Jinx

So ye don’t have to find out

Whisper Jinx had her face caved in almost, the rest of her head hurting and she’d a boil on her arse from too much riding on a hard saddle that had just popped and stung her something fierce. The last thing she wanted was put some sense into someone like Glen, who had less sense in him than most other people, depending on the time of day, or month. Come to think of it he was like a girl, during her bleeding time. Irrational. On the other hand, she couldn’t let him chop his own head off, out of whatever bullshit code the freshly minted young Knight thought he needed to serve.

“Can I talk wit him for a moment?” She asked the solemn faced, bull of a soldier that was Marcus.

“They are waiting for him,” Marcus warned her, rigid as an old board.

“Ye are working for him,” Jinx corrected it for him and the tall bully stepped back with a grimace.

“What is it, Whisper?” Glen asked her, looking properly worried at least.

“Ye can’t go there.”

“I don’t have much of a choice.”

“The Cofols tried to kill you, or someone in their camp,” Jinx noted, looking at him thinking it through. Damn, she thought. Glen has gotten taller. What kind of bullshit is this?

That patch of hair on his face is laughable though.

Haha.

“I know that,” Glen replied, puffing his cheeks out troubled. “I’m open to ideas, Whisper.”

Jinx glanced at the silently watching them through the open door Sen-Iv.

“Fuck ‘em. Don’t go,” She advised Glen. “Let’s make a run for it. We can use the bridge, head back to Altarin.”

“We’re too many to escape unnoticed,” Glen replied and scratched his jaw nervously. “It will be difficult to explain, if we’re caught, Pretty.”

They’ll hang us all, was his meaning.

“The moment they see you, all bets are off Glen,” Jinx insisted.

“Not under a truce flag.”

“What do you hope to accomplish? Is there a plan?”

“Not really. I’ll take their terms and inform the Duke.”

“Whatever deal you make, the Duke will not honor it. He’ll throw ye to the wolves without a second thought, just to save face,” Jinx tried again and Glen exhaled, looking worn out. “He’s going to wait them out, stall, until the High King sends reinforcements. He needs logs to keep the fire goin’. Don’t be his firewood, Glen.”

“Lad, they are waiting downstairs. Set yer priorities straight,” Marcus grunted approaching them again.

“Ye know what big guy?” Jinx said glaring at him. “Yer such a big cunt.”

Marcus pressed his lips tight, a thick vein popping on his forehead. “And you’re no Lady,” He grunted.

Huh?

“I need to go,” Glen said and grabbed Marcus’ huge arm to pull him away.

“I couldn’t care less!” Jinx yelled at their backs as they followed the corridor leading to the stairs.

Fuck.

Jinx put her hands on her waist and stared around her frustrated, caught sight of Sen-Iv watching her, behind a serene frozen face and all but bristled.

“Ye know what?” Jinx hissed, getting back inside the slippery room. The image of Sen-Iv opening the door dripping in it, flashed before her eyes and Jinx felt the blood rushing to her brain all at once.

She paused, took a deep-deep breath and let it all out at once. Sen hadn’t moved an inch from her position.

“Why didn’t you stop him?” Jinx asked her. “Seeing him there would make them want to take the city even more,” She sighed. “They are trying to have him killed for the last year almost. They killed his father, murdered that old scumbag in Altarin and then went after him. I met him because a crazy assassin hired us to track him down. In Lazuli Peninsula of all fuckin’ places. Do you get that? That’s part of the Blasted Lands for many. A no go zone.”

Sen-Iv blinked, but kept her silence.

“We went there and it didn’t go that well, then off to Castalor, Altarin after that. Hellfort, to stop an army wit fifty soldiers, where they almost got him proper. That was a real shitshow. Lost some good friends there,” She stared at the striking Cofol woman. “Yer gonna get him killed.”

“He’s no fool,” Sen said, looking at her intensely.

“Ye don’t have to be a fool to get killed.”

“You assume the Duke will betray him.”

“The Duke doesn’t give a rat’s arse about Glen!” Jinx snapped at her. “Wake up girl. He has bigger problems you know? Like yer kind murdering his people?”

“This is the Khan’s war,” Sen-Iv countered.

“And no wife would ever let her husband march to his death, without batting an eyelash,” Jinx walked towards her and stopped at arm’s length. “But ye ain’t a wife to him, aren’t ye? How much did it cost that fool?”

“Very few men can buy me, Lady Jinx,” Sen-Iv said matter-of-factly. “Glen isn’t one of them.”

“How about women?” Jinx deadpanned.

Sen rolled her eyes, a rainbow of colors in them.

“I have a contract with Lord Reeves,” She explained coolly.

