Adversaries Together (14 page)

“
And you?” Kira said
quietly fiddling with her tunic.

“
Nobody owes me anything.”
Roth mumbled as he busied himself re-ordering his pack.

“
I owe you.” Kira said as
Roth tossed his pack over his shoulders, then grabbed his other
two, and stood to leave.

“
You’re leaving now?” she
said surprised.

“
You know where the docks
are and I’ve already told the barbers where to bring Goshen. I
don’t see the point in lingering.” He needed to make this a clean
break. He’d already gotten far too involved.

Kira’s eyes soften, “I need to thank
you.”

Roth shook his head, “No, you don’t.”

“
It was good of you to aid
us out there, you deserve something.”

“
No, no I
don’t.”

“
I’ll have the golden
pagoda send you some aurei; I can send more along with Jena when
she returns.” Kira was trying to come up with something, she rose
and held Roth’s sleeve.

“
I don’t need any of that;
I don’t deserve any of that.” Roth was uncomfortable. Everything
was telling him just to get away. “Give more to Jena if you need to
settle your own conscience. This was nothing to me, just something
I did.”

“
Nothing to you?” Kira’s
eyes narrowed, confused and hurt.

“
Not like that,” Roth
pulled his arm away from her and held his hand up, “Look, I’m sorry
you two were hurt. I’m glad I was there to help. I wish you the
best. But we’re never going to see each other again.”

Kira stared, her expression simply
uncomprehending, “It couldn’t have just been random chance.”

“
Don’t start,” Roth spoke
assertively, his eyes getting bigger, “I don’t want to hear that.
All things in the world are random. Even our best intentions are
filled with chance; just let it be, girl. Go finish your little
mission.”

Kira looked away nodding, “We do need to
complete the journey.”

“
Just think of me, if you
must, as a little side adventure. A story you can regal the
Lappalans with.” Roth patted Kira’s shoulder then spun quickly and
left. In the hallway, he let out a long sigh, praying his entire
way out the inn that she wouldn’t suddenly come after him. When he
entered the street, he surveyed the movement of the crowd for a
moment and then joined the flow heading toward the
docks.

Port towns were a double-edged sword, so
many faces and so much movement that tailing someone meant that you
were virtually invisible, but often there were too many faces and
too much movement, allowing a tail to be lost with ease.
Fortunately, even though the alm and her new companion knew they
had to be on guard, they didn’t suspect that someone would be there
waiting for them. Nor did the bandits, who came not long after the
limping trio, have any notion of Declan’s presence. It was comical,
the alm looking out for bandits, the bandits lurking in the
shadows, and Declan there to keeping an eye on all of them.

The new face had immediately taken the
paladin to the barber’s shack. This wanderer had done a serviceable
job of plugging the crusader’s wounds, although he still looked
like he was plague stricken. The masked bandit must’ve gotten his
poison laced bolt into the paladin. Poison was a queer instrument
to use and it strengthened Declan’s suspicion that the highwaymen
were looking to kidnap the two. The paladin needed more than a
field mender, which was all the barbers in Anhra could offer; the
paladin would have to be sent off to the nearest proper hospital in
Bandra. The city wasn’t too much farther east and the fastest way
to get there would be via passenger barge. In little more than a
day, the paladin would be in the hands of the best healers in the
world. So Declan figured he knew where he’d soon be heading.

Bandra wouldn’t be a problem to get to, but
there’d be some logistical problems. He couldn’t risk booking
passage on the same kettuvallam they would choose. But the idea of
following behind didn’t appeal to him either, he didn’t like not
being in near his contract. He was mulling this over as he followed
the new face from the wayfarer’s inn to a local brothel, which was
a boon. Declan could hang around in a brothel without being
noticed, maybe get a better idea of this man who had taken it upon
himself to drag a near dead paladin and soft palmed alm into the
city.

