Five Years Ago
Alice Skall felt the crunch of sand under her boots as she kept her back firmly against the wall. The rough wood wasn’t comfortable, but like hells was she turning her back to anyone. Not on the surface, especially not in Understreet, and definitely not in the headquarters of the Black Flame.
So far it wasn’t impressive, but she hadn’t seen too much of it yet, just endless underground structures and tunnels carved out of granite. Walking through some reeking, slimy tunnel to a nondescript wall that had opened up. She’d been bustled through the area, blindfold kept firmly on and the recruiter making it clear that a knife would tickle her throat if she so much and tried to peep.
They’d brought her here, and told to wait with the others after a long trek through the tunnels down here.
Alice didn’t have a choice in this. She’d built a reputation that had kept her safe mostly. Most folks could take her in a fight, but it wasn’t worth the bother for the bit of space she’d claimed in the Dredge. A little section of a ruined warehouse that got flooded when the Nover overflowed its banks wasn’t worth having your eye gouged out or a busted knee. Either of those was a swift death sentence in the quarter.
But it would not last. Space was getting tighter, and the Watch sure as hells weren’t letting people out to relieve the pressure. When she’d woken up to two strangers looming overhead with an offer, she took it.
The fact she’d never known they’d been there till one nudged her awake had helped convince her to take that offer.
So now here she was, leaning and scowling and hoping that a scrap of reputation kept anyone from messing with her.
They’d brought her down to a fighting pit, or at least that’s what her mind assumed. Walls of wood taller than her head around a circular, sand-filled pit. Seating further above, radiating out. Those seats were empty for now, occasionally someone passing through and stealing a glance into the pit before continuing on their way.
Alice didn’t like that. Being stuck in a fighting pit, not with everyone else down here.
There weren’t too many others. Only two other trainees were here, a bookish fellow who didn’t look like he belonged. His weak gaze and nervous glancing didn’t help with that impression. But his hands didn’t quiver or shake, which caught her eye.
The last one stared cockily her way when she looked up, easily with a head and a half on her and just as wide. He winked at her, scars criss-crossing his face.
Alice knew some idiots who carved themselves up like that just to look intimidating. With luck, he was one of those, so he wouldn’t be too dangerous. He would, however, be dumb enough to mess with one of them to prove his dominance. Which meant probably biting some important part of his anatomy off. Only thing that worked and stuck with some of this type. Only one that involved getting a rep that made people leave you alone. So, two threats, one of whom was more passive than the other.
Of course, that ignored the five in the middle of the pit, each of whom was pointedly ignoring the three trainees, all of them with a flaming goat’s head carved into their upper arms.
Full members of the Flame, ranging from a short, grinning one in a battered top hat to a hulking giant who might as well be hewn from rock. One wearing a cloak with a dozen Watch badges sewn to its outside to a well-dressed one with a missing eye. And finally, someone who didn’t look like any other Infernal Alice had ever seen, with almond-shaped eyes and a wider nose, reading a book. Strange to see one of those not being used as kindling, but Alice supposed the Black Flame actually bothered to teach people how to read.
Being able to spell her own name, Alice might have a head-start on those.
Please let whatever reason they’d all been brought here, not some test where the three of them needed to take on these five. Alice could throw down for a scrap, being the crazed lunatic no one would mess with is what had kept her alive, but she knew that three versus five weren’t winning odds, even if the shaker’s steady hands meant something and the brash one would take orders.
No one else had shown up since she’d been shoved in here, and no one had spoken a word yet.
That was going to change soon.
She scowled at the largest Infernal as he started walking over. The other trainee just winked again. Was he trying to communicate in code? Flirt? What the hells was his issue?
His moving got the five in the middle to look over their way, but only briefly. Top hat smirked, then nudged the Giant, whispering something that made Foreigner and Cloak roll their eyes and One-eye wince.
She stayed still as the other trainee settled in near her, shoulders almost touching.
“So,” he said, looking down at her from the corner of his eyes. “You new here too?”
She grunted noncommittally in response. The sudden movement had the bookish one looking her way now, and his eyes had narrowed. Definitely more to that one.
