We were on another desolate rooftop when we saw her, standing perfectly still on the very lip of the rooftop. Her crimson figure cut a bloody slash in the night as starlight struck off her, Panting and exhausted Skull and I stumbled across the roof to her and stood by her side looking out over the city.
The building we were standing on bordered onto one of Prasus’ main waterways, a huge concourse that swept through the city and was used to move heavy freight quickly. In the centre of the tamed river was a small island linked by thin bridges to the land and sat upon it (nearly covering it completely) was a tiny warehouse. Even the smallest islands in and around Prasus cost more than a fortune to buy meaning this warehouse must belong to a private investor of significant means but... well it really didn't look like it. If I'm going to be honest, the place was a tip. The buildings were dilapidated, the grounds were filled with rusted crates and scrap and the perimeter security fence had once been far more secure before some had ripped several huge chunks out and covered the entire thing in graffiti. Behind this patchwork wall I could see fires flickering as people walked in front of the light.
“She's in there,” Blood said without preamble. “...Somewhere... not sure exactly where but she's in that building at least. The winds picked up so I couldn't get a good look but everyone who bled in that alley came this way.”
“What happened to the dead ones?” Skull asked.
Blood shrugged. “The bad blooded ones were moved this way but then they went left and into the river rather than across the bridge. I assume they were dumped.”
I looked down at the turbulent waters then up at the compound before us. I was sure that it was the diabolical fortress lair of some vicious gang filled with monsters and murders who had done Koth knows what to my friend and who needed to be beaten down, of course as things turned out I couldn’t have been more wrong if I’d said it was home to a race of carrot people but there you go.
“We need to get in there,” I said, making sure to keep my voice still with all the willpower my noble blood gave me. “We need to find her.”
“The roofs nearly touch over there,” said Blood pointing with one hand and loosening a rapier in its sheath with the other. “And there are only two guards I can see.”
Skull nodded. “Whatever gang owns this warehouse isn't expecting trouble or at least not from an intelligent opponent. I can see thirteen different points of entry from here alone.”
“The walls don't look that tough; I bet I could smash one right down,” said Blood looking around at me (once upon a time I might have thought she was joking). “You’re the one who knows her Bright, how do you want to play this?”
I looked at them in that deep dark night and, even after all these years, I still remember that moment of lightness. My mother always says a trouble shared is a trouble halved and my friends have always been there to share my troubles. “We can't leave her there any longer than absolutely necessary. I say we go over the rooftop and take out their sentries.”
My two friends both nodded at that and we slunk along towards the nearly conjoined rooftops. Our crossing point was an old burned out shop; a jaunty sign still protruded from its wall proclaiming it to be “The Seven Seas Boutique” but most of the paint had rotted off so what was left looked like it spelt out “He severs boot”. All humour aside the sign was metal reinforced and a good three metres long jutting out like a ramp over the canal towards the little warehouse island so I could see exactly what Blood had in mind here, I just didn't like it very much.
“You think that can hold our weight?” I asked her incredulously. Blood obviously didn't need to worry, weighing less than a child (which is so unfair considering how much she eats) but I was less confident.
Blood just head tilted towards me radiating a grin, “what’s the matter Bright?” She mocked. “Never lived on the edge before?” And with that she was gone flying across the tiles, along the wood, off metal and into the air. She landed with a dull thump and rolled between the two napping sentries on the warehouse's roof. One awoke, started and staggered backwards trying to run but Blood shot out an arm, grabbed him by the throat and slammed his head into the roof making a sound like a coconut being dropped from a fifth story window. The second sentry was still fumbling to draw his sword as Skull (hot on Blood's heels) landed behind him. I'm not entirely sure to this day what she did to him since I was crossing the precarious sign “bridge” as it happened (and was mostly focused on not going splat) all I remember is a strange high pitched squeal and a sound like someone tenderizing steak. By the time I was finally safe on solid ground again all I saw was Blood stalking away over the rooftops and Skull stood over a balled up figure that was clutching at itself and mewling in agony. I looked down at the poor man and then up at her but she just laughed softly and turned to follow Blood[71].
The roof was studded with skylights and Blood was dashing from one to the next. I'm not sure if she was sniffing them or just looking through them but either way after a minute's frantic searching she stopped dead at the edge of one of the pools of light like a bloodhound outside a fox den.
Skull and I ran over to her as quickly and quietly as we could, sticking to the darker shadows and avoiding the rooftops' few ceramic plates[72] and landed next to her in the lee of a piece of crumbling metal railing[73] and looked down into the evil gangs sinister base.
