Chapter 36

There's silence at the table. Wraine looks surprised. Quinn doesn’t look surprised. Instead, there’s a small grin on his face. “What makes you think I’m part of any gang?”

“For one, you’re too big to not be in a gang. You could lift both Wraine and I off the ground with one hand. There’s only a few professions in this city that could build that type of body but we’ve never seen you working and any time we asked you what did, you never gave us a direct answer and found some way to change the topic. Every time we’ve seen you, you’ve been right here, at this table, drinking. If I were part of any of the gangs in this city, I’d recruit you instantly, even if you couldn’t fight, just for your intimidating size. You’re also incredibly well informed in this city. Anytime I’ve asked you about news, you always have something for me, even if it’s news from the warfront. You might not know this, but when you first told us about Vansgrieri being taken by the Ribier Kingdom, we didn’t hear anyone else talking about this until two or three days later.” Quinn seemed to like this one in particular because his grin widened considerably. “I could point out the scars on your arms but those could be old and something from your past. They don’t really indicate anything except you’re no stranger to fights. The biggest sign I picked up over this past month and a half since I’ve known you is your very presence at this inn. Every patron here keeps a wide berth away from you. Even the drunks. Even in their drunken stupor, none of them dare take a step near our table. It could be due to your size, but even Farland, although he isn’t as large as you, can’t control every drunk here and fights still break out sometimes. But they’re never near our table. Isn’t that right boys!?” I shout out that last part and look around. Every patron immediately shifts their heads away from our table when they hear this. “And there you have it. We might not seem much, but we’re willing to get our hands dirty. We’ve been in Midriver for a month and a half now, since around the middle of May. We’ve seen things, we’ve done things, and now we want to dive deeper into this city, for better or worse.” At some point, I turned into we, without me realizing it. I really should have asked about Wraine’s thoughts and feelings before I did this but I got caught up in the moment. I needed to do something to try and put me back on the right track towards achieving my dreams otherwise I feel like I’ll stagnate. But it doesn’t look like Wraine disagrees with me. We’ve talked about this quite a few times beforehand about what we wanted to do in this city and although it was never plainly stated, joining a gang was one of the options.

“Always knew you were a smart one, Isaac. Why not put that head of yours to work somewhere else? Why do you want to join a gang?”

“Because this is the sort of city we’re living in. If we were living in any other town or city in this entire kingdom, we could do that. We could live honest lives and feel safe under the kingdom’s laws. But the laws don’t mean anything here. We could try living honest lives here too but there’s no telling when we’ll get robbed or even have a knife stuck in our back. See how I said when there, not if. It’ll only be a matter of time. We can’t live like that. I can’t live like that. If anything, I’d rather be the one doing the robbing and the stabbing. At least then I’d feel like I have control over my own life. I’m not risking my life inside a mine for 30 copper a day ever again.”

Quinn takes a moment to take in all my words, a grin still etched on his face. “Then why not leave? Like you’ve said, the laws aren’t worth a shit in Midriver and honest hardworking folk get a knife in the back every day. Why don’t you try living honest lives someplace else?”

Looking over at Wraine, he gives me a nod. I think he means it should be okay to tell Quinn everything? But I’d like to keep it as private as I can if possible. “We can’t. Before we arrived in Midriver, living honest lives anywhere else was no longer an option for us. Just like how the kingdom’s laws can’t protect us here, they also can’t persecute us here.”

Hearing this, Quinn sighs heavily and rubs his eyes with his fingers. We told him we were here to find Wraine’s uncle before but we never told him the other reason we were here which is also the reason we can’t live anywhere else. “You fucking morons. Here I was, lauding up how smart you boys were, and now you’re telling me you’ve done something so despicable that you can’t live anywhere else? Morons. The both of you.” Quinn’s grin is gone and he takes a deep breath before exhaling it. “I’ll talk to someone. It’s not up to me who joins us so don’t get your hopes up. You shouldn’t be getting your hopes up regardless. This might prove to be the single worst choice you could make in this city and you better be prepared for the consequences of the decision you’ve made here today. This entire time you’ve been living in this city’s light and you only caught glimpses of how dark this city truly is. What you’re trying to do now is submerge yourself in the darkness without knowing what it actually entails. Last chance boys. You can still back out now. Just say the word and I’ll personally help you find legitimate work tomorrow with good pay and it’ll be safer than the mines. What do you say?”

This time it’s Wraine who chimes in, “I’m of the same mind as Isaac. When we got robbed the first day we got here, we weren’t even in the city yet and we already got a taste of what this city’s like. I’m angry at the people who robbed us but I’m more angry with myself and how I couldn’t do a thing to stop what was happening right in front of me. I never want to feel like that ever again. We both appreciate your offer and all the help you’ve given us since we got here. If you weren’t here, we would’ve had a much different experience in this city and all I can do is thank you for that. I know you’re trying your best to dissuade us from this but it’s something we’ve both talked about before and we knew where we would end up eventually if we stayed in this city and here we are. We’re still here. We might not fully understand your perspective since you’re on the inside looking out while we’re outside looking in and you know what we’re throwing ourselves into. But we’ll take it as it comes, for better or worse.”

