Watching Ranaie feed both the girls left a knot in her stomach. He and Amaini were more important to her than her own life. Her son, Badian, had left for the wonders of Tarkar's Bridge, years before. They received communications, rare letters, but at least he remained safe, far away from The Sprawl and the disaster that loomed. Nishrean wasn't part of the family, but she wanted the girl safe, too.
"Ranaie." She had tapped her fingers upon the table for too long and Ranaie had noticed, though he had not asked what worried her. He looked at her now, awaiting her words. "I want you to pack some things. There's a former sergeant of mine, from the army. He runs a small farm, out to the east. I want you to take Amaini and Nishrean, and go there for a while. I'll have a couple of the Watch escort you."
"Why?" A simple question that Bilain couldn't answer. Not out loud. Not unless she wanted him safe. "What happened at that dance?"
She stopped her constant tapping of the table, turning her hand over, and stared at the healing burns on her palm. The Lady En Lutar's 'governess', the Kannai, Shurivno, had healed most of the burns, but it still pained her. If the attack she feared was to come happened, many more would suffer such burns. Many would die. She could not bear to see her husband and granddaughter among them.
"I can't say. If I say, even to you, and others find out, there will be a panic." She leaned forward, unable to look him in the eye. She had never lied to him and didn't want to start now. "Adrasusk has many twitching ears. Just, please, do as I ask."
Bilain had learned that few things remained secret in this city. She had also learned that some people were not who they appeared. That there were some secrets that people held that even she did not know. Secrets that could tear down the very foundations of the city, but she cared about only one part of that city. She cared only about her family.
The prospect of someone setting the entire Sprawl alight filled her with dread. Nowhere else in the city held near as many people. Within The Sprawl, entire sections housed more people than the entirety of the High Ward, though it occupied far less space. One fire threatened the Ward. Several, lit at the same time, would devour the place in flames and no amount of bucket chains or Weather Mages could hold back the inferno.
"What of little Nishrean? She's a sharp one, despite her injuries." His hand smoothed down the girl's clean hair and she looked up at him with those big, questioning eyes as she ate. "From what I can tell, she wants to help you find those who hurt her."
Nishrean nodded, her strawberry blond, wavy locks bouncing about her cheeks. She bared her teeth, waving her fingers before them, tapping one, and then turned, pointing in the direction of the northern part of The Sprawl. Sharp, indeed, but Bilain had no wish to put the girl in harm's way. She already had a good idea where to look for the Mikinartan man with the missing gold tooth.
Other aspects of the investigation had taken priority, however. She could only assume what happened to Nishrean had something to do with Senator Yiladry's death and she knew it connected to the fires lit only days ago, but there were other ways of finding this Mikinartan, without putting the girl in danger. Without putting her family in danger.
"I want you to leave the city, Ranaie." She didn't want him to go, she needed him to. When he began to protest, she slammed her burned hand upon the table surface. "No! You will do as you're told!"
"Bilain?" Ranaie's voice came as a whisper. She had never spoken to him in that way before.
He and Nishrean had jumped at her outburst, the urchin reaching for Ranaie and clutching at his shirt, those wide eyes flickering in fear. Amaini began to cry, the noise of Bilain's shout rousing the baby from her blissful innocence. With Nishrean clinging to him, Ranaie moved to the crib, making soothing noises to a child that had lost her mother not a year past. Would Ranaie want the baby to lose her grandfather? Her own life? Bilain understood Ranaie's reticence, but she couldn't feed it.
"I'm sorry." Standing, she moved to Ranaie, looking into the crib alongside him. Nishrean moved around behind Ranaie, peeking out from behind him. "Sorry for shouting, but not the intent behind it. You will go willingly, or I'll have the Watch escorts drag you there. I've written directions to Ogng's farm. When this is over, I'll send for you all."
"I suppose I shall have to. Have you ever seen a farm, Nishrean?" He smiled down at the now-mute girl and she shook her head. He turned his attention back to Bilain, lowering his voice. "Ja-Sha-Ne can look after the tavern, but watch her hands. She's not a bad lass, but doesn't think too far ahead. Bilain, whatever this is, whatever you have to do, don't let it consume you. I want to come back to my wife. My unharmed wife. I love you."
"And I love you." She touched his greying, receding hair and fought back tears. "Everything will be fine. I promise."
