The Sellsword aot-1

by Cam Banks

  Vanderjack thought about what the Sword Chorus had said to him, about his mistake, about the killing of an innocent. Etharion Cordaric couldn’t really be considered an innocent, he thought. He was a member of Theo’s company, wasn’t he? He signed on knowing that was a dangerous business. Nobody volunteers to become a mercenary, even if it’s just to bake cookies, without that understanding. But if that was true, why did Vanderjack feel so bad about it?

  He saw a few members of the Seaguard running past him in the direction of the street where the cook and Annaud had been killed. They didn’t spare him a glance. Apparently, his nondescript disguise was adequate for the situation. That or the Seaguard didn’t really care about the perpetrator and wanted to get to the bodies in time to loot them themselves.

  Killing people always brought out the worst in folks, he mused, including him. Vanderjack had stolen, broken into places, robbed people, even lied and cheated and beguiled his way toward riches before, all while acting as a soldier for hire. He wasn’t a good man. He liked living well when he could get the money and the resources. It was all part of the lifestyle-kill people; take their stuff-wasn’t it?

  Vanderjack rounded the corner two streets away from the courtyard where he’d left the gnome and the baron’s aide. Damn the cook, anyway. He’d never questioned his mistakes before. He didn’t really care about the cook, but Theo evidently did, and right then he did actually need Theo not to be angry with him. Theo was good at what he did, and Vanderjack was sure that, sneaking into some castle behind enemy lines, he’d need those skills.

  Sometimes sacrifices had to be made, he thought. The cook might not be the last one to die on his trip. Gredchen might not last it out … or Theo himself. In that business you never could predict when somebody was going to get run through with a life-draining sword in the middle of a pitched battle with dragonarmy soldiers.

  Vanderjack stopped just before the next corner, frowning. The ghosts had insisted he’d killed an innocent. What were the ramifications of that? He suddenly realized that if they were right, and Etharion’s time to die was not in the middle of a pitched battle with dragonarmy soldiers, then the sword’s curse might have been activated.

  He drew the blade out from its sheath, feeling the power in the meteoric iron humming into his palm and up his arm as it always did, watched as the ghosts manifested around him, and counted.

  There were eight of them.

  “So you see,” said the Philosopher. “Our number has grown by one.”

  “Your mistake has earned you another advisor,” said the Conjuror.

  “I hope you realize what you have done,” asked the Aristocrat.

  “So I have a cook’s ghost now too? I suppose that will come in handy when I’m making dinner.” Vanderjack tried to make a joke, peering at the eighth ghost, like all the others indistinct, spectral, and only semireal.

  “On the contrary,” said the Apothecary.

  “He is not all that he appeared to be,” said the Balladeer.

  Then the eighth ghost spoke in a voice clearly different from the others, not as confident or loud or even as ghostly. He just sounded confused. “What happened?”

  “Well,” said Vanderjack. “What is he, then, if not a dead cook?”

  “Give us time to let him become acquainted to his new state,” said the Apothecary.

  “You have other things to do,” said the Aristocrat.

  “Find the trail,” said the Hunter. He and all of the others faded from sight.

  Vanderjack looked down at the sword. He was still holding it, but the Sword Chorus had gone. That was the first time they had ever done that. Granted, it was the first time he’d actually killed any innocents with the magic sword. He slid it back into its scabbard and continued on.

  He ducked under a low arch leading into the courtyard by the east wall, between a series of lean-tos, shanties, and other indications of those who live a life without a real home. Toward the gate itself, where the courtyard widened enough to admit the throngs of people, he could see the gnome and Gredchen sitting in a shaded spot.

  “So,” he said, walking over to them as bold as brass. “Do you want the good news or the bad news?”

  Highmaster Rivven Cairn gazed into a pool of water that had collected on the top of an ale barrel.

  Rivven knew many divination spells, most of which she used to discern the nature or strength of her opponents or to communicate with her underlings. The latter was the chief purpose of the spell she had just invoked, conjuring a watery window onto a far place currently occupied by the wizard Cazuvel.

