Hunt for Justice (2 page)

"Listen, lass, from what I heard of the whole affair, the few survivors all have mixed versions of what happened in the Deadlands. I've heard stories about strange magics. Many said the Living Dead that call that land their home are always looking for a reason to start trouble. I've even heard that it was your father that started the whole massacre--"

He cut off as Ezzy's fist connected with his jaw.

The blow rocked him out of his chair, and he fell over onto his side. Ezzy was bent over looking him in the face before his eyes regained their focus.

"Don't you ever talk poorly about my father again! Do you hear me?"

Tom nodded, although Ezzy wasn't positive he comprehended what had happened yet. His friends unfortunately did. All four of them were on their feet, their chairs pushed back and each wearing matching scowls. Ezzy glanced them over and didn't find a single reason to worry. The four stocky men were sure to be strong from years of hard labor in the field, but farmers seldom had formal training in the art of combat. When the one closest to her took a step in her direction, she rose from Tom's side and stuck her palm out at him.

"This is a bad idea. I'm not looking for a fight, but I won't shy away from one either."

"No one cares what you are looking for," the closest one slurred, "but you won't get away with hitting my cousin."

He tried to throw a clumsy punch in her direction.

She caught the man's wrist with both hands. Using momentum, she spun him around and yanked the man's arm up and behind his body. He let out a yell before she released his wrist and grabbed his hair in one smooth motion, then slammed his head down onto the table. His face hit the thick wood with a crunch, and she released him as he slumped to the floor.

Ezzy straightened and prepared herself for the next attack, but instead of finding three more men rushing her she found them staring at their fallen friend.

"I'm going to go now." She tossed a few silvers on the table. "Here. For tonight. When your friend wakes up you can get him drunk enough to forget what happened, and there is enough that you can join him."

"You think you can pay us off with a few drinks," one of the men growled. "Why don't you take those coins and shove them up your dead daddy's arse."

The knife was in her hand before she even realized it. She was about to lunge when something struck her across the stomach. It wasn't a hard blow, but there was enough force behind it to stop her in her tracks. Looking down, she found Nolan's thick oak walking stick resting against her belly.

"I think it's time for us to go." His tone was one Ezzy recognized well. He used it often when she was younger and mistreating her toys. Even now she felt the desire to listen, but what the man had said...

"I'm not about to let these buffoons insult my father without putting them in their place." Her voice was calm and controlled, but her muscles ached with the effort not to lunge at the man.

"Didn't you mention something about being able to control your temper?"

"Yes, but this is about defending my father's honor."

"He wouldn't want you to defend it by killing a drunken moron."

The drunk in question took another step towards them both. Before he could take his second step, Nolan swung his cane around, placing its tip right in the man's face.

"Don't say a word. I'm trying to save your life here."

The man stopped, which disappointed Ezzy. She had hoped he would ignore the warning and come at her. If he had, everyone in that tavern would have learned why you don't disparage the Ciantar family name.

"Ezzy," Nolan placed his free hand on her shoulder. "Can we go?"

She let out a grunt and replaced the knife in its sheath at her waist. Nolan was right. Her father would not approve of bar fights and killing drunks. He would have walked away, and that was exactly what she was going to do. Well...

In one smooth motion Ezzy grabbed a stool and swung it at the man.

She hadn't put a lot of force behind it, but the stool caught the man in the chin and rocketed him backwards. He hit the ground without uttering a sound, his arms and legs spread out in every direction. The remaining men at the table stared at their fallen friend with wide eyes and gaping mouths. The other patrons at the inn began to laugh at the fallen drunk. Most of them did, at least. Those that didn't find the situation funny were staring at her with nothing but animosity.

And there were enough of them to make even Ezzy worry.

"Time to go," she said, patting Nolan on the back as she moved towards the door.

"We passed that point," he murmured in reply but followed along after her.

