41. Reznyk
Chapter 41
Reznyk
TRUST
T here’s another dead animal strung up on the grass.
Something hot and sour rises in the back of my throat. I turn away from the naked red flesh, the soft fur splayed out next to the corpse, but not before my mind spits out the word rabbit.
Gods, what in the nine hells is wrong with me? I’ve killed animals before, damn it. I’ve killed more than animals. Why do I feel like I’m going to be sick looking at a dead rabbit?
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath before dragging my eyes up to the place where Matius sits in the first light of the rising sun, fiddling with the ancient bow.
My food stores were the first thing I showed Tholious and Matius. Tholious crossed his arms and stood in the doorway of the half-collapsed cellar. Matius walked the length of the room, running his fingers along bags of beans and potatoes, wax-encrusted wheels of hard cheese, metal canisters of flour and tea, all the things I bought in Cairncliff and carried back here, step after painful step.
“Well?” I finally asked, tired of watching him pace the room like judge, jury, and executioner.
“It’s not enough for three,” Matius declared.
Of course it’s not. I tried not to let it show, but I felt like sinking into the stone floor.
“But it could be,” Matius continued. “If we do some hunting.”
I kept my mouth shut. That’s a normal thing to do, hunting for food. It’s what I should have been doing all along. So I ignored the twinge in my stupid, weak heart as Matius set traps for rabbits and refurbished elven bows that were probably ancient when my grandparents were born. He told me he wants to take down a deer before the snow flies.
It’s what the Towers trained me to do, killing large animals. But I didn’t offer to help him, and he didn’t ask.
Matius shades his eyes as I approach and stand beside him. He doesn’t smile, exactly. Tholious has been almost embarrassingly polite around me for the five days they’ve been here, but Matius still treats me with cool disdain, as though we’re on two different sides of some old family feud. I’m not sure which one of them irritates me more.
As I watch, Matius loops a string over both ends of the bow. That string is probably rabbit gut, I realize as my stomach lurches over the raw potato I had for breakfast. Matius tugs gently on the new string.
“That looks solid,” I offer.
He snorts. “It looks like it’s going to explode in my face.”
“Are you always this argumentative?” I snap. “Or is this something you reserve for people who are trying to help you?”
Matius grins as he tips the bow in his hand. “You know what the worst part of being in the Mercenary Guild was?”
“The murders?”
“Not even close,” he replies. “The worst part was not being able to tell an asshole to go fuck himself.”
“Lovely,” I mutter.
He’s such a charming individual, Matius. I’m so glad I decided to open what passes for my home to this gentleman.
“If someone had the shills, we’d do whatever they said without a word of complaint,” Matius continues. “Even if they were ten pounds of shit in a five-pound bag. We smiled, and we got the job done.”
“You’re not doing a job for me,” I reply.
“I know,” Matius says.
There’s something predatory about the smile he gives me. It makes me wonder just how far behind he left Silver City’s Mercenary Guild.
“Who are you doing a job for?” I ask, not expecting an answer.
Matius stretches, then unhooks the string and coils it around his fingers.
“No one,” he says. “I’m a free agent now. And that’s why I can tell you to go fuck yourself.”
“Right,” I reply.
Like hells he’s a free agent. The Towers sent them here for something, although I haven’t been able to make out what it is yet.
“Are you always this suspicious?” Matius asks as he tucks the string into a pocket in his vest.
“Of men from the Towers who just happen to show up on my doorstep?” I say. “Actually, I think I’m not suspicious enough.”
Our eyes meet. There’s something hard in his expression that I don’t understand. Matius has plenty of reasons to hate me, naturally. I murdered an old god; everyone in the world has a reason to hate me. But the simmering anger in his eyes feels more personal. Or maybe he’s just a bastard.
“You’ve got problems with trust,” Matius says. He comes to his feet beside me.
“Trust?” I snap. “You broke a woman’s ankle, then sent her to fuck me for?—”
I see the flash of his palm, but he’s far too fast for me to avoid it. Matius’s hand hits my cheek. My head rocks back. White spots explode across my vision as blood coats my tongue. Magic surges forward in response, hissing and spitting across my skin. For just a moment, it forms spikes across my knuckles. And then the moment fades. Pain sings through my body. I spit blood at Matius’s feet.
“What in the hells was that?” I snap.
“Don’t talk about Kira like that,” Matius says, in a low voice.
“The fuck do you care?” I growl.
Rage throbs behind my temples. My ears ring. I frown at the man standing in front of me like I’m trying to read something written on a wall that’s on the other side of Silver City.
For all I can tell, Matius really is in love with Tholious. The way they watch each other when they think I’m not looking would give it away even if I hadn’t heard the noises they make at night that are horribly amplified by the empty stone walls of the keep.
But maybe I missed something. Maybe he’s in love with Kira instead?
I run my hand across my mouth and stare at the streak of blood left behind. My lip stings where Matius’s hand split it open. I bet the Mercenary Guild taught him that, how to slap someone with a flat palm for maximum damage. That bastard probably knows thousands of ways to hurt someone. Like breaking an ankle.
I scowl at him as magic ripples under my skin. Matius, for what might be the first time in his life, looks mildly ashamed.
“What you did to her was wrong,” Matius says, in a much quieter voice. “And I’m not afraid to say it.”
“What I did to her?” My voice is rising. “What, take her in? Heal the ankle you bastards broke? Give her?—”
I snap my mouth closed before I can say more. What I did to Kira is none of this man’s business.
“I brought her back to Silver City,” Matius growls. “You think I didn’t notice? You fucked her up.”
My mouth falls open and stays that way. A hawk cries in the background, his shrill warning call, just in case any other hawks out there were thinking about moving into his territory.
I fucked her up? Nine hells, she’s the one who took the amulet. I’m the one who burned all my godsdamned pillows. I snap my mouth closed and cross my arms over my chest.
“You’re here for the same reason,” I finally manage to spit through my swollen lip. “But whatever the Towers sent you up here to steal, whatever they think I still have, you’re not getting it.”
For a heartbeat, we’re both perfectly still. The wind whispers around us, cool against the fire of the cheek this bastard just smacked for no reason. Matius frowns at me.
And then he laughs. I rock backward, not sure if he’s about to take another swing at me.
“Shit, you do have trust issues,” Matius finally says, wiping his eyes.
“Don’t fucking touch me again,” I growl. “Or I’ll?—”
“What’s so funny out here?” Tholious calls from the yawning opening at the top of the pile of rubble.
I shake my head, whatever idle threat I would have made dying on my lips. I’m not going to hurt either of them, and Matius knows it. The Towers know it too. Why else would they send these two?
I turn away as Tholious steps through the hole in the wall, two steaming mugs in his hands.
And then my wards explode.