  “So what news do you have for me?” she asked as she noted the locals keeping their distance from the exterior of the Monkey’s Ear Tavern. Rivven had arrived there to find the place abandoned, and she was hearing news not only of a bloody duel elsewhere in Pentar but of disturbances to the east.

  “My lady,” Cazuvel spoke, his bone-white face swimming on the surface of the water. “I have arrived at Castle Glayward, though I believe it is North Keep that demands the most of our attention.”

  Rivven rubbed at the back of her neck, where sweat and leather had irritated the skin and where her great helm would usually keep the rain out. She’d left the helm on the saddle, and the saddle was on Cear. The dragon was presently perched on the roof of the tavern, another reason for the locals to stay the Abyss out of her way.

  “Is that young idiot making public speeches again?” she asked the mage’s image. “Doesn’t he know we only let him out of his room if he promises not to rouse the rabble?”

  “The king has indeed been making speeches, my lady,” said Cazuvel, as smug as ever. “He forgets what that did to his father a decade ago.”

  King Huemac Kerian, the previous king of Nordmaar, had refused to submit to the Red Wing when it had swept into Nordmaar. Proud and stubborn, his army had made its last stand at Qwes, a frontier keep on the edge of the khan’s lands. The khan at the time, always one to throw his lot in with the winning team, joined the dragonarmy forces; without the support of the horse nomads, King Huemac couldn’t hold the line, especially not against red dragons. Nordmaar fell before the Red Wing’s assault, and Rivven had been there to enjoy the spectacle. Shredler Kerian had watched his father die at the end of Highlord Phair Caron’s spear, and since that time the newly crowned king had remained sequestered at North Keep. It was the capital city of his inherited kingdom and his own personal prison.

  “He is supposed to be watched at all hours by his personal guard,” Rivven said, exhaling. “They are sivaks, second only in rank to the Red Watch that the highlord keeps with him in Kern. They’re not blind idiots, are they?”

  The mage betrayed no knowledge of the truth. “Not blind … perhaps idiots. I am but Your Ladyship’s servant.”

  “Oh, that’s enough of that nonsense,” Rivven said. “Make sure the baron’s … property is still at the castle, and stay there until I send more instructions.” She dismissed the spell with a pass of her fingers through the water, and it was once more just a puddle on a barrel top.

  “Cear!” she called out impatiently.

  The dragon’s neck craned down from the roof, lowering its head to level with Cairn’s own. “You called?”

  “Any sign of more disturbances?” she asked. “Do you see the sellsword walking about with the gnome I told you about?”

  Cear bared a row of enormous ivory teeth. “Not as such,” he responded, his hot breath washing over Rivven.

  “Not as such?”

  “What I mean is I don’t usually pay much attention to gnomes. The human? Literally dozens of dark-skinned humans walking about the city, even now.”

  Pentar was a hotbed of piratical activity as well as being home to a diverse population, so Ergothians and Saifhumi weren’t uncommon. Vanderjack was both, or so it was said, and thus, his ability to blend in there was to be expected. It was a fact that Vanderjack had become just famous enough to have a cult following almost the like of any Hero of the Lance.
It was also a fact that Cear, like all red dragons, didn’t really know how to tell one human from another until he’d roasted them with his breath.

  “He may already have left Pentar,” Rivven said, waving Cear away. The dragon’s head rose up again, out of sight above her. “I’m tired of being one step behind this man, and if he’s already hooked up with the gnome, then I can only imagine he’s headed east.”

  Rivven pushed open the door to the Monkey’s Ear. Inside, a handful of mercenaries who had been foolish enough to come back once Annaud and his men had gone off in search of Vanderjack were sitting around a table, plainly upset at being discovered by the highmaster.

  Even without the great helm, she was a frightening woman when she wanted to be. “You men have a new employer,” she said, stopping before them with her hands on her hips. “New contracts, new uniforms.”

  One of the mercenaries cleared his throat. “No disrespect, Highmaster, but we’ve got legally binding contracts with the gnome. Shinare’s seal on them and all.”

