The tunnel had led to a natural cave, a large one from what Bilain could see, though the little light afforded by the fires the mercenaries sat around did little to show how big the cave was. She had lived in Adrasusk, in The Sprawl, her entire life and had never known there were caves like this below the city. It led her to wonder if a cave much like this had collapsed beneath The Fell, all those years ago.
This one, however, sat a lot further away from the city. They had travelled some distance along the tunnel to this point. Without references, she could only estimate that they now sat beneath the expansive open landscape of Ganshorn's Field. That, at least, gave her a little comfort. Unless another, similar cave sat beneath The Sprawl, she couldn't see the same fate befalling her Ward as had happened to The Fell but, as these mercenaries showed, The Sprawl had other dangers facing it.
"I could do it." Hidden far outside the firelight, Kaluun crouched, observing those mercenaries that gathered below. "Though I couldn't guarantee I'd be able to keep my word."
"What do you mean?" Crouched beside Kaluun, Bilain watched the mercenaries movements herself, trying to see anything that could aid them, while blowing out the lantern, unwilling to give away their position. "We can't fight these people."
"All I need is fear. Extinguish the fires, remove one or two, leave the others to fall into panic, become disorganised." From behind her back, Kaluun unhooked her crossbow, checking the weapon. "But some would die. Would have to. This stupid idea that I shouldn't kill anyone could get us killed. I know which I prefer."
"And I'd prefer bypassing them entirely." There were other ways to deal with these mercenaries, should it come down to it. Before long, Trenna and Ilivno would be able to see to that. "If we can reach the end of all this, get to the Ganshorn estate, I'm certain I can end it all, everything, without bloodshed. If the Ganshorn's know they have failed to destroy The Sprawl, they'll back down."
"You're too naive and optimistic." Kaluun unrolled the vine attached to the crossbow bolt and it appeared to grow and lengthen in her hand. "But if you won't let me go through them, we can go over them, and maybe strike a little fear in their minds, too."
Uncertain what Kaluun intended, Bilain watched as the woman stood, aiming the crossbow toward the roof of the cave. A roof that Bilain could not see at all. As the unmistakeable twang of the crossbow firing reverberated around the cave, Kaluun held out her hand to Bilain. Somehow, the bolt had struck the rocky roof and stayed there and now Bilain understood how Kaluun expected to bypass the mercenaries.
Taking Kaluun's hand, the Lady En Lutar pulled Bilain in close, gripping her waist and lifting her. Bilain still couldn't believe the strength of the woman. Down near the fires, the mercenaries had heard the noise of the crossbow, holding torches above their heads and searching for what had made the sound, but they couldn't see Bilain and Kaluun.
The woman's shadows had spread out, covering them both in a thin layer of darkness that hid them from the eyes of the mercenaries. Then, with a jump, Kaluun lifted them both into the air and began to swing upon the vine attached to the crossbow bolt in the roof of the cave. Strengthened, somehow, by Kaluun's Forest Mage sensitivity, the vine held the weight of them both as they soared over the heads of the mercenaries.
They heard something. A rippling of cloth, or the sound of an unnatural breeze passing above their heads. Yet they looked about themselves in wide-eyed terror, unable to see what could have made the sounds. Torches flashed one way and then the other, swords became drawn and hushed whispers cautioned each other. Bilain and Kaluun arced above them and the mercenaries had no idea what, or who, had passed them by.
As though she knew exactly what to look for, Kaluun's legs stretched out before her a moment before they came crashing into a wall. Her feet connected, her knees bent, cushioning them to a halt and Kaluun released Bilain from her arm. With a glance backward, Kaluun raised her crossbow and the vine retracted like a whip, back toward the woman. As she coiled the vine, checking the bolt that had returned with it, Bilain looked back to the mercenaries.
They continued to hold their torches high, but, from the whispers that carried along the walls of the cave, they had begun to think their imaginations played tricks upon them. She couldn't blame them on that. If anyone had told her the abilities Kaluun had, she would not believe them, either. How she had ever expected to capture this woman, Bilain couldn't begin to imagine.
