Winterfinding (17 page)

“
You sold me out!” Heston
growled nearly choking on his own fury.

Jena nodded, “From the first.”

“
Be glad she didn’t end
you when she could’ve.” Addison said.

“
I knew I shouldn’t have
trusted you.” Heston said just before one of the guards punched him
in the gut dropping him to the ground in a bent heap as the other
bound and gagged him.

Jena rolled her eyes, “Right, that’s how
you’d have avoided this.” Jena turned to Addison, “Your men?”

“
A little worse for wear.”
Addison nodded rubbing the back of his head where Heston had struck
him after he had loosed his second arrow at Loudon. He pointed back
toward the guards holding Gregson. “Harold dislocated his shoulder
when he fell, and then, there’s the arrow that sliced him but that
can be stitched up. The same is true for Corin. Garret got the wind
knocked out of him but nothing more. The horses did a number on
Adam, but just bruises really. Wendal here did a great job of
nearly getting himself crushed.”

“
Give us a hand, eh?”
Wendal asked.

“
Garret, get him out of
there once you’re done with that one.” Addison directed the guard
that had helped him drag Loudon around to them and was now binding
him.

“
You could’ve just tipped
off the actual guards, you know.” Jena said sheathing her blade.
“Let them take the knocks, you clean up.”

Addison shook his head, “Better to have my
crew. I know I can trust them. Plus, it gives them a better sense
of doing for the town.”

“
Noble.” Jena nodded but
wasn’t impressed with the answer. “Still, if they had died, I doubt
a sense of duty would comfort their families.”

Addison said nothing. He looked around at
the wreckage of the wagons. “I’m going to have to pay for
this.”

“
Add my fee and the bounty
on those three, and, yeah, you’re gonna be stretched thin.” Jena
needled him.

“
There’s no bounty on
those three.”

“
There’s always a bounty.”
Jena laughed and turned away wandering back over to the furrow
she’d shared with Heston. She squatted, picked up the hessian sack,
and looked into it. Nodding she held it up for Addison to
inspect.

He came over and took the sack, “What’s this
then?”

“
The plan was to cook the
cabs, smoke out the guards with tarfire. If that didn’t work, the
fool was going to use darklime.”

“
Darklime?”

“
It’s a bithumin compound.
Used during sieges mostly. If these idiots had tossed it on
tarfire…” Jena shook her head.

“
I’ve not had the chance
to be involved in many sieges.”

“
It would made a poison
cloud. Would burn the skin and lungs of us all.” Addison drew the
sack closed and looked worried.

Jena shook her head reassuring him they were
fine. “More importantly, this is the kind of stuff you can only
really get from quartermasters. Shitty thieves don’t just have this
lying about.”

“
So now I have to poke
around the garrison.” Addison sighed. “Well, I’ve got enough on my
plate right now. Best to just finish this up. Maybe, now I can run
that errand for Moria and get her off my back.”

“
Do you think that’ll
improve her mood?” Jena ask tentatively.

Addison shook his head, “Absolutely not. But
putting it off any longer will definitely make it worse.”

Jena smiled, “I’d rather not see that.”

“
Come on,” Addison led
them both over into the treeline where their horses had been
tethered, “I buy your supper, and I think we both earned more than
a few drinks.”

“
A drunk constable is no
one’s friend.” She teased.

Addison mounted, “I didn’t suggest anything
of the sort.”

“
What about this mess?”
Jena looked around. The three bandits were lined up next to each
other bound and gagged. One of the guards was patching Loudon and
Heston’s wounds, while the others were attempting to right the
wagons.

“
My men will take care of
it. I’m more the brains of the operation really.” Addison
winked.

“
Well,” Jena swung herself
up on her horse, “it was certainly evident that you weren’t the
muscle.” Addison called to one of his men and gave a wave. The
soldier nodded as he and Jena trotted off down the road toward
Arderra.

The night that Jena had encountered Heston,
she had gone on to get blackout drunk with Adamix. Apparently, two
things happened during that lost time. First, she had made her way
to Addison’s station and pounded on his door. Having woken the
constable up out of a deep sleep, the aggressively drunk Jena was
just barely able to avoid being detained. Yet she had been lucid
enough to let Addison know Heston was plotting something and wanted
her in on it. The two hatched a plan to take down the petty thief
that night, although Jena had to be reminded the next morning.

Reminding her was a bit more difficult that
it should have been. The second happening of the evening Jena had
no memory of was bedding down with the maid Jej. When Jena woke,
she had found herself in a different bed with Jej curled up along
her side. With her mouth dry and sour tasting, her joints aching,
and a pulsing pain behind her eyes, Jena just wanted escape.

She had lain perfectly still afraid of
waking Jej. Her eyes darted around the space realizing that she
wasn’t in her rented room but what must have been Jej’s. It was
small, narrow. Lifting her head, Jena realized she wasn’t naked. In
fact, she still had her boots on. So there was relief that she
hadn’t done anything too stupid with the dishwater girl.

She had slid off the low straw bed, moved to
the floor, and then stood. A rush of blood to her head blinded her.
She had steadied herself against the cold stone wall, pressing her
face against it to feel a cool relief. For a moment, she forgot
where she was. Then a clanking of pots down a hall that must have
led to the inn’s kitchen snapped her back to reality. Jena looked
around to make sure she wasn’t leaving anything. She found her belt
and blade sheathes, grabbed them, and made her way out.

Wandering through the back halls of the inn
turned out to be more confusing than she suspected. She was turned
around more than a couple of times and only just missed running
into an already sour-faced Moria. It was barely just after dawn.
She felt wretched. A powerful thirst was washing over her. When she
got to her room, Addison was already there leaning against her
door.

