It was a special kind of nerve-wracking, wandering through an open field while knowing that there might be a sniper waiting in ambush. Whatever sense she’d had that made her dodge out of the way from that first shot was drowned out by the complete oppressive terror at the thought that the next shot could come at any time from anywhere, and that she might not even know it was coming before it had buried itself in her chest. Still, she wasn’t alone this time. She couldn’t see him, but Curly was out there somewhere, keeping an eye on her and keeping an eye on everything around her. If the assassin was going to take another shot, they’d find things playing out much differently this time. It wasn’t as reassuring as she might hope, but it was better than nothing.
Seconds stretched out into minutes, and the minutes stretched out into an hour. Len was starting to think that this whole endeavor might’ve been a foolish one. Maybe the attacker had given up and run off completely after their first failed attempt. Maybe there’d never been an attempt on her life at all, could’ve just been a stray arrow from a hunter, she hadn’t exactly been looking hard for them as she desperately retreated back to the Hovel. These weren’t productive thoughts, but there wasn’t exactly a ton going on to distract her from them.
She was just about to give up and call for Curly so they could go home when she heard a scuffle followed by a blood-curdling shriek from the treeline. An arrow whizzed past her head, but didn’t hit home. There were more sounds of combat before she could reach them and, by the time she did, a pleased-looking Curly was sitting atop a thoroughly secured human girl.
“What have you got here?” Len asked, mustering some bravado to tamp down on her nerves.
“One would-be assassin, as ordered, boss.”
“All right, stand her up, can’t have her catching a cold before we figure out what to do with her.”
Curly grinned a cruel little grin, and hauled the girl to her feet, arms still bound tightly and a rope firmly gripped by him.
“Okay, kid. What the hell? I don’t remember doing anything worth getting an arrow to the face. Well, at least I don’t remember doing anything to YOU. Care to explain yourself?”
The girl said nothing, spat uselessly at Len (it fell to the ground well before reaching its mark), and glared at her with eyes so full of hate that they’d have given Vrek a run for his money. It was honestly a little unnerving having that much rage directed at her from someone so young. She’d dealt with some real assholes in her other life but even they had generally not come close to the level of fury she was facing right now.
“Want to try that again? You’re caught, girl. Explain yourself. My friend there may be a pacifist who’s above doing anything too harsh to you, but I’m under no such restrictions and given that you’ve tried to kill me twice now, I’m not exactly in a charitable mood.”
“Go on, then,” the girl said, maintaining the defiant glare. “Do it.”
“Do what, exactly?”
“Kill me! It’s what you’re going to do anyway, so let’s not waste any more time. DO IT!”
There was something a little too wild in the girl’s eyes. Not quite madness, but something closer to it than sanity. Something terrible had happened to her, and it had happened recently.”
Grunting in annoyance, Len dropped into a catcher’s crouch to be closer to eye-level with the child. She couldn’t have been more than twelve or thirteen years old, had no obvious wounds, but was behaving as though she really were ready to die. Again, unnerving.
“Oh come off it, kid. I’m not going to kill you. I’m sure you’ve heard all sorts of terrible things about those dastardly Dark Elves, but we’re not into butchering children. Just tell me what the heck is going on. I’m genuinely confused here.”
“Go to hell! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill all of you!”
The girl raged and strained against her bonds. Curly just kept a calm eye on her, making sure she couldn’t break free and that she wasn’t close enough to Len to do any harm. It didn’t take long for the rage to give way to desperation, and the child eventually collapsed to the ground, tears of frustration falling from her face. For her part, Len stared at the scene dumbfounded. She couldn’t understand what was going on in this girl’s head, and she suspected that she REALLY wouldn’t like it when she found out.
They scouted the rest of the area while keeping her in tow to see if she had any accomplices but she was alone. Whatever had driven her to this, it either hadn’t driven anyone else to do the same, or there hadn’t BEEN anyone else, and Len decided it wasn’t worth wasting any more time out in the open to investigate further. Instead, she and Curly hauled the girl back to the Hovel. From time to time she would try and make a break for it, or would drop to the ground and force them to haul her bodily back to her feet. It was a slow, painful, and often embarrassing affair, and Len sighed with relief when they finally saw the smoke coming from the furnaces of the Hovel letting her know that the end of it was in sight.
