Chapter Thirteen
Cottonmouth
“I got a bite, so we’re checking traps. Look around all the roots!
” Callum called out to the group that wandered ahead of him.
It wasn’t unheard of for one of his traps to snag someone who wasn’t supposed to be in his swamp.
One of his many talents were the mechanical traps.
Callum took pride making new traps. Springs, locks that exploded when picked, trap doors; he was a master of tools.
Despite the namesake, he was more of a calculated monster than a furious striker.
Which was exactly why the handful of his crew that went out with him to Parandor was out there with him, crouching and snooping around. They were looking for some poor soul, wound up in one of his inescapable traps. All the while, he was watching them.
The trip to Parandor went south so fast…too fast. It was just too convenient that a Paladin happened to be arresting some drunkards as they were coming through the alley. Granted, they’d followed Avelina into that alley, it could fully be possible that all of that was perfect happenstance.
Callum knew better than to trust coincidence, though.
If it wasn’t the drunkards in the alley of the best snooping spot beside the courtyard, the whole vault was crawling with twice as many Paladins as he’d ever seen watching it on a heavy traffic day.
What he did know was he sent three guys ahead to case the place and they didn’t have a problem.
Now, they also didn’t have the late Knight Commander’s daughter on their arm.
But there was something in his gut that didn’t sit right.
It started when he caught her after the fainting spell on the draw bridge.
The way out was too clear, despite the Paladins being out in full force.
They’d gone into a barn that felt empty and that never happened.
The last time he stashed away into one of the Parandor barns to keep visibility low, he’d sat in a stall with a pissed off mare for over an hour.
Not to mention the time he had to use knock out powder on two pigs before they could scream out his location.
No, it’s too convenient.
His eyes slid over all of them. Grahm picked up on it first, straightening his back.
The large muscle of his crew twisted at the hip and cocked his head.
Callum raised an eyebrow back. Grahm jabbed a finger at his chest, his mouth slightly ajar.
Callum rolled his eyes and shook his head.
His buffoon searched the rest of the crew.
Jabbing a thumb at Rat, Callum also shook his head.
Only they both glanced at Jed and then looked at each other.
Grahm silently sighed, crossed his arms, and then cracked his neck.
Jed was a harpy with taloned feet and feathered arms. He was like a secretary; all leg with spikey hair and an orange stain on his skin like a mask.
Those large, round eyes peeked up as Callum and Grahm cornered him by one of the larger trees.
Past Gloomsdale, but not quite to the Wastes, the trees were thicker.
Their roots grew deep into the ground and made one hell of an ankle trap.
If one didn’t know where they were going, a snapped tendon or fractured ankle were a sure thing.
A slow, terrible death, as there weren’t fish, birds, or critters.
Just bugs and the slimy muck that would steadily swallow its victim whole.
Months later, they’d find the bones, picked clean and embedded in the bark of some tree.
“Uh, boss?” Jed swallowed loudly. “We’re not out here looking for trespassers, are we?”
“Jed, wanna tell me how ya got out of Parandor?” Callum put his hands on his side, fingers inches from the handles of his blades.
“We was runnin’! Rat an’ me!” he blurted out, snapping up on his long, skinny legs. Jed pointed at Rat, who stopped in the midst of his search, ears burning like a campfire. “We gutted those drunks and scattered. You never want us to wait around for ya boss.”
“Yeah,” Callum exhaled heavily. “But, you see, I found Rat in the grass. When I booked it out of the Stronghold, I saw Rat. I didn’t see you.”
“What?” Jed blinked rapidly, glancing at Grahm who showed no sympathy. His head snapped back to Callum, eyes growing to half the size of his face. “I just ran fast, boss.”
“Why are you nervous? We’re just talkin’,” Grahm interjected, flippantly waving a hand at Jed. Callum was certain. It became far too obvious in the split second between Grahm trying to grab Jed’s shoulder and the skinnier man jumping out of his skin.
“Cause y’all lookin’ at me like I snitched to the Paladins!” Jed whirled, putting his back to the tree so he could see both Callum on his left and Grahm on his right. “I didn’t! I was jus’ as surprised as you.”
“Just tell me how you got out,” Callum barked.
“I ran, same as you!” Jed licked his chapped lips.
