“Easy, friend,” he rumbled.
“Shut up, Raven,” I said. “You don’t speak for everyone here.”
I glared at him too, but the twins moved over to stand near him. We faced off, Raven and the twins on one side, MM, Brindar and I on the other.
“Enough,” Lord Wellingsly said. He hadn’t raised his voice, but it took on a new, harsher tone. “You will work with whomever I tell you to work with, or you will not work at all. Ever. Is that clear?”
Raven continued to stare at me, and didn’t bother to answer his Lordship. That didn’t go over well.
One of his aides stepped forward, a bundle of papers in his arms. He shuffled through them, took one out and showed it to Raven. He was always pale, but if possible, Raven’s face turned even more ashen, and he dropped his gaze.
“Let’s get this over with,” he muttered.
I have no idea what that aide showed Raven that day, or what else what in that pile of papers, but I suspect that they had information to make any of us comply.
“Good,” Lord Wellingsly said, “Now that that unpleasantness is out of the way, we can continue. I expect you all to work together, to track down whatever this Nuisance is, and to eliminate it. I will accept nothing less. You have three days. In return, you will be very well compensated, and have the gratitude of the Crown.”
With that pronouncement, he turned on his heels and left, trailed by his two aides and the Watch officers, who hadn’t said a word during the whole proceedings.
“Wow,” I heard Sarge say, when they were gone, “I have to say, Raven, I don’t know if you’re more brave or stupid. My money’s on stupid, but what do I know?”
Raven just glowered at him.
Since it was still morning and the attacks all occurred in the evening hours, we agreed to meet back at the watchhouse shortly before sundown. In the meantime, we would each try to think of a plan that would allow us to get close to the murderer.
MM and I walked out together. We didn’t go far when the dwarf caught up with us.
“You’re Grandfather, right?” he asked. His voice was deep and rough, more like MM’s than like mine.
“I am,” I said, and stuck out my hand. “Pleasure.”
He looked at it for a second before taking it.
“We’ll see,” he said.
I was thinking of returning home, but I noticed that MM was steering us toward a tavern. The Executioner’s Axe catered to those of us in the weapons business, and not so much the spell casting types. And it was exclusively human. MM would fit right in, and wasn’t unknown there. Brindar, on the other hand, would stand out.
He hesitated before going in, and MM noticed.
“No worries, my friend.” A huge smile split his face. “You’re a guest of mine.”
He entered the building, Brindar right behind and I followed up. There were some dark looks at the dwarf, but a glance at MM was enough to make even the toughest in there back down.
We passed the rest of the day searching for the bottom of several mugs of ale, although I knew better than to try to keep up with MM. That was another early lesson he taught me and that I never forgot. Brindar, however, seemed to have no problem and matched him mug for mug with no apparent effects.
We talked shop as we drank, both reminiscing about old cases, and filling each other in on the newer ones. Brindar did the exact same thing that I did, and MM used to, only his Board would sometimes contain human nuisances. After hearing what some of them did, I had no issues with that.
What we did not do, was come up with a brilliant plan to find our air-borne killer.
Later on, as the sky began to darken, we returned to the watchhouse. Raven was there already, and the twins came in shortly after.
“Anyone have any ideas on how we’re going to find our killer?” I started.
None of us did. We weren’t off to a good start.
Filene spoke up after a few moments.
“Actually,” she said, “I may have an idea. We all use the roof tops, don’t we? Or at least those of us who can get up there do.”
She said that last while looking at Brindar. For his part, Brindar stared back at her, expressionless.
“Why don’t we go up on them, spread out across the city, and keep our eyes open. Concentrate on seeing the killer, not so much trying to catch them. If one of us sees it, we follow it; try to get back to where it’s holing up. Then we can tell the others and we’ll all go in and take it out.”
I nodded. That seemed like as good a plan as any. My only thought was that if Raven was the one to see the killer, he’d try to take it on himself, but that would be his problem.
We split up and headed for various parts of town, each to take a roof and keep an eye out. I headed for Orc Town, where I could get up on the roof of the Jarlson compound. That was a fairly tall building, and since some of the attacks occurred in Orc Town, I wasn’t concerned with the Jarlson clan having a problem with this.
By the time I got up there, the moon was beginning to rise. It was peaceful on the rooftop as I looked out over the city. I couldn’t see too far, as most of the buildings nearby were the same height, but it did give me a vantage over a much larger area. I didn’t know the twins very well, but Filene had a good idea with this.
As the night crawled on, my thoughts wandered. Life changed a lot for me over the last few years. My whole profession changed, not only in the way I thought about it, but in its entirety. Here I was, actually working with a non-human, rather than blindly hunting them down. Lilly changed me in other ways. She made me happy, and left me wanting to be a better person, as she was. I realized as I stood my vigil that I was now of the mind-set that life, all life, was precious, and deserving of being protected. Maybe that was why the thought of that little kid on Silver Tree Road being carried up into the sky stayed with me so much.
Suddenly, a scream split the night, not far from where I was. I had been wool-gathering, and if our killer came in by air again, I missed them. Cursing, I spun around, trying to locate the source of the noise. I scanned the nearby rooftops, looking for some sign of something rising up between them, but there was nothing.
