“
You fucker!! I hate you! You are going to be so fucked up, I’m going to make you suffer!”
She started stomping on his stomach and the other three behind Wollfen stared. He turned to them,
“
Leave, go deal with Dimarus.”
Dark nodded and they moved back to the house leaving the cries of pain behind them. Wollfen turned back to Night who was looking around her. She found Savas’ dagger in the snow. Looking at Wollfen she spoke in a low steady voice.
“
You can leave too Wollfen. I will bring back your sword when I’m done.”
Wollfen hesitated as he saw her begin to cut open the crotch of Savas’ pants. Wollfen turned and walked off. Savas was begging.
“
Please Night! I’m sorry, I really am!”
“
You haven’t ever been sorry for what you did Savas. Tonight proves that!”
Then the screams started and Wollfen walked a little quicker leaving it all behind.
Back at the house Dark and the others were outside surveying the surroundings.
“
Dimarus has made off but we can’t find a blood trail.”
Wollfen scanned the surroundings looking for a likely place he could quickly hide. It was a small village, but they weren’t about to go knocking on every door. He turned to Dark,
“
Go wake up Kels and inform him of what has happened. He may be able to point out where to look for him. I’ll take these guys here and remove the body from our room.”
Dark nodded and moved off. Wollfen called the other two over and they set about cleaning up the mess inside. The body and the severed head were left in the snow behind the house, they wouldn’t be able to do anything with it until morning, the copious amounts of blood on the floor they washed away with buckets of water.
Wollfen sat on the two steps out front and wondered when Night would be back. He hoped this episode tonight wouldn’t have a lasting affect on her. Dark approached with Kels in tow and they stood before Wollfen.
“
Kels took me over to Dimarus’ residence but he isn’t there. We aren’t sure where he might be.”
Wollfen nodded, they would have to stay up tonight and keep vigilant for any movement out of the village. He was most probably holed up in one of the houses.
“
Kels, we will have to wake up a few men to stand guard. Actually, lets go check where the horses are kept, he may have already ridden off.”
They moved away together going to the corral and entered the barn complex. The three of them searched the interior of the buildings. Kels counted as they went, there were two horses missing.
“
He is gone, we will have to look for a trail out of the village.”
They exited the buildings, it had started snowing.
“
Rotten luck, we only have a few minutes. Let’s split up and get cracking, we may get lucky.”
The three of them went in separate directions moving quickly looking for likely signs of hoof prints but the effort proved futile. The falling snow removed any evidence very quickly. They all converged again on Dark’s house and Wollfen sat back down. Dark took up a spot next to him.
“
He will have to wait for some other time Dark. We have no idea which way he has headed.” Dark shook her head.
“
That’s okay, I am patient, but I do expect we will catch up with him one day.” Wollfen agreed. Dark looked at him. “You know what?
“
No?”
“
You don’t look half bad waving a sword in the nude.” He chuckled at that.
Kels took it as his signal to leave.
“
Okay I’ll leave you lot to it. I will organize a party of men in the morning to deal with the bodies.”
They both thanked him and Kels left to go back to bed, it was more excitement than he was used to.
A little while after Night slowly approached dragging Wollfen’s sword behind her. She was covered in blood and looked quite scary. Wollfen looked at her blood spattered face and saw her eyes. They were vacant and staring as she moved. Night stopped before them swaying a little and dropped the sword. She sat before them in the snow and started licking her bloody fingers. Wollfen reached out and stopped her.
“
Night, look at me,” he spoke quietly but there was no recognition. He turned towards Dark. “She is in shock, let’s get her inside and in front of the fire.”
They each took an arm and led Night up the stairs. Inside Dark sat her in front of the fire while Wollfen added a bunch of logs and stoked it. Dark looked her up and down.
“
This will not do, we have to get her out of this mess. Can you grab the tub from out the back? I’ll need quite a bit of water too and the large pot for boiling water.”
Wollfen went off and got the items in question while Dark started undoing Night’s clothes. Wollfen returned dragging the tub and pot. He set it before the fire and grabbed a bucket of water already there pouring it into the pot which he then set over the fire. He went off again disappearing down the hatch. When he came back he had two buckets full of water and poured one into the pot and one into the tub. He did this over and over awhile until he was satisfied there was enough water. Night by now was sitting in front of the fire naked and staring. Even without her clothes she was still covered in blood, it had soaked right through. Wollfen looked at Dark.
“
I am going to leave you two alone for the rest of the night, I’m going to deal with other affairs. Take care of her my love. I’ll see you in the morning okay?” Dark stood up and hugged him close.
“
Yes my dear, take care.”
They kissed and Wollfen left. Outside he went to Vaughn and Burkhard who were still standing watch.
“
I have found out which house belongs to Dimarus. Burkhard, I’ll have you stay in cover over there and watch the cabin. I don’t expect Dimarus to return but I don’t want to chance it. Vaughn, let’s go over to his place and see what we can find of use to us. Also we may get a clue as to where he might have gone.” The two of them nodded and Wollfen moved off with Vaughn.
Back inside Dark got Night to hop into the tub. She took a rag and started wiping Night down. She couldn’t help but shake her head. Night had been through so much at Windere, it had been a very trying time for her. But to have this almost happen again, Dark couldn’t imagine what affect it was having on Night’s mind. She only hoped that whatever Night did to Savas in the forest would put an end to the nightmare once and for all.
