Chapter 4: Part 8 - There's Nowhere Safe in Orr

Something was wrong. The game was falling apart – it was the only explanation. After two days crossing Malchor's Leap, the Marauders still hadn't had a single clue or message from Yinn. Their invitation cards were blank and silent, there had been no puzzles to solve, and there was no hint of further clues like the ones the Valparis had taken from Auric Basin. Vasha had questioned more than once whether they were going in the right direction, but she couldn't dispute Roan's logic: Yinn wasn't likely to send them away from danger, only into it.

Just once, they saw another team in the distance. Haki confirmed it was the Nth Degree, ahead of them on the road to Cursed Shore. "Think they know something we don't?" he asked.

Roan grunted. "Those damn asura? I doubt it."

"At least we're all going in the same direction," Gull said. "And we're not far behind."

They reached the pass themselves barely an hour later, climbing over the hills with dusk on their heels. In the fading light, Haki pointed into the distance. "Forget the Nth Degree. Those are the ones we need to catch up to."

Vasha's heart lurched. Haki must have spotted the Valparis– Except there were only two figures on the dusty plain below, one far larger than the other. They were moving slowly south.

"Light's Memory," Gull confirmed. "Think they know what's going on?"

Vasha swallowed. If Light's Memory were here, things were becoming serious. She hadn't forgotten her conversation with Amber, nor what the asura had implied about the Archon. A construct, she'd said, but that could mean so many things. Vasha didn't think it had merely been a figure of speech, either; Amber had looked too satisfied by her choice of word. So what did that mean? That the Archon himself wasn't real, or that some of his servants weren't? There had been so many layers of secrecy and artifice to Yinn's game; it was becoming impossible to tell truth from lie.

She glanced up, to find Roan waving them forwards. "We'll catch up. Time for some answers."

They broke into a run, down the slope of Pursuit Pass and onto the flat land beyond. Some kind of charr construction loomed out of the darkness to their right – a fort or a camp, Vasha thought – but Roan led them past. For once, Vasha was just as eager to keep moving.

They were rounding a rocky outcrop when Frostpaw gave a bark of warning. Vasha skidded to a stop, hands reaching for her pistols – but it was the asura, Amber, who stepped out of the shadows in front of them.

"You should be careful who you go chasing after in a place like Orr," she said, folding her arms. "One of us might have skewered you."

Vasha glanced behind them and wasn't surprised to see Erin appear. She was surprisingly stealthy for such a large norn, though perhaps the thief's skills had something to do with that.

Roan made neither greetings nor apologies. "Have you seen Yinn recently?"

There was a flicker of unease on Amber's face that she couldn't quite hide. "No. That's why we're here."

Erin circled the Marauders, coming to a halt at Amber's side. "We should find somewhere to talk. Somewhere safe."

"There's nowhere safe in Orr," Gull said, but she didn't argue when they left the worn, dusty path behind. A sliver of sickly moon had appeared from behind the clouds, giving them just enough light to pick their way down to the banks of an oily, sluggish river. It wasn't much of a place to make camp, Vasha thought, but at least it was deserted.

They lit no fire, as Erin thought it would attract too much attention. For several minutes, they sat in silence, chewing cold camping rations and passing round a bottle of water.

"Be careful with that," Gull said, as she handed it to Vasha. "There's not much clean water to be found in Orr."

"You sound like you're speaking from experience," Erin said, with a soft laugh.

"I am," Gull replied, but Roan cut her off before she could say any more.

"Enough cryptic warnings," he said to Amber. "We want answers."

Amber stared at him for a long time, her strange golden eyes luminous in the dim light. If it came to a battle of wills between them, Vasha didn't like to guess who would win.

"We were hired to keep Yinn's game interesting," she said finally. "Move clues or prizes around, distract teams who reached their objectives too quickly. It was tedious work, but the rest of our guild were busy with personal matters, and Yinn pays well."

"And it was supposed to be a game," Erin put in. "The way Yinn described it to us, no-one was going to get hurt."

Amber made an irritated noise. "Yinn hasn't taken that promise very seriously, as I'm sure you know. Neither have some of the other teams. There's a necromancer working alone who's particularly nasty – and then there are your allies.

"Last time I was in Rata Sum," Amber went on, with a pointed look at Vasha, "I was approached by someone who claimed to work for Marissa Valpari. He was offering considerable sums of money to any of Yinn's staff who were interested in a little... extra work."

"What kind of work?" Roan growled.

