A few assassins in the crowd made awed sounds at the sight of her. Having never realized what she kept hidden under that hood.
She expostulated in enraged profanity.
He chuckled. Lazily jerking the dagger upward, to remove it from her throat. He released her and she hastily stepped from the warmth of his arms to turn a glowering gaze on him.
“Barmaid! Bird leg!” He slapped the counter with a wolfish smile.
Belline curtsied like he was some manner of king and backed from him to fetch the food.
“This is my alehouse!”
“You barter here. You own shares. But you don’t own the guild.” He corrected, taking another drink. Ignoring her ranting next to him. “Calm down, Murah.” He said from the corner of his mouth. “You still have all that mud hiding your face. They can’t see you.”
She gave him a withering look. “Give me back my blade!”
He still held it folded between his palm and mug. He set his drink down and expertly rotated it in his hand to stab it into the surface of the bar. The handle swung as it embedded in rough wood.
Huffing, she reached to clasp it.
His hand shot out and folded around her wrist. Holding it in place. “Watch how you talk to me.” He warned. Blue eyes blazing.
“Get out of my building.” She hissed.
“When I’m done with you.” His eyes rolled to give her another once over. “Which will likely be never.”
She stood, making fists and longing to shout her hatred.
“Hey!” A man stood up from one of the benches along the wall. “You shouldn’t be talking to a maid like that.”
The stranger’s friend caught his arm and tried to yank him back into his seat.
***
“Who are you?” Savage released Dimurah and twisted to give the approaching man his undivided attention.
“No!” Murah cried out. Trying to get around him to stop the stranger.
“Ah. Ah.” Savage put a hand to her stomach and tucked her behind him. His eyes focused on the man before him. Slightly shorter than he, but stouter.
“Stop!” She shouted from behind him. “Savage Jack, don’t!”
He assessed the man. Eyes hooded as he spoke leisurely. “Friend, I let this woman rant at me as she wishes, because it amuses me. As it does everyone here.” He gestured broadly. “But you, you’ve no place challenging me.”
“She’s the Barter Queen and should be treated with some respect.” The man argued. Stepping closer.
“Do it.” Savage invited.
“Don’t do it!” Murah still tried to claw her way around the one unyielding arm blocking her path. “RedBayne! Nauvree!” She called for the help of the men sitting at a corner table. Two of the more honorable ones.
Both shook their heads at her. Refusing to interfere.
“Jax!” She pleaded under her breath.
His eyes didn’t leave the mousy brown interloper.
“You’ve no idea how I treat her.” He said in a steely tone. “If you intend to challenge me, Friend. You’ll need a weapon…A sharp one.”
“It so happens…” He reached behind his back.
“Don’t give him a blade!” She screeched from behind Savage. Clutching at the back of his black tunic to try to restrain him.
When the stranger pulled the dagger, a mite bigger than Dimurah’s had been, he tossed it to his other hand and back as though to prove he knew how to use it.
“A man who truly knows how to use a weapon has no need to prove it.” Savage remarked.
When he lunged forward to thrust it at Savage, Savage stepped to the side and turned to catch the man’s wrist. Sweeping the blade from his hand and rolling along his arm to turn and plunge it into the stranger’s throat.
The man stumbled back. Gargling as he strangled on his own blood.
Savage turned back to the bar to drink the last of his tankard before strolling back as the stranger collapsed to his knees. Savage yanked the dagger from his throat and stuck it in the interloper’s side between his ribs in two different places before planting it in his stomach near his belly button and dragging it up until hitting sternum. He tilted the knife to permeate as many organs as possible before jerking it sideways to tear free with a splash of skin and blood.
The stranger collapsed. Deathly still.
***
Murah punched Savage in the back, and he rounded on her.
Droplets of blood still seeping down his face, and on the hand snatching her wrist. Tossing the blade with his other, sent it skidding to Phalanx’s feet. Savage knew that man would take care of it.
