Chapter 1: Part 3 - The Drake and the Device

Vasha didn’t need to see the other teams fight to know the Nageling Marauders were the best. The two norn were highly competent rangers, their vicious pets trained to act almost like an extra limb for their masters. And Roan… The charr was the most skilled guardian Vasha had ever seen, his mace and shield always at the ready. By contrast, she could only skirt around the periphery of the fight, pistols primed and a handful of tricks in her bag.

But maybe that was the point. Vasha had mused many times over why Roan had admitted her to the Marauders, when he could have had his pick of fighters. The fact that her skill was in thinking things through rather than hacking them to pieces? Well, with no disrespect to the others, that was perhaps a personality trait they didn’t possess.

There wasn’t much thinking to be done now, though.

The drake was huge, and had to weigh more than the Marauders combined. It surged from the water with the force of a battering ram, thundering through the shallows on huge, clawed feet. Haki threw himself at it, axes whirling, whilst Gull was already loosing a storm of arrows. Beside them, Frostpaw and Cirrus leapt in, the leopard raking its claws along the drake’s sides and the wolf burying fangs into its leg.

Vasha was already firing, the retorts of her pistols echoing through her skull. She circled sideways, hoping to get behind the creature. It roared, lurching suddenly sideways, flinging Frostpaw backwards into the water. Vasha jumped back as the beast’s tail lashed towards her, rolling out of its reach and coming up still shooting. The drake was already bleeding from a dozen wounds – but that just made it angrier.

It spun, sinking its teeth into Haki’s left arm. He howled, in anger more than pain, but couldn’t shake it off. Gullveig launched herself at the creature but it whipped back in the other direction, almost throwing her brother into her. Frostpaw emerged from the water, grabbing the drake’s tail in a storm of wet fur and teeth, and almost being smashed to the ground beneath the tail’s weight. For a moment, all was chaos.

And then Roan was there. He might have recruited Vasha to be their brains, but on the battlefield, he was a master of strategy. As Haki managed to free himself, stumbling backwards into Gull, Roan’s mace connected with the beast’s snout. The blow was enough to make it lurch backwards, feet sliding down the muddy bank into the water. Roan struck again, and Vasha heard bone crunch. Once more, and then he slammed his shield into the drake’s head. It dropped like a stone.

Roan stepped back, his weapons hanging loose in his hands. Timing, he’d once told Vasha. Combat was all about timing. Which was fine if you had a pair of battle-crazed norn to take the brunt of the damage for you. Mind you, neither of the siblings had ever complained.

Vasha holstered her pistols and hurried over to Haki, already reaching for the bandages in her pack. He was covered in mud and blood, and what might have been drake saliva, but he waved her off. “Only a scratch.”

Vasha didn’t protest. The norn siblings could be stubborn, but for once, Haki wasn’t just acting tough – his thick leather coat had indeed taken the brunt of the drake’s bite.

“You might look at Frostpaw, though?” he said, and there was just a trace of concern in his voice. The two rangers might go at one another like angry skritt, but their care for their pets was almost touching.

“Of course,” Vasha said, as Frostpaw limped towards them. She knelt, trying not to focus on the fact that the wolf was almost as tall as she was. It lay down obediently enough, though, allowing her to run fingers through its thick fur, and finally flex its front paws. “It’s just a sprain. I can bandage it up, if you like, but it’ll be healed within days.”

“If you would,” Haki said gruffly, which was as close to politeness as he ever got.

By the time Vasha was finished, the party had cleaned themselves up and gathered round the drake again. Even lying on its side, its shoulder was higher than Vasha’s head, and almost as high as Roan’s. The charr paced in circles round the creature, heedless of having to splash through the shallows of the loch to get past its tail.

“Well?” he demanded.

Vasha paused, doing what she was here to do: thinking. The loch was serene, the buzz of birds and insects building again. With the drake gone, there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary.

