Blade Archer ~ Forty-One

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Kael gritted his teeth and held his breathing as calmly as he could. She couldn’t see his face or the panic that must be obvious there, but he could still control his body. He held his knees up to his chest, just in case she did decide to start hurting him.

‘If ye’re going to tell me that,’ he said, ‘why’d ye got to such pains hiding it from me in the first place?’

‘They’re grunts.’ He could hear the dismissive shrug in her voice as clearly as though he had seen it. ‘They know even less than your friend, Aen.’

Kael sidestepped her baiting. ‘That makes ye the top of the chain, then?’

She laughed, deep and throaty, halfway to being a cough. ‘What makes you think you’re allowed to ask me questions, hmm?’

‘Ye killed me Pa,’ he snapped. Maybe the darkness inside his hood gave him courage, maybe the impossible situation simply made him stop caring. ‘Then ye killed the rest of me family. I were never involved in anything ye does, I even tried everything I could do to keep meself out of it.’ His breath hitched as he spat his reckless accusations. ‘I don’t care what ye does. I don’t care who ye all are! I never looked fer ye, never chased ye, nothing. Ye’ve destroyed me family when I done nothing to ye, and all I want is fer ye to just leave me alone!’

His captor stayed silent for a time, but Kael knew she was still there. The silence, he was sure, was supposed to intimidate him, to make him wonder what she was thinking, to conjure up all the painful things she might do to him, but he found he just didn’t care. He felt distanced from himself, perhaps still a little dizzy and lightheaded, but nothing felt real enough for him to be threatened by it.

‘We don’t care about you, either,’ the woman said finally, her voice hushed and threatening. Evidently she thought her silence was working.

Kael thudded his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. ‘Whatever,’ he mumbled.

She continued as though she hadn’t heard. Maybe she hadn’t, either. ‘You know more about us than an outsider ought to know. So.’ Kael heard her clothes rustle before her hand gripped at his hood and yanked it roughly off. The room was still dark with night, lit only by a torch on the wall near him. The woman sat with legs crossed on a chair before him. She wore a hood of a much finer material than his burlap bag, and three more people stood behind her, similarly dressed in rich clothes and a finely woven hood.

‘Who have you told, hmm?’

Kael glared back at the hood covering her face. ‘Ye cornered me,’ he reminded her. ‘If ye left me family alone, I woulda been happy enough to live me life out blaming the Talons for not looking more into Pa’s death. But then ye killed the rest of me family, in once night.’ He rested back against the wall again. ‘Ye cornered me, so I went to the Talons.’

‘Which ones?’ she snapped.

Kael shrugged. ‘Beats me. It was a year ago.’

Two of the three figures behind her shifted their stances a little. It seemed they had thought this a recent development. Maybe the Talons did have something on them, after all.

‘A year?’ the woman repeated.

Kael nodded. ‘About that. Just after Aen told me he was the one what killed me Ma. Reckons he didn’t know she were me Ma, though.’ He snorted to himself, suddenly dubious about Aen’s story. It could have been part of his plan to rope Kael in. Make him go to the Talons then blackmail him with his actions. He was probably using him to get to Ynuk, too.

The woman shifted on her chair, folding her arms as she bent towards him. The waft of her perfume was stronger without the hood on. ‘Now why would he tell you that, hmm?’

Here, Kael thought, he was on dangerous ground. He had kept Banok’s name from them easily enough, but he couldn’t think fast enough to hide Aen’s involvement. He frowned at himself. Why should he care? ‘He has an idea to bring ye down. He had it in his head that I would join him, so he told me everything he knew so we could go after ye together.’

One of the three hooded figures behind his captor lunged forward. ‘Lying little bastard!’ he roared, and even in the anger Kael could recognise Aen’s voice.

‘Hold back, soldier,’ the woman said, calmly turning to face him, though neither removed their hoods.

‘I’ll kill ‘im where he stands!’ Aen growled. ‘I worked fer me whole life to prove meself to ye! I ain’t letting years of me life drop just from one word from him!’ He waved a shaking dagger at Kael.

‘Stand down,’ the woman repeated, her voice steady as the calm in the middle of a storm as she flowed to her feet.

