Hemlock (The Manhunters Book 2)

by Jesse Teller

  The beast nodded. “Get you there,” the great man said. “I will get you there. We will get you there. I promise.”

  He reached out and snatched Aaron up in one huge sweep. The cyclops held him out like a toy he was inspecting. He looked Aaron up and down like he was examining a piece of meat. With alarming suddenness, he pulled Aaron into a great hug that broke three of Aaron’s ribs.

  Deep in the depths of the soapy embrace, in the midst of the flesh and meat of the hug, Aaron smiled.

  Sisalyyon’s Friend

  Long days, longer nights. Rayph could not tell but by the changing of the guard what day it was, and even then he could not be sure. Toc-a-roc was a clever man. He would move his guard’s postings up or back to manipulate Rayph’s sense of time. There was no way to decipher any of the information Rattlesnake let filter through Rayph’s bars. He had nothing he could possibly do except wait for his crew to stumble into Toc-a-roc’s trap.

  As far as Rayph knew, Dreark had yet to be discovered. He was a feature in the jail, often coming in to let himself be seen. He was given no opportunity to speak or relay any kind of message save what eyes could tell, and even that had to be sly. Rayph watched it all go by him, knowing his vampiric foe grew in numbers every night with no one holding them in check.

  Toc-a-roc called a meeting of his team right there in the office outside Rayph’s cell. They both knew then all of it was subterfuge.

  Harlow came in with his wolf at heel. He sat cross-legged on the floor and the wolf sat beside him. Grelow, Harlow’s much older brother, leaned against the bars of Rayph’s cell. The keys were within reach, but Rayph knew better than to attempt to grab them.

  Tes walked in with all the grace Rayph had come to expect from her. She wore a blue evening gown, laced at the throat with yellow, and carried a matching fan. She was given a chair from down the hall, and she dropped into it carefully and opened her fan to waft away the stench of the dungeon.

  Delaman, Toc-a-roc’s mage, entered. His black and silver robes flowed around him, and his shrewd eye and hook nose gave him the appearance of a raptor. In fact, Rayph knew that was precisely what he was. A great hunting bird, like some eagle or falcon. The mage had been hunting men as long as Rayph had known him. He was efficient and deadly, cunning and quick. Rayph had never seen or heard of the man making a mistake.

  Tomlin walked in with Dissonance in shackles. She had suffered a blow across the face that left behind a black bruise and a swollen eye. She did not look at Rayph, did not speak or even meet Rayph’s eye.

  Tomlin kicked Harlow as he walked in, and Harlow smacked his leg as he passed. Both men laughed. Dissonance was put in a cell not far from Rayph’s as Toc-a-roc walked in. He dropped into the seat behind the desk, and his crew quieted.

  “Let’s all say hi to our guest,” Rattlesnake said. They all turned to Rayph and grunted. Tes sneered and waved her fan at him. Rayph bowed in return. Tellus had not shown up, and Rayph suddenly saw the plan. He chuckled at the brilliance of the Rattlesnake and nodded as the games began. “I need reports,” Toc-a-roc said.

  “I got her,” Tomlin said. “Caught up with her in the beggar’s district with the poor. She fought a great fight. She is fast, but not fast enough. I have never fought anyone of her ability and am humbled by her prowess.”

  “I bet,” Dissonance said. Rayph nodded.

  “The Manhunters have been to the Mothers Smite, but I have them firmly in my grasp now. They will do nothing against the crown for they fear its might,” Tes said. “They have told me everything Rayph said or asked. He is convinced a hive of vampires is in the city. He is convinced they can help him, but they want no part in this imaginary war and won’t commit to him. They sent him away without gain. He should have known.” She turned to him and shook her head as if in pity, “They won’t work with men.

  “I am ready to go for the throat of Smear’s whore,” Tes snapped. Rayph laughed and she shot him a bladed gaze.

  “I believe it was you that left him,” Rayph said.

  Tes stood. She snapped her fan closed with a swift chop and stalked closer. “Smear, the cheese master? What a joke. He lets himself rot away making terrible cheese and expects me to stand by him.” She stood close to the bars now and Rayph stood to face her. Her flowery perfume filled his nostrils and he felt lightheaded. He looked at her and shook his head.

