Two of Knaves [Deckbuilder] Chapter 31 - An Opening at the Mop and Bucket

Chapter 31 - An Opening at the Mop n’ Bucket

Before returning to the mop, I stopped by the money changer’s and got not only my seeker’s robes, but the blood-stained deck of Margot Bethane’s lieutenant. The cards shrieked as though in agony, the wills pulling in as many directions as suits. I didn’t think I’d be able to ta them. They’d be at least as dangerous to as to Kridick. But they would be more dangerous to Kridick than anything else I had. The suits I’d bonded with felt entirely different than those in my own deck. The knaves craved bloody knives. The dragons were ravenous. The towers cried in claustrophobic panic, wanting to throw up walls and barriers.

Still heady with equal parts anger and exhaustion, and with my hood pulled up against the stabbing light of the wane dragons, I led our rag-tag gaggle to the Mop n’ Bucket, ready for the fight of my life.

When I got there, I found I needn’t have bothered.

“E’s gone,” said Madam Trundli, going to her husband and fussing over his injuries. “Off and scamped, took the treasury and half the larder with ‘im.”

“No way,” I said.

“See for your own self,” she said. “His office is empty.”

She followed up the stairs and down the hall to the door to Kridick’s office, which had been left open, swinging on its hinges. The place looked ransacked. The old mongrel had left in a hurry, leaving a right ss behind him. The only clean thing in the room was the inside of the safe.

“He knew we were coming,” said Annalisa. “Smart to run.”

“It wasn’t from us,” I said. I knew, whoever Lenise really was (and I kicked myself for not asking her), that’s who Kridick was really running from. Or, rather, whoever had set Kridick to keep her here. Soone powerful. A hidden hand behind Kridick’s movents and the source of his authority in Barrowdown. The mysterious Daggertongue I’d heard him ntion on the night he put in his pocket. I felt my lips curl in disgust. If the four of dragons was a dumb na for a spell, then Daggertongue was a stupid na for an archvillain.

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I righted the overturned chair. It was little more than an expression of the exhaustion I felt, having been exhausted and battered all day. I’d fought for my life, taken the lives of others, been betrayed and resolved to take my umbrage out at the earliest opportunity. I was so tired. That’s the only reason. But I sat in that chair. I closed my eyes, I thought only for a mont.

But when I opened them, I looked across Kridick’s old pitted and scarred desk. The entire crew of the Mop had filtered up into the narrow office. All of them looked at . Trundi stood with the staff and talent from the Mop. Mithra stood with the elves and plane-touched that had been taken by the Mayazian. At so point we’d also been joined by Jeedle, Storm-laden, and several of the fighters from the pits. I took a deep breath.

“Kridick will be back,” I said. I looked at Jeedle and Gron, who must have told the pitmaster what had happened because the older brother looked downright furious. “When that happens...” I pulled out my knife, coated it with the shadow slick of the two of knaves, and drove it hilt-deep in the desk. “...We’ll be ready. And we’ll deal with him.”

I sat back and looked at Annalisa. She crossed behind the deck and stood next to , toned arms crossed in her tattered blouse. Her tail thrashed. Despite being a head shorter than most devilborn, she exuded an aura of danger. I knew the woman capable of boundless warmth and energy, but right now she was as cold and implacable as a glacier. The precipice arcana burned brighter than ever. I don’t know what I did to deserve it, but I had the loyalty of a girl that had gone from the punching bag of the Barrowdown pits to a rising force that threatened to topple the lower city. We had made powerful enemies in Mother Mayaz and her gang, not to ntion the other vultures that would gleefully pick the bones of Kridick’s enterprise. I looked at those I’d stood beside, those I’d protected, and those I knew I would have to fight for again.

The dragons seethed in my deck. These were my people. I had people.

“Until then, we’ve got a ghost-damned borough to run.”

End of Arc II