“There’s supposedly an Inquest research station down there,” Gull said, nodding towards the still water. “And there are hylek living further along the shore. Could we be here for either of those?”

Roan considered the options in stoic silence, but Vasha didn’t quite miss the way his one eye slid to her.

“I don’t think we’re here for the Inquest,” she said, her own eyes catching on something. “Look.”

The rest of the party crowded in as she pointed to the belly of the drake, where a long, white line crossed its scales. A scar.

“Could have been made by a beast’s claws,” Haki said, but he sounded dubious.

“There’s nothing big enough out here,” Vasha said, warming to her subject. “Besides, this drake is too big. It shouldn’t be here, and that scar looks like it was made deliberately, with a knife or a scalpel. It’s definitely part of Yinn’s hunt.”

Gull was already heaving its limbs aside, peering at its neck and head and tail. “It’s not carrying anything.”

A sinking feeling settled in Vasha’s stomach as five eyes turned to her expectantly. “You don’t want me to…”

“I’ll help you get through the skin,” Haki said, drawing a wicked dagger. “After that, you’re on your own.”

Butchering the drake was every bit as unpleasant as Vasha expected. It really was unfair to ask her to do it, too, when the beast was so huge. The others might have been elbow-deep in the creature’s slimy guts; she was up to her shoulder. She had to concede, though, that an operation like this required finesse, and you weren’t going to get much of that from the others.

Finally, her hand closed around something: a hard lump, right by the drake’s heart. “There’s something in here.”

“Step back,” Haki said, and as Vasha did so, he swept an axe blade along the beast’s chest. The small incision that Vasha had been working through expanded, slippery organs tumbling out.

She glared at him. “You could have done that earlier.”

Haki just shrugged, and bent to wipe his axe on the grass. “I didn’t want to get any on my boots.”

Vasha was too fascinated to argue. She could see the drake’s heart, now, as big as her head. It glistened a vibrant red – and there was indeed something attached to it. Vasha grabbed hold and tore it free, holding up–

“It’s some kind of communications device,” she said, as even Roan wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Let me just clean it off.”

The device had to be waterproof or it wouldn’t have survived its hiding place, so she dunked both herself and it in the loch, emerging dripping but clean. None of the others asked to see what she’d found, and not just because she was best equipped to understand it. This was her prize, and the Marauders were nothing if not fair, at least amongst themselves. Impressive deeds merited reward.

Still dripping water, she turned the device over in her hands. It looked like an engineer’s toy, of simple but sturdy construction. Press the button and you should be able to talk to… someone. Who would be on the other end? And what was stuck to the back?

What Vasha had first taken to be part of the device appeared to merely be glued there. She peeled it off, holding up– “A key,” she said aloud. “But I don’t think it’s a whole one.”

“How many pieces to complete it?” Roan asked, holding out a heavy paw.

“I’d say that’s a sixth of the whole, so we’d need five more,” Vasha said, dropping the key into his palm. The others might be interested in unlocking hidden doors or treasures, but she was far more intrigued by the communications device. Did it connect to someone back in Rata Sum, perhaps even Yinn with further instructions? She pressed the button. “Hello?”

There was a hideous squeal, enough to make Frostpaw give an answering howl. Haki quietened him with a word, but the device kept whining and crackling. Vasha stared at it in disappointment.

“Throw it in the loch,” Gull suggested, already losing interest.

Vasha shook the device, which rattled. Perhaps it was broken; being sewn into the innards of a drake would do that.

Roan was already turning away. “We’ll go back to Rata Sum. If we hand this key to Yinn, we might be able to–”

The device beeped so suddenly that Vasha almost did drop it in the water. Lights flashed across its front, and then after a burst of static, a voice came through, perfectly clear. “Hello? Is anyone there?”

Vasha’s heart sank. She knew that voice better than her own. If there was anyone in Tyria she’d hoped wouldn’t be on the other end of the device, it was Jean Valpari.