Dark decided she would lay with Night again tonight to give her comfort. It couldn’t hurt to give the poor girl some small amount of affection. She got Night out of the red stained water of the bath and laid her in Dark’s bed. Then she pulled off her coat and slipped under the covers with her. She cuddled Night but this time there was no response and Dark watched her closely, she was still staring off into nothing.
After a while Night turned to her. She slowly slid on top and gave her a deep kiss. She leaned down to Dark and whispered into her ear.
“
I need this.”
Dark nodded and quietly responded with a yes. They kissed and fondled. It wasn’t long before Night was moaning with the emotional release more than anything, she had started shivering not from cold but from the aftereffects of the incident. Finally she started relaxing in Dark's embrace and began to drift off.
Meanwhile in Dimarus’ residence, Wollfen and Vaughn were picking through his belongings. Vaughn pocketed the occasional coin he found and even grabbed a nice dagger he liked. That took up residence of his old one which he left on the table. Wollfen was looking for something different, anything that gave a clue to Dimarus’ haunts. There really wasn’t much at all. Curiously he found some woman’s dresses in the cupboard, perhaps from his many female partners?
In the bedroom he rolled back a rug on the floor and found a small door. Lifting it he first stuck his dagger into the opening and sure enough a trap went off sending barbs slamming into the blade. Any unsuspecting person putting their hand into there would have gotten a rude shock indeed. He yanked the barbed implement out and tossed it aside. Reaching in again he found a small heavy bag. Opening it he saw it was filled with gold coins. That meant the man had no immediate means of financial support now. Wollfen pocketed it and reached into the hole again. This time he pulled out some rolled scrolls. He went and sat at the table and began reading.
It was a list. On the left was a letter and to the right were numbers in the thousands and sometimes in the hundreds. D had one thousand five hundred next to it. G had five thousand as did W, then it clicked. It was a list of troop numbers for the northern towns and cities. W for Windere and G for garrison and so on, but who was he collecting information for? Wollfen reached into his pocket again and took out the coin bag, opening it he dumped the contents onto the table. The gold coins spilled out and picking one up looked at it more closely. He recognized the motif on it, he had seen this same coin before. They were Isogorrean currency.
Wollfen was disturbed by this development. For them to have spies in the north meant that while the sorcs had their goal in Kassandrea, the King of Isogorr had much more in mind. It may just be that he wanted it all, that was a scary proposition. If the biggest and most centralized population of the Kingdom in Kassandrea fell, it would prove that none of the others were safe. It would also deal a huge demoralizing blow to all the other decentralized armies around the country. Well of course the King would be interested in it all. The whole Kingdom could end up being his grand prize. He turned to the others who were finished looking.
“
We can go now, I have everything I want.”
Wollfen got up as he rolled the scrolls and tucked them into his jacket. He decided they would make haste to the garrison. First thing in the morning he would inform the local town leader and have them send out messengers to the other cities. They would need to know of what was going on and quickly to deal with any other spies.
The two entered Dark’s home with Burkhard following and when Wollfen saw the mess on the floor in front of the fireplace, he turned to the others.
“
Could you take care of that? I’ll check on the others.”
They got stuck into it immediately while Wollfen let himself in very quietly. He stood there for a second looking to see if either was awake but he only heard slow deep breathing. He moved across to the empty chair and grabbing a blanket made himself comfortable. He closed his eyes and tried to go to sleep but his mind was racing. So many things were happening and there were so many things to consider.
The next morning the girls awoke and left Wollfen to sleep. That was a good thing since he only managed to nod off maybe half an hour before dawn. Dark fetched Night another set of clothes from her baggage they had taken from the horses and they sat by the fire warming their toes. Night wanted to talk but was hesitant in front of the other two men and she waited for them to go off to do their own thing. Once they were gone she looked at Dark.
“
I hope you don’t think less of me for last night.”
Dark misunderstanding what she meant replied.
“
No that’s okay, I understand you needed that release.” Night smiled.
“
No not that silly, I mean about Savas and dealing with him the way I did. I know it would seem cruel and disgusting, but I just couldn’t help myself at the time. I didn’t just want him to hurt, he needed to suffer a cruel death.” Dark faced Night and looked her directly in the eye.
“
I too have felt that way and no it never goes away. When my family was killed and I found my children half eaten I could have cut my own heart out. Ever since then I have had nothing but hatred for the orcs and their kind. I don’t know if I will ever get over it. I fully understand where you are coming from Night.”
She gave a sad smile and they hugged, then Night pulled away again.
“
When Wollfen awakes I will need to talk to him, much has changed since last night.”
Dark acknowledged the remark but didn’t press the point. Night would say what she was thinking when she was ready.
Later in the morning Wollfen came out of the room and went over to a small pot on the fire. It had some sort of broth simmering in it and he grabbed a ladle and bowl. Having served himself a portion he sat down and took some bread sitting on the table and began eating. A few minutes later as he was polishing it off, Dark and Night entered.
“
Hey sleepy head how is my wolf this morning?” smiled Dark. He smiled back.
“
Doing just fine darling.” Night sat across from him. “And how are you this morning Night?” Night smiled.
“
I think I’m going to be just fine too. But I have news and you are probably not going to like it.”
She paused and Wollfen gestured for her to go on.
“
I don’t want to go on this journey any more. I want to go back to Loranda.” He looked up in surprise.