Two Blonds: Adventures in Averland 2

A continuation of a prior commission.  Requested by xanartik, this is really very late.  

X x X

“I don’t understand, the signs all point to smuggling,” Tanya muttered.  She slapped a tiny fist into one palm.

“Some appear to point elsewhere,” Thor said, glancing at the corpse, packed in a cramped box.  It had been a man grown, once, though they hadn’t died violently from what he could see.

“The hidden ledger suggests a typical smuggling operation,” Tanya muttered.  She held her chin in thought as she began to pace.  “And a border town is well suited to such a thing.”

“Perhaps the smuggling is a cover?” Thor asked.  He slid the lid of the box closed, hiding the body away again.

“But why risk working with corpses when their profit margins are so healthy?” Tanya asked herself, as if she hadn’t heard him.

“Greed, a bluff?” Thor suggested.

“There must be two operations in play,” Tanya said, nodding firmly.  “No smuggler would be foolish enough to work with corpses and draw the attention of the Witch Hunters.”

Thor threw one hand up, almost rolling his eyes.  There was no stopping her when she was on a tangent such as this.

“We should interrogate the manager,” Tanya decided.

“Where do  you suppose we will find them?” Thor asked.

“They’ll come running,” Tanya said, turning to him with a grin, and the nearest flickering lantern cast half her face in shadow.

X

It was amazing how a well motivated employee could impress the seriousness of a situation upon his employer when said motivation came in the form of a threat to burn their warehouse full of illicit goods to the ground.

Tanya beamed as the sole warehouse guard returned to the yard, trotting at the heels of a well dressed man, who had just the slightest hints of hidden panic on his face.  He was lean and shaved bald, and as he came to a stop before the two blonds Tanya could see beads of sweat building on his scalp.

“What is the meaning of this?” the man blustered, stopping out of arms reach of the two of them.  He looked warily at Thor.  The guard at his back was clutching at his spear, looking like he’d rather be anywhere but there.

Tanya supposed that the average warehouse guard wasn’t the sort to stand tall in the face of magic, so she wouldn’t be too harsh.  “Are you the manager of this warehouse?” she asked.

“I’m Mikhail, the owner,” he said, looking between the two of them now.  He was quite tall, almost as tall as Thor, which meant he towered over Tanya.

“Excellent,” Tanya said, almost purring.  She’d like to see this one have her manhandled like an errant child.

“Just what are you trying to pull here?” Mikhail asked, trying to sound stern, but he was too unsettled to pull it off.

“We have some questions,” Thor said.  He was leaning against the wall of the warehouse by the main doors, again carving at his half finished lump of iron with his fingernails.

“Questions about the corpses hidden in your warehouse,” Tanya said, as if speaking about the weather.

The guard gave Mikhail a wild eyed look behind his back.  Mikhail, however, drew himself up in affront.

“My business is perfectly legitimate,” he insisted.  “Now, why did you threaten my guard with your parlour tricks?”

Tanya’s line of thought was broken.  “‘Parlour tricks’?” she asked, indignant.  “I am a skilled and dangerous wizard!”  She raised a hand, and conjured a flame in her palm, just as she had when she told the guard she was going to burn down the warehouse if he didn’t fetch his boss.

Mikhail paled rapidly.  “I’m a citizen of the Empire!” he squeaked.  “You can’t threaten me, it’s against the Articles of Imperial Magic!”

“Bold of you to assume I am beholden to those Articles,” Tanya said, willing the flame to twist and flicker.  Its reflection danced in her eyes as she looked up at him, smile stretching wide.

The man managed to pale even further, and the guard looked seconds from bolting.

“Perhaps you can tell us more about your ‘legitimate business’,” Thor suggested.  He stowed his carving in his pouch and crossed his arms over his chest.

Mikhail seized the question like it was a lifeline.  “I am contracted to transport the dead to far off Gardens of Morr for those who cannot afford one nearby,” he said.

“Curious that they would allow you to pack their loved ones away like base goods in crates,” Thor said idly.

“We’re the budget option,” Mikhail said immediately.  “And we have to ensure that unsavoury sorts don’t catch wind of it…how did you say you found yourself digging about in my warehouse again?”

“Rumours of your misdeeds are spreading,” Tanya said.

“Did Calder put you up to this?” Mikhail demanded.  “I’m of half a mind to summon the guards and have you thrown from the town!”

“If your business was so legitimate, you would have called the guards already, not come yourself,” Tanya said.  She produced the papers she had looted recovered from his office with a flourish.  “But your business isn’t legitimate at all, is it?”

