Dregs

Flint crawled up into the city streets. The midnight sky hurt his eyes, and he pulled his hat over his face.

He’d been told that the day was worse, but like most ratlins, he’d never seen it directly. Once, as a youth, he’d spied it through the rubble of a cave in, and he’d been curious. But that was a long time ago.

He’d been told that the night was brighter in other place, but the city’s smokestacks pumped their haze into the air, and while he knew there were such a thing as stars, he’d never seen one.

He skulked through the streets, keeping his head down. There was no rule saying ratlins need stay Below, but few Above were happy to see a four foot tall rodent wandering among them. Fewer were happy to cater to ratlins, but there were places where money was all that was required and questions weren’t asked.

The Pit was one such place. The tavern had no sign, sitting in a dark corner where denizens met who didn’t want to be bothered. Often because of illicit business, but sometimes, just because it was a place to get away and grab a drink.

He pushed open the door. No heads turned his way. A few pairs of eyes, certainly, but with due decorum. He adjusted his coat and turned his face from the fireplace, scanning the room. The clientele of the Pit was thieves and murderers and confidence artists and smugglers. The Tower sometimes sent constables to raid the place, but there were lookouts and countless back exits, usually not making it worth the trouble.

Flint spotted Thwak in the back. The lizardkin was one of the brightest things in the place. Her bright green scales glittered in the torchlight, and the few shocks of red and blue feathers added color that drew the eye. She’d made her reputation in the martial pits, and while she carried a sword, she preferred to pummel her foes with her fists, made evident by the bloodied iron gauntlets she wore. She rarely cleaned them, saying a clean gauntlet was bad luck.

Shudder stood beside Thwak. She was shorter than Flint, unless one counted her ears. She was wrapped in black cloth, her hood pulled over her face. Her ears stuck out from holes on the side, and her yellow eyes gleamed. She held a drink in one hand, flipped a dagger over and over in the other.

She excelled at avoiding detection, having learned techniques and magics to bolster her own natural sneakiness. Flint could only see her now because she allowed it, though once he was close enough, he could always sniff her out.

“You made it.” Shudder’s smile stretched across his face. Her pointed teeth sparkled. “Didn’t know if you’d get word or not.”

“I got word,” said Flint. He nodded to Thwak, who nodded back.

Shudder continued to compulsively flip her dagger. “So you’re interested in the job then? I’m telling you, it’s easy money.”

Flint’s nose twitched. He could usually smell lies. They dripped off most everyone like sweat. But he could never scent Shudder’s words, and she knew it. Maybe she was just that good at lying. Maybe it was among the many magic tricks she’d picked up along the way.

“I’m listening,” he said.

She pulled him close, putting her arm around his shoulders. “It’s like this, see? For the last couple of weeks, there’s been a rash of disappearances. Citizens just up and vanishing.”

“Nothing unusual in that.”

And there wasn’t. The city devoured a lot of souls.

“True, true,” she said. “But a couple of days ago, I’m out on some personal business. A little light reconnoitering for something not really worth discussing when I hear a scream. Now, you know me, Flint. I’m a curious sort. So I scamper over to see what the commotion is about, and what do I see? A couple of humans being dragged from the streets, dragged into Below by some nefarious folks.”

“Nefarious how?”

“Can’t say. Didn’t get that good a look at them. But anybody dragging someone unwillingly into Below is safe to label as such. Surely, you can agree on that.”

Flint nodded.

“So I say to myself,” continued Shudder, “this is an opportunity. Because there’s a bounty to anyone who can solve this mystery. But Below is a tricky place. I don’t know it as well as I’d like. But my old friend Flint does. So I say to Thwak, let’s send word, see if he wants to meet us. And Thwak says–what is it you said, Thwak?”

“Sounds like an idea,” said Thwak.

“Yes, an idea.” Shudder chuckled. “You guide us into Below. We find some missing citizens. We rescue those citizens. We get some money for our trouble. Doesn’t that sound lovely?”

“Lovely,” added Thwak.

Flint said, “Seems like someone else’s problem.”

“Is it? It’s only a matter of time before Above folk realize that the abductions are coming from Below. Suddenly Below is filled with stomping Above dwellers, mad for a kill. Think they’ll look at all those Below with a fair eye? Or will it get ugly? And how fast will it get ugly, Thwak?”

