Deepwoods (Book 1) (15 page)

When she returned, she found that Rune hadn’t quite escaped
Conli yet. Her resident physician was wrapping the younger man’s wrists with a
white bandage, issuing instructions to keep it clean as he did so. Rune had
that inscrutable expression on his face again, as if he didn’t know how to
react to any of this. Maybe he didn’t. Wolf had told her stories, from time to
time, about what life in a dark guild was like. It had made her hair stand on
end. Worse, she was fairly certain he only told her the milder tales. The
darker ones he never spoke of.

She walked through the doorway and put the wicker basket in
Rune’s hands. “Eat all of it,” she commanded.

Rune opened the basket and peered at the loaf of bread,
wedge of cheese, smoked ham, and apple tart inside. He nearly started drooling.
“No problem.”

As Rune enthusiastically dug in, she settled cross-legged
next to Conli and asked him, “How’s his condition?”

“Malnourished, dehydrated, and exhausted,” Conli replied
promptly, his mouth in a flat, unhappy line. “I could whip these people for how
they treated him.”

Rune paused in devouring the ham and gave them an odd look.
Around a mouthful, he managed, “I
did
try ta kill one of their own.”

“They should have executed you for that or bargained with
your guild to send you back for a hefty fee,” Conli responded angrily, slamming
the rest of the bandages back into his pack. “You don’t starve and neglect
people. That’s just cruelty.”

Siobhan agreed with him one hundred percent. She didn’t like
how they’d handled Rune either. “His wrists and ankles?”

“Bruised and chafed, but not serious,” Conli assured her.
“That said, I don’t think you should send him out today. Or tomorrow. He needs
good food, a lot of liquid, and some uninterrupted rest for at least two days
before you send him anywhere.”

She understood the sense of his advice as he said it.

Rune, not understanding, protested as he ripped a chunk out
of the loaf of bread. “I can go today.”

Siobhan shook her head firmly. “No, Rune. You’re not in the
best of shape right now. I don’t send weakened men into potentially dangerous
situations. You might be able to go into Sateren and arrange a meeting with a
karl without a hitch. Then again, you might be in for quite the fight. We don’t
know what will happen. I’m not sending you anywhere until Conli says you’re
strong enough.”

He looked between the two of them with expressionless eyes,
not saying a word. Siobhan was really beginning to hate that look. “Fine,” he
finally capitulated with a shrug. “Yer the guildmaster here.”

Too true.

No one really complained about having a few days to rest in
one place, not after the traveling they’d done. The problem Siobhan faced lay
in that no one wanted to stay in close quarters with Rune. No one trusted him,
and it was hard to relax in the presence of someone you didn’t trust.

Siobhan wouldn’t swear that she could trust Rune either, but
she did believe that he would hold up his end of the bargain as he honestly
couldn’t afford to break the deal. She felt like saying,
Look, he won’t
bite. He’s a nice assassin, see?
Alas, no one would likely listen.

She tried to ignore the uncomfortable atmosphere for the
first day, giving people time to come to terms with him on their own, but by
afternoon of the second day, the tension got to her. Giving up, she dug out the
deck of cards and a brush pen from her pack.

People had more or less sorted themselves out in the narrow
house. The bedrolls were rolled up during the day, as frankly there wasn’t
enough floor space to leave them out, with the packs laid against the walls. Wolf
and Tran seemed intent on polishing weapons, Conli eerily imitating them by
polishing his medical tools. Markl had his notebook out, writing something
down, but Sylvie looked beyond bored as she unbraided and re-braided her hair.

“Sylvie,” Siobhan invited while waving the deck in the air.
“Up for a game?”

The other woman perked up. “Sounds good. What are we
playing?”

“Thirteen Cards,” Siobhan responded. “Course, it’s hard to
play with only two people…Rune, care to join in?”

No one was fooled by this casual invitation. But Rune seemed
glad for something to do aside from ignore everyone’s not-stares. “Well, a game
sounds fun, but I don’t know this one.”

“It’s not hard,” Siobhan assured him. She sat cross-legged
near him, Sylvie joining her on the other side so that they formed a circle.
“Are you familiar with card games?”

“Somewhat,” he responded carefully.

“Then here’s the rules. You have thirteen cards in your
hands. Your goal is to get rid of them, and the first person with no cards left
wins. You can lay down pairs, sequences, or multiples of cards, but whatever
you lay down has to match what the first person lays down. Got that? Good. If
you can’t lay something down, or don’t want to, say ‘go.’ We’ll play rounds,
eliminating people, until only one person is left.”

He nodded understanding, watching as she quickly shuffled
the deck of slim wooden cards before passing them out between the three. “What
are we betti’n? This is a gambli’n game, it seems.”

