Debtor's War Pt. 03

He had a smaller knife in his hand in seconds, and I ducked behind him. The man could throw, I'd seen it. He was keening like a wounded pig, desperately swinging the knife behind him but I stayed out of reach.

"Just do it!" he screamed, "just fucking do it!" he sobbed.

"Funny," I said. "I used to say the exact same thing to Enzo, remember?"

He dropped the knife and his shoulders sagged, he sat awkwardly on the edge of the hole. I kicked the knife away.

"Lift your hands where I can see them," I said.

To my surprise, he did.

I looped a noose of leather around his wrists and pulled it tight. It was a snare's knot, tightening as he struggled, I fastened it to a rope hanging from the rafter.

"Now you're caught. Breathe. Calm down."

"Fuck you!" he spat.

I walked around in front of him, he was growing paler by the second as he bled out. It was a bear trap. In case you were wondering.

He was too slow, too weak, too... anyway. He never got as far as taking his Lady's bloody sacrament that night, I was sure.

I made a makeshift field tourniquet just as Lugoz had advised and twisted it tight as I could above the injury. Then I sat back at the table and continued splitting reeds.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Fuck you!"

"What happened to you?"

"Fuck you..." he whimpered, "Finish it."

I split another reed deliberately slowly.

"Please..." he said softly, "please..."

I'd seen Enzo cry once, the first time he'd lost control and almost killed me. The man had been driven by his inner demons, but Radu's tears were pure despair.

Interesting. I held my tongue and waited.

"It doesn't end... not like this... not like this."

Then how? I almost pitied him. Almost. But then I remembered his actions, his manner, the way he'd come to me time and again, shit stirring, and I split another reed, the rasping tear of my little blade seemed louder than ever.

He met my eyes at last. His breath caught, his mouth hung open, "I can't..." he wheezed, "I can't... Mercy, Sparrow, please..."

Bastard. "Why did you give me the mask? The first time?"

He said nothing. If I'd followed Enzo to church that devil woman would have killed me or Enzo would have killed me for going behind his back.

"You were manipulating us? Even then?"

He nodded.

"Why?"

"I made a new oath, to a better patron..." he said quietly. "For the hundred! It was for the men!"

"You're saying Sister Rosemary wouldn't let you all retire to Styria?"

The sarcasm was lost on him. "Of course not! But these monsters can horse trade, just like we do, there are ways... Enzo didn't have any fight left... fuck him, he's worm food now." A twisted smirk, a grimace, "You should thank me! The way that crooked bastard ragged you around..."

"You always wanted him out of the picture," I said. I didn't want Radu to know how sick that made me feel, but I stared at him with such unblinking hatred, he must have known. I could have doused the bastard in pitch and watched him burn.

"You wanted the hundred for yourself. And you wanted to stir up that devil bitch's cult, didn't you? Because the more people Rosemary killed, the more she upset her own kind, and they don't take prisoners, do they? That was your way out."

I put the knife aside again, and brought my chair up close beside him. "Under the bed? That's pig's blood. My family's safe. And no-one calls me Sparrow anymore you snake. I'm Elizabeth Walder, the Bürgermeister's ward."

"Jesus, Sparrow," he sneered, "you're really fucked. You think this ends with me? You're nothing without Enzo."

"Funny."

He gasped as I undid the tourniquet, "This so-called protector of yours is the one who sent me to kill you! Let me go, please! I can help you..."

"What?" I giggled. "No. I'm going to bring her your head like I promised."

His breath came faster, eyes darting from me to the door and back again, panicked, refusing to believe that I was his death. "I swear to God... She wants you dead! She sent me to kill you!"

"And I swear to God you're as thick as mince. She told you to come alone, right? And you did."

The agonised look in his eyes as he bled silently to death was gold.

***

It took me a good couple of hours to extract Radu's remains from the trap and quarter his corpse. I cut my teeth on him, so to speak, covering up my very first murder. I should have enjoyed every minute of it, especially how easy it was to chop chop chop up those long bones and sinews with my borrowed strength, only, Radu's words haunted me. Enzo was worm food. And my 'honourable' new patroness had been playing us off against each other the whole time.

By the time it was done I was exhausted, Radu was in cutlets no bigger than a finger bone, his slurry contained in four large buckets. Two by two, I carried them to the bank of the swollen Wien, and tossed them in.

