Lowborn Ch. 07

Raven let out a growling moan when he stepped into the tub behind her and dug his fingers into her hips. A push of his thumb settled his hardness against her nether lips, and he stabbed inside her.

She cried out as his cock stretched her, filling her full. "Fuck yeah. Give it to me. Hard."

Her petite hips made perfect handles as he took her. Though a little dry at first, her canal quickly grew slippery with wetness as he forced his cock into her. Mindblind pulled her toward him with every thrust, making her cry out as his cock knocked at the entrance of her womb.

"Faster. Damn it. Fuck me," Raven growled, her arms already trying to buckle from the power of his thrusts.

Water sloshed and loud claps sounded from their colliding flesh. It was quite the contrast to every other time they'd had sex, where she had ultimately been in control, no matter what the situation or position. This time, she was truly offering herself up for the taking. His right hand slipped from her hip, though it left behind a rosy imprint in her skin, and curled around her leg.

Raven squealed as his fingers flashed over her clit, his hips never losing rhythm.

Pained-sounding grunts burst from her lips with every thrust, growing higher in pitch and volume by the moment. Her canal squeezed tight around him, her skin flushed, and she screamed as orgasm claimed her.

Mindblind kept his fingers moving over her clit for a minute or so more, drawing out her climax. Her muscles were stiff, fingers curled into claws on the edge of the tub as she screamed again and again. Finally, he was at the point of no-return, the squeeze of her velvety walls too good to hold back any longer. He grabbed her hips in both hands again.

A few more thrusts took him to the edge, and he pulled her tight against him, the loudest slap yet sounding as their bodies collided. A growl exploded from his lips even as cum erupted into her depths.

Raven groaned as his cock pulsed, flooding her with cum. A few whimpers marked her climax winding down into aftershocks, her walls contracting erratically around him. Dripping with sweat, he couldn't take it for long, and pulled free from her to sit on the precarious perch of the tub's edge.

Panting for breath, she reached between her legs and winced. As she bent lower, it revealed her canal gaping from being stretched by his cock, and cum beginning to dribble from deep within.

"Fuck, I needed that," Raven said in a quiet, breathless voice. She turned around and splashed back into the water, looking up at him with a crooked smile. "Thanks for not leaving me for the vultures back there."

Having not quite caught his breath, Mindblind weakly chuckled and answered, "Don't mention it."

A kick sent water splashing across his drooping member. "Give me some room, so I can wash up — again. I've got a den of mother murderers to check out in a few hours."

Shaking his head, Mindblind climbed out of the tub to return to his own long enough to wash away the sweat and sex.

****

He had to admire the stamina.

Despite everything the women had been through, the prostitutes were hard at work after only brief naps in shifts. Word had spread quickly that fresh flesh was available for purchase, and the taproom was packed.

Mindblind glanced toward the door and the hallway leading to the foyer of the inn, wondering what was keeping Raven. She'd left over an hour ago to scout out the eatery that served as a front for the assassins' true profession, only planning to check out the building, and perhaps look in a few windows.

He was on the verge of suggesting to Indigo that they go after her when she walked in the taproom door. The look on her face wasn't promising.

"We're going to have to get in there," Raven growled under her breath as she thumped her knuckles into the table and leaned over it.

"The nest is not yet empty, eh?" Indigo asked.

"I'm not sure. I heard women crying. Never saw a soul."

"Perhaps we might speak with the guardsman?"

Mindblind scoffed at Indigo's suggestion. "If they're on the take from the whores and thieves, that bunch is paying them off too."

Raven's voice dropped even lower. "I can get us in quick and quiet. After that..."

Mindblind stood, his fingers already wanting to curl around the hilt of his newly acquired sword. "It's up to them."

"I suppose there is little alternative," Indigo agreed, rising as well.

Raven nodded toward the foyer of the inn. "Stick close to me, and keep your yaps shut. We're taking the dodgy paths, and I'm the only reason that you won't get a knife in your back for seeing the places we're going."

The dodgy paths started right down the hall, within what looked like little more than a closet near the front counter. Once cramped up inside the small space, Raven opened a trap door in the floor, revealing a ladder leading down to a faint glow some dozen feet below.

