Chapter 4 – Dastardly Deeds

Milinda

The last four days had been defined by a series of political talks and diplomatic discussions. Not only had all of them been fruitless but since the fourth day protests from the Talesin population against the foreign occupation, had significantly worsened the already tense situation. Sophia looked out of the window when a familiar thin voice spoke up to her.

"My queen, the acolyte has once again left the mansion, from what my contacts tell me she will most likely wander around the city for a few hours." Milinda hadn't yet mentioned the fact, that Lady Greengarden had evaded her tail on several occasions, but in light of the recent events it would probably be wise to inform her.

"Sophia, I have to . . ." Before she could finish her sentence, Queen Mathir interrupted her in a tone, which indicated that she hadn't really been listening.

"Milinda, child, I need you to do something for me." The maid cocked an eyebrow, wondering where this was going.

"What would you have me do?" This time Sophia turned around and Milinda could see silent tears dripping down her cheeks.

"Search her room, and take anything that might help me, putting pressure on this bitch born of a fucking Sibalien whore!"

The tears stopped as her face turned into a mask of anger and something else sparked in her eyes. Never had the young thief seen the Queen this emotional, and in turn she simply bowed and quickly left the parlour.Outside of the room she couldn't hide her smile anymore; it was a wonderful thing when one's talents were appreciated.

The lock on the door was simple as locks go, eliminating the need to search for a key. After a few seconds of tinkering it sprang open with only a gentle click. The door open, she slid in and began the search. The room had been mostly untouched by Shar's presence, were it not for the black knee-high boots in a one corner and a pair of beautiful long red leather gloves on the table, one could have suspected that it was vacant. Even with Milinda’s talent for finding or getting things she was not supposed to, it took her the better part of five minutes until her foot got caught on a slightly loose floorboard.

"Clever, ripping out the floors in a house you don't even own. Well, let see what we have here!"

A short snicker and unwilling snort later she had her hands on several sheets of paper and a small lacquered box. The letters, written in some sort of code, were nothing she could decipher, so instead she looked over the box. It had no clear way to open it but a peculiar circle made of symbols on the top peeked her interest.

Had she known even a little of thaumaturgy she would have dropped the box immediately, but her naive curiosity pushed her towards touching the surface. The very second her skin made contact with the surface, a burning sensation shot up her arm, and a large red burn mark was starting to swell on her hand and forearm.

“Argh! It fucking hurts! Shit!”

Tears dropped from her eyes as she regarded her arm with a pained look. As quickly as she could, she grabbed a tapestry, wrapped the box inside with the papers. Clutching the package together with her burned arm she made her exit.

Shar

Sharzade had known that this mission would be difficult, but still it gnawed on her. Just a half an hour ago she had made all kinds of promises and assurances to Queen Mathir, despite both of them knowing, that the emperor would never keep them. With the day's going by her old worries came back, she had been right from the start.This was no diplomatic mission, but just a ploy by the holy matrons or maybe even her very own mother to get her cursed arse out of Ebessa.

Making sure no one was around she slowly slid down the taverns balcony door until she reached the floorboards, and an exhausted sigh escaped her lips. As far as she was concerned this assignment couldn't be over soon enough. Looking from her little hiding spot over the once again crowded streets and neat roofs a realization dawned on her, being here would change nothing, war was coming for this land. Despite using the fear of it for leverage, she had hoped the queen would relent.

All that was left to do now was to inform the empire, the generals and priests would be overjoyed at the chance to prove their mettle, the soldiers themselves, well they would mostly focus on not dying. And Allain, what would he say to these developments? With that thought she dozed off.

Shar's dreams were suddenly interrupted, when she felt a painful tugging on her mind. Realizing the feeling for what it was, a low growl made its way up her throat. With her eyes burning in anger and fury in her voice a savage yell erupted from within her.

“These honourless bastards, how dare they touch it?”

As she almost kicked in the balcony door on entry, the soldiers waiting in the tavern peeked up from their activities. Jabbing the air with her finger she quickly pointed at two of them.

“You and you, come with me!” Whilst the soldiers had orders not to follow up on any of Shar’s request regarding deployment, her facial expression and the fury in her voice made them obey none the less.

Marea

One of the people in the back of the bar, Marea Tealeaf, incidentally one the women that Shar had been flirting with for the last few days, frowned at this display. But right after the trio had left trough the door she grabbed her sword and a fairly sizeable flint-lock rifle and followed them outside, her face an unreadable mask of conflicting emotions.

The entire way to the mansion the small group was met with disrespect and hostility, the people were fed up with them and it became noticeable, yet Shar was visibly fuming with so much rage that none of the onlookers dared to try anything. The walk took longer than expected, as in her anger Sharzade had completely forgotten about the Orni and instead half walked half ran towards the mansion, her normally terrifyingly silent steps turned into something akin to the trampling of a large beast.

