Chapter 9: Chapter 9

It took me a few minutes ofwalking before I was finally able toshake the image of that dog from my mind, at least for the time being. Somehow I knew that I would beseeing it for a long time to come, but at least for now I could block it. Thankfully, Dorf made sure to keep me hustling. At first I thought hewas just trying to keep me moving so I could clear my head, but then itoccurred to me that with me being dazed, if anyone wanted to attack usas payback for former police shakedowns or anything of that nature, now would be the best time to do so.

Speak of bad luck and you invite it in, as the saying went. No sooner had I thought that than I felt agathering in the air, like a storm, but without a cloud in the sky. Quickly Ilooked around, and spotted anabandoned steam-carriage close tothe entrance to the Arcane Market, wheels falling off. I shuffled Dorf over there and picked the wheel up; then, I pulled out my athame and made a small cut on the palm of his hand. He gave a small indignant shout, but I had no time toapologize. Using some of his blood, Imarked the wheel with a few runes, and then told him to grip the wheel with his bloodied hand. Dorf must have realized it was serious, because he stopped protesting and grabbed the wheel, specifically the rubber part of it.

I stood up and reached into myduster pocket, feeling around blindly for a certain charm I needed. The electricity in the air was starting tocrackle, and all of my hair was slowly standing on end. Looking over at my partner, I was pleased tosee that his hair was still flat on his head, which meant my grounding spell was working. Getting more frantic, I was close to panic when Ifound what I was looking for, pulled it out of my pocket, and put it on myright wrist. It was a band carved from a single piece of wood –from atree that had been struck bylightning- and twined around it was a small strip of rubber.

Seconds later, a lightning bolt came smashing into me from far away; I couldn’t see where itoriginated, but it didn’t even veer off to strike any of the tent poles located around us; that could only mean that somehow someone had gotten a drop of my blood or a piece of my hair, helping the spell hone inon me and me alone. Even though the electricity itself did no damage, the force of the impact still knocked me off of my feet and threw meback about 10 Paces. Luckily, anempty tent was there to help cushion my fall, but I knew I would be sore and bruised by morning.

Getting untangled from the tent took precious seconds, since I didn’tknow if there would be another attack, how it would arrive, or where it would originate from. I noticed that Dorf had pulled and unfolded from inside his jacket a small hand crossbow. Smart man, Icomplimented him. He knew that hecouldn’t bring a pistol inside the Arcane Market, since all pistols are powered by steam technology; but the quaint old-fashioned hand crossbow would work perfectly here. And, he had done it all without letting go of the wheel.

Once I got free from the tent, Icould feel the air starting to hum and crackle again. Knowing I had little time to spare, I started humming a tune while digging in myduster once more for another spell component. I’ve heard that wizards use a belt pouch for all of their components, which just seems silly to me. Since everyone knows that’swhat is in there, all an enterprising attacker has to do is remove the belt pouch, and the wizard is practically helpless. It would be damn near impossible for someone to disarm me by removing my duster, and ifthey could do so I would either beunconscious or beyond such worldly concerns.

“Aha! Gotcha!” I exclaimed after Ihad finished humming my tune and once I found the component. I pulled it out, relived to know that the tiny mirror was still intact. Granted, I had the glass enchanted to resist breaking, but you couldn’t always assume those things would hold, especially in times like this. “You doing OK there, partner?” I yelled toDorf.

“What the fuck do you think? Gods damn it, I really hate magic!” he snarled out.

“Good to know!” I shouted back. Normally, if we had been attacked, by being shot at or having various sharp objects hurled at us, I would whisper so the attackers wouldn’tknow where we were hiding or if wewere hurt. But now, now I really wanted whomever was dumb enough to try and take me out with magic to know that not only were we fine, but I was pissed off. “Come and get me, you son of a bitch,” Imuttered under my breath. “I’mwaiting.”

As if that was some sort ofcommand, I barely spun around tospot another lightning bolt heading my way. In moments like this, time seems to slow down. Your movements become drawn out, every breath takes a lifetime to take in, and it almost becomes deathly quiet. Everything comes down todoing that one thing you know you need to do to live. For me, it was bringing up the small mirror so itwas cupped into my palm, reflective surface out. I did my best to make sure it was lined up with the bolt that was coming my way. If I was wrong, it would hurt really bad, and possibly shatter the mirror. Offering up a minor prayer to whatever deities might be listening, I hoped that I had aimed my hand correctly.

Then, time seemed to speed back up. The bolt hit my hand, and byluck or by skill, my aim was true. Resonating in the mirror for asecond (which felt very weird), the bolt bounced back the way it came, reflecting off of the mirror on areturn trajectory back to its origin. “Come on, let’s go!” I helped Dorf tohis feet and we both began to run down the path the bolt had just taken. Within twenty seconds of merunning full speed (and Dorf panting and wheezing behind me), wearrived at the end of a rundown alley. Laying there, smoke rising from the charred body, was whomever our mysterious attacker was. They were burnt pretty badly, but I was hopeful that we’d be able to at least get something out oftheir corpse.

