The Death Dealer - The Complete Series

by Katie Roman

  “I just do as I am asked,” Thom continued. The horse that pulled their cart stamped nervously. “People are being moved from Redbank, too.”

  The knight grabbed a torch from the wall of the storage house and brought it over to inspect Thom’s face. “I do not recognize you,” he said suspiciously, and brought the light close to Grace’s face.

  She felt the heat on her cheeks, warming her after the rain. She wanted to look away, but knew it would give away her guilt. Benjamin searched her face and his brow creased as he looked her over.

  “But I do know you,” he said quietly. “To arms, men! Intruders!”

  Grace threw off her blanket, throwing it toward Benjamin so he would get tripped up in it. She put a tin whistle to her lips and blew one short note and three long ones. Her people poured out of the alleys and darkened streets to fall upon Benjamin’s soldiers.

  Grace jumped down from the cart to engage Benjamin as he tossed the blanket aside. He lunged for Thom, but Grace moved between them, blocking his blow with her sword.

  “Come now, Miss Hilren, you are out of your element,” Benjamin said. It sounded more like a warning than a threat.

  He tried to move around her, but Grace remained in his path. Around them, the thieves engaged his soldiers. They struck out with daggers, cudgels, and bricks, doing as much damage to anything they could hit. Benjamin slashed toward Grace’s thigh but she caught his blade and drove him back. He didn’t expect her to put so much strength behind her swings. Seeing he had underestimated her, he adjusted his attacks.

  Benjamin didn’t stop his onslaught, and Grace knew he was trying to tire her out. It was possible he would succeed if she couldn’t get herself on the offensive. Her chance to seize the advantage came when the knight stepped backward into a rut. He wavered and caught his balance, but the moment he faltered Grace struck out, aiming for his sword hand.

  He blocked, but just barely. Now Grace began her own onslaught, driving him back. Several of his men were wounded or had thrown down their weapons as they fought. From her periphery Grace could see Thom and Haymitch binding their hands. Benjamin faltered again in another rut and Grace used the moment to hit him in the gut with her sword hilt. He fell backwards with a thud into the muck.

  He let his sword drop and he raised his hands. “I concede. You have bested me. Men! Throw down your weapons. Let them pass.”

  “But Sir Benjamin!” one of the remaining soldiers cried. “His Grace will have our heads.”

  “We are duly beaten.” Benjamin looked around. Five of his men lay wounded, possibly dead in the mud, three more were bound, and those still standing were being closed in by thieves. “We surrender so that we may live to fight another day.” He unhooked a key ring from his belt. “I am sure you have Erickson’s copies, but take this as my offer of surrender.”

  “A wise choice, Sir Benjamin,” Grace bent down and took the keys from her foe. “You do realize that we must now take you as a prisoner, of course.”

  “With a hefty ransom placed on my head, no doubt. One His Grace can never hope to pay.” He held out his hands when Thom came to bind him. “Will you see to it that my men get to the healers? They are good men from Salatia, not brutes from Escion. I would like to bring them home to their families when my duty here is done.”

  Grace helped Benjamin up once his hands were secured. “Get them in the last cart and bring them to the Lane guard house,” Grace instructed.

  “I never would have guessed the pretty little girl who once danced with the prince would turn into a revolutionary.” Benjamin smiled and laughed to himself.

  “Come on, you,” Thom pushed Benjamin toward the last cart.

  The Salatian men were loaded into Haymitch’s cart and he drove them away toward the Lane. Seven men lay dead in the street; four soldiers and three thieves. Grace set some of her men to work, moving them out of the mud. She instructed them to take the bodies with care to the temples to have their last rites read. Everyone else went to work unloading the grain and oil into the carts.

  They also found some fresh produce, apples and carrots mostly, a few barrels of rice, and some dried and cured meat. The produce must have come in within a few days to be only slightly wilted and bruised.

  “We are going to need more carts,” Grace said as she surveyed the load. “We will load what we can and bring it to the Angel. Thom and Ridley can take it while we stand guard here.”

