“What the…?” Cowley said, standing up.
Fen jumped up too, automatically reaching for his sword, only to realize a moment later that it wasn’t there.
There were a half dozen of them, rough-looking men with scarves tied around their faces to hide their identity. They wore leather armor and had swords in their hands. Weapons and armor were scarred but clearly serviceable and the way the men carried their swords told Fen they knew how to use them. He and Cowley exchanged looks and he knew his friend had noted the same things he had. This was not an ordinary band of street thugs they were dealing with. These were men who knew what they were doing.
The men spread out across the restaurant while one of them—a man wearing a red scarf, his long hair tied back in a ponytail—walked out to the middle and held his hands up in the air.
“Here’s how it’s going to be,” he yelled. “Anyone who doesn’t shut up this instant is going to get a yard of steel in their guts!”
That got through to them. The diners settled down and went quiet. A number were still standing, though.
“Better,” the man said. “I hate screaming. It makes me twitchy. Now everyone sit back down.”
One of the men at a nearby table, clearly a man of some wealth and importance judging by the amount of gold brocade he wore and the air of authority he carried, said, “See here, you ruffians. I am the chief magistrate for the crown. If you harm one person here I promise you that you will stand before me in court and you will answer.” He pounded his fist on the table for emphasis. “By the gods, you will answer!”
The leader of the thieves didn’t say a word. He simply took two quick steps over to the judge’s table. A quick sideways slash with his sword and the judge fell back with an oath, blood flowing from the cut that had appeared across his forehead.
“Now you see here,” the leader said. “That could as easy have been your throat. You like being magistrate, do you? You want to keep being magistrate or do you want to try out being dead? It’s your choice.”
The judge was not a man to back down easily. He glared at the thief, his eyes blazing, but he said nothing further. Fen thought if the judge wasn’t careful, the thief might kill him outright. As a soldier, he’d learned you don’t leave a dangerous enemy behind you who could later attack you from the rear.
“Now for the easy part,” the thief said. “My helpers will be coming around to your table with a sack. Jewelry and coin purses go in the sack. Anybody holds out, they get cut. Bad enough that you’ll wish you hadn’t. Any questions?”
“I wish we had our swords,” Cowley said out of the corner of his mouth.
Fen agreed with him wholeheartedly, but he wasn’t sure what they could’ve done even if they had them. It would be far too easy for the thieves to take a hostage. Sure, he and Cowley could probably take them down, but innocent people would get hurt. The best thing was probably to go along with the thieves. Let them steal what they wanted and go on their way. The city watch would deal with them. It wasn’t worth getting killed over money.
He reached under the table and squeezed Ravin’s hand. She squeezed back and looked at him. She looked alert, and he could feel that her pulse was faster than normal, but she didn’t look terrified. She wasn’t going to lose her head.
The thieves worked their way across the restaurant. At a nearby table an elderly woman refused to give up her diamond necklace, and when her husband raised his hand to speak, the thief simply clubbed him on the temple with the hilt of his sword. The man dropped like a stone. Next the thief backhanded the woman hard, snapping her head back. Blood poured from her mouth as he yanked the necklace off her.
“I see you are no real man,” the elderly woman said, practically spitting blood at him. “Striking a helpless old woman. I shall enjoy watching you hang.”
The thief kicked her chair over, then stood over her and raised his sword. Fen started to rise. Whatever the consequences, he couldn’t sit here and do nothing while a woman was murdered before his eyes. Ravin pulled at him, trying to keep him in his seat.
But then the thief lowered his sword. He stepped over the woman and came to their table next. Seeing Fen partially out of his chair he pointed his sword at him. “Was there something you wanted to do, boy?” he sneered.
Taking a deep breath, Fen let Ravin pull him back down into his chair. It wasn’t easy to back down, though. With the rise in his emotions, the strange power inside him had risen as well. He could feel it racing through his body, clamoring for release. Somewhere down below, distant still, he could feel an answering throb of power from within the ground itself.
“Smart move,” the thief said. “I’d hate to splash your blood all over your pretty young girlfriend.”
“Actually, it would all be your blood that was splashed everywhere,” Cowley said suddenly.
The thief turned and pointed the sword at him. His eyes were sharp and hard above the scarf. “Who asked you?”
“No one,” Cowley said. He was sitting casually in his chair, leaning back, his hands in his lap, as if the person he was talking to wasn’t pointing a sword at him. “But I thought I might warn you anyway. You don’t want to make that man angry. Trust me.”
Fen was staring at Cowley in disbelief, trying to will him to shut up. Now was not the time for his mouth to run away from him.
“Maybe I’ll splash some of your blood around instead,” the thief said.
“That would be an even bigger mistake,” Cowley said. “You see, Fen is a nice guy. He’d try not to kill you. I’m not nearly that nice.” He still looked perfectly calm, as if he didn’t notice that the thief was getting more and more agitated. The thief was a big man, with broad shoulders and quite a lot of muscle. Fen could see a scar beside one eye and he noticed the way the man’s knuckles were mashed down. This was a man who knew violence intimately.
“I don’t like the way you talk,” the thief said.