Aen’s hood moved as he shook his head. ‘Ye shouldn’t’ve raised me a killer,’ he said in warning.

Kael jumped and reeled backwards as Aen grabbed her, spun her around and twisted her head with a crunch that turned Kael’s stomach. He scrambled sideways, kicking uselessly with his roped legs. His eyes couldn’t find focus, shifting between Aen’s hood and the slumped form of the woman who had moments ago been interrogating him.

Aen knelt down beside her and pulled her hood off. He turned her face up to look at her, then shook his head with a quiet laugh. He rolled the hood up and swung back to his feet, turning his body to face Kael..

‘What’re ye doing?’ he demanded almost jovially. His arms were spread as he advanced towards Kael. ‘Giving us away like that? Ain’t we friends?’

Kael shook his head, staring around the warehouse for his escape, but his eyes fixed on the other two men who had been watching on. One was slumped on the ground while the other wiped his dagger.

Aen knelt beside him and drew his own blade. It glinted in the firelight as he used it to saw through Kael’s bonds. Before he reached for the ropes tying his hands, he rested his hands on his knees, blade hanging casually in his grip. ‘Whether by yer means or mine, ye sees, ye’ll help me get all of ‘em.’ He nodded over his shoulder to illustrate his point.

Kael looked fearfully towards Aen’s accomplice. ‘Who’s that?’ he managed to stammer.

Aen’s hood cocked to one side. ‘Might tell ye later, if ye can keep yer trap shut.’ He waved a hand back at the woman he had killed. ‘I’m on yer side, doesn’t ye get it? I want ‘em gone! I knew she’d be after ye soon as I told ‘er, so I followed ye soon as ye left the palace and tailed ‘em here. Clever, eh?’

He reached out to grip Kael’s shoulder and turned him around to cut the ropes around his wrists.

He was bait. ‘How many of ‘em know about me?’ There would doubtless be even more after this episode. This was never going to end. He’d tried to pass his troubles on, against his better judgement, and now he was in deeper than ever.

Aen shrugged. ‘Just as many Talons’re after me, I wager. Can’t go back to training, so that’s that career well dried up.’

Kael snorted. ‘I’m overflowing with sympathy,’ he said, his voice empty.

‘I know, I know.’ Aen sighed heavily as the ropes dropped free of Kael’s wrists. ‘It were seeing their effect on yer own life what got me turned ‘round, remember? I want ‘em gone.’

Kael swallowed and rubbed at his wrists. ‘What’s yer actual plan?’ Maybe if he knew his role he might be more open to Aen’s plan, but so far his insides remained twisted.

‘Find ‘em, and kill ‘em.’ He shrugged as though it was obvious.

‘And me?’

‘Same again, unless ye got something better.’ He sounded hopeful. ‘Ye’re the one what’s been doing theory fer a year and a half.’

Kael drew himself straighter. He had paid little attention in any of his theory classes—he had no intention of being an army leader—but he knew the problems with Aen’s plan. ‘Ye’re one person. Or two with yer henchman there. Keep using me as bait and someday I won’t wake up.’ He held his thumbs lightly under his jaw to demonstrate.

Aen shrugged again. ‘Ye’re fine. At least they don’t whack ye on the head.’

Kael shook his head. ‘There’s not enough of ye.’

‘I know. Get more recruits.’

‘Turn ‘em on each other,’ Kael suggested. ‘Get ‘em scared, make ‘em think it’s someone in their own ranks—not yerself, o’ course—then turn ‘em on each other and play both sides.’

Kael could hear Aen’s grin through the hood as he spoke. ‘They kill each other, I go fer the top.’

‘Then the Talons clear up the rest.’

Aen reached out again, this time to slap him on the shoulder. ‘Knew ye’d add something!’ He tossed Kael the dead woman’s hood. ‘Put this on, cover up yer uniform and don’t say a word.’

~ ~ ~

A lot of this came out of nowhere. The chapter was outlined as "Rescued. Make plans to go back and end the operation." I'm so descriptive to myself, though I have (just barely) moved on from "Stuff happens."