Errant, p.39
Errant, page 39
“Fine, fine.” Charm sighed as if the request was a burden, but she brought her companions toward the bonfire so she could retell meeting Strength in the alley. “I thought we were under attack. This dark shape descended from above and began attacking.”
Strength played her part and scoffed as she relaxed near the fire. She stretched her legs out toward the flames and tipped her head back. She put herself on display, but there wasn’t a single threat to be seen in her posture. “If I had been attacking, you wouldn’t be here.”
“It was a friendly ambush, then?” Charm asked.
Strength turned to give her a smile. “I like to think of it as foreplay.”
Mercy groaned. Charm guessed this wasn’t the first time they’d endured Strength flirting in front of them.
“Strength and her crew operate out of Ainbridge, but there’s trouble here in Harstead they’ve offered to help with,” Charm said seriously. The mood of the troupe shifted accordingly. “Do you remember the people who were giving the local farms a hard time?”
“The protection racket,” Flick said.
“Run by the Scale,” Amity added. He looked pointedly at Charm’s side, where there was a distinct lack of Aspen.
“They’re causing trouble all through Falland,” Charm said.
“We don’t know how to fight,” Essi said as if Charm had somehow forgotten.
“Strength and her crew do.” Charm smiled to ease her troupe’s skepticism of Strength and the people she’d brought with her. “They’ll help us in Harstead, at least, those of us who choose to participate. Yes, this is voluntary, and no, we won’t be fighting. We’re going to cause a ruckus.”
“That we’re very good at,” Amity said. He wasn’t swayed yet. While the troupe operated as a group of equals, Amity’s age and experience lent his voice more weight. If he considered helping, others would consider it too.
“I know Rennell Manor, where the Scale is based, inside and out,” Strength said. “They have the advantage of numbers and a stronghold. And their leader is a self-interested coward. What we need is a distraction. If we draw out his protection, if we can scatter them and then attack, they lose their advantage.”
“What kind of distraction are you thinking about?” Amity asked.
Strength grinned, and her teeth were too sharp for it to be friendly. “Charm was very insistent on not stifling your creativity. If you come up with a few possibilities, we can discuss them and pick the one which will work best.”
“I play a very sloppy drunk,” Sorrel said.
Essi smacked his shoulder. “That isn’t acting, that’s just being yourself.”
“Not if I’m sober when I’m doing it!”
“A lover’s spat?” Tamarind asked. She wound her lemur tail around one of her hands and sighed. “Essi and Sorrel could fight over me. Ooh, I could be the secret mistress. We still have those costume jewels from The Marriage of Patience, right?”
“Star-crossed love?” Pine offered. “We were preparing to make The Feuding Families our next play. Young lovers whose friends try to help them get together while their families try to keep them apart.”
“Whatever we choose, I want fireworks,” Honesty said.
“We can’t set off fireworks in the middle of Harstead,” Liberty argued. “We’ll end up setting the whole city on fire.”
“Small fireworks?” Honesty countered.
Charm laughed and leaned against Flick’s side as her troupe threw ideas out. She didn’t want to put any of them in danger, but if they were hapless citizens in over their heads and not a fighting force, she hoped they’d be able to get away with it. And if it looked like real trouble was brewing, she’d make sure Honesty had a few fireworks to set off to cover their escape.
4
Aspen didn’t realize how accustomed she was to Charm’s presence until she was traveling on her own. Well, not completely alone. Aspen patted Mouse’s head absently. But Mouse was a different kind of traveling companion than Charm. Once, Aspen had thought she could live her life as a wandering sword for hire with only Mouse for company.
Things had changed.
She could have evaded Pike and the Scale, kept her distance from Harstead, and ignored her past. It would be less risky than her current plan.
But Aspen wanted a life with Charm, and Charm’s life was with her troupe. The Traveling Harstead Players. Aspen couldn’t have a gang of mercenaries who operated out of Harstead hunting her if she was living with a bunch of actors who stayed close to Harstead.
