The Ballad of Azron Bezron
Page 5
As it turned out, the lightning barrens were all boding and no belly. Whatever wildlife managed to eke out an existence there did so quietly, and if there were any evil spirits, they attended to their own, presumably evil, business. The travellers moved on without any distraction, making better time now that they didn’t have to wade through grassland.
They passed a farmstead, rotten and dilapidated. The rumor was that the lightning barrens had once been just as lush and vibrant as the cotton prairies, and a popular destination for those farmers and pilgrims looking to tame the wilderness. Nobody knew what had changed, but the skeletons of farm and town appeared like a mirage now and then, humbled by time, brought low by neglect, sickly with forgotten dreams.
Nobody was surprised to hear the rustle of movement and see the darting figures out of the corner of their eye as they came to these places. The desperate would live anywhere.
One such figure stood as bold as brass in the frame of a long-since missing doorway. He was emaciated, with papery skin and glazed eyes, the hair on his head thin and wispy. He pointed a crooked finger at the travellers as they passed and spoke in a voice like the dying of leaves. ‘Doomed. Doomed. Doomed.’
The three travellers stopped and conferred briefly. After a time, Azron broke off and approached the thin stranger. ‘Hallo, guv. How goes it?’
The figure blinked. ‘Doomed,’ he said.
‘Yeah, you said that. Thing is, though, how exactly?’
‘…doomed?’
‘Yeah, how are we doomed exactly? It might be useful to know.’
The figure frowned and seemed to think. ‘Generally doomed?’
Azron sighed. ‘You mean in a “death comes to us all” kind of way?’
The figure nodded happily. ‘Doomed,’ he said. ‘Like the others.’
‘Others?’
‘Oh, yes. Other men travelled through, not three sunsets ago. They were big and armed and never seen again. They were, most emphatically, doomed.’
‘Oh,’ said Azron. ‘Well. See you, then.’
‘Doomed!’ called the stranger, waving goodbye. ‘So very, very doomed!’
The travellers walked into the distance and the stranger stood quietly, awaiting the next people to pass by so that he might helpfully inform them of exactly how doomed they were.
+++
Later that night they came to a deserted township, watched over by a crumbling keep and tower built long ago to defend who-knows-what from who-knows-what-else. It was surely the abandoned castle they sought. In the night, the tower looked to be cut from onyx, but for a single glowing light emanating from the very top tower. The trio had a brief discussion and agreed that the light was most probably eldritch.
‘I’ll need to check the place out when we’ve got some daylight,’ said Azron. ‘We’ll camp tonight. Take turns on watch.’
Jaq studied the thief’s face for a while before nodding.
They made camp in a windmill that had lost its roof long ago, and they made a fire in the shelter of a stone wall.
Azron rolled a cigarette and stared into the fire. ‘I’ll keep first watch,’ he said.
After a time, lulled by the lonely moans of the wind, Jaq and Baby fell asleep. Azron stayed up, staring hard into the fire.
+++
Jaq awoke, had a terrible thought, and her hand went unbidden to her rifle. She sat upright but their little campsite was exactly as it had been when she had fallen asleep. Baby was still snoring away. Azron had not moved.
Jaq grinned sheepishly. ‘I had a thought that you’d escaped,’ she said.
Azron drew on his roll-up, the tiny orange glow reflecting from his sharp features. ‘I thought about it.’ He held a thumb and forefinger an inch apart. ‘I was this close.’
‘Why would you bother? We’re here now—this is the easy part. You go in, get the ruby, get out.’
Azron shook his head. ‘There’s no ruby in there.’
Jaq frowned. ‘What makes you say that?’
The thief sighed. ‘Because Topman doesn’t want a ruby. He just wants me dead. All that’s waiting in that tower is a bunch of men with guns.’
‘You don’t know that.’
‘I do.’ Azron looked up. ‘I really do.’
For a moment, Jaq simply scowled into the dark. ‘Why tell me this now? Why not just make a run for it? You had the chance.’
‘You’re right. I did.’ The thief took a hard draw on his cigarette. ‘Tell me, what was your job? What did Topman ask you to do, exactly?’
‘Make sure you got here, make sure you got the ruby, make sure you got it back to him.’
Azron nodded. ‘You see, for a while I thought it’d be you that would kill me.’
‘I’m a bounty hunter, not a murderer for hire!’ Jaq snapped.
‘I know that. I know that now. I realised it when you saved Baby and me from that devilcrow. So I thought to myself, does she know? Does she know that Topman plans to kill us all?’
Jaq said nothing.
‘Think about it,’ Azron continued. ‘He can’t be seen to have anything to do with my murder. Not in Port Town—they’d string him up. But if Azron Bezron goes to a strange place on a secret mission and is never seen again? Port Towners can live with that. It’s another story to tell. A good story, and that’s what people like. Tony gets his revenge, nobody’s the wiser.’
Jaq nodded slowly. ‘And he hires me to make sure you get here, where nobody goes. Then he has me killed so I never tell.’
‘Yeah,’ said Azron. ‘Pretty crappy, isn’t it?’
‘Yes. Why tell me now? Why wait all this time?’
