Winterfinding (16 page)

“
Can you at least tell me
where this command ship is?” Riv asked rather annoyed.

“
Obviously, Commander, it
is out there.” Baxter didn’t so much point as flick his wrist
toward the open sea. Riv looked out and saw a large dromon
anchored. There were conscripted ships heading towards it and
couple already moored alongside it.

“
What’s it
called?”

“
Originally, it was
called
Vindicator
but the admiral changed it to
Nemesis
just a few days
ago.”

Riv shook his head muttering, “Well, that
isn’t a good omen.”

Baxter motioned for Riv to descend to the
tender, “What is?”

As the tender rowed out to
meet the
Nemesis
,
Riv marveled at just how accurate the woman had been. In the cell
aboard the Lappalan flagship, she had stood over his tired broken
body calmly explaining just what the future held for him. Riv had
just wanted the pain to stop. He had found himself flinching
uncontrollably every time she moved. He remembered her crooked
smile as she commanded the torturer to get him healthy again. When
he next stood before Umma Myr-Sen, healed by his torturer Rava Din,
he was given the simple choice—accept his role as an embedded spy
for Lappala or be executed. He had chosen to stay alive.

There was no escaping. They had broken him,
healed him, and then matter-of-factly poisoned him. The brown oily
substance they poured down his gullet every morning and every
evening put his stomach in knots and deadened his senses. He felt
detached from everything. He heard people speaking as though they
were in a tunnel even though he knew they were next to him. He
couldn’t tell when his dreaming ended and his waking began.

Then, after a week or so, they stopped. He
began to sweat. Wave after wave of chills went through his body no
matter how many blankets he wrapped around himself. Of course, they
gave him whatever he demanded. Water didn’t quench his thirst.
Eating only made him nauseous. He developed the shakes and his
vision obscured with blinding red stars. The chills gave way to
migraines, and then just when he thought he couldn’t stand it any
longer, Rave gave him a thimble of the brown liquid.

He drank it down. Almost
immediately, he felt his body relax. His head stopped throbbing;
his muscle and sinew eased. He felt like himself again. But it
didn’t last. Within a few hours he was back to being a writhing
knot on the floor of his cell. Then, again, Rava gave him a thimble
and explained that he was going to have to keep taking the
medicine, the
papaver,
for the rest of his life. A thimble in the morning, a thimble
in the evening. No more, no less. They had given him enough of a
supply for a month, a sandalwood box packed with an umber powder.
On the tender, his finger tapped a compartment on his belt where he
kept it. He had gone through a quarter of it already.

He didn’t know how or if
he could get more. All he really knew, all he felt in his bones was
a fear of running out of papaver. He didn’t know how long he’d be
here. Since leaving the Lappalan fleet, he only parsed time from
one dose of papaver to the next. They had control of the ruin that
was his body. As the tender approached the
Nemesis,
a tiny voice in Riv’s mind
kept muttering
You deserve what you
get.

CHAPTER 4

40
^th
of Samhain

Arderra

It was going to be a simple job. Just before
the end the month, two wagons would come into Arderra loaded with
coin. It was soldier pay. Primarily for those out at The Blockade.
A soldier typically made three obols a day and by the end of a
month had between two and five aurei waiting for them. These wagons
carried at least 50,000 aurei, which was more than enough to entice
fools like Heston.

Jena had to hand it to him; the plan was
direct and would probably be effective. Each wagon was ironclad,
its reinsman hidden in a well-protected canopy with a long thin
slit to see out of and narrow holes for the reins. There was no way
to get at the driver unless you were in the cab with the cargo.
Atop each were two bowman, on either side of the driver’s canopy
sat two swordsmen, and within each, there were two more guards. At
least seven in each wagon; fifteen well-armed guards. There were
four of them—Heston, a mouth-breathing knuckle-dragger who only
responded half the time to the name Loudon, a more svelte and
smarmy version of Heston named Gregson who was obviously an
ex-soldier and probably gave Heston the idea for this robbery, and
Jena.