“I think you are,” the brash one said, leaving the wall, now in front of her and peering down. “You’re Alice Skall, aren’t you?”
She yawned. “Yes, I am she. Seen my handiwork?”
“Yeah,” he added, friendliness draining out of his voice. “You’re the bitch who bit my sister’s nose off. Got anything to say to that?”
She didn’t, except to get ready. Making any moves for her head-knocker hidden in her jacket would probably provoke an attack, but she quietly shifted position, getting ready as she stared up at his face, gaze full of casual condescension. Which sister might that be? Was it the one who’d snuck in at night trying to steal her stuff, and she sent packing minus a nose and two fingers?
“Is this part of some test, or is this one just being an idiot?” she called out to the five in the middle.
His eyes narrowed, his hand going inside his threadbare coat.
“Come on,” he snapped, leaning down. “Pay attention to me, you little-”
She pushed off of the wall, horns and head ramming into his own with a heavy smack. Pain sprouted in her head, but she felt his nose twist and snap.
He recoiled, but he wasn’t grabbing for his nose or taking his eyes off her. Despite the pain inside and the tears in her eyes, she hurried.
While he was distracted by the tears in his own eyes, she aimed the next blow well. The point of her boot went right between his legs, and he crumped downward. No one else was moving, or interfering, which she’d expected by now. Alright. She could hardly back down now, so she moved towards him, the jaws closing down around his ear and preparing to bite.
A gunshot rang out, thunderous as it echoed inside the room. Alice moved backward, fists up as she turned to face an unknown threat, teeth ready to sink into this one instead.
An older, green-skinned Infernal with dimly glowing eyes pulled the hammer back on his revolver, chamber turning. “Don’t even think about it, lass. You try to bite me, we got a body to dump in the streets, and I got to go pick up another rat to fill in the quota. You lot. I told you to keep an eye on these four?”
“You did,” Ragged top-hat said. “Big boy here tried pushing some of the other recruits around. One retaliated. I’d say an ear is a pretty even trade for deciding to shake down a fellow recruit, don’t you, Golvar?”
“Boss to you, lickspittle,” the green-skinned Infernal snapped. “You quit your whimpering!”
That was barked at the large Infernal on the ground, who was currently trying to force his nose back in place.
“Calmere, Tally, drag this one to the infirmary. Get his nose fixed properly. Maybe we can try him later. You, girl, your name?”
Alice blinked lazily, drawing it out. “Skall, Alice Skall.”
“Congrats. You just got your first week’s wage docked.”
“He came at me,” she sneered. “Was I supposed to let him beat me?”
“No, you were supposed to avoid him till these five handled it. Which is a good point, you lot have anything to say for yourselves? Or were all five of you terrified of some random asshole?”
The foreigner finally shut her book, speaking in a flat, bored tone. “One of them decided to assert his dominance over the other, paid for his overconfidence, and perfectly demonstrated why he will probably be drummed out. Always know how intimidation will turn out before you do it.”
“Excellent Malvia,” Golvar said. “Almost like the boss said it himself. Still, he’s gonna get an extra chance, and you five should have stepped in anyway, so your pay is getting docked instead.”
That got a few moans and groans from the cloak wearer and the one with the missing eye, but not the other three. Either Golvar was joking or they didn’t care too much, which had to be the former. Who the hells wouldn’t be upset about losing money?
“Gods, this is a miserable lot,” Golvar said, looking over her then the bookish one. “This is really all they could bring me?”
“Perhaps you should ask the boss about lowering our standards again,” Ragged-hat said.
“Perhaps you should have another stint unclogging the plumbing in this place, Malachti,” Golvar said. “You wanna go bother the Boss about it, see if he finds it useful, go ahead. Think he’s aboveground trying to keep everyone from freezing to death this winter, see if he finds it amusing.”
Right. The ‘Boss’. Giovanni Versalicci. Alice had actually seen him twice, when the Black Flame showed up in force, usually to bring some semblance of order to whatever catastrophe had hit the Quarter latest. Fire, raid, Halpsus priests deciding to attack in the name of their god, and the Watch doing fuck all.
