“No one cares, Lady Cadence de la Croix!” Tillie mocked. “No one cares about your special title, your special job, the fancy special place you come from—you still have to exist in the same world with everyone else, so get over it!”

  “Well, well! Look at you, Missus Tillie Boyce—”

  “Stop calling me that!”

  Tillie wiped away tears. Rowan hugged her.

  Cadence’s shoulders relaxed just a little. “Stop calling you what?”

  “Missus.” Tillie found a spot on the stoop of The Plaid Bonnet to sit. She folded her arms over her knees. “Stop calling me Missus Tillie Boyce! I can’t stand it that everyone still calls me that.”

  “But you are married.” Cadence knelt down with her. “You were married. Just because your husband is dead does not erase that.”

  Tillie sniffled. “It makes me feel like I’m married to a ghost.”

  For that moment Cadence only cared about Tillie’s relationship with death. And nothing else. She had forgotten the obvious journey that the living embark upon, and Tillie’s own journey was shifting.

  “Then what should I call you?”

  “If you can’t call me by my name, just call me… call me Miss. Okay? Yell at me however much you like. But call me Miss Boyce.”

  Cadence sighed deep and rubbed her neck. It was still chaos all around them. Tillie needed to go home, and it was much too late for Rowan to be out. Cadence put her hands on their shoulders.

  “Come on. Let’s get—”

  There was moaning coming from inside the restaurant. A man. Then, Dane Sheltier emerged, being helped by the old woman he had been dining with at the bar.

  “Ugh, what happened?” He touched a bloody wound on his forehead. “I feel like I got clobbered with a table leg.”

  “You did,” the woman said.

  “Mister Dane Sheltier!” Cadence pointed her gun at his face. “Explain yourself. What were you doing here tonight?”

  He put his hands up. “Holy shit! Lady, calm down! I was taking Great Aunt Mattie out to celebrate my job! Don’t shoot!”

  Great Aunt Mattie pulled a gun of her own on Cadence. “Listen you crazy woman, you put that pistol down or I’ll blow your damn head right off your—”

  “Ma’am,” Cadence didn’t even look at her, “I am a Bone Priestess from the Botathora Sanctum and this man is a suspect in an ongoing investigation of an act of desecration. You have two options: either rethink your aim, or regret it.”

  After shifting her glare to each person in the scene, Great Aunt Mattie holstered her pistol. Then Dane took off, running back behind The Plaid Bonnet and down an alley.

  “Alright then.” Cadence holstered her own gun. “Missus Mattie, if I promise not to shoot your nephew dead, might I borrow your pistol and ammunition?”

  “You’ll commandeer it whether I say yes or not,” Mattie grumbled, removing her belt and holster.

  “Yes ma’am, I will.” Cadence turned to Tillie. “Tell your boy to go somewhere safe. We’re chasing down Mister Dane Sheltier.”

  And in another moment, they were off. Dane was not a hard person to track in his state. He left footprints that were muddy with spilt beer. He knocked over everything in his way. And he made a very audible oof when he stumbled over something every few seconds.

  “Why are you running, Mister Sheltier?”

  His response came from an alley close by. “Because I want you to leave me alone!” He gasped for air, but it didn’t help. He was a little drunk and his head was pounding. Why did this have to happen on his one night out? He’d gotten so lucky to come by his Great Aunt Mattie living in Central Siopenne. “This was supposed to be fun.” He wiped fresh blood running down the gash along the side of his forehead.

  The alley he ended up in was narrower than the others. He wasn’t familiar with Beralin and had no clue where he was anymore. He couldn’t even see the main streets. Or any streets.

  “They’re gonna find me any second.”

  Between a trash heap, a lane leading to an empty lot, and another narrow alley, Dane chose the alley and snaked his way between the buildings. Were they houses? Warehouses? Shops? He couldn’t tell and it was getting even darker. More blood trickled down the side of his face.