"The kind that's going to end in serious trouble. I stuck around in the city for a couple of days, but everything seemed to have gone quiet. And then, right before I left, rumours started circulating. Yinn's team was panicking; they have headquarters on the lowest level of Rata Sum and the whole place was in an uproar. Turns out Yinn has gone missing."

"I arrived the day after," Erin said, picking up the story. "It had taken Amber nearly the whole night to sort out what was going on. Some of Yinn's staff were tempted by Marissa's money. The moment Yinn arrived in Cursed Shore, to get things ready for the end of this round, he was kidnapped. That was three days ago. He's been taken south, presumably on Marissa's orders. We think they might have headed across to Graven Cay."

There was silence at this pronouncement. Kidnapped? That seemed extreme, even for Marissa – and yet it had been clear she was unhappy with Yinn. Vasha had never met anyone who was less suited to a game like this, where someone else was in control. It was no wonder Marissa had snapped.

"So you're going after him?" Gull asked.

Amber and Erin exchanged a look. "After considerable argument, yes," Amber said. "We're breaking our contract to do it, but this game is getting out of hand. It's time someone intervened."

Roan grunted. "Do you have any more people?"

Amber quickly shook her head. "We don't want the rest of the guild getting tangled up in this. It's just us – and you four, if you're willing."

Roan shrugged, which Vasha knew was an agreement. There wasn't, truthfully, any way for them to refuse. Following the rules of the game was pointless when, without Yinn, there was no game.

They slept only a few hours that night, there on the riverbank. After taking it in turns to rest, they broke camp again before dawn was more than a grey glimmer in the sky. It was Amber who led them south, through the broken and twisted lands of the Cursed Shore. Twice, they came under attack by marauding parties of Risen. The first time, Amber and Erin dispatched them with considerable skill, before anyone else could get close. The second, Roan waded into the fray, mace swinging. Vasha had a feeling he was making sure the Marauders weren't underestimated – or maybe he was just getting bored.

By noon, they'd reached a rusting iron encampment, which looked to have been built by the charr. They'd passed one other camp that morning, an even more ramshackle construction of wooden walls; Gull had looked relieved that Amber had no intention of going inside.

"I've been through once," she said, to Vasha's curious look. "The worst minstrel I've ever heard was hanging around the place. I'd rather face a hundred Risen than listen to him again."

Vasha tried to laugh, but she couldn't manage more than a croak. It wasn't just the dust of Orr, cracking her lips and drying her throat. Everything about Cursed Shore seemed to suck away joy and good humour. The longer she spent there, the more unlikely it seemed that anywhere else existed. Warm sunlight and cool grass were little more than a distant memory.

At least it was safe inside the camp, which Gull called Shank Anchorage. The place was full of Vigil soldiers, and after a few moments talking to one of them, Amber hurried back to the group.

"There's been a disturbance to the west, just where we said. It looks like Marissa's lackeys have taken Yinn that way."

"We need to move quickly," Roan said, hand on his mace. "Before it gets dark."

"There's never much daylight out here," Amber said, "but you're right. We move on in ten minutes."

Ten minutes that went far too quickly for Vasha's liking. She barely had time to rearrange the contents of her rucksack before Amber was chivvying them out of the gate and down to another gloomy riverbank. This watercourse was much wider than the river they'd camped beside, the far shore lost in a yellowish fog.

Haki squinted in that direction. "You're going to make us swim," he said flatly.

Gull slapped him on the back. "Scared of getting wet, brother?"

He glared at her. "Lead the way, sister. Whatever's living in there can eat you first."

"Quiet," Amber snapped. Before either of the norn could argue, Vasha realised what Amber had seen. A dark shape was materialising from the murk, floating silently across the dirty water. Not some hideous water creature, but a boat, with two occupants.

"Asura," Roan growled. "Looks like we're in the right place."

The boat bumped against the bank in front of them, though its passengers – who were indeed asura – didn't immediately get out. In fact, there were several seconds of confused silence, before one asura turned to the other. "They're not supposed to be here, Floxx."

Floxx? It took Vasha a moment to place the name. She'd heard one of the Nth Degree mention him, shortly before they'd met Grey; it had sounded like he was secretly providing them with hints. One of Yinn's staff, then – and perhaps one of the ones Marissa had bribed.

Indeed, before anyone else could speak, there was a rattle of stones from up the slope behind them. Vasha whirled in time to see four slender figures emerging from the mist – accompanied by a voice that very definitely belonged to Marissa Valpari.

"No need for alarm, Floxx." Marissa came closer, until Vasha could see her grubby attire – and her wide, slightly unstable grin. "We're all friends here."