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Chapter 18. For every sin, I'll have to pay
by Dirano
It was morning already? It sure did look like it, but even a quick glance out a window would prove that judgment false. Time seemed to pass rather quickly here, like an errant shadow. It could just be the lighting though, as it seemed that Sarky kept enough candles burning at all hours. Since Dirano had first lain down, the moon had risen and set into its place for the night. Matters did not seem to be so pressing here though, in this comfortable bed. Dirano felt that he could possibly spend the whole day here if he absolutely had to do so. The ceiling did not even seem to be so bad.
Of course that was because the cat had been staring at it for the past three hours. Sarkleyet had taste, you had to admit that at least. Say what you would about the pine marten, he knew how to impress. Take this bed for instance; it was insulated with the finest feathers available. Hmph, maybe not that comfortable when you had to share it with somebody else. In fact, it was rather crowded at the moment.
It was when he felt a paw pushing at him from the side, that he finally had enough. Lifting his lithe body off the bed, he stood up. A perfunctory stretching followed so that he might release the stress off of his back and legs. He was also glinting with perspiration, which was a remnant of the sensual activities he had just engaged in. Wiping himself off, Dirano proceeded to pat himself down, incase; any unslightly particles should be stuck to his fur.
Annoyed, the cat reached for the clean pile of clothes on a nearby chair. At the very least, Sarkleyet's servants knew how to work. It might not have been the wardrobe he would have chosen, but it fit. Sarky you old rascal, whoever picked out those crisp, clean blue trousers or the non-gaudy green vest sure knew what they were doing. After dressing, the wildcat took a last look at the room.
The female cat on the bed was still asleep. Well, she had every right to be. Dirano looked from her to the nice bag of coins in his paw. Not knowing why he did so, the cat removed half of the coins and transferred them to a bag hanging from his trousers. Leaving the original sack on a dresser, Dirano turned and exited the room.
"I must be getting soft or something" He muttered to himself as he walked into the hallway. "I've never done that before, but I do not think she'll notice. It's the same with them all over-"
"Well look who's ready for a night out on the town."
Dirano looked up, realizing he had not been paying very much attention. Pearl was standing in front of him and looking very peeved at seeing him.
"I was," retorted Dirano, "until I was rudely interrupted."
"Well, whose fault was that?" she asked mockingly."You're always in some trouble or another. The Famous Dirano, just once, once, maybe you could have paid your bills on time."
Dirano sighed, this was an old story. It was also an ugly story, and there was no love lost between either of them. "Look Madam, I never intended on being here at all. I do not personally want to associate with you and I heartily regret any circumstances that do."
She raised an eyebrow. "Well Dirano, my condolences. You're not exactly an easy person to deal with either. But of course, I guess we'll all have to live with it."
The cat did not want to stretch out this conversation in needless formalities, so he decided to get straight to the point. "The whole reason I'm here is because of you which oddly figures in a roundabout, twisted sort of way. Emma, your girl, is the problem. She went rogue, sided with the woodlanders and turned me in. I am, of course, blaming her conditioning."
Dirano was not prepared for what he heard next, though.
The fox assumed a perplexed stance, but the tone of her voice did not. "Emmy? But how? I hadn't seen her for a couple of weeks! I heard she was dead...Last I knew, Emmy said that she had to find you, for reasons I don't really understand. What did you do, give her a disease?"
"She came to me, you evil witch," Dirano retorted. "Turned me over and got full woodlander privileges to boot. I bet she told them a pack of lies, about how she came from a noble family and other bloody fabrications."
Pearl answered back, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Well, how about that? I should have expected it. I taught her everthing she knows."
Dirano's eyes grew wide. Pearl smiled slightly, unable to disguise the hint of pride in her voice.
"Yes everything," she said. "If she learned as she ought, mayhap she saw you for what you really are, Dirano."
Dirano said nothing, sensing she was merely baiting him.
"Well, if you do happen to see her again, give her my best regards. I would very much like to know how she came back from the dead. I'm sure you would want to see her too…" Pearl stopped, apparently done talking.
Dirano said nothing, his cheeks blushing a bright shade of pink. He walked right past her, heading down the hall.
Pearl called down to him again, just before he was out of hearing: "Marties…she was afflicted by it, when I lost her. How was she when you saw her? Sickly, and pale? Not how you normally like them, right?"
The wildcat turned around, and lifted his paws in a mock placating style. "She was just fine, just… perfect! She was as healthy, lively and energetic as I could have expected. If she had been sick, there was no indication of it."
