CHAPTER 44
They stripped the hideout of everything of value before they fled, the coin, the antidote, well-crafted tools and weapons, and even the poison, of which there was plenty. The thought of burning down the structure crossed Lucan’s mind, but he was already testing this city’s patience.
They escorted Cedric and his charges to the old inn after the freeblade refused to visit the healer. He was already looking better by the time they’d left the low district behind. Apparently, the knife hadn’t cut too deep. The poison had been the guilty party for all his suffering.
They reached the inn while the city was still waking up. Their attack had been swift, and the sun was still early in its rise even now. Lucan and his party stopped at the familiar back alley of the inn. He and his men had resided there for a time, before moving to Yanna’s tavern. Cedric, however, still lived here, and Lucan wondered how he would handle sheltering the four women. He could only wish him luck and offer him more coin than he normally would have.
They stopped near the door, and Lucan faced the freeblade. “You have my gratitude, my friend. It would have been a most perilous adventure without you.”
“It was my privilege to fight beside you once again, Lord Lucan,” Cedric said with a smile. He glanced at the women huddling near the inn’s wall. “It is a good thing we did today.”
“It is indeed,” Lucan said with a smile, then he glanced at Ryder, who came forward with a purse of coin. The freeblade had had his customary share of the loot, but there was still the matter of his payment. “Your fair due.”
Cedric shook his head. “Today, I was not selling my sword.”
“The plunder from the hideout is nothing but hollow fruit. It would barely be enough for this.” He threw a meaningful look at the four women. “You are a freeblade. This is your rightful recompense,” Lucan said, pushing the purse against his hand.
Cedric smiled. “It is because I am a freeblade and not a sellsword that I am free to refuse work or coin whenever I so wish, your lordship. I refuse this coin, not because I mislike whence it comes, but because with it comes meaning, and that meaning is not mine today.”
Seeing his insistence, Lucan acquiesced, though he couldn’t help but wonder about the freeblade’s thoughts. If they’d had more time, he would have certainly liked to ask him. “Then fare you well, my friend. I wish to see you again.” He glanced at the women whose burdens Cedric would have to carry. “And fortune be with you in all your endeavors.”
Lyanna embraced the women one after another, while Tomis, Ryder, and Georg exchanged farewells with Cedric. Then they headed back to their tavern. Boots were beginning to hit the streets of Varencourt, though sparse and far in between. Their party was easy to take note of, with their robes and armor, but they didn’t stop long enough for anyone to scrutinize them.
Eventually, they arrived back at the tavern, meaning to enter it from the back door again. In front of it, however, one of the guildsmen stood guard, a different one than those they’d left inside not so long ago. Again, they received an odd look, but the man knew most of their faces, allowing them inside without challenge.
Venn was seated at one of the tables, head on a swivel, eying both the front and the back doors. He spotted them upon their entry, jumping to his feet with a bright countenance and taking long strides towards them.
Lucan raised a hand to slow him down and gestured for his men to follow him upstairs. They took the stairs up to their room, Venn hot on their heels.
Once inside the room, the door was shut, and Venn rushed towards his sister, who met him with a balled fist that landed on top of the boy’s head.
“Oww,” Venn held his head, the weight of his run carrying him towards his sister even with the pain. She accepted him into her embrace as though she hadn’t just struck him.
“You fool,” Lyanna said. “You unrepentant fool.” She sighed. “I told you to let it be…I told you to let it be, Venn.” Her voice broke near the end, and tears glistened in the corners of her eyes.
Meanwhile, Venn only kept repeating, “You’re back. You’re back.”
Lucan gave them the quiet of the moment, even if he couldn’t leave them alone, since time was still of the essence. Their embrace lasted for a time, and then they separated.
Lyanna stared into her brother’s eyes. “You’re a fool.”
“Aye, aye.” Venn laughed. “You’ve already branded me, sister.”
“No, Venn,” Lyanna said. “You’re a fool for hiding the truth from Lord Zesh.” She threw a glance at Lucan, who was watching with anticipation.