Addison didn’t say anything as Jena fumbled
with her key. When she opened the door, he casually followed behind
her. He then leaned against the other side of the door as he waited
for her to clean herself up. Jena splashed water on her face and
took several long drinks from her bota. She striped off her
leathers with her back to Addison changing into some fresh clothes
and asked him what he was doing there.

To his credit, he never once gave her any
grief. He simply began to recount what had happened the night
before. Slowly it had come back to her. Later that night when she
had meet with Heston to learn the details of his plan she also met
his accomplices. When she returned, Addison had been waiting in the
exact same pose against her door that he had had that morning.

The two hashed out the details of their
takedown of Heston. Addison made it clear that he had to catch him
not just at the scene but actively looking to harm the guards. Then
he could arrest him. Jena suggested just eliminating the thieves
altogether but Addison had quashed that idea asserting that he was
no murderer.

Jena began to see him as a version of
Goshen, more mature, more experienced in the world but essentially
just as naïve. It annoyed her but in a queer way endeared him to
her. She was also quite impressed with Addison’s insistence that he
be part of the convoy’s guard. He needed to be involved, Jena could
see he was gnashing at the bit to get Heston. Whatever history the
two had, it seemed as though this was the summation.

Now on the way back to Arderra, Jena felt a
panic creeping back into her mind. With the distraction of Heston
over, there was nothing to prevent Addison from heading out to
Reg’s place. He’d find the graves, the burnt out cabin, the absence
of Colm, and nothing but further questions. Jena wouldn’t have more
clout with Addison than she did now. It made sense to broach the
topic.

“
How’s that knock that he
gave you?” she asked.

“
It will leave a bump but
I don’t think I’m concussed.” He rubbed the back of his head. “I’m
more embarrassed than anything else for letting him get the jump on
me.”

“
It was more important
that you downed that knuckle-dragger.” Jena said.

“
Two arrows tipped with
your venom, thank you,” Jena nodded and Addison continued, “and
then Garret with a running start had to bash him twice. Once in the
back of the head and then across the face, before he
dropped.”

Jena shook her head, “I thought for sure
that mix covering your arrowheads would do the job. I’ve used that
venom to sedate lestodons.”

“
Why were you hunting
giant sloths?”

Jena shrugged, “I took a few contracts
around the Elixem orchards years ago. Sloths would get into them
and we’d have to get rid of them.”

“
Why not just kill
them?”

“
Elixem doesn’t allow
that. Besides, they were just nuances. Not really dangerous. If
there’s no point in killing, why kill?”

“
Yet you wanted to with
those men from the first.”

“
Those men were dangerous.
That changes things.”

“
Our law doesn’t just let
you do that.”

“
So I didn’t. Remember, I
did ask why I couldn’t.”

“
Somehow that doesn’t make
me feel at ease.”

“
Why would it?”

Addison laughed, “Well, I do owe you for
your aid. You’ve earned not just coin for this but a favor from me,
should you ever need it.”

Jena looked down the road. They were coming
upon Arderra’s low stone wall demarcating its boundary. “Yeah,
well, I may need to cash that in sooner than I’d like.”

“
Oh?”

“
You’re going up to take a
look at Moria’s brother-in-law’s place, right?”

Addison nodded as Jena let out a long sigh
looking down at her reins. “You’re gonna find a mess.”

“
What kind of mess?”
Addison’s eyes narrowed.

“
The kind that
widows.”

“
Are you confessing to me?
Because if you…” His voice was stern tinged with
disappointment.

“
Nothing by my hand.” She
assured him. “But I buried men up there. I buried Reg.”

“
You knew him?”

“
I know his
son.”

“
Is he?”

“
Quite alive as far as I
know.” Addison was scowling at her. “Look, head out there. You’ll
find a cairn, that’s where I laid him to rest. There’s a stone near
the head, beneath it I placed a silver necklace that I found in the
ruins of the cabin.”

“
Ruins.” Addison muttered.
Jena nodded. They had entered town proper. She pulled her stead off
to the side and dismounted handing him the reins.

“
Look, go out there. See
for yourself. When you get back, come get me and we’ll both talk to
Moria. She’ll need to hear what happened as best as I can piece it
together.”

“
I’ll need to hear that
too.” He asserted. “How do I know you won’t be gone when I get
back?”

She looked at him expressionless, “You
don’t. But I’ve got nothing to run from here.”

Addison nodded spurring his horse on pulling
the other in tow. “Then I guess I’ll head out there now.”

Jena nodded, “You’ll find me at the
Archway.”

“
I better.”

“
You will.”

Addison didn’t look back as he trotted off
to his station. Jena lingered for a moment watching him. She wasn’t
sure that had been a good idea, but she was in it now. What truly
made her stomach lurch was what she was going to have to do once
she made it back to the Archway. Maybe with Jej in her favor it
would go smoother. Then again, Moria didn’t seem the kind of woman
who softened. Yet she had won Addison over, for now, and that would
go a long way to making this whole mess wrap up easier.

She stopped and stood before a shop, the
place Adamix had recommended. The windows were glass but they
looked black. Not blackened, but black. Seemed pointless to her.
The door was closed and latched, which she expected. After rapping
with the meat of her first for ten minutes, she heard shuffling
inside and the aching creak of the iron latch and lock. The door
opened a crack and boy’s dirty face peered up at her. He didn’t say
anything, but stared expectantly at her.

“
I need to see the
scrivener.” She said. The boy didn’t make any movement that
acknowledged her. He just continued to stare. “Adamix told me about
this place. I need some work done.”

Still eerily catatonic, the boy said in a
whisper, “What?”

“
I’ve a vellum I need
reproduced, not revised just copied and validated.”

“
Makes you think he does
that?” The boy’s tone was even.

“
Like I said,” Jena was
getting impatient, “Adamix told me this is where I could come to
get it done.”