I didn’t have to wait long in the strongroom, but I wouldn’t have minded. I could have spent all night in there and been perfectly happy, and the reason was simple: There was a bunch of new money in the magically sealed red lacquered box, and it smelled absolutely divine. Some of it was set aside for me in a small leather pouch. Mak and the others must have gone to the Alchemists’ Guild when they got back, and they’d been paid a tidy sum for the trolls’ blood we’d harvested. Fifty eagles per full jar, if I remembered correctly, which should make somewhere around three hundred and seventy-five eagles in total for the seven and a half jars, depending on how full each had been. I wasn’t sure what the expedition had cost in preparations and security for the inn, but less costs… I opened the small leather pouch and poured its contents into my palm. In the warm glow of the lightstone, one gold dragon and twenty-two silver Eagles gleamed at me, filling my vision.
I put them back in the pouch, then ran my hand through the coins in the box, which were mostly silver. The way they clinked and tinkled was as hypnotic as ever. I could have amused myself like that for ages if I had nothing else to do.
One thing struck me as odd, though. While I had the same strong urge as always, to bring my share to my hoard immediately, I couldn’t say the same for the rest. The desire to take the whole treasure with me was there, certainly, but it was manageable. Clearly, even Instinct understood that my servants, my friends, my family needed money.
A thought flashed through my mind. Almost a memory. “What’s mine is mine, and what’s theirs is ours.” And they could be trusted with it. I knew that, without doubt. It just felt right, and it made leaving all that silver in their hands acceptable no matter how easy it would have been to take it.
Alas, I could not play with coins all night. When Mak brought Ardek to me he was yawning and bleary-eyed, though he made an admirable effort to straighten himself despite how tired he obviously was. “Sorry, boss,” he told me, flushing with embarrassment after yawning right in my face “Only, I’ve been doing some pretty long nights. I always thought the higher-ups had it easy, but keeping an eye on Tark and that house you say belongs to the Blossom’s sister, and trying to keep track of the kids, it’s a lot of work!”
“I’m sure it is,” I said. “Are you all right, now? Mak told me what happened.”
“Yeah, boss, thanks for asking. Makanna and Kira fixed me right up. Set my jaw and unbroke my wrist and everything.” He grinned, and glanced at Mak. “Can barely believe it, honestly, having two pretty healers taking care of me like that. Made me feel like a rich man!”
Mak just rolled her eyes.
“So, what’s the message?” I asked. “And are you sure it’s from the Blossom?”
That poured some cold water on his mood. “I’m sure, yeah. I didn’t recognise them, but when they were done kicking me around the leader called me a traitor and told me to ‘tell my new boss this:’” He cleared his throat and closed his eyes. “‘The Night Blossom says that if any of you lot go near her people again, she will fucking grind you into the gutter. Don’t start shit, and she’ll forget about you little fucks and your little inn or whatever, and you can all go on with your little lives.’ Then he kicked me in the jaw and they left. Only, I don’t think the Blossom would have said it like that, ‘cause when I heard her talk she was pretty well spoken.”
“I do think you’re right,” I told him generously. I was pretty sure that almost anyone would have been more eloquent than that. “Was that the whole message?”
“That was it, yeah.”
“All right. Thank you, Ardek.” I considered him for a moment. He looked tired, yeah, but for all that he’d just been beaten within an inch of his life there was an excited energy about him, like he was expecting something. “What do you think that we should do about this? What should our response be?” I asked.
He grinned wolfishly. “Can’t let that stand, can you? I mean, me getting beaten up, fair enough. Can’t say I didn’t hate it, but that was just a warning. But the message, that’s a challenge. Wasn’t an offer or anything, it was a demand. Disrespectful, too, to have a subordinate tell me so I passed it along. If she didn’t mean nothing by it she should have sent you a letter or something. A messenger maybe. But this way, she’s saying she’s got all the power. So yeah, nah, you’ve got to respond to this.”
I looked at Mak. She didn’t look happy about it, but she nodded, saying, “It might escalate things, but if we do nothing, the Blossom and her people will think that they can hurt us with impunity. That we’re too afraid to respond.”
