Aris slipped through the slums like a ghost, weaving through shadows and broken alleys with practiced ease. She avoided the dark figures huddled against the walls, never slowing, never looking their way.
She knew better than to confront them.
Down here, trust was a luxury that got you killed.
A cold wind knifed through the alley, carrying the stench of rot and smoke. Aris tightened her hood and kept moving, boots silent against the filth.
She was looking for more of those hunters, just like the ones that the boy had killed earlier.
They likely wouldn't be searching the slums, so she had to get back onto a main road first. That involved a maze of turns that a first-time visitor would go insane from.
Every alleyway and broken-down building looked practically the same to the unkeen eye, especially at night. But not to Aris. This place was her home. She knew it like the back of her hand.
A scream bounced off the stone and brick buildings, and Aris stopped dead in her tracks.
Just a block away, a fire erupted like an explosion. Dark gray smoke began drifting into the sky, blocking out the moon.
Something wasn't right.
There were fires often in the slums. People had to stay warm somehow. Fire could also be hard to control and easily spread to flammable objects.
There was another scream, and it was quickly cut off.
People were dying. This wasn't just an out of control fire. This was an attack.
Aris set her jaw and crept forward alongside the brick building to her left. When she reached the end of the alleyway, she peered around the corner.
Nothing.
The fire was still a little further down.
It would be dangerous, but it was not in her nature to run from danger. She had run away once long ago, when it had been life or death, and Aris had promised herself it would never happen again.
Aris moved from shadow to shadow, more urgently now.
Finally, the fire came into view.
A small building near an intersection was ablaze, flames clawing out from a shattered window. The heat rolled across the street in thick waves. Smoke coiled upward, polluting the air.
This place was at one point a school, before the slums truly lived up to its namesake. Then, it became just another building for people to keep out of the cold.
Aris stopped in her tracks, staying hidden in the darkness of the alleyway. From there, she watched.
Three figures stood near the burning doorway.
They weren't panicking. They weren't shouting for help. They weren't trying to put the fire out.
They were watching it.
Each was armed to the teeth; knives, bows, swords, axes, and one very large mace.
The figures wore light armor, as if not expecting very much resistance.
The one with the mace dragged a screaming man from the building and tossed him to the ground like trash.
Her blood went cold.
On his shoulder, illuminated by the firelight, Aris could see Thorne's symbol. A circle of roses surrounding a dagger.
The enforcer raised his mace and brought it down into the man's skull, sending bones and brain flying.
Aris pressed herself tighter against the wall, heart hammering.
They came down here.
That wasn't supposed to happen.
Thorne's dogs avoided the Slums. Everyone knew that. They didn't like places where rules didn't exist. Where a symbol doesn't show power. Where a blade could come from any direction.
Down in the slums, their power had always been fragile.
At least, it used to be.
What had changed?
Why had Thorne suddenly decided that it was worth the risk to brave the most dangerous part of the city?
Aris drew her dagger, watching as one of the enforcers pulled another woman from the building out by her hair.
Just as she was about to move, another noise reached her ears. This time, from behind her.
More footsteps. Heavy. Not the sounds of street rats, but of soldiers.
Aris peered down the alleyway and saw shapes emerging. More of Thorne's enforcers.
This was not just one targeted attack. They were coming from multiple directions. And maybe all across the Slums.
Her breath caught in her throat as the truth settled in.
Thorne is not afraid of the Slums anymore. And there is something down here that he is searching for.
Panic clawed at her chest.
The boy.
She had no clue what was so important about him, but that had to be what they were looking for. After all, he had killed two of Thorne's hunters.
But to go to such lengths for a child? Maybe she had underestimated the boy's importance.
"So," she whispered to herself, eyes tracking the enforcers as they moved door to door. "You've finally decided to dirty your boots."
She flipped her dagger once, catching it by the hilt.
"Bad choice."
Using the darkness as her cover, Aris left the alleyway behind and approached the burning school from the side.
She watched as a fourth enforcer moved toward the back of the school, his spear resting against his shoulder as he shuffled along lazily.
His back was to her. He was watching the flames licking the sides of the building.
Idiot, Aris thought.
She moved, crossing the distance in five silent steps. Aris hooked her arm around his throat, pulling his head backward. Her dagger came up beneath his jaw and slid in clean, angling toward the brain.
The man stiffened.
No scream. Just a sharp gasp as his legs buckled.
Aris leaned close, keeping his body upright as he died, and eased him backward into the darkness between two collapsed walls. She lowered him gently to the ground, wiping her blade on his shirt before the blood could drip.
One down.
She didn't look at the body again.
There were still voices coming from inside the building. Half of it was now engulfed in flames. If she didn't step in now, the people inside would die.
Aris took a deep breath in and wrapped the cloak of her hood around her mouth.
Then, using a broken side door, she entered the building.
She stepped quietly over rotting wood and broken stones, following the sounds of the voices. The smoke was thick in the air, and she could also hear a distant coughing.
Peering through the thick air that stung at her eyes, Aris could see an enforcer kicking at a woman lying on the ground.
Through the beating, the woman was still holding her hand up towards something. Aris followed and spotted the little boy hiding in the corner, shaking with fear. Her child?
Aris stepped into the room, slamming the door behind her.
Bang!
The sound was loud enough to make the man turn.
Too slow.
Aris threw her dagger.
It struck him in the throat, burying itself up to the hilt. He dropped instantly, clutching at nothing as blood poured between his fingers.
The woman gasped in confusion, trying to scramble away.
Aris stepped over to the dying man and ripped the dagger from his throat.
She looked over at the woman and knelt down. "You're safe now. Out the back. Take the kid and run. Don't stop until you're out of danger."
The woman nodded and somehow got to her feet, snatching up the small boy and vanishing out the way Aris had come in.
A burning beam crashed down in front of Aris, scattering embers across the floor.
This place was about to collapse.
Her lungs burned. Smoke filled her chest. Aris vaulted through a shattered window and hit the ground outside in a crouch.
Just as her lungs felt like they would burst, Aris unwrapped her cloak and took in another breath of only slightly smoky air.
Aris could still hear the voices out front. The other three enforcers had yet to notice her intrusion.
Good.
She would make them regret this.