Crimson Teeth.

So their enemy had a name. Kappsi hated everything about it. The cleric's words rested in her mind like an anchor, and all she could think was that it that thing had gotten a hold of Brickle, her friend was as good as dead.

But was she? The robed figures on the dock that night had been ordinary kin, not feral creatures from a forgotten age. The hatch that led them to the Crimson Teeth had been the only way Brickle's kidnappers could have slithered off the docks undetected.

And she remembered something about that night, a detail that smacked her like a wall of ice when she recalled it. The first robed attacker that she'd ripped off of Brickle – when she'd thrown him into a wall and his hood fell, she remembered seeing the glint of crimson in the vulkin's mouth. At the time she thought it might have been blood from the impact, but now?

First the attack, and now some feral thing in the tunnels beneath Whaveloda. It was too much of a coincidence to ignore. The symbols they'd discovered in that passage were the same as the one on the pendant, the same as she'd seen tattooed on the watchguard. It was all connected somehow, in a way she couldn't yet fathom.

There is greater danger in Wildhearth than any of us realise.

Maybe the thing they'd encountered was nothing more than a guard dog, planted there to scare off inquisitive minds, keeping them away from that true danger.

"Servants of the Savage Fire," Skoppa murmured from across the room. "That's what the preacher said."

Kappsi looked up from the blizzard of construction prints that she'd strewn across the table in the dockside office. Glawrain had been gracious enough to let them use the office while they hunted for Brickle's kidnappers. It seemed the old beaverkin didn't have much faith in the local watchguards either.

"Aye, that's what he said," she grunted. "What about it?"

"So you're sure that beastie was working for the folk that snatched Brickle?"

"If it isn't I'll give up swimming for a lifetime. I think that thing was just some bloody great guard dog," she suggested. "Just there to scare folk like us off, eh?"

Skoppa frowned. "Aye, maybe. Did a pretty good job of it too."

"Aye, but if there's one thing I know about Wildhearth, it's that there's always more than one way in." She tapped a claw on the building plans. "It's in here somewhere. Those robed creeps have to have a hearth hidden away somewhere. There's gotta be another way into those tunnels."

"Well, I'm not seeing much in this mess," her brother snorted, making an irate gesture to the stacks of copper-etched map sheets he'd been given the duty of trawling through. While Kappsi focused on the original plans for the dock buildings, Skoppa had the joy of plunging into building survey records.

From the sounds of things, the surveyors hadn't been too careful with their organisation.

"Just keep looking," she told him. "Nobody just puffs off into thin air – I don't care what preacher-myth they wandered out of."

"Aye." He clicked tongue, shoulders hunching awkwardly.

"What?"

"Kappsi, I don't wanna be the one sayin' it, but if these folk snatched Brickle days ago, you really think we're gonna find her?"

"We're going to try," she snapped, fire flashing in her eyes as she glared at him. "Like she would for me. They took her for a reason. If they wanted her dead, I think we'd know by now, so we're not giving up!"

"Hey, I ain't givin' up!" Skoppa barked, tossing the sheet he'd been examining down onto the table with a clang. "I just want you t' be ready for what we might run into if we keep diggin' down this whirlpool, eh? This might not be no happy ending."

"We are going to find her and rescue here," Kappsi growled. "And if those mongrels have hurt her, we're gonna pay it back tenfold. Y'understand?!"

At that moment thumping footsteps sounded just outside the door. They sat, eyes locked for a moment, before the door banged open and Haarm marched in. Kappsi let out a frustrated huff of breath and looked back down at the prints, trying to block the worst case scenario out of her mind.

"Aye, aye, look what the waves washed in, eh?" Skoppa drawled with forced cheer, turning his attention to his twin.

Haarm shot him an irritated glance before shifting his attention to Kappsi.

"Err, sis, you got a second?" he asked, sounding rather queasy.

She looked up sharply, his tone instantly filling her with unease. "What is it?"

"I was doin' a little diggin' around with some of the other dockers, just tryna see if anybody outside Whaveloda's seen anythin' like what we saw." Her brother raised a folded bundle of barkpaper in one paw. "One of my mates runs a little bulletin mag out in Denneke – kinda messy ragsheet, but they ran something you might wanna take a look at."

"Okay." She beckoned him over, feel her stomach flip with anticipation.

"Looks like we aren't the only ones having some ... trouble with Crimson Teeth." He shuffled forward and gingerly placed the barkpaper down on the table in front of her.

Kappsi looked down at it and swallowed hard. Wildhearth was infested by bulletin magazines – short leaflets that claimed to give the best local news. The quality varied wildly from district to district, but they did sometimes find things missed (or omitted) by the official citywide announcements that were pushed through the filter of the Conclave of Accord.

This particular bulletin mag had a grainy picture of a very, very dead body. She didn't know the Denneke District well beyond its canals and docks, but she didn't need to in order to realise what she was looking at.

"Peace and Fire," she murmured.

Skoppa looked up from his maps again and stepped around the table to join them. Leaning in over her shoulder, he let out a grim whistle.

"What in the Fire happened to him?"