Raven moved fast, and Mindblind had little opportunity to take in more than a general impression of the subterranean thieve's road. The passages were low and narrow, but branching corridors seemed to indicate that the network was extensive.

At times, hidden latches Raven triggered revealed entrances into basements and cellars, which in turn led to more passages. The location of the first such cellar was fairly obvious from the sounds of passion coming through the floor above — the brothel. Others were more difficult to fathom, and some seemed to be attached to no sort of structure at all. Though he never saw a soul, Mindblind was almost certain that they were being watched every step of the way.

After nearly a half hour of creeping through the darkness, lit only by a curious lantern Raven carried that focused a beam just large enough to barely see the path ahead, she blew out the light in front of an angled doorway at the top of three wooden steps.

"The place is just across from here. We'll be at the back, but that's not where we're going in. I only peeked, but I know everything back there is rigged up with nasty traps. We'll hit the service entrance for the chow hall. Watch me, and be ready to hit the dirt, run, or fight — but keep your swords sheathed for now."

The two men quietly acknowledged the instructions, and then Raven pushed open the door after listening intently for a minute or so.

The layout of the surrounding buildings hid them from view on the street, though the open plains loomed on the other side. Raven crossed the distance between the two structures on light feet, her eyes scanning for any sign of discovery. She skirted around the edge of the building, staying in the shadows cast by the moonlight, and finally reached a door.

In turn, she whispered directly into both men's ears. "Keep your eyes open. If anybody comes along, let me know, but don't touch me. These locks are good, and they could be trapped."

Despite the warning, Mindblind heard a click less than a minute later.

"Time to get your swords out," Raven whispered as she drew a pair of daggers.

A combination of moonlight and banked coals let Mindblind take in the interior — a large kitchen. Double doors led out to what he assumed was the front of the establishment, but Raven guided them toward a far stouter portal leading deeper into the building. She knelt immediately upon reaching the door, the curious metal shapes that were the tools of her trade appearing once more.

The second lock opened even more quickly than the first, and the sound of a woman softly weeping reached them almost immediately. Of far more concern was a corpulent Draxnian who jumped into the lamp-lit hallway directly ahead, wielding a stout cudgel.

Mindblind brought his weapon to bear, though the close quarters weren't exactly optimal for the large sword. Raven let out a sharp sigh when Indigo snapped something in his own language, and then quickly repeated it in their tongue, just in case.

"Put down your weapon."

The man's eyes widened upon seeing what he faced, and the cudgel clattered to the floor. At the same time, the front of his trousers darkened, and a spreading puddle of urine formed on the planks at his feet.

Mindblind's knuckles turned white from gripping his sword. The urge to lash out and remove the fat man's head was so strong that he actually took a step forward. Raven darting ahead to press her dagger to the Draxnian's throat cut him off, and he was further brought up short when he considered what his instincts were telling him to do.

Wary of the puddle at her feet, Raven said in a harsh whisper, "How many more of you are there?"

"No one. There is no one here," the fat man answered.

The lone woman's sobbing had ceased, replaced by murmurs of more voices.

"That doesn't sound like no one," Raven said, and her sharp blade drew a thin line of blood.

Her captive's words emerged in a high-pitched rush. "Just the women. Just the women."

"Get face down on the floor, fat-ass, or I'll cut your balls off before I kill you," Raven warned, keeping the dagger at his throat while yanking on his beard.

As soon as the man was lying on the floor in his own piss, Raven rapped him smartly in the back of the head with the hilt of her dagger.

"You don't deliver warnings when you're skulking, Indigo," she said as she stood, barely moderating the volume of her voice. "Could have got us killed if there were more of them."

Twitching with energy, Mindblind passed between the two, going farther down the hall, where he'd heard the women's voices. "Fuck it. Know we're here now. Cut 'em down as we find them."

He heard her say his name, but ignored it as he stalked with single-minded purpose down the hall. Somewhere in this place, there had to be a way to find out who had ordered Delly's murder. More immediately, there were women in obvious distress, possibly facing a life worse than death.

One way or another, this was going to end, and he was going to end it.

