Chương 110: Book 2 Chapter 62 - Rival Territory

Kiara turned on her heel and left the gang hideout, shutting the door behind her. As soon as she crossed the threshold, [Magical Sense 4] stopped feeding her information about what was happening inside the building. She hurried forward toward the freed hostages.

"Follow me, I have an inn room just a few minutes from here, as well as some more people who can help us out. Once we get there safely, I'll work on getting each of you back to where you need to be. Choppy, keep those shields up, just in case." Choppy nodded once, sharply.

"Yes ma'am." The walk back to the inn was uneventful, and five minutes later Kiara entered her room, followed by the five others, and finally allowed herself to relax. She had them sit on the bed, the single chair in the room, and the floor, basically wherever they could find a spot. The inn room wasn't very large, as it was intended for just a single person. Once they were all seated, she looked around at them with concern in her eyes. Her gaze landed on Choppy.

"You don't look too great, Choppy. Should we get you to a healer?" He shook his head with a look of alarm in his eyes, and Kiara narrowed her eyes in suspicion. That was an odd reaction.

"Alright…" she said after a moment.

"What do you need, then?" He glanced briefly at the other people in the room, then his gaze dropped to the floor.

"Help them first, my lady." Hmm. He doesn't feel comfortable sharing his secrets. Alright, that's fine, I won't pry. Kiara glanced at the others.

"Is anyone else hurt? Does anyone need to visit the infirmary?" Silent, gentle shakes of the head confirmed that everyone else was unharmed.

"Alright," she said, trying to sound gentle to help everyone's nerves settle.

"My two companions are in the rooms on either side of this one, so I'm going to grab them real quick. They'll have a better idea of how to proceed from here." She hurried and knocked on both Dustin and Zoey's doors, and told them to follow her back to her room. The room was quite cramped once all eight of them were inside it. The blacksmith and his daughter both breathed sighs of relief when Dustin came in, recognizing him instantly. He smiled upon seeing them, and they returned smiles of their own.

Zoey looked at Choppy and blinked a few times, processing his beat up form.

"I take it that some fighting broke out?" She glanced at Kiara, raising her eyebrows at her apparent lack of injuries. Kiara nodded.

"I had to kill a few of the gang members to get everyone out safely. Their leaders, who were all tier 3. Once they were dead, the others had no fight left in them." Dustin took her explanation in stride, but Zoey's eyebrows rose even higher.

"You killed three tier 3s?" She asked in a tone of surprise. Kiara nodded. Zoey pointed at Choppy.

"And he's the only one that got hit?" Choppy barked out a soft laugh.

"They did this to me last night when they killed… well, nevermind about that, but I didn't help at all tonight. Your lady there took out those three all by herself." Zoey turned to Kiara with a newfound look of respect, re-evaluating everything she knew about her boss. Kiara filed away Choppy's comment as another thing she should ask him about once they could speak in private. Dustin coughed politely then took control of the conversation. He turned first to the merchant-looking man.

"What is your name, good sir?"

"Cohen," the man replied with a polite bow of his head."

"It's nice to meet you, Cohen, I'm Dustin. This is my boss, Shian Yountal, and one of our house retainers, Zoey Trellen. Are you from around here?" Cohen nodded.

"I was out drinking last night with some friends, and they nabbed me on the way home. Said they left a ransom note for my wife, and would let me go as soon as she got the money together. She'll be relieved to see me." Dustin nodded.

"Very good. Would you like Zoey to escort you home? She is a powerful tier 3 mage with a heart of gold. I can vouch for her personally." Cohen bowed.

"Thank you, Lord Dustin, but there is no need. I live not ten minutes from here, and I'm quite familiar with the area. Plus, after what Lady Shian did to those gang members tonight, I doubt they'll be back in operation for some time." Dustin turned an inquisitive eye to Shian.

"You did more than kill their leaders?" She blushed slightly.

"I may have, uh… intimidated the rest of them as well." She hurried to add, "Just so they would let us go without any more fighting!" Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

"Uh huh," Dustin nodded slowly then turned back to Cohen.

"Well, if you don't need an escort feel free to head home at any point. Would you like some food before you go?" Cohen shook his head.

"With your permission, my lord and my lady, I should get going. I'm sure my wife is worried sick." He bowed once more and excused himself from the room. Dustin turned to the blacksmith and his daughter, whose names Kiara had never asked for.

"Your house hasn't been repaired yet, so we'll put you up in rooms here in this same inn. I'll be staying in Portish for a few days at least, and I'll make sure you are back in your home before I leave." They both nodded to him appreciatively. Dustin handed Zoey some coins.

"Zoey, would you go get them situated in their own rooms for the week?" Zoey nodded and led the two from the room. Dustin crouched near the teenager.

"How about you, son? What's your name?"

