The Executioner's Right (The Executioner's Song Book 1)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Not palace Archers, anyway,” Oscar said.

  The King set his mug down and stared at Oscar. “Palace Archers?”

  “We passed one. Single stripe. Far too curious to be a city Archer.”

  “I can handle city Archers,” the King said confidently. “You just have to pay them better than the crown, and they’ll do whatever you need. Palace Archers are a different breed. Wolves compared to dogs.”

  “More like wolves compared to pups,” Annie said. She rested her hands on the table and leaned forward. “It was a palace Archer that caught Pegg. Way I heard it, he took a job up there that got him squeezed. Stupid to think you could break into… What is it?” She looked over at the King.

  “Nothing.”

  “I see that look in your eyes, Leon Konig. Don’t think I don’t recognize it.”

  “I said it was nothing.”

  She glared at him before shaking her head. “Anyway, you don’t want to hear what this old working girl has to say. The King sure don’t.” She said his nickname with a sneer that made it sound almost like a swear. “Not like I hear all the gossip that comes through here. Not at all. Certainly don’t hear more than the King. I didn’t hear anything about Dalton Pegg thinking he’d break into the palace on a job and get squeezed by the Archers. I’ll tell you what kind of fool does that.” She shot the King a look. “Someone after more than coin. You go there, you take what the gods give you. Even Pegg had limits.”

  “Who would want him to break into the palace?” Oscar asked.

  “If you take something like the crown jewels there…” Rock started.

  Finn shared a look with Rock.

  Other than Oscar, he was the only one who knew of Finn’s mother.

  That kind of money would more than pay for his mother getting the help she needed. They could get her a physician. Not just an apothecary. They could get her real help.

  “You can’t move something like that,” Oscar said. “They’re too distinctive. You might have the wealth, but what’s wealth if you can’t unload it?”

  Leave it to Oscar to be practical about things like that.

  “There’d be a way to break it down. You get jewels like that, I’m sure you can find a buyer. You just have to go to the right person.” Finn looked over at the King. “Right? I’m sure you’ve got someone who could break down the jewels. Gold is gold. The gods know you could melt that down, mold it into something else. The jewels probably pop right off, and you can—”

  “Pop off?” Oscar asked. “What sort of trinkets do you think the crown keeps here?”

  “I don’t know. No one does.” Finn took a drink of ale and leaned back, welcoming the warmth as it rolled down his throat. It left him with a pleasant sensation in his belly. Better than most anything. “I’d like to have a look, though.”

  “I’ll look with you,” Rock said, grinning.

  “You wouldn’t. If a man like Dalton Pegg can’t get into the palace and get away, there ain’t anyone who can do it.”

  “Right. The Hand couldn’t manage to break in?” Finn looked from the King to Annie before grinning at Oscar. “You don’t want to take the credit that you’re due.”

  “I take everything I’m due. I also know my limits. Just like I know a job like that not only can’t be done, but Pegg must’ve been a fool to take it on. Like I said. No way to move it. Who wants to risk trying to sell it and drawing the attention of the Archers?”

  “Unless he had a buyer,” the King added softly.

  “Could be,” Oscar said, scratching his jawline. “I’ve heard the Mistress has been active.”

  The King shook his head as his brow darkened. “Don’t talk about her. You never know when one of her people are listening. Besides,” he said, his expression shifting, now smiling again, “we both know a job is only as good as a buyer. A job like that would require that someone have a way of moving it before you decide to take it. It’s too dangerous otherwise.”

  “Some claim the hegen pushed him to take the job,” Annie said.

  The King almost spit out his drink while laughing. “The hegen? No magic is worth dying for. This was about coin, plain and simple.”

  “Maybe it was good magic,” Rock said in between drinks. “You know, like the kind the Alainsith have in the forest outside the city.”

