Tim Waggoner - Thieves of Blood

She moved in to kiss him once more, but he drew back, though without breaking their embrace. She frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. I still… care for you, but so much has happened since we last saw each other… we’ve both changed so much…”

Makala pulled out of his arms and took several steps away from Diran. She turned her back on him, folded her arms, and stared out at the glowing ocean mist.

“What are you saying? That you don’t love me anymore?” Her voice was tight with anger, hurt, and fear.

Diran felt incomplete without her in his arms, but though he ached to go to her side, he remained where he was.

“I’m saying that I don’t know if we can simply pick up where we left off.” He stepped up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. “You tried to kill me, Makala.”

Her shoulders stiffened beneath his touch, but she didn’t reply. He opened his mouth to speak, intending to say something, anything, but no words came to him. Instead, his attention was diverted by the sight of three large shadowy forms out on the water. At first he thought they might be a trio of creatures, sea dragons, perhaps, or even gigantic water striders, but as they came closer, he was able to make out their shapes more clearly and realized that he was looking at a trio of three-masted ships. The galleons were black, gliding across the glowing sea mist swift and silent. Huge towers rose from the stern of each vessel, supporting trapped air elementals bound into the form of rings. The elementals powered the ships, sending them across the surface of the water with great speed, the finlike structures that extended from the hulls of the ships slicing through the waves like finely honed blades.

The changeling’s words came back to Diran then. Tonight the streets of Port Verge will run thick with blood.

“I think we should leave,” he said. And go get Ghaji, he added to himself. He had a feeling the two of them would soon have work to do.

“Give up, orc!”

“Half-orc,” Ghaji said through gritted teeth. With a surge of strength, he slammed his opponent’s arm to the table.

The crowd of men and women gathered around Ghaji’s table cheered, and more than a few coins exchanged hands as bets were settled.

Ghaji’s opponent-one of Redbeard’s companions, a black-haired bear of a man with brownish skin who went by the name of Machk-sat back in his chair and rubbed his sore shoulder. “Best three out of five?” he said, almost begging.

“Nothing personal, friend, but I’m not sure your shoulder could take it.”

Machk glared at Ghaji for a moment, then he relaxed and sighed. “Aye, you’re probably right. Besides,” he grinned, “this is my drinking arm, and I’m going to have further need of it tonight!”

The crowd cheered the man’s good sportsmanship, and none cheered louder than Redbeard, whose real name was Barken. Ghaji grinned in appreciation of Machk’s joke, though it was one he’d heard before, and with slaps on the back from Barken, Machk got up and headed back to his table. The crowd began to disperse as well, no one evidently game to arm-wrestle Ghaji after seeing someone as strong as Machk lose to him.

Ghaji drained the dregs of ale from his mug then set it down. Diran and Makala had been gone for a while now, and he wasn’t sure whether he should continue to wait for them here. Makala had left her traveler’s pack, crossbow, and quiver, and he couldn’t just leave them here, but he didn’t feel like sitting here arm-wrestling all night either. He was still trying to decide what to do when the brown-haired elf-woman approached his table.

“Mind if I join you?”

Ghaji had always liked elvish voices. They were warm and mellifluous, with a rhythm and cadence to the words that was almost like music.

“Please, but don’t you have work to do? This lot might get restless if they’re deprived of entertainment.”

The elf-woman laughed softly, the sound putting Ghaji in mind of wind wafting gently through branches covered with fresh green leaves.

“Believe me, after the entertainment you’ve provided them tonight, my juggling would only pale in comparison.”

She sat down opposite Ghaji and looked at him with the piercing gaze common to her kind. Though she was but a traveling player, she nevertheless carried herself with a regal air, as if she were one of the lords of creation. It was this seeming haughtiness of elves that made others so uncomfortable if not downright resentful toward them, but Ghaji had been prejudged too many times in his own life to do the same to others.

“My name is Yvka.”

“Ghaji.”

“I was quite impressed with how you handled yourself tonight.”

“What do you mean?”

“You started your evening here with people insulting you and wishing to fight you. After a relatively short time you’ve become, if not their friend, at least someone they respect enough to no longer taunt.”

Ghaji smiled. “I guess it’s just my sunny personality.”

“I would say it was due to your keen observation of human behavior and motivation,” Yvka said.

Ghaji shrugged at the compliment, though inwardly it pleased him. “Being half human does give one a certain insight, so for that matter does being half orc, but I can’t take full credit. I have a friend who’s far more observant than 1.1 guess some of his qualities have rubbed off on me during our time together.”

“The man in black?” Yvka said.

Ghaji nodded. “Diran Bastiaan is his name, and a finer man I’ve never met, though if you tell him I said that, I’ll deny it. Neither of us is big on sentiment.”

“Your secret is safe with me. I saw both of you earlier in the day, though I doubt you noticed me. In the merchant quarter, near the warehouses?”

“I don’t remember seeing you.”

“I wasn’t performing at the time, just going from one tavern to another, hoping to line up some more work for the next several days. Port Verge gets its fair share of visitors, but it’s still a small enough town that outsiders get noticed, especially when they’re as… intriguing as you and your friend.”

Ghaji couldn’t help but feel flattered, though he knew if the elf-woman felt any romantic attraction to either of them, it was most likely Diran.

The elf-woman simply seemed curious. Still, Ghaji’s instincts urged him to lie, and he hadn’t survived the battlefields of the Last War, let alone his battles alongside Diran since, by ignoring his instincts. “Diran’s a scholar from Morgrave University. He travels throughout Khorvaire, gathering tales and legends from each region. He hopes to eventually collect them all in a book, perhaps even a series of volumes.” The lie came easily, for it was a cover story that Diran and Ghaji used whenever their activities called for a certain amount of anonymity.

Yvka’s smile might or might not have held a trace of slyness, as if she recognized the fabrication for what it was. “I see. And you?”

“I protect him. He is, as I said, a scholar and not a warrior.”

“Strange. He certainly seemed to have the mien of a warrior to me.”

“Can’t always judge by appearances.”

Yvka nodded. “Indeed not.”

At that moment, as if Diran had somehow known what Ghaji had said and had decided to prove his friend a liar, the tavern door burst open and the priest rushed in, followed by Makala.

“Arm yourselves!” Diran shouted. “The city is under attack!”

The taverngoers fell silent upon hearing Diran’s dire pronouncement. Some of the customers looked to the priest while some looked to each other, all of them trying to determine if the man garbed in black was playing some sort of distasteful joke.

Ghaji turned back to Yvka and shrugged. He then jumped out of his chair and hurried to Diran’s side, drawing his axe as he ran. Makala rushed past him, hurrying to their table to retrieve her crossbow and bolts.