Every hunter or guard has sources of information they go to in most cases. But this was not the kind of case one could share the information with just anyone in town. Nor would just anyone know the things Scorpio might need to know today. He wandered the Artisans' Ward, trying to look as if he were shopping, wandering from stall to stall, shop to shop. He spent as little as he could, mainly as he did not trust getting the reward for this job, and work had been slow of late. He bypassed a place he could trust the information from normally, the stall of the knife maker, Tozuru, as that was a source within the guild. He hoped to develop a source outside what the Allegiance had, one they might have missed, as he had information now that they did not. He could feel the eyes of the knife-maker on his back as he turned away from the east side street. The Allegiance would not like him consulting outside the guild, but he had no choice.
Itazaki was a student of the scrolls he purveyed, he often spoke of things he should have no knowledge of, in fields so diverse few were not surprised at his knowledge. Scorpio just hoped the questions he asked would be in the merchant's scrolls or his mind. He had picked up a bottle of the local rice wine, as well as retrieving from another merchant some items he had held for just such a negotiation. Years ago he had heard that Itazaki desired scrolls from the days of exploration, and would pay dearly for them. As luck would have it, once on a visit to Thogras on a hunt, Scorpio had found such in a cave outside the Collegium's rule. He had sold them to the sages at Thogras for copies of them, and a few coins. Those copies, made by scriveners from Thogras, which would ensure their value to the merchant, now would now pay off the real investment.
Itazaki's shop was not the normal one for the town. It was of stone in two stories, with a smaller third story of wood. The lower levels were built in a style uncommon in this nation, with a central vault inside and arches on the outside, barred on the outside, with wooden shutters inside, and sheets of repaired silk and cheesecloth hung in them to keep out the bugs. Few had ever gained entrance to the upper levels, where the merchant of scrolls and wares from the east lived, and fewer still of those talked of it.
As he entered the shop area, the chimes tied to the cloths announced their disturbance, in gentle tones. He walked softly amidst the bolts of wool and stretches of leathers from the hill barons lands. One thing Itazaki always had were the dried fruits from the coastal farms of the Parvi, those small folk who so loved working the land in farms and orchards. He traded with them by the grant of the local lord and a permit from the emperor. In other lands, few of these would be allowed, or even honored by the other merchants, but the society of Ankhgor seemed to be in the very blood and flesh of the people. They would not go against any imperial decree, openly at least. Most of them were very loyal subjects, but being human, there were always a few who were less than perfect, so there was work for many of the Allegiance here.
Scorpio noted that several of the fancy dressed Kiltyen were here at the time. Not all the Kiltyen were so flamboyant, just the ruling class, the Hill Barons, those who owned not just the lands and herds, but those who worked the soil or tended the herds as well. There were three males, two females, and one of their servants in the woolen garments of that caste. Three clans were represented, and while the hunter had not studied much of the markings and heraldry of the Baronies, he recognized one immediately. The youngest of the females, and two of the men wore the same rich red dyed leathers with black trim as his mentor tended to. The clan of Duhn, By the rumors he had heard this week in the market, these would be Baron Brule the Strong, his brother Hale the Cany, and Hale's daughter, Winnet the Wily.
He had never understood the use of the descriptive name, when the clans were small enough that just a name would be enough to distinguish each member of the family. But that was not their way. It amazed him that his mentor, Codi, went only by the clan name, considering that even the peasant slaves had such names and were proud of them.
The girl looked at him with lowered eyelids, the kind of look one often sees in women who were judging a man for either bed or wealth. The Kenrai let it slide, not acknowledging it, but noting it, and that it lasted longer than normal. Much longer, her eyes, even when she was not facing him, were on him. This had happened before, with women, young girls, but it felt different then. This felt strange, and bothered the hunter. The girl was young, yes, but he could only call her a girl as she did not wear the weapons that marked an adult amongst the Kiltyen. The party finished their negotiations as Scorpio looked over some hides and pelts. As they left, he noted the blades of the group, all but the girl wore swords or axes. She was the only one with a dagger. And she wore a necklace of interesting design, that stirred something deep in his memories. So deep it did not surface before Itazaki came over to him.
"What do we seek today, prey or goods?" The store keeper was jovial, but had waited until the Kiltyen were well out of earshot before speaking to what had become in recent years one of his favorite customers.
