01 A Murder in Marienburg

Author:David Bishop
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

RAUFBOLD SLIPPED OUT of the station as soon as he heard the commander was on the premises. He had little fear of that old toad, but recognised the unexpected visitation as an opportunity. Raufbold knew the commander’s presence would keep the rest of the Black Caps in the station busy and distracted, enabling him to satisfy a growing craving.

He hadn’t had a proper chance to savour the sweet, burning taste of crimson shade in his lungs since being posted to Three Penny Bridge. Sure, he’d helped himself to the drugs he had confiscated from a minor offender, but that was low quality crimson shade. Now that old, familiar need was starting to make its presence felt. His hands always gave the first sign, fingers trembling as if they were afraid. Next came the sweats, a thin sheen of nervous perspiration appearing across his skin until it soaked through his clothing. Left unanswered, the cravings would cause cramps in his stomach, blur his vision and shorten his already brief temper. Finally pain and delirium would overtake him, until he was ready to slaughter anyone who got in his way, butcher anybody who had the means to fund his habit. Raufbold had encountered a few crimson shade addicts suffering withdrawal symptoms during his time as a Black Cap - wretched creatures, beneath contempt or pity, the lowest of the low. He had no intention of going the same way.

Raufbold slunk across Three Penny Bridge to Riddra, knowing he would have little trouble finding a fresh supply of his personal daemon there. In a city where too many people survived on all manner of intoxicants, Riddra was the hub for suppliers and supplies. Opiates from Nippon were smuggled ashore here and the small island was also home to Marienburg’s most infamous drug den, the Golden Lotus Dreaming House.

If you believed the rumours, many of the city’s prominent and influential people visited the unremarkable building squatting near Three Penny Bridge to feed their filthy habits. Of course, they came after dark, and usually by boat, using a concealed entrance in a side alley. Raufbold knew better than to set foot inside the timber and stone building, even crossing the cobbled street to avoid being near it. An old wives tale said anyone who passed the front door of the Golden Lotus would become an addict, so powerful was the waft of black lotus fumes that seeped from the building.

In truth, Raufbold crossed the street simply because everyone else did. No respectable citizen walked by the Golden Lotus in daylight.

Besides, crimson shade was one of the few drugs not available within the Dreaming House. For that you had to find a dealer among those skulking along the narrow passages and alleyways that populated the shadows of Riddra. Crimson shade was extracted from leaves of the blood oak of Estalia, the foliage laboriously ground down to a paste by mortar and pestle, before being dried and desiccated. The results were sold as a fine powder that

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.