Chapter 38: Rel Look

Rel hauled herself from the tunnel with a gasp. Her fingers grasped weakly at the muddy floor of the building, stumbling away from the flooded hole beneath the wall. Her sodden clothes dripped icy cold water on the ground.

She shivered, walking back over to the tunnel just in time for a massive hand to stick out of water, waving frantically.

“Shit!” Rel grabbed Dum’s hand, pulling hard. He almost pulled her back into the water. Then she firmed her stance and grunted, lifting with burning thighs.

Dum broke the surface, sending a wave of muddy water over the edge and soaking in to Rel’s already soaked boots. Rel slumped as the both of them took a second to catch their breath.

“Thanks, Rels.” Dum blinked the muck from his eyes. “Thought I was a goner.”

“Still stuck?” she asked.

“A bit.” He grunted, shifting his shoulders. “Think I should be able to…” He let out a huff of air, thick muscles in his neck standing out in stark relief. With a quiet squelch, the dirt floor over his back cracked. Rel grabbed the man’s hand again, and a moment later, they were both on dry ground once again.

“Thank the rains for that last point of strength.”

Rel gave jittery laugh. “Rains ‘re why you almost drowned.”

He shrugged. “The Sky gives and takes.”

“The Sea takes and gives,” Rel finished.

“Right.” With another grunt, he pushed himself to his feet. “We’re in, not so sure about getting back out though.”

The two of them looked back at the tunnel, which was now half-collapsed in Dum’s wake. The man’s massive shoulders had managed to break through the muddy ground, but at the cost of their escape plan.

“I’m sure Lady Via can dig another?” Rel shrugged.

“So, we gonna track her down, then?” Dum gave a significant glance to the tightly-wrapped pouch guarding their communication mirrors.

Rel’s hand went to the strap. The oil cloth had already shed most of the water, but she made no move to unwrap it. “We should…survey the city first. Mistress might be hidden or otherwise preoccupied, I wouldn’t want to…”

The hulking man snorted. “Let her know we’re here?”

Rel swallowed. “Not yet.”

P-probably wouldn’t want us to be anyway, Dream sequence grumbled.

Rel winced. Her skill had been less than helpful since her decision to leave Lady’s Port. She was done being a passive actor in her own life, regardless of what her skill thought.

Regardless of what Lady Via thought.

“Any idea where to start?” Relia asked.

“Might try to find ‘Loncio.” Dum shrugged. “He usually got an eye on the tides round here.”

Rel raised an eyebrow as she vainly tried to wring the water from her hair. “Isn’t he guarding the monster camp? Why didn’t we check there?”

The big man rubbed the back of his neck. “Barely got a word to him last time. Don’t think it’ll be easier, coming from the south instead.”

Rel nodded. “So we check the barracks instead.”

Dum opened the door to the shack. “After you.”

Rel sighed, looking out at the misting rain that hadn’t broken since they’d left for Silverwall. “At least we didn’t waste time getting dry.”

Dum chuckled. “Sounds like sommat Boss would say.”

Rel’s stomach twisted in a knot, and she stepped out onto the street.

The first stop was to purchase a new pair of rain cloaks. No matter the material, half swimming through a muddy tunnel would soak even the most water-resistant fabric. Rel and Dum shared a glance as the spinster they visited nervously counted out coins before all but throwing the fabric at them.

There were fewer faces than Rel remembered in the north quarter, but those who remained gave the duo a wide berth. It set the hairs on the back of neck standing up despite the rain.

“We should hurry.” Rel tugged the hood of her cloak down lower over her face. Anyone looking at her could see her class if they wanted, but the people on the street looked so skittish she doubted any would risk it. “We’re standing out too much.”

They picked up the pace, winding closer to the nearest barracks. Despite moving closer to the center of Silverwall, the people on the streets grew no more friendly nor more numerous. If anything, figures would catch sight of Dum’s hulking physique through the rain, and then turn and vanish down another street before Rel could even make out their faces.

“More skittish than last time,” the man murmured.

Rel paused when they came in sight of the barracks. “That would be before Mistress stared a gang war?”

He grunted in response.

Perhaps most telling of all, there were no guards at the barracks. The training yard stood empty, and none emerged to challenge them as Rel and Dum approached the building itself. Relia was about to ask her companion to force the door, before pausing.

She tried the latch and found it open.

The two of them shared another glance.

“I doubt we’ll find your friend here,” Relia said.

“Wanna see what got left behind?”

Rel nodded stepping quietly into the building.

Within was a desolate as without, but her eyes caught tracks on the dusty floor. She pointed, and Dum nodded, falling in step behind her as Rel picked her way deeper into the building.

The bunk rooms themselves lay empty, and none of the prints went towards them or the armory. Instead, every footprint led towards the sergeant’s quarters at the back of the building. The two of them paused at the soft candlelight that spilled through the half-open door.

Rel held up three fingers.

Dum slipped a club into his hands.

Two fingers.

She placed her other hand on the wood.

One finger.

“Arlo? You fucking back yet you—”

Rel froze as a woman yanked the door open, a half-empty bottle of wine clutched in her off hand.

