Josie stood to one side of the training hall. Things were running smoothly again. She
doubted that their manager would show up to take back the reins.
She didn’t know how many top dogs had been killed by Jack, but she had a feeling
that he had sliced through a lot of the corruption in the city. She wondered how many
had been at Guin’s casino the night they had met the underworld boss.
She nodded as the girls worked with their wooden swords. She hoped they would be
able to defend themselves when she and Jack had to leave. She just didn’t see the
Society letting her stay forever.
She didn’t miss her old life. This was a fresh start for her. The job was not as great
as she thought it would be, but she had made some friends and Jack was there.
And he loved the stuff they were doing.
The adventurer who had asked her to step in came into the training hall. He looked
at the girls going through their practice. He made a face. He knew beginners when he
saw them.
“Madame Witch,” he said.
“Mistress Fox, or Josie,” said Josie. “I’m not really a witch.”
“Thank you for your help,” said the adventurer. “We would never have been able to
claim our bounty if you hadn’t stepped in.”
“It was nothing,” said Josie. “This is Elaine, Jack’s assistant. And these are my
sisters. I am sure you know Sir Harp.”
The adventurer nodded at the group looking at him. Harp swatted the nearest girl with
his wand to demonstrate that they should keep practicing even if distracted.
Elaine stood to one side. She waited placidly in her dark dress and boots. She had the
feeling that another favor was going to be asked.
“I would like to hire you,” said the adventurer. “Something has come up, and I need
someone who can use magic to help me.”
“I already have a job,” said Josie. “And I don’t know if my boss will let me take in
outside business.”
“Would you consider the task?,” asked the adventurer.
“What’s your name?,” said Josie.
“Eric Fass,” said the adventurer.
“Let’s step outside,” said Josie. “Elaine, please come with me. I want you girls to be
able to take on Jack again in a few days. Keep working.”
She waved the adventurer to lead the way outside the hall. She wondered what he
needed that he couldn’t do himself. She and Elaine stepped outside the door. She
made sure to keep her hand on her watch in case she needed it.
The adventurer’s group was there. She paused. They didn’t seem to want to deal with
her. She could sympathize. She was a notoriously bad tempered witch that had hurled
one of their members on the roof of the hall without his clothes.
“Let’s keep things simple,” said Josie. “What do you want?”
“Tell her, Budd,” said Fass. He waved at one of his comrades to go ahead now that
they were involved.
“Madam Witch,” said Budd. He seemed to be the youngest member of the group, with
a poodle on his head, and some old scars on his face. He kept his hands together. “I
would like you to help me find someone.”
“Really?,” asked Josie. She frowned. “What makes you think I will do that?”
“We think that Emily was taken by the tattooed men,” said Fass.
“These are the men I told you about at the Tower,” said Elaine. “The ones who got
into the fight in the public room before it burned down.”
“That’s right,” said Fass. “You worked there?”
“For a bit,” said Elaine. “Is this what the fight was about?”
“Yes,” said Budd. “I lost my temper and went after one of the other parties at the inn.
He had told me that he had lost my sister during a raid.”
“You didn’t believe him,” said Josie. She frowned. “Have you been cutting these
tattooed men down trying to find her?”
“Not yet,” said Budd. “But I am likely to start if you can’t help me.”
Josie frowned. If this group hadn’t been killing the Montrose on their own, the hunter
was out there and still faceless. She was good with that.
“We went out where the others said they left Emily, but we couldn’t find a trace,” said
Fass. “We completed some contracts so we would have money to pay a diviner to
help us. Running into you this morning was a stroke of luck.”
“Are the others dead?,” asked Josie. “Did you kill all of them at the Tower that
night?”
“No,” said one of the other adventurers. “Markam got away while we were dealing
with his partners.”
Years of city life told her that she should not get involved with this beyond this point.
Her quest contract blinked at her that she needed to keep killing Montrose members
and customers.
“Where do you think he is?,” asked Josie.
“No idea,” said Fass. “We spent a little time looking for him, but he has hid out well.”
“I think Jack would love this,” said Elaine. “It would appeal to his man of mystery
that he likes to project.”
“I don’t think he can track the girl, or Markam as fast as I can,” said Josie. “On the
other hand, he would love to scare some clown waiting for someone to come get him.
You should have seen some of the things he did against his sisters.”
“I can imagine,” said Elaine.
“Will you help us?,” said Budd.
“Let me explain something to you guys so you know where you stand,” said Josie.
“Your sister is gone. This Markam sold her to be processed with a love potion and put
somewhere far away from here. She might not be the same person, might not be alive.
I can try to find her but I can’t guarantee her safety, or anything else. But we broke
the love potion part of things and we have been doing things to the tattooed men here
in the city, but there is still a hundred thousand of them and they are entrenched with
the authorities. If you get into this, whether I or Jack can find Emily, your lives might
be over when the governmental hammer comes down. Do you understand what you
could be in for if I go ahead?”
