Finally, there was only one left, “yog drkath, yog drkath…” But it sounded weak and ineffectual. I passed my sword through its long, lolling, speaking tongue and the small white dog that I first saw the other day stood before me. It looked at me, and I stared back at it, wondering if this one started it all, or was it the first victim of whatever was doing this to them?
Unlike the others, this dog didn’t run. It sat on its haunches and tilted its head as it regarded me. I didn’t move, unwilling to kill a dog when I didn’t know if it was truly a monster or not. After a moment, it seemed to make up its mind about something, got up, and slowly walked away.
As it did, it glanced back, and it may have been a trick of the light, but I thought for a moment that its eyes flashed red.
Wow. That was something. The buzzing was back in my head, along with the voice that I was beginning to find increasingly obnoxious.
“Where were you this time?” I snarled.
Sorry, got distracted. That was the plan. Then, you had it in hand.
“Glad you think so!” I was still shaken by the things I saw, and my leg still felt numb.
Some sword you got there.
“Yeah.” It looked like a normal every-day sword, but Father Magnus must have really done something amazing to it.
Aren’t you glad you had it with you? the voice asked.
“What are you? Fishing for a thank-you? I always have it with me. The city’s a dangerous place.”
Still. You were told…
I shook my head and limped home, wanting nothing more than to fall into bed and hopefully let the world go away for a while.
GETTING TIRED
Duke settled back in his chair, looking at the fire. Silence reigned in the room, until it was broken by the young man.
“That’s a pretty strange story. Did you ever figure out what was going on with the dogs?”
“Have you ever known me to leave a story half-way finished?” his grandfather replied. “Of course, I did. But it took a while. Some other things happened first.”
“And all of this is leading up to you getting the gun? Somehow?”
“I did warn you that it was a long tale.”
Duke stood and stretched, then reached out his hand to Lilly. “But for now, that’s enough. Go home, young man. It’s getting late and my old bones are weary. I’ll tell you more when you come again.”
The young man scrambled to his feet. “Alright, I’ll be here tomorrow, then. Does that work?”
“Of course, it does.” Lilly kissed her grandson on the cheek. “We’ll see you then.”
Smiling, the young man took his leave.
Duke sat back down and pulled Lilly onto his lap. She placed her head on his shoulder and stared into the flames with him.
“I remember some of this,” she said quietly. “I remember the Nuisance Men disappearing, but I never knew why.”
Duke nodded. “It was a strange time.”
“This really is leading up to how you got the gun, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely,” Duke said. “Stay with me.”
“I have so far.”
The next morning, there was a knock at the door, and their grandson came in, tablet and stylus in hand.
“All set?” he asked, sitting at the table.
Lilly brought over three cups of coffee and took a seat herself. She looked at Duke and raised an eyebrow.
“Man can’t even ease into the day anymore,” Duke grumbled. “Fine, here we go then.”
THE RESTLESS DEAD
The rain was coming down pretty heavily when I went to the watchhouse. It was two days after the events with the dogs, and I had taken a little time to relax, reflect, and get over the weirdness. I hadn’t even gone out to meet up with Jessup, opting to stay in and have a mug or three of ale near the fire instead.
But now it was time to get back out there. Get back on the horse, as they say.
Besides, I was now feeling pretty good about myself. Not only had I taken care of business when it mattered, but I rid the city of the ghoul, even if hardly anyone was aware of it in the first place. But that’s a good thing, right? That means it was handled before it became a big deal.
And, no voices. Not a whisper or a hint of a buzz in my head since that day. I wasn’t foolish enough to believe it was gone, but I would take the break. It was nice to have the only voice rattling around in my brain be my own, a thought which brought a smile to my face as I walked in, despite the weather.
“Hey, Sarge.”
There was a grunt in my general direction. As usual, he didn’t bother to look up from his newssheet. Every time I saw the guy his nose was stuck in one of those things. I was beginning to think he was addicted to them.
“Anything good today?” I asked him, but I wasn’t expecting an answer, or even really listening at this point. My attention was focused on the Board, which was still overflowing with notices. Apparently, the disappearance of most of the Nuisance Men was still going on.
“Sarge? This is getting serious, isn’t it? Have you guys checked into this Lord Pennywithers guy?”
“Trying to tell us our job, Grandfather?”
I turned back to him. “No, not at all. It’s just strange. Even you said so a few days ago.”
He glanced at the Board, then back at me. Then he returned to reading his newssheet, but, “It’s being looked into, alright?”
I nodded. “Good. Keep me posted?”
“Why?”
“I’m curious. This feels off to me. And you can act nonchalant all you want, but I know it’s bugging you too.”
I didn’t give him a chance to come back at me with a smart comment. Sarge had a tongue on him, but I didn’t feel like hearing it at the moment. Instead, I walked to the Board.
Everything I saw the other day was still there, plus more. The notices were pinned over the top of each other, sometimes as many as four or five deep. There were all sorts of creatures up there, a lot of them still out of my league.
