Blood For Wages

19: Redstone

"Close your mouth, Fergus. You look like a fuckin' landed carp gaping about like that."

"You close your fucking mouth, Gil, and don't pretend like you've ever seen anythin' that even vaguely resembles the likes of this," Fergus rumbled back at his brother.

"Yeah, Gil, shut the fuck up," Lenix said, chipping in.

Fia shot the Allaway brothers a quelling look and they shut their noise. She had chosen them to accompany her because, out of those who remained of the company that had set out from Last Hallow, they had struck her as the least conspicuous; just another trio of sellswords moseying around town and poking their noses into a few places.

"Would you listen to these gods-damned hayseeds?" Boni Woe sneered in her jarringly feminine voice, wiping the back of her hand across her nose and poking Fia in the arm. "Where the fuck did you find them, in the middle of the fuckin' road after they fell of the turnip wagon?"

Privately, Fia would have liked to have the calming, sensible influence of Cleric Vass along for this expedition too, but Gunn had said that a god-talker would lend gravitas to the call to arms that he and his boys were putting out across the countryside. That meant that Darach Lees had gone with him too, as had Hunter, who was adamant that she hadn't the temperament for a town excursion. It had been Gunn's idea to send Boni along with Fia, saying that she was just the sort of psychotic firebrand that could stand in the corner of a taproom and attract the notice of the kinds of people that Fia was looking for like a shit does flies.

The two women and three men stalked through early evening streets that were still bustling with life, despite the fact that the market day was over. Fia and Boni walked ahead, while behind them the Allaways pointed things out to one another.

"See that guy there, Fergus, that's his job to go around this part of town and light every fuckin' one of those lamps, you see?" Lenix said in disbelieving tones. "Can you fuckin' imagine? The son of a bitch gets paid ready coin to walk about doin' that!"

"Sounds a bit too much like a job to me, brother," Fergus rumbled, running his fingers through his beard and nodding to a gaggle of whores bustling off towards one of the many bed-houses that plied their trade in this part of town.

"What're they fuelled by, then? Them lights?" Gil asked his twin.

"I don't fuckin' know. Oil?"

Boni turned her green eyes on Lenix. "They're fuckin' witchlights. Powered by magic long cast––though everyone pretends not to know that, obviously," she said, dropping her girlish voice into a knowing whisper. "Ain't you idiots ever been in a town before?"

Fia noticed the way the twin's smile faded off his face under the incandescent, unblinking gaze of Boni.

"We've been in a town," he said defensively. "Only, it's been a while now. Me, Fergus and Gil have been trying to stay out of certain social circles, if you catch my drift."

"Aye," Fergus said. "We got into a bit o' strife up in Gjarnroost, in the south of Skyvolla, purloinin' a few tasty bits and pieces from a noble house there."

"Cousin of the Countess Sorcha, I think the vindictive old bag was," Gil mused.

"Anyway, this cranky old bitch starts boilin' over and put up some mighty generous bounties for the three of us," Fergus said. "All through the bigger towns in southern Skyvolla and into northern Frekifold. Even in Aldinfang."

"Yeah, she was pissed alright," Gil said with a reminiscent smile.

"Which is why we've been keepin' to the quieter trading posts and villages," Lenix said. "You know, keepin' our heads down sort of thing."