by Simon Archer
“It says ‘link,’ sir,” Tinker whispered over to me. “Maybe it connects things together, or locks people up, like in chains? I’d have to look at its schematic formula to know for sure. Or, you know, use it myself.”
“What’s the plan, my lord?” Hopper whispered into the conversation. “Do you want me to sneak up on him?”
“Hold off on that, and lay low. I’m cooking up something.” I pulled the hammer on my pistol as I pointed it at him. “Jewelry? Still waiting on that reason, bud.”
The ‘link’ gave me a clue as to what the charm did and what he was trying to pull. The look in his eyes told me that he knew exactly where the bunnies were, and that charm was his direct connection to their throats. That link charm could be a signal device, like a remote switch. Turning one on or off does the same to the other, and it could let him operate or activate certain devices, like a detonator to a bomb.
Alternatively, he could have communicated certain messages across to whoever was holding the other one. If the other Wolf was smart enough, they’d have created something akin to Morse code to send all kinds of messages across to each other, or simply turning it off or on might be the signal to kill the Rabbits he had taken hostage.
If I called his bluff on the hostages being real and they were, he’d slaughter them. But, if he was any good at hostage negotiation, he’d know that the livelihood of the hostages was the lifeblood of his bargaining power. If they were harmed, or if one of them was killed, that’d have risked losing his control over me. On top of that, they were bunnies, he was a noble Wolf, and there was a Blood Moon on the horizon. He needed them, too.
So, I could push back a bit where I needed if I was careful. Until I knew where they were, though, he had to live, and I had to play everything close to the chest if I was going to regain control of the situation.
“This cufflink is imbued with a rune of linking.” He looked down at it, then back at me. “It’s connected to a similar rune, allowing someone who has one of the pair to turn them both--”
“I’m going to count to ten.” I took aim at one of his eyes, just to see if he’d start sweating. He did not. “One… five… eight…”
No movement. He wasn’t bluffing, and he was confident I was. Fine, I could layer this bluff like a cake, hiding bluffs inside of other bluffs to keep him on his toes or totally in the dark as I needed. It was all a matter of figuring out what kind of Wolf this guy was. Everything he did taught me a little more that I could use.
“I also have a set linked to my heart,” the Wolf calmly told me as he showed off the runed cufflink on his other wrist. “Kill me, and this rune turns off automatically, signaling my boys to slaughter all of the captives. Even if you were planning to take my pack from me, you wouldn’t convince them you’re their new leader in time to save a single one. You’ll have to obey if you ever want to see any of them alive.”
I gave him one last once-over. No wavering whatsoever. There’s a certain level of confidence that you couldn’t have faked, no matter how good of a liar you were. It’s the kind of certainty saved for the foolish and the ruthless. It’s the kind I’ve been learning to simulate lately. If he wasn’t threatening Rabbits, I might have actually respected him for taking me more seriously from the beginning and not at his deathbed. But I had to make this painful for him in any way I could, and if I had to be forced to enjoy every last second of it, I would have made that sacrifice.
Even with that deadman’s switch charm preventing me from killing this Wolf, it didn’t keep me from trying to knee-cap him and having my people kill everyone else here. He’d have been alive, and Tinker could safely take the charm from there. The real problem was that I didn’t know where those Rabbits were.
If they were in the city, Hopper could do a quick search and find them, and I’d just have to find a way to hide her from these guys. If they weren’t in the city and the range on that link charm was farther out, we’d have to find a way to slip her out of the city without her being noticed so she could contact the campsite.
I just had to narrow down the search while I did what I did best: slowly worm my way under a Wolf’s skin so I could get everything I wanted from them.
“Seems like a strangely elaborate setup for just little ol’ me,” I highlighted. “A fake lord for me to kill, then a fake bunny for me to save? That takes some imagination, forethought, and time, but I’ve basically just arrived. Why me?”
