And so, in a mixture of tension and relief, the company saddled up for the ride back to Nethrida’s home, hoping there would be no more bodies found that night, but not holding out much hope.
As they rode out of Linhir proper, just before leaving the main square Addie paused, feeling eyes upon her. Looking towards an alley with a certain amount of trepidation, she was shocked when a pair of honey brown eyes met hers. A scruffy looking, dirty brown mutt had been watching her with longing, and when she looked back, the mutt became totally focused on digging deeper into the trash pile. As she watched the dog burrow around into places no person could (or should) ever reach, an idea occurred to her, and she slipped off her horse. She stood cautiously at the head of the alley, giving a soft whistle to catch the dog's attention.
After a few moments the dog timidly approached her and Addiela shook her head out of amusement, knowing that she was going to pet it regardless of it being covered in trash. She quietly whistled again to call it closer to her and bent down to speak with it, keeping an eye out for anyone that might pass by. The brown mutt wagged its tail happily and licked her hands as she petted it, Addie getting surface impressions and images from the stray dog. It seemed the dog called itself…well…the sound she kept hearing was not a bark…but..more of a sneeze.
"Your name is Sneeze, huh?" she whispered to the mutt, and then quietly explained what it was she wanted the dog to do for her. About that time the brown mutt let out three sneezes in a row, shaking his head wildly with each one. "All right then.." Addie stood and patted the energetic dog, his whole body moving with the wag of his tail, and she sent him about his task, promising a food reward worthy of a hungry Finch when he returned.
Little did she know how important the little dog’s mission would prove to be as she trotted her horse to catch up to the others.
Addie brought her horse up beside Eduwiges, who was speaking in low tones to Finchly. 'There are times little sister, when a stand must be taken. That idiot who called you names, by himself he is nothing. However, with a group they can to harm. Now he will think twice before attempting to stir trouble up again.' She rubbed her fist where she had slugged the man. 'I know I have a certain reputation Finch, but i would much rather punch someone now, than run him through with a sword later...'
Finchley nodded slowly. "I can't pretend to understand that sort of feelin' but I can sure try... I think Neth was right to not want that man hit. I didn't so much like it either. But I think... it doesn't diminish your honor at all, Edu. I don't think any less of you. And I don't think anyone else does. Okay?"
Eduwiges smiled, 'My honor is my own little sister and I understand Neth's feelings. This is her home town. I will speak with her later about it.'
After a short ride through the twilight, Nethrida took a deep breath and exhaled calmly as they rode over a slight hill and into the courtyard of her family’s farm, just as darkness fell. Her mother Ynnabeth seemed to be waiting for them, nervously, holding a lantern.
The woman bustled up to Nethrida and Ryn before they could even dismount, clearly controlling a growing panic. “OH....there you are....Neth, is your sister with you?'
Finchley frowned a little as she neared the house, working on convincing Destiny she did NOT want to rub against an apple tree. "Eh? Anendyl's not here?"
Nethrida blinked a few times, then shook her head "No... I have not seen her since last evening...why?" She inquired with a raised eyebrow
Eduwiges looked at the others, her eyes grave, 'May I ask where your daughter went Lady Ynna?'
Ynna looked even more distressed as she took in the blank stares that had greeted her question, the hope she that Ane had gone to meet her sister dying. "This morning she said she couldn’t just sit on her hands...and she went off soon after you departed with that Knight to view the body of that poor girl.'
Carneryn pinched the bridge of her nose "She could have just come with us..."
Nethrida dropped off her horse and hugged her mother. "Did she say where she might be going?"
Ynna shook her head. “No…I had hoped she had gone to meet up with you. She seemed so..well, so angry. I fear Roric's visit had her all excited.'
Finchley nodded and smiled wryly. "... I'd be a little angry too in her position," she stated quietly.
Ynna bit her lip opting to ignore Finchley’s comment. "…and here supper is all prepared.....' and she bustled back inside, trusting her first born daughter to handle this, wiping tears on her apron.
To her credit, Finchley was only conflicted for a moment. ”And it does smell REAL good Ma’am….but maybe we should go lookin' for her. With all that's happened, I don't think it's such a good idea for her to be out somewhere without anyone knowin' where she is.'
Xandilif shrugged. "She seems like she can handle herself well enough..and somehow having big sister come to make sure the widdle girl doesn’t get into shite will just make her mood worse. I swear Trouble, you and Ane really outta handle this kind of sister thing like Rian and I do....just try and kill each other now and again. It clears the air…'
Finchley caught Neth's eye from behind Lif and mouthed 'NO!' and shook her head violently, likely in response to Xandilif’s views on sisterly disagreements.