Kaluun only had magic sensitive abilities and they alone caused fear to grip Bilain's heart. She had heard the stories about Rürazar, the Lord of Shadows, but she could hardly believe the half of it. Mages, on the whole, appeared harmless, distracted. They kept to themselves. If Kaluun had the full capabilities of a Shadow Mage, or a Forest Mage, she couldn't imagine what the woman could do with them. Bilain now knew that mages were far from harmless. That was only the image they allowed people to see. If people, in general, truly understood what mages could do, no-one would ever feel safe. No wonder the Three Kingdoms waged war to keep mages under control.
They waited long enough for the activity in the cave, below, to dissipate as the mercenaries disbelieved the evidence of their own ears, before setting out once again to find the next section of the tunnels. The section that would lead them further into Ganshorn lands and, from there, to confront the Ganshorn patriarch, Vasztur.
She had met him, once, many years ago. Well, she had seen him. While performing one parade or another, or as part of some ceremonial duty, while in the army. She had seen Vasztur Ganshorn and he had not seemed much to look at. Neither short, nor tall. Not ugly or handsome. Muscular or frail. He looked much like any other man and she could have brushed shoulders with him on the tight, packed streets of The Sprawl and never looked twice at him. Unassuming. Average. No-one could have pointed to him and said that he and his family were among the wealthiest in the city.
Yet, and Bilain remembered this with a vivid clarity, he had seen her. Not a passing glance, and not only her. The man had looked at everyone in the same way. A gaze so intense that Bilain had believed the man capable of telling every dark secret a person held from only that look. The look had no malice to it, or any sign of benign humour. It calculated and then moved on. Bilain remembered the feeling that everything about her had become stripped bare in that moment.
That was why she believed she could speak to the man. That she could persuade him to turn aside from this path he had begun to walk. The man calculated and, in those calculations, he could, she hoped, see the benefits of stopping this foolish grab for land and the costs it would incur if he followed the course of his plans.
"This way." Kaluun's breath-like whisper tickled Bilain's ear and then moved away.
The mercenaries had settled down once more, though they had two of their number circling the perimeter of the makeshift camp within the cave. Kaluun was right, she had loosed fear into these men and women. A fear of the unknown that would grip them and have them twisting their necks at the slightest sound or movement. It should, at least, keep them occupied while Bilain and Kaluun sought a different exit to the cave.
They found it, not long after. A black opening in a wall of black, but it led out of the cave and back into the low, man-made tunnels that could lead to Vasztur Ganshorn. Once far enough down the tunnel, Bilain opened the shutters on the lantern and struck her flint and steel, catching the wick alight and revealing the way ahead.
"Thank you." Even with the light of the lantern, she could only make out a vague impression of Kaluun's features, her shadows making lazy swirls about her face. "For not killing those people. For finding another way. I'm not saying they are good, or deserve that mercy, but if we're to stop this with the least amount of bloodshed, it had to start here."
"Try telling that to your Watch if those mercenaries decide to head into The Sprawl to attack, eh?" Kaluun, bent-backed, talked over her shoulder as she began to walk along the tunnel. "Think they'd show your people mercy were it the other way around? Best to take these smaller pieces off the board. Even a pawn can beat a king."
"That's what I'm hoping for." Truth told, Bilain wasn't certain what she hoped for, other than the safety of her Ward and her people. Whether she was a pawn about to face a king or not meant little beyond that. "There! A ladder!"
The tunnel had come to an end far sooner than Bilain had expected. Even if she had guessed wrong, she doubted they were anywhere close to the Ganshorn Estate. And, if she had guessed right, this ladder would bring them up right in the middle of Ganshorn's Field. She had hoped to emerge closer to her target.
Nevertheless, there were no other ways out and they hadn't passed any more side-tunnels. This was their only way out and the only way to reach Vasztur Ganshorn. Kaluun allowed Bilain to climb the ladder first, keeping watch behind them and holding Bilain's spear while she hefted the trapdoor upward. Catching the spear thrown up to her, Bilain took a look at her surroundings. A tool shed, or similar. Yet, something else caught her eye as she looked around.
Without thinking, she opened the nearby door, wondering why it looked so bright at this time of night, only to moan in horror at what she saw. There, to the south, flames erupted into the air. Great gouts of smoke rising upward, blanketing the sky, blotting out the stars and the moons. She felt the presence of Kaluun beside her and then the woman's hand on her shoulder.
The Sprawl was burning.
