Chapter Eighteen

Theoretical Conspiracies

Mayor Keong was sweating. His nerves were as frayed and he was deeply concerned that his skin was going to be flayed. He had made a grievous error in his vigorous use of the poison that he'd applied to the corpse of his hired thug. He had not appreciated the power of the poison, and he had completely disregarded the purpose of the toxin. It had been meant for far grander schemes than the murder of an elderly man who'd had the audacity to disrespect Keong in his office.

The affront, as far as he was concerned, could not go unanswered. Mister Tooth had threatened him, well, he hadn't exactly threatened him; he'd defended himself from an assassination attempt that had been ordered the minute the old man had revealed his knowledge of the bodies in the crevice. The threat had come in his survival. Rufus was only a fifth level assassin, but he was sixty years younger and was a mountain to the old man's straw grass.

Appearances were deceiving. Both Rufus and he had learned that lesson. Now Keong knew there was something not right with the old man. He didn't know what, but it was obvious things were not what they seemed. It was his second attempt to kill Tooth that had garnered the anger of their little cabal's leader. Keong had known that the poison was strong, he hadn't known who it had been for.

Now he was seconds away from wishing he'd taken the poison himself. Their group had been called into an emergency meeting once their leader had learned of the mayor's vigorous application of the mephitic liquid. The only upside to the whole affair was that his ratty clerk, Chozen, had finally calmed down enough that he didn't look like a stuffed sausage any longer. He had the general resemblance of a human once more, but he was still on the verge of having another breakdown.

Chozen was one of a half-dozen others who had been called into attendance by the Skull. Skull was the leader of the organization and no one, not even the mayor, knew who he really was. No one wanted to know. Those who found out only retained the information briefly. They tended to experience limited short term memory retention due to the fact that their head generally departed from their body on bad terms.

Everyone was in their lair, seated around a long rectangular table that had been made for the express purpose of giving the cabal a place to sit around. As such, it was only three feet wide; not wide enough to do more than allowing an attendee to use a paper and quill and maybe a mug of ale or glass of wine. It was meant for working not partying or eating from. Each member sat quietly in their seats. They stared straight ahead and did not dare to look at the neighbor beside them. Sitting directly in front of each participant in the evening's events was a small plain cloth pouch. The bag was lumpy but loosely filled.

A gong sounded and Keong's heart dropped. With reluctance, he reached out, as did those around him, and picked up the bag. He pinched its drawstrings tightly in his and began to shake the bag which rattled from the motion. The contents were old dried bones that made an eerie noise that echoed throughout the chamber. This was the ritual of summoning, the calling for the Skull to attend the meeting.

Normally, the mayor would have struck the gong and announced the commencement of the meeting of the Skull and Bones. With his current membership status in question that particular task had fallen to Chozen.

"We call to order this emergency meeting of the Bones and Skull," the clerk's nasally voice rang out like a man blowing his nose during an orchestral performance.

A shadow filled the empty seat at the head of the table. There was no chair at the table's foot so that there would never be any doubt as to who was in charge. Keong knew this because he had tried to sit there once and been savagely beaten for the audacity to equate himself with the Skull.

The shadow formed into a robe that was man-shaped and was topped by the large skull of a giant mountain goat. The bleached bones perfectly preserved the wearer's identity. There was no trace of who was under the calcified remains, and the way his words resonated from the interior made it impossible for the Skull to be recognized by the sound of his voice.

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"This is the meeting of the Skull and Bones," Skull amended.

"Why izzit Skull and Bones, eh? There's more of us Bones. A body's only got one skull but," Brom's voice floated over his rotting teeth and flitted through the air like a one-winged butterfly, "I dunno, it's got like a dozen and a half more bones easy. Oughtta be called the Bones-N-Skull. Not th'other way round."

There was a chorus of several voices of agreement with the bartender's assessment, but a wave of the Skull's hand silenced them all instantly.

