“Thank you,” Cyrus said, so softly and insecurely he hardly made any noise at all. The boy, a handsome fellow really, smiled and then hurried away. Cyrus watched him go, but it wasn’t long before his attention returned to his tankard. He stared at his rippling reflection in the beer. Distorted. Dark. Not worth believing what he saw. Just his tired, overworked imagination, that’s all. That’s what he told himself.

“Call me crazy, but he ain’t a man!” the boisterous Justin bellowed. “Men don’t move like that. They don’t go from shadow to shadow, and it ain’t no ordinary man that can best a paragon.”

“Not living ones anyway,” his friend added, and they both shared a laugh.

“So you’re saying a dead man killed the Imperator and all his soldiers?” the bucktoothed woman with them asked.

“Dead? Alive? What’s it matter? The Vagrant ain’t neither.” The braggart’s tone lowered, and it seemed he realized everyone else in the tavern was listening. The attention made him stand up taller, and he met the eye of any willing man or woman.

“The Vagrant is something else. Something we all need. He is Thanet’s own heart and soul. There’s a reason he’s black as night, and his face is a skull grinning at those damn imperials. He’s the killer come to drag their souls to the Heldeep. He’s the death they deserve. And to that, all I have to say is, a good and rowdy amen!”

Drinks were lifted throughout the tavern as the crowd cheered. Justin led the cheer.

“To our god and goddess!”

Even now they were fearful to say Lycaena’s and Endarius’s names aloud, for the damage the church had inflicted ran deep. The rest of the tavern echoed him, eager to celebrate. Every man and woman there but Cyrus, who stared at his reflection.

He wore no mask. The reflection did.

“To the Vagrant!”

The mocking smile stretched all the way to his ears.

“To a free Thanet!”

Cyrus slowly, fearfully pressed his fingertips to his cheek, feeling for soft skin.

Felt hard bone, and grinning teeth.

The story continues in…

BOOK TWO OF THE VAGRANT GODS

Coming in 2023!

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR