You can read the previous chapter here!
“We’re sure there’s only one way she could take to get here?” Asp traced a path along a map from the port from the Myriad to Strey.
“Unless she wanted to take a whole extra day to travel on more dangerous roads and come up from the south,” said Oslo, impatient. “There’s basically no chance she’s going to loop around these roads,” he added, gesturing, “because the barbarian attacks have gotten pretty bad these last few years.”
Asp nodded. “And we all remember the order of operations?”
“Sweet talk, mean talk, muscle,” said Annabel, Kyrn, and Candace at once. Their sing-song voices told Asp that they really had memorized the plan.
“Good. I think things are looking good.” Asp considered for a moment, then turned to Oslo. “What do you say, boss? We ready?”
Oslo grinned as though he were surprised that Asp had deferred to him, but he was by no means disappointed. “You all go on. Jehosaphat and I will meet with our fence for the chest, and Gregorio has a meeting with some financiers. It’s just you four out there. Good luck.”
Asp pulled down Delia’s cap as a way of waving goodbye to the elders of the gang and headed out into the morning. Kyrn, Annabel, and Candace followed behind and down the road.
“You know,” said Annabel, her voice gentle, “we still don’t really know you, Asp. What’s your story?”
Asp stared off into the distance. “Oh, you know . . .” she began, trailing off. She noted that they were waiting for an answer and decided to start again: “I’m not that special–”
Candace made an exaggerated snoring sound. “How often do you get an excuse to talk about yourself?” she asked, a playful fire in her tone.
“Fine,” said Asp, performatively giving in. “My family was always poor–”
“Tale as old as time,” said Kyrn, faux sadness in her voice.
“Don’t mind her,” said Annabel. “All our stories start like that.”
“And I didn’t get along well with my mom,” Asp added, unsure of what to say about her father.
“A tale older than time,” said Candace, real sadness in her voice. I’ll have to remember that for later, thought Asp.
“So you set out on your own to be a hero of your own making?” asked Annabel, lost in the romance of the story she was imagining.
“Something like that,” said Asp after a moment.
“Surrounded by trusted allies who helped you to be a hero?” offered Kyrn.
Asp blushed, but she couldn’t tell if anyone noticed. “I . . .” she began. She stopped and shook her head before beginning again. “I haven’t really had a lot of friends before.”
Annabel was stunned. “Really? You don’t seem that hard to get along with.”
“It’s not that,” said Asp. “It’s hard to build trust when you’re usually . . . lying.” She tried unsuccessfully to hide her mixed feelings about the word.
“So you did it all alone, without anybody to help?” asked Kyrn. “We’ve all been there.”
Asp looked down as they walked. “It’s not like that either,” she said, frowning. “It’s just–oh, it doesn’t matter what it was like.”
“No, what was it really like?” asked Candace, her intensity returning.
Asp considered the question for a moment, well beyond even her own expectations for entertaining it. Finally, she said, “I started con work when I was six. I mean, that's how I ate, at least. But once I knew I could do it, it just . . . stuck. I started to like it. It's a thrill you wouldn't believe." She sighed, her eyes faraway. "I knew I was good. I just didn’t know how to be great yet. So I tried a lot of things–very carefully, mind you–and eventually, some of them worked. One of the hardest things was just learning about people. Most everyone is pretty much the same–we want to be loved and respected, we want to be comfortable and maybe even well off, we want things to be easy and free if they can be–but we’re also all a little different, and if you don’t pay attention to the differences, the things we share don’t matter. That’s the hardest part of all of this–not living on the edge, not depending on your wits, not even lying through your teeth when you know you’re in trouble. The hardest part is being able to understand all people on their own terms within seconds of meeting them, or else.” These final words hung in the air, their weight understood by all. Asp stopped talking and took a big breath. “Now imagine doing that completely on your own for a lifetime. That’s what it was like.”
She had been focused on talking and leading the way down the road and had lost track of her comrades’ reactions. She turned and studied their faces.
“No shit,” whispered Candace, and Kyrn looked on in disbelief.
Annabel, who had simply blinked repeatedly, laughed an anxious laugh when she noticed Asp’s recognition of their reactions. “Sorry, we don’t mean to–it’s just . . .” She stopped and started again. “I don’t think Oslo or Jehosaphat have ever given us real answers like that before. About anything.” Annabel looked out into the sparse woods on the side of the road as if Oslo could be hiding behind a tree. She lowered her voice slightly. “I didn’t think you’d really answer . . .”
