Chapter 115 - A Contract For The Bloodfang Wolves

Chapter 115: 115 - A Contract For The Bloodfang Wolves

By the time Adrien returned to the largest tent, evening had settled over the camp. Lamps burned between the rows of canvas, and the smell of cooking drifted through the clearing.

Marcus was already inside when Adrien entered with Vikir. Kael had come back as well and stood off to one side, while Marcus looked no calmer than he had that afternoon. Adrien stayed on his feet across from them.

"You wanted to speak again," Marcus said.

"I did."

"I came here to stop the attacks on Clairmont roads. That hasn’t changed. But I’m willing to give you another option before I decide how this ends."

Marcus folded his arms and waited, his face offering Adrien nothing.

"What option?"

"Work for me."

Genuine surprise crossed Marcus’s face for the first time, and Adrien kept going before he could interrupt.

"House Clairmont has expanded faster than its forces have. We have roads to protect, towns to patrol and more land than Greymoor’s soldiers can cover properly."

"Your company knows this region, and you’ve spent years doing exactly the work I need done."

Kael’s attention sharpened at the offer, though he held his tongue and only flicked a glance toward Marcus, whose expression had already begun to close again.

"I’m offering the Bloodfang Wolves a contract with House Clairmont. Stable pay in Crowns, food while you’re working under us, accommodation whenever you’re stationed in Clairmont territory and written terms for every assignment."

"You keep the company together. I don’t need to scatter your people across different units. You continue operating under your own name and internal structure."

"And the catch?"

"You answer to House Clairmont."

Marcus pushed a short breath through his nose, and his opinion needed no words. "Knew that was coming."

"What did you expect? I’m not paying more than a hundred armed people so they can do whatever they want."

Adrien held his voice level while Marcus went on watching him, neither of them softened since their first conversation.

"You’d receive assignments from me, Garrick or whoever I authorize. You’d be paid for the work agreed upon, and while under Clairmont contract, you follow Clairmont law. No attacking merchants. No taking property because you want it."

Marcus checked Kael before returning to Adrien, and Kael said nothing at all.

"And what exactly are you offering per man?"

Adrien named an amount drawn from the contracts Vikir had brought out of Arquenay, slightly better than Gaspard’s standard rate and enough to steady the company. Kael turned to Marcus at once, waiting, though Marcus scarcely moved.

"Not enough."

Adrien had expected haggling, and the speed of the refusal told him this was something else.

"It’s more than Arquenay paid for several of your old contracts."

"Arquenay paid bonuses."

"For dangerous assignments."

"They paid when they wanted something done."

"So will I."

Marcus shook his head before answering, his voice harder now. "You don’t understand how this works."

"I’ve spent the afternoon looking at patched tents, repaired armour and people worried they’re going to prison because of decisions they didn’t make. I think I understand your position fairly well."

Those words landed harder than anything else Adrien had said. Kael turned away from Marcus, and outside the tent several mercenaries had drifted close enough that Adrien could hear them through the canvas. Marcus caught the sound as well, and after a moment he gestured toward the entrance.

"If you have something to offer my company, say it to them."

Adrien weighed him briefly before starting for the entrance. "Fine."

The centre of the camp filled within minutes. Once the nearest conversations died, Adrien repeated the offer: stable Crowns, food, accommodation and clear contracts. The Bloodfang Wolves would stay together, though they would work under House Clairmont and answer to its authority.

The response came at once. Men who had eyed Adrien with suspicion that morning began glancing at one another, while others fixed on Marcus and waited. After more than two months without steady work, the offer solved nearly every problem Kael had walked him past.

Marcus stepped forward before anyone else could speak, refusal already plain on his face. "We’re not taking it."

The low voices stopped, and Kael rounded on him. "Marcus."

"I said no."

Adrien held his gaze without moving, and Marcus gave no hint of reconsidering.

"That’s your decision?"

"Yes."

"Without asking them?"

"They’re my company."

That answer shifted something in the faces around them. Several mercenaries traded glances before Marcus continued.

"You think a regular salary makes this some generous rescue? We can make more than that ourselves."

"By robbing my people."

"By doing what we need to do."

"No. You already passed that point."

Marcus’s jaw tightened, and Adrien finally grasped why the offer had never stood a chance with him. Stability was no longer what Marcus wanted. A contract meant limits, orders and somebody above him deciding what he could take, and above all it meant answering to Adrien.

"You don’t want employment," Adrien said. "You want the freedom to take whatever earns you more."

Marcus stepped closer, though Adrien did not move, neither of them willing to give ground.

"And I don’t need a boy telling me how to run the company I built."

Neither of them looked away. The camp watched in silence, yet nothing more could be settled that night. Marcus had refused the offer, every man there had heard exactly what Clairmont was willing to give, and Adrien had no intention of begging him to take it.

"Then think carefully about what happens next."

Adrien turned away, and Vikir followed him toward the horses. Before they reached the gate, Kael caught up and halted behind them.

"My lord."

Adrien faced him, and Kael looked more troubled than he had that afternoon.

"Thank you for making the offer."

"It wasn’t charity. I need good people, and your company needs work."

"I know."

Adrien took the reins from the mercenary waiting beside the horses and looked back toward the camp once. "The offer stands for now, Kael. But the attacks stop."

Kael nodded slowly, without arguing. "I understand."

Adrien mounted while Vikir did the same beside him. Night had settled over the road beyond the camp, and Greymoor lay hours away.

"Goodnight, Kael."

"Goodnight, my lord."

Adrien rode out with Vikir at his side, leaving the Bloodfang Wolves beneath the trees. The offer had been refused, though judging by the faces around that clearing, Marcus was far from the only man who had decided something that evening.