Venture Unleashed (The Venture Books)

by R. H. Russell

  “Earnest,” Venture demanded, “you knew?”

  “Not until we went to Earthsong. Dasher had all the servants there call him Mr. Starson just for our benefit, but I figured it out.”

  Dasher gave Earnest a furious glare, and Venture put his face in his hands. His head was spinning. He didn’t know what to think or feel first. He lowered his hands and gazed out the open window. He turned back sharply to Dasher and said, “Who are you?”

  “I’m Dash, Champ. I just want to be Dash. Please.”

  “You’re a Crested man?”

  Dasher came and sat on the edge of the windowsill next to Venture. “I’ve been taught the traditional fighting ways of my family since I could walk. I just wanted to put it into practice.”

  “The Cresteds fight each other all the time,” Venture pointed out, looking not at him, but at the hot street below.

  “Only in our private training rooms, with our brothers and cousins. The same old grudges with the same old partners hashed out day after day.”

  Venture thought of the crowds at the Championship. The audience that Dasher loved, that he craved. Strangers who knew him only as a fighter they adored, as their champion.

  “I wanted to see how far I could go, how I’d fare against all men, against the best men.”

  “I thought the Cresteds were the best men,” Venture said bitterly.

  Dasher scoffed at that. “I wanted to learn as much as I could about fighting from every kind of fighter, and to see if I really had what it took to be one of the greatest. I wanted it so bad I left home when I was sixteen, against my parents’ wishes. I gave up my first and last names. I actually ran away, though they knew exactly what I was doing—going to Champions Center. I fought in the Youth Quarter Championship with no coach, with forged documents. I won, and I got into Champions Center. I was a phenomenon, the kid who came out of nowhere. My parents were too embarrassed of the spectacle it would make if they tried to take me home by force.”

  “They not take you, Mr. Starson,” Chance said intensely. He looked ready to fight off anyone who dared to try, all by himself.

  “Don’t worry. They won’t. It’s only just now getting out among many of the Glens who Dasher Starson the fighter is. Cresteds don’t watch tournaments, so there’s hardly been a chance for anyone to match my face to my true name. As for the ones who know, I’m their dark family secret.” He laughed dryly. “They hoped and expected I’d give up and come running back home.”

  “So you pretended to be just an ordinary fighter so people would teach you and fight you.”

  “I didn’t want to be deceptive. I just wanted to be a fighter like everyone else.”

  “No, you didn’t. You wanted to stand out. But as the best one, not as the Crested one.”

  “You’re right there, Champ.”

  “I would’ve kept your secret.”

  “Can you honestly tell me you would have seen me the same way, acted toward me in the same way, if you’d known? Even now I’m afraid of how this will change things, especially with what’s going on.”

  Venture thought of the men who’d threatened his life, trying to reconcile his impression of them with who he knew his friend, Dasher Starson to be. “You took me under your wing, Dash. Do you think this changes that? Or the way you’ve handled yourself as Champion? How can I not admire you for that?”

  “Ha. With you guys, I’m Dasher Starson the fighter, the man, but when I’m with my family and their friends, I’m Dauntless, the miserable wayward boy who wanted to be a fighter. I don’t balance two lives as well as you do.” He didn’t try to hide the admiration in the look he gave Venture.

  How could Dasher think he had everything together? Dasher, whose poise he could never emulate?

  “So tell the world who you are,” Venture said. “Earnest and I will still be here, whatever anyone else thinks. Tell the public you’re a Glen, tell everyone who knows you’re a Glen that you’re Dasher Starson, the fighter, the Champion.”

  “I don’t know. I’m afraid then I won’t feel like myself even with my fighting friends. And it could make things worse for you, too, Champ.”

  “How?”

  “How do you think?” Earnest burst in. “You’re already controversial.”

  “Those Cresteds—the ones who’ve been threatening me—it’s partly because you’ve been teaching me, isn’t it?” A hundred years ago, those masked Crested men wouldn’t have bothered with masks; if they’d known any Uncrested, especially a bondsman, was training with a Crested, they would’ve killed him on the spot and been congratulated for it.

