His companion, a man in his mid-thirties with short dark brown hair and a clean shaven face, peered at them as well. “I believe so. It’s been a few weeks since her punishment ended, hasn’t it?”
“Are you two going to gossip all day? I’d like to get settled back in, if you don’t mind,” Katie said as she began to pop her fingers.
“Yeah, yeah, we know,” the auburn haired guard said as he rolled his eyes. “We know the drill, and you do too. So who accompanies you? He doesn’t look like your normal company.”
Katie opened her mouth to speak, but she was beaten to the punch by her companion. “I’m Caleb of Kirakath. Katie and I met as we were headed here. It’s a good thing too. Did you know that your roads are plagued by highwaymen?”
The guards bristled at the last question.
“That’s enough from you,” Katie said with a sigh as she laid a hand on Caleb’s shoulder. Looking towards the guards, she said, “Can we pass or not?”
The only reply that they were given was a waving hand gesture by one of the guards.
With that, she led Caleb through the gates, only stopping when they were out of earshot.
As they managed to get far enough away, Caleb’s eyes immediately went to his surroundings, truly taking in the city for the first time.
Directly in front of the gates, there seemed to be a completely empty semi-circle that was enclosed by the wall and the buildings that seemed to be built around the small area. There were only three gaps in the buildings that framed the arch of the semi-circle.
Off in the distance, he could see a large stone structure, though it was too far off to see clearly.
“Try not to offend anyone else,” Katie said with a sigh. “Now, I have business to take care of. I’ll meet up with you at nightfall back at the inn. And try not to get lost.”
With her words spoken, Katie made her way to the side street to their left.
“Where should I go?” he asked himself in a whisper. A sudden gust of wind swept over him, seeming to push him towards the right at that moment. “I guess right it is.”
With that decision made, Caleb began to walk towards the side street to his right.
Chapter 10
With a deep breath, Katie stilled herself.
Nearly an hour had passed since she left Caleb near the front gates of Caldreth, and she was standing in front of the door of an unmarked tavern.
While the fact that the tavern did not have a sign or a name would have made some people suspicious, that was not the case with the tavern before her. It was only accessible through a back alley, and it was just about as far away from Castle Caldreth as one could get while still being inside the city.
Placing her hand on the door handle, she slowly turned it and pushed the door open.
As the door opened, she immediately became aware that every table inside the tavern was occupied, along with all of the seats at the bar. The fact that twenty sets of eyes were upon her was more worrying than anything, but she pushed her anxiety to the side and walked through the door as if she did not even notice the observers.
She quickly walked along a straight path that would have taken her between the bar and the collections of tables, but she only managed to get halfway past the bar when a man turned on his stool and placed a burly hand on her shoulder.
“Where’re you going so fast, sweetie?” the man asked, his words slurring together enough that she had to focus to understand them.
Katie’s eyes suddenly turned to him, their edge far greater than what could normally be seen. With a sweeping wave of her arm, she knocked his hand from her shoulder and proceeded to spin on her heel. Before he could react, her hand was on the back of his head, gripping his hair forcefully.
The sound of wood cracking resounded as she slammed the man’s face into the bar with every ounce of her strength.
The intoxicated man slipped from his stool as he fell into a state of unconsciousness with a bloody face.
Other than the sudden sound of the man hitting the ground, the tavern grew quiet with Katie’s actions. The tension in the room was great, despite the fact that no one appeared to have any intention of rising from their seats.
The silence was only broken as the sound of clapping rang through the tavern.
Katie’s eyes darted towards the direction that she had been walking towards originally. A man in his mid-thirties, dressed in fine clothes of a dark shade was making his way towards her. His hands came together three times, clapping with a look of amusement upon his face.
“I wondered if you had actually returned after all this time. It appears that you have indeed,” the man said as he stopped a dozen feet away. “I suppose you’ve been gone away for too long if someone’s actually willing to try to lay a hand on you. I seem to recall that the last person who did it lost his hand.”
“Nicolas can be overprotective,” she said stiffly. “It has been a while, Alexander. You’re just the man I came to see.”
His interest was piqued at those words. “Oh?”
“I’d rather discuss it in private,” she said as she glanced at the attentive patrons of the tavern.
“Of course,” Alexander said with a smile that reminded her of a snake. “Follow me.”
With that, he turned around and made his way through the doorway that he had come from originally.
Following his example, Katie walked into the room and shut the door. With a cursory glance around the room, she saw that the only things in the room were lamps, a table, and two chairs.
Knowing him, there’s at least one secret storage area in this room, she thought as she took a seat at the table across from him.
