Geheiminsnacht, O Geheimisnacht
'Carroburg ho!'
Lysette Voss gazed upon her home city with untold relief and delight as the boat rounded the final bend of the Reik. Brimming with joy, she took in the sight of the Drakschloss Palace, sealed since the days of Emperor Boris 'Goldgrabber' Hohenbach when he and his Court perished in the plague of 1115, and the glittering spires of the Palace of Glass.
'There it is.' Lysette said to Jasper Pye as he limped up next to her. 'Home of the Grand Duke Leopold Von Bildehofen, ruler of the city and Elector Count. Isn't it beautiful?'
'Pretty.' The big man remarked. Jasper had lain unconscious for several days in Worlin and Lysette had rarely left his side. She had found herself chattering about everything she could think of to fill the silence, her life in Carroburg, her days as a student at Altdorf, her brief marriage to Reiner Voss and her eventual recruitment into the Cult of Verena. The villagers of Worlin had largely avoided them, either out of fear of the pair that had killed the monster or hatred for depriving them of the protection they had known for so long. Either way, as soon as Jasper had been able to travel, Getz had ferried them out of the village and onwards downstream. Her last view of Worlin had been the new headman Roland Wakker sweating over a pile of logs as the moldy old palisade was torn down to make room for a far sturdier construction.
Getz had ended up ferrying them all the way to Altdorf where it had been simple enough to secure passage to Carroburg. Now, with her home in sight, Lysette was filled with delight.
'Taal's teeth!' Jasper swore and she saw him reach for the Ravensong.
'Jasper, no!' Lysette laughed. The big man relaxed as the immense dragon having through the mists revealed itself to be carved into the cliffs below the palaces as the boat pierced the final shrouds.
A diminutive yet imperious figure was standing at the dockside as the boat pulled up and Lysette rushed down the gangplank into their arms as soon as the wood touched the stones.
'Mrs. Hudsen! How have you been?'
'Worried about you milady. Oh it's so good to have you home! And not before time. Tonight is Geheimisnacht.'
'That's tonight? Already? Verena save us, I had no idea.' Lysette paused as Jasper made his way down the gangplank with their belongings. 'Mrs. Hudsen, may I present Jasper Pye? I met him on my travels and he has proven himself quite indispensable. Jasper, my housekeeper, maid and confidante, Mrs. Hudsen.'
Mrs. Hudsen found her hand engulfed in Jasper's and gazed up at the giant.
'How do you do?' he rumbled.
'Just fine thank you. And what do you do, Mr. Pye?
'I hunt.' He grinned wolfishly.
'And what do you hunt?'
'Whatever people will pay for.'
'And where do you call home?'
Anywhere.'
Mrs. Hudsen pursed her lips and followed the pair to the waiting coach.
'Will Father be joining us tonight?'
'I doubt it milady. He'll be holed up in his counting house as usual. It would take Sigmar's Hammer itself to break in there.'
'Well send a message to the local Guild of Street Purveyors and Traders and offer them the shelter of our roof for tonight.'
Mrs. Hudsen frowned. 'Milady, you know I don't trust that sort. The Guild are widely known for having sticky fingers.'
'I know Mrs. Hudsen, but they've been very useful to me in the past for information and I'd like to return the favor. Besides, they have children. You wouldn't want children out on Geheimisnacht of all nights would you?'
Mrs. Hudsen relaxed and looked sheepish. 'No milady, that I wouldn't. Maybe Mr. Pye can deliver the message?'
'Capital.'
'Carroburg is really very simple to navigate Jasper. The further up the hill you live, the higher your wealth and standing.'
'It all rolls downhill then?'
'Indeed. Now, our local Guild has a small place two streets downhill across from The Lamb & Flag Tavern. Ask for Lazarus Slade, send him my compliments and offer him and his family our roof for tonight. Do not take offense if they refuse and they may or may not follow you immediately.
'Lamb Flag Tavern. Two streets downhill. Got it.'