Those assholes joined in half the time to help them burn anyone remotely suspicious with that never to be sufficiently damned Light. Raring to nail some silver spikes through people’s eyes.
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“Don’t suppose he’ll be down soon?” She asked, licking at some of the blood on her tooth.
Never hurt, playing into people’s expectations, although none of those here seemed too impressed.
“You got any reason for wanting to know that, trainee?” Golvar asked.
Oh. Shit. Probably not the right question to ask, considering how many people probably wanted Versalicci’s head.
“Nah,” she said casually. “Just wondering if we might see him as he comes back or something.”
“You won’t meet the boss for a while,” Golvar said, then considered the one being taken away. “Well, except maybe him if the boss is heading through the infirmary or something. But nah, fresh fish like you don’t meet with the boss. Not till you earned your flames, and that’ll be awhile.”
“You have to bring in a dozen Watch heads,” Ragged Hat said.
“You don’t,” Golvar corrected immediately, rolling his eyes. “These five are here to help me herd you and, in case anything goes wrong. Malvia, Mitlau, Maria, Malachti, Morder. You can already put together whose name goes with who, hopefully, if not you’ll figure it out. Now, we are behind schedule, and now I gotta take time out of my busy as hell life to oversee you two getting your beaks wet.”
“Sorry, but do we have to change our names to something starting with an ‘M’?” The bookish one asked in a quivering tone that Alice was pretty sure was fake. She couldn’t tell for certain.
The middle one laughed, the beaten-up top hat threatening to fall apart from the movement. “Nah, four of us had them hung on us by our parents. Malvia picked hers because she’s an edgy little scapegrace.”
The foreigner’s neutral expression turned into a scornful scowl as she looked at the top hat wearer. “This is why no one likes sharing details with you, Malachti.”
“Oh please,” Malachti scoffed. “Did you think sharing that with me wouldn’t cause it being used? Or did you think you’d impress me by saying you picked the first once cause it sounded like malevolence and the second one because of what harrow supposedly means?”
The muscle, Mitlau, grunted. “Still say it’s a farming tool.”
“That is not all it is,” the foreigner said, her scowl deepening.
“It’s the one most people are going to know,” Mitlau said. “Ain’t like many use that other one.”
“Just ignore her. It’s what most of us do anyway,” Malachti told Alice and the others.
“I once again note you didn’t need to drag this many of us with you to train the recruits,” Malvia said, talking to Golvar.
“Noted. I don’t care. I’m not heading through those tunnels with less than six, and I want some spare bodies to shove behind us in case something tries to eat us.”
Alice tried not to frown. The tunnels leading down here weren’t clear of creatures? If she’d known that when they’d brought her down, she’d have insisted on being allowed more than her wooden head-knocker nestled inside her coat.
Still, with this many people, there shouldn’t be a problem. When Maria gestured for her to fall into line between herself and Morder, Alice followed, licking the rest of the blood off her teeth.
***
After close to an hour of trekking, they finally reached the surface, emerging into the quarter itself from an old Dwarf Gate.
On all three sides of it, the blackened, charred skeletons of buildings stood, remnants of the last fire to sweep through the Quarter. Desiccated walls remained little more than waist-high.
It’s too recent for rebuilding to have happened. Alice could remember it. Hells the bruises from it still ached. She’d had to fight hard for her bit of a building then, only to be forced to concede. There was no holding back the flood when the flames had forced a wave of Infernals to the partially Nover flooded part of the district, hoping the river wouldn’t catch alight and the water would keep the flames at bay.
It had until city mages had conjured rain to put out that roaring inferno. It had threatened another neighborhood. And even if the fire had never reached into the Nover…Alice closed her eyes, still remembering the heat, scorching in it’s intensity, the screaming of those unable to make it to safety fast enough.
Part of why she’d been willing to take that offer. Standing buildings would be squabbled and fought over soon, now that the heaving mass they called the Nover River had finally frozen. No more deciding between freezing in the cold snow or the chilly waters for those who’d stayed out of the flooded district.
Case in point, bundles of rags started moving as soon as they emerged from the gate, sleeping figures struggling to rouse themselves either from sleep or the snow’s chilly grip. Some didn’t move at all. Earlier than normal. This was going to be a cold one.
