The woman nonchalantly leaned against the wall with a shrug, although Rezkin thought she looked a little weak in the knees and probably needed the support. With a lift of a brow, she said, “Well, I’m not going to argue with him, but please feel free to do so. I’m sure he’ll make his point the same way he did with the others.”

“He can’t take on all of us—” Shifty was saying when his words were abruptly cut off due to the small matter of the dagger lodged into his brain through his eye socket.

The men startled, and several even jumped back a step. No one had seen the killer move, and the strange man still stood exactly as he had moments before, the only evidence of movement being the slight sway of his worn brown cloak.

“Does anyone else care to protest the matter?” Rezkin asked. By now a few more men had shoved their way into the room to investigate the commotion. The angry shouts and sounds of dying men and falling bodies had not been difficult to interpret. Several of the men were muttering quietly and making all-too-obvious hand motions in a very poorly disguised attempt to plot some plan of attack. Rezkin could not believe these men were supposed to be the experienced elite of the Diamond Claw Guild.

“Okay, let us do things a little differently,” Rezkin said. “Anyone who opposes me will die. That being said, all who wish to live and are willing to serve me, stand to this side of the room,” he instructed as he motioned to his left. “All who think they have the Skills to defeat me, stay where you are.”

Some of the men glanced around anxiously while several others drew weapons or crossed their arms in defiance, rooting their feet to the ground. Attica had played witness to the intruder’s defeat of a number of men at this point and weighed the odds carefully. She moved several paces to her right and stood as the lone supporter of the interloper. She turned and faced the small mob of thieves with a knowing smirk. One of the larger men, who was bald with deep-set eyes, scratched at the stubble on his chin thoughtfully.

“You stand with him, Attica?” he asked.

Attica huffed and said, “If you’re smart, then you will, too.” Baldy nodded and took a few loping steps to stand beside Attica and then turned to face the other guild members. A younger man of maybe sixteen years scurried over and stood slightly behind the bigger man.

A blonde man with blue eyes and a bushy mustache eloquently expressed his disbelief. “What in the bloody, blazing hells are you doin’, Rom? You don’t even know this guttersucking prick. He just came in ’ere and bloody well killed Martius, Tyre, Barclay, and Meso …”