Chapter 6

It is late evening; I am finally able to go into my rooms after an exhausting day. Filled with all kinds of last minute preparations for the midwinter and Jecks departure, now we should be ready. Jeck is already riding away quietly in the cover of this moonless night too, as he says:
"Get a feel for the playing field, and put out some surprises of my own."

Considering all our carful planning and multilayered traps, I think to myself we may have overestimated our enemy, he can't be so dangerous.

As I close my door behind me I see something sparkle in the other end of the room. I directly turn and look around me, at the same time as my fingers close around the thin handle of a throwing knife hidden in my dress. Now ready for bad surprises I carefully close the distance in the dim light from a single candle.

When I get to my bed I see it is just a sparkling black-bluish stone on my pillow, small enough to hold in one hand. Small prism lights seem to emit from the centre of it. It looks like a starry sky; more details appear the longer I look, it is mesmerizing.

I take it up in my hand to exanimate the strange and beautiful stone closer. It feels wet to the touch. Thinking it must be a present from someone who knows me and my taste for exotic things well. Maybe it is a parting gift from Jeck, after all he has just left, even thou it doesn't feel like his style.

I smile and hold the stone tightly in my closed fist, only to shortly thereafter open my hand again, eager to gaze at the small diamond sky. When I look down on my hand I freeze as I see blood on it. I let the stone drop to the floor, and stare at the words written in blood on my palm.

With difficulty I can interpret, "You are mine"

I shudder and hurry to wash the blood of me. Suddenly a feeling of insecurity settles over me. Whose blood is it?

What is the meaning of the strange message?

How did they get it into my locked room?

And who is the sender?

I carefully search every corner in my rooms trying to find clues. Noting out of the ordinary, no sign of break-in and noting is missing. But it had to bee someone here recently, seeing how the blood was still fresh. That means someone had to watch me to know what time I should be back…

I pick up the stone in the corner of a napkin, careful not to touch it again. I make a knot around the package and put it away as I go and get a new pillow. I will definitely not sleep on the pillow that has been the bearer of a bloody message. The thoughts are running fast in my head, three weeks till midwinter.

What must be done now and what should I tell Jeck?

He has ordered no contact as our letters can get snatched. The most important thing in our plans is that our enemy doesn't get to know of my apprenticeship. For a moment I play with the thought to try and find his mind and show him what I have seen.

I disregard the idea fast, not sure I can succeed with the distance, not wanting to dose myself up enough to try, and definitely not wanting to receive his wrath at finding me in his head. After all he directly ordered me to stay away after that first time at the pirate incident. I may be disobedient but it is noting wrong with my memory.

I shudder when thinking of the times I secretly has followed his dreams in my personal experiments. I can't imagine what horror he would arrange for me if he knew that. So just to be sure I send up a little prayer hoping he never will find out.

I will contact Jeck in some way if the need is dire, but until then I will not count on someone other playing my parts for me. Whoever it is that is trying to scare me, I will not let them succeed.

The next morning, I started to pay a visit to my sister and her husband to make sure they were alright, and to check if they had noticed something out of the ordinary. We chatted for a while but noting of value came out of it. So I went to my guard officer to talk to them instead. Regardless of all my efforts the day went by without me getting closer to an answer of the mystery. I had even talked to the jewellery guild and eavesdropped at the servants to try and find out something.

When I couldn't make up any more ways to get information, I sat down and tried to put the small pieces I got together in a plausible pattern. The stone was unusual this far north but pretty cheap to buy in the southern countries. Nobody had wandered the halls last nights as far as the guards had seen, and nothing other unusual had taken place lately. Only a few new staff members have got employment in the last months and as far as I can see no one of them is suspicious. This whole affair smells of player from miles away. I just don't now how to get to him or she yet.

After another busy day I decide to not worry more, but to keep my eyes open for clues. I go to toughly search my rooms again, to se if something more have appeared, it have not. My room is clear so I go to bed content.

An hour after midnight I wake up sweaty of a bad dream. At least it had missed the signs of the prophetic ones; from time to time I have them nowadays and it is troublesome. I can't calm down enough to go back to sleep instantly so instead I stay up and wanders back and forth in my room for a while. Finally the monotone actions calm me and I feel sleepy enough to go back to bed. My last thought before drifting of to sleep again is; wish Jeck was here so I can tell him everything, that jerk…

Around a week later when I came back from a meeting with some key people in the lower city I found the palace in uproar. The reason is that at noon when two guards came to replace their colleagues, they found them murdered. No one knows how it happened or why. At the moment everyone is running around and nothing seems to be done.

So without a second thought I take command, send a runner to tell the royals about the issue, at the same time I put together a big group people that begins to search the grounds and buildings from top to bottom. I prepare myself to go look at the dead, I will probably hate it because I know all guards, and some have served here for my entire life. But I feel determined to find the rotten bandit that did this!

I use some time to think up a priority list. Are any of the royals the target? Am I? Was it to set an example, for what? And why do it right now, and not the night or another more easy time. How could this connect to our big plans, it is not a lunatic because it was so well executed. "Chu pit!" I swear as I stomp of toward the area where the guard had worked.

I decide it is probably for me this thing is laid out. Especially after finding a small bluish stone in a pocket on each guard, they were strangled with a small object around two hours back. There are some signs that they tried to fight their attackers. The smell and sight is horrible, no matter how hard I try to keep my mind blank I se scenes from their life flash in my memory.