You could tell people were trying to find warmer shelter, though. You could actually walk through the alley and only have to worry about stepping on someone every other step.
The bundles kept their distance, watching while Golvar cleared his throat.
“Giovanni Versalicci is passing out food, blankets, and fuel two blocks down from the Hell’s Own,” he announced. “We’ll do it from this gate at some point soon, but if you can’t wait, that’s where it is for now. If you’re not in touch with one of the groups we organize with.”
Some of the Infernals moved, maybe half. The rest stayed, unwilling or maybe even unable to make the journey.
Golvar led them through, past those, into more crowded areas, past about three blocks as snow swirled around. The freezing considered their luck, considered Alice’s group, and decided it wasn’t cold enough yet for an almost assured death as Golvar led them to a small warehouse. One of the walls had fallen in, leaving the roof sluggishly held up by the three remaining walls, slumping towards the ground.
There was a veritable host inside, but they cleared out as Golvar entered. It didn’t take long for him to uncover a metal trapdoor.
“Tunnels?” the bookish one said, looking cautiously at the trapdoor. “You want us to head underground?”
Alice added to his complaint. “You brought us all the way to the surface for us to go back underground?”
“Yeah, and if that’s an issue, this is going to be one of the easiest things you’re asked to do,” Golvar said. “Amazingly, when people have trekked up to the surface, people don’t expect them to head back down. Helps keep places like this secret. Now, for why tunnels? We don’t rob from our own, and close to no non-Infernals live in the quarter. So, tunnels. Aboveground, Watch has got enough presence that getting out is tricky with a group this size. Underground, between the beasties and the Dwarves squabbling with Her Majesty over territory? Much easier to slip through. The only ones who got this fully mapped out are the dwarves, and with those tensions, well, long as we don’t make too much noise, they’ll turn a blind eye to us traveling through. So come on my little teef-lings, we’ve got rich humans to rob to help those in need.”
Golvar disappeared down the trapdoor, Morder and Maria right behind him.
“Teef-ling?” the bookish one asked.
“Teeth,” Malachti said, opening his mouth and pointing at his own set of pointy fangs. “The rest? No idea. Hey professor, you got any idea what the rest of it means?”
Malvia didn’t respond, already down the trapdoor.
“Always ducking out of responsibility,” Malachti said with an exaggerated sigh. “We were supposed to wait till all you fresh blood was down there before heading down ourselves. We are forever doomed to be the reliable ones, aren’t we Mitlau?”
“Seems that way,” Mitlau rumbled, but Alice missed the rest of the conversation, already heading down the steps. Something about those two…she’d rather take the three relatively silent ones than potentially be stuck with the new ones and those two.
****
The tunnels lead to a trapdoor, which lead to a cellar, racks of wine on all sides as the group of Infernals unloaded into it.
Alice resisted the urge to whistle. Skall didn’t whistle, and also it would make noise. Hells forget her part of it. This was bigger than the entire house near the Nover she currently lived in. And this was just the wine cellar?
“Maria,” Golvar whispered, pointing at the cellar door.
The cloaked Infernal nodded, moving to it and pressing an ear against the keyhole. Time ticked by, Alice resisting the urge to move too much.
“It’s clear,” Maria said, standing up and opening the cellar door. Warm air flooded the cellar as they hurried up.
Alice gawked a little as she emerged into a hall bigger than her little scrap of space in the flooded district.
The walls here didn’t have holes, not even tiny ones to peer through into the next room. Mostly wood paneling, some of it carved into intricate patterns detailing scenes like out of a storybook page before you burnt it. Hells, they had wallpaper on their walls!
A clock chimed, startling here. They came in sizes that big but you could still put in your house? It was easily twice her height! And the hall ceiling was bigger than most warehouses!
“This is a property on the northern edge of Alabaster Hills,” Golvar said, mentioning one of the more wealthy neighborhoods in the city. “Currently? The owners use it as a home when they aren’t on their estates in the country and need to come here. So no nicking any silverware or messing with any furniture. We need this place to look normal for when they come back. You bend some fancy silver knife, and your share of any jobs is getting docked to buy a replacement that matches perfectly. If you wreck some one-of-a-kind heirloom? You’re paying for the revenue we’ll lose for having to leave this place. Damage part of the building, I’m using your intestines as lining for my boots. Get spotted outside here? I’m leaving you for the Watch and we’ll see how many fingers get snipped till they become convinced you know nothing. I’m going to peek outside real quick, make sure no one is lurking about.”
