Jet is staring at me impatiently. Deciding what I'm going to do about the blood rune in the Hall of Law will have to wait.
"So," I continue, "I knew you wanted the whole mess covered up, so I decided to sneak into Calmorien's apartment and retrieve the blood rune before the humans found it and started asking ugly questions. I got in with some help from Lynae and-"
"Some help from Lynae?" Jet interrupts. He looks even less happy than before. Doesn't like his girlfriend hanging out with his enforcers.
"She must have heard the same rumor and had the same idea," I lie. "She showed up around the same time I did and talked the guard into letting us into Calmorien's apartment. Claimed she was a merchant who wanted to rent it after Calmorien's death and that I was her guard. Once we were in, I found the blood rune. She told me to take it to Bolin and have him destroy it. So I did."
"Did she go with you?"
"No. As I was leaving, a human guard patrol entered the building to search Calmorien's place, just like I was afraid of. I did what I was told and got the rune out of there. It was a close call. I had to bluff my way through the humans with the rune under my cloak." I pause. I am in dangerous territory again. "I don't know what happened to Lynae. She locked the door behind me after I left. I figured she'd escape somehow, maybe out a window or something. She's resourceful."
Yet another unpleasant thought occurs to me.
"But if she didn't escape . . . . If the human guards caught her and got information out of her, then the humans would kill Bolin. And us too." The thought makes me nervous. Maybe they were already outside, human guards and human priests, ready to flush us out and kill us. A tiny flame of panic comes alight deep within the recesses of my buried fears. I extinguish it with a flash of rage. Fear always makes me angry. Goddess, I'm tired. I need some sleep.
"She escaped," Jet says. He turns to one of his guards.
"Send Daeron to fetch Nana Milya and her herbs. With Bolin dead, she'll have to do."
Interesting. I hadn't known that Nana Milya, the matron of the Bouncy Tart, was an herb healer. It makes sense, though. The dissolute human pats probably bring in some unpleasant diseases. If she can't keep her girls clean, she'll be out of business fast.
"Lynae escaped," Jet repeats to me as his guard rushes out of the room. "But she's got an infected wound and needs healing." He switches paths. "So, Bolin destroyed the blood rune?"
"Yes. It exploded in the forge fire."
"Exploded?"
"Yeah. The magic was volatile, I guess. Threw me across the room and broke a couple of my ribs. Bolin healed them up, though. Said he would charge you for it." That's one bill Jet doesn't have to pay now. "I gave him my cuirass, and he started working on it. I left, and when I went back a little bit ago, he was dead and my cuirass was repaired."
Jet nods toward Triel.
"What happened to him?"
"I knocked him out. He showed up to collect Bolin a few moments after I got there, while I was trying to put the pieces together. He went crazy as a goblin on beholder berries. Just lost it. Accused me of murdering Bolin and was about to start a ruckus which would have brought the whole smelter down on us and damaged your standing. So I put him to sleep, cleared the workshop of incriminating evidence, and brought him back here."
Jet considers what I've told him, then nods.
"Good work, Arq. Now go get some rest. But be back here at midday tomorrow. I've got a job for you."
"Yes, boss," I say. "You want me to dump the decoy sickle?"
"No." says Jet. "I want to take a closer look at it. Then I'll have it disposed of by someone who's got no connection to Bolin."
I nod and turn to go. Behind me, I hear Jet mutter to himself.
"Bolin was an asset I can't afford to lose."
I pretend not to hear him.
I pause at the door. I'd like to see Lynae. I'm glad she got away and I hope her wound isn't too serious. I want her to be okay. I also want to yell at her for abandoning me in the hallway. That was an orc move. But I recognize that asking my boss to sit at the bedside of his girlfriend might just be the dumbest, most suicidal thing I've done today. I suppress it.
I hope the rest of that loaf I left at Nana Romina's is still good. I'm starving.
Episode 50! Thanks so much for reading! I really appreciate you all! 💖
Since no one got the correct answer to my last author question contest, let's up the stakes with both a long-term and short-term contest plot question:
1. Of Jet's revenge team, Bolin is dead, Lynae is wounded, Arq was framed, and no one's seen Enturi since he left the dining hall after the mission. Maybe they are being targeted, maybe not, but they do seem to be in peril. Who do you think will be the next to die: Arq, Lynae, Enturi, or no one (they all survive)?
2. What's your theory as to why there's a blood rune inside the ruins of the Hall of Law?
1. Sadly, I think Lynae is the next to go, since you can't kill off Enturi so quickly. He has so much more annoying Arq to do. 😃
2. As for the blood rune, I don't feel like there's a lot of information yet to make an educated guess. For a completely wild guess, I say some kind of destruction triangulation contraption, lol.
As an enforcer for Jet, a petty elven crime boss, Arq has it better than most in Elftown, the prisoner of war slum of a human city. It's violent work, but it provides him with a little more money than he needs to survive, a little status, and a little free time.
When a prostitute under Jet's protection is brutally murdered, Jet sends Arq and a team of enforcers - including his creepy, ambitious rival; Jet's dangerously alluring girlfriend; and a chatty dwarf-of-all-trades - to find the killer and make an example of him. But when they uncover the dark reason for the murder, the delicate balance of power in Elftown begins to crumble.
To avenge a friend's murder, Arq must contend with betrayal, warring crime bosses, deadly monsters, underworld plots, and forbidden magic that, if discovered by the humans, will send a red tide of death through Elftown. His greatest challenges, though, will be grappling with his own bitter, violent nature, and trying to figure out what it means to be an elf in a place where the humans have taken away everything that makes life worth living for elvenkind.
Author: A. Harris Lanning
Cover Art: Xavier Ward
(c)2016, 2023
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