The man with no name turned in a circle, holding his glowing warrant card out in

front of him. He stopped when it brightened and then faded. He brought it back until

he had a thin sliver of candidates to consider.

He loosened his guns as he stalked forward. One of his targets was in front of him.

He didn’t know what the target looked like, but he didn’t have to as long as he held

the warrant card. Once he touched the right person, the card would take the wanted

person where they had to go.

Then he could go back to Carriff’s, or look for another target in the city.

The hard part would come if the target realized whom the dead man was trying to

find, and if resistance should be put up.

And resistance would be put up. That part always happened. No one wanted to see the

issuer of the cards. They always wanted to kill his representative.

The man with no name was used to it by now.

The card homed in on a woman in a green cloak. She leaned on her staff of wood that

looked like a twisted rod with a claw at the top. She kept her face hidden with the

hood of her cloak.

“Ellesby Vanhert,” said the man with no name. “I have something for you.”

“A dead man,” said Vanhert. She showed him the blank mask she used to cover her

face. Different pictures danced across it.

He realized the pictures were line drawings of different animal faces. He paused to

wonder about it, but he had a job to do. He should get on with it instead of trying to

figure out what kind of magic did that.

“I have a warrant to give you, Madam Vanhert,” said the man with no name. “Once

that’s done, so is our business.”

“What if I don’t want it?,” said the madam. She pushed back her cloak to reveal the

green dress she wore. It was almost the same shade as the cloak. “I think you should

tell your master you couldn’t serve your paper.”

“Don’t make this harder than it has to be,” said the dead man. “Take the card and let’s

be done with this. I don’t want a fight, and I don’t want any trouble for just doing my

job.”

“You have come to the wrong place for that, my friend,” said the woman. “I’m

nothing but trouble.”

The man with no name tucked the card back in his belt. He flexed his hands as he

waited. Whomever hit first won the day.

“You’re not backing off?,” said Vanhert.

“I just need to give you the card,” said the man with no name. “Then I have to find

the next name on my list. There’s no reason for a fight.”

“I think you’re about to regret taking on this work for the devils,” said Vanhert.

“Goodbye, dead man.”

The man with no name pulled both of his pistols as she dropped the claw end of her

staff to point at him. Fire and green glass met for a second as they activated their

weapons.

Vanhert’s mask took on a dragon face as she surged forward behind the protection of

her green shield. Flames erupted from the dragon’s mouth. The gout sent people

screaming away from the battle as the man with no name threw himself to one side.

Why can’t one of them go along peacefully?

It’s always blood and guts with a side of screaming and a pinch of some kind of

explosive pain.

The man with no name leaped for cover from the jet of fire. He slid behind the stone

tower. He needed to do something tricky if he wanted to get out of this without

getting burned to a crisp.

He moved around the stone tree. He couldn’t see Vanhert. He doubted she had

remained in place when it would be better that she escaped, or went around the tree

to attack him from behind.

Which way should he go?

He decided to circle around the tower. He had nothing to lose doing that, and

everything depended on his enemy either following him, or running away.

He paused when he reached the edge of his cover. He didn’t want to charge into a

fiery pit.

“Come out, dead man,” called Vanhert. “Let’s get this over with. I have other things

I want to do with my time.”

The man with no name paused to consider the situation. He decided that running out

in the open would be a bad move. Her shield would stop his guns, and she could

attack while he had no defense against her. He needed something to change the odds.

He looked up. The tower looked like a tree without branches at the lower part. It had

cracks in the stony bark. He holstered his weapons and tested his grip against the

bark. He smiled as he pulled himself up a bit.

This might be what he was looking for to change the odds.

He looked around. The bystanders had cleared the area around them. He had space

to move without worrying about someone getting in his way.

He gripped a ridge formed by two cracks running up the stone tree and pulled. He

worked his way up until he could yank himself into the branches at the midline of the

tower. He thought maybe he was twenty feet above the ground. The trunk kept going

to what looked like some kind of perch at the top. The upper branches spiraled out

from around this.

He worked his way around the tree as silently as he could. He saw that Vanhert had

taken up an angle where she could see both sides of the tree. If he ducked out either

way, she was ready to pour more fire on him.

She didn’t seem to be looking up in the tree at all.

He worked his way out to the end of the branch he was on. Then he jumped with his

arms extended.

Vanhert looked up at the rustling of cloth through the air. She had to make a decision.

Should she raise the shield to blunt the attack, or let loose with flame from her mask?

She froze for a second. In that second, her enemy had crossed most of the space

between them with his fall from above her.

She decided to raise her shield. Once it was between her and her attacker, she could

attack at close range with her mask. There was no way he could dodge a point blank

attack.

His masters in the Underworld would be displeased.

The man with no name fell on her before she could raise her staff. The both of them

rolled to the ground. They separated into two heaps of clothing.

The man with no name rolled over. He looked at the target. She looked at him. He

saw the glint of fire as the dragon’s mouth moved into position. He pulled one of his

pistols and shot at her first.