“He doesn’t mean that,” Morder whispered to them as Golvar walked further inside the house. “Nobody gets left for good inside the Coffin, and a bunch of us have been inside the Coffin before and made it out. Everyone but Maria.”
“And I intend it to stay that way,” Maria snapped. “So how about you actually listen to what Golvar said?”
Alice looked over each of the five full members of the Flame. Not any scars she could see on them, and no missing digits either. Golvar hadn’t kidded when he’d mentioned clipped digits. She’d seen some survivors of the Watch prison. Severed fingers had been one of the more minor tortures they used on those unfortunate enough to be brought in for ‘questioning’.
“You seem pretty intact for people who have been inside the Coffin.”
Malachti grinned, wiggling all the fingers on his right hand. “It’s a secret. If you ever lose some fingers, you’ll find out quick enough. But Maria is right, best to respect the rules, because Golvar won’t let anyone heal your ribs once he’s done kicking them out of place.”
“Noted,” the bookish trainee said, any attempt at a quake gone from his voice. “What are we to do?”
A good question. So far they’d spent two hours walking, mostly to just hang about in some fancy family vacation home? She doubted it.
“Right now, we wait,” Morder explained while Malachti moved into another room, waving for Mitlau to follow him. “When Golvar is convinced no one knows we’re here, we’ll take you out, see how well you can stay undetected by the Watch outside the Quarter. Just to get an idea of your skills. Don’t worry too much. Watch patrols here are down. Too busy dealing with the Kelts rioting in the ports to keep patrols going, and the private guards the rich hire don’t look too closely if you aren’t trying to break into the houses. They’ll report it, but once the day comes and they aren’t worried about getting knifed once they venture too far from their employer’s property. Malvia’s been on more of these than most of us, isn’t that right?”
Malvia had set herself up near a bench, leaning against the wall with her eyes closed. Alice realized that not only was the fifth one, Maria, gone, but she couldn’t remember seeing her leave.
She’d have to make sure that never happened again.
“Yes,” Malvia said, not bothering to open her eyes. “Mostly because he enjoys inconveniencing me. They typically aren’t lethal as long as you keep a level head. Explore the house some, get used to the layout. When we have bigger jobs in this neighborhood, we’ll be based out of her more often than not.”
Morder had gone to join Mitlau and Malachti, leaving only Alice, the bookish Infernal whose name she still didn’t know, and Malvia. The bookish Infernal traded a look with Alice, then ventured towards what looked like the kitchen.
Alice went up the stairs, not feeling hungry and also not wanting to tempt Golvar’s anger for a bit of food, no matter how rich it might be.
Now this furniture? Hells, that was tempting to take some pieces off of. Some of those decorations looked gold, and that silverware looked like actual silver instead of tin. She ended up in a sitting room, looking over a painting, trying to figure out if it was actually worth anything.
It was just a woman smiling, which probably didn’t mean much, but it, being the centerpiece of the room, hinted at it being worth something.
After a while, she let those idle thoughts fade. It’s not like she could smuggle more than some silverware, maybe some other odds and ends. Assuming Golvar wouldn’t notice. He seemed like the kind of person to tally each and every piece just in case someone disobeyed him.
She did try one of the chairs by the table, out of curiosity, and it actually felt…nice to sit in. Not some rough wooden bench trying to get a splinter jammed up your backside. She settled in, enjoying the feeling of a cushion for a moment, before a smell got her attention.
Cooking meat. They must have started cooking downstairs. Hells, actual food? Is this what running with the Black Flame meant?
Salivating, Alice headed back towards the stairs. Something moved outside the window, and she froze.
The figure running across the roof was obscured. Even her dark vision could not see far enough to make out too many details. Enough though, to make out the custodian helmet with the copper badge on the front.
The Watch was here.