“Real Fast,” said Thwak.

Shudder snapped her fingers. Her yellow eyes sparkled with devious joy. She was a manipulative conniver, but she wasn’t wrong.

Flint reached under his many layers of clothing to check his pistols. “All right. Let’s go.”

“What?” she asked. “You don’t want a drink first?”

“The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can part ways.”

“Can’t say that I’m not hurt by that.” She downed her tankard. “But I’ll get over it when we collect that bounty.”

It was assumed that all the underlings who sought sanctuary Below dwelt in the accumulated filth of the city. Although Above wasn’t particularly clean either. Still, it made many feel superior to assume that those lurking in the shadows were forced to live in squalor.

The true Below, while often reached by traipsing through the sewers, was no more dirty or diseased than Above. It stretched for miles, a city in itself with its own problems and politics. Just like Above, most denizens stayed in their familiar places.

Flint led Shudder and Thwak though the darkness for a few hours. She grew anxious.

“I’m starting to doubt your talents.”

He ignored her. Tracking through Below was an art.  He scraped his claws against some purple fungus on the tunnel wall and sniffed it.

“Humans. Lizardkin.” His nostril twitched. “Elf, maybe.”

She perked up. “Can’t be many elves down here.”

Flint nodded, continuing deeper into the tunnel.

“I’ve been thinking,” said Shudder. “With your knowledge of Below, and Thwak’s muscle and my obvious wit and leadership, we could be lucrative partners. There’s a lot of jobs down here, I think. And up there. And why shouldn’t we take them?”

He grunted, pausing at an intersection. His ears twitched as he listened closely to the echoes among the tunnels.

“What do you think, Thwak?” she asked.

“Sounds like an idea,” she said.

Flint held up his finger, and Shudder shut up. He gestured to a tunnel, and they followed.

“Shudder’s Dregs,” she whispered. “Has a ring to it, don’t you think?”

“Dreg is an insult,” said Flint.

“Doesn’t have to be,” she replied. “What do you think, Thwak?”

“Doesn’t have to be.”

Flint said, “One problem, Shudder. I don’t like you.”

“I don’t see how that’s a problem,” she said. “Seeing as how I like you enough for both of us.”

She chuckled. It sounded sarcastic, but nearly everything she said did.

“I’m an honorable sort, aren’t I?” she said. “Have I ever led you astray? Have I ever put you in a position I wouldn’t put myself? Have I ever cheated you?”

“You’ve cheated others,” he said.

“Hardly relevant to our relationship. And I make it a point of pride to only cheat those who deserve it. And if there’s anyone in this entire city, in all Above and Below that I respect, it’d be you.” She turned her ever-present smile on the lizardkin. “And you, too, of course, Thwak.”

“Thanks,” said Thwak.

“Really, Flint, an honest ratlin could set an example for a couple of ne’er-do-wells such as ourselves. Why, it might be argued it’s your civic duty to do so, lest we stray into the path of excessive criminality.”

“You’re already criminals,” said Flint.

“Crime is measured by degrees,” said Shudder. “If we keep enough money in our pockets, we’d have no need to venture deeper into realms of such behavior.”

“You talk a lot for a shadowy assassin.”

“We all have our vices.”

A scream pierced the tunnel. They ran toward it, catching the unmistakable sound of chanting.

They emerged into the chamber where a human boy was being dragged by robed figures. A dozen other prisoners were trapped in a cage set in the wall. The child screamed and struggled as they pulled him toward a bubbling pool of foul water.

The cultists chanted louder as a huge, hideous amphibious thing emerged from the pool. The beast flopped onto land. It opened its massive jaws and groaned in anticipation of its sacrifice.

“Thog worshippers,” spat Thwak.

“Charming,” said Shudder, her smile dropping. “Well, maybe we should let the Above dwellers handle this after all. I didn’t sign up to fight a god.”

“It’s not a god,” said Thwak.

The thog huffed as it ran its long tongue across his lips.

“Close enough for my tastes.” Shudder turned back toward the tunnel. “I’m sure there’s still a bounty for the information.”

Flint’s pistol echoed through the chamber as he shot a cultist in the back.

