Chapter 136. No Curses Only Dealers
Jay blinked awake, lost. He looked around him, dazed. He’d been in the safehouse, so why was he back in the tunnels? Had he blacked out again? Another digging accident, maybe? He started to stand up. “That fuckin’ overgrown rat—”
A gentle but firm hand pressed him back to the ground. Jay fought against it, but he might as well have fought a steel beam. He jerked back, suddenly far more awake. His vision cleared, revealing that it wasn’t Nant before him, but some kid he’d never seen before with a maniacal grin on his face. The kid smelled a bit funny, but more than that, he exuded an indescribably terrifying aura, something toxic and oppressive and chilling like a curse, that left Jay feeling as though a slimy, filthy piece of trash held his shoulder in place, rather than a clean hand.
His eyes jumped over the boy’s shoulder, to a girl who looked like death itself, clad in the bones of what were doubtlessly her victims. He swallowed. This was no good. No good at all. These two were scarier than anything Jano had in her arsenal… no, they might even be scarier than the boss.
A timid cough came from empty air to the other side of the boy, and he jerked, startling as he realized a second girl was here as well, a tiny, mousy thing that had somehow slipped his notice, despite standing right in front of him. She cringed where she stood, as if she wanted nothing more than to vanish, but he recognized that empty aura around her. That belonged to only the most successful assassins, who learned how to entirely cancel their presence. Of the three people before him, she might be the most terrifying of all.
Jay swallowed yet again. I’m fucked.
Rhys let the man stew in silence for a few beats, then finally opened his mouth. “Good morning, sunshine! If you cooperate, we won’t have to—”
“B-boss, I’ll take you directly to the boss!” the man burst out without hesitating.
Rhys blinked, taken aback. He looked at the man, then over his shoulder at the girls. Were the three of them really so intimidating…? Sable, sure, but him and Mouse?
A moment later, he cleared his throat. No point looking a gift horse in the mouth. Sure, this was probably a trap of some kind, but this man was no higher than Tier 1. He posed no threat to anyone here. His boss was probably the only one who could put up a fight against the three of them, and honestly? Rhys relished the challenge. Still beaming, he thumped the man on the shoulder. “Up and at ‘em! We’ve got a long night ahead of us, and a boss to visit!”
The man jumped to his feet. He looked around, then spotted the other man lying nearby. Without a word, he ran over and slung the man over his shoulders, then gestured for Rhys and his party to follow. “Right this way, sir and ma’ams.”
Rhys didn’t need the man to lead him down the one-way, straight tunnel, but he didn’t stop the man. If he wanted to lead, then Rhys would follow. He kept his hand on a weapon in case the man tried some kind of funny business, ready to attack or defend. Behind him, Mouse scuttled silently, and Sable strutted, her bone armor quietly clattering as it swayed. The man started to jog, and they all took off, easily keeping up with them. If he’d had any thoughts of escaping, they were banished when he peered over his shoulder and saw them following him, not a drop of sweat on their foreheads.
The tunnel came to an end, and they stepped out into the forest. Pale moonlight silvered the leaves and lit the grasses and sleeping flowers in thin white light. The man jogged on, heading confidently into the forest. Now that there were directions they could go, and alternate routes to take, Rhys actively swept his mana senses all around him as he went, searching for anything and everything. A few times, he reached out and absorbed some cache of trash as they passed it, the remains of someone’s picnic or the scraps of a carcass from a hunt.