Page 24 of The Warrior Priest (After the Rift #1)

She had several lovers, mostly men but sometimes women, too. No one seemed shocked so I pretended that I knew that sort of thing happened all the time. Then after a little while, I no longer raised an eyebrow. It seemed perfectly natural for Giselle to bed whomever she pleased.

One evening, when she said she was slipping off for a while with one of her regular lovers, I told her I was leaving and going to bed early.

After hearing some news from Glancia earlier, I felt a little homesick.

How long would it be before I saw Tilting again?

I wanted to go back. The question was, should I?

The house was quiet, but I couldn’t sleep.

I decided to read until I drifted off. Giselle wouldn’t mind if I borrowed one of her books.

Although I hadn’t been in her office since the day I arrived, she’d never actually banned me from entering.

She simply kept the door locked to keep the collection safe from burglars.

The lock presented a little more difficulty than I expected, but I got it open with my picking tools after remembering a very old lesson from my father on a similar mechanism.

I studied the spines of the books, but the one about Zemayan beliefs caught my attention.

It was the one with the red leather cover that Giselle had been reading soon after my arrival.

I removed it from the shelf and sat on the chair at the desk, making space by pushing some correspondence aside.

A letter in the middle of the pile caught my attention. It bore the Tilting governor’s seal. The seal was still intact, so Giselle hadn’t read the letter yet.

The front door opened, and cool air brushed my cheeks. I waited for Giselle to find me. I intended to confront her about the letter, but she spoke first.

“What are you doing in here? Does a lock mean nothing to you?”

“I thought you’d be proud. That lock is complex.” I held up the letter. “Why are you corresponding with the Tilting governor?”

She approached the desk and accepted the letter with a frown. “I’ve been dumping the correspondence there all week. I haven’t got to any of it yet.” She broke the seal and unfolded the single sheet. “That’s interesting. It’s about you.”

“Me?” She handed it to me, and I read. “He wants to hire you to find the girl disguising herself as a boy called Jac.”

“Apparently.”

“He’s offering a nice sum.”

“Not nice enough.” She took back the letter and tossed it onto the desk. “What aren’t you telling me, Jac?”

I looked down at the book.

She picked it up and closed it. “You told me he wanted you because you had the pendant. He has the pendant now, so why does he want me to find you?”

I blew out a breath and met her gaze. “He’s my uncle.”

“Ohhhh. So you’re the niece who died.” She sat on the edge of the desk, frowning. “Except clearly you didn’t die. I think you need to tell me everything.”

And I did. She listened, riveted, and when I finished, she clutched the book to her chest and stared at me. “That explains the nice accent, your…bearing, I suppose you’d call it. I could tell you weren’t born in a gutter. Why didn’t you tell me before now?”

I shrugged. “I didn’t want anyone knowing the connection.”

“You didn’t trust me?” She sounded hurt.

“I felt ashamed having that man as my relative.”

She nodded. “That makes sense. I’d hate being related to him, too.” She tapped the letter. “Don’t worry, Jac. I won’t turn you over to him.”

“I never doubted it.” I stood. “I was going to read for a while in bed. Why are you home so early? Did your lover lack the stamina?”

“Quite the opposite. He wanted to invite another woman to join us. I do not share.”

“Remind me never to take a potato off your plate.”

She chuckled then stood and, remembering the book in her hands, tapped the cover. “Why were you looking through this?”

“I’m researching the old family legend about the sorcerer placing power into my pendant. The sorcerer is a Zemayan belief, so I thought a book on that subject might teach me something.”

“I read this not long ago and there was nothing about that in here, but you could try another.” She scanned the bookshelf then pulled out a thick book with black lettering on the spine. “Try this one. It’s about the history of the peninsula.”

“How will that help?”

“Never discount history. Knowing the past is always helpful. The legend is old, and the Zemayan culture and belief system is old…the book might mention the sorcerer.”

I accepted the book, but something else had just occurred to me.

“The pendant hasn’t given Uncle Roderic the power he sought, so he thinks I can unlock that power for him.

