Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 6

“Showing up with a bottle of wine to a single woman’s home at night after showing off your beautiful wife to her the same day. You sure know how to play with a girl’s heart, Liam.”

“I don’t have any gold to pay you,” Liam said.

“Alright, now I’m angry. Or am I? Hmm…is this what it feels like to be desired?”

Liam rolled his eyes as he placed another crate atop Raquel’s counter. House Restelo paid him in scrip, so the only way he could buy things from the city was to pay with goods purchased from the camp.

“So,” Raquel leaned on her elbow as she examined a bottle of liquor, “what are you looking for?”

“I saw a bunch of things that might be useful earlier today,” Liam said. “Before any of those, though…do you have something that will help me see in the dark?”

“Sure do.”

“You do? That was unexpected…”

“About five years ago,” she told him, “the Royal Army wanted to try some out for their night patrols. They didn’t work out, though.”

“Why?”

“Unreasonable expectations…? Anything goes with magic in most people’s heads. Someone thought that a Darkvision item would allow them to see at night as well as one would during the day, which is sort of true, but they ignored the fact that most Darkvision items only have a ten to twenty-metre range. Demihuman hunters ambushed the patrol, picked them off outside of their Darkvision range, and the army lost their investment.”

The mage pulled a small case out of the cabinet and placed it on the counter between them. She opened the lid to reveal a selection of jewellery.

“I made a few extra thinking that people might show interest after the army bought some,” Raquel said, “but since it was a failure, I’ve been stuck with them ever since.”

“Why not market them to the local artisans?” Liam asked, “If they can see in the dark, they don’t need to spend money on fuel.”

“Oh, I tried,” Raquel answered with a shrug. “All I got was an endless stream of excuses. Sunlight’s free. Lamps are cheaper. It’s not natural. Half of the people I approached thought I had some ulterior motive, like corrupting their minds through a ring or something ridiculous like that.”

“How do you even make a living here?

“I was doing pretty well before the war. The secret’s to offer the same enchantments that the Temples do. That’s why I became an Abjurer. The Temples can’t come close to meeting the country’s demand for magic items, so making the same stuff’s a lucrative ‘niche’ that no one questions. In everyone’s minds, if the government issues magic items, those items are from the Temples.”

Liam picked out a brass band from the case. He could tell that it was far more valuable than a mundane item, but he had no idea what it was.

“What’s this one?” He asked.

“A Minor Ring of Protection,” Raquel answered. “Know what that does?”

Though he did know, he shook his head. Being too knowledgeable would arouse suspicion.

“Magical protection is divided into different categories,” the mage said. “All Rings of Protection provide what’s called a ‘deflection bonus’. To put it simply, it makes attacks ‘miss’. Arrows veer off the mark; solid hits become glancing blows; glancing blows miss entirely – that sort of thing. A minor enchantment isn’t much on its own, but, when you add it with all the other effects and throw on some decent armour, you’ll find yourself with better protection than a suit of full plate.”

“Hmm…so how do I pick what goes where?”

“Adventurers spend years cobbling together sets of equipment from what they can find, but that’s not necessary. If you have access to masterwork equipment, an enchanter with the right spells, and the materials needed for everything, you can be pretty flexible with your items.”

“If that’s true, then why don’t Adventurers do that?”

“Because they’re weird. They’re all obsessed with finding some amazing magic item and then building a set of equipment around that magic item. Most of them even start building those sets before they get their hands on that item because they’re so damn convinced that they’ll somehow get that one thing they heard legends about growing up. The more amazing – and rare – magic items they have, the better, so they hold out for those, as well. It’s kinda like a disease. In reality, they just die trying to do that when they could have just started with a basic set of magic equipment and worked their way up from there.”

Now that she mentioned it, Adventurers were like that. The Sorcerous Kingdom’s Adventurer Guild was full of people aiming for the craziest items in the guild’s ‘point catalogue’. Lord Mare put them through a lot of pain before they finally capitulated and went for something less ambitious.

“That doesn’t make much sense to me,” Liam said.

“Well magic items don’t make any sense to most people,” Raquel said, “so they don’t think about them at all.”

“But aren’t there magic items that are useful for everyday life? Most people I know are pretty practical – shouldn’t that win out over fear and superstition?”

