Westhaven by Rowan Erlking (best sci fi novels of all time TXT) 📕

“Hey,” a voice called out not too loud from the shadows in the adjacent alley. “Come here.”

Key halted, squinting at the darkness as he set his hand on his sword. “Who are you?”

“Just come here,” the voice said.

Glancing at Tiler, Key crept into the darker shadow. Tiler hurried right on his heels.

In the pitch black he heard a voice say, “What are you in Calcumum for?”

Key didn’t like the tone of it, but he felt the truth in this circumstance was better than a lie. If they had been Sky Children, he would have seen their eyes. “I’m here to free a slave.”

The voice in the room chuckled, joined by another one at the right and two on the left.

“Do you have any money?” the voice asked.

Already his insides told him that these men were robbers. His father had told stories about the robbers of Calcumum, which was why his father never did business with people of that city. They were famous for being unscrupulous.

“Only petty cash,” Tiler replied. “Nothing worth mentioning.”

“I think you’re lying,” the voice said.

By now Key’s eyes had adjusted to the dark. He could see that there were not just four men in the room as he had first supposed, there were about eight. Each one looked as dangerous as the other, and all of them as deceitful as snakes.

“I think I see a pretty sword. That ought to be worth a few thousand in silver,” the man said.

“You like swords?” Key asked, glancing to Tiler.

Tiler clenched his hilt tighter, feeling into his vest for his pistol also.

The group of thugs chuckled. One drew out a sword with the intent to use it.

“Oh, we love them,” the leader said, his voice growing darker with threat. “Give us yours, and we might let you live.”

“Might?” Tiler said. He snorted, jerking his head towards Key. “You had better not harm him at all. He’s a swordsmith.”

“I’m willing to deal with you.” Key nodded to Tiler, smiling, though his eyes counted the exits in that dark hole. There were three. Obviously someone before them had also thought about making tunnels in the city. These seemed to go into the hillside. “I can make you swords if you help me steal the governor’s new slave.”

The leader first froze then broke into laughter. “You want the governor’s slave? What for?”

Key waited to reach for his gun, wishing somewhat that Loid and Callen had met up with them in the city before they had arrived. He had a sneaking suspicion that both of them had trouble on the railways and needed to jump off along the way. “I was contracted to steal him.”

“Contracted? What are you? A mercenary?” The tone in this leader’s voice rose to a sound of approval.

“He’s a swordsmith,” Tiler said again. “Whatever else he is, is none of your business.”

The thugs in the room laughed.

“None of our business?” The leader’s amusement seemed to grow with every word Tiler said. “You’re in our city, boy. And we’ve been entertained long enough. Jannith, kill him and take his pretty sword.”

The thug with the weapon ran forward, heaving up his blade. Key knew that stance. It was not much different than Callen’s fighting style. This man would kill with more than just his blade. His brute strength alone could overpower them if they didn’t watch it.

“Don’t fire yet,” Key whispered to Tiler. “Let me do this first.”

Tiler made a face, but nodded.

Key ran up right into his fighting dance, and met the thug mid-swing. The strong blade Key had constructed clashed hard against the simple forged blade of his opponent. In that one strike, they heard the weaker one crack. Landing with a twist on the ground, Key struck in a second time, this time slashing his opponent’s side. As he whipped around, making sure the thugs around him didn’t stab him with his back turned, Key held his guard up, retreating towards Tiler.

“Jannith!” the leader hopped forward. “Kill him!”

Jannith was clenching his bleeding side in the center of the room, too stunned to move.

“I’ll kill him,” another of the thugs said, pulling out his sword.

“No, you won’t.” Tiler ran up to meet the man, his blade deflecting the other man’s before he could strike.

Almost at once the other men drew out their swords, but by then Key had drawn his pistol and pointed it right at their leader.

“Stop where you are, or I will blow his head off!” Key shouted.

The group froze, but only temporarily. Another in the group walked forward. “So what? Then I’ll be leader.”

But Key shook his head. “Only for a few minutes. The gunshot will alert the Sky Children where you are. Then they will come, find this hideout and kill you all.”

They still came at him, though. They had called his bluff, and Key had to defend himself with his sword since they all knew he didn’t want Sky Children on his back either. He slashed and deflected, fighting off the thugs as best as he could, resisting the urge to just shoot them all. He had pulled back the hammer, prepared to take that risk.

But then he recognized a Bekir style sword swing in, deflecting the pair of swords going after him. Then he saw Loid.

Leaping in, Loid swiped hard, knocking off another attacker. “Kemdin! You were supposed to meet us! What happened?”

Key broke into a laugh, throwing off his attacker. “We fell into a hole.”

The men rushed at them, swords high to kill the three young men, the threesome prepared to take them.

“Stop!” The leader of the gang of thugs suddenly called out, pulling back himself as he nursed a cut on his arm. “Callen Bosee! What is the meaning of this?”

“Callen?” Tiler pulled back to where Loid and Key were standing with their swords ready. He looked around for the warrior whom he at last spotted near the doorway. “You know these creeps?”

