Green Eyes

“Are you insane?!” Jared rounded on Selene as the young woman rushed to Jael’s side. “You just let an entire crime syndicate know we’re here.”

“I had to do something,” Selene protested as she quickly examined Jael’s bashed-in head. “I couldn’t just let him kill her.”

“She got her head smashed in with a club,” Mara pointed out angrily. “Exactly what good did you really think that little stunt of yours would accomplish? She’s dead anyway.”

“No she’s not,” Selene couldn’t believe it, but the woman did have a pulse, albeit a ragged one, and was breathing shallowly.

“She soon will be anyway,” Jared growled.

“Not if I can help it,” Selene retorted as she studied the dying woman in front of her.

“Her head’s been smashed like a watermelon,” Mara snarled. “What can you do?”

“Time to find out if I healing powers or not,” Selene answered.

She placed her hand on the wound and concentrated. Selene admitted to herself she had no idea what she was doing but she had to try something. Reflecting back, Selene remembered that her fire power was tied to anger, ice was tied to fear, and regeneration was tied to physical pain. So what would healing someone else be connected to? Compassion, maybe?

Selene tapped into her feelings of compassion for Jael. It wasn’t hard: the woman had taken them in, despite what Jared and Mara had nearly done to her. She had a cute, brave little girl that she fiercely loved. And she had fought, albeit futilely, to defend her inn. Jael was the type of person that Selene truly admired and wanted to see succeed.

As she focused her emotions, Selene felt energy flowing out of her. Jael’s wound suddenly began to glow. There was a snap as the bones popped back into place, the blood stopped flowing, and her breathing deepened. The glow dimmed and Selene removed her hand, revealing a Jael that looked as if she had never been harmed.

Mara and Jared just blinked. “Wow,” Jared finally breathed after a long pause. “That was impressive, even by your standards.”

“Thanks,” Selene panted as she tried to stand. She couldn’t; her legs felt like jelly and refused to support her and so she slumped into Jared’s arms. Gently Jared caught her and sat her down in one of the wooden chairs.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I think so,” Selene fought off a wave of nausea. Sweat was beaded on her brow and her blond hair was sticking to her forehead. Even though it was just a few seconds, healing seemed to suck the life-force out of her, leaving her utterly drained. She felt weak and shaky, like she had run a hundred miles through a snow bank.

“At least you didn’t pass out,” Mara smirked.

“Not yet, anyway,” Selene laughed quietly. “Probably better get Jael cleaned up.”

Jared and Mara rolled Jael face-up and carefully placed her on the bar. Jared grabbed a cloth, soaked it, and began to wash the blood and dirt off the innkeeper’s face. She moaned and blinked open her eyes.

“What happened?” she croaked.

“You took a nasty knock on the head,” Jared informed her as he continued scrub her face.

Jael reached up behind her and patted the area where the club had hit. Her hair was matted with drying blood, but the flesh was strong and whole. Gingerly she sat up on the bar.

“How’s your head?” Jared asked.

“Fine,” Jael rubbed her head again and looked around. Two tables were overturned and several chairs were broken. Shattered dishes, bowls, and other pottery lay strewn about the floor.

“What did you do to my inn?” she exclaimed, her voice cracking. “I told you guys not to bring your trouble to my inn.”

“We didn’t,” Jared found one of the few unbroken cups and filled it with some water, handing it to her. “In fact, this was your trouble that we cleaned up.”

“You call this cleaning up!” she groused. Suddenly her eyes alighted on the two dead bodies. “Are those,” she squeaked, “are those…”

“Are those two of the people that we rescued you from, yes,” Mara finished. “You’re welcome, by the way.”

“You killed them?” she gasped out. “What were you thinking? Do you know what they’re going to do to me?”

“We were thinking that they threatened and then attacked us,” Jared crossed his arms. “We were trying to stay out of trouble, per your request. These guys were here for you, not us and they were harassing you when we showed up. This was your problem that we fixed for you; you’re welcome.”

“You call this fixed?” Jael shouted gesturing around frantically. “Did you think that you’d just drive them off and that’d be it?”

