Her smile faded.
No. It wasn’t healthy to consider what happened to the children.
She hadn’t even realized she had stopped walking, until she felt a tap on her shoulder. Helspira startled and spun, face-to-face with a human skull.
“Hello, there.” A sun-bleached, fleshless hand reached out. “We haven’t been formally introduced. I’m Benjamin. You can call meBenif you’d like.”
“Ben.” Helspira nodded, gripped his hand without hesitation, and shook it. “I would’ve introduced myself earlier, but it sounded like you were tying up some loose ends.”
“That’s not all I was tying up,” his disembodied voice whispered with a hint of mischievousness. “Who knew spurned spouses could be so—”
“I’m Helspira,” she interrupted with a quick, nervous laugh. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Is it?” A hint of disbelief lived in his ghostly voice. “Well, that’s surprising to hear. I saw you spying the silk vendor. Have you met him? Charles. Nice guy, but don’t accept the first price he throws at you. Don’t get me wrong; his product is great, but he always tries to upsell if he thinks he can get away with it.”
“Oh, no”—she held up her hands, the heat of embarrassment warming her cheeks—“I haven’t met any of the locals. Well, except for a wizard with whom I had averyfleeting relationship and some of the people at the almshouse. That’s where my parents and I have been staying the last two years.”
“A Red Sentinel at the almshouse?” Ben tilted his head. “Pardon my prying, but I used to be a Red Sentinel. It’s not glamorous pay, but you should be able to afford housing.”
Helspira offered a small smile and a smaller shrug. “Affording it isn’t the problem. Finding someone willing to sell to demons is the hard part.”
“Ah, an issue with which I am somewhat familiar. I’m no demon, but I know all about unsettling the common man.” Ben cupped his jaw in his hand. “I think it’s because I’m not wearing any pants.”
Several feet ahead, Catseye swiveled on his heels, arms spread, eyes wide. “Bygods, Benjamin, you’re right. This won’t be a wasted trip after all. We can stop by Carpin Capers Clothing and see if they can make you some pants. What a relief. I was afraid this trip would prove pointless.”
Struggling to see how aiding the kingdom against an enemy threat was somehow less important than finding garments for a walking corpse, Helspira grimaced, but she let the thought fall to the wayside as they carved their way through the market to exchange the sights of bustling townsfolk for the grandeur of Queen Saelihn’s castle. In the heart of Vinepool, it held a welcoming, accessible quality, despite the two armed and armored sentinels posted at the entrance. As Helspira and the others approached, and she spied the faces of the guardsmen, her shoulders tightened.
She certainly wasn’t drowning in favor amongst her brothers and sisters-in-arms, but she’d have traded her other eye if it meant dealing with anyone other than Carl and Yurg.
Best to get it over with.
After muscling her way to the front of the unit, Helspira approached the two sentinels at the gate and offered a respectful bow. “Sentinel Helspira returning with Catseye, as per our queen’s instruction.”
Ben managed to make a noise that sounded suspiciously like a gasp, bones clacking as he pressed his hand into sternum. “Carl? It’s me, Sentinel Champion Benjamin Reese. By Dionus’s sword, I haven’t seen you in years. We served together, remember? Ringing any bells?”
A stab of pity struck Helspira’s chest when the men refused to acknowledge Ben. Carl and Yurg may have been proper soldiers, but they were proper arseholes as well.
Carl snorted, staring past Helspira, past Ben, until he found the attention of the nearest Red Sentinel who wasn’t a demon or an undead skeleton. “We’ll notify Queen Saelihn. She’ll await them in the Grand Hall.”
Before anyone else could speak, Helspira interjected, “Open the doors, Sentinel Carl. I can escort them to the Grand Hall.”
If looks could kill, Carl’s glare would have decapitated her. “I don’t take orders from demons.”
Rip out his throat and make Yurg eat it.
Helspira pinched the bridge of her nose and quieted her impulses with a slow, deep breath.
Ben, however, chose to free a loud, dramatic groan. “Gods-dammit, Carl. Don’t be a dick. You’ll give the whole R.S. a bad name.” Without waiting for permission, he pushed past the two men, his bony shoulder colliding with each.
They scoffed as he opened the door and invited himself inside, but they did nothing to stop him. Helspira wondered why, until ...
A chastisingtsk-tskfrom Catseye caught her attention. Helspira watched Catseye lean toward Carl, violating every inch of the man’s personal space.
“Carl, Carl, Carl.” Though Catseye’s voice lowered to a soft, eerie whisper, Helspira’s keen hearing discerned every hushed word. The smile he wore was a front, an outward illusion of mirth, as he twisted Carl’s red scarf around his finger and pulled him closer, his ear hovering less than an inch from Catseye’s lips. “Unless you want to breathe in the mist of a shadow blade and acquaint your organs with the brief but excruciating feeling of coagulative necrosis, the next time Benjamin addresses you, you will address him in return, and you will address him respectfully.”
Carl’s throat bobbed with a hard swallow. He nodded.
Catseye’s raspy chuckle sounded like a promise of death, but after a quick rotation of his wrist, the scarf unraveled from his finger and Carl leaned back, unharmed, likely except for his ego. And, as if he didn’t just violently threaten a man’s life three seconds ago, Catseye quite literally waltzed into the castle’s open doors with all the grace of a dancer, humming a bouncy tune Helspira had never heard.