“Of a sort,” Sylvie agreed. “But there’s a long established
rule in the guild that we don’t bet money with each other. It leads to bad
blood later. So instead, we have penalties.” She smirked as she held up the
brush pen. “The winner gets to scribble whatever she wants to on the loser’s
face.”

Rune seemed intrigued by this, and if that quirk of the
mouth were any indication, amused. “And, ah, how permanent is that ink?”

“Very,” Siobhan assured him cheerfully.

“Warni’n taken.” Rune took the cards from her and started
sorting through them.

The first few minutes, people were busy sorting through
cards and figuring out how to best play them. Then Siobhan nodded to the
assassin. “We always start left of the dealer. So, you go.”

“Pairs or sequences, right?”

“If you have three or four of a kind, you can lay that down
too.”

“Got it.” He laid down a pair, starting the game.

Perhaps it was beginner’s luck, but whatever the case, Rune
proved to be a tough opponent. Siobhan barely squeaked by in getting rid of her
cards before he did. Sylvie wasn’t so lucky. With an outright smirk, Rune
leaned forward with the brush and painted a sloppy star on her right cheek.

Making a face, she picked all the cards up and shuffled
them. “I deal this time.”

“Can you deal me in?” Markl requested.

Siobhan waved him forward, secretly relieved that he chose
to do so. They all shifted their positions enough that he had room to sit with
them. “Are you familiar with Thirteen Cards?” she asked him as he settled
between Sylvie and Rune.

“I listened to the instructions, I think I know how it
works,” he assured her.

With the way the game was set up, no more than four could
play. But as Sylvie dealt the cards, and Siobhan started them off by laying
down a five-card sequence, she could feel Wolf and Tran paying very close
attention.

With two beginners, Siobhan didn’t play as ruthlessly as she
normally did, which proved to be a mistake. After three rounds, both Markl and
Rune proved that they had the strategies of the game down and she lost
magnificently, getting a circle painted around her eye for her troubles.  Sticking
her tongue out at a grinning Markl, she played much more seriously after that.

Time passed quickly, the rounds becoming quicker and more
hilarious as people got interesting things painted onto their skin. With no
mirror, they had to ask what was painted, and Siobhan was sure that no one had
told her the truth about what Sylvie did on her skin.

Beirly came in as the dinner bell in the village rang, took
in their faces, and burst out laughing. “Playing Thirteen Cards, I see!”

“Beirly, they’re ganging up on me,” Sylvie complained with a
mock-pout. Considering that she had a mustache painted on her face, the pout
didn’t have
quite
the effect she was aiming for. Beirly doubled over
laughing, wheezing for breath.

Fei came in behind him, looking the situation over with a
suspiciously straight face, as if he were laughing internally. “I see that
Markl-xian is winning so far.”

Considering Markl only had a black spot on his nose, an eye
on his forehead, and a heart on his cheek, that was a fair judgment to make.

“It’s a near thing,” Markl admitted without an ounce of
modesty. “Rune’s wicked with cards. He’s almost gotten me these last three
rounds.”

“And yet here I be with more scribbles on my face,” Rune
drawled, which made Sylvie and Siobhan laugh. Truly, he looked like a demented
clown. Rune had black circles painted under his eyes, high on his cheekbones,
over the tip of his nose, and a fat lip around his mouth.

“I’d suggest stopping now,” Beirly managed in between
guffaws. “If you start scrubbing, you might only have faint spots on your face
tomorrow.”

Siobhan imagined going to a meeting with a karl with traces
of ink still all over her face and grimaced. Perhaps the game hadn’t been the
best of ideas. Although Sylvie and Markl, at least, were now much more
comfortable with Rune, so it had paid off. “Right. And someone needs to start
dinner. Who’s on duty tonight?”

“Fei and Denney,” Conli answered.

She blew out a secret breath of relief. That meant the food
would be decent. Both of them were good cooks. “Where is Denney?”

“Coming,” Fei assured her. “She and I went fishing earlier.”

“Fishing?” Siobhan repeated blankly. “Fishing where?”

“We’re not that far from Drahn Lake,” he responded with a
casual shrug. “An hour’s walk will get you there.”

“You went fishing in Drahn Lake?” Siobhan’s eyes crossed
just trying to imagine that. “The lake that never completely thaws,
that
lake?”

He grimaced. “It was unpleasantly chilly. But the fish were
biting well.”

In near-freezing temperatures? What kind of bait had they
used?! Shaking her head, she dismissed it. She wouldn’t turn down fresh fish
for dinner, for sure. “Alright. While you cook, I’m scrubbing.”

Fei snickered behind her as she marched resolutely for the
inner bathing room. Rune, Sylvie and Markl had beaten her there and were
already crowding around a pail of water, using the reflection to see enough to
scrub with. The small towels and strong lye soap in their hands were doing a
fair job of getting the worst of the ink off.

