CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER
TWO
Airianne walked around the bazaar at the west end of Gryna, the city she’d arrived at just before dawn. The first thing she had done was find an inn and gotten herself something to eat to make up for the stew she’d left behind after choosing her mark last night.
She had to admit, it had been one of her more ballsy moves, but she had been desperate.
Now she had to sell the talisman in her pocket and get herself some kind of gold.
The thing was encrusted with gems so it should fetch a pretty price.
If no one could afford to pay the price she wanted, she could easily begin prying gems off it and selling them one by one instead.
When she had chosen her mark she hadn’t known exactly what was in his pocket, only that it was valuable enough that he kept checking for the feel of it every five minutes or so.
When she had finally stopped in her headlong gallop away from the inn—after she had been sure he hadn’t been following her—she had paused in the moonlight and looked at the thing she had stolen.
But the full brilliance of it had not struck her until that morning when she’d been able to see it in the bright light of day.
She didn’t know what the talisman was for—nor did she care. All she wanted was a good price for it. The jewels worked into it assured her of that much at least. Then she really would get a good room for the night and sleep in a real bed.
Maybe.
She wasn’t prone to spending coin unwisely.
She worked too hard for her money. And anyone who said thievery wasn’t hard work was a liar.
Sneaking in and out of places, getting the right mark and following them, waiting in the dark, tensed to react to the slightest bit of trouble—it was all very hard work indeed.
Not to mention what could happen if she got caught in the act.
The price people paid for being caught as thieves varied from city to city, but you could bet it wasn’t going to be any fun.
Some places hanged thieves, some cut off their hands.
So far she’d managed to keep from getting caught …
well, there had been that one time, but she’d picked the lock to the cage they’d held her in and said her hasty goodbyes.
She began to ask around the marketplace for the name of someone who would move a big piece of jewelry with no questions asked and everyone told her the same thing: a woman named Fro was ready to spend money and didn’t care at all where things came from.
So she hastily made her way to Fro’s shop and had the door in sight when someone bumped into her hard.
“Hey! Watch—”
That was all she got out because the man clamped an iron hand around her arm and jerked her in tight to his body.
She looked up into a pair of familiar and furious green eyes.
She knew those eyes—she had sat across from them the night before and had found them nearly entrancing.
If she hadn’t been desperate to steal from him, she might have thought about sleeping with him for real.
Might have.
“Let go of me!” she cried, kicking and squirming for all she was worth.
“Settle down or I’ll shout ‘thief!’ in the middle of this crowd. When the city guard comes I’ll tell them what you stole and once they search you and find my talisman on you … Well, do you know what they do to thieves in this city?”
She paled. Good, Maxum thought. She should be scared.
He was so damn angry right then he could break her arm and not think twice about it.
But, contradictorily, he did think twice.
Her arm was so slight in his grasp and she was so gods damned small.
Small and ballsy. An intriguing combination.
And that pissed him off more than anything.
She was still getting under his skin, even after she’d duped him and made him look like a fool in front of his men.
If he had the time he’d make her pay for that.
But as it stood, he didn’t have the time.
He had another quest to go on; another line on an artifact that would come in handy in a god fight.
This one purportedly made the wearer invisible to his enemy’s eye. Yes, that would be very handy indeed.
“Fine! Fine! Here’s your stupid talisman!
” She reached with her free hand to burrow into her shirt between her bound breasts.
The action left her shirt gaping as she slapped the talisman against his chest and waited for him to take it.
To stop staring at her chest and take it. “Do you want it or not?”
Maxum shook himself and grabbed for the talisman, then he let her go with a shove. She spilled back onto the street, landing hard on her ass. She grunted with anger and picked herself up.
“Listen,” she said quickly as he turned and walked away from her.
She kept to his heels, her legs working fast to keep up with his long, powerful stride.
“Wherever you’re going, you’ll need me! I …
I can cook! And mend. I can work leather.
I noticed your tack was looking a little worn last night.
