Fugitive: A Prequel to Spirit of Magik

by Richard Cluff

  Being able to stand under a stream of water and to have it strong enough to blast the dirt off of her body. She would have left Vox to walk here on her own two feet if she had realized how wonderful such a thing was.

  On her way around the Manor, she looked up at the fifteen-yard tall walls. Then at the Manor itself towering nearly ten times that height. It looked like a Great rectangular megalithic stone that some giant had dropped here. There were House Furosi Guards manning the walls all around it. Sherie had heard that House Furosi had an entire army of fifty thousand soldiers. Sherie hadn't believed the man saying that in the bar; she hadn't thought that he was lying out of hand, but she had thought him mistaken. She was re-examining that assessment now.

  The head of House Furosi was the Crown Noble of West Grax. Sherie honestly had no idea whether the head was a man or woman, but it didn’t matter much to her right now. She recalled that the Crown Lords in Vox didn’t have full armies of fifty thousand soldiers, but they had somewhere between thirty-five and forty thousand soldiers.

  Their Holdings were spread over miles of ground in east and west Vox though.

  People had said that Grax housed over three million people, but Sherie hadn't believed it was possible until she saw this structure for herself. It certainly covered a few miles, but it covered much less ground than Vox's Crown lands. However, it also rose much higher into the sky.

  After passing the Manor, Sherie noticed there were fewer paupers on this side of the manor than there were on the other side. She wasn’t really sure why; probably because the refugees just started arriving in the last few days. The smarter ones would probably start migrating this way since the other side of west Grax was so congested now.

  Sherie knew no one really knew what to do right now because no one had ever believed that one of the Great Cities would be lost. She knew the Legion was doing what they could. She had heard of emergency plans for many things, but she had never heard of one for managing a huge influx of refugees that had just lost their homes.

  She rode on and a few miles after the Manor she saw the sign for Grote Street. She rode from the north to the south side to determine what direction the addresses went, then went north. While she did, she kept an eye out for a public stable for Lucky. She found one and figured she was close enough to the address that she went ahead and stabled her there.

  She continued walking, and she found a bar at the address. It was called “Fortune’s Folly.” “What the hell is wrong with the bar’s names in this city?” She wondered. They all sounded depressing to her.

  She entered and shared a look with the bouncer. He looked like a tough man sitting on his stool comfortably. He held his cudgel near the door and was completely relaxed. He was no fool, the man looked her up and down and nodded respectfully, his long stringy hair bobbed with the motion.

  The light was dim, and smoke filled the room. Sherie knew she wasn't supposed to drink, but she needed to spend some coin or the bartender wasn't likely to help her find this Lodicuois person.

  Sherie had never heard of a name like that before, she couldn't even begin to guess if this person was male or female.

  She sat at the bar and ordered a full pint of ale. Sherie figured if she was only going to have one drink, she would make it a large one.

  She wouldn't tell Brina about this. She paid the bartender and took a drink. Then she pulled out the flier and asked him, "Have you heard of this person?"

  The older bald man just looked at the paper, than at her. He blatantly put his open palm on the bar and said, “Maybe. My memory isn’t what it used to be.”

  Sherie just eyed him in disbelief. This had to be the least subtle way to demand a bribe she had ever heard of. She pulled a coin from her purse and dropped the copper mark in it. That was worth five coppers. She could have bought two more full pints with that.

  The man’s brow creased like it was lost in thought. “It’s still a little fuzzy...” he said.

  “Fine," she said, and went to take the copper mark out of his hand, but he closed it and pulled it away quickly.

  That was when she pulled a dagger and yanked his arm over the counter. She couldn't put him in any wrist locks she knew with his hand balled into a fist like that, but she struck him square in the forehead with the fist that held her dagger. The dagger's handle hardened her fist and made the impact much weightier than it would have been.

  The man’s head snapped back and she flipped the sharp blade to hold it by his neck.

