Keeper of the Books (Keeper of the Books, Book 1) (15 page)

Levi grinned at this. Galamore didn’t seem so different from home in this regard. The more Levi thought about it, he wondered how he was even supposed to get back to the real world. It wasn’t like he had a book in his hands to take him back to Texas. But he knew that wasn’t the priority. First, he had to get the Cole brothers. Then he would figure out a way to get back home. And Levi wouldn’t have to worry about dragging their bodies around until he found his way home, either. Levi was such a notorious bounty hunter that lawmen generally trusted him. He was at
word
status. If he walked into some sheriff offices and announced that the Cole brothers were dead, he wouldn’t have to produce a body. The money would be handed over to him and he would go about his business. That was what it meant to have a reputation. But it also wasn’t Levi’s style. He liked to bring the bodies with him. Most lawmen would probably prefer Levi just to give them his word, because he purposefully made a habit of plopping dead bodies on the doorstep.
 

“I got a poncho for sale,” the peddler said. “It would do a pretty good job keeping you warm at night. Winter’s on its way, you know.”

Levi was surprised to know that the peddler wasn’t going to simply give him a poncho. Levi had no money in this world. He had nothing of value to give the man. But the more Levi thought about it, the more the knew he needed that poncho. The nights here were cold. It was a different season. But before he got it, he needed information.

“Where’s the nearest town?” Levi asked.
 

“It’s a city,” the peddler said. “Called Tel Haven. If you just stay on this road for about twenty more miles, you’ll see it. Can’t miss it, really.”

Levi nodded. “Is that where the president resides?”

The peddler nodded. “President Jacob DalGaard.”

“Is he a good president?”

The peddler shrugged. “I don’t keep up with things like that really.”

“Things like what?”

“I avoid going to big places like Tel Haven,” the peddler said. “What I sell, people there don’t want.”

Levi’s eyes flicked to the cart. What did he have in there?

“What do you sell exactly?”

The peddler waved him off. “I’ll let you stay near the camp for tonight if you wish, but I don’t entertain too many questions. I’m tired and have a big journey tomorrow.”

“What’s in the cart?” Levi voice was much more stern this time. So much so that the peddler stiffened when he spoke.
 

“Nothing for people like you,” he said.

“Stolen goods?” Levi asked.
 

The peddler swallowed.
 

“You aren’t even a peddler are you?” Levi asked. “You’re a thief.” Levi stood from the dirt and tossed his mug of coffee to the ground. He reached for his pistol and marched toward the cart.
 

“No, no, no!” the man said, standing to stop Levi, but Levi simply pointed the gun at the man and stopped him short. When Levi got to the cart, he grabbed a latch on the side and opened the back of the cart. Immediately, jewels, trinkets, and all sorts of random treasures fell out the back. This cart full of stuff was probably worth more than the man’s bounty if he had one.
 

Levi circled the cart and came around to the thief. He now held a knife in his hands as if it would do anything against a gun.
 

“You put your nose where it don’t belong,” the man said. “You’ve gone and messed everything up!”

Levi raised the gun and pulled the hammer back. “You are familiar with the differences between a gun and a knife, aren’t you?”

The man swallowed and dropped his knife to the dirt. “Just take the cart,” the man said.
 

“You got a bounty on your head?” Levi asked.
 

The man nodded. “A few hundred coins,” he said. “But a man would have to be stupid to turn me in with all I got in the cart. Just take the cart. It’s worth a lot more than my bounty.”

“Sometimes the bounty ain’t about the money,” Levi said. He took a step toward the man. “Sometimes it’s about justice.”

“Please,” the man said. “Let me go. I never killed nobody. I just took valuables from some rich people. I ain’t never took from the poor.”

“You think that makes it right?”

The man didn’t say anything to this.

“What’s your name?” Levi asked.
 

“Vincent,” he said. “Vincent the Peddler.”

“Some peddler. More like Vincent the Burglar.” Levi sighed deeply. “Vincent the Burglar, do you believe in fate?”

“I don’t know.”

“Think about it.”

“I guess so…no…maybe…”

“I don’t,” Levi said. “But right now, fate feels very real.”

