Xue was having fun tracking the group of thugs in the new city. It helped to keep her mind off all the other noxious odors Annib’s inhabitants caused to circulate in the stagnant air. She was also impressed with Kato’s tracking abilities. He wasn’t using his nose, that much was clear, but he kept staring at the ground as if he could see their quarries’ footsteps. She wanted to ask him how he was doing it, but didn’t want to break his concentration.
When they encountered the city guards, Xue growled softly, preparing to fight. But Kato’s warning hand on her shoulder made her pause reluctantly. She frowned at the funny magic he worked on them, thinking it would have been much more efficient in the end to simply have killed them all. Then they could not recover and continue looking for their friends!
Then again, perhaps ten or so guards would have been too many to handle—even for a wolf. She gave the coughing, sneezing group of guards one last look before hurrying reluctantly after Kato, who was once again on the trail.
As they rounded a corner, she grabbed a hold of Kato’s arm, holding him back while she sniffed at the air. “Fresh blood,” she whispered, baring her teeth and narrowing her eyes. A battle had been fought very near here, very recently.
Unsheathing their weapons, they hurried forward, pausing briefly when they noticed the either dead or unconscious bodies of a couple of thugs. Sounds of a scuffle of some sort drew them forward, further down the street and into a dark alley. Xue felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up when she saw Soran and Alex being held captive by the remaining members of the gang.
She was about to bound forward when two daggers suddenly flew seemingly out of nowhere and embedded themselves in the skulls of Alex’s captors. The two gang members died instantly, their bodies toppling to the ground. Between them, Alex, too, fell forward, apparently losing consciousness.
Xue gave a triumphant howl when Rowan leapt from the shadows where the knives had come from. He killed three gang members before she could reach his side, her sai drinking blood along with his swords. Kato was there, too, and Soran did his best to defend himself as well.
She couldn’t speak for the others, but she herself was merciless, parrying the feeble efforts of her enemies with deadly blows of her own. Rowan was equally ruthless, his face expressionless as he sank one sword into the chest of a boy no older than fifteen. You fight like a wolf, she’d once told him approvingly, to which he’d replied with a rather feral smile, In my society, I was a wolf.
Eventually, all the gang members were either dead or knocked unconscious. For the first time, Xue noticed a new girl, a woman who was dressed in men’s clothing. She giggled behind her hand, for she thought the newcomer looked rather silly in her oversized shirt and trousers.
If Rowan seemed surprised to see her and Kato there, he hid it well. “How did you find us?” he asked, his slightly accented voice making it sound as though he were having a pleasant parlor room conversation.
“I smell you,” Xue replied quickly, wanting to outdo Kato. No doubt the others would be more impressed with his magical tracking abilities than her lupine sense of smell.
“I smelled you,” Rowan corrected absently. “Wait, that doesn’t sound right either…”
Xue shrugged and turned away from him. She came from a pack that spent most of its time as wolves; they had no need to learn the common tongue, and so she’d come to it late in life. Who cared if she left out a verb or two? She thought it was a rather stupid, slow language anyway.
She stared at the new girl and giggled again. “You are dressed funny,” she said.
Rowan had been busy kneeling beside Soran, checking his injuries and looking most worried over his young mate’s head wound. Now he looked up at the new girl and frowned. “Now we need your help more than ever. I’ll give you this,” he pulled out a handful of gold coins from his pocket before dropping them back in, “and more, if you’ll take us someplace safe.”
~*~*~*~*~
As soon as Cas heard Eremis read the contents of Soran’s letter, he was on his feet and headed toward the bar. His lover joined him shortly, just as he was asking the bartender for directions to the Swine’s Tavern. He nodded his thanks and tossed the man a gold coin before grabbing Eremis and heading in the indicated direction.
In soon became apparent that the Swine’s Tavern was located in a rather down and out part of town, and not for the first time Cas was glad of the sword that hung at his side. Not too many thugs could afford to carry swords, and most assumed that those who could knew how to use them, too. At the moment, Cas was more afraid of losing Eremis somehow, so he kept a tight hold on the healer’s arm. Eremis didn’t seem to mind; he looked utterly petrified as it was.
The Swine’s Tavern was, not surprisingly, a pretty seedy little shack if he’d ever seen one. Once inside, he and Eremis made their way to the bar, where he plunked down a couple coppers and asked for an ale. He took a few sips while looking around the room, disappointment filling him when he didn’t see Soran.
He called the bartender over once again and explained that he was looking for two people. The guy didn’t seem to recall Soran, but when he gave him Rowan’s description, he nodded slowly.
“Rich young fellow,” he said slowly, “Yeah, I remember him. He left about fifteen minutes ago with a couple other people that was sittin’ in back over there.” He pointed to a dark corner of the bar.
“Thanks, man,” Cas said, slipping him a couple of silver coins this time. He hopped off the bar, pulling Eremis after him. “Come on! They must’ve left to escape the guards.”
A few minutes later, a troop of guards entered the tavern. The leader looked around for a moment before also heading over to the bar, where the bartender straightened and tried his best to look innocent.
“What can I do for ya, cap’n?” he asked while rubbing down a dirty glass with a grimy yellow rag.
“We’re looking for a boy, mid to late teens,” the guard captain said. “Blonde hair, about six feet tall.”
The barkeeper immediately thought of the two boys who’d just been in here. He remembered the curly-haired kids silent companion, a blonde boy with blue eyes.
“Oh yeah,” he said with a slow nod, “I seen him. Yellow hair about yay long, right?”
He held a hand up to his shoulders. The guard captain nodded.
“Well, you just missed him, cap’n. He and another boy left a couple minutes ago. Can’t have gotten far.”
The other man grunted his ascent and tossed the bartender a gold coin. “For your troubles.”
The bartender grinned as the guard trooped back out. With any luck, someone else would come striding through, looking for someone else. At this rate, he’d be filthy stinking rich by the end of the night!