Addiela narrowed her eyes toward Lif, "Regardless of my views of attempted homicide in families, the last victim was more than capable of taking care of herself as well, was she not?"
Carneryn agreed. "Yes, the last victim was an experienced soldier, or so that barmaid said..."
Eduwiges nodded as well. “And if these women were taken by someone they knew, that changes things and makes it more dangerous. I would rather rush to find her and look foolish than leaving her out there in possible danger.'
Addiela clapped her hands sharply. "THAT is what I've been trying to get all of you to realize. Whoever is doing this is skilled, not just mad…if they are mad."
Nethrida pursed her lips and crossed her arms. "I'm... Unsure where she could've gone... Had she truely wished to help we would have ran into her... What if she left for Pelargir...? To request reinstatement? We should've seen her by now had she been in town the same time as us... She would've had to visit the Councillor's office." She pondered to herself and looked at her mother "You said she was off duty until past Yule, no?"
Ynna looked deeply uncomfortable. "Well...I had hoped to speak to you about this...well....just you and I......' She handed a scroll to Nethrida. “I found this the other day, she had thrown it out in a huff...'
Nethrida raised an eyebrow and took it "A scroll...?" she inquired with a somewhat confused tone and unfurled it to read it's contents.
Ynna bit her lip again as Neth read, looking sick. Clearly she had practically memorized the letter's contents already.
Nethrida grit her teeth and frowned a bit. "Oh no..." She sighed and looked at the others. "They're... Recommending she be discharged with honours due to medical complications... They're requesting her to report to Pelargir by year's end for the formalities..."
Looking even more upset. Ynnabeth nodded. "She got that a few weeks ago by courier, said it was just a formality, didn’t let me read it....then said nothing more about it. Suddenly the other day she puts it in with the kindling...'
Nethrida passed the scroll to Xandilif and sighed, looking miserable. "No wonder she seems so upset..."
The Champion looked it over. “Looks in order, proper seals and signatures, signets of the Office of Deployment, Manpower Directorate and the Staff of the First Admiral. The personal seal of what I assume was her Captain…considering what went on with the Hamster we should get it confirmed, but it seems legit."
"Ynnabeth...Medical complications such as...?" Addie looked to Ynna for a moment and then to Neth.
Ynna sighed and looked back at Addie...."From her leg... there was a problem with a gangplank...she fell to the dock, broke her leg. Luckily they weren’t in battle or off somewhere strange, so they sent her home to mend....only she has not mended properly. She keeps insisting the break has healed fine...but I know she is in pain, some days worse, some days better...a mother knows, yes?'
Addie nodded and put a sympathetic hand on the older woman's shoulder.
"Pelargir is the headquarters of the Navy. Of course she would go there." Nethrida took the reins of her horse from Ryn. “Not to accept her discharge, but to FIGHT it. At least to seek an extension past the year's changing."
Finchley looked at Nethrida nervously. "... Do you think maybe she…wanted to prove somethin' instead? With what's goin' on here?'
"Exactly Finch...", Carneryn nodded.
Eduwiges punched her palm. “All she is likely to prove is that she can get into a fix...and she is all alone.”
Xandilif tilted her head and raised her hands to quite the company. “Slow down ya maniacs. If they got her papers all written up and her Captain sealed it, odds are her old ship is elsewhere, her position has been filled...they got no pressing need for her...unless she proves otherwise. Babygirl and scarface got a point...if she can bring in this killer, it may cut some ice in Pelargir, especially if the Captain of the Vanguard gives her a kindly word. Unless she can come with a reason for them to change their mind...all she will get in Pelargir is a pension and a gold compass for her service. Besides, if she DID ride off to Naval Command soon after we left, Trouble, then you would never catch her before she got there, and you got no standing to even be admitted let alone listened to....but I don’t figger she went there.”
Nethrida raised an eyebrow. "What? You don’t think she left for Pelargir?" She looked at Lif with a look of confusion
Xandilif peered at the rising moon. “No, I do not…I think she has gone to hunt a killer. We got no way to find her...especially in the dark…but Edu is right, not much she can do alone except get hurt or worse, especially if Addie is right and this killer knows what they are about. Beyond that Ane wouldn’t make it easy for us to follow her, likely last thing she wants is for us to come "rescue" her lame ass.......I ain’t got a good feelin about this.”
Finchley sighed, feeling helpless, 'Well if we can't "rescue" her... we could at least ask around. Maybe someone else has seen her. Small town an' all... “
Eduwiges nodded. “Good idea little sister. She hates me anyway, so I got nothing to lose. This is a small enough town, I can check all the watering holes before dawn, see if anyone has seen her. For all we know she is on a stool, knocking one back and laughing at us….'
Finchley looked to Neth, her eyes worried. "... She's you're sister, Neth. What is it you want to do?"
