A Night In Sassa Hin

A blanket of darkness smothered Sassa Hin in the summer eve’s heat, thick fog obscuring torches less than twenty yards away. Silence rested over the city like a Sworn Sister’s shroud and Lieutenant Kaelic could tell the full effects of it on his men.

“Darby!” Kaelic kicked his second in command once with a growl that threatened to stick in his throat. The sergeant started and wiped his eyes, peering through the night as Kaelic crouched down beside him in the stairwell.

“No sign of him yet, sir,” he grunted.

“You were sleeping,” Kaelic said. He whispered, though on a night like this sounds were swallowed as easily as the light. They should have all been deep in sleep behind the walls of the barracks or lying drunk on a tavern floor. “Keep your eyes on the main road. Style and Jack are checking everyone that comes by?”

“Yeah, yeah, not much of those anyhow. No one wants to be out.”

“Is the woman inside?”

“The wench and her younger brother. They’re both asleep, didn’t know that we tracked the wielder here three nights running.”

“Think they’re lovers?”

The sergeant grinned. “Does a cow have teats?”

“Silly question,” Kaelic agreed.

Sassa Hin, City of Stars. He grabbed a handful of his jerkin to wipe the sweat from his brow. Bad luck when the clouds blotted out the stars at night and worse luck when they descended to the ground. Anyone who knew what was good for them stayed in. The yelping croak of a bunyip echoed through the night, sending a shiver down his spine.

“A bad omen,” Darby said in an eerie whisper. “The bunyip cry when they crawl from the river to feed.”

Kaelic struck Darby across the back of the neck and the sergeant gave a low chuckle. The humor was forced, and Kaelic shook his head. If Darby was nervous then any man had the right. Plump and short as he was, the sergeant was as tough as a Nightwalker’s cane.

“Joke if you like, but don’t let the men hear you,” Kaelic said. “Style’s spooked enough. If you say it, he might believe it.”

“I’ll keep mum. Do you think the wielder will show?”

Kaelic squinted into the darkness, silently cursing the fog. Benji and Dawn held the roofs but wouldn’t be able to hit shit with their crossbows through this murk. “Let’s hope not. If he doesn’t, we’ll all go home alive.”