The Call (19 page)

This house is a death trap!

She cautiously tested the planks she stood on by rocking herself, and stood ready with the sword.

There was no sound from below.

Hello? Smelly monster?

She still smelled the infection so the horror hadn't gone far, and she still felt the supernatural dread that had accompanied everything strange she'd encountered. Shouldn't it disappear when the source died? Or was this something new and different from what she'd experienced?

Thanks for being so mysterious, Serdra!

She had a hard time believing the monster had suffered a broken neck in the fall. What little she'd seen of its movements in the dark had been marked by eerie nimbleness, as she would have imagined a man-sized insect would possess. It still hadn't been as quick as Serdra, and Katja held onto that thought to keep the fear at bay.

And yet it seemed to limp.

It occurred to her that the noise would soon attract the attention of the guards, so she clenched her teeth and felt for a stair down with her toes.

A loud crack broke the silence as something smashed up through the planks by her feet. Katja shrieked and one of her legs fell into the hole up to her hip.

“Seeentineeel,” the creature growled in that multiple voice and grabbed the foot. It was trying to twist the ankle.
Break
it.

Katja tried wriggling frantically but the creature was stronger. So she slipped the sword past her thigh and stabbed. The wound she inflicted wasn't terribly deep but the creature still reacted a bit, which gave Katja time to deliver a more powerful thrust.

The tip sank into the creature's arm and Katja twisted the sword in the wound. It breathed out sharply and let go. Katja immediately tried to get loose, but then the other planks finally gave in and she fell through the floor and on her enemy.

It stumbled and Katja managed to land on her feet. When the monster reached for her Katja was prepared and chopped the hand off.

The monster gave a murmur of sorts and retreated from Katja's attacks, into total darkness.

Katja sensed the remains of furniture and various kinds of debris around her and tried to feel her way to this strange enemy. She thought she heard a whisper for a few moments. When it stopped the crackling started.

The dark ruins were suddenly illuminated in a yellow and red inferno. The house was on fire, thick smoke filled her airways and the sounds were deafening.

Katja screamed and tried to flee but the flames were everywhere. The animalistic fear threatened to rob her of her wits, tried to make her flee in any possible direction.

“No, this isn't real!” she said to herself.

Her enemy walked through the flames. It was a human figure with a slashed-up face, an infected leg and a bloody stump in place of a hand. The remains of the face formed a sneer of sorts and the monster attacked.

Katja thought of the training on Flat Top and the vision of the sorcerer.

“This is a memory!” she shouted and stepped forwards and met the creature in the fire.

Ghost flames licked them from top to bottom as the creature tried to get to her with the remaining hand and Katja used her sword to hold it back and inflict wound after wound.

It fought with ferocious hate, as if it were eager to die in order to kill Katja. But it had lost the club, wasn't quick enough and had lost a hand. In the end the fight was in no way even. Katja hit the monster on the knee of the good leg and it fell. A moment later its head plopped on the floor.

The long extinguished flames vanished, and again there was nothing to see but darkness.

Now that danger had passed, the pent-up fear caught up with her and her feet began to shake as she gulped air.

But she had won. And in spite of everything the ecstasy of victory enveloped her like warm bath water.

I am alive and he is dead. Because I was better.

Nervous laughter leapt out of her throat.

Damn I'm good.

She leaned up against some debris, which then snapped under the weight. Katja laughed louder.

Now how do I get out?

--------------------

The climb up on the roof of the storage house was a bother but turned out to be the right decision. The guard who arrived with a lantern to investigate the noise looked around a bit but didn't dare enter the burnt building. He called for some of his comrades to look around the area, and to make sure the storage was locked and undisturbed.

Finally they left and Katja had to gather her courage to jump back onto the wall. She succeeded and arranged herself in a relatively comfortable prone position. She tried to search herself for blood spatters, but without a light the search would have to remain inconclusive for now.

Katja breathed deeply. The evening hadn't been dull after all.

She had to suppress a bit of laughter.

I am completely mad.

“Katja.”

This time her head was clear and Serdra's voice was definitely real. She lowered the rope. Armin was the first one up and Katja had to help him. The man seemed upset.

“Did it work?”

“Ah, yes,” the rune man stammered, but Katja sensed something was wrong. Serdra was next.

“There is a corpse in the burnt ruin,” Katja said. “I need to tell you something.”

“So do I,” Serdra said. “I killed the lieutenant governor.”

Chapter
13.

They hurried along the darkest streets to the home of the Shades. Going quietly was all important so Katja didn't dare ask questions, but she could tell that they badly needed to reach shelter.

The second most important man in the land was dead. Katja found the idea of being charged with his killing ludicrous, but this was the situation.

Katja's heart lurched every time something close to them made a noise, but Frank and Serdra seemed to know what they were doing. They took turns being in the lead and occasionally signalled to stop or to retreat back into the darkness as a guardsman passed.