“I don’t know and I don’t care,” Jared indifferently replied. “We came back, those guys attacked us, and we defended ourselves. Selene, you’d better get yourself some rest while Mara and I get some tack. Hopefully someone has some ready-made saddles. I would like to have had the time to get stuff custom-made for our horses, but it seems that thanks to someone who is mixed with the wrong people,” Jared looked pointedly at Jael, “we don’t have time for that. We leave tonight.”

“What?” Jael was on the verge of all out panic. “You can’t just leave me like this. The Bats will be back and they’ll be looking for blood, my blood.”

“Unfortunate,” Mara laconically shrugged. “But you should’ve thought of that before you sold yourself to these guys.”

“Do you think I had a choice?” demanded Jael her chin quivering. “Do you think any of us in Beth Haven had a choice? The Bats own the entire town and no one, not even the army, can stand up to them.”

“While I sympathize with your plight,” Jared lied, “that is all the more reason for us to leave tonight. The Bats know who we are, they know what we’re worth, and they will not rest until they bring us in. It is not safe for us here, especially her,” he pointed to Selene.

“Please don’t leave me here alone,” Jael begged, her big brown eyes pleading with Jared. “If you leave, then they’ll take out all their wrath on me. I don’t care what happens to me, but if anything happens to Deborah…” her voice choked off. “Please help me,” she tried again trembling. “I’ll pay you anything I can, but please I beg of you help me.”

“I’m sorry,” Mara shook her head, “but she is more important than either you or your daughter.”

“No, I’m not,” Selene stood to her feet and stepped into the conversation. “And yes, we’ll stay and help.”

“Selene, you’re drained from the fight and clearly not thinking straight,” Jared told her. “After your little show, we need to get you out of here while we still can.”

“I am thinking clearly, Jared,” Selene did her best glare, which underneath her low hood had no real effect. “And I’m thinking quite clearly. I’m thinking that it was for this kind of thing that I was made.”

“It’s not our problem,” Mara crossed her own arms. “Jael got herself mixed up with this gang and then brought us into it.”

“I didn’t mean to!” Jael protested.

“It doesn’t matter,” Mara snapped. “We are still going to have an entire crime syndicate breathing down our necks by nightfall. We have to get out before then.”

“It is my problem,” Selene defiantly countered her protector. “To help the helpless, that’s what you said my purpose was and I’m going to do it.”

“Selene, it’s too big of a risk,” Jared returned.

“What?” Selene taunted playfully. “Are you telling that two big, bad War Masters are scared a bunch of street thugs?”

“Of course not,” Mara bristled. “But what you’re asking us to do is to stick our necks out there. Taking out the Bats will take time and will attract the attention of soldiers among others.”

“The garrison here is small,” Selene reminded them. “Come on guys, we can take them. I understand that you guys are trying to protect me, but this is a difference we can make here and now. Let’s do it.”

Jared and Mara exchanged another look. Mara gave an almost imperceptible shake of the head. The mercenary nodded in agreement.

“I’m staying to help,” Selene resolutely declared. “So if you want to protect me, you’re going to have help.”

Both twins sighed heavily. “Fine, we’ll fix your problem,” Jared capitulated, “Mara?”

“I think this is a very, very bad idea,” Mara sighed heavily, “but yeah, I’m in.”

“Thank you, thank you,” Jael gratefully expressed to the trio. “I can’t pay you much, but I’ll give you what I can.”

“Don’t worry about,” Selene waved off. “We don’t do this for money.”

“We don’t?” Jared cocked his head.

“We don’t,” Selene repeated firmly. “So what do we do first?”

Jared looked around the destroyed common room. “I guess we should probably get rid of the bodies first and then clean up,” Jared suggested. “Why don’t you two rest up here while Mara and I take care of our friends?”

“Okay,” Selene nodded while Mara and her brother dragged the dead men out back.

“So what are you guys wanted for?” Jael asked while the twins were out.

“I’m not sure I can tell you that,” Selene slowly replied. “If I did, Jared and Mara would probably have my head on a stake.”

“C’mon,” Jael pressed, “we’re on the same side in this. What did you guys do to get so much heat?”

“Short and vague answer: treason,” Selene silently cursed herself for sounding so much like her mentors.

“Treason?” Jael’s eyes bugged. “What did you guys do, exactly?”

