Mon Jul 14, 2003 8:07 am
The bells rang,the gates closed,and the
hunter smiled.
It hadn't been too hard to find his prey.There
had been those sent to watch,told what
to look for on the hand of a stranger,
and the watchers had played the game eagerly.
A gold shilling had been the prize for
finding this one,and now the street urchins
were out looking for more,sharp-eyed but
ever cautious. He'd warned them of the danger.
The stranger's identity had been proven to
his stalker's satisfaction in a small tavern
in town when a wager had been made and lost,
the coin won tossed, and the tattooed
palm revealed as the other caught his winnings.
Then it had become a matter of patience,waiting
and watching from across the room for the man
to rise amd make his way for the door.
Dhugal had followed.
But not too closely.
He gave the man half a minute start,but when
Dhugal had stepped out into the street after
him,a small form moved out of a shadowed
doorway to point the way.And so it continued,
the "Frenchman's" young friends guiding him
until at last he had the man in sight himself,
no hint of a pursuit given by this roundabout
means.Before the member of the Silent Order
could realize he had been followed,Dhugal was
upon him,arm in a choke hold around the neck
as he shoved the captured man into a nearby dark
alley.
The man did not go meekly. He struggled,but the
choke hold was effective,and Dhugal coldly intent
on eliminating another threat to a friend.The
victim's struggling weakened as he eventually
lost consciousness,and then Dhugal's dagger
was drawn quickly across the throat,ear to ear.
The day dawned,the bells rang,and the gates
opened. Among the crowd of those making their
way out of town was a drunken Frenchman.
Back in the alley,a corpse was stuck head first
into a convenient rainbarrel in a dark alley,its
feet propped up against the wall of a building.
One hand dangled over the edge,and across the
emblem tattoed on the palm was a deep slash of
a dagger.
This hunt was over.
There would be others.