Blood Tempered: Book 1 of the Sword Monk Saga

Blood Tempered: Part 16

Augin and Mung tied Olvera to his horse and the party moved out of the copse to where Korbo had left Stench and their mounts. Stench refused to get within hailing distance of a fight. Korbo hadn't pressed the man. It wasn't worth it. He'd located Olvera, which was all Korbo had needed him to do. That he hadn't stuck the witch's knife in Olvera was a problem he would deal with later. Somehow.

Korbo studied the Andine out of the corner of his eye. The man was death in a black robe. Korbo had watched the fight from concealment with a professional eye. The sword monk had toyed with Olvera during their scuffle, even purposely taking wounds to give Olvera false confidence and to loosen his tongue. Who had that kind of skill, that kind of nerve? Part of him wanted the Andine bound hand and foot, stuffed into a sack and dragged fifty paces behind the horses. But his rational mind told him the Andine was safer bound by his own word not to do harm.

It would be amusing to see what Jaga would do with this new development. Of course, it also meant there would be two forms of sudden, violent death inside Thunderhead, instead of just the witch. Jaga's odds had just got longer. Korbo should his head. He should really, really just cut and run. Damn Jaga, and damn the gold solis that weighed so heavily in his pocket.

They rode through the night at a pace that didn't overtire the horses, and reached Thunderhead just after midnight.

Korbo approached the sally port with a sense of impending doom that he just couldn't shake.

"Stench?" Korbo murmured. He was nervous. Things were about to get very dicey.

Stench closed his eyes for a moment. "She's in her rooms."

"Asleep?"

"I've no idea."

"Some wizard you are."

"Shove it, arse licker. You want to know, why don't you go tap on your girlfriend's door? Distract her with your meat-sword."

Korbo shuddered at the thought.

They rode in silence through a small postern gate into Thunderhead's lesser courtyard. One of Arle's men had been put on watch for them, and took their horses in tow. Korbo assumed he was a man who could keep his mouth shut.

"That him?" he asked, pointing to Olvera where Augin and Mung were untying him from his horse. Korbo nodded.

"Who's the other one?"

"An interested party. Jaga will want to talk to him too, I suspect."

The man eyed the sword monk, then shrugged. "On your head. Take the fat one down the second set of stairs to your right, then follow the torches. Wait there, all of you. I'll let Arle know you're here."

Stench had made it clear that the witch wanted Olvera's hide pinned to her wall, though she hadn't bothered to tell anyone else that except for Korbo, and she hadn't let either man know why. Which was why Jaga wanted to have a conversation with the imperial courtier. Korbo thought it was foolhardy in the extreme to bring him to Thunderhead, right under the witch's nose, but Stench seemed to believe she'd be none the wiser if they were careful. Why the malodorous mage was cooperating in this risky venture wasn't immediately apparent, but as Augin had put it, 'Stench loves Stench, and nobody can come between Stench and Stench." If he was cooperating, he had to believe it was in his own best interests.

Korbo helped drag the unconscious Olvera down dusty stairs and corridors, down into the bowels of the keep. Stench had put him to sleep with a muttered charm once they'd got within hailing distance of Thunderhead. Korbo wanted to take no chances.

The monk followed along, his young face a stern mask betraying no emotion. Jaga's problem, not Korbo's. Korbo didn't want the problem. The monk's great-sword looked an improbable weapon, but Korbo had a good imagination, and imagining the carnage the monk could create with it did not put him at ease.