JiRu Black Iron's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

The new blade hung at JiRu's hip, cold and perfect. Thora had shaped it from the volcanic ore through the night. But a sword meant nothing if he could not find his enemy. The warlord ruled from a stronghold no map marked. JiRu had asked travelers and traders. None knew the way. So he walked into a crowded tavern at the edge of a market town, hoping someone there had seen the man's banners. The room was loud with drinkers. A quest board covered one wall, thick with torn paper. JiRu stopped a serving woman and asked about the warlord. Her face went pale. She turned away without a word. He asked a merchant at a round table, then a pair of hunters. Each man found something else to stare at. Fear sealed every mouth in the place. Then a staff cracked down on the table beside him. "You won't find his road by begging for it," a woman said. She sat alone, boots up on a chair, a warrior's staff across her knees. Tan skin, hard eyes, scars at her wrists. She studied JiRu's new blade with open hunger. "That's volcanic steel. You mean to use it on him." "I mean to kill him," JiRu said. She laughed, but no joy touched it. "Good. He married me once. Took me from my village as a prize." She turned her wrist to show the old rope scars. "I escaped. I've wanted him dead ever since." JiRu sat down across from her. "Then you know where he hides." "I know the valley. I know the gate watch, the back trail, the hour they change guards." Jax Shadowstrike leaned close. "I'll draw you the whole path. But I don't give it away. I come with you, and I'm there when he dies." JiRu thought of Thora, who had asked the same. He thought of how one man melts against an army. "Draw it," he said. Jax wet her finger in spilled ale and traced lines on the tabletop. A river. A notch between two ridges. A stronghold built into the rock, one road in. She named the distance. Four days' hard travel north. JiRu memorized every mark. "There's a cost you should hear," Jax said. She wiped the map away with her sleeve. "He keeps lookouts on that road. The moment a stranger climbs it, he knows. By the time you reach the gate, he'll be ready and waiting." JiRu stood. For the first time, the hunt had a direction. He finally knew where to march. But now he knew something worse. The warlord would see him coming, and the element of surprise was already lost. "Then we don't climb the road," JiRu said. "We find another way in." Jax grinned and rose, staff in hand. "Now you're worth my time."