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With each bout of resistance, the girl’s strength had waned a little more, by the time they made it to the gate, she had nothing left to give and just gazed upon Valkar’s grizzled frame with a sort of resigned horror.
“We’re kidnapping children now,” he asked, a mixture of confusion and disgust on his face.
“Not exactly. Special case, what with this one trying her level best to kill me twice now. On the bright side, I think we can probably rule her out as the glass breaker. Whoever did that was probably looking to get some other result,” she glared at him pointedly but he just gazed back at her with calm eyes that couldn’t possibly have been involved, really.
“So what’s the plan for her?”
“Still working on it. Guess I’ll keep her in my tent for now, figure out what to do with her after we’ve put some food in her belly and, more importantly, in mine.”
With his customary verbosity, Valkar grunted in response.
“You’re really just gonna put her in the tent with you, boss?” Curly asked. “She’ll probably try to kill you again.”
“Eh, she might, but I’ll worry about that when it comes to it. Anyway, for now can you just have Cookie bring us something? She looks like she’s missed a few meals and if she’s going to be the death of me, I’d at least like to have her well-fed before she does it, couldn’t live with the embarrassment if a starving urchin did me in.”
Curly waked with her as far as the tent, then handed the rope to her and headed off to do as he’d been bade. Len guided the girl inside and set her on the bed. With all her fight spent, the girl offered little resistance.
“So, I suppose it should be said that I’d really rather you didn’t try to kill me again. You’re a prisoner now, and a prisoner’s first duty is to escape. If you kill me, that’ll make escaping a lot harder and it’d also leave me dead so I can’t say that I favor it. Want some water?”
The girl tried another half-hearted glare, but eventually nodded. Len grabbed a goblet and filled it from a small cask she kept in the corner of the room. Considering her options for a moment, she unbound the girl and handed her the drink. The child looked at her with confusion, then took the cup.
“All right, then, the very basics. On the off chance you didn’t know the name of the person you were trying to kill, I’m Lenore Wraithwhisper. Care to tell me your name, oh murderous one?”
“Keseryn,” the girl said coldly.
“Well, I suppose saying it’s a pleasure to meet you is a bit too thick on the irony for either of us, but greetings all the same. Now, for fuck’s sake, could you please tell me why you’re so damn intent on shuffling me off this mortal coil of ours?”
“My god, you don’t even know what you did, do you?” the wildness was returning to Keseryn’s eyes. “You don’t know what YOUR PEOPLE DID!”
“No, I don’t,” said Len, blinking at the renewed ferocity of the girl. “Tell me.”
“Your people slaughtered my family! Don’t you dare pretend to give a shit.”
“Hold up just a damn minute! My people? My people are all here. Well, everyone except…” her voice trailed off. “The hunters.”
THAT was where the girl had gotten the arrows. Gods, what had those two done?
“Hunters,” Keseryn spat. “They hunted my ma, and my pa, laughed at me as I tried to fight back. They told me you sent them to us. Told me what you looked like, and said that if I wanted my revenge, I could try my luck against you.”
Len listened to the words with horror. Everything had been going smoothly and yet she had people who were capable of doing THAT to a child. She alternated between needing to retch and having her blood boiling with rage. Like hell she had people like that. Anyone that she was responsible for that dared to behave like that would be dealt with.
“Keseryn,” she said, drawing out a dagger, the girl didn’t even flinch at the sight. “If what you say is true, and I need you to know that I’m not doubting you, you have my word that I will end those two. I thought I had my crew in line. If I didn’t, that’s a failure that I’m going to have to live with but I promise you that they won’t.”
Drawing the blade across her palm, she let the blood flow freely, dropping to the ground with bright droplets of crimson. Keseryn stared numbly at the sight, and Len couldn’t tell if she was unimpressed by the gesture or just too tired to care anymore. Either way, it stung like a sonofabitch and she immediately regretted doing it, but words hadn’t felt nearly good enough to express her feelings at the idea that two of her number had slaughtered civilians and sent a child to kill her (though they’d almost certainly assumed she’d die before she made the attempt). It was contemptible. Unacceptable. A level of vile that she hadn’t been prepared to accept was possible even though she’d always known that such people existed. And she was going to make them pay.