The Heresy Within (31 page)

All those thoughts fled when he heard the voices though. He could bitch and moan about his lot as well as the rest of them but when there was a threat about they all had to stick together, assuming the threat wasn't one of them.

The voices were a ways off for now but could well be coming closer. Sound travelled a little too well over the plains at night. The laughing dogs were proof enough of that. Betrim couldn't count the amount of times he'd been kept awake at night by the damned laughing, unable to decide whether it was a long way off or right over his bloody shoulder.

Betrim gave the Boss a quick nudge with his foot, the big southerner slept light and woke easy. It took him a few seconds to figure out why Betrim had woke him and then he nodded, at least Betrim thought he did, the Boss was kind of difficult to see in dark. Henry was awake the moment the Boss moved, crazy bitch always had murder in her eyes when she woke. Frightened Betrim to tell the truth, not that he ever would.

He crawled on hands and knees away from the small camp, towards the voices. The grass was long this time of year, came up to the knees on a standing man and did a good job at hiding you when you got down low. Problem was it hadn't rained for a while and the grass was dry, made it brittle and noisy and gave it sharp edges. Seemed a strange thing to get cut by grass but Betrim supposed that was why they were called blades of grass.

Every time Betrim put his hand down onto the ground was a near heart stopping moment for him, snakes were not uncommon out in the plains and if one managed to bite you...

Betrim had seen a man bit by a snake once. They'd killed the thing quick enough but it was too late. Jolly Garth they used to call him on account of him always laughing and joking, not like Swift, Garth's laughing was always good natured, never had a bad word to say about anyone. He didn't laugh after the snake bit him. Within an hour his arm had turned a withered brown colour and hung off his body like a piece of dead wood. He screamed too, screamed himself raw in the throat until he was coughing more than screaming. Then the brown rot started to spread to his body. It was then he pleaded for mercy so it was then they gave it to him. Harvey the Bear took his head off with one good swing from his axe.

Strange thing was after Jolly Garth was dead his blood didn't run, just sort of seeped out a bit. It was thick and lumpy instead of runny, blood did that in a body after a while, became almost like jelly but with Garth it happened while he was still alive. Last thing Betrim wanted was to get bit by a snake, or a spider, or one of those land lizards that lived on the rocks. Last thing Betrim wanted was to get bit by anything.

The voices were louder now and Betrim could just about make out shapes in the distance. Seemed to be the chatter of two folk walking along paying no mind to who might be listening or watching. The Boss crawled up beside Betrim on his right and he felt Henry brush against him on the left.

One of the two was limping a little, injured was good, injured folk were easier to take. “What do they mean? Or what do they do?” Betrim heard a woman's voice ask.

“The charms.” The voice of the second was a man.

“Aye. The ones on your sword, what do they mean?” the woman asked again. Betrim couldn't tell which one of them was the injured from this distance, still just shapes in the darkness.

The Boss waved his hand in front of Betrim's face a few times and made a walking motion with his fingers. Betrim got the idea, the two were going to pass them by if they kept on their current path, probably meant they'd just leave them be.

“There are three. The first is to keep it sharp as the day it was forged even if some fool forgets to use a whetstone,” the male voice said.

“Do you even own a whetstone?” The female voice sounded familiar. Betrim forced himself to stifle a groan.

“The second is so the sword will never break, never chip, never bend. The third is a charm of purification to help kill heretics who may survive normally fatal wounds.”

Betrim knew the Boss was staring at him, knew Henry on the other side was stopping herself from laughing. He thought for sure the guards would have done for the Arbiter, after all the bastard had killed two of their own but now here he was, tracking down the Black Thorn. He should have stayed back in the mansion, should have made sure the witch hunter was good and dead before running.

The Boss nudged Betrim and pointed. Betrim didn't move, just shook his head. If it was only the Arbiter they could take him. Six on one were good odds, no matter, but he had Jezzet with him and that changed things and not for the better. Six on two odds didn't sound near so good when one of the two was an Arbiter and the other was Jezzet Vel'urn. Still, Betrim knew what needed to be done. Swift was the best bet. If they waited until the two made some sort of camp, waited until the Arbiter was sleeping Swift could stick an arrow through him. The witch hunter would never wake. After that they could either deal with Jezzet or just leave her be. Maybe Swift could do for them both, he was damned accurate with that bow of his and quick too.

