The horse that was meant for her now stared at Tillie and Cadence, saddled up and ready to go. Tillie couldn’t believe what they were doing. Was she dreaming?
“Quit standing there all panicked and out of breath and get on the damn thing!” Cadence snapped.
“Don’t you yell at me, Bone Priestess!”
Tillie mounted the horse and Cadence situated herself on the saddle, sitting behind her. Then, with a swift kick, Tillie sent the horse chasing after the others.
“Are there no reins?” Cadence asked.
“You don’t need any damn reins to ride a horse!”
“How are you going to tell it where to go?”
“It has a brain, Cadence!”
The dark summer night was sticky and humid. They chased the horsebacked group all along the fringes of the city, where there were few lanterns. Shadows were long where there were any at all. Beggars from vagrant camps stared at them through the trees, backlit by their bonfires as they raced by.
“Can you see the bandits?” Cadence’s voice bounced with the horse’s movement.
“Yeah, we’re on ‘em. I can’t tell if they know we’re after them yet. You got those guns loaded?”
“Yes, they are ready to fire.”
“You ever think about carrying a sword instead?”
“I had one,” Cadence snapped, “and left it at your place so we could have a pleasant outing as you put it.”
Tillie let her have the last word. Up ahead, the bandits slowed their pace. She did the same, taking a deep breath and letting it out slow.
“What do we do now?” she whispered.
“Just wait and watch. I can’t fight all of them off, and I don’t think they intend to kill Mister Sheltier.”
“How can you tell?”
“Because they would have done it by now.”
Tillie’s heart was practically beating in her throat. “How many can you fight? You’ve got more than a couple of slow-loading single-shot pistols, right? Because I can’t cover you!”
Cadence grinned. “Do not worry, Miss Boyce. A Bone Priestess has a few tricks up her sleeve.” She spun the silver ring that’d been sitting innocently on her right index finger all night. “Let’s find a place to dismount.”
The bandits on horseback had lead them to a place in a part of Beralin neither woman was familiar with. There were tenements falling apart with boarded windows, an inn with no name, and a large red brick building. It was green and wooded like much of the rest of the city, but overgrown and unkempt. Tillie and Cadence hid by the tenements and dismounted the horse. They watched the bandits drag Dane into the brick building.
“What do you think that place is?” Tillie asked.
“Probably a warehouse.”
They crept a little closer and could hear voices. Just as quickly as they had entered, some of the bandits left. Dane did not exit with them. Cadence secured a few of the pins in her hair and started toward the building.
“It’s time to start the show, Miss Boyce.”
Tillie wanted to stay behind where it was arguably safer. But she had to help. There had to be something she could do to help. She followed behind Cadence, her heart pounding away so fast it made her dizzy.
She wasn’t a fighter.
What the hell was she doing?
As they neared the warehouse, voices inside hushed and things fell and clattered and clanked. There were no lit lanterns anywhere along the outside of the building. Cadence had only the half moon above and the rough touch of brick on her fingertips to guide her to a door.
Another door around the back—or the front for all they knew—burst open with a storm of footsteps stampeding out. Cadence took a steadying breath. Her fingers found the grain of a wooden door and, without hesitation, she kicked it in.
There were still five bandits inside, lit by a flickering lantern sitting on the ground. Its light wasn’t strong enough to cast the bandits’ shadows to the walls. Instead they streaked out along the floor like beams of darkness. Dane was on his side at their feet, the sack still over his head.
“Who the hell are you?” One of the bandits pointed a crossbow pistol at Cadence as she came through the doorway.
“I’m here for that man.” She pointed to Dane as he groaned in pain. “Hand him over.”
“That wasn’t the question, lady.”
Cadence knew he was going to shoot, just by the look on his face and the way the literal darkness bounced off his cruel features. She held up her right hand and her silver ring flashed bright white. The bandit fired his bolt, but it sailed through the air slow like a coin falling through the sea. Cadence strode past him as he was stuck in slow time and grabbed the crossbow pistol out of his hand. The other four bandits mobilized against her at once.