But, as I said, I was feeling pretty good about myself. The ghoul had been tricky at first, and yes, Father Magnus had a lot to do with my ability to finish the job, but it was me who thought to go to him in the first place. Working smarter, not harder, that was me.
I paged through the notices, disregarding the goblins and even the orcs. I wanted something different, something that would be a challenge, that would make for a good story the next time I sat in a tavern with Jessup.
Ah. Now this was interesting. A whole group of lizard-men, listed as a single nuisance, by no less then several concerned citizens of the Greenway District. This was a win-win for me. I could take the job, eliminate the lizard-men, and stop off at the Purple Ettin when I was done for a well-deserved reward.
The lizard-men were running a protection racket. Simple enough. Go to someone’s door, knock and offer them protection from their front steps being defiled. No one pays of course, so the lizard-man goes away. But then, when the home-owner comes out, he finds his front steps to be covered in slimy, foul smelling excrement. At that point, a whole crew of lizard-men arrive, and offer to clean it up for the offended resident, for a price double that of the “protection” offered earlier.
It only took a time or two before they were being paid on a regular basis. Anything to keep the filth away from the homes of the well-to-do.
Now, this wasn’t really serious in and of itself; just gross and unpleasant. But the lizard-men were too greedy to stop there. Soon, it became protection against break-ins, or protection for your child while they walked to school, and it was there that they crossed the line.
Befouling someone’s steps or breaking in to their home and doing the same to their kitchen, those are one thing. But holding a child down and doing the same to them was something entirely different. And that was their new game.
Silly of them. The residents of Greenway had money, sure, that was one of the things that made them attractive targets to these guys. But they also had enough m
oney to put up a pretty substantial fee for the lizard-mens’ removal.
“Taking this one, Sarge,” I said, as I walked out the door.
Grunt.
I resisted the urge to stop in at the Ettin on my way into the Greenway district. While it would have been nice, part of my new attitude was to get the work out of the way first. I wasn’t sure I liked that aspect of the new me, but I was willing to give it a shot.
I located the house named on the notice and picked my way through the foul-smelling piles of slime that littered the steps leading to the front door. A haggard woman opened to my knock, her fingers pinching her nose firmly shut.
“Duke Grandfather, Nuisance Man,” I said.
“Really?” Her eyes went up and down me. “Don’t look like a Duke. Or a grandfather, for that matter.”
“It’s just a name, ma’am,” I replied with a sigh.
“Sure, whatever you say. You here about those lizard-guys?”
“Yes, the notice said to come here for the fee.”
“Yeah, I’ve got it, but you seem awful young. You sure you can get the job done?”
“I’ll get rid of the lizard-men, but don’t expect me to come back and clean up your steps.”
“Not even if we double the fee?”
“Not even for triple.”
She frowned. “Hold on, then,” and shut the door. I cooled my heels, trying not to breathe too deeply while I waited for her to come back.
“Here,” she said, when the door opened again. “We’ll get someone else for the clean-up. Know any rat-men?”
I shuddered. “No!”
She shrugged. “No harm in asking. Figured you ran into all sorts in your line of work.”
She watched as I picked my way down the steps again, and walked up the street. The lizard-men left a pretty clear trail. Such a clear trail, as a matter of fact, that I wondered why they needed a Nuisance Man at all. Why hadn’t the Watch come and taken care of this?
Then I saw it. Of course. The trail ended at a large sewer grate. There was no way the Watch was going to go down there. Those guys earned a pay-check and that was it. Same money whether they went down into the foulness or stayed up here warm and dry in the street.
Even if today wasn’t the day for staying dry, I thought, as I looked up at the steadily falling rain. Great. It was going to make the sewers flow faster, too.
The grate was loose from being used a lot by the lizard-men. I easily pried it up, wiggled through the opening and dropped down about four feet, landing in fast-moving, foul-smelling water.
The odor was so bad that it permeated everything. It felt like a thick blanket that invaded your mouth and nose with every breath. I gasped, and then immediately wished I hadn’t. Suddenly glad that I hadn’t stopped at the Ettin before coming, I bent and contributed my breakfast to the flow.
I felt a tiny bit better after that, but the smell was still so oppressive that it was all I could do to move. But if I didn’t, the job would never be done, and I’d never get out of here.
Light flooded in from the open grate behind me, and from others spaced along the street, so I could somewhat see. I looked downstream and up but saw no sign of the lizard-men. The trail was gone, of course, and one direction was as good as another, so I headed up-stream, deeper into the Greenway District, figuring that maybe I’d catch them returning from another victim’s house.
I walked along, counting grates so that I could find my exit when I was done, and keeping my ears open. Before too long, I heard them, laughing and hissing to each other in their own language.
There was really nowhere to hide, so I drew my sword and flattened against the wall, hoping they’d be occupied and not notice me until they were about on me.
Six of them were moving down the river of filth, the same number that was on the notice, so this was the whole gang. They half-walked, half-swam, not bothered in the least by what they were swimming in. All of them stood about four feet high, with dull, dark green scales covering what I could see of their bodies. Yellow eyes peered forward over elongated snouts, which would open to reveal sharp teeth.
