Shadowdance 01 - A Dance of Cloaks

liked. It helped with the survival rate.
    “Enough,” Veliana shouted. “Why are your men pushing into our territory? You know damn well everything south of Iron Road is ours, yet for the past week I keep finding your bird’s eye scrawled over our territory markings.”
    “You know the manner of guilds,” Kadish said, waving a dismissive hand. “The strong take from the weak. If you are so worried about lost homes and bazaars, then do your job. Defend them. Not here,” he added when he saw her reach for her daggers.
    “But you’re not stronger,” Veliana said. “If war breaks out between us, we will bury you in days. Pull back, now, or you’ll suffer our wrath, you spineless little shit.”
    If Veliana expected the insult to rankle him, she was wrong. Kadish let out a laugh, feeling amused all the way down to his leather boots.
    “Do you really think me so blind?” he asked. “Yes, open warfare between our guilds would devastate us. James is so good at recruiting, after all. I mean, he got you, didn’t he? Perhaps even into his bed. But it’s time you, and all of your pathetic Ash Guild, realized what world we live in. Instead of you making threats and demands, how about I ask some questions, and you give me some answers? Just a yes or no will do. The Serpents, have they also taken some of your territory? And everything along the eastern wall, does the symbol of the Wolf begin to cover your Ash?”
    “It’s all just a farce,” Veliana said, her voice calming. A deadly seriousness had replaced her anger. “Take our territory, all of you, it doesn’t matter. Soon all symbols will be the Spider. You know that, don’t you?”
    “You know nothing,” Kadish said, scratching the skin below his eye patch. “And you can’t see the future. I, however, am smart enough to view the present. As long as you hold out on Thren and his Spider Guild, you are lost. We’ve accepted his plan, and will move the moment the Kensgold arrives.”
    Veliana could have screamed. The Kensgold was a gathering held every two to four years by the Trifect, a massive collection of merchants, servants, family members, and every lowborn fool with a scrap of coin wanting to partake in the egotistical showing of power and influence. There was food, ale, and enough mercenaries to overthrow a kingdom.
    “We can’t attack during their Kensgold!” Veliana insisted. “How can all of you not see that? We’re not an army, no matter how much Thren wants to pretend otherwise.”
    “And you’re not in a position to lecture anyone,” Kadish said. “If you’re not with us, well, then you’re just a corpse waiting to be picked clean. We’ll take your members, your streets, and if we must, your lives. We all want this war to end. Tell James we will not suffer him and his guild to keep us from that finality. Tell him if he wants to have a guild at the end of the month, pledge his men to Thren Felhorn.”
    “You know,” said one of the men beside Kadish, an ugly brute with scarred lips and a missing ear, “perhaps James might be more willing if we had his pretty lady here for ransom.”
    This time Veliana did draw her daggers, but Kadish stood and glared at his men.
    “This meeting is done,” he said to them. “We will not debase ourselves with such talk. The Ash Guild will see wisdom, I am sure of it. Good day, Veliana.”
    The woman spun and left, slamming the door behind her. When she was gone, Kadish rubbed his chin as his underlings snickered and made lewd comments. His mind raced through possibilities. If Veliana was so worked up that she’d storm into one of his own taverns to make empty threats, then panic was spreading through the upper ranks of the Ash Guild, if not to James himself.
    “They’re vulnerable,” he said. “Rasta, take a few of your boys and have them scour the Ash Guild’s streets. Find out just how badly they’ve been pressed, and which guilds are taking what.”
    “Planning something big?” the earless man asked.
    “Keep your mouths shut for now,” Kadish said. “But if James has lost more than we anticipated, perhaps it would be better to remove them entirely instead of waiting for them to finally bend the knee to Thren. Keep your numbers small, and move quickly. Even beaten and outnumbered, James is a dangerous foe. If we’re to gamble with our lives, I prefer the odds stacked firmly in our favor.”
    Rasta stood and left while the earless brute recovered the dice from the floor, shook