“That is a bit more complicated,” Selene evaded. “And I really don’t think that Jared and Mara would like me talking about the particulars and we’d better not push it. It’s a borderline miracle that they’re helping us at all.”

“True point,” Jael agreed. “How did you get hooked up with a couple of icemen like them?”

“It’s a long story,” Selene laughed. “Short of it is, Jared rescued me from the Viceroy a month ago and then we picked up Mara a couple of weeks ago.”

“You guys make a strange group,” Jael shook her head. “I mean you are such a polar opposite to them. You’re kind, warm, and friendly. Them…” she trailed off, trying to find the right words. “Well, let’s just say I have ice cubes that are warmer than those two.”

“They can come off as a bit callous,” Selene admitted. “They’re not really that bad, though. They’ve had a hard life and had a lot of things go wrong for them over the years. But at the same time, they’ve saved my life more times than I can count already and there is no one, and I mean no one that I would rather have watching my back. They may be reluctant, but if they’re committed to helping you, you can rest easy. Jared and Mara will get the job done.”

“That’s a relief, I guess,” Jael shrugged.

Jared and Mara came back in a moment later, some blood splattered on their gauntlets. No one asked where they put the bodies.

“Either of you feeling up to helping us clean up?” Jared requested.

Selene tried to stand up, but still felt really weak. Jael, on the other hand, seemed to have fully recovered and helped straightening up chairs and tables.

“This blood is going to take forever to get out,” Jael muttered. “And what’s with this burn mark?” She was staring at the pile of ash and scorch mark etched into the floor.

“Uh, nothing,” Mara quickly answered. “Must’ve been a lamp that got knocked over in the fight.”

“Uh-huh,” Jael looked skeptical but dropped the subject.

“Where’s your husband?” Selene queried. “We should probably have him in these discussions. Is he around?”

Jael froze while Jared and Mara exchanged uncomfortable glances. The room suddenly got very awkward.

“What’d I say?” Selene felt her cheeks beginning to flush.

“She doesn’t have a husband,” Jared answered for Jael. “In fact, you never did,” he added.

“How…” Jael’s mouth was opened.

“You mean how do we know what you were, Chabathseleth?” Mara queried.

“The tattoo on your wrist is kind of a giveaway,” Jared explained for Jael’s benefit.

“What’s a Chabathseleth?” Selene queried, still quite lost.

“The word is from the High Tongue that means ‘rose’,” Jared responded, “It is also the name of an, uh, establishment in Jermelek. Jael was, how to say this, a bed maker there.”

“I still don’t get it,” Selene scratched her head.

“It means that I was whore,” Jael said bluntly. Looking at Jared, she told him, “I appreciate your sensitivity, but that is what I was. No point sugarcoating it.”

“You were a prostitute?” Selene was stunned. Jael seemed like such a noble woman and Selene could not imagine her allowing herself to be so degraded.

“Don’t look so surprised, honey,” Jael admonished. “Not all of us are blessed with a loving family or freedom to be whoever we want. Not if you want to survive.”

“I can’t imagine that anyone would have to—,” Selene paused for a moment, “to do that. You always have a choice.”

“Sure, you can choose to live a whore or die of starvation or murder,” Jael countered, “The world is very different than the little bubble you obviously grew up in. Jermelek is rough place to be if you’re not in the palace. Of course, these days it’s still rough even if you are in the palace. Speaking of Jermelek, I take it you two are from there?” The question was directed at Jared and Mara.

“Born and raised,” Jared answered for them. “Although it has been a long time since we’ve been back.”

“What made you leave?” Jael queried.

“Got on the wrong side of some court politics and decided that it would more beneficial to our health to leave,” Mara shrugged. It was near enough the truth anyway.

“Out of curiosity,” Jael questioned, “how exactly did you know my previous profession?”

“Your tattoo,” Jared responded, “The twisted rose stem is a symbol of the Chabathseleth Brothel and numbers are given to employees, especially to prostitutes.”

“Ah, but how did you know that?” Jael flashed him a wicked smile on her face, “You’re too young to have been one of mine…”

“You might be surprised,” Selene remarked innocently from her chair, drawing a stern look from Jared.

“When we were in Jermelek, we were members of the Palace Guard,” Jared answered casually. “Prostitutes were our best informants.”