You should really get it fixed before you snap a strap and get your neck broken falling to the ground. ”
“I’ll take my chances,” he said harshly. He continued to walk and she followed him, shoving past the people who crowded the market street in order to do so. He didn’t have to shove; he was big enough and intimidating enough that people gave him a wide berth.
“Look, I wouldn’t have stolen from you if I wasn’t desperate,” she said, panting now.
It was a combination of trying to keep up with him and sheer panic rising up inside of her.
She had boarded her horse without paying, coin due when she picked him up.
She had thought she would be coming back with enough to pay the tab and then some so she hadn’t worried.
If she couldn’t pay they wouldn’t let her have Hero back and she needed her horse.
Maybe she could get some kind of job and work the debt off, but the debt would only increase with every day the horse remained boarded until the innkeeper would have the right to sell Hero and all her tack and possessions along with it.
“That and you made it so obvious you had something worth stealing in your pants pocket. You were practically asking for it.”
He came to such an abrupt halt that she slammed face-first into his hard body, banging her nose.
“Ow,” she said, rubbing it.
“You are unbelievable!” he roared, turning on her. “First you steal from me, then you have the gall to ask me for some kind of job, all the while blaming me for you stealing from me in the first place!”
“Well, it’s true! You kept fiddling with the thing. I figured it was either a good luck charm or something worth stealing. You didn’t strike me as the sentimental sort so …” She shrugged.
“You made me look like a fool,” he ground out as he went nose to nose with her. “You seduced me and stole something I risked my life and the lives of my men for! You are lucky I don’t wring your little neck!”
“But you haven’t wrung my neck—”
“Yet!”
“And I don’t think you will because you need me!”
“Ha! What do I need a woman for? I can cook my own meals and mend my own clothes. Women are nothing but trouble and they slow a man down—you proved that to me last night.”
“You don’t need a woman, you need a thief.
” He was on the move again so she was back to following at his heels.
“I’ve seen your men. Not one of them, including you, could sneak into a situation if you tried.
I’m small and light, I can fit into hundreds of places none of you can.
The smallest man on your team is the mage, and he isn’t all that small with those long limbs and broad shoulders.
Plus, I can detect traps and no one, I mean no one, can pick a lock like I can. Admit it, you can use me.”
He had slowed and come to a stop again, but his back was to her and his fists were clenching and unclenching.
When he turned suddenly to face her she ducked to avoid a blow.
She was surprised when it didn’t come. Something in his eyes softened when he realized she had expected him to get violent with her. She sprang at the vulnerability.
“I promise I won’t get in the way. And I’ll make it worth your while. All I ask is a place to sleep, food in my belly and … and ten percent of whatever treasure we find.”
“Ten percent!” He laughed incredulously. “You really are a piece of work.”
“Hey, that’s a deal! I’m not even asking for an equal share. Just enough so I can get some coin and then I’ll get out of your hair.”
“And what makes you think there’s even going to be any coin?”
“Isn’t there? Isn’t that what you guys do? Seek out hidden treasures?”
“What makes you say that?”
“That talisman for one. It’s rare and very old, even I can see that.
Probably even magical. Not the kind of thing you come across in the everyday world.
That’s something you go looking for. And the way your men were partying last night, I’d say whatever you were celebrating had paid off. In a huge way.”
“You know what, you’re too keen for your own good,” he grumbled.
“So what do you say?” she asked—no begged. “Please … I’m good with my daggers and a one-handed crossbow. I’ve even got some really tricky bolts to load it with. I came across a trader who had silverwright bolts in his possession. He, uh … let me have some.”
He snorted out an astounded laugh. “You mean you stole them.”
“Maybe but he deserved it. The creep had a little girl and it was clear he—”
“You know what, I don’t care why he deserved it. He probably deserved it no more or less than I deserved it. You stole from him because you wanted to, because you ruthlessly wanted whatever he had for yourself.”
“I wouldn’t say ruthlessly,” she muttered.