He was pleased to see the dismayed look on Pearl's face. "She was alive and healthy... and she never came to see me. She lied to me... she lied to you. What else did she lie about?" She sounded hurt, as if someone had betrayed her.
Coldly, Dirano turned his back on her. He did not hear any more sound from her, except the noise of retreating footpaws. He liked her less now than before. What was she doing getting all worked up about some girl? He tried to shake the incident from his memory, and found at that he couldn't. For some reason, the image of Emma burned into his mind.
At the very least he could distract himself momentarily. For who did he see lounging about in this hall but a certain pompous little weasel? Fortunately, Thalliv did not seem to hear the wildcat, until Dirano was right beside him. "Hello there." The wildcat said, in an offhand way. "It's not like the 'Green Death' to be so careless is it?"
The weasel looked mildly surprised at Dirano's sudden appearance. "Evening... Dirano isn't it? What brings you up so early?" The cat couldn't help but notice the mustelid's paws were shaking a little bit. Nervous? But he had seemed so confident yesterday…
"Let's get straight to the point here," Dirano said. "You're Sarkleyet's assistant, right? Then you must know something of his plans."
"Like what?" The weasel asked, clearly nonplussed. "You heard what he had to say last night did you not?"
"Yes I did," agreed Dirano. "There was one tiny little thing the marten left out though… A fairly obvious thing if you ask me."
"What did he leave out sir?" Thalliv pondered. "It seemed to me he was very thorough."
Dirano thought he could have yelled in this dingy weasels face and still not be getting a straight answer."Weapons! Do you think I want to run around the entire city looking for some madbeast's concoction without one?"
"Well... umm…" Thalliv stuttered, clearly out of his depth. Dirano rolled his eyes. What value could this sniveling fool possibly be to Sarkleyet? "He told me, that it was not his concern how you choose to defend yourself. He only asked that you bring the Brandy back in one piece."
"Fool!" Dirano never felt like he needed to yell so badly. He raised a paw, as if to smack the weasel, and then thought better of it. He had just had a better idea. Why start a fight needlessly here, if he could just fulfill his needs elsewhere?
Leaning close in to the weasel's face, the wildcat leered down at him. He took pleasure at watching Thalliv cringe. Speaking in a coarse whisper, Dirano spat out his words slowly and crisply. "Thank your lucky stars I am not going to press you on this…"
The wildcat broke away just as fast as he had come. In his wake was a very nervous weasel, one who couldn't stop his paws from shaking.
The moon was full in the sky again, and the stars were shining bright. The night air was nice and cool, and the breeze felt pleasant on Dirano's back. It was strange to be walking outside at this hour, especially with no one else around. It was a pleasant-seeming stroll, but the wildcat was not engaged in anything as innocuous as that.
The streets were empty of all life, but that was okay. Dirano did not want anybeast seeing where he was going just now. It had been short while since he had left the hideout, and so far, nobody had noticed his leaving. Sure he thought maybe he had seen a flicker of motion as had had made his exit, but it could hardly have been anything Sarkleyet's hideout had been abominably simple. A slip out of the nearest window, and a tramp down an adjoining roof, hardly anybeast had noticed his exit.
Dirano knew just what he was looking for right now. The cat also knew that he had just found it. A small shack, off to one side of the main block of buildings. It did not look very noticeable, but that was the point. Carefully sidling up to the doorway of the shack, Dirano took care to make no noise. With the smallest of creaks, he wedged the door open, and slipped inside.
The interior needed some redesigning, that was for sure. I was dark inside; except for what was plainly a metal hatch shining in reflected moonlight. Dirano lifted the hatch, revealing a flight of stairs going downwards. This was what he was here for, thus Dirano glided down the stairs.
At the bottom of the stairs was a well light room, lighted by many candles. In the center of the room sat a wildcat, about Dirano's age, sitting behind a desk. A curtain obscured the back of the space, and most of the walls were filled with busy shelves. Upon seeing Dirano enter, the Wildcat stood up, and made a curt nod.
Dirano walked over to the desk, and dropped the coin sack on the desk. The other wildcat did not acknowledge the fact that he was now richer by a considerable amount.
"What?" Dirano asked sarcastically. "Aren't you going to take the money 'cousin'?"
"You know perfectly well that we are of no relation," the other wildcat sniffed. "This money is supposed to be a bribe for my being quiet?"
"Garredin, you are always such a pessimist," Dirano replied. "One little mention blackmail, all because you were not scientifically detached enough to keep things discreet. Besides think of it as 'payment' for the services you so kindly offer."