“That’s what I thought,” I agreed. The anger was starting to boil again, at the insult of hurting Ardek, and the disrespect in the message. But it wasn’t just the instinctive rage of the dragon. It was a controlled anger that belonged to all of me. “She thinks that she can hurt us and we’ll let it go. That after all she’s done, we’ll be happy to accept a truce. We’re going to show her just how wrong she is.”
“What are we going to do?”
“What are we going to do? She hurt one of mine. We’re going to kill one of hers. That’s what we’re going to do. I told Kesra that anything her sister did to one of mine, I’d do worse to her. But I think she’s the wrong target.”
“Who, then?”
“Mak, I promised you revenge, and you’ve been very patient. It’s about time that I deliver.”
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Ardek and Barro had done a good job, tracking down Tark and establishing the way he usually moved around the city. There were variations, of course, but they were regular variations of a solid pattern. He had a home where he usually slept, a few high-end establishments and a bath he liked to visit, and the estate outside the city where most of his House lived. Exactly when and how he talked to the Blossom was something we hadn’t figured out yet, but my bet was on him meeting her in one of the taverns.
For the next few days we had eyes on him constantly. A big part of that was me. He often moved during the night while sleeping the days away which, of course, suited me just fine. Shifted, I followed him in the shadows, learning his movements, seeing for myself the places he went and choosing for the right moment to strike. Herald helped during the nights, although staying Shifted for too long still took it out of her, so she couldn’t stay as close as I could. Still, it was good practice for her, both with her shadow magic and the basic skills of surveillance and sneaking. During daytime we had Ardek’s minions watching wherever Herald or I had left Tark, and for four days we never lost track of him.
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On the fifth night, after hours of planning and preparation, we struck. If we’d just wanted to take him we could have done it earlier. But I didn’t want to take him in front of witnesses. I didn’t want anyone running to Blossom or the guard or anyone else, screaming about how one of the city’s upper crust had been taken by a dragon or, even worse, by a group of Tekereteki. I wanted him to disappear, to vanish suddenly one night as he went about his business. I wanted the Blossom to wonder, to suspect, but not know what had happened to him, until the time was right.
I wanted her to be afraid. And if that led to her doing something rash, or even stupid, so be it.
Tark always had guards or companions with him, and we would have to deal with them no matter when or how we grabbed him. What made things awkward was that he almost always moved in public. Every other day, however, and Ardek’s minions had confirmed this, he liked to visit a certain brothel in the southern part of the city. To get there he crossed one of the two bridges that spanned the wide river that cut through the city. He’d go down a major street, turn onto a smaller one, and then he always took a shortcut through a certain narrow alley rather than go all the way around a block of apartments. The guy was careful, but that block was ridiculous, so I couldn’t blame him. Unfortunately for him, that alley was a perfect place for an ambush: Dark, rarely trafficked, and easy to close off.
We had the when and the where. All that remained was the how.
The Wolves, of course, couldn’t risk being involved. I couldn't blame them. In this case they wouldn't even be able to argue that they were defending their friends; this was premeditated murder and abduction, pure and simple, and the less any of them knew, the better.
Ardek wasn’t a fighter. His role was to keep his minions in line and minimize the risk of any nasty surprises. Barro could fight, which Val could vouch for, but he wasn’t close enough for me to involve him. And Kira, as I’d promised her, wouldn't even hear about what we were doing unless something went horribly wrong. All she knew was that we were up to something.
My family, the precious four who’d be with me, were nervous. Of course they were. Tam had killed one of the pirates, but he was no more comfortable with it than Mak had been. Herald and Mak would be facing the man who’d tortured them for days, and who’d been the catalyst for so many changes. And Val had to watch three people he cared for more than his own life go up against trained killers. While they would all be wearing their armor, hidden under heavy cloaks, there was a very real risk of severe or even lethal injury. If they hadn’t been nervous, for each other if not each for themselves, they’d’ve been insane.
But none of them complained. Not once did anyone express any doubt about what we were doing. This was about revenge, honor, justice, and hopefully even healing. It was necessary.
