Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Tibs found himself engulfed in the fighter's hug nearly as soon as he stepped into the inn. He suffused himself with earth reflexively to survive the crushing force.

"Where were you?" Jackal demanded as he released Tibs. "Your message just said you were going off with that archer!"

"He was watching. I couldn't sneak much on the page."

"Where did he take you?" Jackal looked Tibs over, frowning. "What happened to you?"

"The city is called Shellbridge." He headed for their table to give Jackal time to comment on it, and so the rest of the conversation would be more private.

"Welcome back," Kroseph said, placing a tankard before him. "I'm glad you returned whole, if slightly singed."

"The armor will repair itself," Tibs commented.

"He's more worried about if you were in it when the singing happened," Jackal replied. "I thought you knew better than to step into fire."

Kroseph patted the fighter's shoulder. "Yes, of course; I'm the one concerned." He chuckled and headed to the bar.

"Why did you go with him to this Shellbridge place?"

"You don't know it?"

"Should I?"

"Archer said your father had businesses there."

Jackal opened and closed his mouth. "I didn't know that. Where is it?"

"I don't know. A lot of people spoke Pursatian, so it might be in the kingdom I'm from, but there were also a lot of other languages."

"Okay, so why did you go?"

"He threatened to tell the guild I have more than one element. When I chased Sebastian as he fled, Archer tried to stop me. I was channeling air, and it was before I controlled myself. I knocked him off a roof with wind. He made it close enough in time to see me burn the area around the platform."

"I am going to kill him."

"It's over," Tibs said, taking the bowl from Kroseph. He wasn't hungry, but this was home food. He wasn't passing it up after all that time eating the spicy kind.

"You killed him?"

Tibs shook his head, enjoying the mix of flavors.

"Then he can come back.... He will come back, and demand more. His kind always does."

Tibs shrugged. "If he does, I'll deal with him. But I don't think he will."

"Why?" Jackal asked when Tibs ate instead of adding to that comment.

"He wanted out. Out from your king's employ, and he needed coins for that. He had me rob a place called the Brokerage." He watched Jackal for a reaction.

"I sort of remember my father using that name a few times," he said, frowning. "But I never learned what it was." He grinned. "Never tried to."

Tibs nodded. "It's the people Sebastian gave all his coins to so they could pay assassins to come after me, and to cause Kragle Rock problems." He returned the grin. "They don't have any of those coins anymore."

Jackal whistled. "With all those coins, you're never going to have to worry about the guild owning you."

"They went to Archer," Tibs said. "Well, most of them. I kept a few bars, and he said they are worth plenty, but he has a whole lot more of them, along with the coins."

"Why?" Jackal asked, stunned. "You did the work. It's not like he'd know how much there was...right?"

Tibs shrugged. "We agreed he got the coins, and I got to end the problem for my town."