The 'place' turned out to be a lean-to against the wall of a fire gutted building and Jasper saw several pairs of eyes staring at him. A thin man, aged by years of hard living, emerged into the street. His shock of hair, bushy eyebrows and beard gave the big man the impression of a small animal peering out of dense undergrowth.
'Lazarus Slade?'
Bright eyes sized up the big man before nodding.
'The Lady Lysette Voss cordially offers you and your kin the shelter of her roof this night.' Jasper painstakingly sounded out the unfamiliar syllables that Lysette had patiently instructed him on by rote.
Slade cocked his head and glanced back at the lean-to.
'Aye. We accept. We'll be round.' And he turned on his heel and walked away. After a moment, Jasper limped back the way he had come.
The grinning emerald orb of Morrslieb rose over Carroburg as darkness fell, chasing the last vestiges of the sun from the sky. The last trading bells had sounded and the streets were cleared of all but the most destitute and depraved. Morrslieb had defied centuries of astronomers attempting to predict its cycles, waxing and waning almost at whim. But on Geheimisnacht it always loomed large over the mortal realms, hideous face mocking and jeering at those minute lives beneath.
Eight of those minute lives made their way through the streets to arrive at a slightly dilapidated looking townhouse. The door opened and Jasper ushered their guests for the night inside. Lazarus Slade shrugged off his threadbare cloak and took his companions'.
'Right kind of you to offer us shelter, Lady. That ugly green bugger out there was staring right at me, I swear to Ranald it was.'
'Indeed, Herr Slade. I've been out under Morrslieb's gaze myself and found the experience most unnerving. Please, allow Jasper to take your cloaks.
'Thank you milady. May I present Frau Kara Engel and Fraulein Hannah Twynnoy?' A young woman with straight blond hair and large dark eyes slid the cloak from her thin shoulders and a small girl emerged from beneath hers. She clutched a cloth ragdoll to her as she gazed around the room at the portraits of Winterbornes past.
'And Herrs Yoram Grosse, Nicholas Vengar, Stefan Groff, Karl Hulet and Isaak Yorke.'
The five men sheepishly bowed as they shrugged off their outer garments. Lysette helped hand them to Jasper, noting the rough sackcloth used and resolved to search through the house to find a kinder fabric.
'Come, we have food and ale ready. Let us eat.'
The Street Purveyors seemed awed at the dining room and had to be shepherded to their seats. A simple meal of bread and meats was laid out, but it was fresh and plentiful. Murmurs of delight were swiftly drowned out as the traders crammed their mouths full of the bounty laid before them. Lysette, Jasper Mrs. Hudsen ate more sparingly, allowing their guests the lion's share. Lysette took advantage of Slade pausing for a drink to ask a question.
'Is Frau Engels Hannah's mother?' They look very different.'
'Her Guildmother milady. Hannah's parents were taken by the Red Pox in her fourth summer leaving her all alone. The Guild takes care of its own. No one else will.'
Lysette nodded sadly. For all her loss of social position from her father's death, her marriage to Reiner Voss and her work with the Cult of Verena, she still had her home, regular meals and enough coin to pay her way through life. Forcing a smile onto her face, she turned to Hannah.
'That's a pretty doll. Where did you find her?'
'Mr. Nicholas found her and gave her to me.'
'How kind of him. What's her name?'
'Joanna.'
'A pretty name for a pretty doll. I wonder if I can find some clothes for her? I think I still have some of my old dolls somewhere so maybe we can give Joanna a wardrobe for tomorrow?'
Hannah gave a shy smile and started to say something when the crossbow bolt shattered a window pane and took Karl Hulet in his one remaining eye.
'Get down!' Jasper's yell shattered the shock that paralyzed the group and they all quickly ducked down under the table edge.
'What happened? Why shoot Karl? Who would do this?' Kara Engel babbled, her breath coming in frantic pants as she fought the rising panic in her. Hannah hugged her tightly, burying her face in her Guildmother's dress.