  It was slow work, and even though the rain stopped, the mud slowed them down. Grace stood watch with Thom while everyone else moved the goods.

  “I can’t believe Robert of Escion had this much, and yet he still rationed it,” Thom growled, watching another bag of grain get loaded onto his cart. “We were made to think there was enough to feed only the soldiers, but this is enough to have kept us all fed this winter.”

  “It must be what Sera sent, and maybe more from other allies. But Frederick wanted his army well fed. What care did he have for common folk?” Grace stumbled a little and cursed the rain and mud silently. “How much longer until they are done?”

  “If you want to sit and rest, I can keep up the watch.”

  Grace shook her head. “I don’t want anyone saying I couldn’t hold my own tonight.”

  “I will cut their tongues out if they dare.” Thom nudged Grace and she smiled and shook her head. “It has been awfully quiet.”

  “Hopefully the rest of Robert’s army is occupied elsewhere, as we planned.”

  In the road ahead, Grace suddenly saw a figure move. It came fast toward them, skirts flying up. Grace got her sword ready, but breathed easier when she saw it was Glenda.

  “His Grace…” she panted. “He’s…at my…shop…” She took in a few deep breaths to stabilize her breathing. “His Grace came to my shop, with one man, a giant mountain of a man, looking for Erickson. I barely fled with my life.”

  “Stay with us,” Grace said, helping Glenda into one of the carts. “We can’t do anything about Erickson now.”

  “The duke is at Glenda’s!” Ridley threw a bag of flour into the cart and stalked over. “We could get him and make him pay!”

  Grace held up a hand and shook her head. “Let him be. There is other work to be done. We have to stick to the plan.”

  Ridley snarled and took off running toward Merchant’s Way.

  “Keep a watch here,” Grace instructed Thom. “I’ll get her.” Grace took off into the dark after her friend.

  ~*~*~

  Grace caught up to Ridley just in time to catch Robert coming out of Glenda’s shop, wiping his blade on a cloth handed to him by his giant servant. Grace wrapped an arm around Ridley’s waist, putting herself between the duke and her friend.

  “What have you done to Erickson?” Grace demanded, raising her sword to the guard position.

  “He had some treacherous things to say about His Majesty and myself. It seems that his time locked up with you barbarians has poisoned his mind.” He kept his own sword pointed toward the ground. He wore bright, shiny mail, the kind that had yet to see battle. Even if she wanted to strike a killing blow, she’d probably never find a weak point before he cut her down. She could always strike for the face, though.

  “It was a very clever move, stealing my seal. You even fooled my man, Gillam,” he said, gesturing to the giant next to him. The other man, Gillam, hung his head in shame. “But now it is time for you to give up this game. You cannot possibly think you will survive long. I have sent messengers to the king asking that he send the army here to quell this uprising.”

  Grace bit her tongue, not wanting him to know her reach was further than he thought. Behind her, Ridley moved. Grace threw out her free arm to stop her, catching Ridley at her chest.

  “You rat!” Ridley screamed at the duke.

  “Come now, Miss Hilren, let your friend try to fight me.”

  Grace pushed Ridley back again. “Stay,” she hissed at her, and then turned back to Robert. “You cannot bully the people of this city forever. E
ven if the king does put us down, what will you do when another group rises up? And another? As it is, you will not have your war this spring, not without your precious supplies or your knight commanders.” She continued to avoid the topic of Drake, who had to have set sail from Nareroc already. Then Robert and Frederick would see what they were really up against.

  Robert tapped the flat of his blade gently against his leg. “Gillam, arrest these women.”

  When the giant made a move to grab Grace, it was Ridley who acted first. She threw one of her hidden knives at him, and it hit the servant’s shoulder and stuck. The duke lifted his sword to bring it down on Grace’s head, but she blocked and jumped out of the way.

  Ridley brought two more knives out and rushed the duke. She pressed up close to him, scoring a hit in his side through an opening in his armor, but he caught her exposed arm and Ridley wheeled away as blood poured down her arm. Seeing the duke prepare for another assault, Grace threw herself between Ridley and Robert.

