Shadows in the Smoke - 30 - Murder in the Night

  “Life for the living in the Lands of the Dead is nasty, brutish and short. Every living person there survives knowing that their survival is entirely dependent upon their usefulness to the Liche Kings. Sadly for them, this generally manifests in the form of being vital ingredients for one necromantic ritual or another. Only the most disgusting traitors would ever willingly choose to work for those monsters.”

  The Struggle for Freedom by Bjarne Midthun

  =====

  Ester froze as a group of Republicans came round the corner at the far end of the long corridor in a clatter of boots on the stone floor. Her prisoner relaxed ever so slightly in her grip at the sight.

  The soldiers came to a stop, still some way away from them, and exchanged a few quiet words. She didn’t recognise any of them. A group of gaunt, hard-eyed men who looked like they’d been in a fight. A couple of them were even bleeding. Should she surrender and try to explain? Kill her prisoner and then fight her way out? She decided in a flash.

  “We fought off vampires.” She hissed to her prisoner. “Say the wrong word and I'll kill you. Play along and I'll let you go once I’m safely out of here.” She hadn’t decided whether she would or not, but she needed him to behave for now.

  “You’re mad.” He muttered back, but he didn’t seem inclined to try shouting for help, thank the Spirits. Instead he was staring at his approaching comrades with a slight frown on his face.

  “What’s going on here, Sergeant, Citizen? Are you well?” One of the group of Republicans called out as they started advancing again.

  “We were attacked!” It wasn’t hard for Ester to put a quiver of fear into her voice. “Vampires! We fought them off, but they killed him,” she tilted her head towards her other attacker, “and ran off that way.”

  “Vampires?” The leader of the Republicans frowned, but didn’t break his stride. “In Fort Statvinger? How did they get in?”

  Ester hesitated, his accent was a bit odd and she didn’t like his tone, but then what did she know about Republican accents?

  “I do not know, but they nearly killed both of us.” Great Spirits, he mustn’t notice her grip on the other Republican’s wrist!

  “How terrible! We must hunt them down before they can do more harm to the fort or Citizens like you. Come along men!” He seemed to think Ester was a Republican too. Was there anyone in the fort that didn’t know who she was by this point? Her eyes narrowed into a frown.

  “Fuck!” Her prisoner hissed the word. A spike of something boiled through the sensations Ester could feel through her grip on him. “Let me go! Now!”

  “Wha-”

  “I don’t recognise them!”

  “Are you well?” The advancing Republican officer seemed unconcerned by their quiet, frantic conversation. In fact, he sounded almost amused. “Did the vampires injure you?”

  “But we just-” Ester’s prisoner cut her off.

  “Red tabs on their uniforms! Garrison troops.”

  Ice spiked through Ester’s veins. The same uniform as her attacker. Just slightly different to the one the 13th wore. If he didn’t recognise them…

  She was moving before she’d even finished the thought.

  She let go of his wrist, leaping sideways and throwing an outstretched hand up in front of her.

  “Diwaien gewaaj’fa.” Air solidified in front of her in a spiral of glowing runes. Off to her side, she felt magic well up through her prisoner.

  She wasn’t going to strike first. She’d felt her prisoner’s terror, but he’d tried to kill her, she couldn’t trust him. She could explain everything so far, if she had to, even if the Republicans might not believe her. If he was wrong, attacking a squad of them without any warning would end any chance of talking her way out of things.

  The oncoming soldiers stopped again and their leader looked her over before shrugging.

  “Well, getting away completely clean would have been a bit too much to hope for. I wouldn’t have minded finding out why the two of you were holding hands over a corpse, but I suppose I’ll just have to settle for being glad it’s just a cantrist and a civilian in my way. X?y spèittan’fa.”

  Necromantic energy exploded towards them and, with a yell, Ester’s erstwhile prisoner charged forward, even as she forced her magic into opposition to the enemy witch’s.

  “Dachaid.” For a brief moment white and gold runes mixed with the green and then Ester’s spell tore his attack apart. “Saig.” She didn’t bother to fully speak the spell as she sent fire spiraling down the corridor past the charging Republican.

  She felt horribly exposed standing there in her shift. She didn’t have any magical enhancements, just a homemade Schema and her own skill. The corridor was wide for something buried tens or hundreds of feet under a hill, but it left her precious little room to maneuver.

  Ester felt magic flow more strongly around the infiltrators.

  Magic surged around the soldiers’ leader. “Do’aelt.” He tore her spell apart and two of them leapt forward to meet her former prisoner head on. Were they both enhancing themselves too? Did everyone except her know how to do that?

  Ester pushed the bubbling irritation to the back of her mind as energy surged through her, words of power spilling from her mouth, shaping her magic. When Master Tabasi said punching people was a ridiculous way to fight, he was just wrong. He wasn’t wrong that it wasn’t the only way though.

