“And the guild has decided that now is such a time because you have challenged them?” Master Hames nodded. “And you feel as if you could interfere with this and that you could acquire the records that they were transferring?”
Master Hames hesitated a moment before finally nodding.
Endric breathed out. That was what this was about?
It explained why Novan had wanted him to be his apprentice.
Novan had wanted the soldier.
What did it have to do with the Assal? They had been after Novan for something similar, but it couldn’t be the same, could it?
“And the guild is moving its headquarters to Coamdon?”
He shook his head. “The guild is moving away from the south.”
“Because of the Deshmahne,” Endric said.
Hames nodded.
If that were the case, then Novan would have known, and he would have wanted to have support, but why wouldn’t he just have asked the Denraen for help with this?
Maybe Novan had asked his father for help, and none had been offered, or maybe there was something more to it.
Endric still needed to find Novan to better understand, but at least he thought that he understood why he was here. He needed to ensure that the guild maneuvering went off without any complications.
And, maybe more than that. Maybe he was needed to help ensure that the guild recognized those who would attack it and would try to do harm to it.
Endric wished that Novan had been more transparent with his need, but maybe Novan hadn’t known the extent of what was taking place here. Normally, Endric would have a hard time believing that, but when it came to this part of the world, he suspected that Novan wasn’t nearly as connected as he was in other places. Novan spent more of his time trying to travel through the northern continent, and maybe he had been spending too much time with Tresten and the others for him to know the happenings within the guild. It was possible that he had only decided to come this way because he had heard about something within the guild that didn’t seem quite right.
He let out a heavy sigh. When he removed the needle from Master Hames’ arm, the other man blinked. His eyelids were heavy, and Endric felt no remorse at the trace amount of poison that had to have seeped into him.
“How many others are here?”
Master Hames didn’t answer. He blinked again, and it was almost as if his lids were too heavy for him to keep open.
Had the poison already set?
Maybe it was too late. Endric might have been too aggressive with the poisoning, but he had needed a threat, one that was realistic enough to intimidate someone like Master Hames, someone who initially hadn’t believed that Endric posed much of a danger.
It might’ve been easier had he come here and revealed himself as Endric. If he had, maybe this could have been avoided, but then, he might not have known that there was a faction of the guild that was attempting to cause problems for the rest of it.
“How long will the poison last?”
Master Hames blinked slowly. “It’s… fatal.”
Endric laughed bitterly. “You’re kidding.”
Master Hames blinked, and his eyes seemed far too heavy, and he blinked again.
He took a breath, and then no more.
They were going to use a fatal poison on him?
He looked around the room, needing to get out of there. If they were that willing to attack, and that willing to use a dangerous poison, then he needed to get away before they did something else.
He pulled the door open a crack and peered down the hallway. It was a narrow hall, and he saw no one moving. Endric closed the door again, looking around the inside of the room. If he could find his sword, he wouldn’t feel nearly so naked.
Master Hames had a stack of vials near the corner of the wall, and Endric checked on those, finding that most of them had to be poison. He shook them, looking into them, waiting to see if there was anything within them that he might be able to use.
He wasn’t a poisoner. He was a soldier.
He made his way around the room. The cot was pressed up against the far wall, but there was some space between it and the wall, and in there, he found his sword. They had rested it on the floor, likely thinking that he would have no need for it, and with the chains holding him, they must have believed that he would not have posed any threat.
He grabbed his sword and buckled it back onto his waist, then took another look at Hames before shaking his head. It was a shame that a guild master would need to die in such a way, but it was equally a shame that they had felt the need to attack him. Had he not done what he had, he would be the one lying there dead.
And now he knew more than he had before.
Endric stepped into the hall, unsheathing his sword and making his way through the hallway. He moved cautiously, pausing every so often to listen for any signs of movement, but there were none. There was nothing other than the sound of his breathing.
Where in the fortress had they brought him?
Endric tested the handle and wasn’t surprised that it was unlocked. Why would they have locked Master Hames in here? They had believed that he was in control of the situation, and had believed that Endric was chained and completely incapacitated.
The other side of the door let into the library. How many of these journals were stolen? How many were the books the Assal were after?
Endric hesitated. At least now he knew where he was, if not why they had brought him here.
He paused. Two men were sitting at the table near the fire. For a moment, they didn’t notice him, but then they seemed to realize that he was there and they leaped to their feet.
Endric shook his head. One of them was the man he had spoken to when he had first found the library. He had been fine, and Endric had no interest in cutting him down, but at the same time, he would have no hesitation to do so, especially with how willing they had been to poison him.
“You have no reason to do this,” he said.
“Where is Hames?” the first man asked.
“I’m afraid Master Hames won’t be joining you,” Endric said.