“Pfft, I bet ye do. What does he get out of it?” Jinx scoffed. “Other than the obvious?”

Sen-Iv didn’t seem insulted and Whisper Jinx was impressed.

“Perhaps you don’t know him as well as I,” The Cofol woman said simply.

“Whatever ye think ye know, won’t help him out there.”

Sen-Iv sighed deeply and looked at her ring-covered hands, she had tied up on her flat tummy. A couple of sparkling pieces in them, caught Jinx’s eye. Their radiance almost magnetic.

“The Khan wasn’t behind the assassination attempts,” Sen-Iv blurted out finally. “Despite his cruelness, he’s a Horselord at heart.”

Hmm.

“Ye can’t know that, love,” Jinx said eyeing her suspiciously. “What’s yer secret?”

“My family has connections,” Sen-Iv whispered.

“What a bunch of crap,” Whisper retorted. “Who was behind it?”

“I don’t know. If I had to guess, Prince Sahand’s newest spouse,” Sen-Iv replied regaining her casual voice. “There are rumors, she’s a witch.”

Jinx blinked, then smacked her lips.

“First, I find it hard to believe, what yer saying, but I will not reject it outright, since I was cozying up wit a Zilan cunt for months,” She paused to get a good breath in, Sen-Iv watching her stunned, despite her efforts to keep calm. “Second, I want to inform ye that if the city falls, or something nasty happens and Glen gets the blame for it, ye’ll be next on the chopping block.”

Sen-Iv stood back, her mask of indifference cracking.

“They’ll never harm me, I’m too valuable—”

“Listen love, they’ll gang-rape and skull-fuck you, until ye’ll bleed from all orifices, if the Cofols sack the city. Then hang yer arse, by yer entrails. Aggrieved folk don’t give a shit about coin, or a foreign cunt’s status.”

Alix tried to tackle her at the base of the stairs, so Jinx jumped on the wooden rail, walked the three meters to the edge alike a circus acrobat, but for the mauled face and then jumped lithely down. Alix started clapping from behind her and Jinx turned and gave him double middle fingers for his troubles.

“I have to protest!” Alix shouted.

“Where’s Crafton?” Jinx asked, ignoring him.

“What need have you of that old sack of wrinkles?” The male Gish pointed, quickly catching up with her. “Or that obnoxious slave owner?”

Jinx stopped and turned to glare at him.

“Glen is not a slave owner.”

Alix sucked his lower lip in and then let it go.

“He looks just the type, Goddess.”

“Because you don’t know him. He was duped into this. Glen has his flaws, but he’s no monster, Alix.”

“Fine. How was he duped?” Shifty relented.

“Gold, sex, some other vague reward,” Jinx counted them with her fingers.

Alix pulled at his left earlobe self-consciously.

“Thought ye were talking about Lord Reeves.”

Jinx shook her head. “I was Shifty. And you’re right. Glen is very much like you in a sense,” She shot her right arm out, to stop him from closing the distance between them. “But way less annoying,” Jinx added wryly.

Crafton looked at his notes again.

“You want to leave the city,” He said. “Ahm, we have a good thing going here, captain.”

“Glen’s gonna find himself in the shit very soon,” Crafton flinched at that. “I see you have yer reservations.”

“Well,” Crafton said, thinking about it. “Have you heard, something?”

“Like that?” Jinx queried examining his untrustworthy face. “Something I should know Crafton?”

“Not that I recall, ma’am,” The old Northman replied. “But I will look into other options.”

“We need a fast way out.”

“The bridge? Glen controls it, for the time being,” Crafton offered, showing the remarkable insight of a genuine vagabond.

“Ye were never a butcher,” Jinx mused and Crafton smacked his lips and looked around them. Everyone else was resting at their rooms, or waiting for Glen to return from the West Gates.

“Does it matter?” Crafton finally said, looking at his hands on the table.

“Does Glen know?” She asked.

Crafton smiled, yellow teeth showing. “Don’t underestimate him, captain. He might surprise you. Gods know, he done that plenty to me.”

“Ye haven’t answered, Mister Crafton,” Jinx insisted.

“You know how it is, ma’am,” He replied that smirk still on his lips. “Ye want a way out, I’ll look to find ye one. Ye want to know more about Glen, ye’ll have to ask him, or fuck him.”

Jinx stooped closer to his face and stared into the Northman’s eyes for long.

“If I find out, ye are naughty wit me, or the Gallant Dogs, Mister Crafton,” She hissed through her teeth, the warning clear, despite the whole of her face hurting, head throbbing and being mad as all hells. “I’ll skin ye slowly and push yer cock into yer arse, one inch for every hour, using the blood as lubricant. I’m tellin’ ye this, so ye don’t have to find out, or fuck me.”