“Really?” Selene was surprised, “You’d trust them?”

“Especially so,” Jared nodded. “In a way, prostitutes make the most trustworthy kind of people.”

“Prostitutes? Trustworthy?” Selene said those words like putting them together would make her head explode.

“Their business is predicated on everyone knowing exactly what they are,” Mara explained. “Since everyone looks down on them anyway, prostitutes don’t wear masks or put on airs. What you see is what you get, unlike other types of whores.” Mara looked pointedly at Jared who tensed. Selene wondered what that was about.

“And because everyone looks down on them, prostitutes have no loyalty,” Jared inserted. “Therefore, pay them something and they’ll tell you everything you need to know. In addition, for some reason men think that because a woman sleeps with them, they can tell the girls anything. As such, men tell prostitutes things they wouldn’t tell anyone else. Dumb, of course, but most criminals are.”

“All things told, hookers actually made the most reliable informants we ever had,” Mara summed up.

“And the easiest to work with,” Jared added. “Just pay them and they give you what need; no back alley meetings with panicky informants who backed out at the last minute and made ridiculous demands. And no double talk either.”

“So your interest was purely professional?” Jael raised her eyebrows at Jared. “I find that hard to believe.”

“Given your experience with men, I’m not surprised,” Jared retorted. “But believe it or not, there are many of us who treat women as people to be respected and loved, not toys to be played with. My dealings with prostitutes have only been in the context of investigation.”

“Ever tempted?” Jael queried.

“No,” Jared answered curtly.

“Right,” snorted Jael.

“Are you questioning my brother’s honor?” Mara challenged her voice ice cold and granite hard. “Considering that he is risking his life to save yours, I would be very careful with your words if I were you.”

“Sorry,” Jael apologized almost hearing the thin ice cracking from underneath her feet.

“Understand that my brother has only ever treated the women in his life with honor and respect, some far more than they deserved,” Mara continued. “As if he would have needed a brothel to get laid. I know of more than a few rather attractive young women that would’ve paid him to take him to bed.”

“Okay,” Jared interjected a slight blush tinting his voice. “I’m an honorable guy, we get the point. Now let’s get back to cleaning this mess up.”

“So, how did you get started as, uh, that?” Selene had a hard time saying “prostitute”.

“You mean how did I get started as a whore?” Jael got an affirmative nod. “I was sixteen. My dad was a drunk who beat me and my mother. One day, he accidentally killed my mother with a dish. That night, I ran from home and found refuge in the brothel. At first I got a job working as a maid, which was okay but it soon became apparent that it wasn’t enough to live on.

“I had seen what some of the other, older ‘maids’ were doing and it looked fun and lucrative. So I volunteered. Truth is, at first, it was fun; more of my clients than one might expect were actually pretty good. I guess it helped that I became very, very good at it. As time wore on and I got older, though, it became emptier and emptier. It was just take the money, get screwed, then dressed and leave. Rinse and repeat. There was no connection, no relationship. I became—how do I say it—well I guess less and less of a person,” Jael sighed, going over the memories. “But I didn’t know anything else. I had nowhere to go and it is very hard to get out, especially if you are really good. They don’t like losing their cash cows.”

“So what happened?” Selene was on the edge of her seat.

“I’d been doing it for about eleven years, or so, and then I got pregnant,” Jael answered with the hint of a smile.

“Do you know who the father is?” Jared asked.

“I have a list of about seven or eight candidates, though I don’t know a couple of their names,” Jael responded. “Truth be told, I don’t want to know and I don’t want Deborah mixed up with those men. Not fatherly figures, if you catch my drift. Besides, some of them would sooner kill us to hide their indiscretion than give her the father she needs.

“Anyway, I knew that I would probably be kicked to the street with nothing when they found out I was pregnant. I wanted to give my child the best life she could have, or at least a better one than I had. So I took a huge risk and ran away with all the money I could. That was when I found out that I was rather wealthy,” Jael gave a wicked smile, “I came here and bought the inn, had Deborah, and built up my business ever since. That was about six years ago.”

“How much does Deborah know of her origins?” Mara queried.

