"So what's our move?" Dukar looked to jacith for guidance.
"Ignore him," Jacith shrugged, "fool like that will get himself killed without our help. Lets see if he follows us through the gate."
Outside Scuttlecove, the untamed jumgle quickly swallowed them up. Shae was forced to snatch a veil from her saddlebags to protect her face from clouds of stinging insects. The miniscule devils, freshly hatched under the shelter of the canopy, got so bad that Jacith called the party to a halt while he made some balm to drive the things away. Night fell quickly due in part to the jungle but also due to the mountain range in the west.
"We stop here," Jacith declaired as he dismounted in a small clearing by the side of the trail, "get a fire going quickly. I'm going to double back and see if our friend had the guts to follow us."
With that, he pulled his hood over his head and disappeared into the dense plantlife.
"I'll take care of the fire," Dukar offered, "you two get the girl's tent up."
"I have a name," Shae scowled as she slid off her horse.
"How nice for you."
They got all four tents up in short order despite Zeladi's complaining. "I swear," the necromancer vowed, "when we get to Lashess, I'm buying one of those extradimensional sleeping quarter spells."
"Quit yapping," Dukar snickered, "this sort of thing builds muscle, makes you stronger."
"I'll try to remember that when I'm lounging on a satin divan between courses delivered by unseen servants while you fight to sleep with the mosquetos and the rain and the rats..."
"Shhh!" Shae silenced them, looking out into the jungle. "You hear that?"
Dukar picked up his enormous flail and scanned the treeline.
The necromancer shrugged. "I don't hear anything."
"Quiet, fool!" Dukar hissed.
The Jungle rustled once before Jacith burst through the treeline, an unconscious man slung over his shoulder. "Dukar, I've got a job for you." With a great heave, their leader dropped the Sannish addict next to the fire. He had several cuts and bruises that had been hastily bandaged.
Dukar raised one eyebrow. "You want me to waste healing on this berk?"
"Yes," Jacith explained patiently, "so we can torture some information out of him."
The dark priest's eyes lit up. "My pleasure."
"No, not you. It's Shae's stock in trade."
Dukar glared but did as he was bade, falling to his knees and laying hands over the addict's wounds. "Dark Lord Hextor, heal this man so that he may know the pain of living once more."
The addict groaned as his wounds scabbed over, knitting together painfully and imperfectly.
Shae returned with some rope. "Dukar, hold him while I tie him up... hurt him a little but don't break anything."
Dukar flashed her a grateful grin as he flipped the addict over and shoved both arms far enough up his back to cause pain without breaking. Smiling with gratitude, Shae bound his arms and legs with practiced ease. With the priest's help, she flipped their victim over and straddled his stomach, his arms pinned under his own body.
"Hmmm, he's cute," Shae observed.
Dukar rolled his eyes, mumbling something about wenches. Zeladi, however, watched with eagerness from the other side of the campfire. Jacith was all business, hovering behind Shae with his arms folded. "I want to know why he's following us. Get on with it."
Shae looked down the addict and smiled. Gently, she reached out to stroke his cheek. "Wakey, wakey, time to get up."
"Alyssa?" The addict groaned, still half conscious. The name caused Shae to blink, pushing back memories. To cover her shock, she slapped him hard across the face.
"OW! What the..." He stopped when he saw Shae's face. "Am I dead? Are you an angel?"
Shae smiled, running her hands down his muscular chest. "What's your name?"
"Aaron," he said, blinking in the firelight, "Aaron Islaran."
"Islaran?" Jacith mused. "Of the noble house Islaran?"
"That's right... who... who are you? What's going on?"
Shae shushed him tenderly, massaging his upper right arm and shoulder. "Calm yourself, Aaron. We just want to ask you some questions. You will answer them truthfully and all will be well. Otherwise, it will go something like this."
With a quick twist, she dislocated his shoulder. They patiently waited out the screaming. "Now that we have established that I'm not an angel and that there are all sorts of nasty things I can do yo your body without killing you, let's see how we do on the first question. Who do you work for?"
"K-Kedward Bone! Kedward Bone sent me to..."
She interrupted him by popping the shoulder back in. Yet again, she had to wait out the screaming before continuing. "Now, now, let's not get ahead of ourselves. We've got all night. Now, why don't you tell me why Kedward Bone sent you?"
"H-he h-eard," Aaron gulped, "he heard the Baron had hired you to investigate what's going on at Haven. H-he wanted someone he trusted to watch you and report back on your movements, that's all, I swear! All I had to do was watch."
"Do we believe him?" Zeladi asked.
"i do," Shae smiled, looking down into Aaron's face, "the eyes don't lie. It's hard to lie with the eyes, it takes training or talent. Of course, if you discover that your subject can lie to you with their eyes, then the eyes become useless to you and it's far better to pluck them out."
Jacith stepped into Aaron's field of vision. "What do you know about Haven?"
"Kedward has interests there. A contact who knows how to obtain the extracts from certain plants he needs for his alchemists to formulate some of his products. But there's been trouble there recently and shipments have become intermittant. Still, he was reluctant to raise his hand, so when the Baron hired you he figured you might draw the perpetrators into the open."
"And what do you get out of it?"
"M-my sister," the addict admitted, "he promised to help me find my sister."
"Alyssa," Shae nodded sadly.
"You know her?" Dukar asked.
"Oh, yes. She was a Skindancer. She used to roll her johns up until she picked the wrong one. Turned out the lad was part of the Crimson Fleet, they don't take kindly to that sort of thing. They hung her from the Plaza of Hanging Ruin."
Aaron half sat up in sheer excitement. "You know who killed her? Please, please, tell me, I have to avenge her death lest her spirit rot in her grave!"
"By Hextor," Dukar growled, "kill him before we have to hear the rest of this tripe."
"Kedward Bone might not take too kindly to that," Zeladi interjected.
"Agreed," Jacith said, "he lives. And he's coming with us."
"Like hell!" Dukar swore. "What do we need with that dead weight?"
"We play straight with Kedward Bone as long as he plays straight with us," Jacith reasoned. "The last thing we need right now is a pissed off wizard drug lord on our asses. And Shae, you can get off him now."
She did so reluctantly with only the mildest of protests before retrieving her rope.
"May I have my weapons back?" Aaron requested.
"No," Jacith rebuked. "And you'll not be taking a turn on guard. You can use my tent but the bedroll is mine."
"He could bunk in with me," Shae stroked his back. He winced away from her. "Thank-you for the offer but I'll sleep on the ground."
Dukar grinned as the addict fled into the tent. "Once bitten, twice shy."
"Oh, come on," Shae slumped onto one of the boulders they'd rolled next to the fire, "i've done worse to paying customers. He'll come around."
Besides, Shae thought, he needs to know who killed his sister.