Disappeared

The hand signal was flashed at him from a rooftop as he was headed to watch for Wisteria coming in for the evening. Home base under attack. Crows.

"Merda!" Zevran swore. He gave the signal to leave two guards behind for Wisteria and everyone else head to home base. He turned around running to get back quickly. He hoped Wisteria would be all right. The two he left behind could certainly deal with getting her out if necessary.

Back at his estate he assembled his Crows and got an update. There were maybe a dozen enemies and they had set a few fires, there was a lot of smoke but no flames that he could see.

Zevran was puzzled. Coup attempts are rare but not unheard of. Certainly they required more than a dozen to pull off. What is going on? He saw some shadowy figures running away from his house. Quite a few of them.

He divided up his Crows into a few teams. A few archers would go up to the roof and pick off anyone else running out of the house. Each team would get into the house via a different secret entrance and they'd each cover a different floor, dealing with anyone they found. He wanted survivors if they could manage it, they were going to need someone to question. He signaled and each team went to their assigned entrance.

He crept quietly through the secret passage until they got to a room. He stopped and listened. No sounds other than a fire crackling. He peeked out from behind a tapestry that concealed the hidden door. No one in the room but there was a pile of books in the center burning. He started to ease out into the room when he noticed there were traps everywhere. He pointed them out silently to his team and they went to work disarming them. It took quite awhile to deal with all of them. The fire was put out quickly.

This is very odd. If they wanted to burn the place down, why not light the tapestries and curtains? Why all these traps?

They went on to other rooms and met small fires and lots of traps everywhere. They saw no enemy Crows. But dealing with the traps had taken a lot of time. There were a few injuries to deal with too as a few traps were sprung.

When they got to his room they once again had to disarm a dozen or so traps. Fortunately nothing was on fire. But there was dagger stuck into his desk, pinning down a note.

Master Arainai,

I apologize for the mess. But business is business and I hope you'll forgive our intrusion. Nothing personal, we just needed to shoo away your flock for awhile. Bygones, yes?

My sincere apologies,

Master Piero Rovere

Suddenly it made sense and he felt a sickening feeling in his gut. Piero was the Crow master working for Count Giovani Becchi. How could he have not associated Lorenzo with Count Becchi? Piero was a good enough sort, for a Crow. This was done with finesse. It could have been a lot bloodier if Piero had not shown restraint. Obviously he wanted to maintain a good working relationship with Zevran. Business was business. Except where Wisteria was concerned. Then business became very, very personal.

Zevran thought quickly, trying to sum up the situation. So Lorenzo is related to the Count in some way. Probably a nephew, the Count had no living children. So Uncle Becchi was checking up on his nephew and saw us hovering around. He warned his nephew. Lorenzo probably planned to get Wisteria away all along, but we were in the way. He needed to distract us. Thus the phony attack and obstacles that would slow us down.

"Brasca!" Zevran shouted and pounded his desk. He paced trying to think. Why would Lorenzo do this? He had her trust, so she would have just gone with him, much easier than trying to kidnap her. But what does Lorenzo get out of it? Zevran thought he knew. Lorenzo was besotted with her, he had seduced her once but Zevran thought she probably turned him down after that. Did he do this merely to rape her? It just didn't seem likely that a Grey Warden Commander would risk so much, involve his Uncle's Crows, by kidnapping another Commander for sexual gratification. There was something he was missing. Whatever his motivation it didn't really matter. The end result is that she would most likely end up dead. They had to find her.

He took a half dozen Crows and they went back to the compound. They found his two watchers had been knocked unconscious and tied up. Dosed with enough drugs to keep them insensible to anything they might have seen. Zevran was thankful Piero had shown restraint. He climbed down to her window and slipped inside, signaling his Crows to stay outside.

Her room was empty, that was no surprise. He saw the lamp she had set in the window to signal she needed help. His heart broke thinking of her waiting for them and they didn't come. What must she think of me?

