Book One – Chapter 17

Was it because they had found no reason to kill him yet? Or because there was some reason not to?

It would be so easy to get rid of him, would it not? One slip on the trail, one fall from a lookout post. A witch could take him in the night. Or an ork. Or any other snow beast. No one would question it up here. Deaths happened all the time on these mountains. That was why guards existed in the first place.

Maybe that was their plan for the days ahead. Maybe for when all of the real travellers had moved on, or been made to leave, and there were no more witnesses. Maybe they were just waiting to confirm what Yu already knew well for himself: that he had no magical ability, nothing useful or dangerous to them.

Or maybe they already knew how useless he was and had decided to keep him anyway.

Reasons for that one came much too quickly.

For one, because killing everyone would raise suspicions eventually. Tria’s suspicions, for example. They could think that she expected some sort of letter or report from him. She did not, but a normal shirka would. The raiders did not know how little she cared for Yu.

Second, because he was weak and stupid enough to do their menial work, all the dirty shit jobs. Cleaning, carrying, fetching.

Also, because they could use him as a front while they went about whatever they had. Regardless of his lack of skills and strength, Yu was one legitimate guild guard with perfectly legitimate papers to prove it.

Maybe it was all of these reasons.

Yu could only guess.

What else could he do?

What was the best thing for him to do now?

Keep his beak shut. Do his job. Pretend he very much liked being here. Pretend he was too stupid to notice anything odd.

Yes.

That was it.

That was the only way.

He needed to wait. Wait until there was a safe, unsuspicious way off this mountain. Maybe there would be a legitimate opportunity to quit. For that, he had to be prepared; packed, fed, alert. Until then, he better did what the raiders wanted of him, and find just the right measure of loyal and stupid to keep them satisfied.

Yu’s eyes shifted toward the common room door. He was sharply aware of how far the scale had already tipped toward the outer edge of outrageously incompetent. If he wanted to survive, he would have to drag it back — back toward dependable. Back toward likeable.