or I could get us killed.
‘What can I get for you?’ The goblin waiter asked as he appeared at our table, notepad in hand and pencil at the ready.
‘Illinthian’s whisky,’ I answered. ‘A double for each of us.’
‘Excellent choice.’
‘I think that I would prefer something sweeter,’ Veronica said. ‘Have you any schnapps?’
‘Rasperry, apple…’
‘Apple would be wonderful.’
He headed away and returned a few minutes later, just as Bungooli arrived and took his place on stage.
‘Hello, kind sirs and madams. My name is Bungooli, and I will be your entertainment for tonight, whether you like it or not.’
I couldn’t help but smile at the balls on my gnome friend. Whether it was confidence or he was just perpetually drunk I would never know, but over the next 45 minutes his set turned the place into a riotous happy uproar of spilled drinks, singing along and cheering.
Me and my women joined in from our private spot, knocking back our drinks until Bungooli finished amid raucous cheers. Some of the bohemian crowd even charged to the front and picked him up briefly, carrying him on their shoulders.
‘Put me down!’ He laughed drunkenly. ‘I’m terrified of heights! Put me down!’
They eventually obliged him, only doing so at the bar where several people bought him drinks. After downing several he headed over to our table and hopped onto the seats.
‘Drake! A pleasure to see you. I’m very glad you could make an appearance tonight.’
‘Don’t mention it, man. What are friends for?’
‘Cheers to that,’ he laughed, raising a toast. We all knocked our drinks together and drank them back. ‘I haven’t quite finished up that song I was writing about you yet, but I promise that I will have it done soon. You can have front row tickets when it is complete…’ His face suddenly took a serious turn, and he glanced around the room before leaning in closer to us, a lean that required him to stand on the seat. ‘But from whisperings that I have heard, your story is not yet over.’
‘Indeed it isn’t,’ I replied. ‘What have you heard?’
‘That your betrayers have bailed on their old headquarters and gone into hiding.’
‘I headed there last night under cover of darkness. No sign of them. They’ve fallen off the radar, probably because of Bartram’s death.’
‘Ahh yes… A peculiar incident.’
‘You heard about that?’
‘I caught wind of it. I don’t suppose you had anything to do with that, did you?’
‘I can’t confirm or deny anything,’ I said, winking at him and taking another sip of whisky.
‘Just as I thought. His death was a small story. It was buried fast under the other 50 murders that occur in this city every day. It was even more buried by that explosion that happened outside of the city yesterday. Did you hear about it?’
‘I think I was asleep when it happened,’ I lied, needing to keep my cover. ‘I saw the smoke, though.’
‘Everybody south of the Spire did. Perhaps a million citizens. That was dark elf property, you know? Some psycho decided to go after Odasa Merliah, a made member of the gang. Even you aren’t crazy enough to do something like that.’
‘Probably not,’ I said, feigning the whole thing. ‘What else have you heard?’
‘Dark elves are on edge, as are the other gangs. They’re out for blood, although I doubt they’ll find it. Nobody seems to have a clue who was responsible.’
‘One less gangster in the world, though, right?’
‘That it is,’ he nodded. ‘More to the point, though, I’m guessing you came here to find out about your old guild.’
‘That I did. Like I said, I know they bailed on their headquarters, but I have no idea where they’ve fled to. Have you heard anything?’
‘I’ve heard… A few things.’ Bungooli glanced around the tavern, checking that we weren’t being watched. ‘They’re all lying low, but Wargo has been spotted in the gambling dens in the Slums, burning through fat stacks of gold.’
‘I should’ve known,’ I growled. ‘The guy’s an animal. It’d make sense that he’d resort to his old ways when he’s afraid.’
‘Nobody’s seen him for a day or so, though. The rumour was that he had locked himself up in his quarters in the Slums after spending everything. I think he’s scared.’
‘I don’t blame him. He’s next on my list. Then it’s Killian.’
‘You’re going to go after your old boss, too?’
‘I won’t rest until they’re both dead.’
‘Be careful, Drake. Your old guild members might be small-timers, but the bosses of guilds are always backstabbers. That’s the only way they get to where they are, by doing some pretty messed up shit.’
‘I’ll keep my eyes open. You haven’t heard a word about Killian?’
‘Not a peep. He’s vanished.’
‘Well, he’s hiding somewhere,’ I remarked, knocking back my whisky. ‘And right now Wargo’s probably the only guy who will know where he is.’
15 – Midnight Hunt
The next day rolled around, and Cassandra and I headed planned to head out to a rotten part of the city. Wargo’s apartment was located in the Slums, a notorious gambler’s den where men went to lose their fortunes and kill their enemies with a single punch to the head.
Wargo was a brute if I had ever known one, and he was always the winner of hand-to-hand fights. He was the only one out of my old guild who often went hunting without a weapon; he preferred to use his hands to choke the life out of our targets, or to crush their skulls just enough to squash their brains, but not enough to make them unrecognisable.
I could probably count the number of occasions on which he had spoken on one hand beyond the murmurs and grunts that he often gave. He was reclusive and private, that much I knew, but beyond it he was a mystery.
I had only heard rumours of why he would hold up in the Slums, and it wasn’t just the gambling. This place was known for being particularly violent compared to other districts, and people went missing much more frequently there than anywhere else in the city.
And since I had known Wargo, I had heard that he had been responsible for more than a few of the disappearances.
No bounty posters had ever shown up for his alleged victims, but in a place like the Slums I doubted if even 90% of the suspicious deaths were reported, let alone their perpetrators caugh
t.
His intelligence was one thing that I could underestimate, and I did so freely, but his strength was something I had to be mindful of.
That was why, in the daylight hours preceding our trek to Wargo’s domain, we purchased a new rifle – one that Cassandra could wield, adding to her arsenal of weapons.
After purchasing it we trekked to the graveyard outside of the city and got some practice in. Her highly accurate skills made her a natural at firing a weapon, and within a few hours she was hitting targets from twenty yards off.
We journeyed back into the city, prepared ourselves at the hideout, and after night had securely fallen, we journeyed to the Slums.
Cassandra I crossed through alleyways until we reached our destination. Stacked buildings leaked unknown fluids from their corners, dripping constantly into the mire of the road, and old drunks moved dimly past us as we kept our hoods up and our heads down.
‘Why would anybody choose to live in a place like this?’ Cassandra asked me quietly, glancing over at a trail of blood that led into the darkness of an alleyway, lit by a nearby street lantern.
‘Because this is the natural habitat for some people. The underbelly of society, where the disgusting side of people exposes itself proudly in the streets in all manners. People don’t wind up here by accident. They choose to come here.’
‘I guess we should keep our guards up.’
‘Definitely.’
‘I wouldn’t exactly call this a date compared to last night, either.’
‘Hopefully it’ll be a little more exciting,’ I said as we turned a corner. ‘Okay, hold up here.’
We paused behind a street corner and ducked our heads out to look at the block of apartments across the street.
‘You see that window up there? The only one that’s actually closed?’
‘Yeah.’
‘That’s Wargo’s place.’
‘It looks abandoned.’
‘Most of the buildings around here are. Nobody actually calls a lot of the quarters home. They’re occupied by squatters, which is going to work to our advantage. I’m going to head up to his floor and see what the situation is. I need you wait across the street with your rifle. Climb that fire escape and get a shot on his window.’