Chapter 83
Kaluk hadn’t lied to this “Whisper” that he walked beside, but he had left out some important details. Not because he didn’t want to find the culprit… he very much did. He simply had a growing suspicion that his countryman had been duped by someone far more cunning, and they were unlikely to get any good information from him.
Following the balding fellow was not hard. His Shadower’s Mark let him detect the subtle way his target had changed the pattern of the streets, allowing him to follow without remaining within sight. It was not perfect, and held some risk of losing them if they passed through an empty area, but that was very unlikely this time of day.
His eyes strayed briefly to his hooded companion, the mysterious young woman that called herself Whisper, sister of the assassin called Stage. At least, they called one another sisters, but their exactly identical appearance—and similarity to the girls from the village—made him doubt that. Yet the casual way in which the infamous Anroll Greylan had accepted their presence told him that whatever was going on, the Gold Rank considered it nothing to worry about.
It was extremely obvious they were related, and Kaluk wasn’t sure what to think about that, either. His analysis abilities kept giving him contradictory or just confusing information, so he had to rely upon his instincts and experience. Honed by years of the craft, he was confident in those.
The only problem is that those gave him complicated feelings as well.
Whisper asked naive questions and made simple connections. They were not bad ones, just amateur in their level of thinking. This pointed to someone new to the espionage world, just as she claimed, and as her age would hint. Some raised their children from the moment the System manifested in them to practice stealth and undercover work, but those child soldiers were disallowed in both the Theocracy and Thallis.
And yet… and yet!
She moved with practiced ease, her steps careful and swift. The fluid way she avoided touching anyone without seeming to was something his experienced eye could see. The way her eyes darted about when she wasn’t trying to hide them, inventorying everything around her with quiet efficiency. All of this made her seem like someone who had been practicing for years, long enough to apply the skills instinctively.
Not long enough for Kaluk to fail to notice the flaws in her work, however.
Now, she was looking about, tracing the streets. Her eyes followed a similar route to his own, though she seemed unaware of the actual path he saw. She often corrected herself to follow him, straying minutely now and then. Whatever she saw was another way to track someone through the city… but it was not a manner that Kaluk knew.
Even more curious.
He turned his attention back to the path, frowning as they headed toward the docks. Merriweather sat next to a small river that was a tributary to the Windywine, so the traffic was brisk but not intense. The docks were not a large part of the city, nor a place many would run to.
This allowed him to identify a possible problem… a portly man who had meandered in much the same direction, jovially chatting with various townspeople. His continued presence hinted at someone who was either tracking Kaluk… or perhaps Whisper.
Or the priest.
He resolved to change course and take a different route to the place where he suspected their quarry was headed. As he opened his mouth to tell Whisper, she interrupted him. Her voice was quiet, but he picked it up easily.
“That heavyset fellow by the skewers stall,” she murmured. “I think he’s connected to the priest as well. Do you see him?”
How had she identified him? The tells had been subtle, and even Kaluk hadn’t been certain yet. His decision had been due to an overabundance of caution, not surety. The girl had barely glanced at the man before making her own decision.
Something was very off about the girl. About every one of them.
“I see him,” Kaluk confirmed aloud. “We will detour. How did you pick him out from the crowd?”
“Just a hunch,” she replied, with a slight nod.
An Ability then. It would be rude to pry further into what she meant, not to mention obviously an attempt to gather intelligence. He was learning so much about this girl by working with her, but the more he learned the more questions he had. If she was a Greylan, who knew what strange training she’d had?
Although he’d briefly met Gabriel Greylan, and the man had seemed quite unsubtle. The idea of him arranging his children to be trained assassins and spies was ridiculous… though given how many Classes the man claimed to have, adding some kind of spy-adjacent Class wouldn’t be hard to believe.
“The same sort of hunch that let your sister find me months ago?” he wondered with a snort. Whisper was probably too canny to give away how he’d been caught, but she was still weirdly inexperienced in some ways. If he was lucky she would let something slip.
She granted him some relief, at least.
“No, nothing like that,” she said without any hesitation. “My sister is unique. You were in her inn, so you were going to get found out eventually anyway. The actual method she used was too funny for me to slip the secret anyway.”
Kaluk frowned as he stepped down a side alley, leading Whisper around to intercept the likely path. “You should not say that sort of thing. I mean you and your sisters no harm, but if someone overheard that she was so important, they might take steps to remove her.”
Whisper simply giggled. “Good luck with that. Besides, anyone who causes trouble in the village will have to go through her anyway. Might as well save everyone’s time by sending them straight to her. If you have any influence, you might want to warn people that this is a bad idea.”