All the while the young Acolyte said not a word to her companions, only grumbling incoherent swearwords, she hadn’t even realised that Marea had been following them.They reached the Mansions front gates with more than a few curious onlookers in tow, the citizens and guard had long realized that Shar was someone important. It seemed that some of them now hoped for her to do something stupid. To be fair she herself had also been wondering what Shar was up too, but she was sure of one thing, it would certainly be interesting, though more interesting would be the body count.

Her attention was brought back to the here and now as Sharzade’s voice cut through the air. Shar had approached the two men guarding the gate, one hand on her sabre.

“You guards! Out of my way, I have business in the mansion and I shall not be stopped!”

The guards were unusually heavy armoured, both of them wore full plate with a closed face guard, just a day ago there had been simple city guards stationed here, and now the royal guard, something was definitely not right. The two guards did not yield as Marea had expected, instead they actually blocked of the entrance with their halberds. One of them spoke up, his voice flat, but with underlying anger.

“You no longer have entrance rights, turn around and leave!”

Shar’s nostrils flared in a fleeting attempt to keep her breathing controlled, and Marea could see her both of her hands begin to glow underneath the gloves, interesting. Before either party could act though, Marea raised her rifle towards the group. Several people screamed out and soon she was standing in her own little ring of people, they obviously had a hard time figuring her out. She wasn’t wearing the Soldiers armour and her face was cloaked, but as soon as she spoke her melodic accent made clear where she came from.

“A wouldn’ do that if a were you.” She said to no one in particular but both Shar and the guards were facing her now, Shar showing clear confusion, fuck was she cute.

For the first time in her life her finger trembled on the trigger. The indication of tight muscles playing under her clothes and the immaculate honey-coloured skin was just godly and how those lush lips frowned together with her perfect eyebrows. She was ripped out of her daydreams when the guard that had spoken before now advanced on her.

“Ah, ah, ah, this not somethin’ you should do.” She turned her rifle to face him.

“I’m not scared of your lousy boom stick, wench, don’t make me hurt you!” The man seemed irritated but was also incredibly rude; they really had no manners up here in the mountains.

“A don’ think you quite understand, this bullet will rip trough you’ helmet, bone and brain and come out the other side again. So unless you wan’ that I suggest you let the Lady trough.” The guard froze up upon hearing this, she wasn’t actually sure if a clean head shot was possible with the helmet, but she had always been good at bluffing.

“Hm!”

With a grunt he ordered the other guard to step aside, seems like he didn’t want to test the limits of Sibalien firearms this day. Marea had to admit she was a little disappointed at that, but what could she do, the orders were clear. When she walked up to the rest of the Sibalien soldiers, her rifle all the while trained on the guards, Shar’s lips stretch in to something between a smile and a snarl.

“I had the situation under control, Marea. But thanks anyway, I guess.” With one last evil look to the guard the acolyte motioned the other two soldiers to follow her.

“Let’s go.”

On their way through the mansion all the servants that actually were present, quickly rushed out of their path, fearing to be hurt by the angry woman. It seemed that Shar knew more or less exactly where to go, but at one point she raised her head in the air and seemed to sniff something, before quickly marching on.

“This way, I need check on something beforehand. All of you stay outside the room.” A minute or so went by when Marea suddenly heard Sharzade cry out.

“They took it! Not only had they the audacity to touch it, they took it from me! I’ll make those fucks pay . . .” Crashing the door open she rushed out of the room, her eyes flickering with madness she snarled at the soldiers

“Move!”

Keeping her cool Marea only raised an eyebrow; someone forgot to take their medicine it seems. The last stretch to their destination was only accompanied by the trampling of their boots and the low growling of Shar’s breath.

Shar

How could they have taken it! It was hers! They had no right to take it. And the letters were also gone, oh, screw the letters she only wanted the box. The smell came from upstairs, so upstairs she would go and the only thing in this direction was the Thaumaturge’s tower. She should have known that the girly-boy had something to do with this, but she had never expected him to be so stupid to steal a cursed object.

It was only thanks to the nature of curse on herself that she was able to touch the box without suffering the backlash. The biggest benefit of cursing an object bound to your own body was the ability to track it; on the other hand every halfway decent thaumaturge and most Magi would have been able to follow the strong bond between her and the item once in their possession, which was one of the reasons why she was getting it back now, that and the fact that she desperately needed her medicine.

Despite the guards at the gate letting them pass without a fight, Shar knew that the mansion would quickly resemble a hornets’ nest and she had no intention of being up against the entire Royal guard. Just as they were halfway up the stairs and she noticed several voices in the tower, a loud alarm bell could be heard from the courtyard. They would be here in a few minutes so she would have to act quickly; quickly and viciously.

The door separating the tower room from the Sibalien soldiers was made into a terrifying example of Shar’s strength, as it with stood two heavy impacts before the hinges and lock were ripped out of the frame. As it swung open only the last of the hinges broke off and with a dull thud the reinforced wooden door fell to the ground. Shar stood in the door slowly lowering her foot, as a low growl escaped her.

