Free the Darkness (King's Dark Tidings Book 1) (17 page)

The guildmaster frowned. “That was
poorly executed. It will take long for him to die. Withdraw the blade and draw
it across his throat at an angle this time,” he said as though he was
explaining how to carve a bird for supper.

Tears fell from Attica’s eyes and
she gritted her teeth and gripped the dagger hilt. She did as the guildmaster
bade and blood sprayed across her chest as it gushed from the dying man’s
throat. No, not
a
man.
Marson
. She knew his name. She had spoken
to him once or twice. She would not forget the man she killed in cold blood.

“If you leave your enemies behind
alive, they will return to stab you in the back,” the guildmaster stated. His
words were cold, but his voice carried a hint of sympathy. She glanced up to
meet his crystal blue stare. Somehow the icy coldness had thawed, and the man
who looked back at her seemed almost human. This invader had destroyed the
hierarchy she depended on for safety and survival. The men he had killed and
those who had died in this room had not exactly been friends, but they had been
a family of sorts – members of the guild. He had turned her into a
killer, as well. At least, that is what she told herself. Deep down she knew it
had been her choice. But, he had also saved her life, and the way he looked at
her showed no hint of the potentially lecherous reasons for doing so.

“Why?” she asked in a choked
whisper. The man cocked his head questioningly. She swallowed hard and said,
“Why did you save me?”

“I gave you the chance to protect
yourself, and you failed. I had to intercede or he would have killed you,” the
guildmaster stated with indifference.

“No, but
why
did you save
me
?”
the young woman pressed. “You did not save
them
,” she said indicating
the two men who had fought on his side.

“You had already proven yourself.
I protect those who are loyal to me and avenge those I cannot. But, make no
mistake. This man’s death,” he indicated Marson, “was a kindness compared to
what I will do to those who betray me.” With that statement, the young man’s
eyes turned cold and hard as stone leaving nothing of the slight softness she
had seen moments ago.

“You are the new Guildmaster,
Attica,” the stranger announced suddenly as he continued to stare into her
eyes.

Attica blinked a few times as her
mind struggled to catch up. “W-What?”

“Rom will be your Second, and this
man…” he paused as he looked at the third man questioningly.

“K-Kendt,” the middle-aged man
said uncertainly.

“Kendt will be Third,” Rezkin
finished.

“But, I thought
you
were
the new Guildmaster!” Attica blurted in protest.

“I have no time to be Guildmaster.
I do not care for the position in any case. I only care that the guildmaster
heed my wishes. If Martius had accepted my proposition, he would still be
Guildmaster. It was inevitable, though, that he would be killed. I could not
depend on his loyalty. I think
you
, Attica, understand the consequences
of betrayal and the benefits of loyalty. Am I wrong?” Rezkin asked.

“No, I mean, I understand what
you’re saying. But, I’m no Guildmaster. I don’t even know what to do. I’m only
twenty-seven,” the young woman added.

Rezkin was a little surprised. She
looked younger than her twenty-seven years, and she must have been doing
something right to last that long in the guild, especially without killing
anyone. “Age has nothing to do with this. Intelligence and loyalty are what I
desire, and I believe you have both. There are others with more experience who
can assist you with the day-to-day operations. Your primary job is to ensure
that
my
objectives are carried out without question.”

“Yes, Master,” she replied with a
seriousness that lacked her usual smirk. Rezkin noted the woman’s sincerity and
nodded once. “Um…what do we call you?”

“I do not care what you call me as
long as you follow orders,” the mysterious young man replied as he turned
toward the door, stepping carefully over the bodies as he went. “Take the
bodies to the river. Line them up along the bank and make sure their marks
show,” Rezkin said, referring to the emblem tattooed on the forearm of every
Diamond Claw member. Some members had multiple tattoos indicating their Den
memberships or former guilds. Those former guilds would be the smaller ones
that paid tribute to the Diamond Claws or guilds that had been consumed and
destroyed by the larger one. None of the major guilds would accept a traitor
from another major guild. They all recognized the stark reality: once a
traitor, always a traitor. “Everyone will know what happens when they defy me.”

