by KC Kingmaker
In recent months I’d gotten Blythe into the racket as my bosom buddy. Though she wasn’t as experienced in information gathering and “asset retrieval,” she could be more intimidating and scary than me at times, which was definitely useful in this line of work.
Belfue was rife with our type—people who weren’t afraid to roll in the muck, travel to shady locations, and fend off undesirables in order for a payday.
I was eager to see what Chief Garnu had in store and hoped it would be something worthwhile. Since he was the chief, I presumed it would be. Garnu wasn’t just some suspicious, hooded tavern-dweller leading you on a hopeless chase. He was a prominent and somewhat-respected figurehead of our town.
After shrugging into my leather tunic, pants, and cleaned boots, I clasped the pendant around my neck and said a quick prayer to whatever deity might be watching over me.
The pendant was a locket, and inside was a blank circle with crisscrossing lines. In the four empty sections of the cross were strange foreign runes that held no meaning to me. But the pendant itself held meaning because I’d had it as long as I could remember, since I was a child.
After my morning prayer, I exited my dingy room and met Blythe in the kitchen. We ate a small breakfast of soup. Big surprise there.
“Beautiful out, huh?” she said.
“Dunno, haven’t been outside yet. Judging by the sunny cracks in the walls, though, I’d say yes.”
She fixed me with a smirk, hands on her hips. “Ah, already feeling feisty, are we?”
I smiled at her as I finished my soup.
“What do you expect from Garnu?”
I shrugged while standing and placing my bowl with the other dirty dishes. One of the girls would clean them all—we had plenty of bodies for the work!
“I find it’s best not to speculate,” I answered. “Gets your hopes up.”
“Sage advice. But you do expect it’ll be something important?”
I bobbed my head left and right. “I’d say it’s safe to assume it’ll be more important than, say, a lost earring.”
She cracked the knuckles of her stubby little hands, determination in her eyes. “Wonder if that means there’ll be competition.”
I gave her an up-and-down glance. “You’ve really taken to this whole bounty hunter thing.”
“Can you blame me? It’s exciting. Lets me put my skills to the test, rather than just being a slut, as Alondra so eloquently put it.”
I snorted a laugh, cuffed her arm, and started down the hall. “Come on, you terrible slut, let’s get moving.”
“Hey!” she cried, feet shuffling behind me.
Before I made it to the front door, there was a light knock.
Glancing at Blythe, I groaned. “Ugh, not again.”
Two women from other rooms were already zeroing in on the door.
I opened it without preamble.
Pearl Chornlotter stood in the doorway, looking small and vulnerable, her arms hugging her torso. The bruise on her face—or multiple bruises, I now noticed—looked much worse in the sunlight than they had the night before.
Her eyes quickly fell to the ground as mine widened with surprise. “Vera Chornlotter, you made it!”
The two women nearby—Seren and a younger lady—ushered the shy woman in.
I gritted my teeth as I watched her amble into the refuge. I knew how hard that could be, admitting defeat, running with your tail between your legs. But it was my belief that it was a necessary grieving process in order to start with a blank slate and get your life back on track.
Cutting out the past, when it was such a violent past as these women had been dealt, was necessary for a new beginning.
I put a hand on her shoulder as she passed me.
She flinched.
“I’m glad you made it,” I said warmly.
She gulped, her scrawny neck muscles bunching together. Unshed tears dwelled at the corners of her eyes. “Grefon didn’t return last night.”
I glared at Blythe and she gave me a tiny shrug. I turned back to Pearl with a hopeful expression on my face.
“Probably for the best, though, right?” I tried.
She sighed. “Perhaps. It won’t be for the best if he finds out where I’ve gone.”
“He won’t,” I said quickly. A breeze wafted into the hall and I stared outside at the sunny day. “I must be gone for the afternoon, Vera, but I’ll return. In the meantime, Seren will take care of you. I’m really glad you came.”
