Triple Strength

52. Garbage: Tabitha

Bloody Wiremu! Sure it’s fine for him to go fishing for a few days and hope his problems go away. They won’t bloody go away! He has basically dumped them on me to sort out. The Dwarven Devils are not going to stop just because he is out of the city for a few days. They are going to look at me, left on my own and vulnerable and think, ‘the best way to control him is to have a hostage.’ I am not going to be a bloody hostage and I can't disappear fishing for several days. I have a Job or three.

Once I finish here at the Emporium, Trevor and I are going to hit a Gambling House, then I have an acquisition to make for the Sølv Emporium and I have tomorrow off to sleep and take Dusk for a long ride. That night Trevor and I are Gambling again, I really need to pick up an acting skill. I am getting better at hiding my mannerisms. Day three I am back at the Emporium as a merchant, nothing planned that night so I was going to solo a Gambling House for a few hours and get an early night. Then I would see the Canine Queens off, assuming they get the contract and then back to being a merchant.

When the hell am I going to fit in dealing with 2 - 4 kidnappers? Not idiot kidnappers either. Kidnappers I have to take seriously or I will end up dead or a hostage. No, he is not dumping this on me. When I get home tonight he is not going fishing tomorrow, that is for sure.

Well, shit. I got home after work and he had finished his cloak early, taken Rocky and his fishing gear and left. I have half a mind to go after him. The house is well trapped, so if they attempt something here I will have plenty of warning. Nyx and I have some tricks worked out for various scenarios. Different from the pussycat. I still smile when I remember the look on everyone's faces, especially Borc. He will be looking for revenge, almost certainly. Maybe we will bring out the pussycat again.

I got ready to go out. I was meeting Trevor at a bit of a dive tonight. I usually dressed young and innocent looking, but not for this crowd. This crowd needed to know I was not to be pushed around. I made sure weapons were visible and put on a dark jacket. It was in a seedier part of town, ideal for a kidnapping. Hint hint, you stupid Devils. But I got there without incident.

Trevor and I made a moderate amount. My Shadow manipulation was good for manipulating some Spiritually enhanced Dice now. The good expensive dice were still trouble, but I wasn’t in a good or expensive place. Sleight of Hand finally went to Apprentice level. The last few times we were out I was trying to copy the people around me, Acting Skill take note! I was especially interested in their small give away movements, to learn how, and what they were. This also helped me distract them from my own give away movements. Distract being a deliberate choice of words here.

I had another job to do tonight, but I needed to get home to change. So there I was walking down the middle of a dark street and suddenly two thrown knives hit me from two different directions, both poisoned. I dropped to the ground and four figures, three Dwarves and one human, ran toward me from four different directions.

When you are going against people who are at least as skilled as you are then to win you need an advantage. The advantage they thought they brought was overwhelming force, four against one and a surprise attack. Wiremu was a master at trapping to get the advantage, but I was a master at misdirection and ambush. Well, Journeyman level anyway. My body disappeared, which means Nyx who was masquerading as me faded into the ground.

The thing with ambush is when you spring it you need to hit hard and fast. No quarter is given. The human was the one below me and my war knife decapitated him as I came down from the roof. At the same time Wiremu’s arrow flew past and I heard it hit flesh in the alley beyond us. It was quickly followed by a Venom Arrow, either to make sure or he knew it hadn’t been a kill shot. Tāoke was wrapped around the neck of another Dwarf. He was strangling him, but the venom would kill him first, although the Dwarf was bringing a knife up. Yes, I made sure I went and brought overwhelming force as well as an ambush. You can never have too many advantages and this takes precedence over fishing.

That left Borc and another Dwarf free. Borc was struggling against Nyx’s Binding Shadows and would break free soon, but the other Dwarf was coming at me with double knives. I blasted the area with Intimidating Aura. The Dwarf barely hesitated, but he did hesitate and that meant he missed his strike and I got a cut on his leg on the way past as I rolled under his swipe.