The raised eyebrow was doubtful this time, but Kaluk didn’t question it. Something about these girls was really setting off his inner alarms more and more… and not the ones provided by the System. Too much didn’t add up, and their association with Thallis’s premier hero was just the icing on the proverbial cake. He was in danger, and he knew it.
Fortunately, Whisper seemed to like him for some reason.
“This way,” he murmured, taking a sudden right down a narrow alley. The tight squeeze was barely enough for one person, but it exited right out into the street just behind the target, at least if he kept up the pace he’d been going at. That was the plan, for Kaluk. Walk out, leisurely cross the street, then resume tracking once the gap had widened a little.
Instead, he walked out to a bustling crowd and several shouts, all gathered around something. Frowning, Kaluk used his Mingle Within ability to slip through the dense crowd to take a look. At his level, he slid between the jostling bodies as if strolling down a wide open street, quickly reaching the front.
Made it look like an accident, he grumbled internally, seeing the brick that had “fallen” and smashed open the priest’s head. The crowd was around the body, speaking in hushed tones what to do about it and if they should move it before the constable appeared. Kaluk ignored them, knowing that their lead was now gone. He should have expected this.
But… was that the end of it?
His eyes locked on the portly man nearby. The familiar one that had been tailing the priest with them. That wasn’t suspicious at all, was it?
The stranger seemed to think so as well, because he vanished into the crowd a moment later.
When the priest died, Kaluk’s mark had automatically expired. He shifted it to the stranger just before losing sight, allowing him to thread through the crowd in pursuit. Whisper had not managed to follow him, but no matter. She would surely catch up the moment he stopped. She was new, not incompetent.
The other spy was good… but didn’t have Kaluk’s mobility. He lost some of his lead in the crowd, but was already dashing—stealth forgotten—when Kaluk broke free of the mob. He cursed to himself, but if the man was already running, he saw no reason to keep his own movements secret. He activated one of his other Abilities and blurred forward, uncaring that his tackle of the heavyset man crashed into one of the storefronts and buckled the stand.
Under Kaluk’s fingers, he felt the man squirm and flow like water. Some Ability to escape captivity was slipping him from the firm grip he’d taken, and he almost escaped. Almost.
A swift jab from Kaluk’s other hand sent a Stunning Pulse into the man, forcing out a wheezing gasp and a slump to the ground. He rolled over, panting as he caught Kaluk’s eyes again, face flushed. He’d need a few precious seconds to recover, though if he had any resistance Perks that would be cut down to much less.
“You don’t… understand…” the man coughed. “I didn’t… do it…”
Kaluk paused. A good assassin would, of course, deny they did anything and often had the skills to make that denial seem believable. But he hadn’t seen this man do the deed, and the whole mess had looked like an accident. A falling brick was reasonable enough to believe, but the timing was odd, and there were plenty of Abilities that could cause a fallen brick.
“You were following him, explain yourself quickly,” Kaluk growled. He was collecting a crowd… but far less than he would have thought. Maybe he’d made too big a mess, and they didn’t want to get involved… but this area wasn’t exactly the most delicate.
The man raised both hands, sputtering. “I was going to attempt to question him, why were you following him?”
Frown deepening, Kaluk kept a firm grip on the man… but his prisoner didn’t attempt to slither away again. He met Kaluk’s stare firmly, confidently. With the authorities on their way soon—the docks kept an active watch garrison—it was a game of chicken. Kaluk was not a citizen, and was a vigilante to boot. If this man was innocent, or working for the local government, he’d get away clean while things could get complicated for Kaluk.
“It wasn’t him,” a familiar voice said from nearby. “He had nothing to do with it, or at least is a pawn. Here’s the killer.”
A lean, dirty-looking peasant with mussed hair was shoved to the ground, clutching his bleeding hand. The locals had cleared a large circle by now, leaving Whisper standing above the man with her dagger glistening red with the blood of her own capture.
Kaluk saw from the corner of his eye that the man he’d caught was also staring, befuddled. He didn’t look worried, but he couldn’t trust that expression. He kept his grip on the man but loosened it slightly.
The one bleeding started to push himself up, uttering an impolite curse about Whisper’s parentage and choice of partner, but he didn’t even finish it before Whisper’s foot connected with his ribs in a sharp, shockingly vicious kick that crumpled the man to the ground, coughing and clutching his chest. The brutality of the act seemed so unlike her, Kaluk flinched.
“Well? Why are you sitting there?” she demanded. “Let’s take him in.”