The Guardsmen made very productive use of the time spent waiting for the medic to arrive and the time he needed to examine the body. First and foremost, they thoroughly searched both the courier’s office and the basement. Unfortunately, before his death, the local agent had behaved in an almost textbook manner – apart from the encrypted logbook, he had destroyed all documents and important items. Other than items related to the courier’s work and everyday life, they found nothing of significance.
The second matter they addressed was the tunnel, which, as it turned out, led almost right up to the barrier surrounding the city. The entrance to the passage was well concealed and protected by several spells. They quite easily found traces of blood on the floor and walls there, so it wasn’t too difficult to deduce that this was the route the dead Guard had taken to reach the underground. Essentially, the sheer volume of blood pointed to an almost monstrous haemorrhage, and it was hard to believe that anyone could have mustered the willpower to cover such a distance, let alone professionally prepare a hiding place for their own death.
The surgeon was also impressed, but unlike Darius, he was struck not by the victim’s willpower, but by the injuries inflicted upon him. The cuts were obvious, and everyone suspected them to be the direct cause of death, or rather the profuse bleeding that followed as a result. However, Oxern surprised them by removing the dressings from the hand and revealing strange changes to the skin. It looked as though in places it had sagged, with nothing to hold it in place. The medic cautiously tried to move it and nearly jumped back when the flesh beneath the deformity rippled, turning a pulsating purple, the skin swelling like an abscess, before fading again a moment later.
‘A curse,’ said Shehed, taking off his gloves with undisguised revulsion and flinging them aside. ‘Or perhaps several. It doesn’t look good, and it must have been even worse when he was alive.’
The medic took a pair of thick gloves
