"Picking up where we left off, eh?" Savaran tightened his grip around Daria's naked body as the two laid in bed. The covers were a tangled mess on the floor and their clothes were in various heaps around the room.

"Well," Daria wriggled a little, nuzzling into him, "I figured I owed you one. You know, for Bohrnan."

"One?" Savaran chuckled. "I think Bohrnan earned me three or four!"

Daria smiled. "That was another one of our fine messes. Wasn't it?"

"Hey, they might of all been messes," admitted Savaran, "but we always got the job done."

"Yes. Yes, you did, General. Sometimes with a higher body count than the King would have liked. But it was always done." Daria squirmed up and straddled his naked manhood, giving him a long kiss on the lips. Her hair draped around his face as the two spent some of the afterglow from their lovemaking enjoying each other.

When Daria decided she'd had enough of his affection, she rolled over and off him. Propping herself up on her elbow, she traced her finger through the hair of Savaran's chest. "Why are you keeping the boy around?" she asked. "Surely he's just dead weight for you."

"Ah," he dismissed her concern. "He's a good kid." The Savaran raised his tone. "Even if the Prince is dumb as a box of rocks and useless in a fight!"

"I heard that!" came the muffled sound of the former prince's voice through the thin wall between the room they had purchased for the night and the one Daria had conveniently procured next to them.

"You were meant to, kid!" Savaran laughed. "Just likeyouwere meant to hear me plowing her field for the past hour!"

"Heard that too!" Then Traven added, "Be surprised if she can walk out of here in the morning!"

Savaran shook his head. "Sometimes you have to remind the little ones who the man is," he returned his voice to a normal level.

With a maniacal grin, Daria proposed, "I could turn him in for the thousand gold on his head. I'd split it with you. Seventy-thirty."

Savaran was taken aback at her offer. "Only thirty for me?" he queried.

"Well, yeah," Daria explained, "I mean, you can't show your face in the High March. I figured an extra twenty percent for me to cover travel and delivery fees."

"Sixty-forty," Savaran countered, "and I might consider it."

Daria shook her head. "No way. Not worth my bother for only sixty percent. Maybe they'll bump it up another couple hundred when no one turns you in by the end of the year. Even at a thousand gold a head there aren't many willing to come after the great General Drugard."

"Former General," Savaran reminded her. "Yeah, well, I'm glad my reputation precedes me. Worked hard to get it to that point where people are going to think thrice." He flexed the muscle of his arm and showed off his bicep.

Daria laughed. "Even if it is mostly built on outright lies, flimsy disinformation, and highly distorted claims?"

"Legends are not built on truth," he said. "Still, six hundred gold in one lump sum would set you up pretty good. Perhaps even enough to give up the trade? At least, I assume you're still plying the trade."

"Eh, here and there," she responded. "When the right job comes up. And when the money is right. Six hundred gold is a drop in the bucket for me."

"You still working the double cross?" Savaran asked.

"Oh, you know it." She sighed. "Best money you can make is when you can convince the other party to pay you more than you were paid to eliminate them. Or get them to pay you to allow them to just disappear and never to be heard from again. Then collect double."

"How's that working out?" Savaran wanted to satisfy his curiosity.

Daria shrugged. "People are getting wise to the tricks, unfortunately. They're starting to demand proof that is harder to fake. Heads are particularly problematic all the way around. No one wants to part with those. And people are reluctant to let me even lop off an ear or a hand. Even if it means they get to live and go on their merry way."

"Ok," Savaran decided to cut to the chase, "you didn't track me down just to get your bell rung and repay me for Bohrnan. I mean, yeah, I'm good in the sack and all, but that's not why you're here."

Daria laughed. "Oh, Savaran, you are just not that romantic anymore."

"Hey, I've been on the run for a year with the equivalent of an anchor tied around my leg," he reminded her. "I mean, I appreciate the gesture and all. But I know you well enough to know that if you're going to open your legs for me, there's something you want."

Her lips turning to a pout, Daria replied to him, "Have I always been that predictable?"

Savaran nodded. "Predictable and horny. Yes."

She slapped him on the chest and Savaran laughed. "I'll just have to be stingier with letting you taste my sweet nectar from now on!" she came back at him.

"Yeah," Savaran taunted her, "I'll give you two days – if you even last that long."

She slapped him again. "You know, you could learn to treat a woman like a lady."

Shaking his head, Savaran couldn't resist exploiting the opportunity she had opened up for him. "When a woman worthy of being treated in such a way walks through that door, I'll consider it."

"I'm a little disappointed in you, Savaran Drugard," Daria scowled at him. "Maybe I've changed a little. Maybe I'm not just after your manhood between my thighs anymore. Maybe I actually want more from you." She stared at him.

Boring his eyes into hers, Savaran stared back.

The contest didn't last long before Daria burst out in laughter. "Oh, who am I kidding? I just want you for the sex!" Her hand drifted below his waist and started caressing him seductively.

