Arc 3: Chapter 13: Motives
Several Weeks Earlier
The year’s last proper snowfall crunched under my boots. I spotted a lantern hung from the lowest branch of a dead tree ahead. Approaching, the half-dead hiding in the tree’s shadow slipped from her cover.
“Tusks should be here soon,” Catrin told me. “We have a large batch of special guests at the inn, so he’s on a long shift. Me too, so we’ll need to make this quick.”
Karog made little noise when he arrived. The deepening dusk seemed to prickle with hostility all the sudden, then a shadow strode forth from down the road at a steady pace. The ogre’s red-rimmed yellow eyes blinked sullenly from the gloom. He growled at me, low and threatening, then squatted down in the middle of the woodland road to rest on his knuckles.
He’d changed his outfit — he’d discarded the ragged cloak and the belt of skulls, now wearing an oversized leather jacket that barely fit him and a baggy pair of trousers sewn from enough cloth to get an entire village through winter. It hardly made him look less threatening — that was all him, regardless of what he wore.
“The winter is ending,” the mercenary rumbled, “yet the trail grows colder every day.” He swiped a hand before him, cutting the air audibly. “Enough waiting. We decide what is to be done tonight.”
“To business then?” Catrin piped in.
I nodded. “I agree. First of all, you two have been the ones listening to the rumor mill. What have you learned?”
“Lots of stuff,” Catrin said. “Not certain any of it’s useful, though. I think Tusks is the one who’s got something for you, Al.”
I turned to the ogre. His permanently angry eyes went to Cat. “One of your fellow whores visited me in my room,” Karog rumbled.
I bristled, but the dhampir seemed not to take offense. “Hessa?” She asked, after a moment of thought.