The Price of Faith

by Rob J. Hayes

  Jez could feel herself trembling with anger. “Thanquil will kill the heretic.”

  “Aye, he'll try.”

  Jez spat on the deck of the Fortune and pulled her swords back from Drake. “Tell me where to find them.”

  “I’ll do better,” Drake said grinning again. “I’m going to deliver you right to Kessick as a hostage. No better way to get you close to him, right? And how could he refuse? No better peace making present from Drake Morrass than the lover of the Arbiter being sent to kill him.”

  “He’ll keep me close,” Jez said finally getting to the root of Drake’s plan.

  “Guarded but close. Ready to use you soon as your Arbiter turns up. All you have to do…”

  “Is bide my time and strike at the right moment.”

  Drake took a deep breath and sighed out with smug grin, his golden tooth standing out amongst the set of white chompers. “All part of the plan.”

  Jez brought her knee up between his legs as hard as she could and was rewarded with the sight of Drake Morrass collapsing in a whining heap of pain, curling up to protect his most vulnerable parts. She threw her weapons down on the deck beside him. “That part of the plan too?”

  Thanquil

  Sleep didn’t come easily to Thanquil these days, or more, it came too easily but it was something he avoided wherever possible. Before leaving Fortune’s Rest he had purchased himself a new pack, some paper and an ink well, expensive luxuries aboard the pirate pleasure house but he deemed them necessary. Now he had a new sleepless charm on his arm, one of more sturdy design than the scrap of bandage, and he guessed it had been roughly four days since he had last slept. It was taking its toll and worse, staying awake was no longer keeping the dreams at bay, they came to him awake or asleep, day or night.

  “Ya ain’t lookin’ so well, Thanquil,” Thorn said from across the cabin of False Hope. The others were asleep, some snoring, some quiet. Rilly occasionally thrashed and muttered high-pitched words. Even aboard a transport ship and in a locked cabin the Black Thorn’s crew kept a watch and Thorn had volunteered to be first.

  “You’re looking a little ragged yourself, Thorn.”

  “Beat-up, frayed around the edges an’ well-used, sure. But you ain’t lookin’ well. Don’t reckon I’ve seen ya sleep since we met an’ ya been talkin’ ta yaself when ya think no one can hear.”

  Thanquil wasn’t sure what was more worrying; that others had overheard him talking to himself or that he didn’t remember doing it. His left hand brushed against the sword hanging on his hip. Covered by protective and suppressive charms the blade may be but he could still hear the voice of the demon within.

  “I’m fine, Thorn…”

  “Then there’s that whole thing with Carlston… Cracked him like a bad egg.”

  Thanquil snorted quietly so as not to wake any of the others, bad enough he was having this conversation but the last thing he needed was for any of the others to hear it. “Are you more concerned that I killed him or that you lost out on the bounty, I wonder.”

  “S’lot a money ya cost us there an’ no mistake but that ain’t the issue here…”

  “And the Black Thorn turned to bounty hunter,” Thanquil interrupted. “Never thought I’d see that day. You were the most feared name in all the wilds if I remember right.”

  “Still am,” Thorn said with a nod. “Jus’ mostly feared by the other side these days. Folk I used ta run with run scared an’ folk who used to chase me buy me drinks. Truth is people like me don’t last forever in the game so I decided ta change the rules, play at bein’ the hunter not the hunted. Better money on this side of the law too. ‘Least when Arbiters don’t go ‘round beatin’ the marks ta bloody pulp.”

  “You’re not going to let that go.”

  The Black Thorn sucked at his teeth, it looked as though he was missing a couple since the last time Thanquil had seen him. Thanquil himself was missing just one tooth from his whole set and it was Thorn who had knocked it out back in Sarth after finding out Thanquil had lied to him, manipulated him to gain his support in dealing with the three heretics within the Inquisition.

  “Truth is I’m worried ‘bout ya, Thanquil. We’re goin’ after Kessick with or without ya an’ safe ta say I’d rather it’d be with but can’t have ya loosin’ it an’ goin’ all crazy. It ain’t jus’ ‘bout killin’ that bastard took my eye. I got a crew ta look out fer an’ I got no intentions of loosin’ any of ‘em.”

  Thanquil was dreaming. His vision doubled up and he saw both the cabin inside False Hope and an old warehouse back in Chade. It was the same warehouse he had purchased over a year ago and he already knew what was coming.