  When Robert brought down his sword, the cut ran from Grace’s right shoulder across her chest; his sword slicing cleanly through her shirt. White-hot pain seared in her chest, quickly replaced with a cold numbness as she staggered back. She dropped her sword and tried to staunch the flow of blood with only her hands. As she fell backwards, she saw a dark shadow pass over her with its sword raised.

  “You dishonor your family name,” Robert tutted. “And now you die the traitor you are.”

  Grace tried to crawl away, but found the effort too taxing. She lay back in the mud, letting the warm blood flow down her sides and across her neck, and found the strength to make a rude gesture at Robert to show him she didn’t care what he thought of her fall from nobility. She was vaguely aware of Ridley screaming and struggling, probably against Gillam.

  Suddenly, the sound of whistles surrounded them and Grace felt the waking world slip away as she watched the sky. The clouds obscured most everything, but she could make out the light of the moon behind them. This was how she died, then. As consciousness faded, Grace heard the duke cry, “Gillam, return to the castle!” as warm hands lifted her from the mud. Then, blissful darkness as she fell into the void.

  Twenty-Six

  The people, unified by the rebellion, passed the night by barricading the Lane, the border spreading into Serenity Place. Parts of the city were caught up in a blaze set by Grace’s people, but were soon extinguished by the rain. The Angel was full of the food stores. The three captured knights, Sir Benjamin, Sir Vincent, and Sir Lawrence, were sent to the temple of Diggery for safe keeping. Many soldiers and guards swore allegiance to the rebellion in exchange for their freedom and their lives, and those who didn’t were locked up in the remains of the Serenity Place guard house cells.

  Jack ran his fingers softly over the muddy stubble of Grace’s hair. The Rogue’s Lane guard house had been turned into a hospital, and priestesses from Kamaria’s temple worked through the night stitching up the wounded while priests of Ciro read the Rites of the Dead to those already gone.

  She was brought in by Nathaniel Moore, who happened upon Robert getting ready to kill Grace and Ridley. He and his men set the duke running and transported the wounded women back to the Lane. Ridley would be fine. A priestess had already cleaned her wound and stitched it, and now the Princess of Thieves slept.

  But Grace hung in the balance. Her face was devoid of color and her wound was deep and nasty. The priestesses cleaned it as best they could, peeling away the filthy tatters of her shirt. She didn’t stir through the process, not even when they set to work with the poultices and foul smelling balms. The only indication that Grace still lived was the slow rise and fall of her chest.

  “I have seen men come back from worse,” Kay said as she came to stand by Grace’s sick bed.

  “Don’t spin tales, Kay. I am in no mood.” Jack wiped his tired eyes and felt the beginning of a bad headache at the base of his skull. The stench of blood didn’t help matters, but he was afraid to leave Grace’s side.

  Kay pulled up a stool to sit next to Jack. “You should go eat something. Maybe sleep. You had as rough a night as any of us. I’ll keep watch here.”

  But Jack remained where he was, holding Grace’s hand and stroking her face and head. Kay patted his shoulder and left him to his silent vigil.

  ~*~*~

  “They do move quickly,” Thom said, handing Kay’s spyglass back to her.

  They stood on the walls of the city, looking out over the king’s road where they could barely see the standards of the king’s army in Ursana. Even in the fading light, it was clear the army would be in the city by daybreak. They had made camp in the woods before dark.

  “It took them less than a day to get this far,” Kay said. “It is only a three-day walk if the weather is fair, and it has been anything but for at least a week. Not to mention they are dragging equipment. They were already well on their way before we launched our own assault.”

  “Robert didn’t rise to power by being a fool,” Thom answered grimly. “Anyone could see we were up to something. He probably called the army weeks ago for aid.”

  “What do we do? We cannot survive a siege. They will burn the walls down, and with a team of horses they’ll make quick work of our barricades.” Kay slid her spyglass into her belt holder.

  “We can fight them.”

  “Ha!” Kay snorted. “We won’t last long against trained soldiers, even with Sir Henry’s leadership. We can send for his men-at-arms in Egona, but they would never make it in time.”