‘Would you have believed me before, really?’
‘I might have.’
Azron grinned. ‘Actually I wasn’t sure about telling you ‘til just now. See, maybe I do know you a bit, and you’re not a silly girl playing games, but there’s a part of you with something to prove, isn’t there? Not because you’re a woman in a man’s game, but maybe because you don’t want to turn out like your mum, or your dad for that matter. See, for a while I thought that, even if you knew the truth, you might go ahead with the job anyway. You might burst in there, take on the hired thugs and get me back to Topman just to rub it in his face.’
Jaq didn’t speak.
‘Tell me I’m wrong,’ Azron said.
Jaq shook her head. ‘You’re not wrong. It’s tempting. Very tempting.’
‘Can I offer a slightly less dramatic course of action?’
‘Feel free.’
‘We walk away. We chalk this up to experience and we walk away.’
Jaq narrowed her eyes. ‘You mean run?’
‘No. I mean we go where we please, at our own casual pace. We’ve seen through Topman’s plan, and we live to fight another day.’
‘You could never go back to Port Town.’
Azron shrugged. ‘It’s not the place I knew anymore. It’s time for me to move on.’
‘I don’t run. I don’t run.’
For a while neither of them spoke.
‘I’ll tell you what,’ Azron said. ‘It’s your turn for watch anyway. Why don’t I get some sleep and leave you to think it over?’
Jaq nodded. Azron lay down and soon fell asleep.
+++
Sunrise the next day found Azron already awake. He sat up and looked around. Jaq was standing some way from the campsite, eyeing up the castle, which, even in the day, still sported the eldritch tower light.
There was a high-pitched yawn as Baby awoke. He fixed a beady eye on Azron. ‘Last night I dreamed that I made better life choices,’ he grumbled. ‘It was a wonderful dream and you were not in it at all.’
‘Good morning to you, too.’
Baby stretched and blinked rapidly. ‘It is time for certain-death adventures?’
Azron looked over at Jaq. ‘Maybe not. Let’s go and see, shall we?’
Azron and Baby walked over and stood shoulder to shoulder with Jaq. ‘So then,’ said Azron. ‘What
’s the plan?’
Jaq sighed. ‘I’m going back to Port Town.’
‘Oh.’
‘Don’t worry, I won’t expect you to come with me.’
‘You’re letting us walk away?’
‘I’ll tell Topman that you…that you escaped me.’
Azron put a hand on Jaq’s shoulder. ‘I realise that’s going to be hard for you to do.’
‘Hard? My reputation is flawless—flawless. This will be…unprecedented.’
‘Aren’t you worried about Topman?’
Jaq shook her head. ‘Either he’ll accept my version of events and a full refund, or there will be an argument.’
The set of Jaq’s jaw left little doubt as to who would win the argument.
‘You could come with us, you know,’ said Azron. ‘We’d be glad to have you. I’d be glad to have you.’
Jaq turned to him and snorted a quick laugh. ‘Be another verse in the ballad of Azron Bezron?’
‘Is that such a bad thing?’
Jaq shook her head, genuine regret on her face. ‘You’re a nice guy, Azron, but you’re a thief. You can’t change what you are any more than I can.’
‘No, I suppose not.’
‘Still,’ said Jaq. ‘We’ll always have the cotton prairies.’
Azron grinned. ‘I’ll remember it fondly. Apart from the terrifying bits, obviously.’
Jaq squeezed Azron’s shoulder, said nothing, and turned and walked away. Azron and Baby watched her go until she was out of sight. Then they too turned and walked away, wandering off into the sunrise, leaving behind them the abandoned castle and the haunted town.
‘Where to we go now?’
‘Who knows, Baby?’
‘The world is an oyster?’
‘Possibly.’
‘I hate oysters.’
‘Then imagine the world as something other than an oyster. Something you like.’
‘The world is made entirely of cream?’
‘Sure, why not. You know, Baby, I think this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship.’
‘Really?’
‘Well. No. Not really.’
+++
It was some months later that Jaq sat in her office, her feet on her desk, tossing a throwing knife idly from hand to hand. Her failure to bring in Azron Bezron hadn’t been as damaging to her reputation as she had thought—in fact, becoming part of his legend had actually increased the incoming job offers. She was thinking of branching out, maybe starting a franchise.
She looked through a stack of fresh propositions, various letters and wanted posters, then froze as one caught her eye. It was written in a language she did not know, but the likeness of Azron Bezron and his kobold sidekick was unmistakable. So too was the sizable reward. She turned the poster over, looking for a return address, wondering who in particular was interested in taking Azron down. All that was written was a note scrawled in hasty handwriting.
“Catch me if you can.”
Jaq felt a wide grin come unbidden to her face.
THE END
You can read more from Azron Bezron in the doomsayer journeys
More by this Author
The Last Volunteer
(Book One of the Doomsayer Journeys)
The Chained Immortal
(Book Two if the Doomsayer Journeys)
The Mad Emperor
(Book Three of the Doomsayer Journeys)
A Dark Night Begins
(A Doomsayer Tale)
Into The Black
Shoot The Dead
Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Section 5