Keeper of the Books (Keeper of the Books, Book 1) (10 page)

“Here,” he said. “Just a few miles outside the town of,” Joe leaned in, squinting to get a better look at the word, “Vandikhan.”
 

The Warlord squinted at the map for a few seconds, then his face softened. With a loud burst of laughter, he slapped Joe hard on the back and squeezed his shoulder. “That’s wonderful news!”

“Why?” Joe asked, truly puzzled.
 

“Because, scavenger, we’re not far from there. If we leave before sunup, we could be there in two days.”

Joe cursed silently. He’d only bought himself two days? That was hardly enough time to figure out how to escape. He swallowed hard and nodded. “Yep. Not too far at all.”

Autumn, 903 A.O.M.

Nate had been in some tight spots in his long career as an outlaw, but his escape from death row had to rank near the top of the list of close calls. He and Marum jostled back and forth in the cart under the dusty tarpaulin. The two of them had been just lucky enough to choose a cart carrying compost. Dripping cloth bags filled with rotting vegetables, animal excrement, eggshells, and whatever else that had the ability to burn Nate’s nostrils, was just about too much for him to handle.
 

Every couple of minutes, Marum would lift the tarp ever so slightly to get a good look at their surroundings. About an hour into their trip, she signaled to Nate that they were out of the city and that it was safe to hop out. Nate was pleased at this news since the smell of the compost wasn’t something he could get used to.
 

Marum reached out quietly and pulled on a tiny latch that unhinged the back gate of the cart, producing a wide enough opening for the two of them to slide out the back, the driver none the wiser. The cart was going at such a slow speed that once Nate’s feet hit the ground he barely stumbled forward. The driver of the cart never looked back at the two, and now gray elf and man were alone on an uneven dirt road surrounded by trees.

This was the first time since Nate had awoken in the jail that he felt at ease and was able to truly take in his surroundings. The trees were mostly leafless, and a brisk wind carried a deep chill. Nate knew it had to be late Autumn. He closed his eyes briefly and sniffed the air, but his expression immediately turned into a snarl when he caught a whiff of the compost that had attached itself to his clothing. It was the sort of stench that he could almost taste on his tongue and it threatened to linger even after a good wash.

He looked at the gray elf and studied her clothes. They weren’t proper for this kind of weather and come nightfall she would be freezing. The rags were little more than a bed sheet draped over her with holes for her head and limbs. But Marum didn’t seem to mind at the moment. She wore a smile on her face as she looked up and down the road, no doubt reveling in her newfound freedom. Nate knew the feeling of being captured and then set free. He’d been caught a few times, and more than once he had faced the prospect of hanging. It was always a burden that weighed heavy on the shoulders, but it also made him light as a feather once released.
 

Still, none of this gave Nate pleasure considering he had to figure out how to get back home somehow. But first he had to locate Joe, if he was even out here at all.

“We really shouldn’t stay on the road,” Marum said. “We may have escaped the city, but that cart was going so slow there’s no doubt riders have moved ahead of us. The Crimson Army will be guarding all roads leading out of Tel Haven Forest.”

“What do you suggest we do?” Nate asked. “I don’t know anything about this place.”

“We stay off the roads,” she said. “As I am a gray elf I am an enemy in these lands, but I am not without friends. Their homestead is a half a day’s journey. I could be there as early as this afternoon if I don’t run into trouble.”

Nate couldn’t help but notice the lack of the word
we
in Marum’s statements. “You’re without a weapon and barely have enough clothes on to distinguish you from naked. You’re going to need my help.”

Marum lifted an eyebrow as if to challenge Nate’s words, but she didn’t. Instead she asked him a question. “Are you sure you aren’t an agent of my brother sent to help me? I know you acted like you didn’t know where you were in the jail earlier, but…” Her voice trailed off.
 

Nate kicked at the dirt beneath him and shook his head. “Lady, I don’t know who your brother is. And I’ve never even seen a gray elf before. Never knew one existed until about an hour ago.”

“It wouldn’t strike me as odd that you have never seen one of us,” she said, “but to have never heard of a gray elf is something I cannot believe.”

