Draka

The man to whom Reben, the innkeeper, had delivered the sisters’ letters, had disappeared. Most likely, Mak thought, he’d found out that Reben’s duplicity had been discovered, and so he’d cut his losses. However, when that door had closed, a window had opened.

The kids, the boy being called Relki and the girl, Sana, had led the sisters to the thug they reported to. His name was Kosh or something like that. I didn’t care much. After dutifully reporting that the sisters had entered the city and were back at Her Grace’s Favour, they’d received a pitiful sum of coins and a slap for Relki for being late, after which the sisters had followed Kosh to a nearby, and incredibly disreputable, gambling house.

When they returned to the inn they found Ardek waiting for them. He and the others travelling on foot had arrived during the morning, Lalia and the Tavvanarian cousins having gone off to report to Rallon and leaving him there to wait. When they described Kosh, Ardek not only knew who he was and where he usually hung out, he knew who he hung out with and who he usually reported to. And that was who they, or possibly we, were going after, because he, Ardek was pretty sure, might know where the Blossom could be found.

Lots of uncertainty, but at least it was something to go on.

Our quarry, Simdal, ran the gambling house for the Blossom, along with a few other places. In a twist of fate, he happened to be the same racist bastard who’d wanted Ardek and some others to beat the living hell out of Tam for winning too much. Besides being a bigot he had a reputation as a hard-ass and a meticulous manager, making frequent rounds of his establishments to make sure that not one bit went missing. Supposedly he could fight, but he wasn’t a heavy and, again supposedly, he always knew if someone was lying to him. Unfortunately, that was unlikely to help him.

The plan was simple: grab him off the street as he left the place that Kosh had gone to, take him somewhere nice and quiet, and question him as harshly as necessary. I would hopefully not be needed. Ideally we wouldn’t need to risk revealing my presence yet. But we didn’t know how much muscle Simdal would have following him around, and so I’d be lurking in the shadows, ready to swoop in and turn the situation into a bloodbath if necessary.

Simple.

It occurred to me that what we were planning should, but didn't, bother me. Completely ignoring the legality of what we were doing – it was definitely and completely illegal – I had become almost entirely inured to violence. Every time I thought about that it managed to surprise me, and I wasn’t sure why. The first real sign that not only my body but my mind had changed was the first time I killed a man, on that forest road with Herald, and I felt nothing except annoyance at what a mess he’d made. Herald, Mak, and Ardek had grown up in a society that accepted violence as a fact of life, but not me. Or rather, not the part of me that kept bringing up such distracting concerns. What use were they? I should abhor violence. Fine. I didn’t. What good would that do me? A crime lord had captured and tortured two of my precious humans, and taken me with the intent of displaying me, selling me, or possibly chopping me up for parts. We had no reason to believe that she wouldn’t do worse as soon as she had a reasonable opportunity. And you didn’t get high up in her organisation without being an unconscionable piece of crap. So why, I wondered, should I be concerned about violence?

Because making violence a first choice instead of a last resort was how you became a monster, was my own answer. I still believed on some level that, despite all the evidence to the contrary, humans were supposed to abhor unnecessary violence. And perhaps there was something in that, but the fact that I didn’t bothered me less and less.

Conveniently, Simdal was, according to Ardek, supposed to make his rounds in the evening. That was when business was at its peak. Thus, once Mak had informed me of the plan she left me to my own devices for the next several hours, with orders from me and a promise from her to return to get me when it was time. I spent some of that time exploring more of the tunnels, where I stuck to the ones that humans could reasonably move through and was rewarded with two more hidden paths to the surface. Again I left them unexplored, not wanting to risk starting something when I had plans for the night. When I tired of that I returned to near my entrance, and slept until the chiming of bells woke me. I stretched, yawned, and rose, and excitement bubbling up inside me that I hadn’t felt for a long time. It was time to go. It was time to embark on our journey of revenge.

I wasn’t going to be digging any graves, though. Not with a perfectly good river right there.