Asp straightened her posture as she continued walking. “Oh! I, uh–forget it, then.”
“No,” said Kyrn. “It’s nice to have a real person around who still kicks some ass.”
They laughed together, Asp truly pleased for the first time to be with them.
-
The group passed another female dwarf on the road. This one, like the ones before her, was traveling with a larger group of mostly dwarves. Asp and Oslo were both confident that their target would either be traveling alone or in the company of a few guards, but not as part of a big group. But as yet another large group of dwarves passed, Asp began to wonder whether their target had joined up with a more sizable traveling group on the way. If that were the case, the dwarf in question might already be back in town identifying Dancer. Nervous, Asp addressed the others.
“I don’t think we can be sure about her traveling alone anymore,” muttered Asp. “Let’s address every possible suspect we see.”
“But you said–” began Annabel.
“I said she would probably be alone. Now I’m not so sure. Let’s just be thorough.” Asp’s eyes scanned the road ahead.
“Quickly’s good, but thorough’s better,” said Kyrn in a sing-songy voice. When this attracted some strange looks, she added, “It’s a Ronan'el saying.” She shrugged.
“It’s a good one,” said Asp. “Look, here comes a dwarf with those merchants.”
The gang looked over and saw a small caravan–only a few carts and no more than six people. One of those driving the mules which pulled the carts was a middle-aged dwarven woman.
“Excuse me, miss?” shouted Asp to the dwarven woman.
She didn’t look up.
“Ma’am! Ma’am!” Asp cried.
The dwarf continued to look only forward.
Annabel stepped in front of the mules.
The dwarven driver reluctantly pulled the reins, halting the animals. “What do you want?” she asked Annabel.
Annabel gestured to Asp, who said, “Are you, by chance, on your way to identify a criminal?”
The dwarf shook her head. “I’m driving this caravan,” she said. “In case you can’t see.”
“Sorry to bother you,” Asp said, and Annabel stepped out of the way of the mules.
As the caravan faded into the distance, Asp looked to the others. “I know that wasn’t exactly our best bet, but–what was it?–’quick is good but thorough’s better?’”
Kyrn chuckled. “Close enough.”
“On guard,” said Annabel, her eyes focused somewhere in the distance behind Asp. “Here comes something.”
Asp looked down the road. A young dwarven woman and two bulky guards were walking towards her. “Showtime,” Asp said, and approached the group.
“Ho, travelers!” cried Asp at the top of her lungs. “Is it you who have come from the distant Myriad to identify the criminal in our fair city of Strey?”
The guards looked back and forth between Asp and each other. The dwarven woman stepped forward as she spoke: “Yes, ‘tis I. I aim to bring honor back to my family and create new justice where it was denied.” Her voice shone with passion.
Guards. Family honor. Injustice. This is getting complicated, and fast. Just follow the plan. “Well, I’m so sorry to tell you–or perhaps this will be good news?–but Dancer Jarvis died in his cell yesterday,” said Asp, her eyes downcast. “The guards hired me as a courier to relay this message to you to spare you the travel and trouble.”
“Dead?” The dwarf blinked. “But how?”
Asp turned slightly away, imitating being overwhelmed by emotion. “He hanged himself,” she said, an impressive sob tacked onto the end. “I suppose he was overcome with guilt for what he did to you.”
“Or overwhelmed by the consequences that faced him,” scoffed the dwarf. The guards looked irritable. “I would like to see his body,” added the dwarf.
Oh boy. This is not the plan. Improvise. “It’s already been tended to,” explained Asp. “He was burned, and the ashes scattered. Unfortunately, there is nothing left of him to say goodbye to.”
“That was quick,” remarked one of the guards, a burly human.
“It was quick,” agreed Asp. “In light of the way he behaved while locked up, though, ridding the jail of any trace of him seemed quite reasonable.”
“And your colleagues?” asked the other guard, a tall red Ronan'el. “Why do you need a whole entourage to deliver a simple message?”
“Why did they send two guards to deliver a simple woman?” asked Asp, her tone equal parts defensive and mocking. “Not that you’re that kind of simple, ma’am–I think you know what I mean.”
