Faceless
Faceless
"Nice work." Ferry nodded. "Drag his corpse out and dispose of it."
"Yes," she replied in a hoarse voice. She dragged the corpse effortlessly, utterly unlike an old woman who had one foot in the grave.
"My lord, do you believe what he said," Priest Shattrath asked after the old woman left. "A caravan is working with the witches under the command of the Lord of Border Town. As I recall, isn't that lord Roland Wimbledon, the fourth Prince?"
"We'll know whether it's true after we send someone to check it," Ferry said with a serious look, "but I think he has no reason to lie. As long as someone takes a look from the top of the city walls, he'll notice the actions of the refugees. If he wanted to tell a lie to exchange for the holy medicine, at least he would have made one harder to verify."
Shattrath bowed and said, "I will send people to check the situation immediately."
"Go ahead. Report to me immediately, as long as you find anything."
Ferry slowly walked to the desk and sat down, playing with the holy medicine in his hands. Those refugees had already been in the bag for him. In order to control their movement and prevent them from fleeing, after the demonic plague spread out, he commanded Dreamland Water to send some Rats to mingle into the refugees and spread the news that the church would save them. As long as the refugees could stick it for a few more days, they would not only acquire salvation of deities but also be accepted by the church. And they would also become a citizen of the king's city of the Kingdom of Graycastle. As for those Rats, most of them had already been infected with the disease. In order to exchange for the holy medicine, they would spare no efforts to follow his orders.
If that Rat was telling the truth, then those people had started to ship refugees away at least since yesterday. It seemed that they would not stop until they delivered all refugees away. This would seriously impede his plan. What was worse, they were cooperating with the witches. Ferry believed that the person among them who was able to cure the demonic plague must have been a witch.
"My lord, the corpse has been disposed of." The old woman quietly walked into the secret chamber. "Has another Fallen appeared?"
"Most probably." Ferry lowered his voice. "Maybe more than one." He paused for a moment. "There's no one else in the room. Stop wearing such an ugly disguise. It's so disgusting."
"Yes."
She bent over, and then the sounds of bones stretching and rubbing crackled over her body. She quickly became taller, her gray hair turned dark in a blink of eyes, and her wrinkled and loose skin gradually tightened and glowed with health again. Time seemed to flow backward. When she finally stretched her body again, she had turned into a beautiful young woman.
"Now much better-looking." Ferry smiled contentedly. "I remember it's... the one who was hanged at the city gate?"
"Yes, my lord," she nodded, "you spent the most time with her among the four."
"You really know...how to please me." the priest smacked his lips," But Shattrath is probably coming back soon. We don't have enough time." He fought down his lust and said, "And I need you to handle those Fallens, just like what you did before."
"Leave it to me, my lord." She bowed. "I won't let go any Fallen witch."
About 15 minutes later, Shattrath returned to the secret chamber. He cast a quick glance at the witch, and then reported to Ferry, "My lord, many refugees outside the western gate left the camp indeed. It was dim outside, so I ordered my men to walk through the camp with torches, and they found that many tents were empty. But there wasn't any flame at the dork, so we were uncertain whether the caravan was still stationed there. As for the witches..."
"No need for a further check." Ferry interrupted. "Since they dared to ship the sick refugees away, then the information from the Rat shouldn't be wrong. So there were at least two witches, one flying in the air to supervise the action, the other one clearing up the demonic plague. Especially the latter one is a great threat to my plan, so we must stop them." They were only transferring refugees outside the city at present, but if they brought the witches into the city and publicly cured the infected citizens, the "holy medicine" of the church would become a joke!"
"Then what should we do?" Shattrath asked, "Should we send the Judgement Army to catch the witches?"
Ferry shook his head. "We're in the king's city, not Holy City of Hermes. There're only around 20 soldiers of Judgement Army in the church. If we send them to catch the witches, then who'll maintain order during the distribution of the holy medicine tomorrow? Moreover, we have too few soldiers, what could they do except giving the other side a warning? Even if they're able to defeat the mercenaries, I'm afraid the witches will run away." Just because they were in the king's city, the number of Judgement Army which was responsible for protecting the church was limited to several dozens. Otherwise, thinking of such a powerful army of hundreds of soldiers owned by the church, the king would not be able to sleep well.
"Then... should we write to Holy City and ask the bishop to send over more soldiers?"
"When the Judgement Army comes, I'm afraid the refugees will be already gone." Priest Ferry responded with a sneer, "By the way, we don't need to bother the elite army of the church just to deal with a group of mercenaries. Leave it to Dreamland Water."
"Leave it to the Rats?" Shattrath was stunned.
"At least they keep a lot of Rats, so they can surround the dock in advance, and then attack the mercenaries together. How many Rats can a mercenary handle, since he wears no armor and uses only a wooden spear?"
"About two or three."
"Then they'll only be able to deal with about 200 people, while Dreamland Water can summon more than 1,000 thugs. Of course, these aggressive and violent dregs may not be able to defeat even a small team of Judgment Army. But they're enough just to kill those mercenaries without armors." Ferry stood up. "Tell my words to 'Fiercetooth' Tanis. He only has a day to summon his men, as many as possible. And then he'll attack tomorrow night. Don't tell him that there're other ways to cure the demonic plague or they're going to deal with the witches. Only tell him not to spare anyone's life. His reward will be a box of holy medicines. If he hesitates and attempts to put it off, then tell him he won't get any poppy flower and sleeping fern from me anymore."
"What about... the witches? Especially the one who can fly?"
"She can't fly forever, and the Rats won't finish fighting in a short time... In other words, their role is to attract the attention of the mercenaries." Ferry walked to the witch, stretching his hand to stroke her face. "As long as Faceless finds a chance to sneak into the camp, what'll happen is for sure."
Faceless was able to completely disguise herself as someone else as long as she touched him. Not only her appearance, but also her body shape and voice would be perfectly substituted, and this state would not be relieved by God's Stone of Retaliation. It was a perfect ability for an assassinator. For this reason, she was one of the few witches who was kept and specifically trained by the church.
"Once they realize they're unable to win, the camp will certainly fall into chaos. At that time, Faceless can guarantee that no witch is able to survive." The priest laughed.