Squib Ep.5 - Schemes
Start at the beginning here
“You try to fake it but you’re breaking every rule!”
Getchurgun grabbed Bandana by the arm and hauled her forcefully into a moment of privacy. The camp was a maze of alleyways cut into the land by a network of tents, and any few feet of space out of a main thoroughfare was as good as any for a chat. The camp crawled with soldiers at all times of day, and at night was a system of proximity based ears, to which secrets could be lost quite easily through thin veils of canvas. Ever the cautious, Jules opted to stay a few paces from her sisters where an advantageous position could keep her eyes on anyone heading their way.
Bandana wrenched her arm free, stating her defiance without the need of a raised voice.
“I know what I’m doing!” She shot back in what might have been a yell if not for the controlled volume.
“Well if you know what you’re doing, it would be good of you to enlighten the rest of us.”
Jules looked over at that, a pleading look on her face that told Bandana that she agreed, and that it would be nice to know- even down right considerate if they were talking plainly. It was cause for thought and, given the circumstances, hard to ignore. The trouble was, Bandana wasn't sure she was wholly convinced of the details herself, to which explaining them would prove a mite troubling.
That was the trouble with Two Bandana Anna. She’d never been one for well thought out and perfectly executed schemes. Her modus operandi was made up more of ‘wild ideas’ mixed with ‘feeling things out’. Sure, she’d been rather successful at it up to this point, and as far as anyone was concerned she appeared every bit in control. But the truth couldn't have been farther fetched, and she had never felt the need to correct anyone on their interpretation. Least of all when she wanted one of her wild ideas to go her way.
“Well? We’re supposed to be blending in, ‘riding the wind of obscurity’. That was your idea, remember?”
“I know, I know!” Bandana propped one arm on her hip as her other tangled its way through her hair, working out some sort of frustration that was knotting up in her head. She had to think about what she might say, or more importantly, how she might sell it.
“Look. I know an opportunity when I see one. I have a record for that, don’t I?” Bandana looked expectantly for an answer.
“Yes.” Getchurgun admitted begrudgingly, as though she already knew where this was going.
“Well, now I see an opportunity. You were there. You saw what the Captain-General rode out of the treasury with.”
“Yeah I did. It looked like a fancy box with gilded edges.”
“And a rose of the crimson caste,” Jules added from the side.
“I said it looked like the rose of the crimson caste!” Getchurgun corrected.
“Rose, not a rose, see, didn't see, it hardly matters when what we do know is that he whisked it out of there before the fighting had even ended, and squirreled it away in his quarters before anyone realised he had taken it.”
“So what? Word is he can’t even get it open. And even if you could, is it really worth risking our livelihoods over? You don’t even know what’s in it!”
Frustrated, a shrill note carried through the air just as a trio of men walked past on the nearby path. Distracted, Jules hadn’t seen their approach, and all three sisters turned to stare as the men who’d stopped to investigate the commotion. There was an awkward moment of silence.
“Lovers quarrel?” One of the men jived, instigating an inevitable roar of ruckus laughter from their pack. It was met with two impatient stares and a frown as the sisters waited, then watched the men move on.
Getchurgun turned her attention back on Bandana, who was ready with her response.
“I don’t need to know what’s in it. Whatever it is.. just, trust me.” She stopped short of saying what she’d thought. That box had called to her. The moment she’d seen it, with it’s opal finish, and it’s shiny antique lock, she knew deep within her that she had to get at whatever was inside. She couldn't explain it, and she knew better than to bother sprouting off in such a manner to Jules or Annie.
“If you want to help, you can provide a distraction.”
Getchurgun buried her face in her hands, shaking her head, and taking a moment for herself.
“Why? Why do you have to be this way?! We’ve had a good run here. Need I remind you we’re also under contract, of which the Commander takes very seriously? When your scheme falls apart, which it inevitably will, what then?”
Bandana raised her brow, and with it a coy, knowing smile curled one corner of her lips. Annie Getchurgun was losing ground and she knew it. More importantly, she knew Two-Bandana-Anna knew it, much to Bandana’s delight.
“You want a distraction?” Getchurgun nodded to herself, swallowing her pride and turning the wheels of her mind to accommodate the reality she now found herself faced with. Some pills were a hard swallow, but before she’d swallow them, she’d have good reason first.
“Fine. If you can tell me how you’re going to get into that box, then we’ll give you a distraction.” Compromise. One Getchurgun clearly felt confident she could maintain the upper hand with.
