Chapter 179: Show Me Yours, I’ll Show You Mine

He stared at me for a couple of seconds, then shook his head. “No. They are not for trade.”

“Oh, well,” I said, shrugging. “Send a messenger to Viswa if you change your mind. I’m always in the market for unique heads. Though I’ve only ever cut them off myself, I’m open to trading. Just because mine are a bit smaller than yours doesn’t mean they aren’t as rare or valuable.”

“I see. So you enjoy the hunt?”

I thought about that for a moment. Did I enjoy the hunt? I hadn’t really hunted anyone before. Everyone I killed had threatened me or my friends in some way. I was going to hunt down Menekrates, that was true, but he was still far too powerful for me to challenge. And then there were the bishops—especially Sokólski—I’d hunt them down as well eventually. I obviously wouldn’t tell him that, so I had to think of something else to say.

“I enjoy dominating those who oppose me,” I said. “Anyone who dares to lay claim on something that is mine, I will annihilate and humiliate so utterly that their name becomes a warning. Anyone who dares to get in my way, I will cut down and I will take their heads, so their souls will be mine forever. That is the punishment for reaching for what is mine. So do I enjoy the hunt? No, I would not call it a hunt. I just remove obstacles.”

Palets drummed his fingers on the table. “Noted. So what do you want?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” I said as I walked back to my chair and sat down.

“The usual.”

“So, money and power.”

He cocked his head slightly. “Wealth and power.”

I wondered if this was a good time to ask about getting some runestones. If he had a whole bunch of heads lying around, he probably also had stacks of runestones. Maybe he even knew some cool runewords, though I highly doubted he’d share anything for free.

“Power, huh?” I asked. “Does that include runewords?”

“Among other things.” He nodded. “We are interested in all kinds of magical spells and items. Ways to learn or upgrade skills. Ways to enhance objects. But runewords in particular are very interesting to us.”

“Why is that?”

“Because they can be extremely powerful, but no one knows how many there are, or how to create new ones. We devote a significant amount of resources to unearthing lost or hidden words, so if you have any, we’d be able to compensate you generously for them. But since you mentioned them I assume you are also looking for them.”

“You assumed right. Perhaps we could help each other.”

“Perhaps we could.” He was definitely interested now.

“Show me yours, I’ll show you mine?” I asked with a big smile.

“No, I don’t think I will. But since you are interested in obtaining runewords, and you were looking for a mutually beneficial arrangement, I might have something for you. Something that will benefit us both.”

He laughed, low and gravelly. “Your friend Hecate might oppose, though.”

“I’m not selling her out to the Church.”

“Oh, no, it’s nothing like that. I have it on good authority that the Church is organizing a tournament of sorts at the start next year. The prize is claimed to be a very powerful runeword.”

Now I was the interested one. “Oh yeah? Did they say what it did?”

“They did not. They never do. But they also never lie about these things. They lie about a lot of things, but not about the rewards they offer. That would be a bad look for them, you see, and for the Church their reputation is everything.”

“Isn’t it like that for everyone? Your reputation matters.”

“Perhaps you are right.”

“Alright. So big tournament, prize is a powerful runeword. What’s the catch? Why don’t you just have one of your guys enter it?”

“Well… we are forbidden from entering. It would create… strife. And we do not like strife.”

“Unless you can profit from it.”

Palets laughed again. “Unless we can profit from it.”

“Right. How would they even know if one of your guys entered it?”

“It is possible that they wouldn’t, and we were seriously considering it until a better solution presented itself.”

“Me.”

“You.”

“So is this some kind of yearly tournament or something? Do they do this a lot?”

“It is a yearly tournament. It ushers in the new year. Put on a good show, spill some blood for Stvora. Blood is the most powerful offering of all, after all.”

Was it? No one ever told me this before. Had I been foolishly offering hands when I could have been offering blood instead? I never even thought about it before. I resolved to test it out when I got the opportunity.

“So, let me get this straight. This is a tournament to get Stvora to bless the new year. It’s held every year and the prize is always a runeword?”

“Correct. Only this year it is slightly different from past years.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked. “What’s different about it?”

He grabbed the small box that sat on top of the table and took out a couple of what appeared to be berries. “Your employee has Bishop Sokólski spooked. He believes she’s targeting him specifically. He believes she’s planning on killing him. He does not like that one bit. Word is he even has Milena the Mad looking for her.”

I nodded. “I have heard Hecate mention his name before. I’m afraid Sokólski is right. She is going to kill him. He sent a couple of inquisitors after her from what she told me, and, well, that just didn’t sit right with her, you see?”

“I see.”

“So what about it?”

“Since he is the one organizing the tournament, supposedly the one who wins will get some special privileges as well, though this has not been officially stated, and probably never will. A little birdy told me that he is looking to recruit the winner. His plan is to have whoever wins the tournament kill the witch.”

Now it was my turn to laugh. “Kill the witch? Hecate?” I wiped a tear from my eye. “That’s a good one. You do know she’s immortal, right? Nothing can kill her.”

“I am aware of the rumors. I just thought you would find this interesting, that is all.”

“I take it you’re not a big fan of Sokólski yourself if you’re telling me this?”

He shrugged. “I do not like or dislike him. I simply want the runeword. We want the runeword.”

“Who is this we?”

“Banda Masvih, of course. Maswav himself suggested we get you into the tournament.”

“Wait a minute. How did you even know I was looking for runewords? Or that I’d enter the tournament for that matter?”

“Everyone wants runewords. Besides some exceptions, runewords are the ultimate power. And best of all is you can always make more, as long as you have the stones. They are unobtainable for most, but someone like you must have plenty already.” He paused for a moment. “Though for some reason you seem to only be wearing one at the moment.”

“Yeah. Didn’t think I needed any, to be honest. It’s not like—” I started laughing. “—it’s not like you were planning on killing me if things didn’t go your way.”

He cocked his head. “Hmm.”

He was? This bastard was planning on killing me if I said no? The two invisible guys were obviously there for a reason. They could also be for his protection—I was pretty dangerous, if I do say so myself. He’d need them if he was planning on killing me. But if they were for his protection, how would he kill me? Was he hiding a vat of acid somewhere? Was there trap door leading to a vat of acid under my chair? Was that why he wanted me to sit in that exact spot?

I looked down at the floor, then back at Palets. “Were you?”

He showed his palms and shrugged. “Were you planning on saying no?”

“I wasn’t planning to, but now that you made it seem like I don’t have a choice, I’m seriously considering it. You’re making me not want to join a tournament that I wanted to join!”

“We could still kill you, if that would make you feel better.”

“Maybe it would. Maybe you should try it. It probably would make me feel better, but I will guarantee you that it would make you feel deader. Because you’d be dead. Because I’d kill you.”

He regarded me for about two seconds, but he didn’t seem impressed. “Maybe I should.”

The nerve of this guy! Trying to force me to join a tournament that I totally was going to join already! Then threatening to kill me! That son of a bitch had no idea who he was messing with.

I stood up and pointed my finger right at his stupid obscured face. “I dare—”

“Hecate!” Vasil said in froggese from my satchel. “Shut up! Shut. Up. Just say you’ll join the tournament. Stop this nonsense at once.”

Palets shot to his feet and pointed at my satchel. “What the fuck was that?”