EMILY

Emily, of course, had an absolutely wonderful idea.

Her mastery of disguise was second to none. Therefore, it made perfect sense for her and Olivia to disguise themselves as bandits, blend into the bandit camp, and then chop the “Boss” lady when she returned to claim her treasure. Emily was quite certain that the other woman would never see it coming, which made this the perfect way to assassinate her enemy.

Olivia naturally disagreed with her suggestion and kept insisting they should go back to Gloomwood Manor for reinforcements, but that would just allow this Boss lady to get away. While Emily had to admit capturing the bandits instead of killing them had worked out for the best (what if they had accidentally burned the treasure?) that didn’t mean Olivia was ready to make such a big decision. She was still too new at fighting and killing for Gloomwood Manor.

This would be a good opportunity to teach Olivia how to kill bad people, especially when those people made it clear they intended to kill you. It was fine to be nice when you were dealing with nice people, but when you faced bad people? Chopping was best.

Once Emily had finally made it clear to everyone with a say in the matter that her brilliant disguise plan was brilliant, Sidori marched away with two practically naked female bandits walking ahead of her at arrowpoint. The other five would stay to make their disguise more convincing, and also, if it came to a fight, Emily could use them as human shields.

Sidori had already done the difficult part, which was tracking the bandits to where they’d taken all the Hawk Merchant’s stuff. Now, all Emily had to do was wait patiently in ambush, dressed in the armor she had stolen from a female bandit, and deal with “Boss” when she returned to claim her ill-gotten booty.

Olivia was disguised as well, though in Emily’s opinion, Olivia wasn’t as good at being in disguise as she was. Olivia now wore a set of leather armor that was too big for her and a worn doublet that was too tight for her. Still, many of the still unarmed bandits glumly going about their business in the camp around them were dressed poorly as well, so Olivia didn’t stand out.

All five bandit souls remained yellow, which assured Emily none had hostile intent. If any of them went red, she would know they intended to hurt her... and chop them immediately. Being able to see people’s intentions in their souls was super useful.

Olivia’s soul remained blue as ever, which Emily greatly appreciated. She knew Olivia would protect her. By far, the best part of her new and brilliant plan was that she and Olivia now had time to kill. So now, she could pick out Lydia’s wedding present!

Emily hefted a leather scroll case embossed with gold trim. “What about this one?”

“What about it?” Olivia asked doubtfully.

“It’s a scroll case! That’d make a good present!”

Olivia’s brow furrowed. “Why would Lydia need a scroll case?”

Emily sometimes wondered if Olivia was playing with a full deck. “So she could put scrolls in it, silly. I bet you could fit a whole bunch in there.”

“Well...” Olivia visibly bit her lip inside her raised hood. “If you really want to impress them, I think you should look for something more practical. Mistress Lydia has never really been a fan of jewelry, and I’m sure if they do get married—”

“When,” Emily reminded her firmly.

Olivia huffed. “If they get married, Lord Gloomwood is probably going to get her some nice jewelry when he asks. So you should get her something that’s not jewelry.”

“And not a scroll case?” Emily patted the end of the case with one hand. “You could fit so many scrolls in here!”

Olivia grimaced. “I think you should keep looking.”

Emily sighed. “Fine.” She looked at the male bandit staring fearfully out at the last of the day’s light. “Hey! You! What’s your name?”

The bandit, a pale, scrawny soul who looked to weigh about the same as Olivia (which wasn’t much) glanced at her worriedly. “Why do you want to know my name?”

Emily offered him her most threatening smile. “Why do you want to keep breathing?”

The man turned pale as a ghost. “It’s Galen! Mistress!”

Emily wasn’t the head battle maid in the manor, but out here, she supposed the title was appropriate enough in this circumstance. She liked hearing it. If she ended up having to chop these bandits, she would go after Galen last so he’d get a head start.

“What do you think would make a good wedding present?” Emily asked calmly.

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Galen eyed her warily. “For... are you getting married?”

“Lord Gloomwood is getting married.”

“Lord Gloomwood is getting married?” the only female bandit remaining in the crew asked doubtfully. “When was that announced?”

“Is he going to marry Lord Skybreak?” another bandit, a younger man, asked hopefully. “I’ve heard good things about Lord Skybreak!”

“We don’t know if he’s getting married yet!” Olivia insisted plaintively.

The older woman frowned. “What does that mean? Is he getting married or isn’t he?”

“He’s definitely getting married,” Emily assured everyone. “And he’s getting married to my best friend, Mistress Lydia of Gloomwood Manor, which means I need to get them the best wedding present.”

“Why would we know what to get them?” the older female bandit asked.

Emily huffed. “You’ve been staring at this pile of loot all day! Haven’t you sorted it? You at least started figuring out what you can sell, didn’t you?”

“I...” Galen, the skinny bandit, frowned as if offended. “That’s not my job.”

“Roger always did that,” the older female bandit said.

“Yeah, but Roger’s a corpse,” the other bandit added.

Emily stomped her foot. “You people are no help at all!”

