Two of Knaves Chpt 105

Chapter 105 - Raze Lucita

I held my hand out and extended my will. I think, without Daggertongue’s mental training, I still would not yet have had the fortitude to call them to me through the fading silencing spell ushered in by the four of storms. Immediately, I touched Annalisa with both the dragon juice and the devil’s tongue so I could speak mind-to-mind.

“The shrine is under attack, we have to get Problems out of here!”

“DARCENT DID YOU SEE WE BEAT THEM IN THE FIRST ROUND WE’VE GOTTEN SO STRONG!”

“Focus!”

Annalisa shook her head and smacked the heel of her hand against her temple. Vol had discombobulated her pretty good with the head blow, but Annalisa was proving to be incredibly tough—at least unless her connection to the planes was severed, apparently. She looked around and seemed to notice for the first time that the crowds were essentially rioting.

“HEY THERE’S SHARKS IN THE CROWD! HOW’D THEY GET PAST THE WARDS?”

I grabbed her and made for the commentator’s box where several of the Lucitan Paladins were fending off great-coated knifemen. Both sides were quick, dirty in-fighters, but so far the flash of an occasional smite was keeping the sharks out of the box. High Priestess Problems had her hands above her head as she channeled divine energy from her god, causing what looked like streaks of bad luck to strike the Mayazians. I saw them slipping and dropping daggers, or accidentally stepping into each other while trying to maneuver.

“Come on!”

We headed to the side of the fighting pit and Annalisa boosted me up to grab the rim of the stands before jumping up and kicking off the wall herself, just barely reaching the edge. We swung over the barrier and headed for the commentator’s box.

With the fighting too close to call on the breath of dragons, I instead infused my deck with the two of knaves and pushed them out ahead of me. The cards bit into the backs of the sharks. But instead of spilling the foul mix of seawater and blood that pumped through their veins, bright red blood spilled out. The knifemen cried out, with the rear rank turning to face us.

I stopped. It wasn’t a Mayazian in the coat. It was a half-orc, snarling with a mouth of jagged teeth and the mark of a fang on his cheek and the smell of rotted meat on his breath. The others were half-orcs, too. Teeth remnants.

“For Foe Skull!” he shouted, lunging at me with his dagger.

Annalisa didn’t hesitate. She dove in, fists veined in black stone and rimed with ice. She dropped the first with a one-two combo, and opened a portal underneath the feet of a second, dropping him through the roof of the staging rooms. The orc behind him managed to avoid tripping into the same portal, but I lashed out with a whip made of cards and dragged him off his feet. Still, more members of the crowd shirked coats and pulled blades as we pushed through. The shrine was in full-blown panic.

“Priestess!” I shouted out. With color coming back into the world, my voice was being restored.

Problems looked my way and then said something to her dwindling guard of paladins. They shifted, moving towards the path we’d cleared.

“Friends of yours?” she asked.

“Not exactly,” I said. I looked around at the Teeth remnants. I thought they’d been scattered and disorganized, but someone had rallied them. “Come on!”

With the priestess in tow, we made our way back to the main floor of the shrine, which wasn’t in much better a state. Screams and the clash of steel rang out from the halls, echoing off the vaulted ceilings. Overturned table games lay next to scattered cards and loose chips. A giant crab scuttled across the floor.

Wait, giant crab?

There were Mayazians here after all, but they hadn’t snuck in. They were mounting a frontal attack, and the whole thing was turning into a three-way brawl between the Lucitans fighting alongside the Knaves, along with the Teeth, and the sharks.

The paladins on the main floor, who had been reeling, rallied upon seeing their priestess alive and well. They charged across the floor, vaulting obstacles and charging smites. The unreliable flash of gold Lucitan light and the glint of abyssal steel met in a clash of servants of light and dark gods both, and the Teeth just seemed to be attacking anyone within reach. But why were they here? Revenge? Just adding to the chaos?