It would put them in danger. Of course, she knew Charm planned to ask the troupe for help with their fight against the Scale. That would also put them in danger.
“How did we get into this mess?” Aspen asked Mouse.
Aspen had been a typical Wood child. She’d been raised by a loving family, knowing the Silverglade like she was born with a map inside her head, able to find her way home blindfolded, which she often did as part of the games she’d played with the other kids.
She’d wanted more than the Silverglade, though, and it had been easy for Frugality to uproot her. That had led her to Integrity and the Scale and now that little girl who’d once chased squirrels through the trees was a fighter. A killer.
Wanting more had put her in danger before. The current plan put others in danger. She was tempted to pull her half of the shard necklace out of its hiding place in her boot so she could contact Charm and call this entire thing off. It was a bad idea. Selfish.
But she wasn’t the only one who would benefit if the Scale were gone. Yes, they were hunting Aspen, but how many times had she found them causing trouble around Harstead? They were hassling farmers and disrupting local communities, and she’d bet that there’d been an increase in crime in Harstead itself since Pike had taken charge.
She had to trust Charm and her troupe to do what they were comfortable with. And she had to trust Strength and her crew to take down the Scale.
That part of the plan worried Aspen the most. She was bait. She wasn’t going to storm the house. She was going to be captured and thrown into a cell. Helpless.
Aspen was sure Strength knew there was a possibility that Aspen would be killed instead of captured. She wasn’t sure if Charm knew.
Aspen should have kissed her again before leaving.
She never should have pulled Charm into this mess.
An arrow flew at her. Only Mouse’s quick reflexes kept it from hitting either of them. Unfortunately, Mouse’s quick reflexes also threw Aspen from her back. It had been years since Aspen had been unseated by a horse. She hit the ground hard and groaned as the impact drove various weapon hilts and handles into her skin. She’d have more than one bruise after this.
Two more arrows flew, and Mouse reared and then ran, doing a good impression of a scared horse. Aspen rolled to her feet and pulled her sword from its sheath. Further down the road, where there was the cover of a few scattered trees and some large boulders, four fighters stepped out of hiding.
There were two archers and the other two each held a longsword gripped in two hands. It wasn’t great odds. Her enemy had picked the battleground, and they had a mix of short range and long range weapons on their side. They also had superior numbers.
Aspen had herself. Of course, Aspen was supposed to lose this fight, but in some ways that was more difficult than trying to win it. She couldn’t set down her sword, fold her hands behind her head, and kneel on the road. Surrender would give the game away. If she threw the fight, and the Scale realized it, she’d be in just as much trouble.
She had to fight hard and still lose. It went against all of her instincts.
“Run, girl,” Aspen said quietly to Mouse.
The archer on the left fired a warning shot. Mouse took the arrow that landed near her feet and Aspen’s words to heart and set off at a panicked, thunderous gallop. Aspen swallowed thickly and adopted a fighting stance.
“Are you cowards?” Aspen called, projecting her voice so they could hear her.
Good job, she thought to herself. Provoke the men sent to capture you. There’s no way that could end badly. But she had to treat this as though it was a real fight, and that meant winding up the enemy until they stopped working together. Four attackers working in unison were a challenge. But if they became unpredictable to each other, Aspen could use the chaos to her advantage.
“Pike warned us about you,” the archer on the left said. Aspen was still too far away to make out any of their features. She wasn’t sure if she knew these four or if they were new to Pike’s Scale.
“I come with a warning now?” Aspen asked.
“You’re responsible for the death of Honored Integrity, and we’re here to bring you in to face justice.”
Aspen had known Pike was spreading that particular rumor. It still hurt to hear. She would never have harmed Integrity, let alone murdered him. But she had a part to play, and Charm had taught her the basics of acting. “Come at me, then.” Aspen adjusted her grip on her sword and waited.