“I‘ll indulge you in this one question, Rabbit lord, since I know it would have haunted you otherwise.” The Wolf retained his subtle composure as he continued, satisfied that I hadn’t shot him yet. “When my alarm was tripped at the cache of weapons nearby, I knew someone interesting had to be around. There are few even among the nobles who know about those.” He shook his head. “Imagine my surprise when a Rabbit comes strutting into this city, carrying the strangest musket that I’d ever seen and wearing a lord’s coat, no less. I just had to see for myself what you were really like.”
He clucked his tongue like the most annoying grandmother in the world. “Your runes and weapons do not disappoint. Tell me, where’s the nifty little cache that you found all of these fun toys? In all of the caches I’ve dug up, I haven’t come across anything close to what you have there. After you’re done telling me that, you’re going to tell me why a Rabbit lord wants to see Preymeister. You must know that you’re still completely outmatched by yourself unless you truly are here on some other business with him. And if you’re feeling tightlipped,” he tapped just above the cufflink with the charm on it, “my men have been ordered to kill only one for every time I give the signal with this link. I can wait all day for you to become cooperative.”
A secret weapons cache that no one knew about would be the perfect hiding spot for a hungry Wolf’s stash of bunny snacks. That successfully narrowed the search grid to the area around the city, specifically the Hunter caches. Not a small area, but also not the one filled with urban spies who knew the streets better than I did.
And there was no way he planned for this to fall out the way that it did here. That was where his bluff truly fell. He was improvising this whole scam. I bet the first lord was supposed to be my handler for whatever mission he had in store, and I was never even supposed to meet this guy in the first place. That second guy I killed could have been the backup, and I killed him, too. Now that the mastermind was low on options, he had to resort to threatening me with the lives of the bunnies.
He must have needed someone like me desperately.
If that were true, though, then he’d have already set up those cufflinks before he saw me. He was paranoid and proud of it. Bunnies were something he could have leveraged over most lords, but only I’d have been sympathetic, as a ‘Rabbit lord’ myself.
I just had to get Hopper on board with my plan and get her out of here undetected. Thankfully, she was a bunny, with absolutely impeccable senses far above any Wolf I’d come across yet. There were ways to sneak a message across an open conversation and even more so when you had more ways to receive it than your opponent.
“Do you think that I got where I am by being soft?” I bluffed as I moved over by Hopper. “You Wolves made damn sure that slaves had no attachments to each other, pulling children from their families before they could even picture their faces. Am I supposed to be any different?”
“Don’t play dumb with me.” The mastermind gave me a sly grin. “If you truly were so distant from them, you’d have pulled the trigger on that special musket already. Put an end to this whole farce and obey. Too many of your brood sisters’ lives are in my hand. Or, rather, on my wrist.”
“Sure thing, bud,” I kept bluffing. “A bloodbath in the streets doesn’t make for a very friendly greeting, anyway. Seems like a bad idea on my first day in town. There are a few things I’d like to know first about you, though. So, I thought I’d just knee-cap you here and now--”
“Wait!” The fancy Wolf flinched as I pointed my gun down towards his knees. All of the thu
gs around me pointed their spears at us. “If I get so much as a bruise, ten of them go right now!”
Funny, he was more afraid of that than he was of dying. Almost like he needed to be in good condition for something physically challenging like, oh, maybe, a challenge. Who’d he have been challenging?
Why, it could only have been Preymeister himself, the top dog in town. It didn’t matter what kind of sneaky tactics you tried to use in these cutthroat politics, you still had to win the challenges in person. That required at least looking like you were capable of fighting, especially going up against the famously indestructible former champion of the Regent. The pack members might have suspected foul play otherwise, and that complicated everything when all of the resources were up for grabs. His crazy ruse was most likely to get me to help in a fight he couldn’t win by himself.
Killing two birds with one stone sounded like a great deal to me. Might even help move things along a bit faster, too. Maybe it wasn’t so bad that he found and threatened me. It certainly would have been very annoying if I had to deal with him afterward when I was still trying to get to that Mana Crusher.