“Believe what you want,” Nate said as he started walking up the road. “I’m not from around here. As for you, you’re just lucky I needed a distraction to get out of the jail. I don’t know who you are, and I don’t care if you hang.” This wasn’t entirely true. He didn’t much like meddling in the affairs of others, particularly when lawmen were involved, but he didn’t like to see people hanged. Besides, if she would allow it, Nate had a temporary guide and maybe a hot meal by day’s end. Of course, telling her that he didn’t care if she hanged wasn’t quite the way to make friends. He knew he had to calm himself and start talking a little nicer.
 

Marum walked closely behind him, following as if he had any clue where he was headed. “You weren’t in that cell last night or in the morning. I was awake. There was no way I missed you coming in.”

“That’s because I appeared there,” Nate said, shaking his head. He looked ahead of him, watching for any sign of a patrol, listening for the sound of hooves on the ground. “I don’t know how. I don’t know why. I wish I could have appeared somewhere outside the city. Now I’m a wanted man.”

“Few people saw you,” Marum said. “I doubt anyone got a good enough look for a decent description. Right now your only danger is being near me. Otherwise you could probably walk straight into Tel Haven and no one would recognize you.”

Nate wasn’t so sure about that. He might have slipped away quickly and quietly, but there was always the danger of someone having seen his face clearly. It would only take one person to blow the whistle and the whole army would come down on him. There was also the prospect that Levi Thompson was in the city somewhere. Nate wasn’t sure, but he figured that for the time being he probably ought to keep that whole topic to himself. Sure, he was a wanted man for helping out Marum, but it wasn’t important for anyone else to know that he was wanted in his own land for thievery and murder.

Opening the book and getting pulled into its pages was a choice he had made in the last second. He knew that if he hadn’t done it he would be a dead man. But the ultimate consequences of his actions were unknowable at this point.

Nate had to work all this out in his mind. Here is what he
did
know:

First, Tyler Montgomery and Joe were here somewhere. And according to Joe, Stew and Ralph were here too, but Nate didn’t care about them.
 

Second,
here
was a place called Galamore. How big Galamore was remained a mystery.
 

Third, almost no one in this place knew who Nate was. This was a good thing. Marum was just about right. He probably could go back into Tel Haven without too much of a hitch, especially after a couple of weeks. But he wasn’t entirely sure he needed to go back there.
 

All this led Nate to what he didn’t know:

First, He didn’t know where Joe was, and finding him was his top priority after making sure no one was still chasing him.
 

Second, he didn’t know if Levi Thompson had followed him or not. The man probably wouldn’t even think to open the book and go after Nate, except for the fact that the only reason he had caught them at Northrup Valley was because of Amos and his blabbing mouth. So, if Levi knew about the meeting place, that meant he probably knew all about the book as well. And if he was brave enough (and there was no doubt of that in Nate’s mind), then Levi was undoubtedly here looking for Nate.
 

The third thing Nate didn’t know was how Montgomery played into all of this. In truth, the man was responsible for Nate’s current predicament, which also happened to save his life. But Tyler Montgomery seemed to know an awful lot about this book they were now in. If he knew that a person could be pulled into it, then he probably knew how to leave. And Montgomery had cheated him out of money. Nate was supposed to get paid the second half and Montgomery hadn’t delivered. Nate figured if he ever found the man, he would offer him a chance to live in exchange for information about getting back home. Even without half of the money the man owed him, Nate had plenty to disappear into the mountains of Montana forever.

“These friends of yours,” Nate said after stopping in the road, “would they be willing to take us both in until all this commotion died down?”

Marum turned her head away from Nate when he asked this. There was an apprehension in her look that Nate knew too well. She didn’t trust him, nor should she. But Nate was on the cusp of being desperate, and he knew that if he was out here alone, things would get a lot tougher.

“Because you saved my life,” Marum said, “I will take you to them. But you have to know that if they refuse you, there is nothing I can do. And you will be on your own.”

Nate understood and nodded.
 