This time I shifted back inside the well of the drain while Mak was hauling the bells up, and so avoided getting them dropped on my face again. Only barely, though, since she clearly wasn’t ready for me and her grip in the line slipped when she jumped. But she caught it, so everything was fine.

Mak looked around herself, then pulled the grille to the side. “We’re ready to go,” she said. “Ardek’s going to show us a place near the gambling house where we can hide out while he keeps an eye on the door. I’m not sure about good spots for you. Sorry.”

“What happened to your Tekereteki?” I asked as I climbed out. “It would be safer to use a language no one else knows.”

“Apologies. We have been speaking Karakani for Ardek and the others. It does not come naturally to me,” she replied with some chagrin.

“That is alright. But try to remember. And you are getting so much better!

She smiled at my praise, and I loved to see it. “Thank you. And I will.”

Together we put the grille in place, and then I shifted, following Mak out of the alley and towards the inn, where Herald and Ardek waited, armed but unarmored. Swords were one thing, and not entirely eyebrow-raising so long as they had a peace-tie – little leather cords around the hilt – tying them to their scabbards. Armour would made them stand out far too much.

It was annoying that none of the Wolves could, or would, join us. But I understood their position. Of the Wolves we knew, two were officers, and two were cousins of the commander. If they were found to be involved in doing something explicitly illegal it would jeopardise the whole company’s position, something none of them were willing to risk until the stakes were considerably higher.

And it wasn’t like they weren't doing anything to help out. The cousins were keeping their ear to the ground for news of the boys’ ship, and Garal and Lalia had secured Rallon's permission to welcome Tam and Val back at the harbour. With that handled, the rest of us could focus on other things, which was a big help in itself.

All told I wasn’t too bothered that they weren’t with us. Really, it only meant that, if we found a situation where their help would have been needed, I would get to vent my frustrations on some unquestionably bad people.

Her Grace’s Favour lay in the richer, eastern part of the harbour district. From there I followed the humans as they in turn followed the water west, sticking to small, decaying back streets with few people at this time of the evening, and fewer who would dare to hinder three armed individuals walking with confidence and purpose. A drunk in the street before them cat-called the girls, but he shut up as he realised that not only was one of the women approaching him half a foot taller than him, but both had their swords loosened in their scabbards, and none of the three showed any sign of swerving or slowing down. He beat a quick retreat into a narrow alley at that point.

I watched this from the roofs, looking down into the soupy haze of the light coming out of destitute homes and the city’s least well-to-do shops. The streets were clean and tidy, but the wood here was withering, the stone cracked and the brick crumbling. Some had so many missing or broken slats or tiles that I could have crawled inside, shifted or no, and I couldn’t imagine what it was like to live in those buildings when it rained, or in winter. Some of the villages and hamlets I’d spied on had looked poor, but this was something completely different. I hadn’t realised that misery like that existed in the city, though perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised. I wondered, had any city ever been free of poverty? Perhaps. There had been a lot of cities throughout history back home, and here was a whole new world with its own past. But I doubted it.

Of course, as I thought about that and felt bad for the people suffering beneath me, my more practical side noted that there were plenty of places to slip inside and hide here. Sure, there may be some truly destitute people living under the leaky roofs, but those would be easy enough to get rid of. Just turn up the shadows and they’d probably leave without even being sure why. No fuss!

Among the rundown buildings there was one very literal spot of light. A bright lantern hung outside a sturdy door, guarded by a large, rough man who looked like he could stare at the same crumbling wall for days on end without getting bored. This was the door the humans staked out. Ardek opened an unlocked door and shooed the sisters inside, then took up a position in the shadows outside, where he could see who went in and out of what must be the gambling house. And there were plenty of people to watch. Every few minutes someone would come or go, singly or in pairs or smaller groups. While no one I saw was richly dressed, as such, there were some who were clearly better off than others, their tunics and coats being finer – there was a notable lack of trousers inside the city – and notably lacking the heavy wear that I saw on most of the patrons. Some left in high spirits, others with a desperate, haunted look in their eyes. One was bodily thrown out, then given a disinterested beating by the bouncer when he tried to rush back in. He lay in the street for a long time without moving before slowly, painfully getting to his knees and crawling away through the dirt. On the bright side someone stopped and helped him to his feet before he vanished from my sight, so that was nice.

