NEVER SPLIT THE PARTY: The Adventures of the Creeping Bam (BOOK 1: The Job)

CHAPTER FOUR: KESLA

It's gonna take us a little while to prepare for departure, so we've all agreed on setting off in the morning. Clearwood seemed happy enough to agree to that, promising that our cargo will be safe enough in his care at the warehouse overnight. No need to go hunting for a new cart at least – he's promised us he can provide us some quality provisions and resources without cutting into what money we're still promised, and this includes fresh, quality mounts, which I think is particularly generous of him. There are other considerations to be made as well, of course, and it's best to attend to that business in town while we're so suddenly, unexpectedly flush.

I feel a little uncomfortable and unusually vulnerable with this heavy bag of platinum slung under my coat, but it doesn't feel right handing it off on any of the others. I trust them all, even Art, sticky fingers and all, but for better or worse I'm the one who got 'em all into this in the first place, only right I should be the one bearing the burden. Doesn't stop me gripping Hedred on my hip tighter than I'd like.

Two hours after the event you'd think the fight never happened. By the time we got out the street was clear, the cart, the bodies, even the crater and the fire damage to the walls around it, all gone, not even any stray blood splashed on wooden boards or soaking into the gravel. That creepy albino fellow was standing just inside the doors waiting to let us out and he did it without touching anything, even had all of Yeslee's arrows in a bundle to hand to her on the way out. I swear he's got some seriously creepy magic going on if he managed to pull off a clean-up job that good.

Hocknar's awake now, the townsguard's day-shift more alert and sure-footed than their after dark brethren, while businesses are opening and the daytime smells begin to envelop us as we leave the slaughterhouse district and enter the commercial sector. We got up ungodly early and I'll admit I've ravenous now I can smell sizzling gammon and sausages and frying eggs and fresh-baked bread, promising myself I'll stuff my face as soon as we can find the time to swing by an eatery. Right now there's more pressing business I want to get out of the way before the city gets too busy.

This far north the Tektehran Empire's presence is less keenly felt, which is what Gael calls a paradox since it's less than a hundred miles to the border of our occupying neighbours. By and large the Terrors have let life continue pretty much as normal in Hocknar, but then this has always been Rundao's most prosperous city by virtue of being the capitol for the trapping and mining businesses that ply their high-risk trades in the Northern Reaches. Industry's what this town's all about, so keeping the various workers and employers who keep the hides, meat, ores, minerals and timber flowing south content must have been a simple choice for the Provisional Government when they first set up shop here. Further south the Tektehran military flexed their muscles in Tabaphic and Untermer and the less reasonable, tractable politicians were put against walls along with the more militant nobles, replaced with puppets and rewarded with a bullet to the back of the head. Here in Hocknar it's always been the merchants and conglomerates who run things. To them it was just a change in management.

In the early days of the Occupation it made Hocknar something of a haven for those with a more ... dissident spirit, given the Terrors didn't think they needed to police the Northern Reaches too hard. The Rebellion was born here, in the boarding houses and bars of the Waterfront, where it's so easy to come and go and nobody looks too close if they know what's good for them. It was only when things got too worked up in Tabaphic and Untermer that they clamped down, and that was just until they were sure that the resistance effort had been sufficiently crushed. Which turned out not to be so thoroughly as they must have thought, because when I slunk back here with my tail between my legs I found it bloody easy to disappear again ...

Since this territory can be so dangerous at the best of times, there's a score of armourers in the commercial sector who ply a very healthy trade in weaponry year round. Murphin's Emporium isn't one of the most high profile by any stretch, but those who really know what they're looking for and are willing to spend a little more for genuine quality know to come here, so they've never hurt for business. Personally, I just feel more comfortable dealing with someone I can genuinely trust, and that's far easier with people I've actually shed blood beside.