Their destination was within reach and Katja had almost started to relax when bells could be heard in the distance.

“They've found the body,” Armin whispered, so quietly she barely heard him.

Guard stations around the city began joining the chorus of bells. Soon street lamps would be lit, gates would be closed and locked and riders would patrol the streets in search of people violating the curfew. And that was before it got around just what had happened.

Katja thought of the big street lamp opposite the Shade home. It would probably be lit as well, if it hadn't been already. She also thought of Serdra's warning about the consequences of revealing a Shade group, and felt a different sort of fear from the one caused by monsters and murderers.

Focus!
she told herself.
Step lightly but quickly. Serdra taught you how!

Serdra passed Frank and jogged ahead of them more quickly than before. Katja could barely see anything, and so was unspeakably glad at her mentor's knowledge of the city streets. This was a completely different route from the one they'd used earlier in the day and she was almost startled when she suddenly recognized the house they were passing.

After carefully crossing a potato garden they went over a waist-high fence and through a short alley and then stood opposite the Shade home. Katja heard approaching hoofbeats.

This is presumably not a courier!

Serdra listened for a moment and then signalled for them to follow. They ran across the street as the hoofbeats drew closer and closer, and shot into the alley by the home and behind it.

They heard the rider stop and Katja saw a faint glow. The street lit up and the glow reached halfway into the alley they knelt in.

The rider then drove the horse on and kept going.

Frank crept up to the side door and stroked the wood four times in a particular way. The man on the other side responded to the signal and let them in.

--------------------

After a brief report everyone lay down to rest. Armin and Frank arranged themselves in beds on the first floor, and Serdra and Katja were assigned a spot in the attic.

“We got into the bedroom by going out of a window and from there onto the roof,” Serdra whispered in the dark. “And from there through the governor's bedroom window. Our contact was there watching over him as he'd promised and the rune man did his ritual. He had almost lifted the curse when the door opened and the lieutenant governor walked in. He had approached silently and there was no hiding place for the three of us so I tackled him before he could give a shout and broke his neck.”

Katja felt unease writhe through her. Serdra had shown her how to do that.

“I managed to do it rather silently and Armin was able to complete the ritual. The governor will recover soon. I didn't hear anyone out in the hallway, so I dragged the corpse out and hid it under a bench. With luck no-one will connect it to the contact.”

“But what if luck isn't with us?” Katja asked.

“Then his mettle will be tested.”

Katja silently wished the man fortune.

“What about... it?”

“It sounds like you fought
Lojhan
,” Serdra said.

“That doesn't tell me much.”

The woman looked thoughtful.

“Lojhan is essentially a perversion of an old ceremony that featured in the founding of the Brotherhood. It involves multiple evil spirits being let into the mind and body of a volunteer. Neither mind nor body can withstand it for long, but the subject gains power if they have the willpower to influence the spirits. If not they briefly become a mad horror before dying.”

“Was that why the face was hanging off?”

“No. Usually when the Lojhan ceremony is performed the subject is disfigured so enemies cannot identify them.”

“And-” Katja was a bit startled by some noise downstairs. “And people volunteer for something like that?”

“Sometimes. When there is great need or when they thirst for vengeance.” Serdra touched her shoulder. “These are the kinds of people we are dealing with,” she said quietly.

Katja could think of no answer and just shook her head. Her mentor had killed the second most important man in the land. She realized how big that was, but was too  tired to really wrap her mind around it.

“So what comes next?”

“We will need to investigate this Tovar Savaren. We will head to Wave Fell and from there probably to Mooncape.”

“I meant what about the authorities.”

“The city gate will probably be closed for some time as an investigation is conducted. The authorities will ask about new arrivals, compare statements made by guardsmen and call for witnesses.”

“But we are indeed new arrivals. The guards at the gate might remember us, and definitely the people at the inn as all our belongings are still there! Shouldn't we head there
now
and...”

“Katja, do you think we wouldn't be spotted if we tried to move the horse along the streets?”

“Well, but you don't mean to leave that giant horse behind? It can't have been cheap.”

“I will sneak out tomorrow and evaluate the situation. If we are considered suspects we must leave everything at the inn behind and leave the city under cover of darkness.”

“But-”

“Katja, worldly possessions come and go,” Serdra said serenely. “I have had many horses. One lives longer by not risking too much for something that can be replaced.”

Katja touched her necklace. It couldn't be replaced, nor could the knife her father had given her as a parting present. She clutched the stone in the leather strip tightly.

“And what if we are considered suspects?”

“Back in the day there were a few ways out of the city the guards didn't watch over and some of them must still be viable. Now try to get some sleep.”

--------------------

Serdra was already up when Katja awoke and given how quiet the house was, most of the Shades were off working.

Katja dragged herself to her feet. She was sore after the night's battle but not severely so. She refreshed herself with a few simple flexibility exercises, got dressed and headed downstairs.