“Miss Boyce, catch that bolt and make it count!”
Cadence tossed her the crossbow pistol, grabbed a knife off the bandit’s belt, then sliced his throat with it.
Just as he had been stuck in slow motion, Tillie herself felt stuck too, watching the crossbow pistol come flying toward her. She begged herself not to miss it, drop it, break it. But it landed perfectly in her grasp. When she looked to find the bolt, however, it had found a target in the wall behind her and splintered away.
“Dammit!” The weapon in her hands was now useless unless she planned on hitting someone over the head with it. Unless the bandit who’d fired it had more ammo on him! She braved the evolving battlefield to inch closer to the dying body, stepping through a pool of blood from the gash in his neck.
The four remaining bandits had seen Cadence’s ring and moved a little more cautiously. One of them didn’t even look like she’d stay around till the end.
“That’s Time Magic!” she shouted, pointing a sword. “What’s a damn Botathoran doing here? What’s so important about that man?”
Cadence drew Great Aunt Mattie’s pistol. “You tell me. You’re the ones who took him. And what were you doing at The Plaid Bonnet?”
Just as the bandit was about to respond, another one lunged forward with a dagger. But he did not catch the Bone Priestess off-guard. She shot him point blank in the head and holstered the gun.
“None of you will escape me,” Cadence said. “The price of assisting in a potential case of desecration is death. You may clear your consciences now by giving me answers or I can send them to the Goddess of Death the way they are now. The choice is yours.”
Tillie fumbled with a quiver on the first dead bandit’s hip. He had bolts. She could help. She wrestled one free and started to pull back the mechanism to cock the crossbow and load it.
Three bandits remained. The woman kept eyeing the door the main group had left through. The other two charged at Cadence together. One carried a sword, and the other had a knife in each hand. They had a strategy. The bandit with the knives tried to drive Cadence back into the sword.
But the sword bandit was in perfect range for a low kick. Dane delivered it from where he still laid. The distraction was enough for Cadence to get a bullet in the sword bandit’s head.
The one with the knives was quick and Cadence didn’t have time to reload, and her spell ring needed time of its own to charge up again. She swung with her gun still in hand, but she was too slow. They went back and forth, swinging and slashing, until the bandit sliced her in the arm and she lost grip on the pistol. It clattered to the ground. Seeing an opportunity, the nervous bandit standing back with the sword finally jumped in.
One bolt whistled through the air and sank into her chest. Cadence took the opportunity back, grabbed the sword, and cut her down. The bandit with the knives suffered the same.
“You could have helped stop desecration.” Cadence tucked a wisp of hair behind her ear and caught her breath. “Instead you chose not to. Botathora will see your souls for what they are and will ultimately weigh your consequences. May your journey be swift.” She raised her right hand and the silver ring flickered with a soft glow. Each bandit’s body matched it with a fa
int glow in their chests. From it, a silver cord reached out and climbed high into the air until it couldn’t be seen. When Cadence closed her fist, the cords were cut.
That was all of a death ceremony they would get on her watch. Before she had even remembered the reason they were there, Tillie came racing over.
“Dane! Dane, are you alright?”
The grave warden was flat on the ground, the bloodsoaked grain sack still partially over his head. He shot her a cocky grin.
“Aw, you two came for me!”
“Oh lords, look at the wound on your head! It’s filthy!”
“I can’t look at it, it’s on my head—”
“Miss Boyce.” Cadence put her hand up to silence them. “You’re an overthinker. May I have your thoughts on this place and why they may have brought him here?”
Tillie looked down at the weary Dane Sheltier and then around the dark warehouse. The dark and empty warehouse.
“I… Cadence, I don’t think he’s actually important at all. Truthfully, I think he stumbled in on them, they kidnapped him to keep him quiet, then realized what a burden he was and dropped him off in the middle of nowhere. I believe they meant to ditch him here.”