  He staggered into the warehouse through a rotting doorway housing a collection of nailed together planks that didn’t fit the frame. He was wounded, a dozen different little injuries most given to him by the guards of Chade but two, including the most serious, were presents from the Black Thorn. They had run into each other in Lord Xho’s mansion and had fought. Thanquil had seen the mess Thorn had made of Lord Colth but now he knew the Black Thorn hadn’t been the culprit. It had been one of Drake Morrass’ assassins that had mutilated the fat lord, someone at the ball.

  Thanquil stumbled and fell through an old crate rotted through and smelling of death. He rolled onto his back and pulled a charm from his coat pocket, a sleepless charm but he was already wearing one.

  The Black Thorn was staring at him curiously from the other side of the cabin. “You alright there, Thanquil?”

  Thanquil nodded as he stumbled to his feet and limped towards another of the rotten crates. His pack was hidden inside and it had medical supplies that he needed, bandages and ointment to treat the wounds the guards had given him, the wounds the Black Thorn had given him.

  “I’m fine,” Thanquil announced though he was far from certain he believed it. “Just tired.”

  “Right,” the Black Thorn said as Thanquil set about treating his wounds in the warehouse, cleaning the angry flesh and wrapping bandages around the tender spots. “I need ta know you’ll follow orders, Thanquil, do as ya told. Good?”

  Thanquil snorted. “An Arbiter following the orders of the Black Thorn.” In the warehouse Thanquil called out Jezzet’s name, checking to make certain she wasn’t nearby. He had a task to perform and she couldn’t see it, couldn’t see what Thanquil was about to do. He didn’t want to have to kill her after all. “You’re in charge, Thorn. I never was very good at the planning anyway.”

  Thanquil pulled out a blank chip of wood and his ink pot and carefully drew three symbols onto the chip. Then he placed the ink pot back in his bag and stood, swaying from the blood loss. Then, with only a moment’s hesitation, he snapped the wood chip in half and dropped both halves to the floor where they burst into heat-less blue flame.

  The Black Thorn looked confused. Then came the clinking of chains.

  Thorn was on his feet instantly, looking aghast at Thanquil with his axe in his five-fingered hand and a dagger in its three-fingered counterpart. He shouted a word and the others began to wake up. A moment later Thanquil realised he was no longer dreaming. The room grew cold and dark, the flickering lantern light seemingly giving off less and less light and Thanquil saw his breath mist in front of his face.

  The others were quick to rise and started to do so just as the demon began to form in between the halves of the broken rune. It started as a patch of darkness among the darkness and then it began to take shape, a terrible spiked form, a head almost as large as a fully grown man. Thanquil felt the sword at his hip grow heavy.

  “What the fuck is that?” Rilly screamed as the demon’s eyes flickered to life.

  Still Thanquil found himself rooted to the spot, caught between the dream and the present. Then the demon spoke.

  “I am revealed, Arbiter Darkheart,” a cold grating noise like steel on ice, just the right pitch to break him from his trance.

  “Go back to the void,” he ordered the demon as he advanced upon it.
/>
  The face of the demon tilted in the approximation of a bow. “We obey,” it said around a mouth full of teeth and maddening white light and then it faded back to nothing. Light and warmth returned to the cabin and Thanquil found himself confronted by six very angry, very confused, very armed bounty hunters.

  “What the fuck was that?”

  “You can control those things?”

  “Bloody hells!”

  “Fuckin’ witch hunters.”

  Only Henry and the Honin, Suzku didn’t immediately start shouting at Thanquil. He wasn’t even sure who had said what let alone how to answer their questions.

  “Yes,” Thanquil said to no one and everyone. “That was a demon.”

  “Reckon I figured that out,” Henry said in a quiet, dangerous voice. “Seem ta remember one bitin’ the face off the Boss. Seem ta remember a few o’ them tore apart an entire garrison an’ then started on the townsfolk o’ Hostown.”

  “Aye,” the Black Thorn chimed in. “An’ I seem ta remember getting’ blamed fer the whole fuckin’ mess. You sayin’ it were you that summoned them things?”

  “No,” Thanquil said quickly. “H’ost summoned the demons in Hostown.”

  “Reckon I remember you orderin’ one ta fuck off back then too,” Thorn said accusingly.

  Thanquil winced. “Yeah.”