“But I…”
Lyanna shook her head. “If he saved me, our lives would be in his hands regardless. If it were inevitable that he would know, then telling him earlier would have only encouraged my rescue. You were fortunate he did the deed regardless.”
Venn looked properly chastised, though his frown proved there was still a defiant thought.
Lyanna turned towards Lucan then, her gaze subdued and formal. “Now, my lord, it is time.” She leveled a meaningful gaze at the faces around them, then met Lucan’s eyes.
“Leave us,” he said.
His two men-at-arms and Georg withdrew, leaving him alone with the siblings. The nascent anticipation that had been smoldering within Lucan came to the fore as he eyed the siblings intently, waiting for his answers.
“Lord Zesh,” Lyanna said. “You have my thanks for rescuing me, and for protecting my brother and treating him as one of your own. This gratitude shall never fade away. The least you deserve is the truth.” A chuckle seemed to come out of her in spite of herself. “Forgive me. There is an irony there. Truth. You shall soon understand.”
“I hope a long story would not trouble you, but when I speak of matters regarding my beloved, I become long-winded.” Lucan nodded.
“My mother died when I was young and when Venn was no more than a babe.” Her hand went to her brother’s shoulder, who looked crestfallen, as though the memory had just come back to him. “My father looked after us for years, with all the love and care one could expect. However, our family had not had its full share of misfortune, it seems, for he too grew sick early in his middle age.”
“He knew his coming fate, and in his wisdom, he insisted on betrothing me before his malady worsened. Thankfully, my father was a benevolent man; he did not bind me to someone I abhorred. He accepted my beloved, even though he disapproved of his profession.”
“An adventurer,” she continued. “Robert was kind and ambitious.” She paused, swallowing. “And I loved him. But he also trusted in his kindness, and that was his unmaking. Two years ago, he and his party followed an offshoot from the dungeon. It led them into the Labyrinth, and they soon lost their bearing. After days of hopeless wandering in the dark, they came upon something. It was not the surface, but a ruin. An Elder ruin.”
“There, they found artifacts of uncanny quality, enough to make them all wealthy. Still, with the treasures in their hands, they hadn’t found the surface yet, and their grueling journey continued, its second half longer than its first, and more bloody by a league. By the time they reached the surface, only two of them remained alive. Grateful for their lives, they divided the treasures between them and went their separate ways, their ordeal driving them away from further adventuring.”
Lyanna paused and took a shaky breath in. “Robert…he was truly good. He insisted on seeing a share of the wealth delivered to the families of the fallen. He and his comrade went about it. Not all good is repaid with good, however. The brother of one of his fallen comrades was an adventurer himself. He sniffed out the worth of what they had discovered and decided he wanted more. Robert had ended up with a rather peculiar God’s Orb, you see? His comrade had earned an odd artifact that he claimed could parse meaning from the growls and howls of beasts. The adventurer did not deem what he received from them enough. He did not ask nor demand more, however. He simply murdered Robert’s friend first, without warning, in the dark of the night.”
“At the time, we hadn’t recognized his intentions yet, and the death of Robert’s comrade remained a mystery. Even with caution in his every step, it was Robert’s turn soon enough. He murdered him, too.” A hiccup forced itself out of her, but her face held fast, stony and unbending. “He could not claim the Orb, though, for Robert had left it in my safekeeping.”
“He’d told me that should something untoward happen to him, I ought to flee with Venn. He had friends in another city who would help me sell the Orb. Alas…in my grief and anger, I chose to use the Orb…for a Skill.”
Lucan’s brows rose in spite of him, and he looked for any falsehood in Lyanna’s face. Absorbing an Orb into one’s Skills without appraisal hazarded absorbing a feral Skill, and in doing so, one would turn into a mad animal, like the ones he’d slain in the abandoned Temple Lane.