Cadence gave her a glare from her peripheral. “You believe Mister Sheltier is innocent?”
“After the events of tonight, yes I do.”
“I am,” he groaned. “Please take me to a hospital. I think I’m concussed.”
“You’re not concussed.” Cadence pulled him to his feet. Her strength caught him completely off-guard. “And though I do buy that you were ditched, I am not yet convinced of your innocence.” She reached into the deep pockets of Galen Boyce’s pants and pulled out a pair of manacles. “You’re staying with me until I’ve had a look around.”
“Oh, come on!” Dane rolled his head as she slapped one end around his wrist and the other end around her own. “It’s an abandoned warehouse!”
“Probably.” Cadence jerked him over and picked up the lantern. “But not definitely.”
Tillie didn’t dare follow outside the lantern’s glow. The deep abyssal darkness dared to swallow all three of them up. She didn’t think Cadence’s idea was wise, considering the events that had just happened and how terrifyingly dark and unfamiliar of a place they were in, but she knew better than to argue with the Bone Priestess.
“What do you see?” Tillie asked.
“It’s been cleared out,” Cadence told her. “Whatever was here before was cleared out. Thoroughly. I don’t think it was anything out of the ordinary, either. And there’s enough dust on the ground to suggest it happened quite some time ago.”
“Then why are we still looking if everything seems normal?” Dane asked. “This is a waste of time. I bet I need stitches!”
From over her shoulder Cadence shot him a glance. “The gall of you to speak like that in your position. Will you shut your mouth and let me investigate?”
Dane huffed and she yanked him in the direction of the overseer’s room. The light warped across the floor as the lantern swung with Cadence’s movements. The room had no door, just an open doorframe.
“I’m not going in there!” he whispered. “There’s definitely something hiding in there!”
Cadence paid him no mind. Inside, the lantern showed them a single trunk, nothing else. A very thin layer of dust graced the top.
“This is newer.” She touched a spot and rubbed her fingers. “I’ll bet it was brought into this place after everything was moved out. Maybe even as recent as a couple days ago.”
“There’s no lock.” Tillie came up behind her. “Are you going to open it?”
“Could be a trap on the inside.” Cadence knelt down in front of it and set the lantern on the ground. “Wouldn’t surprise me. This is getting more suspicious every second.” With her free hand, she felt along the sides, the top, the hinges, the edges. Apart from the inside, the only part she had left untouched was the bottom because it was too heavy to turn.
“Well, you have to open it!” Tillie whispered. “After all this trouble!”
“Miss Boyce, stay back. Mister Sheltier, stand behind me and shield yourself just in case.” Slowly, Cadence lifted the lid of the trunk. It creaked and creaked, and she listened carefully for the ticking of gears or mechanisms that could trigger a trap.
But there was nothing.
It was just a trunk.
She peered inside at dozens of books. Tillie and Dane’s disappointment was audible.
“We can go now, right?” Dane asked. “A bunch of books. The end. No glowing amulet, or daemonic mask, or—”
“Why are these books in a trunk, in a dusty old warehouse?” Cadence asked. “What reason could there be for that? These books were hidden here. For a reason.”
Dane shrugged with his free arm. “But is it for a relevant reason?”
She fought the urge to grumble and rummaged through the collection, dusting off a few covers. Most of the titles were in symbols she didn’t understand, but not all of them. The Secrets of Souls, vol I and The Descent of Magic.
“These are not wholesome books,” Cadence said. “These are relevant. I can find a connection. I know I can.”
“Is there a library stamp?” Tillie asked. “Sometimes on the inside cover or at the back there will be a stamp saying where the books are from. If they’re kept at a library, of course. Otherwise, if they’re from a personal collection, I doubt someone would write their name on books like—”
“Tano.” Cadence had one open in her hands and was staring down at the inside cover. “It says Tano. These books belong to the Tano family.” She clapped it shut and tossed it back in the trunk. “Damn. They just had to be involved…”
“What does that mean?” Tillie asked. “What are you saying?”
