The Executioner's Apprentice (The Executioner's Song Book 2)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Which was why he started stealing,” Finn said.

  “Maybe not started. When she was getting sick, she couldn’t work, so your father had needed to pick up some of the slack. He started taking small jobs to begin with, and those jobs turned into bigger jobs and then bigger jobs. Before he was pinched, he had started getting involved in increasingly significant jobs.”

  “You were there with him. What was the job?”

  “Finn…” He looked as if he wanted to say something more, but shook his head. “None of that matters. When I learned he was moved. It was too late for me to do anything about it.”

  “What would you have done?”

  “I would’ve tried to break him out.” Oscar shrugged. “I can’t say I would’ve been successful. Same reason I wasn’t able to break you out of Declan. I would’ve tried.”

  “I need to go.”

  Finn looked toward the door. Meyer and Lena were out there, probably waiting for him. Lena likely would’ve told Meyer about Oscar coming to the church, and Finn had no idea what Meyer might even say, if anything.

  Oscar grabbed his wrist. “I understand. Listen. I didn’t come only to pay my respects. There’s something else you need to know about.”

  “Really?”

  Oscar looked around, as if concerned about who might be listening in. Finn doubted that anyone within the church of Heleth would be spying on them. What would the priests care about what they said to each other?

  “I’m not exactly sure what’s going on. Crews have been active. Really active. Not exactly sure what’s going on, but they’ve been up to something.”

  “What about your crew?”

  Oscar held his gaze, saying nothing.

  “You don’t want to tell me?”

  “I’ve had some difficulty with jobs recently,” Oscar said carefully.

  “The Hand? How is that even possible?”

  “I imagine the Client has made things a little more difficult for me.”

  Bellut had threatened those Finn cared about. “Why would he be able to?”

  “Same way that he hired the King. Don’t you go fretting about that, Finn. I can take care of my own business. I’m just letting you know that something is up. Something big.”

  And it had to be, especially considering Oscar had been willing to say something. It spoke to his level of concern.

  “You really don’t know anything?”

  “I’m not in on this one, Finn. The Mistress has seen to that. Tried to figure out more but haven’t been able to get anywhere.”

  Finn didn’t know much about the Mistress, other than she often controlled jobs in the city.

  “That’s why you came to me.”

  “I came to you because it might help both of us.”

  Finn grunted. “Now I get it.”

  Oscar shook his head. “There’s nothing wrong with both of us benefiting here.”

  “I suppose not.” He frowned. “Say. Do you know a man who runs in a crew by the name of Seamus?”

  “Why?” Oscar asked.

  The way that he said it suggested to Finn that Oscar did know him. “He’s involved in something. He came to Meyer for healing a while back. And now the hegen want me to find him.”

  As soon as he said hegen, Oscar’s eyes twitched slightly. “You need to be careful.”

  “I don’t owe them anything for this,” Finn said.

  “Are you sure about that?”

  “This time, I am.”

  Oscar looked around the church before settling his gaze on Finn. “I know him. He will be in the Nethel section. That’s where his crew likes to run. Pretty distinctive man, so he shouldn’t be too hard for you to find.”

  Finn nodded slowly. He knew the section.

  “I can see you need to go,” Oscar said. “Just remember that I’m trying to help.”

  Finn grunted. “Now you want to call in a favor?”

  “It can work both ways.”

  Was that the way their friendship was going to go now?

  At least it was a friendship.

  If Finn saw Rock again, he had no idea how he might be received. No, that wasn’t entirely true. He had a pretty good idea how he would be received.

  “And be careful. I don’t know what’s going on, but whatever it is strikes me as dangerous.”

  “The same kind of dangerous we had with the King?”

  “Close enough to make me worry.”

  He clasped Finn on the shoulder, holding his gaze for a moment, and then nodded to him.

  Finn shuffled off to the side, looking out of the door leading into the church, and didn’t see any sign of Meyer. Or Lena, for that matter.

