Brooks, Terry - High Druid's Blade - The Defenders of Shannara (9780345540713)

“Your sister!” she snapped. “That’s what’s wrong. You’d better come right away!”

Chrys. Of course it would be Chrys.

He didn’t argue with Jayet. He just did what she asked and went out the door behind her, working hard at keeping up because she was striding ahead so quickly.

“What’s she done now?”

“Gotten herself in trouble. What do you think?”

Jayet was small and tough, physically compact, emotionally cool, and a bulldog at everything she did, which made her perfect for working at the tavern. She was Chrys’s friend—or as much of a friend as anyone could be to his sister—always there when it mattered, ready to keep Chrys from getting in too deep with whatever mad scheme or stunt she had taken it into her head to try out.

Her mop of spiky white-blond hair bounced as she glanced over her shoulder at Paxon. “She got into a dice game. There were five of them, all locals except for this one man, who claims to have flown in on business from the Southland cities. Doesn’t look like a businessman, but who knows? Anyway, I’m not paying much attention to them. No one’s causing any trouble—Chrys included—when all of a sudden she leaps up and starts screaming at him. Just screaming like she can’t stand to be in the same room with him.”

“He did something to her?”

“He cleaned her out. He threw five sevens, a sweep, took the pot and everything that was bet. Including what she wagered and didn’t have on her. Apparently, she was so confident about winning, she told him that if she couldn’t pay him one way she would pay him another. He took her at her word, but I don’t think she saw it the way he did. Chrys would never agree to anything like that.”

He assumed not, but his sister was growing up fast and the boundaries of what she would allow might be expanding.

“Anyway, she claimed he cheated. The other players backed right off, refusing to get involved. If Chrys hadn’t been so furious, she might have thought twice, too. This man didn’t look like the type you wanted to go up against. He told her she lost, so if she couldn’t pay, she belonged to him. That was the bargain. She told him what he could do with his bargain, and when I left they were standing toe-to-toe with everyone else standing back.”

They were past the yard and down on the road now, heading into the city. He could see the sprawl of buildings below, the businesses surrounded by residences, the airfield situated south, and the barracks and training field for the home guard and airmen set west.

“No one got between them? Not even Raffe?”

She shook her head. “Especially not Raffe. He knows this man, I think. They might even have done business together in the past. You know Raffe, always on the prowl for an easy score, always walking on the edge. I think there’s some of that in play. Raffe just stood back and watched it happen.”

“What about City Watch? Did you think to call them in?”

She wheeled back on him. “Look, I risked a lot just by coming to tell you ! Raffe told me not to do even that much, warned me to mind my own business. But I came anyway, and I might lose my job because of it! So don’t be asking me about City Watch.”

He shut up then, deciding she was right, this wasn’t her problem in the first place, and he should just be glad she’d bothered to come tell him what was going on while there might still be time for him to do something about it.

She started off again, walking more quickly than before, and he hurried after. “Sorry about the City Watch comment. Thank you for coming to get me. I owe you.”

“You bet you do,” she threw over her shoulder. “Come on! Walk faster! Chrys is in trouble!”

Picking up the pace, he did his best to comply.

T

WO

IT WAS NOT AN OVERLY LONG WALK TO THE TWO ROOSTERS,which was situated at the northern edge of the city, just a quarter of a mile downhill from where Paxon’s parents had built their home. It was a small, intimate tavern, the sort Chrys would choose because she liked to claim places as her own. She had been Jayet’s friend all her life, and that had probably contributed to her choice of taverns after her friend went to work there. Jayet was older, but not necessarily more levelheaded. Chrys was clearly the wilder of the two, the one who needed an older sister to help guide her. Unfortunately, Jayet wasn’t up to the job.

Still, she was better than nothing. At least she thought to voice an objection now and then, and occasionally to provide a different point of view before things got too far out of hand.

Paxon was thinking about this as they reached the Two Roosters and pushed through the doors into the main room.

Everything was quiet, as if nothing of what Jayet described had occurred. Paxon glanced around the room. There was no sign of Chrys.

Raffe was behind the bar trying hard to look like he was busy but not succeeding, his eyes shifting to find Paxon then moving quickly away again.

“Do you see the man she was with?” Paxon asked Jayet.

She shook her head. “He’s gone. So is she.”

Paxon could see that for himself. He strode over to the bar and Raffe. “Where is my sister?”

Raffe glanced up and shrugged. “She left with some man. Not too long ago. Why?”

“Where did they go?”

“How should I know?”

“Think about it.”

“Look, Paxon, it isn’t my job to look after girls who make foolish bets and then find out the hard way when they have to pay the price. Especially ones who just seem to be asking for—”

He never finished whatever it was he was going to say. By then, Paxon had seized him by his tunic front and dragged him halfway across the bar. “I’m only going to ask you once more before I break your arm. Where is my sister?”

“Let go of me, or you’ll …”

His hand was groping for the club he kept under the counter, so Paxon dragged him the rest of the way across the bar and threw him on the floor, stomping hard on his wrist for good measure. Raffe screamed as the bones crunched.

Paxon knelt with his knee on the tavern owner’s stomach and his hand around his throat. “You should answer me, Raffe. Right now.”

“Airfield!” the other gasped, grimacing in pain. “He has a ship there!”

“What’s his name?”

Raffe shook his head.

“Answer me or I’ll break your other arm.”

Raffe spit at him. “Go ahead! He’ll hurt me worse than you can even imagine if I tell you who he is!”

“Paxon!” Jayet was beside him, pulling him back. “Forget this! Go after Chrys. That’s what matters. You know where she is. Maybe you can still reach her before they leave!”

He was so enraged he almost didn’t hear her. But she yanked him backward again and he finally rose, taking a moment to look down at the man at his feet. “If I find out you’ve lied to me, Raffe, I will be back for you. If I find out you lied, I’ll kill you. She’s fifteen years old!” He stepped away. “Let me know if he does anything to you because of this, Jayet.” Then he was out the door.

Maybe he should have taken time to find out more, he thought as he raced toward the airfield. Maybe he should have beaten it out of Raffe. But there wasn’t time. There was every chance he was already too late to catch them. If the stranger, whoever he was, had an airship waiting, he was likely already on his way back to wherever he had come from.

But why he was bothering to haul along a fifteen-year-old girl, lost wager or no, was troubling. Most men wouldn’t have made the effort. Most wouldn’t have gotten into a dice game with her in the first place. But Chrys was tall and mature looking for her age, so he may have thought her much older than she really was. What really distressed him was the thought that it wasn’t the money that mattered, that it was Chrys he had been after all along. Young girls were taken by force all the time to work in the pleasure houses of the large Southland cities. Chrys wouldn’t be the first to end up that way.