“What are you saying?” Vincent’s fingers were trembling.

“I’m saying that by trade, I am a bounty hunter…the best there is, actually. And I just happened to stumble upon a man who has a small bounty on his head. Lucky for you, I’m after someone far smarter and more dangerous than you could ever be. He’s worth a lot, but again, that’s not what I care about. Do you know what I care about, Vincent the Burglar?”

The man shook his head.
 

“Justice.” Levi began pacing back and forth, tapping the barrel of his pistol against the brim of his hat. “Now, my fight is not with you, but you’ve fallen into this little situation on your own.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“You’re going to take me to Tel Haven,” Levi said. “On the way, you’re going to tell me everything there is to know about the world of Galamore. And you’re going to help me start my little investigation on how to find the man I’m looking for.”

“I don’t like going into Tel Haven,” Vincent the Burglar said.
 

“What are the better chances?” Levi asked. “Me putting a bullet through your heart right now, or you taking me to Tel Haven?”

“Honestly? I would almost say the bullet to the heart.” Levi immediately lowered his gun and aimed it at Vincent’s chest. Vincent shut his eyes tightly and held up both of his hands. “No! No! I was just sayin’! I was just sayin’! I didn’t mean it!”

“You’re dumber than I thought,” Levi said. “Your tongue will get you killed.”

“It’s not my tongue I fear,” he answered.
 

“What’ll it be?” Levi asked. “You gonna help me? Or you gonna die?”

Vincent stared at him for a long moment. Maybe he was thinking about ways to escape, or perhaps even a way to kill Levi. But Levi was making it apparent that Vincent had very few options left.

“I don’t wanna leave until sunup,” Vincent said.
 

“Why’s that?”

“Because by the time we get to Tel Haven, the city will be at its busiest time. Lots of commotion.”

“All right,” Levi said, “but I warn you, I’m a light sleeper, and I sleep with my finger on the trigger. If you so much as twitch in the middle of the night, I’ll blow your head clean off.”

Vincent snarled at him. The man wouldn’t try anything. It didn’t seem that he had anything more than a knife and a rifle, which Levi would relieve him of in a moment.

Levi felt that this was a pretty good start to his time in Galamore. By the next day, he would know all that he needed to know about the world to survive. Then, with any luck, he would have a lead on the whereabouts of Nathaniel Cole. And once he found him, he was going to kill him.

Autumn, 903 A.O.M.

Smoke puffed out through the chimney softly and quietly, disturbing nothing and no one within the forest. The cabin that breathed the smoke almost seemed to blend with the woods around it, its brown logs and thatched roof barely recognizable from the orange and brown leaves that populated the trees behind it.
 

Nate couldn’t quite pinpoint the reason he felt anxious. Sure, the entire Crimson Army was looking for them, and they hadn’t killed Ranger Devlin Mannix when they probably should have. The man was more than likely free of his bonds and off telling the other Rangers of Nate’s failure. Nate didn’t know how good their tracking skills would be, so there was always a chance that the soldiers were on their trail.
 

Marum didn’t seem to think so. She would travel through creeks whenever she found them, trying to keep from leaving tracks, but Nate wasn’t convinced. When she thought it was safe enough she would go by the road which was filled with tracks that could have been left by anyone. Nate had done his fair share of throwing off bounty hunters and the like, and he approved of Marum’s method. Still, it was never a sure thing.

He also didn’t like not knowing what or who awaited him within that log cabin. He didn’t doubt that the dwellers were friendly enough, but the problem was that Nate
wasn’t
friendly. Sure, he could feign friendliness anytime he needed to, but a perceptive man might quickly notice that Nate wasn’t possessed with the utmost integrity.
 

Nate held tightly to the Ranger’s rifle in his hands. It was a fine piece of metal and wood, perfectly weighted from end to end, and Nate wondered how much money he could fetch for it. Quite a lot, he was sure. He figured he would hold on to it even though it felt silly to carry it when he already had two perfectly good firearms. He felt the same about the Ranger’s saber tucked away in a sheath on the saddle. He doubted the saber’s usefulness, but knew it might make for a good trade later.

