Chapter 8 #2
I could see what he was thinking and it involved a lot less of the guard’s organs staying inside of his body than I’d have liked.
Cassius’s muscles flexed under his gaze, clearly not a man to go down without a fight.
And from what I’d seen of his skills back in the dungeon and the way his eyes had lit up like little twinkly stars when he’d been in the midst of the thrall, I had my suspicions his Affinity was linked to Carioth the trickster god of stealth and cunning.
“I’m bringing him to Egos,” I said firmly, raising my chin in a challenge.
“He has the stink of the law on him,” Finn growled, his fingers flexing as he moved his hand towards the knife at his belt.
“He’s a blacksmith who used to work in the palace,” I replied dismissively, hoping to fuck that Cassius wasn’t dumb enough to contradict me on that. “And he’s gonna help us get the biggest haul Egos has ever seen. So leave him be. Unless you wanna take it up with me here and now?”
“Pfft,” Balthazar replied dismissively as he moved to look around the next corner, making it clear that he was ready to move on.
Clearly, he didn’t believe in this fabled treasure, but as unbelievable as it sounded, I didn’t peg Cassius for a liar and it looked like Balthazar was at least willing to let me bring the option to pursue it to Egos.
Cassius raised an eyebrow at my lie about him being a blacksmith, but if he thought it was a good idea to tell the rest of the thieves that he was a royal guard then he was a damn fool.
Finn will gut you here and now if you correct me.
“What was a royal blacksmith doing in the dungeons?” Balthazar asked, his assessing gaze sweeping over my latest mark.
“He fucked the emperor’s horse,” I explained. “Seems you aren’t the only one with a thing for bestiality, Balthazar.”
“I did no such thing,” Cassius growled in disgust, his face flashing with outrage.
“A blacksmith who likes fucking horses?” Finn asked with a sneer that told me he believed it. What kind of messed up shit had he seen in his life to make him believe things like that of people so easily? I had to admit it was fucking funny though.
“He keeps denying it, but the guards said he was caught in the act so...” I left the insinuation hanging in the air between us and Pip laughed loudly.
Cassius glowered at me, but I sensed he wasn’t stupid enough to risk his life over contradicting me again.
“I knew a shepherd who liked the sheep that way once,” Finn muttered as if that made it okay.
“Was it your father?” I mocked. “That might explain a few things if your mother was a sheep-”
Finn looked at me for several long seconds then barked a laugh. I never could be sure with him whether my jokes would go too far and earn me a knife between the ribs, but I got the feeling he liked my smart mouth for the most part.
“Come on then, horse boy, Egos is waiting for us.” Balthazar clapped a hand on Cassius’s shoulder and steered him down the alleyway ahead of us, clearly glad that the attention was off of him for being a goat fucker.
The guard gave me a look which suggested he wasn’t keen on being known as ‘horse boy’ and I smirked in response.
Better to be thought of as that than for them to learn the truth about him.
And a big lie always worked better than a little one.
I mean, who would ever make up something as audacious as that and expect to get away with it?
Only the best damn liar and thief in The Twelve Kingdoms which made up the Osarian Empire.
We started running down the alleyways again, having to head deeper into the city before we could head out to the north side where the slums which hid The Den were.
We slipped from one ring to the next and finally came to the market square in the third ring.
The huge space was circled by tall white buildings, shopfronts with all kinds of enticing and expensive products filling their windows lining the square.
The mass of carts and stands which filled the square during the day were gone, packed away for the night and taken back to be restocked for the morning when the hustle and bustle would start all over again.
It was fairly empty at this time of night, but there were always a few vendors to be found lurking in the shadows.
Selling things you wouldn’t be able to buy during the day.
Some selling tokens said to date back to the Fallen or pedalling objects supposedly imbued with the Prophet’s magic – not that I would ever be fool enough to touch one of those.
I noticed a healer set up to one side of the space, his eyes on the sky as he assessed the signs of the oncoming sandstorm and debated how long it was worth him staying out.
