Chapter 15 #3
Eventually I come to a room that does look like it’s been used.
Some sort of half-bedroom, half-office. There’s a decent sized bed against one wall and a desk against the other.
A large glass window takes up most of the back wall, and there’s a half-open closet next to the desk with a mirror hanging above it.
The same pretentious art lines the walls, but a lack of feminine touches makes me think this room is just Murbank’s.
The closet is the first thing to get my attention because what do I see out in the open but a set of black robes.
A few of them. It’s hard to tell if these are the exact robes our attackers wore, but it’s a good sign, right?
Time to search the rest of the room. The bed doesn’t tell me anything, except that Murbank likes nice sheets.
The desk, however, is covered in papers.
Papers I can’t read, of course, but that doesn’t stop me from rifling through them. They don’t look official, all hand-written without any seals or emblems. From the formatting, I think they might be letters, but it’s hard to tell. Just when I’m about to go get Ragnar, something catches my eye.
This paper isn’t like the others. There’s no writing, just sketches.
Sketches of what looks like a bird’s claw.
The sheet of paper is covered in them, all in different levels of detail, some shaded in, some not, but right dead in the center in solid black, is one that is identical to the one on the burned book and Thog’s shoulder. He designed the symbol himself.
It’s hard to describe the way I’m feeling because as bad as it is to confirm this guy is behind everything terrible that’s been happening, I’m a little giddy at the thought that we finally have enough to nail him.
Even if this paper of sketches is nothing, I bet there’s plenty of incriminating details in these letters.
Gathering the papers together, I make to exit the room when a blur of green in the window stops me. Wait, Ragnar? Why is he outside, looking in the window? I hold up the stack of papers and point, but as soon as he sees me, he starts waving frantically. I don’t get it. What’s wrong?
Right on cue, a noise from the hall behind me answers my question.
Someone’s home. I turn back to the window, but Ragnar is already gone, having the good sense to hide, and I need to follow his lead, fast. Under the bed is the obvious choice, but I don’t have time to check for room, so the closet it is.
I almost forget to put the papers back, doing my best to spread them around quietly before darting into the closet and hiding in the very back, behind the heavy robes.
Not a second later, Murbank himself stomps into the room.
How did he get inside without his keys?!
From where I’m standing in the closet, I’m just able to see into the room, my body and face hopefully obscured by the clothing.
He doesn’t look happy as he grumbles to himself, and I can see a large dark splotch of something on the front of his purple robes.
Can’t make out what he’s saying, but if I had to guess, I’d go with something about having a shitty day.
He tears off the robe and throws it onto the bed, revealing a simple tan tunic and pants underneath.
When he turns to the closet, I have a minor panic attack, barely remembering to hold my breath as he rifles through the clothes hanging to my left.
Fuckfuckfuck, please don’t look over here.
I want to (but don’t) exhale in relief when he pulls out a similarly colored replacement. Then I notice his wrist.
Covering the inside of his forearm, in dark black ink, is the bird’s claw symbol.
Same as on Thog’s shoulder, same as in the book, same as the sketches on his desk.
Yes! I’m so excited I could dance, and probably will as soon as he leaves.
There’s no possible justification he could have for having that tattoo.
Now that I think about it, I’m not sure I’ve ever actually seen him out of his long-sleeved shirts and robes.
But first, I have to get out of here. I watch silently as Murbank pulls on his new robe, straightening out any wrinkles and examining himself in the mirror above the desk.
Then he pauses and gives himself a weird look.
No, he’s giving the desk a weird look. Fuck, the papers!
He reaches a hand out, examining a few and sliding them to the side. Can he tell I went through them?
He wheels around, scanning the room with eyes full of suspicion.
He looks at the bed, the desk, the window, the closet.
I swear at one point it looks like he’s staring straight at me, but a split-second later, it’s gone.
That was nothing, right? Before I have much longer to freak out, he gives the papers on the desk one final glare and exits the room.
I try to listen for when it’s safe, but I’m too terrified of exiting the room and immediately running into him because he hasn’t left the house yet. I’m just starting to contemplate climbing out the window when another person entering the room makes me freeze. At least until I see that it’s Ragnar.