It was a bit of a letdown, especially after the horrific spectacles my mind had conjured up. I saw Lydia... lying back in a rather comfortable looking bed with fluffy pillows in a wide well lit room. She wasn’t guarded or tied up. The door wasn't barred, chained or even visibly locked. The nearest to sinister the room came was a large bookcase covered in specimen jars but no books which were instead in a tottering stack on the bedside table (I mean honestly who does that?! I know some nobles have too many bookcases but if you’ve got one at least use it!). In one corner was a large potted plant and in the other (rather incongruously) sat a very large hat stand with griffon feet. Set in the wall over her bed was a window that had been covered with a thin sheet of black oil paper presumably against a leak (our cleaning staff use the same trick before getting a glazier in) the only truly odd thing about the room was that it seemed to have been carpeted with ropes instead of actual carpet, hundreds of uncoiled ropes all laying next to one another.
After a moment of incongruous disappointment at the lack of menace I turned my full attention to Lydia. I could see she was still alive of course, she was breathing, but her breaths were shallow and she was deathly pale. Her eyes were closed and she would have looked like she was sleeping an untroubled sleep but her arms and shoulders were visible above the bed sheet and they were nearly mummified with bandages.
I quickly flipped my mace and began to fiddle with the skylights lock. Less than a second later it swung open and one by one we silently fell into the room below.
Skull landed first and rushed over to Lydia as Blood thudded down and prowled over to the door. I scrambled after them (with rather less grace) and walked over to my maid looking down at her sallow form. We had never been what you could call close, I knew her name and a few facts about her family and she knew not to fear speaking her mind near me but we probably spoke less than a hundred words a cycle to each other that weren’t “Here are your duties today ma’am” “Thank you Lydia” Repeated ad nauseam. But she was a servant of my family which meant her well being was my concern, seeing her like this hurt my pride and heart.
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“What happened?” I whispered to Skull as the tall girl lifted one of Lydia’s eyelids. To my astonishment the girl didn't stir, not even when Skull lifted the bed sheet peered underneath and whistled low under her breath.
“Well Bright I’d say she's been stabbed five or six times,” Skull gestured around the room, “and oddly enough is being healed very professionally. Her wounds are stitched and cleaned. She's been well bandaged, this is obviously some kind of infirmary and...” she lifted one of Lydia’s hands then let it fall back onto the bed with a dull thump. “She's been ethered out of her mind so she won’t notice the pain... It's really strange.”
I looked around at the oddly clean and tidy room, up at the skylight, down at Lydia. “Why would they do that?” I managed half stuttering as I desperately tried to think.
Skull shrugged. “Looking to gain a hostage perhaps? They can't ransom her back if she's dead after all or maybe...”
Suddenly a heavy knocking echoed around the room causing the three of us to jump.
“Hello?” A male voice said with an oddly amused air. “Look we know you’re in there, how about you come out before we come in ok? It would be a lot easier for all concerned”
I looked at Skull panic gripping my heart. “Can we move her?”
Skull shook her head. “We shouldn't, she's been badly injured so she should stay as still as possible.”
“Yeah I know but we’ve run out of time we need to move!”
Skull shook her head. “She’ll die if we move her...” she paused and looked at me then lowered her voice. “She’d die if we weren’t with a life mage. Can you keep your magic up for the whole way back without anyone noticing?”
I nodded. “Definitely” I lied. I knew I couldn’t (either keep it up OR keep it up subtly) but trying was better than the alternative... at least it seemed like that at the time and what do you expect? I was working with what I’d got you know.
“Look we don't want any unpleasantness,” crowed the voice again. “Just give up ok? You are in our base after all, you're kinda hilarious outnumbered.”
“I could blast a hole in the wall,” suggests Blood who, half forgotten by me, was eyeing the door almost hungrily and stroking the handles of her rapiers. “Or we could just leave again? She doesn't really seem to be in trouble[74].”
I glared at Blood as Skull calmly shook her head. “If you blow open a wall we’re going to have much bigger problems to deal with than a gangster.” She said ignoring Blood's other suggestion.
“Right...,” the voice outside said, followed by the sound of a sword being unsheathed. “We’re coming in then.”
I grabbed at Lydia’s shoulder as the door slammed open beyond which a half-seen fire lit figures loomed and moved with deadly purpose. For a moment I thought my heart was going to stop in my chest, I thought this was going to be the end.
But I had forgotten exactly who I had on my side, as I readied my mace and tried to look fierce Blood... well... happened to them.
