Page 42 of Veil of Vasara (Fate of the Five #1)

CHAPTER 42 - HESTAN

“D idn’t you hear me? He’s taken. So, fuck off,” the man spat.

He pointed downwards towards the street. His voice was raised but subdued, the lines of his face furrowing deeper as he scowled at me. There was a faint sheen of something on one of his jowls.

I glanced at the figure huddled behind him against the wall. A red hood hid their face, but I could faintly make out the rest of their body. It was a man.

“He doesn’t appear to be taken just yet.”

“That’s because you interrupted me, isn’t it?”

“He also doesn’t appear to be willing,” I remarked.

“What… and you think he’ll open his pretty little legs for you?”

The figure wasn’t moving, but his posture, the tilt of his head towards the right, I could tell he was listening to everything with the utmost attention.

“Perhaps we should let him choose?” I watched the man in front of me cautiously. His light brown skin was tinted red with rage, or it might have been arousal. It was impossible to hide the scowl of disdain that formed against my lips.

He noticed it and laughed, cackled. “Let him choose? Since when do whores get a choice?”

“It’ll make it more interesting,” I said while looking at the man against the wall. Why hadn’t he run? It didn’t make any sense.

“Alright, I’m getting tired of this.” The man walked towards me, a weapon outstretched in his hand.

A weapon so dark it absorbed the night sky, so opaque that even the moonlight was partially swallowed by it.

I lifted my spear off the ground, eyes widening. The inspiration to save this individual instantly seemed to have been a poor idea.

But if by some small chance I could render him unconscious, I could take his weapon. I could take the Noxstone.

The man in red pressed his fingertips against the wall, and sprung forwards slightly when he saw the blade, but he didn’t move any further, crouching like a cat, waiting, watching.

The man in front of him lunged at me. I dodged to the side and spun, twisting my spear to slam into his left side. It hit its mark. The man gripped his ribcage.

“You cunt!” he yelled.

He went for me again, this time with far more skill. He feigned a left sweep, suddenly changing to a central one. I jumped back and used my spear to send his wrist off course. I spun around again, gripping the spear by its head and flipping it forwards to hit the man in the neck. He grabbed the spear and went to hack it with his blade. Although Kalnasan spears were stronger than most materials, the Noxstone would likely cut my weapon in half, if it were applied with such force.

I slid to the ground, and the man who was grabbing my spear had no choice but to fall with me. I yanked my spear from his grip upwards and flicked it behind me, back flipping as I did to fall into a crouched position.

The man grew more agitated and took out another dagger. Two of them…he had two of them.

For someone to have this many, there was no doubt he was from Audra. This, I had already guessed because of his features, his black eyes, his black hair, but only individuals of great importance were afforded so many weapons of this kind.

Fighting with this man was not bound to end well, but I was already in the midst of combat, and I had not been able to predict his identity before I had decided to intervene. Even if I had been, I was not sure I would have been able to walk past as he took the figure in red by force. He clearly wasn’t someone who worked for the Solar Inn, despite the man’s insistence that he was.

He came at me with the two daggers, slicing towards my top and bottom halves simultaneously. He was skilled, and fast. I blocked both of the attacks with the sides of my spear, being careful to only strike the flats of the blade as before. If my spear hit the sharp ends of the weapons, I couldn’t say if it would survive the blow.

One of the weapons flew from his hand as I whacked against his wrist.

He ran towards me, then lurched to my side, making to stab me in the neck. I ducked, twisted, and slammed my spear into his back. He stumbled forwards and then, turned around again. Now our positions were reversed. I was standing in front of the individual in the shadows.

“Who are you?” the man pressed.

I could sense it was in my best interests to avoid answering that question.

“It doesn’t matter. Whoever you are…you’re a dead man anyway,” he stated.

He grabbed a third dagger from somewhere in his clothing. This one was ordinary steel but curved. He aimed for my shins this time. I jumped upwards so he would stab at air. As I came back down, I kicked him in the chest. He fell to the ground, but got back up immediately, aiming for my leg once more. I sprung back, but the curve of the blade meant that he successfully hacked into my shin.

The pain was searing, clawing at my bones like a ravenous beast, starving for my screams. I used my other foot to step on his wrist and in doing so, disarmed him, but caused the blade to drag further down into my muscle.

I couldn’t help but let out a grunt of pain. The blade had hacked at several layers of my tissue. It was only my dodge that had managed to prevent it from hitting bone.

“Look at what you’ve done,” he spoke to the man behind me. “This innocent man is about to die because of you.”

I kept my eyes on the man in front of me.

“Who says I’m going to die?”

“The blood loss is rather fast from this blade.”

“If you had struck true, possibly.”

He laughed patronisingly. “He doesn’t know…How endearing.”

Just as he spoke, a surge of blood spurted out of my leg, colouring the pale fabric of my pants like wine. I looked down in disbelief.

“You know,” the man said, straightening up. “You’re not half bad looking. Older than I usually go for…but that face of yours…it’s really quite beautiful. Maybe I’ll take you as you’re bleeding out, and you can watch.” He pointed to the man behind me.

I calculated I had about twenty minutes at most before I passed out.

And today was the third day, the day I had meant to visit Audra’s Prince for the Noxstone. The Prince’s coin pouch had contained a message, stating a time to come to his chambers.

There was no way that would be possible now.

I’d be fortunate if I could get back to the Palace alive.

I gripped my spear and twisted it in my arm. I approached the man. He used his dagger to lunge for my chest. I dodged and twisted around him, smacking the spear against the back of his shoulders. Before he could regain his balance, I spun around and slammed it into his diaphragm. I used the momentum to flip him over it. His face slammed into the pavement.