'Oh faithless one. Oh, faithless one. Did you really think you could escape us?'' The voice came in through the broken windowpane, it's tone mocking and cruel. 'You tried to cheat us. And now you and those you care for will pay the price.'
'Who are you?' roared Slade. 'Why attack innocent folk?'
'Innocent? We are the aggrieved party, Herr Slade.' The voice answered. 'We paid honest coin for the return of our property. But your member sought to deceive and cheat us. And now the Bloody Blades will honor our Master with tribute.'
'Jasper.' Lysette mouthed. 'Can you see anything?'
The big man had stealthily slid up the wall by the window and risked a glimpse of the street. He jerked back his head as another bolt smashed through the pane level with his face.
'Nothing.' He whispered back. 'Too dark.'
'What now?' hissed Slade.
'Upstairs.' Jasper instructed. 'Stay low and move fast. We can defend the stairway easier than the whole floor.'
Jasper stayed by the window as, one by one, the nine other souls in the room squirmed and crawled through the salvation of the door into the hallway and up the stairs. Another pair of crossbow bolts encouraged their departure by smacking into the wall. Last out, Jasper covered the hallway as best he could, glancing between the front door and the kitchen as Lysette followed Slade, Kara Hannah up the stairs. The crash of the kitchen door was the man's only warning as the black clad figure leapt at him with blinding speed.
'Go!' Jasper yelled as he evaded the slashing sword. Steel met wood as the big man barely dodged another swing and the blade chopped into the bannister, sticking for a moment. Seizing this sliver of chance, Jasper seized his would-be assassin's hand and, driving a knee into their body, rammed their head into the bannister. The seasoned wood shivered as Jasper slammed his foe against it time and again, even after the assassin's grip slackened and their knees buckled until finally the big man dropped the corpse and wrenched the sword free from the bannister's hold. He took a step towards the kitchen and, seeing that the locks were broken, was attempting to wedge the table chairs in front of the exposed aperture when the front door rocked to a blow. It was answered by one from the kitchen door and the piled furniture shifted. Realizing the futility of trying to defend two different positions, Jasper fled for the stairs, feet pounding the boards as the doors finally yielded to the black clad assailants. Bolts slammed into the stairs and walls around the big man and, as he rounded the corner, one pierced his arm. Screams greeted his entrance as Jasper staggered into the room, blood staining the walls.
'What do we do?' cried Kara Engels, hugging Hannah to her. 'We can't fight them!'
'We have to.' Jasper groaned as he slumped to his knees. 'We need weapons.'
'Your Father was a soldier.' Slade hissed, looking at Lysette hopefully. 'Do you still have any of his old weapons?'
'We sold them off after he died.' Lysette said regretfully as she began examining Jasper's arm. 'All we have are Jasper's, my sword and this one.' And she motioned to the blood slick steel still clenched in Jasper's hand.
'Fireplace.' Jasper murmured, pointing at the hearth across the room.
'Lie still Mr. Pye.' Mrs. Hudsen gently chided, laying the big man down and tearing strips of her apron to bind his wound. Lysette followed his finger at the fireirons and wood and understood.
'There are a few fireplaces on this floor. Get what pokers we have and bring any logs you think will make decent clubs.'
Jasper nodded. 'How many ways up here?'
'Two.' Answered Mrs. Hudsen. 'The main staircase and the back stairs.'
'Block them.'
Slade motioned to Grosse, Yorke and Groff and Mrs. Hudsen led them to the upstairs rooms. Vengar stayed close by Engels and Hannah.
Lysette examined Jasper's arm. The bolt's head was coated with his blood, but Lysette could still see the cruel barbs biting into the flesh.
'It's got to come out.' The big man rasped.
'Lie still Jasper. The head is barbed and will tear the wound wider. I'll have to bind it until we can get you to a Physician.'
'No time. Our attackers will be on us before long and I can't fight with this in me.'
