2.3 In Which the Dark Lord Plays to a Captive Audience

2.3 In Which the Dark Lord Plays to a Captive Audience

The thing about vengeance is the best served cold part; theres a lot of fiddly, detail-oriented and frankly boring prep work before you can get to the grand catharsis of seeing your enemies kneeling broken at your feet.

Which is why, at the end of the week, I found myself leading a small team through the pitch-black khora forest at the end of a long days hike, trying not to trip or give away our position. Thanks to Sakins coaching we were doing okay, so far. Walking silently through khora was both easier and harder than sneaking through a tree forest would have been. Easier because there was very little underfoot that would rustle or crunch, given that khora didnt tend to drop brittle detritus and plants didnt grow well underneath them, with the exceptions of some spiky bushes that were easy to spot and avoid even in the darkness. Harder because there was practically no flat ground on which to steponce you were off a path worn by generations of animals and beastfolk, it was all hard little outcroppings of shell and those twisting thorny vine-like things that could be as thin as a finger or too big to easily climb over, or anywhere in between. The ground was all irregular rounded surfaces with holes in between, perfect terrain to break your ankle in the dark.

The trick was to put each foot down carefully and slowly, making sure youd found a surface that would hold your weight before moving forward. It took forever. But hey, we werent having much trouble with the quiet part, at least.

Almost there, Biribo murmured, hovering right next to my ear. Should be able to see the lookout up ahead. That one shape therelook, she moved.

I nodded in silence, then looked past him to my right. In the darkness, Kastrin also nodded, indicating shed heard and seen. She raised the tiny one-handed crossbow, taking aim. Most of the team were some meters behind us; for this advance Id brought Kastrin for her sharp-shooting skills and Aster to back me up if this went sour and we had to just slaughter everybody.

What with my spells and artifacts, I was not concerned about the danger this group of bandits posed. Failure, here, would be having to kill them all without extracting the intelligence I needed.

Kastrin was still aiming after a few seconds, and I just waited; she knew what she was about and this was a shot we could not afford to miss. That tiny thinga stinger, Sakin had called itcouldnt be terribly accurate to begin with. It also had basically nothing in the way of stopping power, being useful only to deliver poisoned darts.

Even the twang of it was quiet when she finally released, probably not even audible to its target several meters away. The vague shape I could only tell was a person because it had moved emitted a strangled sounda soft one, thankfullystaggered for a moment, then slumped downward.

Biribo, I whispered.

On it. He buzzed off into the night.

I patted Kastrin on the shoulder, getting a pleased grin in response. She always responded so well to praise; I definitely wasnt going to tell her I was mostly just relieved this harebrained scheme had worked. I had been skeptical, due to the fact that tranquilizer darts (at least for humans) are Hollywood bullshit. Anesthesia is far too complicated and the margins of error punishingly tiny. Deliver slightly too little juice and the target wont go under and might not even be inhibited that much; a hair too much and they just die. It probably wouldnt be a problem if wed killed the lookout, but the other outcome

Of course, Kastrins stinger darts were dipped in a concoction provided by my goblin allies, and as far as I could tell, the difference between alchemy and chemistry was that in the case of the former the underlying scientific principle was fuck you, magic. I was very curious how this played into the goddesses system of artifacts and spells and whatnot, but the only alchemist I knew was Youda, who (I suspected under orders from his boss) became uncharacteristically tight-lipped whenever I asked about it. I guess the mysterious Miss Sneppit valued my business too much to risk me not needing her anymore.

Biribo returned moments later with his report. Success! Lookouts fully under, nobody else on watch and the rest of the gang are asleep.

Perfect. I wetted my finger in my mouth and held it up to the air, testing the direction of the breeze. We need to get upwind. This way.

Next came more silent picking through the dark khora. A lot more of it, as we had to swing wide around the bandit encampment, with Biribo guiding our hesitant steps through the darkness. This took longer than our initial approach by far; I was placing a lot of trust in Youdas sedative. Supposedly one darts worth would keep a human-sized target down for an hour. If the lookout woke up too soon, we were screwed.

No outcry was raised by the time we finally reached a point at the northwestern edge of the camp, practically opposite its entrance, which would put the prevailing breeze behind us. It wasnt much of a breeze, but considering what we were about to set off, we couldnt risk having it blow into our faces. Biribo did another quick check to make sure everyone was still out, and then Aster began carefully making her way up the slope alongside us.

This gang had built their camp inside a bowl-shaped shell which had once been one of those domelike khora that resembled brain coral. It had been a huge specimen, bigger than any of the ones Id seen on the khora plantations where they were cultivated; dead, the lower remains of its broken shell provided a nifty little nook in which to hide, with one single crack big enough for a person to walk through serving as its entrance.

It wasnt particularly defensible, though; the outer walls sloped upward and were easy enough to climb. These guys were taking a lot on faith by only posting one lookout at the entrance. Aster made it easily up the slope, moving slowly so as to be silent, and at the peak pulled a cantaloupe-sized cloth bundle out of her bulging coat pocket. One-handed, she lobbed it into the camp. Kastrin was our best shot, but this task didnt call for nearly as much accuracy and Aster had stronger arms.

The little missile landed with a soft thumpsoft, but audible even to us out here. Immediately following it came a faint rustle, as of someone moving around, and all of us froze, Aster ducking back down below the broken lip of the shell wall.

Seconds of silence ticked by. Biribo buzzed up to peek over the edge, then swooped back down to me. Were golden, boss.