“Nothing,” Jael supplied. “She’s only six and wouldn’t understand. I will tell when she is older, but she’s too young. Deb does know that she doesn’t have a father and that’s not really normal. And she is curious, but understands that some things don’t make sense.”

“Don’t hide the truth from her for long,” Selene cautioned. “Trust me that nothing good can come from that.”

“The voice of experience?” Jael guessed.

“Let’s just say there are few things I wish my father had told me before he died,” Selene replied a bit enigmatically. It really galled her how much she was starting to sound like the twins.

“How did your trouble with the Bats start?” Mara changed the subject abruptly.

“If I had known what kind of town Beth Haven was like, I would never have come here,” Jael angrily stated. “I would’ve gone to Portsmouth or Endor instead or left the country altogether. But Beth Haven was small enough to not get noticed but large enough to get lost in so I thought that this would be the best place to hide in case anyone came looking for me.”

“The Bats,” Mara repeated.

“Right,” Jael started scrubbing out one of the bloodstains. “It started about a year after I came here; maybe about six months since Deborah was born. I had heard about them, of course; you can’t spend more than a couple days in Beth Haven and not hear about them, but they had left me alone for the most part.”

“Probably letting your business grow before they took you down to size,” Jared surmised. “It’s a common tactic among gangs and organized crime. They don’t want to waste resources on a company that is going to fail; failed companies won’t bring them any revenue. But they don’t want to let you get too big either. So they usually wait six months to a year to see if you’ll succeed or not before introducing themselves.”

“Makes sense,” Jael briefly reviewed the events of the past five and a half years. “I was cleaning up one morning when five big guys just walked into the tavern and demanded their payment. Of course I had no idea what they were talking about, but they told me that they had provided protection since I had gotten there and it was time to pay up. I refused, of course, and they warned me that was a bad idea.”

“They trash the place?” Mara guessed.

“Yeah,” Jael nodded. “That night they came back and ordered everyone to leave and then proceeded to break everything in the common room from the tables down to the last dish. But like an idiot, I stayed defiant.”

“What happened next?” Selene questioned.

Jael shuddered at the memory. “They kidnapped Deborah,” she gripped her sponge so hard it started to tear. Of all her memories, what happened over those days were the most terrifying, most gut-wrenching of her life.

“The Bats told me that if I didn’t pay for their protection, then they would kill her,” Jael’s voice was getting strained. “After replacing all the furniture and crockery, I didn’t have what they were demanding.”

“How did you get her back?” Selene wondered.

“I don’t know,” Jael sat back on her heals and looked at Selene. “I had given up hope when suddenly this strange man showed up on my door with Deb. He said that the Bats had been dealt with and gave me some money to help me stay on my feet.”

“Who was he?” asked Selene.

“I never knew,” Jael shrugged. “I’d never seen him before or since. I never got a name; I never even saw his face. He wore this big black cloak with a hood that overshadowed his face. I’ve always wondered who my mysterious savior was.”

“Indeed,” Mara gave her brother a long, hard look. “I wonder.”

Selene narrowed her eyes at the mercenary who was brushing up some broken cups. He had a heart after all.

“I take it you paid the Bats for their protection since,” Jared concluded, ignoring both women.

“I learned my lesson the first time,” Jael confirmed. “These guys are not to be messed with. That’s why I was so afraid when you killed those two men. It’s not that I’m that attached to my own life, but they targeted Deborah last time and I won’t do anything to risk her again.”

“Don’t worry,” Selene assured the innkeeper. “We won’t let anything happen to her, I promise.”

“That’s a big promise,” Jael wryly answered. “What is our next step?”

“Ours?” Jared started. “Let us handle this and you stay out of the way.”

“This is my inn,” Jael countered, “and my and my daughter’s lives in the balance here. I’ll trust you guys to take care of things, just keep me in the loop.”

“Very well,” Jared acquiesced with a shrug. “We’ll do so as much as we can.”

“The first step,” Mara bundled together to splintered pieces of a chair, “is to gather as much information as we can. Information after all is the key to success in any operation. What can you tell us about the Bats?”

“Not much past what I’ve already told you,” Jael sighed dejectedly. “They pretty much control the entire town, including the soldiers. At least when I went to them to help me get Deborah back, they just laughed at me.”