“If practicality’s won out, no one’s told me about it. Or my neighbours. Say what, since you’re so open-minded, why not buy one of those everyday items? I bet you and your wife could drum up some business for me in the camp.”

“I’ll talk to Nat about it. She might have saved up enough to get something nice for her workshop. For now, I need stuff to help me out with my work.”

“…is it so dangerous in the city now that you need magic items to survive?”

“I haven’t run into anything that dangerous in this jurisdiction,” Liam said. “But they still make my work easier, right? Like being able to see in the dark when I’m on the night patrols.”

While the army may have been disappointed with the performance of their Darkvision items, they were perfectly fine to use in the city. Twenty metres of Darkvision range was more than enough for the enclosed spaces and short distances involved when working in urban areas.

“I guess that makes sense,” Raquel said. “So does that mean everything else you’re interested in runs along those lines?”

“Mostly. Nat wants to get the armour pieces she’s making enchanted because she keeps stabbing me in her imagination. How much for a Darkvision item?”

“Hmm…honestly, I’m not used to bartering. This is a long shot, but do you have access to enchanting reagents? Those damn Demihumans snatched up nearly everything and ruined what they didn’t steal.”

“You’d have to be specific,” Liam said, “I don’t know what’s a reagent and what isn’t.”

“I guess I’ll write up a list,” Raquel said. “As for this other stuff…”

The mage scratched her head as she examined the items arranged on the desk. In addition to the liquor, there were preserved foods, clothing, boots, shoes, tools, and some nice-looking accessories picked up from the labour camp’s market. Between the scrip-based system of the camp, his appraisal abilities, and the crazy prices in the city, he had lost all sense of what was worth what.

“I suppose if you scrounge up ten times what you’ve brought so far, it’d be worth a Darkvision ring.”

“Ten times?!”

“Hey, magic items are expensive! Don’t act as if I’m giving you an unreasonable quote.”

“In that case, what would I need to carry around the least of to pay for everything?”

“You can pay right now? Darn, I should have quoted a higher price.”

“…”

Raquel raised her hands disarmingly.

“It was a joke! Let’s see…the problem with bartering like this is that you can end up with a lot of stuff you can’t get rid of. For example, these knick-knacks here might be more valuable than everything else, but I’m not going to be able to sell them when people can barely afford food. Since I’m already selling conjured food, it’d be easier for me to sell food that you trade to me. But since food is cheaper than those knick-knacks, that means you’d have to carry more stuff and that costs you more time and energy. Well, at least you’re not a horse.”

“So if I wanted to barter for more magic items or enchantments…”

“It’d have to be food,” Raquel told him. “I wouldn’t be able to move anything else fast enough. Cider or ale would also work – barely anyone can afford wine these days.”

That would come out to a lot of food, but, if House Restelo wanted to start integrating their labour camp’s economy with the city’s, they would probably look positively on the transaction.

And, the more we do it, the more the other houses will want to stop us.

House Restelo needed to start gaining ground on their new rivals, so that was probably the best part. So far, no one had grown bold or desperate enough to attack their jurisdiction.

“I think I can do that,” Liam said. “You’ll have to give me some time to carry it all in, though.”

“Can’t you just stick it all on a wagon? I can lend you my cart.”

He wasn’t sure whether he could. House Restelo’s plans were still forming, so all he was going by was the gist of what they wanted to do. Spies might spot him bringing in all the extra food and react to the information faster than House Restelo wanted.

“Wait,” Liam said, “how much food am I bringing in?”

“Let’s say thirty times this crate here. Preserved food is fine. No fruit.”

Never mind spies, his own allies were going to give him strange looks.

“I’ll try to bring everything in the morning after my shift is over. Um…do you mind if I use the item right away?”

“Sure.”

Raquel leaned over the counter and fished several accessories out of the case. Liam chose a plain steel band and slipped it on his middle finger. He looked into the shadows of the store, confirming the effect.

“Is there anything I should know about this item?” He asked.

“It’s just a magic item,” Raquel answered with a shrug. “The thing isn’t going to steal your soul or make you grow a tail or anything.”

“Alright. Thanks.”