As they all flinched and took involuntary steps back, Olivia stepped closer. “Emily,” Olivia reminded her gently. “They are prisoners, remember? They surrendered.”

Emily rolled her eyes. “I didn’t say I’d chop them.”

“But you sort of implied it.”

“Please don’t chop us, Mistress,” Galen said pitiably. “I’ll look through the treasure and find you something good! All right?”

Emily smiled warmly. “Now that’s the type of initiative I like to see! Get to it.”

Galen worriedly sorted through the pile of loot they’d stolen from the Hawk Merchant. While he did so, Emily demanded the rest of their names. The older female bandit was named Cora, while the three other male bandits were named Wesley, Jaxon, and Dean. Emily was starting to suspect they’d all grown up in Gloomwood territory given their accents and mannerisms, but without rarities, none had been able to find dependable work.

That wasn’t her problem. Still, it reassured her none of them would be a problem... for her. Now that she’d convinced someone to search for a suitable wedding present, Emily was free to scan the trees once more. She could see souls out to at least fifteen paces, so she’d know if anyone was walking up on them shortly before they arrived.

The bandits muttered to themselves as they all watched Galen sort through the loot piled at their center. Olivia fidgeted nervously as the sun set and night crept in. When it got dark, Emily reluctantly allowed Cora to light some torches (she did want Boss to see them being normal, after all) even though it meant she lost the advantage of being able to see souls in the dark. Finally, Galen walked over holding a glistening green statuette. He raised it up.

“How about this one, mistress?” Galen asked hopefully.

Olivia glanced at it. “Ooh, that’s so pretty!”

“What is it?” Emily asked doubtfully. It was obviously an animal of some sort, but not one she recognized. She wasn’t sure what Lydia or Lord Gloomwood would do with a statue.

“Uh... it’s a cat, I think,” Galen said. “A big hunting cat.”

“And that’s pure emerald,” Cora added helpfully. “Probably the most expensive statuette in the bunch.”

“It’s a jaguar,” Jaxon said.

The others looked at him in surprise.

“What?” Jaxon demanded. “I saw one, all right? In a book.”

“Lydia is kind of like a cat,” Emily agreed thoughtfully. “She’s very sleek! And agile.”

“That must cost a fortune, though,” Olivia said softly. “If it’s all emerald.”

Emily grinned in triumph. “Right, but it’s free for us, remember? Because we’re getting the Hawk Merchant’s stolen goods back for her!”

Galen frowned thoughtfully. “But if you take her most valuable treasure for yourself, isn’t that like stealing from her as well?”

“That’s extortion,” Cora agreed sagely.

Emily scoffed. “It’s payment for services rendered!”

“So it’s like demanding protection money?” Dean asked curiously.

“We’re done talking about this,” Emily informed them all crossly. “Galen, set the emerald kitty statue aside for me. The rest of you, just... act normal! Do bandit things.”

Cora scoffed. “And what do you suppose bandits do all day?”

“I don’t know!” Emily threw up her hands. “Just be grumpy and insensitive.”

As a bird call drifted from the woods, Olivia clamped a hand down on Emily’s arm. Emily didn’t mind. She’d heard it as well. She motioned imperiously for the bandits to all be quiet now, and waited until the bird call sounded again. The thing was... birds would be asleep.

Cora whistled back. When Emily scowled at her, the older woman raised her hands and blinked rapidly. “It’s call and response! If I don’t whistle back, she’ll know something’s wrong!”

Emily manifested Chopper briefly, made sure Cora saw it, and vanished it again. Cora swallowed and hunkered down. Her soul remained bright yellow. If Cora meant to betray her, the woman’s soul would have turned red by now.

Emily scanned the trees until two yellow souls flickered into view just out of sight. The one in the lead was female and, Emily suspected, Boss. The one trailing behind her was muscular and tall, likely a bodyguard.

“There’s a big man with her,” Galen whispered softly. “Dave’s one of us as well, so please, don’t kill him. If you can take down Boss, I promise he’ll surrender with us.”

“No promises,” Emily said quietly. “But since you haven’t caused me any problems so far, I’ll consider letting you go to prison alive.”

The tall, muscular, hooded woman leading Dave strode confidently out of the forest wearing armor Emily immediately recognized. At first glance it appeared to be the same red leather armor worn by Redbow soldiers, but Emily caught flashes of feathersteel as well. And was that a silverweave doublet peeking out from underneath her armor?

This woman didn’t just have a rarity. With pricey equipment like that, she might actually be a member of Redbow Manor... or she had been until the blood pacts all vanished. Had Lord Redbow sent her into Lord Gloomwood’s territory to cause problems?

Given Lord Redbow was very dead now, it was equally as likely his former thrall had simply struck out on her own. That made Emily wonder how many other former powerful Redbow Manor blood thralls were now wandering around freely, causing trouble and killing folks. She hadn’t considered that she could encounter a blood thrall from another manor today.

For the first time, Emily wondered if she should have taken time to go back and don her silverweave maid outfit. Perhaps Olivia had been right about that. Still, while that silverweave would blunt Chopper, Emily was fairly certain she could chop this woman’s soul.

She’d simply aim her strike for the head.