Selena
“Dead, you say?” The city watch officer was frowning.
“Dead or scattered,” said Selena. She turned to Maureen. “How much of the situation have you explained? And where's Sunder and Lore?”
“I told him about the threat of these creatures, and how they come back from the dead, and then can withstand considerable wounds.”
“Yes, and it is contagious.” Selena turned back to the watchman. “I'm not sure how contagious, but I'm going to assume that anyone who receives open wounds may be infected, and anyone killed will definitely rise again. And the infection by itself may very well kill within the day.”
“Can they be killed?” asked the watch officer. “Or rather, disabled, since they are already dead.”
“Yes. I haven't had time to be sure, but looking at the remains on the battlefield...” Selena glanced up at Perl, who was standing there, looming. “Well, the bodies still lying down had almost universally incurred massive damage to the back. It was a lab down there, and this disease is biological – I'm going to venture to say that the spine is a vital area.”
The officer muttered a curse. “Couldn't be someplace easier to hit...” he muttered under his breath. Then Selena could see a thought strike him. “You said you saw a lab? Who is responsible, ultimately?”
Maureen spoke, “We think they were a sub-sect of Life Aspect worshipers. I'd like to say they just worshiped the Life Aspect to help their... medicine, but I've got the suspicion that the leaders of the Life Temple here knew about what they were doing.” She looked at Selena. “Remember the divide when Lore was being healed, and then their reaction to our warning?”
It did make sense, but blame wasn't important right now. “Sir, now that you know how to stop these... unliving foes, you must attack with the main force of the guard. They have to be wiped out before they spread!”
The man's mouth worked, but no sound issued out. The younger watchman was studying his boots.
“Selena,” Maureen said, “Those who fought at the Life Temple were the main force of the watch. The subcommander doesn't have any more watchmen.”
The world dropped out under Selena. The city watch was supposed to march in and eradicate this disease before it spread. That was what was supposed to happen. Why didn't they have the troops? It wasn't right!
Perl cleared his throat behind her. “Then the city very well may fall.” He was eying the commander. “Who else has soldiers?”
The subcommander roused himself from his stupor. “The royal guard. They are the best. Their responsibility is to protect the royalty and the nobility, but... sometimes protection comes in the form of a preemptive strike. I must go and convince them.” He adjusted his sling, and picked up a club and a sword. “I better get walking, I think we are fresh out of horses.”
“We have a carriage,” said Selena. “The coachman is bit funny after what we saw, but he'll bring you to the castle. You need the speed more than we do.”
The younger watchman stood there dumbly. “What will I do?”
The older one laughed grimly. “I suppose you're in charge of the Watch while I'm away. May the Aspects help us all!” Then he trundled out the door to the waiting coach, and was whisked away to the castle.
Perl
“Well, I hope the Royal Guard will be here in time,” said Maureen. Perl shook his head.
“Too little, too late. The Royal Guard is well-equipped and well trained, but they are mostly heavy infantry for fighting in the castle, in case of a breach. All that plate armor weighs them down.”
“Wait, so...” Maureen frowned. Perl decided that today was a day for frowning all around. “They aren't going to help the city?”
“Oh, they will, in the end. I have no doubt that they could cut down these dead people all day long, taking turns at the front line. But Selena thinks...”
“Well, each, uh, each dead man is going to probably infect multiple others, and some of those who get away will be cut and diseased, and things will just spread from there. The amount of infected is going to rise geometrically, and at the same time get harder to contain – we needed a quick, heavy strike on the main source of the outbreak, and then police work to isolate and... deal with those living who were infected. How slow is the royal guard?”
Perl thought on this a bit. He had never fought directly with the royal guard, having fought far on the western flank, but they would no doubt have crossbowmen and heavy infantry. The crossbowmen would probably stay at the castle, which left the heavy infantry. At a march they could fight after... “I would say thirty minutes down the hill, not counting time for mobilization. That's probably another thirty minutes, or maybe fifteen if they really rush. So probably an hour?”
“Yeah.” Selena shook her head. “It's going to be uncontainable by then. I guess the royal guard might win, but most of the people in this city are going to die...” A thought struck the young lady, and she jerk straight with panic in her eyes. “Wait! Where's Sunder? And Lore?”
“Lore's right outside.” Perl could see Maureen biting her lip, and wasn't sure he'd like the next bit. “...and Sunder is somewhere out in the city.”
For Perl, believing that his boss was always going to come out on top, that his boss, more than him, understood risks and knew the capabilities of people... well, that had become almost an article of faith. But Jack's success wasn't always a question of Jack's abilities by himself: sometimes it was the help of others that let Jack prevail. 'Friends and allies are a strength, one that we must rely on,' Jack had once said. Time to let Jack rely on him.
“Okay, Selena, get Lore in here. Maureen, what help was Sunder expecting to get from here?”
“Uh, Lore's in the alley across the road. In the shadows!” Maureen turned from the departing Selena back to Perl. “He wanted the guard to mobilize with all of its force, and send squads to all of the locations of these families. We... we didn't know about the life temple. In fact, I don't know if Sunder knows that it is infectious.”
“You don't know where he is?”
“No. He said he was going because he had left an innocent in danger. Or had put an innocent in danger?”
“Do you have any idea where that would be? I think we need to rescue him before this city is entirely drenched in blood.”
“No... I really--” Maureen was cut off by a gasp from the kid watchman.
“You!” The youth said, pointing at the doorway, where Selena and Lore were standing.
“Uh, hi Callen, fancy meeting you again.” Lore had a silly expression on her face. This didn't sound good.
“Why, you little...” Perl heard the sound of a sword being drawn, and immediately lashed out with a backhand at the Watchman. His fist hit something hard, and when he turned the Watchman was sprawled on the ground.
Perl sized the boy up. Scrawy, hot-tempered... and itching to use his sword, but not knowing when to use it. In essence, a younger, inexperienced version of Perl. How times had changed.
“Kid,” he said, looming over the boy. “You're in charge of a one-man watch. Piss off.”
The kid's face blanched, then went livid, then blanched again. He scrabbled backwards, and then ran for the stairs.
“Perl!” Maureen was hunched over a desk, with papers covering in writing all over it. “Look here at the list of addresses.”
“I don't know my letters, Maureen.”
“No, not that – look at the ink, and the handwriting.” Perl leaned over her shoulder, staring at the paper. They all were squiggles to him. “Sunder had written the addresses he had collected on the paper before he handed it to me to write the rest that everyone else, um, collected.”
“So?”
“This first one here is in a different ink than the others. All the rest—my writing included—was using the Lady's ink.”
Perl looked at Lore, who seemed similarly confused. At least it wasn't just him. “So he's there?”
“Well, it's an address he wrote before we got to the Lady Varnya's residence. If he had some unfinished business, it would have to be there.”
“Good enough. Where is it?”
“Um... they have maps here, let me look...”
As the northerner busied herself looking through some maps she had found somewhere, Perl walked over to the armory. Extra swords, leather armored uniforms, helmets, clubs... there was plenty of stuff here. Perl grabbed a helmet and stuck it on. It didn't fit. He took it off and picked up another. “Everyone, put on some armor. We don't want to get infected.” He put on the new helmet. It fit well enough. Then he grabbed a shield, and one of the watch's short swords.
“Maureen, where is it?”
“Here,” she said, pointing. It was about midway between the upper ward and the border of town, but Perl was far more worried with what he saw directly in between. The pale flower of the Life Aspect. Nothing could ever be easy.
“You get some armor on too. We're going to need it there.”
Next: Chapter 5