Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 4)

"I'd do it again," Tomhas muttered, voice a bit stronger now. "I'd do it again in a heartbeat. What he put her through. What he did. What just happened. I--I wish I could kill him again."

"I wish it too," Zander agreed fervently. "I wish we could keep bringing the bastard back to life so we could keep killing him over and over. He certainly deserves it."


"Once I get you up to the room I can go check."

Ky shook her head rapidly, a stab of panic running through her.

"Okay," Tadaaki said quickly. "I won't. I'll stay with you. I won't go anywhere."

She relaxed ever so slightly against him.

"But it isn't right. It's not right." Tomhas closed his eyes for a moment. "It's not right."

"It's absolutely right," Zander said, dragging him along with him. "He hurt your daughter. It's okay to want to pay dearly for it."


"I'll stay with you," Tadaaki murmured again. "No one's going to hurt you anymore. I promise."

"It's cruel. Cruel doesn't solve cruel," Tomhas insisted. "It never does."

"Well, it's over now, regardless," Zander said. They could agree to disagree on that one. It wasn't cruel to kill a pack of wolves coming after your child and it wasn't cruel to kill human monsters instead. Perhaps it was a bit cruel to want vengeance as strongly as he did. But he didn't give a shit. Had Tomhas seen Ky's abdomen? Zander would take being cruel. It wouldn't bother him at all to be cruel to the bastard responsible for it.


"Just stick with me a bit further. We're already on the second floor."

Ky's attention was coming back and she was confused what he meant. Why they were going up stairs in the first place. Aleth always took her to the spare room upstairs when he did something like that -- he didn't like getting blood in the rest of his house. Why did he do it on the first floor?

Tomhas nodded, taking a deep breath, trying to steady himself. "Those bastards. Those bastards, couldn't they have just ignored the orders? Why go after a little girl when you owe the man nothing?"

"He probably had some sort of method set up that they didn't get paid until the job was done." Zander sighed. "It seems like something he'd do, based on what I know about him. And money is definitely what motivates those three."

Tadaaki was taking the stairs much faster than Zander and Tomhas, but he already had them halfway up the first flight of stairs by the time Tadaaki was starting up the second.


Ky couldn't find the energy to speak, nor did she remember how words worked.

"You'll feel better soon," Tadaaki promised. "We're almost there. Things will be better soon."

"Will there be more?" he demanded. "Is she ever safe? What do I do?"

"I don't know," Zander said honestly. "But Ky clearly recognized Jae and knew what he was about to do -- which means she expected this. Even though she refused to tell us." He was annoyed about that one. "She probably knows why and how and what else might be coming. We can ask her once she feels better. But not until then."


"Almost there," Tadaaki promised again. "Look, we're already to the right hallway. Just gotta get to the right room."

He was being intentionally vague. He didn't want to worry Ky with her realizing that they weren't at Aleth's house. Even though Ky was already starting to piece that together herself.

"She told me," Tomhas said sickly. "She told me, and I let her leave even so. I opened the gates. I shouldn't have done that, what was I thinking?"

Zander glanced at him. Did everyone besides him fucking know? He'd have done a scan of the perimeter before Ky came out if he'd had even an inkling that something like this was a possibility. He was better than Jaerek. He was better than all three of them combined. And he would have found at least Jae and maybe Wyl too if he'd had the heads up. "It's over now. No need to blame yourself for it -- that won't help anything at this point. And you can keep the gates closed now, right?"


"It's right up here. On the left, see?" Tadaaki said. They both knew that she couldn't. "It's..." Tadaaki hesitated, realizing that opening the door was going to be hard without hurting her or slamming her head into the door in the process.

Tomhas gave a nod. "Yeah. Yeah I can do that. I'll keep her safe."

"You will," Zander said with a nod. He believed that much. Perhaps Tomhas was naive if he hadn't taken a death threat seriously. But it was clear that he cared dearly for Ky -- that he wouldn't have let this happen if he'd known she was right. "No one else will get to her ever again."

He'd ensure that much himself. Once he was sure she was going to be kept under lock and key here -- he'd go find what network Aleth had been working with and insert himself squarely in the middle. There were few men willing to go up against him. These three certainly wouldn't have, if they'd known he was going to be there.


Tadaaki muttered a curse under his breath, bending to try to work the knob with his left hand without dropping Ky or making her shift around and hurt her arm further. Zander and Tomhas were nearly to them now, on the same hall heading towards them.

"I'll make sure of it," Tomhas promised. "I'll keep her safe. I won't let them hurt her." Gods, maybe Gaius had been right, locking himself away in Serpent Keep. Nobody got in unless he said so, and that was the way it ought to be. Keeps were for protection; they were fortresses. He'd let Ky step outside and now they were all paying the price.

(Wow this is gonna do some kinda thang to Tomhas huh)