Page 67 of Dishonor Among Thieves
“This fool,” Trond spat, “brought the spies of the queen upon my employer!” He shook his head, his overgrown orange-gray eyebrows lifted. “We can’t have that. When Haeloc didn’t show to drop off his scheduled payment, we followed him right down that cute hidden shaft in the ground. Not so hidden when an idiot like this leads you right to it. All I did was make sure those greedy magic workers couldn’t take the money that belonged to my employer!” Trond was screaming now, his voice hoarse and his cheeks flushed an angry red.
“So, Haeloc missed a debt repayment… And you killed an entire group of goblins to prevent him from using the money that he should have given you to buy a magical enchantment, some goblin craft.”
“Pretty an’ smart, that one.” Corabel looked at Neo with a seductive snarl that made me want to tear the lips from her face.
Trond tapped his temple and nodded. “Not too smart, though. That’s why I always liked you, Neo. Too bad this one had to come between what could have continued to be a very profitable friendship.” He jerked a thumb at Haeloc, who coughed, a rattling, sickly sound.
“But there’s a chance for both of us to recover a bit o’profit here, eh? Thanks to you, I found the last remaining goblin. A survivor, who I trust will have no memory of what happened in the sanctum. But just in case he does… I’d like to make a trade.”
I could tell what was coming. If Trond released Haeloc to Neo, he knew—had to be certain—that Neo would kill Haeloc. That was, after all, exactly what Trond had been hired by Neo to do. But if Neo gave the goblin up to Trond… Neo would have his nemesis, he’d have his revenge, but an innocent goblin would die just to cover up what Trond and Corabel had done.
“Do you really think Tarqeq will believe Haeloc murdered his cousin and nearly two dozen of his kind? By himself?” Neo pointed to the withered vamp beside him. “And even if Haeloc is dead, do you think the goblins won’t come seeking revenge?”
“Revenge against who?” Trond demanded, a menacing sneer on his face as he twisted his moustache between his sooty fingers. “The only ones who know what really happened are in this room. If we all go back to being friends, I’ll trust that you, your pretty new wife, and all the rest of your family—including all those little ones I saw back at your manor—want to avoid the same kind of fate that poor Vlareq suffered.” He raised his brows and drew a finger across his thick, pimpled neck.
I closed my eyes and pictured the faces of the children, of Gia and Odile, Antonia and Dale. Gini’s abuse would look like a mild summer rainstorm compared to what Trond and Corabel could to do our household. I prayed that Neo wouldn’t—no, he couldn’t—sacrifice Haeloc for Elgit. If these two killed Elgit, forevermore Neo would look over his shoulder. Forevermore, none under the Oderisi household would be safe.
If Neo wasn’t able to see what he had to do, I’d not let the moment pass. If Haeloc and Trond both didn’t die today, and Corabel too, we’d never be able to sleep behind an unlocked door again. I would not let someone else take action in my stead again. I’d come with a vague idea of what that goblin dagger might do. I only had to choose the right moment to act.
“Eh, Neo? What’ll it be? You give me the little one, and you can have Haeloc. And you can do whatever it is you want with him. As long as you kill him. In front of me. I’ll need to report back to my employer that they aren’t the only ones Haeloc’s cheated.” Trond paced the dusty hall, never wandering too far from Corabel’s side. I imaged her power only lasted a certain distance, and if he walked too far away from her, he was as good as exposed.
“And if I refuse to sacrifice the goblin?” Neo barked. “What then,friend?”
Trond shook his head. “See, poppet?” He tenderly stroked Corabel’s chin. “This is why I can’t go anywhere without you. If you’d been with me at Neo’s manor, we could have taken care of the goblin and had Haeloc. Had our cake and eaten our fill.”
She shrugged, pouting her fat, wet lips. “Someone had to stay here with this one. He’s weak, but he’s not dead yet.”