  Where would she have gone?

  Finn paused and found Oscar making his way toward the altar, moving slowly, and when he reached the altar, he paused there for a moment, looking down at Finn’s mother. He stood for a long time in front of her. Dressed as he was in the priest’s robes, Finn could almost feel as if Oscar were praying over her, though that might only be his imagination.

  He stepped out into the sunlight. Meyer and Lena were gone.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  He hurried through the streets. It was late enough that he didn’t encounter much of a crowd, and when he passed a pair of Archers, he nodded to them. Dressed as he was, he didn’t attract much notice. Not only was he dressed well, and still for the funeral, but he moved with a determined step.

  He had to get answers.

  The moon was out, fat and full, and a hint of starlight glittered in the sky. A gentle north breeze blew in, carrying with it the smells of the forest, along with a hint of what must be a coming rain. The air had turned crisper, and Finn knew that they wouldn’t have much time before the season shifted and winter came in full.

  Finn wasn’t sure that he was ready for winter yet. Working the streets in the winter was not easy. People dressed differently, which meant stealing from them was harder, and it was also harder to sneak around late at night. There weren’t darks for winter. Either you suffered the cold or you simply didn’t pull the same jobs. He wasn’t sure what it would be like working with Meyer in the winter.

  He had to focus on the job at hand. Find Seamus.

  That was where Esmerelda had guided him.

  Now he had to figure out why.

  Finn moved carefully, and when he reached the Nethel section, he slowed. Oscar suggested he’d find him here, but where to look?

  Finn paused, pulling out the card, flipping it in his hand as he stared at it for a long moment, before finally putting it away. When he looked up, there were shadows moving in the distance.

  Darks.

  Seamus shouldn’t be able to pull any jobs these days, not with a broken leg, but why was it that one of the figures looked to be moving differently? There was a strange hobbling sort of motion. That had to be Seamus.

  The fool thought to pull a job while using crutches?

  What kind of person did that?

  The same kind of person who fell off of a roof, Finn knew.

  And it was the kind of thing that Finn actually understood. Having worked with crews before, and knowing how hard it was to take up a position in a crew, there was the pressing desire to hold that position. If you lost it, if you were replaced, then it was incredibly difficult to claw your way back into the crew and prove your worth. That had to be part of the reason that Seamus would be willing to come out there in this way.

  Finn stayed along the shadows, though he wasn’t dressed nearly right to conceal himself. He moved carefully and quietly, staying concealed as much as he could, and when he caught up to where the crew had disappeared, he paused.

  Oscar—and Wolf, for that matter—had made a point of telling him just how out of practice he was. He’d lost a step. He wasn’t dressed right for this.

  He turned the corner and came face-to-face with a tall man dressed in all dark clothing. He had a large forehead and narrow eyes, and clutched a knife that he brought back.
>
  Finn immediately danced back and crashed into someone else.

  Damn.

  This was a mistake.

  “What are you doing, following us?” the bruiser asked.

  There was something about his voice that was familiar. Finn looked up, but he couldn’t see his face. “I’m not following you. I’m looking for Seamus.”

  “We don’t know a Seamus.”

  “I don’t know what you call him, but he’s got red hair. Broken leg.”

  Finn tried to get up, but someone kicked him from the side. He braced himself, managing to ignore most of the brunt of the kick, but it still hurt.

  He debated whistling for the Archers, but he might just as well end with a knife in his belly as he would with any answers.

  “I just need to ask him a few questions.”

  “We’re not letting some upper-class cunt ask him any questions.”

  Finn chuckled. “I’m not upper-class.”

  He could feel movement near him, and he knew that somebody was getting close enough to kick again, and he braced, pushing out his hands, preparing to block.

  Finn had never been a fighter, and certainly not a bruiser, but he had trained enough with Master Meyer that he’d grown stronger. When the kick came, Finn pushed, shoving the person staggering down the street.

