Rotating his injured shoulder, Dalthan grimaced at the flash of pain and the sticky feeling of drying blood clinging to his skin. He’d have loved to take a minute and see to his wound, but time was of the essence. Besides, it wasn’t the first time he’d been on the receiving end of a sharpened blade.

Dalthan had been a party to his share of violence in the past. He wasn’t a fighter, per se, but you couldn’t participate in his line of work without occasionally engaging in the rougher side of criminal enterprise. But for Dalthan, those moments were brief and viscous, like the sight of a lightning bolt cleaving its way across a darkened sky. His brand of violence was the quick and dirty kind where you left a man bleeding out in an alley or a strangled corpse covered in the expensive wine they’d spilled in their last moments of struggle against the grip of a garrote.

Unsurprisingly, an active battlefield was proving to be a very different beast. The constant clash of warriors trying their best to put one another into the dirt created a symphony of misery that Dal had never heard before. The wails of the wounded and the enraged screams of those still fighting blended into a discordant dirge that was both haunting and invigorating. Something about the cacophony created by death walking so confidently among the living made his heart race and his eyes sharpen. The world was being ground down to its base components by the discordant music. All the complexity associated with the anxiety and anticipation of human existence became reduced to a simple binary choice.

Kill or be killed.

Ever the force for good, Dalthan, of course, chose neither.

“We don’t have much time. As enthusiastic as your comrades are, once the rest of the caravan guards recover enough to join the fray, you’ll have to either retreat or die. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t seem like much of a choice to me.” The [Rogue] kept his voice calm and conversational as he slowly circled the two lizardmen. He paid careful attention to the cast of his shadow while he sedately strolled across the barren ground to position himself with his back to the sun.

“I’ve come to make a mutually beneficial proposal.” The thief offered both of the overgrown lizards a positively dazzling smile. His focus, however, was on the one wearing chainmail and a ragged red cloak that’d seen better days. “You see,” Dal continued, speaking directly to the armored warrior, “my friends and I have no ties that bind us to Sweet Water or the people who are trying to claim your land. If anything, we applaud your bravery in defending what is rightfully yours.”

“Why are we waiting to kill this fool?” The heavily scarred lizardman standing beside the leader lifted its sword and took a menacing step toward the [Rogue]. It wasn’t the first time a big brutish asshole had attempted to intimidate the thief. Dalthan responded to the open threat with a sunny smile that drew an irritated growl from the bodyguard. “I don’t care what this outlander has to say. Like all the rest, his words are nothing but poison. We should end him now and signal the rest of the clan to fall back.”

When the barbarian took a second step toward him, despite his irresistibly charming demeanor, Dal began to wonder if he’d have to call on Vex to dispose of the belligerent lizard. For the first time since he’d emerged from the dusty cloud enveloping the battlefield, the thief’s lips pursed into a thin line of frustration. He wasn’t sure that he could talk his way into the war leader’s good graces after the blue slaad ate his friend, but it beat the alternative of getting chopped in two.

Dalthan was a heartbeat away from calling for Vex to intercede when the armored lizardman placed a clawed hand on the advancing warrior’s shoulder. The mood instantly changed. The guard wilted at the touch like a tulip receiving too much sun and not enough water. His sword lowered and his lipless, crocodile jaws cracked open to expose the inside of his pink mouth.

It took Dal an embarrassingly long time to realize that he was seeing the lizardman version of a frown.

“What is your proposal, human?” The leader’s dark, slitted eyes watched the [Rogue] with an intensity that Dalthan was all too familiar with. Where the grunt’s gaze had promised a quick, brutal death, his commander’s scrutiny was more like the capos of the Yola cartel. Their cold, calculating assessments didn’t weigh the import of a single body. Those kinds of considerations were beneath them. They measured profit and loss not in terms of individual graves, but instead by the number of cemeteries they’d need to fill to get what they wanted.

Wasting no time, the [Rogue] reached up and tugged at the edge of the wide-brimmed hat he wore. “Dalthan Sol’Magor, at your service. And you might be?”

The armored lizardman let his hand slip from the shoulder of his guard as he took a step closer to the thief. The bodyguard grumbled a low, rumbling sound of disagreement, but made no move to interpose himself between his leader and the strange human.

“I am Asim, Second Claw of the Sunrunner Clan.” There was a note of weariness in the Second Claw’s voice as if the sheer act of communication were exhausting to him. “This is my First Fang, Baki.”