"A little early for round two, darling," he warned her. "Give it about an hour though. Now, tell me why you're really here. Just being in my presence could get a price on your head too."

Daria shrugged. "Maybe I've got a job for you."

"The jobs were always your thing, Daria. I don't do what you do. Not for money, anyway."

Daria resumed tracing her finger around his chest. "Why are you saying no before even hearing me out?"

"Because," he spelled it out for her, "I know that it's going to involve killing someone who doesn't deserve killing over some petty squabble."

"Not this one," she refuted him.

"No?" Savaran raised his eyebrow.

"Nope."

"Ok, then what's the job?" Savaran inquired, now at least partially interested.

"We just got to steal a book," she smiled.

"Just steal a book?" Savaran replied skeptically.

"Yep." Daria's smile intensified. "One eensy itsy teeny little book."

"Alright," Savaran wanted to cut to the chase, "now tell the important part. From whom?"

She exhaled, now tracing her finger along the length of his body from leg to chest. "Just a wizard."

"A wizard?" He snatched her distracting hand up in his by the wrist. "Are you insane?"

"What? He's just a wizard." Then she added with a mumble, "Who might also happen to be undead -"

Savaran's eyes widened. "An undead wizard? You mean a lich?"

"Well," Daria conceded, "I mean if you want to quibble over semantics. Yes."

"Oh no," Savaran got up from the bed in the fastest of hurries. As if he had just discovered it would eat him if he laid there one second longer. "You know," he found his trousers and started putting them on, "you've had some really hair-brained ideas in your time, but this one takes the cake. Stealing a book from a lich?" He stopped for a second, a serious question coming to his mind. "Are you on those poppies again?"

Rolling her eyes, Daria replied, "No, Savaran, I'm not sniffing poppy again."

"Well," he told her, "you're sure acting like it."

"Savaran, it's a simple job," she pleaded. "And the pay is three thousand gold."

At the mention of the vast payout, he froze and repeated, "Three thousand gold?"

She nodded, a wide smile on her face. "Yep."

"Fifty-fifty?" Savaran inquired.

"Fifty-fifty," Daria confirmed.

Savaran's mind raced, thinking of the possibilities of what he could do with his cut. Then he shook his head, forcing himself back to reality. "No. Uh – uh. Not enough to assume the risk."

"Come on," Daria straddled the bed in a way such that her breasts bunched up between her arms, accentuating them before his eyes. "I've already got the castle scoped out. It'll be easier than you think."

Started to throw on his shirt, Savaran was generating more questions. "How is it that you have the castle of lich scoped out?"

"I have my methods," she cajoled. "Listen, if I didn't think I might need you and that bow of yours, I wouldn't be here asking you for this. I've had a special arrow made. One that if it pierces where the wizard's -"

"Lich," Savaran interrupted and corrected as he was halfway done with buttoning his shirt.

"Fine," Daria rolled her eyes, "lich. If it pierces where the lich's black heart is, it will kill him. I had an Inquisitor friend of mine fashion it. Guarantees me it'll be a sure kill. If we need it."

"Why do you need me and my bow?" he asked. "You could make that shot yourself."

"Probably," Daria conceded. "But not certainly. That bow of yours, and its ability to not miss makes it a sure thing."

"Only works like that once a day, Honey," he reminded her.

"Only need it to work once," she said.

"And it has to be a clear shot," reminded Savaran. "Can't violate the laws of physics and go around corners or other objects to hit its target."

"Oh, you'll have a clear shot if need be," she affirmed. "Besides, I've got a plan that doesn't even involve us ever having to deal with the wizard."

Savaran threw his cloak over his shoulders. "Lich." Sitting on the side of the bed, he started pulling on his boots, ignoring the fact that a naked woman was still there with him. "No," he replied. Both boots on, he stood, "Now, where's my – ah."

Finding his sword, he grabbed its scabbard and strapped it on. Then he adjusted its fit until it was just right. Lastly, his bow was slung over his shoulder.

"You're really going to just walk out of here?" Daria asked. "Away from all that money? Away from me?" She wiggled her breasts alluringly.

"Sweetheart," he brought his eyes down to her level and gazed into her's, "there could be ten of you offering to have an orgy with me right now. And I'd still be walking out that door."

Daria gave him her best pouty face as he turned to leave. "Fine! But just remember, Savaran Drugard, Scourge of the High March, I found you once. I can find you again. And I can bring a contingent of the High March's best with me then too."

His hands balled into fists of frustration, Savaran froze at the door before he even moved to open it. "Why would you do that?" He turned to her, noticing she was now laying on her back with her legs spread wide.

She beckoned him home to her with a wriggling finger. "Because I always get my way. Now, I'm horny and you've got something that I want. So, get over here, like a good little disgraced General, and do me the way that you know how to."

Sighing, Savaran knew there was a good chance that she meant to follow through on her threat. "Fine," he grumbled, starting to strip off his clothes again. "But I'm not going to like it."

"Oh, trust me," she winked, "you're gonna like it."