He left Raquel’s shop through its back entrance, accustoming himself to the range of his freshly-bestowed magical vision. Hoburns’ magical lighting was limited to its most affluent districts, and rationing limited House Restelo’s jurisdiction to the lighting of each patrol’s torches. He already missed having Darkvision as soon as he started his assignment in the Holy Kingdom, so it was a great relief to have it back again.

I wonder what I should get next.

There was an Alchemist next to the tanneries, but things hadn’t escalated to the point where he would need potions yet. As far as utility items went, Raquel had provided an invaluable hint as to how he could seamlessly equip himself. So long as he employed items that produced magical effects considered ‘normal’ to the people of the Holy Kingdom, it was more likely that they would want to purchase a similar item for themselves than question his use of them.

The other limitation was that he needed to stick close to peoples’ perception of a ‘thief-taker. If he started flinging Magic Arrows out of a wand or tucked a dozen healing scrolls into his bandolier, it would attract unwanted attention.

But I should still get my hands on a healing wand. I can hide one under my bracer. Sending multiple agents is well within the other houses’ capabilities and I’m bound to get injured trying to defend my turf against them.

While he was much stronger than the average person in the Holy Kingdom, he still wasn’t at the point where he could reliably take on groups of enemies alone. Dealing with large groups would involve stringing them out and healing himself between fights.

Liam climbed onto the rooftops and checked his Darkvision on the alley below. It was more than enough to cover the stretch directly below him. He visualised the matrix of streets and alleys under his charge and headed to the first spot that intruding Rogues would consider ‘safe’ from the street patrols.

Wow, there’s someone there.

Two someones, in fact. Both appeared to be slightly older than he was. He knelt on the eaves directly above them, straining his ears to make out their hushed conversation.

“Alright, I think we got in unnoticed.”

“What now?”

“…”

“…”

“…we look for evidence.”

“Like…a body? A demonic ritual?”

“…”

No plan, I guess.

As with Esme, it looked like they had been blindly dispatched as scouts with only their preconceptions as a guide. Since that was the case, either the house they worked for had no spies feeding them information on potentially compromising activities or the spies couldn’t find anything to point to.

“A corpse would smell in this heat. Maybe they’re using the stink of the tanneries to hide one.”

“Y’know, I heard from a guy that some of the shops here have materials again.”

“…so they’re using Human leather? Those sick bastards!”

Liam scratched his head as the two urban scouts crept off with their newfound sense of righteous indignation. He went ahead of them, checking for the location of the nearest street patrol. When the two stopped inside an alley entrance to let the patrol pass, Liam dropped a roof tile behind them. They jumped at the sound of shattering clay and fled into the street.

“Who goes there?!”

“You ain’t skinnin’ us, Restelo Demons!”

The two scouts drew their daggers. The patrolmen drew their swords. The scouts took a moment to reconsider their challenge before running back into the alley.

“After them!”

“Lift that torch higher!”

“Where’s Liam?”

Argh.

It would be nice if his allies didn’t just give away his name while also announcing his presence in the area. He shadowed the two scouts, watching them feel their way through the darkness after running into a back lane. The patrol stopped at the alley junction, bunching up as the lead man poked his head cautiously around the corner.

“Is there a trap?”

“I don’t know! Give me that torch.”

“I don’t see anything…”

“You fool! It wouldn’t be much of a trap if we could see it.”

“Those damn Rogues!”

Liam dropped into a courtyard nestled in the centre of the block. He tripped the first scout as he left the alley, knocking the second out when he stopped at the sound of his stumbling partner. The two men were already bound by the time the patrol appeared. Despite the novice behaviour of the two agents, they still would have made a clean getaway if he hadn’t stopped them. All things being equal, the other houses would have had few issues gathering information if House Restelo didn’t step things up.

“Oh, Liam,” the patrol sergeant said. “Good work.”

“Their equipment's over there,” Liam gestured to the pile on the opposite wall. “Can you handle them from here?”

“No problem.”

Four men came forward to take the scouts out of the alley. Liam frowned as he watched their well-practised movements.

“How did you handle this sort of thing back when you were in the army?” Liam asked.

“I’ve never had anyone pull a dagger on me before,” the patrol sergeant said, “but something like this. The army’s thief-takers did most of the work in the shadows and we’d book their catch at the local office.”

