Duskbound-Chapter 41Book 2,

Nelspir was sure that what was left of his hair was going to fall out from stress. That [Vault Seeker] kid hadn’t folded like they’d all expected, and while the guild master was secretly laughing up his sleeve at the whole situation and silently applauding the guy, he was still the one expected to clean up the mess. That was hard to do, since nobody could find him.

At first, he’d thought the elder Alderworth had simply reclaimed his wayward offspring and was keeping him sequestered somewhere on the family grounds. When none of the spies inserted into the family’s staff had reported laying eyes on Jensen, they’d turned to searching some of the countryside property the Alderworths owned. That hadn’t turned up anything either.

And I can’t fix this if I can’t find the little shit. Where did you run off to? Nelspir silently grumbled to himself while he chipped away at the unending mountain of paperwork that ran across his desk. He wasn’t sure why he even bothered, some days. It wasn’t like he had much power left anymore. He was practically a figurehead, though maybe ‘scapegoat’ was more accurate.

But, as always, he knew that if he resigned his position, that would just give people like Pevril uncontested control of the guild. It was all he could do to keep them from running the place into the ground as things stood, and their work was too important to let it go without a fight. The bronzes and silvers were just trying to keep people safe and earning a living, never mind the games being played at the top.

The door creaked open, and Orlesia stepped in, a stack of folders held in her arms. “Sorry, boss,” his assistant said as she kicked the door closed behind her. “I know you already did this stack, but—”

“But someone has an issue with my decisions and is challenging everything I do to keep me chained to this desk until my heart gives out and I die here,” Nelspir finished for her. It wasn’t what she’d been about to say, but it was his prerogative as both the guild master and a grouchy old man to be blunt.

“You do look a bit under the weather,” Orlesia said.

“I wouldn’t know what the weather is. I haven’t been outside in days.” Haven’t even had time to look out the damn window. Can’t remember the last time I ate.

“It’s important to take care of yourself,” his assistant scolded. “Here, set these aside for an hour. There’s a play at one of the local amphitheaters in a park in Gold Town. Let’s go see it. You can relax and get a hot meal on the way. Then you get a good night’s rest and this all won’t seem so bad tomorrow.”

Girl knows me too well.

Nelspir loved plays. Everything always worked out for the hero in the end, at least in the plays he liked to see. It wasn’t much like real life, where teams sometimes came back missing people, or the monsters wiped out a town before anyone could even get there. It was nice to just pretend that the good guys always won and the bad guys got what was coming to them, even if it was only for an hour or two.

“No, I can’t. I’ve got too much to catch up on,” he said after a moment of daydreaming. The pile of work on his desk wasn’t getting any smaller.

“Did I mention the Greystone Troupe is the one performing?” she teased.

Nelspir groaned. Of course it’d be my favorite troupe. Well, the paperwork will still be here tomorrow. I’ll just come in a bit early to get started. Besides, I can barely remember what it feels like to sleep in my own bed.

“Alright, alright, you’ve convinced me. Let’s go.”

* * *

Pevril watched Nelspir walk across the lobby and out onto the street, Orlesia next to him. Perfect. Now don’t mess this up. It was hard enough to arrange this opportunity, and we might never get a chance this good again.

* * *

“Why are there so many people?” Velik asked, aghast at the size of the crowd.

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“Because it’s a cheap show, people are easily amused, and they have nothing better to do,” Aria told him. “Now stop distracting me. It’s not easy to keep track of anyone with so much movement.”

“It was a rhetorical question. You didn’t have to answer it.”

Aria cracked open an eye and squinted at him suspiciously. “How do you even know what that word means?”

“I hired tutors when I got here.”

Velik was extremely aware of how lacking his education was, and that a few months of casual lessons weren’t nearly enough to bridge that gap. He’d tried, though. That counted for something. Several of his tutors had said so.

Before Aria could fire off some glib reply, Torwin appeared from around a group of teenagers heading for the amphitheater’s seats. “Any luck?” he asked.

