The Executioner's Blade (The Executioner's Song Book 3) Read online

  She held her hands out and then twisted them slightly. Finn wasn’t surprised when a card suddenly appeared in her hands. Esmerelda offered it to him.

  The card was blank.

  “What’s this?”

  “The price.”

  “There’s nothing on it.”

  “Not currently,” she said.

  “You haven’t decided your price. I see.”

  She smiled at him. “There are some wounds that are easy to heal. Others require a different touch.” She reached over and Finn refused to jerk away. When she touched him, he closed his eyes, sighing as the tingling washed through him. “Were it only the one, you would have been easy. The second was the one that posed more of a challenge.”

  “My back.”

  She nodded.

  “Would Meyer have been able to save me?”

  She touched her hands to her upper chest as she looked up at him. “You regret what they did?”

  “I don’t even know who they are.”

  “You saw your sister, I believe.”

  “I did.”

  “But not the other.”

  Who else?

  “Oscar,” he breathed out.

  Esmerelda flipped her hands and another card appeared. An outline of a hand covered the face of the card, but then she flipped them and it disappeared. “He cares for you.”

  Finn grunted. “I suppose now he’s going to think we’re even.”

  “Why is that?”

  “I saved him from the Archers before. Now he’s saved me.”

  Esmerelda smiled. “All debts must be paid.”

  Finn looked around the room and finally found his shirt hanging from a hook on one wall near the bed. He lifted it and held it out. The blood that must have stained it was gone. The holes where he’d been stabbed were mended, leaving only a fine stitching, reminding him of how finely he would have been stitched.

  As he pulled on the shirt, he looked over to Esmerelda. “What’s the cost for this?”

  Esmerelda laughed. It was a soft and airy sound. “There is no payment needed for your clothing, Finn Jagger.”

  That was a surprise, but he would take it.

  “Did Oscar say what happened to me?”

  He must have followed him. Could Oscar have been the one in the alley?

  Finn didn’t think so. If anything, Oscar had followed to ensure his safety.

  He took a step toward the door, wobbling slightly.

  Esmerelda watched him, though he couldn’t tell what she was thinking. It seemed to him there was some calculation behind her eyes, as if she watched him and debated whether she would be able to use his weakness in another way.

  “Thank you for healing me,” he said.

  He made his way from the back room and into the main entrance to Esmerelda’s home. Finn had been there before and recognized it. It was cozy, with magical decorations around the room. Some of the items looked familiar, though that might be because he’d been here a few times.

  Hesitating near the door, he leaned on it a moment. Now that he’d recovered—at least mostly—he would have to return to his duties. He would go to Holden. If his crew was somehow responsible, let him see that Finn hadn’t died.

  There was still the issue of finding Rachel Herns.

  Finn didn’t think he would have the time to do so.

  He looked back at Esmerelda, finding her watching him. Did she know the question in his mind?

  “What did you ask of Oscar for payment?” he asked.

  “That is between him and me.”

  “And my sister?”

  “The same.”

  “I can just ask them.”

  “If you think they will share it with you.”

  Finn didn’t know. There was something to be said about keeping the details of what was owed to the hegen to oneself. In the case of the others, he didn’t know if they would even share anything—or if they could.

  He reached into his pocket, fingering the card that was there. It was even possible that they wouldn’t know what had been asked of them. Much like Finn.

  “Will you require an escort back to the city?” Esmerelda asked.

  “How much extra will that be?”

  She smiled, gliding toward him, and rested a hand on his arm. “Do you always think in terms of what you must pay?” She smiled, reaching past him and pulling open the door. “Not everything requires a transaction, Finn Jagger.”

  He watched her for a moment before heading out into the street.

  The hegen section was outside of the city, situated to the north of the road and near the edge of the forest. Most of the buildings looked to be little more than shacks, though considering what he knew of Esmerelda’s home and how it appeared from the outside, he suspected much of that was for show. The streets were narrow though straight, unlike the twisting roads leading through the city proper. None were very long, forcing Finn to make several small turns as he wound his way through the section, trying to get free.

  He passed a few others out but not many. Those who were visible turned away from him. Finn had some experience with the hegen to know not to take offense at it, though he didn’t know why they thought they needed to avoid him. Unless they didn’t care for his responsibility either. Many within the rest of Verendal felt that way. Executioners were valued, but no one wanted to spend time with them.

  Reaching the edge of the hegen section, Finn looked back. It was a colorful section, vibrant red and green and orange splashed over the buildings. In the rising sunlight, those colors all drew his eye, almost as if they created a pattern. He breathed in, noticing a hint of the spice that he’d smelled when at Esmerelda’s home. It lingered in his nostrils.

  Finn turned away. The path back to the city from the hegen section led past the gallows. Finn paused at the Raven Stone, a massive stack of stone where the condemned were brought to carry out their sentencing. He didn’t feel about the Stone the way most in the city did. The Stone had a purpose. A meaning. It was there to carry out the king’s justice, but it was more than that. Were it only about the king’s justice, they wouldn’t sentence those like Holden who had committed no crime upon the king himself. It was more about how Finn served the people of Verendal. It had surprised him that it mattered.