They left the inn, stepping out on the main street. The few lit lanterns did little Even the one moon that should have been up at this point in the night was absent, its light hidden behind a now cloudy sky. Waving Nolan to follow her, she moved past two alleyways and took a left down a third. She chose this alley without a nearby lantern as the best place to watch the inn's entrance. If anyone was coming out after her, she wanted to be ready.

Nolan limped along after her. When he reached the alley he pushed past her and leaned against the wall of the building.

"Wonderful. You know there is only one other inn in this sewer of a town. Deep in some of the worst sections--"

"Quiet," she whispered in a harsh tone. He mumbled something under his breath but grew silent.

He was right of course. Wethrintir was a sewer.

One of the older towns in Ven Khilada, Wethrinter looked as if one of the gods had taken a wheelbarrow full of houses and dumped them out, letting them stay wherever they landed. The complete chaos of tightly packed buildings created a rat's nest of alleyways that went off in multiple directions, often ending suddenly. It was easy to get lost in this town once you were off the main street and was just as easy to disappear in it. That was why over a decade ago, the town had been overrun by an army of bandits, raiders, and thieves who held it for almost a year. It took an army led by one of the strongest Heroes to finally free it from the scum of the land. Every last villain was driven out by the Hero, Yaland the Fist, restoring the town to its former innocence.

At least, that's what the stories said.

As the daughter of one of the most influential men in all of Ven Khilada, Ezzy knew differently. It was impossible to drive all of the scum out of this labyrinth. Main Street was like a shiny butterfly that distracted you from all of the maggots living deep inside the town.

And now Ezzy had killed any chance of them staying in one of the few safe places in and around Wethrintir. Well, she would make it up to Nolan at the next town or village they visited. Probably.

Standing in the shadows, Ezzy watched the door, hoping that the friends of the drunk didn't come out looking for her.

"How long do we have to wait?" Nolan whispered in her ear. He had moved closer to try to see around her.

"Until I'm confident that we can leave without being followed. Now shut up."

"Leave? So we're going to camp outside of town? Great, another night of sleeping on the hard ground."

"You just said the other inn was in the worst part of town," she growled.

"Yes, but at least they have beds."

"Beds that we could get our throats slit in--"

"I don't think it's that dangerous. I'm sure at worst we would just get robbed."

"At worst? It's not like we have an unlimited supply of money any more. If we lost--"

"Hush. Someone is coming out of the inn."

Hush!

It took all of her willpower not to kick his cane out from under him. Clenching her fists to help hold in her anger, she returned her attention to the street. Sure enough, four bald men were walking out of the inn and into the light of the lanterns by the door. They looked younger than the men Ezzy had gotten into a confrontation with, and they were all dressed in similar dark green shirts and maroon pants. Each man also wore an orange headband around their bald heads. With a dismissive wave of her hand, Ezzy rounded on Nolan.

"Now listen here, I will not be hushed--"

"Esmerelda! Quiet!"

The combination of his tone and his use of her full name got her attention. She gave him a questioning look, and he pointed back towards the street.

"I think those gentlemen are going to be more trouble than the drunks you angered inside."

Ezzy watched as the three men made some sort of hand signal towards the other side of the street. A moment later, seven more men wearing similar colored clothes walked out from various alleyways and joined them. They started talking amongst themselves, with one man pointing directly to where Ezzy and Nolan were hiding.

"Lookouts." Nolan said, lightly grabbing her arm. "We need to go. Now."

"Agreed."

Moving as fast as Nolan's bad knee would allow, they hurried down the confining paths between the buildings. The alleys really were a maze, and as they took random turns left and right, Ezzy lost all sense of direction. With barely enough room for the two of them to walk comfortably shoulder to shoulder, she felt like the walls were closing in on her. It also didn't help that the alleys were devoid of any lanterns. They couldn't even rely on light coming from a window--all of the buildings were windowless. More than once they walked straight into a wall when the alley branched off suddenly.

After their seventh turn down an alley that looked the same as every other one, Ezzy called for a halt. They had to have lost the men by now. They had taken turns at random and bypassed other alleys. It might take them all night to find a way out, but at least they were safe.

