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

by D. K. Holmberg

  “She’s a single woman in the Brinder section. Men do terrible things.”

  “I’m not sure what to make of that,” he said.

  “You can make of it what you will. What I’m getting at… I don’t know what I’m getting at. I’m worried about her.”

  Finn was worried too. It wasn’t like his sister to be gone like this. She was the responsible one. She was the one who’d taken on the job to help their mother. She was the one who had done everything she could to help their mother.

  Finn looked past Helda. An Archer moved in the distance. At this point, he didn’t know if his word with the Archers would even matter. He could guide them to Meyer’s home the way he had before, but doing that didn’t necessarily mean they’d leave him alone. Finding him here would raise more questions. What he needed was something to prove he was who he claimed.

  Meyer would likely tell him he had to keep from doing anything suspicious, and he wouldn’t have to worry about the Archers. While that was true enough, there were times when he needed to come to these other sections.

  “Do you want to come in?” Finn asked.

  Helda blinked. “I shouldn’t. I just stopped because I saw the light. I should go.”

  She turned away from him. Finn watched her go for a moment before closing the door and leaning on it. His heart pounded with a different feeling. It was fear, but it wasn’t fear for him. This time, it was for his sister.

  Where was Lena?

  The morning came quickly, and there was still no sign of Lena. He had stayed at home, resting in the chair next to his mother, and administered more of Meyer’s medicine after he came awake.

  When he got up, he stretched. His arms and legs were stiff, and his entire body felt off. He looked at his mother a moment before returning to the main part of the house. There wasn’t any sign of Lena. No sign of anyone.

  She hadn’t come back.

  When he’d found her missing, he thought that maybe she would return later in the night. So, he’d stayed and promised himself that he’d find Helda in the morning to tell her that he’d found Lena. That there was still no sign of her troubled him.

  Stepping out into the street, he took a deep breath. The Brinder section stank. Finn hadn’t paid it much mind the night before, but now that he was there, he could smell the foulness in the air. The stench of rot and waste and an awful undercurrent of something that he couldn’t place.

  The sun started to come up in the distance, giving a little bit of light to the morning.

  He should be back at Meyer’s by now. He’d been gone long enough.

  Meyer would probably ask questions about where he’d been and why he’d been gone for so long.

  What would I even say?

  The walk back went quickly. His mind raced the entire time, worried thoughts about his sister filling his head. What would take her away from home this long? Had she been killed? That wasn’t a question he would ever have asked before, but having seen Mistress Vils’ home, he now found himself asking questions that he wouldn’t have before. Other dangerous things could have happened to her as well. Maybe the type of work that she’d started doing for the butcher had been such that she needed to stay with him because it got too late for her to return home.

  It didn’t feel right. Lena wouldn’t leave their mother alone for that long. She wouldn’t have known that Finn would be there.

  By the time he’d gotten back to Meyer’s house, his mind was still racing.

  Meyer was in the kitchen cooking.

  Finn took over for him, and Meyer took a seat.

  “You were gone all night. Your crew?” Disappointment filled his voice.

  Finn shook his head. “Not my crew. I went to see my mother.”

  “You’re upset the medicine hasn’t worked.”

  “That’s not it either.”

  Finn didn’t even know if the medicine had worked or not. It might have helped, if only he had managed to get it to her more consistently. He’d been by twice a day, but that wasn’t nearly as often as what she needed. Finn made a point of stopping first thing in the morning to give her the medicine, and then at the end of the day when he made she sure got a second dose—along with ensuring she had as much to eat and drink as she would.

  “What is it?”

  “My sister. She’s missing. At least, I think she’s missing. It’s not like her to not return to our home. Normally, she’s the one who’s caring for our mother, but she’s not been there from what I can tell.”

  “How long?”

  Finn shook his head. “I don’t know. A few days. She’s not been there when I’ve stopped by to check on my mother.”

  Then there was what Helda had told him about how Lena had gone to some dark place.

  What if something had happened to his sister?

  Meyer sat up and looked over at him. “What might she have been doing?”

  “I don’t know. She’d recently taken a job with the butcher, but she’d also gone to the hegen for help.”

  Meyer nodded. “I will task the Archers to look.”

  Archers wouldn’t be able to find her. Not if the hegen had already gotten to her.

  The morning went slowly for Finn. He kept thinking about how his sister had been gone. He kept thinking about his mother lying alone.

  Meyer took him to several different prisons, where they questioned men, but Finn barely managed to keep his focus. They ran errands throughout the day, Meyer guiding him around the city, showing him various other apothecaries and supply shops, along with two different general stores that he preferred. Finn made a mental note of them, but none of those mattered to him.

  By the time evening fell and they returned to the home, and Meyer dismissed him to carry on with his own studies, he struggled with his focus.

  His mind raced.

  He needed to know what happened to his sister.

  There was only one way he thought he might be able to do it.

  It meant he was going to have to go to the hegen himself.

