by Howell, Rob
“Zoe’s not goin’ to be bein’ so pleased with you, Sevener, as I’m sure to be thinkin’ you already are to be knowin’, but then yer to be bein’ brave and suchlike…”
He talked the entire time it took for us to enter the Faerie, where Zoe and Karah awaited me. They pointed imperiously at a chair by the door that had been placed atop a large swath of fabric to catch the blood.
I collapsed into it as Karah sniffed at me. “Stop bleeding on my floor. I’m tired of mopping it.”
“I’ll be doin’ that, dearie,” I said dreamily.
Her hand twitched to slap me but instead she knelt to help Zoe unwrapped Sebastijan’s temporary bandage.
“Stitches, Sevener, lots of stitches,” Zoe growled.
“I’m not surprised, Zoe.” Things had started to get somewhat odd to me, so my voice sounded thick to me.
As the rest of the bandage came off, she made an odd sound. She looked around at the regulars who were muttering at the excitement. “Flavian!”
“Uh, yes, Zoe?”
“Go get a Helper. Preferably one from the house of Cosmas.”
“Sure, Zoe.”
“Quickly, or you’ll never like the food here again.”
At that, he hustled out the door.
“Here, lad, be drinkin’ this.” Ragnar shoved a mug in front of me. I sputtered when I realized it was rakija, not ale. “Be drinkin’ it all, lad, you’ll be thankin’ me later.”
I choked it down, the harsh liquid burning my throat. Fortunately, its warmth started spreading through me almost immediately.
Zoe busily cleaned the wound, having Karah hold bandages to my side to staunch the blood flow as much as possible. I dimly felt the sharp sting and looked down to see her applying one of her salves.
The rakija merely took the edge off the pain when Zoe started sewing the wound. I gasped and clenched my teeth.
Eventually, centuries later, she leaned back and looked at her handiwork. “Good enough,” she muttered and covered the wound with more of the salve. She wrapped a fresh bandage around the wound.
“Karah, go put old sheets and canvas on his bed.”
Karah nodded at her mother’s instruction and left.
“Now get him to his room. He’ll need help. The idiot didn’t realize how deep the cut was.”
“Neither did I,” grunted Sebastijan.
“Fools, both of you,” Zoe snapped.
Despite the tension, Ragnar almost smiled as the regulars in the Faerie at that moment realized where Karah got her sharp tongue. I could see the expression on everyone’s face so clearly, so very clearly.
“You’re beautiful, Zoe. I love your smile,” I mumbled.
“Yes, dear, I know.” Shaking her head, she followed as Sebastijan and Veselko helped me stagger up the stairs. Maja carried my weapons. I fell into the bed and my head started spinning. Fortunately, between the pain, the rakija, and the fight, my exhausted body dozed off almost immediately.
I awoke to a quiet voice and calm hands rolling me to my side.
“You’ve got such a nice touch, Zoe. You should come study with us. You know we’d have a place for you.”
I looked up to see Zoe and a man I did not recognize leaning over me. The sun shining through the window turned Zoe’s hair into a light halo, and her medallion to Elena rotated as she moved, creating lovely sunbeams. I tried to follow where they all went.
“Thank you, but I’ve got my place here and it’s not what I want to do ever again,” Zoe’s voice snapped. “I’m sorry, Miho, I didn’t mean to bark at you.”
“I know,” he replied.
I felt the cold touch of metal and heard the snip of scissors as he cut off Zoe’s bandage.
“How deep did it go?”
“I’m not sure, Miho. Deep enough. I sent Flavian right away to get you and stitched it to keep the bleeding under control, but did not really look into the wound.”
“That’s fine. I’ll let you replace the stitches after I’m done, you’re much better at it than I. Did you use your normal salve?”
“Yes.”
“Good, that will help some.”
I was still drunk from the rakija, but his prodding hurt terribly even so. I gasped in pain.
“Awake, me lad?”
I croaked out a sound, though not really a word.
