The Executioner's Right (The Executioner's Song Book 1) Read online

  He needed them to move on so he could get back to Meyer.

  “How much will it pay?” Finn asked.

  “We do this, and each of us can take home nearly five crowns,” the King said.

  His heart skipped.

  That was more than he’d expected. Far more.

  That was enough for Finn to leave Verendal. There was enough for him to provide for his sister and his mother. Even a single crown was enough to hire a physician and not fear the cost. It was more than he would earn working with Master Meyer for years. How could the Client afford to pay that?

  Finn had to stop thinking like that. It wasn’t just about the money. Or the crew.

  If he did this, Meyer would suffer.

  “What happens if the Client doesn’t deliver? What happens if you can’t move what is taken?” If he knew who the Client was, maybe it wouldn’t be an issue, but Finn still had no idea. Oscar didn’t either. “What happens if the Client is the one to betray us—or hires another crew to compete?”

  The words had the desired effect and hung for a moment.

  The King grunted. “No other crew is taking this job. We’ve seen to that. And the Client has always delivered.”

  “If he doesn’t?” Finn glanced from the King to Wolf. “Do you have an alternative plan in mind?”

  The King flicked his gaze to Wolf before he smiled at Finn. “I’ve always got an alternative plan. Just be ready tonight.”

  “That’s not enough time,” Oscar said. “We still need to coordinate more. We need to be prepared. We need to—”

  “It’s going to have to be tonight. The Client has decided.” King turned to Wolf, flashing a bright smile. “It’ll be good to have the crew all working together.”

  “Other than Rock,” Finn said.

  “Sure,” the King said. He tapped the table and slid out of the booth, leaving Finn with Oscar.

  Wolf stared at Finn for a moment. “You’d better show.”

  “I’m going to need a new set of darks,” Finn said. “You know the size.”

  Wolf frowned at him. “Do I look like your servant?”

  “You look like the kind of man who can get something for me,” Finn said. “And considering that I’m now apprenticed to the executioner, I’m not exactly able to go wandering the city for darks.”

  Wolf glared at him. “Be here at dusk.”

  When he was gone, it left Finn sitting across from Oscar.

  Oscar shook his head. “What are you doing? I tried to protect you from this.”

  “I know you have. And now I have to protect you. All of you.” Finn glanced over at the King. “He has to do the job,” Finn whispered. “What I can’t figure is why.”

  The strangeness of the items they’d gone after kept tugging on Finn, as did the memory of what he’d heard Meyer say. What if these were hegen jobs?

  Finn should have asked Esmerelda… and maybe he still could.

  Oscar sighed. “He owes a debt. I’m not really sure who it is, but the more I keep digging into the Client, the more I start to suspect the King’s debt is the reason he’s taking his jobs.”

  “You know what it could be,” Finn said, keeping his voice low.

  “It’s not.”

  “You don’t even know what I was thinking.”

  Oscar grunted. “I know what you’ve been thinking from the moment you sat down. He don’t owe them. This is different.”

  Finn sat back, mind working. Going to Esmerelda wouldn’t help him, then. “Does he owe the Client?”

  Oscar shrugged. “I don’t know if it’s the Client or someone else. And at this point, it don’t matter either way.”

  Finn got to his feet. “I’ll figure this out. We aren’t going to hang for the King’s debt.”

  Finn headed out of the tavern.

  He headed back toward Meyer’s home. When he got there, a stack of fresh pumpkins waited for him. Working with Justice had brought him a sense of peace in the past. He fetched the sword from inside the home, carried it out, and set the scabbard down before beginning to hack at the pumpkins.

  He cut through eight of them in a row, slicing them cleanly. As he started to lift the ninth one, he set it on the bench, his mind still working through how he’d talk to Meyer. That was what he had to do.

  Finn slashed through the pumpkin, carving it cleanly. He grabbed another, staring at it for a moment, trying to think about what he would do, but not having the answer. He sliced at the pumpkin, carving through it again.

  “That is ten,” Meyer said.

  Finn blinked, looking over. “What was that?”

  “Ten. You cut through ten pumpkins. Perhaps it’s time for you to move on to something else.”

  Finn glanced down at the pumpkins.

  Had I actually cut through ten of them?

  “If you’re worried about carrying out your friend’s sentence, you can relax. You have a reprieve, such as it is,” Meyer said.

  “What sort of reprieve?”

  “The sentencing.”

  Finn frowned. “I thought we had to carry out the sentencing for the court.”

  “And you will need to,” he said.

  “Then why the reprieve?”

  “Because Luca escaped.”

  Finn’s heart seemed to stop.

  Meyer headed past him, into the house, and Finn followed when he could get himself moving again, now his heart hammering.

  He had planned on talking to Meyer.

  They would work through the details, figure out some way to keep the crew from risking themselves for the Client. He would protect the crew the way he had always wanted to. Then Finn would have to figure out some way to save Rock.

  Now…

  “How did he escape?”

  “I’m not certain. Declan is secure, though he was moved to one of the upper levels. We allow the condemned to have a window in their final days, and it places them closer to the kitchen for their final meal.” Meyer glanced back at Finn for a moment. “I suspect he had help. I am not concerned. He will be captured. His sentence will be carried out.”