  He looked out in the hall, but Meyer was in his office, murmuring to someone who had come to him.

  It meant Finn had time to himself and to go to his mother.

  He slipped out into the night. Darkness had fallen, and it was chilly out, making him wish he had grabbed his cloak, but he ignored the chill, hurrying through the streets toward the gate. When he reached it, he half-expected that he would meet resistance, but there was none.

  He didn’t know what he intended to find. Maybe nothing.

  When he reached the outskirts of the hegen section, he hurried forward. He tried to think about the path Meyer had taken him through this section of the city, weaving through.

  Where would his sister have gone?

  She would’ve wanted someone capable of healing their mother.

  Which meant Finn had to go to Esmerelda’s home.

  He saw more people out in the streets than he had the last time they were here. Some of the hegen looked at him askance, but they looked away when he turned his attention to them. When he finally caught the familiar sight of the bright red door, his heart started to race.

  Finn approached carefully. Slowly.

  There were so many rumors about the hegen that Finn didn’t even know what was real. They had magic. They stole a part of a person’s soul. They killed children and drank their blood. Finn doubted any of that—other than their magic—was real.

  He knocked.

  He wasn’t sure what to expect. When he had come with Meyer, she hadn’t answered.

  The door came open.

  The woman who answered the door was young; Finn would almost say pretty. She had long dark hair. Her wide eyes seemed piercing, the irises black and staring at him. Unlike the other hegen he’d seen in the street, dressed in mismatched clothing, she wore a flowing red dress cinched with a blue belt. She studied him, her gaze sweeping from head to toe, almost as if she could see through him.

  “Are you Esmerelda?” he asked car
efully.

  She tipped her head slightly, smiling at him. Full lips curved. “And you are…”

  For some reason, Finn had a feeling that she already knew.

  “My name is Finn Jagger. I’m apprenticed to Henry Meyer.”

  Esmerelda started to chuckle. “The rumors are true, then. He claimed his right.”

  Finn had suspected she already knew of him. “He did. That’s not why I’m here, though.”

  “Interesting. I wonder what makes you unique, much like I wonder what happened to your predecessor.”

  Her comment made him wonder what she might know. She was hegen. “I don’t really know what makes me unique.” It seemed best not to address the other comment.

  “Perhaps that is what you should seek to understand. All men must come to understand their fate.”

  She stepped off to the side, motioning him in. When he stepped into the home, he wasn’t sure what he would have expected. It was sparsely decorated. He imagined magical artifacts, but what he found was a plush carpet covering the floor. A pair of chairs sat near a table, and a large stack of cards rested on the table. He didn’t see anything that would be all that strange for any other home within the city, though his old thief instincts kicked in, making him appraise everything in the room. There were a few ceramic sculptures, but nothing that could be easily moved. A small silver statue looked something like a strange dog…

  She cleared her throat.

  He looked up. In the pale lantern light, he realized she was even younger than he had thought. When he had first seen her, Finn had believed she was a decade or more older, but as she looked at him, he started to think she couldn’t be all that much older than him.

  “What brings you to my home, Finn Jagger?”

  “I’m here for my sister.” He said it quickly, knowing that he needed to get it out. “She came to the hegen for help, and she’s gone missing.”

  Esmerelda regarded him for a long moment. “If she came to the people for help, then anything she has agreed to is between her and the one who offered help.”

  “Was it you?”

  Esmerelda smiled at him. His heart hammered. “Were it me, I would have said that her arrangement was between her and myself.”

  “I just need to know that she is safe. Our mother is sick—”

  “I imagine that’s the reason she came to the people for help.” Esmerelda lifted a card from the table, looking at it for a moment.

  “It is. The apothecaries haven’t been able to help, and we were trying to save money for physicians, but they are too expensive. Master Meyer has offered his services, but…”

  Esmerelda looked over to him. “You would like to know what I can do?”

  There was something in the question that froze Finn for a moment.

  Everything asked of the hegen had a cost.

  This was his sister.

  Wasn’t he prepared to pay that price? Lena had been willing to pay the price for their mother. Meyer had said the hegen were calling in favors lately.

  Then there was the man Finn had met in Declan when he’d been a prisoner. What had Charon been asked to do? He would need to go back to learn.

  “I want to know that she is safe. I want her returned.”

  “There will be a cost.”

  She looked down at the card she held again.

  Finn’s heart hammered for a moment. Would Finn be one of the favors called in?

  For his sister, he would.

  “I understand.”

  Esmerelda stared at the card for a long moment before looking up. “Very well. I will see what I can find of your sister, Finn Jagger. When the time comes, I will ask of you payment.”

  “I can’t do anything that will violate my apprenticeship.”

  She cocked her head to the side. “Nothing will be asked that will preclude you from serving your sentence.”

  Esmerelda held out her hand, the card offered to him.

  Finn looked at it and finally took it.

