The Books of the South

by Glen Cook

  “What now?” Raven muttered.

  Next thing the peacock did was set up housekeeping in the only undamaged building in the neighborhood. The temple. Downstairs.

  We was stuck.

  * * *

  People started coming to see the new nabob. Brigadier Wildbrand was one of the first. The Nightstalkers had not been involved in any of the fighting so far.

  The chaos died away for a few hours while the madmen of Oar digested the news about the new boy in town. Then it blazed up, white-hot.

  But it died out, spent, before sundown.

  We got the word well after dark, knew why it had gotten quiet.

  The Limper was headed for Oar, bent on grabbing the silver spike.

  Oar was not going to let him have it. According to Exile, the new man from the Tower.

  “Shit,” I muttered. “That Limper has more lives than a cat.”

  “I knew we should have made sure of him,” Raven growled. He glared at Darling. Her fault. She had been so sure she had seen no need to argue with the tree god.

  Exile had orders to hold Oar and destroy the Limper. Our spies said he meant to do that if it cost every life in the city.

  Shit. The Tower would have to send some guy who took his job serious.

  53

  Smeds woke first. Before he had his wits in hand he knew there was something wrong.

  Tully was gone.

  Maybe he had to go take a leak.

  Smeds scrambled out into the unexpected brightness of morning. No sign of Tully. But the nearby street, unused in recent times, was choked with traffic. Every vehicle carried corpses.

  Smeds gaped. Then he ducked back down into the ruined cellar and found Fish, shook him till he growled, “What the hell is the matter?”

  “Tully’s gone. And you got to see what’s outside to believe it.”

  “That idiot.” Fish was wide-awake now. “All right. Get your shit. We got to move just so he don’t know where to find us.”

  “Hunh?”

  “I’ve run out of trust for Cousin Tully, Smeds. I want to know where he is, not the other way around. A man who can lose a fortune the way he did? That’s stupid to the point of being suicidal. A man who gets over a fit of common sense as fast as he did and goes sneaking off with this city the way it is? I’m pretty close to the end of my patience. Every stunt he pulls puts us all at risk. If he’s screwed up … I don’t know.”

  “Go look outside.”

  Fish went. “Damn!” He came back. “We have to find out what’s happening.”

  “That’s obvious. They’re using that landfill to dump bodies from the riots.”

  “You missed the point. Who thought that up and got all those people to work on it? When we crawled in here they were trying to rip each other’s throats out.”

  They soon discovered that the chaos had not so much died as gone into momentary remission. And not universally. There were hot spots, most surrounding wizards reluctant to embrace a new order that had come in overnight.

  The twins from Charm were out and somebody called Exile was in. And Oar was supposed to be girding for another visit from the Limper.

  “Things are getting crazy,” Smeds said as they approached the Skull and Crossbones.

  “There’s an understatement if ever I heard one.”

  Their landlord seemed disappointed that they hadn’t been killed in the riots. No. He hadn’t seen Tully since he’d wanted breakfast and had stormed out because he couldn’t get credit. Wasn’t anything to fix, anyway.

  “You got nothing?” Smeds asked.

  “I got a dried-out third of a loaf I’m gonna soak in water and have for supper. You want to dig around in the cellar you might find a couple of rats. I’ll roast them up for you.”

  Smeds believed him. “Tully didn’t happen to say where he was headed, did he?”

  “No. He turned right when he left out.”

  “Thanks,” Fish said. He started toward the street.

  The landlord asked, “You heard about the re-ward?”

  “What reward?” Smeds asked.

  “For that silver spike thing all the commotion’s supposed to be about. The new guy says he’ll give a hundred thousand obols, no questions asked, no tricks, no risks. Just take it in and get the money.”

  “Damn-O!” Fish said. “A guy could live pretty good, couldn’t he? Wish to hell I had it.”

  Smeds grumbled, “You was to ask me, there ain’t no such thing. All them witches and wizards would have found it if there was. Come on, Fish. I got to find that shithead cousin of mine.”

