The Executioner's Right (The Executioner's Song Book 1)

by D. K. Holmberg

Lena approached the bed, sinking down on it. She smiled at Finn.

  Meyer guided Finn out of the room, closing the door behind her.

  “Thank you,” Finn said.

  “I told you that we would find her,” he said.

  He left unsaid that Finn still owed the hegen some debt. Eventually, he would have to pay it.

  “Get some rest. Tomorrow will be another long day. We don’t have much time.”

  “Why not?”

  “You will be asked to prove your worthiness soon.”

  “How soon?”

  Meyer shook his head. “Soon.”

  “Why so quickly? I thought we had more time than this.”

  “I did, as well. Unfortunately, it seems as if matters have taken a turn. When the Executioner Court arrives, you will begin your testing.”

  Finn headed down the stairs, his mind spinning. How was he supposed to handle what Meyer asked of him? He didn’t feel as if he knew anything about what was involved in serving as Meyer’s apprentice.

  When he reached the small room at the front of the house, he stepped inside. The lantern remained glowing softly with the light that he’d left on. The stack of books remained near the edge of the desk.

  Finn glanced at it for a moment.

  Something in the center of the desk caught his attention.

  A card.

  He lifted it and looked at it.

  A hegen card.

  It was blank, but there was no doubt in Finn’s mind that it was a hegen card.

  It was a message, a reminder that he owed a debt.

  What would they ask of me?

  They’d been calling in favors lately. The timing couldn’t be a coincidence.

  What choice would he be forced to make?

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The morning sunlight crept over the rooftops in the central sections of the city and reflected off the river in sweeping streaks of orange and red. It would be lovely, were it not for Finn’s mood.

  He hadn’t slept much the night before. How could he when all he thought about was the card the hegen had left for him? With his sister’s return, he now owed them a debt he knew they would ensure he paid.

  Finn hadn’t known whether to share with Meyer that a card had been left for him. What would the executioner do about it, anyway? What could he do about it? He had been the one to bring Finn to the hegen in the first place, so he might not even be concerned.

  That didn’t mean Finn wasn’t concerned.

  Meyer looked over at him. “You’ve been quiet.”

  Finn shrugged. “Just tired, I guess.”

  “You shouldn’t have been out visiting your crew, then.”

  “It wasn’t the crew…” It was better to take the criticism than argue about what it had or had not been. The reason Finn was as tired as he was had nothing to do with the crew and everything to do with the return of his sister.

  That wasn’t entirely true.

  He was worried about Rock. He wanted to go to Declan to check on him but couldn’t.

  Even if he did, Finn doubted Rock wanted to see him. The look in his eyes when Finn had been there had been painful to see. That had been his friend.

  Now they were something else.

  Finn had gotten up early and practiced with Justice. Since showing him the technique, Meyer had made certain there were always enough pumpkins in the yard for him to practice with. Finn had gotten through five at one time but never more than that. Something always went awry. If the testing involved getting through ten in a row, he worried that he wouldn’t have a steady enough hand for it.

  That wasn’t the only concern he had, though. There were other aspects of the responsibility that he had that made it difficult for him to know if he would master everything needed before his testing—whenever it would be. He still hadn’t learned anything about the gallows or any of the more arcane techniques Meyer had shared with him that were involved in the kind of punishments the city could hand down. Not only had he not experienced any of them, Meyer hadn’t required Finn to read about them.

  At least he thought he would be better prepared when it came to knowing about torture. He’d gone through one torture himself and had been a part of the one with Rock, not counting how he’d seen Gabe after his torture. That had to matter.

  “It’s good to see you dressed better again,” Meyer said.

  Finn looked down at his clothing. “The grays aren’t all that bad.”

  “They’re fine for your practicing. That would be it.”

  Finn had worn them while working with the pumpkin. It was either that or end up with pumpkin guts all over his finer shirts.

  “Why do you dress so well during executions?” Finn asked as they headed over the bridge. Meyer hadn’t told him where they were headed this morning, and Finn had learned that when Meyer remained silent about such things, it was better not to ask.

  “Because there’s an expectation of decorum during the proceeding. The people of the city demand we appear a certain way.”

  “Much like they demand the condemned wear the gray?”

  “That’s tradition. A man—or woman—is given fresh clothing before they’re brought to their death. It’s a symbol of rebirth. A way of asking the gods to welcome you anew.”

  Finn grunted. “What happens to the men who refuse to welcome the gods?”

  “They are greeted no differently than anyone else. It’s up to the gods to decide how to address them.”

  Finn smiled at the thought of the gods choosing to accept murderers to them. He thought of Mistress Vils and the brutal way her husband had killed her. Would the gods accept a man like that back, even if he repented—assuming they ever found him in the city? The priests certainly believed they would. When Finn had been the condemned, the priest marching him to his doom had believed.

  In that moment, Finn had reverted to his childhood. He had prayed, speaking the words of Heleth along with the priest, though he had spoken the modified version he’d learned from his mother.

