Deepwoods (Book 1)

by Honor Raconteur

  “How long has he been with you?”

  “Ten years.”

  He pursued his lips in a soundless whistle. “A long time. Do you plan to keep Rune with you that long?”

  “That’s entirely his decision to make. I promised to help him leave the continent in exchange for his help. What he does after we leave Island Pass is up to him.”

  “Hmmm.” Jarnsmor let the subject rest there and instead switched topics. “The Blackstone guildmembers will be safe here while you go and investigate. I sent my own message to Darrens assuring him of such. When you do go to Orin, I request that you leave your physician Conli behind. He’s been very helpful to us in caring for people.”

  She translated the ‘request’ for ‘demand’ without a problem. “Of course. I’d doubt I’d be able to pry him away at this point anyway.”

  “Good.”

  ӜӜӜ

  With Jarnsmor preparing the ship, Siobhan went to tell her people the news and get them in motion. She saw people in the halls and the gardens, all of them on their own pursuits, and told them as she passed. They all assured her they’d be ready, and she had no doubt of it.

  Siobhan found Wolf and Conli, the last two, in the common room just outside of the Blackstone area. Since people were likely sleeping—the heavily injured tended to sleep more than not—Siobhan didn’t hail them but simply waved to get their attention as she walked across the room. Wolf and Conli paused in their conversation and looked up, waiting for her.

  “I just spoke with Jarnsmor,” she said in a low tone. “He’s arranging a ship for us and we leave for Orin in the next few days.”

  Wolf nodded in satisfaction.

  Turning to Conli, she added, “He did request that you stay and tend to the Blackstone members.”

  “I intended to,” Conli assured her.

  “I thought as much.”

  “And Grae?”

  Siobhan blinked, then slapped herself on the forehead. “Oh, right! I’d nearly forgotten how badly he gets seasick. I’ll have him stay here with you.”

  “And Rune?” Wolf asked her, a trace of bitterness in the question.

  Siobhan stared blankly at him, not understanding what he was asking.

  “You intend to bring him along with us?” Wolf elaborated patiently.

  She cocked her head. “Why wouldn’t I? Oh, did you catch up with him last night?”

  Wolf grumbled something inaudible, which she took to mean ‘no.’

  “Well, if he’s still in one piece, then why wouldn’t I bring him along? It would be awkward to leave him here in Sateren, after all.”

  He didn’t have a response to that, just looked away, a resigned sigh escaping from his mouth.

  “You don’t need to worry, Wolf.” Conli had an odd quirk to his mouth, as if he were biting back a smile.

  “Worry?” Wolf repeated in a growl befitting his nickname.

  “Siobhan isn’t a love interest for Rune,” he clarified. His expression warred between being sympathetic and amused. “He doesn’t see her that way.”

  Wolf went very, very still. His eyes focused sharply as he studied Conli’s expression as if trying to read the man’s mind. “Oh? You seem to be quite certain of this. If that’s so, then what does he see her as?”

  “A mother.”

  Even Siobhan felt surprised at this answer. Mother? Absurd! Rune was only eight, nine years her junior. The very idea was preposterous.

  Seeing the disbelieving expressions aimed his direction, Conli started defending his opinion, ticking things off on his fingers as he went. “He checks in with her before he goes anywhere. He eats when she tells him to. He comes and shares little things with her like a child showing off. Shall I continue?”

  Trotted out like that, she had a hard time refuting anything. But…but still… “A mother?”

  “Wolf, you’ve experienced life in a dark guild.” Conli cocked his head slightly, tone a simple statement of fact. “You know better than I what life is like there. I heard you describe it as living darkness. Being in an environment like that would take its toll on any heart. You, at least, came from a loving home and knew light from darkness. Rune never experienced anything else. Now, suddenly, he has. All of us aside, he has a woman who shows concern for his wellbeing and smiles at his antics. Is it really so strange that he’s attached himself to her the way a duckling would?”

  Wolf scrubbed a hand over his face for a moment before he let out a heavy, drawn-out sigh. “Your theory makes too much sense.”

