Chương 43: An Axe Among Many

Their run for the door was cut short when the shopkeeper grabbed a sword from the rack and threw it in their path. The blade lodged itself onto the door, right before their eyes. Louis shoved Alexandra backward and put himself between her and the Warden. The man had another sword off the rack before they could do anything. He came forward with the blade low. Not hurried.

"I'm not letting you get away a second time." Louis moved forward and grabbed a shield off the low shelf without breaking stride. He threw it. The shopkeeper batted it aside with his forearm and the shield rang off a rack of daggers. Blades hit the floor. Louis was already moving left, putting a shelving unit between them, and his hand came out of his coat. He snapped his hand, and wrapped a weighted cord, knotted at both ends, around the shopkeeper's sword wrist and pulled taut. The man's next step faltered.

Louis yanked, hard, and the sword scraped the edge of a shelf on its way down. The man didn't drop it. The shopkeeper turned the stumble into a shove, drove his shoulder into the shelf, and the whole thing tilted into Louis. Blades and labels off. Louis took the edge of a plank across the back of his shoulder and went down on one knee.

"Louis," Alexandra said, her hand grasping the handle of her new axe.

"Go," he said. She didn't. Instead, she raised her weapon and took a step toward the man. But Louis raised his hand to block her path.

"No. We're not fighting this." The shopkeeper stepped over the fallen shelf and raised the sword. Louis threw himself backward, got a hand on a fallen hatchet, and came up swinging at the man's knee. The shopkeeper managed to move his leg to the side, only hitting the blunt side of the hatchet. He grimaced but didn't stop moving. Louis backed toward the door. He hit a rack of pole weapons and grabbed one behind him without looking. A short spear, maybe four feet, which he raised horizontal between them.

The shopkeeper's next cut skidded along the haft and threw sparks off the iron crossguard.

"You move first," he said, between his teeth.

"I'll catch up."

"But…"

"Don't argue. Do as I say." She threw him a look, and nodded. Alexandra ran for the door, leaving the two men locked in their confrontations. As she stepped through the door, she heard the Warden speak.

"It doesn't matter if she leaves. After I deal with you, we'll find her easily enough." She didn't wait to hear more. Louis got this. And while running away stung, she wasn't certain that she was ready to kill. She frowned as she ran through the empty street. Soon, she reached the first intersection. Her steps slowed down. She looked, left, then right. Her first instinct was to make for the hideout, but she didn't want to lead the Wardens there. There have to be tracking skills in this world.

Especially if we're talking about the Wardens. She turned left, her steps quick, but she wasn't running anymore. Her hood was up, covering her white hair. She took another turn, right this time. Lights filtered from the behind the closed blinds of some buildings. Two more turns and she spotted a silhouette in front of her. She didn't look, only looked down and kept walking. They crossed paths. The stranger didn't say anything. The main street was always active, even at night.

The crowd was a lot sparser than during the day when people went from shop to shop while the dock workers carried crates up and down from the harbor. She stepped onto the main street and slowed to match everyone's pace. A Face Among Many settled over her. A weight lifted off her shoulders. She kept her chin down and walked toward the harbor. The axe was a problem. She had it in her right hand, haft down, head up and even with the skill running she could feel it pulling attention she couldn't redirect.

Hooded woman, at night, with an axe… It wasn't a good look. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Should have bitten the bullet and bought it. It wasn't that expensive. If she was going to gather five gold for her cure, she could afford twelve silver for a proper weapon. The sea down below was quiet, the harbor too. A few people were taking a night stroll, taking advantage of the windless evening.

Two Wardens came off a side street ahead of her and merged with the crowd. She didn't stop walking. Stopping was worse than walking. She kept her pace and moved left, putting a knot of sailors between herself and them. Grey cloaks. Both men. One was talking, the other scanning the street. The axe caught the lamplight from a string of lanterns above a tavern entrance. She flipped it behind her back and gripped the haft two-handed. Awkward. Both arms behind her. Fuck. I look so suspicious. Fuck.

The Warden's gaze moved across the sparse crowd. Across the sailors. Across her. Moved on. She breathed. The Wardens were walking in the same direction she was, a few paces ahead of her, unhurried. She matched their pace, too anxious to go slower. She couldn't turn around. Too suspicious. At the first intersection, she turned. She didn't know where she was going, but anywhere was better than behind them. Seconds later, she spotted a very narrow alley running parallel to the main street.