  “What if the gods choose to send them back?”

  Meyer glanced over. “The gods will make their choices. It’s up to men to decide what to make of it.”

  They continued through the streets of the merchant section. Not a prison, then. Finn had been to several prisons with Meyer and didn’t know of any in this section.

  Could he be leading me to some sort of testing? Meyer had mentioned the Executioner Court would be coming soon. Had he meant this soon?

  Finn wasn’t ready.

  Meyer would have to have known that. Finn would have expected Meyer to prepare him better than he had, only so far, Meyer had barely mentioned it, nothing more than in passing.

  “We have previously talked about the techniques used in a hanging. There are different purposes for each one, though the end result is the same. Depending upon the severity of the crime, the punishment is meant to either lead to the suffering of the condemned or a demonstration for those who gather. Often, the goal is both. It has long been my preference to make the death quick. With enough force, the condemned’s neck snaps, killing them instantly. Not enough force and they slowly suffocate. While the jurors and the magister occasionally want the condemned to suffer, most of the time, I am given the freedom to exact the punishment as I see fit.”

  “The type of knot you use.”

  “Mostly.”

  “Mostly?” Finn asked.

  They turned a corner. Finn was glad there weren’t others out. He could only imagine what they might think hearing the executioner casually describing ways the condemned were hanged.

  “Now, too much force is also unwelcome. The head can come free, which is not only a bloody mess but distressing for those observing. Finding the balance is key, which is why I have learned to calculate the height needed based on the weight of the condemned. Unfortunately, it’s not an exact science, but it’s one you will learn to employ with experience.”

  Finn only half-listened, the way he often did
when Meyer gave information like this. It was one thing to know about sentencing, but hearing Meyer describe it was something entirely different.

  “Now, the other key when hanging the condemned is to ensure the proper placement of the noose. We have talked about the proper technique in tying the noose. You have been practicing?”

  Meyer glanced over to Finn, who nodded.

  He probably hadn’t spent as much time as Meyer wanted him to. He thought that creating the proper noose and applying it to the condemned’s neck would be easier than mastering the sword. That was what Finn had spent his time on.

  “Very well. Different knots can take additional forms. You will begin to understand the implications of making each knot the longer that you work with them. I have tried to share with you the key to making the basic knots, but the more that you learn about some of the more complicated knots, the greater your skill will become.”

  Finn still didn’t know where they were heading. He looked everywhere around him, trying to get a sense of where Meyer might be leading him, but couldn’t tell.

  It wasn’t until they turned another corner that he began to understand.

  The Theden section.

  This was all about trying to understand what Rock had been up to.

  That didn’t surprise Finn. Meyer liked to know more about the reason behind the crimes.

  They stopped at a nondescript shop. A sign hanging out front didn’t indicate to Finn what the shop sold, but the yellow-and-black rope barricading it told him everything that he needed to know. This was where Rock had broken into.

  “Do you think he took anything more than what he admitted to?” Finn asked.

  Meyer frowned, studying the building before turning his attention to the street. “I think he wants us to know that all he took was a necklace.”

  “Why?”

  “The better question would be why this shop?” Meyer continued to frown, and he stared along the street. “This is an unusual place for a break-in.”

  “If it is an antiquities shop, there would have to be valuable items within it.”

  “Valuable to who?”

  Finn frowned. He was right.

  Anything in the shop like this would be difficult for Rock to sell. It would be difficult for anyone to sell.

  Other than to an antiquities dealer.

  Rock had made it sound like he had broken in there to find a necklace and a bracelet, but Finn wondered if there were more to the case. Anything inside a store like this would have to have value to Rock but also value to the Client.

  It reminded Finn of the strange item he and Oscar had taken when Pegg had been executed. That strange bowl had not had any obvious value. Considering where it was, Finn could easily imagine it being sold, not needing to be stolen.

  The same thing could be said about this.

  “Why wouldn’t he have just come in and bought it?” Finn asked.

  “What was that?”

  Finn shook his head. “The necklace. If this is an antiquities shop, then why wouldn’t the Client have come in here and bought it himself?” he said it mostly to himself, but Meyer watched him.

  “What makes you think this is an antiquities shop?” Meyer asked.

  “Isn’t it?”

  Meyer nodded to the sign. “No.”

  “What is it, then?”

  “Something different.”

  Meyer stepped over the rope without answering any more of the question and tested the handle on the door, opening it.

  Finn lingered before following him.

  Once inside the entrance, he realized what Meyer had been getting at.

  This wasn’t a shop.

  This was a home.

  An eclectic one, and stuffed with more decorations than Finn could imagine owning, but a home nonetheless.

  Rock had misled him.

  Or had he?

  Meyer swept around the inside of the home, shifting things around, his gaze darting everywhere. Finn had heard about the antiquities shop break-in from Meyer, not from Rock.

  It had been a test.