I might have been able to just stay shifted all night. I wasn’t sure, really. I’d come a long, long way since I first got this power, and as long as I was in deep darkness and didn’t move I didn’t tire quickly. But I decided not to risk it. If I was needed I wanted to be alert and rested, not groggy and fighting a headache. So I went back one building, where there was one of those nice, big holes where the roof had partially collapsed in a corner. I took a look inside and there was no one there, nor was there any sign of the space being used by anything but bats and rats, and so I went inside and shifted back. Then I lay down and curled up with my head just barely sticking out of the hole, confident that I’d be invisible in the darkness.

All I had to do was wait.

Not too much later a man walked out the door. He was paler than most, his skin a light enough brown that it was almost a deep tan instead, and his hair was unusually curly. The bouncer gave him a respectful nod. This wasn't remarkable as such; a select few guests got the same treatment, all of them from the richer, or perhaps less poor, part of the clientele, and this man was among the best dressed I had seen so far. What really made me take notice of the man, though, was that Ardek stirred. He crouched in his shadow, quickly popping his head inside the door where the sisters were waiting. This, I concluded, must be Simdal.

Two others followed him closely, their behaviour marking them as somewhat professional bodyguards. Something hung at their sides. I couldn’t say if they were truncheons or short swords. Not that it mattered if I got involved, but I’d feel much better if I knew that there was no sharp metal being pointed at my humans. And, yeah, perhaps the memory of being stabbed under the wing played a small part, too.

As the sisters came into sight I shifted and left my hiding place. Simdal had started up the street, away from us, and I followed him, trusting the others to do the same. We kept pace, passing the gambling house at the same time, and I tensed mentally for a moment before relaxing. The bouncer took a look at the trio, but when they made no move to enter his door he apparently marked them as Not His Problem, and settled back against the wall. Once away from him they sped up, slowly gaining on Simdal and his guards.

This, of course, was the tricky part. Ardek was not a fighter, and neither of the sisters would be fighting with their preferred weapons. Ahead of them were three armed men, all of whom could be assumed to be at least competent when it came to violence. It also wasn’t impossible that Simdal, at least, knew that the sisters had been prisoners of his boss. They were quite recognisable, after all. So we couldn’t count on the element of surprise unless they managed to set up an ambush. On that front, though, fortune smiled on us.

Simdal abruptly stopped, barking out, “Tar, stay here. Dem, with me.” He then stepped into a narrow alley, one of his men remaining vigilant on the street.

I passed over the alley, where Simdal was quite happily pissing against a wall. My humans closed in, passed, and just kept walking, speeding up when the guard on the street mean-mugged them and quickly disappearing around the bend in the street while I stayed behind with our quarry.

When Simdal emerged and continued up the street, they were long gone. Curious what their plan was I went ahead as quickly as I could. That wasn’t particularly much faster than walking speed, but I put a little distance between us, making sure to keep Simdal in sight. Thus I saw my humans lying in ambush several seconds before Simdal and his men reached them.

Honestly, I might have missed them if it were only Mak. Even though I could see clear as day in the dark corner of a stairway where she was hidden, she still seemed to melt into the background. If it weren't for my spotting the others and knowing she must be around, I might not even have looked for her, and even then I might have overlooked her if not for my sense of where she was.

Score one for my ‘all my minors’ theory, I thought smugly. There was no way she’d been that stealthy before surrendering herself to me.

The streets were clear. My humans had their weapons ready, and were positioned so that they could strike from the front and the back at the same time. Mak being the strongest melee fighter, I assumed that she would go first.

Simdal and his guards reached, then passed Mak. She tensed… and nothing. She began to move, then fell back, pressing herself against the stone of the stairway. Herald and Ardek, clearly waiting for Mak to engage, stayed in hiding, clearly unwilling to go in without her. Simdal and his guards moved on, none the wiser, and that should have been that. It would have, if not for me.