"Look at the symbols," Kappsi said, her voice small as she tapped the images on the paper.

The shot had been taken from a distance, evidently from a concealed vantage point to avoid the watchguard cordon the could be seen lower in the frame. Despite that, and the dodgy resolution, there was no mistaking the double triangle glyph that was becoming worryingly familiar to her, this one painted to the top right of the unfortunate soul in the centre. The details of what had been done to the body were thankfully hard to make out.

"Same signs we saw in that tunnel," Haarm continued. "And I heard there was another in Gjornharr down in one of the sluiceways. Nothin' official about it, but word travels."

"And there's nothing on the announcements about it?!" She looked around at him in disbelief.

He shrugged. "Looks like the wolves and our watchguard friends are tryna keep things under rocks for now."

"Well ain't that just great," Skoppa scoffed, digging both paws through his headfur in frustration. "So this is what's happenin' to the people those creeps are snatchin'?!"

"Gjornharr, Whaveloda, Denneke and Peace-only-knows where else." Kappsi clasped her paws together, examining the papers grimly. She scrabbled around until she dug free a map of the city from the jumble. It was a simple one that only marked out the districts and major landmarks, but enough for her to draw a quick conclusion.

"Must be more of them than we thought," she mused. "And they gotta be getting around faster than just running through tunnels. Quite a trek from here out to Gjornharr on your paws."

"Y'could get around quick on the canals, 'specially the outer districts," Haarm offered. "And we got one of the biggest dockyards in the city right in our back yard. Busy nights, folk probably ain't askin' as many questions as they should be after dark, eh?"

"Bloody fangs and Fire!" Kappsi blurted, sitting bolt upright at his words. Her paws clenched into fists and she squeezed her eyes shut, dragging her mind back to that night; back before the attack. She'd seen something else that didn't belong.

Or more importantly, someone.

"You alright there, sis?" Skoppa ventured.

"I think I know where to look next," she replied, standing up. Her eyes snapped open and she kicked the chair aside as she rounded on the twins. A thin smile crossed her face. "How d'you two feel about a stake out at the docks?"

***

It was their third night watching the docks when the storm arrived.

Sheets of water crashed off of buildings and thunder boomed in the sky behind the crackle of lightning. In Wildhearth's pulsing centre awnings unfurled and great tents sprang up in the entertainment districts to protect revellers from the deluge. Further out kin hunkered down in doors, while flood patrols braved the weather to check drainage channels and overflow ramps. Most of the dockyards fell quiet, the canal waters chopping violently with surging winds.

The gushing rain might have bothered some, but Kappsi welcomed it. She was as at home in water as on land, but it also served to conceal her from prying eyes. The batter of raindrops on the canalbank made sure no-one could hear them as she slunk along the Whaveloda docks with her brothers in tow. They crept through the soaking night until they reached the stretch of dank, dim-lit jetties that, in daytime, would be bustling with passenger ferries.

As soon as Haarm had suggested moving around through the canals, the memory had smacked her in the face like a wet fish. She seethed at not having made the connection sooner. The otterkin barge-master they'd seen that night had instantly put ice in her blood at the sight of him, and she knew he wasn't a regular visitor to her docks.

It was a leap, admittedly, but if the robed kidnappers were using the canals to get around, they would need willing captains to ferry them from place to place. He certainly looked like someone who wouldn't ask too many questions as long as they greased his paw with enough barkstamps.

The trio hunkered down in a shadowed alcove, surrounded by several barrels and crates waiting to be loaded in the morning. Water splashed and smacked off the wood and the hardmud embankments, creating an echoing din in the narrow alleys. Although she could sense the growing weariness of the twins, she suspected tonight would be their night. The storm was a perfect cover.

"Sure we can't find some of the watchies to sit out like this?" Skoppa grumbled. "If I'm gonna get wet I'd rather be swimmin' than sittin'."

Haarm scoffed softly. "Aye, find any dogs who'd be happy sittin' out in this. And they'd even get paid."

"You mean we're not?"

"Guess that's up to little sister, eh?"

"I'll stand you the next orders of chowder at Loffe's," she offered with a faint smirk. "That's about all the bank I got going for me right now."

"Guess that'll have to do."

Their conversation continued in hushed tones through the battering rain. Only a few unfortunate souls skittered back and forth along the dockside, late shift workers and administrators left to rewrite berthing and loading schedules after the storm's disruption. However, as darkness settled firmly over Wildhearth, their patience was finally rewarded.

"There!" Kappsi hissed through the rain.

The barge lumbered out of the night, steam chugging from its single stack and dim deck lights piercing the surrounding gloom. It nosed its way towards the empty jetties, the grumble of its engine just barely audible. To the untrained eye it looked like any other barge, but Kappsi recognised it – recognised how low it seemed to sit in the water, and the battered contours of its hull. Its lines were blockier than the usual passenger barges that would moor here, but it wasn't large enough to be a standard cargo carrier. An odd halfway house, it seemed, carrying an odder cargo.

