The Black Bouquet

Aeron edged in on her flank, then faked a leap into the distance. She turned and thrust, and that gave the half-orc a chance to give her another blow from behind. It knocked her to one knee, and the creature's human partners swarmed over her. Her sword was useless at such close quarters. After a few moments of frantic struggling, they pummeled her into submission, then lashed her hands behind her back with rawhide.

"When I said you were learning to think like an Oeblaun native," Aeron said to her, "I gave you too much credit. You told me how one fellow led you into a trap here in the tu

Miri glared up at him. Blood trickled from her split lip.

"Why are you doing this?" she asked.

"You can't help me rescue my father. Maybe if you had the rest of your precious guild behind you, but not by yourself. I gave you your chance, but you aren't skilled or brave enough."

"Shall we get her moving?" asked the half-orc.

"Yes," Aeron said.

His confederates hauled Miri to her feet and relieved her of her belt pouch and remaining weapons. The half-orc shoved her to set her stumbling in the right direction.

"I'm a better fighter than you," she said, still focused on Aeron. "I still don't see the point of this."

"It's simple enough. I can't trust Kesk to hold to any deal we make. You and I alone can't fight all the Red Axes, or sneak into their lair a second time. So I've decided to save my father with gold. I'll bribe one of the gang to smuggle him out."

"Maybe that would work," she said, "but…"

The half-orc gave her another push.

"Unfortunately," Aeron said, "the Axes are all afraid of their chief, and they live pretty well already. That means it's going to take a lot of coin to tempt one of them. More than I've got, and more than I can steal in the time remaining. I wouldn't be able to sell The Black Bouquet quickly enough, either, or use the book itself as a bribe. Kesk's cutthroats wouldn't understand what it is or why it's valuable any more than I did until you explained it to me."

"But you decided what you could do," Miri said, "is sell me."

Aeron gri

"Listen to me," she said. "You don't have to do this. If you want to try bribery, I can get the gold from my employer. I won't even have to mention your name."

He shook his head and told her, "I feel safer dealing with my own kind."

"Curse you for a liar and a traitor! You have rat's blood in your veins!"

"What did you expect?" Aeron asked. "You're the one who said I'm just a common thief, with no notion what honor means."

"I didn't truly want to believe that."

"Well, believe this," he said. "Folk like you and me are natural enemies, you killed my friends, and even if none of that was true, I'd sell out you and a hundred like you to save my father. Look, it's your new home."

They marched her onward, through the entrance to Melder's Door.

Even at that hour, when so many of Oeble's rogues were snoring in their beds, the stone-walled common room held a motley assortment of travelers and waiters, and as usual, tiny dragons flitted everywhere. Most everyone, whether human, goblin-kin, or reptile, eyed Miri with curiosity, some with malicious amusement, and none, so far as Aeron could judge, with sympathy.

Smiling, handsomely clad in a red silk shirt and a black suede jerkin laced with scarlet cord, Melder sauntered up to inspect his prize. Miri spat at him, and a dozen of the little wyrms hurtled at her like bees defending a violated hive.

Melder raised a swarthy hand, and the dragons veered off.

"Please," he said to Miri. "It can all be quite pleasant, if you'll only allow it to be."

"I'll kill you for this," she said, "and even if I fail, the Red Hart Guild will avenge me."

"As your own experience demonstrates," Melder said, "your friends had better stick to their forests and mountains. Oeble will eat them alive." He looked at the half-orc. "Why don't you lock her away, then I'll pay you?"

The creature and its fellow kidnappers manhandled Miri across the common room. She struggled every step of the way, but with her hands bound, to no avail. She and her captors disappeared through a doorway.

"I'd like to get paid, too," Aeron said.

"Surely," Melder said. "Vlint?"

A hobgoblin appeared at his elbow with a clinking pigskin purse in hand.

Aeron untied the laces, lifted the flap, and stirred the coins inside with his fingertip, which afforded him a glimpse of the ones at the bottom.

"Thanks," Aeron breathed.

"I realize," Melder said, "that these days you have to be careful about lingering too long in any one place. But will you have a glass of something before you go?"

Aeron smiled a crooked smile and said, "I suppose I might as well celebrate. This was the first plan that's gone off without a hitch since before I robbed the Paer."

Sefris heard voices echoing down the tu

Sure enough, two Red Axes tramped by. She recognized them from the time she'd spent among the gang, and assumed they were scouting the tu

It seemed unlikely that Aeron was still lingering in the area, but it also seemed inexplicable that he'd made such a conspicuous display of himself in Melder's establishment in the first place. In any case, Sefris didn't know where else to look for him, so there she was.

She crept down the stairs and onward through the darkness, in the opposite direction from Kesk's henchmen. She encountered other ruffians, some of whom eyed her speculatively. But when she returned their stares, making it clear she registered their interest without the slightest flicker of alarm, they allowed her to continue on her way unmolested.

It was difficult to keep track of time underground. Eventually, though, she became convinced she'd been searching for quite a while. Certainly she was retracing her steps through sections of tu

She sprinted toward him. She'd tended the wounds she'd received the night before, and though her thigh ached, she was able to run as fast as ever. She snatched a chakram from her pocket and broke stride for the split second required to fling it spi

The ring flew as true as any cast she'd ever made. Unfortunately, however, it was a long throw, which gave Aeron time to dodge. He scrambled onto the first riser of a staircase and on up out of sight.

When she followed him onto the steps, she realized from the wan trace of sunlight leaking down from overhead that they co