by Dante King
“Eric,” Anna said, her tone tight. I thought she meant to reprimand me—but glowing light already lapped around her legs. “Here. Use me.”
She transformed into a scythe—and soared through the air, coming to rest in my palm like my fingers were magnetized. The overall effect was mighty impressive, and drew a gasp of despair from the already-wounded Jalen.
“You see this?” I asked, holding up the blade. When he didn’t respond, I added, “The first time you lie to me, I slice off one of your hands. Second time, you lose a foot. After that… I’ll get creative.”
He glanced between his thighs, cringing. “I’ll talk,” he babbled, his will completely broken. It disgusted me how weak he was. Bullies like him always crumbled the moment someone showed a bit of backbone—if I’d done this before, Regina might not be in the situation she’d fallen prey to. “Please! Don’t hurt me!”
“Where’s your wife?” I demanded.
A pained smile flickered across his face. “You see all this stuff?” he asked, gesturing around the ruined warehouse.
“I see it,” I grunted. “That Boar almost killed people today, Jalen. Maybe you should be more concerned about that, instead of the loss of a few boxes of goods…”
He laughed ruefully. “That’s the thing,” he said, spitting a gout of blood into the dirt as I held him up by his collar. “Those goods don’t belong to me! I was just holding them for the Vipers!”
Lyra stepped forward, fury on her face. “So you’re their fence,” she said, looking angrier than I’d ever seen her. “You’re the one who’s been helping them smuggle drugs through the town?”
“I didn’t know what they were,” Jalen protested, giving Lyra a venomous look. “And I didn’t ask,” he said, turning his gaze back to me. “The money was too good. But now look at me! I’m in deep shit! Regina was barely a down payment on what I owe—”
I slammed a fist into his gut. He went down on his hands and knees in the dirt, retching.
“Where are they taking her?” I asked, holding the scythe blade over his head. “Answer me!”
It was several moments before Jalen recovered enough to respond. “The Silent Auction,” he croaked, gasping into the dirt.
I had no idea what the words meant. But they provoked an immediate, extreme reaction from Lyra.
“You son of a bitch!” she roared, kicking him in the face. Jalen fell onto his ass, backing up before the sight of the severely pissed off redhead in front of him. “How could you!?”
As she advanced, I brought the scythe blade down between Lyra and Jalen. “Stop,” I commanded her. “I’ve got more questions for him. He’s no good to us unconscious.”
Lyra controlled herself with an effort. “We ought to put him in the ground,” she snarled, backing away a step. “Selling his own wife to the Silent Auction!”
“I feel like I’m missing something here,” I said, my gaze traveling from Jalen to Lyra. “We have silent auctions where I come from, but they’re generally pretty sedate affairs. Why is it so bad that that’s where Regina’s been sent?”
Lyra let out a harsh, flat laugh. “They call it the Silent Auction,” she explained, still glaring at Jalen, “because you aren’t supposed to talk about the things you’re bidding on. Drugs, exotic monsters—even people.” She shuddered. “Anna told me Hazel explained to you the forbidden method of Cultivation.”
“Right.” Taking the Core from another human being and harvesting it, the way you’d do to a monster. It was the sort of thing that would brand you as a murderer in this world—or worse. “But I thought you only got a Core when you reached Early Core Formation, and you have to be a Cultivator to get to that point. I didn’t think Regina was a Cultivator, either.”
Lyra shook her head. “She wasn’t. But there are still ways an evil Cultivator can use a human to grow in power, ways that don’t require their victims to have a Core. Sometimes evil Cultivators will go to the Silent Auction and… purchase a person,” she said, spitting into the dirt. “It’s the most evil form of murder and slavery, is what it is. It’s utterly fucking vile.”
For a few moments, all I could do was stare at Jalen. My hand went to my forehead. “Jesus Christ. Your own wife!?”
Something broke inside of Jalen. “It would’ve been me otherwise!” he shouted, his fingers digging into the packed earth beneath him. “That bitch caused this whole problem to begin with! If she hadn’t been a clumsy wench and let the Armored Boar out of its cage, I never would’ve ended up in hock to the Vipers—”
I’d heard more than enough. I smacked the man with the flat of my blade, sending him sprawling. He groaned in the dirt, more blood streaming from his nostrils.
