Heart of Dorkness

Scourge Twenty - Situation

I’m a bit worried about leaving Bianca on her own. Well, technically she’s with Esme, but Esme’s still snoring despite her face being wet from the water we splashed on her. I can tell she’s starting to wake up, but it’s going to be a minute.

Bianca asks me to stay in the room for a minute while she dresses. While sliding into her skirts and blouse she says that it’s inappropriate for people of our station to see each other dressing, but under the circumstances she thinks that a bit of impropriety is the lesser evil.

Once she’s all dressed up and armed with the assassin’s dagger, I nod to her and head out to find Felix.

I find my friend still in the dining room talking to Teo while mopping a plate clean with a chunk of bread. “Hey,” she says as I get closer.

“We have a situation,” I say.

“What sort of situation?” Teo asks.

For a moment I consider brushing him off. I bet if I say it’s a girl problem he'll clamp right up and let us figure things out. On the other hand, Teo has been pretty helpful. I glance around to make sure there aren’t too many ears nearby, then I lean forwards so that only Teo and Felix can hear. “Someone just tried to kill Bianca, Inigo and Esme,” I say.

Teo sits up straighter. “Is this a joke?” he asks. “Because if it is, it’s in bad taste.”

“Val wouldn’t joke like that,” Felix says. “You need help with the body?”

I nod. Felix really knows how to be a good friend.

Teo stands up. “We need to report this,” he says.

I reach up and clamp a hand on his shoulder, stopping him mid-motion. “Come with us first. We’re going to wake up Inigo and interrogate him.”

“And the assassin?” he asks.

“Is a bit too dead for interrogating,” I say.

He looks at me, meeting my eyes through my hood. “You’re serious,” he says.

I roll my eyes. “Obviously,” I say.

I lead the pair of them back through the barracks and to the infirmary. When we near the door, Felix starts sniffing at the air. “Smells good here,” she says. “Like bacon.”

“That’s the assassin,” I say as I arrive at the door. I knock, a quick pattern that both Felix and Esme would recognize. “Hey, Bianca, it’s me,” I say.

Something clunks on the other side of the door, and soon it opens up, revealing Bianca standing with a hand behind her back, no doubt holding onto some weapon. Esme’s sitting on the edge of her bed, rubbing her face.

The body’s been shoved to the side, and there’s a chair in Bianca’s other hand. I guess she used it to block the door.

We slip into the room and Bianca replaces the chair.

“You really did kill someone,” Teo says as he stares at the body.

“Bianca did all of the hard work,” I say. “All I did was stab him a few times with some magic. I’d venture a guess that he didn’t have any skills that made him tougher. Just stealthier ones.”

“I didn’t get the opportunity to observe his classes while he was on me,” Bianca says with noble detachment. She flicks up the knife to display it. “He had this on him, as well as some symbols of the church of Altum. The knife isn’t anything special as far as I can tell.”

“Did he have a sheath for it?” I ask.

“Yes,” Bianca says.

I nod. “You should keep it. Spoils of war and all.”

Bianca eyes the knife for a moment, then shrugs and walks back up to the corpse. She kneels down and starts to undo the man’s belt to free his sheath.

Teo rubs at his face for a moment, then takes a deep breath. “We need to get moving. I’ll tell Esteban, and we can load up the carts right away. If we’re fast, we can be out of the outpost and a few hours down the road before anyone realises what happened.”

“That sounds like an idea,” I say. “But before that, we need to find out what the assassin came here to learn.”

“Unless you know some sort of necromancy,” Teo says with obvious disgust. “Then we won’t be learning that unless we ask those that sent him, and I’m not keen on doing that. I saw the group from the church coming in last night. They have a paladin or two in their midst. Cultivators that can likely take us all on.”

“I meant that we should ask Inigo what he knows,” I say. “Esme, you up?”

“Yeah yeah,” Esme says. “So, uh, someone tried to kill us?”

