“That’s stupid. Of course not,” Joran snapped, and considering how collected he usually was, his denial had come out too fast, which told me it was likely true. “That’s just a ruse she came up with in the moment to keep herself in one piece, and you’d best forget you ever heard such nonsense.”
“Consider it forgotten… Now I’ll wish you gentlemen good luck. Regardless of what you all decide to do, me and Trax are out.”
“The hell you are,” said the rank three. “The rest of our crew is watching your friends to make sure they don’t run off. We’re short-handed and got no time to send for help. A Squalo by himself is worth ten regular men in a fight.”
“That is flattering. However, that would only be possible if I have the element of surprise.”
Joran laughed at that, which was a bit unnerving, as I was used to being the only one who could understand Trax clearly.
“We made a deal to clear out some ruins in exchange for the rent. Those ruins got cleared. All this trogshit afterwards? Not my academy’s problem.”
“I see it a bit different,” Joran said. “It’s very much a big fucking problem—for you—because our deal was for you to recover treasure. I’ve seen no treasure yet, but that great big light shooting into the sky told the world there was treasure there. Treasure which you likely stole for yourself.”
“You know that’s a lie.”
He shrugged. “All that matters is that’s what I’ll tell Carcalla when I justify to him my killing of you and all your friends. It doesn’t take a great leap of imagination to believe you found the lamp, then murdered Dathka before sending it off with one of your minions to sell.”
If my dad had still been alive, he would have told me this was what I deserved for dealing with dishonest crooks. “That’s a scummy move.”
“Should I be corrected as to your innocence later, like, say, by finding the treasure clutched in the dirty hands of an orc… Oh well, live and learn. Well, you won’t, seeing as how you’ll already be dead—unless you pitch in and help fix your mistakes.”
It pissed me off that I’d gone across realms merely to trade callous noblemen for petty gangsters. I’d vowed to become a wizard so I’d never be powerless again, but no matter where I went, I kept running into assholes coercing me to do things against my will. I dreamed of the day I’d achieved a high enough rank to blast all of these little tyrants straight to hell. That day was still a lot of effort and practice away, but right that minute, I was done being bullied.
“Fuck you, Joran. Kill me then and get it over with.”
Two of the Latros promptly drew daggers, and they’d surely have gutted me and left my body in the sand behind this rotting sailboat, but Joran held up one hand to stop them. Then heflashed me an unnerving smile. His teeth were very white in the dark. “Ah, there’s that notorious hotlander temper all your people are supposed to possess. Good to see you’ve got some of that fire in your belly, boy. Fine. I’ll let you keep your dignity, by offering an addendum to the deal. You and your Squalo help us right now, today’s failures are forgiven, and that’s another month of rent considered paid in full.”
I was a little surprised my defiance hadn’t gotten me stabbed, but I was barge cadre, so haggling was in my blood. “Three months.”
“Don’t push your luck.”
“Alright, how about one month if I help get back your girl, another month for the lamp, and a third if we kill Gerzog? Our previous agreement about splitting any loot evenly—other than the lamp which is all yours—remains in force.”
“The balls on this one…” the old gangster muttered.
“Naw, it’s good, Vilko. I appreciate the rare show of audacity in this city of lemmings.” I didn’t even know what a lemming was, but Joran held out one hand. “We’ve struck a deal, Carnavon, with these men and the saints as our witnesses.”
“And Trax. He’s got a real good memory.” I spit on my palm and we shook on it. The former gladiator had a grip like a Red miner. “So, what’s the plan?”
“Let’s go see if your Squalo is as good at surprise as he claims.”
Thirty
You might think Squalos are scary, but you don’t really grasp just how terrifying they can be until you watch one hunting. Most of the time, Trax just stands there, staring blankly with his beady black eyes, perfectly quiet and sort of physically awkward, not moving until he needed to. When he does move, there’s always a swiftness to it that warns you there was a lot more where that came from. Watching Trax in a straight-up fight was impressive. But turn him lose to stalk unsuspecting prey in the dark… May the saints have mercy on the spirts of those he was about to slay. He’d been my most stalwart friend since I’d arrived in the Core, and I’d come to love Trax like a brother, except seeing him in action that night was rather unnerving, because unleashed, my fishy brother wasterrifying.
“I would not be so ruthless now, but these mercenaries were exceedingly rude earlier. They are also the direct cause of the death of our dwarf. Who I did not particularly care for, but he did not deserve to be so thoroughly squished.”
What happened to Rufus was pretty brutal,I thought back.
“There was not even enough left of him to be eaten. A shameful waste of perfectly good meat.”
That sounded horrible, but I reminded myself that Squalos considered eating their dead a great honor. I’d already promised Trax he could eat me when I died, which, with the way things were going lately, might be sooner rather than later.
From the corner of the warehouse, I watched as Trax silently moved up behind another guard. For being so large, his movements were incredibly fluid. When the guard glanced behind him, Trax simply sank lower to the ground into the deeper shadows. The instant the guard looked away, Trax pounced. And bypounced, I mean launched three hundred pounds of carnivorous death upon him. The poor bastard didn’t even make much sound, because Trax ate half his neck in one bite.
“That is the last of the guards on the perimeter.”
“Didn’t anyone ever tell him it’s not polite to talk with your mouth full,” Joran whispered, and then chuckled at his own joke. Of course, the Latros had no idea what he was talking about, because they couldn’t understand Squalo language.