The two with swords charged her. It was an effective way of splitting their group. The archers couldn’t join the fight without risking harm to their own allies. Whatever Pike was teaching this new Scale, it wasn’t strategy or tactics.
The two with swords split to come at her from different sides. She neatly stepped away from their initial thrusts, and their swords clanged against each other’s. Aspen didn’t bother to taunt them. She would need the breath to prolong this fight, and since the end goal was her capture, she didn’t want to anger them too much.
In close quarters, Aspen could see both fighters clearly, and she recognized them both. The burly one who held his longsword with ease, as if it were a much smaller weapon, that was Drive. He’d been a part of the Scale when Aspen joined. She’d trained with him. His strength made him one of their better fighters. He’d known how she’d come to be in the Scale, though, and he’d enjoyed making her afraid.
Her second opponent, Contentment, was slimmer than Drive and smaller than Aspen as well. He didn’t have the build for such a large sword, and he was awkward in his movements. He’d have been better suited to a more elegant weapon, something meant for precision, not brute strength.
Contentment had been young when Aspen was part of the Scale. A slight youth with brown curls and bright eyes, he was one of the kids who’d hung out at the compound because Integrity had offered three meals a day and a safe place to sleep. The Scale had provided an alternative to making a living on the streets, pickpocketing or begging.
Now his hair was cut close to his head, too short for the curls Aspen remembered. His eyes were sharp and hard, and he attacked with more determination than skill. She brought her sword up to meet his latest attack and her ears were filled with the song of steel meeting steel.
“You were good with knives. What happened?” Aspen spun away from Contentment’s attack and then guarded herself against Drive. Contentment’s build and style was more suited to the quick movements associated with dual daggers. Whoever had pushed him toward a longsword was a bad trainer.
“There’s nothing intimidating about a little knife.” Contentment scoffed and then hacked clumsily at Aspen with his blade.
Aspen didn’t point out that she’d killed Frugality with a little knife when she’d had no training, only fear and desperation. Carrying a two-handed longsword might seem intimidating, but as soon as Contentment started swinging it around, the weapon lost most of its power. It was obvious he didn’t know how to use it.
But Aspen wasn’t only fighting against Contentment. Drive had the training and the strength to push Aspen to her limits. Whenever their blades met, Aspen felt the impact all the way up her arms and into her shoulders.
“How long do you think you can hold out?” Drive asked. “There are four of us, and you’re on your own. Not even your horse stayed by your side.”
Aspen hid her relief that Mouse had successfully made her escape. She held Drive’s sword at bay and then aimed a kick at his midsection that made him grunt and stumble back a step. It wasn’t a massive victory, but it gave Aspen a moment to breathe.
“That’s what happens to traitors,” Drive continued. “They end up alone. And then they end up dead.”
“I’m not a traitor,” Aspen said. She doubted she could sway Drive to her side, but maybe Contentment hadn’t completely bought into Pike’s vision of the Scale. “Integrity saved me. He gave me a purpose. Just because Pike didn’t know how to inspire loyalty didn’t mean I was a traitor for leaving.”
“You killed Integrity,” Contentment said. “You can spin whatever sad story you want, but we all know women don’t know how to be faithful. He saved you, and then you killed him.”
There went her hope of converting Contentment. Aspen abandoned talking and turned all her focus back to the fight. Her sword clashed against Drive’s. He used his height and weight advantage to force her backward. He bore down on their locked swords with his considerable strength. She waited until he bared his teeth in a snarl to drop her weapon. Without her pushing against him, Drive stumbled forward. Aspen drove her knee into his solar plexus and then slammed her elbow into his nose.
He staggered backward, and she plucked her sword off the ground. It was her turn to go on the offensive. She drove him backward, never letting him recover his footing or his power. She disarmed him and tossed his sword far out of reach.
And then she spun in time for her sword to block Contentment’s attack.
