Stranger of Tempest: Book One of The God Fragments (17 page)

There was a long pause before Himbel stepped forward. The company surgeon knelt at Braqe’s side and put his fingers to her jugular.

‘Alive,’ the scowling, dishevelled man pronounced. ‘Pulse is steady.’ He straightened up then crouched back down and with two stubby fingers grabbed Braqe’s upper lip, giving it a hard twist. The woman didn’t move and Himbel was grinning when he stood again. ‘She’s not waking any time soon. You’ll be useful when we get injuries, girl!’

‘I don’t give a shit about injuries,’ another mercenary muttered, looking at Sitain uneasily, ‘you keep your cursed magic away from me, hear?’

Sitain bobbed her head, still curled up on her bunk and too startled to speak, but Himbel shuffled forward before the woman could say anything more about Sitain’s magic.

‘You’ll feel different after a battle,’ the ageing doctor pronounced, ‘whatever superstitions your head’s filled with.’

‘Sitain,’ Lynx said, ‘maybe best you get out of here for the rest of the night. Go find Kas and Estal, they took a room. Better’n this one waking up right in front of you anyway.’

‘I’ll stay up with Braqe,’ Himbel said. He glanced over at the dazed man who was sat on the edge of a bunk, lolling with both hands wrapped around a support to keep him upright. ‘Darm too. Guess I need to make some observations if this magic’s going to be useful.’

Sitain didn’t move. She found she couldn’t tear her eyes off the woman she’d felled.

‘Sitain,’ Lynx prompted.

She flinched and stared up at the big man’s face with incomprehension for a moment until her wits returned. ‘Oh. Yes, okay.’

She had just a shift on because of the warmth in the bunkroom and suddenly felt vulnerable, but with her blanket wrapped around her shoulders like a cloak, Sitain managed to get out of bed and pick her way around Braqe before scampering to the door.

‘Darm,’ she said suddenly, surprising even herself. A few of the nearer mercenaries actually drew back at the sound before they realised she wasn’t talking to them. The groggy man looked up, frowning as he struggled to focus on her.

‘Sorry,’ she said, at first just managing a whisper before she repeated herself. ‘Sorry. She’d frightened me, then you surprised me. I didn’t mean … well, I’m sorry.’

Darm, a red-haired white man with a spider-pattern tattoo on his chest, blinked at her as though he couldn’t understand what she was saying, but eventually it filtered through to his confused mind. He gave a grunt and nodded, head sagging as though the effort to look and think was too much for his night-struck mind.

‘You’ll sleep if off,’ she added, ‘I did it to my brother once. Give it a few hours and you’ll be fine.’

‘Go on now, Sitain,’ Lynx said. ‘Everyone get some rest.’

Lynx failed to sleep. He watched Braqe’s chest rise and fall, her limbs never moving throughout those hours of magical sleep. As the dawn light appeared and sounds of activity came from outside he sighed and slipped off his bunk. He would get no more rest, better he be dressed and ready for the day once Anatin found out what had happened.

He pulled on his clothes, draped his jacket over one arm and paused with his hand hovering over his mage-gun.

‘Leave it,’ Himbel yawned from his vigil beside Braqe. ‘No shooting before breakfast.’

‘So that’s the rule,’ Lynx said, ‘I’d been meaning to ask.’

‘Not where you’re from, mebbe. You commandos did all your best work at dawn, no?’

Lynx felt his face fall. ‘Yeah, we left the shitty bits for later.’

‘She won’t come after you with a gun,’ Himbel advised. ‘She won’t come after you at all, not once Teshen hears about it I reckon, but she ain’t one to shoot a man in the back.’

‘Even me?’

‘You ain’t that special.’

‘Tell that to my ma.’

Himbel chuckled. ‘So that’s why you left home. Mine was the same, bless her. If she’d had her way I’d have been too fat to leave town and too swamped by children to find time to try.’ He stood and stretched his back, tilting his head to one side then the other and grimacing at the pops and cracks that came from his joints. ‘Braqe’s a different sort o’ woman, but she ain’t the type to murder you. She’ll pick a fight mebbe, but you’ll see her coming that’s for damn sure.’

‘What about earlier? Fucking looked like she was—’

Himbel cut him off with an angry hiss. ‘Woman’s a skilled soldier. If she wanted Sitain dead, she had more’n enough chance. That was all about herself and her memories. She fought in the Hand Valleys, never forgave your lot for that, but she had it under control or we’d be waking to Sitain’s open throat.’

