Gileas coughed. He felt like his back was on fire. With how wet his cough sounded, he wondered if she had pierced his lung. It wasn’t fatal, not yet…
“I can pay you, enough for a healer. They might not remove the scar, but heal the eye enough-”
Veliana yanked the dagger out and then rammed it back downward, this time penetrating his wrist. He screamed.
“What’d you sell him?” she asked. “You already sold me out to Thren. Who else did you ruin? What remains of my Ash Guild?”
Gileas laughed in spite of the pain it caused him.
“They’re hiding, Vel. Hiding. But worms crawl everywhere. Thren knows where they are now. He knows, and you’ll all die. He’ll have his plan, his stupid, idiotic plan.”
Realization hit Veliana like a cold fist in her gut.
“You told Gerand the truth,” she said. “You didn’t lie like we paid you. You told the king’s advisor the goddamn truth.”
Gileas’s black-toothed grin was all the answer she needed.
“You son of a bitch,” she said, her voice seething with rage.
“Who knows who Gerand’s told?” Gileas said. He coughed, and blood spilled across his lips. “Who knows what plans they’ve spun? The Kensgold will be a fun night. I can’t wait to watch.”
“You’ll watch nothing,” Veliana said. “You’re going to do Dezrel a favor and fucking die.”
She yanked her dagger out and thrust for his chest. The dagger punched through his clothes but pierced no flesh. They were empty, and already falling as if dropped from the ceiling. The clothes piled on the chair, looking like some strange joke. Veliana stared at them, her mouth open in shock. She had thought the first time she had been delusional from her pain and trauma. This time, she knew magic was at work.
She picked up his shirt and shook it. Nothing. She used her dagger to shift his trousers side to side. Still nothing. Curses on her lips, she turned to leave when something caught her eye.
Crawling on the floor toward a small crack was an eight-inch black worm. As it flexed, she saw a thin cut along its side.
“No way,” she said. No wonder he had been nicknamed the Worm. He’d probably given it to himself to mock every single person he dealt with. Every joke about living in mud, digging through walls, listening with ears clogged with dirt…it was all true.
It was almost to the crack. Veliana hurled her dagger, wanting to get nowhere near the strange creature. Purple fire swarmed around the blade, created by her meager magical talent. The dagger pierced the worm just above its midsection. It twisted and squirmed, its body cut in half. Still it crawled toward the crack, leaving its lower half behind.
Veliana crushed it with her heal. Innards spurted across the floor. She held in a wave of vomit. For some reason, it reminded her of when he had kissed her. Pieces of the worm sizzled in the purple fire of her dagger. She pulled it free, wiped it clean on her pant leg, and then sheathed it. It took a couple kicks to get the worm body through the crack. The carcass was shockingly heavy for being only a worm.
When done, she turned and saw the tavern keeper looking at her with wide eyes.
“Burn the clothes,” Veliana said as she tossed him Gileas’s bag of coins. “Consider that ample payment for keeping your mouths shut.”
With no time to waste, she hurried out the door. Everything was a mess. Whatever plans she had made with Eliora were shot. If the king knew of Thren’s plans for the Kensgold, then most likely the Trifect did too. Everything would change.
Before she could worry about that, she had to deal with her most pressing danger: Thren knew where the Ash Guild had holed up to hide. Once he found out, he would assault immediately. Felhorn had long learned to never let an enemy last a second longer than necessary. She ran a list of safehouses through her mind, trying to decide which one James would flee to first.
Faster and faster she ran, praying no guild caught sight of her desperate run. Her guild was dying, and the scent of blood would bring every last cutpurse down on their heads.
13
W hen Aaron arrived in his father’s room, Kayla was already there, waiting.
“As I was telling Kayla, this was a perfect hit,” Thren said to his son. “Delius is dead, in the middle of a crowd in daylight, no less. No one saw the killer. We’ve heard confused reports already claiming it was a man instead of a woman. No court will find a guilty member, yet the entire city knows we were responsible. That is how you send a message, my son. That is how you frighten a population, by showing that even with common knowledge of our guilt, their justice will never reach us.”