  “Njadh ai’saigok.” Her magic sent a hail of fiery darts streaking down the corridor. The witch leading the infiltrators gestured and shouted a word. His magic slammed against hers, twisted into her spell and then slipped. Triumph bubbled at the back of Ester’s mind as a dart slashed across him when her spell didn’t fully come apart in the face of his disjunction. He staggered backwards, a Schema flaring around him.

  Between them, the two infiltrators and her prisoner came together with a crash loud enough to shake the walls. Another spell flew at Ester, forcing her to tear her eyes away from the chaotic melee as they struck at each other too fast for her eyes to follow.

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  “Dachaid!” She swiped sideways with her hand, smashing the witch’s counter apart. She was going to show him she didn’t need to punch anyone!

  Ester opened her mouth to shout out a spell and, with a deafening clang, the world around her dissolved into bright light as she was nearly thrown off her feet.

  She shook her head to clear it, just in time to see one of the infiltrators fumbling to reload his gun. He’d shot her. How dare he!

  With a wet crunch, her prisoner slammed one of the traitors into the wall hard enough to break every bone in his body.

  A moment later, the other one hit him back, sending him tumbling down the corridor.

  Their witch took the opportunity to attack, ignoring Ester for a second. The green glow of the Weiryd appeared around him as green and black runes mixed into the threads of his spell, swirling into Ester’s prisoner.

  She didn’t hear his spell, but she did hear her erstwhile prisoner’s shriek. She cast it out of her mind. The witch was wrong to ignore her. She might not be able to punch as hard as the Republican, but she was the more dangerous of the two of them. The witch wouldn’t live to make the same mistake twice.

  “Spi?kk paasgian’fa al’tànga’ir.” Ester’s lips thinned as her spell came together in a flicker of runes behind the witch. No brute force this time.

  In a sudden movement, a long dagger yanked itself off one of the traitors' belts and flew straight at the witch’s back. It slammed into his Schema in a flare of magic. At the same time, her spell was pouring heat into it. The Schema held for less than a second before the barrier dissolved and the dagger stabbed straight into him.

  The witch screamed, staggering into the side of the corridor, his own spell collapsing as his concentration broke in the face of burning agony.

  Ester didn’t waste time watching him. The other traitors had guns.

  Energy surged through her as two of them raised their weapons. “Tambrgh dojeen al’gewaaj’fa!” Before they could fire, her magic gripped the wall beside them. With an ear-splitting crash, it exploded, sending shards of rock slicing across the corridor.

  Their slow crumple into bleeding heaps was punctuated by a series of deafening cracks of rock impacting on the corridor’s walls.

  That left one. He’d paused in his fight with Ester’s prisoner while the witch cast his disgusting necromantic spell. Ester’s spells yanked his attention back to the other traitors. He was only just starting to turn back towards her, jaw slack when Ester cast one final spell.

  “Saig.” Fire engulfed him so fast he didn’t even have time to scream.

  Ester was left standing there, gasping for breath with her fists clenched at her sides. That had been terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time. Energy pounded through her veins while her heart felt like it was trying to escape her chest. She had to force down an urge to giggle madly. They thought she didn’t know how to fight; well she’d shown them!

  She gave herself a shake. She needed to hold herself together. Just because she’d defeated whomever those people were, it didn’t mean her problems were over.

  Ester’s eyes landed on her former prisoner. He was standing there, motionless other than small movements of his head as he looked back and forth between the remains of the traitors. It was just him, her and a corridor full of corpses in Republican uniforms.

  A spike of horror shot through Ester, burning away the feelings of triumph as she realised how it might look. Were those men really traitors? She’d been working off the word of a man who’d just tried to kill her in her sleep.

  No, that was just paranoia. One of the traitors had used necromancy. Whatever she might think of the Republicans, they seemed to hate necromancers just as much as the Empire. Frankly, she’d choose a murderer over a necromancer every time.

  Maybe she didn’t have to choose though. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she fixed her gaze on the remaining man.

  “Ice and steam…” He murmured the words before looking back at her. The moment his eyes met Ester’s his already far too pale face went white. After a moment he visibly gathered himself. “I think, maybe, we should get our stories straight.”

  “Our stories straight?” The anger pulsing through Ester’s veins in time with her heart missed a beat. What was he on about?

  “Yes, Cit… Mage, uh, Mazar wasn’t it?” He didn’t wait for an answer, speaking fast as if he was worried she might kill him if she got the opportunity to think. He might not be wrong. “Look, you’ve got me over a barrel here, I admit that, but I could still cause trouble for you if you kill me. You’ll be found standing over Republican bodies. If they give you time to explain, you might be able to talk your way out of it, but even then, if people don’t like you now, think what’ll happen with the rumours when this gets out.”

