A Raven's Feather, Part Four

When they reached Verde Terasa, they found a slightly different scene from the sleepy towns and villages they had encountered thus far. It was a larger town, for one, and the Gundarakite presence was immediately noticeable. Not so much because they looked all that different from the native Barovians – there was practically no difference, there – but instead because there were patches of people walking around who took great care not to approach each other, and shot more than a couple of dirty looks back and forth. The air of mistrust and mutual animosity was so thick it was almost palpable. This was definitely a town that needed some serious help.

Nicolai peeled off ahead as they rode down the town's main street, and soon Rosa did the same, saying she was off to meet their client. Rodric and Kai headed for their inn, where they were expected; once again, Kai found himself impressed by the thorough manner of Rosa's work. A competent leader really made a job go much more smoothly. He would do his part, too; there wouldn't be any milling about town looking for odd jobs, at least not until their work was finished. Incidents like what had happened in the last town were bad enough when they just occurred on the same trip as a job – something like that happening while they were already busy could become a complete disaster very quickly. So he decided to lay low in the common room of the inn with Rodric until the others returned.

Rosa was the first to come back, in the late afternoon. Her meeting hadn't taken very long; Boyar Marinescu had been very to-the-point about discovering what was causing the disappearances. He had mentioned that tensions between the two ethnic groups were approaching a boiling point, but that had been obvious enough. The meeting had really been about negotiating the terms of pay, and getting whatever further information he could provide. As for the rest, it was up to Nicolai to unearth.

When the Barovian man returned just before sunset, it seemed that he had done just that. The disappearances were concentrated mostly in the northeastern section of the city, in the largest Gundarakite neighborhood, and tended to occur right around dusk and dawn. Also – and this wasn't being circulated very much – several of the young men who had gone missing had turned up horribly mutilated to the point where they were barely recognizable anymore, their bodies discarded like so much offal. A key fact that they hadn't originally known was that the only serious change in that district over the past few months was the rise of a minor gang leader with a reputation for particularly brutal thuggery. The possible motives were unclear, but there was little doubt that there was some connection, so they planned an investigation for the following evening.

They spent most of that night prior to retiring making plans for the next day in a private meeting room in their inn. They now had a good idea of the layout of that neighborhood thanks to Nicolai's scouting, but beyond that they didn't have too much more planning to do. When the shorter man got up to leave the table and head to bed, Kai called out to him in a jovial tone.

“Hey, Nic, why not stick around and have a drink?”

“You do realize that your very presence brings me great disgust and displeasure, don't you?” the man replied in his usual acidic tone.

Kai shrugged, and gave a half-smirk. “I'm Falkovnian, remember? Taking pleasure in the suffering of others is practically our national pastime.”

Grumbling under his breath, Nicolai continued on out of the room, and both Rosa and Rodric shared in a short laugh. She turned to look at Kai, leaning one elbow on the table comfortably. “Why do you even bother? Nicolai's as sour as they come. Skilled beyond a doubt, but not exactly the sort of person who gets buddy-buddy with anyone.”

“I dunno,” Kai responded with another shrug. “Force of habit?”





The next morning was more of the same, with Kai waiting around on the grounds of the inn while Nicolai went out to poke around for clues. The hours immediately before a crucial junction in a mission was where he had gotten a bit of a reputation in the past for being a little difficult to handle; the combination of boredom and tension started wearing on his mood as usual, and he breathed a sigh of relief when the innkeep allowed him to practice his sword forms in the stableyard. It was nothing like the experience he had had chopping firewood – which he had rather enjoyed – but Rosa came out to spar with him for a bit when she returned, so he couldn't complain in the slightest. If the hour or so that they crossed swords was any indication, she really was as good as she claimed to be, and it was always reassuring to know that one's partner was highly skilled.

Finally, the time came for them to set out, right before dinner was to be served. They had their own light fare, just enough to be refreshing without slowing them down, and then they were off to the northeastern slums. The area was just as Nicolai had described it, run-down and obviously neglected by the authorities of the town in several ways, and it was hard to say if the atmosphere involving the Gundarakites was better or worse. On the one hand, there were no tightly-packed groups looking askance at their peers, obviously keeping to themselves for fear of having the slightest contact. But on the other, there was practically no one just walking the streets, and the few they did pass scurried along as if terrified to be caught out in the open.

“Cheery place,” Kai remarked under his breath.

Nicolai scoffed at his remark. “Yeah, it's a real bloody carnival. This place is rough, to say the least, so keep your wits about you, and don't draw any more attention than we already will. That goes double for you, Falkovnian.”

“I thought we'd agreed that you would call me 'Lord Kai' from now on?”

“Knock it off, you too,” Rosa cut in, keeping a wary eye on their surroundings. “It's time to earn our pay.”