She gave me the slightest little half-smile, but it was all I needed to feel rejuvenated and alive again.
I had done my part, and in time she had seen the light.
But with a new woman added to the fold, it meant we really needed some Scraps.
IT DIDN’T TAKE LONG to see Chief Garnu once we got to his estate. In fact, the longest part of the journey was the getting there.
Garnu’s land was on the opposite side of town, as far away from the poor district as he could make it. He and a few other bureaucrats lived on a land with small fields and pastures and a rolling hillside behind their respective houses.
Like in so many other towns, Garnu and his friends were the epitome of hypocrisy. He pledged to help the needy and unfortunate Belfuese citizens on the outskirts, all the while filling his coffers and doing nothing about his peoples’ plight.
The rich got richer, the poor got poorer.
All the houses around my refuge were old and in disrepair. The streets weren’t even streets, just muddy alleyways. Simple places, like Jervus’ tavern, were dangerous to be around, as made clear by the murder the night before.
By contrast, Garnu’s house was two stories, with fresh thatching and a new shiny gable. He had healthy crops and a barn for his horses and cattle. He was a conniving landowner, always with his hands in whatever business was happening around town.
There was no doubt the man was cunning. I didn’t trust him one bit. He was just like other men, only with a few more Oblyx Scraps in his pockets.
The fact he had money meant he was less desperate than most, which made this “job” intriguing.
During our sunny walk to the northern part of Belfue where Garnu lived, Blythe and I discovered the identity of the dead man from the night before: Bastio the Viper.
Bastio’s sudden demise was the most popular gossip on the wind—people speculating, aghast, and chattering about what it meant for our town.
My opinion: Good riddance. The guy had been a total shithead. I knew the barmaid Clareen wasn’t the first woman he’d tried to violate.
If that chiseled statue of a man from the corner of the tavern really snuffed Bastio out, then I felt no ill will. Good for him.
I did have to wonder what the argument had been over that led to the man’s decapitation, though.
Because, fuckin’ shit. Decapitation!
Also, if the hooded beefcake from the tavern was truly a maniac, I had to hope he didn’t come for me next.
But I recalled the man’s piercing gaze from under that hood, and it certainly hadn’t been a psychopathic one. No, it was more along the lines of hungry and wanting.
I knew that look all too well, but the difference between his desirous expression and other men’s was that it had lit something fiery within me, too.
That had been odd.
I was good at bottling my emotions, but something from that man’s expression had made me want to tear off all his clothes and see what was underneath.
This lust wasn’t like me—
“Levy, are you there?” Blythe said, snapping her fingers in front of my face. “Come on, girl, we’ve been called in.”
Merlog’s sack, I was letting drifting thoughts of the muscular man distract me from my work.
Blythe led the way down the airy hallway, guided by a young male servant wearing a thin robe.
I eyed the stiff-backed servant peculiarly as we followed him toward the chief’s chambers. We didn’t have slaves in Belfue, but I had a feeling if any
one could bend the rules or find a loophole in the law, it was Garnu.
The chief stood waiting for us in a large chamber with a high ceiling and windows. The sun blared in from different angles, lighting up the wall Chief Garnu stood in front of.
I was immediately taken by the wall behind him. It was plastered with posters, parchments, and pinned scrolls up and down the entire length and width of the wall.
“Veras Sunfall and Telvis, my lord,” the servant said, then left the room.
Blythe and I stared at the sheer amount of paper on the wall, our necks craning as some of the pages were pinned up twice the height of a man.
Just what kind of conspiratorial bullshit has this guy been getting up to? I wondered.
Sharing a look with Blythe, I saw a similarly perplexed expression on her face.
Chief Garnu motioned to two wooden chairs in front of him and smiled like a snake.
He was a skinny man with a bent nose, a lavish robe, and a thin head of dark hair you could see through, giving his head an egg shape. With gaunt cheeks and a sly smile, I didn’t trust a single one of his tiny teeth.