“Are you sure that you can do this?” I’d asked Mak privately as we made our plans. “You froze last time.”
“I know. And I’m sorry. But I’d never seen Simdal before that night. I’d heard that he was an awful man, but him, and his guards… I just couldn’t make myself hate them like that, to injure or even kill them when they’d done nothing to me. This bastard, though…” She swallowed, her breathing growing quick and shallow. It was hard for her to even talk about him. “Tark,” she continued, once she got herself under control. “After what he did to Herald. What he did to me… Anyone standing between him and me has made their choice. If I have to kill them, so be it.”
We put her at the entrance to the alley, to close it off once Tark and his guards entered. Her job was to make sure that no one escaped back the way they came. At the other end would be Tam and Val, blocking Tark’s path, trapping him.
As for Herald, we had practiced her part over and over, improving her control and stamina as much as we could in preparation. She would be hiding in the shadows in the alley itself. We’d placed a barrel about halfway, and I had darkened and set its shadow, which should hopefully make the barrel itself less noticeable and give Herald a place to Shift. Then, when our target arrived: A shadow stretching out, two quick stabs with a short, wide dagger, and escape as I fell from the sky. Hopefully she wouldn’t need to stand and fight at all, but once she’d launched her surprise attack she’d retreat back to Mak, in case things went to shit and someone tried to escape that way.
And me, I’d be taking Tark. I’d fought him before and won, and I had no doubt that I could do so again. I was bigger this time, a little more experienced. I knew myself and what I could do better. Maybe I’d have to break him a little, maybe not. I’d have to disarm him somehow, at least. Once he was dealt with, I’d fly him out, hopefully alive. While I’d settle for dead if he put up too much of a fight, we had questions to ask him. More importantly, I’d promised Herald that she could finish him off. I knew that she’d understand if it didn’t turn out that way, but that was no excuse not to keep my promise if I could.
When we took Simdal we had brought him to the inn. That had been an unnecessary risk, in hindsight, so this time we were prepared. Instead of bringing Tark somewhere that someone might hear him, somewhere he might recognise or where he might be found, somewhere we’d have to clean up when we were done with him, I was taking him into the drains.
I intended to bring him in via the outflow by the docks. It had the benefits of being easy enough to get to unseen in the middle of the night, and that if anyone should hear him yelling they wouldn’t be able to easily locate the sound, or be able to do anything about it. Being able to fly I could get to it easily compared to my family, who’d have to row out or something like that.
For that reason I’d shown the family to the Barlean woman Tellee’s house in the west of the city. The window closed completely but could still be opened, if you only knew to try. Just using it as an entrance to the tunnels felt a little off, especially when the woman clearly had some emotional ties to the place. We had talked about buying the place from her, but her ship was long gone. Maybe next time, if I ever saw her again. There was also the huge Karakani man, Tor-something, who we might be able to use to get in touch with her, but the urge to make things right were nowhere close to strong enough to want to go through with explaining just why we wanted the house, and why we thought that he could arrange it.
Legality and morals aside, I’d taken them through the house, down into the drains. Herald had been less than amused with how much she had to stoop down there, but she’d manage. Mak could just barely walk upright, which was fairly amusing to everyone else. We hadn’t had much time so I didn’t show them around, but thanks to the regularity of the tunnels, and the fact that Mak and Herald could feel my location like I could theirs, it should be easy for them to find their way to the sea cave where I was taking Tark.
On the day of the night that we grabbed the bastard, I posted up on a roof across from the tavern he usually visited after leaving his home in the city. I saw him come, I waited, and I followed him to the next place, and the next, and the next, as the sun approached and then dipped behind the mountains.
As he and his three guards left the baths and began their walk south, I took off into the night sky and went ahead to tell the others to get ready.
By the time the four of them arrived at the alley, everyone was in position. Mak was hidden on the side they would be entering from, practically invisible in the shadows and ready to close off that end. Herald was hidden behind the barrel we’d prepared, ready to become literally invisible once our targets approached. And Tam and Val awaited my signal at the far end.
The plan met reality at that point, and it did not survive impact.