CHAPTER 7

“It’s just a job, Vex’ahlia.” Vax rubbed his face. It was disorienting to try to convince his sister, because every time he looked at her, he saw Lyre change into her again.

When he’d returned last night, she’d already been asleep, her blanket pulled tight, and her bow within reaching distance. He’d almost been grateful for the reprieve, because he didn’t have the words to tell her he’d seen her stalker changed into a shitty, messed-up copy of her, only to be given to the man who put the contract out on her.

But it didn’t make this morning’s conversation any easier. She was tired and snappy, and he was unsuccessfully trying to get the image of Lyre and the staff of tongues out of his head.

“It’s not just a job,” Vex said, her worries drawing deep lines across her face. “A job is running messages or protecting travelers or returning people’s lost property. You’ve always told me to keep an eye out for the Clasp and to stay far away.” She wrapped her new bracers around her forearms, tightening the straps with fierce determination. “Why the fuck would you say yes to them?”

Vax sat down heavily on the bed. Part of him wanted to let her believe that it was just a foolish decision like so many he’d made. Let her be angry at him if it meant she didn’t have to worry about the Clasp and their illicit work. But he couldn’t. It had always been the two of them against the world, and he didn’t want anything to come between them. He couldn’t let her think he’d be so careless with their safety when there was nothing more important.

“Because I didn’t have a choice.” He couldn’t lie to her, not even to protect her.

She stilled immediately in the midst of lacing up her boots. “What happened? Are you in some kind of trouble?”

“No.” He grimaced at the irony of it. “I trailed you last night. I was there when that guy attacked you.”

She frowned. “Oh. I thought I’d handled that.”

“You did, but I jumped him. I wanted to make sure he wouldn’t follow you when you escaped. We got into a fight, and …” He considered his words carefully. “In doing so messed up a Clasp mission.”

Vex paled. She finished tying up her boots and leaned against the broken-down cabinet, her arms wrapped around her waist. “What did the Clasp want with me?”

He made a split-second decision and forced himself to meet her gaze. He could protect her from this part, at least. “You were in the wrong place at the wrong time, Stubby. And apparently so was I.”

Something passed across her face. Concern. Relief. Both. “I was worried it had been—” She stopped and shook her head. “So you got into a fight with them, and then what happened?”

“Well, they’re dangerous. And they don’t take kindly to anyone getting between them and a job. So we negotiated a deal. For me to fulfill a job for them, in payment for the failed mission.” None of it was technically a lie, and he could convince himself it was kinder than to tell her it had been about her, and that some poor bastard now wore her face and was at the mercy of her stalker. She didn’t need to carry that weight.

Vex bit her lip. She glanced past him, toward the window. “Or what, they’d kill you?”

“Something like that, yeah.” He crossed the room and came to stand in front of her. “Look, I wanted to stay far away from them too. But maybe it isn’t all bad. We have some coin for now, but it won’t last us forever. Good jobs are hard to come by, and what we find is hardly enough to sustain us. They pay better than anything I can scrounge up.”

Spireling Gideor’s words left a bitter taste in his mouth, but everything else aside, there was a core of truth to them. After sharing the details about this job, the spireling had told him about some of the other jobs the Clasp brought in, and while some of the work was similar to what he and Vex had been doing over the past five years, the pay was at least double what they earned. The Clasp’s fences paid better, and the taverns they owned were decent and affordable for members. They had healers who’d patched up Vax—dealing with the wounds left by Lyre’s darts, and the cuts and bruises from the tumble across the rooftops—no questions asked.

“Does that mean you’re a member now?” Vex demanded.

He rolled his shoulders. “Not yet. It’s only one assignment. But people don’t just walk away from the Clasp.” Spireling Gideor had casually told him there was no need to brand him yet. Not until after he returned from Jorenn Village, at least. He felt Vax would be in a better position there without any identifying markers.

