Blood Eagle

Chapter 13: Seeds of Entanglement

Seeds of Entanglement

His rune of subtlety was active, suppressing any sound, making him melt into the shadows. Stalking between tents, staying away from the rings of light cast by torches. Using his sense of magic to feel the vibrations through the earth of any movement, hiding each time a soldier came out of a tent or a sentinel moved in his direction.

Same kind of tavern down to the nails, it appeared. Arn held up one finger and fished out a silver coin from his belt, receiving a few copper pieces and a tankard in return. He dragged a stool to a corner – all tables and proper chairs were in use – and sat down, drinking his barley water while observing the common room.

He took note of who among the armed people seemed to be customers, and who had the familiarity to enter backrooms or go upstairs like they worked at the place. He saw his target as well; as promised, a one-eared woman with the self-assured confidence that came from owning the place.

When time began to feel pressing, Arn left and with swift steps began his return to the ludus. On the way, he considered what he had learned. This would be a far more difficult task than the previous; the place was crowded, well lit, and full of people capable in a fight, should Arn be discovered in his purpose.

In addition, the skáld had also gotten a handle of who exactly he had undertaken this task for. This bloated fellow, Magnus, ran some sort of criminal enterprise; considering the location by the docks, it most likely involved smuggling as the main source of income. Since he had sent an outsider rather than one of his own trusted minions to deal with three serfs in the slums, it suggested that his reach was limited to the harbour district, and maybe the neighbouring parts of the city south of there.

Given that this Vera's headquarters lay just east of the slums, and Magnus had chosen her as the next target, Arn felt that he could deduce the deeper layer of the situation. She had to be a rival, running her own crime ring, and probably she was the reason that Magnus could not send his own people into the blood fields, as they called that dilapidated district.

It did not make a difference to Arn as such; he saw no other recourse for getting his runes back, and he had no qualms about killing one criminal on behalf of another. But he felt a little more comfortable with a better grasp of whom he was getting entangled with, whether friend or foe; especially given his volatile circumstances, which made it seem likely that some might move from one category to the other.