Chapter Twenty

Hunting the Knight

ELSA

"'Find Janus and the Witch Hunters' she said," Peggy muttered. "'Shouldn't be too hard' she said."

Elsa found herself feeling equally lost and frustrated. The plan had sounded simple enough, but as she'd experienced countless other times on prior missions, the plan was rarely as simple as it was in theory or on paper. She looked down the busy street which ended in an intersection of roads, branching out behind buildings which obscured the various pathways in a jungle of concrete, wood and bricks.

Bruvesqk wasn't anything like she'd anticipated. Sure, Janus had shared with her some stories from his past as a young mercenary in this city, and she'd formed several preconceived notions about Bruvesqk, but this was much different. In her mind's eye, she'd always seen Bruvesqk as a town like Opalle, Quodrun or Srevnjor, a fairly developed city where most people possessed honest trades. But based on what she'd been seeing thus far, the city of Bruvesqk was anything but honest.

Since an hour ago when Tracy had opened a Crossing Point to Bruvesqk and told Elsa and Peggy to rendezvous at the docks in a week's time with Janus and the Witch Hunters, Elsa had already spotted several instances of corruption that the local merchants and dealers made no attempt to conceal. She surmised that the city authorities had been paid off by the crime families in charge to turn a blind eye to their activities. It was the only logical explanation. Janus had once told her that the local Bruvesqk politicians were mostly made up of corrupt businessmen with their own personal agendas or the heads of crime families attempting to seize power and legitimate control of the city.

But, with all the crime infesting the city, Elsa knew she couldn't lift a finger to stop it. Her mission here with Peggy was strictly an extraction one, and they both couldn't afford to draw any unnecessary attention to themselves if they wanted this to go quickly and smoothly. All they could do was find Janus and the Witch Hunters as fast as possible and get out of this horrible city.

Peggy fingered the pistol strapped to the inside lining of her thin jacket to make sure it was still there. "Tracy didn't happen to leave a map, did she?"

"No," Elsa said.

"Okay. So we wait till night for Janus to show up," Peggy said. "In a town this bent, we're bound to see trouble around, right?"

Elsa nodded. "And when we do, we'll probably find a mercenary, bounty hunter or someone on the Syndicate's payroll."

"And they will lead us to Janus," Peggy concluded.

Elsa had already explained to Peggy earlier that Janus had been a part of the bounty hunting faction established here in Bruvesqk, and it stood to reason that he was back with them again. At the very least, even if the Syndicate didn't know his whereabouts, they would have a far better chance of knowing where Janus and the Witch Hunters were hanging their coats.

"At least that's the hope." Elsa knew it wasn't a great plan, but it was all they had to go on. With their resources and manpower stretched thin, they were going to have to rely on sleuthing and skulking about, which really was more up Melody and Janus' alley. But since the both of them weren't back on the team just yet, she supposed she would have to improvise.

Elsa glanced around her as discreetly as possible without making it appear as though she were a foreigner. It was already getting dark, and the streets that'd been busy not more than an hour ago upon their arrival were far emptier now. Puzzled, she walked down the sidewalk with Peggy in tow. She had no idea the locals knocked off work this early. Even if they did, it was extremely baffling how all of them seemed to want to get off the streets. There were no night markets, bazaars, or even people interacting with one another. All of the people she saw were busy scrambling back to their houses as night fell.

And it wasn't just in one location, as she realised when the two of them left the previous district behind and entered a different avenue. All the way down the street, Elsa saw people rushing indoors with their children, shutting their doors tight and boarding up their windows. Some houses even had their lights snuffed out to hide all signs of life.

"The city's that bad, huh," Peggy said quietly.

"Looks that way," Elsa agreed. The only other time she'd seen something like this was when Denmark had been under the Empire's martial law. It just proved her point; the criminals were the ones who really ruled the town.

A middle-aged man dressed respectably with a stack of books in his arms broke from the alley nearby, colliding with Elsa and sending them both stumbling. The books the man held in his hands fell, strewn across the dirty sidewalk.

"I'm sorry," the man blurted out, his voice panicky.

"Here," Peggy stooped down to help him pick up his fallen belongings, handing a pile of books back to him.

"Are you alright?" Elsa steadied him.

"Yes, yes." His eyes darted around. "I have to get home. And you women should get off the streets before it's too late."

"Too late for what? What's going on?" Elsa asked, taking the risk of breaking their cover to learn the truth. "What's everyone so afraid of?"

"You must be new in Bruvesqk," the man breathed heavily, looking up at the sky. "It's dark now and he's coming out."

"Who's coming out?" Peggy asked.

