Chapter 2
Lorien
“Stew…” I snatched up my spoon the moment Rosie set the bowl in front of me, slurping up a mouthful and trying hard not to quiver as I swallowed. “My compliments to the chef,” I wheezed, tears almost forming in my eyes at the feeling of finally having something to fill my stomach.
“Eat fast,” Rosie snapped, putting the last of the bowls down, “or this meal will be your last.”
“That rhymes,” I snickered, before sinking my spoon into the stew.
“Eat,” Dain growled.
You’d think this idiot was older than me by the way he talked. Nope, we were born in the same year, in the same misbegotten park of Coalbottom. Just because he was a head and a half taller than me and broad across the shoulders like a man didn’t mean he had anything on me.
“Eat yourself before…”
It didn’t take much to distract me. A quick movement, something glinting in the sunlight, would always get my attention, and right then it was the great guffaw of laughter from the blokes at the table diagonal from ours.
Gold, so much bloody gold, was strewn across the table.
My mouth watered, thinking of all the food we could buy with that, but we had to be careful.
Those keen-eyed fellows who held their cards close to their chests were professional players.
So good at reading people’s tells, some even having the ability to know exactly which card would pop up next, we knew better than to mess with them.
But these toffs didn’t.
The one with the girl hair, he shouted with glee at winning that round, clawing all the gold on the table towards him.
Which was when he should’ve started worrying.
Those card sharps, nothing happened on their table that they didn’t approve of. Their lips thinned, and they made a show of looking disappointed, but as far as they were concerned, this was just an investment. Let the little sheep bleat about his victory, right before the wolves descended.
“Eat up.” Kael’s blue eyes gleamed then, making clear he saw everything I did. “And fast. Don’t want the sharps taking everything this toff has got before we have a chance.”
My hand moved on automatic, and I didn’t even taste the stew now. It was transferred from bowl to my belly in rapid movements.
“He’ll head to the privy soon,” Dain said. “I’ll move that chair into his path.”
“I’ll cuff your ears and then give my sincerest apologies.” Kael’s teeth glittered in the lamp light. “Bow and scrape and give him a target to direct his ire at.”
Kael was always the toughest, putting himself in the way of angry marks, so I could slip in and take what we needed. My dagger was pulled from my boot and laid on the table, ready to be deployed.
The bread was shoved inside my tunic. Didn’t matter that we’d have gold to buy all the bread we wanted soon.
Bread was bread, and you didn’t waste it.
As I fantasised about the kind of cheese I’d spread over it later, sure enough, the blond-haired man lurched to his feet.
He said something about protecting his wealth to his friends, and I’m not sure if I would be trusting them.
They looked awfully avaricious too. Well, they’d need to get in line.
As the mark talked big about how much he’d win once he was back from a piss, we all moved.
Dain made it look like he was returning the bowls to the kitchen, rising to his feet, right as the toff staggered past. His chair skidded across the floor, not so far as to block the mark’s path, but enough to send him staggering.
Kael was up, remonstrating Dain, calling him an imbecile as I darted forward.
Hands on the mark’s chest, as if to steady him, then jerking back when the toff snarled at me.
A little twist of my dagger and the coin pouch was in my hand, shoved deep in a secret pocket I kept in my tunic seconds later.
“What are you riff raff doing?” the mark roared.
Trouble was, now everyone else was asking the same question.
“Move,” Kael said, the mask dropped.
We needed to make it to the front door, because once we were on the streets, none would find us.
Every bolthole, every nook and cranny in this godsawful town belonged to us.
The rich and powerful called us rats? Well, we knew how to survive like them.
The three of us were on our feet, bolting for the exit.
Some heroes decided to get up, sure they needed to get involved.
I dodged around one, feeling his hands slap in the air where I just was, then jabbed my elbow into his sides.
That sent him lunging sideways, crashing into his fellows.
Dain shoved people with the incredible power of his body, forcing them to topple over like milk bottles when we were playing at bowls.
Kael led the way, dragging the door open.
