Blackstone (Book 2) (21 page)

Perfect. So the plan really had worked. Wolf let out a long,
relieved breath.

In that case, the fighting was done. Sheathing his sword, he
used his free hand to gesture in a broad circle. “Let’s gather up our wounded!
Rune, you’re in charge of prisoners.”

This battle was won.

Aside from tying on a bandage, Siobhan had no medical
training whatsoever, but even her hands were drafted to help. Conli had
prepared for the worst, and that’s almost what he got. Even with all of the
help that he drafted, he still couldn’t quite handle the influx of patients
that came in. Siobhan did her best to help by tying on bandages when he
directed, moving patients that could walk outside and into a different building
so that they could rest on cots, and sometimes she just went hunting for
supplies as they ran short.

She was so busy coming and going that if she had run into
herself, Siobhan wouldn’t have been surprised. Denney and Sylvie seemed to be
in the same state, as they were pulled this way and the other, answering the
demands of the people around them.

“Make room!” a very familiar voice boomed out over the din
inside the clinic.

Siobhan looked up sharply and found Tran coming through the
doorway, an injured man curled up in his arms, forehead obviously bleeding.
Dropping everything, she weaved her way to him, directing as she did so, “Tran,
this way. There’s an empty bed this way.”

Hearing her, he turned and followed the direction of her
pointing finger, gently easing the man onto the cot. Grabbing a clean cloth,
she put it to the bleeding temple and added pressure. “Any other injuries?”

“I think a busted rib or two. He took a hard hit to the side
with a hammer.”

Wincing, she turned and called to Conli, “Head wound and
possible broken ribs!”

“Blue ribbon!” he called back, not looking up from the man
he was working on.

Siobhan dug a blue ribbon from her pocket and tied it around
the man’s left shoe.

Tran pointed toward it and asked in confusion, “What’s that
mean?”

“About…” she looked out the window, found that the sky was
darkening, and blinked. “Is the day gone?”

“Yes.”

Oh. When had that happened? Wait, had she spent the entire
afternoon here? Shaking the thought off, she went back to answering his
question. “Some hours ago, when the wounded flooded in, we realized we didn’t
have a good system for deciding who needed to be treated first. So we came up with
one. Red ribbons means its life threatening, blue ribbons means it could
possibly be serious but they can wait up to an hour, yellow ribbons are for
minor injuries that Denney or Sylvie can handle.”

He gave a judicious nod of approval. “Smart.”

Siobhan wasn’t interested in any of that. Now that she had
someone that she knew had been fighting on the front lines, she wanted
information. “How goes it out there?”

Tran blinked in surprise. “You haven’t heard? We won.”

“We won?” she repeated in delight, hope welling up in her.
“Are you sure?”

“The whole army, what’s left of it, has retreated back to
Goldschmidt.” Tran grinned at her, a flash of white in his dark skin. “Battle’s
been over a good twenty minutes. I’m surprised you haven’t heard by now.”

“People are too focused getting the injured in here, they
don’t stop and talk.” And the only ones that were left that could tell her came
in unconscious. “Do you know about the others?” she pressed. “Wolf, Rune,
Markl, Fei?”

“Wolf, Rune, and Fei are fine,” Tran assured her. “I saw
them while bringing this man in. Markl’s on the other side of the city, so I’m
not sure about him.”

The fact that Siobhan hadn’t seen him being carried into the
clinic yet gave her hope that Markl was also fine.  

Tran pushed back up to his feet. “There’s more coming. I
need to help bring them.”

“Go,” she encouraged, shooing him off with one hand. “And if
you find out about Markl, tell me.”

Tapping his heart twice in acknowledgement, he turned and
moved off at a half-trot, which was impressive in these cramped quarters.

Conli came around and knelt down to the bed next to her,
where a red-ribboned patient was groaning. With quick, efficient movements he
started assessing the damage even as he asked her, “What did Tran say?”

“That the battle is won. The army has retreated to
Goldschmidt.”