Quinn stays silent for a moment before he abruptly stands up, his chair screeching on the way back, “Don’t regret it.” He doesn’t stay any longer after saying that and instead of heading upstairs to his room, he goes out the front door, into the night.

Exhaling a deep breath, I lean back on my chair and stare at the ceiling. “Are you alright with all of this?”

“You’re asking me that now? It’s a bit late for that, don't you think? But I knew where we were headed for a while now. You never said it out loud yourself, but I knew you wanted to join a gang. At this point, with everything that’s happened, what other choice do we really have anymore? What was that you said a while back? On the night after we saw the fog? Something about being a king? Not exactly a good step towards that goal but a step forward nonetheless.”

“I’m glad you’re with me Wraine. If you weren’t here, I wouldn’t have gotten this far.”

There’s a smug grin on his face and I realize I shouldn’t have said that, “Why, thank you for your kind words my liege. Now should this servant of yours bring you some pottage for supper?” Groaning, I bury my head in my left arm while I flip him off with my right. Wait, we have money now. Jolting my head up, I tell Wraine to order meat instead of pottage and mead instead of ale. Before long, Farland serves us a half rack of mutton and two mugs of mead. The mutton cost 20 copper and each mug of mead cost 5 copper. The cost of this one meal alone could buy three meals of pottage for us but damn, was it worth it. I’ve never had a better meal in my life and I’ve never been as full either. The mutton alone was amazing but washing it down with the sweet tasting mead only made it better. After we’re done basking in the aftermath of our meal, we pay for another night in the private room. I was alright with renting two beds in the sleeping quarters for the night to save our coins, but before Quinn gets back with whatever decision his… boss? Bandit leader? Bandit gang boss leader? Before Quinn gets back with whatever decision his higher up makes, Wraine and I need to discuss what we’re willing to tell other people especially if we’re involving ourselves in Midriver’s criminal underground. Even being in a private room isn’t enough to quiet down my paranoia and we only speak in whispers. In summary, we think letting others know we’re deserters isn’t too crucial and the boy in the cave isn’t too critical either but if no one asks about him, neither of us are willing to bring it up freely. We’ll never tell anyone about what happened to Alister’s crew because Alira is a major figure in Midriver who can kill us by saying a few words and the more people who know about it, the bigger chance it’ll get out. We’re not even sure if Quinn’s part of Alira’s gang or not. If he is, then we’re definitely never saying a word to him regarding Alister. We also talk about hiding how much money we have now but we realize we’ve been doing an awful job of hiding it. The crossbow we spent 15 silver on is just gone now, nowhere to be found. We’re also splurging on private rooms when we’ve been mostly broke beforehand. Though I guess we can just say we sold the crossbow to someone and we’re using those funds at the moment but we’ll need to keep the gold coin a secret until we can find an explanation for it. But that’s about it. As long as our secret never gets out, we should be fine. I hope I’m not jinxing myself by saying that. Oh well. When we’re finished discussing what we can and what we can’t say to others, we turn in for the night.

…

I’m woken up by a splash of cold water in my face. Before I can even get my bearings or even understand what’s happening, someone grabs me by the collar of my shirt and drags me out of the room and down the stairs. When I say they dragged me, they dragged me. My legs were flailing as hard as they could and my hands were gripping the rock hard fist that was clenched around my collar, desperately trying to loosen its grip on me. My mind isn’t fully awake yet and the sheer panic I’m going through isn’t helping me think. Did they find out? Already? But we spent so much time and effort covering up Alister’s murder. How’d they even find out it was us? Before I’m able to think further, the person dragging me through the inn reaches the back door of the sleeping quarters and opens it, tossing me outside near the well. What strength! They did that with one arm! I fly through the air for a second or two before landing on my ass and the pain clears my mind thoroughly.

Wincing, I open my eyes and look at my assailant. He’s a giant of a man, similar in size to Quinn. I never thought I’d see another person as big as Quinn again but here he is. He has wild black hair that ends at his shoulders with a matching full beard that ends above his chest. There’s a huge smile on his face that shows off his yellowing teeth. His giant body is covered in leather armor that looks like it’s straining to keep itself from tearing apart. There’s a brown sword belt around his waist with a sword in a black sheath touching his left hip. When I’m about to ask what this is all about, he speaks first, his husky voice thundering, “Name’s Bertrand. Heard you wanted in Derriv’s outfit. I’ll be the judge of that.” Quinn was pretty quick, huh?