The Boss nudged Betrim again and pointed back towards their little camp. Betrim nodded and was just about to crawl back when he heard a belch. It was a loud rumbling noise that could almost have been mistaken for a peal of thunder and it was not the first time Bones had been known to burp in his sleep.

Jezzet dropped into a ready stance, hand on her sword hilt. The Arbiter just stood looking towards them. For a moment Betrim wasn't sure if the witch hunter would see them. They were down low in the grass, only the tops of their heads would be visible and it was dark, the three of them might even look like wild animals watching them as they were. Some wild dogs would follow travellers across the plains, watching them for leagues in case someone was split off from the group.

“It's your friend, the Black Thorn, and his gang,” the Arbiter said drawing his sword and pointing it towards them. No doubt thought he cut a right striking figure pointing a sword into the darkness like that, truth was he just looked a fool, a fool who was about to get another knife in him. Betrim started reaching for one of the little blades he liked to keep hidden on him but the Boss was having none of it. The big southerner stood and walked towards the Arbiter. Betrim had no choice but to stand and follow and Henry too.

“Reckon you should jus' keep on walkin', Arbiter,” said the Boss in his deep, low, dangerous tones. The Boss liked to fight with both sword and axe at the same time and now he drew both. Betrim felt he had no choice but to unhook his own axe.

“Don't think I can do that, Black Thorn,” the Arbiter replied, ignoring the Boss.

“You ain't talkin' ta Thorn, ya talkin' ta me.”

The Arbiter glanced at the Boss and then back to Betrim. Then he pointed his sword at the Boss and drew his little string-less crossbow and pointed it at the Black Thorn.

Truth was Betrim did not much like that little thing being pointed at him; he'd seen what a mess it had made of the guard back in Xho's mansion. He took a slow step to the left, the Arbiter's aim followed him, he took a step to the right, and it followed him again. With a sigh Betrim resigned himself to getting shot.

“Six against two, Arbiter. Wouldn't much like my chances if I were you. Just keep on walkin'.” The Boss didn't like to talk with folk for long; Betrim reckoned the big man might be near as scared as he was. Truth was the only thing Betrim liked about his situation so far was that Jezzet Vel'urn hadn't drawn her own sword yet. Seemed she was happy to stay out of the whole mess.

“Can't do it. Your Black Thorn killed Colth.”

“What?” the Boss asked with a disapproving look at Betrim.

“No I didn't.” Betrim was somewhat certain he'd remember killing a man as fat as Farin Colth.

“You did. I saw him, ripped open and then I saw you sauntering out the very next room.”

Betrim shook his head. “Right, but... I didn't do it. Only one I killed was that guard.”

“Swift,” the Boss said in his low rumble. Swift stood up from the grass not five paces from Betrim. Quiet as a shadow he'd snuck up, Betrim hadn't even known he was there.

“Yes, Boss?”

“Did you kill Farin Colth?”

“At Xho's place? No, Boss. Didn't kill no one. Was only there fer a bit of honest thievery.”

Betrim snorted. “There was fuck all worth stealing.”

Swift grinned. “Depends what you were looking to steal. I happened across Xho's daughter, stole myself a ride. Turns out she was a maiden but I soon cured her of that.” Another of Swift's stories, Betrim reckoned, although he was certain the bastard was capable of rape.

Henry spat towards Swift. “You were raping the daughter while we were killin' the father?”

Swift was still grinning. “Aye.”

Betrim wasn't sure at that point who Henry wanted to stab more but it was looking like Swift. She was a murderous imp to be sure but it seemed Henry did not look too kindly upon rapists. Something to do with being a woman, Betrim reckoned, but he wasn't about to get into it.

The Arbiter didn't look so certain any more. “You were there to kill Xho, not Colth.”

“Aye,” the Boss said with a nod. “H'ost wanted Xho dead. He wouldn't want Colth dead; everyone knows Colth was working for H'ost.”

Jezzet's sword seemed to sing as it slipped from its scabbard. Her face was a dark scowl and at that moment she looked almost as murderous as Henry. “You work for H'ost.”

The Boss took a step back. “Not really. We were workin' fer Deadeye.”

Betrim groaned. If the Boss knew a thing about Jezzet Vel'urn he'd have known that was the worst thing he could have said.