  The gallows rose from atop the Raven Stone. The solid wood had been rebuilt several times during Finn’s tenure as apprentice because they needed to ensure that the gallows wouldn’t crack during a sentencing. Meyer made certain that Finn appreciated the gravity of their duty, something that Meyer didn’t take lightly. Part of that was ensuring each sentencing was carried out efficiently.

  It had been a few weeks since they’d been to the gallows. That was unusual.

  Holden would be next.

  There was more to question him about, especially now that Finn had suffered an attack.

  When he reached the gate, the Archers waved him in. They were city Archers, not palace Archers, and Finn knew them both, having gotten to know many of the Archers over the years. They weren’t necessarily friends, though they were friendly. It made his job easier.

  The farther he went, the easier it was for him. He began to feel refreshed in a way that he hadn’t before, the weakness that he’d awoken to beginning to fade. He tugged on his shirt, twisting it, and noticed a twinge of pain in his stomach and his back, though not like what he had felt before.

  The hegen magic.

  Were it not for the cost, more people should be offered that kind of magic. It was because of that magic that his mother had been returned to him, though she hadn’t been able to recover for long. It was because of that magic that his sister had gotten caught up with the hegen, forcing her to serve. Finn had suspected her service had been a part of getting him bound to the hegen, though he didn’t know for certain.

  When he reached Meyer’s home, he looked at the ground around the small iron gate leading into the yard. The low stone wall surrounding the yard was more decorative than a real barrier. This was where he’d been attacked. There should be blood but he saw none.

  Finn pressed the door open and headed inside. He looked there for signs of what had happened to him, but there was nothing there, either.

  Hadn’t I fallen there?

  Finn thought that he remembered the attack.

  He remembered coming out of the alley. Looking up, he turned toward the alley on the far side of the street. It wasn’t directly across from Meyer’s yard, but near enough that Finn thought that was where he had to have come out of. The presence around him had unsettled him, but it hadn’t clouded his thinking. It was only when he’d been stabbed that his mind had stopped working the way that it should.

  Either the blood had been washed away—and considering that Finn didn’t know quite how long he’d been out, that was a possibility—or he hadn’t fallen there.

  Stepping back out of the gate, he made his way along the street.

  He looked for blood.

  Then he found it.

  A lot of it.

  A pool of blood covered the street outside of a house three down from Meyer’s. Much like Meyer’s home, a low wall surrounded it, along with a gate. The gate was different from Meyer’s, without the same ornamentation.

  Finn looked through the gate.

  On the other side of the gate was another pool of blood. This was even more than the last. Finn had seen bleeding like that—and knew that he shouldn’t have survived.

  Not only had he been stabbed and bleeding heavily, but he’d crawled to the wrong house. Had he made it to the house, he wouldn’t have gotten the help he needed.

  Oscar had saved him.

  Finn looked toward the alley again.

  He would need to find out who was responsible for what had happened to him. If it was because of Holden, then Finn would ensure that he paid the price. If it was someone else…

  He couldn’t think like that. There wasn’t anything more that he could do.

  Tugging down on his shirt, he headed toward Meyer’s home.

  Chapter Four

  The inside of Meyer’s home had a welcoming feel to it. It was comfortable. Filled with the fragrance of flowers collected in the garden and that of baking bread, Finn breathed it in, finally able to move past the strange hegen smells that had lingered in his nostrils even after leaving their section of the city.

  He found Lena and Meyer there. Lena stood over the stove, cooking eggs and bacon, the sizzling leaving a pleasing odor in the air. She looked over when he appeared.

  Meyer sat in a chair near the corner of the kitchen, his hands resting on the table. The gray-haired executioner was already dressed for the day, wearing a neatly tailored jacket and pants of a deep blue wool. His mouth pressed into a tight frown when Finn came in.

  “Finn? You shouldn’t have come back here on your own!”

  There was an unreadable expression in Meyer’s blue eyes.

  “It seems that I wasn’t as injured as it seemed.”

  “The blood on the street and near Merand’s home would say otherwise.”

  Finn shrugged. “I saw that.”

  “Care to tell me what happened?” Meyer asked.

  Finn took a seat across from him, leaning back in the wooden chair and resting his hands on the table. So many mornings started like this, with Lena cooking for them and Meyer and Finn having a conversation about the upcoming day. It had been a while since he had felt guilty with what he needed to share with Meyer.

  “I’m not entirely certain.”

  “What do you remember?”

  Finn flicked his gaze over to Lena. She had her back to him. Over the years, she had begun to follow Meyer in the evenings and often listened, paying attention to him as he healed, offering her own insights, and gradually improving her skill. While Finn would one day be an executioner, and through that have the opportunity to heal in his off time, Lena was also serving something of an apprenticeship with Meyer.

  “I’d finished questioning Holden for the day and had gone looking for help to find the missing girl.”

  Lena stiffened.

  “Why would you need help?”