While Aster climbed gingerly back down, I passed her going up. It wasnt hard; the rough texture of this particular khora species provided abundant handholds and stepping places. Honestly, the fact that these guys hadnt been attacked like this before only proved that no one else was trying to. That made sense; if Clan Olumnach was controlling the bandit gangs for their own purposes, they wouldnt approve of infighting.

It was odd that Lady Gray hadnt moved on them, though. I knew she knew where this camp was; after accidentally discovering it myself back when wed set fire to the Crown Rose caravan at the Kingsguard waystation, I had led a few of her people here to get them ambushed by the local bandits, and then let them live to report back to her. Gray worked hard to avoid being put on the defensive, so why hadnt she cleared out this nest? It wasnt like her to leave enemies alive and intact. There must be more factors involved in this gang war than I was aware of.

Hopefully I could get some answers about that tonight.

Reaching the lip, I peeked over, letting my eyes adjust to the lesser gloom inside. They had a fire going, burning low with a smokeless asauthec blend that put off just enough light for the occupants to walk without tripping. As before, there were about twenty of them, all bundled up asleep; it was a little cramped with that many plus their various belongings.

It took me just a minute of scanning to spot the bundle Aster had tossed, full of what had become one of our standard weapons. For this one, we hadnt bothered with the shimmer powder that would disguise it as a rock. I finally spotted the little pile of cloth, lying near the center of the open space.

Perfect.

Spark!

Ignited, the sleeping powder bomb went off with a deep PFOOMP and a huge cloud of dust that enveloped the khora basin. I threw myself back down the slope without waiting to see that, casting a self-Heal to negate the effects of any sleeping powder I might have accidentally inhaled (and the effects of falling onto hard khora outcrops, because ow). There came a few abortive yells from inside the camp, but they ended swiftly.

The ensuing silence told us they were all out. Thoroughly out, now, and would stay that way no matter what we did to them. Perfect.

All right, I said with a grin, not bothering to moderate my voice. Biribo, go fetch the others.

You got it, boss! he chirped, already zooming off into the night.

I let that sink in for a moment. The bandits all stared at me in dread; Rugin was actually whimpering.

But take heart, my lost little lambs, I said finally, spreading my hands in benediction. I am a fair judge, and when I can be, generous. I understand very well the vicissitudes of life that can leave people like you in a place like this. You live in a country where everything is stacked against you from the outsetwhere one turn of bad luck or the whim of some inbred blonde can rip away what little you have and stomp upon you until you are either crushed or forced through a crack and out of society entirely. Believe me: I know.

I folded my hands in front of me and bowed my head.

Each of you has been pushed out of a normal life by the failures of those who would call themselves your betters. You have had to make terrible choices and do terrible things merely to survive, all with no hope of ever making your lives better. I understand. So it is for us all. But.

Raising my head, I held up one chiding finger.

Some of you have done much more than survive. There are always a few who grab the opportunity to spread their misery around, and try to make life harder than it needs to be for others. Dont you worry, little lambs. I will test the weight of your souls, and consider all factors. For many of you, one day you will look back on this night as the moment when your lives finally took a turn for the better. Pause for effect, beat, beat But some of you fuckers are about to have a real bad time.

The silence stretched out for a few more seconds, and then someone started weeping. Somewhat to my surprise, it wasnt Rugin.

I really hoped they didnt all fail the tests Id prepared; this whole operation was based on my gamble that at least some of these would know the positions of other bandit camps. Maugro wasnt going to spill the beans, so if I didnt get some intel out of this group tonight or my next moves suddenly became very uncertain.

The gangs boss was staring up at me through narrowed eyes, but his expression was intently curioushe seemed neither angry nor frightened, and no longer showed any signs of pain despite the steady trickle of blood making a spreading stain on his leg.

Who the hell are you? he asked.

I raised one hand in a languid gesture to indicate Biribo, who was still hovering in place. Do you know what this is?

The bandit leaders eyes shifted to Biribo; he squinted harder, and then shrugged. I dunno, some kinda weird-ass pet?

Oh, look whos calling who weird, Biribo shot back, making the guy jerk his head upright in surprise.

Biribo, I explained, is my familiar. The physical sign of my Blessing of Wisdom.

Yourwait. The boss was frowning deeply now. Youre Blessed with Magic. Arent you? I saw you cast spells. We all saw it!

Indeed.

I explained no further than that, just standing there. Waiting.

Due to how rare it apparently was, I expected that not everyone here would even know that the Blessing of Wisdom was a thing. No doubt some others would be too dense to put it together, but even so, I began to hear the hiss of indrawn breath as various bandits proved fully capable of applying the logic. I was not surprised that the leaders eyes were the first to widen in comprehension.

Its the Hero, a womans voice said with an audible quaver. The Heros come to save us!

Does it look like were bein saved, Jenit? a man near her spat, squirming against his ropes.

Im ready to be judged! Jenit called, trying to struggle forward and earning an angry elbow in the side from the guy next to her. Lord Hero, I swear

I held up one hand, and waited. To my immense satisfaction, my presence proved powerful enough that my wordless command for silence was obeyed. Not instantly, but they did all fall quiet and stop trying to wriggle out of their bindings.

I am not, I enunciated, the Hero.

Another beat of quiet.

Oh, shit, someone whispered into the silence.

Whuh? another voice said more loudly. I dont get it.

The guy next to him leaned over and whispered into his ear. His eyes widened and his dark face turned an amusing shade of gray.

Oh, shit.

The bandit leader was now staring up at me with the first expression of overt fear Id gotten from him since he woke up. I took two steps forward till I stood directly in front of him, then crouched on the ground so that we were eye to eye.

I lowered my hood, finally, and smiled. To judge by the twitching of his right eye, he did not find this reassuring.

So, my little lost lamb. Tell me your tale.