“Touchy.” I put the pistol away, leaving the strap undone, while I brought my hands up to my mouth as if I was thinking. “Alright, you caught me. I’m a huge softie. I’ll cooperate. Who are you, and what do you want?”
“W-What?” Thrown off by my complete change in tone, he stuttered out his response, quickly regathering his wits while I mumbled my message to Hopper inaudibly behind my hands. “Of course, where are my manners? I’m called Big Paw-Paw. While Preymeister might be the official leader of these streets, I’m the one who holds the real power around here. You could say that as he fills his pockets, I bleed them dry. Although many of my enterprises are illegal under his rule, I still manage to get by quite handsomely. In case you believe you can pull any funny business, my eyes and ears are everywhere. Nothing happens in my city without me hearing about it.”
Hopper heard my mumbling, her ears twitching as they picked up my hidden instructions to her, and she faintly nodded in confirmation. Keeping out of the claws of Wolves was one of her specialties, no matter how many spies this Big Paw-Paw boasted about while drawing attention like a magnet was one of mine.
“While my political strength is by far the most superior of everyone here, present company included,” he let out a chuckle at his weak insult, “my combat prowess doesn’t quite match up to Preymeister’s physical strength and durability. Such raw power is truly devastating, and I’ve extensively studied how deadly it can be. No one can truly fight him one-on-one. However, that’s where you will come in.”
“If I’m fighting him, I’m not giving the barony to you if I win.” I raised an eyebrow. “How dumb do you think I am?”
“No, no, silly little lord,” Big Paw-Paw clarified. “I’ll be the one taking this town over, and you’ll be the one thanking me for sparing you from becoming the world’s most foolish pancake. When everything is mine, you can have your precious flock, safe and sound, and leave this town with everything you and your people can carry with you. I’m fair in my deals and honest in my promises. It’s how I keep my enterprise so thriving. It’s just good business.”
No, no, of course, you’d have never double-crossed me. That would’ve been terribly rude of you, Mr. Paw-Paw. Why would you have coerced me into helping you by threatening innocent lives, then? I should have been thankful for your great moral fiber, Mr. Paw-Paw. You’d never have had ulterior motives or secret plans to stab me in the back as soon as I had stopped being useful, Mr. Paw-Paw. If you did, you’d have been an insufferable, lying sack of shit. So glad that wasn’t the case, Mr. Paw-Paw.
“With my plans and resources, and a little bit of your help, we can take down that arrogant and prideful mutt for good.” Paw-Paw adjusted the collars of his coat and waistcoat. “So, you can clearly see, with my superior contribution to this operation, I should be taking the greater portion of the spoils. Don’t you agree? I’ve actually saved your life by doing all of this. You should be very grateful.”
“Certainly.” Every cell in my body tithed their will to my eyes to keep them from rolling back into my head and lodging there. “Cut to the chase. You need me to help you cheat in your fight while still making it look like you did it all by yourself. What’s my job?”
“You catch on quick, Rabbit Lord.” He pawed the golden knob of his cane. “Prey- meister’s holding his monthly Baron’s Day festival tomorrow, and he gladly accepts any and all challenges at that time for entertainment. Nobody thinks that they’ll win, but the nobles take bets on how long they’ll last against him. All of the challenges will be held in the town square for everyone to see.”
Paw-Paw raised a paw-finger for emphasis. “Such a public arena, though, will be much harder to rig with traps to give me the edge I will certainly need. Do not worry, for I have a different, more elegant solution. I’ve arranged for a special poisonous powder to be shipped in from the hellpoppy fields in Hopscotch. It’ll be here tonight, primed and ready to be put into any drink at the festival tomorrow. However, I am a public figure in this city. There’ll be too many eyes on me at the festival to do the deed myself, but you are a free agent. You could wade through the crowds like a phantom if you were to disguise yourself as a common slave or pet--”
“Sounds absolutely fantastic.” I kept my eyes stiff, but the urge to roll was even stronger than before. “One question: if you have a scheme like this cooked up, why do you need me? Seems like a waste of time you could be spending making this all go smoothly, laying down plans, getting things ready. Just send one of your pack members to do it for you. It’s a simple enough job, putting the powder in the cup.”