“Yes, father,” Aaron said. His voice was barely above a whisper. Thren noticed his subdued nature, something his son had been steadily growing out of, and then rubbed his chin. He stared into Aaron’s eyes, trying to decipher the reason.
“The girl,” he asked. “Did you kill her?”
Aaron shook his head. He almost lied. He wanted to claim she’d died, and the trauma of killing a young girl in cold blood had left him ill. But he couldn’t. His entire insides chilled at the very thought of his father finding out he spoke a lie.
“No,” he said, stealing a glance at Kayla. “She ran away while the crowd was still gathered. I failed.”
Thren caught the glance and turned his attention to Kayla. She only shrugged as if she didn’t understand.
“No matter,” Thren said, storing the information in the back of his mind. “Kayla, go fetch me one of our cutpurses. I don’t care who.”
Aaron waited with his eyes downcast. His father never said a word.
“You called for me?” asked a clean-shaven man with thick circles underneath his eyes. His black hair was cropped and pulled back into a ponytail.
“I did. Dustin, this is my son. Have you met him before?”
Dustin looked at Aaron, his mouth locked into a frown.
“Don’t think I have.”
“Look at him,” Thren said to his son. “And listen carefully. Instead of spending time thieving, assaulting caravans, or working the streets, he will instead track your failed target. He will spend our money bribing men and women to find out the girl’s name and location. He’ll risk his life in these endeavors, to both rival thief guilds as well as the Trifect’s men. Coin, time, and manpower, all wasted because you couldn’t do one simple job.”
Aaron’s downcast eyes finally looked up to Thren’s, and a bit of life sparkled inside them, as if he had just learned a secret.
“I understand,” he said.
“Good.” Thren turned to Dustin. “Her last name is Eschaton, daughter of a priest who died earlier today. Find and kill her.”
“Am I allowed to have any fun with her beforehand?” asked Dustin.
“I want my message hammered home,” Thren said. “Do as you please. Make sure she dies afterward.”
Dustin’s grin was ear to ear.
“Be a pleasure. I’ll leave her bits on Ashhur’s temple door.”
Aaron felt his neck flush. He desperately hoped his father wouldn’t notice. But of course, he did.
“You have plenty of growing up to do,” Thren said to him. “You wanted to be at my side, and now you are. Start living up to your expectations.”
“Yes, father,” said Aaron.
“Be gone,” he said, waving a dismissive hand.
Aaron didn’t go to his room. Instead, he went to Robert Haern’s.
“Come in,” the old man said after Aaron knocked. The boy crept the door open, slipped inside, and then shut it. When he turned around, Robert was staring at him.
“What is it that troubles you?” Robert asked.
Aaron bit his lower lip. He so badly wanted to ask a question, but he knew the potential danger. What he wanted to know, his father would disagree with. But he had to know.
“I saw a priest today,” he said. “He wore a symbol, like this, around his neck.”
Aaron drew a single line in the air with his finger. It looked like an ‘M’ with one side m
uch higher and sharper than the other. Robert picked up his cane and walked over to his desk.
“Did it look something like…this?”
Robert opened a drawer and pulled out a gold medallion hanging from a silver chain. It also had the strange line. Aaron nodded.
“That line is the Golden Mountain,” Robert explained. “It has two peaks. The lower one represents Dezrel, and the height we can ascend to in our lives. The higher one represents the Golden Eternity. As you can see, nothing on this world can ever make one rise as high as in the afterlife.”
“Who is Ashhur? And why do people pray to him?”
Robert raised an eyebrow.
“Where have you heard people praying to Ashhur?” he asked.
A brief memory flashed before Aaron’s eyes, that of the red-haired girl sobbing in front of him as she called out to Ashhur.
“Nowhere,” he said.
“Hrmph. Ashhur is brother to Karak, who I’m sure you know a little bit more about, considering who your friends and associates are. He represents Justice, Mercy, Grace…things that most would consider the finer parts of mankind. That is why someone would pray to him. They seek comfort, or forgiveness, or protection.”