"Do you really think it's a smart idea to stop?" Nolan panted, his head swinging about as he tried to watch both directions at once.

"I'm sure we're fine. I didn't see anyone following us as we moved, and it's not like their outfits would be that hard to spot." She let out a short laugh.

"This is no laughing matter. You realize, of course, those 'outfits' signal membership in one of this town's many gangs?"

"Yes, which means they are a bunch of thugs and not very bright."

"Just because they are thugs does not mean they are all idiots. I think we should keep moving before it's too late."

"I
t
i
s
too late," a voice said from above them.

Snapping her attention up, Ezzy gasped as men dressed in the garish green shirts, maroon pants, and orange headbands began to drop from the roofs of the smaller buildings on either side of them. By the time Ezzy had backed up against Nolan, fourteen men had both of the exits from the alley effectively blocked off. And each man held a blade in their hand.

"Nolan, have I ever told you I hate it when you're right?"

CHAPTER TWO

Trapped in a Maze

"Well, at least it's not thirteen thugs," Ezzy said, trying to keep her voice calm. "That would be unlucky."

"Yes. Quite." His tone told her exactly what he thought about her observation. Nolan never could look on the bright side.

"Gentlemen," she made a slight bow towards the thugs. There was no way to tell who the leader was, so she did her best to address everyone at once. "We are hardly worth the trouble of robbing. We have little money--"

"You tossed plenty on the table at the inn," one of the men said with a laugh. She recognized him, although he had not worn the headband in the common room, and a long-coat had hid the colors that they all seemed to wear. What gave him away was that a small corner of his left nostril was missing. Hard not to notice a characteristic like that, even from across the room.

"All for show," she replied. "The coins are painted and worthless. This," she pulled at her extravagant cloak, "I stole. My companion and I were just trying to scam some money out of that table of fools. I'm sure you saw how that turned out."

She hoped the scuffle in the inn helped support her lie, but if they also thought about how she had manhandled the one drunk, all the better.

"Don't see how a hoity-toity girl from the Ciantar family would need to scam farmers for money," one of the thugs barked.

Wonderful, one had overheard the conversation.

"Even with her family business destroyed, I bet they had lots of coins hidden away," another added. "I would bet my left eye those coins were real."

"You already lost your left eye when you pissed off Bullwhip," said another.

"I know," the second man popped out a wooden eyeball and held it up. "That's why I wouldn't mind betting it."

That earned the man a round of laughter from his fellows. Ezzy might have joined in if things didn't look so grim. The fact that the men felt they could joke around was a clear sign they weren't afraid of anyone happening upon their little mugging. Ezzy and Nolan were on their own. Mostly.

"Well," she said, grimacing when her voice cracked slightly. "I'm sure we can come to an arrangement that doesn't involve any bloodshed."

"Sure, my ladyship," wooden eye gave her a mocking bow.  "Hand over all your money, any jewelry you have, and come along without a fuss. You do that, we won't rough up your servant here too much."

"The money, of course, is no problem. Unfortunately, any jewelry I had was sold long ago. As for coming with you, I'm sure you understand that would be a waste. If you know my family has fallen from grace, then you must know that any ransom for me would be less than the money you would spend to keep me fed."

That caused another round of laughter.

"Ransom?" Missing nostril scoffed. "A pretty girl like you will make us a nice bit of coin working in a brothel."

"You probably couldn't afford a girl like her!" Another man shouted, sending the thugs into a roaring round of laughter again.

"You think you can turn me into a prostitute!" Nolan tried to grab her arm, but Ezzy pushed him away as she stormed over to the man. "If any man tried to even touch me without my permission, I'd snap each of his fingers!"

"Fiesty, too!" Nostril joked, sticking a stubby finger in her face. "But just like every other girl, you'll break--"

"Poor choice of words," she said in a flat tone as she snatched his finger and twisted her wrist. The accompanying crunch brought a smile on her face.