She had said similar words in the past, when war threatened and she and her comrades had marched out of the city. Adrasusk had come close to war several times while Bilain had served, but diplomacy had prevailed. In those times, with the confidence of youth, she had no doubts that everything would work out, that she would return to Ranaie unharmed. Now, in this situation, she was not entirely certain.
With kisses for Ranaie and Amaini, and a caress of Nishrean's cheek, Bilain headed for the door. She refused to look back, hoping that she would see them again, yet knowing she may not have a choice in the matter. She had only scraped the surface of what occurred in her Ward with much yet to learn. Every step of the way could only bring more danger and she wasn't certain she, or anyone, could survive.
Even as she crossed from the Timid Fox, across the short width of Weft Tide Street, to the Watch House, she couldn't help but wish she could shout out to those teeming crowds that passed her by. To tell them of the danger they faced, the possibility of a fire that could destroy everything, but she knew that almost as many would die in the panic and, there was no way of knowing whether the culprits behind all this would bring their plans forward in response. She had an idea that death was not the purpose of the fires, but she could not say for certain.
"Another rejection from Senator Yiladry's widow, Captain." Ilivno, as efficient as ever, waved the letter before Bilain as she entered. "Forgive me if I speak out of place, Captain, but the usual period of mourning has passed. Perhaps a word from the Senate Secretary ..."
"No. Don't bother sending another request. She's not going to see me." Bilain took a quick glance at the letter and, after learning what she had the night before, the words upon the paper came across as cold. "Instead, I want to know everything about the Senator's widow. Everything. What news of the night?"
"Quiet, Captain. Trenna can give more details about that." Another sheet of paper passed in front of Bilain as they entered her office. "My investigators have learned of more sightings of this Mikinartan, but they are few. The man buys silence and buys it well. We have narrowed his movements down to these three areas."
Bilain had to look twice. Where once Bilain had looked at a blank wall, she now saw a detailed map of The Sprawl and, beside it, a less detailed map of the entirety of Adrasusk. It almost amused her, were she not worried about her family, but she had chosen Ilivno for this very kind of thinking. With one of her long claws, Ilivno tapped three spots upon the map. All at the very edge of The Sprawl. All in areas known for their ruined, abandoned hovels. They would not stay abandoned long, but were too dangerous to live in, even for the homeless.
"I assume you already have people watching those places." She nodded as Ilivno gave a stiff nod of her own. "Good. Make sure they don't make any moves until we say so. We don't want this man alerted that we know of him."
Ilivno gave a salute and left the office and a fraction of a moment later, Trenna took her place. He had no sheets of paper with him and sat down without Bilain giving him leave. As soon as he realised, he stood up again. No matter how far Eass folk moved from their homeland, or how long they lived elsewhere, they never seemed to lose that sense of informality prevalent in the icy wastes far to the east.
"Chief. Something's wrong out there. I don't know what, but something's off." He sat down again, without thinking, and Bilain waved a hand before he could stand up again. "It's too quiet, if you ask me. That there shadow fella? Didn't kill anyone last night. Oh, they were out alright, not a single soul killed. But, and this is strange, folks're acting even more scared of that. Thefts, assaults, the lot, nowhere near as many as usual. I don't like it."
No deaths. That, at least, had worked as she had wanted it to. Kaluun En Lutar, the shadow vigilante, had given Bilain her word she wouldn't kill any more of her victims. That was as much as Bilain could get the woman to agree to. It was either that, or test the idea that, as Kaluun had said, no-one would care. Bilain had a horrible feeling that the woman was right, so she compromised. They both compromised. Bilain would not try to arrest Kaluun. Kaluun would keep her murderous instincts in check.
They had to compromise. If they hadn't, they couldn't possibly work together to save The Sprawl.
-+-
Bilain didn't return to the Timid Fox. She could see no candle light from the upstairs windows, as she left the Watch House much later. She allowed herself a glance inside the tavern and saw Ja-Sha-Ne behind the bar. At least one thing had gone according to plan. As for all the other, myriad threads she had to keep straight in her mind, she couldn't say. She could only hope.
Reaching the first bridge across the Shcnep involved a lot of meandering through tight, claustrophobic streets and alleys. Through passages where the buildings were so close, the dying light of the day could not penetrate to the ground, leaving those seldom travelled ways through The Sprawl in a constant state of darkness. Every so often, Bilain tracked back several streets before turning back, always heading north to that first bridge.