‘I never forgave my lot for it either,’ Lynx commented bitterly, ‘seems no one gives a shit about that, though.’

‘Funny, you’d think they’d be full of sympathy for a slightly different commando to the ones who butchered their friends and family.’

Lynx gave a snort and headed for the door. ‘Want me to bring you anything?’

‘I’m good, you go find your girl and sit on her ’til Teshen or Anatin feel the need to scream at someone.’

‘Teshen screams?’

Himbel cocked his head to one side. ‘If he ever does, you fucking run,’ he said slowly. ‘Leave the women and children behind and run for your life.’

Outside, Lynx discovered the soft light of dawn had lent a yellow warmth to the now tidy courtyard and he felt a moment of peace settle on his shoulders. He stopped in the middle of the courtyard and took in a few deep breaths, trying to shake off the nagging cloud of fatigue.

‘Coffee?’

He turned in surprise to find the waitress from last night leaning out of a window, clearly in the middle of her morning chores.

‘Coffee sounds good,’ Lynx agreed.

‘Sit out there and I’ll bring you a mug. I’m mopping in here so you keep your boots out.’

Lynx hesitated a moment then realised if Sitain was coming down, she’d be passing this way most likely anyway.
Or she ran in the night and is long gone now. Either way, coffee will make the world a shade better.

‘Gladly,’ he said with a smile. ‘Got anything to eat too?’

‘The baker’s boy’ll be along soon.’

‘Guess I’ll make myself comfortable, then.’

Lynx settled in and listened to the sounds of the inn and its patrons waking around him. With a tall ceramic pot of coffee and an end of bread, he was content to let the hubbub of the inn and the city beyond flow over him, exchanging grunted greetings to mercenaries as they passed or joined him at the table. Before Sitain arrived, however, the rather more formidable sight of Payl appeared in front of him. She didn’t say anything at first, content to let him squint up at her and savour the sinking feeling in his gut.

‘Is every day going to be trouble when you’re around?’ she said eventually.

‘To be fair, there’s been at least two that haven’t,’ Lynx replied. From Payl’s expression, his levity wasn’t helping. ‘Hey, I don’t always get to choose when trouble seeks me out and what Braqe does ain’t my fault.’

‘Doesn’t mean you’re worth keeping around.’

‘Does that come from Anatin?’

She paused. ‘He’s determined you’ll be useful for this job. If I were you, I’d think on that detail a while. He’s never been one for giving much of a shit about anyone he doesn’t know well.’

‘Yeah, I hear you.’ Lynx sighed. ‘Orders?’

‘For you? Keeping clear of everyone else may be the most useful thing you could do, but I ain’t sending you on company errands with that girl in tow and I don’t want her left alone much.’

‘You could put her in Himbel’s care, I think he wants to see what she can do.’

Payl frowned. ‘So the pair of them can start knocking folk out to see what happens? Himbel’s a good man, but he’s not burdened with much of a conscience.’

‘Is that how he ended up with a bunch of card-happy mercs?’

‘Nah,’ she said with a shake of the head, ‘more a case of fucking every woman in sight for more’n a decade.’ Payl gave him a brief grin. ‘Oh yes, our Himbel was once a real charmer, handsome too.’

‘Until?’

She shrugged. ‘You screw around like you’re running out of time, life’ll catch up with you at some point and kick you in the fork. He’s better this way, trust me.’

‘Okay,’ Lynx said. ‘Well I doubt either Himbel or Sitain are in too much of a rush. Sure they can wait until someone starts a fight and needs patching up.’

‘Don’t even think about it.’

Lynx laughed. ‘Didn’t mean me, but point taken I guess. I could do with time in the city though, errands of my own to run.’

‘Like?’

‘Selling a book, getting my boots fixed. All quiet stuff, nothing that’ll get me in trouble.’

‘Will Sitain stay here, out of sight, while you’re out?’

‘I don’t know her so well, but would you? This is her first visit to the city, any city.’

The Knight of Sun nodded at that. ‘Take her with you, then. Keep a tight rein on her if she’s going to stick with us. If not, tell her to go far and fast.’

‘Understood.’

‘And if you’ve got any company insignias – Card or Crow – lose them before you go out. We never heard of you if you end up getting arrested for picking a fight with some Charnelers.’

Lynx nodded and stood. ‘I best go find Sitain then.’

‘Get back before evening. Anatin’s meeting his contact in the city, we won’t pull the job tonight but we’ll be starting on details.’

‘Who’s we?’

‘The team. You, me and the other Knights of the company – Teshen, Reft, Safir and Olut—’

‘Who?’

