Deepwoods (Book 1) (14 page)

Beirly scratched at the back of his head, stared at Rune for
a long second, and then asked, “Why?”

“Because he’s ours for the time being.”

Even from twenty feet away she could see Beirly’s reaction
to
that
piece of news. “Shi! Tell me you didn’t just adopt an assassin!”

She grinned. “I’ve done stranger things!”

“Name one!” Beirly challenged, although he laughed as he retorted.

Well, actually, she couldn’t think of anything that counted
as ‘stranger’ right off the top of her head.

Rune chuckled in outright delight. “Ya can’t think of anythi’n.”

“I’m sure something will come to me. Later. In the wee hours
of the morning.” She shrugged, unconcerned. “Come along, Rune. We need to find
a large tub of hot water.”

Finding hot water took a good hour and a half, due to
complications. They could not put an additional eleven people into the
house/converted storeroom that Lirah’s people were using, so another storeroom
had to be cleared out before Deepwoods could get situated. With everyone
pitching in, they managed to clear a sizeable area in short order, giving them
a place to sleep right next to Lirah’s building. As impromptu lodging went, it
wasn’t half-bad. Siobhan had certainly stayed in worse. This building had
housed grain, mostly wheat, and so it smelled slightly musty. But the wooden
floors, brick walls, and thatch roof overhead had a nice solidness to them that
kept out the weather. Best yet, the doorway and ceilings had enough height for
even Tran and Wolf to clear without danger of knocking their heads into
something.

A lean-to had been added onto the building at some point,
although it was not currently in use for anything. Siobhan declared it a
bathing room and had a half-barrel rolled into it for washing. Someone had put
in a small well and pump out in the back of the building, and through an open
back window, they were able to cart in enough water for washing. She scrounged
up a towel, a bar of soap, and a dirty assassin and shoved them all into the
room without further ado.

Rune laughed as he went aside, amused by her insistence, but
didn’t complain as he closed the door behind him. She stood close-by for a
second, waiting to hear the sound of splashing water.
Ah, there. Good
.
Turning, she shooed everyone out of the building and onto the front porch so
she could have this conversation outside of Rune’s hearing. Well, hopefully
outside of his hearing.

“Alright, Shi, what’s the real story?” Beirly asked in a
confidential tone.

She looked around at the circle of faces which, for the most
part, stared back in confusion. “In short? The Ahbiren here agreed to let us
stay if we took care of a problem for him.”

“Ahhh.” Fei pointed toward Rune’s general direction.
“Problem?”

“Assassin who failed to kill the Ahbiren,” she explained
with a grimace. “They weren’t sure what to do with him once they caught him.”

“That’s a problem, certainly,” Markl agreed. “And the reason
why you brought him into the guild?”

“He knows Sateren.” Siobhan had, in the course of setting
all this up, finally seen the hole in Lirah’s story. “Listen, I think we need
him. I think we need him more than I first realized. Lirah said that they were
attacked by professionals, either assassins or mercenaries, and that they
retreated because they thought most of her people dead. But that doesn’t make
sense. Why were they attacked? Not robbery—Lirah still has most of her
equipment. If it was a hit, then why leave with the job half finished?”

“If Iron Dragain was behind it, they wouldn’t want witnesses
left behind,” Wolf continued her train of thought aloud, brows beetling. “And
the guild that did the job wouldn’t leave without making sure all were dead. Unless
they were ordered to leave some alive. Sloppy work like that will lose you
customers.”

“Right?” she agreed. “It’s like the attack was
designed
to make us think Iron Dragain had betrayed Blackstone. They waited until Lirah
was close to Sateren, left her alive with all of her people, all so they can
cast suspicion on Iron Dragain. But I don’t think it was them. I think it’s
that third party that Markl thought up in Quigg.”

“There’s no reason for a third party to attack, though,” Markl
pointed out.

“That we know of,” Sylvie corrected. “But we don’t know
every business dealing that Blackstone and Iron Dragain are involved in. There
could be something else going on behind the scenes, something that would
explain this.”

“We don’t know who to trust right now,” Siobhan sighed, “but
I’m inclined to trust Iron Dragain. I honestly think them innocent in all of
this. That said, I want to send a message to them. They’re the closest safe
harbor we’ve got, if we can get to their main holdings. I don’t want to risk that
open road again, not until we understand what’s going on.”

