Page 13 of Rogue Elves of Ardani

Patros recounted a long list of topics—people the woman might have known, things she might have seen, places she’d been. When he’d finished, Crow nodded and knelt down at the woman’s side.

The woman shifted. The blindfold had gone slightly askew, and one half uncovered eye peered out at Crow’s feet.

“H-hello?” the woman whispered.

Crow sighed. She reached out to touch the woman’s hand. She searched her memories gently but quickly. There was no reason to draw things out.

When she’d found everything relevant to Patros’s requests, she let go of the woman and repeated the information aloud. None of it meant anything to her. As far as she could guess, this woman was in the employ of a business owner in Valtos, and a competitor had hired Patros to acquire information that could be used against him. It was no different from any of the other business disputes and political battles people always came to Patros about.

Patros didn’t write anything down. He usually didn’t. Crow had to admit, he had an unusual skill for memorizing these things after only hearing them once.

When she’d finished relaying everything, he got to his feet, dusting his hands. “You may dispose of her.” He took a small knife from his pocket and held it out to her. Crow’s stomach lurched.

“What?” the old woman gasped.

Crow quickly touched her again.Calm, she thought to her. She sent waves of tranquility over the woman’s mind. Gradually her panic receded.

She looked up at Patros, still holding onto the woman. “We could set her loose in the woods. She hasn’t seen our faces. She won’t know who took her. We’ll be far away by the time she gets back to civilization.”

“You would let a frail old woman roam these woods alone, with wild animals about? Don’t be cruel.”

Crow clenched her jaw. She imagined running him through with a sword and escaping with the old woman. It was a vivid, but brief, fantasy.

Just like there had been a time when she’d asked questions, there had also been a time when she’d tried to defy his commands. That time had long since passed.

Even if she didn’t do it, Patros would have someone else do it, and they would be less kind about it than she would be. That was what she always told herself.

She took the knife from Patros.I’m sorry, lady,she thought to the woman.

The woman jerked a little as she was reminded of Crow’s presence in her mind. But there was no fear in her anymore. She had mostly forgotten where she was and what was happening. She felt only the peace and quiet that Crow was channeling into her.

Sorry for what?the woman thought.

In a quick motion, Crow drew the knife across her throat. Blood spread across the floorboards. The woman’s mind quickly darkened and then went black.

Crow stood, handing the knife back to Patros. She was trembling. Her throat felt oddly full and tight. It never got any easier.

Patros looked down at the dead woman with distaste. The spilling of her bodily fluids was an annoyance to him. A faintly ugly thing that he was forced to endure for his work, the way one endured touching soap scum and grease while washing dishes, as a necessary evil in order to enjoy a meal.

Maybe that was giving him too much credit. He didn’t consider any of this evil. Crow doubted he’d ever even contemplated what the word “evil” might mean, or whether it described himself.

She did not think he made her do these things just to torment her. He asked her to do it because he didn’t like to get his hands dirty. Not that he had any personal moral objection to murder—he just disliked touching people in general.

“Anything else?” she asked. Her voice was hoarse.

“No. That will be all.”

Out of all the times they’d done this, on this particular night, at that moment, there was something in his voice that wrenched at something inside her. Something in it sparked a roiling rage and despair in her heart.

He could not have known what it was like to look into someone’s mind, to see the entirety of their personhood laid out: a huge, messy, beautiful tangle of feelings and experiences, hates and fears and loves, history and ambitions. An entire life.

“Leave the door open when you leave,” he said. “Carrion feeders will take care of the body. And I expect to see you again with Toreg in a few days. Don’t dawdle.”

She watched him head for the door. “Yes, Patros,” she said flatly.

Chapter 5

Water dripped in the corner of the room, very slowly.

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