“I’m not trying to. Either you two do as you’re told, or we’ll gut you right here.” He emphasized this by pulling a long dagger from his belt and scraping it loudly against the blade of his sword.
A cold wind howled through the trees, bobbing the branches and stripping away more foliage. Red and gold leaves flew, swirling in circles, buffeted by the gusts along the narrow road. Somewhere in the dark an owl hooted.
“Look, how about we give you half our money? My half. That way this won’t be a total loss for you.”
“We ain’t asking for half,” the man holding his mount said. “We want it all, right down to these here horses.”
“Now wait a second. Our horses? Taking a little coin is fine but horse thieving? If you get caught, you’ll hang. And you know we’ll report this at the first town we come to.”
“You’re from up north, ain’t you?”
“Yeah, left Medford yesterday.”
The man holding his horse nodded and Hadrian noticed a small red tattoo on his neck. “See, that’s your problem.” His face softened to a sympathetic expression that appeared more threatening by its intimacy. “You’re probably on your way to Colnora—nice city. Lots of shops. Lots of fancy rich folk. Lots of trading going on down there, and we get lots of people along this road carrying all kinds of stuff to sell to them fancy folk. But I’m guessing you ain’t been south before, have you? Up in Melengar, King Amrath goes to the trouble of having soldiers patrol the roads. But here in Warric, things are done a bit differently.”
Flat-nose came closer, licking his split lip as he studied the spadone sword on his back.
“Are you saying theft is legal?”
“Naw, but King Ethelred lives in Aquesta and that’s awfully far from here.”
“And the Earl of Chadwick? Doesn’t he administer these lands on the king’s behalf?”
“Archie Ballentyne?” The mention of his name brought chuckles from the other thieves. “Archie don’t give a rat’s ass what goes on with the common folk. He’s too busy picking out what to wear.” The man grinned, showing yellowed teeth that grew at odd angles. “So now drop them swords and climb down. Afterward, you can walk on up to Ballentyne Castle, knock on old Archie’s door, and see what he does.” Another round of laughter. “Now unless you think this is the perfect place to die—you’re gonna do as I say.”
“You were right, Royce,” Hadrian said in resignation. He unclasped his cloak and laid it across the rear of his saddle. “We should have left the road, but honestly—I mean, we are in the middle of nowhere. What were the odds?”
“Judging from the fact that we’re being robbed—pretty good, I think.”
“Kinda ironic—Riyria being robbed. Almost funny even.”
“It’s not funny.”
“Did you say Riyria?” the man holding Hadrian’s horse asked.
Hadrian nodded and pulled his gloves off, tucking them into his belt.
The man let go of his horse and took a step away.
“What’s going on, Will?” the girl asked. “What’s Riyria?”
“There’s a pair of fellas in Melengar that call themselves that.” He looked toward the others and lowered his voice a bit. “I got connections up that way, remember? They say two guys calling themselves Riyria work out of Medford and I was told to keep my distance if I was ever to run across them.”
“So what you thinking, Will?” scar-face asked.
“I’m thinking maybe we should clear the brush and let them ride through.”
“What? Why? There’s five of us and just two of them,” flat-nose pointed out.
“But they’re Riyria.”
“So what?”
“So, my associates up north—they ain’t stupid, and they told everyone never to touch these two. And my associates ain’t exactly the squeamish types. If they say to avoid them, there’s a good reason.”
Flat-nose looked at them again with a critical eye. “Okay, but how do you know these two guys are them? You just gonna take their word for it?”
Will nodded toward Hadrian. “Look at the swords he’s carrying. A man wearing one—maybe he knows how to use it, maybe not. A man carries two—he probably don’t know nothing about swords, but he wants you to think he does. But a man carrying three swords—that’s a lot of weight. No one’s gonna haul that much steel around unless he makes a living using them.”
Hadrian drew two swords from his sides in a single elegant motion. He flipped one around, letting it spin against his palm once. “Need to get a new grip on this one. It’s starting to fray again.” He looked at Will. “Shall we get on with this? I believe you were about to rob us.”
The thieves shot uncertain glances to each other.
“Will?” the girl asked. She was still holding the bow taut but looked decidedly less confident.
“Let’s clear the brush out of their way and let them pass,” Will said.
“You sure?” Hadrian asked. “This nice man with the busted nose seems to have his heart set on getting a sword.”
“That’s okay,” flat-nose said, looking up at Hadrian’s blades as the moonlight glinted off the mirrored steel.
“Well, if you’re sure.”