'But the barbs…'
'Pull it out by the head.' Jasper groaned.
'Ms. Kara, hold him.' Lysette commanded, trying to suppress the waves of fearful nausea that buffeted her. The other woman did as she was told, instructing Hannah to stay behind her. Lysette worked her fingers beneath the barbed head, trying to ignore the pained gasps of her companion, and managed to grip the shaft. Kara Engels gripped Jasper's muscular arm and Lysette gritted her teeth.
The bolt slowly yielded to the pressure Lysette brought to bear and began to slide out of the awful wound. Jasper screamed through gritted teeth and sweat bathed his face as Lysette pulled. A gout of blood erupted from Jasper's arm as the bolt was wrenched free and Kara Engels swiftly clapped a cloth to the wound. As the women were tying off the binding, Slade returned with Groff.
'The back stair is secured. Grosse and Yorke are keeping watch. How's Master Pye?'
'I'm not dead yet.' Jasper replied and sat up.
'Easy.' Lysette cautioned. 'You've lost a lot of blood. Try and eat something.'
'Weapons?' Jasper winced as he chewed a mouthful of bread Hannah had thrust into his hand.
'The Ravensong?'
'Too close. Can't swing it in here.'
'I'll get what we have.' Lysette said. 'Rest while you can.'
'Oh faithless one, oh faithless one.' Called the mocking voice from downstairs. 'Are you really so craven as to hide behind the skirts of women? Come forth with what you stole, and the others may yet be spared.'
Slade tightened his grip on the poker and shook his head. 'Liar. Venger, go back up Grosse Yorke. The rest of us will watch the main stair.'
Venger nodded and, with a look at Hannah and Kara, he hurried away.
Jasper clambered slowly to his feet as Lysette returned with his club, a woodaxe and a few logs and both they and Slade started at the sudden commotion and raised voices from where Venger had gone. Hastening to the back stairs, they saw Venger fall to the floor and Grosse and Yorke clamber over the makeshift barrier.
'Stop!' Lysette cried. 'They'll kill you!'
'We didn't wrong them.' Yorke cried as he fled down the stairs after Grosse 'They said they'd let us go!'. Lysette leaned over the fallen Venger and saw the brutal wound caved into his head. She murmured a prayer and closed his eyes, retrieving the billet of wood the young man had armed himself with.
Just as her fingers closed around it, she heard a scream and a frenzied plea abruptly cut off.
'We can't hold the stairs now.' Jasper stated. 'We'll have to hole up in one of the rooms.'
'Papa's study.' Lysette gulped. 'That door's probably the strongest.'
'Let's go.'
Lysette checked the shutters over the windows as Jasper, Slade and Groff manhandled the late Captain Winterborne's desk across the door and Mrs. Hudsen passed out the weapons As Lysette ushered Hannah and Kara into a corner, she saw Jasper press his ear to the door panel.
'What can you hear?' she mouthed.
'Voices. Three or four. They're looking for something.'
Lysette heard the voices through the wall as they raised in anger and heard the crash of ornaments as someone lost their temper.
'When I dreamed of dying in my home, this was not what I had in mind.' She muttered and tightened her grip on her sword.
