Valkyrie's Shadow

Chapter 3

Liam joined Kai on the rooftops, testing his footing on the slick wooden beams. The expected moonrise never came, but the rain that he smelled earlier certainly did. He looked up for signs of their ‘aerial observers’, but he couldn’t see anything against the starless sky.

“Are those Elder Liches really there?”

“They’re there,” Kai said. “You’re just not good enough to sense them yet.”

“Can the Beastmen see them?”

“Probably not. We can’t account for all of them, but they’ve been chumps so far. The dogs and wolves have good hearing and a strong sense of smell, but those bony guys don’t smell like much of anything. Might hear their robes fluttering if it gets windy, though.”

Kai ran ahead, leaving Liam with Aykut and his team.

Would it always be like this? They had an entirely different set of considerations to make than when they were dealing with felid Beastmen. Growing up in a Human town, he didn’t have to think about what Humans could or couldn’t do. He was just used to dealing with them. With other races, he had to keep what they were capable of in mind at all times.

Felid Beastmen could move their ears independently to focus their hearing in two different directions. They could sense vibrations in the air with their whiskers. Being high up was decent protection against Nar and Urmah, but Ocelo and Con could reach the rooftops in seconds.

In Phelegia, they couldn’t speak once they left the Human parts of the city because nearby Gao would probably hear them. They couldn’t linger in one place for too long or their scent would get too heavy. One had to be mindful of which way the wind blew and how air currents flowed through the streets.

He looked over his shoulder to where Aykut and his men were carefully picking their way over the rooftop behind him. Ijaniya had an elaborate language of hand signs to communicate when they couldn’t talk normally, but the Draconic Kingdom’s volunteers did not. They had come up with some basic signals to help out with the problem, but Liam wasn’t confident that things would go smoothly.

A light blinked from a rooftop in the next district. Liam pulled his mask over his mouth and nose.

“We’re clear. Let’s go.”

Not that they could go much faster in the rain. On top of that, they could only move as quickly as their least stealthy member.

They followed the alley side of each rooftop to avoid any unexpected Beastman spotting them from the street; the alleys were too narrow for anyone in them to see what was going on above. By the time they caught up to Kai, he was stepping back out onto the rooftops from a third-storey dormer. He reached down and pulled the curtains shut before closing the window. After a quick glance around them, his hand started to move.

–take your guys clockwise.

Liam nodded and gestured to his team. Like E-Rantel, the city was built in blocks that were basically sets of buildings squeezed together to make the greatest use of limited space. Short alleys led to small courtyards, but the poorer parts of the city just squished more and more buildings together until the back ways became dark and maze-like.

Since the Draconic Kingdom’s citizens had been pushed into those poorer districts, they didn’t have to deal with that. The nature of those poorer districts also worked to the Humans’ advantage, while the wealthier districts being occupied by Beastmen had any number of things that infiltrators could exploit.

They reached the next set of dormers. Liam gestured to one of Aykut’s men, then pointed to the latch. The man crouched and crept forward, gingerly leaning forward to peek through the window before pulling out a set of tools.

Before setting up the teams for the city, they went through all of the volunteers to figure out what they were good at. The man working on the window was better than Liam at picking locks and breaking into buildings, which should have also meant he was stronger than Liam. However, like Liam before he started his training, the man hadn’t realised his full potential. He probably never would.

It was weird, in hindsight. Not a year ago, Liam saw the world as they did – no, nearly everyone saw things the same way. Someone could be a sneak or a footpad; a con artist or a thug; a fence, cutpurse, or burglar. Back then, they were all different things to him. Now they were all part of the same ‘job’: Rogue. Before, he was just a sneak who fished for information to sell. Now, he could do it all, though he still liked doing some things over others. What made the difference was knowledge, will and practice.

The latch clicked open. The man gingerly tested the window. Liam gestured urgently for the others to enter. It didn’t matter whether the hinges squeaked or not: any light sleepers would smell the air coming in from outside.

He was the last one in, so he closed the window and drew the curtains shut. The two Beastmen sleeping in the room were already dead and the door to the hall hung open. His boots went from joint to joint to avoid any creaky floorboards and he opened the closest untaken door.

His dagger came out as he went to the nearest bed. Liam’s eyes only lingered for as long as it took to plant his killing strike. Beastmen had massive, muscular bodies with tough hides, but their heads were as vulnerable as any Human’s. Bodies twitched and jerked as skulls were smashed open by the pommel of his weapon.