  “I’m sorry, Champ. I thought things had changed. If I’d known training with you was going to put you in danger—”

  “Then you should’ve done it anyway,” Earnest said. “We’ve been through this, Dash. Stop beating yourself up about it. It’s not your fault they think you’re sharing your Crested secrets with a bonded man.”

  “Are you?” Venture said. “Sharing Crested secrets?”

  Dasher shrugged. “Maybe. That would serve them right, wouldn’t it? Knowledge isn’t meant to be hoarded, kept from people just because they aren’t born into the right family.”

  “But are you?” Venture persisted.

  “Everything I learned when I was younger is part of me, part of my style, how I fight. But there’s no mystery, no real secret. I never set out to expose Crested ways. But I guess in some ways, I have.”

  “A lot of people are angry with you because of me.” Crested people. His people.

  “I’m not interested in keeping those people happy with me. In fact,” Dasher said with a gleam in his eye Venture hadn’t seen since his days as a competitor, “I’ve been thinking of running for office one of these days, with a platform that will really tick them off. If I do decide to go public, if we’re going to have all this controversy, especially if you do as well as I expect you to, then I might as well get myself in a position where I can do some good. What do you think about that?”

  “I think you’d make a better National Overseer than any we’ve had in my lifetime,” Earnest said.

  “Who said anything about National Overseer?” Dasher laughed. “I was thinking of County Representative.”

  “Well, that’s a start, I guess,” Venture said. “But Earnest is right. You can do more.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Secretly, Venture was glad to be back in Twin Rivers, out of a sense of defiance and a dangerous hope that his enemies would come for him again. He was hungering for a fight. Still, it was painful and exhausting, training with the combined longing and dread that each time the training room door swung open, it would be his enemies come back for him, death come to find him.

  It was also painful, when Jade returned from a trip with her grandmother, and he had to endure the ache of hearing Jade’s voice in the air, her footsteps in the hall. There was some small comfort in seeing that no child swelled her belly, for he’d feared that was the reason for her long absence. At least he wouldn’t see Jade wedded to Hunter Longlake. But part of him thought it might have been easier to have her married off to the unknown Crested man Grant had mentioned, and whisked away to a gleaming mansion in the far reaches of the country.

  A few weeks later, to Venture’s relief, Dasher arrived in town and offered to take him and Earnest out to Seven Coins to catch up. Seven Coins was plain, cramped, dim, and warm—like a sturdy stone version of the nook he used to sleep in. He was glad to have Dasher back and eager to be wrapped in the dark smells of smoke and beer and grease.

  The pub maid expertly slid two frothing mugs of beer onto the table—one to Venture, one to Dasher—without so much as a dribble. She pushed another to Earnest with a great slosh, and didn’t give the spill the slightest swipe with her apron.

  “Good to see you again, Venture,” she said shyly. “And you, too, Mr. Starson. Though I’ve seen enough of you, lately, Mr. Goodview.”

  “Good to see you, too, Ivy.” Venture gave her a smile and Ear
nest a curious look.

  She was sweet, cute, if a little mousy, but not Earnest’s type at all. They placed their order. Ivy avoided Earnest’s eyes as she said, “I’ll have that right out for you boys.”

  She stopped to scoop up the empty mugs from the nearest table before disappearing behind the counter. Venture raised his eyebrows at Earnest.

  “I was lonely without you guys. Dasher was gone, you were working . . .” Earnest mumbled into his beer.

  Venture sighed and let it drop. He didn’t want to know what Earnest had done to entice and then spurn poor Ivy, so he steered the conversation toward Dasher. “How’s your sister? How was your visit home?”

  “Heather’s fine. Apparently she really had a close call. A raging fever and a hacking cough, but she was well enough by the time I got there.” He paused, tapping his fingers on his mug. “I heard some bad news, though, about that legislation our friend Longlake has Wisecarver and the rest of his crew of Uncrested representatives working on.”

