Gritt's Tale Part 5

Once outside, Gritt took up a steady striding pace, and began to head through the Shingles, moving through the milling groups of people with surprising ease.  The scribe seemed to keep catching himself on the elbows of passers-by, almost tripped up several times, and was soon sweating with effort.  Although still shrouded in shade, the sky was clear and it looked like it was going to be a pleasant day.  Once he had caught up with Gritt, the old man started speaking again.

“Well, we spent 6 weeks waiting for Kroft to give us some work.  Can’t say that we spent the time constructively.  Things seemed to have settled down, but we kept hearin’ those rumours about the Queen being responsible.  Figured someone was trying to stir up trouble still.  Cheliax, by my reckoning.  But, with the hell-knights marching around, trouble wasn’t going to break out.  Then we caught wind of something else that didn’t smell right.  Apparently, they were pinning the murder of the King on some artist – a young girl.  The mob bought the story straight away.  Kroft came and spoke to us about it.  Wanted us to catch the girl, bring her in, afore she got lynched.  Gave us the address.”

Gritt stopped walking, and crossed the street.  He turned, and stared up at a dilapidated building, that looked typical of the Shingles – kids playing on balconies, rope bridges strung from verandahs, crumbling walls.

“42 Moon Street.  Right here.  We turned up.  Tried to speak to the neighbours.  They figured we was the law.” He shrugged.  “Can’t say I blame ‘em – they were kinda right.  We found the girl’s  place.  Saw her leggin’ it out the back though.  We had to chase her.  You ever been up there in the Shingles?  It’s a warren.  Real hard to get a bit of speed up – specially if you’re weighed down with armour and a decent weapon.  Thought we weren’t gonna catch her.  Watson surprised me.  Turned out he had some talent when it comes to scampering about on roofs.  He managed to catch up with her  - busted clean through a wall and made a jump like a damn spider-monkey, then grabbed a hold of her.  Me and Justin weren’t so quick.  Matter of fact, Justin fell off the building trying to get past me and catch her.  Lucky he landed in a something soft.  Pity ‘bout the smell though.”

The scribe stared up at the building, trying to picture what had happened.  Looking at the precarious thinly tied ropes, he gulped nervously at the thought of running across one or leaping to the next building in pursuit of someone.  Then he noticed Gritt looking at him.  The scribe nodded to Gritt, and Gritt resumed walking and talking.

“Anyway, we shoved her in a sack and got her to Kroft in one piece.  Then we asked her some questions.  Sol cast himself a spell.  This symbol appeared above the girl’s head.  Told us if she was lying.  Turned out she hadn’t had anything to do with the King’s murder.  Also turned out that Sparrow wasn’t interested in that – just had a real unhealthy line of questioning into who the girl had slept with.  Didn’t know better, I’d say Sparrow was interested in getting the lass into the sack herself.  She was quite a looker.  Anyway, even though she was innocent, Kroft wouldn’t let her go.  Apparently, they had to do things by the book.  Can’t say I thought it was right, but weren’t no point in kicking up a stink about it.  Kroft said she was going to hand her over to the Palace for questioning.”

“Well, after that, there was a bit of disagreement about what we should do.  Mandraiv figured the whole thing was a plan by the Queen and Sabina to find a scapegoat and get the people to like the Queen again.  I didn’t see it that way.  Too many holes.  Way I figured it – if someone figured stirrin’ up rumours wasn’t enough to get the people rebelling against the Queen – there’d be a better way.  Get the Queen to accuse and then execute some beautiful young girl, an artist no less, for the murder.  Then, what’d you know, out comes some evidence to show it couldn’t have been the artist – and it looks like the Queen’s just tried to frame an innocent girl to get people to love her.  That’d turn the people real angry – Hellknights or not – wouldn’t like their chances then.  Plus, didn’t sit with the way the Queen and Sabina dealt with us.  Seemed like the Queen was genuine to me.  Sabina too.  Figured I’d go and speak to Sabina.  Like I said, she was a real fine figure of a woman, and I planned to get to know her better.”

“Gotta’ admire Mandraiv’s persistence.  Man followed me all the way to the palace, trying to talk me out of it.  But, like I tried to tell him – man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.  I don’t know what it is – whether Lamm did something to Mandraiv he didn’t do to the rest of us – but Mandraiv was a bit different.  Didn’t see things the same way as the rest of us.  Wouldn’t trust no-one.  Hoped I could show him that not everyone was bad.”