” I pointed at his letter. “ That’s why he wants to find me.

It’s not because I’m family. It’s because the pendant isn’t working. ”

“You’re probably right. He certainly hasn’t taken over the city yet, let alone the entire world.” She gave a rueful laugh. “He probably thinks your mother told you a secret to unleash the power. Perhaps a spell.”

I looked down at the history book in my hands. “I’ll look through this.”

She held up the book on Zemayan beliefs. “And I’ll read this one again, just in case I missed something last time.”

Spring brought warmer weather and an announcement from Giselle that I was ready for my first mission.

I didn’t feel ready.

“I’ve only been training six months,” I said after we completed a light session in the park. “Shouldn’t it be longer?”

“For most people, I would agree. But you are ready, Jac. Your excellent memory accelerated your learning, just as I thought it would. The client has sent me a sketch of the target and a potential place to carry out the job. It shouldn’t be too hard for your first.”

Job. Target. It was all so clinical. “Who’s the victim?”

She grabbed my arm and turned me to face her.

“He’s not a victim. He’s a cruel, sadistic man who preys on women right here in Upway.

One of the brothel madams is the client.

She sent me enough information to satisfy me that he deserves to die.

I’ll say it again. He is not the victim.

Those women are. You must understand that, Jac, or this life will destroy you.

Before you go any further along this path, tell me you understand. ”

“I do.”

She squeezed my arm. “Good. It is difficult the first time, but you’ll get used to it.”

I followed her out of the park, feeling somewhat numb about the evening ahead, still not believing that I was ready to go on my first mission, or that I was going to end a man’s life. Perhaps being numb was the only way to get through it.

Several hours later, as clouds came in and obscured the crescent moon, I set off alone.

The target, as Giselle called him, was a sailor from Freedland whose ship was moored in the deeper part of the river.

Every night he rowed ashore with some fellow sailors, and while they visited taverns and brothels, he picked out his victims from the whores who worked the streets, the ones with no brothel madam to protect them.

I’d studied the sketch of his face but added my own knowledge to the identity.

As a Freedlandian, he would be short and stocky with tanned skin, and powerfully strong.

The sand people of the republic on the southern point of the Fist Peninsula were known to be rough and lawless, so he would likely fight without honor.

He would be armed, but probably just with a knife, not a sword.

With weapons secreted about my body, I prowled through the streets in search of him.

I never found the Freedlandian sailor. In fact, I’d never expected to.

I was ambushed by three men on the very street where I should have seen him.

They’d been waiting for me behind barrels and crates, stacked on both sides of the narrow street.

I quickly dispatched the first with my knife, which I was already holding.

He fell to the ground and did not get up.

As the two others came at me, I ducked under the sword blade of one and swept out with my foot at the other, tripping him.

Springing up to my full height, I parried a strike then another and another.

The third fellow came at me again, this time from behind.

I managed to dance out of the way of the second man’s blade just in time to also avoid the sword of the third.

A swift kick to the knee had him shouting in pain and falling to the ground beside the first attacker.

With two men removed, I concentrated all my effort on the third, who proved more resilient. He was an excellent swordsman.

But Giselle was right. My memory served me well.

My body recalled all of the training and instinctively reacted to each strike and parry with a countermove.

The most difficult part was ensuring my reactions were unpredictable.

I beat him by cutting his sword hand across the knuckles, slicing open his glove.

He dropped the sword, but he wouldn’t be permanently injured.

“You can come out now, Giselle,” I said, not yet sheathing my sword.

Giselle emerged from the shadows further along the street. “Well done, Jac. Not only did you defeat them, but you also realized it was a test.”

I waited until the men had retrieved their swords and sheathed them before I thrust mine into the scabbard. “I didn’t know at first. I hope you’re not too hurt,” I said to the first man I’d cut in the side.

He winced as he drew his hands away from the bleeding wound. “I’ll recover.”

Giselle paid them and put her arm around my shoulders, steering me back the way I’d come. “How did you know?”

