The Price of Faith (35 page)

Ben sucked at his teeth. “Reckon I’m coming back ta haunt you if I die.”

“Sounds fair,” Thorn replied with a grin. “Suzku?”

“I’m in.”

“Outstandin’. Ril?”

The young woman paced back and forth in the little cabin with a frown as deep as the ocean. “I don’t trust ‘em. Don’t trust him,” she nodded at Thanquil. “These things is people possessed by demons with who knows what sort o’ supernatural magics. How we supposed ta fight against that?”

“I can help,” Thanquil put in. “I can create runes to enchant weapons that will purge the demons.”

“An’ we’re jus’ supposed ta trust ya?”

Thorn stepped forward putting himself between Rilly and Thanquil. “Ya supposed ta trust me.”

Rilly took a step forward and stared up at Thorn. “An’ what if I don’t?”

“Uh, then I’d be very sad, I reckon.”

Silence held for a few seconds before Rilly let out a wordless shout of fury and stormed towards the door, wrenching it open and slamming it behind her with equal force. Thorn stood still for a moment before turning round to face the others. “Reckon that was a
no
then?” he asked.

Anders shrugged, Ben laughed and Suzku was silent. Thanquil decided to keep out of the discussion.

“You’re a right fuckin’ idiot sometimes, Thorn,” Henry said already making for the door. “I’ll speak ta her. Bring her back. Ain’t like she got anywhere else ta go right now being where we are an all.”

Henry left the same way Rilly had only without the dramatics leaving a room full of confused men.

“So, uh, now what, boss?” Anders asked.

The Black Thorn sucked loudly on his teeth. “Might as well get some sleep if ya can. Still got a few days ‘fore we reach land. ‘Til then do as ya like.”

Thanquil turned to go back to the section of wall he’d been sitting against but Thorn grabbed hold of his arm. “What the hell happened earlier?” he asked. “Looked like ya was in some sort of, uh, trance.”

Thanquil snorted out a laugh. “I think I was, half awake and half a dream.”

“Ya usin’ one o’ them sleepless charms?”

Thanquil nodded.

“Then take it off an’ sleep. No good ta anyone like ya are right now.”

“It won’t help, I…”

“Weren’t a suggestion. Call it an order an’ get some fuckin’ sleep. Be at Port Loyal soon enough an’ can’t have you runnin’ around summonin’ demons everywhere.”

Thanquil nodded, retreating to his section of wall and doing as he was told. He removed the sleepless charm and for the first time in almost a week he slept. He slept and he dreamed of demons.

Rose purred.
Like a cat. A really flirtatious, annoying cat.
It wouldn’t have been so bad if Rose only flirted with the men of the group, Jez had been known to do some of that herself in her time, but Rose flirted with the men and the women including Jezzet.
Probably flirts with the horses too.

“Are you sure?” Rose asked a faint smile on her lips and her eyes all over Jezzet.

“Pretty sure,” Jez replied firmly.

“Not even once?” she pressed.

“Reckon I would have remembered it, don’t you?”

Rose purred again. “Oh, you’d have remembered it.”

“Do you mind if we change the subject?” Jez asked in a way that suggested it was anything but a request.

“Am I making you uncomfortable?”

“You’re making everyone uncomfortable. Hells, even the trees are uncomfortable,” Jez said. The trees rustled in response.

Rose let out a dramatic sigh. “Suit yourself, I think you’ll find most of our entourage are a little disappointed though. I believe they were listening intently.”

“Aye, I bet they were.”

Rose was an extremely attractive woman in a dark, sultry fashion. She curved in all the right places and wore a tight suit of riding leathers that did nothing to hide the fact. Her face had fine, symmetrical features with full, pouting lips and her hair was, annoyingly, just as dark as Jez’s only a damn sight longer. All of the men in their group vied for her attention, competing with each other and showing off wherever possible. Most of the women seemed to be more on the jealous side, sulking and shooting her dark glares when they thought she wasn’t looking. Jez saw through to the real Rose though, saw though to the woman who was aware of everyone around her and wore the attraction people had to her as a weapon. She also saw through to the daggers Rose kept hidden in and around her attire and if her departed brother was anything to go by it was likely she knew how to use them.