Serdra and the lady of the house who had played for them the previous day, Agnes her name apparently was, were still there along with the youngest children. Serdra was putting on clothes she'd clearly borrowed.

“Good day.”

“Good morning,” Serdra said. “You've certainly slept in.”

“Well, my last night wasn't as... notable as yours, but still quite enough. What's the situation?”

The lady of the house took out a bowl and spooned cold porridge into it.

“Everyone has been told the news and Frank is back in his guise as a beggar and went away just before dawn. Outsiders shouldn't notice anything unusual about this home. Unless the two of us act carelessly.”

The message in Serdra's voice was clear.

“What about the authorities?” Katja asked. Agnes placed the porridge bowl before her. “Thank you.”

“I was just on my way to check that out,” her mentor said and tied a scarf around her hair. “The news of the killing as well as the governor's recovery seem to be spreading fast, but I am going to look into exactly what is going on and whether we are safe.”

“And what about me?”

“I want you to wait here. As I said before I don't want us to be seen together much, and also you have no experience with passing without notice in a city.”

“Well, I can't gain experience unless I try.”

“Later. When we aren't guests.”

Right
.

Serdra bid goodbye and left and Katja ate breakfast. The children peeked in on her a few times, but mostly focused on playing. The older ones, who presumably had some idea of who she was, weren't at home.

“Do you need help with something?” Katja asked as she finished.

“No, thank you,” Agnes said as she swept the floors. “I can handle this. And I'll need to wash your clothes.”

Katja looked down on herself and then finally remembered her search for blood stains the night before. She hadn't been thorough enough.

“Just undress, I'll wash them as soon as I've changed a diaper.”

Katja obeyed and found herself an empty room in the house and started doing strength exercises. She went over the fight with the Lojhan-creature in her head a few times and thought about what she could have done better and what she'd done right. She took her knife out and practised thrusting in different situations.

Serdra's words about their enemies haunted her. How was such madness possible? What did these people really
want
?

She punched and kicked and stabbed and swung with ever-greater ferocity as she immersed herself in imaginary combat.

Should she try to ask one of them those questions if the opportunity arose, or just punish him for the lunacy?

She came up behind an imaginary man, slashed the crook of his elbow, stabbed him in the heart just as she yanked him to the ground, then slit his throat and thrust under his ribs.

Katja had started to sweat and sat down on a stool to catch her breath. She was still a bit disturbed at the idea of using these methods on actual people. Just like most folk she had after all been raised with the idea that violence was evil, and even though she'd never heeded it much it was difficult to shake lifelong lessons. Despite the lust for adventure she'd never particularly wanted to kill.

But was that just because I had no enemies?
she thought. Because along with the fellow feeling she'd been raised to, she also felt this deranged excitement Serdra had turned from a spark into a raging inferno. The need to fight and win in utterly undeniable fashion.

I hope I'll understand this better in time.

She was deep enough in thought to be startled when Agnes walked in.

“The clothes are clean. Do you want to borrow some of mine while yours are drying?”

“No no, it's warm. I can wait.”

She followed Agnes out of the room, found herself a blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders and sat on a bench. She looked around a bit and listened carefully. The children had moved out to the little garden behind the house to play. The two of them were alone.

“Can I,” Katja cleared her throat, “can I ask you something?” she asked Agnes.

The woman looked at her.

“Go ahead.”

Katja hesitated.

“How is this life?” she asked and inclined her head a bit in an abstract gesture. “The Shade life. Hiding, danger and secrecy.”

Katja didn't know what the woman had been expecting, but that seemed to surprise her. She looked away and thought before then taking a seat opposite Katja. Given how carefully she thought it over Katja got the impression she didn't hear this question often.

Who would ever ask it?
it occurred to Katja now that she thought about it.
It's not as if an outsider would have any reason to.

“One is raised to this,” Agnes finally said in a near whisper and looked her straight in the face. “Raised to tell no-one about family meetings. Shouldering this responsibility and being careful in all things and always being at risk of revenge strikes is a given.”

One of the boys screeched with mirth in the garden.

“Until the children are born,” she added and looked away.

Katja looked away herself. Great emotion lay in those simple words.

Agnes closed her eyes and seemed to gather her strength.

“But there is need for this. These things we do. One is raised to that too. So that the children, and their children and their children can live in a tolerable world. That is how one endures this.”

Silence reigned for a while after this. Katja didn't quite know where to look or what to say.

“What about you?” the woman then asked. “How is the Graycloak-life?”

Katja was on the verge of correcting her on the title but decided to let it be.

“Well, I haven't been doing this for long. I am native to the Coast, as you know. I didn't know about any of this until Serdra showed up a few months ago.”

“Hm.” Agnes nodded. “Did you know some of your siblings have been raised by us? By our order, that is.”