Chapter 63: Chapter 62

Barking wasn’t a sound Tibs heard often. The few dogs in town didn’t so much bark as whine. It had been more common on his street, where dogs from the wealthier areas came and played with the urchins; until they didn’t come anymore.

When younger, Tibs had thought the people they lived with had found out where they went, and forbidden them to return. Not even dogs belonged on his street. Older, he’d noticed that on the day after they vanished, one tavern always had fresher meat for sale. Whoever the dogs lived with would never know what happened to them.

Tibs followed the sound, walking between people, expecting a crowd to be paying attention to it, and surprised to find the dog sitting by the side of an armorer, barking at the people. Some looked at it, but its size kept them from approaching. Sitting, it was only slightly shorter than Tibs was standing.

It had bright blue eyes, almost the blue of Runners with water as their essence, and gray fur on its face, with a patch of charcoal over the left eye moving along its muzzle; as if it had leaked down. The right ear had a rip in it, but Tibs saw no other signs this dog had been in fights. The dogs in town were always fighting over scraps. Its body was covered in fur that was a mix of gray, white, and charcoal.

It barked at him once as he approached, then canted its head. Tibs crouched and offered it his hand, sensing for the essence coursing through it. Like anyone without an element, it was faint, but it flowed well, indicating it was in good health.

It sniffed along his hand, then licked it and panted. Tibs rubbed the side of its head and looked around. A dog this healthy had to be with someone.

“How did you get here?” It licked his face, and he pushed it away, chuckling. “They’re probably inside, aren’t they? The shop owner probably didn’t want you in. They can be difficult. A lot of them didn’t want me to get close to their stuff just because I’m a rogue.” He stood and rubbed the top of the dog’s head. “If I see you again, I’ll make sure to have some jerky for you.”

He headed to the inn, where his team waited. They were going to discuss how they’d deal with the bunnylings on their next run while they ate lunch. He waved at Kroseph, who was arguing with a noble at a table. The noble looked exasperated, while Kroseph was amused. After a few months of being here, the nobles still weren’t used to not getting their every command obeyed.

“Guys,” Tibs called, “sorry I’m—”

Jackal was on his feet. “Where did you get that thing?” He pointed in Tibs’s direction.

Tibs turned, and the dog came next to him before sitting. He looked at the entrance. If the person with it came looking, would he get in trouble?

“It was outside. I didn’t know it followed me. I just petted it.”

“Take it back,” Jackal ordered, and the dog barked. The fighter took a step back.

Tibs looked from the dog, tongue lolling out the side of its muzzle, to Jackal, who looked pale and ready to bolt.

“It’s just a dog,” Carina said. “A big one, but it looks safe enough. It hasn’t eaten Tibs. You’d probably scare it if you got too close.”

“I’m not getting close to that thing. Tibs, it can’t be in here. It’s probably full of diseases.”

“It looks healthy enough,” Mez said.

Khumdar was studying the dog with an interest that had Tibs place a hand on its head.

“Mez, no dog’s healthy. They’re nothing more than moving diseases. There’s no way Kro’s dad is going to want that thing in here.”

“The dog’s fine,” Kroseph said, walking by. “Dad draws the line at horses.”

“Kro,” Jackal called after the man, hurt. “Tibs, you don’t want anything to do with those beasts, trust me. They’re going to turn on you and rip you apart.”

“Okay, I’ll—”

A whistle sounded over the inn’s patrons and the dog stood, ears straight, tail wagging quickly. It turned and barked once. The inn fell into silence.

“No,” Jackal whispered.

A woman walked through the inn. She was tall, with short black hair, normal gray eyes, and dressed in the green and black of the city guards. She stopped half a dozen feet from Tibs, and two dogs sat, one on each side of her.

She fixed her gaze on Tibs. “Who are you,” she demanded, “and what have you done to my dog?”

Tibs swallowed. He hadn’t meant for the dog to follow him. “He—”

“Jackie?” she asked, now looking over him.

“It’s Jackal,” Jackal replied.

