Deepwoods (Book 1) (25 page)

“Markl,” she said kindly, “I know you’re not at fault in
this so you’re not in trouble. Be forewarned, however, that this usually
happens if you are around these two. If they start arguing, just walk away.
Otherwise you’ll get drawn into the fight.”

“Ahhh…” he slowly released Tran and stepped back. “Right.”

Still with that sweet smile on her face, she turned to the
other two. “Now. It’s clear to me that if you have the energy to fight over how
to pronounce a
word
, then you need something to do.”

“How did you know what we were fighting about?” Tran
questioned slowly, eyes suspicious.

She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a
self-righteous look. “I was learning the finer art of skulking. I overheard
you.”

All three men gave her an incredulous look before their eyes
darted to the ceiling.

Rune popped up behind her and waggled his fingers in a
little wave at them.

“Ah,” Wolf grunted. “I should have guessed. He’s corrupting
you.”

“Corrupti’n’s an awful word,” Rune mourned with
mock-innocence. “I’m teachi’n her!”

Wolf rolled his eyes.

Siobhan cleared her throat to get their attention back.
“Regardless of how I learned it, the matter stands. We are not going to cause
our hosts trouble, we are
not
going to destroy their furniture, and I
will not stand for further fighting on these grounds. Clear? Good. Now, Wolf
and Tran, you need to find something to do that doesn’t involve each other’s
company.”

With nods and sighs, they complied and filed out of the
room, going in different directions once they hit the hallway. Hopefully they
stayed away from each other for the rest of the day.

Siobhan had to admit that this skulking thing had
advantages. “Rune, let’s go back up.”

He brightened perceptibly. “It’s fun, ain’t it?”

Yes, it surprisingly was.

While Iron Dragain had a very nice complex, and the members
here went out of their way to be hospitable, Siobhan could hardly stay on their
grounds day in and day out without risking her sanity. What she had left of it,
anyway. She tried to find other things to do, but packing for the trip hadn’t
taken more than a few minutes. After picking up and setting down the same book
three times, sharpening her swords, and picking at a mid-morning snack, she
finally gave up. Maybe a good stroll around the city would help.

Walking around and doing some sightseeing appealed to her,
but she knew good and well that this place was a labyrinth. She in no way
wanted to stay lost for the rest of the day, or worse, wander into the wrong
part of town alone. No, better to have a guide.

Leaning back in her chair, she called to the ceiling,
“Rune?”

No answer.

Hmm, now that was strange. Since Fei had taken Rune under
his wing, Rune had been up in the rafters nearly nonstop. Perhaps he was spying
on someone else instead of her for a change? Come to think of it, she didn’t
know how much time he spent on any one person before moving on. He seemed to
know what everyone was up to, but he couldn’t possibly do that without
splitting his time among them.

With a scrape of the chair, she left the table and walked
out into the hallway, calling to the ceiling as she went. “Rune? Rune! How
strange, where did he get off to? Sound carries up there quite well, he usually
hears me. Rune!”

Two women passing by gave her strange looks. Siobhan managed
an embarrassed smile and rubbed at the back of her neck. Oh, right. This would
look strange to anyone else, her calling a person’s name to a blank ceiling.
Come to think of it, should she be advertising that Rune spent his time up
above everyone’s heads? Hmmm.

At that moment, Sylvie rounded the corner at a dead run,
spied her, and relief washed over her face. “Siobhan! Oh thank the stars,
quick, come stop them!”

“Stop who?” she demanded, reflex kicking in so that she
automatically ran forward.

“Rune and a few men from Iron Dragain,” Sylvie explained
quickly.

“Rune? Why?”

“I don’t know!” Sylvie practically wailed. “I was just
walking by and saw one of Iron Dragain’s men—Kark? Kirk? Something like
that—take a swing at Rune. Of course, Rune dodged it, but right now he’s up
against three of them!”

No matter how good a fighter he was, those were steep odds.
“Where?”

“Dead ahead, take two lefts, it will dump you into the right
courtyard,” Sylvie rapidly instructed.

Siobhan lengthened her stride, quickly leaving Sylvie
behind, as the other woman wasn’t a particularly fast runner. She followed the
directions to the letter and skidded to a halt just inside the doorway that led
out into the courtyard.

If she hadn’t stopped, she’d have lost her head.

