Deepwoods (Book 1)

by Honor Raconteur

  Siobhan watched all of this play out without a word, smiling in satisfaction. If the dogs approved of him, she knew that Denney would too.

  That left the rest of the guild still to go.

  Since the first day Siobhan had become guildmaster, she had developed the habit of walking through the area and double checking everything before going to bed. Even in their own guildhall she did this. It set her mind at ease that all was well in her corner of the world and she could let the worries of the day go in favor of much needed rest. Here, especially, she felt a strong need to do a patrol around their little house.

  The night air felt cool against her skin, unpleasantly so, and she rubbed her arms as she walked, scanning everything around her with sharp eyes. The village had mostly gone to bed, only a few hearth fires still sending plumes of smoke twirling into the night sky. In this open country, with little to no trees to bar her view, the sky overhead was a brilliant show of stars. She paused on the path in front of the house and turned her face upwards, drinking it all in. Rarely had she seen such a breathtaking display.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Fei observed quietly from nearby.

  Startled, she jerked around first to the left, then to her right, but she could see no sign of him. “Fei?”

  “Up here.”

  Even with this vague direction, she almost didn’t see him. He sat quite comfortably on the roof, as if the slanted angle didn’t bother him any, dressed in an array of clothing that blended in perfectly with the night. She looked up at him in exasperation. “I realize your shin-tei training makes being sneaky second nature to you, but will you please try to breathe loudly? Clear your throat now and again? Something so that you don’t constantly sneak up behind me and give me heart failure?”

  He seemed to find this amusing, if that glint of white teeth was any indication. “I’m sitting in plain sight, Siobhan-ajie,” he pointed out, tone laughing.

  “Ha!”

  “You were also the one to set me as first watch, were you not?” he continued, grin widening. “You should have known I was out here.”

  “And at the highest point possible, yes, alright, I’m the fool for nearly leaping out of my skin,” she riposted sarcastically. “Obviously, with my amazing powers of deduction and clairvoyance, I should have known before asking exactly where you would choose to sit.”

  “Precisely.”

  Siobhan threw her hands into the air, giving up.

  Without a trace of noise, he shifted to the edge of the roof and lightly leaped down, landing in a crouch. Siobhan eyed him curiously, not sure why he had decided to move from his perch. Fei came to stand very close to her, barely inches away, even bending his head slightly to put their heads on the same level. Only then did he speak, voice barely above a murmur. “You should put Wolf-ren and Rune-gui on the same watch tonight.”

  Fei had this remarkably bad habit of thinking things though at great length and then only sharing his conclusions aloud. Siobhan was certain he had several very good reasons for this suggestion, but dragging them all out of him would be akin to pulling teeth from a sick, wounded alligator. Bracing her feet, she met him eye to eye and responded in the same soft tone, “And why is that?”

  “It would do them both good.”

  “Fei,” she requested with forced patience, “start from the beginning, please.”

  “Rune-gui is like a lost child.” Fei’s brows furrowed slightly as he spoke, as if he struggled to put into words something that he only understood on an instinctive level. In the cool lighting of the stars and bright moons overhead, the words he spoke felt like a forbidden secret. “Your kindness baffles him. And yet, he gravitates to you, drawn to that kindness. Wolf-ren, watching this, is uneasy.”

  Yes, she had noted that unease herself. “Because by watching Rune, he’s reminded of himself in the past.”

  Fei nodded agreement. “That is part of it. But he sees what I see…Rune does not let you out of his sight for long. Wolf-ren does not understand why and assumes the worst.”

  Something in Fei’s tone said he didn’t share the assessment. Siobhan cocked her head slightly. “What do you think?”

  “I think even Rune-gui does not understand his actions right now. I think speaking to a man that has been in his place will help both of them.”

  Now there was a thought. Siobhan turned it over in her mind and found that she couldn’t find any fault in Fei’s logic.

  “Scribbling on faces only works for some people, not all,” Fei added, chuckling.

  So he’d caught on to her ploy, eh? “I had to do something. The tension was killing me.”

  “It worked well on those two,” he agreed, shrugging. “But the same tactic will not work on all of us.”