  Rivven smiled, no trace of humor in it. “And you are signatories to those documents, correct?” The men nodded.

  “Then you should know that you can, under Shinarite code, voluntarily excuse yourself from such a contract citing irreconcilable differences.”

  The mercenary who had spoken first spoke again. “Begging your pardon, and I’m not sayin’ you’re wrong or anything, but what differences would those be?”

  Rivven said, “Here’s one,” and with one swift, sure stroke, she drew the curved scimitar from her back and removed the first mercenary’s head from his shoulders, sheathing the weapon again before it hit the floor.

  The other mercenaries hurriedly searched through their pouches, knapsacks, and pockets for their contracts.

  Rivven stalked off to the bar, helping herself to a drink while she waited for the collection of ragtag mercenaries to sort themselves out. The Ergothian had eliminated all of her current employees in the town, even Captain Annaud. She needed a fresh set of eyes, ears, and sword arms.

  Turning around at the bar and leaning back, she pointed a thin finger at one of the more professional-looking hired swords before her. “You. Congratulations. You’re my new captain. In a few minutes, some local people I paid well are going to show up here with a few … used dragonarmy uniforms. Put them on, pack up all of your gear, and get ready to head out.”

  The new captain saluted nervously and immediately started ordering the others around, going over travel details. Rivven smiled, looking at the headless body on the tavern’s wooden floor. Discipline, she thought. It’s all about discipline. She walked outside the tavern with her mug of beer and called up to her dragon.

  “Give them another twenty minutes,” she said. “Then set fire to the place.”

  Her business at the Monkey’s Ear Tavern attended to, Rivven Cairn went off in search of a good fish vendor.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Vanderjack tightened the straps on his new magical armor and fastened his cloak around his shoulders.

  Theo and Gredchen were poring over a map, practically fighting each other to see who would retain hold of the yellowed parchment. The baron’s aide had the advantage of height, but Theo was quick and wily, and by the time Vanderjack walked back to them, the gnome had claimed more than two-thirds of the map.

  “What do you think?” asked Vanderjack, showing off his new acquisition-the finely crafted scale mail, with its attached shoulder plates and leather accents. “I’ve worn dragonarmor before, but never as nice as this.”

  Gredchen looked at him with disgust. “I can’t believe you actually took that from Captain Annaud’s corpse,” she said. “Besides, every suit of dragonarmor’s made for a specific individual. It won’t fit you properly.”

  Theodenes shrugged, looking up from his map. “The armor seems to have decided quite the opposite,” he said.

  “It’s definitely magical,” Vanderjack grinned. He shifted from one fighting stance to the other and ended with a little dance. “Snug as a glove and light as a feather! Worthy payment for having to fight the man.”

  “Not that fighting him accomplished anything more than attracting attention and killing that poor cook,” Gredchen reminded him. “And if you haven’t noticed, at least some of Pentar’s been burning for the past eight hours.”

  Vanderjack looked back in the direction of Pentar, at least a dozen miles away at that point. A plume of black smoke was rising into the sky. He’d seen many of those before, during the war. It was the calling card of the red dragons.

  “We’ve put plenty of distance between them and us,” Vanderjack said. “And I’ve already said over and over I feel badly about the cook. Badly, I feel so badly. Theo, haven’t I already said I feel so badly about him?”

  “I don’t believe you,” Theo said sulkily. “And that’s going to count against you when it’s time to pay up. Now, if you don’t mind, we have ascertained something of a route.”

  Gredchen didn’t lose her disgusted expression as she exhaled and indicated a point on the map. “This is one of Baron Glayward’s maps from about twenty years ago,” she said. “Before a few places were established, or burnt to the ground by the dragonarmy. Here’s where we are, a half day’s journey from Pentar.” She looked up and pointed past Vanderjack at the line of trees several hundred yards away. “And that’s the edge of the Sahket Jungle.”

  “It’s a mile away according to this,” Vanderjack said, looking at the scrawled notes on the parchment. “Is it growing bigger or something?”

