The Unknown Necromancer strode calmly down the dusty road. She was shrouded in her cloak, clutching a chipped bowl in both her hands. From a distance she could easily pass for one of the innumerable beggars that abounded on Lower Wyrmling's streets, and none of the bored guards standing in front of the compound's gates gave her a second glance. She paced along the street once, then sat on its corner and waited.
Half an hour later the moment that she'd been waiting for arrived. There was a sudden shuffling amongst the gate guards as they opened the side door, allowing a new shift to step out. The old shift, four strong, began drifting of down the street, breaking up as they neared the corner. The wizard paused, selecting her mark, then followed a pair, a scruffy human man dressed in a stinking, soiled green tunic and a red bandanna, singling him out as the leader, and a blond, muscular man. He was considerably better looking then his boss, and his blue tunic rippled over a broad chest as his sandled feet devoured the ground to his destination. Whistling through browned teeth, the first guard led, walking straight towards a garishly painted log house, with the legend 'The House of Fun' emblazoned in peeling gold paint over the entrance. Two tough-looking human bashers stood idly at the front entrance. The older picked her nose. Business it seemed was slow.
The Unknown Necromancer sat down in the gutter switched her attention back to her marks. The pair had glanced around once automatically, and checking for traffic, they then walked swaggeringly across the street and up to the front entrance. Upon seeing them the thugs perked up. Here it seemed was something to engage their interest. Pushing himself away from the wall the younger of the pair stepped deliberately into the path of the first man and put a restraining hand on his chest. At the same time there was movement at one of the windows on the second floor.
The youth asked something the mage couldn't make out, and the man shook his head in the negative, before making a begging gesture. The youth laughed and replied and the man's voice went up an octave. He sounded angry. With feigned carelessness the second thug pushed herself away from the wall of the brothel while her partner stepped back, away from the angry guard.
At that moment a longhaired woman in a drab dress burst out through the front door of the building. Before either bouncer could move she fell on the stunned figure of the bandanna wearing guard with suprisingly savagery for someone in high heels. The he backed down the away shielding his face from a rain of blows, his attacker screaming insults in a high pitched voice. The female thug ran forwards aiming to grab the prostitute and end the scene, but was sent into an agonised crouch as a foot shot out and slammed between her legs. On seeing this her partner hung back, waiting for the scuffle to end before he risked his precious private parts. He didn't have to wait long as with one meaty punch to the jaw the guard was lifted off his feet to fall into an unconscious heap on the floor. With a sniff the woman gathered her dress up and walked back into the brothel, slamming the door behind it.
The mage waited until the groaning figure of the guard had picked himself up. His pal chuckled at him, then called out a question.
The bandanna man called back "Up yours, wideboy! Come and get us when you've finished with Henna. I'll be in the Hobbit."
So saying he turned and trudged of down the street and turned into the nearest alehouse. Behind him the other gate guard jeered at his retreating form.
"Wouldn't want to interrupt your fun with the Hobbit! You can stand here and watch if he isn't having any to!" he called after him, pointing to a window looking out over the street "We'll leave the window open!"
The mage followed him with her eyes as he staggered down the street into the nearest alehouse. The Necromancer was left with a choice. The pub or the cathouse? She plumped for the cathouse. It was as noisy as the alehouse but split into rooms for privacy. You could do what needed to be down and no one would hear you. All she had to do was get past the goons on the door. Plus she reckoned that bandanna man might be missed faster then the blond- he was more then a foot soldier.
Pushing down her concealing hood to show her Elven features she walked across the road towards the door. As she tried to walk in however the young male human stepped into her path.
"Payment for entry," he said, with the weary air of someone who had to ask this thing twenty times a day.
The mage halted, frustrated at the last minute.
"How much?" she asked, making no attempt to conceal her irritation.
"Depends on what you're after dear," said the older thug from behind her partner.
"Yup," he said, taking over "You go in and argue with the whores about that. The boys'll be waiting for you off the corridor. But to get past us, well, the house takes a cut too. One gold coin."
"Look, I just need to speak to the man that just walked in here," said the Necromancer desperately, who had no money on her.
She knew immediately she'd said the wrong thing, and cursed herself for a fool. Somewhere an alarm had gone off. The man's interest in her sharpened and behind him his partner knocked twice casually on the door.
"Hengest, miss? You would want to speak to him now, he's a bad sort," said the Thug, trying and failing to sound relaxed. Behind him a grill had opened and the second Thug was engaging a muttered conversation with somebody inside. As she spoke the man tried to interest the mage in the qualities of the boys available in a loud voice.
