He opened up a vent. “What do you want, Essin?”
“Rynax!” Essin shouted desperately. “You got to help me!”
“I don’t have to do anything.”
“Please, Rynax, please. I’m hurt bad.”
“Show me your hands,” Verci said. “What’s under the coat?”
Essin, looking pale and clammy, nodded. He pulled out a small green statue from under his coat—with four arms and a horrific face.
Verci threw open the door and pulled Essin inside, slamming the door and latching it right away. Essin fell to the floor, panting and wheezing.
“Where did you get that?” Verci asked.
“I just did this job, went totally left. Please.” He held out the statue like it was a peace offering.
Verci snapped it away from him, putting the thing on the worktable. “I’ve got some bandages and such, but you need a proper sew-up.”
“No, no, just here,” Essin said. “I’m in some trouble, man.”
Verci looked at the statue. Even though it was a small thing, it was definitely the same style as the one he had stolen from a carriage a few months back, delivering to the mysterious buyer Josie had arranged. And at Lord Henterman’s home, Liora Rand had taken a small one like this. Perhaps this very one.
“Tell me,” Verci said as he grabbed his bandage kit. “And talk fast.”
“Things have been bad since the brawl at the mage house. Without Lesk, it’s been a mess. So I took a gig with this crew from Keller Cove.”
“To steal this statue?” Verci asked. “You know what it is?”
“No clue,” he said. “They needed a window-man to get into this swell’s house in East Maradaine. Gig itself went fine. They had someone on the staff leave a back gate open, I was in and out quiet. Real clean.”
“You stayed sober for it.” The wound was a pretty vile slice across Essin’s belly. Verci could sew it up, but he knew it would probably turn green then black in a few days.
“I ain’t had a drink for months, man.”
“Good,” Verci said. “You sure you don’t want Gelson or someone for this? It’s not going to heal well under my care.”
“It’s fine.” He winced in pain. “Just patch it up for now. I gotta lay low. I don’t know who’s not a part of it. Figured you were safe.”
“Part of what?” Verci asked. He got to work on sewing the wound, for all the good it would do. “What’s up with this statue? Is Josie involved in this?”
“No clue,” Essin said. “Gig didn’t come from her. Like I said, it all went clean at the swell’s house. In easy, cracked the box that was in, and back out like butter.”
“You cracked the box?” He didn’t know Essin was also a box-cracker. But he didn’t know Essin had stopped drinking either.
“Nah, someone named Raimond. Never worked with them before. Decent sort, good hands. We got that and made our way back to the safehouse in Keller Cove to meet up with the rest of the crew, get our cut. And we got our cut, all right.”
“They turned on you?” Verci asked.
“Turned,” Essin said before he fell into a fit of wet, hacking coughs. Blood coming from his mouth. “There was nothing turned about this. These cats were part of some cult or something.”
“A what?”
“I’m telling you, we get there, they were all in robes, and were saying stuff about the holy vessel, and then to dispatch the unfaithful. Next thing I know, Raimond gets a knife in the gut, and two of those tossers are coming for me.”
“And that’s how you got this?” Verci asked, pointing to the wound.
“No, thank the saints! I held on to that thing and ran out of there, fast as I could. Was able to give them the slip by roof topping and window dropping. Hid for a bit, and then made my way to one of the flops we used with Lesk. I get there, Ren is already there.” Ren Poller, Lesk’s right hand when he was starting up his new gang. “He had his knives out.”
“Ren did this to you?”
Essin nodded. “He saw the statue and his eyes glazed over. Just jumped on me, whispering about the Brotherhood would be grateful for this gift of blood.”
“Ren Poller?” Verci asked again. The Brotherhood again, like Tarvis had said. What the blazes was that about? “You got away from him?”
“I smashed his skull with that thing,” Essin said. “That’s a rutting gift of blood.”
Ren Poller was dead. That was a bit to take in. “So you came to me.”
“Rynax, I knew Ren for years. If I couldn’t trust him, I didn’t know where else to go,” Essin said. “I figured . . . I know you and your brother don’t like me or nothing, but I was certain you’d be straight, if anyone was.”
“Yeah,” Verci said. He’d done what he could, stopped the worst of the bleeding, but there was no way he had done much other than keep Essin alive for another couple days. “I don’t know if I did you any favors here.”
“I just need a place to rest, Rynax. Whatever you want, let me rest.”
“Fine, there’s a spare room upstairs,” Verci said. He picked up the ugly statue. “But I’m holding on to this.”
“If you want. I just wanted to get away from those bastards, but my gut told me they shouldn’t have that.”
“I’m inclined to agree,” Verci said. “So let’s get you in the spare room upstairs, and then you can tell me where in Keller Cove to find these bastards.”
Chapter 11
THERE WAS NOTHING BUT DARKNESS and water as Dayne’s body was battered and smashed against rock after rock. He had barely managed to get a breath before he had been swept under the current. No sense of anything, other than the rush of river.
Something smashed into him. Soft. Human.
Hemmit.
Dayne instinctively grabbed and held on.
He had to get them out of the
