Blood for Money

“Two of your traitors kept masks up over their faces. I only know the one that paid the bill for the room. If you pay for the paper and ink, I’ll gave you a sketch of the lad.” The barman pulled his shirt down, failing to hide the belly that was trying to escape at his waist.

            “Do you have an example of your sketches?” Fabian Castel asked. “I want to know what I’m paying for first.” The knight checked his tabard, which was perfectly straight as always, complementing his heroic figure.

            “All of the drawings above the booths are mine.” The barman’s hairy fingers pointed across the room to charcoal drawings on wooden boards above the benches in each corner. At the tables beneath, the patrons were playing games of strategy that looked like more complicated versions of chess.

            “They’re fine work,” said Fabian after glancing at the incredibly detailed portraits. The artist with the escaping belly bowed his head with a humble smile on his kind face. “How much for the paper and ink.

            “Three coppers if you’re from Crann, it would be four for a Carraigar.” He saw confusion on their faces. “Our coins are smaller.”

            “You should paint,” said Lupita Smith. The knight was fishing in his purse.

            “I’m a barkeep. Paints are expensive.” The man with long dark hair sighed.

            Fabian leaned in and handed over some money. “Then spend this wisely.” He gave the man a wink. The barman looked at the coin in his hand, cleared his throat and stuffed it into an inner pocket.

            “Very kind of you sir.” He bowed. “Can I get you rooms.”

            “Is the room our friends stayed in available?”

            “Yes sir.”

            “How many beds are there?”

            “Two sir.”

            “Then prepare the room and we shall be up right away.”

            “Yes sir, and I’ll start on the sketch for you.” The artist bowed to them all.

            “Thank you.”

Dawn woke Danielle with Lupita asleep, curled over her. Miss Longbow’s left arm was numb from her girlfriend’s weight. Next to them in the two beds pushed together was Fabian, snoring.

            Their fourth companion, Badru Quacey, transformed into his wolf form. Danielle had never seen it so close. He was a rake of a man and a lanky loup garou to match. He was taller in that form, with legs that seemed to bend in the wrong places. He sniffed all around the room as she stayed to watch.

            Fabian and Lupita were ordering breakfast. The knight’s amiable features soured when Mister Quacey was in his true form. Danielle knew it reminded the young man of Badru’s family, who had killed his father in the prison back home.

            She was fascinated.

            “What?” The yellow eyes of the seven-foot lycanthrope caught hers.

            “You’re incredible.”

            “Thank you. Sir Castel doesn’t see it that way.” Badru transformed back into the thin, ginger man he was usually and pulled on his clothes in a rush.

After they’d all enjoyed a middling bowl of soup with bread the quartet retraced their steps to the Church of Red Knives.

            Carl was high.

            “Have you ever had opium?” The boy’s pupils were dilated as he stared at a space to the left of anyone.

            “Come on, Northman.” Danielle lifted the blue-eyed child from his cot.

            “I wouldn’t recommend that,” said a doctor in brown robes. “He needs to rest to let the ribs heal. He should be here for at least two weeks.”

            “We need to get back to Leonor immediately to warn the queen.” Fabian shook his head. “There’s no time to waste.”

            “I can stay here. I feel great.” Carl smiled as snot dribbled out of his nose, down his face. Wincing, Danielle took his hand.

            “Are you sure? We’ll come back for you soon.”

            “Two weeks.” The doctor folded her arms. “We will look after him here.”

            “We can’t leave Carl with the same people who sent assassins after our queen.” Lupita hissed. Danielle knew from the frown that she was sleeping alone that night.

            “If he goes now, he could be crippled for life,” said the doctor, whose green eyes left no room for interpretation.

            “Do you trust these doctors?” Danielle asked a woman with grey hair and a deep wound in her leg, laying on the next bed.

            “Of course. The Church of Red Knives looks after the people. Let me tell you, there was a trader that bought up all the herbal sources for my mother’s medicine. He hiked up the cost until only the trading class could afford it. We got the money together and we prayed. No one overcharges for medicine now.” She scratched the red flesh around the gash in her ankle until one of the brown robed sisters batted the hand away.

            “I think we have to leave him now and come back later.” Miss Longbow tried to take Lupita’s brown hand, but she pulled it away.

            “I don’t abandon the people I love,” said Miss Smith.

            “Go and save your queen. I’m fine.” Carl rubbed his blonde hair. “Come back in two weeks when you’ve saved Crann, again. Go.”

            “Thank you, Carl. Stay safe.” Danielle put a hand on his shoulder.

            “No kiss?”

            Both women kissed the boy they had saved from execution.

            “Two weeks.” Lupita hugged him.

