“Goswin?” Jala asked, and then remembered he had known his way to the Tolanteer because he was from Goswin. “I’ll help you with that, Madren, I need the curse gone there, too,” she offered, trying to reassure him.
With a gasp, Madren wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her chest. “Oh Jala, I knew you cared,” he said, his voice heavily muffled by the fact that he was burrowing his face between her breasts. Frantically, she pushed him back, trying to dislodge him and glanced up quickly at a snarl behind her. Marrow stood nearby, glowering and Finn was quickly approaching with an expression of fury. She wasn’t exactly sure which of them the snarl had come from.
“Valor, stop him while I get Madren off of me,” she pleaded motioning at Finn.
“Mmm, no,” Valor replied with a smile and stepped back to allow Finn to storm past and wrench Madren to his feet.
“That is my wife, you little bastard, and you will not touch her. If it were up to me Cassia’s thugs would still be beating you to a bloody pulp.” He shook Madren roughly as he spoke and then held him up to force him to meet his eyes. Madren let out a whimper and Jala stood slowly, her eyes locked on Finn, silently warning him that she was not happy. “I’m going to let you go now and you are quickly going to get out of my sight. If I blink and you are still here I’m going to make Cassia’s attentions seem pleasant. Are we clear?”
“Clear, very clear,” Madren squeaked and Finn dropped him with a look of disgust. His feet had no sooner touched the ground then he was running.
“So horribly pathetic. Do you think he was always that weak?” Valor asked, his voice thick with disgust.
“From what I hear, it’s the only reason he survived the fall of Goswin,” Finn replied and glanced at Jala.
She bent slowly and brushed the grass from the front of her gown. “He doesn’t mean anything by it Finn. He is like a child with no manners. There was no need to threaten him like that. He is terrified of you.”
“He should be terrified. I’d be happy to teach him some manners more effectively than Shade did,” Finn grumbled.
Meeting his eyes, she raised an eyebrow. “Speaking of manners, care to explain why you forced a duel out of Cassia?” she asked with no trace of anger, just simple curiosity. Saving Madren was one thing, getting in a fight with Finn over him was quite another. She would defend him if needed, but she wouldn’t push the topic where Finn was concerned. It was far better to simply turn the subject of conversation.
“My wife didn’t leave me much choice in that. Had she listened and simply walked on by, it wouldn’t have been necessary, but no, she had to help the pervert,” Finn replied with a smirk.
“How does me helping Madren mean you have to duel?” she asked incredulously.
“Because my reputation was close to ruined before you interfered. If I would have simply sat back and done nothing it would have been gone completely. The only choice I had was to humiliate her and then win the duel that resulted. No one is going to hire a duelist that won’t even defend his own wife,” Finn explained patiently.
“What?” Jala asked her expression dumbfounded.
“I depend on the people in that crowd for work. Those are the sort of people that hire duelists. Jala, do you expect to rebuild with no money? If I have no reputation then I’m not working. If I’m not working we are poor,” Finn clarified.
“I thought we would just use magic to do it,” she admitted meekly.
“Magic can be dispelled, Jala. It has to be done with coins and true labor,” Finn explained and gave her another smile. Glancing over his shoulder he watched Nigel approach and nodded to the man with respect.
Nigel stopped a few feet away from them and looked her over from head to toe and then nodded slowly at Finn. “I agree to your terms, I will spread the word for you. I look forward to this fight. It should prove very interesting,” he said and bowed his head slightly to Jala and then Valor. “Good day, Milady, Valor.” His voice held a thick accent that she didn’t recognize and she remained silent, watching him leave, and then looked back to Finn.
“What was that?” she asked motioning toward Nigel.
“What?” Finn asked innocently and turned to look in the direction she pointed. “Ahh, that was Nigel. He is a decent friend of mine. A merchant here in Sanctuary actually, very wealthy,” he explained.
“I think she meant, ‘what did he mean by I accept your terms?’” Valor corrected with a smirk.
“Oh that, just a little matter of a bet we made. He seems to think I’ll lose the duel,” Finn said with a shrug as if in dismissal.
Valor raised an eyebrow and exchanged glances with Jala. “Why would he think that, Finn? Nigel usually bets on you and you are considered the best sword in the city,” Valor prompted.
Rubbing his jaw, Finn pursed his lips and let out a breath. “Remember when Nigel stopped me at the edge of the crowd?” he asked. They both nodded and Finn nodded once. “Well, he wanted to warn me to stay out of it. Apparently Cassia spent a good deal of money to hire a new duelist,” he explained.
“Who did she hire?” Valor asked cautiously.
“Kithkanon,” Finn replied with a smile.
“What?” Valor demanded, his voice rising to a near yell. He stared at Finn in horror and began shaking his head slightly. “Why would you do that? Why would you provoke that fight? Have you gone fucking insane, Finn?”
“Who is Kithkanon?” Jala asked, cutting into Valor’s tirade.
“Just like that, Val, I want you to throw a fit just like that later tonight at the bar. Let everyone believe you think I’m going to lose,” Finn said, happily pointing a finger at Valor whose face was rapidly draining of color.
“I do think you are going to lose, Finn. Kithkanon is a seven-hundred-year-old mercenary. They don’t live that long because they can’t use a sword,” Valor cried and threw his hands up still shaking his head.