Kala entered and sat down hesitantly beside her.
Amber looked over Kala’s form-fitting leathers, but her eyes lingered on the daggers strapped to her thighs. “Who are you?” she asked.
“I’ve been trying to figure that out, but at the moment I find myself Baron’s assassin.”
“Tito?”
Kala nodded.
“Tito was a bastard, so I guess I should thank you, but it doesn’t look like my lot in life has improved much.”
Kala shifted guiltily.
Amber looked about her spare room despondently. “I’ll never make enough money to earn my keep in this dump. The men who come to places like this aren’t generous, nor are they kind.”
Kala patted Amber’s arm sympathetically but could think of nothing to do or say. Instead, she pulled out the bottle of wine. “Drink?”
“Why the hell not?”
They took turns drinking from the bottle.
“Why do you stay?” Kala asked cautiously.
“It’s my life, I guess. You start in chains, and the chains gradually become ornamental, but you still recognize them as chains. Then the chains fade, but you never stop feeling them.” She paused. “You’d never understand. No offense. It’s just that you can go anywhere, do anything. Me, I’m chained to this room.”
Kala put an arm around her. “We all wear some kind of chains.”
They sat together in silence and traded the bottle back and forth until it was empty.
Kala stood up. “Can I come by again?”
“Why would you want to?”
“I don’t exactly have friends.”
Amber brightened. “I could use one myself, I guess, especially one who looks scary as hell in leather.”
Kala smiled and took her leave.
As expected, Baron raged over his missing wine. Kala feigned ignorance and inwardly rejoiced.
As the days went by, she still trained with Rat, but it evolved into the two of them training together, rather than him training her. They sparred and exercised well past the point of exhaustion and lay on the floor, drenched in sweat. Because Baron often sent Rat on errands to the warehouse, Kala took the opportunity to ask him about the goings-on there. Rat wouldn’t say much, and his evasiveness irked her. She stormed off to the showers and decided she needed to see for herself – she’d visit Amber that night.
Arriving there later, Kala peered through the open front doors of the warehouse. Operations seemed to be in full swing. Kala saw several patrons sitting at tables with girls on their laps or circulating among them. Baron had guards at the doors, so she decided not to make a regular entrance. Kala chose a side of the building that had no doors or main floor windows and was consequently unguarded. She climbed a drainpipe to the roof, and from there, swung into a window that vented the building.
From her vantage point in the rafters, she could see into the rooms on the second floor, as they were open from above. She saw much that she instantly regretted seeing, but at least she noted that Amber was alone in her room. She clambered along the rafters until she was over Amber’s room and lowered herself down.
Amber nearly had a heart attack when Kala dropped down beside her, but on realizing who it was, jumped up and hugged her. Kala hugged her back, but when they separated, she noticed that Amber had bruises on her arms and a swollen eye. Kala stiffened. “Who did this to you?” she demanded.
“A client,” Amber replied guardedly.
Kala slid her daggers from their sheaths and looked to the door. “Which one?”
“You can’t…”
“Which one!?” Kala demanded to know.
“He’s not here now. It was last night,” Amber replied. “You’re scaring me. Please just sit down.”
Kala saw red but realized that the man could be carved up later. Right now, Amber could use a friend more than she could an avenging angel. Kala reluctantly sheathed her daggers and sat beside her. Amber leaned into her and Kala stroked her hair. There was nothing to say, so they sat like that for a long while.
“Thank you,” Amber said eventually, “for being here.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here last night.”
“You can’t be here every night.”
“I can try.”
“I appreciate your wanting to, but it’s part of the job.”
“It sure as hell is not.”
“It shouldn’t be, but it is.”
“You have to quit this life,” Kala concluded.
“I have nowhere to go and no coin to do anything else, even if I had somewhere to go. This life has no future, but I’ve made my peace with that.”
“Pardon me if I haven’t.”
“Please don’t judge me.”
“I’m not judging you. I’m judging this cesspool of a world. It needs to burn.”
Amber looked scared. “Please, not again.”
Kala held out her hands to calm her. “I’m not going to set fire to this place.”
“Thank the gods. Then I truly would have nowhere to go.”
“I have a salve for bruises. I’ll bring you some tomorrow.”
“That’s sweet of you. Thank you.”
Kala didn’t think she’d ever been called ‘sweet’ in her entire life. She got up, and Amber rose to give her a goodbye hug. Kala realized that she couldn’t get back up to the rafters without being seen by the occupants of the adjacent rooms, so she exited through the door instead to look for another way up.
Closing the door behind her, an iron grip closed on her arm. She spun, pulling out a dagger, but her attacker caught her hand and held her firm. Kala found herself looking into Rat’s eyes. She whipped out a dagger with her other hand, but he caught that one too. “Are you done?” he asked, relaxed his grip, and made a gesture of peace.
Kala grunted and slid her daggers back into their sheaths.
