“I understand that you weren’t successful,” said a voice behind him.
Gavin spun, knives already out, but hesitated. “You really should be careful, Hamish.”
Hamish was an older man with graying hair, and a gold chain hung over the robe he always wore. It marked him as a priest of sorts, though he was like no priest Gavin had ever met. Each time Gavin encountered Hamish, the man was dressed in a different garishly colored robe. The darkness made it difficult to tell what color it was tonight. Deep eyes stared at him, the look within them almost knowing, as if Hamish recognized some secret Gavin had yet to find.
“Why must I be careful? Isn’t it your job to ensure that you are cautious with your blades?”
“I suppose it is,” he said.
“Not so cautious tonight, though.”
Gavin’s gaze flickered toward the end of the street. The manor house that he’d been asked to attack was not so far away.
Had it been chance that had brought me here?
He liked to think that it had been, but maybe he’d been guided. If so, he didn’t care much for that.
“I was as cautious as I could be. The job wasn’t to be silent with my actions.”
Hamish surprised him by laughing. “I suppose we should be much more particular with the assignment then.”
“We?”
“You know you aren’t working for me, Gavin Lorren.”
There were many things about Hamish that Gavin didn’t like, and knowing his full name was just one of them, especially as he had certainly never shared it. Names made it far too easy to uncover things that needed to remain hidden. “When do you intend to tell me who I’m working for?”
“In time. Now, should we talk about the price for failure?”
“Price? I haven’t completed the job, but it’s not a failure.”
“I’m afraid your failure must be punished, but the type of punishment depends on your attitude. So says our mutual employer,” Hamish said.
“And I’m telling you that I’ll finish the job.”
“I’m afraid that isn’t going to be possible. You see, now that you have failed this time, the defenses around your target will be shifted, and anything else will be far more difficult for you to reach.”
Gavin frowned.
How much more difficult could it get?
Getting to that woman had already been incredibly challenging, and he couldn’t imagine it being harder. “I could bring others in, and all it takes is for us to—”
“No. We aren’t looking for warfare. Besides, that isn’t the point. Now that you have attacked—and failed, I must add—our target will move.” Hamish glanced up at the sky. He glowered at the rain drizzling down around them. “I don’t suppose you understand just how difficult a position you place me in.”
Gavin smiled. “And how difficult a position is that?”
“Trying to argue for the merits of keeping you employed.”
“I’ve completed every assignment you’ve asked of me.”
“Not every one,” Hamish said.
Gavin shook his head. “Fine. Not every assignment but almost every assignment. And I will complete this one.” Failure wasn’t something he was accustomed to, though there were times when he hadn’t completed tasks before. Usually that was because he chose not to; not at all like this one.
“That is why I’m here. I needed to see for myself.”
“To see what for yourself?”
“Whether or not you could be trusted.”
Gavin found himself smiling again. “Trusted with what?”
“With the opportunity to finish your task. Seeing as how you have failed us, our employer thought it best you be removed from the equation, but I have argued against that. You see, I recognize the value you offer, even if they are sometimes skeptical of you.”
“Do you really think our employer would find me easy to remove?”
“How many of your own kind do you think you could outrun?” Hamish asked.
The way that the man had said “own kind” left a chill through Gavin. There were plenty of mercenaries like himself within Yoran, and he knew it would be difficult to outrun many, but the statement could also be interpreted as something else—something that left him even more troubled.
What exactly did Hamish know about me? Could that be why they had sought me out as soon as I had arrived in the city?
Gavin hadn’t revealed his presence to that many people, and he hadn’t come openly either.
“Now, I know you are quite talented,” Hamish continued, “but if we hired five. Seven. A dozen. How many of them do you think you would be able to overpower?”
Gavin resisted the urge to let out a sigh of relief. Maybe they didn’t know after all and really did just mean other mercenaries. “As many as they hired to come after me.”
“Is that right? Well, perhaps in time we will find out whether or not that is true. For now, know that I have spoken on your behalf. Our employer has decided you will complete this assignment.”
“I’ve already told you I will.”
“You’re going to complete the assignment, or you will be removed from Yoran.”
Gavin met Hamish’s eyes, holding them for a long moment. “Are you threatening me?” He squeezed the knives. He didn’t want to cut Hamish down, but he would.
“I don’t think it’s necessary for me to make a threat. Merely a promise. Now, when you complete the assignment, you will be paid as agreed. In this case, seeing as how difficult this task has proven to be, our employer has even agreed to increase the wages offered.”
Something didn’t fit quite right for Gavin. “Why would they offer me more when I haven’t completed the job?”
“Consider it hazard pay. They recognize the job will become more difficult.”
“Just how much more difficult?”
If there were others as skilled with the sword as the one man he faced, then perhaps Hamish was right that it’d become more difficult. It might even be worthwhile to take on the hazard pay, though he didn’t know how much more hazardous the job could be.
