Infamous Reign (6 page)

"Male spiders are smaller than the female," I said. "I guess that carries over to your species. Although, don't some females eat the male after sex?"

"Really?" Thomas asked. "Wow, even I think that's disgusting. And I just tore someone's head off."

"We only mate when she's already feeding," the man said. "It's the only safe way to be sure she won't attack me."

"I bumped into the rest of your offspring in the forest,” I told him. “There were a lot of them. If you produce so many children, why do you only have two grown daughters?”

"Only the most powerful will grow enough to become able to change shape." He glanced at the door again. "Are all of them dead?"

I nodded.

Instead of looking angry, or even upset, he appeared relieved and after a second, changed back into his human form, the skin on his face healing over instantly. "My days were numbered the second those babies were born. In the past, I'd managed to avoid the younglings until they'd matured enough not to consider me a threat, but I couldn't do it forever."

"Your own kids will eat you?" Thomas asked.

"When I’m too old to remain more powerful than them, yes they will. If there's one thing animals and
jorōgumo
both do, it’s prey on the weak. It's one of the reasons I got my family to move away from Japan, fewer
jorōgumo
means a greater chance of living another year."

"Okay, enough of this," I snapped. "What was the plan supposed to be?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

I reached to my belt for a small dagger, but found none there. I'd need to replenish my supply at some point. Thomas must have sensed my intention, as he growled, long, low and threatening.

The small man reacted as if he'd actually been stabbed, almost launching himself back. I decided I was done playing nice and caught the chair with my foot, flipping it over onto its back. With an audible crack, the man's head connected with the wooden floor.

"Shall we try again?" I asked.

"Tate was supposed to bring the crowns here," the man said. "These soldiers were working for Buckingham. They were going to kill Tate and take the crown to Eastbourne, southeast of here, where they’d meet up with the rest of Buckingham’s forces and rendezvous with a ship off the coast. The boys and the crowns are to sail for France."

“How do you know that?” Thomas asked.

“Drunken soldiers like to talk.”

"And what was your role in all of this?" I asked.

"Someone hired us to make sure the soldiers and crowns never left here. We’re not part of whatever plan Buckingham has for those crowns, or the boys. The crowns were our payment for ensuring the soldiers died."

"Who hired you?"

"I’ve no idea what his name is."

Thomas growled again, and the man flinched. "He said his name was Mordred. He was about your height," he tipped his chin toward me. "But not as broad. Long dark hair. That's all I saw. He was the one who told Buckingham to send Tate here to meet the soldiers."

"If Mordred and Buckingham are working together, why does Mordred want these soldiers dead? They’re meant to deliver the crowns, why doesn’t Mordred want them arriving?" I asked.

"You'd have to ask him that," the man said. "Our involvement ended with what we were paid to do."

"My guess is you’d do it whether you were paid or not," Thomas said. "How many people have come through those doors and never left?"

"I don't know," he said. "Fifty, sixty?"

"In how many years?" I asked.

"Four," he told us. "Look, I know you think we're monsters, but it's only natural for us to prey on the unsuspecting and the weak. It's what
jorōgumo
do."

"And what I do is kill people who do just that," I told him, and he flinched away from me. “But today is your lucky day. You've been honest, and quite frankly, I don't want to sully myself with killing you."

"Thank you," he said with an awful smile.

"Oh, you probably don't want to be smiling." I picked up the satchel, which had fallen on the floor at some point during the night's commotion and checked that the crowns were still secure. "We're not untying you."

"You're just going to leave me here?" he asked incredulously.

"That's the plan. I don't want you running off and alerting anyone, so here you stay." I created a small ball of fire in one hand and threw it on the nearest soldier's body, which immediately caught fire. Several more balls of fire followed and soon there were the beginnings of an inferno on one side of the tavern. "But no one will ever be taken by you or yours here again. You probably have an hour until this building burns down. From the look of your wife when I left her in the woods, fire doesn't agree with your species."

"She's alive?" he asked, fear in his eyes as he struggled against the ropes.