“I went to the port this afternoon after you told me about the target. There were no Freedlandian ships docked. It’s possible one could have arrived after I left, but the port master said none were expected.

So I assumed you were testing me, but I wasn’t completely sure until I saw you.

Those three were determined. They didn’t hold back.

Did they know it was just a test and not to hurt me? ”

“Of course. You did very well, Jac. Very well indeed.” She patted my shoulders before releasing me. “I suspected you’d gone to the port this afternoon, but what I meant was, how did you know I was there? I no longer use the orange blossom soap.”

I laughed lightly. “It’s a pity. I liked the orange blossom.”

“Then how did you know?”

“Your silhouette is distinctive. I could just make it out in the shadows.” I touched her straight hair, the ends just skimming her shoulders. “I know no other women with a feminine figure who wears their hair like you wear yours.”

She touched the ends of her hair, skimming her shoulders. “Very good. Excellent, in fact. If you doubted before that you were ready, I hope tonight sets your mind at ease. You are most definitely ready.”

“But against men who are prepared to kill me?” I shook my head. “Or if all three were as good with the blade as that third one? Or if there were more? I’m not sure, Giselle.”

“Trust me, Jac. You’re ready.” She almost sounded a little annoyed that I continued to doubt her judgment. “Now, get some sleep. Tomorrow, we’ll discuss your first mission. A real one, this time.”

I continued walking. “What if I can’t do it? Those men who attacked me…I didn’t want to kill them.”

“That’s because you knew they weren’t a real threat after your reconnaissance at the port. When someone truly wants to kill you, you’ll have no qualms killing them first. Look at Rhys.”

I stopped. “What?”

She stopped, too, frowning. “That’s quite a severe reaction to the mere mention of his name. All I meant was, Rhys and the other brothers are willing to kill to defend innocent lives. If they can do it, so can you.”

“I suppose.”

My answer didn’t interest her. She was still focused on my reaction to the mention of Rhys’s name. “Are you still infatuated with him?”

“I’m not infatuated. He was my friend for a long time. I miss his friendship, that’s all.”

“He rescued you when you were at your lowest, so it makes sense.”

I continued walking. I didn’t want her to see my face.

“You were young and impressionable, too.” Giselle’s soft voice was full of emotion that had me once again wondering about her own past. “Rhys was the first person to show you any kindness and respect since your mother’s death. It was no wonder you invested all your emotional needs in him.”

She wasn’t altogether correct. Minnow had shown me kindness, as had some of the other whores who came and went from her house, and Mistress Lowey, too.

But I didn’t correct her. She was right in that I had focused a lot of my attention on Rhys.

Perhaps my immaturity was to blame, and my desperate need to love another and be loved in return.

“You will love again, Jac, and next time, it will be better because it will be real, not an infatuation with a man you can never have. But only if you let the ideal of Rhys go. Stop seeing him through the eyes of the girl you were, and see him through the eyes of the independent, incredible woman you’ve become. ”

“I’ll try, if I ever see him again.”

She flashed me a smile. “Hopefully, that’s some time away. I have no plans to return to Tilting soon.”

Plans changed rapidly, however. A week later, just before we were due to set off for the kingdom of Vytill to undertake my first mission, Giselle informed me we were going to Tilting instead.

She’d received a letter from the publican at the Cat and Mouse.

From the look on her face, I could tell it brought troubling news.

“What’s the matter?” I asked.

She folded the letter in half. “A friend is dying.”

“Rhys?”

“No. She’s a dear friend, and I need to be there for her at the end. You could stay here, but I think you should come with me. You should steal back your pendant from your uncle. It belongs to you, and is your only connection to the women who came before you.”

I nodded slowly, warming to the idea. The pendant may not hold any of the sorcerer’s magic, but I still wanted it back. “When do we leave?”

“First thing. But promise me something, Jac. Be careful. Steal it when your uncle is not there. You need to stay out of his way now that he’s looking for you. And stay away from Rhys, too.”

“I plan to, on both counts.”

Despite my intentions, however, it proved impossible to avoid either man.