Victory's Price

Mollen (Part Fifty - Two)

Chapter 52

The best thing about boarding at a tavern was that a man could get a drink when he needed one. The best thing about being a king was that he did not need to pay for it.

Things were getting out of hand again. For every one thing that went his way, a hundred others turned to chaos. Moll took another sip from his pint and tried to assess the situation.

One of his guards was dead, people were panicking and apparently the Phoenix was loose on the streets. So Toran was back then. He wondered how long it would be before his brother remembered he existed. After all that had happened, Moll felt he was due a visit.

The man in front of him continued to speak so quickly the words tripped over themselves. Moll just took another draught.

There were two more killers in town but just knowing Kat awaited his return soothed his nerves. Moll was calm as he contemplated his brother.

What would Toran make of his sudden promotion? And would the Phoenix have changed the enthusiastic scholar he had once known?

They had always been different but the Sante brothers would make quite a pair now.

Eventually he had taken enough hysteria.

Apparently, so had fate.

"Molly-coddle!"

Moll looked up as a rugged young man stalked into the bar. He smiled at the old nickname but the rest of the room took deep offence. Mort, who accompanied Toran's predatory form, hissed and with the speed of his kind he had found and bared cold steel. Moll sighed at the overreaction, surprised at the speed with which his brother's greeting smile turned to animosity.

"I do not expect this kind of disrespect shown to one of my own, Mort." He chastised.

The Shade reluctantly removed his blade and it was only then that Moll noticed the lean girl at his brother's side.

Standing, Moll left his pint at the bar. He walked towards the gaunt form of his brother but his eyes continued to roam over Toran's companion.

So this was the legendary Phoenix? He had expected to struggle to remember that she was indeed a true incarnation and not some adopted village girl. But this woman stood with the quiet awareness of a wild animal. She watched him with barely concealed hostility and he couldn't help but get the impression that she found him as much of a fascination as he did her.

At his side, Victory launched into a sudden frenzy. Moll was disgusted at how low the weapon could fall. The blade did not have thought as such and so he could only assume she craved the taste of legendary blood.

Moll dragged his attention back the man he was supposed to be greeting.

"Toran." He smiled.

And, for the first time of many to come, his brother saved his life.

"Please, Phoenix." Toran's hand clamped down firmly on the Phoenix's sword arm. "We can at least show the same respect my brother has asked his friends to show us."

Only then was Moll able to focus on the sword tip that hovered just below his eye line. Victory screeched and he could not help but sense jealousy in the noises in his head. Had Toran not swung the player's blow up ever so slightly, the blade would have been protruding out the back of his neck. Did Victory resent that she could not have saved him? Or was she bitter that her weak host still breathed?

Moll swallowed slowly, appraising the tiny form of his aggressor. Phoenix was faster by leagues than any man he had ever seen fight and he could not help but think his death would add no weight to those steely grey eyes. She put Mort to shame.

He laughed in an effort to ease the tension.

"Still think you would make the best swear sword, my shady friend?"

It was difficult to concentrate on remaining jovial. Victory battled furiously, poisoning every part of his being with her influence. Moll knew that which she desired but he kept his hands far from her hilt. She could not control him unless he wielded her.

Mort pouted sullenly and with a wave of his hand, Moll dismissed the ungrateful assassin.

The Phoenix's blade continued to hover disconcertingly close. He tried to look past the hostility in her eyes and eventually she lowered the weapon.

Conscious that the room remained full of people who would judge him forever on how he dealt with this situation, Moll kept his sigh of relief internal.

"How are you, my brother?"

He tried to speak to Toran but Red's Phoenix continued to study his person in intimate scrutiny. She was so intense it unnerved him. The longer she stared, the stronger Victory became.

"How about we all do this without our arms?" He suggested.

He had expected his brother to laugh amicably but both the players that stood before him bristled. Already Toran did not seem as friendly as he had before. What had this creature done to his brother?

The situation was already dire and people had been continually telling him this moment would make things easier. He really did not need this kind of complication. Toran had always been prone to making things difficult but it was usually more down to his well meaning blunders than this stubbornness.

Phoenix continued to stare.

He wondered if she ever spoke.

"I should think Phoenix could kill you regardless of whether you had taken her blade, brother." Toran said eventually. "We do not discard our weapons," He grinned at some internal joke, "unless you can take them off us."

The Phoenix smiled a little then, her first display of positive emotion. The two were obviously close and whilst it was promising to see his brother at ease in a woman's company, Moll couldn't help but wish it had been any other but her.

He sighed. Even a king, it would seem, could not control his brother.

"Then you may keep them, I guess." Moll felt the sudden weight on his soul as he remembered the evil presence he wore sheathed at his side. "I can imagine mine would not take well to being put aside anyway." He muttered.

As he spoke of her, Victory reached the peak of her frenzy. For a second his concentration waivered and his fingers fell to her hilt. The gaze of the player before him followed the movement exactly. His hand came to a stop. Her eyes widened.

And then Red's Phoenix taught him why every story that featured her name ended in death.