  “That is for you to keep. A marker. You will know when it’s time for you to serve.” She turned away. “Is that all?”

  Finn stared at the card. On it, there was a figure with a noose around its neck.

  He shivered.

  “That’s all.”

  She guided him to the door without saying another word and escorted him out into the street. She watched him for a moment before closing the door.

  He stared after Esmerelda for a long moment before turning away. The street around him was empty, which left him unsettled. He made his way back into the city, through the gate, and to Master Meyer’s home.

  When he got inside, Master Meyer pulled the door open, looking at him. “You should not have gone there,” he said.

  Finn couldn’t even argue about where he had gone. “I needed to know what happened to her.”

  Meyer sighed deeply. “Come along, then. We need to make preparations.”

  “Preparations for what?”

  “For your mother—and your sister, when she’s returned—to stay with us.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The executioner had done as he’d promised, and Finn’s mother had come to stay with them. He put her up in a small room near the house's healing end, though she didn’t need much space. It allowed Finn to visit her more than he had even when he’d been freer, and it gave Meyer a chance to check on her—which he did, and often. There wasn’t any stench like there had been coming off her before.

  Finn took a break from studying, having moved on from the anatomy book, still not having mastered it but feeling as if he had taken as much from it as he could, and had begun to work on a book of medicinals. Somehow, that book was even more complicated than the last. He had to memorize what he found in the book and be able to recite it.

  “Your sister did well keeping her as healthy as she did.” Meyer carried a tray with another batch of the elixir he’d been giving to Finn’s mother. He set the tray down and quickly drew up a small volume of the elixir before squeezing it into her mouth. “Most would have given up long before.”

  “Not Lena,” Finn said.

  They’d had no word from her, nothing that gave him any hope that she’d be found. With each passing day, Finn began to question whether she would be found. The hegen, and Esmerelda in particular, had made no attempt to get into contact with them, so Finn didn’t think there was anything they’d be able to do to help her.

  “Do you know what has made her so sick?” Finn doubted Meyer would know any more than the apothecaries they’d gone to—and there had been several. The only hope he’d had at answers had been the physician, but what physician would be willing to come to the executioner’s home to heal?

  “I’ve not seen anything like it. Whatever caused it is far enough along that it will prove difficult to slow.”

  Finn sighed. He’d known—or at least suspected—that much. Hearing it from Meyer made it more real, somehow.

  “I need to find my sister,” he said softly.

  “I have tasked resources in the city to look for her. And you have tasked your own resources.”

  “I know I shouldn’t have gone to the hegen, but I needed to know if anything had happened to her.”

  “I understand,” Meyer said softly. “I have some experience with Esmerelda. That doesn’t mean I would go there willingly were I to have other options. As I said, I’ve asked the city Archers to keep an eye out for her.”

  Finn didn’t miss the irony of needing the Archers to help with something.

  He tugged on the shirt, feeling the soft fabric, and closed his eyes. The studies Meyer had encouraged of him were to research some of the symptoms his mother displayed. Sweating. Rapid heart rate. The clammy skin. All were signs of something systemic.

  Not that he knew what to do with that knowledge. A base of knowledge did nothing to help.

  “She’s resting comfortably, and we have somewhere we need to be.”

  Meyer left the room, and Finn squeezed his mot
her’s hand, thinking that maybe she squeezed back. That had to be more his imagination, though.

  “This late?”

  “This late. Unfortunately.”

  He unfolded a scrap of paper and handed it to Finn.

  Finn took it and read.

  Thief. Break-in at antiquities shop. Declan.

  “What’s this?”

  “When someone is captured and ready for questioning, the warden sends word. At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work. Lately, it hasn’t been as seamless as it should be.”

  “Because of the high-level attacks?” He really should say something about the Client.

  “Possibly.”

  “You have to question a thief at this time of night?”

  “I don’t have to, but I fear if I don’t, then others will get there before me. Besides, it’s time for you to begin this other aspect of your training.”

  Meyer waited as Finn gathered his cloak and met him at the door. Once they were out in the street, a cool air whipped through, and a few swirls of snow danced within it. Meyer moved quickly and confidently through the street. It seemed strange to Finn to be out like this in the evening without fearing any repercussions.

  As they neared Declan Prison, Finn thought he saw someone, but there wasn't anyone there when he turned to look. Maybe an Archer, but if that were the case, why didn’t he see them?

  “What is it?” Meyer asked.

  Finn shook his head. “Probably nothing,” he muttered.

  Nothing for him to be concerned by, at least. They reached the prison entrance, and Meyer pulled the keys from his pocket, unlocking it and stepping inside. A single iron master stood watch at the door, though he seemed bored when they entered and barely looked up at Meyer before nodding to him and waving him on.

  Finn followed Meyer.

  They reached a familiar stair leading into the depths of the prison. Finn’s cell had been down there.

  He paused.

  “You’ll have to get over it sooner or later,” Meyer said.

  “It’s not so much getting over it,” he said.