  “Don’t you try to steal from me, I have been fucked with and disrespected by people ten times your stature and I wouldn’t take it then. If you aren’t gonna give me what I want for my coin, then give it back, you cur. I’ll ask all the people in this shit hole you call a bar myself,” she growled.

  She heard the movement behind her and turned her head to see the bouncer standing about two yards to her blind side. She pressed the blade to the man's flesh and turned to watch the man approaching. He didn't seem to be threatening though. The rest of the patrons were wide-eyed and had stopped moving with their mugs halfway to their mouths.

  “Get her you fool!” the barkeep growled.

  The bouncer just chuckled and said “Um yeah boss… about that, if I try to ‘get her’ you’ll probably get your throat cut. I’m guessing that would probably make you sadder than it would make me.”

  Sherie couldn’t help but laugh at that. She had this bouncer pegged for a smart one.

  “But I am paid to resolve problems here, so what is the problem, ma’am?” He asked with a smirk on his face.

  The bartender just sputtered incoherently. Sherie caught; you’ll regret this and do your job, and similar impotent admonishments in the man’s tirade.

  Sherie tried her hardest not to simply double over with laughter right now. She smiled bigger than she had in quite a while she was sure.

  “Well, I asked this ‘gentleman' for some information and gave him a copper mark for it. He refused to tell me what I wanted to know, so I was going to take my money back. He tried to keep it," she told him.

  “Yeah… he does that a lot. Didn’t I tell you not to try that shit when people are wearing more than two weapons openly?” he asked the barkeep. Sherie was enjoying this more and more.

  “You don’t tell me what to do! I am your employer, and I’m telling you to do something about this right now!” The bartender yelled.

  Sherie noticed that people in the bar had gone back to their drinking, and the waitress was getting drinks for other patrons. Life seemed to be going on, and everyone was now ignoring this fool’s plight.

  “Yes, and I am doing something about it, boss," the bouncer said unpleasantly. He sat down his cudgel and carefully put his hand on the bartender's to keep from startling Sherie. He began prying the man's fingers open and let the copper mark fall with a cling onto the wooden bar.

  Sherie let go of the bartender and took her coin. The barkeep growled, "You're fired, Mavin. Get out!"

  “I'll leave when I feel like it." He told his former employer. "I have been getting better offers from almost every bar around here. I've just been waiting for you to pull another one of your stupid stunts. I'll make sure every merc in town knows all about your bullshit."

  The bartender growled impotently, and Mavin asked Sherie, “So, what did you want to know?”

  Sherie just gave him the copper mark and said: "I was looking for this person." She showed him the flier.

  Mavin pocketed the coin and said; “He’s the little guy in the corner. The one hiding under his hood. I don’t think you want to deal with him though.”

  “Why not?” she asked, curious.

  “I'm not sure what he's involved in, but I can tell you that some people that work for him disappear. I'd stay away from him if I were you," Mavin said seriously.

  Sherie nodded, and said, “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome. See you around.” Mavin picked up his cudgel and walked out of the bar whistling.

  She picke
d up her tankard and walked over to the corner table. The man looked up at her from under his hood. Sherie couldn't see much of his face. It bothered her that this man did that, particularly in light of what happened at Vox. Could he possibly be a Kryss?

  She asked, “Is this seat taken?”

  “No, it isn’t,” he said quietly. He picked up his flute of wine and took a drink. Whatever kind of wine that was, it was expensive. Otherwise, the barkeep wouldn’t have put it in such a pretty glass.

  She slid into the chair that allowed her to watch the bartender. She wouldn’t doubt that a petty man like him might try something when her back was turned.

  Now that she sat here, she noticed the wine bottle sitting on the table. It had a label, with the word Dothranan on it. Sherie knew she would murder that word if she tried to say it. The man himself was shorter than she was, but the width of his shoulders showed that he wasn’t exactly ‘little’ as Mavin had described him.

  Well, she supposed he was little compared to Mavin, but Sherie wasn’t big enough to say that about this man.