We could have waited and tried again another night, after figuring out what happened. But I, for all my patience, did not want to wait. I had what was supposed to be someone with access to the Blossom right in front of me, and my blood boiled with the desire to learn just what he could tell us about her. So there, on a rickety roof in one of the poorest parts of Karakan, I shifted back. With my prey walking away from me, I launched myself from my perch, tearing up tiles as my legs shot me forward. One of the guards stopped as though to listen, but by the time the first tile shattered against the street I was already on them. I fell on them like a hawk on a trio of mice. Braking only enough to be sure I didn’t kill the man I was after, I bowled the guards to the sides, knocking Simdal to the ground beneath me and grabbing him before they really knew what was happening. With the stunned man firmly in my grasp I took off, wings beating as hard as they could, and by the time he started struggling and screaming we were already a hundred feet off the street and climbing fast.

He didn’t try to reason with me. I felt more than a little miffed by that, for some reason. Sure, thinking about it logically, he’d just been grabbed off the street by a big reptile, one strong enough to fly off with him and whose claws were digging into his flesh. There was no reason he should assume that I was even remotely intelligent, unless he recognised me as a dragon. I’d just assumed, on some level, that anyone who was anyone in the Blossom’s organisation would know about me. But why should they? This guy ran some gambling houses, maybe a bar or a brothel or two. Why should he be in on everything that happened?

Ah, well, I thought as he stupidly tried to break my grip, maybe to get at the knife on his belt. I’d learn what he knew soon enough.

The whole thing had been kind of spur-of-the-moment. My initial plan if things went south had been to kill the guards and let my humans deal with Simdal, but when the moment came and he was beneath me I just kind of went with it. I had no real plan. I didn’t know where to take him, and the guy was hollering pretty loudly, making me wonder how many people down below heard him. Possibly a lot. The waterfront was pretty lively, even at night. That… might cause issues in the future, but what was done was done.

Ideally I should go somewhere in the city where the humans could find me, but I wasn’t sure how to do that without alerting half of the population. I needed to shut the guy up somehow. But how–

I snorted at myself. “Shut up!” I growled, and when that didn’t work I hit him with as strong a dose of shadows as I could manage while still flying. It wasn’t exactly something I’d done before, but I didn’t see any reason it shouldn’t work. Which it did, surprisingly well! Simdal went stiff in my grip and his voice caught in his throat as abject terror gripped him, and I took that opportunity to look down at him and repeat myself.

He was already silent at that point, and he stayed that way. It also had the bonus side effect of making him stop squirming. That was good, because if he somehow managed to get loose and fall a few hundred feet I’d have to find someone else to question, and that would have been annoying.

Feeling very pleased with myself I circled back, focusing on Mak. I could feel her down there, somewhere, but I needed to get closer to really pinpoint her location. There was nothing for it, I decided. I descended, trusting that I wouldn’t be too visible against the night sky, and headed in her direction. There was a small annoyance, in that whenever I let up on the shadows for too long Simdal would start getting ideas again, but another couple of doses together with casually digging my claws in put an end to that.

It seemed that they were heading back to the inn. Fine. I could work with that. I cruised along the street on which I thought they must be, low and slow, until I saw them. When I got within perhaps two hundred feet Mak stopped and turned to look up, and our eyes met just as I glided by and continued towards the inn.

I did not, of course, go there. Instead I went straight to my tunnel entrance, the grille-covered storm drain in the alley, where I pulled the grille aside and unceremoniously threw Simdal in. I wrapped him in shadow to the point where my head began to hurt and I was pretty sure he couldn’t see a thing, and then I told him, “I will be watching. If you make a sound, I will punish you.”

He stared up at nothing, not even breathing, which I took as a “Yes, ma’am.” When the shadows lifted and he could see again, I was gone, perched on a nearby rooftop. There I waited, and watched.

It took half an hour or so, but the humans showed up, just like I knew they would. They came in the alley warily, and Mak fished out the bundle of bells from being the loose brick where she’d hidden them. Meanwhile Herald walked up to the grille and looked down.

“Huh,” she said, and turned to her sister. “I found the man. Now, where is the dragon?”