Fallen Ward (Deepwoods Saga Book 3) (22 page)

Her soft brown eyes tightened in worry when she got a better look at him. “Rune, you’re covered in bruises.”

Rune meant to give a careless laugh but ended up groaning when sore ribs protested. “Take a note that it is never wise to upset Master Hyun Woo.”

Wolf chuckled as he idly pushed his empty plate aside. “I take it he drilled it into you that you’re not supposed to take off alone anymore.”

“Amongst other things, yes.” Rune dove into the plate of food that Denney had made up for him. She gave him larger portions this morning than he normally had, which made him think that she knew he would be starving after yesterday’s training.

Wolf cocked his head at them. “When are you going to tell Conli that the two of you are together?”

“Why?” Denney asked him. “Do you have a bet riding on us?”

Wolf snorted. “I have more than one.”

She rolled her eyes, but her lips were kicked up to one side, so she was obviously more amused by this than upset. “Why am I not surprised. As it happens, I told my uncle last night.”

Rune stopped short with his fork halfway to his mouth and creaked his head around to look at her. “When?”

“Just after dinner,” she clarified.

He quickly put a timeline of events together. Rune had come in several hours after everyone else had eaten dinner. He had spoken with Conli one-on-one just before he went to bed, when he was given that nasty cup of medicine to drink. The man had not said one word to him about Denney. Even with Rune’s narrow understanding of people, that seemed very, very strange.

Wolf hummed in satisfaction. “Then I won the bet. I knew you would tell him first and not leave it to Rune. He seemed to take it well, as he hasn’t been going for Rune’s throat.”

“I’m not sure if he’s taken it at all. When I told him, he did a lot of sighing.” Hastily, she added to Rune, “I think he trusts you. I don’t think you’re the problem. It’s more that he’s wrestling with me being courted by a man.”

Really? In Conli’s shoes, he would have a problem with him. A former assassin/Pathmaker apprentice would not make any father figure happy. Even Rune could understand that.

Softly, so softly that even Rune’s sharp hearing could barely detect the words, Alexander said, “Like a whore could be properly courted anyway.”

Rune came across the table so fast that his hands were a blur. He grabbed Alexander around the neck and hauled him roughly into the edge of the table. With a voice that sounded like death itself had come calling, he snarled, “If you even think that again about her, I’ll make it so that you can never speak again.”

Alexander was shaking and trying with all the strength to wrest free of Rune’s grip. But of course he couldn’t.

Wolf and Denney reacted in tandem. Wolf put a hand on Rune’s shoulder, gently easing him back into his seat even as Denney had an arm around his shoulder, pulling him back.

Realizing that it was stupid to get worked up by what an ignorant child said, he let go, and sank back into his seat. But it did not quell the anger he felt. Rune had precious few things in his life that were truly important to him, and Denney ranked at the top of the list, so he did not take any insult to her well. No matter what the source was.

One hand still on his arm, Denney frowned at Alexander, and scolded, “Don’t insult people, especially when you don’t know anything about them. It is especially stupid to do it in this guild. Every enforcer here has no sense of humor where their guildmates are concerned.”

Alexander was back to cringing in his chair but this time he looked more confused than afraid.

Denney was the only one at the table who had the heart to try and explain where he had gone wrong. “I know I look the part, but I have never been a prostitute. You cannot assume that you know everything about a person just because of her appearance. And even if you think you are right, it’s never wise to insult people. Haven’t you ever heard the phrase that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar?”

Since she seemed reasonable, he dared to respond. “No.”

“Well it means that you can gain more with a kind word than a mean one. This is a good example. If you had complimented me, Rune would have thought better of you, and he might have done something nice in return. But because you insulted me, he’s going to be mad at you for the rest the day.”

“At least,” Rune grumbled around a mouthful of food.

She ignored him and continued, “And the last person that you want mad at you is an enforcer. Your safety is in their hands. You always want to be on their good side.”

Alexander stared at Rune dubiously. “Enforcer?”

Ah, right, the kid had seen him use paths multiple times. “I’m a Pathmaker apprentice. Before they discovered my talents, I was an assassin and enforcer.”

At the word ‘assassin’ Alexander went beyond pale and his eyes nearly consumed his face. “A-a-assassin?!” he squeaked.

Deciding this might be a good teaching moment, Rune put his fork down and focused. “That’s right, assassin. I kill things that threaten me or mine. You did more than that. You attacked my city. So I went to kill you.”

This rattled the boy more than anything else that had been said to him. It also confused him the most. “But…but you brought me here.”

“I brought you here because you’re too young to kill. Even five years older, and we wouldn’t be talking about this.”

Tears welled up in Alexander eyes and slowly slipped down his cheeks. “You didn’t kill me…just because I’m ten?”

“You attacked my city. You looted and burned my home. You’re my enemy. Of course I went to kill you.”

“B-but,” his head came up, expression wild, “I’m the only guildmaster of Fallen Ward! I’m the only one that can
be
guildmaster! You can’t kill me.”

Wolf snorted, face full of pity. “Young fool, in the rest of the world, guildmasters are chosen by
ability
. The position isn’t handed down from father to son like it is in Fallen Ward. I promise you, if Rune had killed you that night, another man would already be taking your place.”

This seemed incomprehensible to him. He literally could not wrap his head around it. “But no one else
can
.”

“Sure they can.” Denney shook her head at him, sympathetic. “I know people have told you differently your entire life, but it’s just how your guild operates. It’s not how guilds work in the rest of the world. Think about it, Alexander. If you were to die, do you think your guild will just vanish? Just disband and stop functioning? Of course not. It’s a large guild, it controls a whole city, it’s not going to disappear just because your family died out. Someone else would be chosen to lead it, and the guild would continue as it has for hundreds of years.”

