Just as Addiela emerged into the square chasing Annedyl and Ordan, Neth and Ryn burst into town to find the courtyard deserted save for a massive bonfire, the source of the smoke that had attracted them....they watched Ane sprint across the courtyard from the clinic to the Rusty Barge, followed by old Ordan and then by Addie who stopped and stared at the new arrivals. “No time to explain…” she shouted. “Ane is getting away!!!”
---
Meanwhile inside the clinic, the thug facing Xandilif and Finchley was tenacious and there was little room for the two to work. He had managed to shoulder SilverWand away, leaving the greatsword trapped by the corner. Therefore Lif drops it, pulling on Finch to drag her away from his grasp since he had dropped his own dagger after Ficnh stabbed him in the arm
In the center of the clinic, Edu gave her opponent an evil grin and spun her sword Badu Druit around, the blade flashing in what light there wasin the room, trying to distract him from how unsteady she felt. Her ears were still ringing from the blow she had taken to the head from that blasted mace. With his eyes on her great sword, she lunged with her dagger towards the right side of the thug's chest...but slashed through empty air. She had not realized she was seeing double, and therefore attacked the thug who wasn’t there.
The thug who WAS there realized what had happened and laughed, said something in his own guttural language, and swept his mace low, taking Eduwige’s legs out from under her and dropping her to the stone floor. She wasn’t injured but the air was knocked out of her and the thug, sensing victory, moved in for the kill.
Finchley was not doing much better than Eduwiges as she reeled backwards from the other thug, Lif trying to drag her away but her leg still in the grip of her opponent. Her daggers were still in her hands, one bloodied after she had pulled it from the thug's arm, but she was curling in on herself slightly from the pain of her brand. It seemed to be reacting to all these words in the tongue of Angmar. Still, she gritted her teeth and forced herself to stay as upright as possible for now.
Having had enough of this standoff and the threat to Finchley, Xandilif the Champion of the Azure Faithful set her feet and wrenched the girl free of the man’s grip, throwing her behind herself and towards the middle of the room. As she did so, she stripped one of the two blades Finchley had been holding out of the girl's hands. Stepping forward into the corner like a battering ram, using the momentum granted by her heavy armor, she slammed her steel-sheathed forearm against the thug’s throat, pinning him to the wall and slamming the back of his shaved head against the bricks with a sickening thud.
Gripping the dagger low in her other hand, the Champion leaned in close enough to embrace the thug and stabbed quickly and repeatedly with the short blade, hissing to him in his own language, words too low for anyone else to hear. She stabbed him five times, six, seven..again and again and again…the half foot of steel ripped through leather and cloth and flesh and organs as the thug’s eyes rolled back, blood running freely out of his mouth as his head lolled forward against Xandilif’s shoulder, almost as if they were dancing. He coughed, spraying crimson across her breastplate, blending in with the blood red enamel.
Ten, eleven, a full dozen or more stabs reduced the thug’s midsection to a thick red pudding as Xandilif the Banshee finally stepped back, letting his limp corpse slide wetly down the wall. “Next time…” she hissed, “Don’t touch Finchley without permission.”
---
In the courtyard Nethrida saw Addie running towards the courtyard and hearing her shout that Ane was escaping, joined in. "Annedyl!" She bellowed out for what little good it did as she ran towards the open doorway of The Rusty Barge and burst in after Addie.
Carneryn entered right after Neth, sword in hand, glowing dimly. "Mans!" she roared as they entered. "Get your ass out here!" Ryn clearly had no more patience left.
As Neth, Ryn and Addie charged into the Tavern, the barkeep they had been speaking to just a few days earlier was slumped over, a throwing dagger jutting out of his eye. He had died recently enough that his word-worn hands were still twitching, liquor from the bottle he had dropped as he died flowing off the bar like a caramel colored waterfall...there was no sign of Ane or Ordan, however.
Neth froze, staring at the hilt of one of her own daggers sticking out of the man’s face, her heart growing cold. “That blade is mine…” she whispered. “It’s the one Annedyl accused me of killing those girls with…how can this be happening? My baby sister killing innocent people with MY weapons and blaming me?” Her voice was weak and confused, as if she were trapped in a nightmare.
“Not your sister…Mans. The Linhir Ripper! A murderous monster wearing your sister like a coat. Don’t forget that Nethrida! We don’t even know if Ane is still in there, but we know Mans is!” Addiela held her staff high and at the ready as her eyes searched all around the tavern. From somewhere close, she heard a dog growling..a dog whose growl she recognized.
Hearing her friend’s words, Nethrida nodded and stood up straighter, her sword ready and poised. She looked around and raised her voice to the volume and tone she would use giving final orders to a line of soldiers. "Annedyl! I know you can hear me. And I know you're still in there somewhere, I saw that when you urged us to leave. I'm telling you to not give in! Fight back! FIGHT BACK! We've beaten that spirit before, and we'll do so again! But you have to fight back, for our family's sake!"
