Tested (The Life of Uktesh Book 1) (16 page)

“Well Tylor that one was really hard, and it’d already killed nine women, and six of the people who went after it to stop it, though I didn’t learn that detail until after I’d stopped it.  But if you don’t count that I had to spend twelve gold pieces buying that big ass mace, then the bounty was forty gold pieces.

Tylor whistled appreciatively, “That’s a nice chunk of change, even if you had to buy a mace. Hell you could probably sell it off as a minotaur killing mace.”  Uktesh caught Heathyr and Li’s glance at each other out of the corner of his eye.  Tylor, never slow caught the glance as well, “or I guess you already did that, how much you get for it?”

Uktesh grinned and said, “Li does all the bartering now, she’s much better at it than me.”

Tylor blanched, “Better? How much better than you?” he moved his horse slightly away from her as if she now terrified him just to be near her.

“Uktesh was literally the only person who was able to hurt it, and that counts not only the six bounty hunters that died trying, but also the twenty that tried and failed to stop it.  Uktesh, as you know, is a boy not yet old enough to fight in a war by two years, so clearly he couldn’t kill the minotaur without a special weapon, beyond the normal twenty pound mace.”

Tylor nodded his head in agreement, but quickly shook his head as if to dispel a trance and said, “Dang girl you don’t need to sell it to me, just tell me the price.”

“I was setting the mood, now I’ll set the tone. He, the buyer insinuated that with a magical mace, he too could’ve killed the minotaur and collected the bounty, and probably many more bounties like it.  He continued that in, ‘a real man’s hands,’ the job would’ve been done quicker with less loss of life, ignoring that we didn’t even know about the job until the mayor told us that day.”

“So you were pissed and added an extra twenty percent for asshole fee?”

“We” she said and emphasized the word, “added an extra hundred percent.”

Now the entire group joined in the laughter, and Larut said, “Don’t let me get on your bad side miss, I ain’t got the money for it no more.”

“So you made him pay twenty four gold pieces for it?”

“No, that’s just silly, a magical mace would easily go for that without the asshole tax, no we charged him,” she paused for effect and even though he knew the price Uktesh found that he leaned in closer to hear her, “fifty gold pieces.”

The stunned silence held until Tylor asked, “Who has that kind of money lying around?”

“Well we do now, but it was our esteemed mayor’s brother Dekan’s father, Sorn.  We’ve heard he plans on using it to win this year’s tournament, in the any weapon category.”

“Good, that guy is an ass. Every time they come in to my shop they act like I should be grateful they’re coming to me instead of Gerwuin, even though I know I sell a superior product for less money.  So you guys earned eighty eight gold coins for one job. That’s impressive.”

“Well,” Li started, “it would’ve been that except that the mayor hired four men to move the body, but they were only able to carry it about one hundred yards before they dropped it and broke one of their feet and quit.  So the mayor tried to tell us that part of the job was disposing of the body.”

“But he didn’t know that Li was our barterer now, or that she’s ruthless.”

Laurilli smiled and dimpled prettily, but said, “I told him that Laurilli and Uktesh’s Hero for Hire,”

“Uktesh and Laurilli’s,” Uktesh interrupted.

“Would be more than willing to dispose of the body,” she continued as if Uktesh hadn’t spoken, “but for a two gold fee, to which he agreed.”

“How’d you move the body when four adults couldn’t?”

“Well they didn’t have horses. We tied three ropes around it and then had the horses drag it back to our house.”

“Very impressive you two, I heard that you stopped it from,” he paused and looked at the two women, “making relations with the Tanners girl.”

“Yep, he and his brother were so thankful that they had us drag that carcass over to their place and they made us two coats out of its hide, and per our request, tanned them black, which we’re wearing now. I heard they had to use the miller’s saw to cut the skin to make the coats,” she said and turned so they could all see the impressive coat.

Larut grunted, “Tanner girl’s nine?”

“Eight I think,” said Tylor.