  It wasn’t the bruiser. If it had been, he doubted he would have been successful. He got to his feet, looking around and slipped his gaze at the others. “I’m just looking to have a few words with Seamus.”

  “Hey there, boys,” a familiar voice said. It was Seamus. Finn recognized the strange lilting accent to his words. “You don’t need to protect me from him. He helped bandage me up. Worked with the old hangman, he did. Sounds like he likes to have a few mugs of ale, this one.”

  “That one can’t handle any mugs of ale.”

  It came from the bruiser, and once again, Finn thought he recognized his voice.

  “Rock?” The bruiser stepped closer, and Finn’s eyes widened. “Damn, it is you. It’s good…” The hurt on Rock’s face made Finn cut off. There was no warmth there, not like there once had been. “What are you doing with this crew?”

  “You shouldn’t be out here, Shuffles.”

  “Shuffles?” Seamus asked, laughing. “Here, I thought mine was bad.”

  “What’s yours?”

  “Fish.”

  “I don’t get it,” Finn said.

  “I don’t either, but they liked it better than Red.”

  Seamus glanced from Finn to the others before tipping his head in a slight nod.

  They drifted off to the side of the street, leaving Finn with Seamus and Rock.

  “I’m not going to do anything to him,” Finn said.

  “Can’t trust you, Shuffles. Not no more.”

  “That’s how it’s going to be with us?”

  Rock glowered at him. “There is no us.”

  Finn breathed out slowly. “I’m just here to ask him a few questions. He’s not under investigation.”

  Rock snorted. “Like I wasn’t?”

  Finn rounded on him. Rock was much taller than Finn, more muscular, and intimidating, but Finn knew him. They were friends. Maybe not anymore, but he didn’t think Rock would hurt him.

  “You know what happened as well as I do, Rock. Don’t go running around, blaming me for that. I did what I had to.”

  Rock frowned. “What you had to?”

  “The same way you did what you had to.” Finn took a step toward him, looking up. “Leon got what he deserved. I’m not going to feel one bit bad about it.”

  “Wait,” Seamus said, glancing from Finn to Rock. “You were on the King’s crew? I can’t believe it,” Seamus said, laughing. He brought his hands together as if to clap, but then caught himself before he lost his balance with his crutches and fell forward. He chuckled, shaking his head. “Damn. I knew you had some crazy story.”

  “He’s not in the crew,” Rock said.

  Seamus just chuckled. “You can leave us alone, big guy. He’s not going to do anything to hurt me. Gods, if it weren’t for him, I might’ve had one of those damn cutters take my leg all the way off.”

  Rock backed away, giving Finn and Seamus a chance to talk. Seamus leaned forward on the crutches, keeping his injured leg bent up, though the bandages looked quite a bit dirtier than they had when Finn had been with him last time.

  “You should keep that clean,” Finn suggested.

  “It’s not always easy to keep it clean with the kind of work I do,” he said.

  “Then maybe you shouldn’t be doing that kind of work,” Finn said.

  Seamus shrugged. “What can I say? I have jobs to run.”

  “You’re the crew leader.”

  Seamus just shrugged again.

  Finn wouldn’t have guessed it from his time with Seamus, but having seen the way Rock protected him and the way Seamus instructed them, he should have known better.

  Had he only known, maybe he would have thought of a different set of questions. Maybe he would have asked Oscar for help. At least Seamus seemed to be the crew leader. Rock couldn’t hurt Finn unless Seamus decided he should.

  “What do you want to know? You obviously have something on your mind, Shuffles.”

  Finn glanced over to where Rock loomed in the shadows. If Finn were to take any action, he had little doubt that Rock would be there and prevent him from getting too close to Seamus.

  “I have a few more things now.”

  Seamus frowned. “I’m not going to turn any of my team in.”

