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Just as Aerin and Mjoll predicted, a team of six thugs were waiting for us by the door of the inn. They were carrying clubs.
"Maven sent us to teach you some respect," their leader said.
"Do you really want to go through with this?" I asked. "You know Mjoll and Aerin already. I'm Harbinger of the Companions, the slayer of three dragons; the one in the steel armor is my housecarl. Do you really think you're beyond us?"
"Maven pays us to fight," he replied.
I shrugged, understanding their position. "Fair enough. You have to do what you have to do."
It was a good night out. The four of us were stacked against six huge men willing to use every underhanded, illegal move they could invent. After the last sucker punch and crotch shot landed all six men sent by Maven staggered away or lay prostrate on the ground. Not one guard had moved to break up the fight. The four of us came away with cuts minor bruising.
We turned to our new friends. "We have some pressing business to attend to in the Ratway," I told them. "If we get back before sunrise, we'll knock on your door. Do me a favor and grab their weapons and gear. We'll need to pull Maven's fangs as soon as possible.
"What a nice couple," I commented as we descended toward the Ragged Flagon.
"It seems you Imperials have a taste for Nord women," Lydia mused.
I smiled. "Warmth in the winter, shade in the summer."
"And what do we Nord women get out of it?"
"Men without annoying accents."
The Ratway beneath Riften was a deep sewer network designed to prevent the city above from sinking into the nearby lake. A portion of it had become the kingdom of the Thieves' Guild. The rest was a concentration of misery rivaled only by the warrens of Markarth. The dark environment was ideal for an assassination.
The sound of steel scraping on leather saved me. A diminutive Khajiit had hidden herself behind one of the doors to the sewer and leapt at me. At the other end of the hall Lydia and I were in, two archers took aim. Lydia got between me and the cat-woman. To take care of the marksmen, I used the Unrelenting Force shout again.
The knuckle in the air my thu'um created dragged the flames of the sewer's torches with it like fingers pointing at my enemies. The two men flew backwards and bounced off the wall. They were tough individuals however, and even as I ran to close with them they were up with swords ready. I dropped to my knees and slid on the slime toward one of the men. My uppercut slit him in half up to his sternum. The other man took advantage of my foolish move and started circling and lunging, never giving me time to get back up.
Seconds later, I was starting to be afraid. Lydia might as well have been back at Breezehome for all the help she could give me from sixty feet away. My attacker was working around to my side where he could finish me easily. I was now constantly stretching to the limits of my flexibility to get my saber or a ward in front of his blade. He pulled off a brilliant feint and suddenly my blade was nowhere useful. He smiled in his triumph as his sword came in for the kill.
My attacker's sword swerved suddenly and instead of the decapitating blow I expected, I took the hit to the side of my face instead. My battered leather helmet was not up to the task of completely turning the heavy blade. I let myself fall with the blow and that's all I could really do at that moment. My vision was covered in black and red blotches. The pain burned as the blade cut deep into bone. I heard women's voices faintly through the ringing in my left ear.
Minutes seemed to pass. Hands pulled me upright and set my back hard against a wall. Another hand squeezed my lacerated jaw without mercy, forcing my mouth open. A liquid that tasted faintly of vinegar gushed to the back of my throat. The same hand closed my jaw and another held my nose tightly. Disoriented and desperate to breathe, I swallowed the medicine mixed with my blood.
In seconds, my vision cleared and the pattern numbness and burning sensations on the left side of my face abated. My hearing and awareness came back like I was swimming to the surface of a deep pool. The first thing I saw was my last attacker lying on the ground with an arrow through the base of his skull. I looked up to see a long-haired figure leaning over me. Ever the bodyguard, Lydia was faced out for more attackers.
"Thanks shield-sister," I said to Aela.
We stepped outside to the city canal to clean my wound. The healing potion and my subsequent spell had stopped most of the bleeding and the pain, but the wound would be partially open for a few hours longer as the accelerated healing process did its work. The wound never healed properly. The scar on my face goes from just beneath my cheek bone to the base of my chin in a long clean line. It faded in time, but always shows up when I get sunburn. The left side of my jaw popped in and out of place for years after that fight.
"How did you find us?" I asked as the last of the blood rinsed away. It is shocking how profusely head wounds bleed.
Aela was sitting beside me, letting her boots dangle in the current of the canal. "I'd taken a job clearing a group of grave-robbers operating near Windhelm when I heard your Shout in the distance. After that tracking you and Lydia was easy."
"Well thanks for coming Aela. This is turning out to be a bit much for two," Lydia said as she came into the light. She showed us a letter. "I found this on the Khajiit."
Leaning the letter into the light of a nearby torch, I read aloud:
I have good reason to believe the target will be coming to Riften in the next few days. Discretion is preferred, but elimination of the target is of the highest priority. The usual restrictions on exposure are lifted - you will be reassigned outside Skyrim if necessary, without penalty.
Do not fail me.
-E
"You really know how to piss people off Ieago," Aela remarked
"One problem at a time Aela," I said. "I'll settle Elenwen when I can. In the meantime, Lydia and I were about to make her angrier. Want to come?
"If you want to hunt with me, your feet must be quick and your mind quicker." Aela said. What a woman.