Page 25 of Snake Eyes & Bad Luck

“I made the water splash somethin’ fierce to one side, and when the guards walked over to see what’s what, I just jumped into the moat on the other side,” Rat grimaced, shoulders up to his ears.

“Smart!” Callum nodded. Rat’s body deflated in relief as he pointed the knife at Grahm. “Wanna know how the warlock and I got out?”

“Didn’ you say she made them piss themselves and run off, screamin?” Grahm blurted out.

“Correct!” Callum waggled his dagger before he flipped it, caught the handle. “Now, the question is, how did Jed make it out? As we know, Rat distracted the guards and hoofed it. I sat in a fuckin’ barn for an hour and used the girl. But Jed? Now, he said he rushed out the southern gate but I know for a fuckin’ fact that was locked down tight. In fact, heard it clatter closed as we was runnin’. So, that got me thinkin’. How the fuck did that skinny bastard get out?”

Callum waited. He knew Rat and Grahm were clean. Talisen, Clemmence, and Hog, however, were one of them. Talisen was a satyr, his haunches a dark fluff with matts around his hooves but had great curved horns on top his head. Clemmence was a halfling with carrot orange hair that he kept in a neat braid down his back. Hog was a daemon with a broken horn on the left side of his forehead, a mop of salt and pepper hair, and a busted nose. All three of them worked for him for a reasonable length of time. All three of them with blood under their fingernails. He studied their faces, Talisen and Clemmence both glancing at each other, then at Hog. Only Hog stared right at Callum, a deer in headlights. Caught ya. Callum smirked, “Hog? Got any ideas.”

Hog ripped around on his heel. Talisen, Clemmence, and Rat dropped to the ground, Grahm stumbling back into a tree with the sudden movement. Callum lashed out, fast as a whip. Hog got a few steps in before three daggers thump-thump-thumped into the back of his legs. Blood gushed out, staining the swamp, and he fell forward. With a splash, the traitor sank, face first, into three inches of ruby water. Callum snatched Hog by the one horn still on his forehead and wrenched his head backward.

“How’d ya get him out of the city?” Callum snarled.

“I paid off a guard,” Hog spat, thrashing but there was an etch of defeat in his features. With the daggers buried in his thigh and calves, he’d be lucky to crawl away. “Said a buddy would be comin’ back out, likely in a hurry. Paid him to let Jed out the guard doors, even if the gate was closed.”

“And why would Jed be comin’ back out, likely in a hurry?” Callum parroted as he curled his tail around his prey. Fangs barred, his patience was thin.

“Daggertooth was pissed ya robbed the train. When I told him you wanted to rob the vault, he said to make sure this time you didn’t slither out from under the boot you earned.” Hog exposed all his teeth. Two canines, like tusks, were in his underbite. Callum always wondered if Hog ever got a chance to use his fancy new teeth.

“Well, don’t worry, I’ll make sure Daggertooth gets his.” Callum scowled. Really? This is what caused you to betray me? Daggertooth? He’s not got half the coin I do.

It was disappointing, really. To be betrayed for that spineless scumsucker? If he’d worked for Mary, Callum would understand. She didn’t bribe, she just started cutting off digits till the person bled out or did what she wanted. Yet, he sold his boss out to the one outlaw that Callum could not stand.

Not one bit.

With a grumble, he begrudgingly bit into Hog’s shoulder. The venom pumping through his body warmed and sprayed out across the wound from the back of his throat. Hog thrashed, gagging on his own spit. Callum filled the open wound and coated the fool’s flesh in as much of his venom as he could. Hog seized, eyes rolling back in his head. The flesh began to peel away from the bone, his toxin causing it to deteriorate quickly. Callum retracted his teeth and slid back an inch. The fool dropped into the water, blood mixing with the foam forming in his open mouth.

Callum removed his blades from Hog’s flesh with a squelch. “Grahm, get the hooks.”

“I think he’s dead-dead, boss,” Grahm blurted out.

“I don’t need ya to kill him harder, ya jackass. Yer gonna drag his corpse out near the wastes. Unless ya wanna touch him with yer bare hands?” Callum snarled, but there wasn’t as much punch in it like there normally would be…he was disappointed. Genuinely disappointed. Out of everyone he wanted to tussle with in his grand plan for his fake death, Daggertooth Dan wasn’t one of them.

He wanted to get Carter and Mary riled up enough that they’d jump at the chance, Dan would inevitably join because the big baby couldn’t stand to be left out of anything.

But due to Hog and Jed’s betrayal, it would be silly not to use this as bait. Frame Dan for the murder of two of his guys, justify his attack on Dan’s goods, it would be so easy. Too easy. Dan’s a fuckwit, damnit, he’s gonna be no fun trickin’ into this! It was petulant and almost childish to be irate that Dan was going to be the outlaw that got to claim Callum’s leftovers.

Beggars can’t be choosers, I guess. Why did he care who gobbled up the pieces of his kingdom once he was gone? He didn’t even want it!

Dan doesn’t deserve it.

He roared with his own internal fury, “Hurry up!”

“On it!” Grahm skedaddled over himself, his two large hooks and ropes jostling over his shoulder. His muscle hooked Hog’s body, finally still as the grave, and began to drag it through the mud toward the wastes. Thankfully, Grahm didn’t need to be told twice.

“You two, each take a piece of Jed and toss him out near the wastes too. Leave them somewhere Dan’s gonna see.”

“Aye-aye, boss,” Clemmence grimaced as he pressed a button on the side of Callum’s contraption. Jed’s head plopped into the mud. Talisen grabbed a leg and followed the others out toward the edge of the swamp.

“Sending a message, boss?” Rat asked as he stood to Callum’s side.

“Somethin’ like that,” he grunted. A sharp crack filled the air and the two glanced up toward the sky. Further out, the canopy wasn’t so dense. They could see slate gray clouds that darkened over their head. The abyss split as a purple bolt of lightning struck a nearby tree. Smoke lifted off the branches but the swamp was too damp, the fire was snuffed out before it even took its first breath. He scowled, pulling away from the onslaught of rain that was coming their way. “Make sure those idiots make it home.”

“You got it, boss…you off to see your warlock?”

His warlock, it brought a quirk to his lips. Callum glanced back at Rat, the fool smiling up at him. Eager to please, the kid had ‘please love me’ scribbled all over his forehead. He was still dirty from the journey back from the Stronghold. The outlaw stared down at the tiny ruffian and wondered if the kid was born anywhere else but Gloomsdale if things might have been different. If he might have found employment with someone that would appreciate his water magic rather than utilize it. He couldn’t imagine the wide-eyed, rambunctious thing as anything other than an ankle biter. Even when he found Rat underfoot, three years ago, the kid was always a chaotic storm.

No, Callum decided it didn’t matter—because he didn’t care. He was getting out of here, and he wasn’t allowed to think of any of crew as unfortunate. That was for people who wanted to stay. People who cared.