by Logan Jacobs
“Me, too,” I panted while every muscle in my core burned with exertion.
Within minutes, the sound of Ashe’s soft, even breaths filled the room, and they lulled me into a dream state. We were both in a dangerous situation, and we didn’t know how long we had before more festering shit would be thrust upon us, but at least Ashe managed to sleep fairly peacefully at the end of another strange day, and so did I.
I didn’t know how long I was asleep for, but when I opened my eyes again, the sun had started to filter in through the window. It wasn’t as bright as it was in the middle of the day, and there was still a hint of darkness outside which told me it had to have been pretty early.
Ashe’s eyes fluttered open when I stood from the bed, and she stretched out her back and sent me a subtle smile that brought a grin to my face.
“Are you ready to hunt down some dark elves?” I murmured.
“As long as we can involve some violence in the hunt, then I’m always ready,” she replied with a soft laugh.
“That will come in due time,” I assured her.
I peered out the window and spotted a few female half-elves in the street. They were all dragging a cart behind them, and I guessed they were about to set up their stalls for the day. I was relieved I didn’t see the glowing eyes of the Blessed, or even the bright eyes of a demon out there, and I decided the way was clear for us to head out now.
By the time I had redressed and pulled on my jacket and boots, Ashe had done the same with her cape, dress, and boots. She’d also rebraided her silver-blue hair, so her sharp cheekbones were on display, and I was pleased to find she looked as intimidating as she had when I first saw her stalking out of the shadows with her Hellhounds in tow.
Then we each slipped an onyx blade into our belts, I attached the cudgel to the opposite hip, and then I put some pieces into my pockets before I locked the door behind us.
We wandered through the winding lanes of the Grimmway without anyone paying much attention to us, and we meandered deeper into the oaken grove than either of us had traveled so far. While we walked past wagons, shacks, and stone buildings, I thought through what the trolls had told Ashe about the dark elves’ manor, and as the denser, greener needles of the outer forest appeared ahead, I squinted through the trees for any signs of a wall.
“You said the wall is beyond these dark elves’ manor?” I checked.
“It should be,” Ashe confirmed. “I don’t know how we get close enough to find this place, though. There’s hardly any homes up ahead, and the brambles are thick, but not enough to conceal us completely.”
“That’s okay, I’ll find a way,” I said comfortably. “Just keep your nose sharp.”
From what I’d gathered so far, the Grimmway ran in almost a ‘U’ shape within the grove of oaks, and the outer forest of Rengfri was just beyond the deepest curve at the back of this area. As we traveled farther from the music of the Grimmway markets and wagons, a mottled wall appeared ahead, and the ancient bricks stretched nearly ten meters above our heads. The oaks on this side grew so dense that they threatened to swallow the bricks, and the dark pines on the other side appeared to do the same. Where the two met above the wall, the boughs entangled in a blanket of knots, and it looked as if the opposing forests were trying to choke each other out.
We wove through the shadowy forest and avoided the dappled sunlight as much as possible, but then Ashe caught my arm to stop me.
“Let’s try that way, first,” she whispered and pointed to the left.
“Lead the way,” I responded.
Our demon eyesight was advanced enough to give us a decent scope through the encroaching trees, but the small touch of added light through the canopy helped us find our way easier. Still, I couldn’t see a manor, or any buildings for that matter, and we walked down a bit further to try again from another angle.
We ended up repeating those moves for some time, but it gave us a better idea of where we were and what to add to the map that had been created inside my head. While we searched, I kept an eye on the sun, and I used it as a clock to work out how long it would be before the payment would take place.
I was surveying the area when Ashe suddenly grabbed onto my arm and pulled me to a stop. “What’s that over there?”
I followed the direction she was looking in and noticed a large, square building a few hundred yards ahead. Then I sniffed the air as we drew closer to the mysterious building, and aside from the scent of damp bark and soil, I picked up a menacing stench. It was complex and riddled with undertones of immorality, greed, and conceit, but there was a subtle hint of misery, too. It was the kind of hopeless misery a slave would carry around, and I exchanged a sidelong glance with Ashe.
“Smells promising,” the demon woman whispered.
I nodded in agreement, but then I kept studying the strange building as we carefully closed in.
The structure itself was a lot different from the others I’d seen scattered around the Port of Rengfri. Apart from the church, most of the buildings in this city were made from a dark wood or ancient stonework, but this one was a deep maroon red in color. It looked to have been built from some strange style of large bricks, but the structure showed signs of age, so I guessed it had been here in the woods for many, many years. The roof was made from gray slate, the edges of the windows were painted jet-black, and the five chimneys that shot up from the roof were all just as grim to behold. A stone wall circled around the building, almost like a smaller version of the one that separated the Grimmway from the outer forest of Rengfri.
The large, old building certainly stuck out, and this caused some excitement to surge through my veins. Dark elves were known for being quite loud about their wealth when they had it, like the vampires, and this maroon and gothic building certainly betrayed that.
These dark elves were very well set up here.