The hunter of men stood silently, using a mirror to act as if he was looking over a selection of eagle feathers to use as decorations for his braids. That the angle of the mirror he was using let him see the street the Hill Baron folk had left by was no accident. As he thought, the girl had stopped at a stall that allowed her to watch the shop. When he spoke, he made sure he was bent over, his face not visible in the reflecting surface. "Some of both, my kin folk had a harsh year, and could not gather good pelts this year, it was too warm. I will need good thick pelts, quality over appearance, by fall. Can you gather such for me?" He stood up, holding up a set of tail feathers from a peacock in one hand and pulling out a set of carefully gathers crow quills, a preferred plumage for scribes and artists. He acted out his trade, exaggerating a bit to make it look like he was just a simple tribesman. Rumor about him in town would set the girl straight, if she asked around, but something told Scorpio that she would not ask anyone.
Itazaki did not smile, for when his bounty hunter friend brought him quills of the gray crows of the mountains that lay east of the town, yet were before the half elf's homeland, he wanted information that the sharing of which could cost a man much. Perhaps even his life. "So I see. The killer that stalks outside the wall I take it?"
"I need some strange information this time, 'Zaki. I found where the killer tortures his prey, out on the islands. There was an old bowl shaped area, with a pool flanked by four altars..." The sharp intake of the shopkeeper's breath told him much. Itazaki knew the place, and what he knew was not good news, for anyone. The older man's knowledge of the history of this part of the world was the main reason Scorpio came to him for information. Twice the things he had learned here had saved his life. And the hunter had lost track of the number of times it had let him find his target. Even that which seemed irrelevant could be the key in the end.
They bartered for a bit, both getting into the act, until they made it obvious they had not reached a deal yet. Then, true to the pattern that had formed for them over the years, Itazaki went over to his small brazier, and set a pot of water to boil, cleared his bargaining table, and set out a tea set. The table was by the eastern arch of the store, and Itazaki called to his daughter, a woman of middle years and ever sharper bargaining skills to watch the rest of the store for him. Her husband was one of Itazaki's agents, the one who took the goods into the rest of the empire, by the slow moving wagons and carts that filled the roads during this season, bringing in luxuries to trade for the produce of the north of the peninsula.
Both men took their seats, inside the bamboo blinds that kept the sun from heating the corner, but let the breezes keep it cool. The Kenrai clansman sat silently, knowing his friend would speak when he was ready. That he had said nothing more, and taken to watching the street himself, not as unobtrusively as the hunter, but with just as sharp an eye, told the hunter many things. He was not the only one to have sought this information, and whoever else had sought such had been here today. Recently enough that 'Zaki worried they would overhear another such discussion.
When the water was boiled, strained through the cheesecloth filter, then added to the steeping pot, and the merchant seemed assured that whoever he was afraid of hearing of this conversation was gone, he at last leaned forward and spoke of things other than trade. "Five have sought this information in the last three cycles of the greater moon. Two were just here, those of the clan of Brule. First was a sage from Thogras, with ties to that clan, and one was another like yourself, the victim they found this morning, at the east end of the wall, while the child was found on the west end." The voice he spoke in was a whisper, soft and pitched so as not to carry far.
"And I am the fifth?" Scorpio was cautious. for Itazaki was normally not so intense. Even when he had sought the ones who had been extorting money from him, the merchant had been boisterous, cheerful in his assistance. That he was not made the hunter realize even more than before that what he stalked was a predator, as dangerous as the great bears of the plains, or even the giant cats with the huge tusks. It was time to stalk softly, or even make it seem he sought some other, he thought, to throw off the predator. Yet, whoever it was had now killed two in a single night, as if flaunting his skills. Taunting the local guard as well that they could not find him.
Itazaki leaned back, then dropped his own package of fire. "No, you are the sixth. The fifth was the captain of the guard." Scorpio gave no external sign of emotion, but was very upset now. The head of the guard was incompetent, and more a joke than a serious keeper of laws. But if he sought the information, then the hunter was late to the game.
There is a certain slow rolling of the neck that some of his clan had taught him out on the prairies, that imitated the hunting cats of all types. It was a gentle motion, meant to convey lassitude, but in reality was just a way to look all around oneself without raising any suspicions. He was trying to see shadows on the blinds, or the ground outside, and was rewarded with something more just below the knee high opening at the ground. Boots, of the kind the female Kiltyens had worn. Closer than he had thought possible without making noise. He had forgotten that the Hill Baron folk were hunters as well.
He changed the subject gently, to let 'Zaki know they could be heard. "Since when did Toru need quills? I heard he was unlettered."
