Hell to Pay (Ascend Online Book 2)

by Luke Chmilenko

  The only silver lining that we were all desperately clinging to was that the soul shards had yet to be filled with a devil’s spirit, a process that, despite repeated questioning, Hedon had been unable to shed any light on.

  What the hell could Dorian be planning with so many soul shards? I fervently thought to myself as we continued to race through the city, desperate to reach the command post that the Thief Lords had established in the district and inform them of our discovery. He can’t possibly believe that he’d be able to control that many devils all at once!

  My mind drifted back to the battle in the sewer hub just after Dorian had shown his true colors and attacked us. He said something about wanting to save everyone, but that his life was on the line too. Does that mean that someone else is controlling him?

  How do the nobles factor into this too? What would Dorian gain by having them at one another’s throats? I started to feel overwhelmed as I tried to unravel everything that had happened over the last day. Even with everything that we’ve discovered so far, we’re still five steps behind.

  Shouts ahead of us echoed through the air as we approached a hidden checkpoint, followed by a group of rough-looking men and women running out of the shadows ahead of us.

  “Hold up!” a deep, raspy voice called out of the shadows. “Identify yourself!”

  “Grim Shadows!” I barked. “We need to see the Thief Lords!”

  “For what—” a second voice started to challenge, before being overruled by the first voice.

  “Shut up! These are the Adventurers we were told about! Let them through!”

  Reflexively scanning the area as we closed the distance, I counted six cutthroats that were manning the checkpoint, along with two others hiding on the nearby rooftops. One of the larger cutthroats waved at us as we slowed down, his voice revealing that he was the one who had called out the challenge.

  “Any heat on your tail we need to know about?” The experienced thief didn’t waste any time as he waved the rest of the guards away, picking up his pace to match ours as we jogged through the checkpoint.

  “No, nothing we saw, at least.” I shook my head as I thumbed a hand behind me towards Elmar, who was carrying a bound and gagged Hedon over his shoulder. “We found some really hot intel that the Thief Lords need to know about.”

  “Shit,” the man cursed. “How hot are we talking about here?”

  “You could say Hell is literally about to break loose,” Quinn panted from somewhere behind me, completely winded from the long run.

  “Fuck, man, that’s no joke tonight,” he cursed a second time before pointing straight ahead of us at a well-lit tavern. “The command post is in there. I’m going to put everyone on high alert right now just in case.”

  “Probably a good idea,” I heard Molly comment behind me as the veteran thief peeled away from us and began calling out orders to nearby guards that I couldn’t see.

  Keeping a brisk pace, we closed the remaining distance between us and the tavern, only to have a loud, angry voice greet our ears as I pushed the door open.

  “I don’t fucking care what sort of shit you’re sorting out between yourselves! I don’t want to know about it! I just want you to fucking finish it as quickly as goddamn possible!”

  “I assure you that is exactly what we are doing, Captain Fontaine,” I heard Isabella’s voice reply curtly as I stepped inside and spotted a tall, grey-haired man dressed in bright chainmail standing a short distance away from the four Thief Lords, who all stood shoulder to shoulder, including a new Thief Lord that I did not recognize.

  Whipping his head around towards me as the door creaked, the man’s piercing green eyes locked on to me, before shifting behind me as the others passed through the door. Taking a halting step forward, I glanced down at the heraldry on the man’s armor, my brain skipping a beat as I recognized that it belonged to the City Guard.

  Did Isabella really say ‘Captain Fontaine’?! I felt my breath catch slightly as I looked back up towards the man’s now scowling face.

  “I should have known you had a group of fucking Adventurers involved in all of this,” Captain Fontaine’s shifted his head back towards the four Thief Lords. “Anything that goes wrong in the city these days is because of a fucking, gods-cursed Adventurer, and I’ll bet this time is no—”

  “Are you done here, Edward?” Stroud interrupted in a loud and commanding voice. “You’ve delivered your threats and we’ve listened to them out of respect to our arrangement.”