"Blake Argyle," came the soft reply. b"Are you from around here Blake? Do you know how to find your home or your parents?" The young boy shook his head and began to cry softly. Dustin put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, lad, you're safe now. We'll find your parents and get you back home safe first thing tomorrow. For tonight, we'll get you a nice, warm meal, and you can either share a room with me, or we can get you your own room, whichever you'd prefer. Are you hungry?" The boy wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and nodded, sniffling.

"I am hungry."

"Good!" Dustin said, standing. He held out his hand to help the boy up.

"Let's go get you some food, then." Dustin glanced at Kiara then Choppy.

"Choppy, you can come get some food too, if you'd like, but first I'll leave you to talk to Shian in private, ya?" Choppy hesitated, glancing at Kiara, then nodded.

"Great!" Dustin said with a warm smile. He put his arm around Blake's shoulders and led him from the room. Kiara turned to Choppy, who avoided her gaze uncomfortably, glancing around the room with far too much interest, considering how bare and not interesting it was. Kiara started by working through some of her thoughts out loud.

"Seems like that gang mostly kidnaps mortals and holds them hostage for a ransom. Easy targets, people they know they can cower into cooperating. You are a tier 3, on the other hand. They beat you up, and you mentioned they killed some people at the same time. Wanna tell me what's going on?" He fidgeted with his pant leg with his right hand as he mulled over his response. His left arm was still held close to his body, keeping it immobile.

He breathed in, opened his mouth to speak, then thought better of it and closed it again, furrowing his eyebrows in thought.

"Look," Kiara said, "I don't really care about your past, your history with that gang, or any of that stuff. I'll admit, I'm curious how you ended up there, and why, but if you don't want to tell me your secrets, I'm not gonna pry. Everyone has baggage they want to keep hidden." He looked up at her for the first time since everyone else had left, giving her an appraising look, but still didn't say anything.

"Okay, I get it," she said, throwing up her hands in surrender.

"I'll leave you to your secrets, then. I'm going to go grab a bite to eat with Dustin and Blake. I'd ask if you'd like an escort home, but you seem like you can handle yourself."

"I do," Choppy said suddenly, looking at her earnestly.

"Want an escort, that is."

"Oh!" she replied, raising her eyebrows in surprise.

"Well, uh… Zoey should be done arranging rooms for the other two now…"

"No," he cut in, shaking his head.

"It's not that I don't trust her, but I don't feel safe getting back to my turf with just her escorting me."

"Your turf?" Kiara asked with a raised eyebrow. He grimaced, paused, then finally nodded, dropping his head in apparent shame.

"Yes. I run with the Edgeland Gang on the other side of town." Kiara had started heading for the door, but now she turned back, and gave him her full attention.

"Now we're getting somewhere." He raised his head.

"You aren't mad?" She pursed her lips.

"About your choice of career? Disappointed, maybe, but not mad." She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Although… have you ever attacked House Yountal?" He shook his head.

"No, ma'am!"

"Good," she said, nodding.

"Keep it that way. So how did you end up in that cell?" He grimaced again as he thought back.

"Two days ago, Vance staged a raid against one of our smaller hideouts near the edge of our territory. We thought it might have been a bait, so we split our forces, left half back at the main base. When we showed up, they jumped us. They killed a third of my men before the rest took off, and they took me hostage.

"It was a pretty bad blow, honestly. I thought we were gonna have to give up quite a bit of turf to them with how many of us they got, but after tonight…" He smiled.

"Well, let's just say that everything's changed now." Kiara didn't like the look in Choppy's eyes, but decided to let it go for now.

"Why didn't they kill you? Is it because you're the leader of the Edgelanders or something?" Choppy shook his head.

"No, I was just a bargaining chip, honestly. I work under Ned, he runs the show here in Portish, but even he reports to my uncle Bert up in Lakeshire. Vance knew who my uncle was, and wanted to use me as leverage. They beat me up real bad last night, but they needed me alive to bargain with Uncle Bert. I can't go to the infirmary because I don't exactly get along with the city officials, you see." Kiara did see, and she was debating turning him in herself.

She didn't like the way that bandits and gangs profited by picking on those weaker than themselves. Then again, the city officials hadn't done anything to help rescue her employees, so she was pretty frustrated with them right now. Choppy, on the other hand, had helped get everyone out safely, even if he was just doing it to save his own skin. Perhaps she owed him something in return.

"Okay," she said after a moment's thought.

"Let's go find Zoey, then she and I will escort you back to your own territory." Choppy nodded appreciatively.

"Thank you, Lady Yountal, your generosity knows no bounds." She leveled a stare at him.

"Oh, it definitely does know some bounds. Don't let me hear anything about you harassing innocent people in the future. I'm only helping you tonight because you helped me get everyone out safely." Her voice softened somewhat.

"Thanks for that, by the way, having those mana shields protecting the others gave me peace of mind." He smiled, and she noticed that quite a few of his teeth were missing, probably from the beating he'd received the night before. Okay, now she was definitely going to help him get home: he'd been through enough recently. If she heard talk of anything despicable from the Edgeland gang in the future though, all bets were off.