  “Do you know what I remember most about your time with Smear, Tes?” Rayph said. She smirked at him as he smiled at her. “His misery. I remember you pruning away at him, fighting to get him to fit within your expectations. Fighting to curb his habits and train him to be exactly what you wanted from him. I remember your tampering with his friendships, your cutting away anyone you did not approve of and your constant judgment of everything he did and said. Smear has never been good at picking women. It has always been a weakness of his.”

  Rayph leaned in close, her face inches from his. “She picked him. She picked him because she loved everything about him. And she wants him just the way that he crafts himself and no different. Tes, you bottled my best friend into a tight frame he did not fit in. Trysliana lets him stretch. Lets him grow and live. She delights in his habits, good or bad, and she lets him laugh. She is a better woman than you, and if you get anywhere near her in this city she will swipe your life away with little thought. Because Tes, Trysliana is also a better killer than you.”

  Tes snarled and slashed at him with curled talons but Rayph was faster. He pulled back and laughed.

  “Tes, get yourself under control or I will take you out of the field,” Toc-a-roc said. “Harlow?”

  “Tapped in to the wolves in the area,” Harlow said. “Many have been killed recently, but not by Rayph. I’m beginning to think there might be something to this vampire story. Trees have been cut, dirt is missing from the outlet to the sea from the center of town, and many animals have been killed and buried bloodless in an open grave. If this is Rayph playing with us, then he has changed since I knew him. I can’t see him embarking on this sort of destruction just for a cover story.”

  Rattlesnake nodded. “Grelow?”

  “Nothing on anyone from around here. They don’t have a spy in the jail,” Grelow said, “or the city guard. Rayph has no real power in the city to speak of.” Grelow would not look at Rayph, would not even let his face be seen. And suddenly, Rayph knew they had made Dreark.

  “I have dined with the lord of the city,” Toc-a-roc said. “He suspected something amiss in the city and talks incessantly on the presence of vampires. Speaks highly of this Sagon we have all met, and I can see why. The man is of good breeding and excellent mind. I trust him. We will use him.”

  Grelow nodded. “Yeah, good man holding this city together. Can’t do without him.”

  “I have talked to Tellus, and he says there is very little progress hunting down his underground informant. As before, she is untraceable. We are not sure where she is, or how she does what she does. Tellus is out there looking for her, and all we can do is support him.”

  “Send me out after this bitch and I will shut her down,” Tes said. “If you want me to, I will bring back pieces.”

  Rayph laughed.

  “Tellus has this under control,” Toc said. “You will serve me in other ways or I will send you home.”

  Rayph knew where Tellus was. Toc-a-roc was giving up on Trysliana. He had other plans for Tellus. And Rayph’s shoulders lightened with the knowledge.

  “Delaman, do you still have the globe?” Toc-a-roc asked. Rayph looked to the mage, seeing a wicked display of confidence and smugness. The man patted his robe breast pocket and smiled.

  “It is safe right here.”

  Rayph had to stifle a laugh. They had lost it. Somehow his crew had slipped away with his aura. Toc-a-roc would never admit it, and making this little show of things would cast doubt on where it really was, but if Toc-a-roc really had it, he would never have mentioned where it was. Rayph slipped back into the shadows of his cell to think. Too ma
ny nuances, too much shadow and deception. Rayph cast an eye over to the cell holding Dissonance, who waved and grinned a strained kind of smile. Rayph was so glad to see her. He nodded back and closed his eyes.

  Less than a day later, a rat lumbered up the hall. At first, Rayph felt the slight finger of revulsion the animal always brought out in him, but after a small bit of time, as he watched the animal near, he fought to stifle a grin. It was a huge rat, almost the size of a cat, and Rayph wondered if the creature would be able to fit through the bars. He crouched to a knee and coaxed the rat closer.

  The fat little beast wobbled down the hall and slipped with greasy fur into the cell. Rayph stepped back into the dark and grabbed the rat. It hacked a cough, and Rayph watched alarmed as it opened its mouth to gag. He looked at it a bit closer, fascinated as the creature gagged again, this time almost coughing something up in the process. He crouched down to see the thing slowly working its way out of the rat’s gut, and the massive rat coughed up a very slight ball of crystal. Rayph picked the globe up and shattered it. He felt the swell of his aura coming back to him, and he spoke a word, opening up a pocket of air and dropping a sword into his grip.