The first hour or so of searching didn't turn up anything. Occasionally, they would pass a troupe of brutish-looking men, a bit on the hairy side and wearing scowls almost to a tee, but besides clearly sizing them up, the men never made any move, and so Kai's team would just move on. Probably patrols of some sort to keep the peace, he thought, since it's pretty clear that the town militia doesn't give two damns about what happens here anymore.

That changed as they were rounding a corner in the northern edge of the district. There was a high-pitched shriek of a female voice, and the four went running to investigate. What they found was a young Gundarakite woman who had collapsed onto her knees, shaking visibly and pointing down an alleyway, where a human hand could be seen just out of the shadows, lying there as if just cast away. Kai checked to make sure she was okay, while Nicolai went up to give the scene a look.

“Just as we feared, Boss,” he called out a moment later. “We've got another, ah...'processed' one.”

As Kai helped the young woman to her feet, and sent her on her way, Rosa stepped forward to talk towards Nicolai. “Can you track where he came from?”

“They may as well have painted a great big bloody trail across fallen snow for me,” he replied with a snort. “We're not exactly dealing with someone who's trying to cover their tracks, from the looks of it. Probably won't find something pretty at the end of it, though.”

“Lead the way.”

Nicolai started following tracks on the ground, and the others fell in behind him, to the quiet stirring and rustling of weapons as they made sure they were prepared. Following a trail like this one would be difficult to manage without looking suspicious, so Kai figured it was only a matter of time before they drew attention, especially since they were one of the few groups actually out on the streets.

“Boss.” Nicolai's voice suddenly spoke up quietly, even though he didn't turn his head from the path in front of him.

“I know,” Rosa replied. “Ready yourselves.”

Rodric just nodded, and Kai was a bit confused. “Ready ourselves? For wh-”

His question was cut off suddenly as a throwing axe went whirling by his field of view, heading straight for Nicolai's back. The man moved with a quickness deceptive of his stocky build, and spun to one side, drawing his short blade and scanning the area where the axe had come from. Kai moved up to cover Rodric's back as planned, and turned to see a group of men not unlike the ones they had encountered earlier in the district. Only, now they were not so far in the periphery, and close to the Barovian parts of the town; no, they were deep in the heart of the Gundarakite slums, and there had been no sign of anyone else for several long minutes.

Rosa's weapon was out in an instant, and she stepped forward, not brandishing her sword so much as simply holding it at the ready. “Who are you, and what do you want?”

“You outsiders are unwelcome.” Now that he had a moment to look, Kai saw that there were seven of the men, all similarly garbed in dark brown cloaks and armed with axes. The one who spoke was a little taller than the others, and had a strange cast to his face, as if he had thicker muscle there than a normal person. “This area is off-limits to you.”

“And that's how you send a warning?” Kai remarked, one hand on the hilt of his sword over his back.

“It wasn't a warning,” the man replied as his toughs started spreading out. “It was the start of an execution.”

Rodric fell back a few more feet, towards the building that the group had been walking next to, and Nicolai moved along with him, as Kai stepped forward to join Rosa. “Looks like they're not gonna let us leave,” he said while starting to ease his sword out of its scabbard.

“Then we'll just have to deal with them.” The men started to advance, but Rosa held her ground. “Left, or right?”

“Are you kidding?” Kai broke into a dash, and finished drawing his blade entirely. “Straight up the middle!”

The apparent leader of the group had stepped into the back, letting his six fellows move forward in an arc in an attempt to surround them. Kai was uninterested in maneuvers; he slammed right into the center of the arc, his heavy swing lifting the thug he hit right off of his feet as his weapon caught his side, and almost certainly breaking a rib or two in the process. Three of the remaining toughs closed in around him, while the other two headed for Rosa. He was too busy to pay attention in that direction, but he heard a couple of swift strikes, and then the gargling groan of not just one, but two men going down.

Kai similarly made short work of the three around him, very nearly cutting through all three in one attack, and tried to turn to check on his allies, but was met with a very disturbing sight once the last of his current foes had fallen. The leader of the group was no longer where he had seen him last; instead, he had swung around to catch him on his flank. At least, Kai thought it was still the same man; he still wielded the long axe he had seen the fellow brandish originally, but now his face was twisted, his teeth having grown out to extraordinary length, his nose extended and flattened, and his ears much longer than before. His entire torso had widened a bit, and his arms pushed back against Kai's weapon with a strength few humans could have mustered. What in the world was he?! Some sort of bat monster?

The man snarled, pushed forward in their test of might, and forced Kai to step back an inch or two. “Interloper! You think I'll die so easily?”

“No, but I was really hoping you might.” Finally pushing the man...man-bat...or whatever off, Kai swung at him a couple of times, but managed to connect only with that axe. “Have you gotten a glance at yourself? You may want to go to a doctor to get that looked at, seriously.”