  Outside, Fish asked, “You think he’d try something?”

  “Yeah, if he heard. He’d figure we deserve to get screwed on account of we been treating him so bad. Only he don’t know where it’s at. So he’ll have to make up his mind if he can sell me to the torturers.”

  “I think he can. Without remorse. There isn’t really anyone in this world who really matters except Tully Stahl. He probably started out just figuring to use us, then get rid of us one by one. Only things didn’t go as simple as he thought they would.”

  “You’re maybe right,” Smeds admitted. “Guess we got to assume he’s going to sell us out, don’t we?”

  “We’d be fools to give him the benefit of the doubt. You know his habits and hangouts. Look for him. I’ll find out where Exile holes up and wait for him to show up there.”

  “What if he’s already…?”

  “Then we’re screwed. Aren’t we?”

  “Yeah. Hey. What about we sell this guy the spike? A hundred thousand ain’t bad. I can’t even count that high.”

  “It’s good. But if the situation is what they say—the Limper coming back—they’ll go way higher. Let’s let it ride a couple days.”

  Smeds did not argue but thought they ought to get what they could while they could get it. “I’ll catch up if I can’t find him.”

  Fish grunted and walked off.

  Smeds began his rounds. He crossed Tully’s trail several times. The spike was all the talk everywhere he went. Tully had to know about the reward. He wasn’t running to Exile. That was a good sign. Except …

  Except that a dozen independents had let out that they would go higher than Exile. A witch named Teebank had offered a hundred fifty thousand.

  Smeds believed none of them except Exile. He had seen them when the hunt had been a race between thieves. They wouldn’t change. They would talk mountains of obols but the payoff, when it came, would be death.

  But Tully had that knack for deceiving himself. He might decide they were legitimately offering. Or he might fool himself into thinking he could outwit them. He had an inflated opinion of his own guile.

  Smeds soon concluded that the pattern of Tully’s movements indicated he was looking for someone.

  Likely one of those fabulous purses.

  He had no regard left for his cousin.

  The evidence suggested Tully was gaining no ground on his quarry. Smeds was, though. He wondered if Tully was getting nervous, knowing they would be after him as soon as they knew he was gone.

  Probably.

  * * *

  Smeds caught up but the situation was not suited to the confrontation he had been rehearsing for hours.

  He was moving along a street unnaturally quiet even for after the riots, getting nervous about that, when Tully came flying out a doorway a hundred feet ahead and across the way. He hadn’t yet gotten stable on his hands and knees when soldiers in black surrounded him. They bound his hands behind him, put a choke cord on him, and led him off toward the center of town.

  There were six of those soldiers. Smeds stared numbly, seeing the end of his days. What the hell could he do? Get Fish? But what could Fish do? No two men were going to ambush six soldiers in broad daylight.

  He tripped along behind. With each step he became more certain what had to be done, became more sick at heart. No matter that Tully had been ready to write him off.

  He ducked in
to an alley and ran, the energy starting to burn in his veins. He went faster than necessary, trying to leech the growing fear in frenzied physical activity.

  His pack hammered against his back. Like half the men in Oar he was carrying his home on his back. He had to get rid of it somehow. Somewhere safe. Most of his take from the Barrowland was in it.

  He came on a pile of rubble in deep shadow. No one was around. He buried the pack hastily, hurried on to the point where he wanted to intercept Tully and the soldiers.

  They were not in sight. His heart sank. Had they decided to go some longer way?

  No. There they were. He’d just gotten way ahead.

  He crossed the street to a dark alley mouth. He would run back the way he had come, to his pack, through some useful shadows, on a route barren of witnesses.

  The wait stretched interminably. He had time to get scared again. To talk himself into freezing up, almost.

  Then they were there, a pair of soldiers out front, a pair behind, one leading Tully by the choke cord and one behind to poke him if he slowed down. Smeds’s knife slipped into his hand. It was the knife he’d taken off that man in that cellar.