  Finn leaned forward. “Because he’s not going to tell us anything. The girl doesn’t have much time, if she still lives. I figured that if anyone would be able to find anything about what had happened to her, it would be—”

  “Someone who has access to that kind of information,” Meyer finished. His brow furrowed, and the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes seemed to deepen. “You went to the Hand?”

  “Oscar,” Finn said.

  Meyer nodded. “Did he help?”

  “I needed to know about Holden’s crew. They did this to me.”

  “Thieves don’t like to reveal secrets of their kind.”

  “I was one of their kind. At least to Oscar.”

  Lena turned and set plates of scrambled eggs and bacon in front of each of them. She looked over to Finn, as if she wanted to say something, before spinning away. “I will clean up later.”

  With that, she left the kitchen.

  “She worried about you,” Meyer said between bites.

  “I wouldn’t be here were it not for her.”

  Meyer grunted. “Probably not.”

  “You don’t think you could have saved me?”

  “I could have stitched the wounds, but with as much blood as you’d lost, there wouldn’t have been much more that I could have done.” He took another bite, focusing on his food.

  Finn looked down at his plate. His stomach rumbled and he knew he should eat. Food would help him recover. Even a magical recovery would need him to eat in order to ensure that he gained his strength. Hegen magic had helped, but now was a time for him to let his body finish the recovery.

  “I don’t know what happened. I was followed. Went into the alley. Got caught between a pair of attackers.” Finn patted his stomach. “Stabbed here. My back.”

  “Thought you were making it here?” Meyer asked.

  Finn nodded. “Where were you?”

  “Summoned to the palace.”

  That was what Lena had said. Finn should have remembered. Maybe his mind wasn’t as clear as he thought. “King Porman?”

  Meyer set his fork down and looked up. He’d already finished eating. Finn still hadn’t started. “The king arrived two days ago.”

  Finn blinked. “There was no sign of it.”

  Usually when the king came to Verendal, which wasn’t that often, there was plenty of notice and a procession leading into the city and to the palace. It wasn’t much of a secret.

  “Not this time. He didn’t want his coming to be known.”

  “What did he call you for?”

  Meyer shook his head. “A warning.”

  “That’s all you’re going to tell me?”

  “It probably means nothing, though he wanted me to be alert.”

  “Why you?”

  Meyer grunted. “I serve the king.”

  “I know that. Why would the king need to alert you of a threat?”

  That was what it had to be. Though what kind of a threat?

  “Because there’s concern about the prisons. As I serve as master of prisons, he wanted me to have the warning.”

  “If there’s something we need to be concerned about with the prisons, then don’t you think that I should be alerted as well?”

  “What do you think I’m doing?” Meyer motioned to the plate. “Eat.”

  Finn turned his attention to his food and began scooping the eggs into his mouth, chewing quickly and swallowing. He didn’t taste much this way, but he needed it to recover.

  When he was done, Meyer motioned for Finn to join him. Finn set their plates into the washbasin before trailing Meyer out of the house.

  The executioner had grabbed a hat on the way out, using it to cover his balding head and to shield against the bright sunlight. He headed toward the center of the city, with Finn following.

  “What do you need me to do today?” Finn asked.

  “We’ll be together today.”

  “Are you sure? I have supplies I need to gather, a few men to question, and preparations for—”

  “We’ll be together today,” Meyer said again.

  That was strange enough. Most of the time these days, Finn worked on his own. That was the advantage of having progressed in his training. He would gather the necessary supplies for questioning, healing, and for other purposes. He would be responsible for questioning lower-level prisoners. He would even be responsible for presenting some of the prisoners to the jury on his own. Occasionally, he would make preparations to carry out a sentencing, though so far had not done so alone. There was an expectation that he would still do that with Meyer.

  “Another girl was taken,” Meyer said.

  “Another?” Holden was captured, but his crew was still free. “If it’s tied to Holden—”

  “We don’t know that. This one is different, though.”

  “Why?”

  Meyer paused, taking a deep breath. “The king’s chancellor had come to Verendal to work through the final pieces of the Alainsith treaty. His daughter came with him.”

  He handed Finn a folded paper.

  When he unfolded it, a small portrait of a lovely golden-haired young woman looked up at him, as if coming alive in the portrait.

  “Her name is Elizabeth Jarvis. Her parents are in the palace, miserable at the thought that they’ve come out to Verendal only to lose their daughter. The king has taken a personal interest in our case.”

  “We can have the Archers round up the full crew—”

  “We are trying. It is not so easy. As this is a relatively new crew in the city, learning their whereabouts has proven problematic.”

  He heard the frustration in Meyer’s tone.

  “What can I do?”

  “Get him to break,” Meyer said.

  They continued through the streets before Meyer paused.

  Finn frowned. “This is the alley I went down last night.” He looked over to Meyer. “You’re trying to see what you can find of my attack?”

  “I doubt we’ll be able to uncover much about it. When you mentioned coming through the alley across from my home, I suspected this was where you had entered it.”

  Finn hadn’t known that Meyer knew the alleys that well. They were confusing for most and created something of a maze that would be hard to follow. Mastering the alleys was not something most ever bothered with, especially since finding a way through the streets could be difficult enough.