Cadence stood up straight and dusted herself off, then dusted off Dane, too. “These books are forbidden literature from the Tano family private library. They are not meant to be seen by the public! That is enough to get at least Master Tano locked up, if I can prove that these do belong to him beyond a scribbling on the inside. I’m not exactly sure what that means for my case yet, though. I need some sleep.”
“And I need medical attention!”
“Alright,” Cadence said. “I will take you to a Hesperan Hospice and then send word to the Sanctum to appoint a temporary grave warden in Riddenholm until we are through, because you are my detainee until I say otherwise.”
Chapter 7
The sun climbed high over the horizon. Voices chattering on beside him tugged at Dane’s consciousness until he was awake. He blinked at the bright light coming in through the drawn curtains as it beamed over him. His head was absolutely throbbing.
Last night was not a dream.
He went to touch his stitches, but the rattling of linked chains startled him. He could not move his hand. Cadence had cuffed it to the bedpost.
“What the hell?”
Tillie stood with her at the other end of the room, waving. “Good morning, Mister Sheltier! How are you feeling?”
“Pissed off!” he said. “Can the crazy lady please let me go? I have to get back to Riddenholm and back to work!”
Cadence was back in her normal attire, holding her hands neatly behind her back. “Relax, Mister Sheltier. We are in Riddenholm.”
“We’re… what? But we were just in Beralin last night. When did we—”
“We commandeered a riverboat after you got your medical attention,” she said. “You don’t remember because they had you drugged up and you passed out as soon as we boarded. Currently, we are at the Alabaster Bobcat Inn in northern Riddenholm.”
“How’s your head?” Tillie asked. “It looked pretty bad last night. You have five stitches. Can you believe it?”
“Easily,” he grumbled. “And it hurts like hell. I need coffee and I need to get over to the cemetery. Bone Priestess, let me go.”
Cadence ignored him and gazed out the window instead. The inn room had another smal
l bed and a cot. It was dusty, but otherwise clean. That was the state of everything in Central Siopenne during the summer.
“Tillie,” she started, “are you sure you want to continue this investigation with me?”
“Against better judgment, yes.” She smoothed out her pale blue skirts. “I feel bad about what happened at dinner last night. We could have gotten some answers like you had meant to if I hadn’t stalled so much. Rowan doesn’t have school for another couple days and is staying with his friend. I can help you until then and try to undo some of the damage I did.”
Cadence sighed. “Miss Boyce, I am sure your idea would have worked had it not been for the attack on The Plaid Bonnet. I place blame on the bandits and whomever hired them. I do not place it with you.”
“Hey, this is all wonderful news.” Dane gestured grandly with his free hand. “Meanwhile, I’m still filthy from getting kicked around, I’m hungry, I’m irritated, and I’m chained to a bedpost in the worst way.”
Cadence placed a key in Tillie’s hand. “This is for the manacles. I must investigate the Tano family next and I need someone to keep an eye on him. Otherwise I will have to place him in a jail cell till I’m finished and that would not be good for the new grave warden’s reputation.”
Tillie stared at it, then stared at Dane. “Hold on, I thought I was going to be helping you! I don’t want to babysit!”
“What do you know about the Tano family, Miss Boyce?”
Words caught in her throat. “Uh, w-well…”
“They are a dangerous brood.” Cadence picked up her holsters on the table and strapped them into place. “The Sanctum has been trying to bust them for practicing Forbidden Arts for years. Decades. We don’t have any hard evidence, though. Just hearsay. And it varies from daemons to necromancy to blood magic, and while those are all highly punishable offenses, the only one the Sanctum has any jurisdiction over is necromancy. I have to prove that offense to take them in.”
Queens of Wings & Storms Page 71