Downtown Druid

The rest of the conclave was much more relaxed, with them mostly deciding more on what kind of trade with Dantes they’d want to do, and sharing another meal and some booze. Dantes decided to pass on staying through the night, his concern for what might be happening at Rendhold in his absence amplified by the threats Serpica had made, though based on what she’d said he doubted her threats would become material too quickly. Particularly with a fresh wound to tend to. Dantes and Jacopo moved toward the nearest tree, waved goodbye and stepped into it.

After the discomfort of the tree-walk was through, he felt comforted by the sound of his boots hitting concrete. He took a deep breath, feeling his garden's connection to him strengthen again and expanding his senses out as he started walking to the largest of them to get some sleep.

He re-established his connections to those rats nearest what he was tracking to make sure that everything was still as he’d left it and stopped dead in his tracks.

The Vixen was surrounded by more than twenty men. There was a fire spreading on a portion of the roof. He moved his focus to a roach on the inside. On the bottom floor Alessa, Zilly, and Caressa were all tied to chairs in the main hall. The mercenaries that had been watching the building were there with their weapons drawn.

Standing across from them was Mondego, taking a long draw from a thin cigar. He exhaled, letting a cloud of sparkling purple smoke fill the room.

“So you managed to get just three of them?”

The goons all exchanged glances. They were all covered in bruises and cuts, and Dantes took a moment to take a closer look around with a rat. There were signs of struggle all throughout the building. A table had been shattered, two chairs were bisected, and the bar itself had a dent in the wood. There were four bodies scattered up the stairs, with broken necks or shattered spines.

“The chef, the elven one, just started attacking us. It was like he knew the exact moment we shifted from watching, to actively attacking. He had three of us down before we could even react. I think the whores were ready for it too. The one that smoked weed stabbed Istik in his kidney when he tried to ambush them as they fled through a door in the rear.”

Mondego took the cigar from his mouth, through it on the ground and stomped it. “So we lost them?”

She shook her head. “No sir. We have some men following them. The elf was skimmed by the fireball Laz shot at him before he had his neck snapped. He won’t be able to hide for long.”

Dantes was running toward the Vixen as he moved, and he sent his senses out, grabbing all of the rats and roaches he could, while he sent bats out to scan everything near the Vixen from the sky.

Mondego walked over to Alessa. She looked away from him, but he grabbed her face and forced her to look at him.

“So, how well did you know, Dantes?”

She clenched her teeth. “I didn’t. He kept to himself.”

He laughed. “Dantes? No, that’s almost definitely a lie. Particularly after five years in the pit. I’m guessing he ran through each of you at least once. Probably paid even if Vera told him he didn’t have to.”

Alessa and Caressa exchanged a darting glance.

Mondego chuckled again. “Thought so. He always had a soft spot for whores. I was hoping to snap up Vera to guarantee he’d show up, but you’ll all probably be enough to get him here.”

Dantes grimaced, Mondego was right, his feet where already moving toward that certainty. How had he known to strike when he was away? If he knew to strike then, did he also know what else Dantes had up his sleeve?

Mondego made a gesture and one of the men dragged a chair toward the center of the room so that he could sit down. He lit another cigar, and gestured to the woman with the crossbow.

“Keep that pointed at the elf.” he pointed at the other men. “You and you, keep your knives on the other’s throats. I want him to know that there’ s no chance of them getting out of this.”

Dantes gritted his teeth, still bolting down streets, cutting through alleys, and leaping onto roofs to make it there as quickly as possible.

One of his bats located Vampa. He was standing in an alleyway with Vera and the other girls behind him. Seven men were in front of him, and his chest and left arm appeared badly burned.

One of the attackers charged down the alley at him with a shortsword.

Vampa batted away the blade with his hand, and in a smooth motion brought up his elbow to the man’s chin. The bats could hear the man’s teeth shatter as he collapsed to the ground.

Dantes sent all of the bats he’d had out searching for them into the alleyway, having them swoop onto the men attacking Vampa and the rest of the Vixen’s employees.

Vampa didn’t question his fortune for even a moment. He took the initiative and leapt forward. Even though he had only one hand, it seemed almost as if a dozen limbs were lashing out at once as he moved through the group. An open palm broke the next man’s nose, the one after that crumpled as his knee was shattered by a powerful front kick, the next two had their heads firmly slammed into the brick walls on either side of the alley, and the remaining two simply fled, deciding they didn’t want to taste any of the violence that Vampa was bringing their way.

Vampa let out a long exhale, seeming to center himself.

Dantes cleared the bats out of their way, and he and the girls got back to running. Dantes noticed Vera letting out a constant stream of reassurance and motivation to keep them moving. Dantes saw no more men in pursuit of them, and returned his attention to the Vixen.

Mondego was still sitting there and smoking. The fire on the roof was slowly spreading, but he didn’t seem to care. It was lucky the building was primarily stone. The men and women he’d brought exchanged glances with one another, sweat clear on a number of their brows, but they didn’t say anything or move. Their fear of Mondego was clear.

The girls weren’t faring well either. Alessa had a brave face on, but the fresh bruise on her cheek was making her right eye water. Caressa was doing her best to sob as quietly as possible, the knife against her throat nicking her even as she did her best to stay still. Only Zilly seemed to be maintaining her calm. Dantes had marked her as a cool customer from the start, but she simply sat there, staring at the woman aiming a crossbow at her head.

Dantes watched the scene throughout his entire run. There were a lot of men, but he could take them with the right combination of vermin. The issue was the hostages, not to mention whatever else Mondego might have in store for them.

Dantes reached an alley near the Vixen and leaned against a wall as he caught his breath.

“Hmmm, maybe Dantes changed more than I thought. It almost seems like he might not be here to help you,” said Mondego as he blew more smoke. “Or Godfrey gave me the wrong time to fuck with me,” he muttered under his breath. He shrugged, “Oh well. If he doesn’t show in the next hour or so, I’ll just give the three of you to the men for the night and have your throats slit in the morning.”

The woman holding the crossbow coughed.

“What? You fault the men having a bit of fun as a reward for wasting their time?”

She shook her head. “I don’t give a fuck about whores sir, but shouldn’t we do something about the fire? Won’t it attract the guard?”

Mondego shook his head. “The guard’s taken care of. Won’t be here until the cleanup in the morning.” He paused. “Still, it won't be the worst idea to take care of that.” He pointed at two of the men watching the door. “You and you, get some buckets and stop the fire.” He glanced at one of the corpses by the stairs. “Shame the mage got his neck snapped like that. He would have fixed that with a flick of the wrist.”

As he listened to Mondego talk, Dantes gathered all of the rats and roaches that he could and placed them nearby, coiling them around Mondego’s men and readying them to strike. He needed a way to remove the weapons from the girls before he attacked. He shifted into a roach, ignoring the pain of the process, and skittered across the street until he was by the nearest window. He climbed the wall, and found himself sitting in the window box of flowers that he’d placed there. The flowers were thriving, and would need to be moved to a bigger container soon, but he had another use for them. He suffused them with his will, strengthening them through the strand that connected them to one another. At the same time, he pulled energy from the other gardens, causing the thin stems of the flowers to grow thick and ropelike. He slipped them under a gap in the window, and rode one of the stems inside, having them creep slowly toward the feet of the men holding daggers to Aless and Caressa’s throats as he moved as a roach to crawl up and onto the chair Zilly was bound to. Jacopo waited in the flowers, readying himself to run toward the bindings on the girls wrists so that he could chew through them along with the other rats Dantes had waiting. This was all a risk, but it was his only shot. He took a breath, and focused his will on all of the moving parts he had put into place.

NOW