Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
“What the fuck, Danny!”
“Sorry, Mr. Carnavon. I didn’t have no choice.”
Furious, I leveled my pistol over Krachma’s shoulder, but Danny ducked behind Big Bognar, whose plumpness made him a fine shield. I had no shot, but I was hiding behind someone even bigger than Bognar, who made an even better shield. “Go Impervious.”
Krachma’s skin turned grey—and based off experience, bulletproof—but that also rendered him completely immobile, which mostly blocked the narrow stairs.
We were ten steps down. Rade was behind me, sword not yet drawn because a two-and-a-half-foot razor was a bit of a liability while surrounded by friends in a cramped space.
Azarin was behind him, wand in one hand and pistol in the other, which was frankly worrisome, because she was such a bad shot with a gun, she was liable to nail one of us in the back instead of whoever she was aiming at.
“You’re trapped, Outcasts. Send up your treasure or we’ll start slitting throats.” Gerzog yanked Dathka’s hair back and placed a knife beneath her chin to prove his point, not realizing that of his three hostages, threatening her was by far the least likely way to persuade us.
The Latro assassin looked as furious as I’d ever seen anyone, and I’d been a miner in a realm noted for our tempers.
“You’re lucky you caught me by surprise, orc.
If you kill me, the black band of Carcalla will hunt you to the ends of the realms. There’ll be no place for you to hide.
Cutter Joran will slice your cock off and force feed it to you!
You’re dead. Your whole family is dead!”
“You can run your suck, Latro, but you’re nothing to be afraid of without your one high-level enchantment.
” Gerzog patted one of his pockets, which was probably where he stashed her shadow walking charm.
“I’m not afraid of Carcalla. Your half-elf boss’s reach ends at the edge of the Slumps.
The Council rules everything above those, and the Tempus Metum runs the undercity below.
Either of those, or a dozen other factions, would pay me a fortune for Korthican’s beacon. ”
Considering how much light was coming from the box Sifuso was holding, even from way below us, it was pretty hard to deny that we’d found the thing.
Crouched behind Impervious Krachma, I kept my pistol ready, but at this angle, only a bit of Gerzog’s head was poking around Dathka.
Danny was entirely behind Bognar. Nobody was hiding behind Morton, because gnomes were too small to be a good shield.
Poor Morton’s eyes were squeezed shut tight, and he was sniffling, like he was trying his best not to cry.
“You’re not getting shit from us, Gerzog.”
“Me landing twenty men upon this island suggests otherwise, Carnavon.”
I didn’t know if he was telling the truth or exaggerating to intimidate us, but Bognar snuck in a bit of a nod that warned me the orc wasn’t lying.
“Those odds aren’t so bad. We killed a lot more monsters than that today already.”
“I saw the nasty purple pile you left behind, but you’ll find us more capable than some noodle armed mutants, for I am Gerzog the Marauder, captain of the Tooth and Claw Mercenary Company.”
I’d never heard of them, but Rade muttered, “Dammit…”
“Ah. At least one of you knows of us. You should, deadlander, seeing as how many of your kind we’ve slain in that sad realm. Explain to your friends why you should hand over your treasure and give up while you still can. You may confer amongst yourselves. Do so quickly before my patience runs out.”
I looked to Rade, and he whispered back, “The Tooth and Claw are a foul bunch of scoundrels and backstabbing trash, but they can fight. The nobles of some of our distant, savage kingdoms sometimes hire outsiders to burn villages and put down peasant uprisings. The Tooth and Claw are notorious even among those.”
“Any chance they’re honorable enough to let us all go if we hand over the box?”
Rade shook his head in the negative. “They’re scoundrels.”
I went back to aiming over Krachma’s shoulder. “You’ve got a reputation alright. It’s not a very trustworthy one, though.”
“Such is life. You’ll have to take me at my word that all I require is the treasure. Surrender it and we’ll leave you be.”
“Don’t you dare, Carnavon,” Dathka snarled. “That belongs to Carcalla. Give them nothing. Fight like a man.”
Gerzog smacked her upside the head. “Shut up, woman.”
For once, I agreed with the evil mercenary orc. Now was really not the time for Latrocinium bravado, because unless Cutter Joran was about to pull up in a boat full of thugs, her threats were empty.
“We’re both reasonable sorts, Mr. Gerzog. How about as a show of good faith, you let our friends go, and then we can talk it out?”
“Treasure first, or we slay you and take it off your bodies.”
It never hurt to try a bluff. “You know you can’t, or you already would have.
You could fill this tunnel with fire, but you haven’t yet, because you’ve surely heard how delicate the lamp is.