“Well, I got in and spoke to Sabina.  She was just as beautiful as I’d remembered.  Real serious though.  Kinda added to her beauty.  Well, I ain’t got no silver tongue like Mandraiv or Sol, so I just kinda told her I’d like to get to know her better.  She said she was already involved with someone.  Kinda cryptic.  Still, I invited her to come see us at the Three Rings sometime. When she said she was involved, couldn’t really tell whether she meant she was too busy guarding the Queen, or something else.”

“Spoke to her about the guard who’d fingered the artist, Trinia, for the crime.  His name was Reginald.   She let me have a word with him.  The man was lying.  Told him I knew so, but he wouldn’t tell me what was going on.  But, the way he was worried about his family – seemed like he was making up the story that implicated Trinia ‘cause someone was threatening them.  He was in a tough situation right enough – just wish’d I could have convinced him to tell the truth.  But, like I said, I ain’t got a way with words.”

“Well, after that, we had a chat with a few people.  Spoke to Grau.  He didn’t know Reginald.  Different type of guard he said.  Also told me that Sabrina liked whisky.  And beer.  Gotta say, made me feel pretty good for a while.  My kind of girl.  Then he said that she don’t like men, just women.  Same as Sparrow.  Well, don’t know whether that’s true or not.  I’ve heard enough people say that when a girl hasn’t chosen ‘em.  Figured I’d like to hear Sabina tell me herself.  The way rumours keep spreadin’ even when there’s no truth to ‘em – well, I don’t hold no stock in what people say.  I like to get a feel for someone myself.”

“Met Reginald’s wife.  The woman was too emotional.  Didn’t matter what any of us said, she just bawled us outta her home.  Felt sorry for her though.  Left her some money to look after her kids.”

“We told Kroft about what we’d learnt.  She introduced us to an old Shoanti.  Creepy old guy.  Name of Thousand bones.  Real angry.  Apparently his grandson got beaten to death in Korvosa.  Said if we didn’t get the body back, his sons’d likely declare war on the city.” Gritt shook his head with a saddened expression. “Sounded like they was just as bad as the Korvosans – willing to blame a whole bunch of people who ain’t had anything to do with anything just ‘cause of where they lived.  Anyway, we said we’d bring the body back, so they could do the right thing for the grandson – send his sould on its journey the right way.  Then he and Justin had a chat with each other.   Jabbered away in Shoanti.  Couldn’t make head or tail of it – but looked like they knew each other.”

“Anyway, Kroft told us who’d got the body.  Some alchemist by the name of Ernest Fyffe.  When she said his name – well, Watson went all pale, like someone walked over his grave.  Turned out he was imprisoned by Fyffe for a few years.  Strapped to a wheel, had to push it around, month after month.  Had to watch Fyffe cutting folks up for fun.  Didn’t say much more about what happened there.  Wondered how much more there was to the tale.  Between what Fyffe and Lamm had done to him, I was starting to understand why Watson was so strange.  Talked funny, real naïve in some ways, and real reckless at times.  Well, I hoped he’d feel better if we got rid of Fyffe."

"We went to the Dead Warrens where Fyffe was hiding.  Headed underground into his hideout.  It was a mausoleum.  A crypt full of the dead.  Pits full of bones.  Damnedest thing happened.  Just about as soon as we got in there, a bunch of skeletons clambered out of the pit and attacked us.  Creepiest thing I’d ever seen – their gaping mouths, the clattering noise.  Sure, I’ve seen a lot of stranger things since – but that was the first time I’d seen the dead walk.  They weren’t the problem though.  The problem was a great big skeleton.  Some kind of weird bird animal.  Great big skeletal big on a thing as big as a bear.  It grabbed a hold of Watson and damn near pecked him to death.  Justin, me and Sparrow tried to take it down while Mandraiv, Artox – his snake – and Sol took down the skeletons.  Watson managed to wriggle out of its grip and backed away.  The thing grabbed a hold of me.  I was hoping Watson was going to come and bash it while it was distracted from dealing with me – but he went and fought against the last human skeleton still going.  Well, luckily I managed to smash the weird skeleton before it ripped me apart, with Sparrow’s help and some well-timed healing from Sol.  Figured I’d have a word to Watson about how we was gonna fight things later.  Way I saw it – best to take out the real deadly foes first – leave the minor threats till later."