“Look what we have here, a Magi, a guard and a thief. Now who of you has what belongs to me?”

Seeing her approaching the first to react was Taran, rushing forward at her with the blade but he quickly stopped when he faced the barrel of Marea’s rifle.

“Ah, not a step closer to the Lady.” Marea quickly surveyed the room.“Lady Greengarden, how do you wish to handle this?”

Shar’s eyes seemed to immediately change from murderous intend to humorous glee. “That is a good question is it not. Well despite what I would like to do, I will give all of you one chance to give up both my possessions and the thief. Oh, and another thing, Magi.”

Turning her gaze to Belsain she continued. “I can feel the residue of the curse, so do not try to fool me.”

With a sigh the Thaumaturge collapsed into a nearby chair, clasping his forehead. “I know. Had it been me to take your stuff, I wouldn’t have touched that disgusting thing.”

Suddenly furious, Belsain spat out in front of Shar. “But still! You marked the girl that is just inhuman! Who does something like that?”

Milinda looked from one to the other, her fear plainly visible. She could not understand how Belsain and Taran could be so passive. The worst was by far the look in Sharzade’s eyes as she glanced over to Malinda in the corner; they were like a cat looking at a trapped bird, all malicious intent.

“Ha! You already falter and admit that it was the scrawny maid? There is no fight in you at all. Give her to me than.”

Belsain was more than perplexed by this nonchalant statement and immediately placed himself between her and the girl, the air growing noticeably colder.

“No! You can have what was taken but you have no right to take your revenge on a child.” He quickly opened up a small cupboard and threw the contents towards Shar.

“Leave now; you have what you came for!”

Shar’s grin in this moment could only be described as positively evil, as she bend down to picked up the lacquered box from the pile.

“No. I did not come to get the letters; I came to make an example and an example there will be.”

Before she could advance on the two, the sound of a rifle shot penetrated the room. Just as Shar was about to turn, a rough hand gripped her hair from behind while another pressed cold sharp steel against her throat. Taran had, while the attention was focused on the Acolyte, ducked underneath Marea’s sight making the shot graze his shoulder while he had dashed towards Sharzade.

His hand holding the knife did not tremble and he was filled with an iron resolve as he spoke up. “Now, Lady Greengarden, tell your soldiers and whoever that bitch with a rifle is to leave, and you little Miss might just get out of here alive. I am so done with your games, tricks and cheats!”

“Very well than, no more tricks.”

Sharzade’s face held for the first time in this conversation not a smile, but the clear promise of pain. In one fluid motion almost too quick to follow her left hand shoot upwards intercepting the knife, grabbing it by the blade, as she hurled her head backwards connecting with Taran’s nose in a sickening crunch. Still recoiling from the pain the Captain didn’t have enough time to dodge the knee that followed up into his crown jewels. The right swinger to his temple was almost more of an afterthought at this point but it still held enough force to knock him out cold.

Shar slowly pumped her fist, trying to get over the numb pulsing pain, which came with almost breaking a skull. “Good, you have just lost any right to argue. Give me the girl.”

This time Shar did not let herself be stopped and walked right past Belsain, giving him a glare that would have silenced a rabid wardog. Seeing this Milinda immediately fell onto her ass and crawled away from the terrifying woman.

“Lady Belsain, please, you can’t do this to me! Don’t give me up please!”

The Magi only ground his teeth and a sad sigh escaped his lips. “I’m sorry. It is better this way.”

“How smart of you to give up a pawn to win the game, Magi. I will make sure she is not broken too badly. Oh, and do visit the square in the morrow.”

Having reached the wall behind her Milinda could only raise her hands in a feeble attempt to shield her from the impending doom.

“No! Stay away! Don’t come any closer! No! No! Begone!”

Her cries ended in a gurgle as Shar’s hand clasped around her throat, hard enough to compress her jugular but not eough to suffocated her

“I will not, for I will have much fun with you.”

As they turned to leave, Shar dragging the maid by her throat, several people came rushing up the stairs, one of them Queen Sophia, who looked more than shocked.

“What do you think you are doing!?”

But the Sibalien noble did not stop; instead she drew her sabre a few centimetres from its scabbard, energy crackled along the blade in a clear show of power.

“The situation has been cleared with your Thaumaturge. For the sake of your country, do not interfere. The two soldiers will retrieve all my belongings. This will be my last visit to the mansion. You know where to find me should your decision change.” With this the Sibaliens turned to leave.

Apparently the Queen had received some sort of signal from the Magi, as she made way with a terrified look on her face. After they had left the mansion behind and were on their way to the Inn, Marea looked at the girl Sharzade was dragging behind.

“What do you inten' to do with the shrimp?”

“A proper punishment, for a stray cat.”

From behind her back the Lady of Greengarden retrieved a white leather whip, used to train animals.