“Which is why you want him.” Tran inclined his head toward
the building, indicating Rune. “You think he can get into Sateren without
raising any attention.”

“He said he was born and raised there. He knows the city
better than any of us. Fei, I’m going to put together a message and I want you
to deliver it with Rune.”

Fei quirked a brow at her. “Because you don’t trust him?”

She shook her head in wry amusement. “Would you? But also, I
think Iron Dragain is more likely to trust any message I send if someone from
Deepwoods delivers it.”

Fei pondered that for a moment before stating, “I want to
test his skills before we go.”

“Fair enough.”

The front door opened and a damp assassin poked his head
out, a towel hanging around his neck. He looked remarkably better with all of
the dirt and grime off of him. He also, strangely, looked younger. In fact,
Siobhan realized after a startled blink that Rune couldn’t be far past his
teenage years. “Testi’n me aside, I don’t think ya should contact Iron Dragain
yet.”

Siobhan had a flash of chagrin that he’d overheard their
conversation. Shaking that off, she turned to face him squarely. “For future
reference, how sharp is your hearing?”

“Quite sharp.” He grinned at her, a surprisingly boyish expression.
“I promised ta help ya even when ya didn’t know the right question to ask. If
ya want ta know who attacked yer friends, I can help ya find out.”

Siobhan blinked at him in surprise. “You can?”

“Easy, easy,” he assured her. “My old guild is the largest
assassin’s guild in Sateren. All requests went through them first. I don’t know
if they were the ones that actually did the work themselves, but they’d
certainly know who commissioned it.”

She rubbed at her chin thoughtfully. Granted, it would help
a great deal if they knew who was behind the attack. She would at least know
who to trust. “What do you need to pull this off?”

“I need ta arrange a meet between ya and one of the karls.”

“Karl?” she repeated, having never heard the term before.

Rune gave her a strange look in return. “Ya don’t know what a
karl is? How do Robargean guilds rank the people, then?”

Markl chose to explain. “From lowest to highest, it’s
initiate, guildmember, sentinel, officer, advisor, guildmaster. But this is
only true for the largest guilds, there’s a different structure in small ones.”

Or little structure at all
, Siobhan reflected in wry
humor. Herself aside, no one had a rank in Deepwoods. 

“Hehhhh,” Rune drawled out as he processed this. Then he
shrugged. “Sounds like it’s simpler here. We only have four ranks—praell,
karls, jarls, and guildmaster. Praells are like the guildmembers, I guess, and the
karls are like the officers. Jarls are the highest up, and they work directly
for the guildmaster. For what we need ta know, any karl will do.”

While all of this sounded very promising, it didn’t really
ease all of Siobhan’s concerns. “Is it safe for you to meet with anyone from
your old guild? I mean, all things considered.” She jerked a thumb at the
village in illustration.

His face became rigid with a fake smile. “Ya called it
earlier, when ya said I was sent on a suicide mission. If by some miracle, I
succeeded, they would have forgiven me and kept me in the guild. But I didn’t,
so I’m outcast from them. Since they were the ones cutting ties, they won’t
care what I do.”

She glanced at Wolf, who knew the inner workings of a dark
guild better than she, silently asking if that were truly the case. Wolf held a
bleak expression and he nodded ever so slightly in confirmation.

Why? Questions swirled around in her head without answer and
she turned her eyes back to Rune, unsure if she could give voice to any of
them.

Rune took a step closer to her, closing the gap, which put
Tran and Wolf distinctly on edge. Only then did she realize he was exactly her
height, as their eyes were on the same level. “Ya want ta know,” he said
quietly, voice unusually gravelly. “If I knew it was suicide, why go? Yer big
wolf here doesn’t ask, cause he knows. Ya don’t switch guilds in a city. No
dark guild will trust ya if ya leave one ta go ta another, and the other guilds
will just as soon throw ya in a cell as look at ya. I couldn’t leave here—I
didn’t have the supplies ta travel. I’d be dead if I took ta the road. Odds
were, I’d die tryi’n ta kill the old man, too, but at least the odds were
better taki’n the job.” That humorless smile darted over his face again. “So ya
see, I had nothi’n to bargain with. Ya got rooked, Guildmaster.”

