by Logan Jacobs
“Admit that I’m the best you ever had,” Vera said with a gleam in her black eyes.
“The best lay?” I asked. “Sure, I reckon so. But the best friend I ever had happens to be waiting on me outside in the stables, so you’ll have to pardon me, Miss.”
“No,” she hissed. “Change your mind. Stay here with me. Think of the things we could do.”
“I have,” I sighed.
“You only use a fraction of your power, and the fools chasing you? Your old enemies from your kingdom? Use me. Both of us can go back there, destroy them, and then rule--”
“Naw,” I scoffed. “I’ve thought plenty of times about that, too.”
“Damn it,” she groaned as she flopped back in bed. “Why do you frustrate me so much?”
“You aren’t the first person to say that, and you won’t be the last.” I assume that meant those were my final words, so I began to turn.
“Hal,” she sighed as my back was to her. “I’ll kill you next time I see you. You are my only weakness.”
“You said you’d kill me last time I left you,” I replied.
“I mean it this time,” she growled.
“You also said that last time.” And with that I walked out of the room. I could feel Vera’s eyes on my back, but she didn’t make any move to follow.
“You smell like her,” Theo groaned when I met up with him.
“Yeah, well, you smell like horse shit,” I replied.
I saddled him up and loaded up all the treasure we’d collected from the townsfolk of Fairhollow in payment for my defeat of Gorander. Some of it was in gold, but luckily for my horse, most of it had been converted to potencium so as to be of a weight that one beast could reasonably carry.
I uncorked a vial and drained it. A feeling of incredible well-being and optimism flooded my limbs. Then I uncorked another vial and drained that too, because why the hell not? I wasn’t going to run out any time soon, unless I recruited a veritable army of magic users and had to supply them too.
“I think we’re all set,” I mused as I mounted up. “So what do you think, Theo? North? South? Further west? What godforsaken outpost should we grace with our presence next?”
“Hmm, whichever direction has the nearest town,” Theo grumbled. “All this shit is really heavy. I don’t want to go after any prizes that big anymore. Unless you want to take a turn carrying the payment yourself.”
He sounded decidedly unmotivated to perform his usual horsely duties.
“Hey, Theo, I may have forgotten to mention before,” I said casually.
“What?”
“I, er, wasn’t too successful sneaking out this morning.”
“You woke Vera up?” Theo exclaimed.
“Afraid so,” I confessed. “Also, she said she was going definitely kill me next time.”
“Well, shit,” Theo sighed, and then I had to hold on for dear life as my best friend cantered out of the stables and swiftly attained a full gallop, his magnificent mane and tail streaming out behind him like gleaming black flags in the early morning sun, until Bluegarden faded away into the distance.
The end
End Notes
Thanks for reading Sellsword! As soon as I have 100 reviews, I’ll start working on book 2, so please leave me a nice review here. Thank you!
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by Logan Jacobs