As the basher chattered on the Unknown realised that she was being stalled. She was being set up. What for she didn't know. She glanced out of the side of her eyes at the male guard. He hadn't moved closer but his muscles had tensed. The other guard closed the grill with a smack and stepped towards them, smiling falsely. The mage's instincts were screaming trouble at her. Well she wasn't going to put up with this charade any longer. If they wanted trouble they were going to get it. And, as the old saying went, if the fiend wouldn't go to Mount Celestia, then Mount Celestia must go to the fiend.
She turned and gestured abruptly to the young basher just as he was about to spring at her, intending to smash the hilt down on her unprotected head. Things did not go as he'd expected. The Elf was a blur of movement. She side-stepped his blow easily and gestured at his. A ball of glowing energy enveloped him. The effects of a Flare spell exploded in front his unprotected eyes. He swung blindly at the sound of hurrying feet and sank his short sword into the side of his surprised companion who screamed in agony. She slumped away and lashed back at him with her fists frantically, but the guard triumphantly finished her with a thrust to the stomach. Even as the first spell faded the Unknown pointed at him and cast Sleep. He slumped gently at her feet, and drawing her dagger she quickly slit his throat. This sort of work really wasn't to her taste, but the spell wouldn't have held longer then a few seconds and she had no way to tie him up.
Moving quickly now she pushed open the front door of the building and stepped into a dark, narrow corridor. A staircase swallowed most of the space in font of the door, and further down her darkvision made out the shapes of closed doors out of which drifted a chorus of whispers, cries and moans. The mage paused, thinking where the window she saw movement in had been positioned. Then, hearing movement in the street she turned back to the door shutting it behind her. Quickly she barred it, spurred on by a cry of outrage from the street outside. She'd been right. Someone had been circling round to get behind her. She started purposefully up the stairs, ignoring the cries of alarm coming from the nearby rooms, and the heads now poking round the doors. Blows began to pound on the door, but this was a whorehouse, and its doors where designed to withstand plenty of punishment.
The Necromancer reached the top of the stairs and glided towards her target room. She pushed past a balding man struggling into his breeches and cautiously pushed the door open with her foot. As it creaked open the blackjack swooped down through empty air where someone would have been had they simply pushed the door open. The Unknown Necromancer lashed out with her fist at the arm of her assailant. A finger brushed a knuckle, and the thug died screaming as necromantic black energy wracked through his body, draining it of life. The wizard cursed. She now only had one Chill touch spell left. Mentally she prepared another spell and kicked the door open fully. The naked man in front of her fell back across his bed, the room's only piece of furniture, clutching his eyes as the Flare spell blinded him. The woman was nowhere to be seen. The Unknown kicked the door shut, slipped the bolt, and in three strides crossed the room, knelt, and laid her blade across his throat.
"Be still," she whispered in his ear fiercely.
He tensed against her briefly, and she thought he might cry out, but instead he simply relaxed, slumping back against her form and away from the knife's edge.
"Listen carefully," she hissed into his ear "Do as you're told and you'll live. Give any warning, draw anyone down on us and I'll kill you exactly the way I did him."
She jerked his head significantly at the twitching corpse of the floor basher that had been guarding the door.
"It just needs a touch," she added for effect.
The man whimpered and stayed quiet. Outside the chaos subsided and the sounds of an organised search could be heard taking place. Doors banged open and questions were shouted out. The sounds where coming nearer as the searchers worked their way towards the wizard's hiding place.
"First instruction," the mage whispered sweetly in Hengest's ear "Don't let them in. You'd better sound convincing too- Capice?"
Hengest nodded quickly.
A hand tested the door, and finding it bolted hammered twice. The flimsy thing shuddered under the force of the blows.
The knocker now shouted through the door, his voice barely muffled by the wood "Open up in there! There's a search on. Everybody out!"
Hengest shouted back "It's me Hengest! What the in the Hells is going on?"
The speaker paused, presumably recognising Hengest's voice. He spoke again more hesitantly this time. The wizard suspected from what she'd seen of Hengest's behaviour, he had quite a sharp tongue.
"There's an intruder burst in through the front door. Killed Alma and Bersh at the door. Slit Bersh's throat for him we think. Some kind of Elf. The Missus has ordered a room to room search."
"This is the second floor you son of an Owlbear! What in the Abyss's name would they be doing trapping themselves in here! They'll have run right through this place and slipped out the back. Now sod off and yet me get some sleep!" Hengest yelled back.
Secretly the Necromancer was impressed by Hengest's acting. The voice on the other side of the door was unmoved though.
"Henna saw someone running round this floor," it insisted "And Henerik's missing. He was stationed up here."