“Before we get to business, I’d like to know where you’ve been,” Alexander said, becoming serious in tone and manner. “I can tell that something happened.”
Though she frowned, Katie found that she could not deny him an answer. “I was captured by slavers on my way back to Caldreth.”
“I see,” Alexander said with a frown. That was clearly not what he had expected to hear. “I take it that they are dead now? I don’t imagine that you would have left them alive, even if you did manage to escape.”
“They’re dead, but I didn’t play too big of a role in their deaths,” she said with a sigh. “I was helpless until someone else showed up. It is that someone else that brings me here today too.”
“Is it the young man that you were seen with when you arrived at the front gates?” Alexander asked after a few moments of thought.
Unlike with Nicolas, Katie could not even feign surprise at her associate’s information. Alexander would not have been the successful leader of the Thieves’ Guild of Caldreth if he was not well-informed, after all.
“Yes, he is the one,” she confirmed. “He is called Caleb of Kirakath, and I want to make sure that no one harasses him while we’re here.”
“That will cost you,” Alexander said with a sigh. “Business is business. I can’t let him pass freely, even if he did save you from a terrible life.”
Without saying a word, Katie removed five crowns from her coin purse and placed them on the table between them. “He is not to be harassed by anyone.”
Alexander’s eyes lit up at the sight of the gold. “He will not have any problems from any of my men.”
“Good,” she said as she slid the coins over to him, the golden image of King Arcacius catching the light as they slid. “And before you ask, I’m not interested in doing any more jobs. I don’t expect that I’ll be in the city for too much longer.”
An unexpected emotion flitted across Alexander’s face at those words.
Is he concerned? The thought surprised her. It seemed very uncharacteristic of him.
“Don’t get yourself into anything that you can’t get out of,” Alexander said as he stacked the crowns in front of him. “If I know you as well as I suspect I do, and I’m sure I do, then you have no doubt gotten yourself into trouble again.”
Katie bristled at his wor
ds, insulted by his insinuation.
“You may have been my boss for the past few years, but you don’t know me. You’ve only ever cared about yourself.”
A wry smile found its way on Alexander’s face. “I suppose it would look that way to you, but you don’t know the complete truth. There are many things that you are unaware of, my dear Katherine.”
Cold fury ignited in the redhead’s eyes as she rose to her feet. “How do you know that name?”
Alexander’s smile did not fade, despite his associate’s anger. “I know more than you could imagine. I wouldn’t be very good at my job if I couldn’t obtain such information on one of my own subordinates, now would I?”
“If you tell anyone, I will kill you,” Katie vowed, her hand resting on her dagger. By the look in her eyes, there was no doubt that she would be more than willing to go through with her threat.
“I know,” Alexander said with a nod. “I can understand why you’ve chosen to keep this a secret, and I have every intention of respecting your wishes. That doesn’t mean that you should relax too much though. I’m not the only one who knows.”
She froze at those last words, more than a little unnerved. “Who knows?”
The only answer she received with a small smile.
Turning on her heel, Katie stormed out of the room, roughly shoving the door open before she strode across the tavern towards the exit.
It was not until she was outside of the tavern that she took a deep breath and braced herself on the wall with her right hand.
It’s just about time to relocate. If Alexander knows, then it’s just about time that someone else figures it out, Katie thought as she tried to catch her breath. If he figures out that I’m here, then I’m going to have a big problem.
As she finally caught her breath, Katie began to walk down the alleyway towards the street, her steps quicker than normal.
“I just heard that you were back.”
Once again, she found herself in a state of nervousness. There was no doubt in regards to the man’s identity, even without turning to look at him. It was Nicolas’ only uncle and the magistrate of Caldreth, Jason Edge.
Her eyes quickly went over her shoulder to him in the hopes that she was just imagining things. He looked like a ten year older version of Nicolas with a goatee. Unlike his nephew, he wore an attire of fine blue clothing, befitting of his status.
“Word travels fast, Lord Magistrate,” Katie said sharply as she began to walk away from him, uncaring of his position in the city.
Within moments, Jason was at her right, walking along with her as though they were old friends. “I can understand why you are angry with me, but your anger is not appropriately placed,” he said in a whisper. “You may want to blame me, but I was only doing my job.”
“We both know that I was innocent of the thefts that you sentenced me for. I’m not that reckless,” she said quietly, anger evident in her eyes but not her tone.
“Sometimes, a man has to pick one job over another,” Jason said with a sigh. “Has it ever occurred to you that I am not just the magistrate of Caldreth?”
