Chapter 6

The old tunnels were not lit. The midday sunlight was quickly swallowed up by the darkness and the noise from the market faded with each step deeper.

“Where does this go?” Titus’s voice had begun to echo, but he could still hear the urgent voices of the guardsmen clambering down into the tunnel behind them.

He turned back to face them and immediately bumped into Snow. The magician had come to a stop and shoved Titus back before raising his hands as if he intended to push someone away. He then turned his palms up to face the ceiling and lifted his hands. Just as he did so, a wall of water lifted from between the cracks of the stone beneath their feet. It gathered into a wall of water between them and the oncoming guards. With a sharp twist of his hands, the water crackled into ice – becoming as solid as the tunnel walls around them.

“Wow,” Titus blinked at the display despite the ice plunging them into a deeper darkness.

A flame popped into existence above one of Snow’s hands before he turned on Titus was a hard glare. Behind him, Titus could hear the muffled curses of the guards as they struck against the ice.

“Now, tell me why I shouldn’t hand you over to them when they start down the far end?” Snow demanded.

Titus’s mouth fell open for a moment. “That arsehole murdered a girl – choked the life out of her because she wouldn’t freely give what he wanted.”

“And is it my job to right every wrong in this damn city?” Snow shot back. The flame above his hand sputtering violent sparks with the flare of his anger.

“Her father had no recourse! Wouldn’t you want justice for your daughter?”

“And that’s ‘justice’?” Snow gestured in disbelief. “Breaking the guard’s jaw and legs?”

“He also won’t be making that ‘demand’ of women ever again,” Titus said, and for the first time, Snow heard pride in the man’s voice.

Snow rolled his eyes before returning to his glare. “Answer me.”

“It is,” Titus said with confidence. “I could have ended him, but at least he will never cause pain like that again.”

“You are an idiot!” Snow’s flame sputtered more. “Do you think you taught him anything? Do you think you changed him? You just made a vicious man into a broken, pained mess. He will be a plague of misery on everyone around him. He could become WORSE than the monster he was.”

Titus was silent for a long moment before saying, “There has to be some punishment for cruelty and murder.”

It was Snow’s turn to fall silent.

Eventually, he let out a tight breath and said, “You really do find a lot of trouble.”

Titus shrugged. “There’s plenty out there to be found.”

New distant sounds were starting somewhere deep in the dark ahead of them. A pinprick of light could be seen at the far end, and shadows were now moving as men’s angry voices carried down the tunnel.

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Titus looked back at them before returning to Snow’s hard glare.

“Well? Going to hand me over or what?” Titus asked.

✵✵✵

After running blocks above and the same distance below in the dark, Erbin’s finest found a convenient doorway cut through the wall of melting ice that had stopped them cold just minutes earlier.

Back above in the noon day sun, Snow led Titus through the winding side streets and alleyways to make a circuitous route back to the Fraeling. They were forced to take it at a casual pace to avoid suspicion. Twice they bumped into patrols scanning the crowd, but without any sudden movement, they were able to slip past amid the heavy afternoon traffic.

Unfortunately, this diversion caused them to arrive back at the Fraeling by late afternoon. Snow looked at the sun as they slipped inside the inn’s front door. They would be traveling into the night at this rate. The bitter thought put a new scowl on his face as he imagined trying to convince the Folfern innkeeper to receive them late into the evening. Little villages weren’t known for having late hours.

When he looked back inside the inn, he found Titus waiting on him.

“So?” Titus asked.

“What?” Snow replied sharply.

“Does this mean I still have the job?”

Snow scoffed. He was ready to say ‘no’. It would be followed by another lecture on how drama can follow one along the road. How new whispers seemed to move from city to village in a matter of days. That one man’s avenged child could quickly turn into a stream of petitions – all asking for justice. And how Snow’s likeness will be passed out to all the local garrisons.

He had been through all that before once… he could not do it again.

Eventually, he said, “I can’t afford this kind of trouble.”

Titus stood silent.

“I’ll meet you at the stable in half an hour. We will part ways on the road,” Snow added before walking past him. He didn’t look back.

✵✵✵

When the two met again at the stables, Snow found Titus dressed in his new clothes, and, for a moment, Snow almost didn’t recognize him. Much to Snow’s approval, Titus had combed his hair, shaved, and even given his worn boots a dusting. Snow wanted to believe it was the fine clothes giving him a new appreciation for his appearance, but it was more likely an effort to avoid the scrutiny of the Erbin guard when they pass through the main gates.

“Look,” Titus began as he led his chestnut stallion out of the stable. “I’ve been thinking about what you said.”

“And?” Snow asked as he climbed up on his mare. She was a pale beauty with a speckled gray rump.

“You’re right. It’s… it’s tempting to try to right every wrong. Sometimes, I feel like it’s always up to me the moment I hear about it. Maybe it was how I was raised,” he shrugged before continuing, “I feel good in that moment, but then reality starts barreling in on me. It can hit like an avalanche sometimes.”

Snow listened quietly as the man tried to describe a feeling he knew well. There was a time when he too wanted to right the wrongs he saw around him. With the power he could wield, it seemed easy enough to protect the weak or avenge the lost. But reality always had a way of complicating things. There were times when he found the weak to be lying or that the oppressors were actually the oppressed. Even when everything was as it seemed – the right course could still feel wrong later.

“What I’m trying to say is,” Titus mounted up to be eye to eye with him, “I’d like to stay on, if you’ll have me. And I promise I’ll try to steer clear of trouble, at least this sort.”

“This sort?” Snow started towards the main road.

“The ‘local authorities’ sort,” Titus smirked briefly before continuing. “I get it. You don’t want to stir up trouble with the law. Even if they are just a bunch of arseholes in matching uniforms.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Snow replied.

“I can manage this.”

Snow sighed. “Let’s table this for now. It’s a long way to Folfern and we’re losing the light.”