Chapter 4 #2
Baxley signaled for more ale and didn’t meet my gaze.
“Iskaeld?” I asked again.
“You know of more than one edge of Crystallese?” Gralen said with a sneer.
“Yes, three,” I snapped, but my gaze didn’t leave the sharp angles of the mercenary at my side. “Which one?”
“The northernmost point,” Loel spoke quietly. “If we have to.”
I really wish I’d headed south instead of east.
“I’m a trailfinder.” My voice was low, dry. “I find trails. Routes for traders to pass through. Guide through the passes of the Frozen Mountains.”
“Your point?” Gralen asked gruffly.
“You do not need me to head north. It’s one direction, follow the Star of the North, and you’ll be able to walk right up to Iskaeld without me.”
“So humble,” Baxley said with a grunt. “You and I both know the land between here and there is filled with danger, sunken caverns, and mountain passes that can’t be crossed. One misstep, and we all die.”
A server placed two fresh mugs in front of him, and he nudged one my way. I didn’t argue. I took it and swallowed a healthy gulp.
“Five gold.”
I looked at the captain. “What?”
“We’ll pay you five gold for the trail.”
Five gold? I could live a better life for five gold.
“There and back,” Baxley murmured beside me. He ignored Gralen’s choke on his ale, as he took a drink of his own. “It’s the fee I’m being paid. Make it the same for the girl.”
“You’re getting ten gold?” I whispered, leaning into him.
“Aye. And so are you.”
Captain Marson looked between us and then nodded once before he took a drink of his ale.
“Say it,” Baxley grumbled. “Not a bargain if the words aren’t spoken out loud.”
“Ten gold, five there and back.”
With ten gold coins, I could live like a lord. I should have pounced at the offer, but the stark reality pressed down on me.
There was no guarantee I’d make it back, or that any of us would return.
“Same conditions,” I said, my voice too loud, and I hastily cleared my throat. “I can’t guarantee their safety.” I shook my head. “Shades, I can’t even guarantee my own.”
Silence settled over the table, heavier than it had any right to be, but it suited the conversation.
Captain Marson didn’t look offended. If anything, he looked… relieved. “We’re not asking for guarantees,” he assured me. “We’re asking for your skill.”
“Yeah?” I muttered. “That might be your first mistake.” I didn’t hide the bitterness in my voice.
Gralen snorted into his mug. “Yet, you’ll take the gold.”
I turned my head slowly and looked at him. “Does it bother you?” I asked. “Knowing all you get is a soldier’s pay and a poor man’s death?”
Baxley’s shoulder brushed mine as he leaned forward, elbows on the table, mug hanging loosely from his fingers. “Don’t antagonize him,” he mumbled. “It’s a long way north.”
I didn’t like the way he said it, and I didn’t like that he didn’t need to explain any further. Gralen sat back slightly, eyes on me, but like me, he heeded Baxley’s warning.
My fingers tightened around my empty mug. “Iskaeld isn’t a place you walk into blind.”
“No,” Marson agreed. “Which is why we need you.”
“You need more than me,” I said. “You need sense, warm clothing, blankets, food, and a healer. Men who know when to shut their mouths and follow instructions.”
Gralen shifted in his seat. “Careful—”
“No.” Baxley cut in, not looking at him. “Let her speak.”
I appreciated his support. I glanced at him, but he was already drinking again, like none of this mattered.
But it mattered. Gods above, it mattered.
“Five gold there and back,” I repeated slowly, tasting the words this time. “No one touches me. You do what I say when I say it. If I tell you to turn around, you turn around.”
The captain held my gaze. “And if we don’t?”
“Then you die.” I shrugged. “And I won’t stay long enough to watch it happen.”
Gralen scoffed again, but it lacked conviction this time.
Marson nodded once. “Agreed.”
Baxley’s mouth curved just slightly. Not a smile but something else.
“Then say it properly,” he said. “All of it.”
Captain Marson set his mug down carefully. “Ten gold, there and back. Your conditions. Your lead when it matters.”
When it matters? It would always matter once we passed the last settlement. I watched him for a moment, weighing it.
Ten gold.
I could stop being constantly on the trail. I could ease up on the workload. Or I could die somewhere no one would bother to look.
My gaze flicked to Baxley. His watchful eyes held steady. He didn’t look away. His attention was on me, deliberate and assessing.
Waiting for me to confirm what he already suspected. They’d never survive without me.
That decided the matter for me.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll take you.”
“And this time it’s an agreement?” the captain asked. “Because you said this yesterday, and then you left.”
I nodded. “This time, you’re making the bargain worth my while.” I looked around. “I thought you wanted two trailfinders?”
Baxley grinned. “No one else would work with you.”
I sniffed. “Good, I wouldn’t work with them either. You’d be dead within a week with any of those idiots.”
Gralen leaned back, chewing the inside of his cheek as he looked away. The captain looked relieved, and Baxley simply finished his ale, got to his feet, and tapped me on the shoulder.
“I’ll sleep elsewhere.” He handed me the key. “Keep it locked, don’t touch my stuff.”
“We leave in the morning?” I asked.
“Aye, when the others join us,” Baxley told me.
What others?
“What others?” I asked. They just said I was the only trailfinder.
He just smirked, and I suddenly had a very bad feeling, which he seemed to sense, because his eyes danced with amusement.
“You’ll see.” That was all he said before he left the inn and left me with the sergeant and the captain and an ominous feeling that I had been tricked into that bargain, and now I had nowhere to run.