She took in the sight with open dismay and a sick sensation
twisting her gut. Hadn’t Sylvie said three?! She counted a good half-dozen men
in there now, all trying to tear a strip off of Rune’s hide. The former
assassin was dodging and weaving, focusing so totally on defense that he barely
got any strikes in himself. She could tell from the controlled way his fists
moved that he was taking care to
not
seriously injure anyone.

Great thunder and rain, just what was she supposed to do to
stop
this
? Three men might listen to her, but six guildmembers of Iron
Dragain would not heed the words of a Robargean guildmaster. At the same time,
she didn’t want to go hunt down one of the officers of the guild, either, for
fear that the situation would abruptly become worse the moment her eyes left
them.

From another doorway, on the left side of the courtyard,
Wolf and Fei appeared. They took in the scene with its grunts, curses, and
flash of weapons with open surprise, but then a devilish smile came over Wolf’s
face. He said something to Fei, which made Fei shake his head in resignation,
before Wolf jumped off the porch and onto the paving stones. With a whoop, he
punched the nearest man, sending him flying, then dodged and weaved until he
came to Rune’s back.

Siobhan, all set to protest this, stopped mid-step at the look
on Rune’s face. He was…not just amazed that Wolf had come to fight at his side,
but touched by it as well. For the first time that she had known him, he gave a
genuine smile. Then with a whoop of his own, he started fighting in earnest and
actually doing damage to people.

She hesitated. While fighting with the men of one’s hosting
guildmaster was wrong—very wrong—she instinctively felt that this was an
important moment. Trust between those two was building in front of her eyes.
With every punch, every opponent knocked down, they were learning how to fight
with each other, how to coordinate their attacks. That experience would be
invaluable in the future, she knew that for a fact.

Didn’t change the fact that fighting with their hosts was
wrong, though.

“Two minutes,” she promised herself in an undertone. “I’ll
give them two more minutes. Then I step in and stop them. Somehow.”

Sylvie slid to a stop beside her, took in the raging fight,
and groaned. “Oh no. When did Wolf join in? And Fei?!”

“Fei?” Siobhan repeated, eyes darting about madly to spot
him. Oh heavens, Sylvie was right, he had joined in at some point and she
hadn’t noticed. Even now he was slowly maneuvering his way to fight with Wolf
and Rune. “Oh for the love of—! He’s supposed to be the
sensible
one!
Why did he…arghhhh.”

“Well, granted, they are outnumbered otherwise,” Sylvie
reasoned in a remarkably cool way.

“It’s Wolf out there,” Siobhan protested. “No they’re not!”

“Ooooh, I’ve never seen Rune fight before. He’s quite good,
isn’t he? I’d say on par with either Wolf or Tran.” Sylvie leaned in, watching
every move with keen eyes. “If we had him fight Wolf or Tran, I wonder what
would happen?”

“The furniture wouldn’t survive, that’s what would happen,”
she groaned. As it was, she wasn’t sure the courtyard would survive under this
madness. So far, the men had managed to trample every flower, bush, and the
single bench that had been out here.

The question of how she would stop the fight resolved itself
very quickly once Fei started fighting. Within minutes, the Iron Dragain
members were down, most of them sporting nothing more than a broken bone or
three with enough bruises to resemble a patchwork quilt. Since they were all
still conscious, Siobhan took advantage of the situation and stalked into the
middle of them, glaring about as she did so. Seeing the bloody lip on Rune’s
face, the minor cuts on his chest and arms, made her vision go red and the calm
speech she’d prepared in her head disappeared in a puff of smoke. Instead her
voice rose to a loud, thundering roar.

“WHAT IN THE FOUR WINDS DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?!”

Every man there flinched, at the sheer volume of her voice,
if nothing else. She spun on her heel with a snarl, lip curled in a menacing
baring of teeth. “We are Jarnsmor’s guests. We are here on Blackstone’s behalf.
How dare you attack one of my own?!”

One of the men—she didn’t recognize him, especially since he
was holding his bloody nose—spoke up in a surly manner. “He’s not one of yours.
He’s Silent Order. We know him.”

“He
was
Silent Order,” she corrected sharply, the
words snapping like a whip. “He’s now Deepwoods.”

“He’s an assassin and a thief,” someone else said from
behind her. She whirled around to face him, feeling blood roar to her head. The
man met her eyes unflinchingly. “We won’t have him here.”

