Fallen Ward (Deepwoods Saga Book 3) (13 page)

“She feels she’s the best choice to go. And she might be right. But if she goes, we’ll have to send an enforcer or two with them, otherwise it’s not safe.”

Yes, that would follow. “I’d be sent.”

“Probably.” It was the logical thing to do, after all. Still, Denney’s mouth went flat into a worried line.

It was moments like this that Rune really wished she knew how he felt for her. Because all he wanted to do was reach out and touch her, somehow. The instinct was a strong one—to touch and reassure. But he hadn’t made that clear yet. Mostly because he didn’t feel like he had a complete grasp on how to be a good man to her yet.

The conversation paused there while they both took loads of debris to the cart and carefully loaded it in. As Rune went for the next load, a question occurred to him, so he chose to work next to her so he could ask, “What else did this informant say?”

“Quite a bit, apparently. She said the market was terrible right now. People are paying high prices for food, but valuables are going low. Too much pillaged loot flooding the market.” Denney made a sour face, nose wrinkling. Rune found that particular mannerism perfectly adorable. “She also said something surprising. Apparently, the position of guildmaster for Fallen Ward is hereditary.”

Rune paused, half-bent over with a load in his hands, and cranked his head around to stare at her. He was absolutely sure he couldn’t have heard that right and had to clarify. “The guildmaster isn’t chosen in that guild, he’s born into it?”

“Seems strange, right?”

“Seems stupid.” Ridiculously stupid. Why did they even follow a tradition like that?

“She also said that no one knows who the guildmaster is, still, but that there’s more policies coming out from him. Most of them contradict each other. He must be untrained and naïve, because what he’s doing doesn’t make much sense.”

An inexperienced guildmaster? No wonder things had been so dangerously unpredictable. “So do they know what he’s hoping to do next?”

“No. She did say they stopped all work on the bridge, though.” Denney bit her bottom lip and looked uneasy. “Doesn’t that mean they gave up on it?”

“Yes.” Yes, it did, and that scared him. In fact, it terrified him, because he saw the consequences of that in a split second. His mind had been trained by Hyun Woo to see every angle of an enemy’s movements and predict which direction they would go. The bridge they had poured so much time and money and secrecy into had been abandoned. That meant that even though their assault on the Robargean cities hadn’t gone completely to plan, it had worked better than the bridge. So that was what they would do next: they would start ransacking cities whenever they were low on funds.

The market was overloaded with loot? Not for long. Rune hadn’t hung about Sylvie and Markl all this time without learning some basic trade skills. He’d bet good money that the merchants there were buying it up cheap and then shipping it to a different continent, a different city, and making a killing off of it. All of that money would come back in some form or fashion to Orin. It was just a matter of time.

And that meant…Fallen Ward’s guildmaster wouldn’t stop here. He’d do this again.

He’d do this again, and they had no way of stopping him.

Rune felt his blood flow cold. He had an instant of panic, raw and open, searing along his veins; then a wave of clarity washed over him. Rune knew precisely what needed to be done. He also knew that no one in his guild would ever suggest it.

Straightening, he half-turned, taking in the largely empty lot. His guildmates were still steadily working, and despite the harsh task they worked on, they were still jostling each other playfully and cracking bad jokes at each other. Despite the hall being ashes under his shoes, this was still home to him.

Rune might not know how to be a good man to Denney, not yet. And he was still struggling with how to be a good friend and brother to every person in this guild. But he knew how to protect. That he could do.

It was simple, really. All he had to do was return to his former occupation for a little while.

“Rune?” Denney had her head cocked to the side, brows drawn together in worry.

“I’m good,” he assured her. “I just realized there’s something I have to do tonight. Let’s get this cleared up.”

“Sure. You think we’ll be done today?”

“With the progress we’re making? We will.” They were set to start the rebuild tomorrow. They’d have to start the building without him.

ӜӜӜ

Siobhan had estimated that it would take two days to clear out their lot, but to her delighted surprise, they were done just before sunset. What little they had been able to salvage (mostly Beirly’s tools) was set aside in several crates, the rest of it carted off to the dry river bed. Almost everyone in the city was using the place as a dumping ground.