Skidding to a stop, I waited for Dorf to catch up. When he did, hejust said, “Baran’s Balls, that really stinks!” before leaning against the alley wall, hands on knees and trying to catch his breath. I agreed with his brief statement, while not his profaning the Elven God ofVirility. The stench really did smell nauseating, and I did my best tobreathe through my mouth and not my nose. Throwing up in an alley didn’t sound that appealing, thank you very much.

Finally, my partner wound down and he stood up, shakily but standing nonetheless. Once I saw hewasn’t going to die on me, I put Dorf out of my head and went over to the smoking body. I prodded the body with my boot, and it fell over, still holding a burnt piece of wood in its hands. Most of it had become blackened, but the ruby gems embedded into the wood told me all I needed to know. “Shit,” was all Isaid. “This wasn’t just an angry caster, looking for payback. This was a professional hit.”

“How do you know?” Dorf wheezed out.

Breaking the former wand out ofthe death grip the corpse had, Ishowed it to my partner. “Rubies ona wand can only mean one thing. Somebody with some deep pockets paid the Blood Guild to either keep us quiet –permanently- or scare usoff this case.”

“Well, fuck, there goes my day,” Dorf exclaimed, and I couldn’t have said it better myself. The Blood Guild was a group of assassins of all types –mundane, partial and full casters- that had been operating out of Aerendor for many Cycles. Not only were they very good at their job, but they held to a code of honor. Once they took an assignment, nothing would stop them from completing it. Since we had killed this poor sod (not that I felt too sorry about killing someone who had been trying to kill me first), they would send somebody else; and ifthat person also failed, they would just send another person. And so onand so forth, until the contract was completed. At least they didn’t kill innocents, so I didn’t have to worry about any bystanders getting caught in the crossfire.

That explained why the spell had been targeted to me. As a caster, Iwas usually very carefully with anything that came from me and could be used as a focus. I cut myown hair rarely, and always burned what I cut off; I always wrapped and bound my own wounds, and burned the wrappings when I took them off; and when I cut my nails, you guessed it, I burned the clippings. But somehow, taking all of those precautions, someone had managed to get their hands on a small sample of something that came from me, and the thought both infuriated and terrified me in equal measures.

There were rumors of rumors that said that the reason the Blood Guild was so well known was that there was another shadowy organization hidden among them. They counted on the notoriety of the Guild to hide their own sinister plans and assassinations, and that they were so skilled in the art ofdeath that they could kill a man ahundred ways and never have anyone suspect it was more than anatural occurrence or anunfortunate accident. Personally, Ididn’t give much credence to those rumors, since not only did that sound paranoid bordering on the ridiculous…but the thought ofpeople even scarier than the Blood Guild walking around amongst all ofus wasn’t conducive to getting any sleep at night, ever. We (the police) made enemies in our line of work, there was no denying that. I didn’twant to think about someone who could find me, kill me, and have noone be the wiser that it was murder. Shivering, I rubbed my arms, though I knew it wasn’t from any chill in the air. Dorf made a protective gesture with his right hand, and I knew this had him shook as well.

“So, what’s our next move partner?” Dorf asked me.

Frowning in concentration, Ithought for a second. “I say that now would be a really good time toget out of the city, try and chase down that lead Mister Black gave us.” Reluctantly, my partner nodded his head. “We both know that the Ronan won’t come to Aerendor for questioning, so it looks like we’llhave to go to them.”

“Do you really think one of those thieves is behind these killings?” mypartner was skeptical, and I didn’tblame him. All the stories we had heard about the Ronan painted them as a very peaceful people, more interested in travelling around and fleeing trouble instead ofdefending themselves. Granted, they did have a reputation of being very light-fingered, but no one ever found any stolen goods in their caravans. Besides that, the thought of one of them being capable ofcommitting these gruesome murders seemed like something abigot would spread about them; designed to scare, but having nobasis in truth or reality.

Sighing, I simply said, “No, I don’tthink one of those people is capable of something like that, but we’veboth seen good people pushed tothe brink and lashing out in ways that they couldn’t take back, nomatter how much they regretted it. So, it would be unjust for us to not pursue this, no matter how illogical it seems. Looks like you get to drive your steam-carriage today after all.” The last was very difficult for me tosay, it almost felt like pulling teeth.

Pumping his arm with glee, Itried to ignore the sinking feeling Igot when thinking about being crammed into that murder machine for a few hours. Before we did that, we’d have to stop back by Mama Crea and let her know about the murder attempt and the body. From what I knew of the half-Giant, she wouldn’t appreciate something like that happening in her territory. But then, we’d go get Dorf’s steam-carriage and take a drive out to the country. Woo-fucking-hoo.