Outsiders 19.3

A Score Worth Settling, Part 3

All five outsiders exchanged glances with one another in between taking in their current situation. The Pavers had them at a two to one man advantage without counting the people who were on their way. When the enemy's reinforcements arrived, they'd be outnumbered and pincered. Not to mention, most of the Pavers already had crossbows trained on them. At their first movement, a volley of crossbolts would be unleashed on them.

While their silent tactical discussion unfolded, Arthur savored his victory.

"I gotta say Snake, I'm disappointed," Arthur said. "I was really hoping you'd be harder to catch than this."

"How'd you know I was coming?" Xigbar asked.

"That's the best part; I didn't," Arthur gloated. He held up what, at first glance, looked like an Old World compass, with a display that glowed faintly. Except instead of north, its illusory needle pointed unerringly at the Outsiders. Specifically, at Xigbar.

"Like it? It can track anybody within half a mile, as long as it's got a piece of them to work with," Arthur said. "When I heard you broke out of the House of Bells, I dug up some of the bits of you we kept on file, so if you ever showed your scaly face, you wouldn't get away from me. When it lit up tonight, I knew you were going to try something. But I never guessed—"

He grinned like a predator staring down an easy meal. "—that I'd catch all five of Lochmire's most wanted. The Guild and the Chosen both are paying a fortune for your heads. You outsiders are gonna set me up for life."

"Is that so?" Xigbar said. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Valerie's nod to him. "Counter offer:"

Xigbar transformed into a snake as List darted behind Kaleb and a shield of golden light materialized in front of Valerie. The first volley of the Pavers' crossbolts crashed harmlessly against Kaleb and Arden's defenses just as the enemy's back up arrived in the hallway. Then the outsiders struck back.

Xigbar transformed back into himself in front of the closest Paver and slashed once with his knife. Xigbar's knife was blocked, but his armband, now a snake itself, sank its fangs into the woman's calf, and she screamed.

Valerie put a bolt through two different crossbowmen before either of them could reload, and then ducked as List's whip passed over her head and took a third in the chest. The hellborn slashed with her dagger at the same time, and a crescent of red lightning arced out from the slash to hit a Paver in the face, leaving them screaming on the floor as blood sprayed from their skin.

Kaleb crashed into Arthur, who went flying off the crate he'd been sitting on and crashed into a shelf against the wall. It collapsed on top of him, and Kaleb slammed the edge of his shield into the next closest Paver, knocking the wind from them before kicking them under the chin hard enough to knock them onto their back. Some managed to bring their sword on the back of his neck, but it left only a shallow scratch before his shield crashed into their face.

Behind them, Arden slammed his cane down once, and a whirlwind of golden light sliced apart the weapons of the oncoming Pavers in the hallway. A few of the sturdier and Old World weapons survived the culling, but most of the thugs found themselves clutching bladeless hilts or now much lighter and shorter clubs. When Arden stepped forward to meet them, he didn't even reinforce his cane with a prayer.

By the time Arthur managed to shove the shelf off of him, his men were broken, bleeding, and scattered across the floor. The outsiders moved with terrifying efficiency, seconds from cleaning up the fight. Filled with sudden desperation, Arthur dug into his belt, and produced a vial filled with a fizzing black sludge that shimmered with a faint green sheen in the light.

His thumb pressed against the vial's cork, about to pop it off—only for a crossbolt to pin his wrist to the wall. The vial fell from his hand, snatched out of the air by Xigbar an instant later.

"Nice shot," Xigbar said.

"Nice catch," Valerie returned. She reloaded her wristbow and, without looking, sent a bolt down the hallway, catching the last fleeing Paver in the back.

"Hey Arty, what's this do?" Xigbar asked, shaking the vial in front of his face.

A slew of half gargled curses spewed from Arthur's mouth—something about their mothers and a rusty iron spikes—as he desperately tried to pull the bolt out of his wrist. Veins bulged in his forehead, and his face had gone beet red, but he went nowhere.

"I don't think he wants to talk right now," Valerie said.

Xigbar shrugged, and tucked the vial into his pocket. "Well, good to see you're as competent as ever, Arty. We'll be taking all your shit now."

"Again," List added, before kicking a Paver that was trying to crawl away in the head. "Stay down!"

"Fuck all of you," Arthur hissed. "You're dead. Do you fucking hear me? Dead! Yyou think you can hide from us?! We'll find you. We'll salt the fucking earth where you sleep! We'll pull you apart and give your entrails to kids to play jump rope! We'll—"

Kaleb slapped Arthur in the face with his shield, and the man slumped over like a sack of rocks. He gave everyone a sheepish smile.

"Sorry. He didn't seem like he was going to say anything useful."

"If you didn't, I was going to," List said.

"I wanted to gloat some more, but I guess this is fine," Xigbar sighed. "Let's clear this place out and throw up Valerie's crest somewhere conspicuous, yeah?"

Valerie frowned. That had been the plan—hit the Pavers, let them know who had done it. Hurt the Chosen and the Pavers, enrich and spread word of the rebellion all at once. But hearing Arthur's tirade, seeing the pure hatred in his eyes and the lengths he'd gone to just on suspicion that he might run into Xigbar again, she wasn't sure this would have the desired effect.

From a pure numbers perspective it would. But there was a very real chance all they really accomplished was ensuring that the Pavers pursued them just as doggedly as the Chosen, and the last time they'd had to fight both at once, they'd ended up petrified.

But thinking about those numbers struck Valerie with a sudden inspiration.

"Actually, I think I have a better idea," she said.

Arden raised an eyebrow, and the others looked to her with interest, awaiting directions. Valerie started with Xigbar, because if he couldn't come through with his part of her plan, then the rest wasn't worth entertaining.

"Do you think you could send a message to the leader of the Pavers? Their actual leader?" 

"Larian? It might be tricky to do that without getting myself killed or leading him back to us, but…yeah, why?"

Valerie turned to the others. "We're going to need some rope, and one of the carriages from outside. I've got a better idea to hurt the Chosen's wallet, and deal with the Pavers for good."