“Unfortunately, I cannot predict that for you. Neither can I predict where you will need to go to find your target. That will be on you. If you fail, the consequences involve you, Mr. Grayson, and all of the others that you have frequented the Roasted Dragon with.”
This time, Gavin took a step back. Hamish was far better connected than he had expected. Not only did he know about Wrenlow, but he knew about the others he’d started to spend time with at the tavern.
“You’d better be careful, Hamish,” he said.
“And why is that, Mr. Lorren?”
“If you push too hard, you might find I don’t take it well.”
“If I push too hard, you’ll break. Like so many have broken before you.” Hamish stepped back and glanced toward the tree, then turned and looked behind him in the direction of the manor house. “Finish the task.” With that, he circled around the tree.
Gavin hesitated before following him. By the time he caught up to where Hamish should be, the man had already disappeared.
Balls.
“How much of that did you catch?” he said into the enchantment.
“I didn’t hear anything. There was too much interference. It’s breaking up.”
Wrenlow’s voice was crackly and difficult for Gavin to hear clearly. It seemed to come from a great distance.
“Interference?” Gavin moved away from the tree. If nothing else, maybe this special tree was disrupting his communication through the enchantment. It was either that or something Hamish had carried, though that sort of enchantment would be incredibly specific. “Is that any better?”
“It’s getting a little bit clearer, but something was interfering with me hearing you. I don’t know what happened.”
Gavin backed away from the tree until he was on the far side of the street. The clouds had started to part, the rain fading. A hint of moonlight drifted through the clouds and
caught the leaves of the tree. With the rain they’d had, the moonlight glistened off of the leaves, making it seem as if starlight danced within the tree. He could almost imagine it being something mystical; the way the people envisioned it to be.
“It seems that my employer has decided to take a very different approach to their assignments,” he said.
“What approach is that?”
“If I fail, they’re going to have me, you, and everyone at the Dragon killed.”
Wrenlow started to laugh, but it died off when he caught on that Gavin wasn’t laughing with him. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m afraid I am. I don’t really know how they know about all of you, but they seem to. Given how easy it was for Hamish to find me, I suspect they have the resources to do so.”
“How do you propose to keep us alive?”
“I’m supposed to do my job.”
“Weren’t you going to do that anyway?”
Gavin nodded. “I was. I will. But now I think I might need to do something else.”
“What’s that?”
“I need to figure out who the hell I’m working for. Then I need to decide if they deserve to live.”
Chapter Three
The inside of the Roasted Dragon was rustic and simple. Rough wooden walls surrounded Gavin, and heavily grooved boards ran the length of the floor. Other than the fire crackling in the hearth, light was provided by a few lanterns hanging along stone columns throughout the inside of the tavern, creating a cozy feel. He had loved it from the moment they had stepped foot inside when they’d first come to Yoran. It was a place that they’d happened upon by chance, but now he couldn’t imagine being in any other tavern within the city.
He found Wrenlow sitting alone near the back of the tavern. The man had his book resting on his lap, much like Gavin had envisioned that he would. Untouched food rested on the tray in front of him. Wrenlow even had two mugs of ale sitting there, neither of them empty.
Gavin nodded at the people within the tavern and glanced toward the kitchen. Jessica strode toward them, chestnut-colored hair pulled back in a braid and her apron cinched up beneath her bosom, carrying two trays to patrons on the far side of the tavern. When he took a seat in front of Wrenlow, the other man barely looked up at him.
“I would’ve asked you if you were followed, but given what Hamish told you, I guess it doesn’t matter.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Gavin agreed.
“I don’t like it. You know I support everything we’re doing—at least most of the time.” Wrenlow looked up. He had a lean face, and though he hadn’t shaved in nearly a week, barely more than a faint scrub of a beard covered his face. He rubbed the knuckle of his left hand into his eyes and blinked. “If he’s going to threaten us—”
“I’m not proposing we do nothing.”
“Good. I was a bit worried you were going to let him get away with it.”
Gavin shook his head. “There isn’t much we can do about it right now. I need to finish the job, which means we have to figure out where this woman went.”
“You don’t think that she went back to her manor house and simply increased security?”
Gavin sighed. After he’d lost track of Hamish, he’d wandered back toward the manor house, staying as hidden as he could. When he’d reached it, he’d crawled up a hidden section of the wall and looked in the yard. There had been no movement or light in the windows. No evidence of anyone there.
“It’s empty.”
“Then he wasn’t lying about that.”
“Nope.”
“Which is why you’re concerned the other things he’s told you are also not lies.”
“Somewhat,” Gavin said, stretching forward briefly to scan Wrenlow’s book. He couldn’t tell what was written there, though it looked to be a diagram, probably of the house he’d been in earlier in the night. Notes along the side of the diagram had been crossed out.