Before the wagons reached town, Heston
planned to strike. Apparently, Gregson was an excellent and fast
shot. He was to be perched in a treeblind off the road and tasked
pick off the bowman. Once Gregson loosed, the reinsmen would strike
the horses to a faster pace to escape attack. In the panic it was
hoped, they wouldn’t take too much notice of the road conditions.
Heston had Loudon make a twelve-foot mud slick in the road then
covered it with sand and dust for camouflage.

He’d also had Loudon dig furrows on either
side of the road deep enough to toss and obscure bodies. Heston and
Jena were huddled in one and Loudon in the other. When the wagons
came to the mud patch, they’d jolt to a stop. Heston would cut the
horses loose (if they hadn’t broken free already) while Jena and
Loudon eliminated the remaining bowmen and guards.

The assumption was that the interior guards
and reinsmen would stay in the cab. There’d be no reason for them
to come out since there was little chance of anyone breaking in.
The walls of the cab were treated great oak shielded on the inside
and out, top and bottom with iron paneling. Heston had acquired
enough flame tar from Gregson’s less savory military friends. He
planned on dousing the wagons and setting them aflame. The smoke
and heat would drive them out.

When Jena had asked, what the plan was if
they didn’t come out, Heston had brushed her off. Gregson had
laughed, “You think rats won’t flee?”

“
Soldiers aren’t
rats.”

Gregson shook his head, “These aren’t proper
soldiers. They’re still green yet. What do you think the Spires
does with its boys when then come back from The Blockade? Shit jobs
like this, where they never learn a damn thing.”

“
Like yourself then.” Jena
replied flatly.

“
Here now,” Gregson
snapped, “don’t you be gettin’ sassy. There’s still gonna be more
of them than us.”

“
I’m more than familiar
with this sort of thing.” Jena paused, as she looked Gregson up and
down making it clear to everyone that she had a rather low opinion
of him. “Besides I’ve come out ahead with worse odds.”

“
Enough of that.” Heston
waved Gregson off and faced Jena, “If they don’t come out I’ll deal
with it. I’ve got another treat that’ll do the job.”

“
And what’s that?” Jena
asked.

“
Never you mind.” Gregson
said. “You just better be able to make short work of those
guards.”

Jena didn’t even look at Gregson and just
held out her middle finger. “She’ll do.” Heston reassured.

“
Aye, maybe, still think
we should throw her to the Bandrans.” Gregson sneered.

“
You’re welcomed to try,
princess.” Jena replied bored.

“
She’s not the one.”
Heston slapped Gregson in the chest. “If she was, she wouldn’t be
up for this job. And we’d get nothing for her anyway.”

“
Well, a lot of pain.
You’d get that from me though.” Jena added. Gregson scowled but she
could have sworn that Loudon belched something akin to a
laugh.

Now they sat squat in the furrows that
Loudon had dug. Heston had with him an oily looking hessian sack.
As he pulled the brush blind over them, Jena asked, “Is that your
auxiliary?”

“
Don’t worry about it,
just do your job.”

“
How much have you thought
beyond this?”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
Well, we can’t hide the
bodies. Or, at least, we could but can’t get rid of two smoldering
iron wagons. And surely someone from town is going to notice the
smoke and the absence of this crew.”

Heston nodded impatiently. If he had
considered any of this, it didn’t show. “Well, I figure we’ll be
long gone by the time they get out here. Be back in town, like
nothing ever happened.”

Jena shrugged, closed her eyes and let out a
sigh, “Sure, why not.”

“
It’s a bit late to be
bringing this up now.” Heston snapped.

“
You brought me in on this
two days ago.” Jena stared at him like he was an idiot. “You should
have figure this out ages ago. But fine, whatever, let’s just get
it done.”

“
Just do your damn job.”
Heston growled. “You better be as good as the shit you’ve been
giving me.”

“
Don’t worry about
me.”

