William – Will – Lawson doubted there was a kinder, nobler or more loyal friend then he in all of Avalon, after all what other man would follow their friend to Shade-Beach (a place that had caverns and caves with names like The Dread Caves, The Desolate Caverns, and of course The Depraved Hallow), a town known for homing the mercenaries, thieves, prostitutes, and other common criminals in Avalon, looking for a well-known mercenary leader with the lovely nickname of Blade to hire said mercenary and their merry-band of hired killers to find said friend's sister?

Or perhaps he was just insane, after all what sane man walked into the bellow of the beast willingly? Of course he wasn't walking, he was riding his horse at a fast trot. He wasn't really going to be facing any beasts (he hoped dearly) and was just going to hire a few nice mercenaries to find Benji's sister. It wasn't like Benji was thinking of going with the pack of rough killers, right?

Oh his father will cane him badly when he finally returned home. Lawsons didn't go galloping off without a word nor a warning. They also didn't go to Shade-Beach (nicknamed Lawless Cove, Bloodshed Coast and likewise lovely names) as they were good honest law-abiding advisors of the law. They often placed such people he was about to meet behind bars or doing hard labour when the town's guards arrested them. They certainly didn't go and hire them!

Panic seized his chest as he pulled his horse to a stop, the caramel brown mare didn't protest as she had gotten used to stopping for Will's sudden panics. He was sure that his knuckles were bone white under his ridding-gloves as he held the reins tightly to stop said hands shaking.

He hunched over in his saddle, his round specs slipping down his long nose as his brown eyes squeezed closed.

Oh he was a mad idiot! Walking to his death! All out of loyalty to his friend! What a loyal fool he was!

"Already there Will?" Benji's voice was annoyingly easy-going and casual with only the slightly hint of concern as he asked his question.

Brown eyes glared out of curled strands of equally brown hair at the blond sitting on the black stallion just a bit in front of him.

"Just fine." Will bit out between panicked wheezes.

Sometimes Will wondered why Benji had become his friend when they were young boys—because it was Benji who had decided that Will was going to be his friend. Will had always been weedy in appearance, and he would freely admit to having common features with curly brown hair and brown eyes—often fearful of leaving the relative safety of White-Bridge. Benji had been vastly different, tall and broad with his blond hair and his stormy blue eyes, he had often heard the local girls' whisper how he was like a prince out of the fairy-tales and how they wouldn't mind if he asked to court them despite him being a simple Blacksmith's son, and he had always been brave—longing to see the rest of the world and fight any beast he came across.

But Benji had chosen Will as his friend, often badgered him to explore the rest of White-Bridge, goading him into sword fights with real—though blunt—swords, pulling him away from his books that his father made him study and all other things. Nancy, Benji's sister, had often had to rein in her dauntless and adventurous brother for going too far for Will's comfort and emotional stability.

Nancy, sweet, kind and caring Nancy, who had been taken forcefully from her home by bandits or mercenaries. Nancy, who the town's guards refused to go and save her. Nancy with her beautiful golden blonde hair and her kind sky blue eyes.

"This is the tenth time you've panicked and we haven't moved off the road once." Benji observed dryly. "How are you going to cope with the rest of the journey?"

"What rest of the journey?!" Will squawked, his eyes wide and his specs almost falling off the end of his nose. "There is a perfectly fine road paved to Shade-Beach, there is no reason for us to move of said road and be more at risk of bandits and other such horrors."

There was a bit of bemusement to Benji's stormy eyes as he stared at Will.

"I doubt the mercenaries travel by road." Benji said in a way that made it plain he thought Will was being a bit dim. "After all guards regularly patrol the roads, looking for outlaws and such."

Will felt the blood leave his face as he stared at his friend in horror, by the concerned look that marred Benji's tanned face Will's already pale face had turned a sickly pale colour that only corpses were thought capable of. The shade it had often taken before he fainted in the past.

"Will?" The great blond brute had the nerve to look concerned after dropping that on him.

"We're going to be killed in our sleep." Will breathed out which seemed to make Benji relax and roll his eyes.

"Come on." He tapped his horse's side with the heels of his weathered boots. "I doubt you want to enter Shade-Beach after the sunset."

Will grumbled as he followed after Benji.

He knew Benjamin Smith would be the death of him. And if he didn't, his father would if he returned alive.

 

 

 

The Bard, who Benji had gotten the information of Blade from, neglected to inform him that there was many taverns in Shade-Beach that Blade and his guild could be staying in. Though considering the reputation of Shade-Beach, Will wasn't that surprised of the number of taverns.