  “Why are you at my table, young woman?” He asked in a dry tone.

  “I’m looking for this person,” she said, showing him the flier, with an uneasy feeling rapidly climbing up her spine.

  “So, you can capture people alive, and relatively uninjured?” He asked, raising his eyes to her. They were still shrouded in the shadows of his hood though.

  “I can. Who do you need taken?” She asked, feeling positively creeped out now.

  “Just paupers. People that won’t be missed. We have more than we need here now… I will pay you one gold coin for each one you bring to me.”

  Sherie’s mouth went dry. “Are you serious?”

  A sick smile split the man’s mouth. “Why wouldn’t I be serious?”

  She took a deep breath. Sherie knew she might have to do some ugly things to keep herself afloat but she needed to know what she asked now. “Why do you want them?”

  “That isn’t your concern, but I can assure you that we won’t be killing them or enslaving them.” That small smile that had no empathy for any living thing stayed on his lips; Sherie shivered involuntarily.

  She closed her eyes and breathed. “If they aren’t doing that, I can do this,” she thought. “Ok, I’ll do it.”

  “Excellent,” he pulled a stone with odd markings out of his cloak and sat it on the table. “Place your hand on the stone and say, “I won’t tell anyone about what I am doing for you.”

  Sherie stared at the stone as if it were a snake for a moment. “This must be some kind of enchanted item,” she realized. “If it can tell whether or not I’m telling the truth…”

  Sherie took a deep breath and put her hand on the stone before saying, “I won’t tell anyone about what I am doing for you.”

  “Excellent,” he hissed before saluting her with his wine glass.

  * * *

  Sherie sat for about an hour with Shegath Lodicuois, all the while getting unpleasant looks from the barkeep. He told her where to drop the paupers off. It was in an alley off of a street a few miles north of Furosi manor. She just had to knock on the door there and say, “Shegath sent me” to make the delivery. Then the person there would pay her for each pauper she brought.

  When Sherie asked him, “How do I get them there?” He replied, “That’s not my concern, those details are your problem. I know it can be done, as I have another employee that has been quite successful.”

  Sherie rode back to her side of west Grax at a leisurely pace, thinking about all of this as the sun started setting. Then she thought about young Jona. That poor kid wouldn’t have a chance if someone tried to snatch him. Sherie couldn’t just leave a blind boy to be kidnapped.

  She kicked her heels into Lucky to get her going faster.

  * * *

  It was getting late, Sherie had stabled Lucky at least an hour ago. She knew that Brina was probably getting worried about her, but she couldn’t stop looking for Jona now.

  She had stopped in at least ten different alleys and asked about Jona. Many of the people here were refugees, she wasn’t seeing many of the old paupers that used to be in these places. Several of the refugees asked her for alms, but she just ignored them. One man who thought that all the others would help him tried to insist; he ended his attempt with a deep gash in his arm and a scream.

  Just after that, she heard a shout from down the alleyway. She drew her blades with a snarl and ran towards the sound. None of the refugees stood to delay her.

  That was smart of them. She wouldn’t have hesitated to drop their entrails on the ground right now. She knew, just as Shegath did, that the Legion wouldn’t investigate such a crime.

  They would be happy to prosecute someone actually seen murdering a pauper, but just like a Noble could claim that a commoner’s disrespect was the reason that they gutted someone, a commoner could claim the same of a pauper.

  And while she didn’t own it, she did have a roof over her head. So she was no longer a pauper legally.

  Sherie approached an alcove in the alley. It seemed like the other people were pulling away from it and pointedly ignoring the noise coming from there. She sheathed her blades before poking her eye around the corner.

  She saw a well-muscled man that was about her height wearing a boiled leather cuirass. He was dribbling whiskey on the young man that lay on the ground before him. She could see blood on the ground, and the cudgel that laid near the two of them. There was a crossbow on the ground also.

  In the dim light, she could see this pauper was one of the boys that Jona had introduced to her. “Could this man be Shegath’s employee?” Sherie wondered.

