23rd Bell - 16th Day of Spring, 515AV - Baroque Bay
Calendar16th - The Daggerhands push their troops deeper into nearby territories, gaining footholds in the Wolf's Den, Baroque Bay, and the Sunset Quarter.
He knew they were coming back. They had to. After the beating they'd taken that day, if they didn't try to get back what they'd lost, then by dawn every rat on the streets would be pissing on their name. Their muscle would vanish, any useful friends would forget their names, and the merchants they "protected" would be miraculously cured of their fears.
Of the Baroque Bay Buckers, anyway. The Daggerhands would be taking up collections instead by the end of the week.
If we survive the night, Konrad reminded himself as he kept up his watch by the window.
Beyond it, the corpses he'd helped create were stripped and even naked across the street. Flaring torches cast dancing shadows over them all, from the far gutters to the doorway. Squint just right and Konrad could see them twitching, imagine moans and pleas. But the time for that was long gone.
They'd fought, and lost. A separate pile was outside the front door of the townhouse, everyone inside butchered and fashioned into a barricade against the inevitable. Konrad took a long pull from an actual glass bottle, not clay or tin or some animal bladder fashioned into a skin. The liquor inside was potent but fruity, a distraction from the booze Konrad was used to: cheap, dirty and barely fit for consumption.
"Gods, these fucks knew how to live," Teague said from across the room, voicing Konrad's thoughts perfectly. The shaven-headed thug took a lion-sized rip out of the ham bone in his filthy hands. "Best grub I've 'ad in fuck-knows-how-long."
"Aye, well, they should've invested in more swords and less fine eatin'."
Invested. Samson was always peppering his words with stuff like that. Thought it made him sound more... worldly, or something. Like anyone would look at a man who had scalps braided into his coat and see anything but an animal. Across the room, watching the street behind them, Three Eyes gave a quick whistle and Konrad stoppered the bottle and tossed it over.
"Considerin' that made it an easy gig for us," he said as he yanked it out with his teeth. "I'd say, don't knock it."
Konrad left the others to their musings and observations without comment. Their job wasn't over, even if they were eating Bucker food, drinking Bucker grog and occupying the house of one of their leaders. Bottom of the barricade, if he remembered correctly. A man with a fastidious mustache and grey eyes. He'd fought bravely, knowing his family was upstairs. It didn't help him. Or them.
His flexed his back and the wound there growled through his flesh. He'd got worse, sure, but it was stupid. He turned his back on a room he hadn't checked was clear, and some wild-eyed bitch nearly put her dagger through his back. Three Eyes had torn up a blouse and wound it around him, but he still couldn't reach too high.
Not bad, though, he thought as his eyes moved up and down the street. Hammer and tongs all day, and all you get is a scratch.
"Wonder what's takin' 'em?"
Konrad resisted the urge to shrug. Every word, every gesture he made took his focus off what mattered, which was the view outside. He could see them... like they were actually there. Men massing in taverns and alleys, weapons readied, then moving, swarming through the shadows and headed their way.
The four of them up in that room. Five more below. All Daggerhands, all bloodied and proven over the years. But this wasn't their neighborhood. They didn't know it, didn't have friends down here, and when they were hit... there'd be no cavalry thundering to the rescue.
He leaned forwards so his face was nearly pressing against the glass, the only way he could see the other townhouse down the street. Like there's, lights were blazing in every window. Candles and hearths, torches outside. Daggerhands on guard with weapons in their hands, snapping and growling at passing urchins like hounds on leashes. That house, and his, they held this street.
If we last the night, he told himself, and sighed. Gods... what is taking them?
Konrad felt a top on his shoulder and jerked his head around to-
-see Three Eyes offering the bottle-
-and the window exploded behind him.
"Shyke!"
His body knew what to do ticks before his mind made the decision: cut his legs out from under him and dropped him flat to the floor. Three Eyes went down, too, staring slack-jawed at the crossbow bolt wobbling faintly in the wall.
Both men looked at the bottle. If Konrad hadn't turned...
"Fuck me, someone taking pot-"
The rest of Teague's words died when he heard the noise outside. Pounding feet and shouted curses. Steel meeting steel below, animal grunts and inhuman screams as men died.
Right below them. At the barricade.
"Arm yerselves," Konrad snarled, pulling his kopis free, ignoring his burning back... staying low the whole time. "And keep away from the fuckin' windows!"