After killing the four occupants of the room, he jammed the window latch and closed the curtains. Wealthier citizens could afford a degree of privacy, and that worked to an infiltrator’s advantage. Thick walls muffled sound and the glass windows kept the scent of blood and decay from escaping. Thick curtains kept anyone from casually looking in, so it might take days, if not weeks, for anyone to notice that the occupants were dead.

Except we need them to notice by morning?

Tira probably had some plan for that. Liam rejoined Aykut’s team after shutting the fireplace flue and using a magic item to remove traces of his scent. They headed down the stairwell to clear the second floor.

The door just past the landing was open. Aykut held up a hand and gestured for Liam to take a look. Liam leaned forward to peek around the doorframe, finding that his darkvision was unnecessary. A group of shivering Gao were wrapped in blankets in the far corner of the room. They huddled tightly around a candle as if the feeble flame could keep their mounting fears at bay.

Liam turned back to Aykut and held up four fingers, then pointed up to indicate that they were awake. The Rogue from Blighthold produced a Silence scroll from his bandolier and activated it. They rushed into the room with envenomed blades drawn, making light cuts that would hopefully be mistaken for wounds from claws or teeth.

With the scroll’s effect still active, they didn’t stick around to cover up their handiwork. They swiftly moved from room to room, charging in to overwhelm any targets that were awake.

Once their grisly work was done, the men went to take care of the assault’s aftermath. They left their weapons with Liam to reenvenom. He relaxed, letting out a soft breath as he went through the familiar process. Things were going much more smoothly than they had in Helama. It was not only less chaotic, but the team had become accustomed to moving as a group and were all on the same page when it came to their procedures.

After clearing the building’s first floor, they returned to the rooftops to find a dead Gao lying on the shingles. Aykut looked at Liam with a question on his face. He shook his head in response, then gestured to the next building. They had no clue why it was there, but it wouldn’t be unless someone had left it for some reason. As they went to clear the next building, they found another corpse deposited by the dormer.

Three buildings later, they found Kai waiting for them. Liam looked around for the Ninja’s team.

–where are your people?

–finishing up. Boss told us to wait for her.

It probably had something to do with the dead Beastmen on the roof. A minute later, Tira appeared with another one held overhead. The Demihuman was probably five times her mass, so it made for an odd sight. She soundlessly set it down on the shingles and looked around.

–think six is enough?

–yeah. We’re good to go here.

Tira produced a scroll, using a nook on the roof to hide its telltale activation flare. A few minutes later, four Elder Liches floated down from the low-hanging clouds. One of them pointed a withered finger at the Beastman’s corpse. Aykut and his men backed away as the body pushed itself to its feet.

–alright, time to stir this pot. We’ll use these Wights to attack the Demis in the courtyard. We’ll let a couple escape and kill the rest behind them.

–how do they get down from here? Never mind.

Three of the Elder Liches returned from other parts of the roof, each floating along with a Wight clinging to their legs. Tira led them to an empty alley, where they descended to drop off their Undead actors. Liam watched with morbid curiosity as the Wights dashed into the courtyard.

One of the Gao in the courtyard rose at the sound of their approach.

“Hey, what the hell are you–”

A Wight leapt on him, clawing and biting with wild abandon. The other Beastmen roused at the sound of the struggle, and the courtyard quickly devolved into a chaotic melee.

“Dammit, it’s the Clanlord’s thugs!” A voice carried over the fighting, “Somebody warn the others – he can’t get away with this! Agh!”

One of the Beastmen ran off. Tira and Kai stepped into the shadows. Liam only spotted them in the courtyard after a couple of the Beastmen fell, and the fight ended a few seconds later.

Tira and Kai reappeared on the roof beside them. She nodded at the Elder Liches. The Undead mages flew down and picked up their Wights, flying away to vanish into the clouds.

–alright, we’re done. Let’s get out of here.

They followed Tira back to the Human-occupied part of town. Liam let out a long sigh after entering the safehouse.

“Welcome back,” Saye said from her table. “Anyone hurt?”

“Not a scratch,” Aykut grinned. “Are we the first ones back?”

“Don’t relax just yet,” Tira said. “Get restocked on consumables. We’re going out again in five.”

Liam went to replace his spent vials of venom. Kai was already at the collection of crates doing the same. The Ninja glanced over his shoulder.

“How’d it go?”

“Better,” Liam replied. “The team wasn’t all over the place this time.”

“Same here. Weird.”

“Weird?”

