Chapter Five
Zarik
After my encounter with the mysterious woman in the sewers, I'd retreated to my home. I was wounded and needed to heal. The fact that I had been wounded irritated me to no end. It was because I'd been careless. Foolish. I'd chased the woman without regard. I'd underestimated my adversary.
It was beginning to be a habit. One I needed to break very quickly.
My wounds had taken longer than normal to heal. No doubt, an effect of whatever poison she'd tipped the crossbow bolt with. Though by the time I sat down at the coffee house for my meeting with Quint, I was more or less back to normal. I'd called him after my encounter to fill him in and set up the meet the next morning. As my Warden, he needed to know what was going on.
“You okay?” Quint asked as he sat down at the table, cup of coffee in hand.
I nodded. “Fine,” I said. “Pissed that she got the drop on me.”
He shrugged. “It happens to everybody from time to time,” he said. “The important thing is that you're alive. That's all that matters to me.”
Looking around the sparsely populated coffee house, I made sure we weren't being observed when I dropped the crossbow bolt on the table. He picked it up and looked at the tip curiously.
“Bronze head,” he said.
“Yeah, I thought that was interesting too,” I replied. “As is whatever poison she coated the head with.”
“I'll see about getting it tested to identify it,” he said. “How did it affect you?”
“Slowed down my healing,” he said. “Stung like hell. But other than that, nothing serious.”
He nodded. “Good,” he said. “So, tell me more about these creatures – what did you say they were called?”
“They called themselves the Chokan,” I said. “Lizard-men. They're humanoid, bipedal, but they've got some seriously tough scales covering their body. Silver doesn't do a damn thing. My blade glanced right off of them.”
“You said you killed one though?”
I sighed. I knew I'd broken one of our cardinal rules – don't draw attention to ourselves. But I hadn't had much choice. I simply nodded.
“Yes, Warden,” I said. “I had to hit it with dragon fire.”
Quint looked thoughtful, but not upset – thankfully. “Were you observed?”
“To the best of my knowledge, only by the mystery woman.”
He nodded and took a sip of his coffee. “I would imagine if you had been seen, somebody would be making waves about it somewhere,” he said. “Before I came, I did a little digging online and didn't find anything. I think we're in the clear.”
I let out a small sigh of relief. “Glad I caught at least one break last night,” I said. “I apologize, Quint. I know the prohibition against –”
He shook his head. “I have full confidence in you, Zarik,” he said. “I know that you wouldn't have used your dragon fire if you'd had a choice in the matter. Like I said earlier, I'm just glad you're alive.”
We sat in silence for a few moments, sipping our coffee, consumed with our own thoughts. I watched a few women come into the shop – they were probably in their mid-twenties and looked fairly athletic. As I looked at them, I wondered if either one of them could have been the woman who'd shot me last night.
I shook my head to clear it and focused on the moment in front of me. “So, do you happen to know anything about these Chokan?”
Quint shook his head. “Unfortunately, I don't,” he said. “I'm going to have to go to the Keepers with this.”
I nodded. “I figured as much,” I said. “I've never seen anything like them before.”
“What about this girl?” he asked. “What can you tell me about her?”
I shook my head, frustrated. “Other than she's a great shot with a crossbow while on the move?”
Quint gave me a rueful laugh. “Yeah, other than that.”
I'd thought about her – or rather, obsessed about her – all night long. Having come close to death at her hands, it was probably somewhat understandable. But, even after a night of reflection and angst, I didn't have anything concrete. I got the impression though, that last night hadn't been her first rodeo, as the old saying goes. She'd been trained. And trained well.
“I don't have much to offer on that front,” I said. “She wore a hood and a mask. All I could see were her eyes. She's human, that much I can tell you. She's a trained fighter. I have a feeling she knows all about these – Chokan things – and that she's been hunting them.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Just a hunch,” I said. “I can't think of any other reason a masked, crossbow and throwing star wielding woman would show up to a vacant lot in the middle of the night.”
