The search for Brother Dalton, part 2

[Drusia]

"Her capabilities have grown while we've been traveling," she said. "She's picked up quite a bit of magic, some of it fairly difficult. But she's still inexperienced, she's still not a fighter, and she's still scared." A deep breath. "Drusia, you've known her a lot longer than we have. What do you think we should do?"

"What I'm very tempted to do is not tell my daughter about this and take her to the nearest gate and get her away from here," I reply frankly. Rose gives me a look and I quirk a wry smile. "But she's not a little girl anymore, as much as I might prefer to treat her like one. So. About the only thing we can do is fill her in on the facts and --"

Desiree chooses that moment to arrive. "Mother," she says fondly. She walks up (interupting our little aside) and clasps my hands. "Are you staying long?" she asks me, "Or... do you think you could take us home?"

I hold of on replying and glance back at Rose and Argus.

<"-- let her make her own decision,"> I finish to both of them. And before Rose can comment, I add <"Yes, I know that one didn't count - she can't make an informed decision without information.">

-- Drusia

[Alberich]

The other half of the "us," that being Anfisa, was at her lover's elbow, light on her feet and happy at the prospect. She thrilled at Desiree's words, especially the us. She smiled winningly at the elf. She remembered Drusia from before, she being the one who'd whisked her away from the zenana to be with her love, and, okay, there'd been a lot of pain and tears since then, but the point was they were together now, and here she was to spirit them back to Desiree's home, and they were going to live together and make up for everything.

[Jack Rothwell]

"You're taking her home Dru?" The kobold piped up after exchanging a wave of greeting with Desiree and Anfisa. "But... what 'bout the other bad men? You're gonna just leave them to Rosey?"

Tamina realized the accusatory nature of the question after she'd said it, but by then it was too late to take back. The fact was she didn't want the elf to go, and not just because her combat skills had been invaluable in dealing with the Ralkin.

[Graybeard]

"But... what 'bout the other bad men? You're gonna just leave them to Rosey?"

Sister Rose smiled gently at this. "We're a team, Tamina." She made sure to give Argus' hand a squeeze as she said it. "I'm pretty sure we'll all do what we can, because yes, they are bad men. But we have to figure out what they're up to, and how to stop them."

She fingered the little figurine, which was still warm. "This will help us find Therese. She's scouting ahead, and she's in trouble." I'm still not honestly sure how I know that. "We have to find her first and find out what she's learned. But then, we'll go after the bad men."

She was going to say more, but three people were coming their way from the mission. She was glad to see Tim and Audie; they'd be useful in what was to come, and she'd been worried about the young priest. But that third one ...

"It is time to prepare for travel, Sister Rose," Father Amalric said, as stiff and correct as ever ... and then his eyes fell on Drusia.

--------------

Meanwhile, Therese was mildly gratified to observe that things didn't seem to be going well with her kidnappers.

"Dammit, we're not getting closer," the one named "Gyula" was saying. "I don't know where this damned thing is going, but it's not going to the castle."

The car had made at least half a dozen starts and stops, one of them unusually sudden, with a squealing of wheels, as though brakes were being applied a great deal harder than they should have been. Therese had almost fancied that she'd seen the shape of another car looming in the murk; had there been a near collision? She convinced herself that she'd just been imagining things, that there wasn't enough light for such a thing to be seen, not to mention that her viewpoint was hardly conducive to checking out what was going on outside.

"Yeah, the system is hosed somehow," the other man said. "Next time we get to a junction, we're gonna have to get out and wait for a purple car, and get to the safe house and have them pick us up." His face developed an evil leer. "Not the worst thing, though. Get off and get some room, and maybe we can have some fun with this bitch." He kicked at Therese. "Not half bad looking, not that that will matter."

The other man produced a laugh that was almost a parody of evil ... as Therese seethed silently. I'll kill you for that, I don't know how, but I'll do it with my jaws if I have to...

[Drusia]

"But... what 'bout the other bad men? You're gonna just leave them to Rosey?"

Rose has her answer - I have mine.

"These aren't my sort of Bad Men," I tell Tamina. "I went after Ralkin because they were led by half-elves. If the Ralkin had been a human only group, then you and I would never have met."

Funny thought - if Aleron hadn't tried recruiting Eli, then the Ralkin would be alive and well right now. Well, unless Jarglan managed to do the job on his own. He'd be alive too, come to think of it.

-- Drusia

[Alberich]

"But... what 'bout the other bad men? You're gonna just leave them to Rosey?"

"These aren't my sort of Bad Men..."

Anfisa pursed her lips, bit her cheeks, and looked down. But at least she didn't laugh out loud.

[Browncoat]

Mordan's eyes were closed, but he'd been alert since shortly after Therese. Gradually, he'd worked his hand into a pouch which held a collection of rocks. While the captors had been trying to find their way, Mordan struggled to extract a rock with a sharp edge. The work reminded him of the time when he tried to live with moles. Now he was working on cutting the bonds on his wrists. A bit more...his hands were free!
As the cart clattered along the tracks, Mordan used the noise to hide the sound of the rock sliding across the floor. Now he could use his magic to cut other bonds surreptitiously (not that he'd know the word). At the next junction, things for two men would get...interesting.