“Yeah,” Kai said. “People usually don’t go from screwups everywhere to none. Not that quick. How ‘bout you? Feelin’ anything?”

“I don’t get what you mean.”

“Y’know, guilt over killin’ a buncha people in their sleep. Setting these poor guys up like this. Being surrounded by things that’ll eat ya. Not being sure about what to do.”

“No,” Liam shook his head. “All I was thinking about is what I needed to do next and what would happen after.”

What they were doing was clear enough, but what would happen wasn’t. A group of Humans might turn on one another or just break up, but they weren’t fighting Humans. For all they knew, their ‘setup’ wasn’t something Beastmen would do at all and that would turn the Beastmen against the citizens of Phelegia.

“I wonder if they’re putting something in the rations,” Kai muttered.

“Huh?”

“You’re like, what, thirteen? I’ve never known any thirteen-year-old brats that’d be so calm in your shoes. Maybe they’re using drugs to keep you level.”

“It’s Zahradnik,” Tira’s low voice sounded from behind them.

“The Baroness?” Kai frowned.

“She got you all good in Helama,” Tira said. “Commanders need to forge some kinda bond with their subordinates for their Skills and Abilities to take full effect. You’ve fought a Noble’s personal retinue before, yeah? Or Imperial Knights.”

“Yeah. Probably the most annoying hits we got.”

“It’s the same deal here. People under the influence of a ‘leader’ gain all sorts of benefits. They’re harder to shake; they screw up less. They can move faster and they’re more coordinated. What they get depends on what their leader’s developed, but there’s no way in hell the Sorcerous Kingdom isn’t squeezing Zahradnik for everything she’s got. Just like Liam, here.”

Tira gave him a poke. Did Lady Zahradnik go through some sort of training, too? You probably didn’t have to be an amazing Commander with how strong the Sorcerous Kingdom’s Royal Army was, but, as Tira said, the higher-ups in the Sorcerous Kingdom were seemingly obsessed with getting all they could out of everyone that worked for them.

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Kai said. “Those Imperial Knights don’t break at all. They fight until they die, they’re ordered to withdraw, or ‘till their officer breaks. Dying under a mountain of Beastmen because of some Ability ain’t something I fancy.”

“That won’t happen,” Tira said. “Zahradnik doesn’t fight like a Hobgoblin or a Human Noble, so we’re not gonna be thrown into the grinder like rank and file infantry. She’s got the Undead for that anyway. I’m pretty sure she thinks more like we do than an Imperial Knight. The target doesn’t know what’s going on until it’s too late. Everything’s just setup after setup after setup.”

“She really a Noble from Re-Estize? Those guys are about as honest as they come for tactics.”

“Ilwé said she’s a bonafide Ranger, so that probably explains her style.”

Ilwé Linum was a highly experienced Ijaniya agent responsible for teaching Liam and Saye how to conduct clandestine operations. They were surprised when they were introduced to the supposedly-ill Elf woman from Fassett County by Tira, but he supposed that she wouldn’t be much of an agent if a couple of kids could figure out what she was.

“Yep,” Tira said. “Ilwé stayed over in Zahradnik’s fief for a while. You ready to go?”

“Yeah,” Liam straightened his vest. “What’s going to happen?”

“That’s up to the Beastmen,” Tira replied. “Hopefully, they put on a nice show for us.”

The drizzle had increased to a steady rain outside, turning the alleys slick with mud. Liam pulled the hood of his mantle over his head, going over to join Aykut and his team.

“Did anything happen?”

“Everyone else came back,” Aykut replied. “Last ones in said that the Beastmen are coming out onto the streets. We moved the citizens further into the district just in case something happens.”

Liam nodded. As with Helama, they fortified the ‘Human district’ of Phelegia with traps and barricades preceding their operation. It effectively set a time limit for them, as Beastmen would come sniffing around to look for their missing ‘hunters’, but the chaos sowed was growing fast.

Tira motioned for them to get to their positions. Liam scaled a nearby wall, staying low as he made his way to his team’s spot along one of the main thoroughfares. For the time being, they were to make sure that whatever happened – if anything even happened – didn’t spill into the Human-populated portion of the city.

He peeked over the ridge of the roof. Dozens of Beastmen were gathered in the street.

“That guy…he went too far.”

“You actually believe what they’re saying?”

“What else could it be? You heard what that dead chieftain’s wife said. The Clanlord sent his people to attack them after he sent them back to their dens.”

“Kaorin? She’s hysterical. It could’ve been anything.”