I have to take a pause to puke in a pot someone conveniently stretches out towards me. I mumble my thanks when I trust my voice, and accept the water bottle the same person offer me.

"I want those devils captured and punished." he tells me with low voice, anger sparkling in his honest eyes.

"Yes of course. We will give them what they deserve." I answer him, making it a promise to myself as much as to him. It doesn't matter if these people was *just pieces*. To me they were important humans in my big and slightly confusing family.

Happily no one has started to clean the place yet, so I can rescue even small clues without the need to wonder if they are tampered with.

I continue to exanimate them and the place of the crime in hope of finding something useful. To my surprise I find not only one but several pieces of information I can work with.

Quickly I leave the area and draw on my magic to stay unnoticed. It was at the last minute. I hear an argument start somewhere behind me as I walk briskly out of a corridor. The voices raise between an angry Contessa and a guard that try to denial her something. Probably accesses to the room were the dead is.

I am looking for a person that is not from around here with red hair. When he killed them he was wearing at least one pieces of unbleached fabric, probably a part of his cloths; a robe or something like it. I have collected the red hair and the small piece of fabric to further studies if necessary.

It is not a player I am looking for, but the person is somehow manipulated by one. It is most likely a really long male from the angle of the choking mark. And he has some emblem in relief on him; part of the pattern could be seen on the skin of one of his victim.

I am searching methodically through the city from place to place. He could already have run away, but something tells me he is still here. Whatever the reason for that may be…

Around an hour and a half later I step unnoticed in to yet another tavern. It is of the quieter sort, with pretty decent food without being fancy. The eating guests looking up when I enter but directly loses interest at the mundane city woman I seam to be. At the bar sits a lone person that not even turn around, he is a well muscled southern priest, in their special unbleached coat. His hair seems to be the same color as the few strands I found, even thou I cant se much of it when he has his hood up. I take a table close to the door and start to think. A quiet maid come and asks if I want to order something. I thank her and just ask for some water.

Jeck always nag if I rush into the situations, not observing them first. I don't agree with him but my suspect seems in no hurry, so I can just as well use the time.

I decide that to try and get into the enemies head with my magic hidden weapon seems to be the best start. I make myself comfortable, let out more venom in my blood. When my eyesight is slightly blurry, I fall into the familiar breathing pattern of tree short, pause, tree short, pause. And in the same time I concentrate on the priest letting myself ignore all other sound only trying to get to him.

First I can't get a feel of his mind at all; it is really hard to find a new person I don't know at all. The time pass unnoticed, the stranger drinking alone and I trying to understand his being. The water in front of me is totally forgotten. Finally I succeed to slink into his head, but all I hear is a never ending pray. It seams he devotedly repeat it over and over, unhurried as if noting else matter than the thread of words.

"Why?" I whisper the word in his mind, making him believe it is his own thought. I feel the sweat drip from my face and one of my legs is shaking uncontrolled.

First noting happens, but then the prayer start to waver, as if the words were made of hot air. Other thoughts coming thru the openings, they sound like quotes of some sort.

"Follow the path and peace will find you"

"Only one god, almighty in his wisdom"

"To succeed you must leave now, and give of you wisdom in the dark countries! The sun will lead you"

"Listen to me, only me"

"This is right, you will be forgiven"

Why god? Why must I carry such heavy burden?

The last sentence is said with his own voice, the sentence opening up to a well of dark emotions. Guilt and shame fill his mind first. Then a dark overwhelming feeling of despair tries to drown both of us. I slowly move away, back to my own mind but can not completely shake of the bad feelings that cling to me.

Looking up at him now, he has slid down and lay over the bar desk moaning. I stand up and walk closer, uncertain what I should do. Then out of the blue, he lets out a high scream that is not sounding human and falls down on the dirty floor. I rush forward and several other guests do the same, when we arrive a moment later he lies head down, lifeless, not even visibly breathing.

"What the heck just happened?" a big sailor says, as he try to shake life in the fallen.

"He is dead" An old woman says, as a matter of fact. And do the sign for bad luck.

Several people backs away, someone screams. I feel empty, only half believing the old woman. Now the taverns owner moves the crowd by pushing them aside and raises his voice.

"You fine people will not start make rumors because of one unlucky lad. There is nothing wrong with either the food or the drinks here. I have sent after the city guards to fetch him, and ensure you all it was a natural death.

He continues stubbornly, not letting anyone break in:

"Such tings happen. Damn this priest to make an appointment with his god here of all places. So stop starring now and go back to your tables until this is properly settled. I am sure the fine guards want a word with all of you."

Why? The word is bumping around in my head and a terrible feeling grinds in my stomach. Was it my fault he died? How?

I feel dirty and uneasy. It is hard just to keep up the magic to help me stay unnoticed. Everyone around me is talking fast and low with each other, casting brief glances at the corpse. They are uneasy and I unconscious push them further in that direction with my own feelings. I take some deep breaths, forcefully calm myself down and send out that calmness to my surroundings. Instantly the mob eases up a little. I use up the rest of the free venom in my body to let the crowd forget me for a moment and then get out and hurry back shaking in my whole body. Today turned out to bee a terribly hard day. I just hope tomorrow will be better!