Priest (Ratcatchers Book 1)

by Matthew Colville

  When he was done he looked up at Teagan.

  “When we get out of here,” he said. “I’m taking the girl back to the Hammer and Tongs,” he said. Teagan nodded. “You go back and tell Domnal what happened. If he’s smart, he’ll post some guards on the street to watch.”

  “The Black could get past the guards and kill everyone in here and none of them would ever know it.” Teagan said.

  Heden gave him a look.

  “Well,” Teagan admitted with a smile. “Unless I was one of the guards.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Heden said. “If the Count knows Dom cares, he’ll back off a little.”

  “’A little?’” Teagan shook his head.

  Heden took a deep breath and turned to lead the way.

  As they climbed the narrow, candle-lit stairs, Heden stopped. He turned and asked Teagan a question.

  “You ever been in the Iron Forest?”

  “Yeah,” Teagan said. “Went in with eight in ’22, came out with three.”

  Heden nodded to himself. “Never mind,” he said.

  “Okay,” Teagan said with a shrug. He seemed to have no problem letting go of anything not immediately threatening him. Heden envied him.

  Heden continued up the stairs, Teagan following. The Arrogate and the fighting man climbed the stairs, preparing to kill six low-ranking assassins there to stop them from rescuing a whore who didn’t want to be rescued.

  Chapter Fifty

  Vanora was putting up less of a fight now, but only because she was tired.

  Heden dragged her into the Hammer & Tongs, and threw her into a chair. She fell back against it like a rag doll. Her hair in her face. She gave him a dark and sullen look.

  “You’re just like everyone else,” she said. But the abbot had prepared Heden for this.

  “Do you believe that?”

  “You left,” she rasped.

  “I came back.”

  “This time,” she said.

  “Okay,” Heden said. She had rehearsed this. Probably knew, or hoped, that Heden would come back for her. Maybe even left to force Heden to make a choice. Prove something. Knowing this, Heden didn’t need to say it.

  She filled in the silence.

  “What, it’s alright for you to leave on your own, but not me?”

  Heden nodded. “Yes.”

  She shook her head. “You’re just like all the rest.”

  She thought it bothered him for her to say this, but it didn’t. Watching Lady Isobel wreath herself in fire bothered him. This was just a problem to solve.

  “Did you know someone tried to buy you from me?”

  “What?” she said, pushing her hair out of her face. “I don’t…who? I don’t belong to you,” she objected.

  “They offered me seventy-five thousand crowns.”

  Vanora opened her mouth to say something, and left it that way. After a minute, it looked like she’d forgotten how to breathe.

  “What…?” she whispered.

  “It was in gemstones,” he continued. “Rubies. Diamonds.”

  “Seventy…Seventy five thousand…”

  “That’s half what I paid for this Inn,” Heden said.

  She looked into space. “Diamonds,” she said.

  “I told them you didn’t belong to me.”

  “But…seventy five…”

  “Vanora, do you know why someone would offer me that much money for you?”

  She looked frightened. Good.

  “N-no,” she said.

  “Yes you do,” he said.

  She looked at the floor.

  “Did you know Bann was here waiting for me when I got back?”

  She was still stunned. “Bann?” she repeated.

  “He wanted me to know what happened to you. Came to tell me you were at the Rose. He wanted me to go get you, and bring you back here.” That was probably true, Heden thought.

  Now she was frightened and confused. Good.

  “Bann works for Miss Elowen,” she said.

  “I know.”

  “Why would he…I don’t understand.”

  “Yes you do,” Heden said. He stepped forward, was now standing over her. This wasn’t how the abbot would do it. But he wasn’t the abbot.

  “How long have you been at the Rose?” he asked.

  She looked up at him, lost. “I don’t know,” she said reflexively. “Three years.”

  “You were twelve when you started.”

  “I…I think so.”

  “And when did you have your first patron.”

  “I don’t know!” she objected. But she meant ‘stop asking me’ “A year later, maybe?”