They were walking their horses through a small woodland on the south side of D’roan’s province. Jez remembered the place well. A few months after she had won her freedom by killing Catherine she had camped just north of the woodland with D’roan and his army. There had been a small skirmish, the remnants of an old bandit warband had misjudged D’roan’s force in the dark and had attacked. They had caught the army off guard and done no small amount of damage but once the soldiers got themselves organised they routed the bandits and slaughtered them all. Jez had stood by D’roan and saved his life, cutting down four men and scaring off another three. Afterwards she and the lord who’s life she had saved showed the same amount of vigour with each other as they had on the battlefield.

Jez hated to think of those days. D’roan had kept her prisoner and raped her and after she had won her freedom she stayed with him of her own volition. The very thought of who she used to be was enough to make her angry these days and right now angry was the last thing she needed.

“What about with Thorn?” Rose asked.

Jez sighed and looked at the woman. Rose winked back at her. “No.”

“You’re definitely missing out there. You should see the size of him.”

“Didn’t he kill you brother?”

“Oh yes. I made certain to thank him for that time and again though the pleasure was all mine.”

Jez was acutely aware that they were once again the centre of all thirty members of their escort’s attention. Still, she couldn’t help but laugh at Rose’s blatant innuendo.

“So why work for Drake?” she asked the woman.

“With Drake,” Rose corrected. “I work with our good captain. Chade belongs to me, not him, but as long as our interests and ambitions align I see no reason not to give him his own reins. He’s very skilled at getting what he wants and certainly not without his own talents.”

“Exactly how does delivering me to Kessick align with your interests?” Jez asked pointedly.

Rose shrugged and flicked her head so her night-black, hair rippled. “He asks me for a favour and I, in turn, ask him for one of equal value. Besides, I had some spare time and I couldn’t pass up the offer to meet you and enjoy your company.”

“Right,” Jez said with a snort. “Hope I live up to your expectations.”

Rose pouted and sighed. “You’ve been a little dour so far.”

Jez glanced sidelong at Rose.

“Just like that,” the woman said smiling.

“Didn’t think there were any knew me out here. Last time I passed this way no one had ever heard of me and now I have the magistrate of Chade looking forward to my company.”

Rose laughed a deep, throaty chuckle. “Everyone has heard of you these days, Jezzet Vel’urn. The Blademaster. The woman who killed the Bloody Angel and took Deadeye’s deadeye in the same duel. Not to mention killing her in the seat of her power. The Black Thorn may have got all the credit for the slaughter at Hostown but everyone is well aware of your part in the play. D’roan loves to boast about how many times he had you. Truly that man is insufferable.”

“You have no idea.”

“He’s close by,” Rose said her voice icy cold all of a sudden. “I’m certain Drake wouldn’t mind if we made a short detour to visit D’roan.”

Jez spat. “And why would we want to do that?”

Rose grinned, all white teeth and wide as a wolf. “We could kill him.”

Jez studied the woman and quickly came to the conclusion she was serious.
Starting to see why Drake put her in charge of Chade. I’ve met less ruthless laughing dogs.

“I think I’d be just as happy never seeing D’roan ever again. Let him boast if he thinks he has something to brag about. Thanquil is being led to Kessick so the faster I get there the better. And what do you mean, dour?”

“Well like this,” Rose said with a pouty sulk. “I expected it to be a constant thrill with you around. Adventures and daring escapades. I admit, I’m a little disappointed.”

Jez ducked her head under a low-hanging tree branch. “So sorry to disappoint. I would have thought you got all the excitement you could want ruling Chade and keeping all the backstabbing in check.”

“Hmmm? I think Chade might have changed a little since your last visit, Jezzet. I keep everyone in a tight line, more dull that way but there’s no dissent and a lot more order. My back remains largely un-stabbed.”

“How did you manage that?”

“By removing the competition. By the time of my brother’s demise, and that came about not  a moment too soon, he owned half of the city and Drake owned the other half. I, being the sole inheritor of my brother’s vast fortune, took control after our mutual friend, Drake gave me his own half. Hence, no more back stabbing and no more council. Just me in charge of everything.”

Jez snorted. “Sounds dull.”

“Yes,” Rose agreed. “It really is. Much like whoring only far less honest.”

Jez could agree with that sentiment. Whoring was perhaps the only honest profession left in the wilds and it was also one of the very few she refused to take part in. Sex was used for fun and for negotiating her way out of potentially deadly situations but never for money.

“So why didn’t you screw Drake when you had the chance?” Rose asked her voice the very tone of innocence. “I assure you, it’s an experience.”