He looked around the room for clues. The armoire was missing her new armor, her weapons were missing. There was no sign of a struggle. It looked like she had gone voluntarily. Did she leave a clue? She probably would not know where Lorenzo intended to take her. There was a book on the bed. It was that awful anonymous biography, he looked inside. On the title page the "L" in Cousland was circled. The "B" in biography was circled too. Not too helpful, but at least he knew she was hoping he would see it.

He sat on the bed trying to think. Where would Lorenzo take her? To his Uncle's estate? If he did that, he would need an army of Crows to rescue her. That would take days to arrange, lots of favors to call in, his patron would never agree to attacking the Count. He just had to hope the Count wouldn't allow his nephew to bring her there.

As he mused, someone knocked on Wisteria's door. He jumped up, ready to scramble under the bed if needed.

"Commander, are you there? It's Beriel."

Zevran thought maybe his luck was turning. He went over to the door, opened it slightly and pulled Beriel in, shutting the door behind him.

"Zevran?" Beriel recognized him immediately.

"Beriel!" Zevran embraced him, slapping him on the back.

"What are you doing here?" Beriel asked.

"Looking for Wisteria, she's missing." Zevran admitted.

"I think she went with Commander Becchi, she mentioned something to me earlier." Beriel shifted uncomfortably.

Zevran's eyes pierced him, "What do you know?"

"She was afraid she was going to disappear because of what she knew. She didn't tell me the details, just that our Commander had offered to rescue her. Which is odd..." Beriel paused, struggling with his loyalties.

"Beriel, do you want to help her?" Zevran needed Beriel to figure out where his loyalties lay.

Beriel nodded.

"I do too." Zevran said. But I think your Commander Becchi might be intending to harm her."

Beriel closed his eyes and drew in a breath. "I think so too. I didn't want to believe it."

"We can't stay here, Beriel. Can you climb?"

Beriel nodded.

"Good. Follow." Zevran went out the window and Beriel followed him up to the roof where Zevran's Crows waited.

Beriel looked concerned.

"No worries, Berry." Zevran used Beriel's childhood nickname. "They're with me."

"Why do you think your Commander wanted to harm her?" Zevran asked.

"I overheard him talking to Captain Scarlatti, he makes no secret of hating her. Especially after she beat him so badly in the training yard. He talked about what he would do to her... the Commander just laughed and told him to be patient. That was this evening. That's why I was checking on Wisteria, I wanted to tell her to beware of Lorenzo."

Zevran's blood ran cold. "Do you know where Lorenzo took her?"

Beriel shook his head. "No, but the Commander has a big house on the outskirts of the city. I think he's wealthy."

"Can you describe where it is?"

Beriel nodded and gave Zevran directions. "Do you need help?" he offered.

"We need horses. We're going to borrow some, Beriel. Is there likely to be anyone in the stables?"

"Probably just a stable boy."

"Thanks for your help, Beriel." He shook hands with his childhood friend.

"Zevran, get her back, please." Beriel looked shaken and guilty.

"I will, don't worry."

Zevran gestured to his crows. He sent one to help his drugged and injured watchers back to safety. Another one he sent to the estate to bring more Crows and gave them the directions on where they would meet. So he needed five horses now and they could be off. They slipped down ropes to the stables. He disabled the stable boy, careful to avoid any unnecessary blood shed. He noticed that two horses looked sweaty, like they had recently been ridden hard. There were quite a few empty stalls. He counted them. Six looked like they might have had occupants recently. They took five other horses and started for Lorenzo Becchi's house.

Beriel watched Zevran's group ride off. Beriel climbed down from the roof and went back inside. Suddenly the compound was like a hive of hornets whacked by a stick. There was shouting and running. The General from Weisshaupt was in his bathrobe looking red faced and angry.

Beriel grabbed the arm of someone he knew scurrying down the hall. "What's going on?"

"Commander Cousland is missing. We're going to search for her."

Beriel nodded and left. He was going to go see Ustad Salvestro.