  “Help?” Why Rock and not me? “What happens if he’s not captured?”

  “We had both better hope he’s recaptured,” Meyer said.

  “Why is there such a time limit on this?”

  “Because that is tradition,” Meyer said.

  “And if we don’t do it in the timeframe that they have established?”

  “Don’t ask questions you know the answer to, Finn. Look for answers to questions you don’t know the answer to.”

  Meyer wouldn’t be able to help Finn now.

  There might be only one option for him, and only one way to really help the crew.

  He’d have to actually do the job.

  He headed to his room. The lantern glowed with a soft light.

  He didn’t think he’d left it glowing, though maybe Lena had been there and turned the light on. He took a seat at the table, pulling the stack of books over to him. Maybe it didn’t matter if he studied, but the habit had begun to become ingrained for him.

  As he stared at the books, he realized there was something else on the desk.

  A card.

  The hegen were involved in these jobs. The card proved it.

  Finn lifted the card, turning it in his hands for a moment, and stared at it.

  As he did, his heart started to hammer.

  There was a single image on the card. An illustration. The target was clear to Finn, though not the meaning.

  Depicted on the card was a hand painted in red, as if in blood.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  The fading sunlight drifted across the plains outside of the city. He studied the card. It signified Oscar in some way, though what was it? The blood Hand. That had to matter. Did the hegen want him to betray Oscar somehow?

  Finn had come out to the gate to see if he might come up with an answer, but there wasn’t an answer for him there. Standing there left him no closer to knowing what h
e needed to do than he’d been when he’d been in Meyer’s home.

  What am I thinking?

  Darkness would fall soon. When it did, Finn would have to meet with the crew.

  When he’d left before, he’d thought Meyer could help.

  Now Finn didn’t see how he could.

  The only way he could get through this was working with the crew.

  Music drifted from the hegen section. It had a bouncy rhythm, and he felt drawn by it. Magic rhythm, most likely. Were he to go down there, he’d be compelled to do something else on behalf of the hegen.

  Finn slipped the card into his pocket and turned back to the city.

  It was time.

  Dread filled him as he made his way through the city. Help the crew, and he betrayed Meyer. It felt harder than he would have expected. But it might be the only way Finn could ensure his friends didn’t fail.

  What truth would he follow tonight?

  It didn’t take long before he reached Olin.

  The section of the city felt dark and unwelcome. The sounds around him more threatening than they should be. Finn neared the Wenderwolf, looking at shadows swirling everywhere. A cold wind gusted, leaving him wishing for his warmer cloak, though he’d left that behind. There was no point in bringing the cloak with him if he would only have to lose it.

  Finn paused at the door to the tavern before taking a deep breath and heading inside. There was nothing for him to do but keep moving.

  Music drifted out. It wasn’t as haunting as the music from the hegen, but there was something about it that wasn’t quite as exciting as it had been before. He stood in the doorway for a moment before seeing the rest of the crew sitting in the booth.

  They were all there. The King. Wolf. Oscar. Scruff. Even Rock.

  Finn’s heart skipped a beat seeing Rock.

  Finn wouldn’t have been able to hang Rock anyway. He would have failed the testing and ended up hanging for it. Meyer, too.

  Why should two men die?

  Finn didn’t want anything to happen to Meyer—he’d been good to him, after all—but perhaps this was the only way forward for him. Meyer had made his choice with Finn. Now Finn had to make his. There was nothing to do but get it over with.

  “There he is,” the King said. “Told you he’d come.”

  Oscar looked at him, shaking his head slightly. Finn ignored it, much as he tried to ignore thinking of the card in his pocket and what it meant. He didn’t want to think about why the hegen wanted to target Oscar.

  Rock watched at him. “You sure about this, Shuffles?”

  “Don’t you worry about Shuffles,” the King said. “He’s doing what he knows must be done.”

  Finn took a seat, and Wolf handed him a bundle. When he took it, he looked down to see it was a set of darks. Nicer than the ones that he’d had before.

  “Get ready,” the King said, looking to Finn.

  Finn looked to the others surrounding the table. “Are you going to tell us what the Client wants?”

  The King cocked his head to the side. “I’ve got part of it covered, and he’s going to let us know the rest when we’re there.”

  Oscar jerked his head around and stared at the King. “The Client is coming?”

  “We’re meeting him along the way.”

  “You sure that’s a good—”

  Wolf cut him off. “The Client is coming. That’s the condition of the job.”

  “Was it the condition of the job Pegg took?” Finn asked.

  The others fell silent, though he didn’t care about the others. The only one he wanted to get a reaction from was the King. He needed to know how much of this he had planned, if any. If the Client were coming along, nothing about this had a plan.

  It worried Finn.

  The King had always been a skilled planner. He ran one of the better crews in the city, so he had to be. Nothing of this smacked of skill.

  For that matter, nothing lately had the feel of skill. There had been too much coin involved. Greed had made the crew careless. Finn had gotten pulled into it the same as others.

  “Pegg made a mistake we aren’t going to make,” the King said. He looked to Finn. “Get ready.”