It took Benji stopping a young woman, the loose laces of her dress and heavy make-up told the tale of her employment and had a 'S' branded on her cheek that told of her once run-away slave status, to get the information required.

The tavern that Blade and his guild spent their time in was The Brass Sword. It looked as grim as the other taverns they passed from the outside. The stained glass windows were rather grimy and its sign was lopsided, the slates of the roof were sat a bit crooked and the door was worn and old and made of dark wood.

All in all, it wasn't a place that Will ever thought he was going to step foot in.

Benji had grabbed a passing boy as Will tied the horses to the rail outside the tavern. The blond pressed a few coins into his dirty small hand and promising more if he made sure no-one touched or tried to steal their horses without the boy kicking up a loud fuss.

The boy grinned, pulling down his worn brown cap as he stuffed the coins in his pockets, and agreed.

Will could see that Benji already had figured out how Shade-Beach worked. Will would have likely have not thought about leaving the horses alone, too used to the safety of White-Bridge, while Benji had already thought to hire someone to watch them.

He also knew out of the two of him, it was Will that easily stuck out as being an outsider. Benji's clothes were old, worn and had been visibly mended a few times while Will's were only dirty because of the long travel and was obviously a good quality. Benji could have easily fit in on his own but with Will with him, eyes were drawn to the young man who obviously came from a well-off family and the young blond man with him.

He felt some guilt that with him coming along with Benji had brought such attention to him in a town that one shouldn't bring unwanted attention to oneself. But when Benji turned to him with a warm smile, he couldn't help the ball of guilt loosing at the sight.

Yes Will was afraid and had never wanted to be anywhere near Shade-Beach, yes Will was bringing unwanted attention to them. But he didn't regret coming with his friend, even if they were most likely to be killed in their sleep.

Benji led the way into the tavern which was only lit by muted candle light, its insides were as worn as its outside. With a worn dark wood bar, tables/chairs/and stools made out the same wood and to the far left and against the wall was a set of rickety wooden worn stairs.

It was quite crowded. All the worn, dark and wooden tables were had at least two people sat around them, hands gripping flagons filled with ale. It was mostly men though some woman sat around though most of the women were obviously prostitutes.

They sat perched on the knees of the men, running their hands through their hair with flirty smiles on their painted lips while the men drank, laughed and gambled without a care.

One woman, who obviously wasn't a prostitute, was the only person that sat on her own. A hat perched on her dark hair, she wore a long leather coat with thick and worn breeches tucked into leather heeled boots and a thick old dark shirt with a leather vest over it. Her callused hands were wrapped around her own flagon, two wolf hounds laid by her feet.

She both ignored and was ignored by the rest of the people in the tavern, and was sat almost right next to the fire.

Will looked around the room again, no one really screamed out to him as being blade though Benji seemed confident when he strode towards the bar, Will quick on his heels.

The barkeep was cleaning one the flagons with a rag as they approached, sharing a few words with the board man that sat in front of him though he looked at them with beady dark eyes when he caught sight of him, the board man didn't turn.

Benji came to a stop a few feet from the bar and pitched his voice to be heard over the chatter.

"I'm looking for Blade."

The sudden silence that took over everyone allowed Will to hear the cracking of the fire without a problem. Almost every gaze had turned to them, the punters' faces were carefully blank as they stared at the two young men.

The stool groaned as the board man turned to face them. His dark hair was threaded with grey, his beard was large, rough and grey streaked, his clothes dark, worn and thick. His right ear had been cut off showing that he had been caught stealing once. His eyes were dark and accessing as he gazed at them.

"Why?" He asked with a deep rumble.

"I want to hire him to find my sister." For some reason Benji's words caused some to laugh though they quickly became silent under the dark glare of the man.

"Can you pay?" The man asked, his worn face became thoughtful as he scanned both of the younger men in front of him.

"Of course." Benji sounded almost insulted to Will's ears, making him close his eyes with a resigned sigh. "I won't have come all this way if I couldn't pay you."

The man let out a deep bark of laughter.

"I'm not Blade," He informed them, "they call me Hammer."

"I wonder why." Will had no idea why those words passed his lips and regretting them dearly when Hammer's dark gaze landed where he had attempted to stay hidden in Benji's stocky shadow.

It was a pitiable attempt he knew as he was taller than Benji by almost a foot. Sometimes Will hated that he was taller than Benji when they were younger it always looked like Benji would be the taller of the two. Will disliked his height, he was abnormally tall next to his petite mother and slight father.