“Where did you run? Cause if you’d gone for the side door like Rat and I, you’d have been in the grass when I got out. And we both know ya didn’t fly outta there, Jed. Quit flappin’ yer gums and tell me how you got out!”
Jed howled, “I just ran! I booked it out the southern gate.”
“Interesting,” Callum scowled, narrowing his eyes into slits.
Jed’s feathers all stood on edge as his employer thumped his tail against the closest tree.
An iron maw dropped out of the branches above.
Jed had a second to shriek before it closed around his head.
The sound was short, followed quickly by the clamp of metal teeth on a spring.
Jed’s body wavered back and forth, legs scrambling with what little impulse the body had left.
Steadily, his talons sank into the muck between dark gray tree roots and Jed, from the neck down, dropped to the earth.
Callum’s steel chain dangled from the tree with Jed’s terror permanently captured on his face.
The rest of the crew straightened behind Grahm like nervous children come to see if their mother was still swinging pots and pans in the kitchen.
Callum pulled out a single blade and all five sets of eyes darted to the glinting silver.
“Ya see, when the Paladins lock down the Stronghold, they lock down the closest gate to the incident. If it’s the train station, that north gate goes down.
If it’s the temple or the barns, they close that side gate.
Grahm, what happens if something happens near the vault? ”
“The…southern gate…gets closed?” Grahm grimaced.
“Precisely,” Callum snarled, pointing the tip at Grahm, then one by one, at the others. “Anyone else curious how Jed made it back to the Tavern, when Rat was still swimmin’ in tall grass by the time I got out? Even with an hour’s lead?”
Rat gulped, “I didn’t even think about it. He’s got long legs.”
“Rat, how’d ya get out of the Stronghold?” Callum pointed his blade at the younger crewmate.
“I made the water splash somethin’ fierce to one side, and when the guards walked over to see what’s what, I just jumped into the moat on the other side,” Rat grimaced, shoulders up to his ears.
“Smart!” Callum nodded. Rat’s body deflated in relief as he pointed the knife at Grahm. “Wanna know how the warlock and I got out?”
“Didn’ you say she made them piss themselves and run off, screamin?” Grahm blurted out.
“Correct!” Callum waggled his dagger before he flipped it, caught the handle.
“Now, the question is, how did Jed make it out? As we know, Rat distracted the guards and hoofed it. I sat in a fuckin’ barn for an hour and used the girl.
But Jed? Now, he said he rushed out the southern gate but I know for a fuckin’ fact that was locked down tight.
In fact, heard it clatter closed as we was runnin’.
So, that got me thinkin’. How the fuck did that skinny bastard get out? ”
Callum waited. He knew Rat and Grahm were clean.
Talisen, Clemmence, and Hog, however, were one of them.
Talisen was a satyr, his haunches a dark fluff with matts around his hooves but had great curved horns on top his head.
Clemmence was a halfling with carrot orange hair that he kept in a neat braid down his back.
Hog was a daemon with a broken horn on the left side of his forehead, a mop of salt and pepper hair, and a busted nose.
All three of them worked for him for a reasonable length of time.
All three of them with blood under their fingernails.
He studied their faces, Talisen and Clemmence both glancing at each other, then at Hog.
Only Hog stared right at Callum, a deer in headlights.
Caught ya. Callum smirked, “Hog? Got any ideas.”
Hog ripped around on his heel. Talisen, Clemmence, and Rat dropped to the ground, Grahm stumbling back into a tree with the sudden movement.
Callum lashed out, fast as a whip. Hog got a few steps in before three daggers thump-thump-thumped into the back of his legs.
Blood gushed out, staining the swamp, and he fell forward.
With a splash, the traitor sank, face first, into three inches of ruby water.
Callum snatched Hog by the one horn still on his forehead and wrenched his head backward.
“How’d ya get him out of the city?” Callum snarled.
“I paid off a guard,” Hog spat, thrashing but there was an etch of defeat in his features. With the daggers buried in his thigh and calves, he’d be lucky to crawl away. “Said a buddy would be comin’ back out, likely in a hurry. Paid him to let Jed out the guard doors, even if the gate was closed.”
“And why would Jed be comin’ back out, likely in a hurry?” Callum parroted as he curled his tail around his prey. Fangs barred, his patience was thin.