  “Well,” Thorn said taking a step forward and towering over Thanquil. “Reckon it might be ‘bout time ya told us exactly what the fuck jus’ happened an’ hows ‘bout ya leave the lies out of it.”

  So Thanquil told them. A group of bounty hunters barely more than criminals themselves and most of whom he didn’t know and he told them all the Inquisition’s dirtiest little secret. He told them how the first demon had been summoned by Volmar and the God had subsequently bound all the inhabitants of the void to serve the Inquisition. He told them that the demons were primarily used to deliver messages from the Inquisition to their Arbiters out in the field and he told them that Kessick was implanting demons into the bodies of people with the potential. He told them almost everything but he left out the part about him carrying around Myorzo and his orders should all other avenues fail.

  His audience remained rapt throughout Thanquil’s entire telling, even though it contained some of the history of the Inquisition, with only minor interruptions most commonly in the form of a colourful curse uttered by Rilly. The Black Thorn remained silent for the entire time but his one eye never moved from staring at Thanquil and his face was set into an ugly, grim mask.

  “Fuckin’ hypocrites,” Rilly spat once Thanquil had finished.

  “Eh?” Thorn grunted.

  “It means they don’t practice what they preach, boss,” Anders replied. “The Arbiters murder people for consorting with demons but they themselves are no better.”

  “We are better,” Thanquil argued. “The demons are bound to us, they gain nothing by following our orders as they have no choice but to.” It sounded a flimsy argument even to his ears.

  “I don’t get it,” Ben said. He had wedged himself into one of the corners of the room and stood with a heavy steel mace held out in front of him with both hands as if its very presence could ward off the demon should it come back. “All this magic and demons stuff makes no damned sense to me. If you can order demons around can’t ya just order them that Kessick… uh…”

  “Summons,” Pern filled in.

  “Right. Them that Kessick summons you could just… un...summon.”

  Thanquil shook his head. “It seems to work differently once a demon is possessing a body. They are no longer ruled by the same ties that bind them.”

  “The chains?” Rilly asked. “The ones Volmar made.”

  “Yes.”

  “We still doin’ this, Thorn?” Henry asked in a quiet voice. “Seems ta me it’s all a bit out of our field of expertise. We ain’t witch hunters, jus’ bounty hunters. Don’t know the first damned thing ‘bout killin’ demons an’ judgin’ from what I seen of ‘em so far I’d rather it stay that way.

  “We fought folk from all over the wilds an’ there ain’t a single one of us ain’t got more than a few murders ta our name, even Anders over there but demons, witch hunters, Gods an’ magic. Not a one of us signed up fer that. I seen what these demons can do well as you an’ I ain’t lookin’ ta die in a fight can’t be won.”

  The little murderess took a deep breath and sighed it out. “That being said... You’re in charge, Thorn an’ we made a deal, you an’ I. You helped me kill that little prick, Swift,” she paused and gave a tiny nod to Suzku, “an’ I’m ta help ya kill Kessick. Comes down ta it choice is yours. Can’t speak fer the others but I’ll follow ya lead.”

  The Black Thorn scratched at the burned side of his face then eyed each member of his crew in turn. “Henry makes a good point. Seems we been chasin’ after Kessick without full knowledge of what we might be goin’ up against. Demons an’ plenty of ‘em by the sounds an’ fuck knows what else. Now I’m still goin’.” He swung his gaze to Thanquil. “Made a bargain a while back an’ can’t expect Thanquil ta live up ta his side if I don’t make good on mine. Also, wouldn’t mind payin’ Kessick back a little after all he’s done ta me.

  “Ya all got the choice so it’s time ta make it now ya’ve seen what we’re fightin’. Henry’s said her piece an’ Anders is comin’ too.”

  “Wait. What? I never agreed…”

  Thorn silenced Anders with a stare. “What would Drake want ya ta do?”

  Anders snorted. “Who gives a shit what Drake wants, these…”

  “Wisest thing I’ve ever heard ya say,” Thorn cut him off. “Ya still comin’. Ben?”

  Ben looked far from convinced. “I dunno, boss. Demons and all. I’m simple folk, don’t know the first thing ‘bout fighting any of this. You didn’t see what that Arbiter chasing you did back in Chade ‘fore I took him down.”

  “I ain’t forcin’ you, Ben.”

  “No? Chances of death’d be fairly high wouldn’t ya say?”

  “High to certain, I reckon.”

