by Kris Kramer
***
"There aren't very many bodies," Saras’ voice disrupted the eerie stillness that hovered over the remains of the camp. We’d returned to find it decimated, a sickening reminder of what the draco could have done to us. The only things left to welcome us were smoldering tents, burning shrubbery, and more charred bodies. The ground was scorched black, and every footstep sent soot and ash flying.
"I'd say at least half of his men escaped,” Riose said. “And I don't see anyone here that looks like Hagrim, or even that slaver, so we can assume they got away, too."
"No sign of the gem," I said, kicking over the burnt remains of a support pole for Hagrim's tent, "and no clue about who sent the draco.”
"Is this finally enough for you?" Saras asked. "Can we finally be rid of that damn thing? It's been nothing but trouble, and this game you’re playing with it has nearly gotten us killed more times than I can count. Now we have dracos coming after us! How do we fight them off?"
I stood there, brooding. Saras was absolutely right. The gem was more than simply a burden, it was a target on our backs. I didn't have a problem with bounty hunters, mercenaries, thieves or lords all chasing after me to get it. I could handle them. In fact, Saras was right about that, too. It was a game for me, one where I would hover just out of their reach, teasing them with my capture, only to shame them over and over again. But this was different. Mages were a dangerous nuisance in their own right, but I couldn't fight a draco. Not without getting a fantastically lucky break, such as the one the gods had bestowed on me tonight. If people like that were after me now, then I had to abandon the gem. And the game. That was the prudent course. But somehow, I felt like a failure for doing so, and I hated that feeling.
"It's time to live a normal life for a while, Basileus," Saras continued, almost echoing my own thoughts.
I nodded curtly. There was nothing else to say about it, so I didn't. The hunt was over.
Well, almost. I looked at Riose. "What about you?" He cocked an eyebrow at me, not understanding my question. "Do I need to kill you now, or are you done running errands for crooks?"
"I saved your life. You owe me."
I let my hand rest on the hilt of my sword. "Saving my life earns you no favors."
"Saving mine does, though." Saras walked over to Riose, and held out his hand. "Thank you. I owe you my life."
"What are you doing?” I protested. “You realize he's the reason you almost died, right?"
Saras gave me a look that basically told me to be quiet, so I frowned. Riose gave him a nod, still watching me out of the corner of his eye. "I may take you up on that sometime."
"What will happen to his bounty in Pontas?"
Riose shrugged. "My guess is once word gets back about what happened here, everyone will assume Hagrim has the gem now, and Basileus will become a lower priority." He turned to me. "I wouldn't go back there for a while, though."
"I'll take that under advisement," I said.
We had nothing left to say to each other, so we went our separate ways. Saras and I headed for Raven's Crest as fast as we could, eventually finding his father’s men near the river, while Riose claimed to be returning to Pontas. I think I knew as early as that moment, though, that I would see him again, but it wasn't until much later that I realized why. I'd learned the hard way over the last few years that mages could sense the gem. They could tell when it was nearby, like a hunting dog sniffing out nearby game. That draco left Hagrim's camp, chasing after the gem, and he found us instead. That meant the gem had been nearby. Once I had time to stop and make sense of that night, I laughed when I realized Riose had the gem with him. Somehow, he'd managed to sneak back into the camp and take it, before everything went up in smoke. I laughed, until I remembered the mage was going to kill me first.
That Riose really was a bastard. How I would enjoy killing him.
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