Bandana broke into a grin. From deep in her pocket, she drew forth an tarnished antique key.
~
Bandana sat nursing a short glass of liquor as she considered the choices that had lead her down this road. All things considered, fortune abounded favourably for the Mercenary Three. Even though where they may profit, it usually meant low times for others. In truth the days of her past had seemed warmer, brighter, and just plain sunnier to her memory. Life had still been full of troubles, but then that was what life was. Compared to now there had seemed a more livelier, energetic, possibly hopeful existence. But surely that was just her memory playing tricks on her. Life hadn’t changed. It was always cruel and disparaging. She had changed, worn thin and ragged with the pain of it. Not to mention she hadn’t been on the run back then. Forced to move from place to place just to stay ahead. Running out of places to move to with each and every change. The thoughts were a lot to tackle, which was why it seemed easier to keep here eyes on the here and now.
The here and now was a sad excuse of a town. Silkwood was its name, and she might have guessed why. From what they’d been told, a tribe of goblin raiders had overrun the place, set fire to anything that would hold a light, and dragged off just about everybody they hadn't killed. Much of the population was missing, and the places of business largely out of operation. This was good news for them, even if it made it hard to smile about. The town needed a new watch while it waited on fresh recruits from the merchant city of Doon. What better opportunity could a trio of sellswords hope for, especially since the market was a sellers game.
Bandana kicked her feet up on to one of the few remaining, fully intact tables of the bar. Much of the room was a half blackened shell, all warped and cracked with enough charcoal to do a winter. From what Bandana understood, the places original intent was that of a brothel. Only all but the Maitre d’ had been hauled off, and the newly established owner was out in the process of bringing them back. They were still serving booze though and for the few customers that remained in the town, that was a welcomed delight.
Jules and Getchurgun entered from outside, sidling up next to Bandana with the force of frame that told Bandana they weren't about to sit down. Getchurgun shoved Bandana’s boots off the table.
“Come. We’ve got something to show you.”
Bandana sighed her aggravation. She’d been enjoying her little sit down.
“But my drink,”
She looked up at them both and neither one said a thing. They only stared expectantly. Even Jules, as though it really were something. Something important.
“Alright, alright, I swear you two!” She threw back her drink.
~
Outside, the town didn’t look any more hospitable. This swamp town, with it’s odd smelling air, dilapidated buildings, and ghostly lack of life. Bandana kept her eyes cast down for most of their little trip. Not for anything she might hope to find there, but to maintain a relativly steady line while under the influence of no small amount of alcohol.
Before long she found herself at the towns center where a ring of stones protruded the earth, marking out a well. Jules and Getchurgun approached it, leaving room for Bandana, and turned to look at her expectantly.
Bandana had stopped short and, shaking her head, laughed stupidly at their silent staring, “What?”
“Here. Look.” Jules pointed to a space near the top of the well that sat inside the ring of stones so that Bandana couldn't see.
She moved forward, slowly, taking cautious steps for all the fuss of it, but partly because she didn't fancy tripping and tipping herself in.
The stones peeled away and the light of the day struck a line through an image marked on one of the big stones surface. A solemn golden disc, ringed with black, and surrounded by waves of symmetrical golden fire that stretched to sharp tips.
Bandana’s eyes went wide. “Oh no,” she managed to mumble before the pain gripped her. She screamed, clenched her teeth, and crumpled downward. Jules and Getchurgun were there to catch her, and let her down gently, but Bandana’s mind was already too white to notice. Jules cradled her, singing sweet affirmations in her ear, while Getchurgun drew a knife from Bandana’s waste. She brought it up to her back and Bandana thrust out her arm to stay the blade.
“Not the shirt!” She cried, then lost herself to the agony.
Annie Getchurgun pulled her arm free, Bandana had no fight in her, so she slashed the shirt from hem to collar.
The fabric fell away.
Before their eyes, scrawling as if a flurry of quills were busily at work, an image of a map spread out to fill the very corners of Two-Bandana-Anna’s back.
Twelve Gauge Jules was singing a soft tune with her sweet voice- something about honey and wine.
Bandana manage to bite out one last word, “You could have warned me,” her jaw went slack and spit dribbled from her mouth.
Getchurgun put her hand on her shoulder and gave her a squeeze,
“Would you have come?”
(Continue to Ep.6)
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