“Point taken,” said the dwarf, frustrated. “Well, we are closer to your city than any other settlement, and I could use a rest.”
Asp could see where this was going. “Actually,” she said immediately, “there is a little burg just an hour to the southwest from here. Little Well, it’s called. Great food, cheap lodging, and closer than Strey proper. Plus it’s on your way back to the harbor.”
The guards nodded, but the dwarf looked curious. “It almost sounds like you don’t want us to go to the city,” she said in a strained voice.
The game has changed, thought Asp. When the mark knows what you want them to do, you have to convince them in spite of their better judgment. So think–what will make her go away? What does she want?
A moment’s silence passed. “It’s not that I don’t want you to go to the city,” Asp moaned. “It’s that I have been investigating the crimes that happened to your family. You’re Miriam Earthmover. I’m a reporter, and I know now that Dancer was working for someone. The last record I have of that person is in Little Well. I didn’t want to say all that to start because I wanted to surprise you with more solid information once I had it. But you’re right, in a way. I don’t want you in town. I want you to be able to seek out your own justice.”
The dwarf considered this, frowned, then turned to the guards. “Let’s go to Little Well,” she said, her voice strained. The guards turned around and followed her back down the road.
“That was close,” said Annabel when the coast was clear. “How’d you come up with all that?”
“That’s just a day in the life, my friend,” said Asp with a smile. “Now c’mon, we’ve got the other half to tend to.”
-
Asp, Kyrn, Annabel, and Candace stood in a loose semi-circle about a quarter of a mile outside the city gates.
“It’s getting close to time,” said Annabel, fidgeting. “You sure she’s coming?”
“Pretty sure,” said Asp, fighting her own nerves. “She says I’m her ‘bess fren,’” she added, adopting an impression of a drunken Wanda. “I think she’ll show.”
“She better,” said Candace, cracking her knuckles, “or else I’m gonna find her and–”
“There she is!” cried Asp, pointing across the stretch of road at a dwarven figure coming towards them. “Disperse! See you back at the warehouse!”
The gang headed in different looping directions, but all of them were aimed for the city gate. Wanda made her way up to Asp.
“Delia, good morning!” she chirped. “Hoo, I am nervous.” She shook her hands in the air as though trying to get water off of them.
“No need to be nervous, Wanda,” said Asp. “You’re just going to point to a newtkin and then that’s it. Easy as pie.”
“I’m not much of a baker,” Wanda said, scratching the back of her hand.
In neither sense of the word, Asp thought. It’s funny how some people are cut out for this line of work, and others just . . . aren’t. Hmmm . . . What would it be like to be like Wanda?
Asp looked Wanda over. She wore clothes that made her look a bit older than she really was, more like a mother than a young woman. Her hair was pinned up in the style of a traditional dwarven grandmother. She carried a large leather satchel which looked to be a travel bag.
Seeing Asp looking at the bag, Wanda piped up. “I figured since I’m supposed to be on the road, I should have my pack, right?”
“Exactly right,” said Asp, pleased. “Bend down a bit, please.”
Wanda bent down, and Asp added her sash to Wanda’s outfit before removing several of the pins in her hair. Wanda stood back up, primped a bit, and looked to Asp. “Better?”
If Asp were just meeting Wanda, she would guess she was a young dwarven woman on the road. Her final touches had made Wanda look a few decades younger.
“Not better,” Asp said with gravity. “Perfect!” she added with a chipper voice.
Wanda’s face lit up. “Oh boy, I am really nervous. How do I be less nervous?”
Don’t seem to know too much. “Maybe just pretend it’s a game, and everybody knows you’re lying, so they don’t care.” Worked for me in the early days–why not for her?
“Okay, I’ll try.” Wanda’s voice was small.
“Ready?” said Asp as they walked through the gate into town.
“Ready,” said Wanda with forced eagerness.
-
“The Captain is expecting you; go right on in.” The receptionist at the guardhouse gestured over to the office. Asp led the way, Wanda in tow.
“Good morning, Miss Stonethatch,” the Captain said pleasantly to Wanda. “And to you, Miss Violet. I didn’t realize that you would be joining Miss Stonethatch.”
“I am very interested in the outcome for my friend.” Asp smiled with deference.
