pair of boots with space for my knives, and a few spares. A sober shirt and breeches.” For those times when it didn’t pay to stand out so much.
Van Gast hoped Josie’s twist didn’t mean getting mixed up with Remorian mages again, or mage-bonds or slaves or anything to do with them. If they were re-bonding people, then sadly Estovan would no longer be on his list of favorite places to steal things from. Well, maybe a quick bit of theft, if something came available. Best to find out what he could though—he wasn’t leaving before he found out what Josie was planning. “What else do they say?”
The shopkeep seemed to have got over his nerves now it was clear Van Gast wasn’t a raving madman, or at least not right now he wasn’t. “It’s been terrible. Riots in the Godsquare, the Remorians stirring up a storm. The ones who are still here, in their minds that is. Couple of big merchants—members of the Yelen, it’s rumored, you know how secretive that lot are—got murdered last week. Sliced their throats open in their beds. The guards can’t control them, not at all, that’s why they’ve started locking them up, or worse. Re-bonding some of them, the ones who aren’t too far gone, that’s the rumor, and I don’t know what’s worse, that or what they’re doing to the ones they think are not worth saving. As long as they don’t start bonding us too.”
Van Gast looked in the mirror at the bright clothes, the grin, and the attitude that marked a rack as surely as anything else. He was back, himself again. He winked at his reflection. Ready for anything. “Well, that’s something to watch for. Those mages are fuckers for that.”
“Yes, well, they might start on convicts, the Yelen said. To control them. Got one in particular in mind to catch. Been plastered all over the Godsquare, reward of ten thousand gold sharks.”
Ten thousand? Kyr’s mercy, you could buy a respectable-sized town and everything in it, everyone in it, for that much. Van Gast must have looked skeptical, because the shopkeep rattled on.
“Some rack captain, stole something of the Yelen’s and shot a son of the council. Going to bond him and then put his head on a spike, they reckon. Once they’ve finished in the dungeons, and that might take a while. Van Gast—you must have heard of him? If you see him, tell him not to come within ten leagues of Estovan, if he values his life.”
Van Gast had known there would be a price on his head, that the Yelen would eventually discover it was him who’d stolen that sodding diamond. Plus he’d inadvertently whacked a few of their guards in Bilsen and interrupted some sort of deal with mages, then stolen all the money they’d brought with them for the trade.
Still, ten thousand. He’d almost turn himself in for that much. If it was just the Yelen dungeons, he might have done. He’d got out of worse places. But a bond too—he shuddered. He was never risking that again, losing control of his mind to do another’s will, to forget who and what he was. Fuck that for a game of sailors.
He’d best be careful of Holden’s crew too—well, his crew now. He didn’t know them, not enough to trust them. Not even Holden. Freedom was too new, the possibility of choices too fresh and exciting. Holden just might choose to live without Van Gast. Anyone and everyone who knew his face and name together was a threat with that much money on it.
Van Gast pulled himself together and tweaked the shirt to his satisfaction. “Everyone’s heard of Van Gast. I’ll be sure to let him know, if I see him,” he managed weakly. His old boots were just about falling to pieces and the shopkeep held them at arm’s length as he dropped them into a bin. Van Gast pulled on the new boots—a pleasing blood red—stowed his knives, sword and pistol and slid the bells over his left ankle. He gave them an extra shake, an extra prayer, and was glad he’d put back the devotional to Kyr. He was going to need a serious amount of mercy, because he was about to head straight into Yelen territory.
Stupid? Yes, but gods, exciting too. His fingertips tingled with it.
It was better when he was back out on the street, which was quieter now as the sun made its presence felt. No one looked at