He took a place at the bar, paid for an amber
ale but didn’t drink any of it, just held it as a prop. Not a few
feet away, the man was pestering a halfling who’d surrounded
himself in whores. The man didn’t want to talk inside, smart Declan
thought, but the little man was resistant which turned out to be
more than a bit of a laugh as the man picked up the homunculus and
shoved him along toward the door. Declan didn’t follow, the
halfling was cursing out all the information he needed. Roth was
his name. He didn’t know it but now had a seed to plant. After a
couple of moments, Declan set down his beer and left some coins as
he made his way out.

Lingering outside the brothel, he waited for
Roth to lead him to his next destination. It didn’t take too long,
seemed the halfling was actually quite pliant. Roth left the
brothel and made his way across town to the market district. Making
his way through the crowd, Roth moved towards the stalls that did
most of their business with the city’s free traders. Declan stayed
back well enough. In fact, he noticed a popular tavern and casually
staked out a space on its veranda. Another amber was ordered and
again Declan merely held the tankard as a prop as he leaned over
the porch’s railing. Across the way, Roth was lingering outside a
small shop that had a canvas stall outside. A woman emerged
followed by a vendor who went digging through his stall’s wares, as
she stood silent. Declan may not have known this Roth fellow but he
did know whom he was now turning to speak with, Jena Char.

Char was an active free ranger, not really
one for killing contracts but an excellent bodyguard and tracker.
He had served alongside her once up in Novosy as part of a cadre of
riverboat guards. She wasn’t difficult to remember, a woman free
ranger that far north, that near The Cathedral, stood out. Char had
proved her mettle countless times fending off river pirates,
smugglers, and not a few of her fellow guards who thought less of
her sex. On this last count, she’d often disabuse their
wrongheadedness by neutering them. He remembered how curt she was,
single-minded and impatient. Char never told you to do something
more than once. He saw her break a man’s nose and throw him
overboard into the Falkstone River when the riverman didn’t move
fast enough for her in measuring depth. She suffered no one, which
made it a bit interesting that Roth seemed now to be coaxing her
into something.

He could tell that the two were familiar, but
the conversation didn’t go smoothly. Yet it seemed as though Roth
had finally convinced her as he doled out a fair amount of aurei to
her. What was a rover doing with that much coin? Declan wondered.
For a moment, he seriously considered relieving Roth of the rest of
his seemingly substantial purse. The two parted and Roth began to
head back towards the inn where he had started. It felt as though
Roth had just passed off his new friends. Declan nodded slightly to
himself as a table near him was emptied. He moved to sit, setting
his still full tankard down and fishing out from his inner tunic
pocket a thick, folded map. He laid the map out before him. Declan
needed to think about where they were going.

Now there was no chance that he could travel
aboard the same vessel as his contract, too much of a possibility
that Char would recognize him. Fortunately, the route between Anhra
and Bandra was heavily traveled in normal times, and since The
Blockade, it had increased dramatically. Declan placed his finger
on an icon that resembled The Cathedral and followed the thick
black line that was the highroad south as it soon was hemmed by a
series of chevrons that represented the Siracenes to the west and
the Glen Mark to the east until it ended at a red star that was
Anhra. Declan followed the coastline of the Novostos east towards
the golden star that represented Bandra. He could read words but he
could read a map better than most. Declan measured some distances
with his index finger and made a few marks with a thin, stubby
pencil along the coast. He knew there were caches along this ship
lane hidden just back off the craggy shoreline. If he found himself
a fast skiff, he could probably keep a good pace with whatever
barge his contract and its new companion or companions ended up on.
He headed down to the eastern docks to acquire an unattended
boat.

A deckhand entered the cabin, “They’ve taken
the crusader to a barber.”

“
He’ll need a proper
healer.” Asa said not looking up as he was having the cut suffered
in the marsh sewn up. Fortunately, for him the slice wasn’t deep,
he had pulled back just far enough at the last instant to avoid a
serious neck wound. Instead, the knife had slit him along his jaw
line. He could feel the tightness and odd pain as Riv sewed him
up.

“
What of the girl and the
other?” Asa asked.

