Chapter 86: A Second Murder

  Leshy

  “I hate it when I’m right.” Said Leshy knots to his wife Artunis as he strode out of the guard barracks that played home to the Medius city militia. The tan-skinned woman let out a long sigh and met his gaze with her own bright yellow eyes.

  “So he really was the same boy who destroyed Valeton?” Leshy nodded as he sidled up to his wife and the pair began their trip back across the island city.

  “It has to be him, he killed Aparator and I haven’t heard of anyone else in the Mucklands with that kind of power.” Leshy’s wife took a moment to absorb that news before replying. Around them the small city was waking up in the pre-dawn light, unaware that their ancient protector had been slain on the very festival grounds they had been joyfully flooding for the past few days.

  “First Arcadia, and now Aparator. Assuming Alley hasn’t just lost his mind he is harvesting the strongest people Deep River Country has to offer.” She put a tiny bit of extra emphasis on the last few words, subtly correcting her husband.

  ‘Right, right Deep River Country. The locals get mad if you call it The MuckLands.’

  They really did get frustrated by it, and given the city was about to get hit with news of a society changing tragedy Leshy felt he should probably try not to be too annoying today. Soon everyone would know that the being that had protected this place for longer than anyone living could remember was gone.

  “He got the two most powerful already next on the list is probably…” Suddenly she stopped walking, bringing the pair to a halt in front of a multistoried bakery that didn’t so much serve customers as deliver fishcakes to stores all over the city. Leshy had never been that big of a fan of fish, but the scent of the baking savory cakes still made his stomach complain.

  “is you.” She said voice lowering as her eyebrow raised. “ You are almost certainly the highest rank left in the whole country.” While Leshy didn’t dispute her it was a little like being the jump rope champion among men with only one leg. Deep River Country was a poor backwater of a nation and simply didn’t boast the population required to produce many true powerhouses.

  “ So far he has only gone after True Deck wielders.” He reassured her. “ and besides if he was going to make a move based on me being Rank Nine surely he would have noticed and done it while we were on the river.”

  Artunis chewed her lip in a manner that he still found adorable after more than two decades together. “I..suppose you’re right. I will still feel a lot better if I get news someone brought him down. I know the boys are years from even starting their hunt, but this quarry.” She trailed off shaking her head.

  “I know what you mean. This is the first time I have let the twins out of my sight since we got here, and I only agreed because a few of the militiamen saw Creed leaving the island last night.”

  Despite her concern, Artunis managed a cheeky little smile at her husband.

  “You only agreed so you could say ‘ I told you so’ to the militia for ignoring you all week.”

  Leshy made no effort to hide his grin as they left the more industrialized section of the wooden city.

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  “What? No, I only went as a concerned attendee of The All-Islands festival. Didn’t you hear me before I said that I hated being right.” This was how the couple dealt with anxiety, they joked about it and teased each other. It was a coping mechanism that had been quite obviously inherited by Darius and Alley.

  “Uhuh” Replied Artunis dubiously “So are you going to brag all morning or are you going to tell me what happened.?”

  Well before dawn the entire Knots family had been awoken by a group of four town militiamen, one of them a Tenth Ranked True Deck wielder. The men had wanted Leshy to come with them to answer any questions he could about the young and incredibly powerful man he had been begging the city authorities to be wary of since the morning the Knots had arrived at Medius.

  He’d been suspicious during the trip upriver, but once the boy had summoned his huge blue angel there was no doubt in Leshy’s mind that he had transported Arcadia’s murderer among his family for several days. He didn’t feel guilty for bringing the Rank Five here, there was nothing in the MuckLands that could so much as delay a True Deck user of that level. What Leshy felt was a deep and freezing sense of fear at how close to danger he had put his wife and children.

  The Knots family made their living by tracking down and killing monsters all over the known world. So it wasn’t like they were never exposed to dangerous situations, but to have slept with such a being on the same barge was a chilling thing to consider.

  Leshy had done his best to warn the people of Medius but they had been far too enamored with having a ‘Walking God’ in their midst. The hunter couldn’t really blame the folk of the city, in their shoes he was sure he would have felt much the same as they had. Validated that their little festival and little Card tournament had attracted such a rare and illustrious guest. They hadn’t even objected when he chose to enter the tournament.

  As they walked Leshy related the previous hours to his wife. After the militiamen had taken him back to their headquarters they had pressed him about his earlier objections to Soren being here. The questions had been slightly on the aggressive side but once they had explained to him that the river guardian had been slain as he meditated among the arena grounds the night before his traditional match.

  Every year the winner of the All-Islands Festival Card tournament would get the opportunity to play a friendly match against the shapeshifting crab man Aparator. It was one of the few times he left his sanctuary within the Framer’s workshop unless there was some drastic emergency along the river. For the last few years that person had been Arcadia Roe.

  This year the winner had of course been the ‘Walking God’ Soren Creed. Leshy wasn’t sure why he had bothered if his goal was to ambush the guardian hours before the match anyway. Maybe he hadn’t known the opportunity would arrive until after he had entered, or maybe he had some other goal Leshy knew nothing about.

  Leshy had told the militia about the travesty on Cursed Isle; it was actually the fourth time he had been over it with them. He had then explained the suspicions he had developed and had essentially confirmed about the blonde boy. They hadn’t really needed to know much else, it seemed the men and women investigating the killing had just needed a little extra confirmation that there was only one person on Medius who could feasibly have committed the murder. The same person multiple militia on the late patrol shift had seen soaring into the air on bright wings of flame. It wasn’t lost on anyone that this fit the description Alley had given to Leshy and his wife weeks earlier.

  After that the hunter had offered to inspect the scene of the killing if they wanted the opinions of a tracker. The militia had politely declined and after making him wait for what had felt like an unreasonable amount of time released Leshy out the front of the barracks to where Artunis had been waiting.

  The pair had almost made it all the way back to where they had set up their temporary store for the festival when a militiaman Leshy recognized from the night before came jogging over. He was a young man with mousy brown hair and a face drawn from lack of sleep. Like the rest of the militia in Medius, he wore a deep green gambeson with a simple crab logo across the chest. The image was in honor of the island's most venerated protector; Aparator, the creature that Soren had killed.

  “Excuse me! Excuse me! Mr Knots.” he called in a far politer tone than anyone had shown him the night before. “I’m sorry to bother you so soon, but the city is putting together a hunting party to seek out this killer. And given your reputation, and repeated complaints over the last days about this man it was thought you would want to know.”

  Leshy raised both eyebrows and shot his wife a silent ‘Can you believe what I have to put up with?’ look.

  Little Check in with the Knots family