The study door shook as a frenzied battering began. Kara, Hannah and Mrs. Hudsen took refuge behind the late Captain's old armchair in the corner as Lysette and the three men fanned out around the door. Even with the desk braced against it, the door was starting to yield and, with a grating, groaning screech, finally gave way. Black figures poured through the breach and one hurled themselves at Lysette and crossed steel with the young woman. Lysette gritted her teeth as her parry jarred her arm and struck back at her would-be assassin, cold fury building inside her for the innocent blood shed under her roof. She saw Groff fall out of the corner of her eye, a sword splitting his skull and hacked at her assailant, breaking through their guard, and driving her sword through their chest. Jasper was managing to hold his own, felling another black clad figure with a crunching blow and Slade sent another staggering with his axe. But another came up behind him and wrapped a cord around the old man's neck. Slade flailed around and managed to land a blow to the assassin, enabling him to find his feet and hack backwards into his attacker's body. The assassin grunted but heaved back on the cord, dragging the older man back and up. Slade's feet scrabbled futilely, and his axe fell from his fingers. Jasper turned and dealt the masked man a horrific blow across his head, pulping his skull. The last assassin lunged at Lysette, dodging her sword and striking her across her face with a flail. She felt her knees buckle and her vision swam as the floor rose to meet her. Through blurry eyes, Lysette saw the assassin stalk Jasper and tried to yell a warning. Too late, the big man turned as the flail struck, dashing his club from numbed fingers before closing in. The pair stumbled and staggered about the room, punching and clawing at each other, each fighting desperately for the upper hand. The end seemed to come when the assassin slipped under Jasper's arms and wound the chain of his weapon around his exposed throat. Back to back with the big man, the assassin tried to hunch forward and lift Jasper off his feet, just as how the other assassin had done to Slade. But Jasper planted his feet and pulled back, grasping at some loose links for purchase. Fighting against the assassin's superior position, Jasper gasped for breath as the links bit into his neck and fingers, more blood staining his hands. The assassin grunted with effort and pulled back harder. Then Jasper abruptly threw himself back, bowling the assassin off his feet and crushing him into the wall. Seizing his opportunity, Jasper grasped a length of the flail's chain and managed to loop it over the stunned assassin's head before wrenching forward. The assassin was flipped over the big man's back and landed full length on the floor as Jasper rolled over him in turn. The hardy warrior's momentum jerked the assassin up, his back arched as his own weapon bit deep into his throat and, with a wet tearing sound, broke his neck.
Jasper flopped back, coughing and Lysette crawled across to him, helping unwind the flail chain from his neck. Mrs. Hudsen, Kara and Hannah crawled out from behind the chair and came to their aid, Mrs. Hudsen helped Lysette to her feet as Kara and Hannah checked on Slade.
Hannah started to cry as Kara gently laid the old man's head back and closed his eyes.
'I'm so sorry.' Lysette whispered. 'I just wanted to offer you shelter.'
Kara looked at her stoically.
'We'd have been slaughtered in the street if you hadn't my lady. At least Slade died fighting. Worse ways to go.' She hugged the sobbing Hannah to her. 'Just want to know why. What did they think we had? Barely the clothes on our backs!'
'What will happen now? With the Guild of Street Traders?'
'What we always do. Take care of our own.'
Kara's previous question nagged at Lysette and she sank into her father's old armchair.
'I'll secure the doors best I can.' Jasper rasped, rubbing his own wounded throat. 'Don't know how much longer till dawn.'
Lysette nodded and tried to marshal her exhausted thoughts into some cohesive order. She replayed the evening's events over and over in her mind, recalling what was said and done. Finally something clicked.
'Vengar.' She murmured. The other women looked round at her. 'Vengar. They taunted the 'Faithless One' until he was killed.' Another thought struck her. 'Hannah, where is Joanna? May I see her please?'
Hannah reluctantly handed her precious doll to the older woman. Lysette squeezed the crudely stuffed doll and her fingers felt something hard in the body.
'Mrs. Hudsen, my sewing kit please.'
Joanna was carefully laid down and Lysette snipped the stitching open until she could slip her fingers inside. Something oily to the touch met her probing digits and she shook the foreign body from the doll to the floor.
A bilious green lump of rock landed on the rug, marked with a symbol that glowed sullenly.
'Get me a bag quickly.' Lysette ordered and Jasper hurried the women out of the room as he went in search of one.
'Is that Wyrdstone?' he asked returning with some small sacks.
'I believe so.' Lysette replied and poked the offending rock into a sack and placed that one inside several others. 'At first light, we take that to the Temple. Will you be alright to accompany me?'
Jasper nodded.