“We are adventurers,” said Fass. “We can’t back down because of what could
happen.”
“All right,” said Josie. “Elaine, if you can get the girls together when their archery
lesson is over, I will meet you back at the Hole in the Wall. If I can’t find the girl,
maybe I can find Markam unless Jack already killed him.”
“Yes,” said Elaine. “I will explain things to them. Should I be ready for anything
else?”
“Jack said the Society told him the Elves might have problems,” said Josie. “If the
Rick shows up, ask him if he heard anything.”
“Understood,” said Elaine. “Jack will want to know about this.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Call him,” said Josie. “I will hopefully have part of this wrapped up before dinner
tonight.”
“All right,” said Elaine. “Good luck.”
“Let’s go back to the Tower, guys,” said Josie. She waved at them to start walking.
“That’s where I will get started.”
“What do you want in return?,” said Fass. “We have money from the contract we can
give you.”
“I’m rich,” said Josie. “The only thing I need is people that can help me when there
is trouble. Everything else is negotiable.”
“Is this Jack a fearsome warrior?,” asked Budd.
“Jack is a man of his word, and someone who is easygoing which lends him to be
merciful when possible, but merciless when opposed,” said Josie. “He’s all how’s it
going, buddy? My friend is the dangerous one. Then out comes the knives in the
dark.”
“I would put him down as someone not to cross,” said Budd.
“Mistress Fox,” said Fass. “Can you find Markam?”
“If he is still in the city,” said Josie. “That’s why we’re going to the Tower. The
Society wants me to stop ripping things up with force multiplication and use my brain
more. So that’s what I am going to do.”
“The Society?,” said Fass.
“The Robby Reed Appreciation Society,” said Josie. “They want problems to be
solved, but they don’t want me burning down the city to do that.”
“Could you do that?,” asked one of the other members of the adventuring group.
“I doubt it,” said Josie. “I would have to create a volcano inside the wall and cause
it to erupt and cover everything with superhot lava. I don’t think I have the ability to
do that.”
Josie realized that she did have the ability to do that with some of the personas she
had if they worked the same way as their counterparts.
“I don’t understand what you just said, but I am scared that you said it,” said the
unknown adventurer.
“Why Markam?,” asked Fass. He seemed to be concentrated on the task ahead.
“I want to follow the chain,” said Josie. “We find him, then we find the next one in
the chain, then we find the next until we find someone who knows where Emily went,
or we get close enough that I can track her down in one shot.”
“If the chain is broken?,” asked Fass.
“Then I will come up with something else,” said Josie. “And if I can’t, I will call up
Jack, and turn him loose from where we lost the trail. Either way, one of us will find
her.”
She had accepted the quest so she was responsible for the search. She would get it
done despite what these adventurers thought.
The group had a horses to ride through the city. Josie didn’t have a horse. She told
them to go ahead and she would meet them at the remains of the Tower. She waited
until they were out of sight before calling on Jesse Quick and blasting across the city.
She arrived and let the persona go to wait for the adventurers to arrive and let her
watch recharge.
She wondered if Markam had stayed in the city. If he had, was he counting on
someone to keep him safe from his fellow adventurers? Maybe he had. Maybe he
hadn’t thought about what a group of mercenaries inclined enough to hunt him down
would do. The adventurers knew she could do things, but they didn’t flock to her door
to ask for help like these guys had.
She examined the charred remains of the former inn. She didn’t know what Elaine
had used to burn the place down, but she had been thorough. Had she warned the
patrons before she put the torch on? Maybe.
If the owners were in with the Montrose, they deserved what they got. Josie wasn’t
changing her mind on that any time soon.
She spotted the adventurers down the road and waved at them. They didn’t seem
surprised to see her at the scene first. They were probably putting everything down
to magic and letting it go for more pressing concerns.
“This is where we last saw Markam,” said Fass. He dismounted and looked at the
flattened building. “I don’t see how you are going to track him down from here.”
“I am going to send out a scrying spell,” said Josie. “Once the spell finds him, or his
general location, we can round him up and talk to him. The main thing is will he try
to fight it out after what happened, or will he come along quietly?”
“I expect him to run, but if he has to fight, he knows he can take on two of us at a
time,” said Fass. “We will take him but it will a long battle if we don’t want to kill
him.”
“He might have friends,” said Josie. “We will deal with that when we have to. I’m
going to get started. Then we will see where this leads us.”
The adventurers backed away. They didn’t want to get caught in a magic spell.
Supposedly magic was illegal in the city, but no one had tried to enforce the ban in
a long time as far as any of them could remember. They might be in trouble just for
asking for Josie to do magic there in the street.
Josie called on Zatanna and asked for a search bird. She sent it out before changing
back. The bird glowed like fire as it perched on the roof and waited for them to follow
it.
“I have a sense that he is not in the city,” said Josie. “If he was out of range, the spell
will go after him until it runs out of juice. We would have to keep doing it until we
got close enough for the spell to lock on to him and follow him all the way home.”