Marum’s eyes then narrowed as she took a step toward Nate. “And if I even get the hint that you’re planning to do anything to hurt them, I’ll put a bullet through the back of your head and you will never know what hit you.”

This was the first time Nate had seen Marum so hostile. These friends of hers must have been closer to her than he imagined. Nate also didn’t take being threatened lightly. The way she spoke to him evoked a spark of anger within him that would have made him throw a fist at a man’s jaw for it, but he kept himself calm and collected. Instead, he swallowed and nodded slowly. “Listen, I don’t have any reason to harm your friends. I’ve got to find my brother and get back home. I just need to lay low and get myself situated.”

Marum stared at him, then finally nodded. “A gray elf’s custom is to pay back a debt owed with equal value. I can’t say that giving you a place to stay for the night is quite the same as you saving my life, but it’s a start.”

“You don’t owe me anything,” Nate said. “You get me to your friend’s home, your debt will be paid.”

“Well,” Marum said, “that’s not up to you. When I feel the debt is paid, then it is done.” She sighed and motioned toward the forest away from the road. “We really should be traveling through the thick. The road is dangerous.”

Now Marum took the lead, and Nate was all too happy to let her.

An hour went by while Nate followed Marum closely. Since the two of them had decided to travel away from the roads, the terrain wasn’t the easiest to get through. The woods were thick in these parts. Nate had been through worse, of course, but the cool autumn air didn’t feel so cool anymore as sweat dripped down the side of his face. Looking ahead of him, Marum seemed comfortable enough.

“You know,” Nate said, “I didn’t really think about it at the time, but maybe we should have stolen that man’s horse. We are on the run for our lives, after all. I don’t think it would have been too much to ask.”

“I suppose not,” Marum answered back. “But that would be just another witness for the Rangers to get more information. It’s better this way.”

Maybe we wouldn’t have to leave a witness,
Nate thought to himself. But it was just a fleeting thought. Nate wasn’t a very good killer. Good killers didn’t feel remorse when their victims died. That wasn’t to say Nate had never killed before, but he wasn’t the kind of man to kill for a horse simply because he needed it. Nate figured he fell more along the lines of kill or be killed, though that hadn’t always been the case. He was far more inclined to kill another outlaw for petty reasons than a farmer carrying a cart full of compost. He figured that most of the outlaws he came across were too dumb to make it very long in this business and were bound for a hanging one way or another. If they posed a threat to Nate, wasn’t he doing them a favor by ending it quickly rather than being strangled to death in front of an angry group of people?

He thought about Joe in this instance. His little brother still hadn’t killed anyone in his life. Nate thought this was a good thing when it came to his character, but he couldn’t exactly count on him when things got thick. In one or two firefights, Joe aimed for men’s weapons or limbs, careful not to hit any vital organs or the head. What Nate wanted to tell him but never did was that sometimes the man he was shooting at needed to be dead.

That’s how his last job was supposed to have gone. He had sent Joe as the leader because he knew he wouldn’t go into the bank blasting away bankers and the people there to make deposits or withdrawals. Nate figured that it was Ralph who killed the banker, but he couldn’t be sure. Either way, it counted against Nate most of all, perhaps even increasing his large bounty back home.
 

Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing being here in Galamore. Here he didn’t have a bounty to worry about. At least, not yet.

“So,” Marum said, cutting into his thoughts. “You say you have to get back home. Where is home?”

“Well, for now it’s Texas,” he said. “You ever heard of Texas?”

“No,” Marum said. “Must be beyond Galamore’s borders. Unless it is a small place.”

“No, it ain’t small,” Nate said, smiling. “But I plan to head up to Montana and settle down there.”

“Do you have a family?”

“Just my brother,” he said. “And he’s here in Galamore somewhere. At least, I think he is.”

“You think he appeared somewhere just like you did?”

“I suppose so,” Nate answered. “But I haven’t seen him here.”

“So, you were in this Texas place,” Marum said, “and then you all of a sudden wind up in a jail cell in Galamore, correct?”

“That’s more or less the case,” he said.