  “Aye, and what would Joan say if I left you to go it alone.”

  “Reckon he’d call ya a coward an’ likely worse.”

  Ben sucked at his teeth. “Reckon I’m coming back ta haunt you if I die.”

  “Sounds fair,” Thorn replied with a grin. “Suzku?”

  “I’m in.”

  “Outstandin’. Ril?”

  The young woman paced back and forth in the little cabin with a frown as deep as the ocean. “I don’t trust ‘em. Don’t trust him,” she nodded at Thanquil. “These things is people possessed by demons with who knows what sort o’ supernatural magics. How we supposed ta fight against that?”

  “I can help,” Thanquil put in. “I can create runes to enchant weapons that will purge the demons.”

  “An’ we’re jus’ supposed ta trust ya?”

  Thorn stepped forward putting himself between Rilly and Thanquil. “Ya supposed ta trust me.”

  Rilly took a step forward and stared up at Thorn. “An’ what if I don’t?”

  “Uh, then I’d be very sad, I reckon.”

  Silence held for a few seconds before Rilly let out a wordless shout of fury and stormed towards the door, wrenching it open and slamming it behind her with equal force. Thorn stood still for a moment before turning round to face the others. “Reckon that was a no then?” he asked.

  Anders shrugged, Ben laughed and Suzku was silent. Thanquil decided to keep out of the discussion.

  “You’re a right fuckin’ idiot sometimes, Thorn,” Henry said already making for the door. “I’ll speak ta her. Bring her back. Ain’t like she got anywhere else ta go right now being where we are an all.”

  Henry left the same way Rilly had only without the dramatics leaving a room full of confused men.

  “So, uh, now what, boss?” Anders asked.

  The Black Thorn sucked loudly on his teeth. “Might as well get some sleep if ya can. Still got a few days ‘fo
re we reach land. ‘Til then do as ya like.”

  Thanquil turned to go back to the section of wall he’d been sitting against but Thorn grabbed hold of his arm. “What the hell happened earlier?” he asked. “Looked like ya was in some sort of, uh, trance.”

  Thanquil snorted out a laugh. “I think I was, half awake and half a dream.”

  “Ya usin’ one o’ them sleepless charms?”

  Thanquil nodded.

  “Then take it off an’ sleep. No good ta anyone like ya are right now.”

  “It won’t help, I…”

  “Weren’t a suggestion. Call it an order an’ get some fuckin’ sleep. Be at Port Loyal soon enough an’ can’t have you runnin’ around summonin’ demons everywhere.”

  Thanquil nodded, retreating to his section of wall and doing as he was told. He removed the sleepless charm and for the first time in almost a week he slept. He slept and he dreamed of demons.

  Jezzet

  Rose purred. Like a cat. A really flirtatious, annoying cat. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Rose only flirted with the men of the group, Jez had been known to do some of that herself in her time, but Rose flirted with the men and the women including Jezzet. Probably flirts with the horses too.

  “Are you sure?” Rose asked a faint smile on her lips and her eyes all over Jezzet.

  “Pretty sure,” Jez replied firmly.

  “Not even once?” she pressed.

  “Reckon I would have remembered it, don’t you?”

  Rose purred again. “Oh, you’d have remembered it.”

  “Do you mind if we change the subject?” Jez asked in a way that suggested it was anything but a request.

  “Am I making you uncomfortable?”

  “You’re making everyone uncomfortable. Hells, even the trees are uncomfortable,” Jez said. The trees rustled in response.

  Rose let out a dramatic sigh. “Suit yourself, I think you’ll find most of our entourage are a little disappointed though. I believe they were listening intently.”

  “Aye, I bet they were.”

  Rose was an extremely attractive woman in a dark, sultry fashion. She curved in all the right places and wore a tight suit of riding leathers that did nothing to hide the fact. Her face had fine, symmetrical features with full, pouting lips and her hair was, annoyingly, just as dark as Jez’s only a damn sight longer. All of the men in their group vied for her attention, competing with each other and showing off wherever possible. Most of the women seemed to be more on the jealous side, sulking and shooting her dark glares when they thought she wasn’t looking. Jez saw through to the real Rose though, saw though to the woman who was aware of everyone around her and wore the attraction people had to her as a weapon. She also saw through to the daggers Rose kept hidden in and around her attire and if her departed brother was anything to go by it was likely she knew how to use them.