A sneak peek at RuneScape's Return to Canifis novel pg4
"How long have you known?" he demanded. "Since we made the agreement." Barbec looked to Leander once, and licked his lips uncertainly. "Leander wanted to sell you to the Kinshra, but I thought we should first see the treasure." His eyes fell on the box. "What's in there anyhow?" Sulla laughed. "These parchments contain important information, but they are written in an old Kinshra code, and only I can decipher them." He turned to face the men, who still clustered away from the werewolf. "For now that is all you need to know. Now, get the horses ready!" The men moved to obey, while Jerrod reached for Leander. As he did so, the thief drew a knife in trembling hands, and found his tongue.
"It hurts!" he gasped, dropping his knife as Jerrod dragged him a short distance away. "As I knew it would," Sulla said gleefully. "Alas, it is a temporary poison that only lasts a single day. An old woman prepared it for me when I was still part of the Kinshra knighthood." Briefly, he wondered what had become of the sybil who had served him so well, but swiftly he shook off such sentiment. He crouched and moved in close to the thief, nodding in the direction of the knife that lay on the ground. "That is the easiest way to end your pain, my duplicitous friend," he sneered.
"What is in the box?" Leander stammered. Sulla leaned down to speak privately his ear. "When I was in the Kinshra I made copies of certain secret documents. These documents contain sensitive information concerning a number of wealthy people and their organisations, from here all the way to Kandarin. In diplomacy, the Kinshra oft en have to persuade influential people to aid their cause, and blackmail has proved a most effective tool." He stood again. "Now I have that tool. And I will use it."
"The Kinshra will kill you for it!" "They would kill me anyway, if they could. Meanwhile, I can have a little fun wrecking their spy networks-for a small profit-can't I?" He looked into the distance. "I think I will start in Varrock. There is wealth there, wealth owned by people whose names appear in those documents." With that, Sulla brought his boot into Leander's chin with a sharp crack. The thief's head jerked, and he slumped into unconsciousness. "Why don't we kill him?" Jerrod whispered.
"No," Sulla said. "We need his men's loyalty, at least for now, and killing him might be too much for them to stomach. Besides..." He looked warily around him. "Lone travellers don't last long out here-especially unconscious ones." A moment later, with Jerrod's aid, Sulla clambered into a saddle. The werewolf stepped away and pulled his cloak about him, hiding his face as he returned to his human form. Once he had done so, he climbed up behind Sulla. He never rode alone-no horse would tolerate it, and he was as uncomfortable with the beasts as they were with him.
"We ride south to Varrock-if we make haste, we can be there in time for Midsummer," Sulla said. "Our destination is an estate to the east of the city. The owner has lands that range from the River Salve to the edges of the city itself. There I will send a message to an old acquaintance of mine, the leader of the Phoenix Gang." And then, as darkness fell across The Wilderness, and creatures far more terrible than Jerrod stirred, they rode south toward more civilised lands, leaving Leander the thief to his fate.
In Betrayal at Falador, Sulla was a physical threat to the heroes. Since his defeat, he can no longer be so, and so I decided to have him antagonise them from another angle – with his wits and cunning.