‘You mean a treacherous scumbag pretending to be a friend?’ asked Dog, anger plain in his voice. ‘A liar and a crook, deceiving us, making everyone believe it was orcs doing the killings, when it was them? I say we find out who that someone is.’
‘My thoughts exactly,’ said Grim. ‘But we have to play this clever, because that’s how this individual has played it. No giving away our suspicions, or that we’ve found a second sword. If we act careful, we might uncover the criminal.’
‘Maybe they think because we’re an ogre, we’ll be too stupid to work it out,’ said Dog. ‘But there’s three heads working on this now.’
THE BARBARIAN
You could say it was chance that Assata was the first member of the party that Og-Grim-Dog investigated—certainly, no plan had been formulated. Grim was walking back to The Bruised Bollocks when they saw the barbarian leaving.
‘Follow her, Grim,’ Og said, sounding excited.
Assata crossed the road and carried on towards a part of town that the ogre had never been to.
‘I wonder where she’s going,’ said Dog, his tone implying that the barbarian was up to no good. Grim was a little concerned that his brothers were now too wrapped up with finding evidence of wrongdoing.
‘Careful, Grim,’ Dog added. ‘Don’t get too close.’
Grim slowed down, letting Assata get further ahead of them, but keeping her within sight.
‘Now,’ said Og. ‘What do we have on the barbarian?’
‘She doesn’t drink,’ said Dog. ‘That’s suspicious in itself. It gives her more time to further her nefarious plans while the rest of us are sleeping off our fug.’
Alright. Now Grim was sure they were taking it too far.
‘Good,’ said Og. ‘What else?’
‘Assata was the one who recruited us in the first place, if you recall?’ said Dog.
‘What does that prove?’ demanded Grim. ‘Apart from the fact that she didn’t treat us with prejudice, like most people do.’
‘Fair enough, Grim,’ Dog acknowledged. ‘It doesn’t prove anything. Necessarily.’
Grim ignored that, concentrating on his quarry. Assata was leading them away from the town centre with its shops and inns. They were now in a residential area, the human houses squashed together, built from flimsy material.
Then, she disappeared into one of the houses.
‘Did you see that, Grim?’
‘Yes,’ he said, picking up the pace, while keeping the house fixed in his sights. He approached the building, unsure what to do next. Three-headed ogres had their limitations when it came to looking inconspicuous.
‘There,’ said Og, pointing to an alley on the left. ‘I bet that goes behind the house.’
Grim didn’t hesitate in taking the alley, sensing eyes observing them. As Og had suggested, the alley branched out in different directions, and one of them took them behind the house that Assata had entered.
‘Is that it?’ Dog asked, pointing at the dilapidated wooden exterior.
‘I think so,’ said Grim. It was hard to tell for sure, since the houses all looked the same. ‘What now?’
‘Wait?’ Og offered.
Grim sighed. Their total lack of a plan felt very apparent.
‘Wait for what?’ asked a voice.
At the same time, the tip of a sword appeared from behind them and nestled between Grim and Dog’s necks.
‘Oh!’ said Og, slightly braver since he didn’t have cold steel quite so close. ‘Hello, Assata! Erm…fancy seeing you here?’
‘You know,’ said the barbarian, ‘it crossed my mind that you didn’t want me to know that you were following me. But since you were talking to one another the whole time, out loud, I discarded the idea.’
‘Of course,’ Grim squeaked out, nervous of the blade, aware that his reply didn’t really make any sense.
‘I think you’d better come with me,’ said the barbarian, and Og-Grim-Dog didn’t argue.
Assata strode over to the house and pulled out a couple of planks of wood. The space she had made was big enough for her to fit through. She looked at the ogre, sizing him up, and took out another couple of planks, before gesturing him inside with her sword.
The inside of the house was dark. A fire in the pit offered more smoke than light. Two figures stood in the shadows, casting the ogre climbing into their house suspicious glances.
‘Well,’ said Assata, entering behind them, and gesturing to a mat on the floor with her still-drawn sword, ‘I presume you wanted to know why I came here.’
‘We did,’ said Dog, as Grim took a seat on the mat. ‘Also, we were wondering what’s in the pot,’ he added, gesturing at the fire pit.
Assata rolled her eyes, but she strode to the pot anyway, ladling some of the soup into a bowl and handing it to Dog, who took a sniff as the steam rose about him. ‘Well-seasoned,’ he commented. ‘Meat in there?’
‘Vegetables.’
‘That’s fine.’
Assata nodded at the two men who came over to the mat, and all three sat. They all had the same look to them: more than just the features that suggested they were from the same tribe—they had a hardness that said that life had toughened them.
Assata finally laid her sword down on the floor. She pulled up her sleeve and showed them a swirling, ink black symbol on her forearm. ‘Do you know what this means?’ she asked.
‘You like tattoos?’ Dog asked.
‘No, Dog,’ she said. The two men showed the ogre the same tattoo. ‘It means we’re escaped slaves. The Kuthenian Empire likes barbarians for its slaves, for some reason. Maybe because we look different, and they like to know instantly who is slave and who is free in the Empire. I came here to give the money I made from our dungeon crawl to my friends here. They will take it home for the Resistance. You see, we won’t rest until the Kuthenians are brought to their knees and we bathe in their blood.’
‘I see,’ said Grim. ‘I wondered why you asked us to join your adventuring party.’
Assata smiled at him. ‘I know that ogres aren’t the real monsters. Do ogres keep slaves?’
‘Never!’ said Og, shocked.
‘Although it’s an idea,’ said Dog.
‘Quiet, Dog,’ said Grim. ‘Drink your soup. I’m sorry it looks like we didn’t trust you,’ he said to Assata, genuinely ashamed.
Assata made a face, looking at her two associates. ‘I suppose we can forgive you. I doubt you meant harm by it. But seriously, what are you up to?’
The brothers looked at one another a little awkwardly.
‘It’s a difficult matter,’ said Grim, unwilling to tell her, but feeling like he really should have.
Assata raised an eyebrow. ‘I see. Too delicate a subject for me to handle, is it? Only you three can be trusted to display the sensitivity required?’
Grim smiled. That level of sarcasm wasn’t even lost on an ogre. ‘Something like that. But when we get to the bottom of it, you’ll be the first to know. I promise.’
THE WIZARD AND THE DWARF