Hammer let out a large grin, showing off some of his missing teeth and the blackened sight of the ones he had left.

"I like you." Hammer informed him almost joyful making Will want to whimper ever so slightly.

"If you're not Blade," Benji cut in, his voice annoyed and his fair eyebrows frowned, "then who here is?"

The was a sudden dull screech as a chair was pushed back that draw Will's and Benji's gaze to the lone woman sitting alone with her hounds, she had pushed one of the chairs out and kicked one leg out on it.

She rolled her head back so she could peer at them with bright eyes, not caring that her hat fell from her head. She had a nasty, but healed scar that cupped the right of her face, and she had to be around the same age as them. Nineteen, perhaps twenty but surely not younger than eighteen.

"I'm Blade." Her voice was the slightest bit husky. "Want to hire me?"

There was a mocking undertone to her question, a dare.

And Will wanted to groan because Benji had never walked away from a dare.

 

 

Sitting across from the woman—who claimed to be Blade—didn't relax Will's nerves. In theory, she should be weaker than Will as women are normally weaker than men, but that was theory. The fact was Blade was a mercenary and Will was the son of a lawyer. It was obvious which one was stronger, though he felt calmer with Benji sat next to him.

Benji had been working in the forge since he was young, carrying buckets of coal and ore, bashing blades till they were perfectly straight and other things. That was only when Benji worked, when he hadn't been working he had been play fighting with blunt swords, climbing trees, fighting with street urchins and had many times had to carry Will home after dragging him through White-Bridge till Will thought he was going to drop.

Benji was strong, his arms were muscular and he knew how to fight and he knew that Benji would protect him—he just wished it wouldn't come to that.

"You're Blade?" Benji questioned, his tone obviously doubtful which made Blade give him a sharp grin, her bright hazel eyes had an amused glint to them.

"That I am." Blade confirmed, one long-fingered hand reaching down to scratch the head of one of her hounds. "Most assume I'm a bloke too when they come looking for me."

Will tried to subtly kick Benji before he said anything else that could be insulting to the mercenary, so of course Benji jerked with a curse and Blade gave Will an amused look.

"I can see why Hammer likes you." She mused as she eyed the shiny buttons on his coat with just a hint of distain and more calculation. "With such a timid air around you it's amusing to find you have a bit of fire as well. That and you're intelligences will most like keep you and Blondie alive."

"B-Blondie?!" Benji spluttered with irritation making Blade grin at him, looking pleased with herself.

"As you no doubt remember," Will cut in before Benji could say anything, making said blond glare at him moodily, "we are here to hire you to find Benjamin's sister, Nancy."

"Why do you want me to find her?" she asked with slight interest.

"She was taken." Will decided to be short and blunt, Benji still got worked up with anger that his sister had been taken when he hadn't been there to protect her and none of the guards would look for her.

"By whom?" she questioned with more interest than before, even sitting a bit forward in her chair and her hound whimpered and butted her hand when she stopped scratching him which she quickly continued.

"We don't know." Benji admitted making Blade grunt dissatisfied. "But I have drawn a picture of the man some of the women in the nearby houses saw."

Will carefully controlled his face as Benji pulled a battered bit of parchment and smoothed it flat on the table, smudging the charcoal drawing with his thick callused fingers. Blade peered down at it with a hint of bemusement colouring her tanned face as both eyebrows raised, she looked up and shot a look fill with a silent question at Will, obviously questioning if Benji was serious with his drawing, and with a sigh Will nodded shortly.

"You can't draw for shit." She bluntly stated, pushing the parchment back to Benji making him glare.

Will knew that wasn't true, Benji could draw many swords, axes, hammers, cross-bows, guns and even armour. It was just when it came to people, Benji couldn't draw them at all.

"I also decided to draw a picture." Will decided to cut in before Benji could defend his drawing, Blade didn't look impressed until she saw Will's charcoal drawing.

It was a bit rough, he had been working on conflicting statements of what happened but used features that all the women agreed on. But it could be used to recognise the man.

The man had dark short hair, it was cropped as close to the skull as possible, with a crooked nose and dark narrowed eyes. A scar curved around the left side of his face and a 'T' was carved into his cheek.

And it seemed that Blade recognised him as she swore softly.

"Oi, Venom!" Blade called startling both men sitting in front of her.

