A Song and Ale Page 14

  CHAPTER FORTY TWO

  Thorinjian felt strange in this new place and new body. His new height was five feet and six inches tall, a whole foot taller than what he was used to. It would also take some time for him to get used to his over exaggerated muscle mass. Before this day he had never seen muscles so sculpted. They were even more defined than the best sculptor’s statues of the gods, which were the epitome of all men and women pawning over them.

  His skin was still as black as the night sky and this is when he was sparkling clean and his hair was so black that anyone seeing it would swear that it was purple. Blue eyes that competed with the blue of the morning sky that looked silver in the evening made him look even more magnificent. He knew that he was in a tunnel deep beneath the ground above, but could not understand why he was able to see as though he was out in the morning sun.

  Hearing of infra-vision, he knew that that was not what he had as he could just see in the dark and that was all there was to it. Not concerned about clothing he decided to roam around and see what he could find. It was slow at first, but he eventually got used to his muscles being stiffer than they used to be. His new height was another problem that he awkwardly had to cope with. He felt naked without the tools and weapons of his craft, even more naked than he actually was.

  Stopping a moment to catch his breath and because he thought that he had heard some footsteps approaching his location, he quickly ascertained the unknown group of persons were dangerous enough to warrant him ducking into the shadows where he could watch them pass unseen. Thorinjian waited for a few intense minutes to pass. He hoped that the two men and one lady heading his way would not hear the beat of his heart.

  One man was wearing a leather patchwork tunic, leather leggings, leather boots and what seemed like a short sword was sheathed at his left hip. The other man was wearing a chain mail shirt, leather leggings, leather boots and a long sword was sheathed at his left hip. Even with Thorinjian’s newly improved sight, he could not make out much of the woman with them. The only resolve he had was that she was stunningly beautiful. He figured that they were her guards.

  If they were not her guards then what were they doing with her? Watching them continue to walk towards him along the tunnel was wracked with anxiety and nervousness, but also rewarding. He was almost mesmerized by the constant shifting of the woman’s skirt, the bounce of her bosom and the way her hair flowed over her perfect body like golden strands of silk almost made him unfocused on the task at hand. His heart jumped a beat when all three of them stopped right in front of him.

  One of the men, the one in the chain mail shirt, even placed his left hand on the wall a few inches from Thorinjian’s face to support his weight. The other man stood at a distance making sure no one was in earshot of what they were going to be saying and then stood beside the woman. The woman was standing so close to Thorinjian that he could not understand why she did not notice him. He was close enough to her now that he could feel her breath on his cheek.

  In fact she was almost standing on his foot and one of her breasts touched his skin, he was too frightened to know which one, but she did not seem to notice or care. She was wearing a tattered brown skirt that might have been white silk at some time in the far off past and a torn ragged shirt that barely covered her decently. Thorinjian could see straight down her shirt, like it was not there and so much more of her naked flesh than her clothes were equipped to cover. It was hard to focus seeing her full round breasts, and nipples, and their reaction to the cold, but he had to focus.

  Her feet were not covered at all and a rusty dagger was slipped beneath the top of her skirt. Seeing her clothes told him that these men were definitely not her guards. What they were still eluded him?

  The man in the patchwork tunic’s presence prompted the lady to speak,

  “Are you sure everything is clear?”

  The man nodded, and she continued.

  “More men are needed to take over the operation of the underground. This is the very reason that I have called you here tonight.

  “We could take over the operation now, but it would severely tax our resources. Therefore, all levels are needed for the takeover to work. I want you two to hire some really good thieves and assassins.

  “It would be a bonus if you have something on them, like the whereabouts of some of their family members. Whatever you have to do, you must do it. I need those men.

  “It also should be evident to them that they could die at any moment while they conduct business for us.”

  She stood there for a moment and then said,

  “Well, what are you waiting for? Get to work.”

  The man in the chain mail shirt grabbed the other man as he was going to go, and do the work that she had instructed,

  “Arthur, just wait a minute. Ms . . . . uh, we don’t even know your name yet.” He waited for her to give it.

  Sighing, she reluctantly spoke looking at each of them as she spoke their names,

  “Charles, Arthur, you can both refer to me as Candis.”

  Charles abruptly continued without seeing whether Candis had anything more to say or not,

  “There is still a matter of how many men you want hired, and the amount you are willing to pay each. We will also need to be paid and given the money to hire these men.”

  Candis did not really trust these men that well, in fact she did not trust them at all. She had just met them this day being as they were referred to her by a mutual acquaintance that the three of them shared. They were said to be good and would get the job done. Trusting them with such a large fund would prove disastrous and put the new hires in their hands. It might just give them control of her forces.

  She knew what must be done and so instructed the men of what must be,

  “I usually pay once the job is finished and not before it starts or even worse before you are assigned a job to do. You will get half your money up front. Don’t interrupt me.