He was surprised enough to actually stop and look up for a
moment. “Truly?”

Siobhan nodded happily. “He also said that Wolf, Rune, and
Fei are not injured. He saw them while bringing in this man.”

“And Markl?”

“He didn’t know. Markl’s on the other side of the city.”

Denney must have been close enough to hear, despite being a
good ten beds away, as she asked, “Did you say Rune is fine?”

“Yes!” Siobhan raised her voice enough to make sure Denney
could hear her. “And we won! The army has retreated!”

Despite being injured, and in serious pain, the injured men
in the room gave a quiet roar of approval. Some of them even pumped victorious
fists into the air. Too happy to contain it, Siobhan laughed outright. “You did
well, everyone! Your efforts were not wasted.”

A second roar answered her, this one louder than the last.
Even the man under her hands woke up because of it, although his eyes wouldn’t
focus. “Wha?” he slurred out. “What’s going on?”

She repeated what she knew to him and he gave a contented
sigh. “That’s good,” he said, eyes closing again. “That’s good.”

‘Good’ seemed a gross understatement to her. If she weren’t
completely worn out, Siobhan would have been dancing a jig about now.

“Siobhan-ajie.”

She turned sharply on her heels, finding Fei standing just
inside the doorway. She gave him a quick scan from head to foot and didn’t see
any signs of obvious injury. Right, Tran had said he wasn’t hurt. “What is it,
Fei?”

“Darrens-zhi is calling for you.”

“Darrens?” she repeated, half-puzzled with this summoning
and half-worried. Darrens never called her just to pass the time of day. She
only saw the man when either an emergency was on their hands or there was money
involved. Usually both. Both hands against her knees, she pushed herself to her
feet and weaved in and around the cots, heading for him. “Is he still holding
court in that inn?”

“No,” Fei denied with a small shake of the head. “Come, I’ll
lead you to him.”

There were so many outside the door trying to get in that
Siobhan was rebuffed in her first attempt to exit. In fact, she was sent
staggering back a pace. Fei had to come back in for her, put an arm around her
shoulders, and use bodily force to get her free of the clinic. She could see
from the tightness around his eyes that he found the total of injured unnerving
and sought to reassure him, “Most of these men aren’t ours. The ones still
waiting out here are the enemy. All of ours fit in the two clinics that Conli
prepared with the other doctors.”

The worry in his face eased. “That’s good.”

Hoping Fei knew more than he was saying (he usually did) she
asked, “Why is Darrens calling for me?”

“He found two men that were the leaders and is questioning
them. He said he wants you to hear what they say.”

That answered the question, certainly, but brought up whole
new ones. “He wants me to hear it because…?”

“You are the last one to be in Orin. You know more of what
is happening there than he does, and is better prepared to sort truth from
lies.”

“Ah.” Got it.

The streets were lined on either side with the wounded, none
of it life-threateningly serious although at first glance it might seem that
way. Most of the men looked sullen as well as hurting. But then, it was the
very people they’d attacked that they were now depending on for help. Siobhan
wasn’t the least bit sympathetic to their plight. Certainly, their poor economy
had driven them to desperate lengths, but there were other options rather than
trying to go to war.

As it turned out, Darrens wasn’t far away. Once they passed
through the main street, they came to a corner that had a café with outside
tables. Of course, the café wasn’t being run at the moment, but Darrens was
using one of the tables to hold an impromptu interrogation of sorts. Probably
because it was well lit by two street lamps. Looking up, the guildmaster saw
her and waved her closer. Fei let go so she could approach, but stayed right by
her side.

When she got a good look at the two men seated, bound to the
chairs, she felt she understood why her quiet enforcer was acting overly
protective. For one thing, those chairs did not look capable of supporting the
men’s weight. They were like Wolf, or Tran, mountainous men with muscles
bulging everywhere. The ropes tied around their torsos and hands looked
pitiful, like sewing thread.

The hatred in their eyes burned so brightly that she felt
scorched just meeting their gaze. Swallowing hard, she didn’t flinch, but
stared them down instead.