'Good. Now I'll see how well I can restore Joanna to her previous condition.'
The dawn's light finally dispelled the ghastly pallor of Morrslieb and found Lysette re-stitching Joanna's limbs and body. The incongruity of her actions were not lost on Lysette and part of her marveled at doing something so atypical in a house of corpses.
A pounding at the front door jerked her from her reverie and she heard Jasper's heavy tread in response.
'City Militia! What happened here?'
Lysette arrived at the top of the stairs to see Jasper covering the door with one of the assassins' crossbows as a heavy-set man in the classic white uniform of the Carroburg city militia nervously entered.
'Begging your pardon Milady, but what happened here? Are you hurt? We saw the broken windows.'
'Nothing that will not heal, Herr?'
'Luske Milady, Sergeant Ham Luske.'
'Well Sgt Luske, my friends and I were attacked last night by a band of murderers who killed several of our number. We fought back as best we could and were blessed to have survived.'
Luske nodded and went to the door. 'Oi, you lot! In here at the double!' Another militiaman was dispatched to fetch a cart to ferry the bodies away to the local Temple of Morr whilst his companions discovered the extent of the battle. They were treated to the macabre sight of Karl Hulet still sitting at the table with the fatal bolt in his eye as Luske oversaw the laying out of the dead assassins and began removing their hoods.
'Don't know this face.' He looked up at Lysette. 'Do you know him Milady?'
Lysette looked down at the dead man she had fought and killed and his face stirred a vague memory of a Temple Clerk hunched over a book, quill scribbling furiously.
'Vadim Malkin. And that's Klaus Unkrich, Edgar Rangel and Gregor Hochmut!' His eyes were wide as he turned back to Lysette. 'My lady, these are some of the worst sellswords in Carroburg! What in Ulric's name did you do to bring them to your door?'
'I have no idea.' Lysette stated, feeling that the fewest people who knew about the Wyrdstone, the better.
'Sarge.' Called another militiaman. He had just unmasked the last assassin, who Jasper had dispatched so brutally.
'Gielgud. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Some call him Morr's Hand.'
'An assassin, I take it?'
'Rumoured to be. No one could ever prove it, but he was a nasty piece of work either way. Supposed to have worked for the House of Coils, the assassin guild.'
'Aren't they just a rumor as well?'
'Indeed milady. But Gielgud always had gold to spend and no one could tell you definite what he did to earn it. Old Man Morr's going to have a field day judging this lot.' Sgt. Luske chortled. 'You've done Carroburg a great service with this night's work.'
'Sergeant, several members of the Guild of Street Purveyors and Traders are dead at these men's' hands.'
Luske looked faintly embarrassed. 'Yes, well. Quite sad and all. We'll see the bodies to the Mourner's Guild milady.'
'My man and I will accompany you. We have business at the Temple of Verena.'
The cart finally arrived and Lysette and Jasper watched as the bodies were stacked inside before falling in alongside Kara Engels and Hannah Twynnoy. Hannah still clasped the newly repaired Joanna and Lysette noticed that neither Kara or the girl displayed any further signs of grief.
'What will you do now?'
'Report back to the Guild. They'll name a new leader and we'll go on as before.' Kara looked Lysette in the eye as they reached the junction that would part them. 'Thank you for what you did for us Lady. The Guild won't forget.'
'Thank you.' Lysette replied and curtsied, not knowing what else to do.
The wagon and its somber entourage made its way down the street towards the Temple of Morr and Lysette turned to face the road ahead.
'And what will you do now Jasper?' she asked her companion. 'Given since meeting, we've faced pirates, witch hunters, murderous trees and crazed assassins together. Will you seek employment at one of the Temples perhaps? Or maybe ply your trade with the merchant caravans?'
'I think I'll stay a while.' Jasper grinned. 'I've never lived a city like this before.'u/uu/u/p
Lysette smiled for the first time that day and unaccountably felt her heart lift as she and her companion continued their path together.