The Keepers of Eternity

XX

"Information like that comes at a cost." The bounty hunter said, playing with the frayed bandages that wrapped tightly around his hands.

Blaise thrummed his fingers on the table impatiently. "I'm not giving you my money, Rade." He trained himself over many years to talk this way, with a deep, gruff voice. Even aging himself up did nearly nothing to his vocal pitch after his body reached age fourteen. "You owe me a debt. I invoke it now."

Men like Victus Rade were always difficult to crack.

Rade leaned forward in his seat, cocking his head to one side. "I never knew you owed me anything."

Untrustworthy idiot.

"Let me persuade you, then." Blaise reached into one of the oversized pockets of his robe and pulled out two objects. "I've got some klait-wintergreen serum," He held up the blue-tinted vial, shook it, then set it down in front of Rade. The serum began to glow softly. "and even this genuine silver watch."

The violet-haired Rvyni squinted his eyes. "I work for the government now. It's that simple. I don't gotta give people information like I did before." Rade said, "However, perhaps you I do owe you something." He traced a finger over the rim of a crystal glass. "We were just teenagers, but you were ever the expert when it came to thievery. The fortune I amassed was all thanks to you, until you decided to go off to search for some stupid secret to eternal life. I see you have returned empty-handed. How has growing up been treating you, Gerad?"

This is what Rade had always done—avoided his duties. There was a reason why Blaise had gotten tired and left--he had begun to lose track of his goal. "Actually, I preferred being a young vagrant."

"Is that so? What are you up to these days, looking for outlaws? Taking up bounty hunting again?"

It took a sizeable effort not to punch the man. "Never call me that."

Rade smiled, revealing a set of strangely white teeth. "You're still the same." He leaned back against the back of his chair. "You were right. I just came back from Eskan. Their new Warprincess didn't like me, but they needed me like a deserted man needs water. I'm the best at my trade."

"Besides me of course."

"Just so. Thadan was a student at their university. Very talented, but despised."

Blaise knew why immediately. "Because his father was a human."

"That doesn't happen too often." Rade explained, tracing his finger along the rim of a crystal glass. "A human and esk make for a strange combination, but not strange enough that they would reject from from their university. His mother must have been fairly important to still send him there despite his father's heritage. But, someone even higher in society wanted him dead, and of course, that's why they called me."

"And?"

"He had fled the country before I could find him. And Shaisn kept my money and sent me back to Rvyn where Lady Amary found me. I work for this district now, and I still don't know where Thadan went."

That didn't tell Blaise much about who exactly Thadan was, or what his motivations were. Unless...

"Rade," Blaise said, "Thadan is here in Rvyn. I found him up near Rain's Shadow, that district capital in the north."

Victus Rade's eyes widened at that.

Blaise continued, "He was rejected by the esks, so he had to look elsewhere to prove himself." What better way to prove yourself to the esk people than to finish the job they started five hundred years ago...by killing off the surviving heir to the kingdom they conquered. Everything clicked.