Xandilif grinned..."Admit it Greyhound, you were going tavern crawling Ane or no Ane. You want my advice, Trouble? She is a sailor, she is going to go towards the sea...especially as that is our jackrabbit's hunting ground it seems. If they ARE looking for attention, then this last one gave em just what they wanted...they will stay on that line and stick to the beach.”
Carneryn tilted her head thinking a bit "But why would they draw attention to the second and not just start with the first."
"Cause we showed up, Ryn. I don't think we were expected." Finchley smiled wryly.
Carneryn snorted "Or we /were/ expected... The elf cloth we found is... Concerning."
Xandilif dropped off her horse. 'And one other reason they might have kept the first one on the quiet...practice. Most of you are soldiers of one kind or another, like me. We kill, some harder, some easier, but we kill someone who would kill us just the same if we let ‘em. But to kill someone innocent, helpless, for no other reason than to watch them die.....that takes a certain kind of nerve, and practice. Likely our killer needed to work themselves up to it, and get some confidence before putting his work on display for an audience....'
Finchley nodded, making a face at the idea of 'practice'. "Maybe there's more than one hand in this, like a teacher and a student."
The Banshee shrugged. “Maybe…but there is one other thing that is bothering me....The order is all wrong...'
'Order?' Eduwiges stared at the Champion. “What do you mean by that?”
Xandilif leaned against a tree. 'Normally, someone like this would kill an animal first...then a person in secret, then a person openly...each time gaining more courage. But from what Ane said, the girl was discovered on the same night your dog was...but the girl had been left to rot for at least a week in that barn. So the order was the girl in secret, the dog, and then the girl openly, but all three were sliced the same...throat slit, straight incision down the middle to lay them open. Beyond all that, why slay an innocent dog at all? It makes this personal...some part of it at least. Someone knew who that dog belonged to...they found it, killed it, and put it on the right doorstep'
Carneryn stared, 'That captain in Rivendell... Said that Neth and her family hadn't been forgotten. When we got here... I felt something... The body today... Nothing."
Xandilif looked at Ryn...."Whatdya mean nuthin?
Carneryn scrunched up her face trying to think of how to explain it "When things die... They leave something behind... Especially if it was a violent death... I can hear these things... But I felt nothing earlier, nothing at all. Where as when we arrived here there was dark magic... Around Dottie's death.'
Xandilif looked serious. 'Fair enough...so what could account for that?'
"I have no idea...” Ryn shrugged. “Is there some dark magic or sorcery that could erase the presence of death?”
Xandilif nearly laughed. 'Lots of them...ask HorseImp, nothing powers magic like the souls of the dead...I know quite a few things that flat out eat them....'
Carneryn furrowed her brows "It's not so much the souls Lif... I know those get used... The remnants are something else... A memory of the body so to speak?"
'Then something must be very hungry...licking the bowl so to speak...” Xandilif mussed Finch’s hair. “Like Finch at 3 AM.'
Finchley stuck her tongue out at Lif. "I ain't that bad! ....Well, not ALWAYS that bad.”
"I never thought I'd see the day where not hearing those things was more troubling than hearing them." Ryn shuddered and looked at Nethrida. “So what’s the plan?”
Finchley connected some dots in her mind and looked slightly panicked all of a sudden. "Ane loved Dottie a lot. If it's personal... Neth, what if the goal wasn't to get our attention. What if it was to get Ane's? What if she's walkin' right into some sort of trap?"
Eduwiges checked the pommel of her sword for glowy gems, loosened her sword in its sheath, cracked her knuckles and said, 'Trap or no trap, let's quit talking about it and go.'
Nethrida nodded and took command. “Right. Edu, you go ahead and see if she is in one of the roadside pubs but be careful and stay in crowds. Xandilif, you and Addie stay here in case she returns and keep an eye on my folks, just in case. Ryn, Finch and I will go down to the docks south of town see what we can find.”
Lif tilted her head, 'Why you figger there?'
Nethrida smiled, 'You yourself said sailors seek the water... And it feels like the ideal place... Perhaps the Corsair are behind this afterall. It'd be easy to kidnap her from the pier and toss her into a boat before the militia has time to respond. And besides…when she was angry or felt lost she always used to go down and sit on that dock, since we were both little.”
Xandilif looked at Neth and nodded. "Be careful...if Babygirl gets hurt, I will kill Ryn.
Carneryn scrunched up her face at that "You what?"
Finchley however just gigglesnorted. "I'll be fine. Debatable I know but here's hoping!”
As the trio departed for the docks, Eduwiges saluted Xandilif and rode towards the post road. Looking around, The Banshee suddenly realized she had no idea where Addie had gone off to. "Well..." she thought to herself..."Ain't THAT a kick in tha head..."