  “Oh, I’m fucking done here alright!” Captain Fontaine growled before spitting on the ground in front of the Thief Lords and holding up his finger. “Pray that this works for you all, because if it doesn’t…I am going to come back with every single guard under my command and tear this district apart until I get each and every one of your heads to lay at Crawridge’s and Wynbrandt’s feet.”

  “Overly dramatic,” Smiling Jade’s replied coolly. “But your point has been made, Captain, twice now.”

  Grunting in anger, Captain Fontaine glared at the Thief Lords for a moment longer before tearing his gaze away and moving to leave the tavern. Pressing myself against the wall as the man made to move past me and out the door, I couldn’t help but flinch out of reflex when he stopped in front of me.

  “I’ll tell you the same thing I told them,” he growled as he reached out for the door handle. “Fix. This. Shit. Now. Cause if you don’t, I am going to make it my life’s mission to see you lot thrown into the Tower of Atonement for an indefinite sentence, even if I have to drag my own ass in with you.”

  Wrenching the door open before I could even think of a reply, the captain of the Eberian Guard stepped through and slammed it behind him with such force that I could hear the frame crack from the impact.

  Stunned from the scene that we had just walked in on, I couldn’t help but glance towards Molly and Quinn, seeing the same expression of surprise on their faces that I knew was on mine.

  “What the fuck was that?” Quinn gasped. “That was Captain Fontaine, he’s the—”

  “Leader of the Eberian Guard, yes,” the new Thief Lord that I didn’t recognize finished wearily as she beckoned us forward. “And that was politics.”

  “Politics?” I asked in disbelief as I looked at the dark-furred Tul’Shar. Dressed in much more sensible clothes when compared to her predecessor, the Tul’Shar wore a finely crafted suit of dark leather armor that matched almost perfectly with her fur, complete with a long, thin blade hanging from her waist. “Sounded like he was ready to tear this place down on your heads.”

  “Men like Edward feel the need to shout to make their point,” Stroud commented dismissively. “They believe that their noise and bluster hide the fact that they are afraid. It does not.”

  “What’s going on, Lazarus? We didn’t expect you back so soon,” Isabella remarked as we made our way into the tavern with a worried note in her voice, her eyes shifting to the bound and gagged Hedon as Elmar pulled him off his shoulder and set him on the ground.

  “Uh,” I stalled for a moment, torn between wanting to press harder on why the captain of the City Guard was on a first-name basis with the Thief Lords, but also remembering the reason why we had rushed so quickly across the city.

  “We have a serious problem,” I began as I forced my curiosity down, waving at Hedon’s bound and gagged form. “We were wrong in thinking how many of those talismans Edith and Dorian may have had available to them.

  “According to him, they’re actually called Hellborn Soul Shards, and Dorian has conscripted a team of Bonecarvers to craft them en masse,” I continued explaining as Molly strode towards the Thief Lords with a heavy leather bag in hand. “Based on what’s he’s made alone, he thinks that Dorian may have at least a hundred, if not closer to two hundred soul shards at his disposal.”

  There was a deathly silence as all of the Thief Lords stiffened at the news, the features of those with visible faces widening in shock.

  “T-This…was not
anticipated,” Smiling Jade replied haltingly as Molly approached and showed her the contents of the bag. Hesitantly, the Thief Lord reached inside and pulled one of the soul shards free, letting it dangle in the air from its leather cord. “How could Dorian have hidden all this from us?”

  “Hmmm,” the new Crimson Rat Thief Lord growled under her breath softly, glancing at the hanging soul shard briefly before turning her bright red eyes towards us. “None of the parties that have checked in have reported finding any of these…soul shards. If so many have been made, why haven’t we found any thus far?”

