The last thing that Lucas had to do before he could bounce was decide what to do with their prisoner. That meant he had to meet with her again, so before he did that, he got cleaned up.
Looking disheveled or that he was in a hurry would just make her feel like there might be some way out of this for her, and that was the last thing he wanted. So, no matter how hectic the preparations were elsewhere on the compound, he changed shirts and made himself presentable.
Only then did he go to the main house, where he found Danaria looking through some things at the kitchen table. “Where’s our guest?” Lucas asked.
“She’s downstairs, under guard,” Danaria answered, “There were no problems. I was just waiting for you to get here to tell me what any of these things are.”
Lucas looked around the table. He saw an emptied coin purse that contained only gold and silver. A little black book that was full of notes, though apparently in some kind of cipher, a very expensive-looking dagger with what seemed to be a family crest on it, a scroll, and a few other pieces of jewelry.
“I don’t know,” Lucas answered truthfully. “Any one of them could have a secondary purpose or a hidden danger with the right command word. I’ll take them with Adin and bury them in the orchard before we find a place to lie low for a while. They can stay there until we have a better idea of what’s going on.”
“The orchard?” she asked, looking up, “Why? What’s going on?”
“What’s going on is that this woman has friends. Powerful friends. They almost certainly know that she went out to talk with me today, and when she doesn’t come back…” Lucas sighed. “Well, when she doesn’t come back they’re going to look everywhere they think that she or I might be. Which means here, first and foremost.”
“Oh my goodness, you’re right!” Danaria said, rising to her feet. “We have to—”
“Not you,” Lucas interrupted. “You’re staying right here. It’s me and your brother they’re looking for along with—”
“But what if they think I’m… I don’t know, in league with you, or involved in all this, or whatever,” she asked, suddenly panicking. “Because I kind of am!”
“Listen!” Lucas said, grabbing her by the shoulders and moving close enough to her so that she couldn’t focus on anything but the words he was going to say next. “You have to stay here with Gerwin and everyone else and just act natural, okay? I’m going to leave Hura’gh and Kar’gandin here too, so—”
“But won’t they be looking for them, too?” she asked, starting to panic. “What if they know I’m lying to them and—”
“Danaria, calm down. It’s going to be fine,” Lucas practically shouted, forcing her to take a nice deep breath. “Guards have come looking for your brother twice, and they’ve left twice without issue. This will be the same as that. As for the dwarf and the half-orc, well, they might still be wanted, but no one is really looking for them specifically. They’ll stay out of sight and keep an eye on you guys, and if something goes wrong, they’ll let me know.”
“Lucas…” she whimpered, suddenly surging forward to hug him. “I’m scared.”
“I get it,” he nodded, patting her on the back. “This wasn’t how I planned to spend my day either. Shit was finally on rails, and now this.”
He spent a few more minutes trying to comfort her, and when Gerwin came in and saw the two of them hugging, he frowned and made no attempt to hide his displeasure. He calmed down once Lucas explained the plan, and other than his silent judgment about the things that Lucas was doing to interrupt this household, he did nothing.
By the time he got down to see his prisoner. He found Miss Torvin bound hand and foot in the northeast corner of the basement, under the stairs. She’d been stripped to her underwear, which was still enough to cover about eighty percent of her body, but she looked to be as uncomfortable as Danaria had been the time he’d walked in on her in bed.
To the guards’ credit, they weren’t staring at her like creeps, at least, and Lucas sent them upstairs to help clean up everything as he pulled up a chair and sat down in front of his prisoner. “Well,” he asked. “Was it worth it?”
“I won’t tell you anything,” she spat. “How dare you treat a lady of the court this way. When my father hears of this—”
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“He’ll do very bad things,” Lucas nodded as he agreed. “I don’t doubt it. But he has to find me first, and I can promise you one thing. If I don’t get some answers out of you, then no one is ever going to see you again.”
“You wouldn’t have the balls to hurt me,” she smirked.
“Hurt you? No. I’m not into that,” Lucas answered with a shake of his head. “But you must remember that I do have certain… alchemical connections. I could poison you whenever I want, and I assure you it will be a very peaceful death. You won’t feel a thing.”
That threat was enough to cow her, but only for a moment. “Even if I die, others will have my revenge. You’re just the criminal scum of a lesser house. Who would stand up for you?”
