“Is that right? Well, perhaps in time we will find out whether or not that is true. For now, know that I have spoken on your behalf. Our employer has decided you will complete this assignment.”
“I’ve already told you I will.”
“You’re going to complete the assignment, or you will be removed from Yoran.”
Gavin met Hamish’s eyes, holding them for a long moment. “Are you threatening me?” He squeezed the knives. He didn’t want to cut Hamish down, but he would.
“I don’t think it’s necessary for me to make a threat. Merely a promise. Now, when you complete the assignment, you will be paid as agreed. In this case, seeing as how difficult this task has proven to be, our employer has even agreed to increase the wages offered.”
Something didn’t fit quite right for Gavin. “Why would they offer me more when I haven’t completed the job?”
“Consider it hazard pay. They recognize the job will become more difficult.”
“Just how much more difficult?”
If there were others as skilled with the sword as the one man he faced, then perhaps Hamish was right that it’d become more difficult. It might even be worthwhile to take on the hazard pay, though he didn’t know how much more hazardous the job could be.
“Unfortunately, I cannot predict that for you. Neither can I predict where you will need to go to find your target. That will be on you. If you fail, the consequences involve you, Mr. Grayson, and all of the others that you have frequented the Roasted Dragon with.”
This time, Gavin took a step back. Hamish was far better connected than he had expected. Not only did he know about Wrenlow, but he knew about the others he’d started to spend time with at the tavern.
“You’d better be careful, Hamish,” he said.
“And why is that, Mr. Lorren?”
“If you push too hard, you might find I don’t take it well.”
“If I push too hard, you’ll break. Like so many have broken before you.” Hamish stepped back and glanced toward the tree, then turned and looked behind him in the direction of the manor house. “Finish the task.” With that, he circled around the tree.
Gavin hesitated before following him. By the time he caught up to where Hamish should be, the man had already disappeared.
Balls.
“How much of that did you catch?” he said into the enchantment.
“I didn’t hear anything. There was too much interference. It’s breaking up.”
Wrenlow’s voice was crackly and difficult for Gavin to hear clearly. It seemed to come from a great distance.
“Interference?” Gavin moved away from the tree. If nothing else, maybe this special tree was disrupting his communication through the enchantment. It was either that or something Hamish had carried, though that sort of enchantment would be incredibly specific. “Is that any better?”
“It’s getting a little bit clearer, but something was interfering with me hearing you. I don’t know what happened.”
Gavin backed away from the tree until he was on the far side of the street. The clouds had started to part, the rain fading. A hint of moonlight drifted through the clouds and caught the leaves of the tree. With the rain they’d had, the moonlight glistened off of the leaves, making it seem as if starlight danced within the tree. He could almost imagine it being something mystical; the way the people envisioned it to be.
“It seems that my employer has decided to take a very different approach to their assignments,” he said.
“What approach is that?”
“If I fail, they’re going to have me, you, and everyone at the Dragon killed.”
Wrenlow started to laugh, but it died off when he caught on that Gavin wasn’t laughing with him. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m afraid I am. I don’t really know how they know about all of you, but they seem to. Given how easy it was for Hamish to find me, I suspect they have the resources to do so.”
“How do you propose to keep us alive?”
“I’m supposed to do my job.”
“Weren’t you going to do that anyway?”
Gavin nodded. “I was. I will. But now I think I might need to do something else.”
“What’s that?”
“I need to figure out who the hell I’m working for. Then I need to decide if they deserve to live.”
Chapter Three
The inside of the Roasted Dragon was rustic and simple. Rough wooden walls surrounded Gavin, and heavily grooved boards ran the length of the floor. Other than the fire crackling in the hearth, light was provided by a few lanterns hanging along stone columns throughout the inside of the tavern, creating a cozy feel. He had loved it from the moment they had stepped foot inside when they’d first come to Yoran. It was a place that they’d happened upon by chance, but now he couldn’t imagine being in any other tavern within the city.
He found Wrenlow sitting alone near the back of the tavern. The man had his book resting on his lap, much like Gavin had envisioned that he would. Untouched food rested on the tray in front of him. Wrenlow even had two mugs of ale sitting there, neither of them empty.
Gavin nodded at the people within the tavern and glanced toward the kitchen. Jessica strode toward them, chestnut-colored hair pulled back in a braid and her apron cinched up beneath her bosom, carrying two trays to patrons on the far side of the tavern. When he took a seat in front of Wrenlow, the other man barely looked up at him.
“I would’ve asked you if you were followed, but given what Hamish told you, I guess it doesn’t matter.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Gavin agreed.
“I don’t like it. You know I support everything we’re doing—at least most of the time.” Wrenlow looked up. He had a lean face, and though he hadn’t shaved in nearly a week, barely more than a faint scrub of a beard covered his face. He rubbed the knuckle of his left hand into his eyes and blinked. “If he’s going to threaten us—”
“I’m not proposing we do nothing.”
“Good. I was a bit worried you were going to let him get away with it.”
Gavin shook his head. “There isn’t much we can do about it right now. I need to finish the job, which means we have to figure out where this woman went.”
“You don’t think that she went back to her manor house and simply increased security?”
Gavin sighed. After he’d lost track of Hamish, he’d wandered back toward the manor house, staying as hidden as he could. When he’d reached it, he’d crawled up a hidden section of the wall and looked in the yard. There had been no movement or light in the windows. No evidence of anyone there.
“It’s empty.”
“Then he wasn’t lying about that.”
“Nope.”
“Which is why you’re concerned the other things he’s told you are also not lies.”
“Somewhat,” Gavin said, stretching forward briefly to scan Wrenlow’s book. He couldn’t tell what was written there, though it looked to be a diagram, probably of the house he’d been in earlier in the night. Notes along the side of the diagram had been crossed out.