Characters: Maladict, Polly
Rating: A

Disclaimer: The author makes no claim to owning the rights of anything to do with Terry Pratchett or Discworld.

The Watcher
by Amazon Syren

     Someone was watching her.     
     Well, that was no surprise. Everyone in the wretched little inn was watching her. But someone seemed to be paying more attention than the rest.     
     She hoped it was because of the sword. It tended to get a lot of attention, and she was rather fervently hoping it would distract people from the other sword... The one she didn't have.
     "You sure you've come to the right place, sir?"
     Sir! The enormous sergeant hadn't seen through the ruse!
     "Yes, sergeant. I wish to enlist."
     That had been the beginning.
     She'd stopped the repulsive little landlord from picking on the Igor — or was it Igorina? Her nose was arguing with itself about that — and the soldier beside her had said that the barkeep wouldn't be any more trouble...
     There was no question that the willowy private was female. Oh, she'd cut her hair ‘til it was no more than a few downy curls plastered to her head, and she moved like a gangly boy not yet used to the man's body he'd developed, but vampires have good noses, and the ill-fitting baggy clothes were definitely hiding a woman's body.
     Definitely. She couldn't have smelled any more female if she'd been pregnant like the poor girl at the recruiting table behind them. To be honest, it was making her slightly dizzy, like that time five years ago when she'd taken the blood of a man who'd had too much wine...
     She'd given the young woman a thoughtful look and asked her how she knew that the barkeep would behave himself. She'd known, of course, because after two hundred years, one tends to pick up these things. But this was a— a child of nineteen! And she could read people that well.
     Hm...
     Maladict, for that was the name she'd given to the recruiting officers, wondered if the watchful young private knew about the other women in the squad, and how long it would take her to find out about them, if she didn't know already.
     She'd have to keep an eye on this one, she decided. She was already too fascinating to ignore.