Hengest glanced down at the basher's corpse. The Unknown tensed.
"Improvise," she hissed.
"Hengest?" called the voice.
"He's in here with me!" Hengest boomed out suddenly. "He's drunk as a skunk too. You won't get a peep out of him for the rest of tonight. Now leave me to sleep, I tell you. I need to be fresh for Henna tonight. Would I be here talking to you if he were in here-?"
"It's a she actually," the voice called back "And the Missus said no exceptions neither. Not even for gatemen. Now are you going to bloody let me in or not?"
"No, I'm bloody well not bloody going to!" yelped Hengest back.
The poor man was sweating profusely the Unknown Necromancer noticed giddily. He wasn't the only one. She had a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach. How did she get herself into these things? More importantly right now how did she get herself out?
"You leave me no choice then, Hengest," called back the searcher. There was a fugitive whispering outside the door, then feet padded of down the corridor.
Hengest turned to her. "They'll be going to fetch the Missus," he said. "I can't stall against her. If she tells me to open up and I don't, they'll break down that door and be in here. Couldn't you just give up?" he pleaded "There ain't nowhere to hide in here. They'll kill us both!"
The mage glanced round the room desperately. It was bare of all furniture but the bed. The dead body lay sprawled unceremoniously in the doorway. There ways a large set of windows set in the far wall and covered by drapes, but they were barred, and an obvious place to look for someone hiding was behind the curtains. They would be checked along with under the bed. The room itself was an odd one. Because of the slope of the roof the end near the head of the bed was lower. A beam supporting the roof crossed the whole room, leaving a space between it and the roof. Instantly she knew what she must do.
"Be silent. Pick up that body, dump it on the bed and cover it up. Making look like he's sleeping. Be quiet about it to, there's still people at the door."
She watched as Hengest clumsily dragged the dead man across the room and heaved him up onto the bed. Quickly, used to stripping the dead of their goods, he cast off the corpse's clothes and cast them on the floor to complete the pretence.
"Get in next to him," the mage ordered "Cover him up with that damn blanket and stay there yourself! I'm going to be climbing over you in a minute. Remember- all it takes is a touch!"
Hengest flinched then hurried to do as she said. The mage heard returning footsteps. Swiftly, as silently as possible she drew back the bolt locking the door. Turning she climbed up onto the bed and stood at its head, her feet on either side of Hengest's face. Reaching up she braced her arms against the wall and pushed off with her feet. Her right leg shot out feeling for the beam, and caught it. Bracing herself between the wall and the beam she slowly 'walked' herself up higher and higher, till she was pinched between the two, and the space was too tight to go further, and she was completely concealed from sight. It would have taken someone sitting directly underneath her and looking straight up to see her. Unfortunately her shoulders and legs where on fire from the strain. She could only keep this up for a few minutes. Gritting her teeth, she held on. Hengest stared up at her, goggling in amazement. He also realised that she was directly above his prone form. She could drop directly onto him in an instant.
In that moment a new voice, this one female, and more assured then the first called out through the door irritably "Hengest darling open this door. I haven't got time now to humour you dear. If you don't open it we'll have to break it, and you'll be banned from here."
Suprisingly humbly Hengest called out "It's open Missus,"
Outside they heard the voice ask "I thought you said it was bolted? If you've bloody well dragged me up all these stairs to beat my poor darling-"
The other voice answered doubtfully "Well it could have been stuck I suppose..."
A hand tried the door, which swung open. Footsteps sounded as people came into the room. The mage heard someone march over to the window and draw the curtains briefly. There was a rustle as the bed's cover was lifted as someone else searched underneath it. A third pair sounded, coming ever closer, and abruptly the Necromancer saw a female figure stand next to Hengest.
She clucked her tongue as she saw the slumped form of the corpse and murmured disapprovingly to Hengest "Send Henerik to me in the morning when he's awake will you dearie? And you! Sleeping with him while he's on duty. Henna's your girl. If you want someone else you just tell me instead of sleeping with the staff while they're on duty. And tell him to wash first. I can smell him from here. Honestly, working at that slaughterhouse has gone to his head. And as for you- I'll see you then to. Right now we've more pressing business."
She turned round impatiently and called "Anything?"
The bedsearcher replied in the negative and so, with a last headshake she departed. The mage hung on until the door had clicked shut and the sounds of her hunters' footsteps faded away, then with an audible gasp of relief she dropped heavily onto Hengest, knocking the wind out of him.
Producing her dagger once more she smiled down at him.
"Be a good boy Hengest and tell the nice lady what she needs to know," she mimicked softly.