Dal nodded, typing his cap to Baki despite the poor first impression he’d gotten of the other lizard. It cost him nothing to be polite. At least not yet. The next time the prick waved a sword at him he’d have Vex bite his fucking arm off.

None of those thoughts were betrayed on the thief’s face as he turned a pleasant smile back toward Asim. “Let’s get right down to business,” the [Rogue] said, his voice crisp and professional. “I can offer you something that you and your people desperately need.”

Despite the sounds of battle all around them, Dal couldn’t resist a dramatic pause. There was an art to negotiation, after all. It simply wouldn’t do to half-ass his sales pitch just because there was a chance that a group of dinosaur-riding madmen could lead a cavalry charge into the middle of his discussion.

“Inside information.” Dalthan paused, watching as the two lizardmen shared a look. A beat passed before he continued, drawing their attention back toward him like an angler reeling in a feisty marlin. “My crew and I have already laid the groundwork for joining the caravan as a part of their guard contingent. After today, our trustworthiness will be beyond reproach. They’d be fools not to hire us to bolster their escort.”

“Trustworthiness that you bought through the blood of our people,” Baki spat.

Dal held up a hand to forestall any further outburst. “An unfortunate reality of war is that victory only comes through sacrifice. While the loss of your clansmen is tragic, this is a chance for their deaths to mean more than just a few burnt wagons and a handful of lost supplies. With my crew working on the inside, you won’t have to settle for hobbling the caravan. You’ll have all the tools you need to claim its riches for your own.”

“And how will you accomplish this?” Asim’s disinterested tone was at odds with the sharp light gleaming in his dark eyes like moonlight reflecting off a polished dagger. The lizardman lifted a clawed hand to scratch idly at his neck.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“We’ll cripple the convoy at a location of your choosing. By the time I’m finished, taking the caravan’s riches for your own will be as simple as walking out of the desert and taking it.” Dalthan let a predatory grin tug at one corner of his lips, giving the [Rogue] a wolfish cast to his handsome features.

“What is it you want in return?” Baki’s suspicious growl matched the way his dark eyes narrowed in distaste.

“Two things,” Dalthan said as he held up his hand. “First,” the thief said as he lifted his index finger, “we want a share of the loot. Forty percent seems reasonable considering the risks that my party is taking. Second,” Dal continued, lifting his middle finger, “without the convoy, we’ll need to resupply before we can finish our trip across the Quartz Valley. I understand that you have a fortress out there among the sands. Something about burnt rocks. We want two days of rest there while we chart our course across the Valley and divide the loot from the convoy.”

“The Fortress of Scorched Stone is no place for outsiders,” Baki all but hissed, lifting his sword to shake its point threateningly in Dalthan’s direction. “It would be blasphemous to allow you to set foot inside our home.”

“Quiet, Baki. The battle draws to a close. We have no time to entertain your outrage.” Though Asim spoke of the waning battle, his eyes never once glanced away from the thief. “I offer you twenty-five percent of the convoy’s value.”

The First Fang rounded on Asim with a snarl. “You cannot-”

“Silence!” Cold as ice and hard as iron, the Second Claw’s authority crashed down on his bodyguard like an avalanche of anvils. “Do not pretend to tell me the limits of my authority, whelp.”

Unconcerned by the infighting, Dalthan crossed his arms and tilted his head to present a moment of consideration before he spoke. “Make it thirty percent and no cost for food or lodging while we divide up the loot.”

“Done,” Asim said curtly. “Now, how will you provide this information you’ve promised? You do not know our land well enough to find our people nor can our people safely approach you.”

“I think I have a solution that you will find most acceptable.” Dalthan glanced toward the battle where the sounds of combat were growing more sporadic. The noise wasn’t the only part of the skirmish that’d begun to subside. The dust that had choked the entire area had begun to settle once more. He could now see glimpses of the distant wagons through the swirling grit.

The murky fog was still enough to cloak their meeting. For now. But their time was rapidly running out.

“Don’t be alarmed. I’m going to call my bodyguard.” Dal held up his empty hands to present himself, and hopefully his companion, as non-threatening as possible. “Vex, come out, please. Slowly.”

Dal winced as the two lizardmen took a step back and raised their swords when the massive murder frog began to rise from the slash of darkness that his shadow had painted across the ground.