  “You will not get the money for hiring the men, that fund stays in a safe place.” Absentmindedly she patted her money pouch. Both men noticed this with wide eyes and open mouths, but Candis was too busy talking to notice their body language.

  She continued without realizing Charles’ and Arthur’s glances at each other and the satchel at Candis’ waist,

  “I need you guys to spread the word that I am looking for intermediate to master thieves and am willing to pay the current street rate plus ten percent. I will meet them beneath the old peer that those people from Nemish Island used to dock.

  “There is an underwater cave that is fully submerged under water for about five minutes straight down and then it levels off as you swim under the rock.

  “There is just enough space for a typical thief to swim through the small hole at the bottom, the hole continues through a tunnel that opens up to a wide clearing. That clearing is where I will meet the prospective thieves for more tests.”

  Candis heard a noise coming from both directions of the corridor that they stood in. She was wondering who it was when Charles grabbed her, and waited for the men to approach. Three men came and assisted Charles and Arthur in restraining Candis.

  One of those men spoke,

  “Charles, what was taking you guys so long? We were to bring her to the boss a long time ago.” They snatched the satchel from Candis and looked inside it, “There is only about five hundred platinum in here. Where is the rest of it?”

  Charles smacked Candis in the side of her head and then punched her in the stomach. Thorinjian could not see the blows from his angle, but was sure that a rib or two was broken.

  Candis spoke,

  “I don’t know what you are talking about.” Candis winced from another blow that Thorinjian was sure struck those same broken ribs as before.

  In the process of roughing her up the buttons of her shirt were ripped clean off, exposing her breasts. Being restrained by two goons she was not able to close her shirt so it was left to hang open. Thorinjian from his angle noti
ced her nearly perfect abs and of course her breasts, her skirt was on the ground and her pink lace panties showed off her nice legs. There was a large redish purple bruise on her left side where these thugs probably cracked a few of her ribs.

  CHAPTER FORTY THREE

  The guy spoke again, this time his words were harsher and included spittle,

  “We know that you stole more than two thousand platinum from the syndicate. Overthrowing the boss of the underground is one thing, but stealing from the syndicate means death for yourself.

  “How do we know? Well, we have some of our best operatives deep in the underground and many other large organizations. Every single one of them has been keeping their eyes on you. Now, tell us where the money is.”

  Thorinjian knew that Candis would not give them an answer, and that meant that they would most likely kill her. Even in his world two thousand platinum was a lot of money. It was his chance to get into a position of great import for an organization. That meant that he would start making money and Candis had lots of that, besides she was hot. He had to act fast because it would not take much for them to kill her.

  The guy holding Candis was very close, in fact, Thorinjian was surprised that Candis did not say anything considering that she was now leaning on him, her bare skin touching his. He figured that these men could not see well at all. Stepping lightly into Candis’ exposed body, he grabbed the guy holding her by both sides of his head. With a quick jerk to the left and up, he snapped the guy’s neck and let him fall to the ground. The other men were acting strange, as though a ghost had killed their companion.

  Thorinjian did not understand it and not realizing what was happening spoke,

  “Candis, I am here to help you. None of you are trained very well if you have not been able to see me standing up against the wall for the past half hour.

  “Charles, Arthur you are the worst thieves that I have ever seen or heard about. I could tell this was a setup from the very beginning.”

  Candis looked frightened and excited at the same time as she pulled her torn shirt tight around herself and managed to retrieve her skirt, her face and body were also red. Thorinjian wondered why this was so. He dismissed it as the result of her about to be killed and not his appearance.

  Certain things would be revealed to him once Candis spoke,

  “Uh! We still cannot see you. What kind of thief are you? In all of my experience I have never come across anyone who could virtually be invisible. I don’t even know exactly where you are.

  “I felt something strange a while ago, but that is gone now. If you are here to help me, then get rid of the rest of the guys here. I will not be able to continue my plans while they remain alive.”

  The fact that Thorinjian was invisible puzzled him. He knew that he had never had this ability before, when he was on his own world. It must have been activated when he had the urge to hide. Since, he did not know how he had made himself invisible he did not quite know how to make himself visible again.

  He thought of trying to have the urge to be visible, but was not sure that it would work until Candis spoke again,

  “Are you sure you are not invisible now? I can see you but barely. Your skin is so dark and muscular. Uh! Um! . . .”

  Thorinjian noticed that Candis was staring at him for a long time forgetting that she had to hold her shirt to keep it closed and just let it fall open,

  “You’re naked and your naked skin was all over my naked skin. What are you a pervert?”

  The other guys started moving in, since they could see him now. Thorinjian moved to his left avoiding the thrust of a short sword and at the same time grabbing the sword out of his opponent’s hand. As he moved past his opponent, he slid the sword along his opponent’s throat. Blood sprayed the wall and ground as Charles’ jugular was slit.