  “It’s happening?” Venture said.

  “All I know is that they feel confident enough that they’re actually going to move to have it put up for vote next autumn. That doesn’t mean it will pass.”

  “It won’t pass,” Earnest said, banging his mug down.

  Venture frowned at his mug.

  “Aside from that, though?” Earnest prompted, trying to change the subject for Venture’s sake.

  “It was a good visit, surprisingly good,” Dasher said with a shy grin.

  “What, Dash?” Earnest tipped back in his chair.

  “I met a girl. An Uncrested girl my father wants me to marry.”

  “You look entirely too happy about that, Dasher Starson,” Venture said.

  “I told them I’m inclined to agree to it.”

  “To the engagement?” Earnest’s chair snapped back upright.

  “My father had met with hers a few times, and they’d discussed it. I haven’t had a chance to meet him face to face yet. He’s been away on business. But she was in town the same time I was. I met her to humor them, and I guess out of curiosity, too. I still don’t like the idea of my parents getting their way in this, but . . . that girl, that girl I think I could even settle down for. She’s a beauty, and I don’t just mean her looks. She’s different.”

  “How do you mean?” Earnest said skeptically.

  “She didn’t seem intimidated at all by me being Crested—afraid of breaking our rules, worried about impressing my parents. But that’s not all. She’s poised and refined and confident and all young lady, but just as soon as we had a moment alone, do you know what she asked me? She asked me who was the toughest fighter in my family, and when I said I couldn’t really say, she said, ‘Well, I was right, then, it must be you.’”

  “Why’d she think that?” Earnest said.

  “That’s what I asked her, and she said that I was the only one with a fighter’s ears. Then she asked me whether I preferred to fight hand-to-hand or by the sword and which champions I thought had been the greatest and all sorts of things you wouldn’t expect from a young lady. Things nobody who knows me as Dauntless Glen ever asks me. She even asked me what I thought of the up-and-coming Venture Delving.”

  Venture couldn’t help a smile. “And what did you say?”

  “I told her I know nothing of prize fighters. I am, after all, a Crested man, and above such things. Too many brutes and men of ill repute and all sorts of bad habits among them,” he said with a grin.

  “So you let her think you’ve been training in the traditional training rooms of the ancient Crested families all these years, and not traipsing all over the country sweating over and beating on mere ordinary men? Not a good start for a good, honest relationship, Dash,” Venture said, only half teasing.

  Dasher laughed. “You know what’s really funny, though? What she said to me next. She said, ‘You really ought to meet Venture Delving. He may change your mind. He’s not at all like what you think prize fighters are. I suppose you think you’d be above talking to him, though, since he’s a bonded servant in my father’s house.’”

  “Her father’s house?” Earnest repeated.

  Venture couldn’t speak. In his lap, he clenched his napkin in his fist.

  “Yes, I’m supposed to marry Jade Fieldstone. Will it be too strange for you, having your friend marry your master’s daughter?”

  “No, it’s not that,” Venture managed.

  “What, then? Is there something about her? Something I should know?”

  “She’s a wonderful girl,” Venture said, staring into his empty glass, feeling just as empty.

  “You’d marry a girl against her wishes, Dasher?” Earnest blurted. “A girl whose family doesn’t even know who you really are? Grant Fieldstone has seen you fight. It might be hard to match you with a face he saw in the arena years ago, but what do you think is going to happen when his friends recognize you as the Champion of All Richland, the one who’s been training right here in Twin Rivers?”

  “Just because her family arranged for us to meet with hopes of an engagement, that doesn’t mean it’s against her wishes! And of course they’ll find out who I am. I plan on telling them right away. But don’t you see, that’s why it’s so perfect. If anyone would understand, they would. She and her father both love fighters.”

  Venture sucked in his breath. “That’s right. Why wouldn’t she want to marry Dauntless of the Glen, son of Star?”

  “Stop it, Vent.”

