Dragon (S)Layers Ch. 09: Wakeup call

VIII

City of Flames – 2

Sarah leveled her pistol at the larger of the two men-- his silhouette was back-lit by the blinding sun that set her headache pounding even harder into her very soul. She did her best to blink it away even as her hands trembled in the sheer intensity of the pain. The semi-steep pitch of the roof, pointing down towards the alley, made it hard to keep her balance which was only compounded by the loose and broken tiles. All of which Sarah seemed to find with the ball of her bare feet.

She loosened her arm and her grip on the flintlock, swinging it between the two to hide her trembling. "Now, now, let's be civil about this!" her voice was clear, confident. This was good. The sweat slicking her palm was another matter entirely. "I would not prefer to explain to your wives why I had to pull this trigger!"

The two men slowed their approach across the roof tiles, spreading out ever so slightly to make two distinct targets without so much as a glance between them. They were as professional as the others in the alley, which meant Zxhoo was spending real coin to find her. It seemed he was serious about it-- that revelation was liberating and terrifying at the same time.

"Sarah--" Tessarie's lithe elven form slunk up towards her, whispering in elven. "We need to go! What are you doing?!"

"Patience, dear girl. . ." She swallowed. She couldn't leave Keiter to face the soldiers and knights alone. Not after everything they had been through together, not after all the work she had invested in him. He was her greatest creation-- a kobold who turned from evil and embraced compassion and worked hard to alleviate suffering? It was a masterstroke of manipulation. He was also her friend.

Friend. Yes, that was the right word. Regardless of whatever may have happened, they were friends.

The two men inched towards the women with their hands out in a sign of non-agression, taking more effective angles to cut her off even as Sarah backpedaled. Chin held high and jaw straight, her mind worked furiously to find a way out of the situation.

Sarah's gaze flicked to the tiles, considering. There were gaps between the tiles big enough for a finger to fit between and no visible backing under it. "My good mistress of magic, might I impose upon you to cast a spell to render these two to sleep again? We need to affect a rescue."

"I cannot! The magic only works once in a day, it won't affect them at all!"

"Surely you have some other spells?"

"I--" the diminutive elf made an 'eep' sound. Sarah glanced back. They had reached the edge of the roof. The alley below intersected between the merchant's guild and a pair of smaller homes with wood shingle roofs. Sarah's bare feet made her keenly aware of just how rough those shingles looked.

"Bollocks."

"Just come with us!" one of the men said. "It's not like you have anywhere to go!"

"Tempting, truly. But I'm afraid I must decline!" Sarah glanced between the rotting plaster that wrapped the house to her left and the high quality plaster wall of the Merchant's Guild. She was much too hungover for this shit, she decided.

"Not like you have any roof left, rat!" The shorter man banked off towards the wall of the house. An immediate threat.

Sarah saw the situation play out tgree different ways in a split second-- he'd push her off, she might break her leg and be easier to handle; he'd grab her before she could shoot; she would get a single shot off and he would grab her. The tiles creaked under the man's bulk as he took another step towards her.

There were other options, though. She just needed to find them. Sarah swiveled her aim towards the man, swallowed. He was in the process of stepping over a broken tile when a flash of inspiration burned through her hungover mind.

The roof had to have some kind of eaves hidden under the lip of the last tile to support the weight and keep the entire roof from falling off, and since there were no braces under it, chances were good the eaves held up the entirety of the weight. She took a half step back, measuring the distance between them. It was just crazy enough to work.

"Fine, fine! Who am I to refuse such an assertive and well meaning individual," Sarah turned her pistol up so it was aiming skyward with her off hand held out to her side in a show of surrender. She murmured to Tessarie. "Follow my lead but don't move."

"W--"

The two men started towards her again. "That's it. Just drop the toy and--"

Sarah feigned turning, shouting to Tessarie. "Jump!"

As expected, the two men started toward her at a run. Sarah wrenched her aim down towards her best guess at where the eaves were. The flintlock bucked with a thunderous CRACK and a bloom of smoke erupted from the firing chamber. The ball blasted into a tile at the edge of the roof-- the tile broke apart, showing the alley below and revealed that the wooden eave had indeed been rotted by rain damage.