“Foolish. That, I do not deny,” Lyanna said, her eyes betraying her sadness. “But I was vengeful and hopeless. Perhaps some nascent part of me wished to perish, follow him in death.” She glanced at Venn guiltily, for the meaning in those words was clear. In her despair, she would have left him alone in this world.
Only now did Lucan understand why she was all in black. Mourning. “You are sane,” he said after a moment. “You are here. It wasn’t a feral Orb then. What did you gain from it?”
Lyanna leveled a melancholic smile at him. “My lord.” She took a loud, deep breath. “I can tell truth from lie. So long as my skin touches another’s, their deceptions may never elude me.”
Lucan narrowed his eyes. That sounded nothing like what a God Orb would bestow. He’d never heard of a Skill that wasn’t made for battle. Every God Orb that had ever been had either turned into Vital Orbs when consumed or a combat Skill when absorbed.
Perhaps seeing the doubt in his eyes, Lyanna said, “I can prove it.” She extended a hand towards him.
Lucan cocked his head, but stepped forward after a moment of hesitation, putting his hand in hers.
“What is the name of your father?” she asked.
“Athelstan.”
“Lie.” She smiled, but Lucan didn’t return the gesture. That was easy knowledge to find if one sought it. But she continued, “How many winters have you endured?”
“Twenty.”
“Truth.” Again, an easy thing to discover. “How many levels do you have?”
“Ten.”
“Lie.”
“Twenty.”
“Lie.”
“Twenty-one.”
“Lie.”
Lucan frowned, glancing at Venn. He’d gotten to know the boy at least a little bit, and he believed he could tell if there was any deception hiding behind his countenance, but he found none. There was only concern there. The concern one would have if their own blood was unveiling a secret that could be their undoing.
“Nineteen,” he said, his voice as steady as it’d been through his lies.
“Truth.” She smiled again. “How many Skills do you have?”
“Three.”
“Truth.”
“Do you have a wife?”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever lain with another woman out of wedlock?”
“No.”
“Truth.” She nodded. “Have you ever coveted another?”
“No.”
“Lie.”
Lucan couldn’t help but growl in his own defense, “I have not.”
“Not for a moment?” Lyanna said. “Not for a fleeting glance did your eyes ever settle where they should not have? Not for a breath did your mind ever betray you?”
Lucan only answered with silence. It was not something any man could truly master in themselves, not unless they were a hermit bound to the mountains and rivers. Or perhaps this was only his belief because he could not. Lucan pressed his lips, having not expected to be driven into such thoughts by Lyanna’s hand.
“How many coins do you have in your pouch?” she continued.
“Seven.”
“Lie.”
“Twenty-three.”
“Lie.”
“None.”
“Truth.”
Lucan swallowed a deep breath and nodded. “You said that this Orb was found in a ruin. It was not claimed from the corpse of a Herald, yes?”
Lyanna nodded solemnly.
“I see.” He stepped back, separating their hands. “I see.”
“Well then, Lord Zesh,” she said. “What would you have of us now? My brother swore eternal servitude to you if you rescued me, and you did, but I hope you will not keep him to such a promise. He is but a child.”
Lucan shook his head. “If he wishes to become my retainer, I would have him, but only a foolish man forces another into their retinue. Such fools often end up with knives in their backs.”
Lyanna dipped her head. “Wise are your words, my lord.” She took a calming breath, and her eyes met his. “I would enter your service if you would but grant me a favor and a promise.”
Lucan was taken aback. He had only begun to think of how to persuade her to join his estate. Considering he’d rescued her and the debt she and her brother owed him, he’d been sanguine about his chances. He wouldn’t have wanted to force her hand, even if she was indebted to him. One with an ability like hers would be best kept satisfied and loyal. After all, while she could uncover lies and deceptions, nothing truly forced her to tell him the truth except the fear of retribution.
She was a smart one, that was for certain. With how beholden she and her brother had become to him, she had put forward her own offer before she could be forced into one, and Lucan was eager to hear it. He only needed to nod for her to continue.
And he did.