  Truly. But that did beg the question… “If you’re volunteering all of this, it means you’ve come to trust him?”

  “He does not wish us harm.” Fei sounded absolutely certain of this. “He doesn’t know what to think of us, or how to respond to the kindness shown him, but he has no ill intent. I also feel that given time, he will prove himself to be an invaluable friend, as Wolf-ren proved to be.”

  Until he said those words, Siobhan hadn’t thought of Rune in that light. But with it now said, she instinctively felt that Fei would prove to be right. Wolf had not reacted like Rune in the beginning, not in some ways, but the way he’d frozen when kindness was shown to him, as if lost on how to respond to it, that was exactly the same. Siobhan freely admitted that her mothering impulses had been in overdrive with Wolf the first year he was in the guild. Rune’s behavior made her react the same way.

  Those mothering instincts were not certain about putting two survivors of a dark guild on watch, in the dead of night, without witnesses around. Especially when they didn’t trust each other. But she didn’t believe for one second that Wolf would harm the kid without very good reason. She also trusted Fei’s assessment of the situation—so far, she had never seen him wrong, not on matters like this. So she blew out a breath, running a hand over her hair.

  “Alright, I’ll rearrange the schedule so they’re both on watch after you.”

  Pleased, he nodded in satisfaction and headed back toward his perch.

  More than ready to crawl into a warm bed, she headed inside. A blanket had been draped over the rafters, cutting the room in half, women sleeping on one side and men on the other. Siobhan stuck her head into the men’s half, unsurprised to find that Wolf was lying on his side with one eye open, watching for her return. But Rune was also still awake, sitting up in his bed, idly flipping a dagger around his wrist. Hmm? Why would he bother to stay up…? Ah, never mind, it didn’t matter. She paused long enough to catch Rune and Wolf’s eyes. “Both of you stand the next watch.”

  For just a moment, they were strangely in sync as they gave her the same expression of surprise.

  “Why…?” Wolf asked slowly.

  With no compunction whatsoever, she shifted the blame to someone else’s shoulders. “Fei suggested it. Night!”

  Before they could start an argument, she let the curtain fall back into place and retreated to her bedroll near the door. Siobhan put the twin swords at her hip on the ground, resting above her pillow, then shimmied out of the boots, pants, and thick jacket she wore. Now in just thick leggings and a billowy shirt, she felt more comfortable. Siobhan slithered into her blankets with a small smile, more than ready for this day to end.

  ӜӜӜ

  She awoke to the sounds of battle.

  KLANG ching ching shiiing.

  What in the—?! Siobhan rolled to her feet, both swords in hand, before she could get her eyes properly open. The blankets wanted to keep her left foot, and she had to shake it free even as she scurried for the door. Whatever was going on seemed to be happening in the front yard, as the noise came from there.

  The morning hadn’t really started yet, as the sun barely had its head above the horizon, and most of the world seemed intent on sleeping a little longer. (Siobhan rather agree
d with this after taking the third watch.) But Fei and Rune seemed to be of the opinion that if there was light, then it was a good time to fight.

  Siobhan stumbled to a stop on the porch and watched with an open mouth as the two men went at each other with ferocious intensity. Fei had his wadoki short sword in one hand, the metal scabbard in the other which he used like a shield, although he hadn’t put on his utility belt. Dare she take that as a sign that this wasn’t meant to be a serious fight?

  Rune had the iron gloves she’d retrieved from the Ahbiren on his hands, which covered everything from knuckles to elbow, but other than that she didn’t see a weapon on him. Not that she believed for one second he was unarmed. He could make daggers appear and disappear at will.

  Both of them flew back a pace, giving each other some breathing room, and then leapt forward again with a baring of teeth like wolves going at each other’s throats. Fei’s sword sliced through the air with a whistle of noise, Rune catching the edge of the blade on one of his knuckle guards before diverting it away, his free hand coming up in a sharp jab aimed at Fei’s stomach. Somehow Fei blocked it with his scabbard, knocking the fist away, although he grunted at the effort.

  They parried and sliced and punched at each other with such speed that Siobhan could barely track it all with her eyes.