  Arthur had to leap out of the way of Charles’ falling body. Arthur yelled to the other men,

  “Kurt, Victor, forget the girl. We have to attack this guy. All of us at the same time can do it. Come on, let’s get him.”

  The three of them crowded in on Thorinjian, but the three of them were not enough. Granted they were experienced, but even twenty years was not enough to counter natural ability. Arthur, Kurt and Victor looked awkward at best compared to the graceful fighting skill of Thorinjian. To some the battle may have seemed to last a bit too long. If asked, Thorinjian would say that it was good to play with the enemy and make them feel so inadequate before finally killing them.

  This small fight was also meant to be a show for Candis. Thorinjian knew what he was doing and knew that it was working because he could feel her eyes on his every movement. It always pleased him to be the best and in the end he would have to kill these men. He really had no preference and killed only if the situation warranted it or needed it. It was apparent that it was needed for these three men to die. He waited for them to compromise themselves. It took a while for them to tire enough so that he could humiliate them with one final blow.

  It took a great swordsman to do something like this. Exploiting someone’s weaknesses was hard to do. Doing it to three skilled swordsmen at the exact same time was even harder, but Thorinjian was all those things and more. For the last three hours these men were showing him a pattern, a cycle, an opening and more, their abilities were becoming sloppy and careless. They were getting tired, they knew that they could not keep this up much longer and their faces betrayed this to Thorinjian. Fear was in their eyes as Thorinjian dodged their final blows with ease.

  They were weak. Their hearts were filled with doom as one by one they all dropped their swords. Their last breath being an exhale that would not be heard by anyone. Thorinjian’s sword wet with their blood, still hungry for more, but there was no more blood to be spilled. He had never felt this before. The last thoughts of his dying foes were never heard before. The exhale of a final breath, the hunger and the victorious cry of his sword. His enemies’ blood was all over his skin, it burned for revenge and it consumed him in his enemies’ thoughts.

  He felt their blood being absorbed by his skin. Their bodies were being absorbed and he began to feel their presence within his mind. Skills, knowledge and council were added to his essence. His enemies were now allied to him in his own body and mind. Their entities fused with his. Looking over to where Candis was, he did not see her. She was gone, but the satchel of money was left where it had been dropped. Picking it up, Thorinjian made himself invisible again. Fending off his tiredness, Thorinjian started his search for a place to camp for the night.

  CHAPTER FORTY FOUR

  Jacob was at the edge of the forest inspecting the road when he heard a wagon to his far left heading north. He could not tell how far away it happened to be, but figured it to be at least a half mile south of where he stood. It would arrive at his position in approximately fifteen minutes according to his estimations. Gathering his things he had plans to get on that wagon, although dressed as he was would give people a false impression of himself.

  They might think that he was a savage. Of course his things included a sack made out of wolf skin, crudely worked deer skin leggings with a wolf skin loin cloth, a wolf skin cloak, very badly made deer skin boots topped with wolf fur, dried bear meat for food, a water pouch made of deer skin and a strange bone dagger that Jacob found buried beneath a rock. His clothing took him more than three dozen times to finally get it good enough to wear decently.

  He would never be a match for a real tailor even though his clothes were wearable, no matter how many times he reworked the material. Being the warrior that he was he could tell that this particular spot was not a good place for a wagon to pass through. It would be very easy to ambush the wagon. Looking around he scanned the area for anything that could point to a possible ambush, but could not see anyone or any signs that would tell him that an ambush was about to take place.

  Even though he could not see a sign, he noticed that there were neither birds singing nor any animals lurking about. The wagon was getting l
ouder and louder as Jacob contemplated the situation and then he noticed the difference in the scenery that was not there in any of the previous nights that he had been studying the road. Most of the road looked the same except for a part that stretched across the width of the road.

  The dirt of this section covered about three feet of the length of the road, which was about the size of the average wagon wheel. There was no evidence of anyone who might have rigged the road to stop the wagon. In order for something like this to work the timing would have to be perfect. Jacob decided to wait and see what happened before he let himself be known. A few moments after Jacob’s discovery a wagon rolled into view.

  It would be a few minutes before it passed the position in the road, or rather hit it, that was most likely designed to stop the rig and let the horses run free. The wagon was the canvas-covered variety that Jacob was used to seeing in old westerns back on his own world. Its wheels were of the average size in every aspect except that they were a little on the thin side. It was moving fairly quickly, which was to be expected with a team of six horses.

  As it approached the soft sand in the road, Jacob could now see three men running from the forest. One of the men fired an arrow from his bow just as the wagon’s front wheels were completely submerged beneath the soft sand. The driver of the wagon was lifted from his seat and into the back of the wagon with the force of the arrow. From Jacob’s vantage point he could not tell where the arrow entered the driver, which meant he had no idea whether the man was dead or alive.