  With her hands resting on her daggers so she could throw them quickly if needed, she stepped out and said; “It isn’t going to do us much good if you kill them, you know.”

  The man looked up in surprise and dropped his hand to his sword. "My friend just got a little drunk and hit his head, hun, nothing for you to worry about."

  Sherie was less sure that this man was Shegath's employee now, but she was going to make sure. "Shegath isn't gonna be happy if they're dead, you know."

  A look of concern crossed the man’s face, “Who the hell are you, woman?”

  Sherie just answered with her daggers, since she is sure this was Shegath's man now. The two blades whipped out of their sheath's in swift underhand tosses. Sherie wasn't really sure when she'd decided to betray Shegath. All she knew was this felt right.

  The man screamed as the blades pierced his flesh, one in each thigh. He dropped to the ground without his blade clearing the scabbard.

  She walked to him quickly and grabbed him by the hair. She resisted the urge to just break his neck. Even though she didn't know this boy that was lying on the ground, this one wasn't even a man yet and that fact angered her beyond words.

  “Gah! What the hell do you want woman?” He spat out painfully.

  Holding him up by the hair she held another dagger on his throat. “Where is the blind boy?” Sherie asked him, more calmly than she felt.

  “What’s it worth for you to know?” The flea infested human filth asked.

  “If you aren’t gonna tell me, then, I don’t need you.” She said, getting ready to draw her blade across his throat.

  “Wait, but c’mon what did I ever do to you?” He asked hurriedly. Sherie saw him grip his dagger though.

  “Fine. Where did you take him?” She asked, watching his weapon. “Where Shegath wanted me to take him,” he said through gritted teeth.

  Sherie knew where that was. She thought about it for one second. The man moved suddenly. She blocked his hand with her knee, knocking the blade from it and slit his throat. The person she used to be screamed 'murder' inside her mind, but that person was barely present now. This man needed to die, and she was the only one here to do the deed.

  She stepped aside so he wouldn't spray blood on her and thought for a moment. She checked the boy's pulse, just as she'd learned
to do in the Legion. She couldn't find it. When she turned around, the man's throat she'd cut was standing with his sword in his hand. He bled profusely but still raised his long blade.

  Before everything that had happened at Vox, she probably would have screamed, but now she’d seen so much death, and so many dead people get back up she just drew a short sword. With it, she blocked his sword and kicked him in the chest hard. He went down hard on the stone of the alleyway.

  Sherie sheathed her blade and picked up the loaded crossbow. She took two steps before she aimed and fired it with a twang. The bolt struck him in the chest, going right through his leather cuirass.

  The heavy crossbows could penetrate a steel plate cuirass. Many Legionnaires, herself included, believed they should be illegal.She set the crossbow on the stone and went to retrieve her daggers. Then she took his dagger and sheath, and his long blade. She patted him down, found his coin purse and his quiver of bolts. She pulled her daggers from his thighs and wiped them on his breeches. Not one to be wasteful, she tried to yank the bolt out of his chest.

  That was when she heard the voice, “Out of the way, pauper! Don’t make me run you through! Legion business!”

  Sherie couldn't help a sour smile at her lack of luck. They weren't in sight yet, but that was just because of the dim light from the half moon. She knew that would change soon. She picked up her new crossbow and hung it on her bow that was on her back. Then she looked around.

  There was a door in front of her, and there was a metal pipe mounted to the wall for some reason. She had seen them all over the city, but she did not know what they were for. Sherie had never seen them in Vox, but she had seen them everywhere here. There was also a window by it. All she knew for sure was that she didn’t want to be found by the Legion next to two corpses.

  She ran up to the wall, she was lucky this alcove was out of sight of the alleyway. She grabbed onto the pipe and tested its strength. It wiggled but was stout and secured to the wall quite well. She jumped up and pulled herself up quickly hand over hand. Her feet were braced on the walls and she heard the voices getting closer.