“I can see that quite clearly now. He’s lucky to have such an advocate.” The Captain turned to Wanda. “Now, Miss Stonethatch, I have two newtkins for you to consider. It is your duty to let us know which one, if either, is responsible for the crimes against your family. This is an important responsibility–do you feel ready?”
Wanda seemed on the edge of her seat. “I’m ready, sir,” she managed to say after a moment.
The Captain stood and led them into the back of the jail. In side-by-side cells sat two newtkins: Dancer on the left, and Candlewax-Hobbson on the right. They looked similar apart from their clothes–close enough that one might mistake them at a distance, but not duplicates of one another, either.
“Well,” said the Captain. “Which one?”
Wanda was hesitating. What’s got her stopping? Asp wondered. Then it dawned on her: I never gave Wanda a description of Dancer. She doesn’t know who to point at. Asp circled around behind Wanda, grabbing her right hand and pulling it to the right before dropping it and standing still.
Wanda finally pointed to Candlewax-Hobbson on the right. “It was him. He stole everything from my family.”
Candlewax-Hobbson, up to this point silent, exploded. “WHAT?! This is insanity! You lock me up on false charges, you refuse to tell me what I’m charged with, and now some stranger accuses me of a crime I never committed! This is unspeakable!”
His shouts continued, but the Captain led Wanda and Asp away from the cells. As the Captain was focused on Wanda, Asp darted over to Dancer and gave him a high five through the bars, then approached Candlewax-Hobbson. She lowered her voice to Gilbert’s register and said, “Have so much fun in the justice system.” Then she turned and skipped to the door, Candlewax-Hobbson’s angry shouts following her.
Asp entered the office again just as the Captain of the Guard was saying his goodbyes to Wanda. “Thank you again for making it all this way. And again, I am sorry for the plight of your family.”
“It’s okay,” Wanda mumbled. “We’ll be okay.”
“Alright, Miss Stonethatch, let’s get out of the Captain’s hair. Take care now, sir,” said Asp, pulling Wanda by the hand out of the guardhouse.
Out on the street, Wanda nearly collapsed. “Wow, that was crazy! I’ve never done anything like that before. Did I do okay?”
“You did great, Wanda. Perfect, really.” Asp smiled and patted Wanda on the back.
“Oh man, that was so cool.” The post-job thrill was overwhelming Wanda. Asp had seen this kind of a bloom of confidence and adrenaline blow up in folks’ faces before. She needed to get Wanda into a private space.
“Let’s go get a drink, Wanda.” Asp adopted a friendly but forceful tone.
“Yeah!” cried Wanda. “Oh, and when you realized I didn’t know who to point at–that was so smooth! I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
“Let’s keep our voices down and get a drink, Wanda,” said Asp, even more forcefully now.
“Right. Sorry.” Wanda blushed. “A drink. Same place as yesterday?”
“How about right here?” Asp pointed in the door of a gloomy establishment.
“Ehhh, I dunno.” Wanda sized up the tavern. “Looks kinda scummy.”
“Can’t ya handle it?” challenged Asp.
Wanda froze for a moment, then stalked into the tavern. “I got this,” she declared.
Asp smiled for a moment, but then the smile disappeared as Wanda turned away, and she followed Wanda into the bar.
-
“How come you never get drunk as fast as me?” managed Wanda.
Because I’m not even drinking a tenth as much as you, thought Asp. And you’re too drunk to notice me not really drinking. “Strong constitution,” she lied.
“But yer so smaaaaaaaaall,” said Wanda, flailing her arms.
“Even tiny spiders have quite the bite,” Asp retorted.
“Euuugh, gross things.” Wanda shook herself as though covered in spiders. “Let’s talk about something else.”
Asp glanced outside for a sense of the time of day. The bright but receding sunlight seemed to suggest that afternoon was slowly dying away, making room for evening. Dancer should be free by now. I should get back to the gang.
“Well, Wanda, I think it’s actually about time for me to get going.” Asp moved to begin climbing down off her stool. But Wanda reached out and grabbed Asp by the wrist.
“Wait!” Wanda looked and sounded desperate. “Don’t go yet.”
Asp met Wanda’s gaze. “What is it, Wanda?”
“I don’t wanna be alone.” Wanda’s voice was pathetic. “What if the guards figure out what I did and they come to get me?”