“You're working for Constance?” Jezzet asked and Betrim knew the question was directed at him.

“We're not workin' fer Deadeye, Jez. We jus' done a couple o' jobs fer her. Right, Boss?”

“Aye, we jus' needed ta do her a couple o' jobs so we can do the big job.”

After that everyone seemed to start speaking at once. Henry started arguing with Swift. The Boss and the Arbiter started growling words at each other and Jezzet rounded on Betrim but at least she was using words not steel.

“How could you work for Constance, Thorn? You know what she is.”

“Says the bitch working fer the Inquisition,” Betrim shot back.

“Well... they... pay well.”

“So does Deadeye an' at least she don't burn folk.”

Jezzet snorted. “I wouldn't be so sure about that. She killed Eirik, Thorn.”

“Hawkeye?”

“Aye.”

That gave Betrim a reason to pause. He'd never gotten on too well with Hawkeye and his death meant there was one less name in the wilds to fear but it meant Deadeye was willing to kill just about anyone, might be she'd even try for the Black Thorn.

“What job?” The Arbiter's voice seemed to cut the air in two.

“We been hired ta kill H'ost,” the Boss said and near bit his tongue off as he clamped his jaw down. The plains seemed to grow silent as a crypt then. Henry, Swift, Jezzet, the Arbiter, even Betrim himself just stared at the Boss.

Swift was the first to speak. “You want us ta kill H'ost?”

The Boss fixed him with a stare. “Aye. That gonna be a problem fer you, Swift?”

Swift took a moment to think about before shaking his head. All his usual smiles and humour seemed gone. “Not a drop, Boss.”

“So working for Constance...” Jezzet started.

“Jus' needed her trust. Need a way ta get close ta H'ost.”

“That's a pretty dangerous job, Boss,” Henry said, her argument with Swift all but forgotten for now.

“Dangerous jobs mean big rewards an' this one's the biggest. Three hundred thousand gold bits. Split six ways is fifty thousand bits each. That's more than a lifetimes worth o' jobs right there an' no more dangerous.”

Betrim didn't have a head for numbers, never had, and he had no idea how big fifty thousand was but it sounded big. Might just be big enough to be worth going up against Deadeye.

The Arbiter put away his sword. “Boss isn't it. I think we should talk.”

“Aye?”

The Arbiter just nodded and started walking away into the gloom. After a moment the Boss turned to Betrim and the others and pointed at Jezzet. “Watch her.” With that he stalked off after the Arbiter.

Betrim relaxed just a little, still kept hold of his axe though and Jezzet still had her sword in hand and was standing ready for a fight. “Ya good then, Jez?”

“Been worse, Thorn. Been better too. Ever had to crawl through a sewer?” she asked.

“Aye, once.”

“Puts me one up on you.”

At that he had to smile. Weren't a pretty sight but Jezzet smiled back all the same. Girl had been close to a friend once. Didn't mean they wouldn't kill each other when time came.

“I don't like her,” Henry hissed, she had her murderous glare locked tight on Jezzet. “Why ain't we killin' the whore?”

“Cos the Boss said ta watch her,” Swift replied with a sly grin. “So I'm watching her.”

“You wanna call them off, Thorn,” Jezzet warned giving Betrim the impression she would like nothing more right then than to gut both Henry and Swift.

“Would that I could, Jez. Henry, Swift, this here is Jezzet Vel'urn. You might not heard of her but, well, she's the one that gave ol' Deadeye the name.”

Henry looked confused but Swift caught on as fast as his name. “You the one took Deadeye's eye?”

Jezzet grinned. “Aye.”

“She don't look like much,” Henry said sounding a little less confidant than before.

Betrim nodded. “Aye but neither does a woman called Henry but folk in Chade know ta fear her all the same.”

Swift whistled. He was still looking at Jezzet with hungry eyes. “I think I'm in love. Sorry, Henry but my heart now belongs ta another.”

“You don't have a heart, Swift. One day I'm gonna cut ya open ta prove it.”

The Boss came striding back out of the darkness like some great black bear only with shiny metal teeth. His weapons were away but whether that was a good sign or bad Betrim didn't know. The Arbiter limped behind; he approached Jezzet, put a hand on her shoulder and whispered something in her ear. A moment later Jezzet put her sword away but the last thing she looked was at ease.