  “I don’t know,” I said honestly, pointing once more towards the terrified Bonecarver lying on the ground, his eyes staring intently at the four Thief Lords before him. “Hedon here told us that his instructions were to leave the soul shards at specific drop points in the city, where they would be picked up later by another cell and delivered to their final destination. Based on what we’ve been able to learn, it would likely take a ritual of some sort to bind a devil’s spirit to the soul shard, which would take time to set up.”

  “Which could also be anywhere in the city,” the woman added with a scowl as her predatory eyes glanced down towards Hedon, easily spotting the dried blood that covered his face and body. “Are you certain he is not holding anything back?”

  “As certain as I can be given the time we had,” I replied as I looked down towards Hedon and seeing him squirm under the implied threat. “Based on what he’s told us, we thought it would be best to let you know as soon as possible.”

  “If what he’s saying is true,” Isabella said with a sigh as she rubbed her head, trying to stave off an impending headache, “it was good you did.”

  “We will know for certain before the night is out, one way or the other.” The Tul’Shar’s eyes focused on the bound mage as she spoke, then flicked towards Elmar and the remaining thieves. “With your permission, Isabella, perhaps Elmar can begin a second round of…questioning to be sure that there is nothing else being withheld from us?”

  “I believe that might be appropriate,” Isabella replied, heedless of Hedon’s panicked shouts through his gag as he lay on the floor. “Elmar, if you’d please? There is a room in the back that you can use. The rest of you can join the guards outside for the time being.”

  “Of course,” Elmar affirmed as he bent down to lift Hedon off the ground again and threw the now thrashing Bonecarver over his shoulder, giving us all a wave as he walked towards a closed door on the far end of the room. “In case you all get sent out again without me, thanks for the great night, everyone.”

  “Bye, Elmar,” I called after the bruiser at the same time that the rest of the thieves that had joined us for the night filtered out of the tavern.

  “Now that we can speak a bit more freely,” Smiling Jade commented. “Was there anything else that you found?”

  “We found supporting evidence at the scene that implicated the Undertakers,” Molly answered with a nod. “There were materials needed to create the soul shards at the hideout that corresponded directly to a ledger that Lazarus recovered from Cayden.”

  “Then there is no doubt that he was involved from the very beginning?” Stroud asked.

  “As a supplier, most definitely.” Molly nodded as she shook the bag containing the soul shards. “Now that I have a better idea of what it takes to create the soul shards, I’m all but certain that Cayden has supplied the bulk of the materials that were needed to create them.”

  “Given the Undertakers’ affiliation with The Damned, that is unsurprising,” Smiling Jade noted as she continued to inspect the soul shard dangling from her hand. “However, there is a rather substantial amount of gold and silver required in this piece, enough that it should have affected market prices and drawn our notice.”

  “Not if Dorian melted down coins,” Quinn said, causing all of us to turn in this direction and for him to take a step backwards at the sudden attention. “Ah, I mean, he’d have gold and silver coins on hand, right? If he smelted them down, he wouldn’t have had to buy enough raw gold and silver to attract attention.”

  “That would be almost prohibitively expensive,” Smiling Jade replied slowly as she cocked her head over to one side. “But it would work…”

  “It doesn’t explain why Dorian would choose to burn a sizable portion of his treasury to create what I understand is a single-use item without expecting something even greater in return, though,” the dark-furred Thief Lord pointed out as Smiling Jade dropped the soul shard back into the bag Molly was holding.

  “Whatever he has planned, Dorian has proven to be no fool, and I am certain he has an end goal in mind,” Stroud said with a rare note of frustration seeping into his voice. “Even with the short amount of time available to him since his betrayal, he’s managed to mobilize his guild faster than we had thought was possible.”

  “What do you mean?” Quinn asked, walking forward to stand beside me. “Is the war not going well?”

  “It…goes,” Isabella replied, mirroring Stroud’s tone. “The Damned have proven to be harder to find than we anticipated, and many of the hideouts we’ve managed to raid so far have been empty or abandoned, some seemingly long before today, others just bare minutes before our raiders arrived.”