  “There’s a difference between dangerous and good,” the King said. “And the hegen can’t give any man enough magic to make it worthwhile taking the kind of job Pegg did. Maybe the others”—Finn noticed he didn’t want to mention the Alainsith; some feared speaking of them would draw their attention, though it had been several centuries since they’d attacked—“might have that power, but we haven’t seen sign of them in ages.”

  “Other than the forest,” Rock said. When the King shot him a look, Rock shrugged. “I spent some time outside the walls. I know what’s out there.”

  “Nothing is outside the walls but the hegen section and trees. At least nothing we have to worry about. Stay in the city and get paid. You do the wrong job, you risk attention. That’s why you have to do it smart. Keep it clean.” He glanced at Oscar. “Which Pegg didn’t do.”

  “Pegg wouldn’t have gone into anything without knowing the risks,” Oscar said. “I knew him a little. We pulled a few jobs together when I was younger.”

  “That must have been quite some time ago,” Annie said. “You still look beautiful, though.” She traced a finger along the scar under his chin, a glimmer of a smile hanging on her lips. “The girls like the scar on you, anyway.”

  Oscar snorted. “I’m sure.”

  “What was he like?” Finn asked.

  Finn had recognized Pegg, but anyone who spent any time in the city's outer sections would have recognized him. The more challenging jobs all went to him and his crew, mostly because he was the most skilled. The most exacting. Taking jobs like that put his people into danger, but from the way Finn had heard it told, none of the jobs that he took ever felt as if they were heading into all that much danger, mostly because of the level of preparation that Pegg put into each job.

  It was why him getting pinched came as such a surprise. As far as Finn had heard, Pegg had never been caught. Those who got caught in the outer sections of the city got noticed. The crews they worked with got noticed.

  “A thief, Shuffles. No different than the Hand,” the King said.

  As much as he disliked the nickname, he tried to embrace it, at least as much as someone could embrace a name like that. Better that he not argue about it, especially not with the King.

  Annie tipped back her drink again before setting it on the table. “I’ll let you boys talk. I’ve got others in the tavern who need my attention. Most of them are far nicer to me than Leon these days, anyway.”

  She got up, collecting the mug from where she sat, looking to Oscar who nodded, and headed toward the kitchen.

  “Let’s see it,” the King said when she’d been gone for a while.

  Oscar leaned off to the side and moved his pouch out so that he could flip it open. When he reached inside, he set a bundle of burlap onto the table.

  The King looked around the inside of the tavern. It was empty other than a small booth in the far corner. No one from there would even be able to see them from where they were.

  He started to unwrap the burlap around it.

  “You sure that’s safe here?” Oscar asked. “You know where I went for that.”

  “I’m well aware of where you had to go to retrieve this. That’s why I want to see it. Got to see if it’s what we were hired to get.”

  Finn and Rock leaned forward. When the King had it unwrapped, he regarded the small bowl with writing all around the perimeter they’d taken. The bowl wasn’t even painted all that well, just swirls of pale red and some deeper maroon toward the bottom of the bowl.

  Annie came from a nearby table and looked down. “I thought you didn’t want me talking about the hegen. Now you’ve got one of their bowls?”

  Th
e King looked up at her. “It’s not hegen.”

  She shrugged. “Could’ve fooled me.”

  She strode away, and Finn turned his attention to the bowl.

  “With everything in that place, I still can’t believe that’s what we went for.” Finn shared a look with Rock. “I bet had the Archer known what we were after, he wouldn’t have cared. What does that Client want with that?”

  These days, it was always about the Client.

  The King had the contacts, and in this case, the contact provided the job. Sort of how Pegg would have needed to have someone lined up to move jewels from the palace.

  “That’s not on me to know. Or care,” the King said. He held the bowl up toward the lantern resting on the table, turning it from one side to the other. The light didn’t reflect off of it.

  Junk.

  That was what it was. Not something valuable, though even junk could get them paid with the right buyer. This time, the buyer had made it known what they wanted, so they’d taken the job. It wasn’t even supposed to draw attention. Even if the bowl was hegen, it didn’t matter so long as they got paid.