“What are you talking about?” she asked, grabbing his shoulder and pulling him into an alleyway as they passed it. She pushed him against the wall forcefully, anger clear in her eyes. “I want to know the truth, and I want to know it now.”
“I temporarily banished you for crimes that you did not commit. I won’t deny that to you in private, but I was acting in the best interests of my nephew’s best friend,” Jason said as he shrugged Katie’s hand off of him. “If you want the truth, then I will give it to you. To put it as simply as I possibly can, Duke Aron made a visit to Count Clovis about a month ago. I thought you’d appreciate me getting you out of the city a few weeks before he arrived.”
A mixture of anger and shock once again filled the redhead. It was impossible that he could know the truth about her. There was just no way that he could know.
And yet… the look in his eyes was impossible to deny. No one could lie to her and look her in the eyes without her seeing it.
“You know.” Her voice grew dry as she realized that she did not make it a question. She had stated it. Even if he had just had a suspicion initially, he knew for sure now.
Jason nodded with a tight smile upon his face. “Yes, I know who you really are. The only people in this city that know, to my knowledge, are Nicolas and I.”
“Alexander knows too,” Katie said with a sigh. “I don’t know how anyone but Nicolas figured it out. He only knows because I told him, after all.”
“Secrets get out. It’s what they do,” Jason said with a grim expression. “I suggest that you get out of Caldreth before it’s too late. He will find out where you are if you stay, but I’m sure you know that.”
“I suppose three years was all I could ask for,” Katie said as she nodded in agreement with the man that she had hated until recently. “I have some business that I need to take care of. After it’s done with, I’ll leave Caldreth.”
“I wish you luck,” Jason said as he stepped to the side. “But we have spoken long enough. I don’t want anyone to get too suspicious of my absence, after all.”
With that, Jason left Katie to think about everything.
* * * * *
Caleb was not entirely sure where he was, though he knew that he really needed to turn around and try to find his way back to the city gates. He had been wandering through the streets for about an hour, and he had not had any luck so far.
Father said someone would find me, so where are they? He glanced around at the empty street. I have a better question. Where am I? I should’ve tried to remember what path I took.
Turning around, Caleb saw something that he had never seen before in his life.
A small solid black animal with a long tail, slit-like green eyes, and whiskers protruding from its face stood before him. Its eyes were focused upon him, its expression almost curious.
Hector told me about that creature before, Caleb remembered, thinking back. I believe he said that it was called a cat.
Almost as if on cue, the cat turned and began to run away from him, turning down an alleyway about twenty years away from him.
Mesmerized by the cat’s sudden appearance and departure, Caleb took off running after it, sliding to a stop as he reached the alleyway.
A sense of confusion struck him as he peered into the alleyway. It was completely empty. Curiosity got the better of him as he began to walk down the alley, his eyes glancing around in the hopes of finding the cat.
He was about fifteen feet into the alleyway when it happened. Pain shot through him, beginning from the back of his head. Caleb dropped to his knees before he fell to the ground face first.
* * * * *
Hours passed, and Katie was sitting at one of the tables in the Black Raven Inn with a cup of water resting before her.
A flick from her right hand sent the water within the cup rippling with a soft thud. She repeated the motion a few times, her eyes focused on her rippling reflection in the cup.
“What’s wrong?”
Her eyes went up from the water to the bar where Nicolas was standing. Concern was clear in his eyes as he stared at her.
“Caleb should have been here by now,” she said as she flicked the cup again. “I’ve only known him for a short time, but I know him well enough to know that he would not just get lost and stay lost. If he managed to get lost, he’d no doubt find his way and be just a little late.”
“You suspect something?” Nicolas asked as he walked around the bar and strode towards her table. “I thought you paid off Alexander so he’d be safe.”
“I did,” Katie said, fear creeping into her words. “Alexander would make sure that none of his people touched Caleb. He doesn’t want to make me mad.”
“What do you think happened to him then?” Alexander asked as he took a seat across from her. “I will do my best to try to find him, but I need to know what you think happened.”
“I don’t know.”
Nicolas closed his eyes and placed his hands over hers. “Let’s try to find him then.”
Chapter 11
The first thing that Caleb became aware of was the sound of dripping water.
His eyes snapped open as his memory came flooding back to him. The last thing that he could remember was a sharp pain at the back of his head before he faded from consciousness.
“What in the abyss is going on?” he asked quietly as his hand went to the back of his head. He could not feel any blood, dried or fresh.
Rise of the Champion (The Sword of Kirakath Omnibus #1) Page 8