----
For the trio, The trip down to the docks were, as Neth predicted, short and uneventful...a cold night but a bright moon making it actually pleasant and a bit romantic.
Finchley pulled her cloak about herself a little more to ward off the night's chilly air, green eyes darting this way and that, searching for anything or anyone at all.
Nethrida wrapped her cloak around herself as well. She also had an oil lantern in one hand to illuminate the path, even though it was a path she had traveled many a time in her youth. Ryn had no cloak, and didn’t seem to need one.
As they finally approached the jumble of piers and docks and rowboats beached along the shore, Neth noticed a strange glint on the sea near one of the fishing piers. She drew her sword and elbowed Ryn. "I see something..." She murmured and extinguished the lantern to approach the glint, just in case, tense and on alert.
Carneryn nodded a little and pulled her sword off her shoulder still sheathed "Alright..." as Finch trailed behind them, her own knife drawn, holding her breath.
Looked harder, Neth would see the glint seem to move, to struggle in the water and then she heard a sudden voice as someone broke water..a voice she recognized...screaming.
Nethrida's eyes went wide and she rushed towards the dock. The lantern was still extinguished, no time to reignite it so she dropped it as she made her way to the water's edge "What's going on here?!!" She called out as Ryn and Finch rushed after her.
Nethrida hesitated for a moment. No time to shed armor to swim out to the struggling figure, so she grabbed some sturdy rope on the dock. "CATCH!" She attempted to throw the rope towards the swimmer.
The figure couldn’t manage to catch it, however. Crying out, the voice was clear to all three now. Annedyl.
Carneryn looked to Neth and nodded. "Go... I can pull you both in... Hopefully."
Nethrida dropped the sword and shed just enough of her armor to not sink. Without further hesitation she dove into the water to swim towards the figure, the rope in her hand. As she reached her sister, Ane was in a panic, not seeming to recognize Neth and struggling against her as if her life depended upon it. "NO....LET GO OF ME...RELEASE ME!!!! LET.....GO!!!!'
Nethrida spluttered a bit. "Ane, stop!!! It's me, Neth! Calm down we have to get you ashore!!!" She shouted over the sound of the water splashing and the panicking woman.
Exhausted, Ane finally calmed in the water as if surrendering to something and looked at her sister in surprise. “Nethrida? Neth? Oh...oh god....'
Nethrida panted a little and attempted to put an arm around her sister, then holding the rope with the other let Ryn pull them out of the water. As they crawled up onto the beach, it was clear how badly Ane was hampered by her leg...now that the water had soaked her robes it was apparent that the leg and knee were heavily braced, which hadn't been so noticeable on dry land. She had taken great pains to hide it, in fact.
Pulling herself up to her feet and shivering wildly, Neth looked down at her sister. "What... In Elendil's name were you thinking?" she asked with a tone that wasn’t angry as much as deeply, utterly concerned.
In answer Ane pointed down the beach, still half hysterical. "There....there...he...he chased me...look over there!!!'
Finchley quickly wrapped her cloak around Ane but kept an eye trained on where Neth's sister had pointed, even as both Neth and Ryn charged the spot, swords recovered and drawn. Ahead of them they could spy a pile of what looked like rags or debris on the sand. Getting closer, the stench of blood was almost overpowering...the sand was soaked in crimson, turning to mud.
Falling to her knees beside the rags, Neth recognised the body at once....old Yula, the healer....her throat slit ear to ear, her chest slit from waist to neck....wearing tatters of a white on white damask tabard, now soaked red'
Behind them in Finch’s arms, Ane was crying and cursing like the sailor she was despite her exhaustion. "Chasing me...he....he was chasing me...is chasing me....'
Nethrida 's sword fell from her hand. "Y...Yula... " She managed to blurt out in shock, staring at the body, before gritting her teeth and sobbing. As she did so a smallish dog, soaked in sea water, bounded up and licked Neth’s face. Nethrida flailed her arms around a little when her face was licked, confused. She looked at the dog and scratched the back of the dog's ears despite herself, then wept into its salty fur, taking a strange amount of comfort from the beast.
Finchley called out. "Neth! Ryn! We need to get Ane out of here and somewhere warm and dry... And someone ought to be informed..."
Nethrida didnt wish to leave Yula there on the beach like that. She grit her teeth and closed her eyes, getting herself under control. "Be at peace..." She murmured quietly and then, against all of her instincts she hoisted the body up in her arms.
As she carried the older woman’s body towards the others the wind picked up, howling like a sudden gale around her…and Nethrida would later swear she heard a cold, cruel laughter on the storm.
Laughter she recognized.