When he reached the door, Rezkin
turned and assessed the young man who had been keeping quiet behind the others.
The young man looked startled when he realized he had caught the stranger’s
notice. He looked as though he was unused to being noticed by others.

“What are you called?” the
stranger asked.

“Uh…Benni, Master,” the young man
replied. He was a nice looking young man, clean and of clear complexion with a
full set of teeth, as far as Rezkin could tell. His face was still a bit round
with youth and did not look as though it required shaving often. He was of
slightly less than average height, but he looked as though he had a bit more
growing in his future.

Rezkin cocked his head
thoughtfully and asked, “What are your
Skills,
Benni?”

Benni shifted uncomfortably and
glanced at Rom for confirmation or assurance. Rom, being a smart man, gave
neither and declined to meet Benni’s questioning eyes. Benni swallowed and
said, “I, uh, I’m a
Sneak
.”

Rezkin nodded in understanding.
Sneak
was the theives’ guild term for those who specialized in stealth and were assigned
jobs that required breaking and entering businesses, homes, and offices without
being detected. It made sense that someone with that specialty would be
accustomed to going unnoticed. “You must be
Skilled
to be holed up in
the Guildhouse rather than a den.”

“Y-Yes, Master. I’m the best in
the guild,” he said with a slight flush as he ducked his head.

“You also took down two of these
men with your daggers,” Rezkin said, pointing at the two bodies in question.
“You have had combat training.”

“A bit, Master. Rom and Carduk
been teachin’ me,” Benni replied.

“Where is this Carduk?” Rezkin
asked.

“He’s out on a mission,” Benni
replied quickly. “The Master…uh…Martius sent ‘im out two days ago. He’s s’posed
to return tomorrow.”

“Is this Carduk going to be a problem?”
Rezkin asked, the hardness returning to his voice.

“No, Master,” Rom interrupted.
“We’ll explain things to ‘im. He’s a smart man. He’ll understand.”

“See that he does,” Rezkin
ordered. “You and Carduck are to begin training Attica in combat.” Rezkin
cocked his head thoughtfully and then said to Attica, “I will also be sending
someone else to train you in the sword. Begin gathering the members who were
not a part of this resistance and familiarize yourselves with the guild
business. I will return tomorrow, and you will inform me of any problems you
cannot handle. Benni, you are with me tonight.”

Attica’s brows rose and a thought
occurred to her as to why the frightful invader had not seemed to notice her
feminine attributes. She knew she was not a beautiful woman, but she had
received enough looks from men to know they found her form appealing. Benni’s
face paled, and he appeared to have forgotten how to move his feet. It was
obvious he had no desire for the advances of another man, even if that man
was
one of the most enticing men Attica had ever seen. Rom looked at the young man
sympathetically, and Kendt would not meet the boy’s fear filled eyes.

“M-Master?” Benni asked with a
whimper.

“Bring whatever gear you require,”
Rezkin stated as he turned toward the open doorway, oblivious to the
assumptions the group had made about his intentions. “I will be evaluating your
Stealth Skills
,” he said as he disappeared into the common room.

Benni’s breath left him in a
whoosh
,
and Rom and Kendt chuckled as they released the tension that had built up over
the last…half mark. Only half a mark had passed since the invader entered their
sanctuary? Benni laughed a little with the other men, but Attica was rattled.
The stranger had come in almost on a whim and quite literally decapitated the
guild. Now,
she
was at its head with absolutely no idea how to run a
major thieves’ guild, and she feared it only a matter of time before her head
rolled like the rest. Maybe if she proved her loyalty she would not end up
lining the riverbank with the other corpses.

Benni followed the Master into the
common room and came to an abrupt halt. The room was completely empty, but the
backdoor was barred from the inside. He turned and checked the door leading to
the front of the
tavern
and it, too, was barred from the inside. The
young man spun in a quick circle surveying all of the tables and scattered
chairs, some of which had been overturned in the earlier commotion. The Master
had disappeared, and the only people in the Guildhouse were the three in the
room behind him – aside from the corpses, of course. The young man
anxiously back peddled toward the office where he had left his comrades, but
instead of an open doorway, he collided with a solid figure. Benni nearly
jumped out of his boots as he yelped and spun, falling over his own feet.