  He heard Cadence and Tillie behind him, arguing in hushed voices. But he heard other voices, too. From ahead. Maybe he was going to run into the Hesperans taking the injured back to their clinic. Or maybe it was the City Watch. His heart pounded against his ribs and he inched forward.

  When he came out to the end where the backs of four buildings met, he met the stares of the bandit company.

  “Damn.”

  He couldn’t even count how many there were. Perhaps he was concussed. They started to draw weapons—swords, daggers, a crossbow, he even though he had seen a casting ring for magic.

  “I’ll leave!” Dane put his hands up. “Don’t mind me, I’ll be seeing myself out.”

  He turned around and started back down the alley, but the bandits hollered and whistled and chased after him, pulling him back.

  “We don’t need you telling anyone where we are,” one of them said. “Should we kill you?” He grabbed Dane’s shoulder and shoved him to the ground.

  Dane groaned and tried to roll upright. “Gods, please don’t. Things were finally starting to look up for me! Can’t you just knock me out or something?”

  One of the bandits cleared his throat. “We’ll take him with us. String him up. First company, take him with you on the horses. Second company will meet you at the rendezvous.”

  Dane looked up at the leader. He was tall and broad, but his features were completely hidden by black wrappings, leather armor, and a cowl. Dane could only see a pair of gray eyes scanning the area, barely giving him a moment’s notice. He could not wait for Cadence and Tillie to find him.

  Where were they? He’d never know—a grain sack was placed over his head and two different bodies jerked him up onto his feet. It didn’t matter that he tried to keep up with them. They dragged him down the next alley anyway.

  Just out of sight, Cadence and Tillie waited for them to clear out. The bandits broke off into two groups and went separate directions. Cadence led the way, following the group that took Dane. She helped Tillie stay hidden behind crates and trash piles as they crept along.

  “Why don’t you shoot that thing?” Tillie whispered, pointing to Cadence’s gun. “I bet it’d make them scatter and leave Dane!”

  “And it’d draw the other group right back. Miss Boyce, I only have six shots and I do not have time to stop and load when we become surrounded.”

  “Those things can only fire one shot before you have to reload?”

  “I will be just as happy as you when the dwarves share their firearm engineering with us, but until that time comes, may we please focus on stealth?”

  Tillie huffed. “Sorry.”

  The company with Dane did not go far. They came to the end of a road where a family kept horses. Tillie didn’t know the family. The property looked disheveled, almost abandoned if it weren’t for the stables and a stack of split wood by the house.

  One of the bandits showed the others to the stables and outfitted everyone with a horse, making sure to secure Dane with one of the other bandits.

  “Can you ride?” Cadence asked.

  “Not well.”

  “Can you shoot?”

  “Better at the riding.”

  Cadence pursed her lips. “Why didn’t I just leave you behind?”

  “Oh, shush! One horse, I’ll ride, you shoot. I can keep up, that much I can promise!”

  “You’d better, Miss Boyce. This is going to happen very fast.”

  6

  The bandits were ready save for one who was locking the stable back up. She motioned for the company to start without her, and they did, taking off back into the city. When they cleared, Cadence moved in with Tillie close behind.

  The bandit never saw it coming. Tillie tapped on her shoulder to get her attention. She turned around and Cadence launched her fist straight into the side of her face. Her body swung with the impact and she fell to the ground.

  The horse that was meant for her now stared at Tillie and Cadence, saddled up and ready to go. Tillie couldn’t believe what they were doing. Was she dreaming?

  “Quit standing there all panicked and out of breath and get on the damn thing!” Cadence snapped.

  “Don’t you yell at me, Bone Priestess!”

  Tillie mounted the horse and Cadence situated herself on the saddle, sitting behind her. Then, with a swift kick, Tillie sent the horse chasing after the others.

  “Are there no reins?” Cadence asked.

  “You don’t need any damn reins to ride a horse!”

  “How are you going to tell it where to go?”

  “It has a brain, Cadence!”

  The dark summer night was sticky and humid. They chased the horsebacked group all along the fringes of the city, where there were few lanterns. Shadows were long where there were any at all. Beggars from vagrant camps stared at them through the trees, backlit by their bonfires as they raced by.