“
Yeah, you don’t worry
about me. I was here before you showed up and I’m gonna be here
when you’re gone.”

Jena muttered to herself, “Floundering in
some backwater dumped in with a bunch of ham-fisted boors. I hope
he appreciates this…”

The wagons arrived moving at a steady pace.
Arrows sprang from the tree line peppering the tiny convoy. The
bowmen were startled and though they leapt to action, had no
target. One of the side guards banged his fist on the driver’s
canopy and the horses picked up speed. None of the arrows hit their
marks, but the surprise of bowman did help incapacitate a
couple.

A bowman on the lead wagon in his hurry to
set himself had stumbled backward into the path of an arrow. It
lodged above his collarbone dropping him to his knees, and he
frantically sought a rail to hold on to keeping from falling off.
On the trailing wagon, a bowman took an arrow in the meat of his
calf and when the wagon lurched forward to keep pace with the other
couldn’t keep his balanced. He fell hard to the road and was slow
to rise.

Jena could hear the wagons coming upon them
with haste. The horses of the lead wagon seemed to glide over the
mud trap, but when the wheels of the cab found it, they immediately
sank deep and locked. The jarring stop sent the bowman and one of
the side guards flying off. Almost immediately, the second wagon
came upon the wreck.

The horses reared breaking around the stuck
wagon sending the side of its cab crashing into the back of the
first. The bowman of the second seemed to anticipate the collision
and leapt up, seeming to fly from cab roof to cab roof. A side
guard avoided being smashed between the two wagons but still had
his right side limbs pinned.

The guards thrown from the coach had only a
moment to get out of the way of the oncoming horses. The injured
bowman with the help of his able partner managed to scramble away
in time. However, the side guard wasn’t so lucky being trampled by
two loosed horses. The able bowman turned to look after his fallen
comrade, but as he stood, his tunic was yanked back. Spinning
around he came face to face with Loudon who grabbed him by the neck
and flung him to the side like a ragdoll. The injured bowman
attempted to strike out with his qama but Loudon just swatted it
away with his mace.

He took another step intending to finish the
job just as an arrow lodged in his shoulder. The bowman who had
leapt from the second wagon now crouched on the first. He had
already set himself for another shot, when Loudon locked eyes with
him. As he loosed his second arrow, Heston cuffed him in the back
of the head knocking him out for a moment. Loudon hadn’t moved
quickly enough, and took the second arrow in his chest. The brute
didn’t betray any outward signs of pain, but he staggered taking
only a few steps before slowly dropping to one knee.

“
Get yourself sorted.”
Heston bellowed at him then jumped over the top of the cab to stand
before the pinned side guard. Heston smirked drawing his qama. The
side guard furiously squirmed trying to get enough purchase on the
cabs pinning him to, at least, free one of his right side
limbs.

“
I don’t see that
happening.” Heston shook his head as he bore down on the guard.
Thrusting his qama forward, he would have stabbed the guard in the
throat if Jena’s throwing knife hadn’t split through Heston’s
wrist. “Fuckssake!” Heston howled dropping his blade and pulling
his wounded hand towards him. He spun to see Jena standing with her
degen drawn flanked on either side by the two remaining side
guards.

“
What?” Heston muttered.
He looked around and yelled for Loudon.

“
Here he is now.” Jena
said casually as the two bowman dragged the enormous man’s body by
his feet around the cabs to where they were. “Seems he wasn’t quite
the muscle you had hoped he’d be.”

“
You double-crossing me?
Stealing from me!” Heston was furious. He took a step towards her
but the guards froze him as they came forward swords
out.

“
No, I am not.” Jena
replied dismissively.

The bowman Heston had cuffed dropped
Loudon’s foot then pulled off his mesh hood as he came to face the
others, “She’s helping me arrest you.” Addison spoke with a smug
satisfaction. As he did, Gregson was being shoved down the road
towards them, his face the shade of raw meat. “And here’s your last
accomplice.”