“This isn’t the place to have this conversation,” he said and gestured for her to follow him. He led her to an empty room, then through a hinged wall panel to the alley below. He swung himself to the ground and Kala followed him.
Standing in the deserted alley, Kala felt safe to speak. “What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Waiting for you.”
“Why?”
“You and I both know that you’re itching to gut the man who did that to Amber.”
“You know Amber?”
“Not personally, but I know all the girls, and I know she’s special to you.”
“So, you understand why I have to kill the bastard.”
“You can’t.”
“Watch me.”
“If you do, word will spread that Amber is not to be messed with, and her clientele will dry up. She won’t be able to earn her keep, and Baron will toss her on the street or find clients who’ll pay more to treat her less well. And even if you succeed in shielding her from harm, what about the other girls?”
“Someone needs to protect them all.”
“That isn’t Baron’s way, and it certainly isn’t Thane’s.”
“You would.”
“I’m not Baron.”
“You should be.”
“Enough talk of that.”
“You know we can’t leave those girls to Thane.”
Rat examined his fingernails to buy himself time to think.
“Rat?”
“I know. I just don’t like what it means.”
“Which is?”
“We’re going to make a madman madder.”
“Thane or Baron?”
“Take your pick.”
“So, you’re in.”
“I’m not happy about it, but yes, I’m in.”
Kala brightened. “We need a plan.”
“Then, we’re in luck because I have one.”
Kala smiled. Rat feigned indifference, but he certainly didn’t feel it.
“Destroying the warehouse won’t solve the problem because Baron will just find somewhere else. We have to get the girls out of that l
ife entirely,” he said.
“Amber said that that wouldn’t work because they have no coin to support themselves if they got out. Baron, and Tito before him, demands all the coin they make.”
“That’s exactly what we need… coin, and lots of it.”
“We’re not exactly well paid.”
“Baron’s coin.”
“And how do we get that?”
“Once every ten days, he moves the coin that this place makes back to his place. We ambush the transport.”
“He’ll be waiting for it to arrive. We’ll have the narrowest of windows to pull it off before he notices that something is amiss. Also, if we distribute the coin among the girls, we can assume that one of them will eventually be coerced into telling Baron that it came from us – then we’d be dead.”
“So, it can’t be us that gives it to them.”
“Who else is there?”
“Your friend, Amber.”
“I won’t mix her up in this.”
“She already is. We need her, and I gather that you trust her.”
“I do.”
“Then this is how it’ll work. We take out the transport as soon after it leaves the warehouse as we dare. Then we get it to Amber to distribute, and race back to Baron’s before word gets to him that the shipment has been hijacked.”
“So much could go wrong with that plan, but I don’t have a better one.” She wracked her brain but came up empty. “When’s the shipment?”
“Two nights from now.”
“Then let’s get to it,” she concluded. “And thank you for doing this.”
“I’m not doing it for you.”
“Then why are you doing it?”
“If I figure that out, I’ll let you know.”
They parted and returned to Baron’s by separate routes and at different times.
Rat spent the next two days scouting the routes that the transport might take and planning an ambush. Kala returned to Amber the next night with salve for her bruises, and to let her in on the plan. Despite her fears, Amber readily agreed to participate. She told each of the other girls to be ready to flee the following night and swore each to silence.
When the time came, Rat and Kala were perched in their selected ambush site near the warehouse. Rat had paid a town guard to patrol nearby, and a few men to play dice on the street in the other direction. They were hardly roadblocks, but they should steer the men guarding the shipment to choose the only other route, which would lead them past their ambush.
It was late at night when operations at the warehouse wound down, and the coin from the past ten days was assembled, counted, and secured for transport. The shipment headed out with two porters and six guards. Rat and Kala waited anxiously in their positions, Kala on the roof, and Rat at street level. As Rat had planned, the transport rounded the corner and came into view.
Kala had several arrows laid out and one notched. It felt good to have a bow back in her hands. She waited until the transport passed the designated point, and she loosed an arrow into the chest of one of the lead guards. Before his companion could even register what had happened, a second arrow pierced his chest. The two of them went down. Rat attacked near-simultaneously from the rear, and his daggers stuck between the shoulder blades of the two guards at the back. As the four men went down, the porters dropped the chest and ran.
The element of surprise spent, Rat drew his sword and closed on the two remaining guards. Baron always selected skilled swordsmen to guard his coin, and the two closed on him confidently. Rat held his own but struggled to find an opening in their defenses. Time was advancing.
Kala couldn’t get a bead on the men as they fought with Rat, so she slid down a rope that she had at the ready, and rushed to his aid. Rat was parrying one of the men’s thrusts when Kala’s thrown sword emerged from his chest. The second man spun to take stock of the new front, and Rat profited from the distraction to slip past his defenses and run him through.
Kala ran up and pulled her sword from the man’s back.
“Subtle,” Rat said.
“Effective,” she countered.