  He was terrified! Ester couldn’t help the slight thrill that shot through her. A grizzled veteran soldier, one with the Talent no less, was practically trembling with fear. That would teach him to try to kill her in his sleep!

  “And if I let you live, then what?” She took a step towards him, riding on a mad wave of excitement. “You tell them that I attacked you and I get the blame? You end up being the one to spread the rumours about me and more people try to kill me? Or no, you just wait for another opportunity to do it yourself?” Anger spiked in her again at the thought.

  “No! No, no no… Look, I owe you. You saved my life there; if you hadn’t killed that corpse fucker, I’d be nothing but a drained husk. There’re better ways to go, believe me. I figure… I figure we got you wrong. Me and Runar, maybe we believed things we shouldn’t of.”

  “Is Runar the one I killed?” Ester glanced at his corpse and quickly looked away. The excitement was fading fast, as she realised she still didn’t know what to do.

  The other man winced. “Aye, and I’m Sergeant-Cantrist Vegard. I’m not going to beg for my life, particularly not from some cr- from a subject of the Empire. But, we can both survive this. If we agree on a story then things look better for both of us.”

  “Why should I trust you? You tried to kill me in my sleep. Nothing has changed.”

  He took a small step back and then growled slightly under his breath. “Like I said, I owe you. That doesn’t mean I like you, but you saved my life and you haven’t killed me. That means something here. On my honour as a soldier of the Republic.” Ester had to resist the urge to laugh at that. He’d tried to murder her in her sleep and why would the word of a Republican mean anything anyway? “Think of it this way, like I said, if you kill me there’ll be problems. If we work together, then I can speak in your favour and I know that if I go back on my word you can ruin my life too. Even if you don’t trust me ”

  Ester hesitated, realised she was chewing her bottom lip and scowled as she forced herself to stop. She couldn’t just kill him. Not now, not like this. She wasn’t a murderer. But she couldn’t trust him either!

  “I killed your friend? Don’t you care about that?” If he’d tried to kill her over her injuring one of the soldiers, his friend Runar must matter more.

  “Yes, I care. For fuck’s sake, obviously I care. I didn’t like him all that much, but… I’m not an idiot, things change. We tried to do you in, we failed. Maybe it’s true that what happened before was all an accident. It doesn’t really matter now. Like I said, I owe you for saving my life. I’ll owe you even more for not killing me. I’m not saying I want to be your friend. I wouldn’t be friends with a bl- there’s no need for us to be friends. If you really wanted to kill me, you’d of done it. So what do you say?”

  Ester took a deep breath and then let it out. He was right. She didn’t want to kill him. She knew she was probably making a mistake; that she couldn’t trust him. What other choice did she have though? If she wasn’t going to kill him, then she had none.

  “Very well. I am no murderer.” She left the comparison unspoken. “What, exactly, are you proposing?”

  Vegard tried to hide it, but the sudden release of tension in his posture was obvious. “How about this? Runar and I were walking through the corridor and were passing your room when we ran into the traitors. We realised we didn’t recognise them and challenged them. They attacked and managed to kill Runar. I was fighting for my life and the noise woke you. You came out of your room and fought them off, succeeding in killing them all. There, that way you even get most of the credit.”

  Ester slowly nodded as he spoke. It sounded just about plausible. As long as no one looked into it too closely. “It could work. There is one difficulty though. How do you explain the damage to my room? Runar is lying in the middle of the remains of my door and one of you destroyed my bed.”

  “Huh.” Vegard stopped to think. His fear seemed to have fled completely as he thought about how to come up with a suitable lie. What kind of a man was she allowing to live? “How about… Runar threw one of them through your door and in the scuffle your bed was destroyed before you could beat the traitor.”

  “We will need to move the remains of the door then.” Ester cast a critical eye over the scene, doing her best to ignore the bloody corpses. “Maybe one or two of the bodies too, at the moment it is obvious that the door exploded outwards.”

  “Hmm, yes. Better get to it then, before anyone else arrives.” Ester watched Vegard with wide eyes for a second as he hurried over to one of the traitors’ corpses and started dragging it by the legs towards her room. Then she gave herself a mental kick.

  “Kelgan garmur’fa.” At her words, the remains of her door slid across the floor and into her room. If she was going to be foolish enough to let him live then she at least needed to make sure their lie looked plausible.

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  We've had a lot of discussion on the Bones in the Dark discord too, including some frankly disturbing impressions of Jahangir Amini. .

  Dramatis personae:

  Ester Mazar - Chartered Mage, I darn well showed them!

  Vegard - Arcanist-Sergeant, realising he'd bitten off rather more than he could chew.

  ??? - Necromancer, today was not my lucky day