“Don’t tell me you’re doing that still? You’re not five anymore.”

“What are you doing here, Serba?”

She motioned to the way she was dressed. “What does it look like?”

“You? You joined—” Jackal closed his mouth.

“Harry’s guard,” Serba said. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“What do you care? I don’t remember you caring what we were up to when you walked out on the rest of us. You have any idea how hard dad’s been looking for you?”

Tibs looked at Jackal. They were related? There was nothing about her that said street. Carina motioned Tibs over, and after thinking about it, he sat next to her.

“Oh, I know,” Jackal replied, his tone dark. “Do you have any idea how many of his thugs I had to put down to make sure they couldn’t report where I was?”

“And then you went and came here. Pretty much guaranteed we’d never know where you were.”

“And yet, here you are.”

She smiled. “Here we are indeed.” She gave a quick whistle, and the black dog on her left stood.

“Don’t,” Jackal growled.

“Come on, Jackie. Just hug him. You have no idea how he missed you.” She gave a series of whistles and the dog stepped toward the table.

Jackal turned to stone.

Tibs stared at the fighter, then stood and joined him. If he felt the need to armor himself, this was getting serious.

The entire inn was quiet, watching them. He extended his sense, looking for what her essence might be like, and was distracted by the bright essence that approached.

“Who are your friends?” she asked, looking over the table, amused.

“My team,” Jackal replied. “I’m a Dungeon Runner.”

“He’s our leader,” Carina said, standing by Tibs. On Jackal’s other side, Mez and Khumdar took position. “Whatever your problem with him is, you’re going to be dealing with all of us?”

The woman looked at Carina, then burst out in laughter. “Leader? Really, Jackie? You run away from it all the way here and you end up as their leader?” She bent over laughing.

“It’s Jackal!” he snapped.

Tibs waited for the hidden guard to act, but he remained behind the woman, unmoving.

She shook her head, straightening, still chuckling. “I can’t wait to see Dad’s reaction when I tell him. He’d given up all hope of you ever taking up the mantle. Even this might be too much for him to take.”

“Don’t you dare tell him,” Jackal threatened.

She smirked. “Or what? When have you ever been able to threaten me? I don’t care what that new trick lets you do. One whistle and my babies will be all over you. Remember that no matter what Dad wants of you, no one orders me about. If I want to tell Dad, I’m going to—”

“Is that so?” Harry growled in her ear, suddenly visible as more than just his essence. Everyone close enough to see him appear jumped in surprise. “It seems to me that you agreed to take my orders when you asked to be part of my guards. Was that a lie?”

She swallowed. “No, Uncle.”

“Not how you address me,” Harry growled.

“No, Sir.”

Uncle? Tibs fought the urge to look at Jackal. He was related to her, Harry was her uncle. Why did Jackal and Harry hate each other so much then?

“Good.” Harry straightened. “Why are you here, instead of at your post?”

“Thump left his position while I was taking a report from one of the merchants.”

Harry looked at the dogs. “That’s Thump, isn’t it?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“And?” he asked, almost too casually.

The question confused her. Then she ducked around the guard leader and gave a series of whistles as she vanished, causing the dogs to run after her. Harry didn’t turn to watch her.

Jackal stared at the guard. “She’s part of the guard?”

“She requested it, and with her dogs, she’s going to be useful chasing down trouble makers.”

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“How could you agree to that?”

Harry narrowed his eyes. “You seemed to be under the misconception, Jackie-boy, that I care about whatever problems you have with your family.”

“My problems, Knuckles? No one in my family does anything without Dad telling them to. That includes my ‘no one tells me what to do’ sister.”

“She is not here because your father ordered her.”

“You can’t believe anything she says!”

“Watch your tone, boy. I will break that stone body of yours if need be. No one lies to me.”

“Fine,” Jackal said through clenched teeth. “Then consider what my Dad’s going to do when he finds out I’m here. You know him. You know he’s not going to be able to stay away.”

