This is unseasonably harsh weather, even for Salvar...
Having finished her business in aiding Izvilvin against Step, Alydia Ettermire had decided to push some of the things she had learned to the back of her mind and work on something far more important: finding her missing men. Out of all the people she could call on to help her pull off heists all over the world, there were four missing. Dex T. Rous from Scara Brae had gone missing nearly five months before, and her three Raiaerans, Sintta Ilya, Hyanda Lindir and Kelvar Maliaya, had vanished a month before that.
Actually, they hadn't so much vanished as decided to remain in Raiaera, despite all the danger that particular choice entailed. At least Kelvar had sent his wife and children to Corone before things got too bad; wife Vakha, daughter Alasse and son Uial had all fled to Corone almost two months before word of the Raiaeran team had dried up. They, at least, were safely housed with Paige Turner, another of Alydia's associates.
Normally she heard word from all her boys (even the girls) at least once a month. She knew how their families were doing, if they had families, and what they'd been up to. She knew that the man she had in the town up ahead, Ruka Inoga, had a young baby in the house she hadn't met yet, and that his wife and other son were doing well. She had sent notice to him that she'd be dropping by.
She wished she could skip Salvar altogether and go over the pass from Alerar directly into Raiaera, but the war-battered land of the fair Elves still kept a close watch on their darker skinned neighbors. Though it was the long way, the nation of Salvar was friendly with Alerar, and not openly hostile with Raiaera. It was the best way to go.
Alydia pulled her scarlet coat closer over her pointed ears. She had it buttoned closed in a rare move; she couldn't reach inside like that. But the sturdy cloth kept the worst of the frigid bite away from her body, and that was the important part.
The town came into view as she crested a low hill, and immediately she could tell something was wrong. She could see the glint of armor from where she was, and the soft snorts and neighs of horses told her ever more that someone, probably a stuffed shirt greedy nobleman, had come to pillage the town with his men. They would take anything of value from the people that were settled there, leave them with so little food that surviving Salvar's harshest winter in living memory would be almost impossible.
Aly's blue eyes narrowed sharply beneath the broad brim of her hat, and the gentle puffs of condensation that had marked her breath billowed out like smoke from a dragon's mouth. Whoever it was that had come here had chosen the exact wrong day to pick on one of her men and his family. She was in town, and it was her town.
She wasn't going to stand for it...even if it meant she had to literally squash a man like an insect.
There wasn't much Aly would kill for. There wasn't much WORTH killing for. But in defense of family... Nobody screwed with Aly's boys.
A ten minute jog brought the slender thief to the door of her old friend and helper, and she didn't have to see inside to hear the commotion within. Serce, Ruka's wife, was pleading with the armored grunt who had come to plunder her home.
"Please," she begged, the clear, warm voice that had made Aly feel at home a couple of times each year cracking with fear and strain. "We have a baby. We need -"
"You need to be good subjects to King Iorlan," scoffed the soldier, "and the King requires you to make certain sacrifices for your own safety." He swung the door open, arms full of Ruka's clothing and the food they had worked so hard to save for winter, stepping out into the cold...and found himself face to face with a dark-skinned Alerian. A very irate dark-skinned Alerian.
"Erm..." He looked her over. Though she was a full head shorter than him, Alydia Ettermire was nonetheless an imposing figure, with her frosty blue eye flashing from beneath her fedora, and her coat flaring out in the gusts of wind. "I'll need to see some identification, Miss..."
"Usstan," she hissed, drawing out the first syllable and then spitting out the second, "Usstan tlun S'argt Alydia Ettermire del L'Ettermire Fashka del Sreen'aur." It was her old title, Detective Alydia Ettermire of the Ettermire Police Force, but it sounded impressive, especially to an uneducated oaf whose job was to take stuff and kill whatever he was pointed at.
"You are in violation of King Rathaxea's law. Under the Codex of Salvaran Law, Book four, Chapter sixty-seven, Paragraph twelve and subsections nine through fourteen, it clearly states that no private force may invade any established settlement without a clear and present threat from outside its borders. It also states that for each day he is stationed there, a soldier may acquire no more than two meals from a family without fee. During each day the settlement is not actively being defended by force of arms, soldiers stationed there must work for the settlement in whatever way is deemed necessary. If you have not worked for this lady, you have no right to her possessions."
With that, Alydia reached out and took the things the soldier had taken from Serce, dumping them back in the relieved housewife's arms before turning back to the soldier. "I suggest," she resumed frigidly, "that you inform your comrades of the law before your lord gets in trouble for your behavior."
"I can do whatever I want here, lady," spat the soldier. "I declare you an enemy of King Iorlan Lord Rathaxea I, and you are under arrest."
He grabbed Aly's arm with an iron grip and started dragging her toward the square. The less than amused thief pulled the brim of her hat down over one eye, red lips curling down in a scowl. "Let's think this through," she began in a sinister purr. "Would you risk the alliance between Alerar and Salvar over abuse of an Alerian citizen?"
"You're on our land, and probably in the Sway's paybook," he muttered; clearly dogma to give him reason to go back to doing as he pleased. "An enemy of Salvar."
"All right. I'd hoped not to do this, but..." Alydia's hand slipped so that her fingertips brushed against the soldier's pants. In an instant, the thief was a mere wisp of darkness, out of his grip and standing in the shadows of another simple wooden house, not ten feet away.
The guard's jaw dropped, and he was about to yell something when all of a sudden everything from his waist down started tingling painfully from the bitter cold. He yowled, looking down to see himself exposed to both view and weather in all his shame, and all he could do for modesty's sake was to cover himself with his hands and run off.
"Can't do much of anything with no pants," muttered Aly, rubbing her sore wrist. She walked back to Ruka's house, letting her sensitive ears tell her the stories of other families suffering. She was greeted halfway on the dirt road by Ruka's six year old son, Gordy.
"Is there really such a law, Aunt Aly?" His bright blue eyes sparkled; Alydia always had a present for him. The Alerian smiled and bent down to ruffle the boy's hair.
"No, Gordy. Aunt Aly made it up! Just don't tell anyone. It ought to be a law. Come on."
She got him back into the little house that was warmed by a small fire, and was immediately wrapped in a tight embrace.
"Ruka...good to see you again." She grinned, and was released to smooth out her hat.
"You showed up in the nick of time...don't know what we would have done without you." Ruka had a rugged face, his light brown hair flowed down and wrapped his chin in a grizzled beard, and his brown eyes spoke much of hard work, constant vigilance, and a warm home.
"It was all I could do not to drop a boulder on him." Aly looked over the little house. There was a door at one wall, where a tiny, separate room existed for Ruka and his wife, but the cradle and Gordy's bed were in the den where they could be warmed by the cooking fire. It was a tiny, crude house, but Aly had fond memories from each visit she had ever made. "Gordy, I do have a present for you, and one for your brother...but I'll give them to you when the men are gone. We want you to keep them."
She went over to the cradle and leaned down to inspect Ruka's new arrival, who looked back up at her with his mother's soft blue eyes. "Four weeks old and just too precious." She smiled, and then straightened up, her face growing more serious.
"Expect to hear from me soon," she told her man. "Until then...stay here and protect your family. I'm not going to stand for what's happened here."
With that, she stepped out of the warm hut and into the bitterly cold world. The bottom of her coat flared out in the same wind that tossed her black hair, and the ice on the river wasn't nearly as cold as the expression on her face.
She was Alydia Ettermire.
And she was on the war path.
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