The messenger spoke up, “She’s holed up in a
wayfarer’s inn near the passenger docks. Seems the man that brought
them in has her locked away, he seems to be familiar with the
town.”

Asa furrowed his brow, “Then he’ll go to
Meg’s to get information.” His eyes moved to Riv, “That is, if he’s
looking to keep aiding the two. If not, he’ll still go there to
pawn them off on someone.”

The messenger thought Asa was addressing him
and asked, “We should cut him down there?”

Asa cursed and Riv stared at him, “You think
this is easy? Be glad you’re not dead…”

He grimaced and looked hard at the messenger,
“No. Don’t harm him. Shadow him but don’t kill him.”

“
Why not?”

Riv’s eyes narrowed, he spat and barked at
the deckhand, “Our concern is the girl not some gadfly. There’s no
profit in going after him if we needn’t. If he insists on
obstructing, then we’ll end him. But we don’t need to bring more
notice upon ourselves than necessary.”

“
So, the girl…”

Asa grabbed a tin cup near him and threw it
at the messenger, “Monitor the paladin’s progress and have eyes on
the girl. We need to split those two up. We just need to wait and
see what is happening.”

Riv laughed a bit with a needle between his
teeth as the deckhand ducked the cup and shot out of the room,
“Yeah, I think we need to look into finding a couple more competent
lieutenants.”

Closing his eyes, Asa winced a bit as Riv
pulled the stitch through his skin, “How much longer with
this?”

“
If you want it done
sloppily, I’m done now.”

“
And if I want it done
well?”

“
Then I’ll fucking let you
know when I’m done.”

Asa smirked a bit, “This contract is getting
complicated.”

“
They always do,” Riv
patted the cut with gauze then spread some kind of salve over the
line of stitches. He finished tying a neat knot and then patted Asa
on the back, “There ya are.”

“
Finally.”

“
Let me wrap
this.”

Asa turned and grabbed the bandages from Riv,
“I’ll take care of it. I need some time.”

Riv nodded and stood, “That’ll be tight for a
bit so don’t go jerking your head all over the place. Deliberate
moves.”

Waving him away, Asa moved to the back of the
cabin latching the blinds of his great window dimming the room,
“Need a bit of a rest. Let me know when that fool returns.”

Riv didn’t linger and left the cabin. Asa
laid down on the short bench below the window and closed his eyes.
He kept making fists and after perhaps a few minutes shot up, spun
around and moved towards the table at the center of the room. His
eyes had adjusted to the dim light as he grabbed a squat bottle of
wine, flicked the cork out with his thumb, and drank. It was a sour
vintage, but he was glad to have some heat in his gut. He sat and
finished the bottle, slowly letting it lead him to sleep.

The door to the cabin flew open and hard
white light filled the room. Riv stepped inside with some of their
men. Asa’s head flew up off the table surface; he was disoriented
for a moment then felt the tightness at his neck.

One of the men was talking to Riv, “He passed
them off to another ranger. A woman.”

Asa raised an eyebrow, Riv strode through the
cabin quickly throwing back the wooden blinds and filling the room
with a proper amount of light. Asa rubbed his eyes, and then looked
at the one who had been speaking to Riv, “Really? That’s odd. A
woman free ranger delivering a wounded paladin to the Cathedral. He
must have paid a lot for that.”

The sailor turned to his captain, “The girl
and the paladin are going to meet her over at the eastern
docks.”

“
Ranger woman hasn’t seen
the two yet?” Riv interjected.

“
Doesn’t seem like it.”
Said another of the men.

Asa nodded and smiled, “Well this works in
our favor.” He stood up, arching his back and twisting side to
side, “We can, at the very least, purchase more time for ourselves
and, if things go well, completely erase our presence.”

The men looked confused, “Does that mean more
coin?”

“
It certainly does.” Riv
said off-handedly.

Asa pointed at Riv, “We need to get to the
girl and the paladin before they meet up with this ranger. We put
one of ours in the girl’s place and in route or once they get to
Bandra, we have her kill the crusader. Make it look like the wounds
took him.”