Chapter 12

Per recent reviews, it might be helpful to repeat my earlier note and remind the reader that Dree is not meant to represent the player character – this story is based on a possible Dark Brotherhood arc in which the PC never joined up.

Teinaava knew something was wrong the moment he stepped out of the well.

It was not unusual for the Sanctuary to be very quiet in the middle of the day. Assassins' work often requires them to keep odd hours, and nearly everyone would be sleeping then. Not Ocheeva, of course, but that went without saying. No, what warned him was the smell.

There were always faint undertones of blood in the Sanctuary, beneath the fug of old smoke and dank stone. If nothing else, Antoinetta Marie's practice habits tended to reinforce it. But every race's blood is different to the trained nose. And few noses were as well trained as Teinaava's. Lucien saw to that. Vicente Valtieri's own blood had a scent all its own, the tang of corrupt iron like a sword gone to rust. Someone had been dripping it on the floor. The trail's direction was very distinct. Teinaava turned and went directly to the old vampire's room.

He opened the door without knocking and slid inside. As expected, Ocheeva stood near the door. Teinaava did not freeze when he saw her face. He'd lost all such dramatic reactions a very long time ago. Instead, he looked around to see what was wrong. Vicente Valtieri looked back from his slab, pale and gaunt. The smell of ancient blood was stronger. Something else underlay it, something sharp and unfamiliar. Teinaava's nostrils flared.

"What has happened, Sister?" he said.

"He was poisoned," Ocheeva said. As usual when she was worried, she was very curt. "You will see the apple later, but first your help is needed."

"What will this one do?" Teinaava said, returning formal respect. The set of Ocheeva's shoulders changed ever so slightly as she relaxed.

"Nothing seems to heal him," she said wearily. "Marie and I have given him to drink, but he is little better."

"Then I will give also," Teinaava said at once. I am larger. I have more to spare.

"If this does no good," Ocheeva said to Vicente, "I will send M'raaj-Dar."

"I suppose I'm in no position to insist," Vicente said drily. "Much as I loathe a mouthful of Khajiit fur." He paused. "But not Gogron."

"Not yet," Ocheeva said. Teinaava went to lean one hip against the slab, holding out his hand.

"One does not trespass on another's preserve," Vicente said. The Imperial reached up one hand to turn Teinaava's wrist slightly - his fingers were cold, even to an Argonian - and bit. It stung, but the sensation of blood leaving his body was much worse. He held still irregardless. Teinaava could lie without making a sound while someone stuck pins under all the scales on his back (and had). Besides, he was certain Ocheeva had not flinched when it was her turn.

He turned his head to look at her and saw her watching. She smiled tiredly, showing sharp teeth all the way up her projecting snout. "Sibling rivalry is a hard habit to break," she said.

"Even among Shadowscale," Teinaava said. "Do you know who was responsible?" It must be his imagination that blood was flowing faster down through his arm.

"Not yet," Ocheeva said. "Vicente tells me the apple is one he found in the cupboard some days ago. Even Telaendril is not cleared. All I know is that it cannot have been an outsider."

"No, of course not," Teinaava said. He did not have to say anything else. They were both thinking the same thing. And no one is more likely to have done it than we two. Gogron knows nothing of poisons, and M'raaj-Dar's art is not equal to this. It is difficult to say it of Marie and Telaendril, but if they could make a poison powerful enough to harm a vampire, they have hidden that knowledge well.

"Does Lucien know?" Teinaava said. Ocheeva shook her head.

"Not yet," she said. "I had hoped to find the culprit before I speak to him again."

Teinaava nodded. He was beginning to feel lightheaded, which was also ridiculous. It is not possible to lose blood very quickly through just one wrist. But a vampire drinks blood as an effigy. It is your life he is taking. He pushed that thought away and concentrated on the more immediate one. Teinaava was, necessarily, not a sentimental man. He knew what would happen if Lucien LaChance thought the Sanctuary had been compromised. It would not matter that he had raised Ocheeva and Teinaava from hatching. Always the master, nothing more. And there had been suspicions of late, Teinaava was certain of it. Ocheeva said little to him, and nothing that was inappropriate, but he understood it all the same.

The room seemed colder, suddenly. Teinaava looked down at Vicente Valtieri, whose complexion seemed to be improving just a little. He felt distinctly dizzy now, but he was not afraid. You will not flinch, said the chill voice of Lucien LaChance inside his head. You will not stumble. These things are weakness, and the weak exist to die at our hands. Spots began to appear in front of his eyes. He was leaning much more heavily against the slab when Valtieri finally detached his lips from Teinaava's wrist. Dimly, Teinaava heard the other man sit up.