Snatching his hand back with a yelp, Nostril cradled it against his body. He retaliated with a clumsy kick that Ezzy avoided with ease. She swatted it down, causing the man to spin and tumble to the ground. He put his hands out to stop his fall, and let out a high pitched squeak as his injured finger hit the dirt.

Expecting the other men to rush to his aid, Ezzy was surprised when instead they all burst into laughter yet again.

"She got you good!"

"He'll have problems fondling his own parts now!"

"Guess he won't be picking his nose with that finger!"

The men continued to toss out their jibes until a voice cut through their laughter.

"Enough!"

A bald man stepped past the group of thugs blocking off the path. He wore the same garments as the rest of the gang, but stood a head taller and walked with a confident gait. A thick, bearded head covered in scars sat on massive shoulders. A large whip hung coiled from his waist. He moved next to Ezzy, ignoring Nolan, and glanced down at his fallen companion.

"You've disappointed me again, Trak," he said, shaking his head at the man. "Always underestimating marks. First, with that man that sliced your nose and killing three of our men, and now with this little lady."

"Bullwhip, I was just having some fun," Trak whimpered. "It's only a broken finger. I'll be fine."

"I swear, Trak, your brain has the rot. This is the last time we let you pick out the target. Matter-of-fact, I think your time with us has run its course."

"Excuse me," Ezzy cut in, "this seems to be a private affair. If you'll just let me and my companion go--"

She didn't see the blow coming.

The back of the larger man's hand caught her square in the jaw, knocking her hard against the buildings. The breath left her body and she slumped to the ground.

"I'll get to you in a moment, lass," Bullwhip said, barely turning his head to look at her. Returning his attention to his fallen man, he made a dismissive gesture towards him. "Clean this garbage off my streets. Drop him in Viper's Nest territory. They can get rid of him for us."

"Wait!" was all Trak could get out before the men gathered on his side of the alley swarmed him. They rained blows and kicks on the man until he grew silent. When he was a bloody and unconscious mess, three of the men picked him up and carried him away. That left Bullwhip, the obvious leader, and ten other men.

Still impossible odds for the two of u
s
, Ezzy thought. Especially since she was still struggling to breathe.

"Now," Bullwhip grunted, "back to business. We have a fallen Hawkpurse and her faithful Thaljori."

Ezzy felt like she had been struck again. How did this man know Nolan was a Thaljori? The thug must have read the surprise from her face.

"Oh, I know a lot," Bullwhip said. "Unlike my former peon, I do my research. I know all about how the two of you have been traipsing around, looking for the person responsible for your family's downfall. I must say, you move pretty quickly. Last I heard you were making your way to Halyquain."

So he hadn't heard about what happened in Halyquain ye
t
, Ezzy thought
.
Goo
d
. Bracing her back against the wall, she rose back to her feet.

"I don't know what you want with me," she said, "but I'm sure we can work something out."

"You?" He barked a laugh. "You are going to be put to work, just like that idiot said. A pretty girl like you will be a good source of coin. The real prize here is your Thaljori. The gang's power and influence will grow tenfold with him making Vilathos for us."

"I would never do such a despicable thing," Nolan said, finally stepping forward. "I wouldn't let a gang of thugs and murderers obtain that much power."

"Oh, you'll do it. If you work for me, I'll make sure she doesn't get abused too badly serving men." Bullwhip's voice dropped to a threatening tone. "If you don't, I'll let every one of my boys have a turn carving into Ms. Ciantar here. When they're done with her, I'll be lucky if I can make a few copper coins off of what's left."

"You wouldn't!" Both Ezzy and Nolan exclaimed.

"If you know anything about how things work here in Wethrintir, then you know I would." Turning his back on the two of them, Bullwhip waved a hand over his shoulder at them. "Take them both. Don't hurt the Thaljori, but be as rough as you need to be to take the Ciantar girl."