‘Olut. Big woman, face like a mother bear whose cubs just got killed.’

Lynx paused, but the face appeared in his mind easily enough. A northerner with wild hair and heavy muscles that added to the ursine impression. ‘Ah yes, gotcha.’

Payl raised a hand. ‘As for the rest, Varain, Tyn and Kas. Nine in all. Shame your girl Sitain hasn’t combat experience, her being a mage o’ dark and all.’

‘Night mage,’ Lynx corrected. ‘Dark mages are the ones they tell little mages about to make ’em behave, remember?’

‘It’s all fucking magic to me,’ she said dismissively.

‘Not if you meet a mage of dark, not if half the stories are true.’

‘Fine, she’s a night mage. Point is, she’d be useful, but we can’t take the risk this time round.’ She nodded towards the inn. ‘Go and fetch her and the pair of you get scarce, enjoy the city – just leave your gun. That cleaver on your hip’s fine, but don’t wear a gun openly here.’

‘Aye, sir. See you this evening.’

Lynx banged on the door of the room Kas and Estal had taken. He called Sitain’s name and waited. When it was jerked open, it was the enticing smile of Kas that greeted him – her hair swept down over one shoulder and tunic half-unbuttoned in a way made Lynx think she’d been up and waiting a while to tease him.

‘Morning.’

‘No flowers?’ Kas pouted, mostly succeeding in not laughing at the look on Lynx’s face. ‘Courtship in So Han must be a dull business.’

‘Never, ever, go to So Han,’ Lynx said gravely. ‘They ain’t ready for a woman like you.’

‘Lucky for me So Han has come to my door then.’

‘If I was here for you, sure.’

She tossed the door open and flounced away as though she was born to the stage. ‘Spurned! Men, they’re all the bloody same.’

In the narrow attic room behind her Estal sat on one of the two beds, pulling on her boots, while Sitain was hunched on a chair looking anxious with dark rings around her eyes.

‘Didn’t get much sleep either?’ Lynx said with a smile. His warm and fatherly manner yet again failed to register with Sitain. She just looked up at him warily and chewed her knuckle.

‘Come on,’ he said, ‘get your jacket on. We’re heading out into the city.’

‘He whisks her away, Estal,’ Kas grumbled loudly from her bed, ‘her just a mere slip of a girl and him old enough to be her father, while we just sit here and mourn our lost prime.’

‘Oh shut up,’ Estal moaned, bending over with her head in her hands so her white hair cascaded forward. ‘It’s too early and I’m too hungover to hear you playing with your newest toy, woman.’

Kas cackled at that, prompting another groan from her comrade, and turned away to gather her hair up and tie it back.

‘The city?’ Sitain asked suspiciously. ‘I thought I was to stay at the inn?’

‘Last night changed that. Payl wants us out for a few hours, give Braqe time to wake up and tempers to cool. So you’re coming with me on a few errands.’

He cast a quick look at Kas who, very theatrically, pretended not to notice. Her grandiose game was a long way from anything he was used to, but there’d be no time for anything over the next few days and playing that up might be for the best anyway.

‘Might as well show you the city’s sights at the same time; eat at the hanging gardens, that sort of thing. All the sights a man might want to show a young woman.’

‘I need the rest of my clothes,’ she said, pointing at the blanket that still covered her shift.

He nodded. ‘I’ll fetch ’em. Best we get out of here before Anatin finds us.’

When he returned, Sitain was upright and more composed. Kas and Estal had left in search of breakfast so Lynx awkwardly handed the young woman her clothes and a bowl of porridge before retreating behind the door. He buckled on his sword and settled in to wait, unconsciously turning the silver ring around his finger until he caught himself.

It was a plain band as battered and unassuming as most worn by soldiers, but still it drew his eye. The three diamond shapes of the Vagrim seemed to stare back up at him, an unwelcome reminder of years past but one he had learned to live with. The ring had been given to him by an ageing soldier called Lorfen, along with the slim book that nestled in his jacket’s concealed pocket.

He remembered that first meeting as though it was burned into his mind. Lynx had been at his lowest ebb, close to breaking point and as dangerous as a starved wolf. They all had been, the inmates of To Lort prison. Miles from anywhere, they had barely heard news of the army’s collapse by the time foreign troops arrived at the gate and Lorfen was installed as governor.

All they’d known was the privations of the prison and hardship of the mine below it. The lack of food and water had become chronic in those last few weeks, the savagery of the inmates worsening with every passing day.