Only to find the Executioner standing there.
My blood ran cold. The only thing that told me I was still alive was the frantic beat of my heart.
Every child in Coalbottom knew who he was, because he was the reason why so many of us went missing.
Men, women, and most of all children. When the duke decided someone needed to disappear, the Executioner carried out the order.
Kael jerked back as if slapped, scanning the chaos raging in the tavern.
The toff wasn’t worried about the coin purse we’d lifted, because the card sharks had decided to cut their losses with his winnings.
Rosie was shooting daggers with her eyes, but she needed to get in line.
The door to Peggy’s office swung open, and somehow over all the noise, her wooden leg could be heard thumping across the floor. Everyone stopped right where they were.
Which gave us an opportunity to exploit.
I glanced at Dain, and he nodded, the two of us barrelling towards the door.
The fact we were running towards the Executioner, not away, dimly registered, the fear powering my legs.
Collide with the prick, shove him backwards, and then we were free.
He might be death with a sword, but everyone knew a rat could be away and out of sight before he even drew his blade.
It seemed like a good plan, right up until the point it didn’t.
The Executioner’s eyes narrowed as he focussed on Kael. A scream built in my throat as the man’s hand shot out, ready to grab my brother.
Not while I still had breath in my lungs.
Dain’s bulk would be useful for once. He lunged forward, shoulder first, ready to knock the old man down. I was sliding across the floor, dropping down, knife in hand, prepared to hamstring the bastard if that’s what it took.
All our effort was for nothing, as the Executioner dragged Kael out onto the street.
“Let me go!” my brother shouted, and for the first time in so long, his voice became shrill. “Let me go!”
We came stumbling after them, all our momentum working against us now. Dain and I corrected fast, then spun around only to see the Executioner dragging Kael towards the Bone Box.
People said his steed wasn’t even a horse, but a demon who was tricked into service when he tried to bargain for the Executioner’s soul. His cart clacked as he passed, hence why it got the name the Bone Box. Anyone who went into the back of the coach never came out, which had both of us moving.
“Run!” Kael shouted at us. “Run for it!”
“Not on your life,” Dain growled.
Always go into a situation with a plan, that was Kael’s dictum, but he wasn’t here to provide that direction.
Instead, we rushed forward as the Executioner dragged Kael towards the Bone Box.
The horse stamped but didn’t even move when we yelled in its face.
It just flicked its tail and stared on, utterly unmoved.
Just as the Executioner opened the back of the coach and started to drag Kael in, we struck.
How could one old man be so damn fast?
My dagger was knocked out of my hand and then a fist slammed into Dain’s face.
If it was any other time, I’d have laughed at my brother’s dazed expression, but right now I knew how dangerous this old bastard was.
Kael was shoved into the back of the coach, the doors slammed shut, and then he advanced upon me.
His boots crunched in the gravel as he jerked something off his belt.
My eyes widened as I saw him swing the slapjack against his hand.
Made of leather and weighted on one end, I’d made something similar from a rock and an old sock.
Swung hard at the skull, it was lights out soon enough.
“Come on, now.” I held my hands, trying to ward him off. “There’s no need for this.” The bastard’s mouth became a thin line as he continued to advance. “I’ll give you a cut of the gold.”
I had no intention of doing that. The Executioner could rely on a hot meal and a warm bed, courtesy of the Duke of Harlston. We had no such surety. All this babbling was supposed to give Dain that chance to rise up and take the Executioner down. Instead, I watched him fall heavily to the ground.
So it was just up to me then.
“Lorien!” Kael slammed his body against the coach doors, the whole thing rattling with each blow. “Run! Just run!”
If I lost heart every time I went up against an opponent bigger and more experienced than me, I’d have died before I reached my sixth birthday.
“Can’t do that, brother,” I muttered, squaring up to the monster, weight on the balls of my feet. No knives left, but I was fast and nimble. I had to hope that was enough as I launched myself at him.
It wasn’t.
Just a little yelp, that’s all I heard, right before the whole world went dark.