As Bullwhip disappeared around a corner, three of his men moved towards Ezzy. They walked with swagger that suggested they didn't expect much of a fight

She would show them rough.

The first thug that got close earned himself a kick to the groin. The second, a broken nose. When she landed a three punch combination that floored the third man, they started taking her seriously.

The rest of the gang members moved the fallen men out of the way and formed a tight semi-circle around Ezzy and Nolan. With their backs against the wall, they had very few options. Nolan began waving his cane about defensively, which just earned him more laughter from the thugs.

"Is help coming soon?" he asked, before nicking a gang member with the edge of his cane.

"Yes."

The thugs began to close in tighter.

"Maybe it should hurry up?"

"I thought you didn't want a repeat of Halyquain?" She kicked an overeager thug in the chest. The rest of the gang slowed their advance. "I'm trying to avoid causing a scene."

"This is much different than what happened in Halyquain. Causing a scene would be quite acceptable under these circumstances."

"If you say so."

A large crash echoed through the night, followed by startled yells. The noise made the thugs stop their advance.

"Did you hear that?" one asked.

"Sounded like a building collapsed."

"What could make all of that noise?" a third chimed in.

"It's trouble," Ezzy replied, flashing those around her the sweetest smile she could imagine.

Another crash sounded in the night, followed by a scream. Nolan glanced over at her.

"I'm sure it's just people getting startled. They'll be fine."

Another crash, much closer this time. The thugs started glancing around, hands going to weapons at their waists. Another crash, this one close enough that she could feel it vibrate through the walls.

"I don't like this," one of the gang members said looking around.

"Me neither."

"Should we go?"

"Stop wasting time," Wooden Eye cut in. "I'm sure none of you want to go tell Bullwhip that we lost his possessions. Just rush them, and we can get off the street."

The men turned their attention back to their prize and were about to follow through when the corner of the alleyway exploded in a shower of wood and stone. Everyone ducked down, including Nolan and Ezzy. Shaking some of the debris from her hair, she looked up at the cause of the destruction and smiled.

"There's my boy."

Leaning against what remained of the building was her Vilathos.

Standing almost as tall as the building itself, it looked humanoid in the sense that it had discernable arms, legs, body, and head. Flat slabs of iron made up its feet, with large oval pieces in place of its arms and legs. Four-fingered hands flexed as it pushed itself off of what was left of the building wall. Its body was a huge block, made of more iron than it would take to make dozens of swords. Small metal joints connected each piece and bent with the flexibility of a blade of grass. On top sat a block of metal shaped like the top of a rook chess piece, with two glowing, sky-blue gems sitting where eyes would go, and small extensions on the top of the head. All in all, it was an intimidating sight.

Except to Ezzy. To her, it was her most prized possession. Her Paz.

"Ok, gentleman," she said, "time to play."

With a thought, she sent Paz after the men.

The ten gang members had a mixture of reactions. The smartest three, which included Wooden Eye, took off down the alley in the opposite direction. Three more of the men seemed frozen in place, either by fear or awe of her wonderful guardian. The last four, the closest to Paz, made the foolish mistake of attacking.

Swords and knives were in the thugs' hands as they leapt at the Vilathos. They hacked and slashed at its arms, legs, body, pretty much anywhere their blades could hit the large construct. They might as well have tried to chop down an old oak with their bare hands. The blades failed to even scratch the surface of the magic infused metal of Paz's body.

Unfazed, Paz ignored the weapons and attacked.

It grabbed the closest thug by the head and tossed him into the air. The man let out a yelp as he sailed over the rooftops and into the night. By the time the sound of him crashing onto a roof reached them, Paz was swinging a massive arm at the next gang member. The man ducked under the deceptively fast swing. Unfortunately the momentum of the attack kept the arm moving and it crashed through the wall of another building.  Ezzy grimaced as a yell escaped from somewhere inside.

"Sorry!" she yelled.

That was a mistake. Her voice seemed to shake the three frozen men out of their stupor. They turned on her, each carrying a blade and a threatening look.