"The man in the hood." Sweat beaded on the man's brow. "He only comes out at night. A lot of us haven't seen him before, but we've heard the stories, the kind you tell your kids to scare them. For years we thought he was gone, but then he showed up again," the man shivered. "Rumours say there's a new breed of nasty in him. Scarier than before."

"Hold on, this man in the hood," Elsa probed. "Does he wear a mask? Carry a bow and arrows?"

"Yes," The man's eyes widened as he made to leave in a haste. "So you know how dangerous it is to be out at night. Not to mention the crime families warring in the streets for control."

Elsa pursed her lips. So at least that confirmed things. Janus was here in Bruvesqk, hopefully with the Witch Hunters too. It sent a chill up her spine to hear how frightening Janus was to the common folk. But it does fit the profile.

"You girls best get off the streets." The man hurried across the road with the stack of books clutched to his chest. "Before it's too late and he gets you."

"Sounds like we found Janus," Peggy said when the man was far out of earshot.

"Not yet. We know he's here, but we don't know exactly where." Elsa watched the man as he scampered off. The fear she'd seen in his eyes, radiating from his person…it was unsettling. She was worried about what she would find when they located him.

He'd been angry, vulnerable and hurt when she'd last seen him two years ago, and it'd largely been her fault for setting him off. Her guilt still plagued her as she wondered what kind of man Janus had become since he'd lapsed back into his old habits. It sounded like he'd grown far darker after leaving the Warriors behind.

Elsa could only imagine how much pain and hurt he'd repressed while donning the mask and hood again to prey upon his bounties. And as much as she felt reluctant to dredge up her dysfunctional relationship with the man, she owed him that much; to extend an olive branch for him to rejoin the Warriors and help save the world.

"We should head for higher ground," Elsa said. "Knowing the mercenary types, they'll probably be lurking around on the rooftops to scope out their targets."

Peggy nodded. "If we find one of the mercenaries, we can tail them back to the Syndicate."

Staking out the rooftops took longer than Elsa had expected. She'd done this sort of thing with Janus before, but she never thought that they would one day be on opposite ends of the stakeout. Janus was the one who'd taught her everything she knew about hunting targets, so it made sense that he would easily be able to stay hidden and completely out of sight. She just had to bank on the hope that one of the other bounty hunters or mercenaries on the Syndicate's payroll wasn't as well-trained as Janus was.

Hours passed into the night, but still…nothing. All was quiet in the streets, making the entire city feel like a ghost town. That was, until Peggy spotted something out of the norm.

"There," Peggy whispered sharply, pointing at one of the buildings about forty yards away. Elsa followed her finger, tracing it to a burly figure climbing out of one of the windows, jamming a dagger into the brick wall to help him scale up to the rooftop. "Doesn't look like an ordinary citizen."

"No it doesn't," Elsa agreed, hope blossoming. More likely than not, it was one of the Syndicate's mercenaries. "Follow him, but keep our distance."

Before she could catch her breath, Peggy was already darting quickly towards the edge of the adjoining rooftop. She leapt, landed silently, and began running to close the gap. Breathing in deeply, Elsa took off after Peggy, determined to keep the burly figure in her sights as he moved with speed and agility a man his size should not have been able to.

But all things considered, both girls didn't find it hard to keep up with him, given their litheness and experience in the field. Peggy, being a government spy from the future, possessed skills very similar to Janus, as Elsa had already witnessed. As for herself, well, she'd been part of the Warriors and the League of Sorcerers long enough that a simple shadowing like this was a walk in the park.

As hoped, the burly mercenary led them to the coast, where an entire district of shops lined the road. To Elsa's chagrin, the man disappeared as they rounded a corner. Judging by the look on Peggy's face, she too had lost him.

"At least we know we're in the right place," Elsa whispered quietly, glancing up at the dilapidated wooden signboard hanging outside a steel door of one of the shops.

"The Bruvesqkan Catch?" Peggy turned to face Elsa after scanning the exterior of the joint. "I'm guessing it's a local den or bar, which makes it a good cover for an underground network."

"Fits the bill," Elsa agreed. Janus never told her the name of the Syndicate's hideout, but this looked like the most plausible place. What's more, the burly figure had vanished somewhere around here.

"Look out!" Peggy shouted and pushed Elsa hard.

Upon recovering her balance, Elsa whirled to find the burly man they'd been tailing, along with two other men and a woman crouching from where they'd landed, rising with various weapons in their hands. The large one held a mace, two held pistols, while the woman brandished a staff.

"Looks like we're in the right place," Elsa grimaced, hands hovering at her side. She had to remind herself to avoid using her magic as far as possible.

