“Otrade.”
Gort grimaced. “How in the void did you end up with that piece of shit?”
Tillmar sighed. “I was a kir with Saubra.”
“Damn,” Gort said.
“Yeah.”
I looked at Gort.
“The Saubra Company got hired to settle a family dispute between two brothers,” Gort explained. “They did their job, took the castle, and then found out that their broker had been bought off. The lord who hired them didn’t get the king’s blessing.”
In Rellas, two nobles couldn’t fight a private war without a dispensation from the Throne. There was an entire process, involving filing the proper papers and then waiting to see if Sauven approved them.
“You never know what King Sauven will do, my lady,” Tillmar said. “When shit like that happens, sometimes it’s a fine and sometimes it’s scorched earth. The Saubra mercenaries went to sleep in the gutted castle and woke up with the King’s Army on their doorstep. Everyone kir and above was put to the sword, including the lord. They held the trial right before the castle gates.”
“How did you get out?” Gort asked.
“I’d taken off the night before. Just had that feeling.” Tillmar shook his head. “Cursed brokers. Did you hear about Filderon? He got paid off to throw away a company. Eighty bodies. Somebody found out before they set out and pinned the evidence to his chest with a knife. Drugh was going to make an issue of it, but that shit stank so much that he backed right off.”
“What’s the world coming to?” Gort said with a straight face.
“Exactly,” Tillmar said.
“How does it work?” I asked Gort. “Is the Throne looking for Tillmar?”
“He left before the trial, so he was never officially convicted,” Gort said. “They were mostly after the lord, the broker, and the officers. The kirs got thrown in there to make a louder noise, but they aren’t important enough on their own. It happened a year ago, and he isn’t hard to find. If they haven’t picked him up by now, they won’t bother. He’s probably safe but nobody will want him on their roster.”
“I can’t get hired,” Tillmar said. “I’ve been trying for a year. I’ve got three kids, and this is all I know how to do. My daughter needs redblossom powder every day.”
I knew that one from the books. Redblossom root treated diabetes.
The mercenary shook his head. “I haven’t earned a den in the last four months, so I was desperate. I ran into Otrade in a tavern. The man is foul, but I was at the end of my rope, and he put fifty dens on the table in front of me. Said he was running a crew for a Great Family.”
“Which one?” Everard asked.
“The Hrebans. He just had two spots open up.”
And here was our answer. Hreban had finally found us. Now we had to find out why. Would he send more when he found out the first group failed?
“When was this?” Everard asked.
“The ninth of Planter. This was my first job for him,” Tillmar said. “Had I known it was this kind of work, I would’ve never taken the contract. I would’ve left that money on the table and got out of there.”
There was a contract. Very in character for Hreban. He didn’t trust people because he could see into their hearts. He trusted signatures, and he was compulsive about it. He’d probably made the Butcher sign a contract . . .
Wait.
“Do you remember what the contract said?” I asked.
“I have it here.” Tillmar reached into his jerkin and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “I haven’t signed it yet. I was supposed to give it back to Otrade today.”
“Where is Otrade now?” Everard asked.
“In the courtyard. He was the one with the southern spear. I sat there and stared at this thing, and something told me not to sign it. So I waited.”
I scanned the contract.