“If my brother shows up in this town,” Harry said, not sounding concerned, “I will deal with him. You, Jackie-boy, are going to focus on making my life simple, is that clear? You will stop talking with my guards. You will stop acting like they are under your command just because they used to know you. You ran from your family. Act like it.”

The two glared at one another.

“Well?” Harry demanded.

“Fine,” Jackal replied.

“I swear,” Harry grumbled as he turned and walked away. “If I’d known the boy was here when they asked me to take over, I’d have refused. This is going to be nothing but…” the distance and restarting conversations made the rest inaudible.

“I think you owe us an explanation,” Carina said, sitting down.

Jackal looked around, his skin returning to normal. He motioned to the table, then let himself drop in the chair.

“Harry Hard Knuckles is your uncle?” Mez asked, sounding dismayed.

Jackal dropped his head on the table. “Please don’t remind me.”

“That looked intense,” Kroseph said, putting tankards on the table.

“Kro, please kill me.”

“I kill you with love anytime you let me,” the server replied. “I don’t think that’s what you need right now.”

Jackal looked up. “What I need right now is to crawl into your bed and forget about everything.”

Kroseph caressed the fighter’s cheek. “What you need is to talk with your team. I can wait to find out what this was about.” He left, and Jackal watched him until he vanished into the kitchen.

“I so don’t deserve him,” he whispered, then downed half a tankard. “Where were we?”

“I was hoping you could explain why the leader of the guards is so hard on you if he is your uncle?” Khumdar asked.

“You know him well enough to answer that yourself,” Jackal replied. “The stick of the rules is shoved up his ass so deep he can’t bend down to pick up a copper off the floor.”

“I know you don’t like guards,” Carina said. “But that sounds excessive.”

“You don’t get it,” Jackal growled. “Knuckles isn’t in the guild by choice. My family put him in.”

Tibs looked at the others and was relieved to see his confusion reflected on them. “I think you need to start earlier.”

Jackal sighed and finished the tankard.

“Okay. Me and Tibs are Street.”

Tibs raised an eyebrow.

“I am, I swear, just not to your level. Do the rest of you know how a Street is set up? And it doesn’t mean one street.”

They shook their head.

“Okay, at the bottom, you have the beggars and urchins, then the thugs, thieves, cut-purse. Then you get the conmen, the confidence artist, and after that, the organizations who control the lower people. Independents like Tibs don’t usually last long, because they have no one watching their backs. Each group fights the others for territory or just because they don’t like each other. The nobles let it happen because it means they can’t get large enough to be trouble.”

He took another tankard and sipped it. “Back in my home, things happened differently. It’s far back enough no one remembers when, but the largest gang stopped fighting and formed alliances. The smaller gang either swore allegiances to one of them or were destroyed. As time passed, the gangs became one, then a family.” He paused, took another sip, and sighed. “My family.”

“Your family controls the entirety of the criminal elements in your city?” Khumdar asked, sounding awed.

“Yeah,” Jackal replied, disgusted.

“I can see why you ran away,” Carina said.

Jackal chuckled. “Oh, that’s not why I ran. I’m as criminal as anyone in my family. I’m a thug. I’ve broken limbs and heads.” He grinned. “I love doing it.”

“I’m not sure I get why you ran then,” Mez said.

Jackal sighed again. “My father is the guild master. Big hat, top of the ladder, whatever you can think of. He’s it. Nothing happens in that city without him approving it. He’s not exactly young anymore, so when I was born, in his eternal wisdom, and because even back then he hated me, he decided I’d take over after him.”

“Take over a criminal organization the size of a city?” Carina asked, sounding unconvinced. Jackal nodded. “How did he think you’d do that? You barely know your letters or numbers. At that size, I expect it’s like any other large company, there’s a lot of writing and counting involved.”

“You have no idea,” Jackal grumbled. “I wasn’t done learning the individual letters that my tutor had tomes this thick she wanted me to read. One look at them, and I knew what terror was. I was on the other side of the city before dinner was ready. I’d have gotten out of the city too, but one of the guards knew my father, so he knew me. He brought me home and was well rewarded.”