She went in, her shoulders barely fitting through. Then, she placed the axe on a window sill, slightly higher than her eyes, hoping nobody would find it. Alexandra straightened her hood, and walked back into the main street. She still needed Louis to find her. It wasn't his first run in with the Wardens, he would be fine. She just wasn't sure how they were supposed to meet again. She watched a woman purchase a meat skewer at a stand. It looked delicious. She didn't stop. Louis knew the city. He'd figure it out.

Else, she would find him at his hideout in a few hours. It would be fine. A shout came up the street. She raised her head. Three Wardens were coming up the main street at a run. Running. Cloaks back, hands on their belts, cutting through the sparse crowd without apology. People stepped aside. A man with a cart yanked it toward the wall. A woman pulled her husband by the arm. Alexandra stopped breathing and pressed back against the nearest building. A Face Among Many was helping.

She could feel it, the skill blurring the edges, working harder than it had all night. Her heart was loud in her ears. The Wardens were thirty paces away, twenty, closing fast, and the nearest one's eyes were sweeping the street in a broad arc. She stood completely still, which was exactly the wrong thing to do. She knew that, so she forced an expression of curiosity on her face. Why were the Wardens running? Did something happen? How curious. They passed.

She watched their backs recede up the street, grey cloaks snapping behind them, and didn't move until she couldn't hear their boots anymore. Then she put her hand flat against the wall behind her and pushed herself upright. Her legs were shaking. She hadn't noticed that. A fourth Warden came up the street, older, slower, a hand pressed to the insignia on his chest and his lips moving. A skill. Or a magical device, she didn't know. He was sending a message.

He stopped not far from her and turned in a slow circle, head up. His eyes were closed. She didn't move. Didn't breathe. He turned past her, kept turning, completed the circle. Then he opened his eyes and looked up the street in the direction the others had gone. He said something under his breath and walked on. She let the breath out through her teeth. They hadn't locked onto her. Three Wardens running hard through the street, another following, and not one of them had thought to confront her.

They hadn't been looking for her. She turned and looked back up the street the way they'd left. The crowd had thinned further, the disturbance pushing people indoors or into doorways. A lantern swung on its hook above a closed door, throwing a slow arc of light across the cobblestones. Louis. She pulled her hood down and turned around. Her hand brushed the sickle strapped to her belt, she let herself feel the hollow that sickness of mana had carved in her chest.

She rubbed her right index finger with her thumb, and licked her lips. Her steps were slow. Slower than they should be. Her heart was beating hard, sending blood pumping through her veins. Alexandra was walking up the street. Toward the gates. Toward the neighborhood she'd just escaped from. This wasn't the best decision for her streak but— No. It was. Louis knew who she was, and was ready to help. Being alone cost her her old streak.

Without help, without support, she was bound to run into a daily quest she couldn't overcome. Her steps quickened, hitting the cobblestone harder. She reached the road she'd taken to join the main street, and turned. The light coming from behind her cast long shadows that soon melded into one. The street narrowed as she walked. The cobblestones were older, uneven, the mortar between them crumbling in long lines. She passed a doorway. A cat watched her from the step, yellow-eyed, and didn't move. The crowd was gone.

She was alone on the street with her own footsteps and the distant sound of the sea drowning all the rest. The shadows shifted. A density that hadn't been there a moment before, gathering at the mouth of an alley to her left like water pooling in a low place. She slowed. A shape resolved itself from the dark. Stepping out of the shadow itself, Louis, coat settled on his shoulders, hands loose at his sides. No blood that she could see.

"You were supposed to run," he said quietly.

"I did run."

"In the wrong direction." She opened her mouth. Closed it. He jerked his chin back the way she'd come and fell into step beside her without waiting for an answer, his footsteps making no sound on the cobblestones.

"We need to recover the axe. It's in an alley down the road." Louis flicked his hand, and revealed the axe hidden in his coat. She stared.

"How?"

"It's not the same axe." His lips turned up.

"Took another from the shop." He paused.

"You need to work on a movement skill too. You're too slow."