The first man to enter was carrying a long hooked blade with the assured grip of a professional swordsman. He was punched so hard in the stomach I heard his ribs crack even as he catapulted back out into the corridor.
The second managed a swing with a billhook before Blood caught and broke it. The blunt end she launched into his throat and the sharp one pinned his foot to the floor.
The third, now slightly forewarned, entered with a barrage of sword strokes. Blood knocked his blade away with the back of her hand then seized him by the throat and lifted him bodily from the floor with one hand. Before I could do more than marvel at this feat of strength she spun on her heel and hurled him away across the room. He bounced off the wall to my left with an agonised cry and landed head first in the chamber pot with a ringing porcelain hum[75].
The fourth, fifth and six entered together now far more forewarned of the threat we posed. The fourth criminal was a tall woman covered in tattoos who charged at me with a club. Skull spun forward from beside the bed and bisected the club neatly with a single sword stroke then, using the spin of her motion, planted a boot in the gangster's stomach that left her gasping on the floor. A heartbeat later a swift kick to the temples sent her right to sleep.
The fifth criminal aimed a huge spiked maul at Skull as she finished her pirouette and I found myself stepping forwards instinctively. I knew I wasn’t a good fighter but I also knew I was going to protect my only two friends in the world no matter what. My mace slammed into his wrist causing him to drop the huge maul on his toes. As he threw his head back and howled I slammed my mace into his gut and laid him out on the floor.
The sixth man entered with a swagger that didn't diminish even upon seeing his defeated friends lying around the room. This could have had something to do with the huge oak crossbow he was holding, “ok,” he said in a familiar cocky voice. “That's enough of that.”
Blood looked at him then down at the bow then laughed. “Really? That's what you're threatening me with?” She asked in a voice as sweet as sin and as soft as silk. I‘d learned to dread it when she started speaking like that.
The man levelled the crossbow at her head and smiled widely. “Yeah I am so drop the weapons all of you I'm a good shot with this thing.”
“And I'm perfect.” Blood snarled and leapt forwards. The sharp crack of the bowstring was indescribably loud in the silent room as I stood transfixed watching an arrow shoot towards my best friend’s heart and then... I can't do justice to what happened next, I really can't.
I’ve always known Blood was fast, faster than a normal person could ever be but, as it turns out, I’d never seen her go half as fast as she could. As the bolt left the bow Blood seemed to distort with speed until she was nothing but a crimson blur. It was... Look, do you have cats? My family has several and you know how cats just vanish if you knock a book off a table or drop a glass right, how they move so fast they seem to disappear? That's how Blood moved, one second she stood beside me and the next she was a dozen steps away across the room holding between two fingers the crossbow bolt.
Blood looked across at the man for a moment, I got the distinct impression she winked even through her mask, then she spun the bolt in her grip and hurled it into the man’s shoulder so hard that it pinned him to the wall. He crumpled against the stone with a high pitched yowl of agony and Blood turned to preen at us.
I started to open my mouth... I wasn't sure whether I was going to yell at her for her recklessness in charging a man armed with a crossbow[76], if I was to praise her for her incredible catch or if I was just going to break down crying in relief at the fact she was still alive. Of course as it turned out I never got the chance to do any of these as another figure appeared in the doorway.
She was tall, much taller even than Skull but unlike my black clad friend she had a humorous glint in her eyes... and also unlike Skull those eyes were the size of my fist and as black as the ocean depths. For a moment I felt my jaw drop open. She was a half-Ladorian[77]. I mean I could see all the signs from the abyssal black eyes to the long finned tail, the thick grey rubbery skin and the scalp covered in rows of long grey spines in geometric lines rather than hair (Later when I saw her smile her mouth was filled with huge tombstone like white teeth, no canines at all). All the signs but one which was that she didn't seem to have that air of anger and vicious bitterness that I associated with the few half-breeds I’d seen who’d grown up in Prasus.
At that moment however I was more focused on what she was wearing. It looked mostly like a male dock workers outfit, tight breeches of brown leather and a loose white cotton shirt. But hers had been modified with coils and coils of rope criss-crossing her chest through which was threaded enough daggers to make falling over an extreme sport. This entire ensemble was topped off with a sort of half mask[78] that covered her nose and mouth and also seemed to be made from coils of somewhat thinner rope.
The girl looked across the room at us, then at the man stuck to the wall, us, man, us, man. Then finally she shook her head and reaching up pulled her bandana down.
I tightened my grip on my mace.
“That...” she said in a voice somehow both mature and childlike. “Was AWESOME!”
Words failed me.