Rogue Magick, part 11 by Rillan macDhai

Rough draft as of 5/15/10, copyright 2010 by Rillan macDhai, World of Warcraft setting and all that are not mine. Original characters are. Fan fiction, F-A-N fiction, nasty, bloody, poison and death. Not for littles.

stuff inside these marks indicates rogue hand signs

Part 11: At the House of Purple Hyacinths

Confrontation

It was dark and someone was in my room. It wasn't Richelle, she'd have lit the candles and besides, I knew her step. Normally, this would have geared me into a murderous state worthy of a goblin finding someone with their hand in the till. But I'd rather gotten used to people moving around me during the however many months I'd been in the Stockades and now here while I recovered. So, I didn't fling daggers as my first reaction. Instead, with silent apologies, I flung a cat.

And got the hell out, because one screaming angry flung cat apparently signaled the other two to the attack. I went up, bracing myself in a corner of wall and ceiling in the hall. My stalker came out lacerated with Black Tom clinging to his back and the other two doing their best to trip or hamstring him.

I'd noticed, while nothing could be heard in the hall if my door was closed, sounds behaved normally if it was open. In short order, Grandmamma, Stef and Richelle were all in the hallway, and two of the white wolf dogs had joined the melee in support of the cats. Good sense said to stay where I was, but I hadn't been listening to good sense since I'd gotten out of the Stockades, so why start? I dropped down into the hallway behind him.

"Some help here," the man was yelling. "There's a spy in the house."

Then, "Get it off! Get it off!" as Black Tom succeeded in reaching his head.

I lifted an eyebrow at the three on the other side, shrugged and waded into the fight. "Off! Cats! Hissst!" I removed Black, none to gently for his victim and tossed the big cat back into my room, getting a minimum of lacerations because I still had my leathers on.

Grandmamma called the dogs off and the other two cats had run when I tossed Black. They were still yowling at the doorway, but hadn't charged back into battle.

"How dare you break the peace in my home?" Grandmamma must have spent some time as a drill sergeant; she could produce a roar that would do an orc proud. I backed up, being careful to let the others see my empty hands. Black Tom yowled again and batted at my ankles, then apparently recognized me and started bunting my legs with his head. Or maybe he just liked the smell of blood.

"Spy," said the man on the floor, semi-incoherently, pointing back the hall at me.

"Pfaugh! That's no spy. You think Shaw would allow him to stay, that I would allow him to be here, if he were a spy?"

The man had scrambled to his feet, trapped against the wall by Grandmamma, but trying to glare in my direction. "I'm telling you, that's Nightfrost, the blood elf who stole our battle standard, who wrecked the engines on the Vengeance, and took the battle plans from Valiance Keep."

You're missing all the troop payments I intercepted or delayed, I thought, but for once I didn't offer that aloud.

"There's a thousand gold piece bounty on his head and in the King's name, I order you to capture him!"

"This is my house, king's man," said Grandmamma in a deadly voice, poking the man in the chest. "Not even Varian orders me around in my own house and I'll thank you to remember that! Stef! Richelle! Help me get this idiot downstairs."

Grandmamma stepped back, confident in her authority, but the king's man was past reasoning. Stef and I both saw the green sap coating his blade, I moved faster. I took the man down as Stef knocked the angry woman out of the way. If I hadn't, he might have still stuck Grandmamma. He would certainly have hit Stef.

I put one of my lovely new blades into his throat and spine and into the floor and kept it there while he went limp under me and the light slowly left his eyes.

"Oh, crap," said Stef mildly.

I continued kneeling on the human, watching him die. "You know, I think they're really madder at me over that stupid flag than anything else."

"So, you are Nightfrost?"

"Right now? Yes." I looked at him and Grandmamma. "I'd rather go back to being Sky. Will you let me? More importantly, can you afford to let me?"

"I think it would be damn ungrateful to turn on you after you just saved our lives," Stef said.

He came over and carefully wrapped the poisoned dagger in a handkerchief and put it in a leather bag.

"Sky," said Richelle, having apparently made some decision about who she wanted me to be, though I couldn't read her expression. "Lift him a bit, I need to get this wrapped around his neck before there's more blood getting everywhere."

I left my dagger in the body until we had him stored in the cold cellar. Once we were done there we all gathered in the kitchen. I took a perch on the hearth, cleaning my blade and leathers, then setting to re-sharpening the dagger. Stef brewed tea while Richelle fussed over Grandmamma and Grandmamma relaxed and the dogs stretched out against the kitchen door.

Thank a rogue's luck; Giselle had slept through it all.

"Is this still the same day?" I finally asked.

"Actually, no," said Stef, handing me my mug. "You slept all the rest of the afternoon after we talked, last night and all of today. Richelle got some broth into you, but you weren't really awake. We'd just been talking about trying to wake you when all hell broke loose."

"That would explain things."

After I got back from the water closet – no, I don't know how it works, ask a goblin, or a gnome, and yes, I took my tea with me and dumped it out without drinking it – and pumped some water for myself, Grandmamma said, "Well, he wasn't the first to die in this house for doing something stupid, I doubt he'll be the last."

"How much trouble is my killing him likely to cause?"

"I'd say none, but I don't know what messages he might have sent off before he came here." She gave me a look. "I know he didn't get anything out since he recognized you, but he might have told his partner or stashed something in their gear."

"Good enough. I'll leave that to you then." I found a small cheese and a few of the little dark bread loaves and picked one at random, sliced it thin and toasted it on the hearth with cheese slices. I was hungry and edgy and wanted a bath and clean clothes. I'd had plenty of time sleeping in my gear already in my life.

Finished with my food, I stood, well aware they'd been watching me. I was tempted to invite Richelle to come with me . . . but that was one last trap waiting to shut. Great-Uncle, whether by luck or by planning, had found everything to draw a suddenly outcaste rogue, and I'd let myself go along with it. Giving in to my desire for Richelle would be the final strand in the net. And I wanted to, to just say the hell with the Horde and Silvermoon and all that and pretend I had a home here.

But it would only be pretense, I was sure of it. Run, said rogue side of me. Get to Booty Bay, send word to Firesworn and Bobby, the goblin post will find them for you. Even with the geas to pull you back, you can do that much.

I hadn't really been aware I'd left the kitchen until I found myself back in my room. My room was chill; my erst-while murderer had come in through the window. I latched the door, rolled my spare shirt, and went out onto the roof. It was cold and the slates were frosted and slippery. I slid across them like a cat, like a whisper of wind and let myself down off the roof.

"Leaving us?" asked Stef.

I didn't know where he was, so I just answered the night, "You know I can't. The geas will bring me back, but I need out, I need to run."

My senses were ratcheted high; I could feel the rough direction of the node and the flows of the ley lines. I heard Stef when he moved and that let my eyes find him. "I understand," he said, surprising me. "I can't be still after I've killed either."

"Run the night with me?" I asked

"Someone needs to, if only to make sure you don't freeze to death once you pass out."

Ah, trust someone to find the flaw in my plan. I handed Dream to him. "Keep her for me, in case I start doing something strange." Giving in to the madness dancing in my blood, I kissed the end of his nose, gave him a shove, and was gone.

I was faster. He knew the area. And I couldn't call shadows. It was an even match.