“What’s going on over there?” the leader yelled. “Hurry up and let’s get out of here!”
“In a minute. I got someone here who needs to learn a lesson.”
So saying, the thief jabbed at Cowley. But Cowley was ready for him. One hand flashed up, slapping the sword thrust aside. In the same motion he came to his feet, and Fen saw that he had his table knife in his other hand. He leaned forward and slashed the thief’s wrist with the knife. The thief gave a grunt of pain and fell back—
But he didn’t drop his sword.
And Fen knew he no longer had a choice.
He lunged from his chair. The thief turned to meet him, but Fen closed on him before he could bring his sword to bear. Fen felt utterly calm. He knew exactly what he needed to do and exactly how he would do it.
He struck the thief in the chest with the heel of his hand, releasing a whisper of his power when he did so.
Fen heard the crack of a rib breaking and the man flew backwards and landed on the next table on his back. The table collapsed. Food and drinks flew everywhere. The people sitting at the table scrambled to try and get away, some falling down in their haste.
Then the restaurant dissolved into chaos.
One of the other thieves came running at Fen, slashing with his sword as he came. He was undisciplined and sloppy and Fen easily ducked his attack. As the man ran by, carried by his own momentum, Fen shoved him in the side, again releasing a bit of the Stone power. The man lost his balance and flew in a tangle of arms and legs across the room, finally slamming his head into one of the big clay pots filled with flowers. The pot cracked and fell over on top of him.
Meanwhile, Cowley was tied up with another one of the thieves. Though Cowley only had the table knife, he had years of training that the thief did not. He sidestepped a couple of attacks, then stepped in and grabbed the man’s wrist with his free hand. He gave it a twist and the man dropped his sword, then he hammered him in the temple with the butt of the knife and dropped him to the ground. He straightened in time to face the next oncoming attacker.
One of the remaining thieves came at Fen. Having seen what happened to his companion, he was a lot more careful, staying back and jabbing at Fen, trying to keep him at a distance while he waited for his chance. He circled Fen as they fought, moving in and out. Clearly he’d had some training with his weapon. Fen knew he could channel some of his power into one arm, take the sword blow on it while he rushed in and took the man down, but he didn’t want to use his power that openly so he waited, knowing his opportunity would come.
When it did come, it came from an unexpected quarter.
As the thief circled, trying to find an opening, he ended up with his back to the table where Ravin and Amma were still sitting. He paid no attention to the women, obviously seeing them as no threat, which was a mistake.
Ravin snatched up the lantern from their table, swung it and hit the man in the back of the head. The glass in the lantern broke and lamp oil spilled down his back. In seconds he was on fire. He screamed and tried to slap at it and while he was doing that Fen knocked him out with an uppercut. The man fell on his back and the flames flickered out.
A glance showed Fen that he didn’t need to worry about Cowley, who had already disarmed his attacker and was trading punches with him. That meant there was only one more thief to dispose of, the leader. Fen ran through the press of frightened diners to find him.
The leader was over by the stairs, backing away. He had his arm around a woman’s neck and was holding his sword to her throat. “Any closer and she dies,” he said.
Fen stopped. “Don’t hurt her. You can still leave and I won’t try to stop you. You have my word on that. But if you hurt her, I promise you you’ll pay for it.”
“Bold words for a man in your position,” the leader said. “Maybe you should have picked up one of those swords.”
“I don’t need it.”
The man glanced past Fen and his mouth twisted. “You couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you? All you had to do was stay in your seat and we’d be gone by now. No one had to get hurt.”
“You can talk to your friend about that later, when you’re waiting in your cell to be hanged,” Fen said calmly. “Or you can run now. Who knows, you might still get away.”
In the distance could be heard the sound of galloping horses and blowing horns. The city watch was on its way.
“No. No way am I leaving here emptyhanded. Pick up that sack and toss it to me. Then I’ll go.” Near Fen’s feet was one of the sacks the thieves had been filling with loot.
Fen crouched down. But instead of picking up the sack, he placed his palm on the floor and released another surge of power.
The floorboards bucked under his hand. The thief and his hostage staggered sideways and fell down. Fen leapt forward and grabbed the man’s wrist before he could react. Fen looked into his eyes.
“Drop it.”
The man’s eyes were wide. “How’d…how’d you do that?”
“Drop it. I don’t want to hurt you.”
The leader snarled and tried to twist free. Fen squeezed his wrist, releasing a trickle of power as he did so. One of the bones in his wrist snapped then and the man screamed in pain and dropped the sword.
Cowley was the first one there when Fen stood up. He had a scratch on his cheek and a wild grin on his face. He grabbed Fen in a sudden, fierce hug. “You’re unstoppable,” he said. “There’s nothing you can’t do.” He pounded on Fen’s back a couple of times before letting him go.
“You weren’t so bad yourself,” Fen replied.
“It was nothing,” Cowley said with false modesty. “I didn’t want you to have all the fun is all.”
Ravin and Amma got there a moment later. Ravin threw her arms around Fen. “Are you all right?” she asked worriedly. “Did you get hurt?”