The man’s brow furrowed, and he glanced beyond Endric to the doorway.
It was reason to make Endric hesitate.
He slammed the door closed and put himself in front of it. If Master Hames wasn’t dead—and given their reaction, he wasn’t entirely certain—then he wasn’t about to get surprised by someone popping out of the doorway. It was possible that he had only been sedated, and it was equally possible that he had lied about the effect of the poisoning. If that were the case, then Endric had to be prepared for the possibility that Hames would spring through the door. If he did, Endric wasn’t going to be caught off guard.
The two historians both carried staffs.
He didn’t know why they did, but it was enough like Novan that he found it amusing. It was unlikely that they would be skilled in the same way that Novan was skilled.
Endric pointed his sword at them, shaking his head. “You don’t want to do this,” he said.
The one historian stared at the sword before flickering his gaze up to Endric. “We aren’t afraid of some historian apprentice.”
“And would you be afraid of a Denraen soldier?” Endric asked.
With that, he darted forward, slamming his sword into the staff of the first one and spinning, slapping the next soldier with the flat of his blade. Both men fell back, but neither went down.
“Denraen?”
Endric nodded. “I am Denraen. I offer a warning. Set down the staffs and I won’t harm you. I know that you are part of the conspiracy within the guild. I know that you intend to abduct the records as they are transported. I could not care less about any of that.”
One of the historians glanced at the other and Endric took that opportunity to jump forward, sliding with speed as he slammed the hilt of his sword into the man’s stomach and spun around, sweeping his leg down, ducking beneath the staff and jamming his fist u
p underneath the jaw of the other historian.
Both men collapsed, and neither got back up.
Endric hurried through the library, glancing at the shelves and wondering how many of these were journals that the historian guild would want to recover.
He needed to get out of the fortress, find Novan, and then they could return here for whatever answers they needed.
18
The docks had a more ominous feel to them now that Endric had experienced the attack in the fortress. He looked at everyone more suspiciously than he had before, and made a point of staring at anyone with a staff, worried that perhaps they might be a historian willing and able to attack him.
So far, he hadn’t seen anyone who posed any danger to him, but how long would it be before he did?
He had hurried from the upper levels of the city down to the docks, and now that he was here, he wandered along the shore, staring out into the water, searching for signs of the ship that Novan was on.
He didn’t see it.
Could Novan have taken a different direction?
It was possible that after the Assal attack that Novan had decided to turn back, but why? Wouldn’t he have followed the other ship?
There was another possibility. What if this wasn’t even the same place Novan and the others traveled to?
In the midst of the harbor, he saw the Assal ship. They waited, much as Varian had promised. Endric still didn’t fully understand why they were there and what Novan might have taken from them, but there had to be something.
A cluster of people in the distance caught his attention, and Endric studied them, trying to determine if they were anyone to worry about, but he saw nothing that was suspicious.
He couldn’t keep thinking that he might get attacked at any moment. The entire city couldn’t be infiltrated by guild members.
Unless it had been.
Hames had claimed that they were aware of Endric the moment he got off the ship. They had sent word up to the fortress, and Poaln had found him.
That told Endric that someone was keeping an eye on the docks, at least.
And how had they picked up on him?
Did he look all that distinctive, or was it merely that he had come off the Assal ship?
Maybe that was the reason the Assal ship stayed out in the harbor, putting space between itself and the potential for people within Coamdon to attack.
Without Novan, there might not be any easy way to figure this out. It wasn’t that he was worried, but how long was he willing to leave the fortress alone? There was the danger of them moving the records that had been there, especially now that Endric had attacked.
Was there any way to prevent them from doing so?
Not without help.
Endric surveyed the shore and kept expecting to see Novan, but there was no sign of the historian or their ship.
That left only one option.
He walked to the end of the central dock and motioned to one of the transport dinghies. “How much to take me to a ship out in the harbor?”
“Three coppers,” he said.
Endric grabbed the coins from his pocket and handed them to the man, and then he climbed into the small dinghy. They rowed out from the dock and Endric watched the shoreline as they went, looking for signs of movement that would tell him who was watching, but he didn’t see anything specific. There had to be someone there, and he knew there had to be some way for the fake guild to be watching for him, but he didn’t see anything clearly.
Every so often, he would turn around and look out into the harbor so he could watch the Assal ship as they got closer to it.
He half expected to get attacked the moment he boarded, and had to be ready for that possibility, but if they wanted the book they believed Novan had taken from them, they would have to give him a chance to get to them.
As they pulled up to the Assal ship, Endric looked up. Varian stood on the deck, watching him.
“Are you sure about this?” the dinghy oarsman asked.
“I am,” he said, looking up at the ship.
The man shrugged. They pulled up alongside, and he kept the dinghy in place as Endric stood and grabbed for a rope that was lowered down to him.