Another frightened whimper emerged from a door at the end of the hall, singling out that room from several others. The sound of his booted footfalls on the planks below echoed back from the walls as Indigo and Raven hurried to catch up. He reached the door and grabbed the doorknob despite a rushed warning from Raven about traps.

"Give me a second and I'll pick it," Raven said when he found the door locked.

Mindblind had other ideas. Transferring his sword to the other hand, he leaned back, and then threw his weight into the door.

The frame gave with a loud report, cracking around the lock and sending the door slamming into the wall inside. The sound was barely audible over a chorus of frightened screams.

The women ranged in age from a young girl to an old woman, and they all looked remarkably alike. From their skin tone and manner of dress, he assumed they were Draxnian. The eldest of the group stepped in front of the rest, and rattling off something at him in that language more or less confirmed it.

Mindblind turned around to his companions, and gestured toward the women, "Indigo."

Indigo nodded and passed him, immediately speaking to the women in his own language. Mindblind fixed his eyes on the nearest door, planning to force his way inside it as well.

Raven grabbed his arm. "Hey. What in the hells is wrong with you?"

His lip curling up into a snarl, Mindblind snapped his gaze to her and growled, "What are you talking about?"

She lifted her eyebrows and eyed him with a slightly wary expression. "Look, you're not going to do anybody any good if you get stabbed with a poison needle or something. Let me get the damn doors. I want to know who's behind this as much as you do."

Mindblind's grip tightened on his sword and he clenched his teeth. Then, as if a fog had lifted from his mind, the wave of overwhelming anger passed, and he shook his head. "Yeah. Okay."

Raven pointed at the door at the end of the hall that was more finely crafted than all the others. "That one. That's the thing about guildmasters, they always have to remind their lessors who's in charge. That's his room."

Not giving him a chance to open the door in his more direct manner, the thief swept past him, her leather pouch of tools emerging from a hidden pocket. She knelt in front of the door and went to work.

Mindblind shifted from foot to foot, the couple of minutes it took Raven to open the lock feeling like an eternity. When the click finally sounded, he immediately reached for the doorknob. Raven's hand snapped out and closed around his wrist.

"Stand back," she warned.

Rankling at the delay, he took a step back. Raven remained kneeling, but moved off to one side of the door. She turned the doorknob, and then gave the door a shove before snatching her hand back.

A twang from within the room merged with the thump of two crossbow bolts embedding themselves in the wall at neck and chest height.

"Easier than breaking the trigger," Raven explained, and then walked into the room.

The guildmaster was living well — or at least had been right up until Indigo stabbed him in the throat. Silk and satin, expensive carpets on the floor, ivory and gold adorned items were everywhere in view. A bedroom connected to the main living quarters.

"What are we looking for?" He asked.

"Someplace nice to lay around and get drunk for a year when we fence all this," Raven quipped. She then pointed at the bedroom. "Probably a hidey-hole in there somewhere. He'll have a book of all the jobs they've taken."

"Why?" Mindblind asked, thinking that keeping written evidence of a career of murder wasn't exactly the wisest course of action.

"Deciding who ranks when two guilds have conflicting interests. That's all I know for sure. Got myself in a bad place and had to pose as a guild recruit for a while."

She walked into the bedroom and examined every nook and cranny with a critical eye. A grin spread across her face when she paused while looking at the far wall, beyond the bed. "There we are."

Mindblind didn't see anything until Raven grabbed a lantern hook on the wall and rotated it to the side. She reached into the hole beyond, and a click sounded from a couple of feet to her left, within a wardrobe. Opening that revealed a hidden compartment in the back, which the latch had triggered to open.

Raven pulled out the leather-bound book, which had an embossed image of the guild insignia on the front cover. She plopped down on the bed, and started thumbing through the pages. When she tapped a finger against a page and nodded for him to approach, Mindblind leaned in to look.

"There's our Lakeshore Man," Raven said. "Problem is, it doesn't identify him. Guess that big bear was smarter than I thought."

"The meetings were all in town. Must be someone from there," Mindblind grumbled as he read the entry.

"Someone with coin."

Mindblind's face flushed and he growled. "Could be anyone. Stinking blue-bloods with money and fat, rich merchants everywhere."

"We may never find out."

Under his breath, with ominous finality, Mindblind said, "Yes I will."

****

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