Most of his blood had run into the drain under the house, so I flushed it through, first with pickling brine then with the extra barrels of river water I'd drawn that morning. I swabbed the mess out from under the bed, put the place back together again, and secured the trap door.

Radu had money on him too, quite a bit. His weapons were nothing special but still, I bundled them up, intending to hand them over to Lady Eleanor with the head. It was near bloodless by then, but I still seared the neck end with a waffle iron to stop it leaking too much in the bag. The house smelled like a butcher's shop, but I left the lid ajar on the pickle barrel and that mostly covered it.

Then a fist began to hammer on the door. Relentlessly.

My stomach turned somersaults. Somehow I hoped it would be... My heart ached even as my blood raged.

Then the banging stopped. I heard a man speak, I couldn't make out his words.

I opened up the little hatch. "What do you want?"

Nothing. My heart raced. I could hear him breathing, shallow and wet. My Enzo.

I pulled up the bolt and wrenched the heavy door open, and he toppled back into the room. His leathers were soaked with rain, pink water running off onto the freshly scrubbed floor. And my crazy heart was breaking.

"Enzo!" I took him by the shoulders and shook him as hard as I could, and he gave an agonised groan.

"My Sparrow... you're alive..." he clutched my hand. "Bar the door, don't... don't open it for any... anyone."

"You're dying!"

"It's finished... we're all fucked."

I dragged him the rest of the way through the door and made it secure again. Then I pulled off his leathers. The wound was a cruel gash across his belly, oozing dark blood. Every step would have been agony with a gut wound like that. The only thing keeping his insides together had been his armour. I bound it as tight as I could with clean rags while he wheezed and moaned.

"Radu did this to you," I said grimly.

He laughed, then winced, "Betrayed us. Coming to find you."

"Stay still, let the blood stop," I said. "What happened?"

"King's guard. Arrested everyone, even... even Her. Radu knew, he said he had something to... to give me. Gah!" He grimaced as something spasmed. "I played dead."

"And then you came here," I said.

He smiled as he looked up at me. "Everyone knows I'm a fool for you."

I returned his smile. I took the bolster and blankets off the bed, made him more comfortable where he lay. Then I retrieved the bag from under the table. Without another word I drew out Radu's head by a handful of iron grey hair.

Enzo's smile was fixed for a moment even as his eyes widened in horror. "What... what have you... where did you..."

I laughed and laughed. So hard I cried, so long that poor Enzo began to join in, terrified and shrill, adrenaline masking his pain.

"Oh... Oh Master." I wiped a tear from my face with the back of my hand.

"Oh God, Sparrow! What the hell?"

I set the head carefully on the edge of the table, and then lay beside Enzo on the floor. "You're safe with me."

He relaxed then, at least he surrendered to madness. He turned to look at me, to meet my eyes as I snuggled closer to him.

"Well," I chuckled, running my hand under the blanket to feel his half hard cock. "As safe as I ever was with you."

"Please, now isn't the..."

"Ah ah!" I nodded at the severed head. "He knows it's the right time. We might be dead by morning."

"I don't want..."

I squeezed too hard for comfort, "Don't you fucking tell me no, Enzo."

"I guess..." he barely had strength left to move, but he lifted his hand to caress my cheek. "There are worse deaths. Did you fuck him?"

"You think with your cock, selfish bastard." I licked my lips as I stroked him through the fabric of his breeches. "I never fucked Radu. Or Old Lugoz either."

He scowled up at me, if anything his cock grew harder.

"What?" I baulked at his stupidity. "Radu? What else did that traitorous coward say about me?"

"Everyone knows had you at the Polish bitch's place. You were selling it for her."

"I went to speak to Claudia! I told you myself but you never let me explain. You kicked my head in you evil bastard. And now you're here to what? Save me?" I laughed again. "I swear. Who made me a whore?"

"I loved you!"

He flinched as I snatched my hand away. "How many girls did you choke to death before you found one good enough to keep?"

"It's not the same."

"You utter piece of shit."

"I couldn't stop! You know what it's like, it's..."

Tamas told me from the start Enzo couldn't control himself. I felt the fire that burns in the blood, I knew. I glanced over at Radu's pathetic head, his half open eyes and crooked chin. I was no better than either of them.

"Tamas has your love Enzo, don't you dare deny it, I tasted his arse on you."

"It's not... not the same. What we had, I've never..."