And now all of those thief-takers are out of the country.

He wasn’t sure if this particular ‘perk’ of sending the army away was a part of the royalist’s plan or simply a coincidence. The former seemed increasingly likely the more he encountered the domestic vulnerabilities opened up by the Nobles’ political manoeuvring. Everything that they did was done with the aim of removing the checks and balances that hampered their activities.

Liam shadowed the patrol until they reached the gatehouse. They were far more cautious handling men than they were women. His Ijaniya training asserted that this was common for races where males were stronger than females, but he couldn’t believe that anyone could be so negligent with women until he saw it with his own eyes.

They should get better…I hope.

The more mistakes they made, the better he looked in the eyes of their superiors. However, if House Restelo wanted to expand its influence, it had to be able to protect what it held. Everyone had to do better if they wanted the house that they served to rise: it was both common sense to those accustomed to rural power structures and, ironically, a source of frustration to people like Sir Luis. It helped that the other houses were in the same situation, but chaos would break out as things escalated in Hoburns if they remained at their current levels of competence.

Which is fine, so long as that chaos doesn’t affect us…so doesn’t that mean we should be going on the offensive?

If he wasn’t in the Holy Kingdom, it would undoubtedly be the best move. His superiors in House Restelo, however, would probably disapprove.

Additionally, the houses in Hoburns weren’t stupid – they were simply inexperienced. Much as it was with direct combat, Rogues and Assassins sought to keep their opponents on the back foot until they could finish them off. Since things were developing so slowly, he would essentially be teaching his enemies all sorts of things that he didn’t want them to know every time they regained their balance.

The next group of scouts he discovered were three pairs from different houses conferring in a cul-de-sac formed by the yards of five workshops. After listening to them for a while, he decided that they were no more successful than the first pair in digging up dirt on House Restelo.

Six versus one was dismal odds, so Liam left them to their conference to look for the nearest patrol. He found Marim and his squad two blocks away, going down an avenue toward the western plaza. A pair of men raised their torches as he approached them from the front.

“Liam,” Marim said, “what’s–”

Liam raised a finger to his lips. Marim’s men instantly assumed defensive stances, looking all around themselves.

“We can talk,” Liam said in a low voice, “but keep it low. There are six guys at the end of the alley behind the shops facing the western plaza.”

“Are they dangerous?” Marim asked.

“Not unless they try something crazy,” Liam answered. “It’s just three pairs of sneaks from three houses trading information and rumours.”

“…so we just walk up to them?”

“They’re on the ground, so you don’t have to do anything fancy to reach them. I’ll be watching from above.”

Marim nodded and turned to issue instructions to his squad. Liam climbed back onto the rooftops, looking down at the alley as he backtracked to the group of intruders. To his dismay, they were already on their way out.

He checked the progress of Marim’s patrol, but they would be too slow to cut the scouts off. With no other way to warn them without giving his position away, he picked up another roof tile and tossed it in front of the scouts.

Hoburns is going to run out of roof tiles, at this rate.

As one, the scouts ducked at the sound of shattering clay. Marim and his patrol did, as well. The patrol recovered quickly, however, advancing down the alley at a faster pace. Liam cursed as the scouts drew their daggers and waited around a corner as the torchlight of the patrol cast long shadows on the walls in front of them.

It’s turned into an ambush…should I let it happen?

A brawl in the alley was the perfect chance to implicate three houses in an attack on House Restelo’s jurisdiction. Marim’s patrol was about to be set upon by what was probably six Rogues, however. The squad would still win, but a Sneak Attack in a vital area was potentially fatal for the weaker men in the patrol.

Ugh, whatever!

Liam picked up another tile and flung it at the scouts, catching the rearmost in the shoulder.

“ARGH!!!”

With an unnecessarily loud cry of pain, the man collapsed to the dirt.

“Marc!”

The man nearest to Liam’s victim turned and knelt to tend to him. Liam flung another tile at the ambushers, catching a second man in the hip. A second later, Marim and his squad barrelled around the corner.

Two of the scouts flung themselves forward with a shout, stabbing wildly as they bowled Marim and another man over. A spear came in to impale one of the attackers through the ribs. Another patrolman ran in to pummel the second attacker with the pommel of his sword.