They picked up the heavy chest and ran with it as quickly as they could back to the warehouse. They spirited it in through the hidden entrance and brought it to Amber’s room. She immediately began dividing it into a collection of purses that she’d acquired to distribute the coin among the girls. She brought one to each girl and guided them to the hinged door at the end of the hall, where Rat had propped up a ladder before taking up his position for the ambush.
Rat and Kala didn’t wait. Kala hugged Amber and bolted out with Rat. They ran as fast as they could back to Baron’s. They were still a block away when the alarm went up that the shipment was late. They could see torches being lit throughout the building. Though their lungs burned, they surged ahead faster. They raced to a rope that Kala had secured to the side of the building and climbed to a third-story window.
Racing down a corridor, they could see light streaming from the great room and a large number of Baron’s men assembling there. Kala knew that she couldn’t return to her nest undetected, nor could she explain where she’d been, or the sweat pouring off of her.
“Follow me,” Rat told her, rushing down the hall, and guiding her into a room.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“My room. Now lie down, fast.”
She did as he asked while Rat whipped off his shirt and jumped on top of her, pulling a blanket over him.
“What the hell?” she asked.
“Please don’t kill me for this.”
“What?”
“This,” he replied, and tore her top open.
Kala was so shocked that the only thing that interrupted her from slapping him was the door flying open, followed by one of Baron’s flunkies leaning in.
“Some privacy!” Rat demanded, and the man cringed. Kala covered up, and Baron’s man looked momentarily stunned.
“Shipment’s late. All hands on deck,” the man said finally.
“Got it, now get the hell out.”
“Right,” he said and hurried out, closing the door behind him.
“That was awkward,” Kala blushed and pulled her blouse back together.
“As long as it was believable. And the shock on your face was pretty believable to me,” Rat said while pulling his shirt back on.
“Just don’t try crap like that with me again.”
“I’m not sure we’ll get the chance. Baron isn’t going to like the thought of us together.”
“A problem for another day,” she said and smoothed her clothes.
Rat and Kala entered the great room together, flushed and sweaty, and Baron took this in through narrowed eyes.
23
Skye
Skye couldn’t help it – the gentle jostling of the wagon and sheer boredom put him to sleep. When he woke up, the wagon had stopped, and it was dark. He’d slept much of the day. The caravan must have stopped for the night. He debated revealing himself but decided they were still too close to town. The leader could always have him escorted back, if he was feeling charitable, that was. The way the monks had chased him brandishing weapons, he knew that he couldn’t go back.
Instead, he consigned himself to hiding in the wagon a bit longer. His back ached from lying on the hard surface of the wagon floor, so he tried to reposition himself more comfortably. It was challenging. He passed the time by listening in on the fireside conversation between the merchants and their guards. He couldn’t make out much, but he pieced together that this was dangerous territory owing to brigands that plagued the road. Everyone was on edge. He filed this information away, struggled to flop around, and eventually fell back asleep.
He awoke the next morning to the lurch of the wagon as the caravan got underway. He entertained himself by trying to extract food from his pack and drink from his waterskin without causing any observable movement. As long as he timed whatever he did with the bumps they traversed, his moveme
nts under the wagon’s cover were adequately masked. He decided to reveal himself that night and spent a long time trying to figure out what to say so as not to get himself killed.
His thoughts were interrupted by shouting. He couldn’t see through the sacks that he was wedged among, but it seemed clear that a party of men on horseback was attacking them. He was trapped in the wagon and didn’t have a weapon to defend himself with anyway, so he wasn’t sure what to do. He wriggled closer to the back of the wagon, where the gate was latched and tried to peer out. All he could see was dust, and through it, he heard the shouts of men on horseback circling the wagons and slashing at the embattled guards.
Skye saw a guard on a nearby wagon take a wicked slash to the upper arm and fall to the dirt. He knew that he couldn’t just stay in the wagon – he had to do something. He pushed the sacks aside and fumbled for the latch to the gate. He wasn’t sure if it was stuck, or he just had no leverage, but it didn’t budge. He grew more panicky and threw all his weight behind pushing against the gate.
The gate flew open, right into the path of a circling horse. The horse screeched to a halt to avoid crashing into it, and its rider was thrown over its head to the hard ground. Skye couldn’t see if the man was incapacitated or back on his feet, charging at him. He wriggled free of the sacks that had spilled out with him onto the ground.
Another man on horseback spotted Skye and rode toward him with his sword raised high. Having no weapon to speak of, Skye grabbed a sack, spun around, and heaved it at the rider with all the force he could muster. It knocked the rider clean off his horse, and he was promptly trampled by the horse behind him. He lay writhing on the ground in agony.
Skye concluded that he’d landed a lucky shot, and it wasn’t something he could likely repeat. He looked around for anything he could throw or strike with. There was nothing but sand near him, not even a rock. Out of options, he bent down and grabbed handfuls of sand. A third rider bore down on him, sword raised. Skye threw both handfuls of sand at the man’s face, hoping to blind him, or at the very least, distract him. He missed terribly, and the sand flew directly into the eyes of his horse instead.
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