Endric took it, climbing up onto the ship, and he waved to the dinghy captain as he disappeared.
Varian stood near the railing, watching Endric. “You can’t have recovered the books yet.”
“Can’t I have?”
“The historian hasn’t arrived in the city yet. So there is another reason for your presence here,” he said.
Endric smiled and nodded. “There is another reason, and there is something that I think that you might be interested in.”
“And what is that?”
“I could use your help,” he said.
Varian stared at Endric for a moment. “You could use my help?” Endric nodded. “And just what is that?”
There was a reason that the people in the fortress feared the Assal, though Endric only suspected the reason. Could the Assal be responsible for the journals somehow?
“It seems as if there is a rift within the city,” Endric said.
“What kind of rift?” Varian asked.
Endric looked behind Varian and saw the swordsmen. He watched them, though he made no effort to unsheathe his sword. The others on the ship continued whatever tasks they were assigned, paying no mind to Endric.
It was all quite workmanlike, and there was something strange about it, though Endric knew that it shouldn’t be. He recognized that the Assal had an organization, and they were prepared. He still didn’t know how they had healed those with them who he had injured, but he suspected that it had something to do with a connection to Mage abilities, even if Varian would not reveal that to him.
“The kind that divides the guild itself.”
“Are you certain?”
Endric nodded. “I have experienced it firsthand. I’m not entirely sure what has caused it, but it seems as if part of the guild is battling with another part.”
Varian turned away and made his way over to the other man, and they spoke softly to each other. Endric waited, uncertain why they would seem so interested in the rift, but maybe it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that they would be willing to help him. Endric wasn’t entirely sure what kind of help he needed, only that it would involve confronting the remnants of the guild, but what would he do?
He waited, and after a while, Varian made his way back to Endric. “Can you show us what you encountered?”
“You want to see the fracture within the guild firsthand?”
“If there is a fracture, then we would need to confirm that,” he said.
Endric shrugged. “If I show you this, you will leave the historian alone when he arrives.”
“That was not the agreement.”
“No. It’s getting your books. And I think I found what you’re looking for.”
Endric glanced over at the others. The swordsmen had begun to speak to some of the other soldiers. It didn’t take long for them to finish their preparations. They had readied a small rowboat, though it was larger than the dinghy Endric had taken over to their ship. They motioned for Endric to climb in, and then the others with them all piled in as well. They rowed quickly toward the nearest dock. Endric’s noticed how the ship seemed to blend into the water. It was a wonder that they had managed to see it coming in the first place. Against the darkness of night, a ship like this would have been incredibly difficult to see, and he still was surprised that they had managed to do so.
He turned his attention back to the docks. The Assal knew something.
What was it?
“Why did you really come to Coamdon?” Endric asked Varian.
Varian glanced over at him, his gaze steady. “I told you why we came.”
“No. You told me that the historian took the books from you, but that was all that you shared. That isn’t the entire reason that you’re here. The moment that I told you that the guild
was fractured, you became much more interested in participating in this. What is it? Why are you here, really?”
Varian smiled at him tightly. “Does there really need to be another reason?”
Endric shrugged. “Yes.”
“You know nothing about the Assal, do you?”
Endric shook his head. “That’s something that I intend to correct.”
Varian grunted. “You might be the first of the Denraen to care. Most who even know that we exist think of us as little more than a novelty. We are considered outsiders, which is very much the way we like it.”
“As do the Antrilii,” Endric said.
Varian tipped his head forward, nodding slightly. “And had you not known of the Antrilii, and had I not believed you when you claimed to train with them, I would tell you none of this. As it is, what I share with you is something of the Assal that we have kept from many.”
“And what is that?”
“We are sailors.”
Endric glanced back at the ship. “If that’s how you keep a secret, I’m afraid that you aren’t doing that great a job with it.”
Varian shook his head. “That’s not it. We are sailors, but we are sailors for hire.”
Endric frowned. “Smugglers?”
“Not smugglers. Not the way you would think. We take commissions, and we are willing to be hired for those jobs.”
Endric studied Varian for a moment, his mind beginning to piece things together. He glanced up at the city and saw the fortress in the distance. He laughed softly. “Let me guess: One of those jobs was a transport of books for the guild.”
Varian nodded. “Very good.”
“What happened?”
Varian smiled at him. As he did, Endric felt a strange stirring. It reminded him of the same stirring he had felt when he had broken free from his restraints when Master Hames had held him. Whatever that was seemed to flicker within him, some sort of sense that triggered deep within him. It was power.
Endric was sure of it, and he was equally certain that whatever the source of that power was, it was related to the Magi ability.
Soldier Song (The Teralin Sword Book 6) Page 24