The Warmage’s Offer
Balefire regarded his three female comrades sourly.
"I have," he muttered dryly, "encountered tears of joy before,
Mea. Ask Twilight for details, for example."
Twilight turned away, attempting with very limited success to hide a smile at
the memories his comment had triggered.
"But," the Warmage continued, "please do it later. While
yon assassin finishes his cartography, we had best decide upon a basic
plan. Evidently we shall have to assault a castle filled with assassins,
and whatever other troops and traps the Dark Brotherhood can afford. They
have deep pockets, so I expect that it will not be as easy as we would
prefer. 'Tis clear that they have laid a trap; 'tis equally clear that we
cannot ignore it. J'layah's sister does not have a great deal of time
left to live if she is not reunited with her soul. What is more, we
cannot merely attack the castle by main force without taking an
unacceptable risk of destroying she whom we wish to save. I suspect the
best plan would be a two-pronged attack, one
party using stealth and the other force. I will be happy to lead the
latter. Perhaps my swordsister and Sri Daoud would consider forming a
small party for the stealth side of the operation?"
The dusky mercenary turned toward the bar and raised his voice. "Ho,
Betrayal! Would you like to join in our quest? It promises some
action and excitement, and mayhap the odd bit of loot. The handful of us
against a castle filled with assassins and their minions." He smiled
wolfishly, "I like the odds."
He then turned his attention to the captive assassin and the map he had
finished drawing.
Glancing at the map, the Warmage nodded in satisfaction. "Very well, that
will do. Now stand up and step away from
the table. Try to control your damned trembling, you white-livered
dog. As I promised, you will be given a chance at survival and
freedom. I am a man of my word."
The big dark elf gestured, and a Daedric Longsword appeared on the table, keen
edge and needle point gleaming deadly in
the light of the fire and oil lamps. "Take the sword,
assassin. It is my gift to you, and a weapon of quality such as few of
your ilk are likely to ever see, much less afford. My comrades here will
not harm you, regardless of what transpires...you have my word on it. I
trust them to follow my wishes in this."
The assassin looked from the sword to the scarred, impassive countenance of the
Warmage, and licked his lips. Swallowing
twice before he could finally form the words, he whispered, "Ah...take the
sword and do what, Lord Balefire?"
"Take the sword, bat dung, and attempt to fight your way past me to the
door. I shall contest your passage with no weapons but my bare hands, and
shall use no magic, upon my word and upon the Art, I swear it. An you can
reach the door, you will be free to go your way unimpeded. My comrades
will not interfere in any way. The alternative is execution by a slow
flaying spell I have been developing. It has yet to be field tested."
The assassin swallowed again, and his hand reached out toward the sword,
stopped, twitched.
"Choose, defiler of putrescent corpses!" the Warmage roared.
"Take up the sword, if you would have a fair chance at living beyond the
next moment."
J'layah whispered to Twilight, "A fair chance? What kind of choice
is it that Balefire offers?"
Twilight replied, unperturbed and with a vicious half-smile on her lovely face,
"A choice between execution and suicide. 'Tis more than he offers
most of his enemies."
The assassin suddenly whirled and snatched up the gleaming blade.
Continuing his whirl, the assassin aimed the blade at
Balefire's head in a roundhouse swing.
Balefire leaned back and let the daedric steel whistle by in front of him. When
the assassin was halfway turned around in his swing, Balefire grabbed the empty
hand with both of his and squeezed hard. An audible crack of bones breaking
came to the companions.
The assassin's face went white from the sudden burst of pain.
Balefire released the hand and allowed the assassin to retreat a few steps.
The minion from the Dark Brotherhood composed himself with an effort.
With blade pointed horizontally in front of him, he lunged forward in an
attempt to skewer his opponent.
Balefire let the blade get within a foot of his torso, then allowed his feet to
slip out from under him. Before he completely reached the floor, Balefire used
both hands to propel himself forward. As the assassin's lunge carried him above
the warmage, Balefire grabbed his opponent's sword forearm with one hand and
upper arm with the other hand and pushed and pulled.
Another crack of bone breaking reached the watching crowd.
The assassin dropped the blade from a hand that appeared to have suddenly gone
nerveless.
Balefire continued his reverse somersault by allowing his feet to rise into
contact with the assassin's abdomen. Straightening the
legs caused the assassin to go flying off in the direction of the door. Upside
down.
The impact of the body caused one door to tear off its hinge.
The flight of the assassin continued on into the courtyard in front of the
Porcupine.
Propping himself up with his one good elbow, the assassin shakily got to his
feet and ran off into the darkness.
By the time Betrayal reached the door, the only trace of the assassin was a
diminishing sound of running footsteps in the distance.
Twilight walked over to the still-supine Balefire and inquired, "What took
you so long"?
Rising effortlessly to his feet, the Warmage allowed
himself a grim smile. "As you well
know, swordsister, I could have killed the verminous scum between heartbeats,
had that been my intention. Now, however, he will rush off to his superiors
convinced that he managed to escape, albeit with some injuries. The
injuries will add a certain air of truth to his tale, and if
fortune favours us the Brotherhood will believe what he tells them of our
plans."
Balefire made a quick gesture and a tankard appeared in his hand.
"Much depends on how gullible his comrades are, but it cannot hurt to have
sown some confusion. Now we must decide on the details of what we are
really going to do, and implement our plan as soon as we are able."
Darkflame walked up to Balefire and clapped him on the
shoulder. "I wouldn't worry brother, for your performance was still most
excellent. But, as you say, let us continue with the planning.
"As you know, force is also my forte, and should it be required, a great
deal of it could be brought to bear. However, should her help be required,
Kriella is an expert in stealth, even taking into consideration her previous
profession. Besides, she would kill me if I was to not invite her on such a
merry jaunt as killing Dark Brotherhood." Tenaka went silent for a moment.
"She is on her way."
A Window opened behind the two brothers, and the beautiful Dark Elf woman
stepped out. "Gentlemen..."
"Kriella!"
The warmage greeted her with a rare grin of unalloyed pleasure.
"Welcome once again to the Angry Porcupine. Your presence brightens
the day."
Turning, he beckoned Twilight over as he introduced Kriella to Sri Daoud.
"My sister-in-law Kriella, allow me to introduce an old companion of mine,
Sri Daoud. And now, with two of the foremost scouts and infiltrators in
Tamriel, together with our little band of shock troops, it seems to me we have
a good party for a two-pronged attack on this stronghold, one by force
with spells and slashing a-plenty, while the other attacks more subtly."
Frowning briefly at each of his companions' drinking vessels, the dark elf
mercenary smiled briefly with satisfaction as they were magically refilled.
"I am open to suggestions for party composition and detailed tactics, to
the
extent that we can plan before actually seeing the lay of the ground."
(Mea Culpa)
"Well as for myself I think I should go with a sneak
and peek party", Mea offered "which might include any others that
gave some knowledge of stealth, Twilight perhaps and" Mea continued "
do I hear any other offers" this with a twinkle in her eye, which
said " no smart remarks please!"