  He flung himself forward, running hard. They barely had time to turn and see him coming. Tully’s eyes got huge as he saw the knife come to his throat.

  Smeds hit the choke cord and smashed through and in a moment was back in shadows clutching a knife that dripped family blood. Soldiers shouted. Feet pounded after him.

  There was very little physical or emotional reaction. His mind turned to the pursuit. Two men, he decided. Very determined bastards, too. He wasn’t gaining on them.

  He did not want to deal with them but it looked like they might give him no choice.

  He knew the place. It was only a few yards from where he had hidden his pack, where the alley was darkest. He would use the trick the physician had tried. If they went on by he would sneak away behind them.

  He was amazed at himself. Smeds Stahl, scared, could still think.

  He slipped into a crack in a brick wall that, probably, was a legacy of the Limper’s visit. It had been improved upon by someone who had used it to get into the building, a thief or squatters. He could slide through and get away, but something that was not concern for his pack stayed him.

  He picked up a broken board and waited.

  They did not continue their headlong rush once his footsteps stopped. They exchanged breathless words in an unfamiliar language. Smeds grew tense. If they stuck together …

  He still had the out through the building.

  One soldier put on a burst that took him a hundred feet past Smeds. He called to the other. They began moving toward one another.

  The one who had not run was much closer.

  He did not notice the gap in the wall till Smeds popped out behind his knife. He made one strange noise, surprise that turned to pain.

  Smeds tried to pull the knife free as the man fell and the other soldier yelled. It would not come. Goddamn it! Again!

  Feet pounded toward him.

  He grabbed his board and swung it just as the other soldier arrived. The impact slammed the man against the wall. Smeds hit him again. And again and again, feeling bones crunch, till the broken thing stopped whimpering.

  He stood there panting, unaware that he was grinning, till he heard more men coming. He darted toward where his pack lay, realized he did not have time to dig it out, darted back, and tried the knife again. It would not come. Still. Then he was out of time before he could appropriate a weapon from one of the dead men. He slithered through the crack into the darkness inside the building.

  Moments later there was an outraged roar from the alleyway.

  * * *

  Smeds kept his head down as he stepped into the street. There was little foot traffic. No one paid him any mind. He set off at a brisk pace, but not one so fast it would attract attention.

  What now?

  He didn’t dare go find Fish. Some damned soldier might recognize him.

  But Fish would hear about Tully. Fish would understand. Best thing would be to go back to the Skull and Crossbones and wait. Fish was sure to check there.

  As his heartbeat slowed toward normal he became aware of the hollow in his stomach. He had not eaten since yesterday. The Skull and Crossbones was dry. Where could he find something? With stores getting low, nobody might be willing to sell.…

  * * *

  It was a meal. Of sorts. A bowl of bad soup and a chunk of stale bread, and the fat old geek who ran the filthy place hadn’t tried to rob him.

  He was nearly done when a kid blew in, yelled, “Run, mister! Press gang!” and sailed out the back.

  “What the hell?”

  “Press gang,” the greasy fat man said. “Round here the grays been grabbing all the young men they can find—”

  Two grays stamped in. One grinned and said, “Here’s a likely-looking patriot.”

  Smeds sneered and went back to work on his meal. He did not feel troubled.

  A wooden truncheon tapped him on the shoulder. “Come along, then.”

  “You better hope there’s no splinters in that thing. You touch me again I’m going to shove it up your ass.”

  “Oh, a tough one, Cord. We like them tough, don’t we? What’s your name, boy?”

  Smeds sighed, hearing the voices of all the bullies who’d ever baited him. He turned, looked the soldier in the eye, said, “Death.”

  Maybe the man saw seven murders in his eyes. He backed off a step. Smeds decided the one who kept his mouth shut was probably more dangerous.

  He felt no fear at all. In fact, he felt invulnerable, invincible.