  He chuckled.

  Meyer glanced over to him. “What is it?”

  “I just realized what you did by sending me in to question Rock. You knew that I knew him.”

  “Your known associates were no secret, Finn,” he said.

  “You wanted me to find out whether he was telling the truth.”

  “I figured he might share something with you that he wouldn’t share with me. I didn’t realize that he would be so obstinate about it.”

  “We’re not as close since… Well, not since you.”

  Meyer frowned. “Yet he shared with you details that he would not share with me.”

  “He didn’t share with me anything about the fact that he’d broken into a home.”

  “No. It makes you wonder.”

  “About what?”

  “About what else he hadn’t shared with you.”

  Meyer regarded Finn a moment, making Finn wonder what else Meyer knew, before he continued to look around the inside of the room, then headed to a back room, where he disappeared.

  Finn turned, not even sure where to start.

  If this was another aspect of Meyer’s job, it was one Finn didn’t know if he could participate in. He certainly wasn’t an investigator the way Meyer seemed to be. He wasn’t even sure the right questions to ask.

  He stepped into the doorway leading to the back room. It was a kitchen, though much larger than the kitchen in his childhood home or even the one in Meyer’s home. And Meyer had a magnificent home.

  “What are you looking for?”

  “I’m looking for anything that seems out of place,” Meyer said.

  “How do you know?”

  “You learn to watch for what is where it should be and what is where it should not be.”

  Within the kitchen, Finn thought that it would be easy enough to see what was where it should be, but everywhere else in the home was difficult. There was just so much clutter in the outer room that Finn would have a hard time determining whether or not anything was where it belonged.

  “You could ask to investigate with the homeowner,” Finn said.

  “I could,” Meyer said. “Only, there are times when they are less than reliable.”

  “Why? Wouldn’t they want to have what was taken returned to them?”

  “If it is something they were permitted to have.”

  Meyer stepped past him, back into the main part of the home, and began to sweep his gaze around again. Every so often, he paused, resting his hand on a shelf, or a sculpture, or even crouching down at one time and running his hand along the carpet. His mouth pressed into a thin line as he looked.

  “Can I help with anything?”

  “I’m sure that you could,” Meyer said. “See what feels wrong.”

  Finn started to chuckle. “That’s it?”

  “It’s little more than that. You must search for what feels off to you. When you uncover it, then you can begin to question why.” He glanced up from where he crouched on the ground, studying a strange wooden sculpture of a man with a long nose painted blue. The sculpture had a small metal staff in one hand and pointed it at the ground. Meyer stared at it for a long time. “It’s not so different than what you do when talking to someone and you’re feeling whether they are telling you the truth or not.”

  Finn started to look. He didn’t see anything that drew his attention the same way that Meyer did. There was no reason for him to get down on his hands and knees, and as he looked around, he didn’t find anything unusual.

  Meyer continued crawling around, getting to his feet, studying shelves, a painting on one wall of an older woman sitting in front of a fire, and even what looked to be a jar of feathers. After a while, Meyer headed out of the room and made his way to the back, where he disappeared again.

  Finn followed him and realized that the organization was far better in every other part of the house than it was in the entryway. S
trange that would be the most chaotic place.

  Finn headed back out, and he looked around that area on his own.

  He didn’t see anything unusual—at least, nothing more unusual than what he already saw there. He wondered how Rock would have even been able to find what he needed. With as much of a mess as was there, Rock would have had to have searched a while.

  “He came for the necklace but never got it.” There had been bowls taken on other jobs. Could there have been one here? Rock would have said something. No bowl was worth torture. “But he was caught here?”

  “He was.”

  “So, he was guilty of breaking in but didn’t steal what they were after.” And the King hadn’t mentioned anything, though Finn didn’t know if he could trust what the King told him. “And if they did take it, then the others got away.”

  “Is it so different than what you were accused of doing?” Meyer asked.

  “I wasn’t accused of doing anything. I was found.”

  Meyer smiled at him. In the dim light of the home, little more than a faint sunlight drifting through the open door providing the light by which to see, it was difficult to see the expression on his face. “You were found in the viscount’s home. Yet by all reports, you had not taken anything.”

  “I didn’t take anything.”

  “What about the one you helped escape?”

  Finn stiffened. “I didn’t—”

  “I investigated the viscount’s home myself. You know what I found?”

  “No,” Finn said.

  “I found the room where you were apprehended. I found an open window. And I found a damaged shrub outside of said window, blood staining the branches. Who did you help escape?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Your allegiances matter.”

  “I haven’t betrayed you. I haven’t done anything that would make you regret exerting your right for me.”

  Only, Finn had begun to. If he did what the King asked of him, and if he participated in their job, and whatever form that would take, he would most definitely have betrayed Meyer. It would bring him into the crew. There would be no way that the King could exclude him from the crew if he did that, but it would also put him at odds with Meyer.

  Meyer had been the one to protect him. To save him.