The Price of Faith (33 page)

A terrified realisation passed across Carlston’s eyes and beads of sweat sprang forth all over his plump face. “You killed them all!”

Thorn looked around the room at the five dead bodies. “Yeah, we did. An’ none o’ Drake’s boys’ll be comin’ ta save ya neither. See Drake knows somethin’ ‘bout ya, he knows ya been workin’ fer Kessick. Jus’ so happens I’m lookin’ fer that fuck so hows ‘bout ya tell me where I can find him an’ we’ll make this quick.”

Carlston’s eyes went hard. “You’ll get nothing from me, Black Thorn.” He spat at Thorn, a tiny amount of spittle hitting the sell-sword on his scarred cheek.

“No…” Thorn started.

“He’s a bookie,” said Six-Cities Ben quickly his voice all excitement. “Ask him if he wants ta bet on that.”

Thorn sighed and looked back towards Ben. “I was fuckin’ gettin’ ta that.” He turned back to Carlston. “Wanna bet on that?”

Thorn looked at Thanquil. Carlston looked at Thanquil. Thanquil smiled.

“Aye,” rasped Thorn. “This here is Arbiter Darkheart. Reckon he might pry the truth from ya.”

Thanquil stared at the terrified man. “Where is Kessick?”

His compulsion locked onto Carlston’s will and tore the truth from his lips. “Absolution.”

Thanquil looked at Thorn. “Um…”

“That it?” asked Rilly.

“Well I…” Thanquil began.

“Bloody useful havin’ one of these witch hunters around, ain’t it,” Six-Cities Ben said with a grin. “Absolution’s a fair ways away but we can catch a boat to Port Loyal an’ travel north from there. Pick us up some horses maybe.”

“Absolution is a place,” Thanquil decided.

“Aye,” said Thorn. “Ol’ town in D’roan territory. Used ta be a loggin’ village but tales o’ ghosts scared folk away. Pretty much a deserted void these days. Or at least it was.”

Thanquil walked around the other side of the table to where Calrston Barrow sat sweating into his bright red silk shirt.

“How do we know that fuck told the truth?” Thanquil heard Rilly ask.

“You work for Kessick?” Thanquil asked the man.

Carlston groaned as the truth was forced from him. “Yes.”

“What do you do for Kessick?”

“I provide him with people.” His face was almost as red as his shirt.

“People with the potential?”

“Yes.”

Thanquil leaned in close. “What is Kessick doing with those people?”

Carlston’s eyes focused on Thanquil and he struggled and strained to keep the truth in. “He’s putting demons in them.”

Thanquil was vaguely aware of another argument taking place around him but he ignored it all. He pulled his pistol from his belt, pointed at Carlston Barrow’s face and pulled the trigger.

Click
.

The hammer of the pistol struck metal but there was no spark. Thanquil looked at the little gun and realised he hadn’t replaced the black powder after his swim in the ocean. “Huh,” he grunted, flipped the pistol over in his hand and struck Carlston in the face with the stock. The plump man tumbled over in his chair and hit the floor, already unconscious again from the blow. Thanquil raised the pistol and hit the man again and again and again, he kept hitting until the only thing left of Carlston Barrow’s face was a messy pulp of brain, blood and bone. Only then did he stop, breathing heavily and spattered with the dead man’s gore.

When Thanquil looked up he found every one of the Black Thorn’s crew staring at him in shocked silence. Anders’ mouth was ajar and Rilly had a short sword in her hand. Slowly, Henry edged around the table and looked down at the mess Thanquil had made of Carlston’s face.

“Yup. We’re not gettin’ the bounty on him no more.”

Jez wouldn’t exactly call herself a connoisseur of caves but she’d been inside a few and this one was particularly pretty. It was the water, she decided, the water and the way the sunlight from outside bounced off of the water sending rippling blue waves of light across the ceiling of the cave, lighting up all the fangs of rock that hung down, growing towards them all.

Peaceful, Jez. Despite all the water. Makes a nice change
.

She felt something light brush against her leg and looked down. Rhi was there. She was rarely far from Jez these days. The spider stared at her, stared at everything.
Benefit of having eyes on every side of your head
. Slowly it put a big, hairy appendage on her leg, then another and another and started climbing. Jez went back to looking out across the cave. Didn’t take long before Rhi was sitting on her shoulder, surprisingly light for her size, no heavier than a cat really. The spider rubbed her fangs together and the strange clicking noise filled Jez’s ears.