-+-
The sky above the city had turned a deep orange, fading into the dirty, smoke-filled black that drifted along the breezes blowing from the Akaean Sea. A column of smoke rose and spread out toward the east and even from this distance, Bilain could smell the burning wood that almost every building in The Sprawl was built with. All those flames, all those buildings, but Bilain could only think of the people. Those that would die and those that would lose their entire lives to the inferno.
"Do you see now? Death is what these animals deserve." Kaluun's hand trailed from Bilain's shoulder. "And I aim to kill the one who ordered it."
"No." She couldn't look away, glad she had saved her family from the fires, but heart breaking for those not so lucky. After too long, she managed to tear her eyes away, searching the landscape for Kaluun and racing after her, catching her arm. "I said no! Maybe ... maybe it's too late to persuade Vasztur Ganshorn to call an end to this atrocity, but if he dies, if you kill him, it'll mean nothing. It'll only be vengeance. This needs to be more. It needs to be better. It needs to be justice."
"I am vengeance, Captain! That's all I am!" All this time, Kaluun had appeared light-hearted, as though taking everything as a joke. Now Bilain saw the woman beneath that façade. "I need vengeance! Not just for this, but for everyone who ever saw life as worthless. Who took the most precious things from people who only wanted to survive. I'm not better. I'm their worst nightmares made manifest and I'm going to make Ganshorn pay for this!"
Kaluun stepped away from Bilain and, as she took each step, her shadows wrapped themselves about her until Bilain could see only the night and then only the field around her. She had allowed this. This mad woman. Had allowed Kaluun to accompany her, thinking that the Lady, the shadow vigilante, could help her. That Kaluun would abide by the agreement they had struck, but of course she hadn't.
The woman had seen her parents murdered before her own eyes, as a child. No-one could survive such a thing and not become changed. Some used that kind of trauma to better themselves, to help others. Others took that pain, that white hot fury, and forged themselves into something new. Something dark. In her own way, Kaluun had done both, only the fury took a far greater hold than the desire to help others.
If the Lady En Lutar truly wanted to help others, she would put aside this crusade against the worst The Sprawl, and the city, could offer and put her wealth and strength to far greater use. Instead of travelling to far off lands to learn better ways of breaking bones, or launching kicks, Kaluun could have learned the ways of herbalists, or from architects to help build a better Ward. She hadn't. She had chosen brutality and revenge and now Kaluun stalked Vasztur Ganshorn.
All this ran through her mind as she raced through Ganshorn's Field, jumping across deep furrows, following the path of crops that pointed the way north. Toward the Ganshorn Estate. She knew she couldn't catch up with Kaluun, but she had to try. She had to run like a young woman, like the soldier she once was. Never tiring. Able to run and fight for hours on end, until the night swallowed the day and Sergeants shouted orders to sleep.
Those days were long passed, but she remembered them well enough. The days when she had Ranaie and their children to return to. Something to live for. Worth fighting and dying for. That hadn't changed no matter how old she became, or whether she had duties as a soldier, or as a Watch member. Her family were out of the city, but she considered The Sprawl a part of her family. She had to fight for them and, if Ganshorn died this night, they would have their deserved justice ripped from them.
Up ahead, she could see the lights of the Ganshorn Estate. Lights that appeared to stretch from one side of the massive field to the other. Dozens of lights from as many windows. The Ganshorn Estate rose up from the darkness of the night as though challenging Bilain. Challenged to allow Kaluun to do what Bilain wished she could do, but could not allow of herself. She believed what she had said to Kaluun. It needed to be better. Go-Rar Kha knew. It needed to be justice.
The gates remained closed to her and anyone else that wished to enter the estate. Anyone but Kaluun. Bilain knew full well it wouldn't matter the height of the walls, or fences, or gates, the Lady En Lutar could scale them with barely an effort. Bilain, she knew, would find it far more difficult, especially should anyone try to stop her, but she need not worry about that.
She had missed them as she had approached the gates. Only misshapen shadows upon the ground that could be anything. Except Bilain knew exactly what they were before she came close enough to see. Bodies. Guards that had watched the gates. No match for Kaluun even if she hadn't fallen upon them wrapped in her shadows. Two more dead to add to a long list of people Kaluun had killed and every dead body left in Kaluun's wake now only added to the tally of guilt Bilain felt.