He bowed his head to Uktesh and said, “Good job boy. I know that family and that girl.  It’d be a damned shame if something that awful happen to that happy little girl.”

“So ninety golds, and two light weight, nearly impenetrable coats, that are probably worth another ninety golds a piece,” he thought about it, “damn I’m in the wrong business.”

They all laughed and were silent for the next few miles each wrapped in a private thought. Uktesh wondered what he would’ve done, or what he would do if something like that happened to Laurilli.  She caught his stare, and smiled at him, he smiled back, and knew it wouldn’t be pretty and would most likely haunt him for years.  It was too awful to think about further though, so he contented himself with the thought about what he would do if he met Dekan or Baloce during the tournament.

“So how much you three bring to bet with?” asked Tylor his mind always on the topic of money.

“Well we heard there was a five gold maximum betting cap, until the finals so we each have five gold pieces and we’ll just keep betting until we’re either out of money or they’re out of fights.”

“What if you lose it all on the first bet?”

“We’re betting on Uktesh first, so that probably won’t happen, and the odds are going to be in the favor of whoever he’s fighting the first match he’s in, cause they’ll have no clue.”

“I think I’m going to follow suit with you guys, and whatever you bet on, I’m going to bet on,” said Larut.

“Yeah,” said Myrtin.

“Woo hoo!  We’re all gonna be rich after this!” shouted Esolc.

“What are you fools waiting for!” shouted Tylor, caught up in the fever of a sure bet, “let’s gallop there faster!”

Tylor laughed before he pushed his horse into a trot, then soon galloped down the road he needed to shout warnings to the few people on the road.  Uktesh looked at Heathyr and laughed to see Heathyr gallop after Tylor.  Uktesh and Li kicked their horses in to a trot, then gallop at the same times.  They quickly caught up and the seven of them held up the pace for nearly a half hour before they slowed to a walk, then jumped down to walk their horses.  The time passed too quickly and peacefully. Tylor called a halt as the sun began to dip into the horizon, and Uktesh knew they had about thirty minutes of light left to set up camp.  Uktesh hadn’t had much practice with how to set up tents, but he got the tent he, Heathyr, and Laurilli were going to share up with plenty of light to start a fire.  He helped collect rocks for the fire pit and then twigs, branches, and bark for the fire.

They sat around the fire once it was going, Heathyr volunteered to cook a communal meal, while the rest helped out as they could and told stories to pass the time.  Once the food was eaten, the bowls and spoons clean, and the fire doused, Uktesh yawned and said his goodnights to Tylor and his friends. He crawled into the tent and saw Heathyr sleeping already in the corner so he took the other corner and a few moments later heard Laurilli crawl into the tent.  He had made few purchases with his money that weren’t for the business, but one of the first was this tent. The second, third, fourth, and fifth were all easily transportable, two comfortable pallets one of which was for Laurilli, which Heathyr currently occupied, two comfortable blankets that were also easily transportable, four comfortable pillows, and rope long enough to go around the tent sprayed with minotaur blood, because few things in this world mess with a minotaur, much less mess with something, or someone who can make a minotaur bleed.

Laurilli looked over to the pallet she was supposed to share with Heathyr and Uktesh slid over so there was enough room on his pallet.  She debated about it for long enough that Uktesh thought she was just going to sleep on the tent floor, but she ended her internal debate with a shrug and moved lay down next to him, “Don’t get any funny ideas, ‘boyfriend,’ unless you want to get downgraded to ‘friend.’”

“I wouldn’t dream of it, however a semi comical thought did pass through my mind, does that count?”

“Depends, what is this semi comical thought that is not a funny idea?”

“Well, you were supposed to share a pallet with your mom.”

“Yep, I’m tracking with you so far,” she said as she lay on the pallet with him.

“She’s asleep and you can’t do that.”

“Yep, though I don’t see the semi comical thought, yet.”

“Well it gets cold this time of the year, and you were supposed to share a blanket and pillows with her too weren’t you?”