“Then why is the Clanlord so reluctant to bring out the guys that she said attacked them? If their noses are clean, then they’d have nothing to hide.”

Similar arguments rose from the other groups below. Liam shook his head as he listened to them branch into wild theories about what had happened. He still wasn’t sure of Beastman behaviour, but it at least sounded like they weren’t just idly speculating.

Mrs Linum taught them that what people could come up with in their own heads was more personally compelling than what others could tell them. All one needed to do was point them in the right direction, and they would usually convince themselves of the ‘truth’. Once they got to that point, it was extremely hard to shake them out of their conclusions. Effective long-term infiltration involved ‘priming’ the operations area by planting many such conclusions that supported the operatives in their task.

Even before the Elf agent’s lessons, Liam already understood it to be true. It was especially useful when dealing with other races since he couldn’t know exactly how they thought or saw things. People believed what they wanted to believe, even if it was seen as nonsense by others. What he hadn’t known was the fact that ‘Skills’ and ‘Abilities’ existed, making that behaviour utterly terrifying when it gripped someone who had the power to influence others.

“Get back inside, all of you.”

A pack of burly Gao appeared down the street. Even if they weren’t Human, Liam could only think that they looked like a group of thugs sent out to carry out their boss’ instructions. Some of the Beastmen slinked away, but hundreds more stood their ground.

“What, we’re prisoners now?”

“I didn’t say that. It’s not safe.”

“Not safe for who? Is the Clanlord scared of a little bit of talk?”

“This isn’t the time. We have bigger worries right now.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s what you guys are always saying. But we don’t need to stick around for those ‘bigger worries’. That stubborn Clanlord is forcing us to stay here!”

Murmurs of agreement rose from the gathered Beastmen.

“I’ve said what I had to say,” the leader of the Clanlord’s thugs crossed his arms. “Get back inside.”

The two sides stared at one another through the rain. A tense silence stretched on for a dozen heartbeats before a few Beastmen in the back of the crowd turned away to walk toward the city’s northeastern gate.

“Hey!” The leader of the thugs said, “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Leaving. You’re just splitting us up again so you can kill us just like that other tribe.”

“That doesn’t even make any sense! The Undead are out there – why would we kill the people we need to help fight them off?”

“Who knows? The whole world’s gone crazy and we’re not sticking around to be slaughtered either way.”

The thugs glared at the backs of the departing Beastmen. If they tried to force them to stay, it would only make things worse. Seeing how impotent the Clanlord’s enforcers were, more Beastmen started to leave.

They’re finished. No, they never had a chance to begin with…

They weren’t even fighting the same fight. The Beastmen were trying to resist the Undead, but the Sorcerous Kingdom was here to liberate the Draconic Kingdom. How could one act to defeat an opponent if they didn’t know what the other side’s conditions for defeat were? The Sorcerous Kingdom’s Royal Army had woven an illusion over an entire country, and it was working.

After the crowd dispersed and the thugs returned to the city centre, Aykut rose and wiped the rain off of his face.

“Is that it?” He said, “Was it truly that easy?”

“Hey,” Kai said, “a lot of prep went into it. Not just from us.”

“That may be true,” Aykut said, “but I didn’t think they would so simply leave.”

“Everything’s falling to pieces here; the idea of holding out isn’t in the cards. The Undead are still far out of sight of the walls, so there’s no reason they’d think escape is impossible.”

The Royal Army already had the city surrounded, but, as Kai mentioned, they were still beyond the horizon. By the time the Beastmen realised that they were there, it would be too late.

Lady Zahradnik’s tactics had a cold sense of inevitability to them. It didn’t matter how clever or resourceful the enemy was; any number of stupid things could happen, but the ultimate objective was always firmly in hand. There were setups and contingencies all over the place. Even Liam’s little part in Phelegia was the same: Ijaniya could still eliminate every single Beastman in the city if their initial plan went sideways.

“So,” Aykut said, “what now?”

“Give the Beastmen a bit to sort themselves out,” Kai said. “The boss’ll be reporting to Captain Zahradnik, then command will make the call. Get some rest while you can.”

Liam felt the tension drain from him after he returned to the safehouse. His work was far from the exciting tales that Bards made an Assassin’s life out to be. While he did get to put his skills to use, he didn’t go from scene to scene filled with action and drama. It was more about maintaining an edge that could be used at any given time, which meant his days were usually filled with training, studying and rest. Aside from being in a different country, it wasn’t all too different from what he did in E-Rantel.

