Part 10: Red Jenny's Ransom

The barrier unraveled quickly. One symbol followed the other, each one fading until they crumbled into dry ink that wafted away on the sea breeze. Even the corrupted coils at the top came undone. Their collapse echoed in thunder down the city streets but I knew no one else would hear it. The City would only know the silence that followed.

I looked to my right, then to my left. There were no guards around, and Red Jenny was nowhere to be seen. Now that the seal was broken, I was going to have to get inside and face the hag.

Or so I thought. On instinct alone, I rushed sideways from the barricade in time to avoid the explosion that sent splintered wood flying in all directions. The hag stood in the wake of settling dust and looked down the dock with an eager gleam in her borrowed eyes. The skin and bones that held her together had been added to many times since I saw her last, and she now stood taller than me by several feet. Her shoulders were broader, too, stretched out by the flesh that pushed behind the faces sewn into her shoulders.

I should have recoiled from the sight of her but I was intrigued by an act of self-mutilation she was performing. She carved a ribbon of symbols across her torso, watching every dark corner around her for signs of someone in particular. She was so busy looking out for Red Jenny that she didn't notice me tipping up to her from behind, reaching for the flute that hung from a cord around her misshapen hips. I didn't waste time cutting it gently from her cord—I stabbed the tip of an arrow into her backside to cut the cord, then pulled the flute free.

The hag grunted but didn't sound injured. Her head swung around her shoulder before the rest of her body rotated to look in my direction. "What is this? A child dares to strike his elder?" She reached behind herself and dislodged my arrow while I hid myself in the shadow of the customs house and waited for her to come looking for me. She wasn't interested. Instead, she turned to an arrangement of tall crates that were parked nearby. Her twisted hands lifted one crate with ease and launched it in my direction. I almost had to leap into the water to avoid the explosion of wood, straw and stone that came of it.

I rolled across the wood and managed to stop myself before I went off the edge. By the time I recovered, the hag was at the end of a feverish fit to tear the remaining crates apart. Two of them hid statues of men that were chiseled out of solid sandstone. The sight of them seemed to inspire her. With an eager smile, she reached up and scratched a pronged symbol on each of their foreheads.

I planned to launch a fire arrow at her but my aim was cut short by movement from the statues. The symbols on their foreheads gave them life, and when the hag pointed in my general direction they rushed to meet the challenge. I moved to outrun them but the only place I could go was into the customs house. The hag went in the opposite direction, fleeing down the Baron's Way towards the northeast.

The interior of the customs building was mostly dark and I didn't have a problem staying hidden from the hag's stone mercenaries. I could have snuck past them but there was a reason why I needed the place to myself. I could see her in the corner of my eye, once again trying to convince me to submit to the dark. Dammit, Jenny. Be patient and you will get your due.

I slipped from one old desk to another to follow a statue's patrol. When it stopped to stare in the meeting hall, I sprang out of hiding and leaped on its back. It staggered around the open space and tried to shake me off. As predicted, its partner rushed in with a stone truncheon raised high.

I waited until the right moment to drop from the first statue's back. The second swung so hard that it broke its club and forearm on the back of the first. The statue I fell from lost its head in the strike and when its body hit the floor, it shattered into pieces. I used the claw to shatter a calf on the remaining statue and as it fell backwards, I ran up its torso and brought the claw down on its forehead. Breaking the symbol seemed to be all that was really needed to end its temporary life.

I thought I was finally alone but there were men shouting from the docks. The explosion must have attracted the attention of the Baron's Watch—I couldn't let them near the treasure. I rushed past the open archway and checked the door to the hag's treasure room. Of course it was locked. I had to take the time to deal with that and the old door's design made it take longer than I would have liked.

"Hey, you! Halt!" I set the last pin in place just as a blacktop spotted me. The door pulled outward, which meant I wouldn't getting away with blocking it from the inside; instead, I had to use a length of rope on the handle, taken from the cord I normally kept for rappelling. An iron sconce next to the door still had enough strength to keep the guard from pulling it open but it was only a matter of time before reinforcements arrived.

I turned to look at the treasure. It was piled high but would it be enough? I walked uphill on the gold and sat down on the table that was mostly submerged in the pile. Before I could even wonder how to call her, Red Jenny let me know that she was already there.

She stood in front of the door, ignoring the noisy struggle behind it. Her red robe was fitted to her shape and the black of her hair only made her pale skin more obvious. She looked expectantly at me. She knew what I had to say but wanted me to say it.

"Red Jenny. This fortune is yours in exchange for my life."

"Are you sure it is yours to give?"

I didn't know what else to say. I was sitting on a mountain of gold—the guide said I would have to pay to escape death... Unless he was wrong about what the payment actually was.

"Name your price. I can't go back to the darkness. You know this."

"I know only when the appointed hour comes, and yours came many days ago. Are you not tired..."

I started to feel tired.

"Do you not desire rest..."

I could feel my heartbeat slowing down and it became harder to take a simple breath. I forced myself to focus and looked her dead in the eye. "No. I can't leave here. Not after what that monster did to those children."

"You mean these children?"

Jenny lifted her arms and the space between us filled with young faces of varying ages, some in night clothes and others in rags. They were the souls of the children the hag had slaughtered. My heart felt like a stone in my chest when I recognized the green gown on Perkis' daughter. I could feel the words "forgive me" pass my lips before I could stop myself. Her eyes were anything but forgiving so I knew it was a waste of breath.

"I have come to take them to the woods," Jenny explained. "The barrier prevented me before, so for that, you have my thanks."

I looked on with caution. "Then... you aren't here for me?"

Her attention went to the door, where the rope I tied was starting to fray. She rested a single hand lightly on the handle but it was enough to keep the door from being pulled at all. I could hear the guard's confusion behind it. Then his steps echoed into silence.

Red Jenny turned her attention back to me. "Make no mistake, Garrett. One day I will come for you, and there will be no amount that you can pay to avoid my escort. But for now, you have paid your dues. See to it that Gamall pays hers."

Broad wings revealed themselves over Jenny's shoulders, made of feathers as vibrant as her robe. The wings bowed forward at an impossible angle and stretched over the crowd of children's souls. They were gone when the wings folded back and so was she. I hadn't blinked the whole time but I had a feeling she didn't need my attention to shift elsewhere to make her hasty retreat.

The treasure was also gone. Every last coin and gem vanished without a trace. The room seemed much more spacious by contrast. Good thing, because the guard returned with friends to try again. Three pry bars jut past the doorjamb and with their combined might, the blacktops finally broke the rope from the handle. I was still sitting on the table when they entered but by then, I was also dancing a favorite toy of mine on the tips of my fingers.

The flash bomb filled the room with more light than it had been filled with treasure only moments ago. I slipped by the guards while they tried to get their bearings and left the customs house to their investigation. At least the children whose corpses were still in there would be brought to rest. The hag had made herself out of the parts of many, and I intended to see to it they were all taken from her.