  “It does,” Siobhan admitted. “Although the idea of it feels awkward.”

  “Well, he may think of you more as a big sister,” Conli added thoughtfully.

  That did sit better with her. Or at least, she could wrap her head around it better. Still, now that she had this knowledge, what was she supposed to do with it?

  “Don’t think too much on this,” Conli advised them both. “In fact, act like you’ve always done. Just be aware that his intentions are not nefarious.”

  “He acts like he didn’t just put a spike in the wheel,” Siobhan complained to Wolf. He gave her a sour grunt in return.

  “You asked,” Conli pointed out mildly.

  “No, I didn’t!” she sputtered. “Wolf did!”

  Wolf rubbed at his forehead in a pained gesture. “Believe me, I’m sorry I brought it up.”

  “Just keep in mind that taking him with you to Orin will be fine.” Conli smiled at the two of them, lips quirked in an almost-smile. “That’s all you need to remember.”

  Siobhan lightly slapped both of her cheeks to erase the weird expression she was surely wearing. “Thank you, Conli, for adding to the general strangeness. With that lovely idea in mind, I’m going to hunt Rune down and tell him about the trip. Wolf, get packing.”

  She turned on a heel without waiting for any response and tried to organize the lines of her face into a general, neutral expression. Stupid Conli and his unnecessary theories. Don’t think much on this? Act like you’ve always done? Now how was she supposed to pull any of that off? One of these days, she’d find the right size cork to stick in that mouth of his. He always told her more than she wanted to know.

  Muttering to herself, she went looking for an assassin.

  “Shi, there’s a problem.”

  She looked up wearily toward the doorway. Beirly had that look to him, the one that said he wasn’t budging until she either fixed the problem or gave him a solution. He stood solidly in front of her chair, arms crossed over his chest, beard bristling like a bear contemplating a rampage.

  This was the third time in the past hour that she’d picked up her book only to be forced to set it down again. Resigned, she closed it and set it aside on the table. “Alright, which one are you referring to?”

  “There’s more than one problem?” he asked in genuine concern.

  “In this guild, when isn’t there?” she countered crossly. “Just sit, and tell me what it is you want.”

  “You know that Rune is disappearing into the city every day?”

  At least he had waited until the common room was empty before speaking to her about this. Siobhan gathered up some patience from somewhere and managed to respond steadily, “I know.”

  “He’s likely contacting his old guild, you know that too?”

  “That I highly doubt.”

  Beirly blinked at her. “Why?”

  “That’s not an answer I can give without…breaking faith with him.” Not that Rune had really told her anything, per se, but she’d been able to read a great deal into the way he flinched. Also his habits of responding to danger or even just general trouble told her what his life must have been like before she’d taken him on. His life here might be difficult, bewildering, even confusing, but it was infinitely better than where he had been. She didn’t believe for one second that he wished to go back to Silent Order.

  Beirly sat back in his seat with a slight huff and regarded her for several seconds through narrowed eyes. “You
know something.”

  “I know very little and have a lot of guesses.”

  He snorted, not believing this. “Then why is he leaving every day, only coming back at night.”

  “My theory? He’s not comfortable in his former enemy’s main headquarters.”

  That bushy red beard twitched. “Didn’t think of that.”

  Siobhan rubbed at one temple with her fingertips. “Just tell me that you didn’t spread this theory of Rune defecting to his old guild around?”

  “Wasn’t the one that thought of it,” he confessed.

  Glory. That meant she had at least half the guild to straighten out.

  Markl came around her chair and sat on the adjoining loveseat, sinking into it without invitation. “I have the real reason for you, if you want to hear it.”

  They both looked at him in interest.

  “Iron Dragain is hassling him,” Markl informed them without prompting. “I caught them doing it this morning as he was leaving. The leaders here don’t do anything more than look at him sideways, but the lower ranking members are giving him grief even though he’s not doing anything to provoke them.”