“I see, the comedy is becoming apparent,” she said dryly, and Uktesh didn’t know if he’d said something wrong, but knew he had to push on.

“So since you’re sharing my pallet, which I’m happy to share,” he lifted his blanket and let her underneath.

He heard her mutter, “I’m sure you are.”

“And since it gets so cold at night, I’m willing to share my blanket, however, I simply can’t sleep without two pillows under my head, so you see I’ve come up with a semi comical thought or some might call it a solution to your lack of pillow issue.”

“And that would be?”

“We could try to find someone willing to sell you a pillow.”

“Doubtful, this time of night, in the middle of nowhere.”

“We could try to take one from your sleeping mother.”

“Scary to wake the beast, is there a third option?”

“There is,” Uktesh paused not sure if he should continue the playful banter, because playful as he sounded he knew this could break their relationship if he said something wrong, even though she was playing along.

“Are you going to enlighten me to the third option?”

“In the spirit of you getting a good nights’ sleep I would allow you to rest your head on my chest.”

“That’s your third option?”

“Well it was that, or you get the pillows and I rest my head on your,” he cut off with a squeak, “the ground.”

“Well the ground doesn’t sound comfortable for you, the store seems doubtful, and since I don’t want to poke a sleeping bear or steal a pillow from a sleeping demon, I guess we’re stuck with your third option.  What is your plausible cover story for my mother in the morning?”

“You thought I was your mother?”

“I don’t think that will make her less mad.”

“You rolled in your sleep?”

“I don’t think anyone rolls off their pallet far enough to then roll up onto another one. I just kick those that wake me.”

“Hmm,” Uktesh said and pretended to be deep in thought as she put her head on his chest, “we could always tell her, I’ve asked for your hand in marriage and you’ve accepted, on the condition I never leave you.”

“I’d hate to cause my mother to have a heart attack, and die.”

“So would I, shall we go with the truth then?”

“The truth sounds good,” she was silent for a moment, “which truth was it we were going with, the marriage one or the not having room on her pallet?”

He kissed her head, “I’ll let you decide,” and soon fell asleep, with the most beautiful girl in the world’s arms wrapped around him.

When he woke up, wakefulness came slowly, followed by confusion,
why is it so hard to breath?
  He opened his eyes and the faint amount of light to seeping into the tent let him know it was barely past dawn.  He also discovered that Laurilli currently lay with one leg, one arm, and a good portion of her body on top of him. 
I thought you don’t roll in your sleep.
  He realized he had to go relieve his full bladder, also that her thigh pressed down on his bladder. Still he didn’t want to move her because this was one of the few times it would be ok for them to be together like this.  He wrapped his arms around her and slowly let his fingertips massage her back. 

He didn’t know how long it went on, but suddenly he realized that if Heathyr or Laurilli woke to see the state he was in, they’d be more successful against him than he was with the minotaur. 
Stupid full bladder!
  Though he knew that was only one third the problem, another third was Laurilli being so beautiful, and the last third was that he was at an age where this happened most mornings.  He tried to gently roll Laurilli, and partially succeeded only to get kicked in the leg for his trouble.  He crawled out of the tent, found his boots, noticed his breath, put on his minotaur coat, quickly moved partially into the woods, and relieved himself.  Done, he walked back to the camp with a cold shiver, and only slightly awake, which is why he didn’t notice the archer until after the arrow slammed into his stomach, it was blocked by the coat, but he knew would leave a bruise.  The man had already started to get a second arrow ready, when Laurilli stepped out of the tent and in between himself and the archer.  She wore a flimsy shirt that any other morning would’ve demanded further attention, but instead it was the lack of minotaur coat he noticed.  Without conscious thought he Rushed, Soared, then flowed into a perfect Palm Strike, that slammed into the archer’s chin and with a sickeningly loud crack his head touched his back, before his momentum lifted him off his feet to land dead four feet away.