Deepwoods (Book 1) (27 page)

Rune nodded his head in agreement, pleased with the
suggestion.

“There’s assassins after our assassin.”

Siobhan blinked and stared at Fei. She’d been in the middle
of finishing preparations for tomorrow, but he apparently wanted her attention,
so she dropped everything in her hands and turned toward the door. “I assume
you’re talking about the nightly attacks from Silent Order? The ones that
you’ve been helping Rune deal with?”

Fei cocked his head slightly. “I was not aware that you knew
of them.”

“Oh, I know more than you think I do.” Not much more,
though. “I would have thought they’d given up, though, as they’ve not been the
least bit successful so far.”

“They are far from giving up,” Fei denied with a grim shake
of the head. “In fact, the numbers they send increase every night. It has now
reached the point that it is…difficult for only I and Rune-xian to deal with
them.”

Difficult? When Fei said ‘difficult,’ he meant ‘impossible.’
She was almost afraid to ask. “How many are you expecting to show up tonight?”

He thought about that for a moment before offering, “Twenty
or so?”

“Twenty?!” she spluttered. “Great wind and stars, man, how
many showed up last night?”

“About a dozen.”

They’d been dealing with a dozen by themselves? No wonder
he’d come to fetch her first thing in the morning and report. “Fei, my dear,
why are you only asking for help
now?
Even a dozen is unreasonable for
just two men to deal with!”

“Well, a few from Iron Dragain stepped in and helped.”

Oh sure, she knew exactly what he meant by that. In other
words, a few men from Iron Dragain came and hauled unconscious and/or injured
assassins away. They probably hadn’t interfered in the fight itself, not when
it meant protecting Rune. She let out a pained groan. “Alright. I’d thought
this had stopped or resolved itself, as no one told me there was a problem. I
would have stepped in before this if I’d realized how serious it had become.”

She aimed a pointed glare at him. Fei didn’t falter, just
offered a half-bow of apology. “What do you wish to do?”

“Why don’t we start with asking Jarnsmor how he wants us to
handle this?”

ӜӜӜ

“Can’t you just kill them?” Jarnsmor requested plaintively.

Siobhan started, not at all expecting that response. For
once, she hadn’t found the man in his study, but just outside the main holding
complex, where Iron Dragain kept all of their prisoners. The place reeked of
cold, being built of granite, and looked dismal and unwelcoming. It gave
Siobhan the creeps just standing outside the main door.

“You want me to order my men to kill anyone that attacks
them,” she repeated neutrally.

Jarnsmor’s shoulders slumped slightly. “No, I suppose I
can’t say that. I would be violating my own laws if I did. But Guildmaster
Maley, you’ve given me quite the predicament by bringing that young man here.
He’s drawing in assassins from Silent Order like flies to rotting meat. My jail
is practically full already. I’m running out of places to put people!”

Ahhhh.
That
was the problem. “Can’t you start judging
these men and sentencing them?” she riposted. “You know them and at least some
of the crimes they’ve committed. Surely you can let the law handle things from
here.”

“That takes
time
,” he complained. “And what am I
supposed to do with all of them while the Sateren Court judges each man?”

“Let the Sateren city jail hold them,” Fei suggested. “Isn’t
that what they’re made for?”

Jarnsmor regarded him thoughtfully. “True. They should be
holding these men to begin with. I’m not sure how full they are, though. They
might not be able to take them all either.”

“They don’t need to,” Siobhan pointed out. “They just need
to take whatever you don’t have room for.”

He snapped his fingers, expression brightening. “An
excellent point. Alright, how many did you say you were expecting tonight?
Twenty or so?”

“If they follow the same pattern as before,” Fei responded
with polite deference. “They usually increase in number by at least five more
than the previous night.”

“We’ll plan for thirty, then, just in case.” His lips
pressed together in a tight, unhappy line. “You realize that I don’t appreciate
having assassins coming into my home on a regular basis.”

Siobhan concealed a wince. “You don’t like having them in
your city, either. Think of this as an opportunity to rid yourself of some of
them.”

“Hmph.” Still unhappy, he turned and stalked away, calling
out orders to people as he moved to get ready for the attack tonight.

She puffed out a breath of relief. “That went better than I’d
hoped.”

“Truly,” Fei agreed. Lowering his voice, he asked, “Should I
ask Wolf-ren and Tran-ren to help tonight? Or should we leave it up to
Jarnsmor’s men?”

She gave him quite the look. “Did you seriously just suggest
planning an ambush without inviting our two fight-loving maniacs to join in?
Wolf would pout for
weeks
.”

Fei chuckled. “I’ll go tell them, then.”

ӜӜӜ

Her nerves jangled the rest of the day, leaving her restless
and moody, waiting for a fight that she wouldn’t actually participate in. All
four of her enforcers—Wolf especially—told her in no uncertain terms that they
could handle it and didn’t need help. She understood what they actually meant:
the men coming were ruthless and likely more skilled than she, and no one
wanted her in danger’s way. Normally their protectiveness didn’t bother her. If
she had a choice, she’d prefer not to fight, but that didn’t mean she could
idly sit by while people she cared about were in serious trouble, either.