“How were you in a cell for the guild to get you, if the guards worked for your father?” Tibs asked.

“A few things. By then I’d disappeared within the fighting pits. I doubt Serba’s right and my Dad ever thought I’d died, but it had been a few years since I’d had to break one of his thugs to stay hidden. The fight where I killed the guy that I was caught for was a hard one. He was dead, but I was messed up. My face was cut, bleeding, bruised. I doubt even dear old Dad would have recognized me then, let alone a guard. On top of that, the cells were packed that night. A lot of people were dead by the time we were taken out. I might not have lasted the night without the Dungeon needing to be fed. They took us to the platform, forced a foul-tasting potion down my throat, and then I was here. In charge of you lot.” His grin didn’t last. “And my sister knows about it.”

“She looked too old to be your sister,” Mez said.

“I’m the youngest,” Jackal said. “I have a lot of siblings. She's among the oldest.” He paused and was quieter as he continued. “My mom died when I was seven. She’d been sick since my birth.”

“That lays bare your secret,” Khumdar said. “What is Harry Hard Knuckles’?”

“Just because I don’t like talking about it doesn’t mean it was a secret,” Jackal said. He sighed. “I don’t have all the information. It took place years before I was born. My dad was only a kid himself. Knuckles was the oldest of his siblings. He’s older than he looks.”

“It’s the graduating,” Tibs said, “it lets adventurers live longer.”

Carina and Khumdar nodded. Mez shrugged.

“My Grandfather got the brilliant idea to expand, but not just to another city, or another part of the city. No, he wanted to take over another guild.” Jackal motioned around them. “The adventurer’s guild.”

“You can’t do that,” Carina said. “It’s too large.”

“He knew that. His plan was to take all the people with even an inkling of an element that were loyal to him, send them to the guild for training, and when they were in comfortable positions within the structure, have them take control. There you go. Guild controlled.”

“Only it didn’t happen,” Carina said. “Clearly.”

Jackal nodded.

“Harry?” Mez asked.

“He decided he liked the guild more than my family. It could be the element he picked. Light is about truth, and there isn’t a lot of that in my family. He personally handed over every traitor, including himself. Demanded to be punished for considering betraying them. Spent a couple of years in prison, then became what you saw. A pain in the ass and stickler for the rules.”

“The colors you wear,” Tibs said, “it’s not just because you like black and green, is it?” He wasn’t sure why he hadn’t made the connection before, but on his street, gangs used colors to identify themselves.

“They’re my family’s colors,” Jackal said, “the whole organization, really.”

“Wait,” Mez said. “So the people Harry brought to guard the city work for you?”

“No,” Jackal stated, then glanced at Tibs. “But a few of them remember me, and because of my father I’ve managed to get them to help here and there.”

“But why would Harry bring people who work for criminals to guard a city?” Carina asked.

Jackal chuckled. “Here’s the thing about us thugs. So long as you can keep us under control, we are very good enforcers. And what’s a guard but an enforcer who works for you. The guild has the coins, and by using people he has a connection to, Harry can make better use of his already stellar temperament at controlling them. My Dad probably doesn’t even know. There are too many people in the organization for him to know everyone. And we’re not exactly known for letting people know when we have to suddenly leave.”

He paused, looked pensive as he drank. “Except for my sister being here. I don’t care what Knuckles said. She wouldn’t have any reason to leave. She asked to work for him, so word’s gotten around, which means my Dad could have heard.”

“Then, the question is,” Khumdar said, “if she is here on purpose, is it to watch over him, or you?”

“If my Dad sent her, it’s for Knuckles, but he said she can’t lie to him. I can’t believe it’s an accident she asked to work for him while I live here. She hates my guts. She’s had her dogs torment me my entire life.” He cursed quietly. “But it won’t matter. The moment she goes home, my Dad will know. And that’s when the peace here ends.”

Mez took a tankard and raised it. “Then, I’ll drink to the longest peace we’ve ever known.” They all joined in, but Jackal looked uncertain, and Khumdar looked too pleased for Tibs to be comfortable with.

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