  “Can you see the bandits?” Cadence’s voice bounced with the horse’s movement.

  “Yeah, we’re on ‘em. I can’t tell if they know we’re after them yet. You got those guns loaded?”

  “Yes, they are ready to fire.”

  “You ever think about carrying a sword instead?”

  “I had one,” Cadence snapped, “and left it at your place so we could have a pleasant outing as you put it.”

  Tillie let her have the last word. Up ahead, the bandits slowed their pace. She did the same, taking a deep breath and letting it out slow.

  “What do we do now?” she whispered.

  “Just wait and watch. I can’t fight all of them off, and I don’t think they intend to kill Mister Sheltier.”

  “How can you tell?”

  “Because they would have done it by now.”

  Tillie’s heart was practically beating in her throat. “How many can you fight? You’ve got more than a couple of slow-loading single-shot pistols, right? Because I can’t cover you!”

  Cadence grinned. “Do not worry, Miss Boyce. A Bone Priestess has a few tricks up her sleeve.” She spun the silver ring that’d been sitting innocently on her right index finger all night. “Let’s find a place to dismount.”

  The bandits on horseback had lead them to a place in a part of Beralin neither woman was familiar with. There were tenements falling apart with boarded windows, an inn with no name, and a large red brick building. It was green and wooded like much of the rest of the city, but overgrown and unkempt. Tillie and Cadence hid by the tenements and dismounted the horse. They watched the bandits drag Dane into the brick building.

  “What do you think that place is?” Tillie asked.

  “Probably a warehouse.”

  They crept a little closer and could hear voices. Just as quickly as they had entered, some of the bandits left. Dane did not exit with them. Cadence secured a few of the pins in her hair and started toward the building.

  “It’s time to start the show, Miss Boyce.”

  Tillie wanted to stay behind where it was arguably safer. But she had to help. There had to be something she could do to help. She followed behind Cadence, her heart pounding away so fast it made her dizzy.

  She wasn’t a fighter.

  What the hell was she doing?

  As they neared the warehouse, voices inside hushed and things fell and clattered and clanked. There were no lit lanterns anywhere along the outside of the building. Cadence had only the half moon above and the rough touch of brick on her fingertips to guide her to a door.

  Another door around the back—or the front for all they knew—burst open with a storm of footsteps stampeding out. Cadence took a steadying breath. Her fingers found the grain of a wooden door and, without hesitation, she kicked it in.

  There were still five bandits inside, lit by a flickering lantern sitting on the ground. Its light wasn’t strong enough to cast the bandits’ shadows to the walls. Instead they streaked out along the floor like beams of darkness. Dane was on his side at their feet, the sack still over his head.

  “Who the hell are you?” One of the bandits pointed a crossbow pistol at Cadence as she came through the doorway.

  “I’m here for that man.” She pointed to Dane as he groaned in pain. “Hand him over.”

  “That wasn’t the question, lady.”

  Cadence knew he was going to shoot, just by the look on his face and the way the literal darkness bounced off his cruel features. She held up her right hand and her silver ring flashed bright white. The bandit fired his bolt, but it sailed through the air slow like a coin falling through the sea. Cadence strode past him as he was stuck in slow time and grabbed the crossbow pistol out of his hand. The other four bandits mobilized against her at once.

  “Miss Boyce, catch that bolt and make it count!”

  Cadence tossed her the crossbow pistol, grabbed a knife off the bandit’s belt, then sliced his throat with it.

  Just as he had been stuck in slow motion, Tillie herself felt stuck too, watching the crossbow pistol come flying toward her. She begged herself not to miss it, drop it, break it. But it landed perfectly in her grasp. When she looked to find the bolt, however, it had found a target in the wall behind her and splintered away.

  “Dammit!” The weapon in her hands was now useless unless she planned on hitting someone over the head with it. Unless the bandit who’d fired it had more ammo on him! She braved the evolving battlefield to inch closer to the dying body, stepping through a pool of blood from the gash in his neck.