The merchant nodded, showing he had already noted the boots. "Ah, that is a pose, I have learned. He has been smitten with some lady of the Mochizuki Prefecture, and has taken to sending her love poems nearly every caravan. But the quills he has used are inferior, so he has too many blots and failures in his calligraphy. His touch is to rough for a brush, so he was thought not to write." The merchant chuckled evilly. "Ah, think of what a burglar with such knowledge could get away with, blackmailing the captain of the guard with the castoffs of his attempts at wooing."
The boots moved away, as the listener seemed disinterested in the turn of the conversation. But now both knew they would need to be circumspect in their speech. Scorpio had more to mull over. One of the women was party to the killer he was sure. The spoke a long time, well into the day, and several times Scorpio would break off the conversation and wander out to other stalls and shops in the quarter. He did not see the Kiltyen folk again, and it was only well after the sun had passed its zenith that the hunter resumed his original pursuit.
This time, the shop keeper invited him upstairs, to the room of books and scrolls that he kept upstairs. Some were for sale, most were Itazaki's own library. This was one of the few such depositories of knowledge in the town, and the only one Scorpio had access to. They sat this time without any refreshments, at the table where the merchant did his own studies. There were already numerous books and unrolled papers on the surface. They both sat a moment, gathering their thoughts, until Itazaki at last broke the silence.
"The island was once the center of the Blood Drinker cult here, several centuries ago. When the current daimyo broke them, it was left abandoned, but the priests dared not disturb the altars, for they said they were charged beyond their skill to break. I have heard rumors, and my own family records indicate that at least twice since then some have tried to revive that foul practice there." He sighed, his face becoming sadder. "Ten years ago, one of the Nosferatu from the mountains came here again. the cult was reborn under him. For two years, until the dwarf took the fiend's head, they terrorized the lands around here. In the end, we found that many were infected, and had to be banished." The silence that followed was long. Itazaki's face was near tears, leaving the hunter to wonder if some family of his friend had died or gone over to the Blood Drinkers in that time.
Scorpio leaned forward, to take the merchant's mind off the past, and focus him on this set of killings. "I think the only ones getting fat off the blood of the victims are the leeches in the pool there now. Black leeches, and not the flat kind. Those I have never seen in this swamp before, and from the way they seek blood, we must find a way to kill them, or Tarafa and the Kasa-alar will be even more dangerous." The mention of leeches broke the remorse of the merchant. His eyes opened in surprise.
"Leeches? That makes no sense, the marks on the bodies, they grew in number as time passed, and the Blood Drinkers gained converts." The whisper was hoarse, as if Itazaki had been crying, or fighting to prevent showing emotion.
The Kenrai clansman caught the eyes with his own, shaking his head in negation. "No, 'Zaki, as the leeches multiplied, the killer could make it appear it was the cult coming back. Blood Drinkers take all the blood, and the victims are either sleeping or in ecstasy when killed by the loss of blood, these were in pain, by the body I caught a glimpse of. I need to know where those leeches are from, as they are not native to here. Nor are they from the mountains of the plains beyond from my knowledge."
There was still disbelief in the face of the merchant, but he understood that the hunter was looking for prey, and had some scent or trail he was following. "I will see what I can find out. But still, it seems that the Blood Drinkers have returned again."
Scorpio did not try to dissuade his friend. "I can only tell you what I have seen. Only one of the altars was used, and there are leeches not native to the area in that pond. They are large, about two hands long, half as thick as a man's wrist. They seem to hunt the blood out, and they can leave the water to move on land. Also, I need to know what weapon is believed to be used on the victims for the final blow." Scorpio sighed, knowing his friend would find the information he desired, but would never, unless catching the killer in the act himself, believe it was not one of the Blood Drinkers.
Night fell, and this time, Scorpio decided to be active, he moved to the south wall, coming up from the shore of the bay. This time it was not the bounty hunter who waded in the swamp that was the old overflow from the lake to bay, but the hunter of beasts. Only a few in this town had caught the change in the man many thought of as a lazy drunkard, for few knew what he worked at. The guard noticed the change, though, and they went on edge as he walked south from the docks, out the gate.