"If you loved me, I would have been more than a piece of screaming meat for you to kick around, you would have heard the truth. They hung her up in the common room for people to leer at and squeeze and finger for copper pennies. For beggar's coin! And they drugged her so she wouldn't cry when they fucked her. She's my family!"

"You never spoke of your sister all summer."

"Ha! She would never tell me. I saw it for the first time that night. You remember? The second fucking time you almost killed me, actually."

The last of his anger melted away. "Radu was playing me for months."

"Don't talk such bollocks! How can you blame him for the first time?"

"I can't think straight, I can't explain."

"You could try," I forced through gritted teeth.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I shouldn't have come home to you that night. You didn't deserve to suffer. I'll regret it for the rest of my life." He closed his eyes with a long sigh, and didn't speak again.

I could see blood leaking through his bandages, and I felt... numb. Empty. What was I doing? He was dying and there was only one way to stop that. It wasn't in my gift, but it was in hers.

I waited, armed and armoured, watching his chest rise and fall, and sure enough within the hour I felt the unmistakable urge to find my mistress.

The bombardment had stopped, but the rain still teemed down and battle clamoured in every direction. The Blood sang in my veins, answering hers, guiding me to the breach in the wall with my grizzly prize.

There was Eleanor, leaning awkwardly against a pile of rubble. She was covered in filth, surrounded by attendants who were trying to remove her mangled plate mail without damaging it further. She noticed me, and gestured to one of her men.

I was shown to a makeshift space that was half building, half tent. There was a map rolled out on a table, various drinking flagons and leftover food scattered about. Three prone figures lay huddled together on the ground, sleeping? Wounded? Dead? I sat at the table clutching my bag and waited.

After a few minutes, curiosity got the better of me and I crept quietly over for a look. They were not soldiers, they were women, dressed as nuns in black veils and pristine white wimples. They appeared to sleep. Not one of them stirred as I shuffled hurriedly back to my seat.

I took a generous swig from the wine on the table to settle my nerves and only thought better of it afterwards. What if they'd all been drugged? Fuck it. I took another mouthful, and another. Then I started on the half eaten meat pie. When I looked up Eleanor was just inside the curtain, watching me with amusement.

Despite the mauling she had just taken, she looked positively serene. A sharp eye could still make out smears of blood and worse on her fair face, and her somewhat matted hair was twisted into a makeshift coif. She had on a pristine yellow arming jacket, its red and gold finery contrasting her battle worn breeches.

I stood straight up and fumbled my wine. She gestured for me to sit back down. "Peace. Please, slake your thirst, you have surely earned this much respite."

She sat down herself, perhaps to put me at ease

I clutched the pewter goblet and forced myself back down. She was between me and the doorway and the three sleepers were now behind me. I was anything but relaxed.

"Did we win, Your Grace?" I asked.

"It is well in hand," she said. "The breach is fortified, our prince and his allies have set up camp outside the fallen tower to deter skirmishers. Was your own battle victorious, Elizabeth?"

"It was nothing," I said. I set the leather bag on the table.

"There is a time and place for modesty. Tell me, how did a slip of a girl get the better of proud Radu, once called the bold?"

I watched her face carefully, but she didn't appear to mock me. "I set a trap and he fell for it. My sister and Herr Lugoz stayed away tonight," I added hurriedly, "no one saw it happen." I took a deep breath before carrying on. "I know you've been planning this for a long time and I'm late to the party. I know things happened at Sacred Heart."

She sat back and rested both hands on the table. "Go on."

"Radu ran his mouth off to Enzo, and knifed him in the belly." I couldn't get the wobble out of my voice, no matter how I tried. "Whatever else happened, the guards that came to break up the black mass missed Enzo. I'd just finished feeding Radu to the fish when he showed up. He'd crawled all the way to Tanner's Row with his guts hanging out to warn me."

"You have been a busy girl," she said. "So there is still at least one witness left alive? A shame."

I felt the colour drain from my face.

"Oh, calm yourself. It is no failure of yours." She drummed her fingers on the table top and sighed thoughtfully. "At least one witness. I would have thought the fool knew better than to gloat. Did this Enzo speak of meeting others before he reached you?"

"No, Your Grace. We barely spoke, he's dying." Minute by minute.

"Then, Radu was doubly false. He told you of my intentions?"

"He said he could protect me if I set him free," I said.

"Radu the deceiver henceforth." She got up from the table, and ignored my flinch. "You have done passably well, child. Show me."

