Chapter 8

It was still early when the three women stepped out of the Frog Song and onto the main street that ran through Hallowell's center. When Elaina had come into town, she'd considered the road to be reasonably busy, but it didn't compare at all to how crowded it was now. The noise of footsteps, wagons, conversations, and all manner of street noise overtook them when they stepped out of the building. Azade led the way, seeming to know mostly where she was going, though she stopped every so often to get her bearings. Elaina paid less attention to the shop windows than she might usually have and kept her attention on the people around them, her hand rested casually on the weapon at her side.

The crowded street curved and turned in odd areas, following the river's curvature, eventually feeding out into a town square that held the local government's standard array of important buildings. Elaina noted a courthouse that stood prominent on one end of the courtyard with a fountain that divided its massive staircase into two near the base, flanked by a series of well-crafted benches and statues lucky enough to go undamaged during the war.

Less than a full block over was the marketplace where street vendors sold all manner of things, calling out to those in the crowd to grab their attention. They didn't slow or move into the marketplace, instead continuing straight through to follow the strip, and it's shrinking buildings the further they went. Elaina glanced around and then back before reaching out to tap Anisha on the shoulder in front of her, "Is he not located in the marketplace?"

Anisha glanced back and waved a hand in front of them, "He has a warehouse with a small storefront on the far end of town near the docks; he pulls in the bulk of his wares from boats along the river."

Elaina looked to her left. The river, which had initially been concealed behind larger buildings, was coming into plain view. She noted two riverboats passing one another and considered that the town's comparative wealth to others was likely owed just as much to its location on the river as it was the travelers and adventurers by road. Anyone working right off the docks could move a large amount of product and likely afford to sell at bulk prices.

When they arrived at the docks, the only buildings to be found were warehouses and other storehouses. A few had small storefronts on them for those who wanted to do business directly with the shippers or needed to send something along the river. The docks were crowded with men and women loading things on and off of ships. Some were still unloading large catches of fish to supply to the market. Thankfully most of the foot traffic was contained to the areas immediately around the docks themselves, giving the ladies more room to maneuver. The warehouse Azade led them to was one street over from the one they'd traveled to but still looked as though it was in a prime location.

The storefront that Anisha had mentioned was rather minamlistic. The windows out front were textured in stained glass in an interpolated diamond pattern that offered no one outside the ability to see in while offering those inside the ability to see shapes of people approaching from outside. The door was built of thick wood secured with iron fittings to reinforce it and a sign that hung overhead with faded artwork of some kind of boat.

Azade motioned to the establishment as she came to a stop, "Here we are."

Elaina leaned closer to the window to see if there was anything she could make out of the inside, but it was no good, "You talked to him yesterday?"

"His nephew delivered the message to us. He was manning the storefront yesterday when we came by." Azade reached out to turn the doorknob and was surprised to find that it didn't turn.

Elaina and Anisha said nothing at first. They both looked up at the warehouse that towered over them, searching for some clue to what was happening, "Not open yet?" Elaina asked.

Azade leaned over to the other window, which had a hand-painted sign, rechecking the time written on it that the storefront was open, and then glanced back at the other two with furrowed brows. Elaina stepped over to the door and tried the doorknob herself, though she didn't actually expect a different result.

"Well, this doesn't feel promising, does it," Elaina muttered and stepped back, looking up and down the side street to see if there was any sign of the man perhaps approaching the storefront late. The only people she saw were those on the main road going about their usual business.

Azade stepped back in front of the door and banged her fist on it heavily, "Mr. Rashuk?" she yelled into the door, "Are you there?"

Inside, the sound of something thumping into something else could clearly be heard, followed by someone either stumbling or falling; it was hard to tell which. But it was clear that there was someone in there moving around. Elaina exchanged glances with the other two, who both seemed to be well past irritated with the situation. She stepped up to the door now and banged harder, the weight of her bracers, adding a little extra when she did so.

"Mr. Rashuk!" Elaina called, "You need to open this door right now!" There came another sound from inside, though this one much more difficult to properly make out than the first. After that, it went quiet.

Elaina looked over at Azade with a raised brow, "Well, someone's clearly here, but we've no way of knowing if it's him. What would you like to do?"

Azade heaved a sigh and threw her hands up, "I don't know, probably best to try and see if we can't find someone else to work with. Even if it's just to secure a portion of what we actually came for."

Anisha let out a frustrated sigh and turned to walk down the street as Elaina reached down to a pouch on her hip and pulled out the second of the peephole glass from the previous night's spies. She placed it against the door and just as she had the night before; it showed her what was on the other side of the door as if it wasn't even there. Inside was a typical store lobby, with a moderately well-swept stone floor and wooden counter on the far side complete with display items and-

Elaina's blood ran cold as she saw a man with dirty, disheveled hair behind the counter wielding a strangely modified heavy crossbow with a narrow box mounted to the top of it take aim at the window that Anisha was passing in front of. She turned quickly and took hold of Anisha's jacket and gave a sharp jerk to pull her back from the window. A few crossbow bolts came crashing through the window and through the space she had occupied just a moment before.

