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I studied the sleeping girl as Aeryn ran her hands through the girl’s ashen blond tresses that nearly mirrored her own. “Do you still have my money?”
“Yes,” I replied.
“Give it to her.”
“Ryn - that’s everything you’ve worked for.” Sabina said, “Your only chance to get out yourself.”
My Little Thief looked up at me before gazing at the mutt she called a friend. “That isn’t an option for me anymore. And I don’t want to run now anyways. I have a future. Penny doesn’t.”
My demon rumbled his approval of her acceptance, pride flooding me as I watched her. Pride in this young brave woman to whom my demon had developed a genuine attachment. It would be so easy to blame this attachment on the emissary bond, but deep down I knew this was…more.
What more meant I didn’t know, and didn’t really want to investigate at that moment. But I was content.
“I’ll set her up somewhere.” Zane said, breaking the silence that stretched with my Thief’s proclamation. “I still have that pack in Nam I can lean on.”
“Zane, I’m sure she wouldn’t want to impede…”
“No, Cherub. Stop.” Zane said. “I hired you to save that Boralis douchebag. And he attacked that woman thinking she was you. If I hadn’t brought you into it, he either wouldn’t have lived, or at least never would have gotten the sick notion to ‘reward you’ for your good deed.”
“Gods Zane, you couldn’t have known he would…”
Zane shook his head. “Anyone that’s willing to go hunt a protected hell species is probably not a great law-abiding citizen. But even if that weren’t the case, the fact remains that I put you in his line of sight in the first place. The least I can do is try to ensure the victim of his actions is taken care of.”
I could see my Thief wanted to argue, but I cut her off before she could start. “I’ll give you Ryn’s funds, and another fifty grand myself. That should give her a good start.”
“She won’t need your charity,”
“Maybe not, but he’s not often magnanimous, and doesn’t take rejection well. So do us all a favor and just take the funds, yeah?” Felix interjected, always the diplomat. I really was glad I had dragged him along for this endeavor.
Zane studied me and then, with some reluctance nodded his head.
Felix clapped his hands together, breaking the tension in the room. “Right, well, excellent! Now that that’s solved - I think we have some bidding to do.”
Chapter Thirty - Best Placed Bids
Felix
The night before the bids passed with a blur. Ryn and Ness had been returned to the keep, to great fuss and fanfare. The sisters and Ambassador Kingston were at arms with their return, not buying the contrived story that Felix had spread about how Sarnas had deployed distraction means so they could imprison the girls themselves as a truly neutral party until the investigations were completed. However as neither woman was held in any way responsible for the deaths of either the Boralis Scout or Acton Fitzson, it was impossible for either the Academy heads or any of the guild representatives to hold any fault against them.
Suggestions were very eloquently made that Sarnas should be disbarred from the bidding process for all but “stealing” two candidates away. However, if there was one thing that the academy truly craved it was money. A promise to donate to the school, and to the guild counsel, a match to the year's highest bid appeased the officials enough to allow Sarnas to continue in the bid.
Miss Arison’s disappearance had been unexplained, the guards to her cells having been found asleep at their posts shortly after her disappearance. It had seemed all too convenient, but no one could pinpoint the disappearance on anyone in particular. Felix, of course, had been blamed by Ambassador Kingston himself, but Abbess Atiana had shut down the speculation quickly, citing a lack of actual evidence. It was hard to say if she doubted Felix’s involvement or simply wanted to reinforce the academy coffers.
With little in the way of an apology for allegedly false accusations, both Ness and Ryn had been entered into the respective bidding pools: Ryn amongst the general population following her failure to win her trial, and Ness into the special election for the limited combat students who had been selected for the trials. Marik himself had opted to attend Ryn’s selection with Drew, ordering Felix to attend Ness’.
It hadn’t been difficult for Felix to convince Marik to take Ness into the guild. Aeryn’s desires to keep her close aside, she knew a lot about them at this point, and it would be more a liability than anything else to allow her out into the world without their oversight. She may be loyal to Marik’s Little Thief, but the woman positively oozed greed just as much as Felix himself did. Those of the greed line always had a price, it was simply finding what that price was to exploit it.
The bidding was to occur in the small formal dining hall that had been used for the first night’s pronouncements, the scents of cigar smoke, champagne and brown liquors still evident days later. Tonight, only half the candles of the golden rod chandeliers had been lit, while the wood burning fireplace that sat nestled in the wall behind the head of the table lent the room the rest of the needed light. The essences of charity, generosity and lust intermixed with the pale gray smoke that skirted across the floor: a trick to try to excite the bidder’s ardor while simultaneously loosening their wallets by impressing upon them the magnanimousness of their deeds. Various expensive alcohols and appetizers dotted the table, while boxes of cigars lay periodically placed around the hall. This evening, the room had been designed to give a cozy and rustic appearance - downplaying the rooms ostentatious grandiose in favor of comfort and security.
Felix had attended many such bids over the centuries, but none quite as carefully orchestrated as what Red Pines Academy had achieved. It was truly a masterpiece of manipulation, and something that Felix would have to build a case study of. For intellectual purposes of course - not like he would ever try to employ any such tactics at any of his casinos or anything of that nature.
Of the twelve students selected for the trials, only ten had made it to selections. While all of the students in the three earlier trials had survived, only Ness had been so fortunate in her trio. As such, she was last up for selection in the group.
Just as the bids were set to begin, three enforcers from the Martier guild entered through the large double doors leading out to the main hallways. And with their entrance came a new scent, unattached to them save for the fresh air they drew with them. The scent carried a strong musk of iron and brimstone - the blood of a hellbeast. Felix took an inconspicuous deep breath before pulling the warded handkerchief from his pocket, blocking out all other scents from contaminating him as he processed what he had absorbed.
It was the scent of a hellcat, and fresh at that. It was very similar to the scent of the beast they had encountered outside the keep but varied slightly, indicating it was not the same animal. And from the thick scent of metallics and brimstone that carried with the scent, it was very likely severely injured.
Without a second thought Felix rose from his seat, making his excuses to use the restroom before the bidding began. But in truth he had to find the beast and quickly: hellcats were far too rare as they had once been hunted to near extinction due to the magical properties of their dual canine teeth and their extremely useful coats - as pliable as leather but sturdier than Kevlar.