I nodded. "Good luck."

Thomas and I stepped outside, leaving the smell of burning flesh and wood behind us, and I got my horse from the stable. When I returned a few minutes later, Thomas was watching the woods with concern.

"There's something out there. Something that smells of burnt flesh and death."

"The female
jorōgumo
," I said and swung up onto the horse. "He's in the house," I shouted into the woods. "He stood by while your other daughter died. You probably don't have long until the fire burns the house down, but if you're looking for revenge on him, you have time."

A series of clicks was the only reply I heard.

"A word of warning, “I added for her benefit. “If it's me you're after. I will take your head and move on with my day. My patience has been tested one time too many, and I do not have time to play any more games."

I nudged the horse forward.

"What if she sets him free and they run away together?" Thomas asked after we'd made it a few hundred meters up the road.

I stopped the horse and turned back in time to see a dark shape sprint across the clearing from the woods to the tavern. A few seconds later, screams sounded in the breaking dawn.

"I guess I wasn't her top priority. Either way, she didn't have long to live with the injuries she'd sustained."

"Pretty awful way to die," Thomas said and the sound of the collapsing building signaled the end of the tavern.

"No more awful than being eaten alive by one of them. Quite frankly, I'd say it was the death they deserved."

Chapter
9

“Why aren’t we heading for Eastbourne?” Thomas asked after it became increasingly apparent that we were going in the wrong direction.

“We need to see someone first,” I told him, as he walked beside the horse. “So, we’ll have to stop off in Brighton.”

“Whom are we meeting?”

“An old… acquaintance. If those boys are being taken to France, there’s no way that a ship of the size necessary to travel there is going to be anchored and just waiting. Safer for the ship to be further out to sea and just use a row boat to come ashore.”

“So, once we find the ship, your acquaintance will get us onboard?”

“Not exactly, he’s going to be there primarily to make sure the ship doesn’t set sail before the princes are safe. He’ll hopefully give Mordred and anyone working with him, something much more worrying than either of us. That should give us time to ambush them.”

“And how will he do all of that?”

I wasn’t exactly sure how much to tell Thomas, but anyone who had fought beside and for me the way he had deserved to know what we were about to get into. “He’s a summoner,” I told him.

Thomas stopped walking and stared up at me. “I didn’t think there were any left.”

“Most of them don’t advertise anymore. That much power scares people, and scared people tend to do stupid things. Most summoners have either moved on to more remote places or hide their talents. The man who lives at Brighton is one of the few who does neither of those things.”

“What type of summoner is he?”

“Water,” I told him. Summoners came in a four different guises; fire, air, earth and water.

“I’ve never met one before. Anything I need to know?”

I thought about it for a second before answering. “Firstly, despite their lengthy lifespan of several centuries, they can be killed by anything a human can. It’s why most of them are very cautious about showing their power. So, be aware that he might need protecting until he starts his work, but once he merges with the element he can’t be hurt.

“Secondly, once he starts to work, get as far away from him as possible. Whatever he summons won’t always be able to distinguish between friend and foe. Although he’s more powerful than most, that only means he can summon something for a longer period of time. How much control he has comes down to his mental stamina.”

“That it? Keep him safe and then get out of the way?”

“Oh, one last thing. Don’t judge his entire species on his tendency to be a money-grabbing little bastard.”

Before Thomas could ask more, we reached the outskirts of the small fishing village of Brighton. I’d heard of plans to expand the area into the beginnings of a town, but wasn’t sure the few hundred people who lived and worked in the seas off the coast would be too happy with the resulting influx of people, many of whom would be rivals to their livelihood.

We continued to make our way through the village, garnering the occasional glance from one of the villagers, who were either tending to their land or weaving nets for the next fishing trip.

I climbed down from my horse and led him further into the village and up to the large stone house in the center. A large man appeared, struggling with a sheepskin fleece that was draped over his shoulders. His big, bushy, orange beard was at odds with his bald head, and appeared to be compensating for the lack of warmth on the top of his skull.

