Den of Smoke: Absolutely gripping fantasy page turner filled with magic and betrayal

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First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2018

Copyright © Christopher Byford 2018

Christopher Byford asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

E-book Edition © July 2018 ISBN: 9780008257507

Version: 2018-06-20

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Also by Christopher Byford

About the Publisher

This is for nobody but you.

Chapter One

Lies and money

Few things mattered in the Sand Sea. The constant struggle to live was a full-time pursuit, with very little consideration of others.

Esquelle, on the edge of the Sand Sea, was an expanding town. The shanties that had sprung up over the course of the years on the town’s outskirts were gradually being torn down and replaced with brick structures. Those who had no money to put towards the new, outrageous sums of rent had two choices: bury themselves in debt or live on the streets. For the most part, the shantytown dwellers relocated elsewhere but the ones who remained were shunned by the comfortable and fortunate.

It was no surprise that pockets of criminality sprung up, with some people thieving for the means to live, while others managed to line their pockets with coin to handle these affairs. The law was slowly cracking down on these operations, sending parentless children to mills or workhouses should they be involved, forcing the desperate to become increasingly so.

Nestled throughout the old town, where the sandstone streets twisted into cobweb paths, street restaurants and gaming houses were hidden behind inconspicuous back doors, revealed by pitted tin signs. They all saw service, where the alcohol was cheap and of poor quality, and the games varied in risk. Some gambled in favours, others in food. It was only the downright foolish who flouted the fact they had money to gamble on hand and risked a knife in the dark.

It would have been the same for Jackdaw if he weren’t so respected in the Cutter’s Inn.

Everyone who frequented Cutter’s knew who Jackdaw was. Anybody who was anybody knew of Jackdaw. A young street boy raised on a diet of crime born from desperation, he had gathered some like-minded individuals to follow his lead. Come his mid-twenties, Jackdaw formed a gang that found no job too small, no pay too big and as long as it kept them in the dark, they were willing to perform.

It was easy to dismiss him as another chancing crook, whose ego ensured risks, but this was far from the truth. Jackdaw had witnessed what became of the egotistical. It was never pretty. As such, Jackdaw ensured that he operated with respect to the others around him but with enough bite to show those who tested him that it would not stand. Of course there were some who failed to accept this, seeing his stature as one to topple for their own personal gains. Warnings against this went unheeded by the foolhardy and when persistence went ignored, Jackdaw had no choice but to turn to more permanent solutions.

Jackdaw wasn’t a fighter, though he could tangle with the best of them. His upbringing had been rough, the product of a drunken stepdad and grudges, so his fists were well versed in use. He wasn’t a straight-up murderer but if the situation called for it, he could pull a trigger and had done so plenty of times. He would do what was required to suit the situation. He wasn’t ashamed of this. It was, in a word, accepted.

The product of all this was a man who few now tangled with. Word was that he was working for someone, someone much higher up, and crossing him ensured that ravens would be picking at your bones long before your time was up.

Jackdaw leant back in his chair, black leather boots hoisted onto a round oak table, with a roll-up puffing from between his lips. It was moved aside for a draw of brandy, brandy that Cutter’s Inn put aside for special clientele – people like him. For Jackdaw had no qualms spending his money in these joints and if he lost it to the house, so be it. As long as he wasn’t cheated a fair game was a good time, provided the liquor kept flowing and the food was ample. As was the case here.

Jackdaw dropped his feet to the floor and checked the small wooden cup before him. He covered its exposure with a curved palm, counting the six dice faces before him.

‘Three fives,’ he declared.

He grinned beneath a blond handlebar moustache and accompanying goatee and went back to sipping his drink.

The two others at the table lacked the class that Jackdaw oozed, with his out-of-place smart tweed jacket and slacks. His companions wore grubby canvas trousers and functional work shirts. His boots alone could have clothed these folks twice over, though this was something no one minded. Their attire may have been rougher, but status was not their concern. It was his. Those involved in this game, those he trusted implicitly, dressed appropriately. Like his father would reiterate, you don’t send someone down a coal mine wearing a good suit. Be that as it may, keen eyes and sharp wits were present, no matter the attire.

The gruff man to his left exhaled a burst of acrid cigar smoke and checked his own hand of dice. He squinted with his one good eye, the other hidden away with a black patch and accompanying battle scar before making his call. There was no hesitation as he tossed his chip into the pile and smugly grinned.

‘That’ll be four fives there, gentlemen,’ Blakestone snorted.

