Chapter Twelve

As soon as they got him up to the canal, the man on Ryland’s right drew a hunting knife and made ready to slash Ryland’s throat.

In the seconds he had, Ryland realized he had two choices.

He could wait until they were close to edge, surprise the men in some way, and try to jump into the trench. Hoping that the water was deep enough that he’d survive the fall, be carried out into the river, and be able to swim enough with his wet clothes to get to safety. This had some chance of success thanks to his playing dead, but there was still a lot of risk and he would be abandoning Minerva to her fate.

Or…

Ryland brought his legs under him and stood up, doing it in a motion that was slow enough not to surprise his captors. Still, the men to either side of him let him go and moved back a little, watching him warily. He glanced at Minerva, who was looking at him with a look of both relief and fear. Then, Ryland turned to face the leader of the men.

“Before you kill me, can I say something?”

Was what he tried to say in a serious voice.

However, thanks to a swelling broken nose and smashed lips what came out sounded more like - “Bw’for yuu kill meh, cun I shay someshing?”

The men looked at each other and laughed, then the leader said. “Yah, go ahead.”

Knowing how he now sounded, Ryland tried to keep it clear and simple. He needed them to listen to him. Their lives depended on it.

“I am worth more alive to you than dead. I have money to pay you.”

The leader nodded. “Yah, they all say that. You gonna pay us double, triple?”

“I could,” Ryland replied. “I’m connected with Sinclaire Eaton.”

Ryland hoped using the name of the rich and powerful merchant king of Northport might get a reaction from them. Maybe fear, or uncertainty, or even opportunity. Instead it just made them look a little puzzled.

They looked at each other as if to say, “You know who he’s talking about?”

Then they shrugged their collective shoulders.

They don’t know who Eaton is...They’re not from here. Which means…

“Delmar Swailes,” Ryland said another name.

This time, it got a reaction.

They smiled knowingly when they heard the name of the old Master of Order of the Red Hawk Banner Company - the man who had betrayed Ryland’s family.

The man who wanted Ryland dead.

They’re men Swailes has hired.

To kill me.

Ryland’s heart sank. This wasn’t going to work.

They weren’t thieves. They were assassins.

He wasn’t going to be able to convince them.

The leader shook his head and then gave a nod to the one next to Ryland with the knife.

“Finish him, we need to move.”

Minerva cried out, and Ryland saw the knife come up for his throat.

Minerva. I’m sorry. Koamalu. I hope you’re okay.

Then, just as the knife was about to cut Ryland’s throat, a high pitched whistling sound filled the air.

Their captors froze, including the one with the knife.

Everyone turned to look at the mouth of the alley where they’d come from, and where now stood a member of the city militia with a whistle in his mouth. He blew it again, and then waved his baton at them and shouted “You there! Stop what you’re doing!”

“Finish him!” The leader shouted at the man with the knife, but in that moment of indecision Ryland grabbed the man on the other side of him and threw him towards the assassin with the knife. The two didn’t go down, but it did give Ryland the confusion he needed to put some distance between him and his would-be killers.

At the same time, Minerva punched the distracted man holding her between the legs and pushed him to the side, moving to join Ryland a few steps away from the killers.

Then, while the assassins tried to decide what to do in the suddenly confusion, a whole knot of men burst from the alleyway and came running at the assassins. Several of them were city militia, but among them were three other well-dressed men- one of them wearing a grey cap.

Minerva’s father’s men.

Three of the assassins tried to fight back but were taken down quickly, one tried to run away - only to be chased down by two militia men, and one jumped in the water trench and was carried out into the river not to be seen again.

In moments, it was over, and all eyes turned to Minerva and Ryland.

The city militia advanced on Ryland, but Minerva threw herself in front of him with her arms spread. “You’re not to hurt him!” She declared.

The young woman’s defiant posture was enough to make the militia men stop and glance at each other, but not the big man in the grey cap who strode forward and grabbed her by the arm.

“You need to come home, my lady.”

“They’re not to hurt him, Mitchell. He came at my request and stood up for me.” She said, refusing to move.

Her father’s personal servant considered with a cold glance at Ryland, and then said. “It will be as you wish, my lady.” Then he turned to the militiamen behind him. “Leave the boy alone.”

As the city guardsmen turned to focus on the assassins, Minerva nodded. “Thank you.”

“Your father won’t be pleased, but I will take responsibility for it. Now, please come with us.”

Minerva turned to Ryland. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I…” Ryland said, realizing she still thought this was about her, not him. “This isn’t your fault.”

They were after me. I’m the one who needs to be sorry.

“It’s kind of you to say, but I invited you… made you take me out today.” She corrected herself. “I…” But then she started to tear up and with pain in her eyes turned to quickly walk away.

“Wait…” Ryland raised a hand, but Mitchell’s assistants blocked his way and all he could do was watch them take Minerva away.

