Page 74 of Storms & Sacrifice
Right on cue, a noise from the hall behind me answers my question.Someone’s home.I turn back to the window, but Ragnar is already gone, having the good sense to hide, and I need to follow his lead, fast. Under the bed is the obvious choice, but I don’t have time to check for room, so the closet it is. I almost forget to put the papers back, doing my best to spread them around quietly before darting into the closet and hiding in the very back, behind the heavy robes.
Not a second later, Murbank himself stomps into the room.How did he get inside without his keys?!From where I’m standing in the closet, I’m just able to see into the room, my body and facehopefullyobscured by the clothing. He doesn’t look happy as he grumbles to himself, and I can see a large dark splotch of something on the front of his purple robes. Can’t make out what he’s saying, but if I had to guess, I’d go with something about having a shitty day.
He tears off the robe and throws it onto the bed, revealing a simple tan tunic and pants underneath. When he turns to the closet, I have a minor panic attack, barely remembering to hold my breath as he rifles through the clothes hanging to my left.Fuckfuckfuck, please don’t look over here. I want to (but don’t) exhale in relief when he pulls out a similarly colored replacement. Then I noticehis wrist.
Covering the inside of his forearm, in dark black ink, is the bird’s claw symbol. Same as on Thog’s shoulder, same as in the book, same as the sketches on his desk.Yes!I’m so excited I could dance, and probably will as soon as he leaves. There’s no possible justification he could have for having that tattoo. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen him out of his long-sleeved shirtsand robes.
But first, I have to get out of here. I watch silently as Murbank pulls on his new robe, straightening out any wrinkles and examining himself in the mirror above the desk. Then he pauses and gives himself a weird look. No, he’s giving thedeska weird look.Fuck, the papers!He reaches a hand out, examining a few and sliding them to the side. Can he tell I went through them?
He wheels around, scanning the room with eyes full of suspicion. He looks at the bed, the desk, the window, the closet. I swear at one point it looks like he’s staring straight at me, but a split-second later, it’s gone.That was nothing, right?Before I have much longer to freak out, he gives the papers on the desk one final glare and exitsthe room.
I try to listen for when it’s safe, but I’m too terrified of exiting the room and immediately running into him because he hasn’t left the house yet. I’m just starting to contemplate climbing out the window when another person entering the room makes me freeze. At least until I see that it’s Ragnar.
“David? Are you in here?” He’s speaking at a normal volume, so I take it to mean that the coastis clear.
“Yeah, right here,” I answer as I exit the closet, breathing deeply. “What the hellhappened?”
“I don’t know.” He shakes his head. “I was on the other side of the house but kept getting blocked by locked doors. I came back to check out the kitchen when I heard the front door unlocking. I ran out the back before anyone saw me. I didn’t realize it was Murbank until I watched him leave.”
“Ragnar, look.” I walk over to the desk and point out the paper with the sketches. “He has thissamesymbol on his wrist, same tattooas Thog.”
His eyes go a little wide in surprise. “Shit. Well, you’re gonna want to seethis too.”
Ragnar leads me out of the room and down the hall, then out the back door. It’s fairly sparse, not unlike Khazak’s parent’s backyard, except for something large and black off in one corner: a carriage, the same one that’s almost run me over twice now. No horses though.
“Is this the carriage you keep seeing?” Ragnar asks, walking over to it.
“Yeah. I mean, I think so.” I nod, stepping closer.
“That’s not all.” Ragnar points down to the tracks leading from the carriage into the back wall, the one that is part of the city’s wall. When he sticks his hand out to touch it, it goes right through.Another illusion. “This is how they’ve been getting in and out of the city without anyonenoticing.”
Some trial and error with our hands reveals a hole in the wall more than big enough for the carriage to pass through. The other side of the wall is heavily forested, and I’m sure the added coverage has been a help in keeping their movementsa secret.
“So, what do we do now?” I ask, feeling like this is almosttoogood to be true. “I mean, we have more than enough proof, right?”
“We need to find Khazak and tell him everything.” He grimaces slightly after saying the name of his best friend and boss. “Hopefully, the info will be enough for him to overlook the way we found it out.”
God, I hope he’s right.
“You didwhat?!”Ragnar was wrong, so very, very wrong.I jump up from my chair to close the door to Khazak’s office, not wanting to risk an outburst being heard.
“Just hear us out, sir.” Ragnar has his hands out, trying to placate the angry beast sitting across the desk from him. “I know it sounds bad, but now we haveactualevidence that Murbank is tied to theattacks.”
“That you gained byillegallybreaking into and searching his home!” the orc captain growls. “How could you be so... Why would you steal his keys, David?!”
“I don’t know!” I squirm, his attention now squarely on me. “I just panicked when I didn’t think we were going to get any more info out of him and grabbed them.”
“What was your plan to return them?” He asks point blank, knowing full well I didn’thave one.
“Leave them someplace so he’d think he dropped them?” It’s notthatunbelievable.
“And if he realized they were missing before he ever left his office?”Uhhhhhh…
“‘Man, I’m really bad about losing my keys’?” I shouldn’t have risked the joke because it only makes him angrier. “Look, I’m sorry, but he’s killed people! And he’s going to do it again! We have to do whatever it takes tostop him.”
“I understand the way you feel, but this isnotthe way to go about it.” He’s speaking in that ‘I’m not mad—just disappointed’ tone of voice. “What if you had been caught? What if he had come home while you were there?”
“Actually...” Ireallydon’t wanna tell him aboutthis part.