The flaming bullet struck the mask. The wood and cloth thing blew up. Fire

surrounded Vanhert’s head. She screamed and beat on the flames with her hands.

The dead man stood and pulled the trigger again. The bullet added to the flame, but

there was no head underneath. The cloak continued to burn, the dress catching as the

flames spread.

He holstered his weapon. His hat lay on the ground to one side. He pulled it to him

and then got to his feet. He dusted off his clothes as he walked to where the staff had

been knocked to the ground. He picked it up. He didn’t have a gift for magic, but

maybe someone else could use it for better purposes than his target.

Stupid strolled forward. He grazed on the grass as he went. He made a noise as the

man with no name shoved the staff through a binding on his saddle bags.

“I plan to give it to someone who needs it after we take the rest of our warrants here

in the city,” said the dead man.

Stupid nodded his head and went back to chopping the grass down. He might as well

enjoy the break while he could. Who knew what lay down the road?

The man with no name inspected the five other cards for the fugitives he still wanted

to hunt down. Carriff might be the toughest with all those people surrounding

his house, but there was an Alvas on his list with no set abode. He shook his head

at that.

He might be in Berne for years at this rate.

He decided to let the rest go until he tracked down the Alvas. They all had abodes,

or at least favorite haunts. He put all the cards back except that one. If he could spiral

through the city, he might be able to cut a trail.

Then he would just need to catch up.

He had a feeling that the Alvas was preying on unsuspecting citizens and moving

on. He wasn’t staying in one place long enough for anything to be called his home.

The dead man admitted that trailing someone with no ties was going to be a bit harder

than the rest of the fugitives that he had tracked down. The address on the card was

usually good enough. When it wasn’t, he had been able to find somebody who knew

something.

He mounted Stupid and looked around. He needed a direction to go. He decided that

he should go north. Once he reached the edge of the city, he could work the limits in

a spiral until the card lit up. Then he would just need to catch up to his quarry.

He didn’t wonder why he got an Alvas with the rest of the human warrants he had

been asked to serve. That wasn’t part of the job. If the Alvas was like most of the

rest he had hunted down, he needed a shooting too.

He sat back in his saddle and let Stupid have his way after pointing him in the general

direction. He doubted he would just run into the Alvas on the street. If he did, he

would take his shot and go back to hunting the rest of the fugitives on his list.

He wondered how much longer he had to deal with the warrants. He knew he had a

physical limit. He had taken enough hits that he had gone to an alchemist to get

potions to get him back in shape. What happened if he wore out before he got to the

end of his list?

He hoped he took enough of them down that if he had a replacement the other dead

man didn’t have to work so hard. That would be a nice gesture on his part even if he

thought so himself.

I took all these villains. The rest is yours.

He had a feeling that if he didn’t get to the end of the list he would find out what

the underworld had in store for him. He doubted it would be pretty.

The city allowed him to pass without serious challenge. A man riding a horse was

not unusual. The card didn’t glimmer as he cut through the central part of the city.

When they reached the tip of the city, he asked Stupid to stop. The horse was content

to wait as he looked around. He waved the card around. He decided to go right when

nothing happened.

He tugged on the reins to get the horse to turn the way he wanted. He looked down

at the card in his hand. It didn’t give an indication he was on the right path. He

pushed his hat back and hoped he was doing the right thing.

If he couldn’t find his enemy before nightfall, he would find a place to shelter. He

could start searching again in the daylight.

It didn’t matter if he paused for a few hours. If the Alvas was moving, he would

probably pass one of the inns at one point just by luck.

The man with no name almost smiled. There was no way he would be that lucky.

He would probably run into the Alvas on the street. There would be a battle. The civil

authority would be summoned. Then he would have do something about that. He

wasn’t sure if they would let him go about his business.

Wearing the demon star might get him a pass if he needed it.

He rode down the edge of the city from the north. He paused when the card lit up.

He looked around for the source of the flash. He didn’t see anyone but the homeless.

They scuttled from him as he looked for the target.

He held the card up. The line seemed to get stronger in one of the alleys. He

dismounted. He didn’t want Stupid to get caught in a crossfire.

“Stay here until I get back,” said the dead man. “Something’s not right about this.”

He tucked the card away as he walked toward the alley. He wasn’t concerned about

Stupid. The horse could take care of himself. He was more worried about not seeing

anybody in the alley after seeing the flash on the card.

Where was the Alvas?

He pulled a box of matches from his wallet and struck one of the matches. The back

of the alley looked blank. It didn’t open into the street behind the buildings it ran

between. Trash covered the floor. He spotted one lone shoe. He looked around as the

match started to go out.

He didn’t see the other one.

He heard a bell. The floor of the alley gave way and he fell on a tower’s roof. He

picked himself up and put the matches away. He frowned at the concentration of clear

sky around him.

He didn’t see a way inside the structure from the roof. How did he get down to the

ground? He went to the edge of the roof. He couldn’t see a ground from where he

was.

He took a moment to think before he did something stupid.

The man with no name wondered what would happen if he used one of his pistols on

the tower. Maybe he could blast his way in.