“Before you lip off too much, I do have this.” Dathka had showed me her empty hands, but with the flick of a wrist, she dropped something from her sleeve into her palm. I think it was a shard of glass, with a handle of wrapped rag. “I broke an old mirror in the room I was tied up in and used this to cut myself free.”
“Then why not run back to the Latros for help? I’d think flesh and blood murderers will be of more use to you than an absent immortal.”
“The world is never absent murder, Carnavon.” Dathka sighed as she decided to level with me. “I can’t return as a failure. Ever since I arrived in the Core, I’ve been trying to earn my father’s respect. He told Cutter Joran to teach me, to see if I was worthy of the family business. Watching over you Outcasts was a test to see how I could manage on my own. Instead, I got outmaneuvered by a mercenary and placed the Latrocinium’s interests in danger. I’ve become a liability, and there is nothing that the great Carcalla hates more. If I come back crying for Latrocinium help, it marks me as weak. I must handle this without them, and return my captor’s head, or my father will for sure send me back through the gate.”
“I’m sorry you’ve got daddy issues, but if I don’t bring back the treasure, we’re still getting evicted.”
“You know when that happens, he’ll surely kill a couple of you at least, as an example to everyone else why debts must be promptly paid. That’s his way.”
“Your dad and his pet gladiator have made that abundantly clear. So where’s Gerzog?”
She remained cagey on that topic. “I don’t know where he is right now.”
“But you know something. You know where he’s going to be, don’t you? You need to do this without Latro help? Well, the Outcasts sure as shit aren’t Latros. You can look your father in the eye and tell him you did handle it on your own, by gathering forces who were already in his debt. He’s out nothing. Problem solved. Let’s go.”
“Hmmm…” Dathka studied me, and must have decided I meant business, because she turned back at the statue and said, “I asked you for help, Brotbeck, and it seems you have answered my prayers in a rather direct fashion.” She stood, then bent over to gently place her offering at the statue’s base. “Praise Murder.”
“Is that an ear?” It sure looked like a human ear, or at least most of one.
“It’s from one of the men Gerzog left guarding me. When I said I cut myself free, I wasn’t only talking about the ropes.”
Forty-One
Dathka and I left the Habitation of Phradumius and started east.
“Once Gerzog finds out you’ve escaped, won’t he change his plans?”
“Doubtful. He couldn’t have known I could hear some of their conversations through the vents of the room I was held in. Gerzog’s found a buyer and they’re going to meet later to exchange the treasure for a chest full of coins. I intend to relieve him of both those things, as well as his miserable life.”
“And you’re going to do that with what? Your piece of glass?”
“I’ll find a way.”
“Yeah, I’ve already got a way. Slow down.” When she kept walking, I grabbed her by the arm to stop her.
“Unhand me.”
“No.” I glared at her, because I’d had about enough of this snooty Latro thinking she was better than me. “Not until you listen.” One of the black-coated Paladins of Kielgrad looked askance at me manhandling a woman, so I quickly let her go and lowered my voice. “Use your brain or I’m out. I’m not one of your idiot gang. You can go fight a band of mercenaries on your own,or you can go back and beg your fiend for someone else to come save you.”
“Brotbeck is not afiend.” I noticed she’d palmed her improvised weapon again, prepared to gut me right here in the street in front of hundreds of nice church-going folks. “Take that back.”
It was funny she thought that was the most offensive thing I’d said. “Fine. But we do this the smart way. How many men will Gerzog have with him?”
“I don’t know. More members of his company showed up at their hideout and left with him. So at least four or five. Then we might also need to contend with whoever his buyer is.”
“Two of us against that? Bad odds. I’ve got friends coming to meet me here.”
“There’s no time to wait.” Dathka looked toward the setting sun. “They’re supposed to meet an hour after the gate’s closing, and we still have a ways to walk.”
I pointed toward where she had her glass shard hidden. “Then cut yourself.”
“What’s wrong with you?”
“So Trax can follow us. It doesn’t need to be deep. Just enough to leave a drop or two every block will be enough for his nose. He’s really good at that.”
Dathka was aghast. “Why don’t you cut yourself?”
“Because my father wasn’t an angry gangster I need to impress.” I’d gotten a couple cuts on the island, but they were dried out. “You want the Outcasts with us or not?”