“Do you know where this Silent Auction is?” I asked Lyra.
She nodded gravely. “Yes. I’ve heard of it, of course—you hear everything at the Hungry Herb—but I’ve never been there.” A frown spread across her face. “I’ll be changing that tonight.”
“Tonight?”
“If the Vipers abducted Regina this quickly, it must be because they intend to auction her off immediately. They probably already have a buyer—someone in town who either wants her as a slave, or wants to harvest her for dark Cultivation purposes. I don’t know which possibility is worse.”
I tried to picture the fresh-faced woman we’d met sobbing in the warehouse. I barely remembered her—it seemed impossible that someone should want to hurt her that badly. But then again, her husband had done most of the damage.
“Can you get us in?” I asked, glancing at the scythe in my hand. Perhaps I could smuggle Anna in as a weapon, keep her on my back. The townsfolk had seen the scythe, however, while I fought the Armored Boar. Perhaps they could identify me by it.
“Aye,” Lyra said, nodding again. Her gaze never traveled away from Jalen’s prone form—and her eyes never stopped being daggers of accusation, either.
Jalen groaned through the pain. “Leave me,” he said, beginning to weep. “Why did I ever marry that bitch? The Vipers will never forgive me now…”
I stalked over to him, the scythe in my hands. “You’ve got bigger problems than the Vipers,” I growled.
He cowered. For a few moments, I considered killing him. Anna’s voice was a bestial howl in my head, baying for blood. It would have been justice, maybe—of a sort.
I shook my head. “Pack up and leave town,” I said, lowering the scythe.
Jalen’s eyes filled with disbelief. “All my wares are here,” he protested, wiping blood away from his lips.
I brought the scythe an inch away from his face. “You leave town,” I snarled, “and you never come back. If Lyra, Anna or I ever see you again, you’re dead, you understand me? Get your shit, get out, and don’t look back.”
He nodded eagerly. “Sure! I… I was planning on lamming it, anyway! Before the Vipers get hold of me!”
“Good.” I turned away, twirling the scythe in my hands. “And don’t even think about hurting Regina—”
Something flashed past me in the darkness. A gurgle erupted from Jalen’s lips, and when I turned, a slender dagger protruded from his throat. The man’s eyes went wide with shock, his fingers feebly gripping at the hilt, then he fell over and was still.
“Lyra?” She stood there, framed against the open warehouse door like a vengeful goddess. “What the fuck?”
The redhead shrugged. “I saw him again,” she said simply.
The scythe shimmered in my hands, transforming back into my girlfriend Anna. She didn’t seem surprised in the least to find Jalen dead, the dagger protruding from his wattled neck. Anna sniffed at the sight of blood staining the man’s chest, giving him about as much attention as she would an animal she’d found run over by a car.
“I vaguely heard all that,” Anna said, rubbing the side of her head. “Something about an auction?”
Briefly, I outlined the story Jalen had told us. When I got to the part about the Silent Auction, her gaze hardened the same way Lyra’s had. “We have to stop it!”
>
“Agreed,” Lyra said with a nod. “The guards at the gate will let me into the auction—though they’ll no doubt tease me mercilessly about it—but they’d definitely stop you two from getting in. I’ve got an idea for how to get around that, though. We’ll need my cart.”
“Lead the way,” Anna said, ready and raring for action. Just then, my stomach gave a quite undignified rumble—I’d burned up quite a lot of Mana rushing over here.
Lyra laughed. “We’ll get you both something to chow down on while we travel, as well,” the redhead assured us both. “You’re going to need full access to your powers when we get to the Auction. This could very easily get ugly.”
I nodded. Despite the amount of combat experience Anna and I had between the two of us, the thought of fighting at the Silent Auction still sent me into a cold sweat. I’d fought monsters, sure—the Nippers, the Marsh Croc, the massive bulk of the Armored Boar—but those had been different. They hadn’t been people. Just rampaging beasts.
Did I have what it took to cut down human beings? Was I that savage?