“Really?” Aspen asked as Contentment came at her with frenzied, sloppy bladework. “Drive trained longer with a blade than you’ve been alive, and you think you can defeat me?”
Drive apparently agreed with Aspen’s assessment of the fight, because he called out, “Fire!”
“Wait!” Contentment shouted, but it was too late. The archers had already loosed their arrows.
“They don’t care about you,” Aspen said as she dodged the two arrows headed her way.
“I’m one of them,” Contentment argued. His short hair was soaked with sweat, his cheeks were red with exertion, and he was breathing too fast, unused to this kind of combat. He glanced back at where the archers were, debating whether to run.
“They’re shooting at both of us,” Aspen said.
“I’m going to watch you die,” Contentment said. He gathered the last of his strength and charged her with a shout.
Aspen raised her sword to parry. Contentment was clumsy with his blade, but he didn’t need to beat her. All he had to do was keep her occupied.
An arrow pierced Contentment’s shoulder, and he howled and dropped his sword. Aspen hesitated, unwilling to thrust her blade through him. Her moment of hesitation cost her. Suddenly, a thick, hairy arm was wrapped around her neck. She gasped and tried to remember her training as the air was slowly choked from her body.
If she could get her throat to the crook of Drive’s elbow, she’d be able to breathe enough to launch a counterattack.
Drive lifted her off the ground, and her feet kicked uselessly against the air. “Stop struggling, and I’ll let you stay conscious for our ride,” Drive said.
Aspen wasn’t sure what was more in character for her. Keep fighting or concede defeat? She paused, thinking, and it was enough for Drive. He threw her down on the ground, and the impact knocked what little breath was left in her body right out of it. He was on top of her before she could do more than blink.
With practiced ease, he bound her hands behind her back. He gripped her hair tightly enough to hurt and then pressed her face into the dirt. “If Pike didn’t want you alive, I would run you through with my sword and leave you here for the birds.”
“Is that what you’re doing to him?” Aspen managed to twist so she could see Contentment. His face was pale and damp with sweat. There was an arrow protruding from his shoulder. There was no way he’d be able to wield a longsword in the near future.
“Why would I leave him for the birds?” Drive laughed and pushed off Aspen. He picked her sword up from the ground as if it weighed nothing. He made a face at the hilt, at the sharp, thin point of her blade, and then he thrust it forward.
Contentment gasped and then gurgled as the sword pierced his throat. His eyes went wide with the shock and then froze that way. Drive pulled the sword out and then half-heartedly wiped it on the grass. “Such a shame you killed him when we were apprehending you.”
“He has an arrow wound in his shoulder. I didn’t do that. No one will believe it.”
Drive laughed and hauled Aspen off the ground as if she weighed nothing. “Just like no one believes you killed Integrity?” He laughed again, this time at the outrage on her face. “You’re dead, Aspen Silverglade. Pike just hasn’t put you out of your misery yet.”
Charm wrapped her shawl tighter around her shoulders. The sun had only just begun to rise. The grass near the wagons was still damp with dew.
This was one of the many reasons Charm preferred to sleep in. When she woke, she wanted the sun to have burned off the night’s chill and for the ground to be dry beneath her feet. This early, when everything was cold and damp, it reminded her of the worst part of her childhood.
Viaxasque had been one of the few remaining Mist villages. It had been hidden to keep them safe, but it hadn’t been secret enough, because one day, men had come and slaughtered everyone. Charm had escaped with only the clothes on her back. No one in her family had survived. No mother and father to feed her and hold her. No aunt to tell her stories that would keep her spirits up. No cousin to promise her they would make it through this together.
There was only Charm—Liazna, back then—and she’d trudged through ashy mud and knee-high prairie grass, searching for a new place to call home. Every morning and every night had been cold and damp.
It had taken her a long time to find the Traveling Harstead Players, and longer to call them family. Now she was putting them in danger for the sake of someone else she cared about.