  The King reached into his pocket and pulled out a stack of coins, setting them on the table in front of each of them. An equal cut this time. That wasn’t always the case.

  Five silvers to take the bowl. Five silvers would get his mother closer to paying for a physician. He still didn’t know how much they’d need, but that had to be getting close.

  “Now to talk business.” He glanced beyond them, toward Annie. “Not something I wanted to bring up today. Especially today. But we got a job offer from the Client. It’s not going to be easy. A job like this is going to take the whole crew, but the payout will be worth ten times what I just gave you.”

  “Ten times?” Finn reached toward his pocket but noticed Oscar didn’t.

  Rock did the same as Finn, looking across the table and grinning at him.

  “What’s the job?” Oscar asked softly.

  “It’ll be a difficult job. The kind of thing that I normally turn down, but the Client is insistent on this one. The timing could be better, but I figure with our crew, we shouldn’t have too much trouble. Besides, I got some inside information that should make it easier.”

  “What’s the job?” Oscar asked again.

  The King looked over at him. “The viscount’s manor.”

  Oscar simply stared.

  Finn realized Oscar had suspected something like that.

  It was the pay.

  The job they’d done earlier paid decently. Typical these days for the kind of thing the King asked them to do. Some of the jobs were easier than others, but all of them had a bit of danger—mostly exposing them to the Archers. They were the kind of jobs he wouldn’t get were it not for the King. Finn didn’t have those connections. He had to rely on pickpocketing and smaller jobs. Things that could go wrong. Draw in the Archers.

  “Pegg—”

  The King shook his head. “It’s not the same job as Pegg. He tried the damn palace. This is just the viscount.” He looked over his shoulder. “Despite what Annie might be trying to fill our heads with, this is just about the coin.”

  Oscar leaned back, frowning as he stared at the table. “Job like that is too dangerous for us.”

  “Client will hire another crew. Not just for this job but others. I can push for more pay. He’s already paying plenty—more than five times what this job paid. With what happened to Pegg, I should be able to convince him we need to double it…”

  Oscar squeezed his eyes shut, and Finn could practically see him working through what to say. When he opened his eyes, he looked over at Finn for a moment before taking a short breath.

  “Get him to double it. Triple if you can. And find out what we’re taking.”

  “We’ll know what we’re taking by the time we do the job,” the King said. “I’ll have plans of the home to follow, and we go after the item only. Nothing else. We’ll have Shuffles here keeping watch, and Rock will help. The rest of us go in, finish the job, and be on with it.”

  He said it with confidence that Finn didn’t necessarily share, but who was he to argue with the King? He had the reputation he did for a reason. If the King said they could do the job, then they could.

  As Finn looked over to Oscar, he could tell the Hand was troubled as well, but rather than arguing, he nodded.

  “When are we doing it?”

  “He wanted it done soon.”

  “When?” Oscar pushed.

  The King started to smile. “Tomorrow.” He looked from Oscar to Finn. “So we’ve got to be ready.”

  Chapter Four

  Finn sipped his ale, looking over at Oscar. He’d been silent since the King got up and went over to chat with Annie. The tavern had gotten busier since he’d shown up but was still quieter than it would be later in the evening when a crowd filled it.

  “What do you think, Shuffles?” Rock asked, leaning across the table.

  “About the job?”

  “Damn right about the job.”

  Finn studied Oscar before turning his attention back to Rock. “It’s dangerous. Breaking into some high-class merchant is one thing, but this is the viscount.”

  Rock leaned closer. “Your mother…”

  Finn nodded. “That was my first thought.”

  Oscar glanced toward Finn.

  “Think about what this can do for her. For all of us. Damn, but we do this and then don’t have to do any jobs for a while.”

  That wasn’t the way the King ran his crew, but the idea of having a score like that…

  Oscar got up without saying a word and slipped out of the tavern.