“Ah, damn it,” said Shudder as she pulled her hood over her face and disappeared. Her yellow eyes lingered. “Remind me that your sense of honor isn’t maybe such an asset after all.”

Flint fired again, shooting the second guard holding the boy. The freed boy scrambled away from the bestial god-thing.

Thwak clanged her gauntlets together and roared. She charged forward, pummeling any cultists within reach. There numbers were mostly humans and lizardkin, though there was an orc or two and even an elf that got his jaw broken when he tried to stab Thwak.

Flint wounded two more attackers, efficiently popping out the empty cylinder and loading a fresh one. A cultist pounced on him. Flint blew his head off by reflex.

The thog, fattened by many sacrifices, lay there and gurgled.

Shudder took advantage of the brawl to sneak over to the caged victims. Several of the sacrifices screamed at her sudden appearance.

“Relax. We’re here to save you.” She pulled back her hood and smiled.

The caged citizens did not appear reassured.

Behind Shudder, Flint’s pistol blasted another cultist as Thwak’s gauntlets clanged against daggers and swords.

Shudder put her hand on the lock and muttered a quick incantation. The mechanism popped open.

She opened the cage door, and the prisoners nearly trampled her in their rush to escape.

“You’re welcome,” she called as she ran after them.

A cultist tackled a straggling prisoner and raised a black dagger to finish her off. Shudder pounced on the cultist, plunging her own dagger into their back until they fell away. The flailing cultist kicked Shudder in the face as she jumped to her feet and carried on.

“You’re welcome,” grunted Shudder.

In their literal blind panic, the human prisoners were more of a danger to themselves than most of the cultists. Two stumbled into a pit, plummeting into deeper parts of Below, lost forever. Others banged into cultists. Or one another. In either case, a mad struggle would commence, made all the more absurd by watching two prisoners clawing and screaming at one another.

Humans inability to see in the dark must have been why’d they had been chosen. It made escape impossible, even if one did manage to get free.

Shudder threw a dagger into a cultist, pushed apart two fighting prisoners, and uttered a daylight spell. A ball of light radiated over her head. The brightness of it caused the fight to pause.

Flint turned away, putting away his pistols.

“May I suggest we get out of here?” said Shudder.

“This way,” said Flint, scampering with haste away from the light and toward the exit.

Thwak kept the cultists occupied with her fists while Shudder shooed the prisoners after Flint. Shudder and Thwak brought up the rear, bumping into Flint at the tunnel.

He covered his eyes at the orb of daylight. “Can you put that thing away?”

Shudder took the orb in hand and tucked it under he cloak.

“Thanks.” Flint pulled a cast iron sphere from his pack. He twisted it, gave it a shake, and rolled it toward the chamber entrance. A few seconds later, the tunnel exploded. The rubble collapsed behind them.

They paused to gather their breath. Shudder withdrew the sunlight from her cloak and shone it on the human survivors, huddled together.

“Lost a few,” she said, “but let’s look at this as half-full situation, shall we?” She performed a sweeping bow. “You’ve just been saved by Shudder’s Dregs.”

With a sigh, head held low, Flint walked to the front and led them Above.

Flint was reluctant to walk into the constable station. For one, it was brightly lit, but that could be solved with his tinted goggles. For another, the constables tended to take a dim view of ratlins. And goblins.

Shudder, however, walked in smiling, the rescued humans behind her.

“For your pleasure,” she said, “a gaggle of innocent victims, rescued from the clutches of foul cultists.” She marched up to the bounty banker and plopped down a poster. “We’ll take our money now, and if you want to throw in a little extra for killing a few thog worshippers, we won’t complain.”

There were questions. Expected. And suspicions. Also expected. It took an hour for the Constable General to arrive. Another forty minutes before the approval was given. But the banker eventually handed out the bounty.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” said Shudder with a wink. “You’ll be seeing us again.”

Despite her confidence, she beat a hasty retreat with Flint and Thwak. Outside the station, she divided the payout between them. Dawn was creeping, and Flint was eager to get back Below. He pocketed his share, but Shudder grabbed his tail.

He squeaked and went for his pistol.

She released him, held her hands up. “Apologies. I just wanted to put forth my proposal again. We did a good thing here, didn’t we? And got paid to boot. Thwak thinks it’s a good idea. Isn’t that right, Thwak?”

