The Watcher's Eyes (The Binders Game Book 2) (6 page)

Chapter 9

O
rly sat
in a secluded booth at the tavern, tossing dice with a rhythmic sort of motion. I found it surprising that he would play a game like dice, a game of chance rather than one of skill. He barely glanced up when I approached, and sent the dice in his cup skittering across the table. Two ones landed face up and he smiled, finally turning his attention to me.

“You’ve been busy,” he said.

I held a dart in my hand. It was different than my usual darts, one from a stack of nearly one hundred I’d discovered when I returned to the place I used as my home. Sitting next to the darts had been a dozen vials that had taken me most of a day to sort out their contents. Sorting through unknowns like that could be dangerous, but I had experience with such things and needed the time anyway to rest and clear my head.

It hadn’t surprised me to find the darts, or the poisons. Carth had rewarded me before, and I suspect that if she uses me again, she’ll find another way to reward me. This time, I felt less comfortable with being used. The problem was, I wasn’t sure that those in the position to use me were finished.

I nodded to the man sitting across from Orly and waited. Orly smiled and motioned for him to stand. He was the sellsword who had been with Orly the last time I saw him, and he watched me with a curious expression as I took his place in the booth.

The sellsword stepped away from the table but remained close by. I suspected there were others in the tavern watching over Orly as well. I might get my shot in, but there was no way I would survive. It was the kind of standoff that Orly preferred. He didn’t know that I felt the same way. Besides, Orly still had his uses.

“Tell me,” I began, “what you know of Natash.”

Orly waved his hand dismissively and scooped the dice back into the cup. “Natash was connected and skilled with the sword, but that was about it.”

“So you know?” I asked.

He met my eyes without blinking. Few in Eban did. “Do I know that you killed him? What kind of question is that?”

“Who was Benahg to him?”

I figured that was the connection I missed. Why would Benahg help Natash? There had to be some reason that I hadn’t learned, but then trapped between both Orly and Carth, I wasn’t sure that I would be allowed to learn. They both had agendas, and I wasn’t certain that I had learned even the smallest fragment of what they intended.

“A cousin. Helpful to have such connections, especially when you run a crew like Natash did.”

“He didn’t do work for you?”

Orly shrugged. “From time to time. He thought he could take over more of the city. It might be good that you showed him that wasn’t going to happen.”

I gripped the dart and set it on the table. The sellsword watched the dart but didn’t move. Neelish sellswords were quick, maybe even quick enough to stop the dart were I to try and throw it at Orly, but could he stop the other one in my hand, or the two I’d placed in my boots?

“Did you set him against me?” I asked.

Orly leaned forward. His breath smelled of mint and something else that I couldn’t quite place. There was a hint of a floral scent to it, but none of the bitterness that I smelled with men who preferred tobanash. “I think you managed that quite on your own, Galen.”

I took a deep breath. Orly couldn’t have known how I’d met Natash on the street. That had been random, a chance encounter when I’d grabbed one of Carth’s women to find answers from her. Natash might have been following Orly’s instructions, assaulting women on his behalf to draw Carth out of hiding, but Orly wouldn’t have known how I’d taken out two of Natash’s men that night, could he?

The amused expression on his face told me that he could.

“You wanted Natash gone,” I said.

Orly’s face remained unreadable and reminded me of the way that Carth had stared at me.

Could I have served
both
of them? Had Orly used me to get to Natash, and Carth helped me to retrieve whatever the Binders had wanted from Benahg’s home? Between the two of them, they could feign ignorance and cast the blame onto me.

Somehow, I’d been used even more than ever.

“What happens when Benahg sends the guard searching for me?”

“Why would he do that?” Orly asked. He leaned back and shook the cup of dice nonchalantly.

“I invaded his house. I attacked a man inside his home.” I didn’t admit to the one outside the home, or the silver-haired man I’d been forced to hit with my knife before I left. Orly didn’t need to know everything that had happened.

“Hmm,” Orly said, then smiled. “I don’t think Benahg will trouble you.”

“He already has set the guard watching the streets for me. Now that I’ve attacked, I’m sure he’ll send even more.”

After what I’d done, I considered the possibility that I’d need to leave Eban. There was a part of me that even thought it might be for the best. I had grown complacent here, but had also forged connections when I should not, connections that made me willing to take on risks that Isander would have frowned upon.

“After the mess at his home, and a known criminal housed there, Benahg no longer directs the city guard. You have nothing to fear.”

This time, I smiled. “I don’t fear the city guard, but they make it difficult for me to work.”

“Then since Benahg is dead, you should be able to work unencumbered.” He tossed the dice across the table. Two ones landed face up. “As I said, you have nothing to fear.”

I stared at the dice, for a moment unable to think of anything to say. “With Benahg gone, who will replace him?” I asked.

Orly scooped the dice back into his cup and shook them again. As they spilled out onto the tabletop, I didn’t know whether to be impressed or frightened that a pair of ones came up again. Maybe it wasn’t a game of chance for him at all.

“I’ll let you know when I have another job for you,” Orly said. “Goodbye for now.”

I started to say that I wouldn’t take another job from him, or that he knew how I would be choosy about the jobs I
did
take, but realized that it didn’t matter. With Orly, it might never matter. He managed to get me to take the jobs, regardless of whether I intended to. Now that Carth did much the same, I was stuck between the two of them, truly the game piece that she’d told me I was.

The only question I had remaining was whether it was a game of dice or one of Tsatsun.