They hunkered down behind the crates, watching the barge come in to moor. A pair of otterkin emerged onto the deck carrying punt poles, and promptly plunged into the churning canal waters. A moment later the ungainly barge sidled up to one jetty and another figure emerged onto the deck.

"That him?" Haarm asked quietly.

"Aye." Kappsi fixed the black-furred otterkin with a murderous gaze from her hiding place as he stepped uncaring into the downpour. The barge-herders emerged a moment later, moving to stand behind him as he scanned the docks.

"Well it's about bleedin' time," Skoppa muttered. "Looks like they're waitin' for somebody. Think they got a delivery on the way, eh?"

"Just wait." She glanced back at her brothers. "Keep your hooks handy, alright? We're gonna have to move fast once they push off again."

"Gotta say, sis, this ain't one of your best ideas," he replied, waving his boathook unenthusiastically. "You ever done this before?"

"Couple of times. Why, you gettin' cold feet?"

"Ach, shuddup."

"Both of you, shut it," Haarm cut in, nudging Kappsi and pointing further down the docks. "There's your cargo right enough."

Following his paw, she saw the smudged shapes of the robed figures come slinking from the stormdark. It took a moment for the shapes to solidify into firm outlines, but she counted four of them, lugging something between them.

Something big enough for a body.

But there was something worse.

"Aw, bloody tides, look," she groaned. "Looks like our old friend ain't just an angry tunnel runner."

Striding along behind the robed kin, was the beast they'd encountered underground. Even from this distance and with sheets of rain between them, she could tell it was the same creature, standing tall, its odd, gangly framed outlined by flashes of lightning overhead. Dark fur was plastered flat, and it bared those huge, red teeth as it snarled something to the others.

So it wasn't just a monster. It could talk. Kappsi gripped her boathook tightly.

"Easy there," Skoppa whispered, placing a steadying hand on her shoulder. "Stick to the plan, eh?"

"Right." She nodded, steeling herself. They wouldn't have long to pull this off.

The robed kin dragged their burden to the jetty where the otterkin barge-master waited. He motioned them inside impatiently, his gaze constantly darting from left to right, hunting for interlopers. Kappsi stayed very still, watched, and waited. The thing from the tunnels walked down the jetty with the rangy stride of a predator.

To her shock, the otterkin and Crimson Teeth shook paws. Then the barge-master ushered his companion into the vessel. Crimson Teeth dipped its big, feral head and disappeared inside, followed a moment later by the otterkin.

Kappsi tensed to spring.

The two barge herders dove back into the water, and the narrow-boat began easing away from its mooring.

"Now or never," she grated. "Let's do it."

"Hope the Peace is watchin' over this little venture," Haarm grunted as they scampered out of their refuge.

They stayed low, moving swift and silent along the embankment to follow the direction of the barge. It traversed back, its engine rumbling into life as it swung its bulk eastward, and Kappsi had to admit a flash of admiration for the vessel's handlers as it settled into the stormy canal waters with the ease of experience.

Holding their long boathooks tight, Kappsi, Skoppa and Haarm got as close to the embankment as they dared, waiting for the two barge-herders to return to their vessel. After a moment the pair of them emerged, clambering up paw-holds on either side of the dented hull and diving gratefully back into the relative warmth of the interior.

"Now!"

Kappsi didn't give herself a chance to second guess how crazy this plan might be, she simply acted, sprinting along the dockside to keep pace with the craft as it gathered steam. To their enormous credit, the twins didn't hesitate, following her as she twisted to the right and pelted down the nearest jetty. Gathering her breath, she took a flying leap out into the canal, diving straight into the churning water.

She felt the vibrations in the water as Skoppa and Haarm arrived hot on her heels, but there wasn't time to stop and look back. As swimmers they were just as powerful and experienced as she was – now she just had to trust them as she kicked out hard, propelling her lithe, sleek body through the storm swells. The black mass of the barge rushed towards her and she eased herself towards the surface.

The barge was starting to pick up speed. They only had a few more seconds.

Gritting her teeth, Kappsi pushed herself as fast as her body would go, breaking the surface to glimpse a line of pawholds amidships. The boathook rose in one paw and she surged towards the barge, reaching out.

Clunk.

The hook bit into one of the holds. For a gut-wrenching instant it scraped and shifted, before the point found purchase and locked in place. She clung on tight to steady herself against the swell and crash of the water, trying to avoid getting smashed into the hull. Another clunk sounded from further back and she looked behind her to see Skoppa hooked on at the rear ladder.

Worry swelled in her gut when Haarm didn't appear. Seconds banged by in her head and Kappsi started to look around frantically. Just as she gathered the breath to yell out, the sound of another hook latching into place echoed dully from up ahead.

Contorting her body to look forward, she found herself looking at Haarm, her brother grinning breathlessly as he hung from the forward pawholds. He even had the energy to wave at her. Kappsi laughed; got a mouthful of water for the trouble and spluttered in annoyance. Clamping her jaws shut, she wrapped both paws around the boathook and let herself ride half-submerged in the water. The twins followed suit, and they settled in for what was likely to be a long, arduous journey.

And so the barge chugged on through the storm, unaware that it was carrying three new passengers.