Chapter Fifteen

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

D arwish had seen everything.

When the swarm of knights confronted Kane, he'd run outside, hiding near the well as the storm raged overhead. The knights had their horses in the kitchen yard, near the stables, so he had no chance to collect his own. He was trapped over by the well, and that was where he remained when the entire scene played out before him.

It was horrific.

He'd remained behind the well, cowering, until everything was over. When the kitchen yard was splattered with Kane's blood and guts, they wrapped Kane up and took him away on the back of a horse. Even then, Darwish remained hidden, panic-stricken and terrified that those men were going to find him. He'd heard some of the conversation between Kane and the men, but not all of it. The rain had drowned out a good deal, but he'd heard enough to know that Kane told the knights that there was another bounty hunter.

Him.

He'd caused this. With his murder of the man in Kane's chamber, he'd caused this. But there was more afoot than simply knights on a murder rampage. Darwish was certain it had something to do with the de Ghent girl, but he was equally certain it had something to do with the dead man in Kane's chamber. He hadn't heard enough of the conversation to know, exactly, what the involvement was. But he had promised Kane he would go to Blackchurch to find the de Ghent girl. Now it meant that all of the reward from the new Duke of Toxandria would be his.

The girl would be his.

That gave him some courage not to run.

When the men, and Kane, were long gone, Darwish dared to come out of his hiding place. The rain had let up by this time, so he made his way in silence across the muddy, bloody kitchen yard and peeked into the tavern to see that it was mostly quiet at this time of night. People were sleeping at tables and on the floor near the hearth. He could hear the snoring. Quietly, he entered the tavern and made his way up the stairs to the chamber he'd shared with Kane. Just as he cautiously opened the door, someone grabbed him from behind.

Startled, Darwish yelped and fell into the chamber, hands up to defend himself. He looked up to see Hobbes standing behind him with an iron rod in his hand, scowling.

"So you came back, did you?" Hobbes hissed. "I thought you would, you little piss-rat. Now you'll pay!"

With that, he slammed the door and bolted it from the outside, leaving Darwish no way to escape other than the window that Kane had bolted from. With horror, Darwish knew why he'd been locked in.

The tavern keep was going to summon the knights that killed Kane.

For a moment, Darwish was frozen in fear. He was certain the knights had left because he'd waited long enough in the rain to make sure, so it would take some time for them to return at Hobbes' summons. At least, he hoped so. He hoped he had a little time before hell descended. Darwish might be a bit skittish, but he wasn't a fool. He was actually quite intelligent. He was also a cold-blooded killer, just like Kane had been.

Think, man, think!

Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to calm. He looked around the chamber, seeing that some of their possessions were missing. His seemed to be mostly intact on his bed, but the majority of Kane's were gone. He'd seen Kane come flying out of the window with his arms full of his saddlebags, but where those bags went was a mystery. Darwish hadn't seen them when he came back into the tavern.

The window…

That was how he was going to leave. Just like Kane, he was going to leap from the window. He was going to get out of there before the knights returned.

Go to Blackchurch—the duke's niece is there .

That was the last thing Kane had told him. The man that Darwish had killed in Kane's rented room had been from Blackchurch, so he was coming to think the knights must have been from Blackchurch also. Perhaps they'd killed Kane in revenge for the other man's death. Perhaps it was something else. In the world of a bounty hunter, it could have been anything. Darwish had only heard portions of the conversation, so it was difficult to draw any conclusions, but he knew one thing:

He was going to Blackchurch.

Before another minute was out, he gathered all that he could and leapt from the window, into the shite pile below. After that, he lost himself in the darkness.

When Tay, Creston, and Fox returned some time later at Hobbes' summons, they found a locked chamber with an open, broken window and the second bounty hunter long gone.

Vanished.