The younger man hadn't caught on to what was happening yet. His weight came down on the tile and it started to slide. The moment of confusion where he was torn between going forward or jumping back lasted just that split second longer than Sarah expected-- he was still waffling about, trying to decide which way to go when she charged forward and cracked him in the face with the flat of her pistol.

As he pinwheeled and tried to grab her, she shifted her weight and shoved against the wall, sending his momentum off with the sliding tiles. Hands grabbed Sarah's hair but she shoved for all she was worth. Pain burned in her skull as he jerked her head, dragging her closer to the edge. Only inches away, she pivoted and punched him in the stomach with all she could muster. Years of working around a forge and lifting heavy things had given her punch some power and he grunted a hollow 'umph!' He let go.

Distantly, she heard him tumble off along with the crashing tiles. Screaming came next. Still mildly disoriented, she tried to brace her foot behind her and it fell to empty air. She pinwheeled and tried to throw her weight forward. Someone grabbed her. A big, strong hand grabbed her blouse and yanked her to its owner. The bigger man had a knife in his off hand and he was just about to stab her when she threw her hands up to grab the blade. "N- Now, now!"

He was strong. Damn strong. She winced inwardly as she pushed back against the blade. Her hands were trembling with adrenaline and strain as they both fought for control. She was quickly loosing ground-- the tip of the blade kissed her skin with its tip.

What a load of bollocks.

Sarah kicked feebly at the man, barely missing his groin. He bore down on her and made to push one last time. She slid her hand around the spine of the blade, gripped the metal and pushed her will into the barrier she had erected in her mind. She bored into it with diamond tipped intensity, focusing so hard that she lost track of the real world, distantly registering a stinging sensation in her shoulder as she pushed harder against the blockage.

It wasn't a prayer. It wasn't holy. It wasn't even an acknowledgement of the divine so much as the trickling release of power that reverberated through her fingers in blissful agony. It was as if someone had tapped a hole into a concrete dam and the pressure was cutting through Sarah's entire being. She gritted her teeth against the pain and shoved her will harder. The pinhole became an awl sized hole.

That's when the screaming began.

She hated this part.

The metal beneath her fingers discolored and corroded, becoming pliable and brittle even as it started to crack and break apart, dissolving in the wind like rusty sand. The rest of the dagger followed suit and shortly after, the man's hand began to wilt, shrivel and turn black. Necrosis ate through his flesh like a fire set upon kindling and in seconds his entire hand up to the wrist was as black and shriveled as his leathers. He howled in pain and dropped to his knees, leaving Sarah to the mercies of gravity.

She was too close to the edge. She jumped away from the gap where the roofing had been, barely avoiding setting her weight down on the rotted wood. The man below was crawling away on a broken leg as the larger kidnapper glared daggers at her. "M- Monster!"

Blood trickled down her skin under her blouse as the pain became real for the first time. She scoffed, an empty anger burning in her chest. "That's right, I'm a monster," she advanced on him and he backed up against the wall. "I'm a monster! I'm the one who was going to give someone to the maw of a dragon." That last part came out much sharper than she expected. "I'm the one who had a choice in what kind of energy I could channel."

The man cradled his mangled hand as Sarah grabbed a paper cartridge from her pocket, ripped it open with her teeth and opened the pan on her pistol, pouring a bit of powder in and re-closing it. As she poured the ball and powder down the barrel, she went on. "Do you have a family?"

"I- I-"

"Sarah. . ." Tessarie said in a meek whisper as she approached, looking equal parts terrified and eager to move. "W- We need--"

"Do you have a family?" Sarah's voice went cold as she tamped the ball down with her ram rod. When it was securely in, she slid the rod back into the underside of the pistol and put her thumb on the cocking lever. "I won't ask again."

"Sarah?!"

"I-- a little girl!"

"What's her name?"

"Imeli. . ." his wary brown eyes focused on her. He swallowed.

Sarah eyed him for a long moment and turned away. Monster. Her internal voice whispered. She clenched her teeth, grabbing a coin from her pocket. She tossed it back his way as she started for the second floor of the temple. "Find a healer and go home. Tell Imeli you love her. . . Don't ever forget that you do."

Tessarie was beside her in a second. "S- Sarah?"

