Stalking Darkness - Chapter Twenty-Five and Twenty-Six

[kalinara]

So last time, we saw what Beka was up to. Now, presumably, we'll be returning to our heroes. A lot's happened in a pretty short amount of time. But at one point, recently, their agent was murdered! Will we ever revisit that?



We start this chapter with the child, Skut. Skut, as you recall, was the child that Tym had sub-contracted to keep an eye on Rythel's building for him. At this time, he's pretty down on his luck. Well, even more than usual, as he's fleeing through the market place with stolen bread.

Fortunately, there isn't a lot of enthusiasm for catching a starving child, so the bread-seller ends up giving up and going back to protect the rest of his wares. As for Skut...

Hunger knotted Skut’s empty belly. Tym’s death had thrown him off his game for three days now, and he’d had almost nothing to eat. Grabbing the loaf had been a desperate move, but he couldn’t stand the gnawing ache in his gut any longer.

Aww. We follow the kid to his home, a ruined warehouse in the lower city:

One wall had burned and fallen in and the whole place reeked of old smoke, but an attic loft was still sound. Picking his way over the rubble, he climbed the makeshift ladder leading up to it.

Skut, apparently, doesn't live here alone, but with another boy named Kaber, who had provided some protection but also tends to punch Skut if he comes home without enough to eat. Skut hasn't seen Kaber in a week though. That seems ominous.

Skut's got bigger things to worry about though:

He went to the rusty brazier at the center of the loft and felt for the fire makings. His hand had just closed around the tinder bowl when suddenly he sensed movement behind him.

Skut was a quick lad, but not quick enough this time. Before he could stand up someone had thrown a heavy cloak over his head and pinioned his arms.

Skut thinks it's "snuffers" and freaks out. He fights a little, getting a good hit on his captor, but he's a small starving child, so it doesn't really work out. His captor does insist that "we" are not here to harm him. They want to know about Tym.

Skut tries to play dumb, but it doesn't last. He wants them to put him down though, they do, with a sack that contains sausage, cheese and six boiled eggs. That's enough to put Skut in a talkative mood (though he does hope it's not poisoned.)

“What happened to Tym?” asked the first one. “Fell off a roof, that’s all,” Skut replied around a mouthful. “Tym fell?”

Skut shrugged, peeling one of the eggs with dirty fingers. “Saw him go over. He didn’t yell or nothin’, just toppled down.”

“No one’s found his body. Are you certain he was dead?”

“Course!” Skut snorted. “Think I wouldn’t make sure? The bastard hadn’t paid me yet. His head was all stove in and broken. He didn’t have so much as a groat on him, neither, not even his knife.”

It doesn't take long to get what little Skut knows: he was there observing a building, he'd done it for most of a week, and he'd seen "Pry the Beetle" one of those days.

So we have two men here, these can be the good guys or bad guys. But given that they leave Skut alive, and with a cloth purse of pennies - enough to keep him going for a month or more, I'm leaning toward the good guys. And indeed, after they leave, we see that they're Alec and Seregil.

...okay, I"m kind of calling shenanigans here. Tym didn't tell anyone about sub-contracting a child. A starving child, in this setting, is not a very notable lackey. How did our heroes even know about this kid to find him???

Alec meanwhile speculates that Tym slipped, the way he had. Seregil's doubtful. Tym's been on those roofs his entire life. The difference between a gentleman thief like our boys and a lifer-type, I suppose. And the missing knife is bothersome - Tym would only have drawn his blade if he meant to use it. If it were still in its sheath, Skut would have taken it. If it had fallen out, Skut would have heard it.

This bit is a little funny:

“And what happened to the body?” mused Alec. They’d already made the rounds of the charnel houses. “From the sound of it, he didn’t just get up and walk away.”

Well, when your enemy is a necromancer...

There's some speculation as to what someone would want with a corpse:

“Oh, the mad and the curious, mostly. There was one man, a lord, no less, who wanted to determine which organ contained the soul. Artists have been known to use them, too, sculptors in particular. I recall a woman was executed after it was discovered that she’d used human skeletons as armatures for statues she was casting for the Dalnan retreat house. According to the story, a priest stopped by her shop to see how the work was coming along and inadvertently knocked over one of the life-size clay models. The head struck the floor at his feet and split open to reveal an all too lifelike mouthful of teeth.”

“You’re joking!”

“It’s the Maker’s truth. Valerius has told that story a hundred times. ‘Burn ‘em or leave ‘em alone!’ was generally the moral of the tale. As for Tym, though, it could be necrophiles or just some poor starving sod—“

Alec cuts him off here. As is appropriate. Seregil figures the most likely explanation is that Rythel or his associates caught him spying and disposed of the body.

So Alec's on watch now, and Seregil goes up to investigate. Seregil does find the knife, in the gutter, and thinks thinky thoughts:

Stretched out on his belly, face just inches from the knife, Seregil regarded it for a moment, wondering how Tym—quick, clever, deadly Tym—could have been caught out on the edge of a bare roof and not drawn a drop of blood before he died.

You were good, Tym, but it looks like we all meet our match sooner or later, he mused, reaching for the dead thief’s knife. The thought sent a brief chill up his spine as he grasped the scarred hilt. Hurrying on its heels, however, came the still more chilling memory of sending Alec to burgle the room by himself. Was it any more than Illior’s luck that whoever Tym had run afoul of had not been on hand for Alec’s visit?

Tucking the knife into his belt with a silent prayer of thanks, he worked his way back the way he’d come and found Alec waiting across the street.

Alec had some luck, too. He'd found a small, fancy, bone-carved button. It's not really enough to go on though.

Seregil figures that the map is long gone and they won't be able to check for sure for a few days. I'm...not sure I follow why they can't check now. But okay. Alec has an "if only Nysander hadn't called us away" moment, but Seregil notes that it's useless to speculate. It's probably time to finally grab Rythel, and they could use Nysander's help.

Fortunately, Nysander, and Thero, are available. They're doing something involving bubbling limbics and unpolished arrowheads, but it doesn't seem urgent. Sadly, neither Nysander or Thero can get much from the knife. Nysander CAN however make a "translocation key". Seregil thinks that he'll be able to convince Rythel to buy/take it. And they'll get him.

We move on then to the next chapter, which is a very very short affair starring Vargul Ashnazai. Vargul's rather disappointed by his lodging. It's damp and smells of mice. And he's not a fan of Skala's harsh winters (compared to his own homeland of Benshal.) Mostly though, he's just very bored.

There's a mention of Ylinestra - she's intrigued by their magic enough to work with them, but has no idea who, or what, Mardus really is.

Apparently, the actor Pelion is also a dupe of theirs, and he's going to get assassinated soon. Oh dear. Ylinestra is also "living on ransomed time, along with all the others."

We skip ahead to a beach - Mardus and Vargul meet a boat containing two passengers: one, a necromancer named Harid Yordun, who Mardus greets as "brother". The other an "esteemed lady" named Irtuk Beshar - whose leathery blackened hand is perhaps a clue that we're dealing with one of those scary lich-by-another-name.

THAT can't be good.

The chapter, however, ends here.