The trader hesitated only for a moment, but it was enough, and an expression of victory twisted its way across Tanya’s face.

“Ok, I admit it, just don’t burn me,” Mikhail pleaded.  “We don’t take the bodies to a Garden at all.  We send them to a pauper’s crematorium and pocket the difference.  Take my coin and go, I won’t call the Witch Hunters on you.”

Tanya paused.  That was - fairly mild, all things considered, but something about it sat wrong with her.  She raised a stern finger up at him.  “Don’t wander off.  Thor, a word?”

Mikhail and the guard watched, befuddled, as Thor followed Tanya off just out of earshot.  They huddled in the corner of the warehouse yard, by the wall, and put their heads together.  For Thor, this involved crouching down, and then bending a little further.

“What do you think?” Thor asked, whispering in a lower than usual boom.

“Something isn’t right,” Tanya said.  She kept a watch on the suspect from the corner of her eye; he was doing his best not to look like he was listening in.  “No self-respecting businessman would risk drawing the Witch Hunter’s wrath, or worse, the Morrites, like this.”

“Perhaps he is telling the truth,” Thor said.

Tanya snorted.  “Be serious.”

“Well, if he is lying, are we sure he isn’t a necromancer?” Thor asked.  “If he is, we could just.”  He made a swinging gesture.

The guard edged away from Mikhail.

“I sensed no Dhar,” Tanya said, considering.  “Though I did not look with more than my eyes.”

“Perhaps we should check,” Thor suggested.

Tanya nodded.  “Best to be sure.”

They broke from their huddle and approached the two unfortunate men once more.

“We are going to inspect your goods once more,” Tanya said, wagging her finger at him again.  “You’re not leaving our sight, but if we sense a hint of magic from you, I’ll shoot first and ask questions later.  Understand?”

Perhaps it was the words spoken by the small blonde child, or perhaps it was the blond giant behind her frowning sternly, but Mikhail was quick to nod, head moving jerkily.  The guard behind him was now so pale that he could have been mistaken for a vampire.

Let no one say that Tanya did not know the meaning of mercy.  “You can remain here,” she told the guard kindly.  “You’re just a guard, so you have nothing to worry about, right?”

This didn’t seem to reassure the guard much, but he was left behind all the same, as Mikhail was escorted inside and out of sight.  After the outside sun, it took them a moment to let their eyes adjust to the gloom of the interior.

“Does every box contain bodies?” Tanya asked.

“No, we sort them by content,” Mikhail managed to say.  “So our perfectly legitimate corpse transportation section is by the far wall.”

“Hmm,” Tanya said, glancing at him from the corner of her eye.  Her tone was doubtful.

They returned to the box that Thor had unstacked earlier, and uncovered the crammed in corpse once more.  Thor gave Mikhail a look of disappointment, like he had expected better, but Tanya was hopping back up on the box that had been removed, so that she might see the body.  She allowed her eyes to flutter closed, and she breathed in deeply.

Thor watched, contemplating again what had caused her Windsight to manifest through a sense of smell.  Her magical education had been spotty, mostly consisting of what scraps he had been able to recall from his mother and brother, and a few stolen lessons from a Magister during their time in Marienburg.  Trial and error made up the rest, and it was only the safety net provided by his own power that had shielded her from a nasty accident or two in her learning.

“...the Rhine,” she muttered to herself, opening her eyes again.  “No Dhar, just Shyish, but hidden beneath it there’s a touch of Chamon,” she reported.

“I don’t know anything about that,” Mikhail said.  “I’m just an honest trader.”  He was ignored.

The corpse was male, legs pushed up against its chest and arms wrapped around them, tied together at the wrists to keep it all in place.  It was well dried out, yellowed and gaunt, and only a faint hint of rot could be smelt as a result of the petals it was packed in.  Gently, with the respect it was due, Thor lifted the body out and placed it on the ground, snapping its bindings and laying it out.

“I will be charging you for the costs of fixing this mess,” Mikhail said, though he was ignored again.  The amount of sweat on his brow was only growing.

Tanya hopped down from her box, crouching by the body like it was something she had done countless times before.  She sniffed a few times, and nodded.  “Definitely some Chamon.”  She reached for the threadbare shirt on the body, and pushed it up, revealing its belly…and the stitched together incision that ran across it.