  He grabbed the rat and stuffed it in his shirt. The creature gnawed at him, but he would not leave it behind. He swiped his sword across the bars slicing through them swiftly. Rayph, one at a time, removed the bars and soon stood outside his cell. He looked to Dissonance and, in seconds, pulled her from her cell.

  “You have a plan, Rayph?” she said.

  Rayph laughed. “Not yet. Follow me.” He walked farther into the dungeon, down a long line of pirates stuffed in cells calling out to guards. Rayph and Dissonance ran, and when they reached the end of the hall, Rayph spat out a word and pointed his sword. The power of the weapon joined with the strength of his spell, and a massive blast of concussive power shattered the wall, exploding stone in a spray outside.

  They rushed into the streets. Rayph looked around. He saw nothing. No carriage to carry them away, no horses waiting. He grabbed Dissonance, casting them both invisible, and spoke the words for his flight spell. They lifted into the air. In moments, Delaman was after them. His enchanted eyes could follow their invisible flight, and he rushed after them with fervor. Rayph twisted through the streets, pushing Dissonance away as they broke off in opposite directions.

  Delaman followed Rayph as Ivoryfist stowed his sword and pulled his bow. An ivory-fisted arrow landed in his hand, and he swung to point the enchanted arrow at Delaman.

  The mage stopped, casting a shield spell around himself. Rayph loosed his arrow as he grabbed a second one. Delaman braced for the explosion, but when the fist shattered, the shield spell was negated. Rayph’s second arrow shattered against Delaman, and with it, a globe that stole Delaman’s aura. Rayph extended his hand and the globe reformed as Delaman dropped from the sky. It sailed to Rayph and he grabbed it in the air and flew off with it.

  He clutched the squirming rat and off they soared. Sisalyyon would want her friend returned safely. He flew out into the forest and dropped the little guy off.

  Rayph and Dissonance landed in Brewer’s Lane in a small alleyway looking out at the streets, down a steep incline. They peered from the darkened alley out at the roofs of the nearby buildings. Quiet. The streets were too quiet. Rayph stuffed the globe in a pocket of air and turned to her. “Where did you get your gear?” She was dressed in her blue robe and carried an Ironwood spear. Her fetish sat atop her breast. She looked ready for action.

  “When he fought me, and I couldn’t beat him, I ran and stashed them in a hole so they wouldn’t get my emblem,” she said.

  Rayph looked at Dissonance’s fetish and nodded. “Good thinking. Is everybody there?”

  “I’m sure we are,” Dreark said. “We have been waiting for you to win your way out of there. It’s so nice to hear you free again,” Dreark continued. “We’ve been lost without our leader.”

  Lost without our leader? So, they have Dreark. They are listening in on the fetish. They may put the screws to him. Will they rip the location of Ironfall from him?

  Rayph didn’t know, but he was almost positive his longtime friend Toc-a-roc would not torture Dreark.

  “I’m here, hon, what can I do for you?” Trysliana said.

  Rayph pulled his dagger from his hip, feeling the thorns grow into his palm, and he nodded. “I need you to do me a favor.” Rayph stabbed Dissonance in the thigh and twisted. He sliced up, severing the hamstrings as Dissonance hit the ground, screaming. He looked down as Tellus dropped to the street, his magical disguise falling around him. Rayph scowled.

  “Find Dissonance. They have her somewhere.”

  The Hoodsmen

  “What are you going to do?” Trysliana held her sword in one hand, its tip in the other. Rayph wondered if she was thinking about hitting him with it. Her tone was soft, her eyes carried death.

  “Can we still use our fetishes?” Rayph asked.

  Drelis nodded. “They are powered by the soul of the bat that sacrificed itself to our cause. If we dismiss it, it will leave, cutting Dreark out of our conversations. They can’t listen in if we don’t let them,” she said.

  “Good, sever his fetish from the rest of us,” Rayph said.

  “If you do that, we won’t be able to open a portal to his location,” Smear said. “We’ll be cut off from him completely.”