  “We have no choice but to try to call for aid,” Thom replied with a shrug.

  “Well let’s hope they find more than corpses when they get here.”

  ~*~*~

  Ridley finally dragged Jack away from Grace, forcing him to eat and get some rest, but Kay found them both back at Grace’s bedside after the sun had set. Poor Grace didn’t look like she would survive the night. Kay stood back, chewing her fingernail, trying to decide if she should even bother them. It was a miracle Grace still breathed…but what if she took her last breath while her friends were at a meeting?

  “I need you both,” Kay said finally, knowing they needed to hear what she had to say. “Come to the Angel now. It is important that you both join us.”

  “What if she wakes up?” Ridley asked, not even looking at Kay.

  “Then you will have a surprise upon your return.”

  Ridley stood first. She looked reluctant to let go of Grace’s hand, but eventually she did. Kay watched without comment as she gently coaxed Jack up. Kay frowned, really seeing him for the first time.

  His time in Redbank had stripped him of too much weight. His hair was long and straggly and his eyes were sunken and red. He didn’t make eye contact with Kay as he brushed past her. Ridley didn’t look much better. First Marcus and now Grace, and her own injury didn’t look good, either. Absentmindedly, Kay touched her own arm. Her wound from Kara had long ago healed, but she remembered the sting.

  Kay spared one final look at Grace before leaving to follow Jack and Ridley. Grace was as white as the sheet they laid her out on. The wound on her chest was ugly, and if she did survive it would leave a nasty scar; a constant reminder of these dark days. Kay frowned and stalked out without another thought. There was nothing she could do for Grace now.

  The Angel was crammed with people. Everyone in the city who sided with the Guild, and by extension Prince Drake, had come to the Lane. Those who didn’t were at the mercy of whatever happened elsewhere. The press of people let Kay through the crowd as she headed to the innkeeper’s counter where Thom already stood.

  After seeing the army camped in the woods, Thom alerted Sir Henry, Lord George, Captain Brach, and Captain Moore to the situation. Now they stood on the floor below Thom, waiting for Kay to join.

  Moore helped Kay climb onto the counter and Thom nodded to her, letting her take command of the situation.

  “The king’s army is already on the march to Glenbard,” Kay said.<
br />
  The mood in the room instantly shifted from anticipation to nervous energy. The noise was deafening as they demanded answers, each person trying to make themselves heard. Kay put her fingers to her mouth and blew a sharp whistle.

  “Shut up – all of you!” she shouted. The crowd fell mostly silent, although Kay let a few murmurs in the back continue without further comment. “They will be on us by tomorrow, and Robert of Escion will likely meet them at the northern city gates. We have to decide what to do. I know many of you are tired after last night and many are wounded.”

  “We can fight them!” one upstart near the back shouted.

  “Think sense!” Thom shouted back. “This is the king’s army; not the men-at-arms of Escion or the city guards of Glenbard. These men have trained for most of their lives to fight and kill. No doubt there will be seasoned knights among them. We sent for help from Egona, but it will be days before they arrive. We have to decide what to do while we wait.”

  The murmurs continued, yet no one offered up a solution. Kay scanned the crowd, but no one dared meet her eyes. She looked down at the lords and captains. Henry shrugged, George tapped his mouth, thinking, and Moore and Brach whispered together.

  To her surprise, from the back of the room people began moving aside. Kay smiled to see Jack pushing forward. “Ride out in the morning under a white flag,” he offered boldly. “Offer up one of the knights for ransom. If they agree, tell them we need a day to deliver. Threaten to kill their knights if they move aggressively against us.”

  “That buys us a day,” Kay said, though she was thrilled to have an idea out there.

  “But we still have two other knights in custody. If we offer them one by one, it will buy us a day each time.”

  Thom scratched his head. “And if they don’t agree?”

  Jack shrugged. “If you offer Benjamin of Salatia first, they will agree to anything. He is a prized knight. If they refuse to save Vincent or Lawrence, we have at least gained an extra day and such callous behavior will likely give us two trained knights on our side.”