Chapter 23 Hamin's bad day...
“She does not know about this...” I say as we walk down the street, this is indeed not the best part of town, the houses were all a little run down, the paint that could be seen on the slats of wood above ground was peeling. Several thatched roofs were caved in, and the people walking on the streets looked a little shifty.
“We only have what? Three days to either find Tam or find the silver you need, which means we need to find someone who has contacts, for that we need Hamin, he is a member of the blackband, and while they are nasty they know everyone, you don't cough without them hearing and thinking about how they can profit from it...” I didn't like the idea of meeting up with a group of disreputable thugs, let alone meeting up with Seri’s former lover, with whom she had gotten pregnant. That could get rather awkward if you ask me…
Hi, former lover meet my new lover …
I was really not looking forward to that, not in the slightest…
Still, it was more of a lead than I had at the time, so we would be following her idea, it wouldn't surprise me if she was right, groups like this tend to be in the know, able to sell out information to the highest bidder, or even blackmailing people with information they were able to scrounge up. It wouldn't surprise me if they had a network of informants that worked rather diligently on collecting this stuff so that they could get a steady flow of money. If I were them that was what I would do.
“Relax, it's not a big deal, I know Hamin, he's pretty close to the top of the gang, they are not going to do a thing to us.” she led us down the street and turned towards a rather run down looking bar. The worn sign that hung by a single knotted rope, seeing as the other one had snapped for some reason, read the ‘Snarling Rotri,’ what exactly a Rotri was and why it should be snarling I had no idea, but the image that was rather crudely painted on the board was some sort of rodent that looked mean as hell and foamed at the mouth.
Yes, because it was a smart business idea to name your bar after what looked like a deceased rat from some pit of hell…
The inside of the bar looked no better than the outside, dark cramped little tables, most marred and stained and pitted, a few even missing a few legs making them lean rather precariously. Seated at these tables was a number of interesting looking men. Not all of them were human, simply the vast majority. And none of them looked to be the reliable sort. Every eye turned toward us as we made our way into the bar proper, some looks weary, others gauging and some made my skin crawl…
“Well well, look who it is,” a man behind a bar polishing a very dirty glass with an even filthier rag smiled at Sarena. “Hamin, your girl is here to see you!” he called over his shoulder at back through a doorway.
“What girl, I don't have a girl-”
“Damn right he doesn't,” Sarena snarled at the barkeep, who held up his hands in surrender.
“O-oy, fine, didn't know no one tells me this shit,” he sighed and mumbled under his breath, “Listen love, if you are here to do something to Hamin for something I would rather you two take it outside, it would be best for everyone, and by everyone I mean my bar, I just got done cleaning up the last bloodstains, I don't want to have to clean up more...”
“Don't worry, I wont kill him, actually I don't even need to talk to him, just need the blacks for a job.” she reached over and pulled me closer, I couldn't help but flex my claws in and out, the muscles on my paws twitching ever so slightly as I did so. No one seemed to notice besides Sarena, who had seen those claws in action first hand, and knew what they were capable of doing. In Khatan culture the way I was acting was a threat of violence, but here it would seem no one knew that. “Relax, we don't want to kill them, that would be messy, like really really messy,” Sarena whispered in my ear, and I forced my tense muscles to relax by a sheer force of will.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Sari is here?” a man peeked his head around the corner, or rather a boy. I had tensed when I had heard a voice speak her name in such a casual way, which in itself was a worrying sign, one I would need to examine later when I didn't need to focus so much. After all weren't we just friends? Well, a little more than friends but still…
“Bartel, it is good to see you,” she smiled and the youth shot out of the doorway and hugged Sarena, which she gave back to him, and then held him at arm's length, scrutinizing him thoroughly. “It looks like at least they have been feeding you well.”
“Of course,” a voice said, and all three of us looked over to the doorway Bartel came from to see a tall well-built man leaning against the door jam. He had red hair and blue eyes, one scar down his face on the left side and a chin shaved smooth of stubble. Aside from the broken nose, he was a pretty handsome man. “So, I assume you didn't come down here just to see little Bar there, what do you need Sarena?”
“Hamin,” Sarena’s voice had a cold edge to it, there were some deep resentments there, and I was a little ashamed to admit I felt some of the tension ease out of my body at the sound of it. She sighed and pushed the boy away squaring her shoulders and crossing her arms as she stared at him. “Your right, I have a job, or rather we have a job-”
“I don't want a job from you, I want you to leave I told you before this is no place for you, and you made it amply clear what you think of me, so lets just not do thi-” he began but I cut him off.
“If you do not wish to take a job from Sarena will you take a job from Rinmua?” I ask, “She has need of your services, and believes you will want to hear the job, seeing as in involves someone you know.” his eyes turned to me.
“No,” he simply said, I was about to open my mouth when he spoke again, “You don't know this, and since I am such a nice guy I will give you a warning, I hate beast races, all of them, they cost me a lot of things, from my child to my friends to even the mother of my child,” he spat on the floor at my paws. “And you Sarena, I am surprised you could even stand in that thing’s presence-”
The doll was in Sarena’s hand faster than I could see, the little cloth thing painted with a crude face that seemed to almost perfectly mimic Hamin’s. She tossed it to the ground and stepped on it, pinning it there. Hamin’s eyes widened briefly before he was violently shoved into the ground with the sounds of the floorboards creaking under him. A wounded huff sounded out of his mouth as the invisible boot slammed down on his back, making it so that he couldn't move. “Listen to me well you little shit, as I will only say this once.” she hissed as he struggled in vain to remove the pressure on his back.
The bar had grown deathly silent, no one moved, all frozen like a deer that had just spotted a predator. Several people looked like they wanted to bolt but acted like they couldn't.”You will treat Rinmua with respect, you will listen to what she has to say and you will take this job without pay because if you don't I will put you through such a world of pain and suffering you will forget what not being in pain felt like am I clear?”
“Your acting like you slept with the cun-” his voice was cut off with a strangulated choke as she shifted the heel of her foot and pressed it against the throat of the doll.
“Are we clear?” she hissed, and he nodded his head, though the look in his eyes was dark.”Good, then.” she lifted up her foot and picked up the doll, brushing the sawdust off of it from the floor and returning it to her bag.
“I don't even know what I saw in you, fucking cunt,” he wheezed as he pushed himself up. “My Da always told me not to stick my dick in crazy, shoulda listened to him,” I hadn't even realized I had cleared the countertop of the bar until my paws hit the floor on the other side. His eyes opened wide as I kicked out both feet leaving the ground and planting into his stomach. The world seemed to move in slow motion as he flew back into the room behind him, crashing into a table, scattering a group of men who up to that point been drinking and playing cards, studiously ignoring the quarrel going on in the front room. Hamin slumped to the floor his eyes rolling back in his head.
“Rin, love, we need him awake so we can talk to him,” Sarena said, walking around the bar to look at the man laying there on the ground. “Op, too late, oh well,” she hooked an arm around my waist and pulled me close. “Between you and me that was much much to satisfying...” I couldn't help but purr as she softly scratched between my ears with her other hand absentmindedly...