"You know I could get slain for this do you not? A beast cannot serve two masters at the same time." Garredin spoke these last words in a frightened whisper.
"Well, you should have thought of that before you decided to renege on Sarkleyet then." Dirano smiled. "But of course, he wanted to monopolize you did he not?"
Garredin's face blanched utter fright. Oh, it was so easy to toy with a beast that could do absolutely nothing about it. But this was just needlessly wasting time, bantering here like this.
"What do you have for me today?" Dirano asked, getting to the point. "I am currently in need of weapons. I came here, because as a 'specialist' in certain areas, you can surely provide what I desire."
Without speaking further, Garredin walked over to a shelf near to him. Reaching up, he retrieved a crossbow and a quiver of bolts. He placed these on the desk near to Dirano.
"This is a crossbow," Garredin explained. "To work the action is not complex or overly daunting. See these levers protruding out of the extremity? Wind these until the whipcord is fully taught. Place the bolt in the nut like so, and aim at your target." Flipping the device over, he pointed out the mechanism by which it was to be fired. "Never, ever, press the trigger until you are absolutely ready to fire."
"This is rather impressive," Dirano commented, taking the crossbow in one hand, and shouldering the quiver.
"It should be," Garredin replied. "I took pains to effect to reduce the size of it so that it would be ideal for carrying. With a modicum amount of skill, a beast could reload twice in under a minute. This technology was lost until now, since I took the liberty of examining the ancient documents of our past to see what could be learned."
Dirano nodded, not really listening. The truth was, something else had caught his interest. Sauntering over to the shelves, he pointed to a series of bottles that were half filled with a dark liquid. "Garry, my dear, are you drinking on the job?" Dirano clicked his tongue in mock disapproval. "Though why you think stuffing dirty cloths into the necks will improve their flavor is beyond me."He lifted the bottle of off the shelf for a better look.
"I would be extra careful with that," Garredin put in unexpectedly. "No spirit is this, but a concoction of my own make. This is turpentine, thickened with tar, to make it more flammable. When the stopper is undone, pull out the cloth in the neck and make sure part of it touches the liquid. The other half should stick out of the bottle. If you light a fire to this wick, be sure to aim the bottle at your target immediately."
Dirano grinned, imagining the chaos that would result from this bottle.
"Not in here," said Garredin, seemingly reading Dirano's mind. I promise you though, that the results will be less than pleasant to whoever gets in your way." A hint of professional pride stuck in his voice, however badly he tried to hide it. "I call them my 'Cocktail Special".
"Interesting," Dirano replied, as he really was interested in this. "I will take some of these 'cocktails'
Wordlessly Garredin handed the other cat a belt fitted with slots for six bottles. Dirano nodded, and put the belt on. Then he proceeded to fit each bottle to its slot. This would hopefully not arouse uncertainty since Dirano was a known connoisseur.
"It is well," Dirano said, quite pleased with his newfound weapons. They would serve him well.
When Dirano was sure that nothing more could be said, he started up the stairwell himself.
"Wait," Garredin said from the back "You won't tell Sarkleyet will you? Even though he knows where I am located?"
"Don't worry your little head over it too much, Dirano reassured him. "If I keep my head on straight, the marten will never know."
"It's not Sarkleyet I'm worried about right now. I can't serve two masters, since the whole reason I left the Marten was because he offered me a better opportunity."
"Who?" asked Dirano, his curiosity piqued by the other cats' vague wording.
"You think you are the slyest beast ever, do you not?" Garredin asked rhetorically. "You are nowhere close, as you were being watched the entire time it took for you to visit me."
"I was watched?" Dirano snorted in surprise. "By who?"
"A beast straight out of nightmare," Garredin replied. "He claims ancestry from Zwilt the Shade and Vilaya from the old tomes. That alone should tell you what manner of beast he is."
The young wildcat shivered. He had heard the name of that fell beast on more than one occasion.
Garredin was silent and obviously would not divulge any more information. Dirano, sensing the conversation was over, left the building.
The journey back to the hideout was uneventful, and Dirano managed to slink in the way he had exited. Re-entering his bedroom, he slipped off the weapons and hid them away.
Then, being careful not to wake the girl, he crawled back into bed. Grabbing a real bottle of spirits off of a nearby desk, he proceeded to take off the stopper.
The noise awakened, the female cat, and she began to make little moans of pleasure. Looking up at him, she smiled, and licked her lips.
Dirano grinned back, and poured some of the drink for her.
"I'd go through hell and highwater for Brandy like this."