The Order of Jade

Chapter 20 - The Bargaining

The men were at the top of the tower. They saw Lisa standing there with her knife near Valors crippled, bleeding hands, threatening to cut the ropes he was hanging by. They approached her slowly and cautiously, not taking any chances with their friends life.

"Aright Lisa, let's not play any games, what do you want?" Bjorik asked, his heart nearly beating out of his chest. Lisa assessed the men, looking to their feet and looking back up.

"I want 50 thousand universal currency, then I want you to leave." Lisa told the men, amazing them, they'd never met someone so blindly deluded. How would they have 50 thousand currency anywhere, they didn't even ask for any money from the people they helped. All of them looked to each other trying to think of something to say, should they tell her they had nothing? Or should they lie about their wealth? Kirin then spoke up, cutting off Bjorik as he tried to raise his voice.

"Alright!!" Kirin shouted, shocking all the men as they glared at him in amazement and confusion, where the hell would they get 50 thousand from?

"We'll find the money, just let Valor go." Kirin told Lisa, she laughed, not agreeing with Kirin's offer, casting it aside like a painless injury.

"Not good enough, try again." Lisa joked, aggravating the men. They had no idea what they would do, there was no point in hiding it anymore.

"Lisa we......." Kirin tried to say before he realised something from another tower, he tried to show little attention to it as he looked in its direction. A group of archers preparing to fire from another building. All the men had to do was stall, then the archers would fire at Lisa and they would be able to save Valor. Bjorik started to speak for a little bit to Lisa so that Kirin could brief Curtis on the archers. Bjorik spoke up.

"So Lisa......" he said while Kirin whispered to Curtis.

"Curtis, look to the closed building to your right, you'll see a group of archers, can you see them?" Kirin asked Curtis, as he looked towards the tower, he saw the archers and nodded to Kirin.

"You want me to stall." Curtis asked Kirin softly.

"Yes, your best at it out of all of us." Kirin told Curtis, he then nodded, and he stepped forward signalling Bjorik to move back and let him speak.

"Lisa, why are you doing this? Surely you have a motive, there's always a motive." Curtis asked Lisa, attempting to drill into her head to buy as much time as possible.

"Ha, you really wanna know? I'm the heiress to the city's lead, however I'm not gonna be leading this tiny, worthless, excuse of a city anytime soon." She told Curtis, giving him a bigger price of the string to work with.

"Why is that?" He asked, further probing her thoughts.

"Because this city had no honour, we have relied on other people for survival, mercenary's like you, and we've lost every battle with every other city. And I'm not gonna be the leader of a worthless dump like this if my life depended on it. Now why are you not giving me my money!!?" She shouted at Curtis when she noticed they had just been talking for ages at this point.

"Don't worry, I promise you'll have your money  soon enough." Curtis told Lisa.

"I don't know what your trying to do but I suggest you........" Lisa tried to threaten before she was met with an arrow in the side of her neck. Blood came squinting out all over the gargoyle Valor was hanging from. She gasped for breath as she feel to the floor, dying right there in front of the men.

"Get Valor!!" Bjorik shouted, as the men ran and pulled him up from that gargoyle. They cut off the ropes from his hands, revealing his damaged, bleeding hands that were almost unrecognisable. Valor was passed out, and barely alive, he hadn't eaten or drank anything for the whole day, and he had been hanging there for most of that time.

"Valor, wale up, come on down give up on us now!!" Kirk yelled, doing everything he could to wake him up with all his eligible knowledge.

Valor then opened his eyes slowly but surely, and soon spoke.

"Is she dead?" He asked, humouring the men as their hearts stopped pounding in fear.

"Yes she's dead Valor, and one thing is for certain......your not dating anyone for a while my friend." Bjorik told Valor laughing.