Something dark slipped through the calm, crystal water below them. The lagoon in the cave was filled with dark shapes that whipped through the water at alarming speeds promising painful death to anyone fool enough to test the waters. They weren’t large enough to attack a boat but that didn’t make them any less frightening. Jez wondered what they looked like but none of them had come close enough to the surface to be seen.

They had sailed into the cave two days ago on Drake’s orders. The captain himself had steered them unerringly to the opening in the cliff side as though he had been here many times. They proceeded to drop anchor and wait though as yet Drake had not seen fit to explain to her just why they were waiting here.
Shouldn’t be surprised, Jez. Pretty bastard has more secrets than teeth and he’s got a full set of those.

With the
Fortune
still and lazy there wasn’t much to do, for any of them, and boredom soon set in. The pirates drank and sang and gambled and traded stories, most of which Jez would wager were on the lie side of truth, and Jez joined in where possible. Time with the crew was preferable to time with Drake. Jezzet hated herself for it but she couldn’t help but be attracted to the bastard and so she decided limiting her exposure to him was the best for all concerned or at least the best for her and the best for Thanquil. When she saw the Arbiter again she intended to be telling the truth when she claimed she’d never fucked Drake. He didn’t make it easy for her though, always finding time catch her alone, playing on her love of a good fight and all his suggestive stares.

Rhi chittered on her shoulder.

“Never seen her take to anyone quite like that,” Drake said from behind.
He always seems to appear whenever you think of him, Jez
. “Maybe it’s because you’re both such dangerous ladies.”

Jez snorted. Rhi chittered.

“Reckon she’ll be right sad to see ya leave when you go.”

“Where did she come from?” Jez asked avoiding the subject. “Never seen a spider her size before.”

“Island just off the coast of the forgotten empire.”

Jez turned her head to glance at Drake but got a face full of spider leg instead. Rhi chittered but didn’t move. “Never heard of a forgotten empire,” Jez said.

“That’d be because it’s been forgotten,” Drake replied, she could hear the smile on his voice. “Used to be the far south down past the Dragon Empire was a thriving kingdom, or so I hear. Thousand years ago or some such it was an empire to rival Sarth and rich with the gold it produced too. All sorts of folk went there; merchants, pirates, princes, even Arbiters; reckon if anyone knows most about the lost empire it’s the Inquisition.

“Rumour has it one day the entire empire went quiet. Dead as the night. Cities gone, ports vanished and no one knowing why. No one coming out of the forest.”

“Forest.”

“Whole empire was surrounded by it. Giant trees taller than the tallest buildings. Some folk say the empire’s cities were built in and around those trees. Entire populations living hundreds of feet above the ground. ‘Till it all went dead.

“Nobody goes in ever comes out again these days. Folk go looking for lost treasure or ancient civilisations and such but none ever return. Most folk don’t even know it ever existed now, hence, forgotten empire.”

“And Rhi?” Jez prompted.

Drake chuckled. “Island off the coast of the far south. Saw some… things on the beach. Zothus decided to lead a party ashore and check it out. Took eight men with him in the skiff. He’s the only one came back and he brought her with him though she were a fair bit smaller back then and not nearly so cuddly.”

Jezzet turned to face the captain, as she did so Rhi leapt from her shoulder, springing a good ten feet up and away onto the rigging where she quickly skittered out of sight. Jez leaned back against the fore rail of the ship and sucked at her teeth. “What are we doing here, Drake? Not that getting arse over head drunk with the crew each night isn’t fun. Far as I can tell with you there’s always a plan and this…”

“Aye, always a plan, Jezzet Vel’urn, and this is part of it. ‘Bout ready to come to an end though.” He pointed off toward the back end of the cave.

It was dark in the rear, surrounded by cold, hard rock but Jez could make out a small flickering light that looked an awful lot like a lantern. It seemed as though there was a small landing area back there, solid ground amidst the lagoon of treacherous water and a group of folk were loading themselves into a skiff.

“Taking on passengers?” Jez asked her voice betraying her curiosity.

Drake shrugged. “Unloading one as it happens. You ready to leave?”

Jez felt something clench up inside. She’d been on the
Fortune
for over a month and she wasn’t entirely sure she did want to leave. Despite everything she’d found she actually enjoyed the pirate’s life.