Resigned to the inevitable skin irritation this would likely
cause, she grabbed a towel herself, soaped it up, and commenced scrubbing. As
expected, the cloth felt rough as she tried to take off three layers of skin.

Since those three hogged the water-mirror, she was scrubbing
blind. Her eyes roved over everyone as she had nothing to focus on. Rune had
gotten off the black circles under his eyes, the one on his nose, and most of
what was around his lips. The cheek facing her had a good swipe of black ink
still left, though, as if he couldn’t properly see the sides of his face. Maybe
he couldn’t.

“You missed a spot, Rune,” she told him. Without asking
permission, she grasped his chin with one hand to hold him still and used her
own towel to start scrubbing at it. “Ah, there, it’s coming off now.”

He looked at her from the corner of his eye, his whole body
completely and carefully still. For a moment, something flashed across his
face, an expression there and gone so fast she couldn’t begin to read it.

She pretended not to notice, instead shifting his chin to
the other side so she could see his right cheek. “Ah, here too.”

“You’re so worried about his face, but what about your own?”
Sylvie asked in rich amusement. She leaned across the water to attack Siobhan’s
face.

Siobhan tried to duck, protesting, “Let me take care of him
first! You’re likely to get soap in my eye at that angle.”

“He’s fine,” Sylvie responded in exasperation. “It’s all off
his face.”

“But there’s this spot on his arm—” Siobhan started, only to
cut herself off as she got a better look at the black ink etched into Rune’s
upper arm. Right below his shoulder was a long dagger, plain in design, with
one drop of blood coming off the blade. It looked…eerie. She knew without
asking what it was, but still the words came out of her mouth. “Your old
guild’s emblem?”

“Silent Order,” he stated quietly. “Yes. It’s an unsaid rule
here that all members of a dark guild carry their emblem somewhere on their
body.”

Thereby trapping them into that life? Anger coursed through
Siobhan in a red-hot wave. She choked it back. “I see.”

“Conli might be able to take that off,” Sylvie ventured
slowly. She came around to get a better look at it. “How long have you had
this, Rune? Ten years or so?”

Rune nodded cautiously. “About that.”

“A cream likely won’t work, then. But he’s taken off scars
and tattoos before. I’ve seen him do it.” Sylvie glanced up at him. “If you
want him to, that is.”

“I have no reason ta keep it.” Rune shrugged. “In fact, it’d
be better if it were off.”

Yes, if other people saw this in the future, when Rune was
away from Wynngaard, they would likely make life difficult for him. It might
even prevent him from building a new life somewhere. Decided, Siobhan turned on
her heel. “I’ll go ask.”

Sylvie caught her arm and spun her back around. “He’s a
grown man, Siobhan, he can ask for himself. We need to get that ink off your
face before you go to a meeting with a dark guild member looking like a
demented ghost.”

Siobhan stuck her tongue out in a childish gesture.

“And if you keep sticking that out at me, I’ll wash that
too,” Sylvie threatened, waving the rag at her with an evil glint in her eye.

She promptly sucked her tongue back into her mouth.

Markl chuckled and even Rune smiled.

“If you four are done playing in the water, dinner is nearly
done!” Denney called from the other room.

Sylvie wouldn’t let go of her until all the ink had been
taken off, along with about five layers of Siobhan’s skin. Her face felt hot
and probably looked as red as a tomato. By the time she made it back to the
group, where they had congregated outside, the food was already being dished
out. She accepted a loaded plate of fish stew from Fei, mouth watering. With
rich anticipation, she put a spoonful in her mouth and sighed in bliss.

Denney passed around biscuits, a specialty of hers, and they
gorged themselves with hearty thanks to the cooks. Siobhan kept an eye on
everyone, making sure they had enough to eat, although Fei and Denney had
cooked enough for everyone to have not only seconds, but thirds. The only one
that didn’t take advantage of this was Rune, who sat a little apart from the
group.

Still not comfortable with them, eh? Sighing, she put her food
down and went directly to him, grabbing his plate. He didn’t protest, handing
it over easily at the first tug. She filled it up to the brim, put two biscuits
on the side, and gave it back. Catching his eye, she ordered firmly, “Eat all
of it. And if you’re still hungry, get another plate.”

He took the plate in both hands, regarding her with an
expression that might have been amusement. “What if I’m full?”

She snorted. “You’re male. You’re never full.”

Every other man in the guild choked, laughing. “Wait, Siobhan,”
Conli said in disagreement, though his tone was distinctly amused, “I’m afraid
that being around the men here have skewed your perceptions. There
are
men in the world who have limits on their appetites.”