"I've a friend to rescue." Sarah chewed on her lip, trying to figure out how she was going to go on. "I'm not keeping you here, Tessarie," she cocked the lever on her pistol back when they got closer to the window. She peeked around the corner. The guards had come and gone it seemed.

"Sarah." A slim hand touched her shoulder. When she looked up, Tessarie was smiling weakly but there was still that certain fear in her eyes.

"I can't help it," she whispered.

The young elf's smile faded a little. "It is all right."

They climbed into the room as carefully as they could manage and Sarah grabbed her shoes, making it a point to ignore the corpses of the two men she had slept with the night before. It wasn't like she could help them, anyway. The two elf-blooded women checked the other rooms only to find them empty and the first floor landing littered with personal effects from temple visitors.

Sarah lay flat on her stomach and peeked through the space between the rungs of the banister. Down on the ground level, guards were scuffling with the remnants of the congregation who'd banded together in the altar room. There had to have been dozens of them.

Tessarie touched her shoulder again and pointed down at the entrance to the room before she mimed someone sleeping with a questioning look. Sarah considered it for a second, shook her head and backed away, motioning the girl to follow. When they were out of ear shot, Sarah lead her into the nearest bedroom. "Strip the sheets."

"B- But, this is hardly the time--"

"Focus, dear. I've an idea."

"But. . . Sarah. They smell like--" a furious blush swept her olive skinned face. She leaned forward and whispered as if someone might overhear them. "They smell like 'musk'!" complete with air quotes.

It would have been kind of cute if they weren't pressed for time. She urged the elf on as she turned to the modest closet and rifled through it for anything useful-- she came away with a small drawer from the built in dresser and a pair of shoes. "Come on."

By the time they had stripped the other two beds and gathered up everything, they had enough bedding to make two moderate length 'ropes', two drawers and a wooden bar the thickness of her arm along with several sets of shoes. Sarah looked at the supplies. She caught Tessarie looking at her questioningly and smiled.

There was shouting from below as the guards and worshipers started to get into a tangle. Sarah glanced back. "All right, this is what's going to happen. Get started with those sheets. Roll them quickly and tie them together like this," she grabbed two different sheets and quickly rolled them up into a facsimile of rope after which she tied the ends into a weaver's hitch knot. "Got it?"

"Y- Yes." The girl furrowed her brow in concentration. Sarah waited for her to start tying, correcting her a couple times with all the patience she could manage. When she finally got it right, Sarah nodded.

"Be sure they're tight," she set about knotting up the strings she'd found with similar knots. The throbbing in her shoulder was little more than a dull ache as she worked furiously over the plan forming in her mind. She snagged one of the sheets and threw it over her shoulder before Tessarie could get to it. The girl shot her a look which she ignored on her way to the closet to retrieve the small dresser.

Her shoulder throbbed and ached as she maneuvered the dresser onto the second floor landing and grabbed the wooden bar. The voices were becoming much louder now. Women and men alike were screaming in defense of 'the high priest' while men were shouting about monsters and keeping the city safe. They had to have been talking about Keiter.

Sarah put the thought out of her mind. Her focus was wavering as she stood atop the dresser and shoved the bar against the wood crown molding opposite her position and then jammed it up into the wall nearest her. She waited for the voices to rise downstairs before she shoved up on it and crammed it into place. When she had it shoved up where she wanted it, she gave it a tug.

It held.

It even held when she settled some of her weight on it. A sign that things might finally be going right.

Seconds later, someone downstairs screamed. Metal clattered against metal. Sarah jumped down and grabbed the sheet-rope out of Tessarie's hand. This was only going to end in tears. She knew it was. You didn't fight guards and you sure as hell didn't fight Knights unless you were insane. Someone-- the young man from the night before, the paladin-- was shouting an objection, shouting at the guards or something.

Their time was just about out as Sarah tied the sheet-rope around the dresser and looped it over the bar, under the railing and back over the bar. She motioned for Tessarie to grab the rope and went foraging for nails. A few seconds in, she found a mirror which she broke under a pillow with the heel of a shoe. Back in the hallway, she pinned up half the sheet with shards of glass. "Listen to me carefully," she whispered to Tessarie. "We do this, we go around to the spot where the tiles fell off. We'll have to break the roof, so we'll need to be quick. We might need your magic, too, all right? Can you do that for me?"