He bounced back up and threw his dagger. In response, I bent completely backwards, facing the sky to dodge it, and pressed my spear against the ground as I did. I gripped it as I came back up, facing the man again. Another weapon was in his hand. As he tried to strike, I sprung off the ground and flipped forwards in the air over his arm.

I landed crouched. The impact sent a wave of agony up my leg. I swallowed a yell then spun around on one foot. I flipped the spear forwards again to swipe at the man’s legs. He fell forwards again, and this time, his skull crashed harder against the ground, and his eyes closed over. He was unconscious. Hopefully.

I pressed my fingertips against the pavement, heaving in and out, the blood was continuing to spill out of my leg.

I used my spear to help me up.

I looked into the shadows. The individual was still standing against the wall, regarding the scene with what could only be described by his body language, as calm surprise.

“Are…you…are you well?” I asked the man, struggling to get my words out.

He didn’t answer. I took a few steps towards him.

He outstretched his hand in a ‘stop’ signal. It was gloved. He pointed down at my leg.

“I’m…alright,” I said through gritted teeth. “Are…you?”

The man pointed more insistently at my leg again, and then towards the end of the street where the city was.

He was telling me to get help.

“I know. I…know.” My mouth felt dry. I began to feel dizzy.

I took another step towards him. I stretched out my hand towards his. “Come…with me, I’ll take you somewhere safer.”

The man quickly withdrew his hand as if he were afraid I would touch it.

“I…you don’t have to touch me…just…let me help you…” I had come this far to help this man already, making sure he was safe made sense to do.

The man waved his palm in a ‘no’ motion.

“Alright…but you should leave as well. You should get away from here.”

The man shook his head slowly. His body was still cast in the darkness.

“Do you…Do you know this man?” I pointed at the unconscious Audran.

He shook his head no again.

“Go…. that’s good,” I spoke. “I—"

A rustling sound came from behind me. I turned around to see the Audran, with his Noxstone dagger, plunging for the back of my skull. The man in the shadows stepped forwards, gripping my left shoulder, and punched the Audran in the face, who fell to the ground instantly.

I tried to turn around, but the man from the shadows gripped my shoulder even harder, and I was growing weaker. I sank to the ground instead, on one knee. My grip on my spear was growing worse.

The man sank down in front of me, looking at the ground so that his face was still hidden. He reached for my leg, slowly.

“No…no, you should go, before he…before he awakens.” I gently pushed his hand away.

He smacked my hand back. I looked at his figure. There was something familiar about it, but I couldn’t think clearly, and my vision was starting to blur. I could only let him touch my shin.

I faintly saw him remove one of his gloves.

“What…what…are you…doing?”

I was growing sleepier, gradually slipping into unconsciousness.

He didn’t answer. It struck me he may have been unable to speak at all.

The clothing on the lower half of my leg was already torn. The man placed his hand against my wound. I hissed. It stung.

He hesitated for a moment as he heard me wince in pain. But then continued, even more slowly.

It was only then I realised he had torn off some of his clothing and was bandaging my wound. His hands were cold. His fingers moved softly and carefully, as if he was trying not to exacerbate the pain.

“Have you…done this…before?”

The man nodded.

The bleeding slowed down considerably.

I looked down, blinking hard at my leg. “Thank…thank you.” My breaths were becoming heavier each time I spoke.

The man made a ‘no’ gesture with his hands again, placed a palm against his chest and pointed at me.

No, thank you.

The man stood. He stared at me saying nothing. I knew if I looked up at this moment, from this angle, I would see his face, but I could barely find the energy. Slowly, I began to try.

But as I did, the man turned around, and slipped away into the darkness.

I hadn’t meant to end up on this street. Roart street was fairly close by, but on my way back from there, to buy the dress Dyna had wanted, I had grown increasingly confused with Iloris’ city scape. Unlike the time I had visited Gendall, I’d had no directions.

I hadn’t even needed to buy the dress. I knew Dyna had only said she wanted it as a cover for my pride. But the gold that Audra’s Prince had given us was plentiful, and ever since she had heard of the riots, she had been deeply upset. When we first arrived here, earlier in the month, Dyna and I had taken a walk around the city, along with some of Vasara’s guards, who had volunteered to show us around. On Roart street, she had stared for a long while at a dark wine dress in a shop window. The one now packed and folded in a small pouch at my back.

I certainly hadn’t anticipated bringing back a wound as well.

My strength, although compromised, was now slightly improved. I gripped the spear and stood. The man’s body was still unconscious before me, and his Noxstone weapon lay next to him.

I didn’t think too hard on my decision.

I bent down and lifted it up, carefully, by the handle. I was fortunate I had gripped the Prince’s sword that day, so that I was used to the weight of these weapons somewhat. There was a sheath for it, attached to the man's torso. I gently pulled it from him. He remained unconscious.

Although stealing a weapon from this man was dangerous, there was no way I would make it in time to visit Audra’s Prince now, and I preferred not to be beholden to him. Yes, I had already helped him move that escort’s body, but who knew what else he may ask of me, if I was granted my wish.

I would in general, have preferred to avoid Audra’s Prince as much as possible, and although tonight had gone remarkably awfully, it had not involved his presence, which was at least, something.

As I made my way back up, I stopped. Something reflecting the moonlight caught my vision, to the right, nearby the wall the individual had been standing at.

Ordinarily, I would have ignored it, but I could tell even from here what it was.

It was money. It was gold.

Identical to the coins I had in my pouch.

Identical.

Just one lunar.

One.