“Don’t be alarmed,” Dalthan said hastily. “My friend can manipulate shadows into livable spaces. He can bring objects with him into these spaces. Or people.”

The thief had to moderate his tone to curtail the tinge of satisfaction he felt when the blue slaad loomed over the two burly lizardfolk. They’d been so confident in their martial prowess only seconds ago. Now they seemed decidedly less self-assured.

“I’m suggesting that my friend Vex here bring Baki into his shadow realm. Your First Fang will be safe and undetectable there. He can advise us on the information you’ll need to plan the raid so that there’s no chance of any mistakes. Once the convoy begins to pass through the Quartz Valley, we can create opportunities for him to pass messages to your people or collect messages they leave so we can communicate while the caravan is en route to the ambush site.”

The cadence of Dalthan’s words continued to grow quicker as he felt their time together rapidly growing to a close.

“Cover your ears,” Asim said as he reached behind his back and withdrew a huge, curved tooth with an ornately decorated cap around its wide base. Dal started to ask what was going on but, in a rare case of his better judgment winning out, the thief clamped his hands over his ears instead.

It was a good thing that he did because Asim lifted the aged, yellow tooth over his head and pulled the cap off the end. The air split with the sound of a horn call that Dalthan recognized from the beginning of the battle. The sound was so loud that he could feel its deep, vibrating note rattling his bones.

Oddly, as uncomfortable as it felt for him, the two lizardmen seemed completely unaffected. Vex, as well, seemed more confused than distraught. The blue slaad was looking quizzically at Dalthan as if unsure what had generated the thief’s distress.

The horn sounded for what felt like ages, but he knew it couldn't have been more than a handful of seconds. When he finally felt the bone-rattling noise subside, he lowered his hands from his ears. He was briefly alarmed by the sight of blood smeared against his palms, but his momentary concern slipped away in the face of more pressing problems when Asim spoke again.

“We’re out of time. Follow the outsider's instructions, Baki. Someone will be waiting for your first report at Scorpion Spring.” Asim’s voice was curt as he turned his attention toward the cloud of dust that’d risen in the distance.

Dal imagined that to be the retreating lizardfolk. He also imagined that to mean that they were out of time.

Baki seemed to think there was still room for discussion.

“You can’t leave me with these outsiders and their monster!” The scarred barbarian didn’t quite point his sword at his commander, but it was obvious that he was resisting that urge.

“You will do this, and you will do it now.” Asim sheathed his sword as he turned briskly toward the [Rogue]. “If he does not appear for his first meeting then I will assume that you have betrayed me.” There was a coldness in the lizardman’s tone to match the hard, unfeeling intensity in his dark, slitted eyes. “If you betray me, my people will follow you till the ends of the Searing Sands, and they will kill you. Slowly. This I swear upon Rimewyrd’s scales.”

The familiar name sent a jolt through the thief’s body. He began to ask what Asim knew about Rimewyrd, but the war leader was already moving across the dusty plains at a brisk trot. It was just as well, considering they were officially out of time. He could already see some of the mounted mercenaries charging through the distant dust cloud in pursuit of the fleeing lizardfolk.

In moments some of those very mercenaries would be charging his way.

“If you don’t want to fucking die out here, let Vex take you into the shadows. Now.” Dalthan hissed.

“If you betray-” Baki began only to get cut off by the [Rogue].

“Now, damnit! Vex, take him with you.” Dalthan watched as Vex reluctantly took hold of the very uncomfortable looking lizardman.

“Uh, Vex,” Dalthan said. “You did clean up in there, right?” The thief tried not to imagine Baki’s reaction if he were suddenly confronted with the butchered remains of one of his clansmen.

“This blue slaad keeps Dalthan’s darkness very clean.” Vex sniffed, sounding oddly offended by the question.

Thankfully, for all interested parties, the slaad then picked up the lizardman and stepped into Dalthan’s shadow. Mesmerized, the thief watched the two twist at a strange, reality-defying angle before they slid into the darkness and disappeared into the ground as if they’d been nothing more than a figment of his imagination.

“Magic is such bullshit,” Dalthan muttered as he began to work his way back toward the rest of his party.

Phase one his plan to infiltrate the lizardfolk fortress had gone off without a hitch. Now it was time to start phase two. Fresh off his recent success, Dalthan saw no reason to doubt his scheme.

What could possibly go wrong?