The person who answered the call was also a woman. She was tall (taller than Will himself), slender and had skin that reminded Will of the expensive dark chocolate that some merchants' tried to sell on White-Bridge's market bridge, and her limbs were all long, lean and toned. Her hair was so pale it looked white and was held back out of her face with mini-braids held back by a low-ponytail.

Her skirt seemed to be made of strips of different leather that brushed the floor, she wore a leather vest that hugged close to her lean, toned and flat torso, and long leather braces were tied close to her forearms.

There was a tattoo of a snake wrapping around her left bicep and a scorpion on her right. Pink scars were scattered across her arms and torso, and a large 'S' had been branded on the right side of her face.

She walked with easy grace to Blade, resting one long-fingered dark hand on the back of her chair as she tilted forwarded slightly.

"Yes Blade?" She quested, a strange accent that underlined her words and her dark eyes took in the men with a look Will recognised—he had seen it often on his mother's face when she considered how to kill some particular annoying rats.

"Looks like Trader is up to his old tricks." Blade informed her as she still studied Will's drawing.

Venom's face contorted briefly in hatred before unholy glee lit up her dark eyes as she traced the image on the table with her eyes.

"Looks like he needs another reminder that humans aren't for sell." Venom purred darkly as she reached out to touch the picture with one finger that was covered with a silver claw.

"He's going to sell her?" Benji burst out with horror, with Will understanding completely.

If this man that took Nancy—Trader—was going to sell her, how were they going to find her if they didn't get to them before she was sold? She would be gone forever and they wouldn't never know of her fate. Avalon was a big country, they didn't know where to start and that was why they went to Blade.

"Yes," Venom informed them with little inflection in her voice, "that's what he does. He takes people, mostly women and children, and he sells them to the highest bidder on the black market."

"Can we get her back?" Benji asked Blade, ignoring Venom as he did.

Blade looked up at them, sympathy briefly warming her eyes as she took in their pale horrified faces, before she nodded shortly.

"Yes." She stared straight into Benji's stormy eyes. "We can save her."

 

 

 

 

"You're giving them false hope Blade." Trick muttered to her as he took a seat beside her. "It's not nice to trick people."

Trick had chosen his moment well, Hammer and Boulder had gone to help get Benjamin and William's things from the horses and store them with their horses in the stable around the back, and the others had mostly gone back to what they had been doing before—expect from Venom.

She had sat down next to Shade and Whisper, one of her poisonous snake curled around her arms as she cooed to it. Whisper ignored the tall woman as he read the bible—despite everything Whisper was still a man of God – while Shade smiled, a sharp white smile that contrasted against his dark skin, with amusement fondness at Venom.

"You know all about tricking people, don't'cha Trick?" She threw back at him, looking at him.

She was almost startled about how serious his murky green eyes were. His eyes had always reminded her of the waters in the Marshlands.

"This isn't some other simple or stupid job on the request of some rich bastard." Trick said, his voice serious. "This is the man's sister, his family."

"I know." She replied simply.

But how could she look Benjamin Smith in the eyes and tell him she wasn't sure if they could find his sister? That if they didn't get the correct information then Nancy Smith could most likely never be found.

Trader was good at what he did, he had a lot of clients and not all of them lived in Avalon.

It would be difficult finding the auction place Trader would use. They didn't know how many other woman Trader had taken or if he was still collecting his wares.

If they missed the auction then they would have to get the information of the bidder, who bought her, from Trader.

Venom would gladly do whatever it took to make Trader squeal.

Then they would track down that person to try to find Nancy, though there was no certainty the bidder will still have her. They could have already sold her off to someone else.

And if they did find her, they didn't know what state she would be in by then.

"We'll find her."

"You better hope so," Trick began, "because I know I would be enraged if someone I hired to help find my sister didn't. Benjamin could do something really reckless and take his timid friend along for the ride."

Normally Blade didn't like clients coming on the job but she had seen the determined light in both of the eyes. They would follow them anyway if she said they couldn't come with.

She looked at Trick but he was looking to the door as William and Benjamin walked through followed by Boulder and Hammer.

She watched as Boulder grunted something at Hammer before he moved back to the bar while Hammer led them up the stairs to a free room for the night.

Before anymore words could be said between them, Trick moved fluidly to his feet, Blade watched as his tall wiry frame moved through the room before taking a seat next to Swift, the young woman beaming at him in greeting, before she turned her attention back to beating toothless Cook in poker.

She did hope that they found Nancy Smith, because she had seen what rage and grief did to people and she didn't want Benjamin Smith to drag William down whatever dark path he'd take if they never found his sister or if they found her dead.