If I don’t do it, I told myself, then an innocent woman will be sold into slavery. Or worse…
I thought about Guildmaster Ji, ripping Hazel’s Cultivation powers away. Forget the Armored Boar—people like him were the real monsters. The Boar, the Marsh Croc—they were just raging, defending their territory, or acting from shock. People like Ji enjoyed hurting other human beings, and that made them so much worse.
“You were right,” I said suddenly, startling my companions.
Lyra looked at me strangely. “Hell, I know I’m right,” she said, frowning. “About what?”
I gestured at Jalen. “For putting him down. Even a dog is better than a man like that.”
A sympathetic look spread across the redhead’s face. “Come on,” she said, putting an arm around my shoulder. “We’ve got lots of work to do before the night’s through. But it’ll be worth it. You two will be even bigger heroes than you were before, and you’ll earn the town’s undying gratitude.”
I stopped in the middle of the street. “And yours?”
Lyra grinned from ear to ear. “You’ve already got that,” she said, giving me a kiss. “Both of you do. I think you know that when you leave this town, I’m coming with you.” Her hands went to my waist. “But I hope you’ll stay a good long while. I do so love having you and Anna in my bed.”
I kissed her again, deeper this time. Were it not for the demands of the Silent Auction, that kiss might have developed into something even more fun—there was an alley right next to us, after all. But after a few moments of panting and groping, we separated.
“Rain check?” I asked.
Lyra slapped my ass. “You better believe it. Now let’s get that cart before people start asking questions. I don’t want the Vipers to get clued in that we’re coming.”
We made our way down the main thoroughfare, heading to the Hungry Herb. The revelry planned for us there would have to wait. We had a job to do.
Chapter 21
As it turned out, Lyra’s plan was to drive right up to the gates and ask to be let in. She claimed she’d received several invitations to the Silent Auction from unscrupulous members of the Hollow Frog Guild, and had turned down every one. She figured she had a standing invitation to attend, which would get her inside.
The problem, of course, was that no one wanted to see Anna or me. Which was why we needed the cart.
“This sucks,” I grunted, tearing through a rice ball. Kij had packed the rice full of those spicy strips of fish I liked, which made the cramped confines of the cart only slightly more tolerable. “How much further is it to this place, anyway?”
I had a whole new appreciation for Hazel. The poor girl had ridden in the back of this cart through an entire Zone. Thirty minutes of it left me with aches and pains that would take days to work out. Every bump in the road and rock in the path made the whole thing jump and buck like an angry bronco, knocking Anna and me together. The two of us lay beneath a tarp, hidden among some excess barrels of Lyra’s beer, which made the whole thing even more difficult to endure. The summer night was balmy, and without the gentle breezes of the Verdant Ruins, as stuffy as a room with no windows.
“I keep telling you, you should let me turn back into a scythe.” Anna had already finished her rice ball, eating half of it, then handing the rest to me. She claimed she hadn’t burnt as much Mana as I had in the town, but I thought she just intended to spend most of any fight as my weapon and wanted me more charged up than her. “I wouldn’t feel this heat!”
“Yeah, but then I’d have to spend the whole trip listening to you screaming for blood,” I said, grinning at her.
Her hand strayed to my thigh. “I could spend the drive screaming something else,” she purred, a naughty look in her eyes.
The back of the cart slammed downward, as if an animal had landed on the back wheels. What the hell was that?
Anna froze, her eyes growing big and wide. “Lyra?” she asked, peeling back the edge of the tarp. “What kind of beasts are there in this section of the Zone?”
“Quiet now,” Lyra said without turning. “We’re almost to the Auction. I’m going to need you two to be as quiet as church mice.”
Anna pressed her body against mine, her eyes locked on the back half of the cart. Nothing moved over there, which slowly convinced me we’d just struck a rock or something in the path. Eventually I recovered enough to finish off my rice ball, and snuck a peek beyond the tarp to see our destination.
Toward the end of the path, a palisade of logs, almost like the ones surrounding the Hollow Frog Guild’s headquarters, stood out from a boggy marsh. The path continued into the swamp, a narrow pier made of thick boards stretching out over the water. It was just barely wide enough for the cart. The muffled sounds of the oxen’s hooves changed as we moved from dirt to wood.