"I do not have time to argue with you moronic children." The Skull said in exasperation, "Nor do I have time to deal with Mayor Keong's misuse of a very rare and special poison. A poison," he added with a trace of anger, "That was meant to have been applied to the interior of a special pair of gloves belonging to the Duchess of Rampar, who will be attending a royal gala tonight."

"This was an opportunity for us to strike at the heart of the monarchy, which was ruined by you," the Skull pointed an accusatory finger at Keong. "Your actions have set our timeline for taking over the empire by no less than months. More likely, the timeline has been set back for years. There will be a reckoning. Make no mistake about it."

Keong was certain that the man under the goat head's helmet was glaring at him, but it was impossible to tell due to the shadows in the skull's eyes. He felt glared at. Possibly even glowered at. Regardless, he was in a bad spot and he knew it.

"Goulcrest was chosen," the Skull began but was interrupted when Chozen thought he was being called upon.

"I was what to Goulcrest?" The clerk inquired.

"What?" The Skull asked confusedly.

"You said something about Goulcrest and me, Chozen." Chozen said.

"No," the Skull replied, "I said Goulcrest was chosen, as in this town was chosen as a staging ground for the rebellion. Please pay attention and reserve all your questions until the end of my monologue," Skull rebutted.

"Sorry," Chozen whispered under his breath.

"What?" Skull's inquiry was laced with ire and irritation.

"Nothing," Chozen mumbled.

"Continuing on," Skull began, "Goulcrest is an ideal location for our efforts to unseat the ruling party, and we cannot have it get noticed by the authorities. If this town falls under any kind of scrutiny then it will take us an impossible amount of time to reroute supplies and personnel to a new area. An area that will be less than ideal for our needs, since Goulcrest is practically perfect in every way."

"Mayor Ree Poppins used to say the same thing about Goulcrest a'fore we killed him and installed Keong." said a voice from near the head of the table.

"Mayor Keong," Keong said sternly.

"A position held for life," Skull added. His tone cooled Keong's indignation like ice in a glass of unsweetened lemonade. The mayor cooled down but he was still bitter about it. "May I continue?" Skull sarcastically asked permission, and no one was stupid enough to give him the go-ahead.

"Good," Skull paused to make sure no one else was going to say something.

"We cannot jeopardize being discovered. It has come to my attention that our mysterious mister Tooth, the departed Rufus's body, and Constable Guro have all gone missing. Normally, I would chalk this up as a win and move on. Unfortunately, someone doused the corpse of our dearly departed brother," he said as he rested his hand on his chest and bowed his head, "With an extremely rare poison, in such a concentration that it would have killed every living thing in the countryside if it had a chance to spread. I am concerned that Officer Guro and Tooth may have discovered the poison and are now aware of nefarious activity going on in Goulcrest."

"Izzat anyfing like paranormal activity? I's ascared of ghosts. I saw one when I'sa wee lad. I soiled my britches." This time the speaker was two seats away from Keong, but he couldn't see who had spoken since he was not permitted to turn his head.

"It now falls to us to find this Tooth and officer Trond Guro before they can cotton onto the happenings caused by our group. It is imperative that we find them as soon as possible, and take them out before any sort of investigation can begin. Is that understood?" Keong had no idea of how the Skull had managed to ignore the previous question."

"I am placing you in charge of this task, mister mayor," Skull said flatly. "This is your debacle. Your mess. Clean it up and you might live through this." Skull raised a warning finger, "I want them alive. You may do what you need to in order to get them here, but do not bring me dead bodies."

"So, we leave Rufus where we find him then," Brom asked.

"Just bring me Tooth and the constable," the Skull stressed, "Failure to do so will result in death. Failure to do so in a timely fashion will result in torture."

"Out of the two options I'm pulling for the torture, "Chozen whispered.

"I hope you get your wish," Keong responded in disbelief.

"This ends the meeting of the Bones and Skull," announced Chozen as he watched the shadow melt away from the Skull's chair.

"Skull and Bones," came an irritated voice so distant that it sounded like it came from another world.