It took her a while to climb over the locked gates, but she took off at a run as soon as her feet touched the ground. She never looked back at the fire that scorched through her Ward. If she did, she knew her resolve would waver. She had to focus upon stopping Kaluun, if she even could. Not for Vasztur's sake, not to stop Kaluun from killing ever more people and not even for herself, but because it was the right thing to do. The lawful thing to do.
Along the path to the doors of the immense house, she passed more bodies. More people to add to Kaluun's long list of victims. The spear in her hand had become heavy as she ran, as her legs had become heavy. Her lungs felt tortured, about to fail on her, but she managed to reach the heavy, decorated doors, wide open, another body laid across the threshold. It appeared that nothing and no-one could stand in the way of Kaluun and her lust for death, but, from the sounds within, it seemed Kaluun had not left her too far behind.
Fighting. Shouts that drifted from within as Bilain found herself leaning against the doors, fighting to regain control of her breathing. Someone had managed to put some resistance against the force of Kaluun's onslaught. She could wait no longer, pushing herself upright, ignoring the unnatural way the man at her feet lay, their head twisted at an odd angle.
Inside, she saw an opulence even more gaudy than what she had seen in the Municipal Ward. Statues and paintings adorned the entranceway. Columns reached up, all the way to the upper floor, fluted and covered with gold leaf. A great, golden candle holder hung from the roof, a chain trailing along and down in order that servants could light the candles and return it high above the heads of those that passed beneath.
At the top of a curved, shallow staircase, Bilain saw movement and she began to run that way, only to have to jump to the side as something came tumbling over the edge, cracking against the marble tiled floor, blood splattering in several directions. A woman, a warrior, now lay in a pool of her own blood, her broken sword clattering to a stop feet away. More and more death and Bilain couldn't imagine that it would ever sate the blood thirst of Kaluun.
Nevertheless, she took to those stairs, taking them two steps at a time, ignoring the fire in her muscles and lungs, until she reached the summit, to find Kaluun fighting hand-to-hand with three other mercenaries and Bilain did not see those mercenaries standing a chance against the enraged noblewoman.
They gave her no time to think, attacking her all at the same time, their swords flashing in a haze of metal, but Kaluun had no need to think, she only moved. Without any weapon of her own, save for her unused crossbow, Kaluun flitted between her three opponents as though they weren't even there, her hands moving so fast they had become a blur, knocking each sword attack aside and taking no damage from them. Her fingers straightened, thrusting outward and one man fell away, clutching at a throat crushed by the hand of Kaluun.
She caught the arm of another, bringing her elbow down upon it and Bilain almost cringed at the sickening snap that echoed around the the area. Even as that man dropped his sword, cradling his arm, Kaluun moved to the final mercenary, catching her by the throat, fingers squeezing, her fingers scrabbling against Kaluun's hand, her arm, her face, all to no avail.
"Stop! Stop this now, or I swear by all the Patrons, I will." Bilain hefted her spear, readying to throw it, even though she had a good idea Kaluun would avoid it with ease. She hoped the interest the woman held for her would bring her back to her senses. "Don't make me fight you again, please. I know. I know you will beat me, but you'll have to kill me to do so. Are you willing to do that?"
Kaluun did not release the woman in her grip, but she did loosen it. A slight. Her eyes turned toward Bilain and it was as though she saw her for the very first time. At first, Bilain saw no recognition in those eyes, only the fire of hate and fury, until Kaluun blinked. Once and then again. She looked at the woman held by her, unconscious, but still alive, and allowed her to collapse to the floor.
Bilain wasn't certain she could keep Kaluun from continuing her rampage for long, but if she could speak to her for a moment, she still held hope she could persuade her to stop. Before she could try to speak, however, Kaluun whipped her head around, lowering to a crouch as someone came out of a nearby room. A child. No older than Nishrean, or Little Mim, clothed in an expensive, ruffled lace dress, her hair fastened into elaborate curls atop her head. She stepped forward on unsteady, terrified feet.
"Please don't hurt my Grandpapa, he is so ill." The girl fell to her knees, hands held before her, pleading with Kaluun. "I know he is not a good man, but I beg you, allow him to die in peace."
Neither Bilain or Kaluun had expected this. The girl, eyes wet from tears, looked between Bilain and Kaluun, hoping. And Bilain could only wonder one thing: Why would a dying man cause so much grief and devastation to The Sprawl?