Guild Of Zeroes

Chapter 30

Mouse clenched his jaw so tight I swear I could hear his teeth crack. "Bullshit," he said. "What about Uncle Clay? I thought he was the one in charge here, or did you have him killed too?"

The young Lord stiffened and did his best to glare at us even harder. It wasn't really working. Once you'd been knee deep in shit and blood, fighting through a legion of walking corpses, one irritated noble didn't seem all that bad.

"Well?" Mouse pressed.

"Well what?" Tiberius snapped. "I don't know what happened to that old nutter. He ran off to the old keep a week ago with a troupe of our best guards and left me here. He probably did the sensible thing and ran off to get himself killed. It's just too bad he didn't take his Guild wench with him."

"His what?" asked Quin.

"Some one armed tart he hired as a 'strategic advisor.' A foolish move if you ask me." Tiberius looked me up and down with a sneer. "I mean, the Guild is stupid enough to let women dress up in armour and pretend to be men. What strategic advice could they possibly have. They clearly don't have any idea how to fight a war."

It was my turn to hand out contemptuous stares and dismissive eye rolls now. This fool wasn't worth our time.

"Is there a safe route to the keep?" asked Mouse.

"How should I know? Ask your Guild rat friend, if you're so keen on running off to get killed." Tiberius waved us towards the door and turned to stare at the book shelf.

Mouse stuffed his hands into the pockets of his robe. "I wish you'd run off and get killed," he muttered under his breath.

Tiberius spun and knocked Mouse to the floor with a backhanded slap.

It was probably the biggest mistake of his life. When I was maybe five or six, I thought it was a great idea to try to play with a bear cub, and if Hawk hadn't been watching me, the mama bear would have made me into lunch. There were few creatures on this earth that could match the raw power and fury of an angry mother bear. Quin was one of those few. The warrior lunged forward and struck like lightning, driving a fist into the lordling's face. A fan of blood splattered across the wall and Tiberius fell, spitting a series of curses and holding a hand over a broken nose. Quin bent and caught him by the throat, cutting off any attempts to call for help.

They hauled Tiberius towards the table and flipped the hourglass over. "I'm going to give you five minutes to find some common sense and decency or else you'll be sitting here picking your teeth up off the floor."

They relaxed their grip enough for Tiberius to take a breath.

"Gods, Easton," Tiberius gasped. "Call off your fucking dog. He's mental."

Mouse struggled his feet, rubbing at a growing red mark on his cheek. "Quin isn't my dog." He turned to the warrior. "But I would like it if you could hold off on murdering my cousin for a little bit."

Quin shoved the young lord to the ground and took a step back, leaning against the right hand wall, within arms reach of the swords and spears.

"As much as I love all this drama," I said. "Can you just tell us where this Guildswoman is? Do that and we'll leave you alone."

"She should be in the guard room just above the main gate," said Tiberius.

"There," I said. "Was that so gods damned hard?" I started down the spiral stairs and waved for my friends to follow. "Let's go."

The door to the guard's room was halfway between the tower and the ground floor. It sat on a small landing opposite an open archway that led to the city walls. I knocked and a guard opened a small slit in the door at eye level.