[OOC: The definition for 'interesting' I'm using is the one from Serenity. Interesting: "Oh god, oh god. We're all gonna die"]

[Graybeard]

Is this man capable of backing down? thought Sister Rose, as Father Amalric glared at Drusia. She could almost feel the cold rolling off him. Their previous encounter, to be sure, had done little to cause the man to react otherwise.

"This is my team," she ventured, but she needn't have bothered. Before she had finished, Amalric turned to her. "Very well," he said, with not the slightest change in his posture, facial expression or voice. "We fly in two hours. Now please excuse me." He turned on his heel and strode briskly away in the direction of the airship terminal.

Well, at least he didn't object to either Drusia or Desiree, Rose thought. She turned to the elf with a wry smile on her face. "Are you joining us? I won't let him hurt you ... but I won't let you hurt him, either."

----------

The railcar was slowing down again, and Therese held her breath as she saw what Mordan was doing. She'd hoped he would release her own bonds, but instead, it was the troll who was getting a hand free. It took the huge creature a moment to figure out what was going on, but soon enough, comprehension dawned in his eyes.

The two men didn't seem to notice, however. As the car stopped and the door opened, "Gyula" said to his partner, "I think this is a junction. Let me check and see if we've got another car." He hopped out ... and Therese dared to hope.

However, the troll didn't budge. What is he thinking? she wondered. There wouldn't be a better chance to take these men than this very moment, when they could be fought and dispatched one at a time. Then again, that wasn't the troll way. Everything she'd heard about the race told her they took their fights head-on. Would it be a matter of honor for him to defeat both men at once? Possibly.

She hoped so, at least; Gyula was coming back to the car. "Yeah, a purple one's here," he said. "Let's get these three moved." Magic flowed from his fingers and those of his colleague, and they started to weave what looked like a basket made of pure magic ... and that was the troll's cue.

"GRAAWW!" he bellowed, charging out of the car, and the fight was on.

[Jack Rothwell]

"Are you joining us? I won't let him hurt you ... but I won't let you hurt him, either."

At Rose's question Tamina turned and fixed Drusia with the most endearing expression of hope a young, female kobold could manage. The humanoid's big ears drooped, her eyes grew wide and dilated, and her mouth turned artfully into a shy, and somewhat flirtatious, smile designed to elicit the 'D'awww! Of course I'll come along!' response she was aiming for.

[Graybeard]

Before the events of the last six weeks, Sister Rose would never have believed her Empathy sense, magical or otherwise, would have allowed her to understand what was going on with the emotions of an elf, if she'd ever considered the question at all. Now, as she watched Tamina's antics (which certainly didn't require any great empathy skills to understand), she had no reason to doubt herself.

Tamina really wants her to join us. Luminosita's Nethers, we all do. But Drusia herself ... doesn't want to. She's conflicted. She certainly has no great love for our church, but this isn't only about us any more -- I'm not sure it ever was. She chose not to examine her own thoughts about her church's interest in the cult of death; that could come later. She's torn, between getting on with what she mainly does -- I don't want to think about that either -- or taking Desiree home to safety, not to mention to her own lover. And -- if I didn't know better, I'd swear that she herself is scared of getting involved with anything having to do with the elven death god.

Which, in turn, scares the crap out of me.

"Please, help us find Therese, at least," she found herself saying, without being totally sure why. "She's disappeared into the bowels of a transportation system that we're pretty sure dates back to the dwarves. If anyone can understand how something like that works, it's an elf, not us humans.

"We need you, Drusia."

---------------

The "battle" in the underground, such as it was, was over within seconds.

"Gyula" had been caught entirely by surprise when the troll erupted out of the railcar, and he barely had time to drop the spell he was casting, let alone cast more immediately destructive magic, before his head was grasped in two mighty paws and twisted until his neck emitted a loud snap. Almost before his body hit the ground, the troll was on the other man, who was extracting what looked like an oversized handgun from his pack. He actually had time to fire this once, and the booommm almost deafened those in the chamber, but the projectile whizzed past the troll's massive head. That was his last earthly act; before he could pull the trigger again, he suffered the same fate as Gyula.

The troll stood glaring down at the two bodies, licking his clawed fingers free from the blood they'd drawn when they grasped the men's necks. For a moment Therese wondered whether he was going to partake of more than their blood. She knew the rumors of trolls being man-eaters were mistaken, that they didn't normally feed on human flesh. But this wasn't a normal situation.

"Bad men," the troll rumbled, startling her; trolls weren't supposed to be able to use human speech, to her knowledge. "They wuz goin' to do bad things." He fixed Therese and Mordan with his decidedly non-human stare. "Is yez bad too? Use magic?"

Therese gulped, barely even realizing that her magical bonds were no longer there; they'd dissipated when the two men died. "Not here, not now," was all she could get out, with a sidelong glance at Mordan. And if you try something that conflicts with that, I won't wait for the troll to kill you, I'll do it myself.