“If you did this for my sister?,” asked Budd.
“It would light her up if she was in the city, if she was out of range, it would give a
line to follow,” said Josie. “But again I would have to keep doing it until we got close
enough to find her. That could take days.”
“You could find her faster if you were alone,” said Fass. He understood the
limitations of what they were working with well enough.
“Maybe,” said Josie. “But I expect that I will find a small army where she is, and I
would need some help to get her out.”
“Let’s see where the thread takes us,” said Fass. “Maybe Markam will know where
they took Emily. That will limit the area we need to search.”
The group rode ahead. The bird flew in front of them, directing them to the East Gate.
They rode through and it led them into the forest. They found a trail after a few
moments. Fass dismounted and looked at the ground.
“A wagon has been coming through here regularly,” he said. “Tie your horses off.
We’ll go the rest of the way on foot. Sentries might be looking for people to come in
off the road. Keep an eye out and be careful.”
All of them knew what a wagon moving through the trees meant. Someone was
camping and resupplying from the nearby city. If they had an eye out, they might spot
the adventurers coming. The bird hopped from foot to foot as it waited for the group
to start moving forward again.
Fass waved the group forward. They silently spread out in a line to look for sentries
that might be looking for them. The scry bird flapped red wings of fire and lead the
way, aiming deeper into the trees.
Josie landed in the forest behind them and walked along. The hawk was a great tool
for invisible flying. She had trailed the scry bird the same as the adventurers and was
now taking a break. She wanted her watch at full charge so she could expedite any
attack they might plan.
She caught up with the group after a few minutes of walking. They had dropped down
behind some bushes between much bigger trees. Her scry bird had entered a fenced
area full of tents and huts. It perched on one of the tents before fading away.
“This is a bigger than what I thought we would find,” whispered Fass.
“Can you guys circle the outside?,” said Josie. “Once I go to work, I imagine a lot of
them are going to try to get away from me.”
“Lou,” said Fass. “Circle around and see if there is another gate. If they run, this
might be their only exit.”
Lou, a younger man in brown and black, vanished into the trees. Josie tried to keep
track but he was simply gone as soon as he walked three steps from his position.
“What does this Markam look like?,” asked Josie. “I don’t want to kill him by
accident.”
“A fat man with an eye patch,” said Budd. “He likes to use an axe.”
“As soon as Lou gets back, I’ll go in and deal with this,” said Josie. “It would be good
if you can get whomever’s in charge so we can talk to him too, but if some of them
escape, that’s okay. I can hunt them down later.”
“I am looking at at least twenty of these bandits,” said Fass. “Are you sure about
that?”
“I can deal with it,” said Josie. “It would be a lot easier if I knew what Jack used,
but I have something that will work fine. Like I said, some of them will try to come
through the gate once I start. You can try to stop them, or let them go, but if you
see who’s in charge, I would like to talk to him.”
“We will hold the gate,” said Fass.
Lou came back and took up a position at the opposite end of the group’s line.
“This is the only gate I saw,” said Lou. “Sentries on small towers inside the fence.
How are we going to take the place?”
“I guess this is where I come in,” said Josie. She touched her watch and became a
hawk. She flew over the fence and landed inside the compound next to the tent where
the scry bird had landed. She became Bulletgirl. She walked into the tent. She shot
everyone that looked up at her. Markam had jumped up to run. She shot him in the
leg so he couldn’t run away from her.
“Stay here if you want to live,” said Josie. “Otherwise, I will put another hole in you.”
She walked out of the tent and started shooting anyone in her way. She heard the
dinging of the quest counter going down. One man rallied his troops and called for
them to use the gate to get away from the monster in their midst. She shot him in
the leg so he couldn’t join the rest of the crowd stampeding for the gate. She began
picking off the back of the crowd as the leaders worked the lock bar and surged out
into a small flight of arrows.
Josie shot some of the survivors in the back as they charged over their fallen
comrades to get to the safety of the trees. More arrows flew, taking targets as they ran
for cover.
She let the persona go. She had her two victims in hand. Now she had to make sure
they gave her what she wanted before they were executed.
Mack Bolan’s words were not that much of a comfort.
She walked back to the tent as Fass’s group came into the camp. They spread out and
made sure any survivors were put down. She didn’t imagine there were many of
those. Bulletgirl’s bullets could curve to hit center mass while in flight.
She hoped they didn’t kill the guy in charge. It would be annoying, but she couldn’t
blame them if they did.
She pushed the tent flap aside and jumped as an axe tried to take her head off. She
stepped in and kicked the wounded leg as hard as she could. Markam dropped to the
ground, propping himself up on the axe handle.
“Hello, Markam,” said Budd, appearing at the tent flap, sword in hand. “I think you
should unhand the axe before I cut you to pieces.”
Markam let the axe drop flat to the ground.
“Now we’re going to talk about my sister,” said Budd. “And I want some straight
answers out of you.”