There were always customers for Fae with healing Affinities, no matter how slight their talents may be.
Everyone knew it was better to see a healer than not – at the very least their diagnosis was usually correct even if the treatment was too expensive to purchase.
A whore gave me a wide smile as she looked at my face, stepping forward from the back of the wooden caravan she leaned against. The paintwork on the side of it was flaking and the way it bounced on its wooden wheels told me a customer or two were already being serviced inside, but I’d never had to pay for it and I shook my head with a flirtatious smile.
I probably could have convinced her to give me a roll for free if I’d had the time, but we needed to beat this sandstorm and it was still a long way to the slums. Though as I gave the sky an assessing frown, I decided to take a chance on us having long enough to make a stop along the way.
We slipped out of the shadows and crossed the wide space in the centre of the square. Finn started to head north towards the slums and The Den, but I whistled to get his attention then jerked my chin and led them west instead.
“I need to reclaim that loot before the count’s servants find it,” I explained in a low voice, looking back over my shoulder in the direction of the prison we were running from, the sound of the alarm bells growing distant behind us.
We were likely safe from the guards now, too far lost in the sprawling city for them to track us down, but you could never be certain of how far they would go in their hunt.
“You want to go back there now?” Balthazar grumbled, though he followed my lead all the same.
“I’m not returning to Egos empty-handed,” I muttered, knowing it was well worth the risk to retrieve it. He was going to be all kinds of pissed at me as it was and I needed to appease him .
Finn shoved Cassius forward as he hesitated and my new pal fell into step with me, looking more than a little uncomfortable in our company.
“How long am I going to be stuck with you?” he murmured.
I looked him over with a trace of irritation. “That’s gratitude for you. I save your arse from death’s doorstep and you promise to pay me back with a king’s ransom. But before you’ve paid that debt or even so much as thanked me, you’re looking to leave?”
“I gave you my word I’d take you to that treasure,” he replied, though I still heard no acknowledgment of the fact that he owed me his life. “You can meet up with me once the dust has settled and-”
I gritted my teeth in anger and whirled on him, sweeping his legs out from beneath him and sending him crashing to the ground in a move so fast that he had no chance of avoiding the blow.
He swung a fist at me and caught me in the side of the knee, making me stumble back, but I managed to keep my feet. I was fucking fast when I needed to be, my Affinities helping me to stay light footed and nimble at all times.
Finn aimed a kick at his head and Cassius caught his leg, uprooting him with a fierce twist of his ankle, his arse slamming onto the ground. Finn snatched a blade from his hip with a growl of fury, lunging at Cassius so he was forced to roll aside to evade the sharp edge aimed at his face.
I moved forward again, slamming a foot into the guard’s wounded side and making him snarl in pain as he scrambled to regain an advantage against the odds.
He put up one hell of a fight that made me even more sure of those Affinities of his, but as Balthazar kicked him too and tossed me a blade, I dropped down on top of Cassius in the shadows, straddling his chest and snarling dangerously.
I pressed the blade to his throat and his eyes widened in surprise as I leered over him.
It wasn’t the first time I’d taken a man by surprise like that – they fell for my smiles all too easily and let themselves forget the monster which lay beneath my skin.
You didn’t get to my position in this world without getting your knuckles skinned and your hands more than a little bloody, and I’d learned long ago that brutality was often the only friend I could rely on to keep me in the position I’d carved out for myself.
“You gave your word to The Forty Thieves and you might want to consider what that means before you suggest reneging on our bargain again,” I growled, letting him see the dark in me as I held his gaze steadily and without flinching.
I’d cut his throat right here in the middle of the square and leave him to bleed out on the cobblestones if I had to.
It wouldn’t be the first time I’d done it.
“We are the shadow in every corner, the nightmare in the heart of the deepest storm. No one crosses us and lives to tell the tale and until you pay your debt to me, I hold your life in my hands.”