Nethrida held her breath, focusing her entire will on the thought of her sister. Remembering her as a little girl, running behind her big sister bravely, always wanting to be included. Remembering her pride in herself the day she was commissioned into the Navy. Remembering the gentle care she had always taken with their parents. Certainly as women they had had their differences, but as little girls there had been no sisters closer. A few months ago she had thought her sister lost to her forever. The distance between them seemed too far to navigate, but now, after seeing Xanderian and Xandilif together, she realized there was no single way to be sisters and that being sisters didn’t have to be easy or even pretty. However strained the bond of blood may become, it would never break, EVER…and was worth fighting for.
As all these thoughts ran through Nethrida’s head, somewhere, on the very edge of heart, she could swear she heard Ane screaming out her name, calling for her…afraid and calling out for her big sister one last time. “Ane is still there! She’s alive! I know she is…we have to find her…I have to find her!”
Addiela looked back to Neth and Ryn, Neth’s sudden conviction inspiring her. "A dog has her cornered.." but she couldn't say much more than that as she rushed into the back of the tavern toward the growling she heard.
Finally near the back, Addie saw the source of the growling. It was SNEEZE, the little dog she had befriended some days before. In the flight from Nethrida’s farm she had lost track of the mutt but here he was, growling and pulling at a scrap of Ordan's cloak, sticking out from under one of the booths.
Addiela gave Sneeze a quick pat on the head and some words of praise as she examined the booth and called out to Neth and Ryn. "Here! There's another one of those secret passages.. seems your home town is full of them, Neth."
With no time to seek a mechanism, Addie simply slammed herself against the side of the Booth and pushed with all her might. Her booted feet slipping on the polished floor, her back strained, but the booth did not budge or even seem to shake. Perhaps she was wrong. She tried again….grunting with the effort. Nothing.
Nethrida made her way over to where Addie was and frowned. "They MUST HAVE gone through here...didn’t Ordan say the entire town was built on smuggler caves? An undercity? Let's get it open!"
Nethrida braced herself, set her hands on the side of the table, and pushed. A snapping sound echoed as the cogs of the hidden mechanism shattered under the force Nethrida applied and the entire booth slid to the side with a rasp..beneath it was a steep stair going down into darkness.
Addiela just stared as Neth shrugged, Ryn shaking her head and trying not to laugh.
---
In the clinic, oblivious to the drama in the clinic and the butchering behind her, Eduwiges struggled up on one elbow and hurled her dagger into her opponent’s face after having been knocked to the ground...or what she thought might be his face as her vision still swam. The thrown dagger distracted the thug, but was easily knocked aside with the long mace. Edu tried to scramble back as he raised the mace over his head with an insolent smirk, prepared to bring it’s flanged head down in a finishing mood. “Goodbye, Rohan BITCH.” he muttered in a heavy Angmar accent..just before a hurled Finchley slammed into his chest, knocking him back a step and off balance.
Bouncing off, Finchley realized what was happening and slashed at him with her remaining dagger but he shouldered her away. The girl barely had the body weight to slow him down as he set himself to raise the heavy mace again.
Eduwiges, still too dizzy to think straight, tried to roll away to get access to her other sword but she was trapped by the corpse of Roric. For a moment, she was on the verge of accepting that her luck had finally run out….but her hand by chance wrapped around the remains of the heavy golden chain of office Roric had been wearing. Cut, bloody, but still a heavy and substantial length. She grabbed the chain and casting out with it like a whip, wrapped it around the head of the lowered mace. With a jerk, she nearly yanked the mace from him and pulled him off balance as he struggled to keep a hold of the weapon.
Meanwhile, Xandilif had regained SilverWand where she had dropped it and turned. She took two steps towards the battle in the center of the room and somehow held the massive blade in one hand at full extension. Turning from her waist she spun her shoulders, the blade whistling through the air in a deadly arc, seeming to leave a trail of glistening fire in it’s wake. Finchley saw the Banshee begin the windup and dropped to the ground, knowing what was coming as SilverWand sliced through the air with an ethereal “shing” sound, taking the second thug neatly in the throat...the look of confusion was still on his face as his head sailed up and dropped delicately onto Roric's corpse. It seemed as if the blood didn’t even begin to pump from the corpse until the head had come to rest, the cut had been that fast and clean.
The elven Champion snapped her wrist sharply, flicking the blood off the smooth blade before returning it to her back. With her other hand she tossed Finchley back her now gore encrusted dagger. “Babygirl, get the Greyhound up...from all that shouting outside I figure we are missing the party.”
Eduwiges looked up gratefully at Lif and Finch. 'Help me stand' she asked and staggered to her feet. She took her helm off and whistled low, inspecting the heavy dent in its gleaming steel side. Wiping the blood out of her eyes, she stretched her neck by rolling her head around. She pulled out her flask of miruvor, took a fast swig, plunked her helm back on her head, cracked her knuckles, hefted her sword and said, 'Lets go!'
As Xandilif and Finchley ran out the door of the clinic, Edu paused for a moment, taking the chance to kick the corpse of her former opponent, once, really hard where he would have felt it…. then charged out after her friends. The conclusion of this adventure was near at hand, she could feel it.