  Theo rubbed his hands together. “Yes, it’s quite fascinating,” he said. “The Sahket Jungle is, by all accounts, growing at a steady rate. In the next few decades, it will meet the coastline and cover almost all of the northern regions of Nordmaar.”

  “Fantastic,” said Vanderjack, lifting one eyebrow. “Even if the Red Wing’s not gone by then, the rainforest will have taken over.”

  “According to the map,” Gredchen continued, “the town of Willik’s about twenty or thirty miles that way”-she pointed away from the setting sun-“which puts Castle Glayward roughly the same distance again afterward. We may just have enough supplies to get us to Willik.”

  Vanderjack frowned. “Isn’t that Cheron Skerish’s little town? It’s bad enough he’s an ogre, but I’ve heard he’s also some kind of shaman. My vote’s for Rangaar, here.” He pointed to a small dot about five miles east of where Willik was, deep in the jungle. “Nothing dangerous in Rangaar, I hear. Just a lot of spice merchants.”

  “You’re afraid of ogres, Vanderjack?” Gredchen teased. Vanderjack observed that when she actually smiled, there was a faint hint that somewhere in her family tree there had to be somebody at least reasonably attractive. Of course, then she’d drop her smirk, and return to being one of the ugliest creatures, this side of a hobgoblin, that Vanderjack had ever traveled with.

  Gredchen pointed once again at Willik. “Rangaar’s fine, but it won’t have what we need, and all of these towns are in red dragonarmy territory, so there’s never a guarantee. Trust me; we should go to Skerish’s town.”

  Theodenes snatched the map away a final time and held his face very close to it. “My estimate is that in our current position, it will take us five days to get there.”

  “That’s factoring in the jungle?” Vanderjack asked.

  “Quite,” said Theodenes, “though there is a good road east. It leads through the Sahket Jungle, into Willik, continues past that town to Rangaar and, finally, North Keep.”

  “I like a good road,” Vanderjack said. “That works for me. Let’s go.”

  The three of them gathered their few belongings together and fell into line on the road leading into the Sahket Jungle. Theodenes walked ahead of Vanderjack and Gredchen, swifter than his little legs would suggest he could, his keen gnome eyes picking out potential problems in the dirt path such as quicksand puddles or the spoor of a dangerous animal.

  Gredchen kept the maps and occasionally called
out landmarks or an estimate of how far they had gone. They were the baron’s maps, after all, and with some convincing, Theodenes stopped fighting Gredchen for them and let Gredchen manage them.

  The sellsword came up behind the other two, his hand on Lifecleaver, waiting for the Sword Chorus to reappear. He hadn’t fought a battle or engaged in any kind of violent encounter without them for many years. The thought of them vanishing forever made his nerves twitch.

  The sellsword felt as if he were walking along a damp, green tunnel. Broad-leaved trees dominated the lower levels of the jungle, rising to about twice his height. Between them, enormous trunks, wide at the base and tapering upward, reached far above the smaller trees and formed the canopy above. Vines, creepers, and flowering plants clustered about the larger trees, and while the road was cleared of vegetation, those who maintained it hadn’t bothered to keep the branches from knotting together overhead.

  Several hours passed; daylight threatened to turn into night ahead of schedule. Theodenes would stop from time to time to pull a leaf from a creeper near the road or run his fingers through the packed mud and dirt below their feet or sniff at the air. The sellsword remembered Theo being an excellent tracker-for a gnome.

  Had he not been ruminating idly, Vanderjack would have noticed the sudden emergence from the trees above of something large and hairy before whatever it was had scooped up Theodenes and swung away, screeching.

  “Ackal’s Teeth!” shouted Vanderjack, running up to Gredchen. “Get down, we’re under attack!”

  The baron’s aide did as she was told, crouching low and off to the side, beside the base of one of the enormous banyan trees. Vanderjack stood over her, his sword drawn out-still no Sword Chorus. “To the Abyss with you, then!” he swore. “I’m still the best swordsman in Nordm-”

  He was cut off as another large shape slammed into him, knocking him clear off his feet and on top of Gredchen. He fought for his breath, but it was just as elusive as the ghosts.