"I'm afraid I've been less gentle with him than I was with you, Ocheeva," Vicente said. (The sound had an odd echo, as if the vampire were shouting down a well.) "He may need your assistance."

"Then I win," Teinaava said, grinning. He straightened slowly, waiting for the dizziness to pass. "And I do not require your help, Sister."

Ocheeva snorted. "Only because I went first, idiot. And if you collapse, I win."

"Argonians are known to resist poison rather well," Vicente said. "And Lucien once told me an interesting tale regarding you in particular, Teinaava." Fabric rasped as he slid off the other side of the slab. "I had hoped some of that resistance would transfer with your blood."

"I'm surprised he told you that," Ocheeva said, raising scaly brows.

"He was rather proud of himself for having thought of it to begin with, I gathered," Valtieri said.

"I did not pass the test," Teinaava said, breathing carefully. With an effort, he could keep the weakness out of his voice. "I did not detect the poison he gave me until it was too late."

"But you survived," Vicente said. "And so, it appears, will I. For that, I am in your debt." Teinaava listened to the sound of his booted feet on the stone floor, deliberately making a sound as he came around to stand beside Ocheeva. "And yet I have to wonder, Brother. If you had poisoned one of us, would you do as you have just done? It would take a very clever and a very cold-blooded individual. But you are Shadowscale. And you are Lucien's protegee."

"Tsk, Vicente," Ocheeva said. "If he were behaving as you say, he could easily have poisoned his own blood before he entered this room. To finish his work, depending on his own resistance to save him."

Teinaava laughed silently. "It would be very clever," he said, raising his head to look at them. "How do you feel now, Brother?"

"Very well, thank you," Vicente Valtieri said. He smiled tightly. His face had color now, but it was not quite right for an Imperial. He was still pale, and the flush on each cheekbone seemed more hectic than anything else. But he stands.

"Then if I have poisoned you, I have done it poorly," Teinaava said. "Ocheeva, my Sister?"

"Yes, Brother."

"I still win," Teinaava said, and turned and walked on his own two feet out of the room. Never mind that he had to steady himself against the wall several times on his way to the Living Quarters. He rested in the smug assurance that Ocheeva did not see it.

All the same, he knew she had been worried. He'd just come in off a mission, and it was the first time she'd ever forgotten to pay him.

---

Dree heard Teinaava come and go, but only by listening for his pulse. He breathed more quietly than most of the others. I really, really hope I never do anything to annoy one of those two, Dree thought. At least I know I can get away from Gogron when I have to.

She paused in her knife practice and glanced over at Gogron. The Orc was still hacking away at the practice dummy with his axe. The wood must surely be enchanted, because it did not splinter even when the weapon hit it edge-on. Gogron in his calmer incarnation did not miss often, but he was very deliberate in his movements. Just another big Orc. Someone to be wary of, sure, but no more than man or mer. Not the demon-thing I saw the other day.

"What, getting tired already?" Gogron said, without looking around.

"No," Dree said. "Teinaava just came out of Valtieri's room." She went back to rehearsing what Marie had taught her on a couple of bales of straw Gogron had set upright. She'd drawn a rough figure with her fingers and soot. One slash across the belly and back against the throat. Duck the sword. Stab the thigh.

"If there's too much armor, jab for the codpiece seam while you're down there," Marie's voice said in her memory"Like this – oh, good, quick evasion for a beginner. Cut the big tendon in the groin and he'll be flopping like a fish. But that's too far in, really. Too slow, when you can eviscerate with one blow. Tsk, that was sloppy. I could have gutted you like a fish instead of the shallow little cut I gave you..."

"Hope it worked," Gogron said, and executed a flawless, if slow, spinning disarm. The dummy jangled. "Even if you hate Vicente, we can't really afford to lose him. He's got more experience than anybody else here."

"What does he do?" Dree said. She tried to remember the last combination she'd learned, then swore when she got it wrong. "The thing about knife fights, dear Sister, is that they tend to be short..."

"I mean, I've never seen him practice," Dree said.

"I think he practices in his room," Gogron said.

"With a claymore?" Dree said. "You could stretch out your arms and touch both the walls in there. And there are no scratches on the furniture. I looked."

Gogron shrugged. His pauldrons clanked. He did not seem to be sweating, Dree noticed. "He's been a vampire more'n two hundred years. And he wasn't exactly a spring chicken when he became one. He's been practicing a long time, Dree. He's pretty good hand-to-hand, it comes to that."