“Uso!”

Ryland turned to see Koamalu sprinting up the side street he was taking back to Fiske’s home. His clothes were torn and has splashes of dark substances on them, and his face bore a large bruise on one cheek. But what most caught Ryland’s attention was his friend’s hands, which were covered in crimson.

“Koamalu…” Ryland said, pointing to his friend’s hands in shock.

Koamalu held up the hands and grinned a toothy grin. “Oh this? This is spice and honey.” Ryand could see there was more red than just spice and honey on those hands, but was too weak to ask, so he just said, “Oh. Good.”

“They go after you too, uso?” Koamalu said, and explained what had happened to him. How he’d been chased, gotten into fights and been searching for Ryland ever since.

“They were hired by Swailes,” said Ryland, and he too explained what had happened to him that morning, which turned Koamalu’s smile into a deep frown.

“They’re going to keep coming, uso.” The big islander finally said as they stopped in front of the front doors to Dunstand Fiske’s household.

Ryland nodded. “I know. I thought we’d be safe here, but Swailes isn’t going to leave us alone.”

“We could go looking for him, eh?”

That brought a smile to Ryland’s swollen lips. “Sure, just let me go in and get a sword.”

“I mean it.”

“I know you do,” Ryland said and looked at his angry friend. “But we’re not his match.”

Koamalu angrily mussed his hair and growled. “So what, then?”

“Excuse me?”

The pair turned to look at a messenger boy who had just exited from the front doors of the Fiske household. Behind him, Dunstand Fiske’s housekeeper was looking at the bedraggled young men with horror in her eyes.

The boy, who had clearly been waiting at the house for them, gave a letter to Ryland, nodded, and then dashed off.

Flipping over the letter, Ryland saw it was a piece of paper folded and sealed with the wax seal of the Eaton Merchant Company. When Koamalu saw him suddenly hesitate, he asked why and Ryland showed him the seal.

“So? What does it say?”

Taking in a deep breath, Ryland broke the seal and read the letter…

Two days later, the pair put on their best clothes and used the letter to get access to the city’s Upper Town. Once they arrived at the Eaton mansion near the top of the city’s central hill, they were shown inside to a room filled with ornate paintings and statues rimmed in gold and crusted in jewels.

There, they were served sweet snacks and asked to wait by a pretty serving girl that did her best to avoid looking at Ryland. Fiske’s housekeeper had applied herbal treatments that had brought down most of the swelling, but his nose was still broken and his face fit to scare small children. Koamalu, who only had a small cut on one cheek, was as handsome as ever, and was a much easier place to put her smiles.

As they waited on padded chairs, Ryland noticed there was a game set on a corner table and asked the servant if they could see it. The servant brought the thick wooden box over and placed in on the tea table in front of the pair, and Ryland nodded in satisfaction.

“This is my favorite game.” He told his friend running his hand over the top of the box, which was inlaid with criss-crossing lines. “I used to play it at the academy all the time. It’s called The Surrounding Game.” Then Ryland pointed to where two of the lines intersected. “The players take turns placing black and white stones at the intersections of the lines.”

“That’s a game?” Koamalu looked puzzled. “Are there throw sticks for how many stones you place? How do you win?”

“No. No.” Ryland grinned. “No random chance here. This game is a test of skill. You win by surrounding your enemies and capturing their stones.”

Ryland tugged at a drawer in the front of the box and it slid out smoothly. A divider split the drawer in half, and on one side were small disk shaped white stones, and on the other polished stones of pure black. He took out two white stones and placed them in the middle of the board, next to each other at two intersections.

“Just like us, these two stones are on the land.”

Then he took out six black stones and placed five of them at intersections surrounding the two white stones. “But if we get encircled and have no place to go, and our enemies cut off our escape route...” He placed the final black piece down at the remaining empty side so that the two white pieces were completely surrounded. “We get taken off the board.”

He scooped up the two white pieces, leaving an empty space where they’d been.

“So,” said Koamalu, studying the game with interest. “How do you avoid getting captured?”

Ryland considered. “Well, there’s two ways. First, you make yourself too big to eat, so your opponent can’t completely surround you.”

“If you’re a dragonfish, the others leave you alone,” Koamalu grinned.

“Y...yes.” Ryland nodded. “You could put it that way. He can’t put stones inside an area you have total control of. So, it can’t be captured.”

“And the other way?”

“The other way is to attack him and surround his stones first. Take the offensive and make him fight for his land and his life. He can’t survive if he has no land.”

“Huh.” Koamalu smiled. “So, to live you need to get big or attack. Got it. Can we play?”

Ryland said that they could, and they started off with a small game and moved on to larger games as his friend got the hang of it. Koamalu seemed to have a good logical mind, and took to the game very well.

They were still playing when Eaton’s attendant came to get them.

Getting up in unison, they looked at each other.

“Let’s go.”