Siobhan understood that she wouldn’t be able to help much
even if she participated in the ambush tonight. She really, truly did. But she
just couldn’t stay safely away from the main building. After pacing her bedroom
restlessly for several minutes, and then the common room for several minutes
more, her feet automatically took her toward the main doors. The only way for
people to enter was through the main gates, as Jarnsmor had tight security
around his perimeter. The few holes he’d had were pointed out by previous
attacks and corrected. Fei and Rune felt certain that the attack would come in
through the front tonight.

She entered the main hallway cautiously, one sword held at
the ready, eyes searching for any sign of life. Not a soul was nearby, but she
could clearly hear the battle raging in the main foyer dead ahead. The light
here was dim, barely any gleam coming through the windows, and it became
progressively darker the further she went. The foyer was closed off from her
view by two thick wooden doors, but even then it didn’t muffle the sounds of
metal clanging, men cursing, and feet stomping on the floor. Was that really
only thirty or so men fighting ahead? It sounded like a hundred.

Reaching the door, Siobhan paused with her hand on the
latch. Did she dare open it and peek, satisfying her curiosity? Opening the
door would allow her to see them, true, but it would also allow
them
to
see
her
. If discovered, she would be in a world of trouble with Wolf.
And Rune. And Tran. And Fei.

Just imagining it made her wince. Perhaps this wasn’t the
best of ideas.

“Fei,
duck!
” Tran bellowed.

In sheer instinct she wrenched the door open and took a step
through, sword up and eyes frantically searching for her people.

She found them in a split second, not ten feet away from
where she stood and to the right. Fei, Tran and Rune had grouped together so
that they watched each other’s backs, each of them striking out hard and fast
only to fall back into position. Her eyes could barely track their hands and
feet, they moved so quickly. They already had several men lying comatose at
their feet, silent proof of how deadly they fought.

Wolf was some three feet away from them, fighting earnestly
with shield and sword, a berserker grin on his face that sent chills down her
spine. Even as she watched, he used his shield like a battering ram and slammed
it into his opponent’s face, which no doubt broke the man’s nose. It sent him
flying back and landing against the floor in an inelegant sprawl.

Her eyes skipped across the rest of the room. Jarnsmor had
indeed deployed some of his men to help—she recognized four of them—and it
seemed they were competent fighters. In fact, the battle looked to be more or
less over, as bodies littered the ground in every possible position and very
few were still standing and fighting.

Grinning, she took a few quick steps forward and slammed her
sword hilt into the back of one greasy head, sending the man slumping to the
floor with a gasp of pain. Rune looked up, startled that his opponent had so
suddenly collapsed, and found her smiling at him. “Hey!” he protested with an
unhappy scowl. “Yer not supposed to come.”

“Fight’s over,” she pointed out. “And as your guildmaster, I
can be anywhere I please.”

“Always stubborn like that,” Tran mourned.

Another crunch of broken bones came from behind her. She
half-turned to see that Wolf had finished the last Silent Order guildsman with
the flat of his sword. Also with a scowl on his face, he stepped over the
gasping, injured man and strode to her. “Siobhan,” he growled between clenched
teeth, “the fight was
not
over yet.”

“Shilly-shally,” she negated with a careless toss of the
hand, sheathing her sword. “My, you boys were effective. I can’t believe they
really showed up like you predicted, Fei. I felt sure they’d learn from their
mistakes.”

“Matter of power, it is,” Rune explained. He looked more
resigned than upset over the situation. “Guildmaster can’t let a man go and
have him join a good guild like I did. It sets the idea in other’s minds they
can do the same.”

Which meant that a dark guildmaster would potentially lose
most of his people, as the benefits of belonging to a good guild far outweighed
being in a dark guild. Besides, it was probably a matter of sheer stubbornness
at this point, too. Rune was supposed to suffer a terrible fate after having
failed to obey orders, not luck into a better situation.

Rune turned to Tran and thumped his heart twice with an open
palm before bowing his head. Tran blinked, not at all expecting to have Rune
properly thank him using Teheranian manners. Siobhan felt a little surprised to
see this too, but she knew the source of the young Wyngaardian’s sudden
etiquette—Fei. He had indeed been paying attention to Fei’s lessons on how to
treat everyone in Deepwoods.

Tran, after that startled reaction, relaxed into a slight
smile and gave a bow back. Then he reached out and clapped Rune on the shoulder
in a comradely gesture, which made Rune smile back at him.

Turning, Rune looked to Fei next and offered, “We will drink
and speak of this later.”

Fei’s eyes crinkled up in silent approval. He folded his arm
against his ribs and extended a free hand, which Rune mirrored before accepting
the hand in a firm clasp.

Only then did Rune turn to Wolf. She watched with bated
breath. Her stubborn enforcer had watched Rune properly thank each man in their
own ways for their help tonight. Rune was honestly trying, but would he see
that for what it was and accept it?

Rune seemed to take in a breath before saying quietly,
“Heill ok sael.”

Wolf stared at him for a long second before lifting his
right hand in acknowledgement, but he did not return the greeting, simply
turned away and started to help with the cleanup.

Siobhan resisted the urge to go over and kick him. Stubborn,
boneheaded, crepehanger! After everything Rune had done, he
still
couldn’t trust him? She stole a peek at Rune’s face, but he didn’t seem
disappointed or surprised at Wolf’s reaction. Well, she shouldn’t have been
either. It was easier to get the sun to change its course than to change Wolf’s
opinion on something.

Sighing, she gave up on that for the moment and went to help
clear bodies away.