My Spatial Awareness sensed Wiremu’s arrow hit Borc in the shoulder just as he broke free from Nyx. It also caught an incoming knife toward me from the shadows. I might be able to sense these things but my reaction speed is still a function of Physical Agility. So that means it is pretty good and the knife only lightly sliced through my arm. Unfortunately the knife was poisoned. The Dwarf I was fighting started to come at me again as he could see I had been distracted. His foot suddenly came down on a Granite Spike. I don’t know if that was Tāoke or Wiremu. I suspect Tāoke as Wiremu is on the rooftops somewhere.

Borc decided he had had enough and decided to make a run for it, and there was still a knife thrower in the shadows somewhere. I sent Nyx after the knife thrower as they were the greater danger to me and the least likely to be able to break her bindings.

I went for the Dwarf I was fighting while he was distracted with the Spike but the tough bastard had just thrown his knife at me and I didn’t have time to move more than a little. Instead of going through my heart it went through my upper shoulder. The Dwarf then caught a face full of Venom Spit. That meant he was done, which was good because I needed to rest a bit. I am not sure if it was the poison or the BLOODY KNIFE in my shoulder. Probably both. I pulled out the knife and pressed against the wound to reduce the bleeding. I then pulled out a potion and took a swig. It should help stop the poison and reduce the bleeding. I hope that was the right bottle. Maybe it was just the alcohol flask. I took both to be sure.

I could hear the sounds of a struggle in the alley with the knife thrower. Nyx assured me he was bound tight and she was sucking energy as fast as she could. Well that was my woosy interpretation of the impression I got through the bond. I sensed Tāoke heading over to help. Nyx would normally spend up to a week syphoning energy from a creature that size. She could do it in a day and a half, but we didn’t have time for the fast food, let alone a leisurely meal.

I assume Wiremu will have gone after Borc. I checked the first alley where Wiremu had shot his arrows. I found a stealth type human. It looked like Wiremu could only see the arm and so had put an arrow in it and when she fell he could only see a leg, so put Venom into it. She had crawled about five metres before collapsing dead. I dragged her to the entrance. I went around and got all their coin pouches, but their weapons and armour were not for me.

I sat against a wall to rest for a bit and try to sort out this knife wound. I couldn’t bind it myself so I packed rags against it and tried to rig my jacket so it put pressure on it. The potion had slowed the bleeding, but it was still bleeding. It would be show time soon and what I couldn’t show was weakness.

About ten minutes later I sensed Trevor coming with two others. They were pulling a small hand cart. I had been hoping Wiremu would get here first. I rose to greet him, still very much on edge and in pain. What they didn’t know was Tāoke was now in the shadows behind them. His camouflage makes it hard even for me to find him.

“Hello. I thought you said four?” He said seeing the three bodies.

“There is one in that alley and one in the alley over there,'' I pointed with my good hand. “There were two uninvited extra’s,” I replied.

“Two?” He queried only counting five bodies.

“One did a runner. Hopefully he'll be back soon.” Trevor was well connected and I had asked about body disposal having seen Nyx followed here.

Trevor nodded to the two workers he brought who started to move the bodies.

“I knew those two,” he said, pointing to the two humans. “Both were very good at their jobs.”

“The trick is not to give them a chance to do their jobs.” I said watching him closely. The deal was they would get all the weapons and armour in exchange for disposing of the bodies. They were being overpaid in my book, but I was in a rush. The thing with Trevor is that he is very good at card games and he only lets you see what he wants you to see. I was trying to be like him and show no weakness here. I didn't know how well connected Travor was or who he had brought.

“You are getting good, girl. Your brother has some skills too, I assume it was him who helped here.”

I didn’t react to that.

Trevor smiled, “There might be repercussions for this. Those two,” he pointed to the humans, “did a number of contracts for one of the crime bosses here. Rumour has it they were on permanent retainer. They will be missed. But we are just here to help with the garbage, nothing more.”

Then Borc’s body rolled off the roof and landed on the cart. There was no sign of anybody there.

“Warning duly noted.” Trevor said.

They loaded the last body and retreated back down the alley.

Wiremu helped me back to our cottage. He also helped me bandage my shoulder. We might need to shift houses. I still had another job to do tonight. I was still pretty much on edge, sore and poisoned. I hate to think what would have happened If I hadn’t had the potion. However, I was not in a good state to do more work. I might delay it till tomorrow night. Or take a few sick days. Shadow Predator went up a level, though.