The woman took a half step back, armored boots clanking against the floor. “Who the fuck are you lot?”

Behind Relia, Dum gave out a booming laugh. “Little Mary, that you?”

The woman’s face twisted into a frown. “The hells are you?”

“Aww don’t be like that.” Dum pulled back his arm.

The woman threw up her arms just in time for Dum’s fist to plow into them. With the sound of breaking glass, the guard flew across across the room. She landed with a stagger, the remains of her skill flickering into nothing around her gauntlets.

Rel lunged in the same moment the woman went for her sword. “Cut!” A blade of will leapt from her lips, forcing the woman to block. Rel’s knives flashed out a beat behind.

With a growl, Mary threw her hand out. A glowing chain flew from splayed fingers. Rel threw out a blade. It knocked the chain away. Rel stepped into the other woman’s guard, binding their blades just in time for her knife to curve back around and take the guard in the back.

“Guugh—!” A gasp tore from the woman’s lips.

Rel felt her skill grow in the back of her mind. She pushed the feeling aside even as she pushed Mary back a step. The strength fled the other woman’s limbs.

A second later, Dum was there. He tore Mary’s blade from her grip, yanking her hand’s behind her back with his massive hands.

The woman sagged, breath coming in pained rasps as blood painted the back of her tunic a deep crimsom.

Dum tilted his head. “Get a lung?”

Rel shook her head. “Her cuirass protects her chest.” The dagger protruded lower from the woman’s back. “If we don’t get her to a healer, she might still die.” Gut wounds were nasty things, and the back wasn’t much better. When she was a girl, she remembered seeing men slowly sicken and die from such blows.

Dum took that bit differently. “Hear that, Maria?” He wrapped a hand around the sagging woman’s neck. “If you don’t tell us what we want to know, you might die. Now wouldn’t that be a cryin’ shame?”

Maria raised her head up, glaring at both of them.

Rel stepped forward. “Do you know where Lady Via is?” If she didn’t, then they’d come here for nothing.

The woman’s eyes flickered, before her expression firmed, but that was enough for Rel.

“You do know.” Rel palmed another dagger. Still, the threat of a bare blade did nothing to move Maria. Rel let out a deep breath. How would Lady Via handle a situation like this?

S-she’d find out what she could. Dream Sequence stirred in the back of Rel’s mind. Already found—found something, didn’t we?”

Rel nodded. “She’s not here,” she said aloud. “Otherwise, there would be more of your men. You haven’t captured her yet, or you wouldn’t be here either.” It made sense to her, and Maria’s deepening glower all but confirmed it. Rel took another step forward, putting her face to face with the wounded woman. “Tell me where she is, and what you’re planning.”

“Go drown in the river.” Maria spat. It landed on Rel’s cheek.

Rel slapped her, cracking the woman’s head to the side, before wiping the glob of saliva from her skin. “Should we torture her?”

Dum grunted. “Usually doesn’t work on guardsmen. Lots a’ warrior types get pain resistance.”

Rel nodded. “Back to looking for Eloncio, then.”

Dum’s eyes glinted. “And little Mary, here?”

Rel flicked her dagger over her fingers. “Mistress has never shied away from getting her hands dirty.”

“One less sword driving them monsters forward, I say.”

“Bloody seas.” Maria spat again, bloody spit splattering across the floor. “Where does she find you little maniacs?” She lifted her head to glare at the two of them. “And Eloncio too? Piece of pigshit probably spying on me for the Tarnished as well.”

Dum chuckled. “He always liked to play both sides. Why d’you think he joined the city guard?”

“For better reasons, I’d hoped.” Maria jerked once in Dum’s grip, to no avail. “Guess I was wrong.”

Rel raised her knife to the woman’s throat. “Loyalty is earned. I lived my entire life in Silverwall, and this city did less to earn mine than Lady Via did in a week.” The edge of the blade cut into the skin and a single blood-red bead ran down the glimmering metal. “I wonder what this city did to earn your life?”

She shifted her grip slightly.

It was entirely different, to kill like this, close enough to embrace. Rel did not know if she was ready for it, but that had never stopped her before.

“It didn’t.”

Rel paused at the woman’s words.

“Silverwall didn’t buy my life,” Maria continued. “It shit on me and spat on me, but I clawed my way out of the gutter all the same, only to get shit and spat on all the more.”

“What a sad thought to end your life with.”

Maria nodded, heedless of the blade at her neck. “It really is, isn’t it?”

“It makes me sad,” Rel said. “You never had someone reach down and lift you up, like I did. But that alone isn’t enough to stop me.”

Maria looked up into Relia’s eyes. “If I show you where she is, will you let me live?”

“If you take me to my Lady, I will do more for you than that.”

“Fuck.” Maria let out a hollow laugh. “Fine, let me see the woman who inspired that kind of loyalty.”

Rel turned to look at Dum. “Can you stabilize her, if I pull the knife out?”

“Got some potions and a poultice,” he replied. “Should do.”

Rel sheathed her blade. “As long as it keeps her alive long enough for all of us to find what we’re looking for.”