Thor levelled his gaze at Mikhail as Tanya produced a small knife and plucked away at the stitches, severing the coarse black thread.  When it was done, she produced another knife from her sleeve, and used them to part the flaps of skin.  Rather than organs, a cloth sack was revealed, and Thor knelt to remove it delicately, before tearing it apart.  The gold bar clanged heavily as it fell to the stone floor, and a leather pouch clattered with the sound of gemstones as it followed.

“Smuggling,” Tanya said, smirking by the corpse.  “I knew it.”

Remembering their earlier conversation and theories, Thor chose to say nothing.  Instead, he returned to staring at Mikhail, conveying the depths of his thoughts on the situation with a frown.

Mikhail swallowed heavily, but it seemed that being caught had inspired a new drive in him.  “All that and more are yours if you look the other way.”

Thor’s frown deepened, but Tanya was visibly disgusted, the joy of discovering the truth falling away as she inspected the man like a noble would their boot after trodding in manure.

“Are you attempting to bribe us?” she asked.  “Because that will add to your already severe crimes.”

Before the smuggler could process that, Thor rose, looming over him.  “You have defiled these corpses, and disrespected the beliefs of whom they once were.”

“Let’s not be hasty-”

“The time for discussion is over,” Thor said, and there was a crack of thunder overhead.  “You will be judged by the laws of your land.”

For a moment, Mikhail looked like he wanted to run, sure that he could outspeed the huge man, but then he glanced at the girl.  She still held her knives in hand, and she was standing in the shadow of her brother, the giant between her and the nearest lantern.  Her teeth seemed to glint, shining in the darkness, and she reminded him of the snarling hounds of the rat catchers, waiting to be let off the leash.  He whimpered, and sat where he stood.

X

“...therefore, I feel that a five percent finder’s fee is both appropriate and generous, given the circumstances,” the blonde girl came to a finish, smiling politely up at the guard before her.

The guard ran his thumb down the red sash he wore, deep in thought.  He was one of the same five men who had ‘arrested’ the pair of out-of-towners earlier that day, but now he supervised a swarm of men as they besieged the warehouse, going over it with a fine toothed comb.  A section of the yard had been set aside for the corpses that were being recovered from within.  A priest of Morr had been sent for, but for now they were settling for laying them out respectfully with sheets placed over them.

“A finder’s fee,” the guard said, tone hiding his thoughts from the little girl before him.  “Of the treasures stitched inside the corpses.”

“Yes?” Tanya said.  “My report detailed-”

“I read it,” the guard said.  He had seen reports written by seasoned veterans more emotional than the one written by the little girl before him, and on matters less disturbing, but she didn’t even blink.

“Then you will see the merit of my sugg-”

“I don’t-”

“Please stop interrupting me.”

The guard closed his jaw with a click, something about the words sending a chill down his spine.  Maybe it was the blank smile on her face, devoid of real emotion, or maybe it was tone, like an Elector-Count talking to the servant who had just belched at their table.

“As I was saying.  Given the circumstances, I do not think my suggestion to be inappropriate,” the girl said, hands clasped before her.  Another corpse was brought out, and though it was missing half its head it received only a bare glance from her.  She seemed completely unaffected.

Suddenly, he noticed the paleness of her skin, and the way she had stood in the shadow cast by the warehouse ever since they arrived, rather than the afternoon sun.  She spoke like a noble, like she was used to being obeyed, but her trousers were of coarse cloth, if finely made.  Not to mention the mute terror Mikhail had shown when they took him into custody.  Beset by a sudden suspicion, he stroked his moustache with one hand, while the other fiddled subtly at his belt pouch.

“You do have the authority to make this decision, as a senior officer, yes?” Tanya asked as the silence stretched on.

“I suppose, oh silly me,” the guard said, as he dropped a number of small silver coins from his belt pouch.  They jingled and clinked as they hit the stone pavement, bouncing this way and that.  He stepped back, watching the girl as her eyes tracked them.

Tanya bent down to gather the coins, picking them up with one hand, her other at her back.  “...four, five, six, and seven,” she said, as she got them all.  She held her hand out to give them back.

The guard accepted the coins, pulse quickening, holding his hand out so she would tip them into it, but try as he might he couldn’t see any redness or blisters on her skin where she held them.  Maybe it was an old wives tale…  “Thank you.  Hey, Rogart,” he called.  “Come here a minute?”

The girl’s brow creased minutely, but she waited as one of the nearby guards approached, breaking off from his task.  He wore an ostentatious broach on his chest depicting a comet with two tails.

“Aye sir?” Rogart asked.

“How goes it?” He didn’t look at the man, keeping his eyes on Tanya.

