Blade Archer ~ Forty-Two

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Dressed with the other body’s shirt covering his army uniform, Kael walked alongside the silent stranger as he followed Aen from the warehouse. The fine mesh of the woman’s hood was easy to see through, even under the cover of night, though it still smelt strongly of her perfume.

‘Clean up in there,’ Aen ordered as they stepped out of the warehouse. The four people who had brought Kael across the city stepped out from the shadows and flowed into the building without question. They probably weren’t allowed to ask questions, Kael figured.

He followed Aen through the silent markets and onto a street that smelt strongly of hot metal and shaved wood. There, the silent hooded man peeled off with a casual wave. As he stalked through the night, Kael thought he recognised something familiar in the stranger’s gait, but Aen stole his attention before he could watch for any longer.

‘Part one of getting ‘em rattled, eh?’ Aen said as he pulled his hood off and ran his fingers back through his hair. ‘They won’t be following ye now. Be expecting ye in the warehouse all night, is me reckoning.’

‘Don’t say that like it’s a favour,’ Kael snarled as he removed the hood. ‘I ain’t got no interest in this. Ye did this. Ye made me a target, so now Ronanen is, too, and probably her family, and anyone else they think I might have talked to. I am not helping ye, Aen. Anything I do, it’s fer meself.’

He stuffed the hood into the back of his pants, his hands into his pockets, and strode home. All he could think of was Ronanen. He had placed her in even more danger than she had been in before. They were actively after him now, which meant she would be in their sights, too. Surely, even if the queen wouldn’t agree to protect the disgraced southerner, she would protect one of the healers in her employ. He wouldn’t leave the palace tomorrow until he at least had protection for her.



‘Aen’s forced me hand.’ He tossed the hood onto Banok’s desk and folded his arms. ‘They got me on me way home, on Aen’s word, then he made to rescue me.’ He recounted the night’s events to his blade archery master, including as much as he could remember, however irrelevant it seemed. Banok swore when he told of how many times he had been knocked out on the way there, and he rubbed at his jaw s though he felt responsible, then lifted the hood to his nose when Kael mentioned the woman’s perfume.

‘So I’m doing this meself, now,’ he finished. ‘I can’t do this yer way no more. I’m doing me own hunting now.’

Banok folded his arms over his chest. ‘And your own killing, too?’

Kael shook his head with a sneer. ‘Aeia no. They’ll do that themselves. Run ‘em scared in their own ranks.’

‘Kael, no. Stay out of this. Let the professionals handle it.’

‘Like they been doing such a good job so far?’ Kael barked. ‘No! I’m sick of hiding. I’m sick of being scared. I gave the Talons their chance, and they blew that to dust last night. Didn’t I tell ye they’d be after me last night? I give the Talons more than they ever known, and they still can’t be bothered to protect me. Nah, I’m doing it me own way, now.’

Banok closed his eyes and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. ‘I understand your reluctance,’ he admitted, ‘but what you propose is a stupid idea. You’ll get yourself killed. What about your healer girl? Have you given her any thought?’

‘Of course I have! Every thought I got spare is fer her!’ He glared hotly at the weapons master. ‘What other choice have I got? I can’t hide. Wherever I go, they will find me, so I gotta go after them meself.’

Banok took a deep breath and looked down at his thumbs. After long moments of thought, he shook his head at himself as though he’d finally come to a decision. ‘You’ll need to know who they are,’ he said, his voice heavy. ‘Learn their structure and who you need to scare to start the division. The Talons think it may be headed by someone in either the shipping ministry or the Kazinian ministry, probably a few from both. They’re investigating several people right now. If you can drive them into the open, give the Talons something to grab onto, that will help them.’

Kael nodded. ‘Ronanen?’ he reminded him. ‘What’ll ye do fer her?’

‘Both of you,’ Banok confirmed. ‘Stay at my place until you feel safe again.’

‘But—‘

‘I’ve got guards of my own,’ the old Own rider informed him, ‘and high walls. We’re not so well fortified as the palace, but we’ll keep you both safe.’

Kael stared at him for a moment before he found his tongue once more. ‘Yer family won’t mind?’