Nodding with an exhausted look, Callen shoved off one man and stomped to the center of the dark room. “I…I had intended…to introduce Key to them…properly.”

Key parted from his friends and approached the older warrior, lowering his sword. “What do you mean? These are also our contacts?”

“That’s the infamous Key?” the leader of the thugs asked with a doubtful cough.

Callen nodded to the both of them, still gasping for breath. “Yes. Key, this…is Dannot Butcher. They also call him the Underlord.”

“Underlord, huh?” Key gazed at the man who would have had him killed for his sword and frowned. Dannot was nearly as large as Callen, though even in the darkness there was something unsavory about his demeanor that made him look different from their friend. “And how is it you know a thug, Callen?”

Callen chuckled, straightening up. “I’m no more than a thug when in the darkness. I just prefer standing in the light.

“They are former mercenaries,” Callen continued as if it would ease Key’s discomfort a little. “Most of them are wanted men, like you.”

Making a face, Key turned from the man he normally held some admiration for and walked back to his friends. “So, then. Were we planning to team up with them, or are we asking them favors? They were about to rob me, you know.”

Walking further in, Callen gave a snort. “You never did like my career of fighting for money, have you?”

Key remained silent.

“Fine.” Callen turned and walked even further into the darkness to the underlord and nodded to him. “Dannot. Key is asking for what he would consider a somewhat unholy alliance. A wizard is coming to expand the tunnels here. We intend to use them, though undoubtedly you would have use for them also. All we ask is that in your business you leave our operations alone. Our Key here is an idealist. And likewise I work with him to achieve at least a particle of that dream.”

“You mean eradicating the blue-eyes?” Dannot the underlord asked, keeping one eye on Key who looked not just uncomfortable standing in the darkness and dealing with them, but also full of distrust as if he expected them to betray him for the bounty on his head. “That’s no tiny particle of a dream. It is an impossibility.”

“Let us worry about that,” Key said, and he tucked away his pistol. He then leaned over to Tiler, also whispering to Loid. Both nodded and lowered their swords.

Breaking into laughter again, Dannot crossed the room over to Key, looking him up and down. “Swordsmith, huh? You look more like a mercenary to me.”

Key drew himself up, his glare fixed.

“What is your price, I wonder,” Dannot said then walked away to the far wall near the tunnel entrances. “You can have your wizard make his tunnels. We’ll use them as we want. As for your foolhardy attempt to steal a slave from the governor, you are on your own. I wouldn’t step near his palace if you paid me to.”

“But wait!” Loid slid his sword back into his scabbard. “Do you at least know a short cut to the palace? We are planning on staging a robbery during the Emergence festival, and you must know this city well enough for that.”

Halting, Dannot blinked as if completely stunned at the idea, and then he turned. “A robbery of the palace during the festival? Just to steal a slave?”

“You can take all the booty you want,” Key said with a smirk, nodding to Loid. They had to appeal to the man’s greed. Regardless of their motives, Key knew they needed much more help.

“Are all lake men this impetuous?” Dannot asked, glancing at the two.

How Dannot knew Key was from the lakes, Key decided not to ask. There were some traits a person never lost, regardless of how long they had been removed from the source.

“If there is any way into the palace that you know of, then tell me. I’ll find my way out again,” Key said.

But Dannot shook his head. “But why during the Emergence festival? Are you trying to make some kind of statement?”

“Nothing as lame as that,” Key said, giving both Loid and Tiler looks for them to let him negotiate. They were tense despite Callen’s stance alongside the underlord thug. “The governor will be out with his aristocrats celebrating. Am I right? Even the soldiers will be part of the celebrations, though more likely they will be teasing the humans in the streets with their touch. What I propose is for us to find a way into the palace where things will be bare, rob the place and free any human slaves within the walls. There is a witch coming to help us, but he hasn’t arrived yet.”

“Edman will be here shortly,” Callen said with a smile. “Not to worry about that.”

Dannot nodded. “So you—”

“Blast it, Callen. You leave terrible directions.” Lanona practically stumbled into the dark room. “Where are you? I can’t see.”

“A woman?” the thugs murmured. Several of them shifted some to get close. Even in the dark Lanona was attractive. The shadows fell on her body full of smooth curves and flowing dark brown hair, something Key found distracting. Thugs like that would hardly resist trying to get their hands on her.

“She’s the wizard,” Key said before they got any mischievous ideas.

The men grumbled and backed off.

“Oh, Key? Are you in here?” Lanona stumbled in further.

Tiler nodded to him and walked over to help her across the dark room, extending his hand. “Come on, Lanona. We’re over here.”

The Sundri wizard gave out a huff. “Why is it so dark? Don’t you have lights?”

“Why don’t you make one, wizard?” One of the thugs chuckled, elbowing his friend in the side.

She cast a glare into the shadows where she heard the voice then exhaled. The ground started to shake underneath, and the stone overhead quivered. “I’m not that kind of wizard.”

Staring up at the stone ceiling half expecting it to fall on top