And Vax had decided he didn’t need to know the full details about branding there and then, because his head had been spinning and everything inside him felt wrong. It still did.

“They’ll demand your loyalty, you know they will. Fuck, Vax. What if they also demand something you can’t give? What if they get between us?”

“They won’t,” Vax said, instantly and with force. “Nothing and no one will ever come between us. But I have to do this. I’ve given my word. And I don’t want to get on their bad side.”

He reached out to her and held her, despite her protests. “Do you trust me?” he whispered.

“Always.” She squeezed his hand before she disentangled herself and she rubbed her arms. “I don’t trust them.”

“Me neither,” he admitted. “I still have to do this.” And it wasn’t just because they’d already demanded the impossible. It was because some part of him, some small part of him, had latched on to the improbable. A way to make something better out of a bad situation. Better jobs meant a sense of security, of safety for the both of them. He’d go wherever his sister did, and if that meant they would continue to run around for the rest of their lives then so be it, but some days he wondered what was beyond that.

She hiccuped a laugh. “They’re probably not even paying you for the contract, are they?”

“Well, there’s the whole letting-us-live part.” He gently tugged her braid, relief coursing through him at her words.

She walked to the window and looked out at the city that was waking up around them. She sighed heavily. “We’ll go. We’ll get that ring. We’ll leave this bloody city behind us. I’m sick and tired of people threatening us.”

VEX HAD MORE MISGIVINGS ABOUT this plan than arrows in her quiver. When she’d gotten back to the inn the previous night, her brother had been gone, and she’d assumed he’d been on some kind of sneaky business or other. By the time she’d managed to sleep, she’d spent hours trying to convince herself that the hunt through the city was nothing and that she’d simply crossed the wrong person’s path. After all, her assailant had left her alone once she reached the busier side of Westruun, and the rats had scattered and disappeared too, as though whatever caused their interest in her had also vanished. She still felt a bit uncomfortable, but it was nothing. Really.

Except it hadn’t been nothing. She knew that now. She hadn’t missed Vax’s slip that fulfilling the assignment would mean the Clasp would let them both live.

But once outside of the city walls, on gentle horses provided by the Clasp, she breathed easier.

The Bramblewood Forest that embraced Westruun stretched out toward the mountains, and the air smelled fresher here. A stillness came from the forest that she could find nowhere else. A sense of life and endlessness, of gnarled roots burrowing deep into the ground and tall trees reaching ever higher. Even the jagged thorns that crawled up the tree bark added to its strange beauty. She preferred woods that weren’t innocent.

She felt better here, and more like herself instead of the person other people wished her to be. If only she could carry that feeling everywhere.

And if she kept her eyes on the road in front of her, she didn’t have to look up to where the misty outline of Gatshadow loomed, larger still than it had inside the city, like it was observing the two of them. She wondered what it saw and what it had seen. They’d gone into the city with such different expectations. More finding simple work, less getting conscripted by the Clasp. At least they left with a full purse and stocked up on all the necessities.

Other travelers were leaving Westruun with the rising sun too, and the crossroads around the city were an anthill. Chaotic. Constantly in motion. Few travelers turned north toward the Black Valley, and the road that stretched out in front of them, past the forest and parallel to the peaks to the west, was thankfully quiet.

“Tell me about that shitty ring again,” she said when she was certain no one could overhear them.

Vax picked at a spot on his leg. She knew she wasn’t the only one worried about the Clasp; he looked as tired as she felt. “It’s an heirloom of a Westruun family that somehow made its way to the hands of the Shadewatch of Jorenn,” he said. “According to my contact, it’s very recognizable. An intricate silver band with dark cloudy gems and shards of bone. Affectionately known as Fracture.”

“A ring with a name. Sounds great,” she said flatly. “So it’s magic?”

“I don’t know. I’ve only been told that the Clasp wants it, badly. It’s only one ring, Vex. It’s supposed to be easy. I’ve stolen rings before.”

