Really? What are the shite’s promises worth?
Here was Wichtig, alive and broke and naked. Where was the god? Where was the promised wealth and fame?
Morgen could stick himself. The god deserted Wichtig and he’d pay for that. If Wichtig decided to kill Bedeckt, it would be in spite of the godling’s desires.
Giving up on the search for his swords, Wichtig instead went looking for a way out of this bloody tower. He found the main entrance and one of his swords leaning against the closed door.
Where was the other sword?
Wichtig swore and spat. What use are two swords be to a man with one working hand? He cursed Stehlen, now sure she was behind the butchery.
Once outside the tower, he found the garrison midden pit, a score of strides across and filled with clothes and weapons swimming in a briny sea of shite and piss and assorted other detritus.
Still naked, he stood staring. Should he dare the pit, swim out and rescue a pair of pants and a shirt? There was a laundry room and tub within the tower. He could scrub the clothes into some semblance of cleanliness. He might not achieve anything like his usual sartorial splendour, but anything was better than wandering the world naked.
He glanced at his bandaged hand and foot. The thought of immersing them in this swill of bodily waste turned his stomach. If he wandered into the midden, he had no doubt it would only be a matter of time until someone was removing his gangrenous limbs with a saw.
Surrendering to the obvious, Wichtig gave up and hobbled to the stables. Within he discovered his beautiful white stallion, ?rgerlich, was gone. As was the gorgeous and uncomfortable saddle. The only remaining mount was a tan sway-backed mare. The beast was saddled. A single filthy sheet—stained yellow with fluids Wichtig didn’t want to think about—sat neatly folded upon the saddle.
The horse, slightly crossed-eyed, watched Wichtig with dull stupidity as the Swordsman removed the blanket and wrapped it about his waist as a long skirt. It wasn’t much, but it gave him some small feeling of control. A naked man was a thing of mockery. A man in a bed sheet, armed with a sword and a bad attitude, was to be feared.
I’ll kill the first person to comment.
Wichtig searched the stable. Stehlen hadn’t left him a pair of boots. The Kleptic bitch probably tossed them into the midden along with everything else.
Fine. That’s fine. I’ll use this. She’s only fuelling my desire to beat her. She’ll see. I’ll repay her a thousandfold for her little games.
Wichtig mounted the horse, cursing the pain and awkwardness of doing it one handed. So many tasks he once took for granted he’d now have to relearn.
He didn’t even want to think about sword fighting. As often as not he fought single-handed anyway, but he still always knew that second sword was there in case things went badly. Swords broke. They got caught in bones.
You’re the Greatest Swordsman in the World. Nothing can stop you.
“I’m going to call you Bl?d,” he told the horse as he nudged it out into the courtyard.
Bl?d glanced over her shoulder, looking either at Wichtig or somewhere behind him.
Wichtig pointed the horse south and dug his heels in.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Put a score of people in a room with nothing to distract them. Confine them there, and they will make it their hell. This is the basis for Swarm.
—Zerfall, Gefahrgeist, Founder of the T?uschung
Stehlen stood over Lebendig, watching the big woman sleep. She admired the steady rise and fall of her chest, the sweep of strawberry blond hair. The Swordswoman was an unstoppable force of nature. A mountain with will. A tornado with direction and intent. Gods she was beautiful.
And you are hideously ugly.
The Kleptic pushed the thought away, shoved her doubts back into the filthy recesses of her soul. She touched Lebendig’s shoulder and the woman’s eyes snapped open, instantly alert.
“We have to go,” said Stehlen.
Lebendig grinned up at her, teeth straight and white and strong. She caught Stehlen’s hand in her own and Stehlen remembered how fast the woman was.
“What’s the rush?” asked Lebendig.
“Wichtig. He’s here. I want to be gone before he’s ready to leave.”
“Are we going to kill him on the road?”
Was that a glint of excitement in the big woman’s eyes?
“No,” said Stehlen. “We’ll follow.”
Lebendig examined her for a long moment. Then she sighed and shook her head.
Is she disappointed?
“He’ll be easy enough to track,” said the Swordswoman. “Let’s break our fast first.”
Stehlen glanced away, uncomfortable and not knowing what to say. “There’s no one to cook for you. We might as well eat as we ride.”
Lebendig sat up, allowing the sheets to fall to her waist as she stretched muscular arms above her like one of those big desert cats. “Where’d they go?”
“Here and there.”
Lebendig raised an eyebrow and said “Kind of scattered about?” with a hint of a knowing smirk.
“Kind of,” said Stehlen.
“But all ending up in the Afterdeath?”