“Excellent. Well, thanks to Zoe here and the blessings of Cosmas I think we’ll have you up in a few weeks. It’s not terrible, though be glad you have friends.”
“I am.”
“Now, lad, this is going to hurt, I have to slide my fingers in the wound.”
I almost fainted as his fingers went into my body. Then he got silent, and still, but suddenly my side burned. I could not move until suddenly he gasped, drawing ragged breaths like he had been in a battle himself.
“As I thought,” he whispered. “His kidney had been nicked. I’ve healed the cut and done what I can to prevent infection. He’ll need lots of bed rest, and you’ll need to watch in case his urine is filled with blood.”
“No…, I can’t in bed,” I rasped.
“What?”
“I can’t in bed… I mean I can’t stay in bed.”
“You have to.”
“No. I know.” I realized as I spoke the words that I did know what was going on. Maybe I only thought clearly when I was wounded. Maybe it was the rakija. Maybe it had been the Life magic fixing my kidney. Whatever the reason, looking up at Zoe everything clicked into place.
“I don’t understand.”
“I know... I know everything.”
“Hush, lad.”
“Wait, Miho,” said Zoe.
“What?”
“This may be an emergency.”
“He’ll heal now.”
“I know, but he’s in the middle of something bad.”
“This being why he was stabbed in the first place?”
“Yes.”
“You know it’s not good for the body to push the healing too fast.”
“Yes.” Zoe looked down at me. “Edward, what do you know?”
“I know everything. I know why Honker was beaten.” I gasped in pain again as I pushed out that sentence.
“Why?”
“Must get back to save Gibroz.”
“Save Gibroz? Zoe, you know I’m not going to help him anymore if he’s associated with that one.”
“Hush, Miho, he’s helping Honker, but Gibroz and his people are involved.”
“If you say so,” he muttered.
I shifted so I could look at Miho and put my hand on his arm. “Must go back.”
“If I try to heal you further, it will likely hurt your body. You may never heal as well again.”
“I can’t wait days and weeks. Must finish this now. Honker’s in danger. Faerie’s in danger. Gabrijela’s in...” I stopped speaking, exhausted.
Miho looked from Zoe to me and back. Finally, he sighed. “I need to eat something first. I’m still tired and that’ll make it riskier.”
“Come, I’ll feed you,” said Zoe.
“Tonight?” I gasped with the last of my will.
Miho slumped his shoulders. “Yes, Sevener, tonight.”
I fell back asleep before they could leave.
Chapter 48
Late Evening, 28 Heamoanne, 1712 MG
I sat at my table while Zoe watched me eat a bowl of gruel covered in honey. The friends I had collected in Achrida were all there, with the exception of Desimir, and I had apparently been far too close to joining him.
“You owe me for a bandage, Sevener.”
I looked up with a smile. “I suppose I do, Sebastijan.”
“Hush, let him eat. He needs the food.”
I did not argue. Despite Miho’s help, I was exhausted. The wound was mostly gone though, and what was left was stitched tightly together, salved, and heavily bandaged.
After two full bowls and nearly a whole pitcher of lakewater, Zoe took the dishes. “Don’t keep him up all
night.” She looked at each of us sternly and went back into her kitchen.
She did not need to glare at me. I desperately wanted to sleep, but we needed to plan for the morning. “I need your help.”
“Whose?” asked Piri.
“All of you. All of Vukasin’s Dassaretae. And the Feroun. Everyone we can scrape up quietly.”
Everyone set their drinks down to watch us.
“Zoe said you know something.”
“I do. I said I know everything. That’s not true, but I know which thread to pull.”
“What is it?”
“It’s no one you know,” I smiled. “It’s one of Gibroz’s men. It’s Markov.”
“Markov?”
I nodded. “Yes, he’s working for someone, someone other than Gibroz, someone who wants to hurt Gibroz.”
“Who?”
“I’m not sure. I have a guess, but I don’t want to say if I’m wrong.”
“Why Markov?” asked Zvono.
“Three things. First, the two men I killed today are the ones that attacked Honker.”
“There were three men,” she reminded me.