“David? Are you in here?” He’s speaking at a normal volume, so I take it to mean that the coast is clear.
“Yeah, right here,” I answer as I exit the closet, breathing deeply. “What the hell happened?”
“I don’t know.” He shakes his head. “I was on the other side of the house but kept getting blocked by locked doors. I came back to check out the kitchen when I heard the front door unlocking. I ran out the back before anyone saw me. I didn’t realize it was Murbank until I watched him leave.”
“Ragnar, look.” I walk over to the desk and point out the paper with the sketches. “He has this same symbol on his wrist, same tattoo as Thog.”
His eyes go a little wide in surprise. “Shit. Well, you’re gonna want to see this too.”
Ragnar leads me out of the room and down the hall, then out the back door. It’s fairly sparse, not unlike Khazak’s parent’s backyard, except for something large and black off in one corner: a carriage, the same one that’s almost run me over twice now. No horses though.
“Is this the carriage you keep seeing?” Ragnar asks, walking over to it.
“Yeah. I mean, I think so.” I nod, stepping closer.
“That’s not all.” Ragnar points down to the tracks leading from the carriage into the back wall, the one that is part of the city’s wall.
When he sticks his hand out to touch it, it goes right through.
Another illusion. “This is how they’ve been getting in and out of the city without anyone noticing. ”
Some trial and error with our hands reveals a hole in the wall more than big enough for the carriage to pass through. The other side of the wall is heavily forested, and I’m sure the added coverage has been a help in keeping their movements a secret.
“So, what do we do now?” I ask, feeling like this is almost too good to be true. “I mean, we have more than enough proof, right?”
“We need to find Khazak and tell him everything.” He grimaces slightly after saying the name of his best friend and boss. “Hopefully, the info will be enough for him to overlook the way we found it out.”
God, I hope he’s right.
“You did what?!” Ragnar was wrong, so very, very wrong. I jump up from my chair to close the door to Khazak’s office, not wanting to risk an outburst being heard.
“Just hear us out, sir.” Ragnar has his hands out, trying to placate the angry beast sitting across the desk from him. “I know it sounds bad, but now we have actual evidence that Murbank is tied to the attacks.”
“That you gained by illegally breaking into and searching his home!” the orc captain growls. “How could you be so... Why would you steal his keys, David?!”
“I don’t know!” I squirm, his attention now squarely on me. “I just panicked when I didn’t think we were going to get any more info out of him and grabbed them.”
“What was your plan to return them?” He asks point blank, knowing full well I didn’t have one.
“Leave them someplace so he’d think he dropped them?” It’s not that unbelievable.
“And if he realized they were missing before he ever left his office?” Uhhhhhh…
“‘Man, I’m really bad about losing my keys’?” I shouldn’t have risked the joke because it only makes him angrier. “Look, I’m sorry, but he’s killed people! And he’s going to do it again! We have to do whatever it takes to stop him.”
“I understand the way you feel, but this is not the way to go about it.” He’s speaking in that ‘I’m not mad—just disappointed’ tone of voice. “What if you had been caught? What if he had come home while you were there?”
“Actually...” I really don’t wanna tell him about this part.
“What?” I think a vein on his forehead just started throbbing.
“He came home while we were in the middle of our search,” Ragnar answers for me. “But I don’t think he saw either of us. Right?”
“...Right.” Convincing no one, both sets of eyes stare at me. “Okay, there was a second where I thought he might have suspected I was in the room, but it was only a second! Then he left.”
Khazak wipes his hands down his face while muttering a curse to himself.
“That’s how I saw his tattoo!” Time to bring this back around to the good news. “The bird claw, the same one Thog had, he has it on the inside of his left wrist. All we need to do now is get everyone else to see it.”
“And what better place to do that than at the very public event he’s throwing in just a few hours?” Ragnar helps me to convince Khazak this is a good thing. “We could end this tonight, sir.”
Khazak crosses his arms, staring down at his desk in thought. “I do not like this. It feels too easy. But...I am not sure we have many other options available to us. Meeting with the Grimrock family was completely useless. They only had good things to say about Councilman Murbank.”
“So, we’re gonna do it? What’s the plan?” Forgive me for sounding a little excited.