Rezkin looked down at the young man sprawled on the floor
with a frown. “You may or may not possess sufficient
Stealth Skills
, but
your observational
Skills
need work. You must not only be able to move invisibly,
but you must also detect others who are attempting to evade
your
notice.”

“But…there was no one ‘ere! I looked everywhere! You were
gone!” the young man protested shakily as he got to his feet.

“Obviously not,” Rezkin drawled. “Come. I have a task for
you, and we will see how well you perform.” The warrior critically eyed the
young man whose frame was too thin and clothes were too tight and too short.
“Have you eaten?”

“What?” Benni was surprised by the question. He could not
remember a time when anyone cared to ask whether or not he had eaten. “I mean,
yeah, I guess. I ate yesterday,” he said with a shrug.

“Night has fallen, and you have not eaten since yesterday?”
Rezkin asked with disgust.

Benni shrugged and said, “Well, I was hopin’ the Master
would ‘ave a task for me tonight, and then I could get a meal, but, well…” he
said, shrugging again as he let the statement hang.

“If you are such a capable Sneak, why did you not just
obtain your own food?” Rezkin inquired curiously.

“Well, ah, the Master didn’t like us doing our own jobs,
‘specially the Sneaks. He says…ah…
said
we’re too valuable to get caught
stealin’ bread,” the young thief replied.

Rezkin raised a brow and said, “If he did not wish for you
to steal your meals, then he should have provided you with sustenance, no?”

The young man simply shrugged and said, “If we finish our
tasks, we get fed. It’s ‘ow it always is. It’s bloody ‘ell when the Master
ain’t got nothin’ for us to do, though.” Benni suddenly remember to whom he was
speaking and began to stutter, “I mean…not that you…well, whatever you think is
best, of course, M-Master.”

The young warrior did not care for people to call him
Master, but it was necessary to maintain respect and authority within the
thieves’ guild. It also meant that he did not have to provide a name. It was
just easier this way. “We will get you something to eat before your task. I
will not have you giving us away when your stomach rumbles, nor do I desire for
you to make careless mistakes or lose consciousness from hunger.”

“Oh, yeah, I only done that a couple times. Lucky for me, I
was already on the roof when I passed out and no one found me,” Benni said as
though it was a normal occurrence to black out from lack of sustenance. Looking
at the scrawny young man, Rezkin decided it probably
was
normal for
Benni.

Rezkin had been taught that thievery was simply another
aspect of society to which he must learn to acclimate under necessary
circumstances. As in the wild there were predators and prey, so, too, did they
exist among men in towns and cities. The hardworking peasants were the grazers,
and the thieves were the starving coyotes. The metaphorical coyotes were not
the largest predators in the hierarchy of society, though. Amongst the nobles,
mages and royals were wolves, lions, and even the occasional dragon. Rezkin
wondered, though, with so many predators, how could the common folk ever hope
to survive? He thought of young Benni, who was actually not much younger than
Rezkin, and wondered what the young man could hope to achieve if he were not a
thief. Perhaps he could become a soldier and die on a worthless battlefield
defending a few hundred acres from
invasion
by a neighboring lord’s
peasant farmers.

Rezkin stopped at a vendor’s stand to purchase a meat pie
for the young thief, and Benni seemed particularly surprised to see that the
new Guildmaster was actually paying with coin. The Master promised the young
man another pie after completion of the assignment since Rezkin did not want
the young man going into the task with a heavy stomach. If the young Sneak
truly ate so infrequently, filling his stomach too full now could only lead to
upset later. Benni, however, was genuinely grateful for the warm, fresh food
that contained actual meat. It was a rare luxury indeed.

Rezkin thought of the young small-men he had left in the
wrecked storehouse. Broken, Cracker and Ash were seriously underfed and poorly
clothed, as were the other small-men he had seen. Rezkin began contemplating
ways he could properly care for and train the underprivileged of the thieves’
guild all the while
not
emptying the pockets and clearing the tables of
the hardworking people of Justain. He told himself he was only doing what was
necessary to extend his influence and gain the upper hand. Although he did not
know for what he was preparing, he felt that having as many resources as
possible would be in his best interest. The thieves’ guilds would provide those
resources.