The remaining two scouts fled, their terrified shrieks bouncing off the alley walls. A second spear lanced out to catch one in the calf and one of Marim’s men leapt forward to tackle him. Liam tailed the remaining man from above while four men from Marim’s patrol pursued him into the street. There, he had the misfortune of running in front of another patrol. Liam winced at the solid clunk that rose into the air when the patrol sergeant swatted the final scout to the ground with his shield.

“What the hell is going on here?” The sergeant shouted as the scout’s pursuers spilt out of the alley.

“Liam reported a gang of Rogues in the alley, but we ran into them while they were on their way out.”

“Is everyone alright?”

“…I don’t know. It all happened in seconds.”

“Tch,” the patrol sergeant turned to his men. “You six, make sure this crook doesn’t go anywhere. The rest of you, with me.”

Pained groans greeted the second patrol as they closed on the first. Marim looked up from where he was propped against the alley wall. A bloody hand lay over his stomach and a dagger stuck out from between his fingers.

“Diogo.”

“Marim! By the gods…”

The second patrol sergeant knelt beside the first. Marim punched him when he reached for the dagger.

“Don’t pull it out, you idiot! Wait for the Priest to get here first.”

“Did you already send for one?”

“Yeah. Gods, what a mess.”

Three men were bound and under close guard – the two that Liam took out with roof tiles and the one that had been speared through the calf. The two that had ambushed the two patrolmen were lying on their backs. The other patrolman that had been ambushed was lying alongside them.

“Liam,” Marim breathed, “you there?”

“Yeah.”

“We’re going to have to work on that communication bit. Smashing roof tiles isn’t going to cut it.”

Two Priests from the temple at the western plaza arrived with a pair of men from Marim’s patrol. Marim yanked the dagger out of his gut, eyeing the blade as the glow of healing magic washed over him. In the end, the only fatality was the scout who was speared through the ribs.

Liam accompanied the two patrols as they made their way back to the gatehouse with five prisoners and one corpse. Sir Jimena’s only reaction to their entrance was a long frown.

“We’ll need a real prison for these ones, sir,” Marim said.

Sir Jimena’s long frown grew even longer as he received the different reports about the incident – including the one from the Priests. He left Liam’s report for the last, rising from behind his desk after the other men were ordered to return to their duties.

“Is there something missing from their reports?” Sir Jimena asked.

“They reported a lot of things I wouldn’t have thought to report, sir,” Liam answered. “As for my side of things, that group wasn’t doing anything special. Each pair of scouts probably encountered one another and they stopped to share information or at least tried to find out what the other houses knew about us.”

“What about what Marim said about poor communication?”

“He’s right,” Liam admitted. “If we had worked out a way to communicate in advance, I don’t think this would have happened. Marim’s patrol came in expecting to go up against some Rogues. The scouts were being cut off from their escape route. Everyone just decided that a fight was inevitable and they fought as if they believed that only one side would be walking out of that alley alive.”

Now that he had plenty of time to review what had happened and listen to the other parties’ perspectives, Liam realised that he had committed a string of critical errors. Despite the unexpected movement of the intruding group, it was a fight that didn’t have to happen at all. A relatively painless arrest could have been made if Marim’s group had simply waited for the scouts to come to them.

Instead, they had gone in on Liam’s word, suffered multiple casualties, and ended up with a dead man on their hands. Assassins made for terrible Commanders.

“I see,” Sir Jimena said. “Well, that’s the hand we’ve been dealt. We just have to work with it.”

“Does House Restelo plan on using this incident?”

“We’d be fools if we didn’t. No matter how you cut it, our men were attacked in our jurisdiction by the other houses. How it played out wasn’t ideal, but it still works in our favour. Not only will it take those three houses down a peg or two, but it will help balance out those bad rumours surrounding the incident with Iago Lousa – especially with the city folk. There’s nothing better than a threat at home to take one’s mind off of threats abroad.”

“But someone died,” Liam said. “This is going to put us in an even worse spot with the other houses. The next time they send people in, it may not just be to snoop around.”

“Yes, well,” Sir Jimena replied with a stony look. “As I said, that’s the hand we’ve been dealt. We’re just going to have to be better at dealing with them than they are with us.”

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