“Almost done, sir.  Not all the crates had bodies in ‘em, thank Sigmar,” Rogart said, touching his broach.

“Very well,” the lead guard said.  “You may return to your work.”  The man went on his way, leaving the two of them alone again.  Thoughts raced across his mind.  What could he try next?

“Well?” One small foot was tapping impatiently.

The guard hid his startled jerk as best he could, his focus so intent that he had forgotten the question.  He didn’t know why this girl wanted the treasures, but given his suspicions, he wasn’t inclined to give any part of them to her.  “No.”

“No?”

“Can’t give out possibly cursed contraband to strangers,” he said.

“Possib - stran -” Tanya spluttered.

“Nothing I can do,” the guard lied.

A scowl came over the girl’s face.  “What is your name?  Who is your commanding officer?”

“Can’t tell you that,” the guard said, suddenly glad he never gave it to her.  He knew what a creature of the night could do with an invitation into a home, but what could they do with a name?  Thank Sigmar the possibly centuries old monster girl felt the need to hide her true self.  He did his best to avoid even thinking of it, focusing on the blue sheen of the creature’s eyes, and the clenching of her tiny fists.

Tanya swelled, looking to be an instant away from stamping her foot.  It might have almost looked adorable if the guard hadn’t been so stressed.

“Tanya!” came a booming call.  “What draws your ire?”  A large blond man had emerged from the warehouse, and now approached.

The guard began to sweat, head tilting up to look at him as he drew near.  He hoped this one was human.

“This guard believes that our efforts here are not worth compensation,” Tanya said, eyes narrowed.

“That is unfortunate,” Thor said, turning his eye on the guard.

The guard began to sweat harder.

“But if that is the way it is, then that is the way it is,” the big man continued, shrugging expansively.

“The goods are just going to disappear into the town coffers,” Tanya grumbled.  “I bet there won’t even be a transparent process to determine where they are allocated.”

“Ah,” Thor said, understanding crossing his face.  “You had some thoughts on how to use it?”

“It hardly matters now,” Tanya said with a sniff.  She glanced at the bodies with blink-and-you-miss-it swiftness.

“Indeed not,” Thor said.  “We do not want for coin.”

“It’s the principle of the matter, Thor!  How can they expect cooperation from the populace if they fail to reward civic mindedness?!”

“We have more than enough to pay for proper burials,” Thor said.  “Though it was clever of you to consider trying for a finder’s fee,” he added.  He set his large hand on her head, ruffling her hair.

The guard understood now.  Whatever they wanted to goods for, they didn’t want known, so now they were working to present themselves as having charitable motivations.

Tanya grumbled, but made no move to escape the hand on her head.  A calculating look stole over her face, and she fell into thought.

“Here,” Thor said, retrieving something from his pouch and handing it to the guard.

He accepted it, and his eyes near bulged at the sight of unblemished dwarfen gold.

“That is to be used to give these people the appropriate rites,” Thor said, eyes sharp and watchful.  “If it isn’t, I will know.”

The guard’s throat bobbed as he swallowed and nodded.  “Of course sir.  I’ll give it to the priest myself.”

“The priest,” Thor sasid, suddenly skittish.

Aha, thought the guard, rallying against his nerves.  “We called a Priest of Morr,” he said.  “That won’t be a problem?”

“Noooo,” Thor said, looking about.

“Here he comes now,” the guard said happily.  He could see the black cloaked figure entering through the yard gates, scythe resting on his shoulder, and a raven perched upon the scythe.

When Thor saw the priest, he looked more like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar than a heavily muscled warrior.  When the priest saw Thor, he froze.  The guard tensed, hand drifting to his sword.  He was still in arm’s reach of the girl, but he would strike as soon as the priest made his move, any mome-

The priest bowed to the big blond man.  “In the name of Morr, I greet you T-”

“Haha!” Thor said, approaching the priest and taking his hand, shaking it vigorously.  “Yes, it is a pleasure to meet you too.”

Befuddled, the priest allowed his hand to be shook.

Thor pressed a finger to his lips, trying to pass it off as scratching an itch.

“I - yes,” the priest said, still confused, but rallying when he spied the covered bodies.  “The watch informs me that there are lost souls in need of rites.”

“Just so,” Thor said, before gesturing at the guard.  “I have given him the gold to ensure their needs are met.”

“I will see it done,” the priest said, apparently uncaring of the gold, only that this Thor wished it done.