But I had to tell myself Garnu was just an employer at this moment. He was not some evil I needed to thwart, or even the chieftain of Belfue for this meeting. He was a client.
I took a seat, Blythe following my lead.
“Chief Garnu, a pleasure to see you,” I said.
“The pleasure is all mine, Vera Sunfall.” He folded his hands together in front of his stomach, his eyes dragging from me to Blythe. “You and Vera Telvis are looking as exquisite as ever.”
Okay, creepy. I forced a smile. “Thank you, my lord.”
He smiled and I’d never seen something so reptilian. It was almost like he had no lips, and those tiny teeth!
I shuddered.
“I’m glad you’ve responded to my town-wide proposal, Levia. Do you mind if I call you Levia?”
“Of course not.”
He began pacing, hands tucked behind him, then opened his mouth to speak, but got no further.
“Town-wide?” Blythe asked, glancing at me. “I wasn’t aware of that. There are other bounty hunters on this job?”
Garnu spun to her. “Oh yes, Blythe.”
“I prefer Vera Telvis . . . my lord.”
Garnu chuckled, his voice oddly high. “Very well. Many of the best bounty hunters across the land will be on this job.”
Blythe frowned.
“Well,” I said, clearing my throat and slapping my hands on my knees as I leaned forward, “the suspense has simply become too much. What is the job, Chief?”
Garnu placed a palm on some fluttering paperwork pinned to the wall behind him. His eyes zeroed in on me. “You’ve heard of the Summer House, Levia?”
“The court of the fire dragons, yes?”
“Indeed.”
“And what have they to do with you?” I asked. Chief Garnu was, as far as I knew, Unscaled like the rest of us.
He smiled, gesturing vaguely at the papers. “Well, Veras, I have come to the recent conclusion—through extensive, painstaking research—that I am a descendent of the Summer House.” He nodded, looking quite pleased with himself.
“You’re a dragon?” Blythe quipped. “Ya don’t look like it.” She cocked her head. “With all due respect, my lord, you look a bit scrawny—”
“My powers are dormant, young lady,” Garnu spat, nostrils flaring.
“—kind of like a wyrm, actually,” Blythe finished, ignoring his words. She looked at me. “That’s what the wingless, snaky ones are called, right?”
I bit my bottom lip, my eyes flashing wide to warn her to be quiet. I didn’t want her sarcasm to get us into trouble. There was a time and place for everything.
But I also gave her the tiniest of nods.
“Enough,” Garnu said with a heavy sigh. “You and others like you will see, Vera Telvis. In fact, I’m not sure why you even answered the inquiry. I wanted Levia for this assignment, not you. She’s the experienced one here.”
Blythe clenched her jaw tight. It wasn’t very often people got the better of her in a battle of wits, and I could tell Chief Garnu’s words pissed her off.
I put a hand in front of Blythe to keep her from a snappy retort. “And I’m here, as requested, my lord. Blythe is my accomplice. What is it you’d have us retrieve?”
“The thing that would unveil my power. The object that will unlock my dragon kinship to all who doubt me. As I said, my investigation has been extensive. I’ve been able to trace my lineage back many generations in the Summer House—”
“Which is?” I interjected.
“Excuse me?”
“The object, which is . . . ?”
I didn’t give a shit about Chief Garnu’s ancient heritage or history project trying to prove he was a fire-breathing dragon. I just wanted the facts of the freaking retrieval mission so I could get started. All the rest was superfluous.
He was certainly nonplussed by my direct question. Judging by the veritable tome on the wall, he’d been looking forward to elucidating us on the entire generations-long history he’d uncovered.
Blah, blah, blah.
“A sword,” he said, his voice grim.
“A sword?”
A slow nod. “A ruby dragonrune sword.”
“Sounds expensive.”
“Priceless.”
“Speaking of price,” Blythe cut in, raising a finger. “What’s the reward for such a snag?”
I bit back my smile. Ah, I had trained her well—she was good at getting straight to the point.