That settled, Grae took the guild, and anyone else that wanted to go, back to Converse. Siobhan made a beeline from there to their inn’s bathing room. She had soot on every part of her, including her tongue, which was disgusting, and she wanted it off.

The girls must have thought along the same lines, as Denney and Sylvie were on her heels. For that matter, she saw the men also head for the bathing chambers, so the women were not alone in this.

Chest deep in water, the soot scrubbed off, she felt human again. Siobhan sank down to her shoulders, letting her head rest against the side of the wooden barrel, and let the warm water soothe out the aches.

“Siobhan.”

She cracked open one eye to look at Sylvie, who was in the next barrel over. “Yes?”

“I just thought of something I want in the new hall. Can I add it in?”

“If you can sneak it past Beirly.” Which would be a tall order at the moment. The man had become quite possessive of his floor plans. “And any changes you want done need to be in there tonight. Once we start building tomorrow, we can’t change anything else.” For the simple reason that she had to hand in a budget to Darrens and stick to it.

“I figured I should speak up now, as I’ll be leaving with Markl in two days.”

Siobhan hadn’t been a part of that argument. She was just as glad she skipped it, too, as it had taken a full day for the couple to come to an agreement. “How did you convince him?”

“We settled on a disguise.” Sylvie had a strange smirk playing around her lips.

“Disguise?” Denney repeated, amused.

“According to him, a tater sack and an ugly wig wouldn’t be enough to really cover my beauty,” Sylvie’s roll of the eyes adequately said how much she enjoyed that backhanded compliment, “but that it would suffice to keep the worst of the men away from me. So he finally relented and agreed I could go with him.”

A disguise, was it? Well, Siobhan had to admit it was a good notion. She might have Sylvie do that again if the situation looked dangerous enough. “Did you decide on which enforcer would go with you?”

“Rune. He’s the most logical choice, after all. And it’ll save us serious traveling time.”

In her shoes, that was who Siobhan would choose, too.

A knock rattled the door before Wolf’s voice rumbled through the wood. “Siobhan. You in there?”

Siobhan flinched in reaction, instinct sending her deeper into the tub, even though he couldn’t see her through the solid wood door. “I am,” she called back with a note of panic in her voice. “Perfectly naked, I might add.”

“I won’t enter,” he assured her, sounding amused. “Don’t panic, woman, I know better than to step in there.”

“Wise man.” Sylvie darted her a look that said she had once again overreacted. Siobhan made a face at her.

“I’m looking for Rune. Did he mention going anywhere to you?”

Puzzled, Siobhan responded, “No. You can’t find him anywhere?”

“I’ve looked high and low and can’t locate him.”

“He said he had something to do,” Denney piped up. “He mentioned it to me this morning, although he didn’t tell me what.”

“Maybe he wanted to finish some task in Goldschmidt?” Rune had been the only one not to come back with them. Siobhan hadn’t worried about it, as he was perfectly capable of beating up anyone dumb enough to pick a fight and make his own way back.

“The sun’s set and he’s still not back.”

The sun had already set? Just how long had she been in here? Frowning, she shifted to her knees, the water sloshing in all directions. She now understood why Wolf was a little concerned. Rune should have been back by now. The paths would be impossible to use in the dark, after all.

“Did you check with the gate guards?”

“No. I’ll do that.”

“Do. Then let me know.” Either way, it was impossible for her to relax now. She threw a leg over the side and climbed out of the barrel, reaching for a towel.

Denney moved as she did, also reaching for a towel, an odd expression on her face.

That look of mixed suspicion and worry made Siobhan stop dead, only half into her pants. “Denney? Something you forgot to mention?”

“When Rune said there was something he had to do,” she said slowly, as if working through the idea aloud, “it was right after I told him about Fallen Ward. He had this look on his face like he was planning something.”

Siobhan had this uneasy pit developing in her stomach. “Denney, recite exactly what you were saying.”

“Well, I was basically repeating what Markl told Sylvie and me. About how bad the market was over there, and how Fallen Ward’s guildmaster was a hereditary position, and they stopped working on the bridge, and none of the new statements by the guildmaster were making much sense.”