  Finn carried the clothes to the side of the tavern and started changing. First the pants. They weren’t as soft as the fabric he’d gotten from Master Beshear and not even as comfortable as the Sinner’s Cloth on the day he’d been condemned. They were rough and scratchy, and Finn didn’t care for the way the fabric rubbed against his legs. When he pulled on the shirt, anxiety began to work through him.

  He wouldn’t be able to back away from this.

  Wearing the clothes from Meyer gave him a chance to go to the Archers; to at least be believable in telling them that he served him. Wearing darks made him a criminal

  It was strange that he felt more honorable as an executioner’s apprentice than he did wearing the darks.

  Oscar headed over to him, looking down at the pile of clothes on the ground before looking up at Finn. “Don’t do this.”

  Finn thought about the card in his pocket. He had moved the hegen card from the pocket of his more formal clothing and into the pocket of his darks. It weighed heavily there, almost as if he could feel the power of the hegen trying to pull on him, trying to drag him toward serving them.

  Finn looked over to Oscar. “For me to continue serving, I was going to have to prove my ability as an apprentice.”

  “You’re a bright man, Finn. I have little doubt you’d be able to prove your ability,” he said.

  “I was tested. At least, the test started. There was an aspect of it that I haven’t carried out. That was going to be the next step. The final step before I was going to be allowed to remain as an apprentice.”

  Oscar glanced over to Rock. “I see.”

  “Do you?”

  “That is a brutal punishment.”

  “For both of us,” Finn said.

  “That’s why you came,” Oscar said.

  “I think I was going to come regardless,” Finn said.

  The others got up from the table, and King looked over to Finn.

  “Leave your clothes here.”

  He gathered them, folding neatly, running his hands along the fabric one time. It might be the last he was given the opportunity to touch that fabric, feel the softness of it, and feel as if he were able to be a part of something different.

  Once he went out into the night wearing his darks, he became something he’d left behind. He rejoined the crew. Finn didn’t know if it was anything that he could come back from.

  He felt as if he were squeezed regardless of what he chose.

  If he were caught now, he would hang.

  If he stayed with Meyer, he would hang.

  At least this way, he might be able to help his crew.

  They left the tavern.

  Night had fallen in full, and there was a gusting wind that continued to pick up, kicking around them. As the wind whipped around, Finn wrapped his arms around himself. He wished for a cloak, something warmer than what he wore.

  None of the others seemed bothered by it. They hurried off, heading into the darkness, making their way toward the center of the city.

  Rock came over to him, and he looked over at Finn. “What did you tell the executioner?”

  “Nothing.”

  “And them?” he asked, nodding to the King.

  “I told them you did what the King always tells us to do. You protected the crew.”

  Rock clasped him on the shoulder. “I’m sorry I doubted you, Shuffles. It’s good you’re back. They tried to tell me… I suppose it don’t matter no more.”

  Finn just nodded. He wasn’t about to tell Rock what would have happened had Rock not escaped. That would have been the real betrayal of their friendship.

  In the distance, a bell tolled, ringing softly into the night.

  Finn counted, trying to determine which church the bell rang from. Maybe if it came from one of the churches ce
lebrating the gods that would favor them, Finn wouldn’t have to be nearly as concerned about what they were doing and where they were going.

  It seemed to come from Heleth. He didn’t know whether or not that meant they were favored by the Blessed Mother. Most likely not.

  When they reached the bridge leading over the river, Finn looked along the water. From there, it wouldn’t be that far for him to make his way toward Meyer’s home. His sister was there, as was his mother.

  Neither of them had any idea about what he was doing. What he had planned.

  Finn didn’t even know what he had planned. Whatever he did would have to ensure that his family survived. Finn was determined to make sure that they were able to get through this.

  On the far side of the river, he paused, looking back.

  The others kept moving, and only Oscar lingered, slowing long enough to watch Finn. Finn flashed him a forced smile and continued to run after him.

  As the night continued to fall around them, there were fewer people out. Part of that came from how they moved closer to the center of the city. From here, Finn would need to move more carefully.

  They couldn’t simply approach the palace directly. They would have to find a way to come at it indirectly. The Archers would be standing guard, watching.

  The King signaled for them to slow.

  Finn paused behind Oscar, listening.

  “The Client is going to meet us near here,” the King said.

  “And if he doesn’t?” Oscar asked.

  “He will,” he said.

  Finn sensed the irritation from within Oscar. He tried to conceal it, though Finn thought he recognized the frustration. It was in the way he kept his shoulders tensed and the way he flicked his gaze from the King to Wolf.

  “Can you believe it?” Scruff asked, leaning close to Finn. “We do this, and we get five silver drebs.”

  Finn looked over to him. How much had he promised to the others?

  The King either was telling the others whatever they wanted to hear, or he’d promised Finn a windfall that he wasn’t going to be able to deliver upon.

  Could the King betray them?

  Finn wouldn’t have thought him willing to do so, but the jobs had been going sideways.

  “That’s right. Five whole drebs for this job,” Finn said as he looked toward the end of the street where a dark figure moved.