  He rose slowly, flipped his bread into the talker’s face, kicked him in the groin. A bully had done that to him once. He shoved his chair at the other man’s legs and while he was dealing with that shoved his soup into the man’s face. Then he grabbed the truncheon away from the first and went to work.

  He might have killed them both if half a dozen more soldiers had not showed up to help.

  They didn’t beat Smeds much more than they had to to get him under control. They seemed to think the whole thing was a good joke on the man with the big mouth.

  They dragged Smeds outside and added him to a group of cowed youngsters about thirty strong. Several of the youngsters got told off to carry the men Smeds had injured.

  So Smeds Stahl became one of the gray boys. Sort of.

  54

  The little critters was in and out so much I was sure the people downstairs was going to find us out any minute. Bomanz and Silent was having trouble enough keeping curiosity types away without attracting the attention of the new big boy.

  Raven was loving every minute of it. “What the hell are you grinning about?” I demanded.

  “Those guys with the spike. They got balls down to their ankles.”

  “Hunh!” He would appreciate their brass.

  “Come on, Case. Look. One of them decides to cut a deal for himself and winds up getting grabbed by Exile’s boys for his trouble. So what do his buddies do? Big rescue attempt, against the odds? Hell, no. Before they get the guy halfway here one man just casually trots through the escort and practically lops the guy’s head off. He does it so quick they can’t get two descriptions that agree no matter how many witnesses they ask. And when the soldiers get riled and go after the killer, he offs two of them and leaves the rest standing around with their thumbs in their ears.”

  “Just your kind of fun-loving boy, eh?”

  “They have style, Case. I appreciate style. It’s a sort of bringing of artistry to even the most mundane—or gruesome—things that have to be done. Bet you something. If the man who made that hit had had five more minutes he would have been wearing a Nightstalker uniform, just to mess with people’s minds. It’s not the deed. It’s how it was done.”

  Here was a shade of the Raven of old. Maybe the shell was ready to break. “You think these guys are just having a good time, sticking their t
ongues out at the world, yelling ‘Catch us if you can’?”

  “No. You don’t understand. They’re probably hiding out somewhere not fit for a pig. They’re probably hungry, filthy, scared, sure they’re not going to get out of it alive. But they’re not letting it break them. They’re going right on clawing at the faces of the wolves and vampires trying to feed on them. You see?”

  I agreed mostly because I didn’t and if I admitted that we’d end up spending the whole day getting me lessons in never surrender, even if the ground you’re holding springs from stupid or wrong.

  Agreeing worked. He moved over and got into a discussion with Silent and Darling. All business, I assume, since no sparks flew.

  I got into a conversation with Bomanz, who was trying to work his way through some moral catch trap where the spike was concerned. He had some questions that nobody had answers for. I wasn’t sure there were any answers. That spike was like a drop of black dye plunked into a pool of already murky water, spreading. It had poisoned Oar already. We had resisted it because we knew about it and could think it away consciously. But what would happen if our bunch got lucky and glommed on to it?

  Scary.

  And what the hell were we going to do with the damned thing if we did get it? I never heard none of those clowns talk about that. It was all keep the other guys from grabbing it and doing dirty.

  It sure as hell hadn’t been safe where they left it before.

  I didn’t have no ideas. Not that looked like they would work. There wasn’t no place in the world you could put it that somebody else couldn’t get it back from except maybe if you dropped it in the deepest part of the ocean. And that probably wouldn’t do the job neither.

  Some damned fish would probably gulp it down before it sank ten feet, then the fish would beach itself or get hooked by some goddamned fisherman with a hidden talent for sorcery and a secret lust for conquest.

  That’s the nature of evil talismans.

  My best notions were to get a bunch of sorcerers together who could elevate it to the outer realm and stick in on a passing comet or to have a bunch break a little hole through to another plane, pop the spike through, and plug the hole.

  Both ways was just cheaters that put the problem off on somebody else. The people of the future when the comet came back or the people of the other plane.