She swung the other one and he caught that one too. Folding both her forearms out until her arms locked before her. He backed her toward the door. Eyes boreing into her as she stumbled backwards. Her step forcefully guided by his movements.
“Dimurah!” The newest barmaid, a short raven-haired girl, Adrea, ran in. “What are you doing?” She called to Savage. Seeing the horrified look on her friend’s face.
“No!” Murah shouted to her. “He’s already killed one person tonight!”
“It’s true.” He confirmed. Not looking from his prey. “Best not goad me further this eve.”
“Why! Why’d he do it?” The girl’s gaze landed on the dead man in the middle of Winter Haven floor. She gasped in horror.Dimurah was staring at him, fists clench and jaw jutting.His unflinching gaze was levelled on her as he enunciated the words. “Because you’re mine. Everyone knows it. And no one interferes in my business or they die.”The crowd hushed. No one moved to intercede. And it’d be a long time until someone does again.“I’ll never be yours!” She screamed. But her eyes were fearful.***He laughed uproariously. Tossing back his head in a show of boldness as he nearly reached the door with her before him. “He brought me a blade. What did he expect?” He looked around the room. Nodding arrogantly. “What’s my policy, men?”They began to chant. “Have a man come at me with a dagger and I shall have a dagger. Have him attack me with a sword and I shall pierce him with a sword. Have him shackle me and I’ll crush his throat with those shackles.I’m an exceptional killer. I’ll kill m
He kissed her hard and deep.She shoved him back and slapped him hard.Making him toss his head back. Roaring with laughter like some dark demon.When his head fell forward. His eyes shined in slivers of moonlight. “Strike me viper. But it’s only yourself, you’re poisoning.”She twisted against his grip.But he backed her up through the mud. Walking through rain which now dumped wildly in the Courtyard. Making it hard to see beyond a few feet in the darkness of the night.In the dark of my Fortress. Savage was grateful for it now as his gaze was locked on his pretty prey.“Where do you think you’re going, Murah.”“Let me go!”“You had the chance years ago.” He whispered to her. “It’s too late for all that bluster now.”Finally, he saw the silhouette of a tree in the dark and guided her back against it.She grunted as she made contact. Giving him a venomous look.“Don’t touch me, Jax.”“Ah, now I’m Jax again, am I?” He crooned. Still holding her upper arms as his blue eyes roved her fa
Blue Lark Guild, Dread HideoutA woman entered the Blue Lark looking to hire an assassin.She’d passed the tower guards, passed the Courtyard Guards, and made it right in the front door of his fortress, and straight into the Winter Haven Alehouse for just that purpose.But Savage Jaxson saw her clearly for what she was. Royalty. His study zeroed in on her from across the room. Watching the way, she swept her cape and how carefully she stepped over a spilled drink.He glimpsed her hand as she gripped the hem of her cape. Not old. Not young. He caught a wisping curl of hair moving beyond the hood as she breathed.Dark brown. Female. Middle-aged royalty. In the Blue Lark to hire an assassin.He drew closer, watching her profile peer from under the red hood. Spotting a particularly weaselly man across the room.The Death Dealer. Though he didn’t look like much, he was a skilled killer. Not particular in whether he murdered women or children.“What are you looking at?” Dimurah whispered ov
She gasped in outrage. Slowly turning to see his unabashed grin. She tossed the pitcher at him.He casually deflected it with a forearm. Laughing uproariously as it sloshed another of the barmaids.“You unbelievable wretch!” Dimurah quaked with rage.“Tent it is!”The crowd in Winter Haven roared in approval.“You’ll have to be quiet this time! No rousing the courtyard again.” He waved a finger in cautioning.“You heathen! That’s not true!” She nearly shook with rage. Making her blue eyes glimmer.“You take it back!” She rushed over to order.“Clearly. As you wish. I take it back!” He announced. “It’s not true. It wasn’t the whole courtyard!” He laughed raucously. Dodging the tankard, she tried to splash on him next. Moving smoothly from its trajectory so is slopped harmlessly over the boards onto the floor.“Contain your fire!” He shouted laughingly. Tone softening, he ensured it was still loud enough for everyone to hear. “Save it for later.” He let the innuendo fill the alehouse.“
