Although Drin was obviously still a bit woozy from his injuries, by no means did he waste any time devouring the roasted fish, as he had been unconscious for nearly a whole day. Merse silently looked on while gathering her thoughts and debating how best to approach the topic at hand. Finally Drin placed the empty skewer to a side, took a deep careful breath, and leaned back against the cave wall.
"Out with it, then, what the devil happened last night?" Merse snapped. Drin frowned at the ground, then took a shaky breath.
"Lox found me, told me I was in for the job," Drin started hesitantly, and his eyes unfocused as he recalled the events of the prior evening. "The others were already together, waiting. We set up around Tollins Square, where them hunters I pegged had set up for the night, wagon an' all. The ones that legged it back from the Wallow were already dozin', but they had a watcher, someone who didn't go with them to the tavern. Lox and the others figured him for a tag-along, but somethin' wasn't right," Drin's eyes narrowed. "He wasn't watching the square, he was watchin' the wagon. Lox said we'd take'm quick and quiet, 'cause once he was down the others would be easy. I snuck down to the entryway, and when one of the guys tapped the watcher with an arrow, I slipped in and knifed 'im." Still gazing at the ground, Drin's eyes grew round with horror.
"That's when I saw it: the watcher's robes, under the cloak. Weren't merc wear, it was wizard robes! And not them regular ones neither, but the ones with them funny runes all around the edges! Even though me and the archer both got 'im, he shot off some spell before he croaked, but not at any of us, at the wagon." Drew drew in his legs to his chest and clutched at them. "I tried wavin' 'em off, I did! But they were already down in the square, polishing off the hunters. They thought it was easy as pie, but I told 'em somethin' wasn't right! No way an archmage plays guard for a bunch of mercs! But it was too late. We heard a crash, then..." For the first time, Drin looked directly at Merse. "They didn't have a chance, none of 'em. It just tore into them." Drin closed his eyes and began to shake. "There was so much blood..."
Merse frowned, then got up, walked over to Drin, and laid him down, covering him with the blanket. She then returned to her seat, the mention of blood nearly unsettling her stomach again, but she managed to control it. She began to analyze what Drin had told her as the boy slipped into a fitful sleep.
The Sorcery Conglomerate handled all official mage business in the eight realms, and had a reputation to uphold. Drin was right, no way they would let an archmage wander about with a party of mercs. That is, if the business was official. If it were underground work, however, black market stuff...well, what the public never knew couldn't hurt them. A giant spider, especially one of that size would be a fairly rare find, and if they already had a buyer, who knows what kind of stunts they would pull. However, even if the business wasn't legit, the Conglomerate wasn't likely to allow the death of one of its archmages to go unanswered.
If by some chance it was a rogue archmage, and not a member of the Conglomerate, it might be possible to gain some information from the Conglomerate itself, but Merse wasn't sure it would be worth the risk to go sniffing around the Conglomerate. Better to stick to the backalleys she knew until she had a better idea of what was going on, and who could help her get rid of this "curse." Whatever the case, one thing was clear: she and Drin needed to disappear...fast.
As the fog of the Pith Swamp turned a murky grey from the sunlight, Merse led a still unsteady Drin on a stable path through the bog. Of course, she gave the area where the hydra corpse lay a large berth, and carefully avoided any spider tracks. As they emerged from the mist, the two set out on the long cross-country trek to Dregsbale, the criminal capital of the nation. If any information could be bought, that was where Merse would find it.