Lizard-men grow throughout their lives. Older ones can be quite large, with some the size of horses reported from outside the city, living in swamps that they rule over as their personal kingdoms, driving out rivals with a ruthless efficiency. The smaller, weaker ones ended up places like this, where they could find a corner of the city to stay out of sight in, usually doing the type of work that no-one but a rat-man would do.
These guys apparently had enough of that and decided to branch out. Unfortunately, they chose the wrong place to do it.
Their eyes were keyed to recognize movement, allowing them to stay motionless, waiting for prey to move in front of them. While they certainly could see me standing still, their minds were more attuned to looking for motion, so they never noticed me until I moved.
“Stop right there!” I commanded, stepping forward through the filthy water and confronting them.
With a terrified snort, they dove, enmasse, disappearing beneath the water.
Why did I do that? What possessed me to step out and confront them, rather than simply take them out? By the time they knew I was there, I could have killed at least two of them. Instead, they were now fleeing, leaving me no choice but to chase after. And down here, the advantage was theirs.
Maybe it was because of their size. Lizard-men aren’t human, but even though their faces don’t resemble ours, their bodies kind of do. And they reminded me of teenage boys, out causing mischief. In reality, they were fully-mature, and well aware of what they were doing.
I ran downstream, crisscrossing the flow as I went, hoping to bump into them, but they could swim much faster than I could run. Even had I been willing to take the plunge into that water, which I wasn’t, they still would have easily outpaced me.
Down at the far end of the tunnel was a drop off, the water going over in a rush, and the current moving faster. The tunnel dropped deeper beneath the street too, so the light was dimmer, but the grates had ladders leading down from them, so that whatever poor soul had the job of maintenance could descend.
I grabbed one, and pulled myself up out of the current, keeping my eyes on the drop-off ahead.
One by one, six heads appeared, bobbing in the current. They looked back at me, and this time, because they were trying, they easily spotted me hanging from the ladder. They made a hissing noise that I took to be laughter, and with a couple of obscene gestures, let themselves be carried over the falls and away.
I cursed, but climbed the ladder, pushed the grate away and reemerged onto the street. My mood was as foul as the smell coming off me as I went back to the house from before and returned the money. This was the second time in only a few days that I needed to do that, and I wasn’t happy about it.
The rain didn’t do much to wash the stench off me either. There would be no stopping in at the Purple Ettin.
I stunk. I stunk so badly that as I walked I could envision it coming off me in little waves, poisoning the very air. I was worse than the steps I climbed up to give my fee back, which was evident on the face of the woman who opened the door, grabbed the money and quickly slammed it again. People avoided me as I walked toward them, their faces masks of horror and revulsion. Except for the poor guy that I ran right into as I came around a corner. My odor was preceding me, even in the rain, and people were giving me a wide berth, so I wasn’t paying much attention to where I was walking. My mind was on other things, such as how I could get to those lizard-men, now that it wasn’t only a possible paycheck, but personal.
“Excuse me,” I muttered when I collided with him.
He said something in return, but he either had a mouth full of something, or was trying to talk through held-breath, because whatever it was came out as a string of unintelligible syllables. For a moment, the stench got even worse, which I attributed to more of the horrible sewer water being squeezed from my clothes from the collision.
&
nbsp; I glanced back to make sure he wasn’t hurt, but he was already lurching around the corner. His strange, shuffling gait made him seem like he was wounded, or having a hard time walking.
“You okay?” I called out, but he didn’t turn. Instead, he let out without another mush-mouthed sounding utterance and disappeared around the corner.
Well, he was walking and sort of talking, so I guessed he was alright and at the moment, all I really wanted to do was get home and into something cleaner. It was still pouring when I arrived, so there weren’t that many people around to watch as I stripped down to my underclothes, leaving the rest pooled in a sodden heap on the street outside.
Cleaned, dried and warm, I sat in front of my fire and drank an ale. I wasn’t in a great mood but wasn’t as despondent as I might have been. Yes, I messed up today, and let a potential fee slip through my fingers. But the fact of the matter was that it was stupid to go into the sewers after the lizard-men in the first place. What was I thinking, trying to confront them in their element like that? I would have been far better off waiting around Greenwood, watching inconspicuously for them to come back and try their scam.
Sometimes, my impatience still gets the better of me, but I was learning. I resolved to go back tomorrow and try again. And this time, I wouldn’t bother taking the fee until I did the job. That wasn’t altruism; just that, if it came to it, the fewer people who knew I failed the job two times in a row the better.
I took a good quaff of my ale and laid my head back, shutting my eyes. It was nice here, even if I did sort of want to go out to a tavern. But the rain hadn’t let up. If anything, it was coming down harder than ever, and I wasn’t up to getting soaked all over again.
“Nice fire,” a voice said. “Got another mug of that ale?”
“Oh, no,” I muttered, but kept my eyes closed, waiting for that buzzing feeling that came with the voice now.
Duke Grandfather- The Whole Story Page 61