“Hmm,” Jared considered this. “Anything else? Prostitution?”

“Not in my inn,” Jael snapped viciously. “I won’t subject girls to that.”

“Fair enough,” Mara held out her hands plaintively. “What about the other inns in town?”

“I don’t know, at least not for sure,” Jael shook her head. “I do know that a couple of the inns do have girls for hire, but I don’t know if they are directly tied to the Bats or not.”

“That’s something to investigate,” Jared noted clinically. “What do the Bats do exactly here at the inn? Do they run it or work here?”

Jael considered that for a long moment. “No, for the most part they leave me alone,” she said. “In fact aside from weekly payments and free food and ale to a certain group of men, most of whom you killed, they don’t bother me at all.”

“Do they have a room here?” Mara continued the grilling.

“No, just some of their members get special treatment in the tavern,” Jael replied.

“What about other businesses in town? Do you know their situation?” Mara pressed.

“Not really,” the beleaguered innkeeper shook her head. “I know that most of the shops have the same issue, paying for protection. We don’t talk about it much; bad things tend to happen if we do.”

“What about structural organization?” Jared interrogated. “How big are they? Where are they headquartered? Who is their leader or leaders?”

“I don’t know,” Jael responded helplessly. “I’ve only met maybe ten of them. Usually it is the same group of five or six that comes by each week to pick up my payment and sometimes make a request. That’s it.”

“You’re telling me that a group of ten people have essentially held a city hostage?” Jared sounded dubious.

“No,” Jael furiously shook her raven head. “That’d be ridiculous. I’m just saying that I only deal with ten of them and never at the same time. I do know that a couple of other inns have different overseers.”

“So they’re broken down into smaller gangs?” Selene suggested.

“Probably,” Jared agreed. “But they must have some sort of centralized leadership otherwise this whole operation would fall into chaos. Who is their boss?”

“I have no idea,” Jael exhaled, resting herself against the bar.

“Fair enough,” Mara sat on a table looking pensive. “Let’s start small. Who are the leaders that you do know?”

“Well Gad seemed to be the leader of these guys,” Jael offered. “Too bad you killed him.”

“Wouldn’t matter,” Jared crossed his arms. “He was little more than an enforcer with no real power.”

“Then I have nothing for you,” Jael leaned her head back in frustration. “Sorry I can’t be more—what are you doing?”

Jared and Mara were staring at each other intently, occasionally making subtle gestures or head movements.

“Oh, they’re having one of their silent conversations,” Selene observed indifferently.

“Are they telepaths?” Jael wondered as she watched the twins mutely debate.

“No,” Selene shook her head. “It’s more of twin thing. They get like this either when they don’t want anyone else to know what they are saying or they are thinking too fast to bother with words.”

“Which is this time?” Jael asked.

“Probably a mixture of both,” Selene guessed. “But mostly the latter. It’s a little weird, but you get used to it after a while.”

They went on for another minute or so before coming out of their own little world.

“What’s the plan?” Selene inquired.

“Gather more intel,” Jared replied. “Not that yours wasn’t helpful; it told us quite a bit.”

“More specifically,” Mara picked up for her brother, “it told us the questions to ask. Now we need to find the answers to those questions.”

“What questions?” Jael asked.

“We need to know exactly how their organization is structured, especially the leadership,” Jared supplied. “We also need to know how far spread their gang actually is. What we’ll do is poke around the city and see what we can find. Selene will look in the shops, Mara will take the craftsman, and I’ll tackle the inns. After that, we’ll know enough to make a move on them.”

“And what am I supposed to do?” Jael pouted. “Stay here and knit?”

“That entirely depends on whether or not you like knitting,” Jared laconically retorted. “But essentially, yes. There is little good you can do right now and any overt move you make will just create more problems and we have plenty of those as it is.”

“Fine,” Jael assented. “When are you going to start?”

“Tomorrow,” Mara informed. “It’s getting too late in the day for us to do much now. Besides I think we’re all a little worn-out from the excitement,” she cast a quick glance over to Selene who had still not gotten up from her chair.

“You’ll have people coming in soon,” Jared stretched. “So we’d best make ourselves scarce. Until tomorrow then,” he bid the innkeeper goodnight.

“Until tomorrow.”