The Ghost's Crusade

IX: Tiernan

Claiming his longbow and quiver from the armory he walked out of the Rectory on Morray's heels and was greeted by a surprisingly bright sun. Given how heavily it had been raining when they returned he expected at least overcast weather, but the burning orb was shining down brilliantly from a freshly scrubbed blue sky bereft of even the smallest puff of a cloud.

Down the street a small crowd had gathered around what was purportedly a tavern, though the kind of people that patronized the place were not the social type. Tiernan had been watching it for several weeks since arriving in Baedorn and did not like the look of the people coming in and out of the front door. Several times he had seen some of them walk in with one or two Enkiri. The Enkiri themselves never came back out again, or at least not through any of the visible doors. Since they were generally unwelcome in most taverns unless they were sweeping up the vomit, it was unlikely they were there for a friendly drink or a room.

Tiernan had concluded it was a front for one of the many Returner guilds headquartered in the Empire to the south. All in all Returners were a ruthless group of mercenaries who made a remarkably good amount of coin tracking down and recovering escaped Enkiri slaves for their wealthy masters in Haren. Those among their ranks weren't generally known for their humanitarian treatment of prisoners, and what awaited the fugitives in the south was even less of a pleasant prospect.

As much as he hated it, slavery was legal in Haren. But in Oribian it had been rendered unlawful by the Conclave of Nations over a hundred years ago. He doubted anyone would be put up on trial, since Enkiri were almost universally viewed as less than human and the Ovan of Baedorn was one of the worst administrators he had encountered in his life, but he knew a few perfectly lawful ways to make slavers miserable while they operated within his sight.

When they drew closer Tiernan could finally make out what the people in the crowd had gathered to gawk at. Affixed to the front doors of the tavern with horseshoe nails were two pieces of oddly shaped faded pink meat. Once he realized exactly what they were he cringed and involuntarily scratched at his throat as though to check that his own was still in the correct place.

A pair of human tongues had been pinned to the oak door during the night with horseshoe nails. The most gruesome thing was not the tongues themselves, though, but the fact that they were still attached to the lower jaws of whatever poor fools had been deprived of them. Whatever had severed them had been surprisingly skilled with the blade, too.

Standing just in front of him, Drystan seemed completely unphased by the sight. Tiernan had a sneaking suspicion that it was because he had actually expected to see such a thing, not because he was numb to the sight of such carnage.

“There were patrols up and down all night,” said Morray in a quiet voice so as not to catch the attention of the onlookers and invite an assault of questions for which they had no answers. “I passed by twice myself. No one saw a thing.”

Tiernan nodded. “Grab Valois and Fergus, clear out the civilians and round up the patrons. Get their statements and then sweep the whole building. Pay special attention to the barkeep and the doormen—and tell Valois to be charming when he interviews the barmaids, not lecherous.”

“Understood, Captain. What about the General?”

“I left him my notes on the building. He knows what's going on.” He lowered his voice. “If you find any Enkiri inside, let them go.”

Once again Morray's eyes widened in surprise. “Let them go?”

“Those are my orders, private.”

“Aye, ser.” The Inquisitor saluted and turned on his heels to run back to the Rectory.

Before he was halfway back Morray stutter-stepped to a halt, turned around, and jogged to where Tiernan stood while pulling a slip of paper from his side pouch. “Ah, the morning report, Captain. Only four bodies found. No one saw them dumped of course. Jakobi wrote down their locations for you, and there's some notes he took while at the wall last night. The General ordered the coroner's office locked down once they brought the bodies in and then went off to have at it with the Ovan again. He put a halt on assembling for the Shalewarren incursion until further notice.”

He accepted the paper and looked it over quickly. The notes were in Jakobi's blocky handwriting with a few extra details penned in by the flowing script used by Morray, but it contained nothing they did not already know—Jakobi had written as much at the bottom of the report with an addendum that he would be keeping a closer eye on a 'dodgy' undertaker he'd spotted the previous evening. “All right. The Inferi and I are heading to the campsite we found yesterday on the General's orders but you men can handle yourselves. Lieutenant Orion has all my case files on this one if any of the men need them. And make sure you get rack time, private.”

“Aye, ser.” Morray took off yet again, this time at a dead sprint.

Drystan's eyebrow arched as he watched the young man run. He stepped away from the crowd and motioned towards a quieter section of the street with his chin. The onlookers barely noticed their departure.

“Let the Enkiri go, hmm?”

“You know I don't hold with slavery, Drys.”

His friend grinned. “That I know, very well. But how do you know they're not criminals too? Banditry isn't an exclusively human occupation.”

“Trust me, I have a good idea of what's going on in that tavern and it's not banditry.” He eyed the man suspiciously. “And I think you do too. In fact, I have a feeling you know who left the gifts there.”

Drystan smiled and leaned on his staff slightly but said nothing further about it. “Shall we be off? Akkali is probably already back where we found that camp last night.”

“And where was she before that?” The Inferi continued to smile knowingly at his friend but said nothing further. Sighing, Tiernan shook his head and said, “I'll get us some horses.”