Chapter 2
"So do I leave him here and come back for him when I deliver the remaining four million?" I asked the auctioneer.
"Not at all. You have paid up front more than half of your bid, so you must take your purchase with you," the man replied. He produced a card, similar in style to the letter that I had used to enter this auction, and handed it to me. There was an address for somewhere in upper Kiiren written on it in gold ink, and a word written below in black ink - "Sina Dara". I blinked at it.
"A password?" I asked, indicating the word. The auctioneer nodded.
“Your two hour deadline will start from the moment you step outside of the auction house. You will be escorted from the building now," he informed me. I nodded, and turned to the...person I had just bought.
The first thing I did was remove my cloak. It felt like the temperature dropped by about fifteen degrees when I did, but I did my best to ignore that. When I draped the warm cloak around his shoulders, the man's head snapped up so quickly that it was comical, and he gaped at me in surprise. I tried, but I couldn't keep the smirk off of my face. He didn't say anything, just pulled the cloak tighter around him and nodded in thanks. The hostess girls left the stage and motioned for me to follow, and then they filed out of the room and up the stairs. When we reached the front doors of the auction house I thanked them and nodded to the guards.
I turned to the man to give him instructions to stay close behind me, and stopped. I didn't even know his name. The auctioneer had said that the two hours started after I stepped outside, so...
"Do you have a name?" I asked, and the abruptness of it must have startled the man, because he jumped a little, turning wide eyes on me.
"Uh, Kir," he finally answered, with all the hesitance of someone that was clearly lying. I shrugged.
“Pretty smart not to give me your real name,” I replied. He winced. “You can call me Milina.”
“Sorry, I…” he started, but I shook my head.
“No, no, Kir is fine for now,” I told him. I turned to the door and peered outside. It was already dark and while it wasn't raining, there was a fresh coat of snow on the ground. I winced, already not looking forward to the cold. I felt doubly bad for Kir—he wasn't even wearing shoes. I sighed and reached up to unwrap the scarf from around my neck, handing it to him wordlessly. He took it, staring at me in shock again.
"Thank you," he replied, obvious confusion in his voice. I turned and gave him a hard stare, not a glare but a serious look.
"Listen, as long as you stay close to me and follow my instructions, nothing worse than being really cold is going to happen to you," I informed him. He nodded, and I turned back to the door. "Here we go."
Two things happened the instant I set foot outside the door. The first was that the cold hit me like a freaking train - it was below freezing outside, for sure. Ugh, curse this unseasonably cold weather. Last year on the first of Ursian I’d gone to the beach! The second thing was that I had to dodge to the side and shove Kir as I went to avoid the knife that had just come flying at my face. It bounced harmlessly off of the marble exterior of the auction house and clattered to the ground.
There were three figures standing in the little courtyard outside the auction house. Two of them were men, both tall but one was almost as muscled as the guards inside the auction house had been, while the other one was skinny and lean. The third figure was a woman, who was standing at the closest point of a triangle the three formed.
"Best regards from the Boss," the woman called, nonchalantly brandishing the whip she was holding with a smirk. The skinny thug behind her brandished two knives identical to the one that was currently laying at my feet, and the third thug made an exaggerated show of slinging a huge, broad ax up to sit on one shoulder. I sighed, and I heard Kir gasp behind me.
"Better get back inside," I said to him, before stepping forward and scooping up the dagger with one hand, lifting it up to inspect it. It was slightly curved, made out of low quality metal, and not really meant for throwing, either. I smirked and without warning, I threw it back at its owner. It thunked harmlessly into the grass beside him, sinking into the dirt all the way to the hilt. It made him jump and flinch back with a scream of alarm. The woman's smile faltered, and I grinned. Amateurs.
"I'm going to give you one chance to turn around and walk away," I said, descending the steps with my arms folded across my chest. The woman laughed.
"Begging for your life already?" she asked. I rolled my eyes. I reached the bottom of the stairs and stood there for a second, staring impassively at them. The men were wearing black long sleeved tunics over black pants and boots. The woman, for some stupid reason, was wearing a sleeveless leather tunic—in this weather!— that ended in a skirt that was too short to be anything near practical to fight in. She was wearing opera length black leather gloves and knee length leather boots, so I guess that helped with the cold a little. The skinny guy had a belt with a bunch of those same knives in sheaths. They were obviously more style than substance. The only guy that was even remotely a threat was the big guy with the ax, and I got the feeling that he was only there for the intimidation factor.