The following morning, Dimurah was unsurprised when Nauvree sighed and took a seat at the counter. Eying her over it until she finally slammed down her rag and gave him a disparaging look.“What?”“When are you just going to give in to him?” Nauvree asked Murah.She looked up from wiping a tankard out with a bit of cloth. Setting it along the bar for later tonight. “What do you mean?”“You know very well, what I mean.” He eyed her over his tankard. “You two have been engaged in the longest running segment of foreplay I’ve ever witnessed. And I’ve had some time to witness many things…”She admired this man. With his short cropped blonde hair and alert blue-green eyes, he was good-looking. Though easily as dangerous as any other man in the Blue Lark Guild, he and his friend, had some sordid code of honor that made them truer than most. Such as Savage Jack, for instance.“Everyone knows full well, I don’t dally with clientele.”“We’re all your clientele.” He argued.She gave him a pointe
You should wince. Savage thought. I caught you talking about me for all to hear.You intend to try to evade me? Good luck.Grimacing, Murah slowly turned toward the hooded figure in the corner, whom they’d assumed was half asleep over an empty tankard.Me.“Sorry.” Adrea winced. Ducking low to stay behind the bar, she crept around the corner and vanished under the stairs.Hiding from me. Sharp girl.“Coward.” Murah hissed after her.You’re merely envious you’d not make it as far as she did. He rose, making the fabric of his long cloak whisper as he walked to the counter.“Would you just go away?”No.“To your hut?” He offered. Lifting a hand to knock a hood back. Making the wood beads clink in the twisted strands of his light blonde hair.“Have I expressed how much I hate when you’re here?”You don’t. You hate that I’m in control when I’m here.“You mean like a parent. Seeing what you’ve been up to in my absence and cleaning up whatever childish messes you’ve made without my approval?
“I hate that he’s back!” Murah whined to Markus.“Me too.” He agreed. “It’s just a question of who’s going to die not ‘if’ or ‘when’.”“Is he really so bad?” Thomas, the other bodyguard, asked from next to them.“Worse.” She and Markus said in unison.She sighed. “Hire some extra barmaids tonight for…sanitizing. Did we get whoever that was last night, cleaned up?” She asked nearly as an afterthought.“In the hole out back.” Markus nodded. “Barely a stain left.”“Have Dale widen the hole.”“I hate when he’s back.” Markus grumbled as he left Murah’s hut.“Me too.” She whined.Thomas sat in the wooden chair near the door. Lifting his wooden cup of water to sip as he sat sentry.She watched the young man forlornly.“Yes?” He glanced at her. Smiling proudly to be taking care of his family working for her. Her coin helped put food in his little brother and mother’s bellies.“Be careful.”“I always am, mum.”“No, Thomas. I mean exceptionally careful.”His brow knitted as he looked at her.“H
Alazar, The Nauvree, was assessing the camp site the next morning. Still analyzing that intriguing dagger the assassin had tried to use and trying to recognize who this assassin was.“It’s true what she says.” The voice stopped Alazareth in his tracks as he returned to the woods from escorting her back to Nightway in the early hours.Mardichi, The RedBayne.He stood near the remnants of the long dead fire. Eyes skimming the body of the dead man.The man I killed trying to assassinate Riaura.“I came to warn ye.” Mardichi murmured. “Someone from Igonox hired an assassin last nigh’ ta kill yer Nightway princess. Savage called ‘er out in the Blue Lark.”“You came albeit late.”“Nay.” Mardichi murmured. “I didn’t. The Death Dealer is still back at the Blue Lark. He planned to come this way late this eve. I knew nothing of this un’.” Mardichi gestured to the dead man at his feet.“How many are there?” Alazar asked worriedly.“I’ve no idea…Now. Perhaps every assassin who crossed the path be