Tempered by the Will

29 - Tracked

Vica felt too much. That was her problem. Luckily, Constantine had nothing like that holding him back. He would reserve sympathy for the ones who needed it, not these two at his feet. At least the one with the marked face was smart enough to feign sleep, hoping for a little mercy.

"Get up. The easier you make this on me, the less I'll make it hurt."

No answer. He was getting soft if he couldn't scare the living s**t out of someone like this anymore. Not so long ago, he could make a man take a blade to his own throat just to spare himself what he would find instead at Constantine's hands.

"I said, get up." He kicked him in the ribs, hard. Hard enough to make him groan and flinch away into the fetal position with a hacking cough. "Good seeing you again, Denton."

"It's Detan -"

"Shut up, Denton."

Another kick in the ribs, but not so hard that it would wind him up and prevent him from speaking. There wasn't much time. He didn't know what was going on just yet, but something was happening and he intended to find out what.

"Let's start with who hired you, and then after I get everything out of you that I want, which I will, I'll let you go easy. Hm?"

It took longer than he'd hoped. Either he was overestimating himself or his touch had grown dull, but by the time Denton breathed his last, there was blood smeared all over Constantine's arms and some splattered over his face. Denton himself looked like a wooden doll with its rag parts stitched on the wrong way, and in the end, Constantine failed to get the information he wanted.

Denton's friend proved little more useful even though he had far less resistance to pain. Too little, in fact. He died with a gurgle in his throat with nothing relevant to share. Well, not immediately relevant, at least. There were other things he spouted in hopes of preserving his life, things that could prove valuable in other ways.

Time would tell. He couldn't sink the bodies in the canal, but he left them draped at the feet of some trees a half mile away - the most gnarled, starved ones he could find. No one lingered long in free territory, not in the last decade. He had been away for some time, but things were the same as ever. Worsening constantly, that is.

As he left, shouldering his cloak back on, he heard the creaking of knotted branches. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw them wrap around the corpses and swallow them up, leaving nothing behind.

* * * * *

They couldn't go back to the manor. Once Duke Murena found out that the job had been botched, he would send others to the estate while it was still dark, or so Cicera explained. She knew her husband well. She had taught him everything he knew, and it was what she would do to plug the hole of a broken dam.

"I hope it sits empty, Duke Aventine," she added. "Any soul lingering there tonight will probably meet his end in no time at all."

"Of course I sent them away. I wouldn't encroach on House Murena's domain without taking precautions to guard my own. My possessions mean little to me, they can burn it all because that's all they'll find waiting for them."

"No burning. Too visible, it would look bad when the matter reaches the Court. No, they'll be in and out then, looking for someone to hold prisoner or to slit a few throats to send a message. If they find no one, they'll leave as silently as they came. They'll have no shortage of men on retainer, either."

"On retainer? House Murena has arrangements with the Assassins' Guild?"

"All Houses have some arrangement with them. The ones that matter, at least."

"Not like that. You mean to tell me that all this time, you've been making deals to hire them as your private army to call on whenever you wish. That's not something your husband would think of, thick as he is. That's something you schemed yourself -"

"As I needed to, as times needed me to -"

"Giving them all the information they would ever need to wrap a noose around everyone's necks -"

This was too much. They had been waiting at the edge of Felix's domain for what had to be half an hour already, possibly an hour, and there was still no sign of Constantine. Had something happened, she wondered. Vica was too far away to sense him now, and a nauseating fear that something had gone wrong simmered in her gut like kindling left too long in the fire.

"I'm trying not to be rude because obviously, you two have issues you need to work out that have nothing to do with me," she interrupted, "but I just want to point out that we've been waiting here for a while and Constantine still isn't here."

That wasn't enough to clear the tension that hung thick in the darkness between them all, but Cicera and Felix both paused to look around the grassy knoll they were standing at the foot of. It seemed they had been so wrapped up in their whispered arguments that they hadn't realized how much time had passed at all.

"He will be here soon."

With a start, she looked down to see Bren sitting up on the grass. She hadn't noticed at all that he had regained consciousness, and judging by the looks of surprise on the others' faces under the moonlight's faint glimmer, she guessed that they had failed to notice as well. All of them, distracted. She felt a flash of guilt stab her like a knife.

"How are you?" she asked as she dropped into a kneel. "How long have you been awake."

"Long enough. I'm not strong enough to summon, but there's a natural rain coming this way. I can sense Constantine making his way through it. He's not far."

Not far? Then she should feel him coming eventually, once he was close enough for her magic to start gagging on his oppressive aura. Not that she would ever say so aloud, but this was one of the rare times that she hoped rather than dreaded the sensation of his suffocating anti-magic.

"But there are others. Constantine may not be aware he is being followed." Bren attempted to push himself up to his feet and failed, but Vica grasped his upper arm just in time to catch him before he tipped over and toppled sideways. "The rain is too weak for me to tell what they are, but they are tracking him from a distance. I know nothing else."

"So he's coming this way and bringing them with him."

"Yes."

Felix whirled on Cicera. "You must have some idea of it," he snapped. "More assassins sent by your husband?"

"I wouldn't know anything that he planned following throwing me underground. But I wouldn't be surprised. If he doesn't know he's being followed, then they're not mages, but he could easily be luring them in and simply pretending he doesn't know he's being followed."

Vica chewed on her bottom lip. Cicera's suggestion - probably wasn't right. "I don't think he'd knowingly lead them here," she said after a pause. "Or at least...I don't think he would."

"I agree," Bren said in a strained voice as he attempted to stand up again. "He would....not...endanger you -"

"Relax. Stay down. I'm...let me go meet him, and you all keep your heads down. I have no clue what's going on, but if they're following Constantine and haven't tried to wallop him yet, I'm guessing...they're trying to find me? Is that right, or am I missing something here?"

Cicera and Felix glanced at each other before simultaneously turning to look at her. "Probably," the duke conceded. "In any case, we have no idea who they are, and if Constantine comes this way, we'll be defenseless against whoever's following him."

Vica blew out a nervous exhale. "That's why I'll go that way alone. Please. Bren needs..."

"I will be fine."

"Not really, if something else happens to you. You look awful -"

"It's too dangerous," Felix protested.

"Well, if you're not volunteering to go, someone has to." She gave both the duke and duchess a pointed look. "And since Lady Murena doesn't seem inclined, and neither do you - just be calm. I'll lead him away from here. If I separate from you three, he'll definitely follow me instead."

She hitched up her robe without waiting for an answer and hurried away into the darkness.