  Wolf ghosted up behind her and murmured, “Relax. It’s just a test.”

  “That’s a test?” she repeated in amazement, unnerved by the ferocity.

  “It started out friendlier,” he offered.

  “Yes, that makes everything all better,” she retorted acidly. When he chuckled, she shot him a look from the corner of her eye. “If I didn’t know any different, I would say they’re trying to take each other’s heads off.”

  Unconcerned, Wolf shrugged.

  She rolled her eyes to the heavens, praying for patience. Well, what had she expected? Wolf’s idea of ‘danger’ and hers were as different as moon and sun. Her main question was, why hadn’t Fei called a halt to this? She could tell after ten seconds that Rune had incredible fighting skill. They’d been at this for several minutes.

  Clapping her hands loudly, she called, “Alright boys, quit!”

  Fei paused with his sword in mid-swing, aiming for Rune’s head. The other man had both hands up in a guard position, and he looked at her over one shoulder in an open pout.

  “Awwww,” Rune whined. “It was just getting fun!”

  “Yes, that’s why you’re stopping,” she informed him dryly. “I’d rather not have a body on my hands, thank you.”

  “We wouldn’t have hurt each other, Siobhan-ajie,” Fei assured her. Much, his tone added.

  “Uh-huh.” Siobhan stared him down. Why did she feel like a mother scolding two young boys for playing in the mud? “It’s alright, the two of you can play more after breakfast.”

  Fei and Rune perked up.

  Rune asked the obvious. “Meani’n it’s time ta go into Sateren?”

  “A-yup.” Siobhan checked her mental schedule and realized with a groan that she was in charge of cooking breakfast. Curse all the luck. “Do I need to write a formal note to send along with you?”

  “That’d be best,” Rune admitted.

  She’d do that after breakfast, then. “So your guards weren’t damaged in any way?” she pointed her chin to indicate the metal guards strapped to Rune’s arms.

  “Oh, no,” he said happily. Raising them up a little, he flipped his arms both ways, so she could see either side. “Just fine.”

  She still felt a bit bemused that the guards and a few random daggers were his only weapons. After seeing the multitude of weapons Fei carried around, or the long swords that most of the men in the guild favored, she would have thought that just two long hand guards would put Rune at a severe disadvantage. But after seeing him fight on par with Fei, she would have to put that idea to rest. Perhaps he had been called “Bloodless” because he chose to break bones over shedding blood? His hand-to-hand combat skills made her think so.

  Shrugging, she let it go and went back inside to get dressed and start the day. After having the light scared right out of her, she didn’t feel like snoozing for a few more minutes.

  As she went about cooking breakfast and nudging people awake—cautiously, in Tran, Conli and Sylvie’s cases—Siobhan kept a weather eye on Wolf and Rune. Despite standing on guard with each other for three hours last night, they didn’t seem to be on better terms. Not that she had expected them to bond or anything, but it would be nice if they stopped eyeing each other like two yard dogs after the same bone.

  Breakfast happened without mishap, and Siobhan sat down to write a very carefully worded note to any karl of Silent Order asking for a meeting. Markl actually stepped in and helped her write most of it. He was far better at crafting words than she.

  She rolled the letter in on itself and stuffed it into a carrier tube, which she handed over to Fei. Both he and Rune stood just in front of the porch, fully ready to go. Fei took it from her and slipped it into an inside pocket in his jacket before he refastened it.

  “I know it’s a long way for a day trip,” she told them both, feeling uneasy about sending two men into that huge city. “But try to make it back tonight. If I don’t hear from you by noon tomorrow, I’m coming in after you.”

  “We’ll be back tonight,” Rune assured her. “This won’t take long.”

  She certainly hoped not. “Be safe.”

  Fei gave her a nod and a casual salute before spinning on his heels and heading off at a ground-eating trot. Rune gave a cheery “Bye!” before following at Fei’s heels, a noticeable bounce in his step.

  “It’s almost like two young boys going out on a fishing trip,” she muttered to herself. Where was their sense of danger?

  “While we wait, what to do?” Tran asked from the doorway.

  “Let’s talk to Lirah,” Siobhan suggested. “I think we need to make some contingency plans in case I’m making some bad assumptions.”