The muscle-head and the woman didn't move an inch. The skinny guy looked like he was second guessing his choices, but after a withering look from the woman he scampered over to the knife and pulled it out of the ground, wiping it on his pants and awkwardly juggling the three knives in his hands until one ended up in one of the sheaths at his waist. I let him. There were a few more awkward moments of silence before I sighed again and unfolded my arms.
"Well, come on," I challenged, and the woman started to say something, faltered, and then put her smirk back in place.
"My, aren't you confident? But you shouldn't be! You should be quaking in fear of the Deadly Trio of-"
"Yeah yeah yeah, whatever," I spoke over her, and she stopped talking with an indignant huff, pursing her lips. "Look, did Cario or Byars hire you?"
"That's none of your business," the muscley guy barked, moving to stand beside the woman, who was getting visibly more and more frustrated. The skinny guy took a couple of seconds to realize that he'd missed his cue and shuffled forward to also stand beside her. She was glaring and brandishing the whip. Before she could start on another generic evil henchman speech I reached behind my back with my right hand, tugged open a couple of buckles, and drew the short sword from the hidden sheath on my belt.
"Save the speeches. Bring it," I challenged, brandishing the weapon. Skinny guy went absolutely still, the woman laughed in a strained way, but the big guy actually responded to my challenge. He made a sound that can only be described as a roar and barreled forward, bringing the ax up to swing it down at me. I let him swing, hopping back and out of the way easily. I raised my right leg and brought the heel of my foot down onto the hand that was gripping the ax. He hissed in pain and involuntarily released the ax with his left hand, clumsily grabbing it with his other hand. I pressed him, lunging forward, short sword swinging up and toward his neck. He panicked, dropped the ax and jerked backwards to avoid the sword. He stumbled straight back into the skinny guy, who had rushed forward to try to help, and they both bowled over backwards onto the ground.
The woman looked from them and then back to me and growled in annoyance, drawing her arm back to swing her whip back at me. I casually transferred my sword to my left hand and reached down, grabbing the ax that the big guy had been swinging around with his huge muscles. It was a little difficult for me with only one hand, but I didn't let it show on my face as I lifted the ax up to rest on my shoulder, just like the big guy had. The handle was as thick as one of my arms, and the actual ax part was at least twice as big as my head. She stopped, gaping at me in surprise. With a grunt, the big guy managed to disentangle himself from the skinny guy and sat up. When his eyes fell on me hefting his huge ax with one arm and making it look casual, he actually went pale.
"I'm feeling generous, so I'll let you three walk away right now," I called over to them. I shifted the ax and let it slide off of my shoulder to hit the ground with a heavy thunk, releasing the handle and letting it clatter to the ground as well. Then I took a few steps back and stopped at the base of the steps again, gesturing at the ax. "I'll even let you keep your weapon." The woman snarled and took a step forward.
"Who do you think you are?! We are the Deadly Trio of-"
"Save it," I cut her off again, and she actually stamped her foot in frustration.
"That's it," she growled, and swung the whip at me. I let it come toward me with a bored look on my face. The end had spikes on it - cute. I ducked a little, the whip went over my head and made an impressive sounding crack. Then, I swept the short sword over my head, slicing through the thick leather whip cleanly. The woman's mouth dropped open in evident shock.
"If you three want to be a trio of anything but corpses, you'll turn around right now and get out of my way," I growled at her. She shivered a little, but didn't look like she was backing down. At least I could give her that - she had a lot of guts. Really, really stupid guts. She threw down the whip and stalked over to where the skinny guy was still clinging to the bigger guy, snatching two knives out of the skinny guy's belt, and turned to charge at me.
The big guy just simply reached out and grabbed her around the waist with one massive arm. She flailed and shrieked, but he ignored her, turning to look at me. He nodded, and just turned away, effortlessly carrying the woman with him. The skinny guy gave me a very nervous smile and scooped up and sheathed his knives. He then ran to get the ax, grabbing it with one hand and attempting to heft it up. He barely got it off the ground, having to grab it in both hands, and even then he was evidently struggling with it as he turned to leave after his companions. He kept shooting me looks that were equally terrified and grateful. It was kind of cute.
There were footsteps behind me, and I turned to see Kir approaching from behind. He was giving me a look of pure and utter awe. He looked terrified and, more to the point, very much intimidated by me. He didn't say anything, though, so I just turned to face the direction the three thugs had run in.
"Let's go find you some shoes and clothes," I said, and I heard him fall into step behind me.