“And then?”

Denney gave a helpless shrug. “And then Rune said he just realized he had to go and do something. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but…what could he possibly have to do that the whole guild wouldn’t know about?”

Not a blessed thing that Siobhan could think of. But when she put his words into context, it made that uneasy pit turn into a yawning abyss. She just didn’t completely understand why this fear had seized her. It was instinct that said her adopted brother was going to do something very dangerous.

Taken with a new sense of urgency, she threw on her clean clothes, bundled up the dirty ones under her arm, and took off for the main room. By the time she made it out, Tran and Wolf were waiting at the entrance of the hallway.

Tran said without prompting, “He didn’t come through the gate.”

Siobhan started swearing aloud, not caring who heard her.

“Did he fall into some sort of trouble?” Wolf apparently realized from her reaction that she had a good guess what their boy had gotten into.

“No, I think he went looking for it.” This was still theory on her part, and she needed validation. “Where is Hyun Woo or Ryu Jin Ho?”

“Ryu Jin Ho is in the inn across the street,” Tran answered promptly, jerking a thumb that direction. “I just saw him go in.”

“Siobhan,” Wolf said in exasperation, growing impatient at her lack of response to his question.

“Wait. I need to verify something first.” Pushing her dirty clothes into Tran’s hands—he was surprised enough by this that he fumbled and almost dropped them—she slipped in between the two men and headed straight for the door.

The inn across the street was just as crowded as her own, and it took her several moments before she spotted Ryu Jin Ho in a back corner of the room. He had several men and women sitting with him, and the discussion was a lively one, from the looks of it. Siobhan would have felt bad interrupting them if the situation wasn’t so important.

Aware that she had Wolf on her heels, she didn’t slow her pace or try to keep him close. She just went directly to Ryu Jin Ho’s side. He looked up in mild surprise to see her, rising out of his chair on instinct.

“Siobhan-jia. Something is amiss?”

“I don’t know. That’s the problem.” Her appearance alone probably told him this wasn’t a casual visit. After all, her hair was still dripping wet and tangled around her head. Taking a breath, she tried to order her thoughts and suspicions well enough to voice a question. “Ryu Jin Ho-zhi. I need you to think like a strategist for a moment. If someone were to tell you about the situation in Fallen Ward, all the facts that we heard yesterday, what would you do?”

Ryu Jin Ho’s dark eyes focused on her face in a penetrating way. “Is this question purely academic?”

“No. Rune is missing and we don’t know where he went. I suspect it has something to do with what he learned this morning, which was all about the condition of Fallen Ward.”

“So what you are truly asking me is, if I were Rune, and I learned all of that, what would I do?”

“Yes. You’re both students of Hyun Woo. Knowing strategy as you do, knowing Rune’s skills, what do you predict he will do?”

Ryu Jin Ho didn’t even think about it for a full second before he answered her. “Assassinate the guildmaster of Fallen Ward.”

The table fell into shocked silence. Wolf just groaned, the sound guttural with frustration and a resigned acceptance. Siobhan felt like she had just been punched hard in the gut. She was surprised by this answer and yet not at all at the same time.

“You’re not surprised.” Ryu Jin Ho said quietly.

“No,” she sighed, closing her eyes in a fatalistic resignation. “Rune’s first instinct when something troubles him is to kill it first and send flowers later.”

“I think this time, his reasoning is sound. If he is truly going to Coravine, then it is because he has realized what Hyun Woo-zhi and I have. The guildmaster of Fallen Ward is an unpredictable and rash adversary. His recent tactic of ransacking the cities did not wholly succeed, but they did not wholly fail either, and he profited greatly from it. He will likely try this again, especially since he has decided to no longer pursue building the bridge. But if he chooses to keep doing this, we will be hard pressed to stop him. We will always be on the defensive, never knowing who he will attack next. It is a poor strategic position to place ourselves in.”

Yes, she understood all of that, but… “So what do we do? Just assassinate the man?”

“That is one of two options, yes. The other would be to raise an army of our own and march against him, destroying him so utterly that he cannot attempt this again. Which would you prefer, Siobhan-jia? The death of thousands or the death of one?”