“You won’t have him here,” she repeated with lethal calm.
“Even though your guildmaster said differently? Oh? You didn’t think Jarnsmor
knew about him? But he did. We discussed it, he and I, and Rune is here because
I vouched for him. He obviously didn’t want trouble, he’s been avoiding all
contact with your guild from the first day. Wind and stars, but even when you
deliberately pick on him, he doesn’t retaliate!  So what did you think you were
doing, dragging him out here and buying a fight that he didn’t want to sell?”

None of them could quite meet her eyes after that. She
huffed out a disgusted breath and pointed sharply for the door. “Go. Go! Before
I change my mind and finish what my men left.”

With grunts of pain and mutterings, they gathered themselves
up and limped away. Siobhan took in a deep breath, trying to calm herself. One
breath didn’t cut it, so she took in another, then another. It didn’t
noticeably calm her heart any, but it did give her the appearance of control at
least. Turning to Rune, she asked, “How badly are you hurt?”

He didn’t answer immediately, just stared at her with
weighing eyes for a long moment. “Ya vouched for me?”

Patience. She took in another breath. “Rune, do you honestly
think that Jarnsmor would have let you walk through his doors without someone
speaking on your behalf?”

At that, he really seemed lost for words.

“Think about it later, Rune-xian,” Fei advised. “Answer us
first. Are you hurt badly anywhere, or is it just what we see?”

“Just what ya see,” he slowly answered, eyes studying their
faces in turn as if wondering what they truly thought.

Well enough. Although she’d still drag him to Conli in a
moment for treatment. “And you, Wolf? Fei?”

“Fine,” Wolf assured her, pleased with the fight. “Got my
blood pumping.”

Fei shrugged, one hand splayed that indicated he was fine,
although she noticed he had a neat slice along one leg that needed tending to.

“What were you two thinking, anyway, by jumping in like
that?” Although a part of her was glad they had, there
were
better ways
to handle the situation. She might not have the lung power to shout down a
group of fighting men but Wolf certainly did. For that matter, Fei had become
an expert on breaking up brawls after years of dealing with Wolf and Tran. He
could have stopped it if he wanted to.

Wolf drew himself up in a dignified manner. “Real friends
don’t let friends do stupid things alone.”

She closed her eyes, pained. “Why does that sound ridiculously
logical coming out of your mouth?”

“He needed help,” Fei justified himself.

Why had she even bothered to ask? “Oh, never mind. You three
go see Conli and get patched up. I need to hunt down Jarnsmor and tell him what
happened.” Before some garbled version reached his ears. “Sylvie, escort them
there. Do not allow detours.”

Sylvie gave her a half-bow of acknowledgement before
grabbing Wolf by the arm and towing him along. The other two—one pleased, the
other bewildered—trailed in her wake. As they went, she could hear Fei ask Rune
exactly how everything had started (which was a question she wanted an answer
to) but she let them go off alone. She’d get the full version later.

And to think, she had complained about being bored and
restless earlier.

ӜӜӜ

She found Jarnsmor in his study, and sat at the paper-buried
table to report what had happened. Jarnsmor heard her out with a pained frown,
and he kept pinching at the bridge of his nose as if fighting off a headache.
When she finished, he let out a low breath. “Guildmaster Maley, my apologies. I
had made it clear to everyone that you and your people should be treated with
all due courtesy. I
thought
I had made it clear, at least.”

“I know you did,” she assured him, more out of sympathy than
politeness. “But I also know that you always have a few members in a guild that
are stubborn and rock-headed who do things their own way. Fortunately, it was
all just bruises and minor cuts from this fight with no real damage. Hopefully
we can avoid any conflict in the future.”

A hard look came into his eyes. “I will talk with them
personally.”

She almost felt pity for those poor idiots in that moment.
Almost. “I must ask, however, just how bad is the blood between Iron Dragain
and Silent Order that they felt so compelled to fight Rune?”

“Bad,” he admitted with splayed palms. “Silent Order has
existed almost as long as Iron Dragain and we’ve been constantly fighting each
other for as long as anyone can remember. Once in a while, we work out a treaty
of sorts with them so that they don’t attack our people or allies, which lasts
for a few years. When I first became guildmaster, there was such an agreement
in place that almost lasted a full decade. But Silent Order doesn’t keep the
same guildmaster for long—too much infighting, belike—and our understandings
with them only last until the next man takes over. Worse, every time they
change guildmasters, the whole city feels the aftermath, like a tidal wave
sweeping the streets. It’s like the new guildmaster has to prove himself to be
more ruthless than the former one. He flexes his power, demonstrating it for
several months before things steady out again.”