Hell, this could just be Lucita playing her games. I didn’t exactly have time to do a reading as a pair of sharks came in with short swords, and what’s worse, they knew how to use them. I ducked a quick sharp slice and then dodged out of the way of a thrust and cut. Before I could bring the cards to bear, the knife-man’s partner stepped ahead and took up the assault with fluid grace.

Annalisa had her hands full as well, fending off a pair of Teeth brawlers with ragged blades. Again, I pulled up the cards, but barely managed to reinforce them with towers before a swing from the first Mayazian scattered them.

Before the second could gut me, I heard the whoosh of something passing my head, and then a mass of wood splinters exploded against the shark’s face with an oddly musical twang.

I turned my head up to see the red-coated gambler from the mop holding the broken neck of the lute I’d seen him strumming.

“You!” I said.

“The one and only,” he grinned, handsome despite crooked teeth. He cast the remains of his instrument aside. “Heard you were in trouble, so we came down. Afraid I’m not much in a fight, though.”

“Regular cock-up e’s made of it, you mean,” came a gravely voice. A dark shadow slid up behind the other Mayazian, and a glint of silver flashed across his throat. The shark dropped, and the hulking rogue in the lop-sided hat stepped over, wiping his knife on his jacket. Judging from the stained spot there, I imagine that blade must have seen a lot of throats.

“If you two are here…” I said. I looked over. Sure enough, the other two Mop regulars, the woman in the vest and the muscular guy with the bowl cut, were flanking Annalisa. The barbarian-looking one had a broadsword that he put to great use, while the woman had a knife and a hand crossbow. As I watched, she lifted it and put a bolt right through the eye of one of the mongrel orcs, while the big guy grabbed another’s wrist and hurled her over a table. Amazingly, he had a wide, white smile the whole time. He looked over.

“Now this is my kind of party!”

The dour one groaned, and reached down, yanking me to my feet before lurching off to find something else to stab. He smelled of blood and cobbles.

I started to make my way over to Annalisa, but her eyes widened and she pointed. I followed her gaze and cursed. Two Mayazians were dragging Lenise out from the kitchen. And though she put up what fight she could, the sharks holding her were strong and broad.

“Gods damn it!” I shouted. Could people stop trying to abduct Daggertongue’s brat for five gods-damned minutes?

BOOM!

A deafening thunderclap split through the hall. One of her captors sprouted a fountain of blood from his chest and dropped. The other whipped around, and then spun back, but this time with a hatchet embedded in his skull. He dropped, and a familiar face stepped forward to retrieve his little friend.

“Holy shit!”

Kridick yanked the axe free, and then barked something to a pair of orcs next to him, who grabbed Lenise themselves. It made sense. Orcs follow stronger orcs, and Kridick was the meanest mongrel in the city. There was bad blood between him and Foe Skull, but now Foe was gone, and he’d rallied what was left of her crew. And now that crew was hauling away the secret stashed in the shrine.

“Gods damn it thrice!” I wailed.

Kridick spotted me, and his expression darkened. Well, darkened further. He raised his other hand, and though I’d never seen one of the smoking pieces of artifice, I knew what it was well enough. The old drork’s living lightning flashed across the weapon, and I pulled my cards around me, hoping I still had enough of the towers enchantment on them.

BOOM!

An impact like a sledgehammer hit me, knocking me over a capsized table where I landed on the broken glass of a spilt drink. I rolled to the side, getting to my feet. By the time I did, the old drork had closed half the distance.

“Made a little name for yourself, did you, boy?” he snarled, reloading his drakkyn pistol. “Your little blue parner messes up my job, forces me to go to ground, and then a little pissant like you takes over my crew?”

“Not exactly how I remember it,” I said. “You abandoned Barrowdown. Left us to the sharks and the vultures. Someone had to step in.”

The old boss of Barrowdown laughed. “Don’t get comfortable. I’m coming home. And now,” he glanced back. “I’ve got the leverage I need to negotiate with Daggertongue. There’s only one thing left in my way.”

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what that one thing was.

The old Barrowdown boss raised his axe and charged.

“Anna!” I shouted. But she was already engaged again, with Kridick’s parner and lover, Zarry.