I hurriedly opened the bag and drew out the prize. Already the eyes had sunk, and the lips shriveled away from the teeth and gums.

Eleanor clapped her hands and a page hurried in to attend her.

"Pitch this morsel over the wall to Suleiman."

He clipped his heels together with a salute, "Yes Sir!"

"That was a nice touch, searing the stump wound. Jan's suggestion, I take it?"

I gulped.

"Another witness?"

"It was just... just general advice. I didn't ask him anything!"

Her eyes softened and she nodded sagely. "He has likely deduced some truth for himself."

"I..." I clamped my mouth shut. Set down the empty goblet.

"Go on."

"I can see why you... you dealt with the hundred like that."

"Can you indeed," she smirked.

"Yes, Your Grace. They would have been a menace on the road all winter, but Enzo? Could you find a use for him?"

"Aside from ammunition for the catapults?"

"Aside from that. He's brave. And loyal. And trustworthy. And... and ruthless."

"What is he to you?"

"He fed me when I was hungry, and he taught me to fight. I was his servant."

She considered my words for a long moment. "Can he be moved?"

"He's already lost a lot of blood."

"Naturally," she mused. "It is at least half a mile between that den of iniquity and the tannery."

I held my breath.

"I may find some use for the creature, should he prove himself as competent and biddable as yourself. But keep in mind, I have no use for her true believers, Elizabeth. How many unsuspecting souls did your beloved master throw into that idolater's mouth? Was it more than loyalty?"

"I don't know," I said.

"Yet you beg for his life?"

"He was a different person on the road." I struggled to put it into words. He had been my lover. My master and my friend. He'd broken my heart. "Her blood is nothing like yours."

"We do not speak of it in such terms, girl," she said. "However safe we feel, however confident in our trusted company. Do you understand?"

I did not understand. What with her feeding me her vitae in the damn street, what with unholy monsters running rampant in the city, on the rooftops and beyond the wall, but I wasn't about to argue with her. "Yes, Your Grace."

"What a night," she said. "In any case, he cannot stay where he is, it would draw too much attention to the tanner. Has Jan Lugoz spoken of his own worth to me?"

I shook my head vehemently, "Never, not at all. I won't ever ask him, I promise."

"Heh," she smirked. "You broadcast promises like hayseed, though I see you are a creature of your word, Miss Walder."

Dread began to smother my hope. Was Enzo's cause lost already, now Lugoz too? I glanced back at the sleepers, then at Eleanor's amused face.

She fastened an arming sword and dagger to her belt and threw a thick black cloak over her livery. "Come. We must make haste, or fate will have decided for us."

In these small hours, the city slept. I trailed half a step behind her, and we picked our way through narrow lanes. The sounds of fighting beyond the wall began to ease off.

"We have suffered losses. The dead and injured outnumber the living among the most heavily engaged militia. Why do I not haunt the infirmary, and offer my dubious blessings to the wounded?"

"You despise her for that too?" I laughed uneasily. "It wouldn't be a secret for long."

"Indeed. But there are more subtle reasons."

She made no secret of her distaste. "You don't want to?" I said.

"If it truly were a blessing, believe me, I would. But it is no God given cure. Without conviction and strength of will, the base and violent nature such a curse cannot be contained."

Strength of will. Conviction. So she saw those traits in me, found me capable and biddable. Yet I felt like a puppet on strings, tugged this way and that by love and loyalty, I felt her testing me.

"It makes everything..." I couldn't tell her how easy it was to kill Radu. How bitter hatred welled up out of nowhere once I realised what he'd done to Enzo.

"You have no distaste at all for this work," she chuckled.

"He deserved it."

"Your lover does not?"

"Former lover, and yeah, we both deserve worse. But Radu didn't die for being wicked, he was a traitor."

"Fascinating little thing you are. I owe the tanner for dropping such a rare coin in my pocket."

"Enzo is loyal," I chanced.

"Others have spoken of his worth, though I dismissed him as a necessary loss. I am more interested in you. Now you have the right to trade alone, will you stay with the old man?"

"I need more than that piece of vellum, I need a storehouse, a wagon, and there's nothing Herr Lugoz doesn't know about the market."

"What you need is a veneer of respectability, girl. There is only so long a woman can live as a man does."

That was true enough.

I opened the door for her, stood aside and bowed my head. She reached out and laid a hand on my shoulder, and the touch made my pulse race.