A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 04

He smiled then, tilting his own head a little, "Selena?"

He sat back a little with a dazed look. She didn't know the reason for it, but he felt a little like a man who had reached the last mountain before the end of his quest. "Just Selena?"

"Why do you need to know the rest?" she asked, "there aren't many Selena's around these parts."

"Please," he said very quietly," tell me the rest. I'll forget about your stealing my horse if you'll tell me your name."

"I thought that you already did that," she smirked a little cautiously.

"Well I did," he chuckled, and seeing it surprised Selena. She'd never seen something like that from him before. Until this moment, she'd almost have bet money that he wasn't capable of it.

"But this time, I mean it officially," he grinned, "since I haven't got anything to give you for the information. Well I could buy you another ale, but I don't see why you'd want tha-"

"Then give me a kiss for it, Dahlgren Runei," she smiled, "Knowing my name -- I mean my true name -makes you a part of a very small circle of people around here, and all of them are close enough to me to want to kiss them now and then."

Selena wanted to dance in joy for a second, only because of the way that his mouth fell open in shock.

"Fair enough," he said as he recovered with a small but genuine smile, "but we're in this place and we both have only so much time to do what we came here for. As much as I want to hear your name -- and pay your price, I can feel that some of the ones behind me are beginning to have thoughts of leaving. The rest want to find a bed here. We're running out of time that they'll all be in one place."

Selena couldn't believe what she was hearing, but before she could ask him plainly, he motioned her a little closer as well, so she leaned in.

"We've been pretty quiet here," he said, "I'd like it if we were a little quieter still now. I'd like to know how you intend to handle this."

"Handle what?" Selena asked, deciding that he could go to his grave now, never knowing her name.

"You're after the bounties," he said, "I care nothing about that, other than you need the coins, so tell me what you'd like me to do to help and I'll do it. I'm sorry, Selena," he said, "you can't know how sorry. But they'll get up to leave in only a minute. I know this. I'd love nothing better than to give you what you seem to want, though I can't imagine why you would."

"Why are you here for them?" she asked.

"I am being paid by someone who wants some justice," he said.

"That's pretty much the same thing, isn't it?" she asked, and he saw the warning in her glance and hated himself for allowing the moment to pass. He'd never get another chance now.

"It is," he nodded, "There are two doors to this place. I can make it so that no one will exit by one of them. I'd suggest that you go out by the main door and walk around to the left until you come to the next door and wait there in case any of the ones here come out that way. I'll be outside the main doors for the same reason."

"How do you know that any of them will leave?" she asked him.

"I can feel it in them," he said, "and I can hear the thoughts of one."

She wanted to believe him, but then she'd also wanted to kiss him once too.

"By your eyes," he said a little sadly, "I can see that I've done something wrong, though it was not meant, and not what I wanted. But trust me if you can and I'll help you get your bounties, and our friend here will do the rest."

"Our friend?" she looked at the old man who still had his head down, "What about him?"

"He's dead, "Dahlgren nodded, "he was dead before I even came to the table, aren't you, friend?"

"Ah..." the corpse said, lifting his head. Selena could see by his eyes and his slack mouth that he spoke the truth., "Dead," the corpse said. The head fell back onto the arm with a thump, driven by Dahlgren's will to respond . He and Selena got up to go.

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The heads of all of the ones at the table snapped around to stare at the old man's corpse weaving a little as it came, pointing at one of them after another and telling all of the things that each one had done, over and over. They jumped up from their seats and stood transfixed for a moment, and then they scattered along with everyone else.

Two of the six who were sought by the rogue ran through the corridor. "Where we goin'?" one of them asked.

"Ssh," the other said over his shoulder, "I duuno what that was, but I wanted to be gone a while ago. 'Sides, this here's a nice way to leave without paying' Patrick for those last drinks, innit?"

The closed outer door stopped them for a few seconds, but then they pushed it open, "C'mon!" the one on front hissed, but then he stopped suddenly and the one behind ran into him.

"Waddyer doin? He hissed over the shoulder of the man in front, but he received no reply. "Bill?"

Bill turned slowly and fell onto his back. His companion gaped, but then there was something dark in front of him. All that he could see was half of a face under a hood.

Selena jammed her daggers into either side of the second man's throat at slightly different heights. She held them there for a half-second, and then, before her mark could raise his arms, she twisted them and ripped them out, stepping back quickly over the body of Bill. The man stared for a second as his blood ran out of him. He barely felt her kick in his chest and he fell backward into the doorway.

"You've killed me," Bill said quietly, "W-why?"

Selena spun around to make sure that he couldn't reach her. "It's a long list you've got," she said, "but I was thinking of giving you a pass."

She smiled, "Until you stole my horse."

She jammed her dagger into the other one, and receiving no response, she found his arm and pulled up his sleeve. She could barely make out the markings there, but satisfied with what she saw, she began to cut. It was grisly work and she hated it, but it was a sight easier than having to deal with a captive who was larger than she was. The tickets on all of these ones had read "dead or alive" and she wouldn't have to feed them dead.

That was why she often went after the ones where the authorities weren't all that worried about getting the escaped one back in one piece -- all they needed was the scrap of skin. By the time that she had what she wanted, Bill had tried to get up, but wasn't having much luck, so he was pulling himself away.

"Where you going?" she asked.

"P-please, .." he groaned.

Selena stood up and walked around out of his sight. He strained to try to see her, but gasped and collapsed as she plunged her dagger into the center of his chest with both hands, twisting before she wrenched it free. She found his markings and cut them out as well, before going back to the other one to retrieve her other dagger and reaching into her cloak for the long bottle. Pulling out the cork with her teeth, she rolled the strip of skin and skid it inside before repeating the act with the other piece. That done, she corked the bottle and looked for unbloodied clothing on them to wipe the bottle and her daggers before she tried with only some success to clean her hands as well.

It took a while, but the old man followed four of them out into the cobbled courtyard, still pointing and howling out their crimes. One of the men, looking more like the other side of his gene pool began to grow a little bold and began to walk back, saying that it was all a trick, but the corpse grabbed hold of his ear and wouldn't let go, still shouting.

The ear eventually gave up and was torn off, mostly. But before anyone could get past their horror, the men began to fall, each shot through with an arrow before any of them could recognize the threat out there in the darkness. With the last of the four dead, the corpse turned to walk around to the other door, but stopped and began to walk back as Selena came from that direction and other than a look of distaste, she passed him by and walked to where Dahlgren stood.

"Thank you, friend," he nodded and the corpse fell in a heap and they were alone.

Selena worked quickly, looking for the markings of each escaped criminal, and then looking for the other marking -- the one that said that he'd been in a prison and hadn't ever had a reason to be set free again. When she found those, she cut them out, placing the strips of hide into her bottle. "What proof do you need?" she asked him.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"How do you have to prove that these are dead?"

He smiled a little weakly, "I uh, I just tell the one who paid me that they are. I am someone whose word is -- "

"I know," she said with a nod, "Never questioned." She began to walk toward the stables in the darkening early evening, "It must be nice to be believed, no matter what you say. It would make a pleasant change for me."

She found her horse, and after a look to see that she was alright, Selena adjusted the stirrup straps back to where they'd been and then she mounted up. "It makes me wonder why you agreed to kiss me and then you mentioned all of this.

Very efficient," she said coldly, "very businesslike. A great way to piss on my mood. I don't often ask a man for his kiss," she said, turning her horse around.

"So nice to have met you at last," she said, urging her mare toward the doorway.

"Wait!" he said, not using her name, "I want, ..."

"Believe me," she said over her shoulder, "I don't."

She spurred her horse and was gone into the deepening gloom.