“They’re not gonna figure it out, Wanda, especially not if you don’t talk about it.” Asp had been patient with Wanda for hours and hours today, and her patience was wearing thin.
Wanda frowned. “But Delia, I don’t know anyone here, and I only know you, and–”
Asp stopped what she was doing and watched Wanda, who was on the edge of tears.
“And yer my only fren, and you made me do something illegal.” She whispered this last part as though it hurt her to say.
Asp internally smiled. It was time to employ one of her go-to speeches.
“It was against the law to lock up Dancer without cause. It was against the law what happened to me. It was against the law what happened to you.” She moved her face to be mere inches away from Wanda’s. “If the law were rules about what’s wrong and right, then we’d all be living easy lives. ‘Just follow the rules and attain inner peace!’ Imagine it! But we both know it’s not like that. The law is a measure of what the people in power want from you. They don’t care when the system is broken as long as the system is broken in their favor. So if we let it be a little broken in our favor just this once, is that so bad? Is that the kind of thing that’s going to drive you crazy? You really can’t live with getting what you deserve even once?” She sighed and held a hand out to Wanda. “Can I show you something?”
Wanda nodded and placed her hand in Asp’s. Asp dropped a handful of caps and a few helms on the bar and led Wanda out of the tavern, down the street, across the town square, through a few alleyways, and into the hiskin slums.
“You see these houses?” Asp gestured up and down the street at the falling buildings and ramshackle homes. “This is what you get when you do what you’re told. Can I guess something about you, Wanda?”
Wide-eyed, Wanda nodded.
“You’ve followed that path your whole life, haven’t you? You’ve done what you’re told.” Asp pointed to a particularly decrepit shack in disgust. “And I’ll bet you used to live somewhere like this.”
Wanda looked sad, ashamed, and guilty all at once.
“Did that seem right? Or did you come here in search of something better?” Asp’s eyes were lit up, and her voice seemed to hang in the air. “You just didn’t know what something better would look like.”
Wanda let out a low moan. It could have been intestinal pain or existential dread, but Asp bet on the dread.
“Wanda, I have to go,” said Asp, her voice now quiet and gentle. “But I want you to think about something when I do. Can you do that for me?”
Wanda sank to the ground. “Uh huh,” she moaned.
“Think about doing something new. Think about doing something that will give you what you deserve. Think about the person you want to be.” Asp turned to go, then pivoted back to Wanda. “And be ready to start being that person the next time I see you. Now get to an inn. You don’t want to sleep on the cobblestones.”
She waited until Wanda struggled to her feet and headed off in the direction of the inn quarter of town. With that, Asp returned to the warehouse, where a lively party was in full swing.
Dancer had removed his shirt and wrapped it around his head as a turban. He screeched in guttural tongues and leapt around the room like an animal. Candace and Annabel tried to throw pillows at him despite his maneuvers, and Kyrn clapped in time with Dancer’s wild movements. Oslo, Jehosaphat, and Gregorio nursed drinks and laughed, pointing occasionally at Dancer’s antics.
When the gang noticed that Asp had entered the room, the shenanigans paused for a moment.
“My hero!” shouted Dancer, wrapping Asp in a bear hug. “I’d be in some hot water if not for your witness.”
Kyrn and Candace placed hands on Asp’s shoulders. “It’s true, Asp,” said Kyrn, her voice aglow. “We have had bad luck with the guards. But Dancer says you talked to the Captain like he was a baby!”
Candace raised a frothy mug of ale. “Cheers!” She took a long drink, then looked at Asp with curiosity. “So where have you been? We’ve been partying for hours.”
“Oh, I’ve been watching over our witness,” said Asp, shaking her head. “She seems to need a little extra attention.”
“Ahh, you’re laying down insurance–she’s happy, we’re safe,” said Jehosaphat, a smile on his face. “We’ll be rid of her soon.”
Asp reflected. Getting rid of her isn’t proving very easy yet. I need to get her out of town, but she just seems to want to drink with me. How do I get her to want to leave me alone but still do what I want her to do? Oh, one problem just leads to another.
“We’ll be rid of her soon,” repeated Asp. She tried to keep her emotions balanced as she said so, and moreso to believe herself. At least, we better be.
You can read the next chapter here!
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