“Look at my men.” He gestured to the thugs in black leather around him. “Do you think that any of them have the guile or tact to get this done? I need someone with the skills, the raw talent, that only a noble of your caliber can provide.”
Was he trying to butter me up after all of those backhanded compliments and thinly-veiled insults? The stones on this dog.
“How do you know that I can provide them?” I asked as I looked around to the thugs by my sides. “You’ve only known me for two seconds. You haven’t even seen me do anything besides kill some of your people. That, apparently, won’t do against Preymeister.”
“They were a necessary sacrifice, and a paltry one at that.” Big Paw-Paw chuckled as he picked up his cane in both hands. “I assure you, I’ve seen everything I need to know that you will be perfect for this job. Your cooperation will be rewarded, and your disobedience will be punished severely.”
“Was that supposed to be an evaluation?” I asked him, “What were you looking for?”
A Rabbit who was willing to risk Preymeister’s wrath and a scapegoat he could have manipulated easily into taking the fall when this went south was the real answer, regardless of what he said otherwise. With the festival happening tomorrow, and the Blood Moon around the corner, he’d have been desperate to get the baron spot before then. And from all the bunny obsession I’d seen from high-end nobles so far, they weren’t big on wasting their magic sources, either. He was as stuck with me as I was with him for now.
“I was looking for someone like you,” he vaguely described, “and now I’ve found you. Isn’t that just grand luck that we stumbled into each other? You are quite the godsend, believe me. Are you on board, or will I be telling my men to--”
“Say that you’re right, and I can get Preymeister to drink this hellpoppy powder,” I puzzled as an interruption. “Are you sure the poison is going to even work? Your browncoat over there was saying that conventional weapons and runes weren’t making a dent. What’s poison going to do to a Wolf who’s practically invulnerable?”
“Only his transformed state is invulnerable, and why are you talking back to me?” Paw-Paw put a finger close to his cufflink. “You’ll follow my demands without any further questions unless you want me to drop some Rabbits right here and now. My m
en have been complaining that guard duty has been whetting their appetites. Perhaps I’ll keep them happy for a moment, eh?”
“Calm down, Biggy Paws, I’m cooperating.” I would have brought sunglasses so I could have rolled my eyes freely if I’d known this guy was going to be such a pain to deal with. “I won’t question you further. I just had a suggestion that’ll help you out even further without implicating either of us. It’s no big deal, though. It’s your funeral if I don’t end up putting enough powder in to weaken him for you, or too much, and he dies from a sneak attack.”
“We won’t be needing any of your suggestions, Rabbit lord.” He put his hand down from the cufflink. “I’ve got the powder measured out perfectly. Your only concern in this matter is getting Preymeister to drink it.”
“It’s perfectly measured?” I questioned him, “Why can’t we use a poison that’s less deadly so we can be a bit looser with the amounts?”
“We’re using this poison!” He had a finger raising upward to threaten, but I had more pushes left before I had to back off. I could have seen it on his face.
“I can’t spill a grain of it, then.” A drama-filled hand slapped my chest. “That’s a lot of pressure to push on a stranger for such a crucial part of the mission. If I fail in my part, then what’ll happen to you? Then all of the bunnies are dead anyway!”
“I will be just fine.” He showed his wrist again. “And you’re not going to fail. That’s why I’m threatening you with this. Everything is under control. You will stop questioning me this instant.”
“If that’s what you want.” I shrugged, shifting the conversation’s gears into overdrive. “Just seems like a lot being left up to chance, especially when I still have some options. For example, I could just decide that all of the Rabbits throughout the city are a better bet to save than your hostages. What if I just told Preymeister about this whole conspiracy thing, exchange the freedom of the other Rabbits for the information he needs to smash you and your whole operation? ‘Needs of the many’ and all that.”