Robert went to put the amulet back into the drawer, then paused. He saw how Aaron was looking at it, and his curiosity kindled.
“What is going on, boy?” he asked. “Why do you come in here asking about gods?”
He didn’t want to answer, but Robert was his master. If he refused, then the next time he came in asking questions, he might get only silence.
“Kayla killed a priest of Ashhur today. I was to kill his daughter, but I failed.”
“Failed?” asked Robert. “Or refused?”
Aaron felt his cheeks flush. If his father had read him as clearly, then their conversation might have taken a very different turn when scolding him for his failure.
“She was crying,” he whispered. “She didn’t even know I was there. Her father, killed right in front of her. I’ve killed before, I’ve, but she’s not like us, not like, not…”
Tears swelled in his eyes. Aaron couldn’t believe it. He wiped them away, the blush in his cheeks fierce. He felt so stupid, so young.
“I’m an embarrassment,” he said.
“No,” Robert said, putting his hands on Aaron’s shoulders. His beard wasn’t tied behind his head like normal, and with it loose it stretched down to his waist. It made him look older, less controlled and more grandfatherly. His whole face seemed to sag a little, as if he had dropped a layer of armor from his flesh.
“Listen to me, Aaron,” he said. “Your father is raising you to be something terrible. He’ll deny you everything, even his love, to make you into what he wants. Do you know what that is, boy?”
Aaron went to say no, but he remembered what Robert had always said: any question he asked, he should already know the answer. And Aaron did know the answer. It scared the abyss out of him.
“A killer,” Aaron said, his voice once more a whisper.
“The perfect killer,” Robert gently corrected. “He’ll starve you of love, affection, friends, faith…everything but the blade and the shadows.”
Aaron sniffed and rubbed his nose against his sleeve.
“What should I do?”
Robert handed him the amulet. The boy took it as if it might burn him. His eyes were wide as he traced a finger over the gold.
“Pray, Aaron. Pray for anything and everything. We live in a harsh world. One day your father will place you at the edge of a cliff. I’ve heard the stories about you. I know you killed your brother when you were but a child. You can jump down that ravine, or you can stand tall and refuse him.”
“I know what happens to people who refuse my father,” Aaron said. “They die.”
Robert smiled.
“We all die, son. The question is, who are we when we do?”
Aaron lifted the amulet before his eyes.
“Everything good about mankind?” he asked.
“Everything we wish we were and most often fail to be, Aaron,” said Robert.
But he wasn’t Aaron anymore, not then.
He put the amulet in his pocket, where his father wouldn’t see it. When he turned to leave, he paused, then glanced back at his teacher.
“Do you pray to Ashhur?” he asked.
Robert sighed. With what he had already said and done, Thren would surely take his life. There was nothing left to risk.
“Not as much as I should,” he said. “And nothing like I did when I was younger. The world is harsh, Aaron. Sometimes it seems like Ashhur isn’t even listening.”
He thought of the girl, pleading to Ashhur for him to give back her father. The hurt in Robert’s eyes was so plain, Aaron wondered who he had prayed for Ashhur to send back.
How cruel a world, thought the boy. But I won’t be its cruelty. I won’t.
Aaron left.
Robert poured himself a drink and sat down on his bed. And waited.
A aron searched the entire compound. Dustin was nowhere to be found. Holding in a curse, he went looking for Kayla. He found her in the mess hall, eating with several other men. Aaron’s mind raced, trying to think of a way to talk to her without letting it be obvious. If anyone might help him in protecting the girl, it’d be her.
Summoning his courage, he walked straight up to her. If there was no subtle way, then being brazen about it would be less likely to draw attention than some half-assed secret communication.
“Kayla,” he said, feeling the eyes of others on him. No matter where he went, he was Thren’s son, and the thieves acted like a word from him would be their deaths. It might have been true, but it still made him feel uncomfortable. Of course, any attention made him feel uncomfortable. He preferred the corners and the shadows, not front and center.
