Total pages in book: 222
Estimated words: 210715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1054(@200wpm)___ 843(@250wpm)___ 702(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 210715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1054(@200wpm)___ 843(@250wpm)___ 702(@300wpm)
“There were eight of us there: Otrade, Praga, and six others I didn’t know. Otrade said we were about to raid a house. We were to secure it and leave as many as we could alive, because he had to ask some questions. He kept asking Praga if she was sure she had the right house, and she kept telling him that she had followed the carriage all the way from the warehouse, and that he needed more people, because the man who’d carried the woman out made her skin crawl.”
It made sense now. Hreban had invested too much into the Butcher to leave him unattended. He told Otrade to keep an eye on it, and Otrade had sent Praga. She saw Everard carry me out and the Shears set the warehouse on fire. She must’ve followed our carriage straight to our house.
The only question now was, had Otrade reported to Hreban right away or did he wait? If I were Otrade, I would’ve waited until I could question us. The bad news would go over better with some kind of explanation attached. My lord, your pet serial killer was murdered, but I found the people responsible, and I have them under lock and key. What would you like us to do?
“Was Praga in the courtyard, too?” I asked.
Tillmar nodded. “She was the one who scaled the wall.”
There was no way to tell how much Hreban knew. He could know nothing or everything.
“I had a bad feeling about this,” Tillmar said. “I almost didn’t show up. That’s life, you know. It’s . . . short.”
Tillmar’s bad feelings were right on the money. If I didn’t interfere right now, Everard could kill him. Tillmar was a loose end that needed to be tied up.
“Is he any good?” I asked Gort.
“Yes,” Gort said. “Good fighter. Smart.”
“Is he lying about his family?”
“No.”
I looked at Everard. “Can I have him?”
He shrugged. “Do you have a use for him?”
I nodded.
“Very well.”
“Will, bring the wooden box, please.”
The wooden box was where I kept some of our money.
“Yes, my lady.”
Will left.
I rubbed the contract some more. Still a no-go on touching the signature line.
Will returned with the box. I opened it. Otrade had put a half-noma, fifty dens, on the bar. I would need to beat that. I took a noma out.
Tillmar’s face went completely flat.
I looked at the silver coin. “Gort?”
“Yes, my lady.”
“How much redblossom powder can a noma purchase?”
“Six months’ worth,” Gort said.
“We better make it two then.” I put a second noma on top of the first. “Two nomas a month. Sent to your family.”
Gort made 224 dens a month, more than two nomas. I was offering Tillmar a war rate.
Tillmar met my eyes. “What do I have to do?”
“In the morning, go to the Redeemer Tower. Tell them your sad Saubra Company story. Give them lots of details so they have no trouble confirming it. You dream of your friends who were put to death, and when you lie awake at night, they whisper to you from the darkness. You question why you lived, and they didn’t. You wonder if you could’ve saved them. Can you sell that to them?”
Tillmar nodded.
“Good. Look tormented as if the guilt has gnawed at you from the inside until you became a hollow husk of a man.”
Lute looked taken aback. Gort did, too. They hadn’t seen this side of me.
“Yesterday you thought of ending it all, but you dreamt of a knight in dented armor holding a sage standard on a plain wooden spear. He called to you. You’ve come to pledge yourself to the Redeemer Order.”
“What if they ask about my family? Redeemer pay is shit.”
Gort was right. Tillmar was smart.
“Tell the Redeemers that you’re no good to your family, since nobody will hire you. You have failed as a soldier, husband, and father. They are better off without you. You cannot live with yourself, and you wish to be reborn. Can you do that?”
Tillmar nodded. “I can.”
“Do you think your wife can pretend to be sad and abandoned or do we need to lie to her?”
“Benna is smart. She will play her part,” Tillmar promised. “She won’t tell a soul.”
“Good. You will write two letters. One explaining the true story and the other one so she can show it to people when they come asking.”
“What do I need to do at the Redeemers?”
“Be the best Redeemer recruit they ever had. Be humble, pious, and dedicated. Volunteer for unpleasant tasks. Say as little as possible, just show up when they need you.”
He nodded.
“They will confine you while they verify your story, so you won’t be able to leave the Tower for the first month or so, but that will pass. The first few times you go out, you will be watched. When you feel safe, go to Taryz Teahouse and order Thieves Brew with a sambocade. They will tell you they’re out of sambocades. Order something else instead, enjoy your tea and go back to the Tower. The next time you come back to Taryz, ask for the sambocades again and there will be instructions for you.”