“That doesn’t mean he’s going to be able to get to us,” Wrenlow said.
Gavin leaned back in his chair, gazing around the rest of the tavern. The smell of the fire drifted toward him, a pleasing and comfortable sense. It reminded him of his childhood, back before he had started his intense training. Not only was the fire comforting, but the smell of the food was as well. There was simply something about a well-cooked meal, and the Roasted Dragon had many of those. They were all tasty, and given how long they’d been staying here, he’d had an opportunity to eat almost all of them.
“I don’t know,” he said. “We haven’t encountered anyone quite like him before.”
“You can’t say that. We don’t really know anything about him.”
“Exactly. Which is why I can say we haven’t encountered anything quite like him before. I just want us to be careful. I get the sense that if he wanted to, he could have us eliminated.”
The idea that they were the targets would’ve been amusing were it not for the fact that Wrenlow wouldn’t be able to do much against someone like Hamish, though not for Gavin’s lack of trying. When they’d first met, he’d tried to train Wrenlow, but the man just didn’t have the knack for it. What he did have was a mind unlike anyone Gavin had ever met. That mind had proven increasingly valuable the longer they worked together and was the reason they’d survived as long as they had over the years.
“He’s giving you a chance to finish the job, though,” Wrenlow said.
“He is, and I have a feeling Hamish thinks he’s being generous in doing so.”
“He’s not?”
“If he were being generous, he would’ve realized the job was more difficult than he had let on initially.”
“I thought he’d made that clear,” Wrenlow said.
“He didn’t warn us quite as much as he should’ve about what we were going to face.”
Wrenlow looked at Gavin, a question in his eyes. They had been through so much together in the time since they’d met, and they struggled with some of the same things. It had made them fast friends, at least so much as Gavin could have friends. It was rare enough for him to do that. Most of the time, he found it easier to work on his own, and were it not for Wrenlow’s persistence, he might still be alone.
“That’s why you have me,” Wrenlow said. “With a little more time, I can—”
“You seem to be back a little early,” Jessica said, swinging by their table.
Gavin looked up at her and flashed the widest smile he could. “I figured I would see what you might have special for me tonight,” he said.
“What makes you think I have anything for you?”
He chuckled and shrugged. “I don’t mean it quite like that.”
“How do you mean it?” She leaned forward, a playful smile curving her full lips. A strand of her brown hair hung in front of her eyes, and she shook her head slightly to flip it out of the way.
“How do you want me to mean it?”
Wrenlow slammed his book closed and looked at the two of them. “Do you need me to step away? I mean, I know I’m only sitting right here, but I can step away while the two of you flirt.”
“You don’t have to go anywhere,” Gavin said, pulling one of the mugs of ale over to him and taking a drink.
Jessica smiled and winked at Wrenlow. “If he doesn’t mind if you watch, I guess I don’t either.”
“Would you stop?” Gavin said.
“What? You want him to watch, right?” Jessica said.
“You know he doesn’t like it.”
“He doesn’t like watching, or he doesn’t like women?”
Gavin looked over at Wrenlow, and he started to smirk. “You know, I don’t really know.”
“Well, he does spend quite a bit of time with you.”
“Can you blame him? I mean, I’m worthy of spending time with.” He chuckled as he said it.
“Listen to you, thinking you’re so special.”
“That’s not what you were saying to me the other night,” he said.
�
�You don’t know what I was saying the other night. You fell asleep before you had the opportunity to hear. Or find out.”
Wrenlow cleared his throat again. “Fine. If that’s the way you’re going to be, I am going to go. There are things I need to uncover to complete our task, after all.” He headed away from them, and Gavin waited until he was gone before shaking his head.
“He really gets quite jumpy about things,” Jessica said, taking a seat across from him.
“He struggles around women,” Gavin said.
She leaned forward. She had a bright smile, a round face, and chestnut hair that hung in waves past her shoulders, which she kept tied back with a colorful ribbon. “Considering all the time he’s spent here, I think I’ve seen him more than you. Maybe I should spend time with him. At least he’s around.”
Gavin laughed and took another drink. “Any news?”
“I’m not sure I want to share.”
“You’d rather leave me guessing?”
She glared at him, crossing her arms under her chest. It drew attention where she wanted it to, and she grinned as he dragged his gaze back up to her eyes. “There hasn’t been any activity, if that’s what you’re concerned about. I’d let you know if there was. I’m not going let anything happen to you or Wrenlow while you’re staying at the Dragon.”
“I didn’t think you would.”
“No? Then why all of the questions?”
Gavin debated how much to share with her. She’d been an ally ever since he’d come to Yoran, and not only had she welcomed him to the Dragon, but she often had insight into activity within the city he wasn’t able to get anywhere else. Her contacts often allowed her to learn information he didn’t otherwise have access to.
The Chain Breaker: Books 1-3 Page 3