As I made my way out of the tavern, I heard Orly rolling the dice again and then tossing them across the table. I resisted the urge to glance back, afraid of what I might see.

Somehow, I’d have to pull myself out of the game. Only… I didn’t know how.

K
eep reading
for a sneak peak of Part 3 of The Binders Game:
Playing the Stone

Chapter 1

It was a night for killing. In my line of work, many nights were like that, more than I wanted. But I was an assassin, and in a place like Eban, that meant I was busy.

Tonight, I didn’t come on a job. Tonight was for me.

I crouched on the rooftop, staring down at the massive estate filling nearly the entire block and rolling a pair of darts in my fingers. The last time I’d been to Benahg’s estate, I’d nearly died. That wouldn’t happen this time, but then this time, I came only for information.

Men patrolled along the fence outside the estate, though they made an effort to look as if they didn’t. Most were casually dressed and walked the street as if they simply strolled along it rather than stalking. The short sword one wore gave him away, as did the bulk indicating a hidden crossbow on another.

Whoever now controlled the estate did not want a repeat of the last time.

There would be others watching, but I didn’t see them. That surprised me.

I shifted in place, sliding my feet carefully along the rooftop, until I was at the edge. Unlike in other places within the city, I couldn’t jump from this roof to the next. They were spaced far enough apart here to give each estate enough room for greenery and a garden.

That was why I had come tonight.

Carth thought to use me. Orly thought to use me. I was getting tired of it.

Worse than that was the fact that Talia had lied to me. I hated how much that bothered me, but I couldn’t let her know that. It wouldn’t change anything if I did.

Talia and I were friends. Even before I knew of her role in the Binders, that was all that we could be. Now that I understood some part of how she served Carth, I knew with certainty that we couldn’t be anything else.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t find out why she had sacrificed our friendship.

The patrols were spaced as far apart as they would get. I jumped from the roof and landed in the small alley between buildings. Somewhere distant, a cat meowed. In my homeland, a single cat meant bad luck, but then I’d never been one to believe in such superstition. It was probably the reason I had such terrible luck.

Darting across the street, I checked my pouch, making certain I could reach inside quickly if needed. The supplies were from Carth, ironic given that I might need to use them to find out why she used me.

Vines grew along the side of the stacked stone wall and I lumbered toward it, trying not to appear like I ran so that I drew attention to myself, but not wanting to linger. At the wall, I grabbed at the vines and flipped myself over.

Once inside, I paused, crouched against the rock. If anyone had seen me, the next few moments would reveal their presence. I didn’t hear the sound of anyone running and nothing moved. For now, I had escaped notice.

The garden hadn’t changed since the last time I was here, but what
had
changed was the urgency which drove me. It had been personal the last time and although this time was personal this time, too, there was a different reason for it. That changed things.

I drifted into the shadows of the garden, pulling my dark cloak around me. My Sight allowed me to see the darkest of shadows, and I used that to help me find the best way to move unnoticed. Manicured hedges rose on either side of the path, and I squeezed through an opening between them. Better to move within the garden itself than along the path. Besides, this time I had no interest or need to enter the house.

This was to be scouting only.

Unfortunately, scouting missions often didn’t work out as I hoped. This was no different.

The other side of the hedge was a wide, open grassy space. A young man sat bent over a bowl, a streamer of smoke rising from it. He looked up, alarmed, and his bowl clattered to the ground.

Damn. One of the security, or was this family? Hell, I still didn’t even know who controlled the estate. I assumed it was Benahg’s son, but that didn’t mean I was right.

It didn’t matter. I had to reach the man before he made any noise.

I flicked the dart in my left hand at him. Tipped in coxberry, it would drop him, but not kill. Killing was often necessary—and the job—but I wouldn’t do it if it were not. That was the reason I went stretches without getting hired. It was also the reason I sometimes forced myself into jobs where I hadn’t been hired.

The man started to fall by the time I reached him. I caught him and lowered him to the ground. The grass smoldered where his bowl had fallen, and I stamped it out. No use lighting the estate on fire.

I searched the man and found a single knife but nothing else. Pocketing the knife, I dragged the man toward the hedges and pulled the dart out of his arm. Darts could be reused; even after what Carth had given me, I didn’t have so many that I could afford to waste them. More than I usually had, and well made at that, but a time would come when that supply dwindled.

With only a knife on him, that meant he wasn’t one of the guards. Family, then.

A soft gasp came from behind me.

I rolled, coming to my feet with a dart in hand and ready to throw, but hesitated.

The reason I had come here stood across the small green watching me. Her eyes widened in recognition and then flicked down to the man. She reached for the pockets of her dress but I shook my head and motioned her to the middle of the small clearing.

She started to open her mouth, but I raised a finger to my lips.

If the woman was here, then others would have come with her.

I pointed to the ground and mouthed the word, “Stay.”

Slipping between the hedges, I noticed two men waiting. With two coxberry darts, I left them unmoving. Then I returned to the girl.

It didn’t matter if anyone discovered I’d returned. She was the reason I had, and I did not intend to return a third time.

She stood with her hands clasped in front of her and fixed me with a serene expression. She stood in front of a known assassin, one who had taken down three men with darts, and she remained unflinching. It was a testament to the type of women Carth used and gave me a renewed appreciation for her.

“You should not have come,” she said.

I kept her at the edge of my Sight as I made a sweep around the grounds. I had only seen two other men, but that didn’t mean they were the only two out there. There might be others, and I wouldn’t be surprised again.

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