“I like money,” said Thwak.

“Money is good,” said Shudder. “But also, folks like us can do things the Tower can’t. Things that need doing.”

Flint’s whiskers twitched. She put him on edge, always, but nothing she’d said sounded unreasonable.

“I’ll think about it.”

“You do that. We’ll be in touch.”

The street quaked. The cobblestones beneath their feet buckled and cracked. They jumped back as the hideous thog burst into the surface. The bloated thing wheezed as it rolled its head back and forth to survey with its many eyes.

The thog’s gaze fell upon Shudder’s Dregs as a gurgled croak rolled out of its throat.

The early morning citizens ran in a panic, but the thog wasn’t interested in them. Even those who worshiped them as avatars of greater gods tended to agree that thogs were dull-witted at best. But this one knew exactly what it wanted and must have followed through miles of Below to find it.

It launched itself in a great leap. The Dregs scattered as it came crashing down. It swept its long, sticky tongue in a wide arc. Its intended targets dodged, but it latched onto a human. It slowly pulled the victim toward its maw.

Flint pulled both his pistols and fired. The thog barely registered the wounds.

Thwak drew her sword and sliced into the tongue. The monster released its captive as its massive tongue slithered back into its mouth, leaving a trail of blood.

Tower guards fired a volley of arrows into the creature. They didn’t do much more than distract it as it rocked clumsily to attack them. Its throat swelled and a moment later it spat out a barrage of spikes made of its own hardened mucous. Guards fell. Some dead. Some wounded. The venomous nature of the spikes would lead to more casualties tomorrow.

Flint pulled a blunderbuss from his cloak.

“How many guns do you have under there?” asked Shudder.

Flint braced himself and fired. A cone of fire and shrapnel erupted erupted from the barrel. It blew a sizeable wound in the thog. The beast unleashed a painful yowl as it turned toward them. Its throat swelled.

Shudder pulled down her hood, disappearing. Flint dropped another charge in his blunderbuss and jammed it down with a rod, but it would be too slow to save him.

Thwak threw herself between Flint and the volley of spikes. They pierced her scales and armor, and she fell to one knee.

She grunted. “That all you got?”

The thog’s tongue shot out, wrapping around Thwak’s ankle. She was yanked off her feet. Flint grabbed her hand, but the small ratlin couldn’t do much to pull her back.

“Just shoot already,” she said, her grip slipping.

“I need to get closer,” he said.

Shudder reappeared beside him, snatching the blunderbuss. “Closer, you say?”

She pulled down her hood, teleporting away to reappear atop the thog’s head. She put the barrel somewhere in the middle of its many eyes.

“Gotta be a brain in there somewhere.”

She pulled the trigger. Shudder was launched high in the air like a rocket powered by an explosion of fire and colorful thog viscera. The hole left behind in the monster had destroyed most of its face. The thing trundled a few steps, croaked once, and collapsed in a mound of quivering flesh. It shuddered once and died.

Probably died.

Nobody was eager to perform a closer inspection just yet.

Flint ran over to Shudder on the ground. He grabbed his blunderbuss, having landed nearby.

“The fall bent the barrel,” he grumbled.

“Yes, I’m okay,” she said, sitting up, wiping some gore from her face. “Your concern is touching.”

He checked on Thwak. “Are you okay?”

“What? This?” The dozen wounds oozed, but lizardkin were immune to venom. She didn’t pull any of the spikes out since she didn’t want to bleed to death before getting some proper care. “It’s only pain.”

“Well, wasn’t that something?” said Shudder. “Once word gets out that Shudder’s Dregs killed a thog, citizenry will be clamoring for our services. Why, maybe we’ll get a commendation from the Tower itself.”

“This thing was only up here because it followed us,” said Flint.

“Yes, but it’s one less thog in the world, and even you must admit that this is unquestionably a public good.”

He tucked the bent blunderbuss away and pulled his hat lower as the harsh morning light approached. He scuttled toward the nearest hole.

“I’ll be sure to pass along your share of the reward.” Shudder grinned her pointed grin. “We’re going to do a lot of good and make a lot of money.”

Despite himself, despite his common sense, Flint smiled as he disappeared into the dark.