Revolution (Book 2 in the Rise Trilogy)

Strange Money, the Difference, and a Giant Coat

Strange Money, the Difference, and a Giant Coat

“You people have strange money.” I slip a few coins into my small leather pouch from the dead corpse lying at my feet.

Connor chuckles. “So does your time. You people use paper to buy things.”

I laugh as I walk towards Connor with some clean bandages in my hands. The idiot got stabbed in the arm with a bayonet and won’t stop bleeding. “Now hold still this time!” Connor has to pull off the top layer of his robes in order to roll up his sleeve.

“Why do you worry so much?” Connor asks as I begin to wrap the first few layers. “It is just a small cut.”

I stop what I’m doing and look up at him. “Small?” I first say quietly. “Small?! If he had gone an inch deeper, I would have to do a lot more than just a wrapping.”

Connor grins and this time can’t hide it.

There’s silence while I concentrate on wrapping Connor’s arm. Then I notice him watching me, and hear him chuckle.

I stop what I’m doing again and look up at him. “What?” I ask in my famous annoyed, sarcastic voice.

“Your face does something funny when you do that,” Connor says with a smirk.

I look back down again. “Do what?”

“Stare at something like that.”

I grin and look back up at Connor’s big golden brown eyes. “It’s called concentrating. You should try it sometime.”

Connor chuckles and shakes his head as he watches me tie off the bandages.

We ride together on horseback towards New York and arrive by nightfall.

“He’ll be by the docks,” I say to Connor as we blend into the crowd keeping our hoods down over our eyes. The crowd is full of sailors and colonists awaiting the arrival of a ship.

The night is cool and there’s a gentle breeze lifting the loose strands of blond and orange hair free from the braid draped down my right shoulder. There are thin clouds over head and a full moon high in the sky casting a silver glow across the high tide of the ocean. It’s a peaceful night for a not so peaceful scene.

“Where is he? We have been walking in circles for the last hour,” Connor sounds frustrated but at nobody in particular. He seems more frustrated at the situation.

“Evening, Connor. Riley. I see you two made it here in one piece.”

We both turn around to face Haytham.

Connor chuckles. “Recovered from your beating, then?” he asks. Oooooh good come back. I don’t try to hide my smile or my sniggers when Haytham narrows his eyes at his son. They are quite the pair.

Haytham continues on and slowly begins to walk towards the warehouses on the docks as he speaks. “Benjamin Church is holed up in an abandoned brewery on the waterfront. We should be done with this by sunrise.”

“Good,” Connor says. “We would like to have those supplies returned as soon as possible.”

“Of course,” Haytham agrees with a hint of sarcasm in his tone. “I wouldn’t want to keep you two from your lost cause.” He receives an eye roll from the both of us. “Come along then.” Haytham speaks to us as if we are two children he has to drag along with him without the whole hand-holding thing. “Follow me.”

The three of us scale a wall and silently hop from building to building to hopefully get to the brewery faster. And for an old man, Haytham is pretty light on his feet.