  “Right,” Heden said. She’d been groomed. Groomed for a special client. “So two years on the job, and how many patrons have you had?”

  Her desperation had run its course, she went on the attack. “Why do you care?!” she spat. “You’re not my father. You’re nobody. What, you only like it when you can be the first? Is that what this is about? You like to stick it in and watch us bleed?”

  It was a crude attack. She only did it to provoke him. She wanted him to hit her. He knew it. He’d seen it before. It’s probably what her father did, and it’s what she thought of when she thought of a father figure. He wasn’t going to take the bait.

  “You’ve had one patron,” Heden said.

  She stared at him. Afraid and angry at the same time.

  “She told you,” Vanora guessed. “Bann told you.”

  Heden shook his head.

  “It’s the Count,” Heden said. “You’re his favorite.”

  She dropped her head.

  “I was wrong,” Heden said, almost to himself. “I told the abbot ten years. You don’t have ten years, you don’t have two. He runs though them about one every three years which means you’re about due.”

  She wouldn’t look up.

  “The other girls must have told you. Told you what he did.”

  She cradled her hands in her lap.

  “Figure you’ve got about a year left. Maybe less.

  “I don’t care,” she said dully.

  “You better not,” he said. “If I was you and I cared, I’d be shitting myself every night. You know what he does to them when he’s done with them?”

  “No,” she said quietly, head down.

  He took a deep breath. Took it easy on her.

  “You liked him, at first.” Heden said, doing what he did. Getting into her head, seeing everything from her point of view until things made sense. “He’s handsome, still looks young. And that’s not a nickname, he’s a real Count. And he was nice to you. It wasn’t what you expected. It didn’t have to be, he had plenty of time. He had you all to himself.

  “Still, he moved fast. But that was okay. Pretty soon he wants to tie you up, okay. He wants to do things to you, okay. Has to be okay because you can’t say no. The girls try and tell you what’s going to happen. Miss Elowen tries to keep you apart, but that’s not really possible in there. And maybe she hopes…hopes you’ll get away. I think she hates him as much as anyone. You think the girls are jealous of you. Of course they are. And they hate you too, because you only ever see him. But they don’t need to make anything up to hurt you, the truth is bad enough.

  “He used to leave all sorts of marks, bruises. Used to be, his girl couldn’t even leave the building, but that was years ago and he’s better at it now. Doesn’t leave anything anywhere that shows. I didn’t see anything when I changed your clothes. I didn’t think anything of it.”

  She looked up at him. She wasn’t crying. Tough little girl.

  “How do you know all this?” she asked.

  “Here’s what I don’t understand,” Heden said. “If you knew about the Count, what he did to his girls, and I was here, giving you a way out…something you had to be dreaming about every night since you realized the other girls weren’t lying to you…why did you go back? That’s the only thing I don’t get.”

  Her head dropped back down
again. From under her long hair, came her voice.

  “Three days is a long time.”

  Heden pulled up a chair at sat down across from her.

  “You’re right,” he said. “And you were scared of what would…”

  He said the wrong thing, or something inside her broke. Either way she lashed out at him.

  “You think I went back because I was scared? Because I didn’t know? You think I’m some innocent girl!? I went back because I liked it! Do you understand? The others would whisper to me, all the things he would do, they tried to frighten me, but I liked it! I never dreamed about leaving, I dreamed about him taking me away! The other girls weren’t like me,” she said, proudly. She swelled a little. “He said so. They didn’t like it, they cried, they were afraid. I was afraid he’d stop!”

  Heden sat back roughly in his chair, surprised at her revelation. Shit, he thought, I need to talk to the abbot about this. Part of him didn’t like that. Didn’t like admitting defeat. Another part of him liked the fact that there was the abbot to go to.

  She took his introspection as shock.

  “Listen,” Heden said, recovering. “It’s my fault. I forgive you.”