“I’m the sheriff of this village and am in charge here,” he bellowed, the voice matching the man. “What do you need?”

A man riding his own horse was something of a rarity. It signaled that you were either very wealthy or a thief. The fact that Thomas was walking beside me put me firmly in the first category in the sheriff’s eyes, thieves don’t usually have someone to walk alongside their horse.

“I’m here to see someone,” I told him as tied my horse to a nearby post. “And my horse requires food and water. It’s been a long few hours.”

“I’m in no mood to…” the sheriff began, quickly quieting down when I tossed him a small pouch of gold coins. “My Lord,” he said with a slight bow. “Your horse will be attended to. May I ask whom you’re here to visit; maybe we can be of service.”

“We’re here to see Alan.”

The sheriff blanched at the mention of the summoner’s name, and I noticed several of the villagers stop what they were doing to turn and stare at Thomas and me.

“He lives on a house by the sea front,” one of the villagers said, a small woman with a pale complexion and bright red cheeks. “Are you here to take him from us?”

The slight note of pleading in her voice led me to believe that Alan wasn’t the most popular person in Brighton.

“That depends on him. But maybe, yes.”

“He’s in the house right now,” the sheriff said. “He doesn’t leave unless it’s important.”

“How many people live here?” Thomas asked.

“Four hundred and nine,” he said. “I make sure to count.”

“How many does Alan take money from?” I asked.

“Anyone who wants to be able to go to sea and return home safely,” the woman told us. “We pay him, or our ships are destroyed. He tells us that he keeps all the boats safe when they’re out on the water. He’s full of dark magic.”

“So, you rely on him to keep you all safe. In fact, you pay him to do just that, but don’t actually want to be anywhere near him?” Thomas asked.

“Like I said, dark magic,” the woman said and made the sign of the cross over her chest.

I nodded thanks to the sheriff and villagers and, after removing the satchel from my horse, Thomas and I made our way through the village toward the sea. The summoner’s house wasn’t hard to spot. To start with, it was massive, a three-floor building made of huge pale stones. But more than its size was the simple fact that it was the only dwelling anywhere near the water.

We walked across the beach and stopped outside the house, where I started to knock on the thick wooden door. It took a few times before anyone decided to recognize the fact that we were outside.

“Fuck off,” came a gruff voice from the floor above, followed by the unmistakable sound of a woman’s moan.

“Alan, you can answer the door, or I can break it down,” I shouted. “Whatever runes you have will do more damage to your home than to me.”

I counted to sixty as another moan, this one high pitched and urgent, sounded out, followed by a deep bellow of pleasure.

“I could have lived a long, happy life and not heard that.” Thomas said.

“If that’s the worst thing he says or does today, count yourself lucky.”

I stepped back from the door to the sound of bolts being thrown from inside the house. Eventually the door opened, to reveal a tall, muscular man with long, dark hair that flowed over his shoulders, where more dark hair continued. He was also sweaty and naked.

“You could have put something on,” I said as he moved aside to let Thomas and me into his warm house.

The room we stepped into was steeped in finery. Statues and busts sat on ornate tables and a wolf rug lay on the cold stone floor.

“You’ve done well,” Thomas said, lifting up a handful of gems from a nearby bowl.

“Are you here for a cut or something?” he asked.

“Alan, do you remember me?” I asked.

“Nathaniel Garrett. You still work for that asshole Merlin?”

I ignored the taunt. I wouldn’t get into an argument with him. It was a worthless pursuit. “I need your help.”

“The answer is no,” he said. “I’m quite happy. Now if you’ll both leave, the sheriff’s wife isn’t going to fuck herself.” He stopped and thought for a second. “Actually she might, she’s quite the handful.”

“You have the sheriff’s wife up there?” Thomas asked. “No wonder he doesn’t like you.”

“Yeah, well he should pleasure his woman more often, instead of drinking himself into a stupor. She’s a young, virile woman, and she needs a damn fine cock in her at every opportunity.”