“Something about betrayal, I think,” Rade answered. “Then that arrow got him! And the stones themselves… The poor bastard.”
Sifuso threw up at the memory, and I’d seen him eat week-old dead mice.
“I bet it’s that Latrocinium whore betraying us,” Azarin said. “She’s probably up there with Cutter Joran and an army of bandits right now, waiting to rob us.”
“But why would the Latros betray us? We got this thing for them.” I shook the box for emphasis.
“I don’t know. I don’t think like a criminal. But who else could it be? She’s probably already murdered Danny, Bognar, and Morton.”
Even if Azarin was right, the only way out was up. The water was still rising and the doorway to the chamber was half covered. “We might be walking into an ambush. Be ready to fight.”
“Krachma will take lead.” The lob thumped his mace against his big palm. “They make Krachma’s dwarf flat. Krachma is angered by flat dwarf.”
If enemies were waiting for us, we were in an awful position. The stairwell formed a fatal funnel with nowhere to hide. All they’d need to do was toss some spells down this narrow shaft or fill it with bullets and we were doomed.
Because Sifuso’s fighting was so hot or cold, either vicious or cowardly, and it was hard to predict which lizard man we’d get, I passed the box off to him. “This is the only thing we have to bargain with. Get in the very back and protect it with your life.”
“I will,” the lacertian vowed.
Then I got behind Krachma and pulled my gun. “Lead the way, big guy.”
A bit of climbing later, we got our answer as to who had betrayed us. Dathka Walker was waiting at the top of the stairs, but surprisingly it was as hostage, not hostage taker. She, along with Morton and Bognar, were on their knees, wrists bound. Using them for cover was the orc who’d tried to join our academy that morning—Gerzog was the name he’d given me—and at his side, looking awkward and ashamed, was young Danny.
Twenty-Six
“What the fuck, Danny!”
“Sorry, Mr. Carnavon. I didn’t have no choice.”
Furious, I leveled my pistol over Krachma’s shoulder, but Danny ducked behind Big Bognar, whose plumpness made him a fine shield. I had no shot, but I was hiding behind someone even bigger than Bognar, who made an even better shield. “GoImpervious.”
Krachma’s skin turned grey—and based off experience, bulletproof—but that also rendered him completely immobile, which mostly blocked the narrow stairs. We were ten steps down. Rade was behind me, sword not yet drawn because a two-and-a-half-foot razor was a bit of a liability while surrounded by friends in a cramped space. Azarin was behind him, wand in one hand and pistol in the other, which was frankly worrisome, because she was such a bad shot with a gun, she was liable to nail one of us in the back instead of whoever she was aiming at.
“You’re trapped, Outcasts. Send up your treasure or we’ll start slitting throats.” Gerzog yanked Dathka’s hair back and placed a knife beneath her chin to prove his point, not realizing that of his three hostages, threatening her was by far the least likely way to persuade us.
The Latro assassin looked as furious as I’d ever seen anyone, and I’d been a miner in a realm noted for our tempers. “You’re lucky you caught me by surprise, orc. If you kill me, the black band of Carcalla will hunt you to the ends of the realms. There’ll be no place for you to hide. Cutter Joran will slice your cock off and force feed it to you! You’re dead. Your whole family is dead!”
“You can run your suck, Latro, but you’re nothing to be afraid of without your one high-level enchantment.” Gerzog patted one of his pockets, which was probably where he stashed her shadow walking charm. “I’m not afraid of Carcalla. Your half-elf boss’s reach ends at the edge of the Slumps. The Council rules everything above those, and the Tempus Metum runs the undercity below. Either of those, or a dozen other factions, would pay me a fortune for Korthican’s beacon.”
Considering how much light was coming from the box Sifuso was holding, even from way below us, it was pretty hard to deny that we’d found the thing. Crouched behindImperviousKrachma, I kept my pistol ready, but at this angle, only a bit of Gerzog’s head was poking around Dathka. Danny was entirely behind Bognar. Nobody was hiding behind Morton, because gnomes were too small to be a good shield. Poor Morton’s eyes were squeezed shut tight, and he was sniffling, like he was trying his best not to cry.
“You’re not getting shit from us, Gerzog.”
“Me landing twenty men upon this island suggests otherwise, Carnavon.”
I didn’t know if he was telling the truth or exaggerating to intimidate us, but Bognar snuck in a bit of a nod that warned me the orc wasn’t lying.
“Those odds aren’t so bad. We killed a lot more monsters than that today already.”
“I saw the nasty purple pile you left behind, but you’ll find us more capable than some noodle armed mutants, for I amGerzog the Marauder, captain of the Tooth and Claw Mercenary Company.”
I’d never heard of them, but Rade muttered, “Dammit…”
“Ah. At least one of you knows of us. You should, deadlander, seeing as how many of your kind we’ve slain in that sad realm. Explain to your friends why you should hand over your treasure and give up while you still can. You may confer amongst yourselves. Do so quickly before my patience runs out.”
I looked to Rade, and he whispered back, “The Tooth and Claw are a foul bunch of scoundrels and backstabbing trash, but they can fight. The nobles of some of our distant, savage kingdoms sometimes hire outsiders to burn villages and put down peasant uprisings. The Tooth and Claw are notorious even among those.”
“Any chance they’re honorable enough to let us all go if we hand over the box?”