The slightest bump or unnatural change in temperature, and it’ll shatter into a thousand pieces.
Then all that precious Permanence will fade into the ether. ”
Gerzog’s red eyes squinted hard at me. Apparently, he hadn’t heard that before—because I’d just made it up—but such was the nature of myth and legend. Chronomancy was a lost art, so who was going to correct me? I thought my line of trogshit sounded rather convincing.
“Where else you gonna go? Through us? I see you’re short a Squalo and a gladiator dwarf.”
“They didn’t make it. Trax got hit by a curse on the way in, and Rufus stepped on another trap when he ran down to warn us about you.
” Since we were all speckled with dwarf blood, that probably sounded plausible.
“But I’ve still got a lizard who’ll bite your face off and a lob who’s tough as a boulder.
If you start to make it past this rock, we’ll drown that fragile lamp in seawater and ruin it. ”
Gerzog had an evil grin. “The old if-we-can’t-have-it-nobody-will ploy. Classic. It’s unfortunate this is how we met, Carnavon, because I could use someone ruthless like you in the Tooth and Claw.”
“Is this the part where you try to get chummy and bribe me? Because I’ve already got a job managing an academy. Speaking of which, what the hell are you doing with these pricks, Danny?”
“Yeah, you traitorous ratlet!” Azarin shouted. “We took you in and treated you kindly. And this is how you pay us back?”
Danny peeked around Bognar’s shoulder. “You did give me a chance, so I really am sorry. But that adventurer cousin I told you about was in Gerzog’s company.
When they heard Rufus’ singing, and he knew I was an Outcast too, they came looking.
He found me last night and threatened if I didn’t help him, he’d hurt my family. ”
Gerzog’s piglike nostrils flared as he snorted. “Why do you lie? You are no victim. I didn’t threaten your family. You sold your loyalty for a bag of Tetars and the promise of a fat share.”
Danny sounded sheepish, “Well, yeah. Got me there. That too.”
“You two-faced son of a bitch,” Rade sneered. “We broke bread together.”
“Moldy bread! I’m tired of being poor, Lord Tartaros. Not all of us get to be born fancy noblemen like you.”
Poor stupid Danny didn’t even grasp that Rade wasn’t a real noble. He was at best a bastard with delusions of grandeur. Now I was really pissed off. “Rufus died because of you.”
“That’s not my fault! Gerzog told me nobody was supposed to get hurt, I swear. I feel real bad about Rufus, I do. But I’m not as talented as you guys. You saw how bad I did in the arena. I’m never going to make it as a wizard, but I can make a good living as a mercenary.”
“You think Gerzog’s ever going to trust someone who’s shown he’s a lying fucker who’ll sellout his friends so easily? Once he’s used you, he’ll get rid of you, just to save himself the hassle.”
Gerzog nodded as I said that. “Perceptive. The Tooth and Claw’s got no room for turncoats… Aziz, kill the boy.”
Danny turned to look behind him. “No, wait, I—”
A spectral hand formed around Danny’s throat and choked off any more words. He fell, kicking and struggling. I could no longer see him behind Bognar, but could hear every excruciating second of him getting magically strangled to death.
We were going through a lot of students today.
Gerzog watched Danny’s slow, painful demise, and once the thrashing stopped, he said, “I despise disloyalty.”
“The dumbfuck should’ve seen that coming,” Azarin said.
I was seething. I’d liked Danny. He’d betrayed us, so I likely would’ve killed him myself, but this had all been so sudden that his casual murder still offended me.
Gerzog turned his attention back toward us.
“That death’s your last warning. You’ve got until the count of ten to give up before I kill the fat one.
Then another ten before the gnome dies. Then you get one final count before I cut this pretty deadlander’s head off.
If you’re so heartless I run out of hostages, then I’ll risk hurting the treasure, even if it gets broke, so long as I get to pry it from your dead fingers. ”
Dathka butted in again, only this time, instead of being commanding, she sounded desperate. “You kill me, you’ll be missing out on more coin than you can imagine. Carcalla will pay a big ransom for my return. I’m worth far more to him than some old enchantment.”
“Why would the Latrocinium’s master give a special shit about the likes of you?”
“I’m his daughter.”
Now, surely, she was the one doing the bluffing, as her snow-colored skin and pitch-black eyes marked her as being from the Plane of Death, and Carcalla was an elf, or half-elf, if what Gerzog said was true.
Except Gerzog didn’t immediately scoff at her claim. “There’s rumors Carcalla sired a herd of bastards ’cross all the realms.”
“Check my ears if you don’t believe me.”