“Quiet!” His foe swung his axe once he found an opening, and Kai ducked and dodged back, not entirely sure that he could parry a strike from that weapon at the moment. “You'll pay for felling my men!”

“I left my coinpurse back in my other pants. Care to barter? I've got some lovely beads that would really bring out your eyes.”

“I thought I told you to-hrnk!”

Just as he was aiming another powerful axe swing, Kai lunged forward and plunged his sword into the man's barrel chest before he could change his momentum. Carrying his own weight forward, he rammed more of the blade in, and forced the man to fall over backwards, knocking his axe out of his hand in the process. At first, the guy actually reached up an arm as if to pry the weapon from his body, but Kai gave it a slight twist, making a sickening crack in the process, and his enemy let out a bestial roar before collapsing back, his eyes starting to glaze over.

When Kai was fairly sure the man was dead, he pulled his sword out of his body, and turned to look at the others. It seemed as if that initial sound had indeed been Rosa disabling the two men, because she already had them tied up and on the ground, a boot settled on the chest of one as she looked to be interrogating him. Rodric was off to the side, looking completely unruffled, while Nicolai was nowhere to be seen.

“Whatcha' got there?” Kai asked as he finished wiping his blade clean and came over.

“Probably nothing,” she replied as she ground her boot into the man's chest more, drawing out a cry of anguish. “They claim not to know anything. Not that we really need them anyway, I'm confident we can find out what's going on here without them.” She turned to look at the other man on the ground, who was very carefully not looking her way. “You hear that, rodent? You're dispensable.”

Giving the two men a look, to see if they showed any of the same strange traits as the man he had just fought, Kai didn't see anything of the sort. They looked human enough, alright. What he did see was that they had barely a scratch on them, either one. It looked as if Rosa had inflicted very surgical wounds on them with her blade; each had a bloody spot up at his shoulders, and now the one she had been stepping on sported a few bruises around his face, but beyond that they were clean. Well, relatively speaking, anyway. “Nice work there, Commander. Too bad these idiots don't know how to speak up to save their own lives, even after you went to the trouble of sparing them both.”

“Well, you can't have it all, I suppose.” Rosa's act continued – at least, Kai thought it was an act – and she gave a flippant shrug. “They're just uninformed brutes, anyway. Not as if they have any sort of respectable standing in the food chain around here.”

The bruised man started to laugh quietly, and Rosa and Kai both looked down at him, though Rosa's glance was considerably more derisive. “Oh? You have something to say, now?”

“He's gonna eat you...just like he ate all of the others.” The chuckle became an almost mad laugh, and the man took a moment to cough before continuing. “The boss doesn't normally indulge in women – says you're all too soft and fattening – but I bet he'll make a special exception for you, Legs. Ack!”

“A cannibal, is it?” Rosa took her boot back to his chest, leaning a bit of her weight onto the toe. “A lot of trouble to go to for a snack here and there. Continue.”

“That's all...you're getting,” the man said, trying and failing to spit at her. “Go ahead and kill me. Better than getting eaten alive, heh heh...you'll see.”

“Take care of this rabble for me, will you?” Rosa said with a glance to Kai.

He just nodded, and leaned down. “Certainly, m'lady.” One swift punch to the stomach apiece, and the two toughs were out cold. Standing back up, Kai brushed off his hands, and looked back to her again. “You're one scary lady when you're angry.”

“So I've been told. Nice job back there, you handled yourself quite well.”

“That was nothing. Working alone is all well and good, but I prefer teamwork, myself. Especially of the one-on-one variety. We could do some trust-building exercises later, you know.”

“Rosa, I think we may have trouble.” Rodric was so quiet that he had gone completely unnoticed by Kai again, and now he stood over the corpse of the man-bat. “He's got tainted blood, this one.”

Letting out an exasperated sigh, Rosa shook her head as she walked over to join Rodric, and Kai followed. “Great. I'd say this explains at least some of what's been going on.”

“Tainted blood?” Kai looked back and forth between them. “You've lost me there. Is that some sort of disease?”

“You could say that,” Rosa continued. “It means he's a lycanthrope, or at least something similar. Though if he is, he couldn't change entirely.”

“Damn.” Kai looked down at the man again, tilting his head from side to side a bit as he examined him. “I've never seen one in person before.”

“I would say you should hope not to run across another one ever again, but if this guy is just a minion, I'd say it means we're looking at the real deal somewhere very soon.” Rosa watched on as Rodric knelt over to do some more cursory examination. “This is still in our pay grade, but we're going to have to be even more alert from now on.”

“No sign of further attackers in the area,” came Nicolai's voice from the shadows, as the burly man walked over towards them. “Oh, great. We're up against one of those,” he said as he looked down at the body in front of them. “I assume we're still going through with this job, Boss?”

“Of course.”

Nicolai shook his head a bit, and grumbled. “Well, just make sure none of you get bitten. That's all I've gotta say.”