She shook her head and focused on the path in front of her. “I don’t trust things that are supposed to be easy. And if we’re going back to stealing trinkets again, I want my own by my side.”

She expected Vax to point out that they’d be far more noticeable with a giant bear by their side. When he remained quiet, she turned to him, one eyebrow arched up. Her brother was staring out into the forest pensively, his fingers tight around his horse’s reins. “Good call.”

She snorted. “I wasn’t asking for your permission, brother. But I’m glad you agree.”

He rolled his eyes.

They followed the road until they were out of sight from the city and any fellow travelers, until they found a small trail that led deeper into the forest where sunlight dappled the leaves around them. Vex had to stop herself from pushing her horse harder.

When the trail widened in front of her, Vex slid off her horse, walking the last couple of yards to the clearing where they’d made camp before entering the city. There Trinket stood in the middle of the stream, staring intently at the water in front of him. His large paws were dark and muddy, and she laughed when she saw purple stains around his snout. It wasn’t hard to spot the mauled blackberry bush on the other side of the stream.

“I wouldn’t have minded some blackberries too,” Vax commented from a little way away.

She snorted. “We’ll find you some along the way.”

At the sound of voices, the bear looked up, the fish around him immediately forgotten. He stood on his hind legs and splashed into the water again, momentarily looking exactly like the young bear cub she’d helped raise. Vex laughed. “Oh, Trinket.”

Trinket ambled toward her and she crossed half the distance, until she could wrap her arms around the bear and push her face into his fur. The bear grunted and nudged her with his head and she scratched his neck and breathed in the familiar scent of fur and mud and safety. “Buddy. We’re traveling again. Are you coming with us?”

“I love how you tell me what to do, and you ask your bear.”

She winked at him, and he shuddered. “Gods, don’t do that.”

Trinket snorted. He nudged her again. He always seemed to understand more than she thought was possible.

With the two of them by her side, she didn’t need anything else.

“You know we could leave,” she suggested, knowing that there was no one around who could overhear but her bear and her brother. “Keep traveling east and go toward the coast or the forests there. No one will ever know.”

Vax had grabbed both horses by the reins. “You know we can’t.”

“If it becomes too dangerous, we’ll walk away, all right?” she asked, suddenly needing that reassurance. Trinket butted her gently with his head, and she leaned into him tightly. Somehow, her bear always knew what she needed.

“It’s a simple heist. We’ll be back in Westruun in a couple of days, and we can follow our own path from there,” Vax said, with a sense of determination Vex wished she could feel.

“And?” she pressed.

He looked at her, really looked at her, and nodded. “If it becomes too dangerous, we’ll walk away.”

THE LANDSCAPE CHANGED AROUND THEM as they traveled northward. The Cliffkeep Mountains remained a steadfast visage on the western horizon, like jagged edges around every sunset. They spent one night in the forest, and once they left the Bramblewood behind, peaks began to arise on the northern and eastern horizons as well, like they were slowly being surrounded by hill creatures and stone giants.

In the morning, they crossed paths with a messenger who was making her way east. She carried missives to Turst Fields and though she didn’t want to break bread with them, they did exchange a few words while she watered her horse. Because, as she said, “Those of us who share the same roads have to mind each other.”

She pointed at the road that wound its way northward. “There’s a group of merchants about a day’s travel ahead of you. Their cart is slow and cumbersome, and the two men in charge keep quarreling, so if you keep a comfortable pace, you’ll catch up with them. You may want to consider that.”

“Why?” Vex asked, with a worried glance at Vax, who was busying himself with his saddlebags.

The messenger pulled out a handful of green-brown cubes from a container and fed them to her horse, making sure the animal was in good shape for the rest of the long ride. Better shape than the messenger was, Vex realized quietly. The young woman had circles under her eyes and she kept rubbing her neck, her long auburn braid dancing over her back. “The Blackvalley Path is safe enough, but from what I heard in Jorenn, they have problems with dead things coming down the Umbra Hills.” When the horse had finished the food, she brushed her hands on her tunic. “That whole area is supposed to be haunted. Strange magics, and all that.”