Badru, Danielle, Fabian and Lupita left Carraig City at a quick march. The rolling hills and fields beyond were a relief from the stink of the overcrowded capital. Only the Sliabh mountains and Border River stood between them and their homeland.

And the bandits.

            Nine highwaymen with axes. Their stolen armour was red with blood. One swung chain with the handcuffs still attached.

            All of them had skulls tattooed on their foreheads. They were condemned. Escaped.

            “All we wanted was money, but look at this, boys,” said the biggest of them. “Fresh meat with an escort. I get the first go.” His brown eyes were tearing off Lupita’s clothes.

            “You fucking wont.” Danielle drew her sword.

            The other three followed suit.

            “Kill the spares,” said the bandit leader.

            Standing in front of Miss Smith, Miss Longbow raised her shield and her sword. Her signature was a stab straight at the eyes, practiced ad nauseum during multiple battles on the walls of Leonor City.

            The criminals spread out around the foreigners. Four had huge wooden shields studded with iron. The leader raised his buckler, mirroring Danielle as he snuck forwards at the same pace as his allies.

            Though they were lawless thieves and rapists the band had clearly honed tactics in combat. The shield bearers formed the four points of the compass as they closed in.

            Wishing Lupita had stayed with Carl, the warrior woman slammed her shield into the studded buckler.

            Her sword hit the axe head of the enemy with a loud clang. Grunts around her were too vague for her to know Lupita was safe. Planting her feet for traction, she threw her weight into a push she had used against imperial soldiers a thousand times.

            “You’re a woman?” The man’s shock was delivered with a hint of mockery. “Maybe we’ll have some fun with you as well, after you’re dead.”

            An axe slammed into her shoulder. Wincing, she slashed out at the man. He jumped back out of range.

            The leader spat in her face.

            A man screamed behind her.

            As she blinked the saliva out of her eyes an axe blow smashed the air from her lungs. Her chainmail spread the impact across her chest but didn’t nullify the pain.

            Someone else screamed.

            Lashing out with her shield, she saw the blur of the leader slashing over it with his axe again.

            Her sword leapt at his eyes, finding his nose instead.

            He yelled.

            Someone tackled her to the ground.

            “Die!”

            The man had his knee on her shield arm. She couldn’t swing her sword to stab his chest.

            Dropping the blade, she jammed her gloved fingers into the mush of his eyes.

            Howling, he fell back.

            She tried to roll over to get to her feet. A boot hit her in the stomach. Then an axe slammed into the mail on her back.

            She grabbed the leader’s legs. He fell hard onto his back. His axe swung past her. She caught the handle and leaned down on it. He grunted as it neared his face. It touched the brow of his helmet as he tried to force it up, out of the way. She punched his bleeding nose. His eyes closed and his grip relaxed.

            Both hands brought the axe down with all her strength. She didn’t think he was dead, but he wouldn’t live long.

            “Danielle!” Lupita’s scream roused her from the fighting rage she had been sinking into. Miss Smith’s sword stabbed through what was left of the leader’s face.

            “I’m fine. Are you?”

            “I don’t fall so easily for the first man who comes along.”

            She was joking? Really? “You’re funny.” Miss Longbow took the offered hand, pulling Lupita off her feet as much as she was pulled to hers.

            “Are they all dead?”

            “Yes.” Fabian wiped his beautiful sword on the trousers of one of the bandits.

            “What the hells?” Badru asked. He had his sword in the leather armour of a corpse.

            “First thing to do is pull your blade out.” Sir Castel’s voice was balm, soothing their frayed nerves. “Then we get moving again. Queen Malin and the kingdom are still in danger. We need to go.”

The journey over the mountains was faster than it had been with injured Carl slowing them down. They were across the rope at Border River by nightfall, making camp in Crann again.

            “We should just keep going.” Danielle argued.

            “We still have a river to cross and a cloud of bad luck hanging over us. I’m glad we weren’t attacked by squid folk this time. They might be hiding in the next one. We can rest now and be in Leonor not long after sunrise. We need to rest.”

            “If we hadn’t been attacked for money, we would have made it to Leonor already.”

            “That’s true, but we were. We need to sleep. At least I do.”

            “I’ll go alone.”

            “Without me to protect you?” Petite Lupita put her hands on her hips. “You wouldn’t last an hour. I saved you back there.” She nodded towards Sliabh.

            “True.”

            “Exactly, Dan. Let’s sleep.”

            There was no point in arguing with her. Miss Smith had the uncanny habit of being right ninety-nine times out of a hundred.

            Muscles sighed with relief as she lay down in the tent. Lupita cuddled close. Looking at the sheathed sword by their side, Danielle closed her eyes and hoped the dawn would bring a better day.