“I think it was mostly Inigo. We were just in the wrong room,” I say. “Can you check on him?”

Esme nods and jumps to her feet. Teo turns a bit on seeing that she’s still in her nightgown, a blush touching his cheeks. Honestly, there are more important things going on that matter more than a bit of modesty. People are so stuffy around here.

We move closer to Inigo with only Felix staying behind to guard the door. Esme touches the man’s cheeks and leans over him to feel his breathing. “He’s not feverish or anything, and his colour’s a lot better,” Esme says. “I think he’s just sleeping deeply.”

“Think we can wake him up?” I ask.

Esme shrugs. “I’m not that well versed in medicine. I can’t say if that would be safe or--” she pauses to yawn. “--not, but I can give him a jolt. That’ll wake him up, I bet.”

I glance to the others to see if anyone has a better idea, and on seeing nothing but blank faces, I nod to Esme.

She places her hands over Inigo’s chest, fingers placed in very specific spots, then she takes a deep breath. There’s a snap and Inigo gasps. His arms flail around, but he’s still weakened and Teo and I both catch his arms and legs and press them back down onto his cot.

“What? What’s? Where am I?” Inigo asks. He sounds lost, which I suppose it only fair. He tries to bolt upright, but we manage to hold him down by pinning him to the bed. “No, let go of me.”

“Hey, calm down man, you’re fine, you’re safe,” Teo says.

“His eyes are dilated weird,” Esme says. “I think he might still be a bit rough.”

Inigo calms down. “I’m not at the outpost,” he says. It’s more of a statement than a question.

“You’re not at your outpost. We’re further south,” Teo says. “We brought you with us, to get you healed up. You were the only person at Shortbend. We need to know what happened to the others.”

Inigo starts muttering. It’s a prayer to Luito.

“Hey, Mister Inigo,” I say. “Come on, stay with us. We need to know who wants you dead so bad.”

“Dead?” he asks. “Right, dead. They were dead, but only for a while.”

“Uh-huh,” I say, encouraging him on. “Do you know if Altum has anything to do with it?”

Inigo gasps. “The travelling priests. They came and offered the others wine. We took it, all of us. It was good wine, good wine that killed us.”

I send a glance to Teo. He’s frowning, brows drawn together on his forehead and lips turned down. “This is all hearsay, from a very sick man,” he says. “But, there’s a dead assassin on the floor there, and I never rightly trusted Altum’s people.”

“Why would Altum’s worshippers kill people?” Esme asks.

Felix is the one that answers. “Ain’t he the necromancer god?”

“Well... that’s great,” I say. “Anyone else have this creepy feeling that Altum’s creating an army of the undead?”

“That’s ridiculous,” Teo says. “The dead can’t worship. Besides, that’s a big leap to go from killing the members of an outpost to creating an army.”

“Yeah, but I bet they make for good followers,” I say. A god’s power isn’t just based on the number of people following them. If that was the case, then Mom would be super weak since she’s basically not worshipped at all.

Teo leans down next to Inigo. “You’re coming with us,” he says. “We’re going to need to sneak you out of here.”

“They’re here?” Inigo asks.

“They are. And they’ve tried to kill you already.” He gestures to the dead assassin. “I’m going to wrap you in blankets and carry you out over my shoulder. Gods know you can’t weigh much, skinny as you are. We’ll need you to stay mum while I carry you, can you do that?”

Inigo nods. “I can. Luto’s kept me alive this long, I won’t spurn his gift by making myself known.”

“Good man,” Teo says.

We wrap Inigo up in some additional blankets until he’s entirely hidden, and then Teo hikes him up onto his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.

“Now we just need to sneak out of this entire outpost,” I mutter.

“Sneak?” Felix asks. “I think it’ll be easier if we just walk out, bold as day. That’s how all the best sneaks did it, back in Santafaria. Grab what you want and just walk out.”

I snort. “We’ll see if that holds up here too.”

***