Before leaving Agrabah, all the Warriors had agreed that they would attempt to refrain from using their powers, for fear that the Mage Slayers were waiting for a sorcery signature that would go up like a flare when any of the Warriors used their powers in the slightest. Back in Agrabah, the Desert Warlocks had put up runes and wards to prevent any outsiders from tracking their sorcery, but now that they were away from Agrabah, they could no longer use their sorcery freely without being detected.

This went especially for Anna's team, as her team was in charge of locating Jade's old childhood orphanage. Her part of the mission needed to go undetected by the Crimson Order. Meanwhile, Melody and Tracy would have no choice but to run the risk of being detected. Tracy's spell was crucial to their plans, after all.

Elsa's mission was the only one that wasn't directly integral to their larger plans to stop the Empire. They were just here to bring Janus and the Witch Hunters back into the fold. Still, the objective remained. She wouldn't use her sorcery unless absolutely necessary. And this didn't qualify yet.

"Trespassers," the burly man spat, thumping his mace against his free palm.

"Wait!" Peggy called out to them, her hand resting on her belt where her knife's hilt was visible to all - a warning. "We're not here for trouble."

"Dracos was right to be paranoid," the woman said, her voice low and hoarse. With her staff in hand and her feet planted securely, she had the confident stance of a veteran combatant.

"Had the feeling someone was following me," Dracos growled. "I don't like being followed."

"Listen to me, we're not looking for a fight," Elsa said cautiously, watching the four hostiles for any hint that they were going to pounce. "We're looking for the Syndicate."

One of the smaller men stepped towards her. "You're not getting in there."

"I'm warning you, step aside and let us pass," Peggy drew her knife. "We don't have to turn this into a scene."

"Kill them!" Dracos shouted, bolting towards Elsa with mace raised.

Sighing irritably, Elsa ducked beneath the swing of the burly man's mace and slammed a fist into his heavily muscled stomach. He staggered, and she used the split second that he was stunned to high-kick the mace out of his hand.

As Dracos reached to grab her, she nimbly slid back, then leapt, using his outstretched arms as a platform to launch herself into the air. Twisting and coming down upon him from behind, Elsa jammed her elbow against the back of his head, her enhanced sorceress' biology giving her a slight edge. Stunned, the burly mercenary tumbled forward heavily, hitting the ground hard.

Looking over her shoulder, she watched Peggy move like the plague, meeting the charge of the pistoleers. Before they could get a shot off, Peggy had already chopped the pistol out of one's hand, and delivered a spinning heel kick to the other's chin, dropping him like a sack of potatoes. Clutching the wrist of the first pistoleer, she hoisted him over her shoulder and slammed the heel of her boot into his face, immediately knocking him unconscious.

The woman stabbed one of her blades at Elsa, who simply stepped back, turned aside another thrust, and returned with a counter-punch she'd learnt from Melody that snapped her enemy's head back.

Spitting blood, the woman charged Elsa but she never had a chance. Elsa faded, grabbed her by the scruff of her collar and used her own momentum against her, swinging her straight into a risen Dracos who'd just gotten to his feet. The woman slammed into Dracos, sending the burly man backpedalling.

Sprinting towards Dracos, Peggy sprung up and delivered a picture-perfect drop kick which had him stumbling through the entrance as the steel door opened at just the right moment.

"What's the meaning of this?" the bouncer thundered, but Peggy barrelled into him, charging at full speed into the Bruvesqkan Catch with Elsa a step behind.

Once inside, all eyes turned to Elsa and Peggy. Men and women rose from their seats, abandoning their drinks and conversations in favour of drawing their weapons. Axes, pistols, rifles and blades were brought to bear in an instant, and Elsa braced herself for a fight with a tight grimace. This was not how she'd envisioned this night to go at all.

"Stop!" A voice drawled loud in the tense silence. "Everyone lower your weapons!"

A man in his sixties strode to the front of the den, sporting greying hair and a full beard. He wore a business suit, marking him as a standout among the rest of the more casually-dressed men and women around him.

"Who are you?" the man asked sharply. "How dare you break into this sanctuary?"

"We mean no harm." Elsa raised both hands. "We've only come to the Syndicate for information but your people attacked us."

"And what information do you seek?"

"We're looking for Prometheus and the Witch Hunters," Elsa said, and the fact that her words sent hushed whispers and murmurs told her what she wanted to know.

To his credit, the old man's eyes didn't betray him. No hint of recognition or emotion flickered across his face as he stared back unflinchingly at Elsa. Then a second later, his tense shoulders relaxed.