“Well, you said it yourself earlier,” he smiled. “Anyone I want, after they get hooked on blue. That’s what you wanted it for, right? So you could make addicts of the key people in Lordanin and control anyone that opposed you?”
“You know nothing about me or my plans,” she said with a smirk, but Lucas could tell he’d hit close to the mark, and her lies were hollow.
“Well, be that as it may, you’re coming with me for a couple of days. We’re going to lie low and do a little digging into what you want while we decide what to do next,” he said.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she shot back. “When I don’t come back tonight, they’ll look for me, and by this time tomorrow, I’ll be home eating veal cutlets, and you’ll be in chains in the dungeon waiting your turn with the torturer.”
Lucas smiled coldly. He had to admire her confidence if nothing else. Arissa was a lovely woman with dark complexion, and dark curly hair. He was sure that she was used to being the center of attention, but maybe not quite like this.
“Sounds nice,” Lucas nodded. “I could go for some veal myself, but it’s going to be simpler, fair, at least for a while until your friends give up the chase. I’m sorry to disappoint you.”
“You think you can—” she started to say, but Lucas kept on talking right over her.
“As to waiting here, I’ll give you two choices,” he continued. "You can either come along willingly, and I’ll let you put a dress back on, or you can keep fighting, and I’ll drag you upstairs in your underwear and put you in a mule cart. You know, give the boys a real eyeful.”
She shivered at that, and covered up her bust, which near as he could tell was already covered by at least two or three different layers of fabric. She said nothing, and was content to glare daggers at him until he stood up. Then she said suddenly. “Fine, send your maid servants and whoever that girl was back down with my clothes and I’ll come along peacefully. I will not be exposed to the eye of the commoners anymore than I already have been today.”
Lucas called Danaria and had her come back down, but he switched outfits on the woman. Miss Parin brought down something a little more feminine than the odd suit that the woman had been wearing.
“These are not my clothes!” she yelled. “Where are my blouse and trousers?”
“Probably the burn pit,” Lucas lied. “You have more than enough magic on you. We’re not giving you back anything you might be able to turn into a weapon against me as soon as I turn my back on you.”
Lady Tovin yelled in anger for several minutes after that, flinging all the verbal abuse she could think of at him. In the end she was wearing one of Danaria’s old dresses, and after the ropes around her ankles were loosened to allow for walking, he took her upstairs.
By that point, the dining room was almost clean, dinner was almost done, and Adin was packed and ready to go, though he didn’t seem to be much happier about it than Arissa was.
Since their prisoner had already tipped her hand that no one was going to be looking for her for at least a few more hours, they had one last warm meal before the three of them headed off. It was a somber affair. Everyone’s face was full of unasked questions, but for various reasons, they weren’t spoken aloud. Instead, after they finished eating, Danaria said, “Please return safely when all this is done.”
“We will dear sister,” Adin said with a smile, stealing the words right out of Lucas’s mouth, to his annoyance.
The three of them set out on foot toward the orchard. From there, they would cut across the main road, and then go into the Greenwood. Before they left, though, Lucas spoke with Hura’gh and Kar’gandin, letting them know the plan, and approximately where he’d be so that they could send him updates.
“What about th’ Knight’s of Brass,” Kar’gandin asked. “They’re gonna want answers, especially when the deliveries stop, and the you-know-what goes off.”
“Send them a clean runner, and let them know that we’ve already opened a new lab elsewhere in the city, and that as soon as I’m not dealing with the Whisperers, I’ll start getting them their product again,” Lucas said. “Whatever you do though, don’t mention anything about this house. Make him think its all in Lordanin somewhere. They’ll smell weakness from all this and we want them looking in the wrong direction along with everyone else.”
After that, they started moving. Lucas didn’t plan to get very deep into it tonight, and now that the goblins were an endangered species, he didn’t expect much in the way of trouble. The real trouble was how long it was going to take for the smoke to clear on this mess and for him to decide what he should do with their prisoner.
While Lucas knew what the right answer was here, he also knew that he wasn’t that kind of scumbag. The best move was probably to chop her into little pieces and plant the body in the Knight's territory. That's exactly what he would have done if she'd died in the struggle, but killing her in cold blood would never sit right with him.