"I guess he would be," Dree said. She did the combination correctly this time. Ha. "But what's he do? I mean, does he ever leave the Sanctuary, except when he's thirsty?"

"Doesn't even do that very often," Gogron said. "Maybe once a year."

"Gods," Dree said, thinking of the thirst. How does he stay sane?

"He's mostly a resource for whoever's doing Ocheeva's job, from what I can figure out. We get a new one, he's usually the one they take orders from 'til they prove they can handle it. I worked for him my first year or so here. You were sort of a special case."

"I'm glad," Dree said. I'll bet he'd just love to be giving me orders, the old leech.

"Yeah," Gogron said. They practiced in silence for a while.

"So," Dree said eventually. "It would actually make sense to poison him first."

"I guess," Gogron said. "I'd think whoever it was was aiming for me or M'raaj-Dar. We're probably the ones most likely to fall for that, with Telaendril out of town. Doubt it would work on one of the Argonians – they can smell poison from yards away - and everybody knows Marie hates fruit."

Dree almost said I didn't, and caught herself. "So what do you think they'll do now?"

Gogron stopped, lowered the axe, and turned to face her. The corners of his wide mouth turned down. "They've got it all their own way. Even if Teinaava can cure Vicente, he'll be weak afterwards. Like Ocheeva and Marie. More apt to miss things."

They looked at each other in grim silence.

"So what do we do?" Dree said. "I've never seen anything like this before."

"Me, neither," said Gogron gro-Bolmog. "I wish I knew."

---

The day was a long one. Ocheeva sent M'raaj-Dar out on a quest (something Gogron told Dree seldom happened), and everyone else tended to go around in pairs. Teinaava and Antoinetta Marie rested for most of the day. Dree found the bitten apple and gave it to Ocheeva. Vicente Valtieri, now seemingly recovered, presented the Argonian with a whole one he'd been saving in his room. "It may not be poisoned," he said. "But I find I'm rather off apples for the present."

Light and dark were not much different in the Sanctuary, but the light from the well shaft gradually began to wane at last. By common consent, Ocheeva went out to get food, and she and Teinaava ate first. Everyone else seemed inclined to hesitate. Dree broke the stalemate by nipping some of the venison off Gogron's plate. It was gamy and tough, but it wasn't bad. Still not thirsty. That's good.

Gogron went to bed not long after dinner. Dree wandered around the living quarters aimlessly, trying to keep an eye on him and on everyone else at the same time. Antoinetta Marie also went to bed early and appeared to fall asleep at once. Teinaava read for a while, reclining propped on a pillow. Vicente and Ocheeva retreated to their own rooms, no doubt to lock the doors. If those doors can lock, Dree thought. I guess they could always shove something through the handles. Like a claymore, for instance.

She listened carefully as she meandered, but heard no extra heartbeats. I'd really prefer it was an outsider. Somebody wandering around here invisible, say. But that was very unlikely. If she didn't detect them, one of the Argonians surely would, by scent if nothing else.

Maybe it was Lucien LaChance, Dree thought. He was in here before I found Vicente. I don't know anything about him. Would he poison his own Sanctuary? How exactly do things work in the Black Hand?

Eventually, she dug her Barbarian's Alphabet out from under Gogron's bed and sat on the floor near him as she flipped through it again. A is for Atronach. B is for Bungler's Bane... She heard Antoinetta Marie fumbling around over by her bed. It struck Dree after a moment that it was more than a heartbeat she heard: She's actually rustling around. That's not normal. Dree set down the book and got up. Marie was levering herself upright using one of the bedposts. Her cheeks were unnaturally flushed. Teinaava seemed to be asleep in the next bed, oblivious to her struggle. Dree went quickly to put a hand under her elbow.

"Are you all right?" she whispered.

Marie leaned gratefully on her. "I'm afraid I must have caught something," she whispered back. "I'm terribly sorry to be a bother, but can you help me find a drink of water, Sister?"

Dree nodded and helped her move to sit on the nearest wooden bench. "I'll be right back," she said. "Let me get a cup."

It was then, just as she was turning her back, that Antoinetta Marie stabbed her in the base of the skull.