  Time could, under the wrong circumstances, creep by like an old man with a broken cane.

  Siobhan went through the motions, doing everything that she should be doing, but she always had one eye on the sky, marking the sun’s position. She spoke with Lirah at length about what they should do if it turned out Iron Dragain really had betrayed them. She helped Conli in changing out the bandages on Lirah’s men, which was harder than she expected it to be. Siobhan was no novice when it came to wounds but these were horribly inflicted, and after seeing the damage with her own eyes, she felt it was a miracle direct from the gods that they hadn’t lost anyone. Through blood loss, if nothing else.

  But when evening came, she ran out of things to do. The injured were cared for, the plans were made, the evening meal cooked and cleaned up. To keep from openly fidgeting, Siobhan fell to Tran and Wolf’s habit of sitting on the front porch, her legs dangling over the edge, slowly sharpening both of her swords.

  “We’re back!” Rune greeted, voice loud and cheerful in this still evening air.

  Siobhan jumped so badly that she nearly sliced her thumb off on her own sword. “Rune! Great wind and stars, don’t do that! You nearly gave me heart failure!”

  The ex-assassin popped his head over the edge of the roof so that he could look down at her. She glared up at him. (And just when had he gotten up there anyway?!) “I thought ya wanted us to come back quickly?”

  “Appear normally,” she scolded. “That’s all I’m asking.”

  “But that’s boring, Siobhan-ajie,” Fei protested, also sticking his head over the edge of the roof to look down at her.

  Siobhan put the swords down so that she could turn and look at them squarely. Just who was corrupting who? “How did it go?”

  “Well,” Fei assured her. He flipped off the roof in a quick, heels-over-head movement, landing lithely on the ground. “Rune-gui found a karl to speak with almost before we were through the gates.”

  Rune hopped off the roof as well—minus the extra a
crobatics—and explained to her, “That was a bit of good luck, that. Ya don’t normally find a karl that quick.”

  “But he agreed to meet tomorrow, early in the afternoon,” Fei continued. “For a fee, he’ll tell you what you want to know.”

  For a fee, eh? Well, she hadn’t expected anyone from a dark guild to do something from the goodness of their heart. “Fine. Then early in the morning, we leave for Sateren. Rune, you didn’t have any trouble in the city?”

  He shook his head. “Not a bit. One thing, though…” he openly hesitated.

  “Yes?” she encouraged.

  His hand covered the tattoo on his other arm. “This…needs ta be taken off. Ya could see people wonderi’n what I was doing with a good guild.”

  Fei nodded in grim agreement. “I thought a few people would actually step in, ask what he was doing with me. Ajie, before we go into Iron Dragain, it has to be removed. It was clear to me today that he won’t be accepted everywhere, not even if we say he’s with us, as long as that mark is on his arm.”

  Yes, she had been wondering about that. Turning her head, she called into the house, “Conli!”

  She heard someone stand up and the heavy tread against the floorboards, but waited until Conli actually appeared in the doorway before speaking. “Rune needs his tattoo removed. Can you do it?”

  “Sylvie mentioned this to me,” Conli responded, stopping on the edge of the porch to avoid getting his shoeless feet dirty. “I won’t know until I look at it. Rune, come closer.”

  Rune obediently came forward three steps, turning so that Conli had a clear view of the tattoo.

  Conli bent and peered at it for a moment. “You said it’s been here about ten years?”

  “Yes,” Rune answered.

  “Hmmm, looks that way. It’s a simple enough design, not heavy on the ink, so I think a deep scrub will suffice.”

  Sometimes—most of the time, actually—Conli would say things that wouldn’t make an ounce of sense to Siobhan. She sighed in exasperation and requested patiently, “Explain that.”

  “Tattoos stay on the skin because the ink goes through the first layer and down deep, toward the muscle.” Conli lifted both hands and tried to illustrate in the air. “In most cases, like this one, it’s a matter of lifting off all the layers of skin and simply scrubbing the ink out of the tissue. This is better than cutting the tattoo free, as it doesn’t do as much damage or leave scarring in its wake.”