Chapter 80: Chapter 80 – Lumberjack

I found myself standing before the all-too familiar scowl of one Warsister Xerces. Cali had dragged us through the front gates of the local fort with intent, and presented us to the burly commander post-haste. Our first meeting had ended in a war of words – one that had clearly stuck around in her mind. She looked so badly as if she wanted to argue with me again. Her need to stick to the task at hand won out in the end.

“Cali has said a lot of good things about you. Do you have any idea how rare that is?”

“I do.”

She fiddled with a quill trapped between her fingers, a lot like how Vincent liked to play with his cigarettes. “She must have already told you that I’m looking for people to… handle something for me. You wouldn’t be here willingly otherwise.”

“I would not.”

“Are you familiar with Lord Forester?”

I shrugged, “Kind of. Never spoken with the man though. We tend to hang around in different social circles as it happens.”

Xerces did not find his name so amusing and affable; “He’s a blood-stained bastard, and the one man responsible for the continued conflict on our borders. Driven by a zealous need to achieve royalist supremacy over our continent. He also has strong connections with the Grand Holy Order of Salfen and the Inquisition.”

“…And?” I repeated.

Xerces chuckled, “Oh yes. I forgot that the average person has no idea how they work. For all intents and purposes, the two are different organisations entirely. Though they do share a common ancestry.”

I didn’t really care so much. I knew that the order knights didn’t wear the same red armour that the inquisitors did. But they aimed for the same thing, and worked together to achieve those goals. Ultimately, they were both the same in the end.

“I see.”

“According to our intelligence reports, Lord Forester is planning a major assault on Dalston and the surrounding areas. It’ll be a long and bloody fight if it goes ahead. He intends to push back the historical frontline of this war and press the advantage from taking the Bend. I cannot allow that to happen.”

“Why don’t you just go out there and fight?”

Xerces’ face hardened, “I don’t have the numbers to order such an attack. The defensive advantage is the only thing I can rely on at the moment. In lieu of a better option, I have summoned you here to issue a special order. I’m issuing a bounty for Lord Forester’s head.”

“If it’s a bounty, why did you call for me specifically?”

“Oh, that? As a member of the Federation’s armed forces – I cannot officially issue metal rewards for the death of enemy officers. However, if you were to be recruited under ‘special circumstances,’ I could legally pay you your fair due for his death. If you understand what I mean.”

A bunch of legalese nonsense. She couldn’t post an open bounty for Forester’s capture of murder. She needed to specifically contract us and forge papers marking us as official recruits of the army first. It was still a bounty, but the contract would dissolve within a few months, and presumably not specify an area of operation or commanding officer. That didn’t matter to me, I wasn’t going to accept this job.

I looked away and inspected the very interesting bookshelf to my left, “Sorry, you might have to go find somebody else for this.”

“Oh? Are the stories I’ve heard of your incredible discretion and skill untrue?”

“No. But I’m a thief, not a miracle worker. You put enough scary guys with swords around someone, and even I can’t get at them. You want a low-level criminal like me to murder one of the royalist’s most respected military commanders at a time of war? Not to mention the inquisitors crawling around the place after some of them turned up dead. I could just behead myself now and save you the trouble.”

“I heard. Our spies revealed some rather interesting reactions from the Inquisitors to that event – but that is beside the point.”

Then what was the point? I didn’t know the full situation on the ground over there, but I could hazard a guess. The place would be swarming with soldiers, knights and Inquisitors. If I ever had to draw Stigma to defend myself they’d identify her on the spot. Though if things got to that stage, I was liable to be killed by a huge number of enemies regardless.

What Xerces was proposing was total madness. Sneaking through enemy lines into heavily contested territory and trying to get close to the only man on the royalists’ side with any interest in winning the war. I was not an assassin. I found myself rejecting jobs where people asked me to kill a stupidly well defended noble because they lost a card game or some other nonsense. Too much risk, terrible pay.

“Is it? I feel like someone like you could easily find and hire someone more suited for this job.”

“Are you trying to imply that I know daggers for hire?”

“I don’t know, do you?”

She shook her head angrily, “Of course not! I’m a military leader – not a politician. I know that you’re willing to get your hands dirty for a good payment. And by all accounts you’re very skilled at this sort of thing; infiltration, information gathering, stabbing him will be the easy part.”

Spoken like someone who had never tried it herself. Just as I feared.

Sensing that the conversation wasn’t going the way she wanted it to, Xerces decided to change the subject. She hopped out of her seat and walked over to the cabinet on the left side of the office, opening it and rummaging around inside. I cast a forlorn glance to Cali and Tahar, who both seemed disquieted by the whole thing. She finally emerged a few seconds later with a burlap sack clutched between her hands.

She slammed it down onto the table, releasing a chaotic choir of metallic collisions from inside. She untied the string and dumped the contents onto the desk in front of me. No less than thirty gold bars poured outwards into an ever-increasing pile. My jaw dropped at the sight of so much money. I’d never seen anything like it.