At least, that was what should have happened. Antoinetta was a little slow, her weakness not entirely feigned. Dree caught the sudden movement out of the corner of her eye. She twisted to one side. It wasn't enough: she was still facing half-away when the blade went in. The cold steel slid through the side of her throat, jerked up through her chin, and then caught on her jawbone. It only stung, at first. Dree seized Marie's wrist and jerked it unprofessionally downwards. The other woman did not lose her grip on the knife, and Dree watched with horror as a thin stream of blood from the nick in her artery sprayed Marie's grinning face. Her blood was almost black, but not as thin as Vicente's. Funny, the things you notice when you know you're going to die.

Dree tried to make a noise, call for help, but the knife had cut through her vocal cords on its way up and in. The sound that came out was somewhere between a rasp and a gurgle, barely audible. Her grip was weakening, and Marie had not let go of the knife, though her knuckles were white. "The Night Mother hears you, Sister," she whispered, smiling gently. "Give the god my love."

Dree shoved her hard to one side, staggered backwards, and snatched up a chair. She threw it at Gogron's bed with all her waning strength. It bounced off his legs on top of the coverlet. Antoinetta Marie rolled easily to her feet and came after Dree again, swift and decisive. Dree put the table between them, but she could go no further. Her own cold blood still spurted in a narrow stream from the gash in her throat, spattering the dark wood in front of her. (She knew there ought to be more blood than that. Maybe vampires bled more slowly.) Searching desperately for some chance, she cast her hearing wider, searching for Gogron's pulse. (How long before hearing would fail her? Seconds? Minutes?)

She recognized the regular drumbeat at about the same time Gogron's fist hit Marie. The slim woman was knocked sideways into the wall. She landed on her feet, shaking her head. "Oh, very good," she said quietly. "You do move so much better when you're not yourself. But then, you won't remember my saying that, will you? Any more than you'll speak and wake Teinaava. You can't. And it will take rather a lot to wake him, with the stuff I put in his ale. More poison just seemed dull."

Marie dodged to one side as Gogron's fist slammed into the wall next to her. She took a swipe at the Orc's kidneys on her way past. The knife left a deep slash, but it bled slowly. Gogron's heart went on, steady as a clock.

Dree tried to speak again. A sound like "Kkkkkk" was all that came out, but Gogron heard it. His head swiveled, and she saw his eyes. Red light glowed behind the gold. Oh, Sithis. I really am going to die. Dree tried to press down over the slash in her neck, but her fumbling fingers could not find the pinhead-sized gusher in the welter of gore from her chin.

"Now, that would be perfect," Marie said cheerfully, but still quietly. "You kill her, and I kill you. An excellent sacrifice, and entirely worthy."

Gogron snarled at her voice and lunged after her again. Dree fell onto one of the benches, trying to stay upright. If Sithis can really hear me...

Let him kill her before I die.

Marie's knife drew a line of blood down Gogron's right arm. His backhand slap knocked her flying again. This time she managed to land on an empty bed and bounce back upright.

"You know, I'm really getting tired of that," she said reproachfully, and threw the knife.

It halted in midair between Marie and Gogron. Dree stared without understanding. Teinaava faded slowly into visibility, holding the blade with two fingers.

"This one was born under the Shadow," he said. "Have you forgotten?" Gogron stared from one of them to the other, growling deep in his chest.

"You didn't really drink it, did you," Marie said. She sounded, if anything, pleased with him. "Drat. I tried so hard to disguise the smell."

"You might have tried harder with the taste," Teinaava said, and threw the knife back.

Marie flung herself flat. The blade clattered against the wall behind her. She came up with it in her hand, but Teinaava was already upon her.

Dree tried to see what was going on, but the shadows in the room seemed to be growing thicker. No, that was Gogron. He'd turned his back to the blur of movement that was Marie and Teinaava and was coming toward her. His shadow covered her as he came between her and the torch. Dree pushed herself slowly onto her feet. She was starting to feel the pain, now, throbbing through her chin and throat. She'd always thought bleeding to death would be easier than this. Weren't you supposed to just fade out? How long do I have? Long enough for him to bash my head in?

She wanted to say she was sorry. She wanted to tell him she didn't blame him. But all that came out was the same sound: Kkk kkkk.

There was no use running. She didn't try. Dree reached out her small hand as Gogron took a slow step toward her. Her fingers brushed his chin. His skin was hot, and the blood on her hand seemed icy by comparison. The Orc stopped at that cold touch, staring down at her. Dree watched as he raised one enormous fist. Far behind his eyes, the demon raged.

Gogron lowered his arm. Dree watched without comprehension as he blinked, black lashes fluttering. Then he snatched her up with both arms and shoved her face against his neck. Dree sank her teeth in, and for a long time there was nothing but the red tide roaring in her ears.