‘My wife suggested it,’ Banok rumbled. ‘You can have the suite at the end. My mother lived in there until she died a few years ago. Complete privacy.’

Kael swallowed and cleared his throat. ‘Thank ye, sir,’ he managed. ‘I’ll tell Rona.’

He had no trouble in convincing Ronanen that the blade archery master’s home would be safest for her now. She was far more fearful for him than for her own safety.

‘It won’t be for long,’ he said, wondering how he could make such a promise. ‘Just until they got their attention off me, then ye can go back home.’

‘Of course,’ Ronanen agreed. ‘But, oh, what can I tell my parents? They’ll worry themselves sick!’

‘I’ll tell ‘em,’ Kael promised her, holding her close. ‘I promised yer pa I’d keep ye safe. This is the only way I got.’

She rested her head against his shoulder. ‘How did it all come to this?’

Kael shook his head, glad of her comforting warmth against his chest. ‘I dunno, but I’ll make sure it stops.’

‘How?’ she asked. ‘Please don’t go anything dangerous, Kael.’

He closed his eyes. ‘I’m at the point now where doing nothing’d be worse,’ he reminded her. ‘Trust me. I’ll make this right.’

Banok took the time to accompany Kael to speak with Ronanen’s parents. Even Kael felt safe after he had completely explained his own security, the guards he had hand-picked for their loyalty and not changed in over a decade, and Banok’s own skill which, he stated as fact rather than bragging, was still sharp enough to keep him in the upper echelon of First Company.

He hung an arm around Kael’s shoulder as they left. ‘I’ll give you a bit of extra tutelage, too, if you’ll have it. More about how to keep yourself aware, how to spot a trap, how to defend yourself if you get in a similar situation as you had last night.’

Kael stuffed his hands in his pockets as he glanced up and down every alley and started at every noise, wondering just how he could be any more aware than he was already. He felt he was bordering on paranoia, except that the threat was real. ‘Why’re ye doing this?’ he asked instead.

‘Because I’ve always made a point of following through on my word.’ He dropped his arm and shrugged awkwardly, an odd gesture for the normally brusque and confident blade archer. ‘And maybe I’m a bit responsible.’

Kael shrugged. ‘The way it’s been going, since they got Pa and then the rest of me family, I come to figure they’d have to come after me sometime. I was always going to face it.’

Banok walked in silence for a time, his hands deep in his pockets as he thought. ‘The woman who interrogated you worked for the Department of Foreign Trade,’ he said. ‘She didn’t turn up to work this morning, so the Talons went looking for her yesterday. Some poor fisherman found her face down by the docks as he came back in the afternoon, with a broken neck. She was one of those the Talons have been investigating.’

‘They got anything more?’

‘Not yet. They don’t know who the other man was yet, though if he was a grunt, as you say, it’s likely he won’t be missed. You find out from Aen if anything starts making noise inside. Don’t do anything rash yet. Wait until you know something of their workings, then you’ll know who you need to scare.’

Kael nodded, eyes darting towards every movement, though he still paid attention to the master’s words. ‘How do I scare ‘em, though? I said I ain’t killing no-one fer this.’

Banok shook his head. ‘The threat of it should mostly be enough. A few daggers shoved in front doors, the odd note that knows too much, smoking packages thrown over security walls, that sort of thing. Nothing that gets you seen.’

Kael swallowed, remembering a little of his theory training in Banok’s words. ‘But making a threat without following through means they’ll just come after me harder.’ It was the reason he had never feared Banok’s scowls or ‘or else’s. The man never followed through.

‘So threaten something you can do.’ Banok said with a shrug. ‘Threaten to turn them to the Talons. Drop a hood over their wall for the Talons to find and you’ll soon have them scared enough to turn on each other.’

It almost sounded plausible the more Banok talked. ‘Ye’re not bad, fer a rich bastard,’ Kael finally complimented him.

‘You’re not so bad for a southern bastard, either,’ the old Own rider returned with a grin. ‘I’ve learned a thing or two about challenging the odds in my time. Half of it is the discipline. Whoever they are, you can strip their discipline to fibres. Without that, they will fall.’