“I’m fine,” he said. His next words were stopped by the kiss she planted on his lips. When she broke off he was flustered. “Well…” was all he could manage.
Veni came hurrying up then. “You saved me,” he exclaimed loudly. Then, surveying the wreckage and the diners milling around, jostling each other as they sought to retrieve their valuables from the sacks, he said, “I’m ruined. No one will want to eat here again.”
“Which is it, Veni?” Cowley asked him, still with the same oddly manic smile on his face. “Are you saved or ruined?”
“Both,” the man said sadly. “But it was good of you to stop them. Bah!” he said, kicking the leader in the side as he tried to get to his knees. “Get back down! It’s too late for you. You’ll have worse than a broken wrist when the watch gets done with you.”
“Say, Veni,” Cowley said. “Since we’re heroes and all, how about you toss out our dinner bill and let us go?”
“Go?” the man said. “Without paying your bill?” Clearly it was an idea that hadn’t occurred to him. It didn’t look like he liked it.
The magistrate came walking up then. “If it wasn’t for the bravery of these two young soldiers, we’d all be out a considerable sum of money right now.” He turned to look at the other diners. “What do you say? Shall we cover the bill for a couple of heroes?” Enthusiastic voices greeted his suggestion and there was scattered applause.
“Go then,” Veni said, waving them off. “If you leave quickly you can miss the city watch and their questions. Don’t come back for a long time, okay? I’m starting to think maybe you are bad luck.”
A minute later they were down on the street. Cowley pulled them around the corner right as the watch arrived and they watched from the shadows as the men pounded up the stairs.
“That was something, wasn’t it?” he said to them. “What a night!” He grabbed Amma by the waist and swung her around. When he set her down she laughed and kissed him.
“I saw the way you took that man down with the lantern,” Cowley said to Ravin. “Who knew you were so fierce, eh?” Ravin gave him a small smile and shrugged.
“Why’d you do that, Cowley?” Fen asked. “You egged that man on. You didn’t have to do that.”
“Wait, what? But I’m a hero!”
“You could’ve gotten people killed.”
“You were really just going to sit there and let those criminals steal from all of those people, from all of us, and not do anything?”
“It’s only money.”
“But I knew we could take them!”
“It worked out, but it could have gone bad. He could have killed his hostage.”
“Don’t waste your time worrying about what could have happened, that’s my advice,” Cowley said. “What should we do next?” he asked. “We still have all that money we didn’t spend on dinner. What say we spend it at the nearest fine drinking establishment? Or the nearest low drinking establishment. I don’t care which, so long as they have ale!”
Fen looked at Ravin. She gave him a brief shake of her head. “We’re going home,” Fen said. In truth he was relieved that Ravin didn’t want to go out. It was getting late and he still wanted to go to the quarry and see if Cowley’s crazy idea about contacting a Shaper would work.
Cowley harassed them for a minute, but when he saw that they wouldn’t change their minds, he and Amma said their goodbyes and headed off down the street, while Fen and Ravin returned to the castle.
Chapter Twenty-eight
At the servants’ door to the palace Fen and Ravin kissed again and held each other for several minutes. Then they stood there, holding hands, looking into each other’s eyes.
“Do you want to come in?” Ravin asked shyly.
A shiver ran over Fen at the offer, and he wanted more than anything to say yes, but he knew he’d never make it to the quarry if he did, and his duty was more important to him than even this. “I do,” he told her earnestly, “but I have things I still need to do before we march in the morning.”
“What sort of things?” she asked him, looking at him askance.
“Officer stuff,” he said vaguely. “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t finish them earlier before we went to dinner.”
“Do what you have to do,” she told him reluctantly, in a voice that made his heart throb almost painfully.
“I still wish you were staying here where it’s safe,” he told her. During the walk back to the castle she’d told him that she was definitely one of the servants who had been chosen. “But I have to admit that part of me is also glad you’re coming along. I’ll find time to come see you, I promise.”
“I know you will.” She stood up on tiptoe and gave him a quick kiss. “Go take care of your duties, lieutenant. I’ll see you soon.”
The door closed behind her and Fen stood there cursing himself. The thought of going out alone to the quarry was an unappealing one. Probably it wouldn’t work anyway. He should have taken her up on her offer. Maybe he was just an idiot.
He went to the stables and saddled his horse. The guards at the castle gate waved him through. He trotted through the darkened city to the main gates. They were closed for the night, but the soldiers posted there recognized him and they opened the gates for him.
Then it was off through the darkness, following the overgrown wagon track that led up into some low hills south of Samkara. He ducked under overhanging tree limbs and splashed across a small stream, following the white scar of the track until he came to the quarry. Marble had been quarried here for years, high quality stone that was used in the homes and businesses of the wealthy all across the city. But the quality marble had petered out some years before and now it was abandoned, weeds growing up through the chunks of stone that littered the ground. One side had filled with water and frogs croaked from the cattails growing there.
Where the hillside had been cut away there was a cliff about forty feet high. He dismounted, tied his horse to a small sapling that had sprung up between two cracked blocks of stone, and walked over to the cliff.
Sea Born (Chaos and Retribution Book 3) Page 33