  “Abandoned hideouts?” I echoed in confusion. “We didn’t find any abandoned hideouts in the northern half of the district. Granted, we only managed to hit five of the six on our list before coming here, and each of them were packed with The Damned.”

  “Really?” the still nameless Tul’Shar replied thoughtfully as she turned around and practically ran towards a large table set up behind the Thief Lords. “That is extremely interesting.”

  “What are you looking for, Sable?” Isabella asked as we all rushed forward towards the table and spotted a familiar-looking map of the New District that had been laden down with countless markers.

  “I didn’t think anything of it before, but look at how many abandoned hideouts have been discovered in the southern and southwestern portions of the district,” Sable said excitedly, waving a fur-covered hand over a multitude of grey-colored markers. “Nearly two thirds of them are in the southern half of the district and were abandoned before our attacks even started, compared to barely a quarter the further north in the district we look. All of this despite our raids starting at roughly the same time.

  “Even if we account for those that may have been abandoned naturally since we’ve discovered them, there are a disproportionate number of abandoned hideouts to the south,” the Thief Lord continued.

  “You think that the hideouts in the southern half of the district must have gotten Dorian’s warning first and had a longer chance to flee,” I said, realizing what the feline Thief Lord was getting at.

  “I do,” Sable answered with a nod. “We have had to re-task several teams that have come up emptyhanded after visiting their prearranged locations in the south, and we sent them north without much of a second thought. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but you’re the only team we’ve sent that far into the northern reaches of the district that has returned to us so far.”

  “Hmm.” I paused for a moment, looking at the map as my eyes absorbed the countless markers that had been stuck onto it. “Looking at this, I’m inclined to believe that Dorian’s gathering his forces somewhere in the southern reaches of the district.”

  “Why would he do that, though?” Stroud asked while motioning towards the map. “The southern portion of the New District borders the ocean and can easily be cut off from the rest of the city if we seize these two streets leading back into the Market District. All Dorian has done is trap himself with nowhere else to go.”

  “Maybe he doesn’t need to go anywhere.” I walked around the table until I stood beside the giant warrior, and looked at the streets that Stroud had just indicated. “The same streets that we’d use to cut him off from the city, he can also use to cut us off from the southern part of the district. I think he’s just st
alling for time.”

  “What do you mean?” Sable queried as she slid down the table towards me and Stroud. “Why would time be important to him?”

  “We caught him unprepared earlier,” I remembered as a few pieces began to fall into place. “Whatever he was planning wasn’t ready yet, and he’s been forced to accelerate his plans.”

  “Lazarus is right,” Molly whispered as her eyes met mine, the same realization crossing her face. “We got so caught up in the war that we forgot about the one most important thing that Dorian has.”

  “The artifact Edith stole,” Isabella hissed as she looked down at the map, the other Thief Lords following suit. “But there’s a problem with that. If he’s blocked off the southern—”

  “Hey!” a loud voice shouted from just outside the tavern, causing all of us to turn towards the door as the sound of several crossbows firing filled the air.

  “Stop him!” a second voice yelled a moment before something heavy hit the tavern door and tore it completely free from its hinges, sending it crashing to the floor with a thunderous bang.

  “Shit, wait! Stop shooting!” a raspy voice managed to wheeze from its position directly on top of the broken door a heartbeat before three large shadows landed on top of it. “Oof! Let me go! I have information! I found her! I found Edith!”

  Wrestling the intruder up off the ground, two of the shadows lifted a blood-covered man off the door, leaving me staring directly into a familiar face.

  “Sawyer?!” I heard myself shout as he was hefted upwards and muscled towards the now gaping doorway. “Wait! Let him stay! It’s Sawyer!”

  “Lazarus, this is the Hunter you spoke about?!” Isabella asked in a commanding voice, the tone stopping the two men in their tracks.

  “Yes!” I exclaimed as I shot a glance towards her, then back towards the dark-haired man. “What the hell, Sawyer?! Why were they shooting at you?!”