The words hovered in the air, unspoken but audible:
You are not indispensable.

“It’s likely happening right now,” Wolf observed rhetorically. “You’ve been missing three days already. Someone has likely stepped in to fill your place, at least temporarily, to keep things going while you’re gone.”

“Oh, they have,” Denney answered, her tone factual. She wasn’t even trying to make a point or be mean as she elaborated, “Darrens got word this morning that Coravine is on lockdown. They’re not letting anyone into the city or out. He’s trying to figure out who exactly gave the order so he can send a letter to him, but I’m not sure how a messenger could get in, what with the guards keeping people from even approaching the gates.”

Alexander clamped both hands over his ears, shaking his head back and forth over and over, panic building in his face. “No. No. Nononononono.”

Alarmed, Denney came around the table, reaching for him. “Alexander?”

“They can’t do that. They can’t lock the gates without my permission. They can’t do anything without me telling them to.”

Denney softened her tone as if she were speaking to a wounded animal. “Of course they can, Alexander. They already have.”

Throwing his chair backwards, he tumbled out of it and scrambled for the far corner of the room. As soon as he was there, he hunkered down, hands still over his head, and screamed. It was piercing and loud, a wordless howl of pain.

Until that point, Rune had only thought of Alexander as a giant pain in his arse and nothing more. He was an annoying brat that he couldn’t kill because of his age, and Rune wanted as little to do with him as possible. But in that moment, he felt an empathy with Alexander that he hadn’t thought possible. Rune had been there. He’d had the whole world spin upside down on him, where the one sure thing he thought he knew was yanked away, leaving him nothing in its place. He’d lost his guild and his identity all in one blow and had nothing to fall back on. That was why, when Siobhan first came to him, the idea of death had been such a relief. An ending, that was all he’d wanted. He’d never expected to have a new beginning handed to him.

He understood exactly the turmoil and rage and terror that Alexander felt in that moment. A part of his heart hurt at seeing it because he wouldn’t wish that feeling even on his worst enemy. And he wasn’t sure this child qualified as that.

Denney went to comfort him, but Rune caught her arm and drew her back, shaking his head slightly. “No. Let him grieve.”

She blinked at him owlishly. “Grieve?”

“His whole identity was based on being Fallen Ward’s guildmaster. With that gone, he’s left with nothing. Let him grieve the loss of it.”

Siobhan chose that moment to enter the room. She took in the whole situation in one sweep of the eyes before planting her hands on her hips. “You’re supposed to be teaching the kid, not breaking him.” With an icy glare in their direction, she headed straight for Alexander. “What happened?”

“I told him about how Fallen Ward has a temporary guildmaster, and how the city was in lockdown right now,” Denney timidly answered.

Siobhan took in the full implications of that with nothing more than a blink and a soft, “Ahh,” of understanding. Then she was down on the ground and drawing the sobbing boy into her arms.

Alexander didn’t seem to care it was his captor offering him comfort. He clung to her openly, crying into the curve of her neck. Siobhan patted him on the back, rocking him gently back and forth. “Shhh, shhh. This will pass. Sorrow always does. You’ll find your center again, I promise. We’ll help you do so.”

It was a quiet group that left Goldschmidt and went to Stott. No one had returned to that city yet, so they thought it a good place for their first real lesson with Alexander. For Siobhan, Wolf, Tran, and Rune, it was a simple trip to a city they knew well. No one quite knew what Alexander thought as he had been subdued ever since his breakdown that morning.

Alexander hovered near Siobhan, never more than a foot away from her, and sometimes reached up to openly cling at her hand. Rune was puzzled by this behavior until he realized that Siobhan was the only one that had shown him consistent kindness. To the kid, she must feel ‘safe’ and so he latched onto her. Rune had a strange insight watching this play out. Was that what he had looked like, all those months ago, when Siobhan had first bargained for him to help her? The first few weeks especially he was like an obedient dog, sleeping on her floor, answering immediately when called, coming or going when ordered. Rune had acted so, just because he was terrified of losing the only place that had been offered to him.

But surely Alexander’s reasoning couldn’t be the same? He
did
have a place to return to, he just couldn’t go back at the moment. That wasn’t the same thing.

Once they were through the path, Rune stepped aside and let Siobhan take the lead. She did so with Alexander in tow, explaining to him what the city should’ve looked like, and how it was destroyed because of his orders. Wolf had done something similar yesterday in Goldschmidt, but Alexander had not been fazed by it. This time, however, he seemed to be paying attention. Rune wasn’t quite sure of the reason why. Was it because Siobhan was the one telling them? Or because the destruction was on a totally different scale?

Alexander asked no questions but he listened, which was an improvement in and of itself. Everyone else followed along several steps behind, keeping an automatic lookout for thieves. There was not much left, but they could not discount the possibility of other people being in the city.

Rune had passed this way twice in the past week. He hadn’t paid Stott or Channel Pass much attention, though. Now that he was inside the city, it was disturbing how little sound or life there was. There was hardly an intact window or door to be found. Whole sections of the city had been burned. There were broken pots, furniture, and the bodies of the slain littering the streets. Even to someone like Rune, who was hardened against such sights, the place felt creepy.

They walked for hours and only paused once to eat a cold dinner and let their aching feet rest. During this time, Alexander asked his first and only question: “When will the people return?”

Siobhan met his eyes levelly. “There’s no guarantee they will. When your men attacked, most of the people here fled to either Goldschmidt or Winziane. Some have chosen to remain in Winziane. Others are trickling back to Goldschmidt. But it will take considerable time and money to repair this city, and at the moment no one has any money to spare. Those that do choose to return will have many years of hard work ahead of them and it might be a full decade before Stott recovers.”