She couldn't say with any certainty that anyone would follow her, but she couldn't take the risk. Not of her Watch comrades learning of her whereabouts, nor for those that had killed Ghusz. She couldn't put it past them to kill the Watch Captain, if only to keep the Watch unbalanced. She doubted either would chance following her, but she made certain anyway.
It wasn't even as though she knew, for certain, that she would find anything this night. Ships arrived when they arrived and they had no way to communicate with shore if they were to arrive later than expected. Yet, according to her new ally, the last, or latest, shipment of whale oil would arrive within the next few days. Bilain could have ordered it captured, but that would tell them nothing of where the rest of the whale oil could be found.
She had ordered the Watch to keep an eye out for strange goings on, but could only make vague allusions to what she considered 'strange'. As much as she trusted those in the Watch, those that were not new recruits, that is, many of them had families, dear friends, communities that would become the first to hear about the threat that loomed over them. And, as she had thought when she had sent Ranaie and Amaini from the city, she couldn't chance the panic that would ensue should anyone find out.
If The Sprawl burned anyway, despite her best efforts, she would have to live with her decision. For the moment, she had to remain focussed upon what she could affect. As she neared the Old Docks, passing through the many taverns and inns of Dockside, she began to smell the fresh scent of the sea. In the Docks, south of the rivers, she could hardly smell the sea for the scent of fish. Here, where most ships had stopped coming, the smell had nothing to smother it.
She stopped in an alley, looking out across the space where once dockworkers would have laboured day and night, loading and unloading cargo, moving boxes and crates and barrels in a never-ending dance of commerce. Except it had ended, long ago. The new Docks had opened so long ago, the term 'new' no longer held any meaning, and the Old Docks had dwindled and diminished to a point where if two ships docked in one day, the Old Docks were considered busy.
There were no ships at harbour this night and, though it had soon turned dark, she couldn't see any white sails upon the Akaean Sea, the light of the moons catching upon the lazy waves that rippled the surface of the water. It could take days before she saw any sign of the ship carrying the whale oil, if it ever appeared at all.
"Fear not. It will come." The muffled voice whispered in her ear and Bilain had her dagger ready in an instant, turning in the same movement. "I think you'll find it more comfortable up above."
Even as Bilain lowered the dagger, Kaluun grabbed her by the waist, drawing her close. With her other hand, Kaluun fired a small crossbow up toward the lower roofs of the Old Docks. Attached to the bolt, a length of vine followed the trajectory, up into the night sky until Bilain heard a dull thud. Why the En Lutar woman held on to her, Bilain didn't know. They couldn't climb while in each other's arms.
The yelp that erupted from her mouth echoed around the alley, but that was the last thing on Bilain's mind. What concerned her more was how she and Kaluun appeared to fly through the air, dragged upward to where the crossbow bolt had struck. Once at the rooftop, Kaluun planted her light boots against the wall, heaving Bilain up and onto the flat, Orususk style roof. Less than a moment later, Kaluun had joined her, returning the crossbow to an attachment on her belt.
"How did that work? I know crossbows. There is simply no way one that size can fire a bolt, and a rope, this high. Not near powerful enough to secure it to allow us to climb, never mind ...whatever just happened." Her heart racing, Bilain sat upon the flat roof, pressing her back against the parapet. "What are you? Forest Mage? Follower of Weire Kha? The Patron of Trees?"
"I'm not a mage." Kaluun lowered herself beside Bilain, looking over the parapet toward the quays below. "I'm a magic sensitive. Tricks, that's all, but very useful tricks. I have no real connection to the Essence."
Bilain knew little about magic, or mages, but she remembered someone once mentioning the Essence. If she were to believe them, the Essence was the decaying remnants of the old gods. The immortals that existed and ruled the heavens before the Patrons. Said to have combined into one being, Vaiah, to face the might of the Great Dragon, and dying in the process of defeating the beast. As these old gods decayed, in whatever otherworldly place they died, their souls, their Essence leaked into this world, giving people the power of magic.
Whether that was true, or not, Bilain didn't know, but it sounded as good an explanation as any. Up here, under the light of the moons, unfettered by clouds this night, she took a good look at the woman beside her. The shadows rippled around her, not covering her completely. More like strands of shadow, that shifted and oozed about and around her. She looked little like the noblewoman she had seemed before.