The tall grasses here hid him totally, and he kept his movements in tune with the swaying of the grass in the breeze. There was few as good a Kensori hunter of the Kenrai clan at moving without letting the prey know he was there. And amongst his kinfolk, the boy now called the scorpion had been one of the best at it. The sky darkened in color, and was filled with the colors of the stars, the moons, and a few other things. To the north, the Rabbit's Eye, that bright red star that was the Rabbit Nebula's left eye, blazed with a glory that cast a red tinge across the lands. It was eerie, making the world seem to be soaked in blood, and that more than anything, the hunter was sure, had stirred the memories in the townsfolk of the Blood Drinkers.
It took two hours for him to get tot he little reed skiff he had stashed earlier in the day, then another hour to silently move like the many crocodiles in the lake to the island. He stashed the skiff on the corner from which the sun would rise in the morning. There was little of Scorpio left in the active mind of the hunter, as he moved softly over the hummock of grass and scrub trees to the ring of real trees that formed this side of the bowl's rim. His timing was impeccable. No sooner than he had settled in, than the killer appeared, dragging two more children who were gagged and bound at the wrists with cords she pulled them by. Over her shoulder was another woman, bound, gagged and unconscious.
She.
A rage at his own foolishness built within the hunter, for not recognizing the killer when he had encountered her before. It was the girl from the Kiltyen lands, in the full regalia of a Hill Baron. Blood stained her hands, and Scorpio was sure that the wench had slain again in town, no longer caring to hide her identity. She was flaunting her kills now, for the children were ones the hunter knew, from prominent families with ties to the Kiltyen trade.
He had only lightly considered that his prey would be a woman. Rarely would a woman go so far over into the killing. True, he had encountered such women before. Mostly ones in cults, or trying to claim some position of power in their society. Never one who killed just for the joy of the kill. One thing he did know, he had never stalked a female beast alone. The females were very deadly, they would defend their young more vehemently. A female was more wily, would hide more readily than a male, and come back to stalk the predator that dared hunt her or her brood.
Only the fact that he had given his word to take the job would make him go on. Now he understood the need for the red handled blade. But the steel of the blade should have been just as blood red in the Kenrai’s mind now. To hunt this prey was to dance with an bull of the long nosed tusk beasts in the rage of musht. Not to hunt her was to starve to death, due to lack of work. The Allegiance of Blades would make sure he never had any work, even that of digging graves, if he quit. He could die, he could be injured and stop, but to turn away due to who the target was, that would be unacceptable. And when you were in a guild mostly of assassins, there were other risks as well.
His prey laid the woman on the west altar. She yanked the children to the tree line and tethered one there. The other child she lifted over her head, laughing loudly as she approached the small pool that held the leeches. Her face was twisted with a mix of joy and hate. It was a look that Scorpio was not sure he would ever be able to forget, or drive away from nightmares.
The conditions of this blade he was the bearer of included saving any he could, so the hunter decided he could not afford to wait for further evidence. Upon his arrival he had laid out a simple set up of throwing knives and one tool that few in this land had ever seen. He lifted a hand crossbow, and unleashed its bolt into the right shoulder of the mad woman. The shock of the impact staggered her back, but the insanity that was consuming her gave her a strength few others had. The girl suddenly surged forward, tossing the child into the pool while screaming insanely in her own tongue, one that the hunter recognized only a few words from.
Scorpio moved forward, drawing the short sword he had brought with him. Normally he did not carry such a weapon, even though he was well versed in the use of that steel. Tonight, he had, for before leaving, he had seen a spear-bird on the roof opposite his loft at noon. The hunter in him still followed the totem gods of his kind, and he had taken this as a sign. The Kenrai clansman raced to the dank waters where the child's body thrashed as the leeches struck, hoping he could move fast enough to save the child.
The killer took this as a chance to escape, burying her own dagger in the chest of the woman on the altar as she raced away to the trail Scorpio had found on his last visit. Luck was with the hunter, she left the small girl tethered to the tree, and he managed to wade into the pool and pull the other child, a boy out. For the Kiltyen woman though, there was no hope, no luck, and only vengeance be left to the hunter. It took nearly a double hand of a star's motion across the sky to get all the leeches off the boy, and himself. The girl at first was as scared of him as she had been the killer, until he untied her, and spoke for the first time.
"I will take you to the guards, they will take you home to your parents." He stood, took their hands, and left the corpse of the woman behind. But knew he had a far more dangerous task ahead of him. His target was of his mentor's clan, and when he next saw his mentor, he would need to tell him that. His thoughts as he poled the skiff across Tarafa Lake were dark and somber. The rage was gone, now that the children were safe. Now there was just the hunger of the hunt.
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