Time to leave, Jez. Time to go find Thanquil.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“Not we,” Drake said with a sad smile. “Just you, luv.”

Jez refused the feeling that welled up inside of her and resolutely denied its existence.

“So this’d pretty much be your last chance. Reckon we got time for me to…”

“Who are they?” she asked quickly. “On the boat.”

“They work for a trusted partner of mine, she’s down there on the boat too. Goes by the name of Rose. Reckon you met her brother, before his very timely and more than welcome demise. They’ll be taking you the rest of the way.”

“Rest of the way?”

Drake was silent for a little longer than a moment, just long enough for Jez to realise something wasn’t right.

“Reckon we’ll be taking those weapons of yours now, Jezzet.”

She turned to look at Drake and found Zothus and a host of pirates, the very same crew she had spent the last month pirating with,
and the same crew who tried to rape you, Jez
, advancing up the deck toward them. Her long sword slid cleanly from its scabbard into her right hand and her left hand found the hilt of one of her short swords still buckled in the small of her back. She dropped into a battle ready crouch.

Never trust a pirate, Jez. Least of all Drake fucking Morrass.

“Can’t fight us all, Jezzet,” Drake said. Some of the pirates had weapons to hand but their captain was empty handed as though he knew Jez wouldn’t attack. She edged a step toward him.
Best defence is stabbing someone in the face. They don’t tend to fight back after that.

“Alright,” Drake said holding up his hands. “Maybe you could fight us all. Hell, maybe you’d even win, beat us back long enough to make a break for shore…”

“At the very least I’d take you down with me,” she spat.

The pirate captain nodded. “Sounds fun. Doubt you’d survive the swim though, nasty things in the waters round here.”

“I could steal a boat.”

“Aye, that might work.” Drake looked around at his gathered pirates. “We should probably make it easy for ya. Lower one of the skiffs.”

“What?” Jez edged her foot closer again, Drake was well within striking distance.

“You want to leave, run away, never see us again, then go,” Drake said. “We ain’t going to stop ya.”

“Eh?” This came from Zothus standing behind his captain.

Drake glanced back at his first mate. “She won’t.”

Jez snorted. “The hells I won’t.”

“If ya do I can all but guarantee you’ll never see that Arbiter of yours again. Don’t reckon he has much hope of surviving without you.”

Jez uncoiled with the speed of a viper strike. She leapt at Drake, leading with her long sword while her left hand slid the short sword from its sheath. The pirate captain barely flinched. The long sword found his neck and the short sword his balls and they both pressed so close that a drop of blood sprang free from his neck and ran down the length of the blade. Jez stared at him across her sword and Drake just smiled back. She had an overwhelming urge to stab him and for the first time since she’d met him it completely blotted out the urge to fuck him.

“Where is Thanquil?” she asked well aware of Drake’s crew taking up positions around her.

“Couldn’t say exactly. Not really sure. Can tell you where he’ll be though, same place you’re going.” Drake slowly raised a hand and put two fingers against the blade of Jez’s long sword. He attempted to push the blade away, Jez resisted keeping it firmly in place.

“I’m sure you remember an Arbiter by the name of Kessick,” Drake said.

Hard pressed to forget that one. Just being near him made my skin crawl.

“Aye, you remember him. Well he ain’t exactly an Arbiter no more.”

“Kessick’s alive?” Jez asked.
What happened to Thorn?

“Aye. Seems he beat the Black Thorn, killed him too, I reckon. Shame really, I always quite liked that Arbiter-murdering bastard. So Kessick survived and ran, came to the wilds and took up where his master left off.”

“Inquisitor Heron…” Jez said.

“Aye, that same heretic your Arbiter put down back in Sarth. Whatever it were she was doing Kessick is now in charge.”

“And why do you care?”

Drake grinned and flinched as the tip of Jez’s blade dug a little further into his neck. “Me an’ Kessick have a history. Suffice to say he wants me dead and the feeling is more than mutual.”

“So go and kill him.”

Drake snorted. “So easy. Kessick’d see me coming half the wilds away and most of my power and influence tends to be located around the water being a pirate an’ all. ‘Sides, Kessick has his own army these days. He’d kill me ‘fore I even got close. Better, I reckon, send a witch hunter to kill a witch hunter.