Page 28 of Dishonor Among Thieves
“So you’ll walk into trouble alone, then?” My teeth began chattering, a combination of the damp chill and nerves. “Why can’t I follow behind? Bring the horses? That way if there’s trouble, we’ll escape. Ride back together.”
The red in his eyes dimmed, and in the flickering torchlight, the honey-gold warmth returned. “I willnotput you in harm’s way. This was supposed to be an easy run to pick up a mask Vlareq made. A chance to show off my beautiful bride. No risk, no danger.” With a gloved hand, he lifted my chin and touched my nose with the tip of his. “I regret now bringing you along. This is not the wedding night I’d planned. Promise me,” he growled, his breath sweet against my face, “you will do what you must to keep yourself safe.”
Heat bloomed in my chest, and I lifted my face, my nose nudging his. But I refused to make a promise I had no intention of keeping. That may not have been grounds for divorce, but I would not risk bringing dishonor upon myself by lying before I’d been married even a single day.
“Keep your weapon close.” He unsheathed his short sword. “And the torch—”
“I know, I know,” I assured him. “Go. And may the gods guide you.”
He took off running, the torch flickering through the dense iron cover. He was surprisingly quiet and quick, even in his leather armor, but not too quick for me to catch up to him.
“Shhh,” I urged the horses, not that they would speak or reveal my plan to Neo. I secured the reins as best I could to the thick stem of a low-growing shrub. “Ouch!” I pricked myself on a thorny shoot but thought that might be a good thing. The horses wouldn’t nibble at the greenery and loosen their positions. At least that was my hope as I knelt and felt the soil. It was rich and damp, which told me quite a bit about where we were. I stuck the end of my torch into the ground. Using both hands, I sunk the handle deep into the earth.
“Gods willing, this will stay lit.” The breeze was gentle, not likely to blow out the sturdy candle, but I whispered a prayer and touched my sister’s charm through my tunic and cloak before unsheathing my dagger. Then I stroked Sara and Sedda and whispered goodbye. “Stay safe, girls.”
Then I took off after the diminishing light of Neo’s torch.
The farther I ran, the more wet the ground became. My thin leather boots sank into the mud, and I nearly slipped and fell on my behind trying to keep pace with him, but I stayed focused on following Neo’s light. My heart hammered in my chest, but I kept my hood up, my chin lowered, and my eyes on that spark of light ahead. I hoped his torch would be enough to keep the vengersax away from both of us. The thought that I was truly exposed in the dark, sweating, and likely smelling better than my wedding feast to a hungry, flesh-eating bird put a fire in my steps, and I ran all the faster.
Neo tracked through the wettest of the muck until finally the soil dried out. By the time I caught up to him, he was on his hands and knees, angling the torch to examine what looked to me like nothing more than a patch of overgrown ground.
I stayed a few feet back, thinking I was hidden, but as soon as Neo pulled up a door hatch that appeared to be carved right into the earth, he turned to face me.
“I told you to stay with the horses!”His whisper was furious. “Brex, you’re endangering all of our lives!”
“I won’t let you run into danger alone!” I fired back. “I’m not leaving you, so you may as well tell me what’s ahead.” The dagger was firm in my hand, and my eyes fixed on the door in the ground. “What, by the gods, is that?”
“Below this door is Vlareq’s sanctum—the outpost where he conducts business with the few outsiders the goblins trust.”
In all that I had seen back in Byrlad, I’d never actually met a goblin. What I had heard of them, however, made the idea of crawling into their subterranean lair feel like walking down into the depths of Ástleysi, the underworld. The Realm of chaos and evil. I shivered again, this time so violently, Neo clamped a hand on my shoulder.
“Ready your dagger,” Neo instructed, “and stay close. And by the gods, Brex, if I say run, yourun.”
I nodded, then watched as Neo crawled beneath the small wooden door. He descended a few feet shallow stairs, perfectly sized to goblin feet, and held the door open for me while I climbed past him, stepping below ground and into the unknown. An overwhelming stench assaulted my nose as soon as I took the first few stairs, a combination of sickness and the metallic tang of blood that nearly brought my entire wedding dinner back up. I swallowed the saliva that filled my mouth and tugged at my cloak so my mouth and nose were covered.
“Stay close,” Neo whispered, passing me on the stairs, his torch in one hand, the short sword drawn in the other.
I did, following him down the narrow stone staircase, my hands clenched and clammy. My shoulders tensed painfully as I kept my steps light, my tummy roiling with the need to be sick. Whatever had happened down here, it had been bad. Before we reached the end of the staircase, Neo stopped suddenly. I collided with his back, nearly knocking him forward. His feet were firmly planted at an angle on the tiny stairs, his broad shoulders stopping me from toppling past him.
He said nothing, just shushed me. The torch illuminated the shadows under his honey-gold eyes. The crinkles around them as he squinted in the dark revealed how truly worried he was. I rested a hand on the back of his scale mail, the smooth leather cool under my skin. I brushed the hair he’d tied back, and I withdrew it quickly, not wishing to distract him or cause him to fall. And not wishing to distract myself from the task ahead. Especially not with my husband’s enchanting beauty.
“Neo.” I kept my voice low, feeling the packed dirt wall as I followed him step after terrifying step. Whatever was at the bottom of the steps stunk. I suspected the tiny scratching noises I heard were corpse rats making quick work of whatever was there.
“Shhh,” he urged. “Stay close. Stay quiet.”
He broke his own rule when he held up the torch and cast a ray of light over the body at the bottom of the stairs. Neo gasped and leapt onto a swarming mass of rats, stabbing at them with his sword and stomping on the ground to scatter the ravenous rodents.
“No, no, no,” Neo gritted out between clenched teeth. “Brex, help me. Come here.”
I took the rest of the stairs quickly, stopping fast on the last step. I could see in the glow of the torch the mangled remains of a goblin dressed in mail, a spear cracked in half still clenched in a lifeless hand. His skin was pale orange and the tips of his ears were pointy, just like the legends described. I couldn’t, thank the gods, see the man’s face, but the way his feet with their elongated, claw-like nails were positioned at unnatural angles, I suspected this death was no accident.
Neo handed me his torch, which I held high enough that the flame illuminated the grotesque spectacle ahead. His voice broke. “Gimbra is…was…a dune goblin. Two hundred years old, thousands of miles from his birthplace. He served his guild well.”
“Come,” he whispered, extending his hand to me. “Try not to look.”
I replaced the dagger in my scabbard and took his hand, holding the torch securely in the other. He held on tightly to my hand as I stepped over the body of the dead goblin, his bristly graying brown hair matted with bloody tangles. My mouth watering at the horrific smell. I squeezed my eyes shut to clear the tears that formed there and whispered a prayer for the poor soul.
Once I’d stepped past the pool of nearly dry blood, sending an angry kick after the few remaining corpse rats, Neo released my hand and met my eyes.