The Silent Auction was anything but silent. Whoever set it up had turned an island in the center of the swamp into a meeting place, surrounding it with thick wooden walls. Lights streamed from it, illuminating thick plumes of swamp gas. The sounds of men laughing, screaming, arguing reached our ears through the marshy landscape as we drew closer.
Lyra edged the cart to a stop. I heard the sound of heavy boots treading the boards—guards. Anna and I snuggled closer, trying to be as quiet as possible.
“Lyra?” The guard sounded surprised. “So you’ve finally gotten off your high horse, huh? Decided to do a little wheeling and dealing with the rest of us?”
“Not at all.” The Mistress of the Hungry Herb Tavern managed to sound like a socialite who’d been forced to dine with her inferiors. “I require medicine for one of my barmaids. The apothecary is out, so I’m forced to procure it here.”
“Medicine.” That was the other guard, who turned the word into a snicker. “Shockleaf, more like. Got some girls who need to stay focused all hours, Lyra? You getting into the oldest trade?”
I felt the waves of disgust rolling off her body, yet Lyra stayed firm. “Enough. It’s humiliating enough to be here. May I pass?”
My heart jumped into my throat. The cart moved a few inches, the oxen walking back and forth as if they were just as eager to be on their way.
“Hold on,” the first guard grunted. “What have you got in the cart, Lyra?”
I heard her snort. “What do I always have in the cart, Tadd? It’s beer. You know the value of a pint, as do I. I brought it to trade for the medicine.”
“Uh huh.” The guard’s voice moved down the side of the cart, his footfalls thudding on the boards. “Looks like you got quite a few barrels there, Ly. How much of this ‘medicine’ do you think you’re going to need?”
A catch entered Lyra’s voice. I hoped the guards didn’t notice it. “I am expected inside,” she growled, affecting an even haughtier tone. “I’m going to be late for the auction block if you don’t stop prattling on and let me unload my goods.”
“Sure, sure,” t
he guard said breezily. “Just give me a minute.”
Anna and I tensed. The voice was right next to us now. If he pulled back the tarp…
The man rapped a barrel right next to my head. Only a supreme effort of will kept me from crying out. My hand clasped around Anna’s mouth, stilling her surprised cry.
“Sure sounds like liquid,” the guard said with a laugh. His voice moved further down the cart, toward the back, and Anna and I relaxed. “Alright, Ly. I’m glad to finally see you here, you know? Been too long, you walking around thinking you’re better than everybody else…”
The guard trailed off. I heard something rustling at the back of the cart.
“Hey,” the guard snapped. “What are you trying to pull—”
Silence. The moment stretched out, became two, with not a single sound save for the crickets in the swamp.
“Uh, Tadd?” The second guard moved around the other side of the cart, his footsteps more hesitant than his partner. “You okay, buddy—”
The second guard let out a gurgle and went still. Anna and I shared a confused look. What the hell?
We threw back the tarp. Both guards lay dead on the ground, their throats neatly slit from ear to ear. Standing over them, a deep scowl on her face, was Hazel.
“Oh,” she said flatly, her gaze traveling from Lyra to the two of us. “I guess she brought you two along, as well.”
Something clicked in my head. “That was you climbing into the cart,” I realized, remembering the strange bump as we approached the gates. “You were waiting for a way in.”
Hazel turned to the gate. With the two guards dead, no one was watching the entrance. “Guildmaster Ji’s somewhere in there,” she said, grimacing. “They say he visits the brothel every Silent Auction, picks up two or three girls.” She twirled her knives. “Tonight’s going to be his last visit.”
Lyra twisted around in her seat. When she saw Hazel, her face went as pale as milk. “You,” she gasped. Then, at the sight of the dead guards, “Fuck.”
Hazel seemed unperturbed by Lyra’s shock. She climbed back onto the cart, holding on and gesturing at the entrance with her chin. “We should get back beneath this,” she said, gesturing at Anna and me. “They won’t discover the dead guards for a while, but they will discover them. Eventually.”