The guard swallowed, dangerous thoughts flitting across his mind.  The priest was the priest, and he knew him well enough, but he was awfully pale…

“I know!” Tanya announced suddenly, drawing eyes back to her.  “Mikhail clearly had an accomplice, or a contact to receive the goods.  For a modest share, we could find this accomplice and arrest him.”

“That’s watch business,” the guard said, opposing it only because the girl wanted it.  The priest was the priest, and to suspect him was a fool’s thoughts.  The man surely knew more about the creatures of the night than he.

“Watch business is restricted to Granzstadt,” Tanya said.  “This accomplice is likely outside the town.”

“The capture of more of those involved in such disrespect for the dead would please Morr,” the priest said, as if the outcome was inevitable.  He turned an expectant gaze on the guard.

His misgivings aside, he didn’t want to disagree with the priest, and it would get the two blonds out of his town.  “Fine,” he said.  “The arrest of Mikhail’s accomplice in return for a finder’s fee.”  They would end up on a fruitless chase, he was sure.

“How will we find this blackguard?” Thor asked, apparently sharing the same concerns.  “I remember Marienburg,” he added pointedly.

Tanya shuffled her feet, looking off to the side, but rallied, brightening.  “We have a prisoner to interrogate,” she said.

Four gazes went to Mikhail.  When the guards had arrived, and he had been passed, unresisting and defeated into their custody, he had been placed against the yard wall and still he sat in its shadow with his hands bound under close watch.  His arms were resting on his knees and his head was bowed, but as if sensing their attention, he looked up.  He swallowed, paling.

Almost skipping, Tanya made her way over to the poor man, for once looking down on someone, even if only just.  That her path took her through the afternoon sun made the guard feel better about leaving the man to her tender mercies.

Whatever was said between the two, he didn’t know, but from what he saw of the man’s reaction he thought he preferred it that way.  Mikhail’s face, already shaken, took on new levels of pallor, and his arms began to tremble finely.  He managed to force out an answer, and the little girl turned back to them, beaming.

Maybe he was wrong about what she was.  Maybe he was overreacting.  But no matter the truth, he knew one thing.

He wanted that girl out of his town, vampire or not.

X

Dusk was falling when Thor and Tanya made their way slowly along an old dirt track, heading south from Grenzstadt.  In a rickety cart they rode, pulled by an ill tempered donkey, with a number of boxes stacked in its back.  They were only filled with rocks and iron, enough to give it weight, as the guards hadn’t trusted them with any of the actual smuggled goods as bait.  Thor had one hand on the reins, but his gaze was on the mountains rising up before them like they were grasping for the sky, snow capped and immortal, bathed in the light of the dying sun.

At his side, Tanya had less appreciation for the scenery.  Her grumbles had long since quieted, but the put out expression she wore remained, and he could only imagine her internal dialogue on the guard officer who had proven so unreceptive to her ideas.

“Think of it this way, Tanya,” Thor said.  “Perhaps we can loot the smuggler.”

Tanya sighed, barely heard over the rumbling of the cart wheels.  “It’s not the same as official recognition.”

“A good deed is a good deed,” Thor said, dragging his eyes from the mountains to look at his young companion.  “You are beholden to none but yourself.”

That drew a smile out of her.  “Thank you, Thor,” she said.  “You are a much better patron than my last ‘benefactor’.”

He fought the urge to ruffle her hair again.  If he used that move too often, it would lose its power.  If he ever encountered the godling that had manipulated Tanya’s soul for its own gain, however, he wouldn’t be held accountable for his actions.

“We’re getting close,” Tanya said, pointing at a lightning struck tree and breaking him from his thoughts.  “The exchange point is down a side path around the next bend.”  From under her shirt, she pulled a thong of leather, on which there were threaded nine coin sized discs of an almost silver colour.  She did nothing more with it than let it sit outside her shirt, for now.

Around the bend they went, and the rarely travelled side path they took.  Already on the backroads, now they were further away from help still, should they encounter trouble.  They passed through a copse of recently burnt trees, first shoots of new growth showing, as the last rays of the sun were disappearing over the horizon.  When they emerged from them, the sun was set, and night had fallen.  It was a new moon, and the night was dark, but a lantern was lit and hung from the lantern hanger on the side of the cart.

As they neared their destination, both began to feel the sensation of being watched, of unfriendly eyes lurking in the darkness.  Neither gave any indication of unease, but Tanya fiddled with the knot of her necklace, and Thor checked in with Stormbreaker, hidden in the cart.

Abruptly, there was a figure on the path before them, suddenly appearing from the darkness.  The donkey stopped of its own accord, refusing to go closer.  The figure stood still, clad in a traveller’s cloak with the hood raised.  “You are not Mikhail.”  It was a man’s voice, raspy with disuse.