The play was passed to the left whilst the owner of Cutter’s Inn blindly rummaged through a tray of food left by the last of the bar staff. He took the moment to grasp a meat-laden sandwich, taking a suffocatingly large bite from it before returning his attention to the game. Bulky in stature, still with his bar apron wrapped around his hips, Cutter himself slurred his call, peppering the table with debris.

‘Five fives are with us.’

Jackdaw instantly interrupted, watching the hesitation before the words were delivered, minute but still there. Masking them with his appetite did nothing. He took the smoke from his mouth and wagged it accusingly.

‘Ah, now there’s a liar if I ever saw one.’

Each lifted their cups and Cutter winced, tossing a now lost dice into the chip pile. Jackdaw chuckled, scooping them over and stacking the colours in order.

‘Third game in a row and you have a downward streak. Sure you want to continue this?’

‘It’s not exactly my money to lose is it? I’m giving it back to my employer if anything.’ The old man drained his glass in one deep swallow. ‘We change the game though. My luck changes with the cards, eh?’

Bad luck clung to a man like a sour smell, impossible to remove until it saw itself fit. Tonight, for Cutter, there seemed no sign of the stench relenting.

On the fifth hand, Cutter rearranged his diminishing chip pile and ordered another round from the woman who lingered against the bar. She flipped each page of the newspaper in a blasé way, slowly draining a bottle of Rye at her own pace. With words thick with liquor, she flicked her attention to him and instead of motion, paid an all-too-sour look.

Orders were barked once more, sharper this time, in Settler’s language. Though lost on most, Jackdaw knew enough to pick up a particularly thorny insult tagged onto the end. He smiled to himself whilst shuffling a well-used deck of cards. No matter how aged one gets, they are always obedient to family and as such the woman complied, producing deep echoing footsteps whilst marching down the cellar trapdoor.

She was not under Cutter’s employment, as all his staff had been sent home hours ago. She was trustworthy though, family, and knew anyone who Cutter welcomed into his establishment would not abuse such hospitality. Alvina returned and begrudgingly yanked the cork from a brown bottle. Each glass was filled to its brim, agonizingly slow, just to spite Cutter. Amused, Jack thanked her and she seated herself back on the stool, away from the game and with her own thoughts, lost once more in the newspaper.

‘That bastard girl. Born to piss me around, like her poor, poor father,’ Cutter grunted, watching the pack shuffle and dance between fingers. ‘Is she giving you trouble these days? I’ll be happy to have words if she doesn’t tow the line.’

‘Everybody gives me trouble. It’s just a question of how much. To answer your question though, no. Your niece is doing just fine. Just as capable as us men, truth be told.’

Cutter grinned broadly, showcasing each of his yellowed teeth.

‘Good,’ he crooned. ‘Good news all round. Now stop stalling and deal. I want a chance to claw something back from your pocket.’

Money changed hands over and over, until the front door was slowly rapped. The group stopped momentarily to glance to the owner, before busying themselves with another turn.

Cutter leant back on two of his chair legs, looking at the wooden frame and checking to ensuring it was bolted. Nobody was expected, especially at this hour.

‘We’re closed for the night!’ he bellowed in an accented drawl, taking another mouthful of liquor and exhaling its burn.

Again the door was struck.

‘We’re closed I said! Don’t you know the meaning of the word? Come back tomorrow if you so wish.’

From behind the wood came a thick, muffled slur from the culprit. ‘Aw c’mon … you’re leaving me out here in the cold? That’s harsh.’

‘Harsh ain’t nothing to do with it,’ Cutter shared with those around him. ‘I just lack the courtesy to serve someone who isn’t willing to part with their money. Well, eventually, when I stop getting crap cards.’

Finally the owner took to his feet in an effort to confront this commotion.

He heaved the door bolt back and peered through the slit to the outside. Before him, swaying in a drunken stupor, was the figure of a man clearly too intoxicated to know what was best for his wellbeing. If he had, he would have known that banging on the door to Cutter’s, especially after being turned away, could have consequences.

Cutter summed the man up, clad in a pitted hacking jacket and mismatched trousers. Another hopeful dandy on his nightly crawls around bars, Cutter assumed, drunk as the rest and just as foolhardy. He stared into the lolling white pits of the eyes before him, the young man of colour unable to concentrate on a single point before chasing liquor mirages.

‘Go home. You’re getting nothing, especially in your state,’ Cutter advised.

‘Hey, mishter.’ Cutter saw the figure sway through the eye slot, rocking back and forth. ‘C’mere …’

Cutter leant forward, as if expecting to be entrusted with some fabulous secret.