"Fuck me!" Anisha yelled as the bolts sailed by, spilling glass onto the street, "How many guys does he have in there with him?"

"You'll not set foot in here again, mark my words!" Mr. Rashuk screamed inside, an edge of desperation in his voice.

"It's just the one guy," Elaina said as she stowed the peephole glass and drew her sword, keeping behind the thick door as cover. Behind her, Azade crouched down and began to string her bow with practiced expertise, "He's got a repeating crossbow."

"I'm sorry," Azade paused and looked over at Elaina, "A *what?"*

Elaina made vague movements with her hands to describe the dimensions of the thing, "Has a box on top that feeds bolts into it, you crank it, and it shoots fast." it was the most straightforward way she could describe it at the moment, but it was worth relating to them considering the amount of damage he could do with it with a better angle.

"You're sure it's just the one guy?" Anisha asked as she stood herself back up quickly, glancing over her shoulder at Elaina.

"Positive," she confirmed with a single nod of her head.

"Alright, then stay close behind me." Anisha's eyes narrowed as she shook out the bracelet on her right wrist; the little markings on the decorative metal shield charms began to glow.

Elaina wasn't sure what was about to happen, but she nodded anyway as the man inside continued to yell out through the large hole he'd created in his own front window. Anisha turned the corner, brandishing the bracelet in front of her as she did so. As soon as she came into view, the man opened fire once more. Crossbow bolts came sailing out of the store again, this time being met with the sudden appearance of a translucent ethereal shield that materialized a mere foot from Anisha. The bolts shattered as if striking a solid wall of stone. The Alchemist didn't linger for long in that spot though, instead stepping in through the large ruined window to advance with Elaina in tow. Behind them, Azade peeked around the corner with an arrow nocked, waiting for a shot.

Glass crunched under their boots as they stepped into the dark lobby of the store, but Elaina made out the source of the bolts flying at them easily enough. Even if she couldn't see him, his nonsensical yelling as he continued to crank the crossbow would have been enough to pinpoint him quickly. Elaina wasn't sure how many shots the weapon's magazine had, she didn't know how long the magic of Anisha's bracelet lasted. She broke from behind her moving low and swift toward Rashuk. Before he could take in the rapidly changing circumstances, Elaina's sword swept upward to strike the underside of his crossbow and knock it clean out of his hands.

Rashuk let out a little shriek like a frightened animal as he stumbled backward behind the counter, reaching for a Halberd leaning against the wall. An arrow came sailing through the front window striking the Halberd before his hand reached it, causing it to tumble noisily to the floor. Without his fallback weapon in immediate reach, he simply abandoned it as he stumbled through a door that led into a back room.

"Rashuk!" Azade called as she stepped through the gaping hole where the window had been to join the other two, "Don't make this worse than it has to be!"

"The hell is this guy's problem?" Anisha grumbled as she lowered her arm, the faint glow of magic fading from the charms in the bracelet. She reached into one of the pouches on her belt to pull out the vial that she had shown Elaina that morning over breakfast.

Elaina pressed forward, coming through the door with her weapon readied. Where Elaina had expected some kind of back room office, was actually just the open storage of the warehouse itself. There was a narrow platform on this side of the door and a small set of stairs leading to the warehouse floor. Rashuk scrambled around some stacked crates up one of the wide rows of shelves toward the far end of the building. Elaina assumed that the loading doors were located back there somewhere beyond her line of sight. If he reached them he'd be able to slide out into the rear alley and there would be no telling where he'd go from there.

"Rashuk!" she called after him, but she couldn't make out what it was that he was yelling back at her. She vaulted the platform's railing, landing on the warehouse floor without slowing down. She broke into a sprint, giving chase down the center row of the warehouse shelving. The man glanced back to see her gaining on him quickly and let out another one of those strange shrieks before he started to knock over stacked crates and pull random items from the shelves to toss in her way.

Elaina focused, pushing distractions from her mind as she reached out to the threads of magic within her, forcing them through to the boots of her armor. Not only did she gain significant speed, but when she arrived at one of the toppled stacks of crates, she was able to leap clear of it with inches to spare. She caught up to the man as he arrived at the end of the row. Frantically he searched for anything he could use to put up a fight and seized upon some chains hanging from a hook nearby. Without an ounce of grace, he swung the chain for the armored redhead, who simply brought her sword up to keep her head protected.

The end of the chain wrapped around the sword becoming entangled. Elaina jerked back on it, causing Rashuk to stumble forward instead of only letting go of the chain. Elaina took a few steps while he was off-balance, closing the distance quickly, and sent a swift kick into the man's chest. Instead of merely taking the wind out of him, the magic in the boot made a strange "fwump!" noise and sent him sailing backward to slam against the closed door of the loading dock. The door gave a resounding clatter like wooden thunder echoing through the warehouse as Rashuk's eyes went wide and he crumpled to his knees, arms wrapping around his chest.

"Mr. Rashuk." Elaina said, breathing heavily from her run, the other two women quickly approaching behind her, "I do believe we have something to discuss with you."