“No. It’d be easier if people would stop interrupting me,” Aria told him with a scowl.

“Well, sorry to make it worse, but I just spotted the guild master walking in a minute ago right about the same time Sildra sensed a monster.”

Aria stared at him in silent shock for a moment before uttering a single, “Fuck.”

“That about sums it up,” Torwin said. “She’s trying to get closer so she can confirm who it is, but realistically, what are the odds that it’s not Nelspir?”

“Not great. Maybe he’s meeting some co-conspirators here. Has she gotten confirmation on those other three I pointed out yet?”

“That it’s them specifically? No. But that’s the other thing. There are five monsters here, and one of them feels different from the others. We’re not sure what that means.”

This whole plan is falling apart, Velik thought. We can’t confront anyone without letting the guild know we’re here. Sildra’s the only one they won’t recognize on sight, and Aria can’t find anyone. I don’t even know why I came. There’s nothing for me to do here. I could have just stayed at—wait, where is Sildra?

“Torwin,” Velik said slowly. “Did you leave Sildra by herself?”

“Only for a few seconds. She’s right there, by that peach tree.”

Velik looked over to see a woman that for a second he thought was Sildra, but then she turned her head and he got a good view of her profile. “That’s not her,” he said.

“Oh, hell,” Torwin swore. “What else could go wrong tonight? Aria, find her.”

“Already working on it,” Aria said. “Two hundred feet down that path on a bench by the edge of the park. There are three men near her. One of them is talking to her and the others are flanking the bench. Looks like they’re trying to cut off her escape.”

“I see it,” Torwin said, but Velik was already moving.

His spear was too conspicuous, but he had his dagger if he needed it. Against three guys who were probably all low-level, though, he doubted it would be necessary. In truth, Sildra could almost certainly defend herself. The problem was that her method of fighting was extremely flashy, and they were trying not to draw attention to themselves.

“I’m not even a little bit interested,” Sildra told the leader of the trio. “Quit hassling me before I give you a reason to regret it.”

“Pretty little slip like you? What are you going to do, pout at me? You got enough physical to be fun, not enough to fight, girl.”

Velik had to make a deliberate effort not to put on the speed. Blitzing across an open park with hundreds of people in it would be just as bad as Sildra lighting somebody up. He was still moving faster than he wanted, but he could hear the conversation from a hundred feet away and he needed to intervene before things escalated.

Then Sildra was on her feet, her knee raised into the sleezeball’s crotch and a hand on his shoulder. He let out a wheezy groan and toppled over from her slight touch. “That enough physical for you?” she asked his prone form.

The other two moved to restrain her, and Velik started mapping out his path to get there. But then she surprised everyone by launching a hard kick into the side of one man’s knee and an elbow up into the other’s jaw. “I don’t know how you guys do with city girls, but you picked the wrong victim this time,” she told them. “Now, I see my partner coming this way, so I suggest you pick your friend up off the ground and clear out.”

The men did just that, and Velik slowed down his jog to a walk. Damn, where’d she pick those moves up? I know she doesn’t have a brawling skill.

“Velik,” Sildra hissed, turning toward him. “Where’s everyone else? We’ve got a problem.”

“We do?” he asked as he stopped next to her. Torwin was only about fifty feet back, but he’d seen that Sildra had things in hand and wasn’t rushing.

“I think I spotted the guild master, and he’s not the monster,” she said. “The girl with him is. She steered him toward two other monsters, and they dragged him into that alley over there.”

Torwin appeared next to her as if by magic. “Which one?” he demanded. She silently pointed a finger, and he stared into the darkness. “I don’t see them. Maybe they’re in one of the houses. Velik, you hear anything?”

“I hear too damn much right now,” Velik said.

“Come on. If Nelspir’s clean, we need to save him right now. He could be our best bet to flush out the rest of the corruption.”

Without waiting for anyone else, Torwin jumped the bench and rushed off into the alley across from the park.