She nodded meekly. "I can try."

Sarah didn't even hesitate as she lied, smiling. "I've faith in you, sweetheart." The girl livened a little. "We're going to pull this up and knob it here, all right?" Without waiting for a reply, she stood on top of the dresser and tied a slip knot with her string, punching her fingers through the moldy plaster ceiling and lacing the string over the joist. She tied one end there and slipped the slip knot over the corner of the dresser where the drawer had been. "Right. Let's do this. . ."

Together they pulled the sheets back, using the pulley action of the bar and railing to leverage the heavy dresser into position. When they had it in place, Sarah wrapped the length of the sheet-rope around the banister. A few seconds later, Sarah had the small elf standing on her back to attach the drooping sheet to the wall with shards of mirror in order to cover the dresser that was now suspended from the ceiling and aimed directly at the stairwell.

"Good, good."

"Is-- is this safe?"

Sarah smirked. "Yes, dear." With that said, she slunk down the steps with the loose end of the slip knot, weaving it between two rails and tying it to a shoe, placing it so it looked randomly strewn. No one was going to be paying attention, but it didn't hurt to make the attempt.

By the time she had made final adjustments, she had the string taught with shoe it was attached to wedged tightly in a gap between the steps. All it would take was someone jostling string to set things in motion. When someone stepped on the string, the knot would slip on the dresser and let it go. All they needed to do was tie their sheet to the bar and they could be off.

When she got up the steps, Tessarie was looking dubiously at the contraption. "S-"

"Shh." Sarah climbed up and tied the sheet in a knot to the bar, slipping the extra length up under the concealing sheet. More shouts from below turned into loud shouts-- another scream. They were out of time. She shoved Tessarie forward towards the window and ushered her out. "I'll be there in a minute."

A voice from down below shouted. "He's a monster! Now get out of the way or we will strike you down!"

Show time. Sarah sucked air through her teeth. "Hey! Put the gun down!"

There was a pause.

Sarah took out her pistol and fired into the wood work. "Guards! Help! More kobolds!" This was dangerous. This was stupid. The expected tromping of guards came seconds later and Sarah retreated into the room, crashing the dresser drawers together to make more noise before she dived out the window.

Tessarie was waiting for her when she heard the thunderous crash, screams and surprised curses. A louder secondary and third crash. The bar didn't hold, Sarah guessed. She hunched down by the moldy wood and laid her hands on it, forcefully channeling energy through her hands into the wood. It started rotting away almost instantly like ice near a forge.

Keiter was looking up at her with yellow reptilian eyes. He was holding a dead man in his scaly arms, soaked in the blood of his followers who were laid around him; the remains of a last ditch effort to protect him. Several more people stood between the two armored knights and the kobold, arms interlocked. Some part of Sarah wanted to smile but she was too busy focusing on their next move as she threw the sheet-rope down.

"We don't have time for this-- stand aside or--"

"Do what you have to," one of the women raised her voice. "But this is a house of peace. You are not welcome!"

"Put the armored men to sleep." Sarah murmured to Tessarie as she dangled the rope in front of Keiter. "You can't help them. We can grieve later."

The kobold stared at her. "But--"

She gritted her teeth, biting back on her anger. "I came back for you. Don't let it be for nothing-- please."

He blinked. Twice. Looked at his followers.

The sharp, crisp tingle of Tessarie's magic prickled Sarah's senses and the knights along with half the would-be protectors dropped into a heap. Sarah poked her head into the room, looking at it upside down. "Those of you who're awake, I suggest leaving! Right now! Services are concluded-- Keiter, let's go."

"But, but. . . She trusts--"

"You to do what's right for Her followers? Yes, I know, dear. You are. Those you can help have been helped, those who can't are with Her." She lied. "Come, we have much to do! You want to be a hero in Her eyes, don't you?"

"W--"

"Grab the rope!" There was clattering in the other room as the soldiers tried to get themselves together. More cursing followed and before she was ready, one of the soldiers barged in. "Bollocks. Grab the rope! I'm not leaving you here--" they locked gazes. A familiar ache passed between them. "You die, I die Remember?"