“Yes, but two of them did the beating while the third spoke to him.”
“Yes, that’s right,” she mused.
“While trailing Markov we noticed that he did much the same thing, but we didn’t know that’s what happened to Honker until we talked to Petros. Then when I found the bukavac medallions on the two I killed, the connection to the Gimerrai becomes obvious.”
Zvono nodded. “That makes sense.”
“And there’s more.”
“Yes?”
“Zoe showed me what I kept forgetting all along. Markov goes back to his grandmother like a dutiful grandson, right?”
Maja and Zvono nodded.
“We started trailing the grandmother when we realized she coincidentally worked at the Plucked Owl. We’d all but given up on her, though, because we’ve found nothing in over a month of watching her.”
“Yes.” Sebastijan nodded. “And the people watching her have been nagging at me to let them trail someone important.”
“She is important.” I smiled broadly. “And Zoe reminded me of that fact.”
They looked at me strangely.
“When Zoe cared for me tonight, I don’t know, it just made me remember meeting Markov’s grandmother. She wore a bukavac charm.”
“What?” asked Zvono.
“She’s Gimerrai.”
“Is Markov?”
“I don’t know. He doesn’t seem to like the beatings themselves. But he’s ordering them and using them to further his own ends.”
“What ends?” asked Piri.
“Again, I have a guess, but I need to ask him.”
“And he’ll tell you?”
“Probably not, unless, I ask him in the right way.”
“And what is that right way?”
“I go back to Gibroz’s and push the question there.”
“Back to Gibroz’s? Are you crazy?” snapped Maja.
“No, Maja, think about it,” mused Piri. “He’s just killed the two main thugs and some of their men. They’re going to be short-handed right now. This might be the best time.”
“Especially with all of you helping. Sebastijan, detail small groups of spies to go with your men to surround his den. Their job is to keep track of anyone trying to leave. Have all the rest of Vukasin’s Dassaretae go gamble, knowing something might happen. They’re there in case Gibroz calls for a bunch of people to help him in his office. You’ll be with me, along with Maja and Piri. I doubt I could leave them if I wanted to.”
The two Mrnjavcevics nodded at that comment.
“Excellent. So that will be four of us in the office. In those tight quarters, though we might be slightly outnumbered, I think we can hold our own.”
“Yes, I think so, too.” Piri grinned sharply.
“Vojin, I want you and the Feroun to ostentatiously follow me there. Your job is to focus attention. I don’t think anyone will try and come in through you, but you’re trying to prevent reinforcements off of the street.”
“What about the other entrances? We know they have them.”
“Yes, we do. We hope that the Dassaretae can slow them while we finish things upstairs. Remember, we’ve defeated a score of their people. If they have an unlimited number we’re dead anyway.”
Piri laughed. “If they had an unlimited number they’d have attacked here.”
“Exactly. They’re wounded. I want to make them desperate. I want us to be in place to track the crippled beast back to its lair, so to speak.”
“Desperate creatures are dangerous,” warned Piri.
“Yes, but so are we.”
Piri laughed. “You’re a fool, Sevener, but I’m a fool too. Tomorrow, we go hunting.”
Chapter 49
Before Dawn, 29 Heamoanne, 1712 MG
No one will ever know if my plan would have worked, because Markov anticipated it, or something like it. I awoke before the sun’s rise to Sebastijan pounding on my door.
“Get up, Sevener!”
“Wha... what?”
“I swear, you’re the laziest boss I’ve ever had! If you don’t open this door I will fuck the sun out of your sky!”
I stumbled over and opened the door.
“Get your stuff on. Even the armor. We’re going for a ride.”
“What? Where?”
“Markov and his grandmother headed south about an hour ago. I’ve got Eirik saddling horses.”
“What?” I shook my head to clear it. “Get Maja, I’ll get ready.”
“Do that, they’re already miles away from here.”
I felt better than anyone with a freshly stabbed kidney should, but that did not mean I was moving as fast and as smoothly as normal. It took me three tries to properly buckle my sword belt. Finally, I was ready. The scale armor chafed my side and felt heavier than normal.