  “Look at him! What isn’t there to want to marry? Wealth, status, looks, intelligence, and when she finds out the true extent of his prowess as a fighter, come on, four-time Champion of All Richland on top of that!”

  “That’s right, and of course I’ll give her some time to get to know me better,” agreed Dasher, misunderstanding the intensity behind Venture’s words.

  “And I’m sure the more she gets to know him—well, we all know Dasher knows how to please a lady. After all, he’s had plenty of practice!” Venture threw down his napkin and headed for the door.

  “What’s the matter with him?” Venture heard Dasher say as he opened the door to the mud-room.

  “Let me talk to him.” Earnest hurried to follow Venture out.

  The door shut behind them and they stood in the coolness of the crooked wooden add-on the owner referred to as the foyer, and everyone else called the mud-room.

  “Venture Delving, what the blazes was all that? You go right back in there and clear this whole thing up, or I’ll do it for you.”

  “Don’t do it, Earnest! Don’t tell him!”

  “You tell him. Just tell him.”

  Venture leaned his forehead against the plank wall. He slapped it with his hand. He wanted to beat himself right through it. “No. She only said those things about me because he made a classist remark. She told me that I was ruining her life. She isn’t mine to have, and I wouldn’t have her anyway.”

  “You wouldn’t? Really?”

  Venture shook his head, as though he could shake away the truth.

  “You’re still in love with her, whether you want to be or not.”

  “I have no business telling him to stay away from her. Besides, she must want him.”

  “Are you kidding me? She was talking about you the whole time she was with him.”

  Venture turned around and rubbed his hands over his face. He spoke quietly, soberly. “I know Jade, and I know how she would’ve treated a man her father wanted her to marry—if she still loved me. If she ever did.”

  “She has her manners, Vent.”

  “She would have done nothing to encourage him. Dasher isn’t so foolish or full of himself to miss the kind of message she would’ve sent him. Why isn’t she doing something to try to stop it, to discourage him?”

  “Venture Delving, you’re losing your mind! Dasher loves you. If he knew—” Earnest shook his head. “Look, you know I think it’s a bad idea, you and Jade Fieldstone. But even if the two of you are done, even if s
he isn’t willing to risk being with you, Dasher deserves better than to be left in the dark on this. It would kill him to know what he’s doing to you.”

  “That’s why we’re not going to tell him.”

  “Then, either he falls for Jade and she rejects him, and he doesn’t know why, and he gets his heart broken, or she marries him and he tears your life apart!”

  “That part of my life is already torn. It’s been torn out. Just leave it, Earnest, just leave it!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Venture gripped the kitchen table. He breathed deeply, in and out, trying to calm himself. He knew he’d have to go back in there soon; Grant was waiting for more wine. But he couldn’t take it anymore, watching Jade with Dasher. He recalled what Grant had said to him when he asked him to work tonight: “Venture, we’ll be having a guest tonight. Star of the Glen’s son, Dauntless.”

  Dauntless Dasher Starson, of the Glen, Venture had corrected in his head.

  “He’s a Crested man, and if things continue to go as well as they have so far—this is just the sort of opportunity we’d hoped for. Everything must be just right.”

  Yes, sir, yes sir, Venture repeated to himself now. He willed himself to let go of the table and pick up the bottle of wine. To do his job. Dasher had tried to talk to him about this yesterday. He was concerned about Venture feeling uncomfortable serving him. “I have no problem serving my friends,” he’d said, as though saying it could make it true.

  “Champ?”

  Dasher.

  “You shouldn’t be here,” Venture said.

  “You’re my friend. I want to make sure you’re okay.”

  Venture shook his head. “You shouldn’t be here—at all. Dash, I know this isn’t going to make any sense to you, and it’s not your fault, but—if you marry that girl, I’ll kill you! You understand me, Dasher Starson? I don’t care who you are, this isn’t right!”

  There was no surprise, no anger from Dasher. “No, it’s not right. You love her, and she ought to be yours.” Dasher moved his hand slowly, almost warily to Venture’s shoulder, making clear his gesture of peace and affection.