Garnu balked at our businesslike responses. His fairytale story was falling apart around him. “Ladies, this is not a simple retrieval mission. You don’t understand—”
“Then why did you ask for me?” I said. “I retrieve things. I’m good at it. This sounds like something you need retrieved, and lo and behold—”
“You can’t even touch this object!” he yelled, arms gesticulating.
“Why not?”
“It will ruin you!”
“As in kill us?”
He nodded profusely. “Yes!”
“How?”
He hesitated, thin lips parted. After closing his mouth a few times, he shrugged. “I’m not sure, actually. I’ve just read it will kill anyone who is not worthy.”
“And who is deemed ‘worthy’ in this sword’s, um, opinion?” I asked, feeling silly for thinking swords had opinions.
“Summer House dragons, of course!”
Chief Garnu spoke like he couldn’t believe how stupid I was. But, honestly, I was just trying to wrap my head around this whole thing.
“It was built specifically for dragonkin within the Summer House. Only they can wield it.”
Blythe snapped her fingers. “Ah ha, and we come to the crux of your history lesson.”
Garnu spread his arms out wide, shoulders deflating. “Exactly. Now you understand. Only I am capable of wielding the sword.”
“And when you do, it will show your true colors as kin to the fire dragons,” I said, smiling mischievously.
“Indeed.” He smiled back at me, but it looked sickly. “I will mark my place in their court.”
“And why do you care what the dragons think of you?”
He scoffed. “Young lady, if you can’t understand why a man would want to be welcomed into the bosom of the Dragon Dominion, I’m not sure what to tell you.”
I harrumphed. “Fair point.”
There was another awkward moment of silence, like we were deciding who would speak next.
Blythe tapped her feet.
“And where is it?” I asked.
“What?”
“Well, you have to have an idea where the sword is, right, or you wouldn’t have gathered all the bounty hunters of the land to go searching for it.”
“It was last spotted by my man in Cerophus City.”
Blythe sucked in her breath with a hiss. “Cerophus City? That’s . . .”
> “Nearly one hundred miles away,” Garnu answered. “I know. That knowledge should show you how serious I am of obtaining it.”
I clicked my tongue. “And it better merit a pretty Scrap-heap, too. How much are we talking?”
“Scraps?” he said with a haughty chuckle. “Try Sheets, girl. Ten Oblyx Sheets.”
My jaw fell to the floor. I had to roll my tongue back into my mouth.
“That’s all well and good,” Blythe said, “but why don’t you just get your man in Cerophus to get it and bring it to you, if he knows where it is?”
A great point. I nodded to my friend—at least someone hadn’t been blinded by the idea of mountains of Oblyx. I mean, with ten Sheets I could literally turn my refuge into an acres-big haven somewhere in the countryside.
“Because he doesn’t trust himself with the job, Vera Telvis, and the sword is not in his possession. He just knows where it is, not how to get it.”
A red flag went off in my head, my jaw twitching. “That sounds . . . perilous.”
Garnu chuckled. “For ten Sheets, would you expect anything less, Levia Sunfall? My man in Cerophus will tell you everything you need to know about the sword’s whereabouts.”
Damn, that was a long way to go for something that wasn’t guaranteed. But I didn’t have any better ideas.
I frowned at the lanky chieftain. The glint in his eyes was real and telling. He definitely believed the story he was showing us.
This man needed a magical sword to show everyone he was a real dragon. A special being in a land of Unscaled peons. If anything, it would bolster his fame and fortune.
For a man who was already at the top of the totem pole for mundane, Unscaled people, his strategy made sense. When you were ambitious like Garnu, what would be the next step after chieftain? Royalty.
But none of that mattered to me. Ten Oblyx Sheets was too much to pass up.
With a sigh and a firm nod from Blythe, I had only one question left.
“When do we start?”
6
Coalt
I stayed in the shadows of the alleyway as my silver-haired beacon and her friend made their way past.