"Everything's alright," he said in a loudly pleasant voice, though his tone brooked no argument. "Nothing to worry about. Back to your drinks, people."

The patrons of the Bruvesqkan Catch returned to their own drinks and conversations, though the tension didn't fade completely. Several wary eyes still rested on Elsa and Peggy though the two girls did their best to remain steadfast.

"I think we may have got off on the wrong foot here." The old man lowered his chin in apology. "My name is Cheyenne, Head of the Syndicate." He took Elsa's hand before she could react and kissed it. "It is a pleasure to meet you both."

Peggy kept both hands behind her back. "Thank you," she said. "I was hoping you could tell us what we want to know, and we'd gladly be on our way."

"Of course." Cheyenne gestured for them to follow him. "But you've already come all this way. I insist you stay for a drink or two with me first."

Wary, Elsa cased the environment quickly. The place was rather dimly lit but well furnished and grand, as opposed to what the den looked like on the outside. The couches patrons lounged upon were lined with velvet, the tables built out of solid marble. The atmosphere smelled distinctly expensive with scents of aged liquor and vetiver. Though the patrons continued to drink or converse, their weapons were no doubt handy.

If she had to hazard a guess, she and Peggy wouldn't be able to take on all of these mercenaries, assassins and bounty hunters. Not all at once. Which meant that they would have to accept Cheyenne's hospitality, forced as it was. She knew they had to be careful, as she'd been drugged before. Suffice to say, it wasn't a pleasant experience, but here, if they were going to get what they came for, they would have to play by the Syndicate's rules. She nodded to Peggy without a word, and followed Cheyenne down the aisle to the end of the den.

Elsa forced a smile as Cheyenne showed them to their seats. He played the part of a warm host perfectly, but it didn't mean she wasn't going to stay on her toes.

"What drinks can I get you?" Cheyenne asked as they all sat down and he snapped his fingers for a waiter.

"Water would do," Peggy said.

Cheyenne waved away her request. "Come now, you must try our house special. It's on the house."

"If you're attempting to drug us, I'd recommend you save yourself the trouble," Elsa said. "We'd know the difference."

Cheyenne looked surprised. "No, no. No tricks, I guarantee. On my honour." He turned to the waiter that'd arrived at tableside. "Two house specials and black tea," He waited for the waiter to leave before turning back to the two girls. "I swear, I mean you no harm. Besides, De Vesques would never forgive me if I hurt his sweetheart."

Elsa kept a straight face. "You know who I am?"

The old man smiled. "I've heard so much about you, Snow Queen. You are as lovely as he tells it."

Shifting uncomfortably, Elsa struggled to find a reply. None came. The drinks arrived, but she pushed hers aside, finally finding her words. "If Janus told you who I am, then you know why I'm here."

"You are here to find him and his two companions," Cheyenne answered, taking a long sip from his steaming cup of black tea. "The two siblings?"

"Yes," Peggy said. "We're here for them and Janus."

"To drag them back into the war across the ocean?" the old man met their gazes. "Yes, the Witch Hunters told me all about the war. Please, drink, drink!"

Elsa hesitantly took a sip of the house special. It was actually good. "Do you know where they're staying?"

Cheyenne set down his half empty cup and sighed contentedly. "De Vesques learnt his lessons well. The sly bastard never did tell me where he and the Witch Hunters were staying." He looked almost proud. "A smart choice, given our line of work. Too much information can be a liability sometimes."

"So you don't know where we can find them?" Peggy asked.

"Actually I do," Cheyenne paused, looking conflicted but shook his head a moment later as he regarded Elsa sternly. "You promise to let De Vesques decide for himself?"

"Whether he wants to return to help us fight the war?" Elsa nodded sincerely. "You have my word."

Cheyenne looked satisfied. "Good. Earlier today, De Vesques and Hansel came by the den. They wanted information for a contract they're working on."

Elsa leaned forward, excitement and hope bubbling just beneath the surface. "What information?"

"They wanted to know the location of one of the Saltoni crime family's legitimate establishments. Word is, they need Saltoni's connections for some reason and he's there tonight."

"Where did they go?" Peggy asked.

"The Bruvesqkan Brawlers. One of Saltoni's fight clubs, full of the most savage murderers and killers on Saltoni's payroll. A dangerous place for two pretty girls like yourselves."

"Let us worry about them," Elsa said, ignoring the icy feet that danced down her spine. The club sounds lovely. "Can you give us the directions to the Bruvesqkan Brawlers?"

Shrugging, Cheyenne removed a pen and paper from within his inner suit pocket and began scribbling. "Don't say I didn't warn you ladies."