Jez wriggled, feeling uncomfortable in her skin. “Because I’m with Thanquil.”

“The Arbiter?” Rose said looking around. “I don’t see him.”

Neither do I.
Jez rubbed at the wooden ring on her finger.

“What makes him so special?”

Jez remained silent her thoughts turning inward to Thanquil. She missed him like she’d miss a part of herself. He kept her on the straight and narrow, protected her more from herself than from anyone else and yet, whenever she was with him she could feel the danger like a coiled snake in the darkness waiting to strike. He excited and comforted and protected and scared her and he knew just how to make her…

“Oh I see,” Rose said with a grin that stretched from ear to ear and made her somewhere just short of radiant. “You love him.”

“What?”

“It’s a strange feeling, is it not? Indescribable and yet so warm and welcoming and thrilling and… I felt that once.”

“Really?” Jez asked a little too quickly, eager to move the conversation away from her and her own feelings. She wasn’t certain she was ready to admit how she felt to herself let alone anyone else.

“Mhmmm. There was a boy, Fey, back in Bittersprings. He was young and vigorous and had a wicked tongue.” Rose winked at Jez. “He started off buying time with me every so often, once a week or so, whenever he could afford it. Soon he started robbing folk coming to visit the springs just so he had enough money to pay for me. There was a time he would come every day and sometimes we didn’t even fuck, just enjoyed each other’s company and talked and he would hold me.”

“What happened?” Jez asked surprising herself by genuinely caring.

“My mother happened. Killed Fey in the street. Gutted him like a fish. She tried to make it look an accident, a simply robbery gone wrong for the thief but the woman trained me and I knew her work well enough to see her hand in it. There was nothing I could do, she had the magistrate by his shrivelled balls and nobody cared over one dead gutter rat never did anything for anyone but me... I miss him sometimes, even now. Is that how it is with your Arbiter?”

Jezzet didn’t answer. She stared out into the thinning forest lit by rays of bright afternoon sunlight and remembered a time being attacked in a forest just like this. A time when she had been forced to fight for her life and all other considerations were forgotten. She desperately wished someone would attack them right now.

Rilly chewed noisily on a leg of chicken, or at least something that looked like a leg of chicken. Thanquil had yet to see one of the birds here in the wilds but, judging by the rest of the continent’s wildlife, he assumed they had something like chickens but much, much larger. The size of the animals here always startled him, the largest thing that lived back in Sarth was the domesticated cart horse and, large as they were, even they paled in comparison to some of the beasts that roamed wild in the wilds.

“So what d’ya do ta them?” the little woman said around a mouthful of roasted meat. Shreds of half-chewed chicken hit the table.

“Nothing. I just let them go. No sense in murdering folk who have done nothing to warrant it.”

“I’m certain they were very grateful for that,” Anders chimed in from the other side of the table. He had two empty tankards beside him and third swaying about in his hand and Thanquil knew for a fact he had emptied his hip flask at least twice earlier in the day. “After all it was only their children who were evil, the parents were just innocent bystanders in the whole affair.”

“I judged them to be innocent of their children's heresy.”

“How benevolent. Did they thank you?”

“Reckon he did right thing,” Rilly said waving half the chicken leg at Anders. “Least he has the intestinal fortitude ta actually do somethin’.”

Anders snorted into his beer sending a wave of dark foam lapping over the edge of the pewter tankard. “My dear I have met a great many murderers in my time…”

“Ya are gettin’ on in years.”

“And I have never met a murderer quite so abhorrent as a righteous murderer. That being said, you’re a wonderful person and a joy to be in the company off. Please don’t burn me.”

Thanquil couldn’t help but laugh. The Black Thorn had left him in the company of Anders and Rilly in the dubious location of the local tavern while the other members of the bounty hunter crew turned in a long standing bounty on a notorious murderer and rapist who went by the name of the
Wilds’ Slasher
. In was neither an original name nor one the culprit had earned but one she had given to herself, carving the letters into her victims in a crude scrawl. While the crew had no proof that they had completed the bounty it was apparently common knowledge that Thorn had caught up with the Wilds’ Slasher just outside of Foundhaven and a short chase later the murderer had suffered
extreme, pronounced internal and external haemorrhaging
; Anders’ words which Thanquil took to meaning the Black Thorn had stuck an axe in her.