“Rescue?” Cat rested an elbow on the wheel. “The Bazira Vicar sent Vaas to kill Selena. He doesn’t need rescuing from his employers.”
“What about that, old man?” Ilior demanded, though Niven could see the Vai’Ensai’s ire for Marcus had cooled slightly after the telling of his tale. His hatred of Sebastian had not. “I can’t fathom why you’d choose to tether yourself to that murderer after what he did to you, but the deeds of men will never cease to baffle me. You say he changed. You started over. Then why did he go to the Bazira? Why did he agree to kill her?”
“He never could,” Marcus said. “I swear it. I knew he could never do it. And I was right.”
“That’s a pretty big gamble, old man,” Cat said.
“He loves her,” Marcus said simply, and Niven saw instantly that was the wrong thing to say.
Ilior’s already pale skin paled further. “A filthy lie,” he seethed. “A monster like him cannot love.”
“He doesn’t know it. He doesn’t think he can…” Marcus said, shrinking back.
“He can’t,” Cat said. “But Selena can. She fell in love with him and he let her. Disgusting.”
“No,” Niven said. “She doesn’t….love him.”
Cat shrugged. “While you’re busy praying to your god, I watch. And listen. She slept with him, I think. That night of the attack on the keep.”
Niven whipped his head up at this as Ilior sucked in a breath.
“No, she didn’t,” Niven said. “No, no, no. She’s Aluren, he’s not. She wouldn’t…”
“Aluren,” Cat sniffed. “Your Temple has made her an outcast. She’s been alone for ten years. You think that kind of solitude is easy to take?”
No, Niven thought, I know it’s not.
“It’s a lot easier to forsake some stupid vow than live alone for so long.” Cat shivered. “I can’t even imagine it. And I’d wager you a thousand gold that Bloody Bastian used that loneliness to get to her. And then he made to kill her but the Bazira siege on the keep interrupted his plans.”
“No,” Marcus said. “He fought them. You saw it.” He turned to Niven, pleading. “You saw him. He killed Gareth…He’s changed.”
“Changed?” Cat barked. “A cold-blooded killer like that? I’ve lived all my life in the Eastern Edge. The stories of his deeds were used to frighten little children into behaving or else ‘Bloody Bastian will come for you.’ He once hung a victim by his ankles and bled him like a goat to slaughter while the man’s wife watched. You think a man like that can change?”
“I know he can,” Marcus said. “I know he has.”
“Then why did he take the commission from the Bazira?” Niven asked quietly.
“Money.” Marcus smiled sadly. “Why else? For the ship. For us, his crew. He hadn’t worked in four years because he kept his promise. To me. But the gold…” He sighed and shook his head. “He thought he could do one more. One last job. I tried to talk him about of it but he parleyed with the Vicar anyway. I thought he’d broken his promise to me, and I suppose he did in a way when he agreed to take the job. But once he told me who his mark was—a woman who’d killed the Zak’reth and ended the war, I knew he’d never go through with it. Even before he met her, I knew…”
He looked up at them all, Niven, Cat and Ilior, the crew. Pleading.
“The Zak’reth were his enemy. They killed his father. Raped and murdered his sister, right before his eyes. They made him watch. Can you fathom it? That’s how he earned his bloody name. The victims that came after—gods know I don’t forgive him for those that came after. The gods know I can’t.”
The old man’s eyes were shining and staring at nothing, at memories only he could see. Then he shook himself out of it.
“The victims that came after the Zak’reth… he killed them clean. No suffering. That’s no consolation, I know, but do you see? His wrath was for the Zak’reth and to them he showed no mercy. It was on their blood that he earned his reputation.”
“A hired killer is a hired killer,” Ilior said in a low, rasping voice. “Your excuses sicken me.”
“I don’t excuse him,” Marcus said wearily. “I can only try to help him. To let go of the pain and help him to change. To do some good. If I don’t do that, my wife and son…what’s left of them? Only memories. If I can make them a part of something better…”
“It’s a little late for that,” Cat said. “I aim to make sure Vaas starts paying his dues.”
“Yes, well,” Niven stammered, “I’ve been wanting to ask…Who are you?”
Marcus looked fearful but anger smoldered in his eyes too. “Aye, who are you, missy, to sneak aboard and pretend to be one of us?”
“Us? You are not of these men.” Cat nodded at the crew. “You’re just as much imposter as me. You used them to keep Vaas’s secret while pretending to be charitable. Giving mute men gainful employment. Make them feel useful.” She snorted indelicately.
Marcus looked nervously at the three crewmen who shifted on their feet and exchanged glances.
“No,” he said. “Sebastian hired them for their silence, that is true. But he cared for them as a captain does.” The old man stood up straight. “And they know it.”
There was a pause and then Spit and Cur nodded, but Whistle, tears in his eyes, made angry, slashing signs.
“He would never hurt her, lad,” Marcus told the boy. “I promise you.”
Whistle hesitated and then nodded, tears coursing down his cheeks. Cur slung an arm around his shoulders.
Cat snorted again and Ilior looked ready to kill.
“Paladin Koren told me you’d had your tongue cut out,” Niven said to Cat. “That Jul—that Sebastian saw it happen. You were attacked by men on Nanokar, by crewmen who learned you were a woman posing as a boy on their ship. Obviously, that wasn’t entirely…genuine.”
“Obviously,” Cat said with a laugh. She regarded her audience as if deciding on how much to say. “I’m a bounty-hunter,” she said finally, with obvious pride. “I’ve been tracking Sebastian Vaas for three years.”
“The Raven,” Marcus said, twisting his cap around and around. “You’re the Raven, aren’t you?”
“Heard of me?” The bounty hunter smiled. “Aye, some call me the Raven. Some, the Lady of Faces. My marks call me various other names, none befitting a lady.” She laughed and ran a hand through her cropped hair. “Ah, but that’s why I’m the best.” She leaned on the wheel and gave Marcus an arch look. “Vaas has many names too, doesn’t he? Appropriate that Lunos’s most notorious assassin should be caught by its best bounty-hunter, don’t you think?”
“You know nothing, lass.”
“I know plenty. I’ve been tracking you and Vaas since you wintered on Juskara three years past.”