Without warning, all trace of drunkenness was scrubbed from the man’s gaze. His eyes narrowed, cruel and hard, and with thick-formed words simply said: ‘I disagree.’

The door exploded open and immediately Blakestone was on his feet. The intruder had barged the owner aside, launching him into a wall before reaching for the weapon at his hip. Already Blakestone was upon him to prevent this and the pair traded blows, Blakestone reaching for his own secured iron. The man blocked what punches he could, though spurned with such vigour that this advantage was overpowering. A sudden blow across Blakestone’s temple was enough to send him to his knees.

The intruder’s hand freely whipped to his holster, yanked the revolver free and snapped it to the level of his eyes. His advantage wasn’t as conclusive as he hoped. In return for this interruption, his focus was caught by the gaping gun barrel before him, its dark abyss harbouring the futility of his folly.

He breathed sharply, steady, waiting for a flinch of movement from Jackdaw, who himself waited for the gusto of action.

‘I’ve waited far too long for this,’ the intruder wheezed, spitting the blood from his mouth but never breaking his gaze. ‘Jackdaw. As I live and breathe. I’ve spent a while tracking you down and you’re sure as hell are going to give me my money.’

Jackdaw, his thumb still lingering on his revolver hammer, grinned in amusement. ‘Oh I am, am I?’

‘You have my very word.’

‘That sounds like a demand.’

‘It is.’

‘Look, I’ll be honest with you.’ Jackdaw watched the shadows move from behind the intruder, where the light was broken by a figure moving up behind. Never did his gaze shift. Never did he give the game away. ‘I’ve taken a lot of people’s money. Big, small, I don’t even count it. I suppose yours just went into the pile with everyone else’s. It would take a good while to find.’

There was a sudden, blunt click that sprang into the air.

Alvina pressed her weapon into the base of the intruder’s skull, firmly enough to ensure he got the point. ‘You’ve been all sorts of silly here, sugar,’ she purred. ‘Do the sensible thing and let it go.’

Jackdaw paid a wink to the woman behind who returned it in kind.

‘Best do as she says, son. She’s not the most patient sort.’

He cursed and thumbed the hammer back into place, slowly, the iron soon relieved from his possession.

‘Oooh,’ Jackdaw hissed in amusement, ‘so close.’

He sauntered around the room, helping Blakestone to his feet, patting down his clothes and straightening his collar. All the while Alvina kept her aim upon the man, ensuring any flinch was met with a deadly response. Blakestone shook the stars from his head and attempted to recompose himself.

‘Really? And you do my muscle? What did he do, get you from your blind side as he walked through the door?’

Next, Cutter was pulled onto a stool and his face was patted to consciousness. He slumped over the bar, hacking in pain, but was otherwise all right. His immediate outrage was silenced with the raising of Jackdaw’s hand. This would be handled. There was no use getting so upset over something so trivial as a damaged door and a broken nose. Instead he cracked the wax on the bottle that had been brought up from the cellar, taking a swill with a scowl of disdain.

‘To give you your dues, kid, you’ve got further than most. That deserves something at least in my book.’

Jackdaw strolled back around the table’s circumference, placing the spilled glasses back onto their bases. He filled one halfway and handed it over. As he made the gesture, he nodded once more to Alvina who withdrew her threat and stepped back.

The drink was taken, drained, and the glass firmly placed back onto the table.

‘Sit,’ Jackdaw offered. The intruder scowled in scepticism, so this was repeated. ‘I insist.’

He did so, begrudgingly. If he was to take a bullet through the skull, he may as well be comfortable in doing so.

‘Now we can talk. What’s your name?’

Nothing.

‘I’m not going to ask twice,’ he insisted.

‘Cole,’ came the response, blunt.

‘Cole. Just Cole?’

‘Cole Roaner.’ He emphasized the surname.

‘Doesn’t ring a bell.’

‘It wouldn’t,’ Cole retorted, still quite stern.

‘You mentioned something of me stealing monies. Yours I’m assuming?’

* * *

Adrenaline still burning through him, Cole supressed the tremor that attempted to splinter his words. He had obsessed about this moment for the best part of a month, though imagined slightly different circumstances – mostly them being in his favour.

‘You did a job on the Eastern Point Bank a couple of weeks back. Cleaned it out from top to bottom. By the time Bluecoats showed up, they were greeted with the sight of a piss-empty vault and six individuals all hog-tied and buck-naked.’

‘Six was it?’ Jackdaw tested. ‘Well I recalls it being a different number.’

‘The papers inflated it but I assure you: four tellers and two guardsmen. Naked as the day they entered the world.’