As we got closer, I noticed a small, stone sign that had been attached to the short clay brick wall, but the sign was far too old and rundown for me to work out what it said. The glass of the windows was murky gray, and cracks ran down some of the brick walls, and a plethora of hedges, trees, and overgrown grass surrounded the entire property. From the outside, it looked like the place could have been abandoned, but the smell that surrounded it told me this was not the case.
“I have a good feeling about this,” I whispered as we both ducked behind a thick mass of thorny bushes.
“Me, too,” Ashe replied with an excited gleam in her pink eyes.
“The stench falls in line with our expectations,” I muttered, “and the wall of the outer forest is only a couple hundred meters beyond the grounds.”
“That wall’s too high for a demon to scale,” Ashe added. “And it looks like it continues all along this edge of the Grimmway. This could be perfect.”
“If we can confirm the dark elves own this place,” I whispered.
“What should we do?” Ashe asked.
I thought briefly about whether we should check the grounds on the other side of the large building, in case a stronger scent was picked up over there, but I had a feeling in my gut that this was the place to stay for now. We knew nothing of this area yet, and we couldn’t risk drawing attention to ourselves or exposing our plans before we’d even formed them.
“We wait, for now,” I decided. “Just in case anyone comes in or out of this place. Then we’ll head back through the Shadow Quarters in time to witness this payment changing hands at the tavern.”
Ashe nodded in agreement before she narrowed her pink eyes on the building through the trees. She didn’t move a muscle or even speak a word while we scoped out the area, and the work made my heartbeat level off at a steady, heady thrum.
It was good to be on the prowl again, and just knowing we were making headway on our targets brought me satisfaction. I didn’t even know how long we waited behind that mass of thorns, but the sun had risen slightly higher in the sky before long, and still, nothing had happened. Whoever did inhabit thi
s place seemed to keep a very low profile, without even one being coming or going to visit the other homes or markets.
I finally nudged Ashe so we could prowl our way back through the trees to the Grimmway.
“We’ll return another time,” I decided. “Let’s check on this human the elves hired. That’ll give us some insights.”
Ashe and I kept our heads held high as we proceeded back through the Grimmway, only to blend in with the others around us and make sure it didn’t seem like we were up to anything. Even though the residents of this place were far from innocent, we were still new to the district, and it wouldn’t be good for them to question our motives before we’d even settled down.
We reached the fire beacons without any trouble and then ascended the grassy hill leading to the rest of the Shadow Quarters. The trolls had told Ashe that we were looking for the tavern on the northwest street, and so we slipped through every alleyway and side street as we made our way over there.
Even after viewing only some portions of this quarter of town, I already felt more at risk in the outer areas of the Shadow Quarters compared to the Grimmway. Other undesirable creatures and beings still roamed these areas, but the scent of their unrest was too potent for comfort. They lived in a shadowy kind of fear, but in the Grimmway, it seemed all beings could do whatever they wanted, within reason, without anyone batting an eye.
Once Ashe and I reached the northwest street outside of the Shadow Quarters, I instantly recognized the area we were in, and I knew some of the beings around here served the Church. This was the area we’d scouted earlier before speaking with the tinsel fairy, but as long as we kept quiet and in the shadows, we would hopefully get past unnoticed.
“Hey, is that the tavern over there?” Ashe asked as she pointed through the street we were hiding in.
The building in question was dark with deep-brown beams that crisscrossed along the front wall. The stench of fermented liquids drifted over to me, and wooden barrels had been abandoned at the side of the building while the glass windows were faintly lit from the lanterns inside.
I nodded. “It certainly seems to be.”
We made our way closer toward the tavern, but before we left the safety of the side street, Ashe peered up and down the lane to make sure the coast was clear.
“Okay, let’s go,” she whispered softly.
The two of us ran across the lane and then snuck up against the side of the tavern. From where we stood, in relation to the lane and other buildings, I knew no one would see us unless they were standing right in front of us.
Faint voices were heard coming from inside the tavern, but nothing too distinct stood out to me. That was, until we heard the sound of shuffled footsteps in the alleyway closest to ours.
An intoxicating scent of evil filled my nostrils with so much joy and excitement, I knew it wasn’t some ordinary person traveling the back alley of the tavern. The smell was too delicious, and it became even more intense the closer it came to us.
I could only hope this was who we were waiting for.
Chapter 10
“Mmm…” Ashe moaned. “Now, that’s what I’ve been waiting for. The surface world rarely smells so devious.”
“Incredible,” I laughed quietly. “Whoever it is we’re smelling should’ve ended up in the Hellscape by now.”
“Do you think it’s the human who makes the payments for the elves?” Ashe asked with an eager grin.
“If it's the one he’s paying, we may be in luck,” I whispered. “Anyone who smells that evil couldn’t give a shit about demons stepping into the business.”
Ashe bit her lip and let her pink eyes roll up into her head at the thought, and I could tell she was beyond excited to get to work on this world. The beautiful fiend’s breaths came quicker while she hunkered down close to me in the alley, and she sent me a greedy smile as the scent of the being in the next alleyway drew closer.
There was a half wall opposite where we hid. A stone building was on the opposite side of the half wall, but there were no windows on this side, which gave us the safety we needed in order to stake out this area. We quickly scaled the wall before the person in the alley could see us, and we peered over it slightly in order to get our first glimpse of whoever was coming.