Their destination was a quaint homestead with a short wooden fence around it. Chickens populated the yard, pecking the ground for insects and seeds. Up on the hill a ways behind the house was a small barn and another fenced-in area with a horse that stood as still as a statue.

Marum allowed their steed to slow as they came up to the house. She took a deep breath as she lifted a leg over the horse’s neck and slid to the ground.
 

“It’s been many years since I’ve been here,” she said, seemingly to herself.
 

“You sure your friends are still here?” Nate asked.

“I doubt they have left,” she answered.

Before Nate could reply, the front door to the cabin burst open and an older-looking gentleman came out excitedly.

“Marum? Marum is that you?”

“Alban!” Marum exclaimed.
 

“By golly, it’s good to see you!” The man ran from the front porch, his arms outstretched and a wide smile across his face.
 

The gray elf and man hugged each other tightly and Nate got the sense that this meeting was long overdue.
 

Alban’s white hair stuck out in every direction. His clothes were loose on his body, his pants held up by a pair of ragged suspenders. He wore spectacles at the end of his long, slender nose and tilted his head forward to get a better look at Marum’s face.

He held Marum out with both arms, staring at her with a look on his face that showed true worry. “You weren’t followed, were you?”

“No,” she said. “We are safe.”

“But they are after you,” he said. “No doubt they are after you.” The man’s eyes began to water and he immediately rubbed at them. “We had heard that they captured you. We hadn’t heard much more than that.” He swallowed. “You know I couldn’t have done anything…”

“It’s all right,” Marum said.

“Well,” Nate said as he slid off the side of the horse, “if you had taken the notion to do anything today, it would have been too late. Marum was scheduled to be executed this morning.”

This was the first time Alban looked at Nate. “Are you speaking the truth?”

He nodded. “There’s nothing truer.”

Alban’s wet eyes were wide when he looked back at Marum. “I had no idea! On what charges did they capture you?”

“That I am my brother’s sister,” she said. She motioned to Nate. “This man saved my life, Alban. I was wondering if the two of us could stay for a little while until we figured out our next move.”

Alban’s eyes darted back to Nate. His bushy eyebrows fell down over his eyes, casting a disapproving shadow over them. “I don’t know this man. Who are you?”

“The name’s Nathaniel Cole,” he answered.
 

“Where do you come from, Nathaniel Cole?”

“Texas.”

Alban shook his head. “Never heard of it.”

“I’m pretty new to Galamore myself.”

“Nathaniel is new around here,” Marum said. “I don’t know much about him, but I know that I can trust him. He saved my life, Alban. The two of us will be here a couple of days at the most. You know I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t a matter of life and death.”

“You know I don’t have a problem with you staying, Marum. It’s just…” Alban sighed again and moved past Marum to stand in front of Nate.
 

Nate towered over him, but he wasn’t trying to intimidate the man. The thought of a hot meal and a sip of liquor sounded wonderful. He wasn’t about to do something that might steal away that prospect.
 

“I’m gonna let you stay,” Alban said, “but you need to know that my daughter, Rachel, lives with me. She’s up at the barn right now.”

“Okay,” Nate said, shifting his weight.
 

“I will let you in on good faith that you will be a respectable houseguest.”

Nate swallowed.
 

“My daughter is very beautiful. If you so much as look at her in a way I don’t like, I will cut off your manhood and feed it to the pigs, do you understand?”

Nate didn’t take too well to threats, but in the case of a man’s daughter, he supposed he understood. He decided to take the advice in stride. A slight grin formed at the edge of his mouth. “I’ll abide by whatever rules you’ve set in place.”

Alban stared at Nate for a long while as if to study him or to make sure that the words Nate had said were the truth. Finally, the man smiled and slapped Nate on the shoulder. “You two must be hungry! I’ll prepare mutton stew!”

As they walked toward the cabin, Nate’s eyes fell on the barn in the distance. It was a brave move, but he did it simply to remind himself to be extra respectful once he got inside. Nate was afraid of nobody, but he knew a father’s wrath when it came to his daughters.