  “What’s up his ass?” Rock asked.

  “I don’t know. I’m going to see. Catch up with you later?”

  Rock shrugged. “I’ll be here. Might have a few more of these.” He lifted his empty mug and waved it at a cute brunette waitress making her way past.

  Finn chuckled and followed Oscar out of the tavern.

  Oscar had moved away down the street, and Finn had to hurry to catch up to him. The shops lining the roadway were all shuttered for the night, a few with lanterns glowing, though not brightly enough that he could make out details within them. He pulled his cloak around his shoulders more tightly, clutching it against the breeze carrying the stink of this section down the street.

  He crept quietly, following the shadowed form in the distance.

  Why would Oscar sneak off like that?

  The Hand didn’t usually disappear at night, but something had been off. Finn needed to know why. A few of the shops along this street were completely closed off. His gaze drifted to the locks, assessing which of them would be easier to break into. He could pick many of them, but the barred windows suggested he wouldn’t get far from there.

  He was troubled as he trailed after Oscar.

  Break into the viscount’s manor?

  Probably not a good idea with Pegg having been pinched.

  Oscar was a good thief. Pegg had been a great thief.

  As Finn followed, he still didn’t know where Oscar was going. Maybe just out for a night stroll. It could be the King had given him another assignment. If that were the case, Finn might be able to help. Not that Oscar would allow it. If he wanted Finn’s help, he would have told him.

  Each step Oscar took, Finn mirrored.

  At first, it was easy. Plenty of people wandered the streets of the Olin section. Not as dangerous as some of the outer sections, and not as uptight as the central sections, as the taverns here had a more ribald feel. Music drifted into the streets as he’d walked, the darkness giving the sound an undercurrent of excitement. Maybe that was only because he knew it well enough, he didn’t fear coming through there.

  The shadowed form of Oscar turned and headed toward the center of the city, taking one of the side streets that would wind around and past the Vinlen River, along the Pelthan Chapel. By the time he reached the winding street with the palace in the
distance, Finn knew exactly where they were going. He hurried toward Oscar, holding his cloak tightly.

  “About time you slunk up here,” Oscar said softly as he joined him. “You’ve been making too much noise back there. You have to work on steadying your breathing.”

  “My breathing was steady enough.” He was getting tired of everyone scolding him today.

  “Maybe it was your feet, then. Shuffles.”

  Finn glared at him. “The King send you up here?” Finn pitched the words softly, keeping his voice low. You never knew who was listening.

  “Scouting.”

  “You’re not scouting. If you were, you’d be at the viscount’s manor.”

  “Fine. I wanted to see what Pegg tried. Damn fool if he thought to break into the palace. Nothing worth that risk.”

  “Not even the jewels?” Finn asked.

  “Jewels for your life?”

  “Then maybe he did owe the hegen something.”

  “That’s not how they work,” Oscar said. “They don’t want their pound of flesh so easy.”

  When Oscar moved on, Finn stayed with him. As the street wound ever closer to the palace in the distance, it widened, though didn’t feel as if it widened. The maze of the streets felt more like it closed in around him, though that was probably nothing more than his imagination.

  At one point, Oscar paused and studied something along the street, though Finn couldn’t tell what it was he looked at. He stared at a building on the far side of the street. No lights were lit, and shadows around the sign made it difficult for him to make anything out.

  The breeze he’d felt throughout the walk picked up, blowing out of the south, carrying the stink of air from farther out in the city toward them. He wrinkled his nose against the stench.

  “You could’ve brought us through a different section. You know, one that wouldn’t attract so much attention. Or carry the slaughterhouse to us.” Finn leaned against the building, watching Oscar as he crouched down. This time he actually seemed to be adjusting his boots. No one else was out on the street this late.

  Oscar straightened and turned to him. “I could’ve. I didn’t. You didn’t have to come with me if you were going to complain so much.”