Then a human man emerged and crossed down the alley we’d just climbed out of, and the potency of his stench seemed to contradict his clean appearance.
His clothes betrayed his obvious wealth, with a pair of smart black pants, a crisp black shirt, and a deep-green jacket made of a material I’d never even seen before. He wore a large, slim leather satchel across his chest that had intricate gold stitching around the edges, and his hair was short, brown, and neatly combed back without a single strand out of place. His eyes were as brown as the mud in the streets, but while they were completely ordinary at first glance, there was a gleam in his eyes that looked as evil as the scent radiating off of him.
This guy wasn’t just trouble, he had years of scheming experience under his belt and was completely comfortable in whatever his dealings were. He also walked like a man with no fear of either the Dark King or the Holy King in him.
Then he stopped in front of the entrance of the tavern, and he walked up the walkway that led to the main door. He stood casually, like blending in had never been an issue for him, and then he greeted a second man who arrived like they were good friends meeting for a drink.
The man who had come from the alley was much taller and healthier than the other. The second, shorter man had a round stomach that protruded around him, and while he wore clothes that were somewhat similar to the brown-haired man, his jacket was dark blue and a bit threadbare. His shirt was white instead of black, and his black pants looked like he’d been wearing them for several days now. His hair was gray and curly while it clung to the sweat on his temples, and while he certainly didn’t smell like a saint, he seemed incredibly nervous to be here.
But it was his eyes that really caught my attention. This gray-haired human had irises that were two separate colors, one green and one blue. I wasn’t sure if this was a normal thing for a human to have, but it certainly stuck out as interesting to me.
The two men conversed briefly about the weather at the front of the tavern, and every time the gray-haired man nervously shifted his weight, I heard the jingle of pieces coming from him. Then the brown-haired man opened up the main door, and they walked inside as the noise of glasses clinking and raucous conversations drifted out to us.
“Keep tabs on those two,” I muttered to Ashe before I quickly scaled the half wall again.
“The man with the gray hair has to be making the payment,” the demon woman whispered. “He reeks of subordination, and he looks completely unassuming. The elves were smart to employ him for this.”
“He fears the rich man,” I added. “A lot. To me, the guy with brown hair looks like a regular human, so if he doesn’t have magical powers, he’s got power of another kind in Rengfri. We have to figure out who this guy is if we’re going to be paying him off, too.”
“A noble of the king?” Ashe offered as we hurried along the outer edge of the tavern.
“Possibly,” I muttered. “There’s an open window over there, just at the corner.”
Ashe and I quietly made our way closer toward the mottled, glowing window of the tavern so we could hear better, and through the mix of other sounds coming from inside, I could barely make out the voices of the men who had been discussing the weather.
They were ordering drinks now, and I tried to block out all other distractions while I strained to follow their voices across the tavern. It was easy to discern which one spoke because the brown-haired man oozed confidence with every word, and the shorter man seemed to have trouble keeping his voice steady whenever he replied. Then the men drew closer to the window, and I heard chairs scraping across the floorboards.
“He would like to thank you for your work,” the gray-haired man began shakily. “He appreciates everything you ha
ve done for them as of late, sir. The new location is exquisite, and v-very convenient.”
“It is my pleasure to assist,” the other smoothly replied.
“You’ll find it’s all here,” the second responded, and the sound of jingling pieces came again.
“Under the table!” the brown-haired man suddenly hissed. “Don’t be a fool.”
I heard the shorter man fumbling with this payment, and based on the heavy sound, I guessed there were over three-hundred pieces changing hands right now, but there was another sound I didn’t recognize. It was like glass rolling around in a sack, and I wished we could have watched the exchange so I could figure out what exactly the price was. I couldn’t risk my glowing violet eyes being seen outside the window, though, especially if this brown-haired man was already wary of being caught during this deal.
But one thing was certain: we had a lot more research to do.
Whoever this brown-haired man was, he smelled like the sort who could either make or break our setup in Rengfri, and if he had something to do with the dark elves relocating in the Grimmway, then he was more involved in this business than I anticipated. If we could stay in his good graces, though, I had a feeling we’d be in the perfect position.
After the exchange, several minutes ticked by while the two men began discussing menial things like the local tax on cotton that was recently increased. I assumed this was to help them conceal what they were really up to, but the short, gray-haired man only offered clipped responses to everything the other said. He sounded eager to get out of there, and after nearly half an hour of uncomfortable discussion, the two finally prepared to leave.
Ashe and I were back on the other side of the half wall by the time they emerged from the tavern, and the brown-haired man still wore his gold-stitched satchel strapped across his chest. The leather bulged heavily now, but the material seemed to hide the sound of jingling pieces pretty well.
The two men shook hands while the taller one sneered down at his shorter counterpart, and I could see the sweat on the gray-haired man’s brow from here. The moment the richer man turned away to casually stroll up the street, the short man let out an almost frantic breath. He looked all around the street as he hurried toward the alleyway near us, and he shoved his hand into the pocket of his blue jacket along the way.