In the stables, Maja and Eirik were fussing over Deor and the other horses. Zoe and Karah were passing out hunks of meat and bread. Zoe made sure I ate two pieces of goat while everything was prepared.
Ragnar arrived as preparations concluded bearing a flat item covered in a light cloth. “Yer still not to be havin’ that one a’yers fixed but this might be bein’ useful. And many’s the stories this will be bein’ able to tell you if yer but bein’ a mite more smart and all, still, it’s to be bein’ somethin’...”
“Hush, dear, just give it to him,” growled Zoe.
“Yes, my light.”
When he handed it to me I realized instantly it was a shield, round with a center boss. I removed the cloth, revealing blue and yellow quarters painted in the northern style. I slid my hand into the boss, finding it heavier and a tad larger than I liked. Still, it was the style I was used to and it moved right.
“Zoe’s to be remindin’ me I’m to be havin’ it back in one a’the rooms and I’m not be usin’ it much and she’s not to be lettin’ you go without a full set of tools, you know how she’s to be bein’, all insistent-like, and I’m to be thinkin’ I’m not to be arguin’ with her when she’s to be bein’ in her mood as she is right now.”
With a smack on Ragnar’s shoulder, Zoe turned to me. “Finish this, but be careful. I’ve spent too much time stitching you to have you die now.”
“Yes, Zoe, anything you say.”
She patted me on the cheek, and I suddenly felt much better.
“Sevener, we’re ready!” yelled Sebastijan.
They were already mounted. I got on Deor, and we exited the Faerie into the pre-dawn darkness.
I drew up next to Sebastijan and demanded, “So explain what’s going on.”
“We’re fortunate we’ve been watching Markov all night, every night. Tonight, the watchers could see hints of candlelight behind their shutters, something that has never happened before, so they summoned me around midnight. I didn’t do anything until I knew what was going on, but then they left, oh, p
robably two hours ago now. I knew you wanted to confront Markov, so I roused you as quickly as possible.”
“They were on foot when they left?”
“Yes, though who knows if that was true by the time they left the city.”
“They went south?”
Sebastijan nodded.
“Hmmm.”
“What?”
“Nothing important for now, but we have to get Gibroz.”
“Gibroz?”
“Yes, none of this matters unless we can get Gibroz and Gabrijela when we catch up to Markov.”
Sebastijan shook his head. “You’re not boring.”
The empty streets in the middle of the night were eerie, especially in the Square of Legends, but our trip to Gibroz’s den was quick. Even at this hour people were gambling, so the door was unlocked. The ravaged man took a minute to greet me, presumably because traffic was slow enough he could lay down in a back room.
“Sevener,” he rasped at me. “Why are you here at this hour?”
“I need Gibroz to take a trip with me.”
He laughed, a harsh, almost choking laugh, and shook his head. “He is not one who enjoys getting awakened by the likes of you. I don’t like swimming that much.”
“He’ll send you for a swim if he doesn’t come along. He’ll want to bring others, especially Gabrijela.”
His shredded skin twisted in a visage of amazement. “You’re seriously saying that Gibroz needs to come with you.”
“Yes. Mounted if at all possible.”
“Why would he want to listen to you, Sevener?” asked a strong feminine voice.
I turned to see Suzana standing at the door, idly playing with one of her knives. “Well, because we’re going after someone who’s been double-crossing him for as long as he’s worked for him.”
Suzana raised her eyebrows at that. “And who might that fool be?”
“Markov. He and his grandmother fled about two hours ago.”
“Fled.” She laughed mockingly. “Why would he do that?”
“Because I know he’s been fuckin’ with Gibroz and I can prove it.”
She lightly tapped the blade on a fingernail for a long moment. “Well, if you’re right, I’m going to enjoy playing with Markov, and if you’re wrong I’m going to enjoy playing with you.” She turned to the ravaged man. “Get Gibroz, Andreyev, and Gabrijela. I’ll get horses.”