  “You can’t forgive me!” she shouted. “I haven’t done anything wrong. You can’t save me, because there’s nothing to save me from!”

  “That’s not what I mean. I mean I forgive you for leaving. I left you alone, I shouldn’t have done that. Things were…fragile and I should have…it’s my fault.”

  “Stop saying that! Why aren’t you angry at me?!”

  This brought Heden up short. She wasn’t just telling him the truth, she was being open. She trusted him, but needed something from him, and he couldn’t give it to her because he didn’t understand it.

  He didn’t know what to say, so he went with the old standby.

  “What?”

  Vanora was angry at him, furious. “How can you just sit there after all this?” She threw it all at him. “I’m sick! There’s something…there’s something wrong with me! I’m not normal! Why can’t you see what’s wrong with me? I need to be…I need to be punished or something. I need someone to see what I’ve done!”

  She was looking at him with fear and horror, her young face twisted with pain. He looked back in shock. He’d seen that look before.

  They needed someone to see what they’d done.

  “Black gods,” he said, and stood up almost involuntarily.

  Why can’t you see what’s wrong with us?

  “Brys.” He remembered his first meeting with Brys, trying to worm out of the knight what Taethan had done wrong. The look on Brys’ face when Heden suggested….. He staggered, took a step back.

  “What?” Vanora asked, confused.

  Heden started breathing heavily. He ran his hand through his hair absently.

  “That’s why she killed herself.” Isobel!

  We need to be punished.

  “What?!” Vanora was now on the verge of hysterics.

  “Black Gods,” Heden said. “It wasn’t him. He wasn’t horrified because I realized what Taethan had done wrong…he was horrified because he thought I’d guessed what he….”

  Heden shook his head and looked around the Inn, as if he’d forgotten where he was. He looked at Vanora, and knew what to do.

  He got down on his knees and took her head in his hands. She tried to pull away, but her heart wasn’t in it.

  He kissed her on the forehead and then pulled back, put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. There was fear there, but hope as well. That was his job. Fuel the hope and kill the fear.

  “It’s not complicated,” Heden said. “It’s just this. Five days ago we didn’t know each other. But now we do. And let me tell you something, young lady,” he tried out the phrase to see how it sounded. Not bad. “That’s all that matters. You think there’s more, everyone thinks there’s got to be some greater significance, but that’s all crap. All that matters is; we didn’t know each other, and now we do. So now what? I’ll tell you. We stay together, we stay here and see what happens, or you go back to the Rose and we’re just two people who used to know each other. It’s that simple.”

  Her eyes were wide with fear.

  “I’ll protect you from the Count. And there’s nothing wrong with you. Whatever you like, whatever you think you are or want to be, that’s up to you. And I can get you help.” He hoped the abbot wasn’t busy for the next few years. “But the Count is an evil man and he will kill you as soon as he’s bored with you, and he gets bored fast. Now I’ve got somewhere to go,” he said.

  “Heden!” She grabbed the edges of his breastplate at the shoulders. He slowly pried her fingers away.

  “Hours,” he said. “Not days. Not this time. If you leave, that’s your decision. But if you’re still here when I get back, then that’s it. Then we’re in this together and we’ll take it as far as it goes.”

  She stared at him and saw something in his eyes. Something she’d never seen before. Something no one had seen in him in years. She threw herself around him, buried her head in the crook of his neck and started crying. He hugged her back, tight. As tight as he could.

  “You’re not going to leave,” he said, his voice choking.

  She shook her head.

  He said the words again. They stayed like that a few moments and then Heden heard the sound of something soft but heavy hitting the tabletop next to them.

  He pulled away, and saw Ballisantirax on the table washing herself.

  He stood up. Vanora pushed herself back and tried to straighten her hair. She was sniffling.

  “Balli,” he said, and the black cat looked up at him with large black eyes ringed with yellow. He pointed to Vanora. “Watch Vanora,” he said.

  The large black cat looked at Vanora and said “Mow.”