  The four remaining bandits had seen Cadence’s ring and moved a little more cautiously. One of them didn’t even look like she’d stay around till the end.

  “That’s Time Magic!” she shouted, pointing a sword. “What’s a damn Botathoran doing here? What’s so important about that man?”

  Cadence drew Great Aunt Mattie’s pistol. “You tell me. You’re the ones who took him. And what were you doing at The Plaid Bonnet?”

  Just as the bandit was about to respond, another one lunged forward with a dagger. But he did not catch the Bone Priestess off-guard. She shot him point blank in the head and holstered the gun.

  “None of you will escape me,” Cadence said. “The price of assisting in a potential case of desecration is death. You may clear your consciences now by giving me answers or I can send them to the Goddess of Death the way they are now. The choice is yours.”

  Tillie fumbled with a quiver on the first dead bandit’s hip. He had bolts. She could help. She wrestled one free and started to pull back the mechanism to cock the crossbow and load it.

  Three bandits remained. The woman kept eyeing the door the main group had left through. The other two charged at Cadence together. One carried a sword, and the other had a knife in each hand. They had a strategy. The bandit with the knives tried to drive Cadence back into the sword.

  But the sword bandit was in perfect range for a low kick. Dane delivered it from where he still laid. The distraction was enough for Cadence to get a bullet in the sword bandit’s head.

  The one with the knives was quick and Cadence didn’t have time to reload, and her spell ring needed time of its own to charge up again. She swung with her gun still in hand, but she was too slow. They went back and forth, swinging and slashing, until the bandit sliced her in the arm and she lost grip on the pistol. It clattered to the ground. Seeing an opportunity, the nervous bandit standing back with the sword finally jumped in.

  One bolt whistled through the air and sank into her chest. Cadence took the opportunity back, grabbed the sword, and cut her down. The bandit with the knives suffered the same.

  “You could have helped stop desecration.” Cadence tucked a wisp of hair behind her ear and caught her breath. “Instead you chose not to. Botathora will see your souls for what they are and will ultimately weigh your consequences. May your journey be swift.” She raised her right hand and the silver ring flickered with a soft glow. Each bandit’s body matched it with a faint glow in their chests. From it, a silver cord reached out and climbed high into the air until it couldn’t be seen. When Cadence closed her fist, the cords were cut.

  That was all of a death ceremony they would get on her watch. Before she had even remembered the reason they were there, Tillie came racing over.

  “Dane! Dane, are you alright?”

  The grave warden was flat on the ground, the bloodsoaked grain sack still partially over his head. He shot her a cocky grin.

  “Aw, you two came for me!”

  “Oh lords, look at the wound on your head! It’s filthy!”

  “I can’t look at it, it’s on my head—”

  “Miss Boyce.” Cadence put her hand up to silence them. “You’re an overthinker. May I have your thoughts on this place and why they may have brought him here?”

  Tillie looked down at the weary Dane Sheltier and then around the dark warehouse. The dark and empty warehouse.

  “I… Cadence, I don’t think he’s actually important at all. Truthfully, I think he stumbled in on them, they kidnapped him to keep him quiet, then realized what a burden he was and dropped him off in the middle of nowhere. I believe they meant to ditch him here.”

  Cadence gave her a glare from her peripheral. “You believe Mister Sheltier is innocent?”

  “After the events of tonight, yes I do.”

  “I am,” he groaned. “Please take me to a hospital. I think I’m concussed.”

  “You’re not concussed.” Cadence pulled him to his feet. Her strength caught him completely off-guard. “And though I do buy that you were ditched, I am not yet convinced of your innocence.” She reached into the deep pockets of Galen Boyce’s pants and pulled out a pair of manacles. “You’re staying with me until I’ve had a look around.”

  “Oh, come on!” Dane rolled his head as she slapped one end around his wrist and the other end around her own. “It’s an abandoned warehouse!”

 

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