Then, it was there. On the edge of Orc Town, a shape came up from the streets. It was roughly man-shaped, but bigger, more like the size of an ogre. Two gigantic wings flapped as it clawed its way skyward. It was too dark for me to see what it was, but I pulled my gun anyway and fired at it. If the metal ball hit it, I had no idea. There was no screech, no sudden flutter in its flight. It kept rising, until it leveled out and began to soar away over the rooftops.
I ran, leaping from one building to the next, glad that here in Orc Town the compounds were added on to so much that I could do that. I was keeping the shape in sight, but it was slowly pulling away. Soon, I would run out of rooftops, and I’d have to try to keep it in sight from the ground, a much harder proposition.
I heard a shout, and looked around to see MM doing the same as me, but also pointing back. I turned to see what he was pointing at, and saw another of these same shapes, soaring across the city, with Raven hot on its heels. So, there were at least two of the killers, which made sense considering the number of murders.
Raven’s course came closer to our own, which told me that the two killers were heading in the same direction. He reached the roof in front of me at the same time I did, and a moment later, MM was there as well. It was the end of the line. From there, the city opened up, with fewer buildings and more spaces between them. We could do nothing but watch helplessly as the winged shapes disappeared.
We returned the watchhouse, dejected, and for once, even Raven had nothing to say. When we got there, the twins were already present. They told the same story that we did, but they were in a wholly different part of the city. They also chased a winged figure until they couldn’t anymore.
But all that was something to go on. I asked the night desk sergeant if he had a map of the city, which we spread out in front of us.
“I
was here,” I said, marking Orc Town on the map, “and I followed it this way.” I drew a line straight from Orc Town to where we were forced to give up the chase. “MM? What about you?”
He put down a massive finger, showing me where he started, and we drew another line showing his chase, then did the same for Raven, and for the twins.
“There we go,” I said. “They were all headed for that one part of town.”
“Not that much help though,” MM said. “We had to stop too early. There’s a lot of city left between where we all stopped.”
I looked and MM was right. The twins were on the other side of town, but there was a huge chunk in the middle where the killers could have gone to ground.
Unexpectedly, it was Raven who spoke next.
“Still, it’s better than it was. We can do the same thing tomorrow night, and maybe we’ll catch them going out too. Narrow it down even more that way.”
“Not necessary,” a voice said.
Brindar was standing in the doorway, his axe in one hand and a dripping head held in the other. The head was gruesome, not only because it was a head with no body attached, but the very features. The lips curled back over sharp fangs, there were bat like ears that protruded on each side of it, and the eyes bugged out, even in death. The flesh was a mottled gray color, like living stone.
“I know where they are,” Brindar said.
We all stood in stunned silence. Finally, MM spoke.
“How…how did you manage that?”
For once, Brindar actually smiled.
“While you were all on the rooftops, I used what I had to my advantage. I pretended to be a child, lost and wandering, figuring that if they were predators, as we thought, they might come to me. One did. It thought it had an easy meal. Instead, it met Biter. But before that, I saw where it was coming from.”
He looked lovingly at his axe, which told me what I needed to know. It was definitely an Ultimate Weapon.
“Where are they then?” I asked him.
He looked at me for a second and said, “Follow me.”
We trailed after Brindar, winding through the city streets. As we went on, I began to get an uncomfortable feeling. I knew this part of town, and was just there for the first time in a long while the other day. I kept telling myself that it couldn’t be so, but sure enough Brindar led us right to the Temple of the Good God.
He pointed up, and we craned our necks to look at the bell tower. At first we saw nothing, but then one of the winged shapes swooped down, and landed on the side of the tower, its claws holding tight to the stone work. It looked down on us, and we could see its eyes, glowing a sickly green in the darkness. It made a hissing noise, scuttled across the face of the tower and disappeared through the hole into the bell chamber.
“No,” I whispered. “This can’t be.”
“What’s wrong,” MM asked me.
“This is Father Magnus’ temple,” I said. “Do you know him?”
“Can’t say that I do.”
“MM, he’s an honestly good person. I mean, like really good. There’s no way he’s in on this.”
“Maybe he doesn’t know,” Raven said.
I was stunned all over again. First Raven was optimistic about the results of our efforts that night, and now he was giving someone the benefit of the doubt? He must have noticed the look on my face.
“You’re not the only one who knows people, Grandfather,” he said, and started for the door.
We all trooped into the interior of the temple, looking around as we went. There were a few petitioners here, seated on those long benches that they have, lost in their own reflections. Up at the front was another priest of the Good God, busy doing something that was lost on me.
“Excuse me, Father,” MM said.
The man turned to us, a beatific smile on his face. He took all of us in, without a second glance at Brindar.
“Can I help you, my children?”
“We need to see Magnus,” I told him. “We know it’s late, but it’s important.”
He bowed his head slightly, and quietly padded away.
The six of us stood around awkwardly, looking at the inside of the temple; the various statues and wall hangings depicting the life of the Good God, or his guidance to his people. It was all very calming and I had a hard time reconciling what I was seeing with the horrors that we knew entered this very building.