  Vanora laughed through her tears and reached out, grabbing the cat. Ballisantirax was heavier than she looked, and all muscle.

  She hugged the cat, burying her head in its fur. Balli squirmed and tried to get away, her feet splayed and a look of mild alarm on her face. “Mow.”

  Heden looked at the two of them. Hell of a family, he thought. But good enough, he reckoned.

  He grabbed his pack and without saying anything else, walked out the door.

  Chapter Fifty One

  He slammed the door behind him. Then he noticed the two men standing on either side of the door.

  Well, one man. And one war-bred urq.

  He spun around and looked at Bann and Teagan, casually leaning on either side of the doorframe. Teagan had fired a nail, he passed it to Bann who inhaled deeply from it. Bann had brought his sword, his huge two handed broadsword slung over his back. It was like walking around with a ballista in his pocket.

  “Heden,” Teagan said, nodding. The watchman’s slight smile was there.

  “What the fuck are you two doing here?” Heden asked.

  They looked at each other and then back at Heden.

  “Well, that’s a bit of a pickle, innit?” Bann growled.

  He looked, shocked, at Bann, and then, pointing to the urman, looked shocked at Teagan. “You know he’s Miss Elowen’s head muscle?”

  Teagan shrugged. “Nobody’s perfect.”

  Heden looked between them.

  “And you know he’s a watchman,” Heden said to Bann, pointed at Teagan.

  “Yeah, and he’s a mare,” Bann said and sniffed. “We know all about this one. Figure what a man does with his time is his business, innit? Long as he doesn’t try and arrest me or stick his prick up me arse.”

  Heden stared blankly at the door between them.

  “Listen,” Bann said, taking another drag on the nail. “Miss Elowen, she says to me…wol, basically same thing his boss tole him,” he said, nodding to Teagan. “So we said, what the fuck?” Bann handed the nail back to Teagan, who took it without looking, and took a drag from it.

  Teagan nodded, smiling. “That’s exactly what he said.”r />
  “Now,” Bann said, adjusting his back to get more comfortable leaning against the doorframe and his sword. “We figure, you pissed off the Count and he’s the kind of pickfucker you wouldn’t want to go dig a hole with, ‘cause he’d stab you in the back and fuck you in the ass…”

  “So to speak,” Teagan said, blowing smoke through his nostrils and looking casually down the street.

  “…and leave you in the hole to rot. So we figure, you’re a busy man. You’ve got things to do. We don’t know what; we don’t want to know what.”

  “We don’t want to know,” Teagan agreed.

  “Figure, that’s your business, innit? So we come down here, and uh, mind the store while you’re away.” He smiled triumphantly. He teeth and tusks a yellowing white.

  “He means protect the girl,” Teagan explained.

  “That’s what I said,” Bann said. “He knows what I mean, don’t you Heden?”

  “I know what you mean,” Heden said cynically.

  “Now if you got a problem with this,” Bann said, his voice like a roaring river in an underground cave. “Then uh, I think we’re at something of an impasse,” the urq said, using the word tentatively. He looked to Teagan for approval.

  “He means, if you don’t like it, you can go fuck yourself,” the man said smoothly. “We’re doing it anyway.”

  “It’s for your own good, style of thing.” Bann explained delicately.

  “Hers too,” Teagan said, nodding behind him.

  Heden could see Vanora’s head pressed against the glass in the door, listening.

  He nodded to himself. He had little choice. “Alright,” he said. “Figure each of you will keep an eye on the other and between you, she’ll be okay.”

  Bann reached out and hit Teagan’s shoulder with the back of his hand. “Told you he’d say that? Didn’t I?”

  Teagan took another drag on the nail. “You did,” he said nodding.

  “I’m going to see the abbot,” Heden said to them.

  Teagan shrugged.

  “Who?” Bann asked.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Heden said. “I’ll be back by nightfall.” The two men nodded. They didn’t seem to care when he came back.