“Oh,” Vex managed. “Great.”

The messenger flashed her a grin that lit up her whole tired face. “I recommend getting out before the trouble starts. It makes life a whole lot easier.”

“I’m sure we’ll do that,” Vex said, emphasizing the words, even though Vax didn’t appear to be listening.

He wrapped a piece of bread and some of their other supplies in a piece of cloth. He walked up to the messenger as she was getting back in the saddle. “I noticed your bags were empty. You should have something to eat on the way east.”

Her nostrils flared, and Vex saw a flash of pride. Briefly, she thought the messenger wouldn’t accept the offered food. Then she nodded. “Thank you for your kindness. Changebringer guide you.”

When the messenger nudged her horse into a trot, Vex mounted too. She narrowed her eyes at her brother, who was still staunchly avoiding her gaze. “Dead things?”

“Coming down the hills, apparently,” he said after a moment, mounting up and nudging his horse into a trot. He made sure he was out of punching distance before he turned back to her. “Don’t tell me you’re afraid?”

“Tell me you didn’t know about those strange magics either.”

“We’ll keep an eye out for the merchants. And we only need the ring. In and out. We’ll be careful.”

“Are you sure this was supposed to be a nice and easy heist?”

“It’ll be far better than dealing with the Clasp.” Vax glanced northward, and the shadow of a grin crept over his face, as if the idea of there being a strange type of danger in Jorenn Village made it more appealing instead of less so. “Besides, the two of us against strange magics and a haunted town? Where’s your sense of adventure?”

“I think someone dropped you on your head when you were a boy,” Vex groaned. “I should’ve stayed in that clearing with Trinket.”

Trinket, who heard his name, looked at Vex and grunted.

They made their way northward regardless, and the day passed around them. The valley that spread out in front of them was one of glowing hills and endless rolling plains. The grassland allowed for some hunting, but the natural resources were scarce and very few people tried to use this land for farming. The sides of the hills were covered in heather of all different types of greens and purples.

On the first night they made camp in the valley, the merchants were nowhere to be seen. Vex found a good campsite near the banks of a river that meandered along the northernmost edge of the Bramblewood. They dined on freshly caught fish and whatever autumn berries they could find, and the nights outside were quieter without fear for any shadows and stalkers.

An endless blanket of constellations and stars spread out over them, and when the first moon rose, Vex leaned against Trinket, her head resting on his back. The nights were growing colder, and Trinket’s presence was warm and reassuring. This was something no city could ever hope to emulate. The feeling of freedom and space and the solid earth under her feet. Even if they were—apparently—on their way to a town with undead dangers.

Vax came to sit next to her, cleaning one of several daggers with a polishing cloth. At least the new cloak looked good on him, and strangely, that mattered. Being able to provide him—them—with good supplies was a tangible form of protection.

He worked in silence for a moment, and then he stopped.

She raised an eyebrow but didn’t say a word.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bundle, wrapped up in a square piece of linen, tied with twine, and handed it to her, not meeting her eye. “You know I’m sorry I dragged you into this, Stubby.”

“It seems I dragged you into it first.” She nudged him with her shoulder. “And you know I’ll go anywhere with you.”

With careful hands, she untied the twine and opened up the linen, only to find the small copper bear she’d admired in the elf’s workshop in Westruun. It was tied to a long leather necklace. Her breath caught. “Vax …”

“I didn’t pay for it,” he admitted, with the barest hint of a challenge to his voice. “I saw how much you loved it, and you shouldn’t be afraid of loving something just because some elves are assholes.”

Her fingers tightened around the little copper bear, and she grinned. “We met the worst of them, didn’t we?”

“The absolute worst,” he acknowledged. “Come here, let me help you with that.” He took the necklace out of her hand, and when Vex lifted up her hair, he tied it gently around her neck.