  “They have him in a place we don’t want to go. If we were to show up there in force, we would find ourselves overrun. It is unwise to even try.”

  “Where is she?” Smear asked.

  “Where is Dissonance?” Trysliana gripped her sword tip tighter until blood bubbled from between her fingers.

  “I’m not sure,” Rayph said.

  “I’m inclined not to believe that.” She gritted her teeth, but still kept her tone in check.

  “I know the man who has her. Toc-a-roc kept me in town because he was trying to get to the rest of us. He let us escape and hoped Tellus would lead him to us. But it was a gamble. Keeping her in the city where we could break her out is too great a risk. If I know the man, he has taken her back to Nardoc to the king’s dungeons.”

  “The king?” Trys said, “The king has Dissonance. The king that has vowed to kill us all has Dissonance?”

  “I’m going to get her back,” Rayph said.

  “How are you going to do that?” Drelis asked. “We have a city full of vampires and pirates to kill. We have the Mothers Smite to protect, we have the Rattlesnake to avoid, and you want to walk into the most secure place in this nation and pluck out three criminals the king wants to execute the most.” She crossed her arms and shook her head. “We can’t do all of that. What is more important: Dissonance, Dreark, and Dran, or Hemlock and the infection of the world by vampires?”

  Trysliana stepped forward, sliding her sword into its sheath, and smacked Drelis in the mouth. The witch was rocked back and shook her head. She glared at Trysliana and gritted her teeth.

  “Listen, I care for them as much as you do,” Drelis said. “But we can’t sacrifice the world to save them.”

  “We can’t do this without them.” Trysliana spun on Rayph, looking him in the face with loss and hope wrapped on her features. “We can’t do it, not without them.” She looked to Drelis, seeing dubious stares, and stomped her foot.

  Rayph had heard enough. “We are not going to abandon Hemlock.” Trysliana grabbed her bag and headed for the door. “But I’m not going to allow them to take Dissonance and Dreark. We do need them.” Trysliana turned back, and Sisalyyon wrapped her in a hug.

  “I can’t do all of this. I need to recruit some help. I need to call in a favor.”

  “Call in one of your Trimerian Knight friends. Can you get ahold of Glimmer?” Sisa asked.

  “No, I can’t do that. This is not their fight. I can’t get them involved. And I really don’t think they would do it anyway. I need to go darker. I need to call in a few people who won’t mind breaking a few laws, people who
can wreak a serious amount of destruction but not kill innocents in doing it.”

  He sat back in his chair and grinned. The idea was too perfect. Too harsh to call upon, but he knew, with these men, it could be done.

  “What, Rayph?” Smear asked. “What’s with the grin?”

  “The Hoodsmen,” Rayph said.

  Smear looked frightened, then mirth crossed his face, and he laughed. He threw his head back and cackled, and Rayph could not help but laugh along with him.

  “Who are the Hoodsmen?” Trysliana asked.

  “They are a nightmare,” Rayph said. “A nightmare that owes me a favor.”

  “Will they help?” Smear said. “He doesn’t like being summoned.”

  “We have no choice. We must call upon them.”

  “They are always busy,” he said.

  “I can’t think of another way to go,” Rayph said.

  Smear sat back in his chair and nodded.

  A sudden dart of fear raced up Rayph’s spine. His last dealing with the Hoodsmen had earned him nightmares and horror. Sending that force at the castle of Nardoc could cause too much damage. He had to think of Thomas, had to find a way to get Thomas out of the city. No way he could let that boy suffer the mental anguish the Hoodsmen brought everywhere they went.

  Drelis stumbled back to the city with Sisalyyon supporting her weight. Drelis’s blood covered her dress and her face was riddled with scratches and bruises. Her pallor was stark white, and she looked as if she had seen a demon. Rayph realized in a way that was exactly what had happened. She had shared a night with her lover.

  Rayph met them halfway back to the city and caught Drelis when she collapsed in his arms. He picked her up, carried her to his cart, and laid her on the pillows in the back to rest. He covered her with a blanket and cast an invisibility spell on her. They rode back into the city under mundane disguise and headed to the Bilious Quarter where Drelis could find rest. Sisalyyon climbed into the back and pulled Drelis into her lap and hugged her.