‘Quite the sight. A lot of people lost their money that day. I’m struggling to see why I should hand over yours. You’ve not given me any suitable reason so far.’

‘I just want what’s mine.’

‘Now, now, I stole it fair and square. I don’t have it any more of course. That’s not how the game is played, not around here. Don’t let the sand fool you. This here is a lake we each can drown in and everyone answers to a bigger fish. You, on that day, answered to a bigger fish. So sorry, you’re fresh out of luck. Besides, have you never heard that saying never take the shiny from a jackdaw?’

Cole’s eyes narrowed. He sized up the weapons on him, wondering if they had lowered at any point. They hadn’t. Finally Jackdaw waved them to holster. He had this under control.

‘You’ve been tracking me ever since I take it, Little Fish?’

‘I have. You crooks don’t exactly keep a low profile.’

‘Crooks? Ouch.’ Jackdaw feigned hurt. ‘But colour me impressed nonetheless. Not many would do that. I suppose you know my reputation?’

‘I do.’

‘And you could have gone to the law. Got a nice, fat reward for the information I bet.’

‘But I wouldn’t have got my money back, now would I? Besides, the law has no business in my affairs. I don’t need Bluecoats sniffing around.’

‘You and me both.’

Cole rubbed his jaw, thoroughly, probing at the flesh with testing fingers.

‘Your man there has a mean swing.’

* * *

Jackdaw observed Blakestone prop himself on the bar and swill from Cutter’s open bottle. He needed to drown the embarrassment and not quickly enough. Alvina took a mouthful of her own before sliding it back along the countertop. With her uncle making the sorry trio, they each watched the conversation for any change in tone or threat.

‘That he does,’ Jackdaw said, ‘though I think we need to talk about little upstarts like yourself getting the jump on us. I’m as surprised as you are. Maybe I need to be paying him more.’

Blakestone grumbled under his breath, which his employer noticed.

‘Or less,’ Jackdaw added, taking a measure from his own filled glass, ‘but you have done something few others have. You’ve impressed me, kid. It’s the sole reason why you and I are talking, instead of your body waiting to be found by rats while vagabonds fleece you of your clothes.’

There was a pregnant pause. Cole downed the last of his whisky and placed the vacant glass between them. ‘So where do we go from here?’

‘Isn’t that just the question. What do you do for a living, Cole?’

‘A job? Don’t have one. Not no more. I sold the ore from a strip-mining firm out west. Since they found me to be good with numbers, I worked the books as well. Being that you knocked over the local bank, they closed doors on account of everyone losing their money. It put me out of a job. It put plenty out of a job.’

‘I see.’ Jackdaw smiled to his colleagues.

Already Blakestone knew where this was heading. He hid his pout, glad that his other eye was hidden behind its patch. It was painfully obvious.

‘Want one?’ Jackdaw asked.

‘With you?’ Cole scoffed.

‘What, you have a better offer on the table?’

It was a fair point.

‘What would I be doing?’

‘It depends. What are you good at?’

‘Numbers. Bookkeeping.’

‘Creative bookkeeping?’ It was now Jack’s turn to probe.

‘Like I said, I’m good with numbers. Very good.’

‘There’s a skill. You as handy with that gun of yours as you are with a pen?’

‘You would have been unfortunate to find out.’

Jack clapped loudly in delight, tossing his head back with laughter. ‘Lucky I wasn’t out in the open now, wasn’t I?’

Cole’s eyes narrowed. Unperturbed by the fact that he could be a corpse a long time ago. This clearly wasn’t how he’d envisioned tonight going down, not by a long shot.

Jack may have been jovial but he was as sober to the situation as could be.

‘What about my money?’ he spat.

‘I’ll give you the chance to earn it back tenfold. Take it or leave it.’

The thoughtful pause gave Jackdaw cause to push for a response.

‘Well …?’

There was no possible alternative but to accept of course.

‘All right. I agree.’

‘Fantastic. Welcome to the Jackrabbits. One wrong move and I’ll put a hole through your skull so big you could fit your fist through it.’ Jackdaw aimed down the sight to the dead centre of Cole’s forehead. It was quick, too quick for him to retaliate, and done so for a time before finally being lowered. ‘Don’t be giving me a reason to and you’ll be just fine.’

Blakestone narrowed his good eye. Disgusted at the outcome of this, he nudged Cole by the shoulder upon passing and muttered in his ear. ‘He might need a reason to make that head of yours a good deal lighter,’ he venomously hissed, ‘but you’ve given me mine already.’

Chapter Two