Thor and Tanya exchanged a glance, and the girl gave him a nod.

“Mikhail was arrested,” Thor said, “though we were able to secure the goods.”

The man inhaled slowly, and began to shake his head.  “You are lying to me.  You carry no corpses in your cart.”

“We had to remove the treasures from the bodies to avoid the guards,” Thor said.  He could hear more movement beyond the light cast by the lantern, shifting around them.

A low rumble sounded in the man’s chest.  “You mean to tell me you come with only part of the order?”

“Have no fear,” Thor said.  “We will be happy to wait while you account for all the valuables.”

“What do I care for things pulled from dirt and stone?” the man hissed, angry now.  “Where is the flesh?!”

So that was how it was.  “In the care of a priest of Morr, where you will never disturb them.”

The man pulled back his hood, revealing a pale face and oily black hair hanging to his neck.  “Brave warrior to come out here at night with his little girl beside him,” he said, eyes fixed on Tanya.  “Fresh flesh will serve to make up for the shortfall.”  He drew his lips back in a malicious smile, revealing sharp fangs.  A cold wind snuffed out the lantern, bathing them in darkness.

Tanya smiled in return, blue eyes seeming to glow in the dark.  “You should have brought more.”  She opened her hand, and the nine discs in her palm began to hum ominously.  An instant later, they shot out into the black night in all directions.

The figure before them shrieked and flailed as one tore through its chest, a desperate keening cry ringing out.  It was not the only one, but it held the most pain, as if its wound was greater or more terrible.  He curled in on himself, clutching at the wound and writhing in the dirt.  Other bodies could be heard falling to the ground, choking or coughing wetly.

Nine bloody discs came back to Tanya’s palm, before a trill of magic saw them cleansed.  She was frowning.  “That was a vampire, but the rest were mortals,” she said.

Then, movement, large and swift.  Something charged out from the dark, heading right for Tanya.  Thor had time to see a hulking form and reaching claws before he reacted, calling for his axe.

“NAY!”

Thunder boomed in the night sky, and the stench of ozone filled the air as a flash of light followed, striking the winged beast that had almost reached Tanya.  The beast was swatted aside with a heavy axe blow, guts spilling onto the ground as it was thrown through the air.  It collided with a tree, splintering it, and slid to the ground, yet it was not dead.  It began to haul itself up, snarling, but then Thor was on it again, and a second blow cleaved its head from its shoulders.  The mutated creature collapsed, strings cut.

Crackling lightning illuminated the path, buzzing in Thor’s eyes and around his axe.  They were surrounded by corpses, six of them and the beast, all bathed in the white-blue light of Thor’s power.  Man and girl waited for a moment, expecting more, but all was still.  There was only the whistle of wind through trees and the growing stench of blood.

“Are you well?” Thor asked.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Tanya said, though she spoke quickly.  “Thank you.”  She looked around, inspecting the inhuman foes they had felled.  “I was so sure it was smuggling,” she said, voice plaintive.

Thor chuckled.  “You cannot be right all the time.  Now come, let us inspect the enemy so that we might return to the town and tell of our victory.”

Tanya hopped from the cart, pausing to scratch the donkey’s ears, when she stopped as a thought occurred to her.  “This had better count as an arrest.”

X

Tanya fumed in silence as they left the guardhouse behind.  If she weren’t such a well adjusted, law abiding citizen, she would have shown that upjumped guard the error of his ways, or Thor help her-!

Thor put a hand on her shoulder, guiding her down the lantern lit streets of Grenzstadt.  “Don’t feel so low, Tanya,” he said.  “It wasn’t a complete loss.”

“Good deeds, I know,” Tanya said.  Still, her lower lip trembled in frustration.

“You forget, we were hired originally by Calder, who by my reckoning owes us five gold crowns for our investigation,” Thor said, reminding her.

Tanya brightened.  “That’s right,” she said.  “We’ve made a profit after all.”  Spirits restored, there was some pep in her step as other pedestrians parted before them.  They passed a tavern, and the scent of something roasting tugged at her nose.

Still, something occurred to her and made her frown.

“But why the need for bodies shipped from the Empire?  There is nowhere in the world with a shortage of corpses.”

Thor frowned with her, stroking his beard as he pondered.  “A troubling thought, but one that can be considered later.  For now, dinner.”

The two blonds continued on their way through the town, on the lookout for food.  It had been an interesting day.