  Siobhan winced. After all, she’d seen what Rune thought of as ‘an appropriate reaction’ to trouble. “And…there’s no body count yet?”

  “He’s letting it slide.”

  She blinked at him. Then blinked again. No, that still didn’t make sense. “What?”

  “He’s letting it slide,” Markl repeated. “He doesn’t say anything, doesn’t do anything, just brushes past them and quickly disappears into the city.”

  “That…seems like an odd way for him to react.” Beirly frowned at the floor, mulling this over. “Why put up with it?”

  Like a sack of rocks, it hit Siobhan all at once. She let out a long groan and slumped forward, burying her face in her hands. “Because I told him to.”

  “What?” both men demanded in confusion.

  Scrubbing at her face with both hands, she gave a succinct version of what had happened with Denney on their shopping trip the other day, finishing with, “We told him to not kill people when they caused trouble. I told him that I didn’t bring him into the guild because of his assassination skills.”

  “So because he knows that you don’t want him to use violence unless absolutely necessary, he doesn’t do anything to them because they’re not actually hurting him?” Markl finished slowly. “Siobhan, that’s wrong. On many levels.”

  “I know,” she growled. “And that’s not what I meant when I told him that! Of course he shouldn’t let people run roughshod over him. I just didn’t want him killing people at random either. Arrrghhhh.”

  “Maybe you should clarify,” Beirly offered.

  She shot him a look that could melt steel. “I thought I had. I spent a long time talking to him about this. Clearly, I don’t know the right words to get it across. At this point, I’m open to suggestions.”

  Markl and Beirly looked at each other, neither one of them knowing what to say.

  Siobhan flopped back into her chair. “Fine, fine, I’ll figure it out. In the meantime, why don’t you go back to whoever it was that told you their pet theory on Rune’s disappearance and straighten them out?”

  “Yes ma’am,” Beirly responded humbly.

  Now she had to come up with some way to explain the proper method of self-defense to an assassin.

  ӜӜӜ

  Half the problem of speaking to Rune was finding Rune. He tended to disappear very early in the morning—earlier than she could manage to wake up—and come back late in the evening, after most people had gone to bed. Even then she didn’t always know where he went. The bed that had been prepared for him never looked slept in.

  She spent a good hour wandering around the compound, looking for him, before realizing that if he didn’t want to be found, he wouldn’t be. She’d have to somehow wake up early in the morning and waylay him as he went out the door.

  Resigned, she turned around and headed back to her room.

  As she passed the common room, however, she heard two familiar voices coming through the cracked doorway. Pausing, she cocked her ear in an effort to hear what was being said.

  “—if she knew about this, she would not let it happen,” Fei said steadily.

  “I’ve caused her too much trouble already. This is nothi’n.” Rune sounded dismissive, uncaring.

  Hmm? What was this? She crept a little closer to the door and unabashedly eavesdropped.

  “She will not think of it as such. But I’ll let you handle that as you wish. The assassins that are coming for you nightly, however, must be addressed.”

  Assassins?! What assassins?!

  “I ain’t killi’n them, like she wants.”

  “Yes, I know. But Rune-xian, why won’t you tell anyone that your old guild is out for your life? Why won’t you ask for help?”

  Stubborn silence.

  Siobhan closed her eyes and resisted the urge to bang her head against the wall a few times. Just how much was Rune dealing with that she wasn’t aware of? Assassins, for pity’s sake! Was this going on nightly? Was he actually leaving the guild on a daily basis to draw some of the danger away from here?

  “I followed you today not because I suspected you, but because I was concerned,” Fei continued when Rune didn’t speak. “Trouble has been haunting your footsteps and you have given no hint of it. You do not see Deepwoods as your guild, I know. Most here do not accept you yet.”

  “You…do?” Rune asked hesitantly.

  “I see much of myself in you. You are not my enemy. It is you who refuses to be my ally.”

  Siobhan blinked. How in the world were Rune and Fei alike?

  “I’m…like ya?” Rune parroted dubiously.