Quint smiled. “Fair point.”
“It did get me wondering though,” I said. “About the crossbow bolt. What if the head is bronze, because that's what can kill these Chokan?”
Quint scratched at the stubble on his jawline and nodded. “That's a really solid thought,” he said. “That very well could be the answer to that riddle.”
“Which means, I'm going to need some new weapons.”
He nodded. “I'm going to have to have some made for you,” he said. “Bronze blades aren't exactly – common.”
“Fair enough,” I said.
“Until then, watch your back,” he said. “And do your best to avoid engaging with those things. At least, until we have more information.”
“Understood,” I replied. “And what about the woman?”
“It's a riddle,” Quint said, staring off into the distance as if he were trying to recall some bit of information.
“What is it?”
He rubbed the stubble on his chin again. “I've heard rumors about some underground society of hunters. But honestly, I never put much credence into them. Although now, I see that perhaps, I dismissed those rumors too quickly.”
“An underground society?”
Quint fidgeted with his coffee cup, clearly turning things over in his mind. “For years, there have been rumors and whispers about something called the Order of Midnight,” he said. “I've done some digging and wasn't able to turn anything up on them. If they truly exist, they're deep underground.”
“The Order of Midnight?” I asked. “And what is their supposed purpose?”
Quint shrugged. “I don't know for sure that I believe in it or not,” he said. “But if rumors are to be believed, they were formed to protect the world from any manner of creature that threatens humanity. And that would presumably include us.”
“But we're not a threat to humanity,” I replied.
Quint shrugged. “Supposedly, they make no distinction,” he said. “A non-human isn't human – therefore, in their supposedly misguided and zealous view – a threat to humans.”
“That's not just stupid, it's bigoted.”
He laughed. “Yeah well, it's not like we're going to win a logic war with these people,” he said. “If they actually exist. And I'm not entirely convinced of that yet.”
“I'd say that a masked woman who almost took me out lends a little weight to the rumors.”
“Yeah, it would seem to make a strong argument,” he said. “But we need more information.”
“So, what are we going to do about them?” I asked. “Supposing they actually exist and this woman isn't just some half-baked vigilante type?”
“I guess that as long as they don't get in our way, there's not much we can do about them.”
I leaned back in my seat and ran a hand through my hair. “I'm surprised we've not run into them before.”
“You're assuming this is actually a legitimate group,” Quint replied. “For all we know, the woman you ran into really was just some half-baked vigilante type.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But one thing I can tell you is that the woman knows how to fight. She's damn good. I never even saw her until it was too late.”
“Maybe you were too distracted with the creatures,” he offered.
“Yeah, maybe.”
“Well, find out what you can about her and this supposed group,” he said. “And be careful. I don't want you taking any unnecessary risks. Especially not with these creatures.”
I snapped him a quick salute. “Aye, aye, Captain,” I said.
“Smartass.”
“That's me.”
Quint stood up from the table, tucking the crossbow bolt into his coat pocket. “Check in with me as soon as you find anything,” he said. “In fact, check in with me once a day, just so I know you didn't get yourself killed.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I said, giving him a grin.
“Yeah well, I'm feeling slightly less confident in you at the moment,” he said and smirked. “You did get your ass kicked by a girl, after all.”
I shot him the finger and shook my head, laughing. Quint turned and walked out of the shop. I drained the last of my coffee and stood up to go. I looked at the girls who'd walked in again earlier and found one of them staring back at me. And again, it made me wonder if she'd been the girl who'd tried to kill me the night before.
She turned back to her friends, giggling and speaking in hushed tones. No, it couldn't be her. I had a hard time picturing the girl from the night before giggling with her girlfriends.
I walked out of the shop and into the morning sunlight. I was going to find the woman and learn everything I could about this supposed Order of Midnight. I wasn't going to underestimate them or be caught off guard again.