“Yes, Aaron?” she asked.
He felt even more awkward with Kayla looking at him. He kept thinking how pretty she was. It didn’t help that with her leaning toward him, he had a nice view down her shirt.
“I need to find someone,” he said. Kayla shrugged and stood from the table, having already finished eating. A couple others mocked her for leaving a glass full of beer, but another cheerfully volunteered to finish it for her. When they were far enough away, Aaron blurted everything out at once.
“I need to find Dustin,” he said. “The one you fetched for my father.”
“Dare I ask why?”
“I’m going to kill him.”
Kayla held her surprise well.
“Again…dare I ask why?”
They were at the door to the mess hall. Aaron waited until she pushed open the door, then used its creak to help hide his voice.
“Because he’ll kill her,” he said.
Kayla immediately knew who.
“Shit,” she said. “You’re out of your mind. He’s a pro, Aaron.”
She led him down the hall. In the quiet, their voices seemed more ominous, their whispers carrying far. Kayla led them to her room as quickly as possible.
“You can’t,” she said once she shut the door. “You don’t even know her name. You’re throwing your life away, don’t you understand?”
Aaron clenched his fingers around the medallion through the fabric of his pants.
Everything good about mankind, Aaron thought. Everything good about me.
“I have to try,” he said. “Please, tell me where he went.”
Kayla bit her lip and stared at him. She’d joined the Spider Guild in search of money and reputation. So far, she’d rescued an old man from a prison and slaughtered a priest in front of his flock. Her reputation wasn’t exactly on the upswing. Aaron’s infatuation with her, while first seeming to have possibilities, had turned out to be a threat. What in the world would Thren think if she encouraged open rebellion within his own guild, let alone by his son?
“By telling you, I risk my own life, do you understand that?” she asked.
That seemed to shock Aaron
a bit. He blushed, realizing how stupid he was to have not thought everything through.
“I can’t,” he said, turning to leave. “I can’t risk your life, not for me, not for her.”
“Aaron,” she said, grabbing his shoulder and turning him around. She smiled at him, even as her insides churned. What the abyss was wrong with her? She owed this boy nothing. Nothing!
“I researched the Eschatons before the job in what little time I had. Delius was a noble who turned to the priesthood only a few years back. He has a mansion in the western district. It’s sparsely furnished and poorly staffed. He gave away much of his wealth to the temple. The girl might be there, or she might be in the temple. If she’s in the temple, you haven’t a prayer of getting to her. Either way, that mansion is the first place Dustin will look.”
“Thank you,” Aaron said.
Kayla gave him directions to the mansion, as well as a brief description of what it looked like from the outside.
“Dustin’s started ahead of you,” Kayla said. “But he’ll need to ask around first to find out where they live. You might be able to beat him there. Hurry out, and try to be back before sunrise. And for the love of all that’s holy, don’t let anyone see you.”
After he had been gone for about ten minutes, a hard knock roused her from her thoughts. Her heart leapt into her throat. She grabbed one of her throwing daggers and held it tight in her hand. If Thren wanted her, she would die fighting him. She wouldn’t let him torture her.
Body tensed for combat, she flung open the door. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when she saw Senke standing there looking baffled and worried by the dagger she held in her hand.
14
A aron felt oddly exhilarated. He’d never been out at night on his own. Thren had always insisted someone accompany him on his rare excursions out of the complex. Usually the reasons involved safety, the Trifect, and rival guilds wanting to settle a million old grudges. More and more, though, Aaron thought that his father wanted to keep him from feeling a taste of freedom.
He ran along the rooftops. With so many nearby logging towns, especially those on the northern edges of the King’s Forest, the houses were built sturdy, tall, and with mostly flat roofs. With his weight, the wood and plaster easily held him. He landed softly as he could, but he also ran fast. Bits of gray cloth trailed in the air behind him, the ties to the mask that covered his entire face. Only his blue eyes were visible.
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