She met that smile without flinching. “I bargained for an
expert on Sateren. Did you lie to me about that?”

His brows compressed briefly in a small frown. “No.”

“Then I’m satisfied.” Judging from the way his mouth
soundlessly moved, he had no idea what to think about that, much less how to
respond. Taking pity on him, she clapped a hand to his shoulder. It felt like
she grasped a warm wooden post. Was he nothing but bone and muscle? “We’ll talk
about how to contact someone from your old guild in a bit. First,
introductions. This is Markl, Conli, Denney, Sylvie, Wolf, Tran, Beirly and
Fei. The dogs are Pyper and Pete. Everyone, this is Rune. He’ll be with us
until we return through Island Pass.”

There were some nods and greetings around the group, all of
them said warily. Rune greeted them back cheerfully, enjoying their
awkwardness.

Siobhan let out a sigh and hoped the mood would pass as
everyone got used to him. “Rune, ground rules are these—treat everyone with
respect, the women especially. If we ask you for an escort, do so. If something’s
broken, go to Beirly. If there’s danger, Wolf, Tran or Fei needs to be told
first. They’re my enforcers. If it’s trade-related, talk to Sylvie. If it’s
medical, talk to Conli. Got all that?”

Rune had that odd look on his face again, as if he couldn’t
understand what she was doing or why she was doing it. But he responded, “Yes,
Guildmaster.”

“If it doesn’t fit any of the above, you’re always welcome
to talk to me,” she assured him, hoping he would do so. She needed him to trust
her, otherwise this dangerous situation would get a lot worse. “For now, Conli,
take a look at him. I’ll get some food while you do that.”

“Sure thing.” Conli replied. His eyes were already scanning
Rune and he frowned as he noted the same problems Siobhan had spotted earlier.
“This might take more than a few minutes. Rune, those manacles roughed up your
skin quite a bit. It looks like more than bruising to me.” Silently urging the
boy back inside, she could hear him asking questions as they went to where his
impromptu medical center had been set up. “Are you hurt anywhere else? Hmmm?
Oh, no, I probably won’t need you to swallow anything.”

Siobhan tuned it out and went to the next thing. “Sylvie,
can you buy some food for us, enough to last us another two weeks or so? Lirah
said it would take at least that long for people to be recovered enough to
move.”

Sylvie gave her a silent salute before moving off the porch.

Almost belatedly, she told Markl, “Help her. I’m sure it’ll
be too much for one to carry.”

“Of course.” He readily fell into Sylvie’s wake.

That started, she went to the next thing. “Fei, talk to
Lirah’s group and get an exact accounting of what happened. Get me details—what
they looked like, what weapons they used, which direction they retreated to, you
know the drill. The more information I have, the better.”

Fei nodded and silently went to do as bid.

Let’s see…what else…. “Tran—”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he refused in a low rumble.

“Ahhh…” Remembering that Rune’s hearing was unusually good,
she instead pointed in his general direction, head cocked in question. Tran
nodded sourly. Wolf backed him up with a nod as well, arms crossed over his
chest in a stubborn manner. Siobhan blew out a breath. So, neither Tran nor
Wolf would let the boy out of their sight, eh? Well, for the time being, that
was probably prudent.

 “Fine,” she sighed in resignation. “I’ll find a plate of
food for him and some better fitting clothes.” The ones that Beirly had handed
her hung on the boy so bad it was a wonder his pants stayed up. She also had to
figure out where Rune’s weapons had been put. Surely the villagers had kept
them instead of just throwing them out. Whether or not she would hand them over
immediately would be a matter to decide later.

Finding readily available food for an assassin in a, if not
hostile, unwelcoming village proved to be quite the challenge. Siobhan ended up
paying more money than she intended, but her grocery shoppers hadn’t returned
yet (probably because they faced the same challenges Siobhan had) and she was
worried about Rune’s condition. He put up a strong front, but there was no way
to disguise the slightly grey color to his skin or the heavy way he moved, as
if it took extreme effort on his part. She wanted decent food in him as soon as
she could manage it.