A few minutes later, Father Magnus appeared.
“Hello Duke. And Raven. Nice to see you both. And who are your friends?”
Soooo…Father Magnus knew Raven? It was my night to be surprised.
We made the introductions, and as with the other priest, Magnus showed no signs of being ill at ease with a dwarf being in his temple. Instead, he spoke to Brindar in his own language, the harsh consonants sounding strange coming out of his mouth. Brindar was pleased and responded in kind, adding a bow as a final measure of respect.
“Now,” Magnus said, “what can I do for you?”
“When’s the last time you were in the bell tower?” I asked him.
He was caught off guard by the question.
“It must be years now. Without the bells working, there really isn’t any reason. As a matter of fact, I can’t say I’ve been to the upper level at all in the last couple of years.”
“How about anyone else?” Raven asked him.
“I imagine Roderick has been up there. He does the upkeep to the place, he has for years. I would think that he’s been up there to check on the condition of the roof or what have you. Why do you ask?”
Raven and I looked at each other. For once, we were truly on the same side, and neither of us wanted to cause this good man any pain.
“Would you come with us?” Brindar asked him.
Father Magnus followed us outside, and we all stood looking up at the bell tower. We waited for a few minutes, and then one of the winged creatures squeezed out of the hole, crawled across the face of the tower and let go. It plummeted toward the ground, then the huge wings spread and caught the air, and it soared away over our heads with a triumphant screech.
Magnus reeled back when the monster appeared, his hand clutching at a religious symbol that he wore hung around his neck.
“By the grace of the Good God,” he whispered. “What was that?”
“We don’t know,” I replied. “But there’s more than one of them, and they’re holing up in your bell tower.”
There was no doubting his reaction, even if you didn’t know Father Magnus. He truly didn’t know that his temple had become the nesting place for a monstrous evil.
“I think we need to talk to this Roderick,” MM rumbled.
Father Magnus stared at us.
“He’s not here. I haven’t seen him in a few days, now that I think about it.”
His eyes were wide with horror as they looked up at the bell tower again.
“Show us how to get up there,” I said.
Magnus showed us to a heavy wooden door located at the back of his temple, which led to a winding staircase. Cold air flowed out when we opened it, and there was a skittering noise from the darkness above.
“Bar this door, priest,” MM said. “And don’t open it again unless one of us calls for you.”
We headed up the stairs, the darkness enveloping us as Magnus shut the door behind. He told us that the second floor was a large open space, spanning the entirety of the floor below, and that the ladder leading to the bell chamber was at the other end, near the front of the temple. There were windows, which on this night of the full moon should help us to see.
But the stairway was pitch dark, and we needed to work our way up it by feel. The rough, stone steps climbed in a circular pattern. If torches lit the way at one point, they didn’t now. MM led, followed by Raven, the twins, and then myself. Brindar brought up the rear, Biter at the ready.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity of groping our way along, we came to another door. MM stopped to make sure we were all rea
dy. I pulled my gun, but I didn’t know what it was that we were facing, so I didn’t set it to anything. The little metal balls would hurt, and could cause damage certainly, but not nearly as much as I wished they could.
When all was ready, MM threw open the door and rushed through, hurrying to make room for the rest of us to come through in support. There was no need. If the second floor of the temple was a large open area at one time, it was no longer so. There were crude walls erected, made of old wood, pieces of brick, and even scraps of old cloth. Pillars were evenly spaced throughout the level, holding the roof up.
And everywhere were the gray skinned, winged monsters.
The smell was horrible, and I couldn’t tell if it came from the monsters themselves, or from the bodies that were strewn about, some whole, some in pieces, and a few poor souls still feebly moving. My bile rose at the same pace as my anger.
I strode forward, aimed my gun and fired, taking one of them in the back. It screeched as it fell to the floor, clawing at the small of its back where the metal ball hit it. The noise caused others to look around; where they spotted the six of us standing near the door to the staircase. With a noise like the gates of hell opening, they surged toward us.
Now it was chaos. MM still had much of the strength, speed and stamina that made him so effective as a Nuisance Man when he was younger. His sword made a huge swathe as it swung through the air, taking off arms, wings and heads with equal ease. If any got inside his guard, he punched, or grabbed and throttled, leaving a pile of bodies around him.
The twins were effective as a unit. Filene ran among them, two sharp knives in her hands, stabbing and cutting. The knives did damage, cutting into the stony flesh, but caused few casualties. But she caused the monsters to turn their attention to her, so that Jasco, who stayed near the door, could send arrows into those who were concentrating on his sister. He never missed, his missiles finding their marks in the backs of heads that were turned away from him.
For the first time, I saw Raven fight, and he was impressive. His dark clothes let him blend into the shadows, and he used that to stay around the edges of the battle. When opportunity presented, he would step out of the shadows, his strikes quick and efficient. I suspected that if these foes were less occupied, they’d have an easier time keeping track of him, but for now, his method was working.
Duke Grandfather- The Whole Story Page 24