Now I was certain that the only magic Corabel had was controlling air, wind blasts, nothing more than that. If she’d stayed here to guard Haeloc while Trond came to the Oderisi manor to lure Neo here… I wondered why she hadn’t just tied Haeloc up and left him here alone, but then I realized Trond had never told Neo that he and Corabel were together. And the mage probably wasn’t entirely sure what, if anything, Haeloc had obtained from the goblins. She wasn’t so powerful that she wouldn’t have a healthy fear of stronger magic. Who knew what Haeloc had threatened her with? And I guessed that killing Haeloc before his debt was paid would bring Corabel and Trond in some kind of trouble with their employer. Which meant the only who could kill Haeloc was someone who didn’t know or didn’t fear the greater consequences.
Suddenly, the impossibility of the situation became much, much simpler.
We had to kill Corabel and Trond first. I just had to be smart about it. And that meant not doing it myself.
“If you refuse the deal, I’ll kill Haeloc myself right now,” Trond said, sounding murderously excited to do just that. “And I’ll make sure my employer sends word to Tarqeq that a certain vampire lord murdered his cousin, and as you said, all his kin. Kept the sole survivor as a hostage. Who would you rather have angry at you, Neo? The goblin lord of Tutovl, or the people who pay me to do what I am so very good at doing?”
Neo’s shoulders were tight, and his nostrils flared. I knew he was about to make a decision and do something that would change the future of everyone we knew. Everyone I cared about. I couldn’t let him make the same mistake I’d made before. I was certain I knew how the dagger worked, was certain I understood the enchantment Haeloc had sought from the goblins. The mistake Trond and his mage had made was not finding whatever it was Haeloc was there to buy. I slipped my hand beneath my cloak and released the dagger from the scabbard.
“This is your fault!” I screamed and ran for Haeloc, throwing myself on top of him. I knocked him onto his back and plunged the dagger with all my strength into his shoulder. He screamed and kicked his legs in pain, but as I hovered my face over his, I nodded slightly at the intricate hilt of the goblin dagger. His vile, bloodshot eyes flicked to the dagger, and he seemed to understand it was his. His head lolled to one side, his mouth open, his legs and arms splayed motionless. Not dead—he couldn’t be from the well-placed stab wound—but he played the part well. The hilt of the dagger stuck ominously from the flesh between his shoulder and his chest.
In a split second, a blast of air threw me from Haeloc’s body. “You fool!” Corabel shrieked, knocking me halfway across the hall.
I rolled as best I could, my shoulder and elbow taking the force of my fall. I groaned and scrambled to my feet, watching as Corabel rushed to stand over Haeloc’s motionless body.
“You killed him, you…” But Corabel’s shrieks bubbled in her throat as Haeloc’s claw-like hand flew up from the ground, hooked behind her neck, and pulled her close. His other hand yanked the dagger from his own shoulder, and he plunged it straight into her heart. Corabel dropped to the flood, crimson blood staining the bodice of her dress.
Trond flew into a rage, reaching for a dagger at his hip, but Neo and Syndrian were upon him, fists and boots flying in a tussle on the ground until finally, a sickening slash across the front of Trond’s throat ended the scuffle. Neo covered his mouth with his hand and wiped away the blood of his former friend that had sprayed his face and neck.
Syndrian leapt to his feet and offered Neo his hand. Neo gripped it, surged to his feet, and ran to my side.
“Are you hurt?” he demanded. “Brex, talk to me!”
I was bruised, but far less than I’d been at Gini’s hands. I shook my head. “I am all right,” I assured him. “I’m all right.”
Trond and Corabel were dead, but the fight here was far from over.
“You filthy mongrel,” Haeloc snarled, looking down at the blood pouring from his shoulder. “You’ve brought the wrath of all the devils of Ástleysi upon us! Do you know who those two worked for? Do you have any idea!” He started pacing the floors, swearing and muttering incoherently about how they would find us and kill us all. “You owe me! You owe me. You’ve got to help me escape.”
“I don’t owe you a godforsaken thing,” Neo thundered. He squeezed my hand and crossed the floor, while Syndrian came to kneel beside me. Neo raised his hand as if to strike the pathetic vampire, but Haeloc stabbed the dagger toward Neo’s heart.