“Heh.” Darrens found this silent contest of wills amusing,
openly grinning at her. “If you two think that you can intimidate
her
,
you’re swimming up a waterfall. She’s got men in her guild your size and an
assassin from a dark guild, all of them tamed. You’ve met your match with her.”

One man turned his head just enough to scowl at Darrens
instead. He didn’t try to argue this point, though.

Without looking away from them, she said to Darrens, “You
wished to see me?”

“I did. You reported to me last fall that Fallen Ward had a
new guildmaster, although no one knew anything about him. How sure are you of
that information?”

Fallen Ward? Alarm bells started ringing in the back of her mind
and she turned her head in slow degrees to face him. “Positive. Why?”

“They’re telling me the old guildmaster still rules. Not
only that, they’re saying that they are two of the more prominent officers in
Fallen Ward.”

Siobhan stepped around the table so that she could see them
better. Dark boots were of good leather, if muddy, clothes were in good repair
and fit them properly, and while their weapons were gone, both of them had
sword sheaths strapped to their sides. So they had been properly armed.

“I believe that they might indeed be officers in the guild,”
she concluded aloud. “But Fallen Ward’s old leader is dead. That’s a fact.”

“Hmmm.” Darrens eyed his prisoners thoughtfully. “So why the
lie?”

It was Fei that spoke, voice quiet. “Fallen Ward’s
leadership is hereditary.”

Both prisoners flinched ever so slightly and refused to meet
anyone’s eyes.

Siobhan let out a snort. “Fei, I think you’re on to
something. They don’t want us thinking along these lines. Something wrong with
your current leader, boys?”

Stubborn silence.

“Did the old man even have a family?” Darrens cocked his
head, struggling to remember. “I never dealt with him much, so I don’t know.
But I don’t think he had a declared heir to his seat, did he?”

“We can find out.” Iron Dragain kept close tabs on that
guild, they would know, although it would take time to get a letter to them.

“So either there is no heir, and Fallen Ward is running
around doing whatever their upper leaders tell them to,” Darrens concluded
aloud, “or there is a problem with the current heir, which is why everything is
so hush-hush. Either way, we’ll find out. The main point to all this, I think—”
he planted his boot in a chair and leaned forward, smile menacing “—is that two
of the more prominent leaders of Fallen Ward were acting as commanders for this
army. And if you had the authority to do that, then
that
means that
Fallen Ward was behind this whole thing.”

Siobhan’s mind hadn’t jumped to that obvious conclusion yet,
but when he said that, it felt like her lungs had been robbed of air. Oh. Of
course. “Fallen Ward was behind this?” she breathed, images of the destroyed
cities and wounded flashing in front of her eyes.

“Oh, I’ll bet good money on it.” Darrens’ mouth stretched in
a grimace. “Now, the main question is this, what do we do about it? We’ve had
guilds fight with other guilds before, but never anything on this scale.”

She had to shake her head, hard, to dismiss her thoughts and
focus on his question. It was a good one to ask, and she felt like she didn’t
have a good answer to it. “I think…I think we should focus on getting
Goldschmidt back first.
Then
ask that question again.”

Darrens flipped a hand over, conceding the point. “It’s
true, we can’t do much without a power base, which Converse is not. And we
can’t keep the citizens of Converse displaced like this forever. Winziane’s
hospitality should not be abused. But I don’t think that Fallen Ward should get
away with this.”

“Me either.” Siobhan put a hand over her eyes, terrified for
a moment that she would start crying. It took a deep breath and concentration
on her part to stop any tears from falling. Even then, she felt on the brink of
falling apart. “Guildmaster Darrens, if you don’t need me for anything else,
I’ll head back to the clinic.”

Darrens shook his head. “No, stay. You’re more up to date on
world affairs than I am at the moment with all of the traveling you’ve done in
the past six months. I need to ask a lot of questions of these men and I need
you to verify facts for me.”