  “It’s not about your team.” He looked along the street, trying to figure out just what it was that he needed to understand. There was something there, Finn was certain of it, but he didn’t have any idea what it was that the hegen wanted him to find. “Can we talk somewhere else?”

  “You don’t like talking out here in the street?”

  Finn shrugged. “I thought you boasted about how much ale you could drink.”

  Seamus glanced at the others within his crew, shaking his head. “Can’t report any of my crew, you see.”

  “I’m not asking you to report any of your crew. I’m asking for a few answers. And I’m not investigating you.”

  Seamus sniffed. “I’ve seen how those things go. I’m sure you have, too. You start looking into one person, it leads you to another, then another, and pretty soon everybody is lined up in prison, all of them trying to keep from getting their lashes or facing banishment from the city. I think it’s probably for the best if I just thank you for setting my leg and letting me keep it.”

  “I could—”

  “You could nothing,” Seamus said. There was a dark and dangerous edge to his words.

  It reminded him of the King. Mostly humor but an undercurrent of something else. There was a danger to him, the same way that the King had a danger. Without it, they wouldn’t be able to run the crew quite as well.

  He needed to figure out just what Seamus knew. And Finn was convinced he knew something.

  There was only one way he could get answers. He pulled the hegen card out and handed it to Seamus.

  He took it slowly, frowning. “What is this…”

  “This is the reason I came to talk to you.”

  Seamus glanced over to the others in his crew, nodding slowly. “I see. Maybe we could get a drink,” Seamus grinned. “I know a place.”

  The Wandering Hog was very little different than the Wenderwolf. Music played, though the musicians weren’t quite as skilled as were found in the Wenderwolf. Ale flowed, served by women revealing quite a bit of cleavage, and couples danced, bouncing around the inside of the tavern, voices and boots on the wooden floor, giving a low-level noise to everything.

  Finn sat at one of the back tables, near the door, looking across at Seamus. A mug of ale sat in front of him, barely touched. Seamus had already gone through half of his mug.

  Rock stood off to the side, watching. He hadn’t taken a seat, but he wasn’t th
e only one. There was a dark-haired woman with a long dagger sheathed at her side, and she watched Finn, a deadly look in her eyes.

  “It looks like your crew is keeping tabs on you closely,” Finn said.

  “What can I say? They care about me.”

  Finn took a sip of ale. It wasn’t quite as good as was found in the Wenderwolf, either. It was better than what he had found outside of the city. These days, Finn didn’t get the opportunity to enjoy ale quite as often as he once did.

  “I think I need to know about the job you were on when you fell.”

  Seamus took a drink, glancing over to Rock and then the woman before looking across his mug at Finn. “Not sure there’s much I can tell you.”

  Seamus looked down at the card resting on the table between them. He hadn’t let it go, and given that Finn had come specifically because of the hegen card, he understood the uncertainty he saw in Seamus’s eyes.

  “Where did you get that?” Seamus asked, looking up from the card and meeting Finn’s eyes. “I know where you got it, but where did you get it?”

  “There’s one of the hegen named Esmerelda—”

  “Shit,” Seamus said, shaking his head. “That one?” He glanced over to the others, and leaned toward Finn, lowering his voice. “How did you get involved with her?”

  “It’s a long story. You obviously know the hegen too.”

  Seamus took a deep breath, then downed the rest of his ale before setting the empty mug on the table. Somebody was there within moments, giving him a new mug. Seamus didn’t even look up. “I know them. Not that I want to talk about why.”

  “Then tell me how you got hurt.”

  Seamus sniffed. “We took on a job. Didn’t know the employer, so you don’t need to ask. Somebody willing to pay quite a bit. Not from around here, you see.”

  Finn took a sip of his ale. “What did they sound like?”

  “Heavy accent. Said we needed to place these items in a dozen buildings around the city.” He shrugged. “Paid well, especially since we weren’t asked to take anything like we normally are. This was placing something.”

  “What were you putting in these buildings?”