Beneath the shadows, Bilain could see strange clothing. Dark cotton, not black, but a dirty grey colour. The trousers folded and wrapped around her legs, tied at her ankles. The jacket wrapped around her torso, fastened by a cloth belt upon which the crossbow dangled, and a long scarf curled about her head, covering her hair, nose and mouth, before it continued on, trailing down her back, lifted by the breeze that washed in from the sea. Thin, cotton gloves fitted tight to her hands, but not the tips of her fingers. They, and Kaluun's eyes were the only parts of her body not covered.
"So you aren't a Shadow Mage, either?" Her heart calmed, Bilain adjusted herself, looking over the parapet, still unsure of the woman beside her. "There are those that believe you are the Lord of Shadows returned. Shadow magic makes people nervous."
"I never even heard of Rürazar before I returned to Karramon." With a sigh, Kaluun turned and sat down, her back to the parapet, and the shadows that trailed about her faded away. "I was ... elsewhere during that entire time. Training for my return. The shadows were the third discipline I found myself sensitive to. No! The fourth."
"You're sensitive to four disciplines?" One thing Bilain did know, the more disciplines a mage had, the different aspects of the Essence that gave different magical abilities, the more chance there was of the mage going mad from the power. "No wonder you dress up and terrorise people in the night."
Kaluun laughed and it seemed strange for someone that Bilain knew as a person of extreme violence could have such a bright, unfettered sense of humour. The woman pulled down the part of the scarf that covered her mouth and grinned toward Bilain. She seemed so unlike the idea of how the shadow vigilante should act.
"You think me mad. Perhaps I am. But I think it's justified." With her hands resting upon her knees, Kaluun tilted her head as she considered the state of her sanity. "No. About the disciplines, I mean. I'm not going to justify my sanity to you. I'm sensitive to six disciplines but Shurivno says I should be able to touch more. She says she's never known someone sensitive to so many disciplines. Three of those disciplines are useless, though."
She acted so open about her powers, about herself, that Bilain almost admired her. As Bilain stared out, over the parapet toward the sea, she roved her eyes across the waters, searching for signs of the incoming ship. She wanted to ask more about Kaluun's disciplines, what powers she had. She already knew about the shadows and assumed that some form of Forest magic were another. That left one that Kaluun didn't consider useless.
They had said they would pool their resources and information, but Bilain wasn't certain she could trust the woman. Not least because, though Kaluun said the multiple powers hadn't sent her insane, Bilain couldn't feel certain she wasn't. And she was a murderer. Perhaps that was part of the possible insanity, but it still didn't justify her actions. If the woman wasn't insane, and had killed all those people in some twisted form of vengeance, that made it even worse. Still, some things they could share, she supposed.
"You were right about Yiladry's widow." Bilain couldn't believe how fast Ilivno had begun to gather information and wondered why she hadn't had a Sergeant of Investigation before. "Before she married the Senator, she was known as Ghistreen Ganshorn. Daughter of Vasztur Ganshorn and, as any in Adrasusk know well, the Ganshorn family have always considered themselves the most important family in the city and have always claimed The Sprawl."
"I know." Kaluun narrowed her eyes, watching Bilain with sharp intensity. "There's more."
"My Sergeant, my old Sergeant, and I found a Senatorial Seal on one of the men you killed. A Seal they should not have had. Such a Seal would give access to places they would not normally have." Bilain considered whether to continue, but she had already started. It would help no-one if she gave only half the story. "I just found out that the wives and husbands of Senators are given those Seals, also. I think the Seal was that of Yiladry's wife. I think she ordered the death of my Sergeant to regain it and ... I think I want to kill her for that."
Even the admission of wanting to kill Ghistreen made Bilain feel like a hypocrite. Here she sat, judging the woman beside her for killing people, thieves and murderers, yes, but people nonetheless, and she had admitted to wanting to take justice into her own hands in revenge for her fallen friend. She was no better than Kaluun.
About to retract what she had said, Bilain found Kaluun's hand upon her arm. A finger of her other hand pressed against her lips and then pointed put across the docks, where Bilain could now see people moving and, out upon the waters of the sea, she saw the shape of a ship heading toward the quays, silently turning to come alongside the harbour, her sails furled.