Stalemate | A Rise To Power

𝘊𝘢𝘪𝘶𝘴

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He woke up the next morning to find Adam tending to the fire, humming a tune, while Ox tore into a hunk of squirrel meat and Will slept curled up on his side, his back to them. To the side, the horses had been brought in last night, away from the rain, and were sleeping further in the cave. It had stopped raining but the dampness lingered, sinking into Caius' bones and causing his skin to rise with goosebumps.

"They sell a pint of brandy for half a Dagnate now," Adam was complaining to Ox. "It is ridiculous."

"And how much do you steal a day?" Caius asked, sitting up.

"Oh, good morning," Adam said without looking at him. "We steal a lot."

"Can buy much brandy," Ox replied.

"We give a lot of the money to poor commoners, though," Adam added, turning to Caius. "We steal too much to keep, so we like to stuff it in the faces of the rich. Some lords are too greedy to care for their people, so we do their work for them. They portray us as evil, but that's just because they don't like giving up what they have."

"You could use that money to bribe the lords into doing your bidding," Caius noted.

Adam snorted. "I have had my deal of nobility, thank you."

"And they have probably had a good deal of Adam and Ox, too," Caius mused. "Last I heard, bounty hunters are being offered two thousand Milates for your bodies, dead or alive."

"Three thousand, one hundred now," Adam corrected proudly. "While we were in the North, we took a whole cartload of weaponry meant for the war and redirected it to smugglers for money. That really irked Lord Galliov." He laughed. "Then, just to be fair, we also stole from Lord Rutea so he would not feel left out of the fun."

"I'm sure he was so jealous when you stole from Galliov."

"We are firm believers of equality," Adam said with mock severity. "So we take a lot of money from the rich to give to the poor. Evens it out, really. Although we steal from the poor as well, just to not discriminate. If we see something we like, we take it. Old, young, female, male... it doesn't matter." Before Caius could blink, a flash of gold sailed through the air as Adam flicked a golden Milate at him, and he caught it in mid-air. "Nice catch." He leaned back against a rock. "How's your business going, dear cassassin?"

"My clients pay well."

"And who is your next victim?" Adam asked.

"I am paid for secrecy as well as the job itself."

"How droll." Adam rolled his eyes, tossing a stick at the fire.

They sat in companionable silence for a while before Caius fixed his gaze on Will.

"He shot an arrow at someone trying to attack us," Adam said, following his eyes. "And I always repay a debt. What he did there... I can respect that." Adam lay an extra cloak over Will as he spoke. "We can't take him in, but we had to get him out of there and give him a safe space to recover. The girl he was with... he was devastated when the bounty hunter killed Luella."

"You are too soft for your own good."

"I'm afraid so," Adam replied.

"Have you heard anything about The Fish?"

A pause. "She has a cottage in a village. I have not heard from her in over a year, but I believe the bounty hunters have given up trying to catch her. She has been causing little trouble, anyway, last I heard."