“You stink.”

Saye’s remark greeted him when he went to his cot. He pulled out his Trooper’s Towel to clean himself. Every member of Ijaniya had received one or two to help out with their work.

“What do you think about what happened?” Liam asked.

“I think it’s good that kind of stuff works,” Saye answered. “If the only thing we could do against the Beastmen was fight, that would’ve sucked for me.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going to try and pull something…”

“If I need to. If it works, it works, right?”

That had been her mindset going to the Holy Kingdom of Roble, as well. Liam thought that she listened too much to Tira and Mrs Linum when it came to some things. Everyone else seemed to think it was admirable, though – even the Priests and Clerics in the cathedral.

Liam woke late in the afternoon. He went to take a peek at the main area of the safehouse before getting ready for the evening. Things looked calm and barely anyone could be seen. Saye was still sleeping in the cot above his. Lady Zahradnik said that, even with a Ring of Sustenance, it was still good to sleep and eat regularly since she was still growing.

He left their little corner of the warehouse, heading over to pick up some food from the ‘kitchen’. They didn’t actually cook anything there: it was just where they put their rations. He passed Pon at a table on the way there and returned with his meal to sit down with him.

“What did the army say?” Liam asked.

“The boss said they’re nabbing all the Beastmen that ran off,” Pon answered. “We’re ahead of schedule with what happened yesterday, but we got the go-ahead to clean up the rest.”

“How many are left in the city?”

“Not many. Twenty per cent, maybe. Once this sort of thing starts, it only gets worse. Their morale was already in the shitter before. Every tribe that leaves means they have that much less of a chance of winning against the Undead and more tribes leave as a result.”

“Why didn’t the people here do that?”

“Hm?”

“The Dragonic Kingdom’s citizens. They were losing against the Beastmen, but they didn’t run.”

“Well, Beastmen aren’t Undead, for one. You saw how things were on the way here. Sure, a bunch of people got eaten, but the rest are still sitting on their land. Compare that to running: you got no livelihood; you starve; the end. These people have been prey for the Beastmen for generations, so the way they calculate things like that is different than someone from Re-Estize or the Empire.”

Was it better to be livestock than dead? In a way, they were probably right. He didn’t think it was a great way to live, but the people here could still have families before they were eaten. The population as a whole was safe in a weird way because the Beastmen would protect them like Human villagers did with their livestock.

On the other hand, if someone ran to escape the Beastmen, work didn’t just conveniently make itself available wherever they ended up. A foreign city would be even worse. It was probable that they would starve or be killed along the way.

Tira appeared an hour later, stretching and yawning as she made her way down the office stairs.

“Alright,” she stretched again and rubbed a sleepy eye, “time for work.”

“Where are we going?” Liam asked.

“Getting rid of what’s left. Uh, what’s left?”

“As of half an hour ago,” Pon said, “the Clanlord and his followers.”

“That’s it?”

“Yep. Over ten thousand Beastmen have abandoned the city since this whole avalanche started.”

“Wow. I kinda feel sorry for that Clanlord, now.”

“We calling it off, then?”

“Haha, no. Let’s go.”

They got their things together and left the safehouse as the sun was setting over the city. Strangely enough, the city didn’t feel much different with so many of the Beastmen gone. The streets were still empty and every building remained silent. Tira stopped on a rooftop not far from the city’s inner wall.

–how are the Lord’s followers set up?

–spread out. Most are on the city’s outer wall watching out for the Undead. We got a clear line once we get through here.

–alright. Let’s take this gatehouse and move in.

Tira split her Ninjas up into three teams, taking the entrance to the inner city in much the same way that they had broken into Helama. After hiding the handful of Beastman bodies in the alleys below the walls, they moved in as a group through the shadows of overgrown estates and government offices.

Their pace increased when they came within a few hundred metres of the central keep. The Ninjas dashed ahead, vanishing into the shadows to appear beside the few Beastmen along the way. Each fell soundlessly and the Ninjas didn’t break stride, flickering from shadow to shadow as they carried out their methodical mass execution.

The guards at the central keep were already down by the time Liam and the Draconic Kingdom’s volunteers caught up. Tira casually strolled in through the front gate. In the building’s great hall, the Clanlord and his followers stood abruptly at her entrance. He stared at her for a moment, his nose and face twitching with emotion.

“You…” he said, “I knew something else was going on! It was you damned Humans all along!”

In response, Tira offered a guilty smile, drawing her dagger with a shrug.

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