The Thief (A Tale of Heroes & Demons Book 2)

Chapter 7

The Blue Herons

"King...of the Assassins. You're joking, right?" Katherine laughed. Utterly ridiculous. She turned her gaze towards Caedmon, but at his flat expression, her laugh faded. "Caedmon?"

"They're telling the truth." He shook his head slowly. "But it's a long, long story, and I don't think now is the time for it."

"Who are these people?"

Each one of them jumped, swivelling to the voice's origin.

Makom grasped the reins of the two horses in his hands, eyeing up Zeref, Raena, and the other assassins as they loitered about twenty feet away. Silent. He had been utterly silent as he approached.

Even the assassins looked unnerved by his presence, Katherine noted. But nobody spoke. The air pulled taunt around them, pushing against her lungs as the tension grew.

Caedmon's gaze poured over them all, remote and assessing. The sound of crunching gravel snapped through the air as he took a step forward and sighed. "Where have you been?"

"Watering the horses." He jerked his chin towards Caedmon's siblings. "Who are they?"

"Zeref, Raena," Caedmon waved a hand towards them before gesturing to Makom, "this is my second in command, Makom. And Makom, these are my siblings."

The group surveyed each other.

"I thought you were an only child." Makom's voice was flat, and a darkness seemed to creep over his expression temporarily before it cleared. "Just as I thought your father was a merchant."

With a sigh Caedmon cast his eyes to the ground. "He is. Well, my real father is a merchant... but the one that carries the same blood as me isn't."

It was at that moment that shouts carried on the breeze towards them.

And when they turned a sea of darkness flowed towards them over the horizon.

"What did you do?" It was Caedmon's turn for a soured expression as he dragged his gaze towards his brother.

Zeref lifted his hands and cocked a grin. "What makes you think we did something?" He tilted his head to the side, hair falling around his ears.

"Although we may not have seen each other in years," Caedmon began as he pulled his sword from its hilt, "I still know you, and none of you would be this far north without reason."

With a scoff, Zeref turned his head to eye the approaching group. "Unfortunately, in this case you are right, brother." He squinted. "We paid a visit to the Blue Herons and destroyed their winter food stores. That's likely some of their higher ranking warriors seeking revenge."

"I really shouldn't ask, but..." Caedmon shifted and stepped closer to Zeref. "Why did you do it?"

His brother shrugged. "Father was bored, and frankly so were we."

"Bored? Bored?" Makom scoffed. "You destroy an entire community's source of food because you were bored? That's just wrong."

Steely eyes turned towards the man. "Do not try to understand our motives, Makom. You may be a friend of Caedmon's, but you are none to me and mine."

"Uh...guys?" Katherine waved her hand slowly. "I would really hate to interrupt, but what are we going to do about those men coming towards us? I'm pretty sure they won't want to talk when they get here."

Raena strolled over and wrapped an arm around Katherine's shoulders. "I would have suggested we run, but they have something shiny, which I'm guessing is a spyglass, so they probably already know we're here."