Page 84 of Kept to Kill
‘Our Fourth,’ growled Mal.
They all heard someone pounding on the outer door.
‘Who the fuck is this?’
‘Probably the king’s soldiers come to take us.’
‘Fuck,’ muttered Mal, grabbing his knife and putting it back on his belt, beginning to pace again.
The door to the room burst open and the floor creaked as Drake stepped into the room.
‘What the fuck do you want?’ roared Quin.
‘Want to know where your Fourth is?’ he asked, not bothering with pleasantries.
‘We know where she is,’ Bastian snapped. ‘The king’s dungeon.’
‘No,’ he said. ‘She was given to Nixus by the men she failed to kill. Don’t know why, but he might well keep her.’
‘Keep her for what?’ Mal snarled.
Drake looked away. ‘His research.’
‘So she’s in the Library’s dungeon?’
‘She’s in one of the under-rooms at the heart of the Library, and the Scholar has his own forces; loyal men who are his and his alone.’
‘Don’t forget yourselves.’ Mal sneered.
Drake regarded him passively. ‘Sometimes loyalty is a more complex thing than we would like. Commander, we can get your Fourth out, but you must leave the city as soon as we do. You cannot come back. There’s little else we can do, but if you do as I say, we can bring her to you.’
‘What does Nixus want with her?’ Bastian asked, shaking his head.
‘What goes on in Kitore and the rest of the north is no one’s concern in the south. We have our laws, and the Brothers have theirs.’
‘Youarea Brother.’
The man snorted. ‘Perhaps once, but we are what Nixus has made us now, and there is no coming back from that. Be at the docks within the hour, and your Fourth shall be yours once more.’
‘What if Nixus catches you?’ Quin asked.
The Brother smirked, not deigning to answer, and left them.
Quin stood. ‘Pack us up. We leave now.’
Mal didn’t need to be told twice. He’d already stuffed everything into their bags that morning.
‘She won’t want to see you,’ Bastian said to Quin. ‘You should take the horses and be outside the northern gates. They’ll expect us to go south from the docks or via the way we came, so I say we go north as far as we can and then hail a ship off the Strait in a few days’ time to go south by sea from there.’
Quin’s jaw tightened, but he said nothing. Bastian turned and went with Mal, leaving their packs for Quin to bring.
They both made the short walk to the docks and waited.
‘Should never have come here,’ Bastian muttered. ‘I knew there was something unnatural here, something foul. At least her deal with Quin is void.’
Mal nodded, then frowned. ‘Need to make her want us.’
‘What do you propose?’ Bastian murmured, leaning against a building, for all intents and purposes looking to any passersby as if he didn’t have any cares at all.