  Fei chuckled, a low and rough sound. “Yes. Your curiosity of the world, the thirst you have for knowledge, the way you wish to experience life to the fullest. That, you and I have in common.”

  Rune didn’t seem to know how to respond to this.

  “Siobhan is not your only ally here,” Fei assured him gently. “The others are not sure of your intentions and so do not trust you.”

  “I don’t know why I’m here,” Rune admitted with a long sigh.

  “Yes, I see your confusion clearly. Siobhan brought you here for her own reasons, which she has not explained to me. But her reasons are solely hers. You must ask yourself, what do you wish?”

  “It’s not my choice ta make.”

  “Certainly, it is. If not yours, then who’s could it be? You have an open path here. Carve it, direct it where you will. If you wish to stay with us, then do so.”

  “How?” Rune objected. “No one trusts me!”

  “What reason have you given them to trust you?” Fei countered. “My young friend, in your life, you have not been shown how to make strong ties with people. But in truth, it is very simple. This is all you need to do: show them that their well-being is your priority.”

  Siobhan blinked. It sounded ridiculously simple, but in truth, that really was how friendships were formed and how strong relationships were maintained.

  Rune seemed to feel this was too simplistic. “That’s it?”

  “It sounds simple, but think about what that means. You must safeguard them, be thoughtful of their needs and wants, and provide comfort in their darkest hours. Showing concern can be done with both silence and words. Have you not seen this, in how Siobhan-ajie cares for the whole guild?”

  “Safeguard,” Rune repeated in a quieter, more contemplative tone.

  “That, I understand, is how Wolf won the trust of the guild. He proved to them that no matter what happened, he would protect them from danger. It is a small but vital step. I think you are capable of doing such. The question is, do you wish to be here?”

  Silence fell.

  Siobhan found herself holding her breath.

  “If…if I can.”

  She closed her eyes in abject relief and blew out a long, silent breath.
<
br />   “Then let me tell you the best way to earn their respect, yes?” There was a smile in Fei’s voice. “Let us start with Grae-ren.”

  She listened in for a few more minutes as he gave a precise summary of Grae’s personality, and a few hints on how to interact with him, but didn’t linger more than that. It was clear that Fei, at least, had figured out what it was Rune lacked and was giving him the information he needed. So, Rune hadn’t tried to form any bonds with them simply because he didn’t know how? That had never occurred to her. Bless Fei and his extraordinary ability to read people. He was the perfect person to guide Rune.

  Just as importantly, Rune wanted to stay. That was the only information she really needed in order to know what to do next.

  With a bounce in her step, she headed for her bed, content that after this Rune would sort things out on his own. Whatever assassins came after him tonight Fei would help him deal with, too, although she would need to step in at some point and do something about that situation.

  She owed Fei a serious hug.

  “Rune!” Siobhan ducked into the common room, half-expecting him to be there, but also aware that he might be completely tucked out of sight. Fei had assured her he hadn’t gone into the city this morning, but was still on the compound. Somewhere.

  She stopped a few steps inside the room, looking carefully into every corner but not seeing him. Rain and drought, but she needed to tell him about everything she’d done this morning. How was she supposed to do that when she couldn’t even find him?

  “Yes?”

  Startled, she whirled around on her toes. Rune stood directly behind her, relaxed and calm, as if he’d been there for quite some time. Putting a hand up to keep her jumping heart in her chest, she requested in exasperation, “Can’t you make noise when you walk?!”

  Mouth quirked, he confided, “Actually, I can’t.”

  “You’re going to give me heart failure at this rate,” she grumbled to herself. An assassin that couldn’t make noise when he moved. Lovely.

  “Ya wanted me?” he prompted when she didn’t continue.

  “Ah, yes.” Reminded of her purpose, she put a hand into her coat pocket and drew out a small leather badge. “Jarnsmor informed me that he couldn’t let you board any ship of his unless you were officially registered as a member of Deepwoods. So, here’s your crest. I put it in a leather holder—most of us carry one that way—but you can put it anywhere or wear it any way you wish.”