“This… is the down payment.”

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My upper lip quivered, “D-Down payment?”

“Cali said that you don’t skip town. This is how much I value her trust. I have two more bags exactly like this one with the same amount in them, to be handed out to whoever comes back with evidence of his death.”

I couldn’t believe it; “You’re fucking with me. This is enough gold to buy three houses, and to have enough left over to live on for years.”

“This? This is nothing versus what we’ll lose if Forester gets his way. The economic output of this city can’t be understated. I did a little research and discovered that this was around the price a rogue would demand for such a difficult contract.”

She was right about that, but the pay wasn’t everything. Even with all of the gold in the world there were some things you just couldn’t convince people to do. What good was the promise of wealth if you bit the dust trying to get it? Even with so much gold trying to drag me into things, I still wavered internally. This job was insane, completely and utterly insane, and the insane pay-out reflected that.

Cali sensed my hesitation, “They don’t know what we know, Ren. I believe you have the strength to see this one through.” She just wanted to dive headfirst into the fighting. Cali would be disappointed to discover that the intent of killing a high-level member of the enemy army is to disable the command structure without having to fight in the open.

I stared at the pile of bars again. God, that was a lot of money. Xerces was twisting my arm big time with this one. That was home ownership money, no more scrounging around on battlefields money, I could even consider shelving my work and focusing my efforts on breaking Stigma’s curse, or at least finding enough high-level monsters to guarantee my continued survival.

If I took the money and ran away I couldn’t enjoy the protection of the Federation anymore. Xerces would have my name and face drilled into the minds of every guardsman and knight across the country. I was going to have to figure out a genuine way to get to Forester and kill him. It was the same balance that I had to consider for my entire life up to that point. Was the risk worth the reward, and could I do what she asked? The tension was thick in the air as I chewed on the idea. It would be the most ambitious and complicated operation of my life, not to mention the most dangerous.

“I can see that you’re struggling with it,” Xerces interrupted, “Allow me to ease your mind a little. We have good information that Lord Forester is currently enjoying a comfortable stay in the city of Blackwake. He’s been working with Petty King John to stamp out resistance in the Bend and the surrounding townships, but the Inquisition is really interested in retrieving a cursed weapon that was said to be at one of our battles.”

“Yeah, I heard about that.”

“The presence of Inquisitors has made things more difficult for them. They’re a polarising sort, especially in the borders between our nations. They’re eating up supplies that Forester would prefer to use for his military campaign. He is in Blackwake as we speak trying to organise things. He stays his tongue because he knows that his position depends on John’s support.”

“And that means?”

Xerces smirked, “With a push from Forester, the Inquisitors have been slowly relocated away from Blackwake. Whoever claimed that cursed sword made themselves sparse, and now they are being reassigned to their previous posts. There are still a great number of them but the cogs are moving – which makes it easier for someone to slip through the cracks. Word from my scouts is that the Bend is easy territory for a small team to move through.”

“Blackwake is different.”

“No, it isn’t. Forester is confident that the Federation won’t launch such a deep assault; and he’s right. A majority of his frontline soldiers are in the Bend, concentrated in the towns and villages that are dotted around the swamps. This is the window of opportunity we’ve been waiting for.”

I picked at my nails, “If he dies, the political will and leadership will decide against any further attacks…”

“That’s what we’re hoping for. If you manage it, all of this money is yours to do with as you please.”

“And there’s no problem with you spending this much gold on one guy?”

“I know how to cook a book or two,” Xerces assured me. “And some of this is my own money – I hardly have much to spend the wage I receive on.”

I scowled, “Are you trying to annoy me?”

“No. I understand perfectly well how silly that sounds, but it’s true. This is money I’ve been saving for years now. What better place to use it than to try and strike a divisive blow against our enemy?”

“I don’t know, food, clothing, a house…”

She leaned back in her chair and sighed, “I have all of those things, and no doubt I’ll ascend above Warsister in due time. Then the problem will only be worse.”

“Well, it’s a nice problem to have, isn’t it?”

“I’m waiting for your answer, Ren. Are you, Cali and Tahar willing to do this?”

Was I?

I was angry with myself. This was everything I’d ever wanted. A job that offered to make me more than a beggar or thief. It was staring me right in the face, but at the pivotal moment I couldn’t make up my mind. Stigma appeared against the wall behind Xerces with a dour expression, “Are you really worried about your life, Master? In a few months – everything will be over for you. Remember what I said. You have nothing to lose, and everything to gain.”

I was a total fucking pushover.

“Fine. But I’m not promising anything.”

Xerces didn’t mind, “Well, not every investment pays off in full. I suppose I’ll start searching for a qualified assassin in the event that you fail.” She held her hands out to the veritable mountain of gold bars on top of her desk, “Do as you please with them. And remember – there’s thrice this amount waiting for you if you kill Forester.”

Did I even have a sack big enough?